Bert and Ernie vs. M.O.P.

DJ NoNo a.k.a. Tim over at Radioclash is a big muppets fan, and also, I assume, a fan of the Sesame Street puppets, created by Jim Henson. He recently posted a few of his favorite kids' show/gangsta rap video mashups, which came from this larger selection, most of which are not very good (though the Sponge Bob/Eminem one is pretty good). This one, however, is excellent - Bert and Ernie's mouth movements mimic the rapping quite well, and the actions seem to mimic rapper body language well. Also, I just like M.O.P. more than any of the other artists. Peep it for yourself:



Ante up, indeed. On some further looking (i.e. in the comments section of that 12-best list) this seems to be a pretty fleshed-out meme. What are your favorites? Tell us in the comments.

A WONDERful Christmas

So the other day when I went to visit my friend I by accidentally stumbled into their winter wonderland. They had just finished decorating their tree, and were sipping on some hot tea all while listening to Someday At Christmas by Stevie Wonder. 

Now let me first preface my following statement. I love Stevie Wonder. He's one of my top ten favorite artists. But I couldn't for the life of me imagine him singing Christmas songs. Boy was I wrong. We all know Stevie has an angelic/funky/just-plain-incredible voice, and it works well with all of the Christmas songs. 

Of course there is a bit of soft jazz cheesiness, but it's held to a minimum. Some of my favorite tracks include, "Little Drummer Boy", "What Christmas Means To Me", and "One Little Christmas Tree". And you've got to love "Bedtime for Toys", a song which starts as your typical Christmas Song, but then goes off and sings about the children with no toys. Now that's true Christmas spirit. It's about bringing everyone together, and sharing the love with all, no matter your race, religion, family, or economic status. 

I know what I'm asking for Christmas. A new Stevie Wonder Album. 

What Ever Happened to Tapes?

I'm back at my house in New Mexico, which has recently re-introduced me to the old music form of cassette tapes.

Now I probably don't need to tell most of you this, for just in case, compact cassette tapes were an ancient device used to store music. They existed somewhere after 8-tracks, but before CDs. An entire album (or collection of songs) was laid out to an entire tape, and you had to listen to them sequentially. At the end of each side on had to flip the tape to hear the other side, this was changed after new technology allowed you to play both sides. 

I remember back in the day when I was out here the car didn't have a CD player, so I had to listen to only cassette tapes. I remember there were only three I needed in the car: "Graceland" - Paul Simon, "Live at Carnegie Hall" - Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble, and "Exodus" - Bob Marley. Of course I had radio too, but all three albums were so good I had no problems listening to them back to front. 

I think today will all of the MP3's, iTunes, Rhapsodys, and whatever other electronic song gathering we do people very rarely buy albums any more.  I know I'm guilty of this often. My music collection looks like a bunch of singles rather than chunks of artists. I think it's kind of a shame. This is tough for artists, and it's especially tough for the music listening masses. Instead of hearing a bands full gamut of style and technique the audience knows only slices of a bands true talent. And instead of trying to experiment and try new things artists are continually looking for that hook and catchy lyric (yes pop music, I'm talking to you). 

The moral of my story is next time you go to hear some music listen to the whole album. Or if you're buying some music, buy the whole album. I promise, you'll be pleasantly surprised by what you find. 

More Holiday Mash-Ups Than You Ever Knew Existed

Santastic is the best series of compilations of Christmas and holiday-themed mashups I've come across. Spanning the range of late-fall/early-winter holidays (meaning Christmas, Hanukkah, and probably Kwanzaa), and with song titles like "Rudolph the Paranoid Reindeer" (Santastic II), "Frosty DMC" (Santastic I) and "Xmasploitation" (Santastic IV), you are bound to gin up that holiday cheer, even if you hate this time of year (like I do).

Rear-Projected Touchscreen Mashup Hacking

Oh my word, this has got to be the coolest thing ever: a demo of a touchscreen mashup-creation system pioneered and displayed at parties by the Evolution Control Committee. Doesn't seeing this just make you want to check out a mashup party?



Snagged via the always-wonderful BoingBoing.

What!?! Ok!

This is just ridiculous...

Rick Rolling

One of my frequent stops on the world wide web is a fun little site called Today's Big Thing. Well for their Thanksgiving edition they showed a video of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, in which on of the floats "Rick Rolled" the collective audience. Now for those who don't know what that is, I didn't until I researched it, let me rewind a bit (if you'd prefer a YouTube explanation of Rocket Boom go here). 

To make a long story short, Rick Rolling is basically the prank of sending your friends an interesting e-mail title with a link to a video of the 1987 Rick Astley song "Never Gonna Give You Up", which looks something like this:

Apparently this trend was huge this year, and YouTube pranked everyone this year on April Fool's day by linking random videos to the video. Anyhow, this Rick Roll is apparently a phenomenon.  It's been pulled on TV, the news, at baseball stadiums, one YouTbe fan even edited some Obama footage to create the Barack Roll (even though he didn't finish it). 

Anyhow, I'm posting this cause I think it's kind of hilarious, and after hearing the song about a thousand times you kinda get hooked. Hey, it was a world-wide number on hit at one point.