Neu Kid in Town

This is one of my favorite videos ever on youtube. The formula is simple: baby + solid color background + bubbles + pioneering Krautrock band Neu = pure visual bliss.

When All is Syd and Done

Here is a video from July 2006 of John Frussciante of the Red Hot Chili Pepper's playing Syd Barret's "Jugband Blues" at a concert in Manchester right after Syd's death. I am by no means a huge fan of the Chili Peppers, although I admire their longevity and their desire to give 100% when they play live, but I've always appreciated John Frusciante, and really enjoy some of his solo albums. Anyway, Frusciante has always played around in the same kinds of territory (both musically and mentally) as Barrett, and I find this cover of one of Syd's more upfront songs about his mental condition, Jugband Blues, to be a sweetly moving tribute by a fan after the passing of one of his musical heroes.

Space is the Place

Ain't it Cool News has a piece on a really interestingly looking documentary called Future by Design about architect, designer, and scientist Jacques Fresco who designs Utopian cities that look like 1950s visions of the future.


This film looks amazing to me as I grew up looking at the work of artists like Don Davis, pictured above, who created a vision of the future so exciting to my 8-year-old brain, that I couldn't wait until the year 1995 when I could live in a space colony orbiting the planet. Needless to say I'm more than a little disappointed in the progress made in that area. I'm just happy to see that there are still people in the world like Mr. Fresco who still have that wide-eyed kind of vision about the future that fueled so much of my formative years.

Show and Tell

I hate to use this space for shameless self promotion, but I am playing my first show in months this Friday, September 8th in Dallas at the Cavern. It's located 1914 Lower Greenville, Dallas, Tx.

Mad (Office) Max

Evidently this has been around a while, but it's new to me. A person known only as the Whaler posted this on the Denton Rock City board. Here are four panels from a sixteen panel pamphlet by the artist Packard Jennings, which provides detailed instructions on how to overthrow your work place and create an anarchic agrarian utopia from its remnants. It is meant to be sent back to companies who send junk mail in the very same business reply envelopes which they provide. It's in a frame so when you go here, take the link that says, "Business Reply Pamphlet." Of course the artist's other stuff is also very much worth checking out.

69 Videos

My friend Jamie Courville is a film maker in NYC and also part of a collective that is making videos/short films for every single song on the Magnetic Fields' masterwork 69 Love Songs. Below are two videos made so far. The first is the wistful and beautiful "Abigale Belle of Kilronan" made by Jamie herself. The second is the brilliant and kinetic "Crazy for You but not that Crazy" made by an Irish gentleman whose name I can't remember.

Irish Manuscript Found in Bog

I know I'm a little late on this, but a bulldozer driver working for a fertilizer company in Ireland unearthed an 8th-9th century psalter in a bog. This article calls the find akin to the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. I think that's jumping the gun just a bit, but it is a remarkable and very cool find nonetheless.

Centaur of Attention

Kyron is a man who dresses as a centaur. He is available for parties.

link

Tropocalia Pioneer Tico da Costa

Here's a video of Tropocalia pioneer Tico da Costa telling stories about the guitar playing styles of his "four uncles" and demonstrating said styles. This video not only shows the immense musical talent of this legendary performer, but also his sense of humor.

Thanks to Chris for shooting and providing the video.

George Washington

My friend Brian alerted me to this. It's an animated video about the greatest warrior of all time, George Washington! It might be one of the funniest things I've seen in a while. It feeds into my latest fascination with humor that is based upon giving completely erroneous information about well-know things. In the same vein I also highly recommend the BBC series "Look Around You," which are parodies/tributes to in-class science programs from the 70s and 80s.

Update Sept 3, 2006

It turns out the creator of the "George Washington" song and video is Austin, Tx comic artist Brad Neely, author of Creased Comics. Mr. Neely is also the creator of the very funny and subversive alternative soundtrack to the film "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" called, "Wizard People, Dear Reader".