For People Who Like Their Art To Have More Art In It:

The word "artist" has a certain stigma of pretention attached to it. If someone tells me that they're an artist there is a certain sociological programmed response in the back of my mind that goes, "Ooh, an artist! Whoop-dee-do! Why don't you go make some art, artist?" This must be a strong cultural perception because I'm an artist and it's still imprinted on me.
I don't have that reaction to musicians, however. If someone tells me they're a musician I'm all like, "That's cool." Now, musicians are artists. The only difference is in the label.
I think my mind separates them because when I hear "artist" I am reminded of classical works. Rembrandt, Piccaso, etc. The word "musician" makes me think of commercial performing artists (see, the word is still there but its power has been lessened by its modifiers), like Peter Gabriel or They Might Be Giants. Has the "download era" reduced the importance of musicians in our minds, to the point where we have no qualms about taking what they produce for free? Yes and no, in my case. I'll download music without thinking twice, but I'll also buy an album when I can afford to.

Anyway, there are two people responsible for why I've been thinking about this issue lately. The first is this crazy lady.

The second is Brian Joseph Davis. Davis is an artist who works mosty in the medium of music and sound. He's not exactly what I'd call a musician, though. Rather than a recording artist who releases one album after another, Davis releases limited edition stand-alone conceptual albums. These aren't your average "Pet Sounds" concept albums.
Take this one, for example. Davis takes an entire album by an artist, and mixes every song from that album into one track. That's the concept behind Greatest Hit.
In 10 Banned Albums Burned...Then Played he takes 10 albums that have been banned by someone at some point...and it's pretty self-explanatory, actually.
How about a punk music EP based on the memoir of exhiled Marxist theorist, Theodore Adomo? That one's kind of over my head, but anyone can appreciate:
Yesterduh, in which he pays strangers to sing the Beatle's "Yesterday" from memory.
That's it for his musical projects, but I want to point out one more thing. Davis was commissioned to create a piece for the Art Gallery of York University. He strung together a bunch of movie tag-lines into a narrative, which was then read by that voice over guy we all love and recognize. It's a lot of fun to listen to for any movie buff.

Muse - "Knights of Cydonia"

Here's the latest music video from Muse, a band I've been listening to incessantly for the past few weeks.

Knights of Cydonia from Black Holes And Revelations:


The jump cuts where she's slapping him is my favorite part. I can't believe that hasn't been done in a movie yet, it's so cool.

Where in hell did he find 4?

I recently discovered a gem of a public access show called Dungeon Majesty. The premise is a male Dungeon Master resides over a D & D game played by four girls. What could have been laughably horrible is actually surprisingly entertaining in a very off beat, guilty pleasure sort of way. I have to say, if this got picked up on a larger network I would be inclined to watch.
Here's the first episode. (Unfortunately you'll need Real Player to watch)
And here's the main site.
They also do short geek films on YouTube, but they aren't nearly as exciting as the full episode.

Q: How tired am I?

A: Tired enough to find this hilarious.

My New Favorite Song (Wish It Was Longer)

Platypus by Star Salzman

I Wanted One Before, But...Damn.

The Wisdom of a Child

Jordan is 5 years old. The following conversation took place while he was playing Spiderman 2 for the Gamecube.

Jordan: I got a girlfriend.

Bone: You got a girlfriend?

Jordan: Yeah. At school.

Scott: You got a girlfriend at school?

Kyle: Is it someone in your class?

Jordan: No. The teacher's my girlfriend.

Kyle: The teacher's your girlfriend?

Bone: I bet she's hot. I bet you got good taste, kid.

Jordan: Yeah, I got good taste. But I can't get inside.

(pause)

Bone: Yeah we all have that problem.

Saget Extravaganza

Lost and Found

Two very different videos in this post with something in common. Both involve things I saw a long time ago and have been searching for ever since. This first is an old cartoon which I loved as a kid, and which nobody else I knew (until I met Christopher) had seen. It's one of those things where you begin to wonder if you dreamed the whole thing.

The second is a short animation from Saturday Night Live. I saw it one time, years ago, and never forgot it. Now, thanks to YouTube, I can watch it again:

A New Pope

I put a link to this on the old blog, but I love it and now I can post the video itself:

The First Post

I'm very excited to have a new blog. But not nearly as excited as this: