This is something I’d love to replicate, some lovely evening.
Youtubery
ne plus ultra
Strong opinion time: The Wrong Trousers, whose chase scene is presented here, is the best heist movie ever made.
God Shuffled His Feet
A Crash Test Dummies throwback for you today.
“I beg your pardon.
I’m not quite clear about what you just spoke…
Was that a parable, or a very subtle joke?”
What the poets are doin’
It seems April is National Poetry Month in the sleeping elephant to the south of us, so here’s a song called “Poets” from Canada’s unofficial poet laureate.
Rick Mercer on university censorship
“…the idea that young adults can not be exposed to unpopular opinion in the classroom—that’s an idea that’s about as dangerous as an idea can get.”
This Flight Tonight
Today I learned that this
is a cover of this
(Did you know that?)
Compare & contrast
One of my all-time favourite Christmas carols is “Ça Bergers”. (Most of my favourite carols are French, since I came up in a French immersion school. It makes it hard to find them, living as I do in a predominantly English part of Manitoba. Oh well.)
Every year I look it up on YouTube. The first year, there was one version, not a great one. It sounded like it’d been recorded in a high-school gym onto cassette, and probably was.
This year: There are plenty of choices. Here are a couple for you. (Well, for me.)
The choral version
The death metal version
(with altered lyrics, natch)
Which do you prefer?
Snoopy’s Christmas
For those that didn’t care for yesterday’s Giger delights, I offer this.
When I was a kid, we had this song (along with the other two Snoopy vs. the Red Baron tunes, and a bunch of Royal Guardsmen songs on the B‑side) on an LP with a pink cardboard sleeve. I must have come pretty close to wearing the record out over the years.
I actually still have the record (thanks, Mom!) but a) I don’t have a record player and b) it’s pretty badly warped now, so the last time I tried to listen to it, it sped up and slowed down to a degree comparable to the songs they play on Lip Sync Battle.
Fun fact: As a kid I assumed the sound effect on the line “The Baron then offered / A holiday toast” was a toaster popping out toast. Now I know it’s a champagne cork. Ah, youth.
Music Monday: Sol Invictus
I’m not sure if Music Monday is a thing, or if Chadwick is just trying to make it a thing, but either way here’s my response (riposte?) to his Queen post.
Faith No More put out a new album earlier this year, their first release in 18 years. Because I’m old, I bought the CD. Here’s a live version of the first track, “Sol Invictus” (which is also the title of the album). It’s a quiet meditation on the loss of faith.
I believe in something, I think — for some reason that line really gets me.
Also, for those looking for something a bit louder and more aggressive, well, the new album has you covered, too.
Here’s “Superhero”, the second track:
August Aurora
I headed out of town, hoping to catch Mars and Saturn before they set. I didn’t have a lot of time, and when I got to a decent dark spot, the view wasn’t great, and highway traffic to the south would have outshined the planets in any event.
Then I turned around, to face the north.
My disappointment faded away.