as I live a few more questions

"Africa" As You've Never Heard It

Prepare to have your mind blown by what a choir can do.  This is a cappella at its finest, folks.

Johnny's in the basement mixing up the medicine...

Now here's some rather clever marketing for the upcoming Bob Dylan's greatest hits CD release: create your own version of the famous video for the Dylan song "Subterranean Homesick Blues"...

Here's the link for you to create your own version.

Please, Britney, Don't Gimme More

Tuned in just to watch the Britney Spears Big Comeback Opener for the MTV Video Music Awardws in Las Vegas.  Well, THAT was a disaster.  Looks like the blogosphere agrees.  The gossip blog TMZ.com weighs in.

What a lamentable performance!  She looked terrible, and she moved around the stage as if she were a zombie.  Every so often they would cut to an audience member.  I think I saw Kanye West with his mouth hanging open in shock.

Britney, your career is OVER, girl.  Pack it in and head to cosmetology school or something, 'cause if you can't even get excited about your big comback performance, you're toast.  A sampling of comments from the TMZ blogpost:

I wanted this to be good but it was the caboose on the train wreck of Britney.

I for one was sort of wanting to see her fall on her ass but I ended up feeling bad for her.

Of all nights that she should have NOT lip-synched this was it...what a disappointment. ... I would rather have watched her sitting on a chair singing a song live than watching her TRYING to move around the stage. My 80-year-old grandmother could have moved faster/better than that.

She phoned that one in.  Not good.

Where was the passion?  She knows that this was supposed to be her comeback performance and she looked like she didn't care.

Except for a few (a VERY few) diehard Britney fans defending her, the overwhelming majority of people who watched this performance seemed to realize that Britney is not even close to being ready for a comeback, and some even felt pity for her.

Ah well, someone else will step in and take her place; there's no shortage of Britney-wannabes in the wings.

I will let Chris from CutewithChris.com have the last word:

RIAA Vs. Pandora.com

And now the Recording Industry Association of America has forced the popular Pandora.com Internet streaming radio service to cut off access to its website by non-American users.

And of course, the Internet will fight back, using any tactics it can to continue to use a service which many people from around the world enjoy. 

This will be an interesting fight to watch as it plays out.

Fantasy And Reality

(click photo to see original size on Flickr)

I actually feel a little sorry for Britney Spears.  Apparently she checked into rehab in Antigua, checked herself out after less than 24 hours, flew back to the U.S., shaved her head and got a couple of tattoos.  The linked report also states that Britney landed up at L.A.'s Cedars-Sinai hospital emergency room early Saturday morning, but was discharged.

What's magnifying the situation and making it worse, is that she's a celebrity and plays out her life (and her troubles) in front of the paparazzi's cameras.   That's why I highlighted that particular, poignant quote from the gossip coverage.  Fame is a double-edged sword. 

And I wonder how long Elizabeth Arden will continue to market Britney's Midnight Fantasy, especially when the fantasy has come apart at the seams.

Friday Musical Interlude: I Was A Teen-Age Hindi Schoolgirl

I love this song Lucky Lips (sung by the definitely-no-longer-a-teenager Queen of the Bollywood Playback Singers, Asha Bhosle), but I love the video for the song even more:

Lucky Lips
Uploaded by clockwatcher2

"Get outta town, girl!" ;-)

Watching the Grammys

Watching the Grammys tonight, really enjoyed the reunion of The Police, and the trio of John Legend, Corinne Bailey Rae, and John Mayer (image left).  Although I have to wonder at some of the choices for award presenters (Luke Wilson!?).  I just had a good laugh when The Dixie Chicks received the award for best country album.  Natalie Maines took the mike and said "In the immortal words of Simpson - haaaih heh". 

In other words, TAKE THAT, all you Dixie haters who turned on the band because of that comment about George Bush.  Not only did The Dixie Chicks win best album, the song "Not Ready To Make Nice" was awarded Best Song.  Revenge is sooo sweet.

Carrie Underwood for Best Artist?!?  Corinne Bailey Rae was ROBBED, I tells ya!  And Imogen Heap deserves a special award just for her hair :-)

Last.fm Update

Last.fm (still my favourite Internet radio station) is again working on an upgrade.  One of the new features that I like is something that I had seen earlier on a service called finetune, the ability to stick a personalized radio station into your blog or MySpace page, so users can listen to a stream of your favourite songs without having to go through all the sign-up hassles UPDATE: Whoops, turns out if you don't already have a (free) account on Last.fm, it asks you to sign up when you click on the radio below.    Please give it a try, and send me a comment to tell me what you think.  It's still in beta so there may be a few bugs, oh and this radio app requires the Flash browser plug-in.

As I was kicking the tires on the new Last.fm beta service (the beta test is open to subscribers only, sorry), I came across this terminology that made me chuckle (see right).  Nudge nudge wink wink saynomore saynomore ;-D  (Note that "my neighbourhood" is Last.fm-speak for listeners whose musical tastes are calculated to be the most similar to your own.)

Your Friday morning musical interlude: The Doors take a walk down Sesame Street and learn to spell the Macarena

The most bizarre thing about this Doors/Sesame Street/Macarena mashup is that IT WORKS.  It's actually a good, very listenable song!  The people who do these mashups continue to amaze me with their inventiveness.

The Doors take a walk down Sesame Street and learn to spell the Macarena (MP3 file, 7.7 MB)

Musical Interlude - Ismya Vova

For some reason, the song Ismya Vova has been running through my head for the past few days.  That is, I could remember the song, but not the singer or album I had first found it on!  After some determined searching through my iPod this afternoon, I finally found it!  Here's a link to the mp3 version.

If it sounds familiar, it's because it was used for a series of Air Canada commercials back around 1998. René Dupéré, famous for creating the music for numerous Cirque de Soleil shows,  was the composer for Ismya Vova, which won a Golden Award in 1998 at the New York Publicity festival for Best Original Music.  The album I found it on was an Air-Canada-produced CD called Dreams (available here). 

I was trying to figure out what language the performer, Élise Velle, was singing in.  Turns out it's a made-up language with no meaning at all.  It was designed to sound so evocative!