YouTube Tuesday: The Mother of all Funk Chords

This is about the coolest thing I've seen on YouTube in a long time.

YouTube user Kutiman has been grabbing Internet video and audio, slicing, dicing, mixing and remixing to come up with new original works. He calls his project ThruYou, and it's an amazing example of editing and persistence.



tagged: ThruYou, funk, music, mashup, video, You Tube, Kutiman, editing

No man is an island

I first met George about two years ago.

It was a week or two after we moved into our house. I was in the back yard trying to do something about years of overgrowth and neglect by the home's previous owners. George was in his backyard, raking his tidy, well-kept grass.

We met at the chain-link fence and introduced ourselves. George and his wife are the original owners of the house next door to ours. They're retired and split time between Overland Park and their house "down at the Lake" of the Ozarks.

I saw him frequently outside, tending to his yard and house. When we had our siding replaced, he asked for a couple dozen of the cedar shingles we removed. He used them to patch holes wood peckers had made in the cedar siding of his house.

We always took time to greet each other and spend a few minutes talking. He'd ask after our family. He made friends my parents and in-laws.

A guy couldn't ask for a better neighbor.

I became a little concerned when I stopped seeing him so much. The lat time I saw him was in September or so. We were talking about various home repairs when he mentioned, with a smile and a chuckle, that "I just don't seem to be getting around as easily as I used to."

I told him in parting to take it easy and have some red wine, then went on with my mowing or raking or whatever I was doing at the time.

Then October and November passed. December, January and February. I knew he and his wife liked to spend time at their lake house. They were also prone to flying south in the colder months, wintering in a condo in Florida or taking a Caribbean cruise.

Finally, this weekend George was out in the back yard again. I was glad to seem my friend again, but I almost wished I hadn't.

George had lost about 50 pounds since I'd last seem him. He moved slowly and his voice, low and smooth six months ago, had become raspy, like there wasn't enough breath behind it.

George was polite as ever, but he did say it hasn't been a good winter. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in October and has been on chemotherapy for six months.

The clothes he wore as a healthy, paunchy 195-pound retiree look like they're going to fall off of the 50-pound lighter version of him.

I awkwardly gave encouragement and inquired as to his prognosis. He said the doctors have told him you never really get rid of pancreatic cancer -- that you can hope for another year or maybe two.

True to his from, he was positive and upbeat. He said he would enjoy each day as much as he could. He is determined not to give anything up.

But even though it is apparent that he is still the same strong and healthy person in many of the ways that really count, I can't help but feel worried and sad for my friend.

tagged: pancreatic cancer, health, neighbor

Beware the Ides of March

tagged: Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Ides of March

Economic cave in

Okay people, pay attention 'cause here's a news flash: Times are really tough.

I mean the economy is really bad. People are getting laid off every day, profits are plummeting, national debt is skyrocketing. Word on the street is that the economy is so bad that Donald Trump's toupee has been moonlighting as Amy Winehouse's merkin.

So if your like my Supermodel Wife and I, and you're in the market for some baby furniture that will come in handy in about the middle of June, you'd better do what we did and shop around. After hitting up several retail furniture stores, we decided we didn't want to drop two grand on miniature dressers and such. After all, according to the all the headlines, there are some needy bankers who need that money more than we do.

Like the good netizens we are, we checked out Craig's List, which in turn led us to the super secret underground warehouse of Overstock Freight.

Since it's so secret, I can't give you the specific directions here. Email me if you want them. For now, I'll just say that the warehouse is in a series of caves, deep in the hills of northwest Missouri.

We found our way there, passed a guarded gate and into one of a couple dozen cave openings. We spelunked our way to Pillar 36 where we found the warehouse's store front.

Inside the warehouse, one of dozens in this network of secret caves, we found loads of overstock and discontinued merchandise -- dressers, desks, chairs, kitchen wares and appliances, lots of stuff for kids.

The packaging wasn't fancy, and there was some scratch-and-dent stuff, but most of the merchandise was comparable in quality to what you would find at most furniture stores.

Near the back of the cave at the base of one of the pillars, we found a dressing table and armoire set. We examined it thoroughly. It was in like new condition and the set together was less that $500.

We had a small SUV and a long trip home, so the proprietor gave us a $100 discount since we'd be making two trips.

So if your in the market for new furniture (or playground equipment or kitchen utensils, or whatever) and if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can shop in a cave.

tagged: economy, furniture, cave, Missouri, Donald Trump, Amy Winehouse, shopping

Salmonberry

Note to the coffee shop/sandwich bar in my building: If you keep the blueberry muffins in the same refrigerator case as the poached salmon salads, what you get is a blueberry-salmon flavored muffin.

And it's not as tasty as it sounds.

tagged: breakfast, blueberry muffin, poached salmon

More change than you hoped for

I'm not sayin' anything, I'm just puttin' this out there.

Actually, I guess it was BusinessWeek that put it out there. So I guess I'm just passin' it along.

I'm still not sayin' anything, though.



tagged: economy, stock market, Obama, BusinessWeek, policy

YouTube Tuesday: Morning Elegance

This one's been out there for a while, but it's new to me.

I'm captivated by this elaborate stop-motion animation. And even though the music (which is really good, btw) is a bit melancholy, the video gives it that touch of whimsy that makes the production as a whole very satisfying.

Well done, Mr. Lavie.



tagged: video, movie, Oren Lavie, Her Morning Elegance, Opposite Side of the Sea, music

Friday Blogthing: Album Cover Meme

I haven't done one of these in a long time, but the results I got from doing the Album Cover meme fit together so nicely that I just had to share.

In case you're unfamiliar, here's how it works (hat tip to Average Jane):

1. Go to “Wikipedia.” Hit “random” and the first article you get is the name of your band.
2. Then go to “Random Quotations” and the last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album.
3. Then, go to Flickr and click on “Explore the Last Seven Days” and the third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.
4. Use Photoshop or some other image editor to add text and make it look cool.

This is the wikipedia article hit
Here's the quote I got.
And this is the Flickr art I ended up with.

Add them all together and you get the latest Top 40 Skinhead Neo-Nazi Hate Metal album.



tagged: meme, Friday Blogthing, album cover, Fatherland For All, Francis Beaumont

I guess you gotta do what you gotta do

Looks like Boulevard Brewing Co. started packaging my favorite brew in aluminum bottles today.

The Kansas City-based company produced about 2,700 cases of beer in the aluminum bottles on its initial run Thursday. The brewery will continue to offer its Unfiltered Wheat in glass bottles and barrels, as well.

“If you’re out mowing the lawn, out at the golf course or at the pool where you can’t have glass, you can now drink Boulevard Unfiltered Wheat in an aluminum bottle,” said John McDonald, Boulevard founder and president. “Being only in the glass bottle, we didn’t have access to venues like golf courses and stadiums. So that was a big reason.”

I can totally get the logic of packaging your product (heh) so that it can be sold in more venues.

But there's still a bit of a purist in me that will probably just keep getting the glass bottles. I mean, I know that maybe aluminum is the superior material, but it just doesn't have the right feel.

It's similar to wine. Even though drinking wine out of a bottle may be better, I still feel like it's just a more natural, classier experience to drink it out of a box.


tagged: beer, alcohol, Boulevard Brewing Co, Kansas City, wine, aluminum

Come on in here, boy. Have a cigar.

One of the great things about this medium is that you develop relationships with people who look out for each other.

For example, the other day my boy Nick over at WNTV had my back in the career department by bird dogging for me the link to apply for a White House Internship.

Now, I know what your thinking. Why would a successful upper lower middle manager like myself be interested in an entry level White House internship?

Well my friends let's face it, the economy's not getting any better. Banks are insolvent, the markets are crashing, unemployment is at it's highest point of the century. At this rate, even my job of Assistant to the Regional Manager may not be secure.

So I clicked with interest on the link Nick provided.

I learned that to be a White House intern, there are a few provisos, a couple of quid pro quo. This is politics after all even if the new rulers say things have changed.

First is that I have to be a U.S. citizen. Luckily, nobody has ever been able to prove that I'm not despite the efforts of a clique of Internet crackpots who swear I was born in Kenya.

I also have to be at least 18 years of age on or before the first day of the internship. Luckily I squeaked in right above that criteria. I don't want to say my actual age, but let's just say I used to carry my Rubik's Cube in the inside pocket of my Members Only jacket.

Next, up is that I have to be a student or grad student. No problemo. I can go back to KU and get my advanced degree in French Fry and McNugget Marketing.

So now all I have to do is decide what internship I want to pursue. I could opt for the Office of Cabinet Affairs, but I'm not really into carpentry.

The Office of Presidential Personnel sounds promising. They're the people who oversee selection of presidential appointments. But it seems like it's really tough to find appointees who haven't cheated on their taxes. Seems like too much work.

Actually, the Office of the Vice President looks like the best option. I mean, the VP doesn't really do anything and I can just tell that Joe Biden is one hell of a partier. And I'm not talking about political parties here.

So I'm off to fill out my application. I know some of you may be see this as a step down in the career department. But the way things are going we'll all be working for the government in a few short months. After they take over the banks, the automakers, the newspapers, insurance companies, real estate agencies, power companies, Internet providers, technology companies... well, anyway it's pretty clear that everyone will have a government job. I might as well get in on the ground floor.

And yes, I know how interns are treated at the White House. But we've all got to pay our dues.

My only question is, do I have to bring my own cigars?

tagged: White House, internship, Lewinsky, Joe Biden, career