jim henson

More various and sundries that have popped onto the radar this past week...

1. Cute Overload alert! Check out Snowball the dancing cockatoo, over at Bird Lovers Only Rescue.

2. Earlier this month, a jury found a Minnesota woman guilty of copyright infringement for sharing music via Kazaa. It was ruled that she now has to pay $220,000 in damages to the record labels that sued her.

Among the 24 downloaded songs in question was that old chestnut from Journey, 'Don't Stop Believin' (recently resurrected by The Sopranos).

I did a bit of searching, and was very pleased to discover that someone's been good enough to archive that ancient 'Journey: A Tribute to America' piece of early flash-animation - - the one that was popping up in e-mail accounts back when The Information Super-Highway was still something of a novelty item.

(click on link - - NOTE: You may want to reduce the size of the window to improve the image)

Do you remember it? I sure do.

I'm sure there's some kind of important statement mixed up in here somewhere - -
There's the (perhaps simplistic and muddled) message of the song, the internet's promise of a level playing field in a global village, the pre 9/11 tongue-in-cheek patriotism in this quaint video, the song being dusted off just recently from oblivion for use in the finale of everyone's favorite gangster soap opera, and the amount of time, energy, money, and inflationary importance needed to levy an outrageous fine against An Average American.

Oh well, I suppose it's just one more thing to keep us all feeling afraid, feeling like we're criminals...

"Heaven is defined A Moose" - - heh, heh...

3. Speaking of infringements...

A few days ago, via Boing Boing, I saw the 'Complete Beatles in One Hour' post at WFMU's Beware of the Blog.

(click on link!)

It presents 'all The Beatles UK LP releases compressed at 800% into a one-hour MP3', resulting in either a trance-inducing frenetic sound collage, or a god-awful mess, or both.

An interesting contemplation, but the part I found fascinating was the results some folks have found slowing some of the individual tracks back down to their proper tempo.

Surprise - - it doesn't quite work - - but in my opinion, that's where the fun lies.

Go take a listen. I especially like the decompression-altered version of 'I Will'.

'Tomorrow Never Knows' is fun too, but that's almost a given.

Likewise for 'Lucy In The Stretch', posted by The Evolution Control Committee using a slightly different software process. As of this posting, the soundfile hadn't yet been added to the main body of the post, so you can hop to it here...

4. Speaking of music ingrained in your psyche, here's a link to a page of instrumental cues from 'The Brady Bunch' TV show, over at The Brady Bunch Shrine.

They're the little snatches of background music, composed by Frank DeVol.

Y'know, the ones you may *think* you don't remember...?

(Thanks to Cuppa Joe!)


5. Click here to wing over to Cliff Muskiet's Stewardess/Flight Attendant Uniform Collection.

If you've not seen his site, it's pretty amazing.

Cliff works for KLM airlines in The Netherlands, and explains how he's always been fascinated with air travel.

He's a 'don't stop believin'' kind of guy, makin' his dreams come true.
He's amassed a collection of over 600 different stewardess uniforms from around the world, and he's happy to share his obsession with us.

Go, Cliff, go!!

6.Speaking of travel, I received word this morning that a brand-new online travel site has just gone live; JetLag RocknRoll - - 'The Ultimate Travel Guide for Your RocknRoll Lifestyle'.

It's run by an old DJ pal of mine, Tiger Lily, and it looks very promising! Day one for the site brings only listings for San Francisco, but the depth offered bodes well for other destinations as they fill in...

... If nothing else, do not fail to take a look at Lily's gallery of superb photographs. Eclectic scenes from far-flung locations. Makes me feel like goin' places!

7. Just heard the new Bettye LaVette CD,
'The Scene of The Crime', and it's every bit as incendiary and flat-out amazing as everyone's been saying.

I loved that last album, too, but - - Wow.
Her voice, her presence, and the seemingly left-field collaboration with Drive By Truckers - - it's all working, and you should check it out. (There are audio samples available at her website)

I can also strongly recommend her 'Child Of The Seventies' collection that Rhino Handmade assembled a little while back.
It's all her Atlantic/Atco label material, most of which is hard to find, some of which has never been available, and all of which is inspired.
The earliest tracks are charming, and most of the later ones are just plain badass tough!

8. Speaking of big smiles, there's Al Gore's Nobel. 'Nuff said.