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Category Archives: Music
The Best Music Mash-Up Ever
It really sounds as if this is one and the same song, and the video elements are just stunningly selected and mixed – Pink Floyd and the Bee Gees, who would have thought?
Strangely Mesmerizing – Kids Song with Rifle Cartridges
I wonder if there is something built into this video that hypnotizes me…
There is nothing really worth seeing – OK, the girl is cute, but that is not that unusual – still I could not stop watching until it was all over.
Maybe somebody could go over the video with a fine comb and find the hidden subliminal message – watch – stay – don’t move – consume!
UPDATE: on one of my repeated (mesmerized) views of this video something caught my eye. I first could not believe it – had to rewind – watch it again – rewind – screen-capture it – and here is what I saw…
A duck with a crown of rifle cartridges?? – Now I am really curious what this video is all about.
Posted in Fun Stuff, Music, Video, Weird
Tagged culture, embarrassing, japanese, Music, subliminal message
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Bigger Than Blue
Saved from an old Video 8 tape…
Posted in History, Music, Video
Tagged Francesca Capasso, Lisa Franco, Markus Binapfl, Markus Deml
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What makes Cool Cool?
Flemming introduced me to the violin-playing of Vanessa Mae.
Give me a break – the violin must be the most conservative and boring instrument of them all and I get stuck on Youtube watching all kinds of videos about her music?
This is how violin playing is supposed to look…
and not like this…
And then play music like this…
I mean – this IS cool violin playing! Made me think about what makes cool cool?
I told my son, who is now at the age where he thinks that accessorizing with cool things will make him cool, a story from the days when I still tried to find that which would make me be cool…
It were the days of our first cars at the end of high school. I personally certainly had the un-coolest car your could get, but it was all I could afford. In our class we had one guy who was just the coolest, Mike. He had, at that tender age, traveled the world on a shoe-string budget. He was so cool, that he did not even give in to female attempts to reel him him. How cool was that – something I dreamed of – he just shrugged off!
Once, a few of us planed to go on a social visit to our favorite teacher. Only few of us had cars, my car was too small for all of us, so Mike offered to drive us and got the car from his dad and thus was our designated driver.
You might have to learn a bit about car culture in Germany at that time to grasp the gravity of the following.
For example, you could not drive an automatic – you would be considered a grandpa – but those cars were too expensive anyways so that was never an issue amongst us. At the top of the un-cool list, right after the automatic, was a station wagon with the shift-stick at the steering wheel and a single bench in the front.
And that was exactly the car Mike drove up in to pick us all up that evening to go, visit Hartwig! But believe it or not – that car did not make Mike un-cool, instead his coolness rubbed off on the car and it became totally acceptable to drive a Taunus or Ford station-wagon.
Applying that lesson to myself took many years, so I don’t necessarily expect my son to understand when I told him this story, but for me this example of the violin of Vanessa Mae re-enforced the lesson for me.
She just did not let the un-coolness of the violin rub off on her, instead she made the violin cool.
So, now, how can I apply that right now?
Posted in Music, Philosophical, Thoughts, Video
Tagged car culture, coolness, Ford, ford station wagon, Germany, Music, shoe string budget, taunus, un-coolest car, Vanessa Mae, violin
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All About the AppleGirl
I know, the title might be a little pretentious, maybe even a lot, but running into her on a Google Help page was a rather interesting experience – who would expect to find a music video on a Google Help page – and so I dug a bit deeper and by collecting my findings here I might save you your own digging.
First things first – here is the video that Google gave me as an example for what it was explaining on the help page…
I certainly liked the music and video, but why was she ‘AppleGirl’?
A bit digging let me find the likely answer that it was because the instruments she played in her first video on the internet were iPhones – yes, iPhones! Four iPhones running different music apps, attached to some kind of rack-contraption, were her instrument(s) of choice. And she became famous – the video and the follow up went viral. Here is that first one…
and the next one where she explains a bit more about here instruments.
Mysteries do get people hooked. So, the mystery of who that girl, only known as AppleGirl, was, might have helped the fast spreading of these videos. By now the mystery is solved and it’s all known that she is Kim Yeo Hee, and the latest video (the first on at the top) with it’s professional lighting, recording and editing is a strong indication that her careers is taking off.
So, what was the effect on me? I got some enjoyment out of watching these videos, and got the idea that if there is music apps for the iPhone, there must be some for Android as well. This assumption turned out to be true and I now have a virtual piano and guitar on my G1. I know, it’s ridiculous, I still have a G1 but at least I have it rooted and running Froyo (2.2) on it – even though a bit slow. By the way, even with that version of Android and an adapter directly from HTC my squareup.com card reader, “the cube,” still does not work.
Posted in Culture, Internet, Music, Video
Tagged android, applegirl, g1, Google, iphone, Kim Yeo Hee, music video, virtual piano
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Ray Manzarek about the beginning of the Doors
During my first semesters at the University of Dortmund a break-through in album sales happened. While at the regular record store you had to shell out over DM 20 (that’s Deutsch Marks for all you young kids, the currency they had in Germany before the Euro) for a 30cm album, some entrepreneurial students started to sell those same albums for DM 14.95 or less in the entry hall of the cafeteria (mensa in latin-german).
This is where I got pretty much the whole collection of my albums I still have after so many years. Some of the early and important items in this collection are records from the Doors. Sure, we knew Jim Morrison by name but the other members of the band were more or less face and name-less.
Until today, when I found the great video site called L-Studio. L must be standing for Lexus as this site is hosted on a subdomain of Lexus.com. And why not – BMW sponsors TED, why should Lexus not have it’s own video site with – I have to say – excellent video.
Some of these videos are with and about Ray Manzarek, the creator of the Door’s characteristic keyboard sound. Hear him tell about the Door’s beginnings …
… and then look through the other video for more Ray Manzarek and try not to miss the series of Web Therapie with Lisa Kudrow.
UPDATE: just ran into the new video of Weird Al Yankovic – ‘Craigs List’ – were he pays homage to the doors – in his own special way. And the great thing is that Ray Manzarek actually plays the keyboards in this spoof of the doors! No wonder that Yankovic version sounds so authentic…
The Voice of an Angel – Grown Up
It was at a fundraiser for KCET or some similar TV station many years ago that I learned about the – then – 13 year old Charlotte Church. I was amazed and even though I usually don’t think highly of fan-dom of any artist or star I ordered – to support KCET, you know – her CD and Video.
Recently I stumbled over her CD in my collection and I wondered what had become of her. Thanks to Google I found out quickly. Here is a before and after (so-to-speak)…
After some more investigative work I found out that it is rather quiet around her now, the last album released dates back to 2005 and it is very different in that it went away from the opera repertoire she had before into the land of pop, where she has to face quite a bit of competition. I personally like her new music but it is not something that would get me up and buy her CD.
One of the songs on that CD gives an idea why she went away from the arena where she was so amazingly successful. The title is “Finding my Own Way,” where she tells her fans in poetic form, that they might disagree with her and that it might be a mistake, but that she has the right to make her own choices and possibly mistakes and that that’s OK.
I believe that is a very honorable thing to do. There is the temptation of riding the wave of safe continued admiration and she has chosen a way that is not so safe but is her own. So, she does not fall into the trap I described when I mused about the curse of good looks.
For me the old and the new Charlotte are just two different worlds and I fortunately have the choice where I spend my time. I want to share one song I found on Youtube that is a neat combination of John Lennon, the master song writer, and Charlotte Church, a singer that can make my tears flow freely…
Over the Rainbow by Israel Kamakawiwo’ole
What a beautiful song – so take five, relax and enjoy!
Never forget what this is all about – it’s not running after fame and fortune, it’s about enjoying the “Right NOW” where all the rest of the world can handle its own affairs for a little while…
Posted in Inspiration, Music
Tagged Beautiful Song, Fame And Fortune, Israel Kamakawiwo Ole, Music, over the rainbow, Rest Of The World
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Changing the World with Music
“Change” seems to be all the hype right now. Even the presidential campaign was won with this slogan. There seems to be so much people don’t like and want to change (or have changed for them) that simply using ‘change’ as a buzz word will get attention.
Now mostly change is not really what we want. Maybe we have something in mind that is so far beyond everything we can imagine, that simple an end of the current situation looks appealing. But, in my own experience, the universe has a strange kind of humor. It tries to comply but if the goal of the change is not clearly specified we will get a change but the new situation might not be what we really had in mind – hidden back there in the crevices, afraid to verbalize.
Let’s take a look at politics right now – we will have a president that will implement change – he did not say what the change will be so this is a pretty smart move as now everybody has a very own version of that change he or she envisions in mind and thinks that’s what will come. And if that’s not what will get implemented then it becomes obvious why not – because it was never even promised. And something is always changed, so the promise is kept.
If we want a situation to be different we have to be specific in what we want the outcome of the change to be otherwise the change itself will be the outcome and this is certainly not what we want. It reminds me of the sign at the bar stating “Tomorrow free Beer” – obviously attractive so that patrons return, but of no consequence and cost for the proprietor – he is keeping his promise.
In other words – change is not what we want and we have to be honest with what we actually want, take away the attention from what is and see the outcome now. Remember Mahatma Gandhi’s quote “You must be the change you want to see in the world” with the stress on BE.
Change has become an emotionally loaded word and the following video is definitely a prime example. It made me cry (in a positive way, I might add)…
This is from Playing for Change, a project to ‘bring change’ through music. I can imagine that this project could benefit from clearly stating what the outcome will be after the change is accomplished.
Other videos on this foundation’s web site do show what the change will be – eduction, building, improving situations through music, etc, so the outcome is stated and the video with it’s emotion caused me to look, so I guess it all worked out OK.
Posted in Emotional, Inspiration, Music, Video
Tagged Buzz Word, Campaign Slogan, Consequence, Crevices, Current Situation, Free Beer, Humor, Hype, Mahatma Gandhi, Music Change, New Situation, Patrons, Presidential Campaign, Prime Example, Proprietor, Slogan, Smart Move, Something In Mind, Strange Kind, Stress, Universe, World Music
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Japanese Music Video Update
Who would ever forget the Hinoi Team I told you about some time ago?
For reason of variety – not that this is any better than the Hinoi Team – I would like to pass on another find…
Watching these Japanese videos – and other Japanese TV clips on YouTube – I notice that most of the girls really look like girls, don’t they. I mean in contrast to women.
I can not imagine that these girls are really as young as they appear to (western) eyes, so I am wondering if the Japanese culture has bread its women looking so young-girl-ish. There seems to be an ideal woman type that is noticable different in different cultures. How else could you tell, on first glance, that this is a german woman, the next one is from Mexico and yet one over this girl (!) is from Thailand?
But maybe we don’t have to think too much about this as over time McDonald will make them all the same – I noticed that when hanging out at the Thai temple, that more and more young Thai girls look like the good BigMac fed American girl. Any insights…