How to Become a Famous Blogger

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

New(ish) Band I Like: The Bird and the Bee

I came across this two-person indie band recently, The Bird and the Bee. Here's a video profile.


Polite Dance Song:


F*cking Boyfriend:


F*cking Boyfriend remix:

LOVED Tin Man

I thought the recent Sci-Fi Channel series Tin Man was awesome! At least I thought part one was awesome; I haven't watched the rest (yet). I've been interested in learning more about the Oz Universe, at least ever since we saw Wicked, and this is yet another prompt to do so.

• Part One
• Part Two
• Part Three
  

Links for Boxing Day

Happy Boxing Day! (Long time no blog.) Items:

• DJ Lobsterdust vs. the 1980s: Six good mashups here, including Van Halen/Soulja Boy and The Scorpions/Luda.
• Speaking of non-traditional music, here's David Byrne in Wired on the future of the music business. Excerpt: First, a definition of terms. What is it we're talking about here? What exactly is being bought and sold? In the past, music was something you heard and experienced — it was as much a social event as a purely musical one. Before recording technology existed, you could not separate music from its social context. Epic songs and ballads, troubadours, courtly entertainments, church music, shamanic chants, pub sing-alongs, ceremonial music, military music, dance music — it was pretty much all tied to specific social functions. It was communal and often utilitarian. You couldn't take it home, copy it, sell it as a commodity (except as sheet music, but that's not music), or even hear it again. Music was an experience, intimately married to your life. You could pay to hear music, but after you did, it was over, gone — a memory. Technology changed all that in the 20th century. Music — or its recorded artifact, at least — became a product, a thing that could be bought, sold, traded, and replayed endlessly in any context. This upended the economics of music, but our human instincts remained intact. I spend plenty of time with buds in my ears listening to recorded music, but I still get out to stand in a crowd with an audience. I sing to myself, and, yes, I play an instrument (not always well).
• Freakin' GOBS of great stuff at the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive.
• Via Mind Hacks, an optical illusion called (I'm not making this up) The Purple Nurple:
  

Fun Mashups

Unk & Avril & Oh Mickey:

AC/DC & J-Kwon:

Gilbert's First Day in the Snow

Here's our doggy Gilbert on his first day in the snow! The ♥G♥ and I played with him and threw some snow on him and took a bunch of pictures. (He's a big boy now -- He clocks in at 100 lbs. +.)

Crank Dat Soulja Boy!

Soulja Boy:

Snowy Afternon; Being Spent Inside

First snowstorm of the year hits the Midwest. Nice day to spend inside -- Right now we're watching Walter Matthau in Hopscotch. (Inside of course except, that it was Gilbert's first time to see the snow! Pics to follow.)

Items:

• WikiMatrix has a whole bunch of different options for Wiki software.
• Speaking of wikis, I'm currently reading Wikinomics (I just saw that there is a new edition coming out in a few months. My first reaction was "Aargh!" because I am partway through an already not-current book, but after a moment's reflection, it occurred to me that this is just par for the course with the topic matter.) Here's their blog. Next on the agenda, I want to get WikiPatterns... (Website here, blog here.)
• SF Chronicle interview with Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales on the move of the Wikioffices to San Francisco. Q: Do you worry that people at some point will feel like their work here is done? A: I used to worry. Part of the appeal in the early days of Wikipedia (was that) you could click on Africa and there (would be) nothing there and you (could be) the first person to type, "Africa is a continent." Whereas now to write a brand new article on something that does not already exist is kind of hard in English. You're writing about fairly obscure topics. But we haven't seen participation decline at all. It continues to grow.
• Here's one of many Ron Paul fansites. I'm going to see if he has some site buttons or ribbons to put up here. Agitator post about Washington Post piece on the RP phenomenon. Agitator excerpt: The trick is to show the Paul supporters how it all fits together, how the same flaws that caused government failure in rebuilding Iraq are also at play when it comes to, for example, distributing welfare, or protecting the environment. Sites like Digg and Reddit buzz with libertarian sentiment. It’s just a matter of convincing them that the same bad incentives and bureaucratic behavior that gave us the violent, corrupt, futile drug war will be in play when, for example, Hillary begins implementing her plan for universal health care.