Posted inMusic

Playing For Change

This video comes from the award-winning documentary, “Playing For Change: Peace Through Music”. Featured is a cover of the Ben E. King classic “Stand By Me” as musicians around the world add their unique influences to the song as it travels the globe.

Playing For Change | Song Around The World “Stand By Me” from Concord Music Group on Vimeo.

(via Mom and Dad via Joan… Thanks!)

p.s. Nope, this blog isn’t quite dead yet. I’m still planning to eventually move it to a new blog platform (WordPress) wrapped in a shiny new template, hoping that will spark my blogging muse a little more often. We’ll see… ;-)

Posted inHumorousness

Silly Rabbi…

While daydreaming at work earlier today, I remembered the punchline to a joke that Rusty the T.A. told before one of my computer science classes when I was a college sophomore.

(No, I have absolutely no idea what brought that to mind.)

Thanks to a little google-fu, I now proudly present the rest of the joke…

Once in a land far, far away there lived a group of people called Trids. The Trids were happy except for the huge ogre that lived on the mountain. The ogre would periodically terrorize the Trids.

The Trids tired of the ogre and sought to reason with him. They thought one of their religious leaders would be a good intermediary. So a group of Trids and their minister went up the mountain and before they could even say one word the ogre kicked them down the mountain. Not being dismayed the Trids thought that maybe the ogre was Catholic, so they sent another delegation, this time led by the local priest. But alas, as they approached the ogre he once again kicked them all down the mountain.

The Trids were upset until they thought that perhaps the ogre was Jewish. Unfortunately, no Trids were Jewish, so they wrote to the people of another land and asked them to send a Rabbi to help them with the ogre. The Rabbi arrived and led a delegation of Trids up the mountain. The ogre saw them coming and kicked all of them, except for the Rabbi, down the mountain. The Rabbi, having been told of the previous expeditions, wondered why he alone had not been kicked down the mountain, so he asked the ogre. The ogre laughed and replied:

“Silly Rabbi, kicks are for Trids!”

What’s in the box? Another box! (Sorry, private joke. ;-))

Posted inOn The Web

Simon’s Cat

Simon’s Cat is a series of short animated cartoons produced by Tandem Films exploring the unique relationship between a cat and it’s owner/servant.

The most recent episode in the series just came out this week, but I’m going to start with the first because it’s my favorite so far…

Simon’s Cat – Cat Man Do

Reminds me of someone, but I can’t quite place it… ;-)

Continue reading for more adventures of Simon’s Cat…
Continue reading “Simon’s Cat”

Posted inComics / Games / Movies

Nerdvana!

News overload in the past day or two…

It’s a good time to be a geek! :-D

Posted inInspirational

Mystery on Fifth Avenue

How cool is this?

Finally, one day last fall, more than a year after they moved in, Mr. Klinsky received a letter in the mail containing a poem that began:

WeÂ’ve taken liberties with Yeats
to lead you through a tale
that tells of most inspired fates
in hopes to lift the veil.

The letter directed the family to a hidden panel in the front hall that contained a beautifully bound and printed book, Ms. BenskoÂ’s opus.

The book led them on a scavenger hunt through their own apartment.

Prior to moving into their Fifth Avenue apartment, the family hired a young architect to redo the place.

Inspired by the father’s request to hide a poem he had written for his family in a wall somewhere as a sort of “time capsule”, the architect and accomplices went much further and built an entire mystery adventure for the family to inhabit.

I love the creativity. Of course, having an 8.5 million dollar canvas to work with can be somewhat inspiring. ;-)

(via Kottke)

Posted inMusic

What About 9?!?

Another interesting video tonight…


This one of course is from my favorite band, Barenaked Ladies. It’s from a new CD called Snacktime just released by the band. However, as you might be able to tell from the song, this CD is intended for a slightly unique audience…

“Our collective kids now outnumber the band more than 2 to 1,” explains vocalist/guitarist Ed Robertson. “We set out to make a record that would be entertaining for themÂ…not strictly a children’s record, but a record that children would really enjoy. Our kids are in to all kinds of music. They love the They Might Be Giants kids records, but they also love The Beatles, Fountains of Wayne, Randy Newman, Black Eyed Peas and Green Day. Making the focus about what our kids like was a truly liberating process and fun for the whole band.”

I believe it when he says it was fun for the whole band. I’ve played the whole disc (24 songs!!) twice now, and I’ve had a ball listening to the lyrics and picking out all of the musical styles that are there to find. There’s one song called “Eraser” that starts with Ska, has a brief flirtation with Pink Floyd and then Queen, and ends up back with Ska again. Where else can you find that kind of variety?

Highly recommended for children of all ages.