Worth Your Consideration #029

• I’d like to begin today’s WYC column with a little bit of rubbing it in for my least-favorite football team in the world, the Indianapolis Colts. Here’s Peyton Manning’s Super Bowl-Clinching Interception Recreated On Tecmo Bowl (courtesy of Best Week Ever).
• And, speaking of must-watch videos, have you seen the third trailer for Toy Story 3? It doesn’t wow me as much as the first two did—I’m past the wow stage anyway, though, and onto the “When is it coming out?” stage—but it is pretty darned nifty, and it sets up even more of the story. I love that we get to meet Ken, and that Barbie compliments him on his ascot. [Via Ain’t It Cool News]
• Now, when it comes to must-see video that ain’t even out yet, there’s one story today that tops the rest (at least for me): Web video producer John Herman and Cinema Suicide head honcho Bryan White are teaming up to produce How To Survive The Strange, which Bryan describes as Bob Vila, Vampire Hunter. It debuts in May, and there’s an open casting call on March 15. Learn more here.
• In far less appetizing news, I present the Taco Bell Cheesy Double Beef Burrito Stuffed Sausage Log. Um, what is the opposite of “Yum”? Anyone know?
• Palate-Cleanser, Part One: Christopher Nolan will help reboot Superman, hopefully with the same (or similar) results as his Batman reboot.
• Palate-Cleanser, Part Two: There appears to be some recording going on at Nine Inch Nails HQ.
• Palate-Cleanser, Part Three: Disney Princesses Letting It All Hang Out.
• And, last but not least, let’s talk about our old pal Kevin Smith. The Internet is in an uproar over the mistreatment of the Clerks director by Southwest Airlines. Many are mad at Southwest, some are mad at Kevin, and a few are even mad at Heather Armstrong, who had “the nerve” to compare her washing machine experience with this latest debacle. Me, I don’t care. Companies in the service industries do wrong by their customers all the time, and there ain’t a one of them that is totally innocent, least of all a company as big as Southwest. Me, I’m much less excited to hear Kevin Smith tell Southwest to go fuck themselves on SModcast than I am to hear more about his bold ideas on how to create fan-financed films.

Geek Force FiveCast 294: Lyrics

In which ECC talks about staying up late to write lyrics for the RPM Challenge.

Worth Your Consideration #027

I’m collecting links like mad lately, so it’s time for another edition of Worth Your Consideration.

• Let’s start off by linking up the Star Wars burlesque story that Jon mentioned during this week’s episode of Generation Goat. And, if the still image above and other images in that first link aren’t enough to sate you, here’s video of the debauchery courtesy of Geekologie. And, if that still isn’t enough for you, be sure to check out this video of Princess Peach shaking it for Bowser and all the other toads in the audience.
• You know that we love amazingly disgusting (yet somehow mouth-watering) burger photos. Well, here’s another one: Krispy Kreme Donut Bacon Cheeseburgers.
• You know that we also love Nine Inch Nails. Here’s a video of former NIN drummer Josh Freese kicking ass and taking names on a live version of “Wish.”
• Also on the video front, here’s an oldie but goodie: a circa 1984 dealer training video for the then brand-new Macintosh computer.
• Speaking of Apple, didja know that they confirmed they’ll be announcing their “latest creation” on January 27? Rumors indicate that we’ll hear about the fabled iTablet, iPhone OS 4.0, and iLife 2010 (the WSJ seems pretty sure about the tablet’s arrival, and is suggesting that families will share the device). There are also whispers that we’ll soon be hearing about our iTunes media collections living in the cloud.
• One more Apple link: Every Get A Mac Ad in One Place.
• Moving on! It looks like Spider-Man 4 has a director, and it’s Marc Webb, whose (500) Days of Summer is still on my to-watch list.
• Marc Webb once directed a Green Day video ("21 Guns"), and Green Day is going to be the center of the next Rock Band video game. Dude! How’d you like that transition?
• And, oh, if Green Day ever needs a drummer to replace the maniacally, indecently awesome Tre Cool, then they should check out this kid, whose chops, according to Mashable, “will melt your face off.”
• I’ve become kind of obsessed with videos of talented kids lately. Something else I’ve been obsessing over: stats for things that don’t need stats. And here’s a prime example: Charlie Brown’s lifetime baseball stats.
• Moving on! How long until someone runs over a real prostitute in their real car while too busy running over a digital prostitute in the new iPhone version of Grand Theft Auto to pay attention to the road?
• Something that keeps me from tearing my eyes away from the iPhone or the computer, wherever it is I happen to bump into these things: promos for season six of Lost and jokes about how the sixth season is going to make fans like me even more obnoxious than ever.
• Something I wish I could experience for real, and not just through the hype machine: Marvel Comics. I am really digging the poster for Siege that Joe Quesada did, but the pricing for comics is out of control and I ain’t coming back until they get real and bring cover prices down (which will probably never happen).
• Well, never say never, I guess. I mean, if Marvel’s new overlords at Disney keep making decent money on films like the rumored Tim Burton version of the Sleeping Beauty tale, called Maleficent, then maybe they’ll find some way to bring prices down.
• And, not that the House of Mouse needs any suggestions from me on how to make some dough, but here’s one: Disney princesses dressed up as the villains from their movies.

“Empire State of Mind” - The Colbert Version

I hate New York, but I kinda-sorta love Alicia Keys, I kinda-sorta love that song she does with Jay-Z called “Empire State of Mind,” and I really love Stephen Colbert. So, when my friend Beth shared this video via Facebook, I almost didn’t check it out. But then I did.

And you should, too. Because Alicia belts, Stephen raps (and does it well), and the whole thing is under four minutes long.

Geek Force FiveCast 283: Another Version of the Truth

In which ECC geeks out about the fan-made Nine Inch Nails concert film, Another Version of the Truth: The Gift.

2009’s 365Songs - 293-365

The final set of songs in my 365Songs playlist for 2009 is dominated by long block parties by a variety of artists. There’s everything from a Britney Spears block to an Ani DiFranco block to a block by Mike Doughty. There’s a block of Christmas songs near the end, and a heap of pop gems sprinkled throughout.

It’s the song the set ends with that means the most to me, though. During a piano karaoke evening at Studio 99 in Nashua earlier this year, I had the opportunity to sing an original song of mine (co-written by Andy Hicks of The Pluto Tapes way back in our days as members of Soma). And it’s that song, “Never Forget,” that rounds out this list.

It’s not a particularly complicated song, but it’s simplicity speaks to what I feel our approach should be to any year end festivities. The chorus goes like this: “I remember how much it hurt, how much I learned / I will never forget, never forget.”

Remember, but move on. But always remember.

Goodbye 2009. Here’s to a great 2010.

2009’s 365Songs - 220-292

Perhaps it’s because we’re nearing the home stretch, but many more songs in this fourth set are bringing back specific memories. The Joe Droukas cut is there because I saw him perform live in the living room of Ernest Thompson’s house on the eve of a weekend-long playwriting workshop. And the pop songs that appear directly thereafter—the songs by Taylor Swift, Jordin Sparks, Black Eyed Peas, and Miley Cyrus—are songs I heard two or three times a day during my commutes back and forth to the lakes region that weekend.

The block of ABBA comes from watching Mamma Mia way too many times with my daughter, who became obsessed with the film after watching it at Grammie and Grampie’s house one weekend. Likewise, the back-to-back Disney princess songs—“Colors of the Wind” and “Reflection”—are there because of the Disney Princess Sing-A-Long Songs DVD that was a staple in our house this summer.

My favorite song of the year—and one of my favorite songs of all time—“Love is Dead” makes its appearance in this set, too. I stumbled across it thanks to the iTunes Free Single of the Week program, and I played that damn thing so much I can’t believe it’s not higher on my top 25 most played songs of the year.

Let’s see… what else? Oh, there’s a string of songs I procured by rejoining eMusic.com for a few months, all stuff I’d been hearing about after becoming a regular listener of the Sound Opinions podcast—Kristeen Young, She & Him, St. Vincent, etc.—as well as a couple of tracks from The Beatles Anthology 3, an album I return to pretty frequently. And, finally, as we draw to the end of this set, there’s the first appearance of YouTube cover band sensation Pomplamoose, doing their version of Beyonce’s “Single Ladies”. This marked the first of many times over the next couple of months when I’d find a great song on YouTube by total accident and then immediately have to have the MP3 in my collection.

2009’s 365Songs - 147-219

Well, the pop bubblegum whore in me certainly comes out a bit more in this set. Part of that is the obligatory four-song Michael Jackson tribute that happened during the week of his death, but part of it has to do with the weather getting nicer, the school year ending, and my stress-level lowering to its lowest point of the year. Sure, there are still bursts of Nine Inch Nails, but you are much more likely to find Peter Cetera and Ray Parker, Jr. in this set than in any other.

Also notable here (at least for me, as I look back): This is when there started being some days when I didn’t listen to any music at all, and where I had to pick a song from a TV show or a movie I’d seen that day. Frou Frou’s version of “Holding Out For a Hero” was probably chosen because we watched Shrek 2 that night, and Loudon Wainwright III’s “Daughter” was, of course, heard during a viewing of Knocked Up.

2009’s 365Songs - 74-146

The second 73 songs of my 365Songs playlist for 2009 go all over the place. From the get-go, we’re genre jumping between folk (Indigo Girls), off-Broadway performance art soundtrack (Blue Man Group), pop (Kelly Clarkson), rap (Eminem), arena rock (U2), and bluegrass (Robert Plant and Alison Krauss). But, somehow, it’s still working (at least for me, the guy who co-hosted a radio program called Complete and Utter Randomness back in college).

In this set, we also get a continuation of the “block party” theme with long sets of Nine Inch Nails, Green Day, songs from the soundtrack to The Transformers: The Movie, and even the somewhat obscure indie pop songstress Poe.

All in all, as we draw ever closer to the halfway point of the list, I’m feeling like the mix does a really good job of reflecting my eclectic tastes. You?

2009’s 365Songs - 1-73

When I look back at the first set of songs I assembled for my 365Songs playlist, a couple of things strike me.

First: the really early going was dominated by the songs I was playing all of the time in the aftermath of my annual post-Christmas iTunes buying binge. You’ve got a bunch of the songs that made their way onto my 25 most played of 2009—Mountain Goats, Au Revoir Simone, Flobots—and you’ve also got tracks from the soundtrack to Zack and Miri Make a Porno (that would explain the random appearance of Marcy Playground).

Second: Toward the end of this first set, you get your first “block party weekend” play with a threepeat of Nine Inch Nails. I’d thought, in hindsight, that I hadn’t started doing that until later in the year. But apparently this was something I was doing from the beginning.

Third, and Last: It’s got real flow. It seemed to me, when I initially heard Jon’s idea for the 365Songs challenge, that it might be hard to construct a mix that flowed. But it doesn’t seem to have been as hard as I’d imagined it would be.