blue-oo-oo

animaniacs mania

Animaniacs was a fantastic animated TV show back in the 90s. I remember watching it after school on the "What's Up, Doc?" show - such a great variety of characters fielding the entertainment, headed by the troublesome trio Yakko, Wakko and Dot.

In a bout of nostalgia I discovered these superb videos whilst scouring YouTube for classic snippets of Animaniacs. Hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

Yakko and the countries of the world:

An amusing cover of the original:

Wakko and the 50 states of America:

Yakko, Wakko and Dot sing a song about Magellan:

Dot sings the Macarena:



Slappy and Skippy enjoying a concert... but whose?

don't stop!

hehe.

artful and amazing

I don't know about you, but when I read others' blogs I generally can't be bothered to click on links that take me to other websites unless I already know who/what the link is about and am therefore interested, or I've seen a picture or screenshot that makes me interested in the content. So it's a bit ironic that I'm about to just post a link and recommend that you check it out.

http://drawn.ca/2009/06/16/todd-schorr-american-surreal/

Drawn.ca is another of the blogs that I've very recently started following (Google Reader has changed my life and increased my subscriptions/random site-visiting dramatically), and the link above contains a string of YouTube videos (5, to be precise) about an American artist named Todd Schorr.

I've never heard of him until now, but I have to say that watching these short 2-min videos and seeing his artworks was eye-opening. I'm fairly picky when it comes to types of artworks I do or don't like, and although I don't think Schorr's artworks are 'pretty', they are definitely mind-bogglingly skilled and detailed and educational (to a degree).

Based on the videos I watched, he mixes American pop history references and his own personal childhood favourites/experiences to come up with ideas for his artworks.

This is a piece from his website (www.toddschorr.com):

"A Date With Mr. Big Bad"

how funny!

Last night, while I was waiting for a friend to pick me up on the way to a 21st, I was watching the Eurovision song contest.

#06, Norway really caught my eyes and ears.

The song was quite catchy in melody and lyrical content, and I couldn't stop tapping my foot in time with the music. I probably only saw 3 or 4 songs but this was my definite favourite.

And just then, I discovered that Norway had won the competition! How fantastic!

I don't normally watch Eurovision, but this year's stage in Russia looked pretty good, and I'm going to try and source an mp3 for this song. :)

Update: Found the mp3, yay! But the Eurovision clips are fun to watch.

oh, and this..

Kinda funny :) I've definitely never seen many of the emoticons in this video!

I hope Obama is the change we can believe in

You know the world's a troubled place when even the most mellow musicians are writing politically-inspired songs.

A reference to Jack Johnson and his latest album, Sleep Through The Static

aural pleasures

I've just come across a lot of new music in the last few days. GOOD new music.

When I think of my new acquisitions, I think folk. Not all of it is so, but most of it is folk-ish, and reminds me of old-school sounds.. which is fantastic. It especially suits the weather - cloudy and rainy makes me think Beatles, Sting, Simon and Garfunkel (amongst others).. not all at once, but if I were to draw a timeline between Autumn (on the left) and Winter (on the right), the artists would be placed accordingly (from left to right), Simon & Garfunkel, Beatles, Sting.

Enough ramble. Back to the music I was talking about.

Recent acquisitions (in no particular order.. except alphabetical):
Colbie Caillat: Coco
Duffy: Rockferry
Estelle: Shine
Gnarls Barkley: The Odd Couple
Goldfrapp: Seventh Tree
Idea of North, The: their complete discography - The Idea of North, The Sum of Us, Here and Now, Evidence, The Gospel Project
Joe Satriani: Professor Satchafunkilus and the Musterion of Rock
Jose Gonzalez: In Our Nature
Laura Marling: Alas I Cannot Swim
Yoav: Charmed and Strange

Time to write some music reviews.

wowzers!

this guy is also a wicked dancer

this guy danced at our christmas party and i think he's awesome

jeff buckley.

A week ago I bought the Legacy Edition of Jeff Buckley's Live at Sin-e album. I've just released it from its shrink-wrap packaging, and am watching the the additional DVD that came with the album. Watching him perform live in this little cafe, I realise that I don't know if I would have appreciated him as much as I do, if I had been introduced to his music during a live performance.

Jeff Buckley's music is great. He's got so much talent that he has the ability to just muck around and crack jokes and still sound ridiculously good. But I only listened to his music for a long time before watching a DVD of him playing.

The first (and last, prior to this current viewing) DVD I watched was the Live in Chicago recording.. and I wasn't entirely comfortable watching him sing and play. I don't really know what I was expecting, but it was just crazy, a bit too crazy. At the same time, I feel like I need to watch him play, so that I can imagine him better in my mind as I listen to the music.

I like watching his interviews. He has a beautiful gaze, and a beautiful speaking voice, and he always seems so at peace, and when you listen to him speak, you realise that he has so much knowledge, so much depth.

I can't imagine what he would have been like if he had had the opportunity to grow old.

a lifetime of secrets

What secret would you share with the world, if you knew that nobody would know the secret was yours?

http://postsecret.blogspot.com/





Makes me want to send in my own secrets..

eager anticipation

From the makers of that bouncing ball ad and the exploding paint ad..

I can't wait for this new upcoming Bravia advert.. although I don't own a Bravia TV, their commercials are just out of this world.

You can't underestimate a good commercial. And what's more, most commercials (if not all) are only 30 seconds long.. and the creators out there, they can make you feel so many emotions within those thirty seconds, it's really quite amazing.

I love these ads - they're works of art.

on providence & good will, amongst other things

So Larissa asks the question,

"Is it logically possible for God to create a world in which there is no evil or suffering, but where humans still have free will?"

To answer this question on a bit of a tangent, I think it's us, the humans themselves, who create the evil and suffering. This of course, assumes that we are created as free agents, and not somebody else's puppets.


Alexander wrote:
"There is the cliched argument that "What is light but absence of darkness?""

It's such a simple yet profound statement.

Reading on further through the discussion posts, I see the topic/question of "Why do bad things happen to good people?", and my fellow students' confusion and failure to understand just why it is that the nicest people seem to be the ones who suffer from terminal illnesses and the like.

I've thought about this before, primarily because of events that had affected me in some way. My kindergarten teacher, her name was Mrs Batty. However she was far from crazy, and did a wonderful job as the teacher of our class, Kindergarten Rainbow. I remember her peaceful smile, and she was all warmth and love. I don't recall seeing her after kindergarten; it's possible that she moved schools, who knows. I was too young at the time to pay attention to such things. By the time I was in Year 5 or 6, I discovered from my teachers that Mrs Batty had passed away due to cancer. It was a shock, and I felt sad.

And when I was in Year 4 or 5 (the years are a blur now), the mothers of one of my best friends passed away on the operating table, while having a brain tumor removed. That was also a shock, and saddening news. She was such a lovely person, really nice and kind, and she left behind 3 wonderful daughters and a loving husband. I felt terrible.

Taking my case to the realm of celebrities et al, Eva Cassidy & Princess Diana are the first who come to mind.

Eva Cassidy was an American singer blessed with an amazing voice. According to friends and family she was very shy, but very generous, and overall had a wonderful heart and soul. However she died at the young age of 33, battling cancer. Why did such a lovely and talented person have to leave so soon?
If you listen to some of her songs, even the ones that weren't ready for album release, you'll soon realise how incredible her vocal talent is. One can only imagine what potential was not realised due to her early passing.

Jeff Buckley is of a similar situation, although he disappeared in the Mississippi River one evening. His albums Grace and Live at the Sin-e are precious recordings of a genius at work. According to his mother, he was a good person too, kind and gentle.

"The good die young."

It's a cliche, but it's cliched because it's true.

And just about everybody would know about Princess Diana. I remember her most for her enormous contribution to humanitarian activities. Of course, there are many, many people around the world doing exactly the same thing, if not better, but my respect for her is from the perspective that she was royalty. She was very well-off; why would she have any reason to go out of her way to do something for people she doesn't know? But Princess Diana used her celebrity status to bring awareness into people's living rooms during the news. And I'm sure we were only seeing the tip of the iceberg on screen.

I respect celebrities who use their celebrity status to do good for the world - but only those who are genuine about their cause. Angelina Jolie was known for working in humanitarian activities long before the news articles on Bono, or Bob Geldof, or Madonna, etc. The most prominent (i.e. receive the most amount of TV coverage for what they do, based on my experience) celebrities who I think are genuinely dedicated to the cause, are Angelina Jolie and Bono.

The fact that being humanitarian has become "trendy" nowadays, is both a blessing and a curse in my opinion. It's great because that means more people are getting involved, donating money, aiding good causes. The bad thing is, what are their ulterior motives? Are they doing it because they think it's 'cool', or because they genuinely feel that everybody should have equal rights in the world, and poverty is unacceptable considering the affluence of many urbanised areas around the world?