Rainer Maria – catastrophe

I’ve had this song popping up on my iPod a lot lately when tromping to and from work on the bus, and Rebecca has recently taken a liking to these guys, even though Rainer Maria[wiki] broke up in 2006.

There is something to be said about this being a song about heartbreak, but there is a subtle undertone of a political viewpoint, unintentional or not. I like it when artists are able to do that. It sudden becomes uber-interpretation-able.

Not bad for three kids from the Midwest. Check out the rest of their catalog if you aren’t in the know. I know Beck is.

The Black Keys are coming to Vancouver

I have to say, I’m pretty excited. Even better, Rebecca scored us tickets to the show on April 6 at The Commodore Ballroom. Quite frankly, The Black Keys were the only thing keeping me sane at work today.

Check out the video below for “Just Got To Be”. If you like it, get more of their music. If you really like it, come see the show. I have been well assured that their live performances are quite splendid.

Look what my new Canon camera can do

Ok, this isn’t anything to be overly proud of or that important to showcase, but this is a great example of what my Canon S5 IS can do in movie mode. This is a short video I made within hours of getting this on Christmas morning while driving across the Pattullo Bridge.

The quality of YouTube actually decreases the quality of these videos, not to mention the fact that it records in stereo for the audio. Very cool. I hope to take more advantage of this in the future. I just need to find a good set of rechargeable AA batteries.

The legend of Roger Luttski

The following video was somewhat surprising to find on YouTube, but it doesn’t do the legend of Roger Luttski justice. And thankfully, the person who posted it finally made it embeddable.

Colonial Lanes in Iowa City has made a series of commercials for their bowling ally that have been absolutely hilarious, all while keeping things on a low budget. More so, the creativity compared to production quality doesn’t even compare, but there is only so much you can expect from local commercials, no matter where you are in the world. This, on the other hand, has always been a campaign that is witty, if not completely hilarious.

The tag line of “oh yeah, bowling” is a play on all the things you can do at what is more than just a bowling ally. In fact, it’s something that I still throw out once and a while, but no one has a clue what I’m talking about. I’m not so sure that just this clip even begins to explain it, but it’s still pretty good. And the quality is far superior to the soft, grainy, yet comforting VHS look and sound of their old TV spots.

And who can forget the Tiger Woods spoof of, “I am Roger Luttski”? That one almost made me cry.

This is, or was, a long running theme in their commercials, and I hope it still is. Roger Luttski is a completely fictional character, but he has been portrayed as the same guy for a number of years now. I’m sure it’s not an easy job, but bowling for fun and then stumbling into the realm of a spokes person would be pretty cool.

Editors – an end has a start

If you’re like me, shopping around Christmas time means one thing. Monotonous Christmas music. That same song that you hear from one store to the next. If it’s not the same exact song by the same person, it’s another version by whatever artist decided to put out their own version of a Christmas album.

And then, it gets stuck in your head. You can’t get it out. The only thing I find myself able to do is to go Weird Al on the tune and make up my own lyrics when “Walking in a Winter Wonderland” refuses to leave the spaces between my synapses.

This tune by Editors did the trick the other day, so I hope it might help you as well. They are coming to Vancouver soon with Hot Hot Heat on the double bill at the Commodore Ballroom on February 5, 2007.

CommonCraft: Blogs in Plain English

I had the extreme pleasure of meeting Lee LeFever at NorthernVoice last year, and he has since taken his endeavors with online communities to new levels along with his wife, Sachi. They’ve been producing a series of videos to help explain technologies of today’s internet for those who like simple explanations in plain english, such as wikis, social networking, and social bookmarking.

In the video below, CommonCraft looks to help explain what blogs are in plain english, helping those who have little to no knowledge about the medium. It’s a good watch for those who have a simple, basic idea about what blogs are, and the topic is a good one to follow my recent post about blogging as a medium in general.

“Gone Faded” from Soft is out now

RadioZoom has played music from Soft a few times, and I keep thinking about how I should toss them into regular rotation on my personal playlists every time I hear them. What can I say? I get lazy with adding new music some times.

“Gone Faded” dropped on October 23rd, and I was able to get some of the new music via their mailing list. I’ll be cranking that into an RZ episode soon (I promise), but check out this promo vid they posted on YouTube. If you want another preview of some Soft goodness, go to this link because that’s the track that will be finding its way onto RadioZoom soon, Rebecca approved.

Troubled Hubble – 14,000 things to be happy about

Rebecca has been singing parts of this song all day, so I figured that I would post it because it’s just that good of a song.

We’re island bound tomorrow morning. If that isn’t enough to be happy about, then the fact that we’ll be flying to Iowa in a week kinda is. Will be the first time in just over two years that I’ll set foot in my home state. I wonder if it will smell the same…

And if you are curious to find out more about Troubled Hubble[wiki], please do so. You won’t be disappointed.

Ben Folds – landed

Every so often, I head down the YouTube maze of fun and discover things that I never knew existed. This is actually one of two videos for this same song. The other one is cool, but I like this version better.

I’ve been a Ben Folds fan for a long time. The first album from Ben Folds Five is still around in my rotation, but all of them are good in their own right, at least to me. Ben Folds solo stuff is just as good, but I do miss the days of Robert Sledge[wiki] and the fuzz bass. Oh how I love me some fuzz bass.