This isn't particularly new, but I saw it a few weeks ago and realized I didn't share with my WITFITS Crew. You simply must check out the very creative video of George W. Bush "singing" U2's "Sunday Bloody Sunday" stitched together from countless speeches. It's surprisingly catchy (which I suppose is because I like the original) though the shots of him blinking repeatedly during the video are sorta creepy.



If you like that, you can also check out the audio of him performing John Lennon's "Imagine" to Lou Reed's "Walk on the Wild Side". Do, do do, do do, do do do....

For more such brilliant nonsense, go straight to the source: ThePartyParty.com.

I'm not alone in this. The scribes of the Internet have already begun voicing their opinions on Apple's new "Get A Mac" ads which feature John Hodgman as a PC and Justin Long as a Mac. Amelie Gillette penned "I'm a Mac, and I'm a Jerk" over at The Hater, and Seth Stevenson talked about it in "Mac Attack - Apple's mean-spirited new ad campaign" at The Slate. I'm sure others have put in their two cents as well. I'll keep my take short, since it would just be rehashing at this point.

• John Hodgman is a featured "expert" on The Daily Show where his wry humor shines.
• Justing Long probably has the volume up really loud on his iPod when he's sitting next to you on the bus. What's worse, he's listening to Moby.
• John Hodgman comes off as friendly and gracious (affable, if you will).
• Justin Long wears a smug look that makes me want to punch him in the face.
• John Hodgman is a nerd. So am I. We're still cool, just in a nerdy way.
• Justin Long is some kinda hipster freak. He likely paid a lot to look like he's worn the same clothes for years. There's a pretty good chance he knows how to hackie-sack.
• John Hodgman is pitiable: he's trying very hard, doing the best he can.
• Justin Long, again, makes me want to punch him in the face.

I suppose those points aren't really fair comparisons, but screw you, hippie, this is my blog, take your free love, incense, and peppermint elsewhere. Basically, what I'm saying is, as a longtime PC user, this ad campaign doesn't make me want to buy a Mac. If anything, it makes me feel like Macs are for smug, self-absorbed assholes. I'd rather be associated with the John Hodgman PC than the Justin Long (Won't-Someone-Please-Punch-Me-In-The-Face) Mac.

I don't know what inspired "Here Comes Dr. Tran" but I definitely want to meet that muse. Seriously, check out the video. It's long (about 8 minutes) and not safe for work (language), but definitely worth it. At least for people like me who think that kind of bizarre parody is funny.



If you want more info, give the Dr. Tran Wikipedia entry a perusal or visit the Lone Sausage Productions official site.

A few months back there were some stories in the press about business owners in the U.K. who were looking for a way to discourage teenagers from loitering outside their shops. A solution was presented in the form of "The Mosquito", a device that works by emitting high-frequency tones under the assumption that teenagers will be able to hear and be annoyed by it, while not bothering older patrons (due to the fact that the ability to hear high frequency sounds deteriorates with age).

Recently, I've seen several news outlets commenting that teenagers are now using this sound as a ringtone for their phone so that they can receive calls while in class without the teacher realizing. I don't think I've read a version of this story yet that has cited a specific school in which this is occurring so I suspect that the whole thing is just the fanciful imaginings of a reporter who needed something to print. The news media has never been real hip to what's going on with teens, why should they start now. After all, I know teenagers aren't always that bright, but I think they are smart enough to realize that they are bound to have a teacher under the age of thirty or with excellent hearing. Besides, setting the phone to silent or vibrate accomplishes basically the same thing.

Regardless of the veracity of the story, I'm more interested in the sound itself. More specifically, I am curious how many of you can actually hear it. Here is a link to the sound as posted by the NY Times. If you can hear it, it will sound like exactly what it is: an annoying high-pitched tone, something like the Emergency Broadcast Signal. Post your results in the comments, and, if you feel brave, indicate whether or not you are younger or older than thirty.

Dear Adobe,

You and I clearly have a difference of opinion concerning the meaning of the temporal adverb "later". Princeton University defines later as: coming at a subsequent time or stage. Though I have been proven incorrect on numerous occasions (and this is apparently no exception), in context the phrase "Reboot Later" would seem to indicate that my machine will reboot at some future juncture as dictated by me, the user, when convenience or need most justifies it. Apparently, however, the true meaning of "later" in your world, dear Adobe, is a period of time somewhere between five and fifteen seconds after clicking the button labeled "Reboot Later".

I do not personally partake of that particularly immediate interpretation of the word, but I can find no fault in your interpretation, unconventional as it is. We will have to agree to disagree I suppose.

This would not have even come up had it not been for your software's insistence that it was imperative I upgrade any one of countless features, many of which I was either unaware existed or of whose purpose I was woefully ignorant. I am uncertain as to why Adobe Reader requires an "Anal Reaming" module, nor do quite understand what benefit the "Positronic Flux Matrix Engine and Waffle Maker" feature could provide, but since the nag screen appeared every time I perused a .pdf I figured they must be important. At least as important as the 3D plugin, I'm certain.

Of course, I fear I shall never experience the joy of these new features as you seem to think I must reboot my machine again in order to "install more updates" even though we've done this dance several times already. Are you toying with me, Adobe? Why must you keep from me your wonderful, wonderful reader? I simply cannot bear being away from its corpulent form. I am uncertain what to do with the time I'd usually spend waiting for it to load documents. I simply do not know how to use this surplus of system memory thrust upon me whilst not using your product. I shudder even to think of the time in the near future when this letter comes to an end and I must close my browser, knowing it will do so cleanly and without flaw, flaunting its lack of segmentation faults and zombie reader processes. It makes me ill. I feel lost, confused, and hungry for waffles.

Perhaps I'll try rebooting. Just once more. Just once more.

Love,
Kato

WITFITS would like to extend a Happy Your Day to all the fathers out there. Keep doing your thang.

I wrote a little about my own father last year, an example of the random sentimental post you sometimes get here at Casa Kato.

"I remember when, I remember, I remember when I lost my mind • There was something so pleasant about that place •• Even your emotions have an echo in so much space..."

Those words (and many others) have been floating around in my head for the past two days ever since I picked up Gnarls Barkley's St. Elsewhere. I have to say, I'm digging the album, and the first single "Crazy" which I quoted above is definitely my jam right now.

Gnarls Barkley is, interestingly enough, a collaboration between DJ/producer Danger Mouse and rapper/singer Cee-Lo. Danger Mouse, as I referenced in yesterday's post, made a name for himself by mixing an acapella version of Jay-Z's The Black Album with beats he crafted from samples of The Beatles' White Album to create The Grey Album. He also produced The Gorillaz 2005 Demon Days, an album which I also enjoyed. Cee-Lo was an original member of the Atlanta-based rap group Goodie Mobb but has been solo since leaving the group in 2002.

The album definitely has an good vibe to it. Danger Mouse's production is top notch, providing complicated and interesting rhythms on each track. Surprisingly enough (at least to me), Cee-Lo mostly sings on St. Elsewhere, rapping only once or twice on the disc. A little peek into his bio reveals that he has actually appeared numerous times in other collaborations as a featured singing vocalist (you learn something new every day, I guess). The album might best be described as neo-soul, harkening back in a way to the glory days of motown in the sound of some of the tracks. It's a relatively short album as well, with only one of the 14 tracks weighing in over 3:30 and most under three minutes (which is an observation, not a criticism). For me, it represents one of the best things about hip-hop: the freedom to try new and different things (while at the same time echoing its roots).

If you're curious I'm sure you can find some samples on iTunes or whatever the kids are using these days to sate their need to consume music. I would be remiss, however, if I didn't point you toward their performance on the MTV Movie awards (as introduced by Sacha Baron Cohen as "Borat") where Danger Mouse, Cee-Lo, and a live band appear dressed as characters from Star Wars (Cee-Lo fittingly as Darth Vader). Seeing Stormtroopers on guitar, Boba Fett at keyboard, Imperial officers on strings, and Chewbacca on drums, together playing a hip-hop track, was almost too much for me. I'm not ashamed to admit I may have experienced a nerdgasm.

I recently watched a video on YouTube about the Amen Break, a drum beat sample that, according to the Wikipedia, is "the most influential 5.20 seconds in the history of electronic music". Although that sounds like hyperbole, the statement may not be far from the truth.

The video, entitled "Can I Get An Amen?" is, in the words of the author Nate Harrison, "an audio installation that unfolds a critical perspective of perhaps the most sampled drum beat in the history of recorded music". At around 18 minutes long, "Can I Get An Amen" gives a historical overview of the Amen Break, citing numerous examples of its use (with accompanying audio samples), and proceeds to touch upon the broader issue of how important sampling was in the development of modern hip-hop and electronic music. Although it is a video, the presentation is really just an audio documentary with visuals attached that consist of little more than shots of a record player spinning. Visually, it is artistic, but not engaging. It is, however, worth listening to if the subject interests you.

The Amen is 16 beats of a drum break from a song entitled "Amen My Brother", a B-side to a 1969 single by funk/soul outfit The Winstons, performed by drummer G.C. Coleman. It sounds like this. It became popular with DJ's in the mid-1980's when it was compiled onto a breaks and beats bootleg series and took off in hip-hop music. A year later the electronic sampler was introduced which helped to facilitate the process of sampling music and incorporating it in a new composition, further popularizing the break as it made its way into numerous albums of the time.

The Amen Break is somewhat iconic in hip-hop music, which is why it is of interest to me. It appears in a dozen or so tracks from the late eighties to early nineties, most notably N.W.A's "Straight Outta Compton" (1989, Straight Outta Compton), a song and album that are generally considered the genesis of Gangsta Rap music. Amusingly by contrast, the break is also the foundation for the Powerpuff Girls theme song.

Although not mentioned in "Can I Get An Amen", an equally iconic sample in hip-hop is the Funky Drummer, a drum break from James Brown's "Funky Drummer" (1969) performed by Clyde Stubblefield. It sounds a little something like this. Probably more prolific in the rap world than the Amen Break, the Funky Drummer appears in such famous hip-hop tracks as Dr. Dre's "Let Me Ride", Kris Kross's "Jump", L.L. Cool J's "Mama Said Knock You Out", Run DMC's "Run's House", N.W.A's "Fuck tha Police", and both "Bring the Noise" and "Fight the Power" by Public Enemy. It's even seen popularity outside of hip hop, in songs by Prince ("Gett Off"), Depeche Mode ("My Joy"), Enigma ("Carly's Song"), Fine Young Cannibals ("I'm not the man I used to be"), KMFDM ("Superhero"), Sublime( "Scarlet Begonias" ) and others. Hell, even Strong Bad used it in "Everybody to the Limit".

So, what's the point? Well, other than being an interesting music history topic, the story of the Amen Break reveals a time in history right before the explosion of music and media-related lawsuits and legislation. Certainly artists deserve to retain the rights to works they have created, but there are some (many) who believe that to prevent anyone from taking existing works and using them to create a new a different work is stifling a creative freedom that artists deserve to have. Sampling was very important in the early days of hip-hop and electronic music but the creative restrictions on artists (and average joes like you and me) that exist today create a hostile environment in which that type of innovation in music (and the arts in general) is stifled and suppressed. If, for instance, "Straight Outta Compton" had never been made (due to fear of lawsuit), and N.W.A never made it big (according to the Wikipedia, Straight Outta Compton reached Double Platinum status with no airplay support), Gangsta Rap may have taken years to develop. The world would have never heard of Eazy-E, Ice Cube, or Dr. Dre (all members). In turn, the world may never have heard of Bone thugs-n-harmony, Snoop Dogg, or Eminem, all of whom were discovered/signed by N.W.A alums. Throw 50 Cent in there (signed by Dr. Dre and Eminem), and you're looking at what must be trillions of dollars in combined revenue thrown away, as well as the elimination of of what many consider three of the top 20 rappers of all time (Eminem, Ice Cube, and Snoop Dogg).

I'll leave you with this thought. In 2004, a talented young producer and DJ named Brian Burton (aka Danger Mouse) mixed an acapella version of Jay-Z's The Black Album with beats he crafted from samples of The Beatles' White Album to create The Grey Album. He originally made it for himself and some friends but it made its rounds on the Internet and drew praise from the general audience and critics alike (it is, in fact, a really impressive piece of work). EMI, who holds the rights to the Beatles' record, showed their litigious mindset and outdated thinking by quickly serving him with a cease and desist. What was Jay-Z's response? He loved it.

You create a new Word document and whilst renaming it from the lovely but impractical "Microsoft Word Document.doc" you type "Something.com".

Windows loves when you double-click it, too.

This weekend I got to get my geek on at a LAN party. It was very similar to the one I told you about months ago. One of the topics of discussion that came up around the time of the party was the fact that non-gamers just don't understand the idea of a LAN party. They wrinkle their faces and poo-poo it as if it were some colossal waste of time and somehow beneath them, or they just tilt their head and ask "lan what?" They will never understand, just like I'll never understand Tupperware parties. Passion Parties, now that I get, but I digress.

There are many reasons I enjoy the occasional LAN. It's a chance to have fun both cooperating and competing with friends, as well as hang out and shoot the shit over pizza and pop. This time I realized a new reason I enjoy this kind of gathering. A LAN party is the only time and place where, when discussing with others a woman who we generally find unattractive, I can get away with describing her as "Having rolled a 6 for her Charisma score" and be greeted with laughter instead of uncomfortable silence.

It's good to be a geek.

On only a tangentially-related note, I think Peter and Lois Griffin know what I mean. See here.

Blogger has been terribly recalcitrant the past few days. So, instead of spending an hour on a post only to see it lost or horribly garbled by the server, let's instead watch a highly amusing clip from The Daily Show a year ago in which Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert discuss the role of bloggers as news reporters. If nothing else it's worth it to see Jon Stewart coming up with the international sign language gesture for "the reach-around".