Making Beautiful (Improv) Music

Everyone knows I love me some Andrew Bird. Fewer people know I love classical music. Now, I'm not schooled in it like my Mama, but this is a gem of a video. Apparently, Bird was slated to interview Yo-Yo Ma as part of some MTV artist-with-artist thing. Ma asks him to string a piece together, so to speak. Lovely.

null |MTV Music

it really is genius

as i continue to mourn the death of my beloved mixtape, i have found a single ray of hope in the genius playlist, brought to us by the itunes crew. it has been rocking my world for the past few days i tell you. it's magical: taking into account artists, genres, song tempos, etc. from all the music in your library, it makes badass playlists of varying lengths, perfect for mix cds or road trips.

here are the beginnings of my two favorite playlists as of late:

the "elevator love letter" playlist:
elevator love letter - stars
thursday - asobi seksu
tears for affairs - camera obscura
tonight i have to leave it - shout out louds
police and the private - metric
secret meeting - the national
postcards from italy - beirut
lights out - santogold
anthems for a seventeen year-old girl - broken social scene
popular mechanics for lovers - beulah
the recluse - cursive
the chills - peter bjorn & john

the "she's my ex" playlist:
she's my ex - all
cameage - descendents
blind - face to face
the wagon - dinosaur jr.
burning too - fugazi
grey cell green - neds atomic dustbin
into you like a train - the psychedelic furs
sound system - operation ivy
letter to memphis - the pixies
a good idea - sugar
sorry again - velocity girl
slack motherfucker - superchunk

so now, i think all of you need to go make some genius playlists so i can check them out -- thanks :)

oh, and i think everyone needs to ask merritt about her halloween costume.

more stuffs

so merritt and i sat down last night with some nummy friend chicken and a few tivoed episodes of jeopardy. it's been so long since we'd watching it (or at least since i had seen it), but leave it to alex to bring it old school and give one backhanded compliment after another to the 4(?) time winner meredith (who reminded us of ellen page in a non-annoying sort of way). at one point, during the "getting to know you" segment of the show, meredith told a sweet little story about her dad -- he would work the tv antenna to pick up the signal of a station that aired jeopardy half an hour earlier, so he would see the show and known all the answers before everyone else.* "i bet he never missed a final jeopardy -- unlike his daughter" laughed mr. trebek (of course that's not a direct quote, but close enough). wtf alex.

and speaking of trivia -- anyone who tells you that that old tjikko in sweden is the oldest living tree can suck it. it's a clone-tree (and pando's and older clone-tree anyway), so methuselah is still the granddaddy of them all.

and one final note: all you wii owners out there need to get cubello and world of goo. and then never sleep again.


* note: watch out for jason roach, he watches the show at work before it airs and then knows all the answers too -- trickery i tell you!

A-Ha Gone Literal

Thanks to the d-double-u for this one:

See more funny videos at Funny or Die

It's not a spot on voice imitation, but the concept is pretty damn silly. I like silly.