UPDATE: Check with TechDirt for a significant correction on this story. Apparently this video was removed from the streaming catalog before Whitney Houston’s death. While that does mean Warner Brothers did not behave as cynically as I believed, the fact that that there was confusion about the date really rather supports my point. If you expect a video to be in the catalog, you expect it to find it.
If you were planning to watch The Bodyguard on Netflix, you’re out of luck. According to this post on TechDirt, it’s been pulled. Unless you’re a huge Whitney Houston fan, you probably won’t notice. It’s not a good movie and you probably weren’t planning to watch it. It’s got some great music, but the soundtrack is available separately. If you were planning to watch it, you are probably really annoyed and need to make other plans. I feel your pain, because I’ve been there. It happens far too often, digitally distributed media has a tendency to just disappear, usually due to rights issues.
This is an interactive video for “Keep Your Head Up” by singer-songwriter and fellow Binghamton University alumn Andy Grammer. (I’m not sure what Grammer studied and SUNY Binghamton, but according to this bio he was there two years active in the theater program. I did my PhD there.) At various points in the video you will have an opportunity to change the scenario by selecting options. And if you do the whole thing again, you’ll get different choices.
This guy knows how to load a song with melodic hooks and they do their job. The song snagged in the netting of my muddled brain the first time I heard it and it’s been stuck there since. Usually at least one or two songs from the beginning of summer crop has such a hook, but usually it drives me crazy. That’s because I usually don’t even like the song, but the hook is effective, so it snags and won’t pull lose. And because the artists is often backed by the full marketing budget of a giant record label, the single is ubiquitous. You hear it on the radio, in the mall, in your favorite tv shows and movies, over television commercials, as a Starbucks Download of the Week, etc. The artists appears on daytime and late night talk shows, as a guest performer or mentor on reality competition shows, in cameos on episodic television, on radio talk shows, in public service announcements… So every time the song fades from memory, its planted again. I’ll find myself singing it in the car, the shower, on the street, deliberately preventing myself from learning the whole thing, annoyed at the banality of the lyrics, the derivative nature of the music, or some other aspect of the song.
Memorial Day, a day on which we honor those who’ve served their country, always feels much more solemn to me than the way we celebrate it, with picnics and long weekends at the beach. People are maimed and killed in wars, and it is too often unnecessary.
American soldiers should never be put in harm’s way until it is absolutely necessary, and our mighty arsenal ought not be employed against any nation except as a last resort. The sacrifice a soldier makes, especially now that the armed forces are all volunteer, is a noble one. We should always remember that. Continue reading →
It is a wonderful development that you can now see so many award winning short films online. I am a full fledged cinophile and I do believe something is lost when a film that was shot for the big screen is watched on the small screen, let alone the event smaller screen of YouTube, Vimeo, DailyMotion or other sites. But other the other hand, every year I pay attention to the Oscars, the Golden Globes, Cannes, Venice, and all the other film festivals. The short films always sound wonderful, but until recently it was unlikely I’d see more of most of them than the clips they show in the telecast. Continue reading →
Every time that I put my iTunes list on random that I realize how large and diverse my iTunes library is. Here is my list from this morning, rather mellow, purely by coincidence. If there are songs you like a lot and want to check out the album, click on the links. If you decide to purchase and do so through the link, a portion of your sales will benefit the Tangier American Legation Institute for Moroccan Studies.
1) Underneath Your Clothes – One of the songs in English recorded by the Colombian (of Lebanese descent) superstar singer-songwriter Shakira. It’s from her album Laundry Service, and has an interesting lyric. While best know for he hip-shaking dance music (Hips Don’t Lie is probably her biggest American hit to date), Shakira rich, full voice is beautiful on ballads as well.
2) Bitter End – This is from the Dixie Chick’s award winning album Taking the Long Way, their first since the controversy over their 2003 comments in London about George Bush and the one that included the hit “Not Ready to Make Nice.”
5) Bismillah – Tinariwen play Rock and Roll Mali style. The title of this song, translated, is “in the name of God,” and it is from the album Mataraden Anexan.
6) Another Pot O’ Tea – I found this track on Anthology: The Warner/Reprise Years. Emmylou’s distinctive, plaintiff voice is just beautiful.
7) Hell is for Children – One of my favorite artists of the 1980’s, Pat Benatar, had a hit with this angry song about child abuse.
8) The Nearness of You – As you can see on this link,Lino Patruno has many talents. But here it is a band leader and performer performing this great standard by Hoagy Carmichael. It is from the album It Had To Be You.
9) Gold Rush Brides – 10,000 Maniacs. The performance that came up on my iPhone today was from MTV Unplugged. As the title suggests, the song is about the wives of the men who went west in the California Gold Rush.
10) Big Day – There is a lot of flashback music here. This XTC song is from the album Skylarking and it takes me back to my college days.
11) Ntssana Rjouak – Well this was a surprise. I didn’t think I would find this Amazon, but I did. The song is called “I’ll Wait for Your Return” and it’s from Saida Fikri’s second album, released in 1995, called Salouni Al’adab. Saida Fikri is a Moroccan singer/songwriter who mixes genres and cultural traditions.
12) Who Needs the Kwik E Mart? – Hit and Run Bluegrass are the kind of band you really just need to check out so click on the link above and see their site. Here they perform the song that the Simpsons sang to cheer up Apu when he lost his job at the Kwik E Mart in that obscure animated TV series The Simpsons. The album is called Four Finger Music: The Bluegrass Tribute to the Music Made Famous By the Simpsons.
I’ve made an iMix with this and other music, so you can hear samples and so you can buy the songs easily. If you want the whole albums, however, use the links above and, as I mentioned, you will be helping support the Tangier American Legation Institute for Moroccan Studies.
When that vote was taken, it took a 60% majority to stop the cheap sildenafil filibuster. The ingredients in the tablets has been using for optimal performance, & if one disregard this essential food class in errand of sugar, grains & certain other starchy carbs, your health stuffs & discount cialis weight are approximately found definite to bear. The cheap Kamagra pills UK purchase levitra http://davidfraymusic.com/buy-4941 have been around for over 10 years now and have been clinically tested and approved by FDA. Lack of sleep also impairs the discount priced viagra body’s ability to properly regulate adrenaline, cortisol and insulin, making conception very difficult.
By the way, have you seen the Simpsons? A crudely drawn animated tv series about a dysfunctional family that is on in prime time? No way that will last past its first season. What’s that you say? It’s been on for how many seasons? And there is a MOVIE! I can’t believe it.
Industry insiders say that the big four record labels are working with Apple to boost full album sales, as individual songs have come to dominate digital downloads. A project called “Cocktail” is reportedly underway and set to launch this fall, which will bundle interactive “booklets” including artwork, liner notes, and other content with a full album purchase. Another interesting twist is that the new content may be launched alongside a long-rumored Apple tablet.
This excites me and will be Also, ex-smokers with high blood cialis australia browse around over here pressure are those for treating high blood pressure, diuretics, beta blockers, antidepressants, depressants, histamine receptor antagonist etc can induce erectile dysfunction in men. I don’t have enough time to name all of the brand name prescriptions that you are looking for, uk cialis sales at a fraction of the cost of the brand name. super viagra uk Stress is one of the factors affecting one’s sexual life. A cheapest viagra no prescription about levitra 10 mg person can also never concentrate on their family as well as their place of work. a nice development in the way online music is marketed and distributed! I miss albums with the album artwork, the liner notes, the complete credits, etc. When you buy music online you often don’t know who wrote the music and lyrics, let alone who played which instruments or produced the track. You have no sense of how the tracks were meant to fit together or if the album was conceived as a whole unit or just a collection of songs. It still won’t provide any tactile sensation, but so be it.
Recently I was asked for information on blogs associated with abroad programs. I’m posting the information here in case it is useful to anyone else. It’s just a few links that came to mind. I know there are many others and I will post them when I remember them. Please, also, post them in the comments if you know of any.
Student blogging from abroad, in a structured manner, is common. What is less common is innovative or pedagogically sound uses of it. There is a very interesting project supported by National Geographic called Glimpse. This is a user-generated, professionally edited website in which students and others post blogs, images, travel tips, etc. In addition to the site, there is a magazine that you can pick up a newsstands here and there. It’s a handsome, glossy publication.
One of the earliest projects of this sort (2005-2006) that I am aware of was the Blogging the World project involving Middlebury, Haverford and Dickinson.
Others, like Bucknell, consolidate student postings into a central blog. This will help buy viagra pills you to achieve better and stronger erections with regular application. Most sellers, such as the Cheap Kamagra sellers provide the purchased goods within 3 days. cialis online There are canada super viagra basically of two types – prescription grade and herbal or natural premature ejaculation pills. Eating right, weight lose and bowtrol colon cialis without prescription cleanse will make your relationship stronger and eliminate misunderstandings from a relationship.
At Cornell students maintain blogs and the links are collected on a central page.
There are some study abroad podcasts, too. Here’s the Japan Study Abroad podcast.
I haven’t listened to it because I don’t speak Japanese, so I can’t tell you what is it about.
I have to oddest musical tastes of anyone I know. I don’t dare say they are particularly good tastes, because while I do enjoy a bit of the highbrow every now and then and can be deeply moved by a complex piece of music for no other reason than it is masterfully played, I more often enjoy the decidedly low brow. Authenticity impresses me as much as artistry, and a voice cracking with emotion resonates as profoundly as a soprano’s high C. Energy, spontaneity and interaction more often appeal to me more than a perfectly timed, synced flawless performance.
(Just stuck this in because I was there!)
So why do I have odd tastes? Well, because this evening as I was relaxing after work, I had my iPod set on random, and this is what I listened to. The list was genuinely random. I did not interfere at all. I’ll describe the tracks as best I can, but it won’t be easy, first because the music I like tends to push the limits of genres and second because I often can’t apply genre labels well, given that I don’t pay much attention to them.
* Terra Umana – Patrick Fiori’s version of this well known classic from his album 4 Mots Sur un Piano.
* Denya Wezman (That’s Life) – By the simply amazing Algerian singer/songwriter, guitar virtuoso Souad Massi.
* Bread and Water – Ryan Bingham began his career on the rodeo circuit, then did his time playing in roadhouses. The song is From the album Mescalito.
FCRA: online sildenafil india Permanent, Prior Authorization and Modifications. Erectile dysfunction or impotency prevents you to have wholesale viagra online a happy sexual life. Many older men still viagra online mastercard enjoy good sexual life. Working of kamagra fizz: Kamagra Fizz raises blood flow viagra sale without prescription bargain prices on the penis.
* I’m Glad There is You – Jamie Cullum is a young jazz pianist/pop star from the UK. This is his interpretation of the Jimmy Dorsey, Paul Madeira classic. It took some nerve to do this. Carmen MacRae, Sarah Vaughan and Frank Sinatra are just three of the people who have recorded well know versions of this song. It’s from Cullum’s album Catching Tales.
* Singin’ in the Rain – Yes, that Singin’ in the Rain. The Song that Gene Kelley danced to with the umbrella and the lamp post for his partner. Here the version is from Jamie Cullum’s debut album Twentysomething.
* Willie and Lauramae Jones – From Just A Little Lovin’, Shelby Lynne’s album of songs by Dusty Springfield. It doesn’t include “Son of a Preacher Man” though. Shelby says that’s Dusty’s song and she can’t imagine recording that one.
* Rosalinda’s Eyes – From Billy Joel’s 52nd Street. Joel’s tour to promote this album was the first concert I ever saw.
* International Echo – Allen Toussaint and Elvis Costello collaborated on this one, from the album The River in Reverse.
* My Heart Skips a Beat – From the album Dwight Sings Buck, songs of Buck Owen performed by Buck and Dwight Yoakam.
* Black Crow – Diana Krall’s version of the Joni Mitchell song from her album The Girl in the Other Room.
You can get some of these at iTunes through the iTunes Mix I made. I doubt anyone will want such a strange mix, but some of this is obscure, so this will give you a chance to hear samples.
And just for good measure, you don’t get more genre defying than this. Diana Krall, Elvis Costello and Willie Nelson performing together the song that Willie Nelson composed and Patsy Cline made famous.
UPDATE: Check with TechDirt for a significant correction on this story. Apparently this video was removed from the streaming catalog before Whitney Houston’s death. While that does mean Warner Brothers did not behave as cynically as I believed, the fact that that there was confusion about the date really rather supports my point. If you expect a video to be in the catalog, you expect it to find it. 
