brykmantra.com

Yes, I haven’t posted in a while - I’ve been working on lyrics for my music, taking piano lessons, giving computer lessons in return for piano lessions, working part-time, trimming tree branches away from the house, helping my wife cope with her evil step-siblings who are bullying her mom, DJing on Second Life, DJing on Blip.fm, posting things on Twitter and Facebook, and last Friday I cooked a huge pot of my signature beef vegetable soup, as is traditional on the first cold weekend that I have time.

Eh, who am I kidding — I could have posted but I was just dragging butt.

And besides: Look over to the left of the page: my Twitter & Blip.fm posts show up in the sidebar, as well as on Facebook, so it’s just as good as blogging, except you don’t get to listen to me blather on at length about things of no importance.

Like for instance.

Come to think of it, that makes it BETTER than blogging.

ANYWAY:

I have emerged from semi-exile to wish Happy Birthday to two of my readers (which means, to about half of the reading audience that I have left): Former co-worker Todn8r, and longtime blogging friend in Norway, RennyBA

Hope you two make the best of your respective days!

Celebrity deaths seem to cluster together; and today, it was Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson. We’ve know for months that Farrah’s health was bad, but Michael Jackson’s heart attack was stunningly sudden.

I disagree with the title he gave himself, The King of Pop (although that act was the perfect embodiment of his almost total self-centeredness), but there’s no denying that his cultural impact was huge.

I was going to embed one of his videos here, but none of his videos on YouTube allow embedding (again, a reminder of how everything was always about HIM), and apparently his lawyers have managed to take down all “unofficial” postings of his videos.

This could be an indication that his biggest legacy is a portrait of a once-great artist who became totally wrapped up in himself until the very end.

Farrah, on the other hand, has always been known for her generosity, strength of character and willingness to work with others.

Here’s the news report of her passing, and a quick review of her life:

The Blues isn’t my favorite musical genre, but I have a new favorite workout song: The Blues Brothers’ Sweet Home Chicago! Check it out, especially the killer trombone solo that starts at 3:57:

That solo is true vindication for everyone who was a trombone geek in high school.

Like, um, me.

A couple of music blogs I just discovered on Twitter: Blalock’s Indie Rock Playlist, and Whisper All the Notes in My Ears.

Over the past year, DJing in Second Life, I’ve been exposed to a lot of Indie & Alternative music, and I’m liking a lot of it (especially the girl bands) every bit as much as my native classic rock. And blogs like these are a great place to dive into the subject, especially Blalock’s, since he has huge lists of recommended music.

So check ‘em out.

I’m going to try something this week. It’s hard to explain, but it’s about how there can be lots of material on one tiny little pinpoint subject.

This week: Videos of people playing the Ventures’ 60s surf hit, “Walk Don’t Run”.

The power of Web 2.0: Anyone can have a global audience!

It’s great to see that the young folks are helping to preserve the classics:

Jazzy!

An eight-year-old Japanese girl!

Acoustic trio!

From 80s German TV!

The way it was meant to be played: In a leisure suit at a wedding party!

Another youngster showing appreciation for the classics:

And finally, the real thing: The Ventures!

Posting 2 days in a row! Actually, I’m still working on music, so here’s a video, via Attack of the Show, suggesting that drugs were an important motif for the first Star Trek series.

Bonus points: It’s set to “White Rabbit”:

I especially like the very last shot, of Dr. McCoy; very effective …

Anyway, enjoy, I’ve got to get back to my sequencer …

Too busy tonight making music for the RPM Challenge (and composing a follow-up email to the fine folks I interviewed with on Friday), so here’s a couple of quick things:

From Fark.com, film footage of Nixon goofing around in the moments before the resignation speech:

I’ve seen it before, but it’s always fun to see again.

Next, that I also read on Fark, Roy Scheider, Actor in ‘Jaws,’ Dies at 75.

“You’re gonna need a bigger boat. “

And finally, speaking of the recently departed and Republican Presidential scandals of the 70s, I just found out this morning that Earl Butz died this past week.

Butz (ha! Butts!) was Ford’s Agriculture Secretary, forced to step down during the Bicentennial year due to telling a dirty racial joke to a Rolling Stone reporter (!) and Pat Boone (!) during a plane flight.

Not the smartest move.

Anyway, that oughta hold ya, I’ll try to post more on Monday …

This is for The Spook, his favorite song (slightly different version):

I don’t care if it is Chinese, the tune still takes me back to that college-age Happy Place.

Good times …

But yes, I know you like the original better, so here ya go:

Over the past couple of years I’ve neglected to visit the blogs on my old blogrolls — mainly because I couldn’t port those rolls over to my new blog, due to a billing glitch at Blogroll.com when I was setting up here — so lately I’ve been slowly catching up and re-linking to the blogs I can that haven’t shut down.

Tonight I revisited Information Nation, and found this article about the so-disturbing-it’s-almost-cool 1968 movie Skiddo, Otto Preminger’s attempt to connect with those young hippies by making a film where Vaudeville-era stars (Groucho Marx, Jackie Gleason, and the three top Batman villains of the time) are smoking pot and dropping acid.

And yes, it’s as horrifyingly stupid as it sounds — even worse than Shatner singing “Rocket Man”.

Check out the trailer for yourself:

And if you’re really brave, you can go on over to Information Nation and watch the whole movie in ten-minute segments.

Enjoy!

I had a long post going last night, but it was too late to finish it … and I just don’t feel like it tonight, so here’s something different: Somebody on Flickr had pictures of dozens of board games he had gotten at resale stores over the years, and one of the games was The Dark Tower.

I thought I had blogged about it at one point in the past five years, since I know I found a flash version of the game online, but I guess I didn’t.

The reason I tried to find it was because a couple of commenters had never heard of the game, and some others of us were trying to explain it.

It was really, really cool: There was a big plastic tower in the middle of the board with a computerized number readout (pretty Jetsons for 1982!), and illustration slides that spun around to show your loot, your inventory, and your attackers. Bonus points: Orson Welles did the TV commercials! (It was a year or so before his death.)

Anyway, I found an even sweeter flash version, so click here to play it!

And speaking of Orson Welles, here’s a bizarre comedy sketch that features The Great Director, Dean Martin, and Jimmy Stewart: