Just give a kidney

After being constantly bombarded with adverts whilst watching Frasier on Comedy Central, I finally gave in and watched 30 Rock. And it was great. The first episode I watched, I was impressed to see Alan Alda as a guest star.

The next episode featured Alan Alda again, AND: Elvis Costello, Mary J. Blige, Sheryl Crow, Clay Aiken, Adam Levine, Adrock and Mike D of The Beastie Boys, Michael McDonald, Rhett Miller, Wyclef Jean, Steve Earle, Moby, Cyndi Lauper, Sara Bareilles, Robert Randolph, Rachel Yamagata, Talib Kweli, and Norah Jones.

Holy crap.

I am now officially hooked.

The surprising adventures of…

Ok, I’ve backed myself into a corner – today’s song has no lyrics to use as a title. But the above words are closely associated with it these days, because this is the theme music of Sir Digby Chicken Caesar!

Charles Williams and his orchestra – Devil’s Gallop

Originally composed for the BBC Radio serial Dick Barton, this brilliant tune has since been used all over the place including Monty Python, kids TV show ZZZap!, and of course That Mitchell and Webb Look.

And as if it wasn’t awesome enough already, here it is being played by the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain.

Not good enough for you? Well here’s one of the greatest pieces of video game music ever, “Monty on the Run”, composed by the godlike Rob Hubbard. Listen, and you’ll hear that Devil’s Gallop was a huge inspiration. And marvel at the fact that this tune was all done to be played on the ancient Commodore 64.
Rob Hubbard – Monty on the Run Theme

Regularly cited as the best computer game music ever, this has rightfully been covered many times. This version is great, just look at his fingers flying about that keyboard!

A day-glo pterodactyl

My Mandelbrot flash, now with (one-way) zooming. Click on a region to zoom in.

mandelbrot 2.swf

And while checking the lyrics to Mandelbrot Set for the title of this post, I found there is a Jonathan Coulton wiki! Sweet! Their article also confirmed my suspicion that the algorithm described in the song isn’t actually correct, it instead describes the production of a Julia set. Those are great though, and will probably be my next fractal project.

A heart-shaped box of springs and wire

I’ve used Flash a fair bit before, but never made the jump from ActionScript 2 to AS3. It’s quite a big change, and since I’m so used to programming in the very forgiving Python, it seems really fussy. But my god it’s fast! Anyway I’ve always wanted to make a Mandelbrot generator, even back when I was programming in BASIC and really didn’t have the skill. So here we go:

mandelbrot.swf (Ignore the pixelation, it’s just being displayed at the wrong size.)

I’m really quite pleased with this as I had to learn quite a few new techniques. Obviously it’s rather static, I still need to add moving/zooming but that shouldn’t be too hard now. The colouring could use some variation too.

Also, using song lyrics for post titles seems to have unintentionally become a theme, so I’m going to run with it. :)

But don’t let me break you

Mike Gravel is an interesting guy. A former US Senator, he entered the 2008 Presidential campaign, first attempting to secure the Democratic nomination and later switching to the Libertarian party. From what I’ve read and seen he seems really smart with a great platform, but he never stood a chance. Partly because his proposals were too radical, but also because his campaign just didn’t have the funding that’s so vital in American politics. Playing on this he launched it with a charming poster made by his granddaughter (“Vote for Grandpa Mike”). He also made a few popular YouTube videos, one of which was this version of The Beatles’ “Helter Skelter”

The guy behind the music and video is rx2008, who was also responsible for the brilliant cutups of other politicians singing along to popular songs, including Bush doing Sunday Bloody Sunday. Plus he’s written some great songs of his own: did somebody out sugar in my tea? is one of my favourite tunes ever.

not enough to show I care

And now, an unordered list of tidbits from the past week or so.

  • Went to see 1984 at the Royal Exchange Theatre, which was truly excellent. A great adaptation with stunning performances, in a remarkable space. Have resolved to visit the theatre more often.
  • Gorillaz’ (Gorillaz’s? Gorillazes?) new album is very weird, as would be expected. Not sure I like it as much as the first two, but perhaps it will grow on me
  • Popped into Manchester MoSI (Museum of Science and Industry), seems to be very much under construction at the moment. All the cool space stuff I remember from my childhood has vanished, replaced by surprisingly amateurish promotional materials for the Chinese space programme. :-( Exhibit displacement has also resulted in a lone ZX Spectrum with “Horace Goes Skiing” appearing in the Power Hall, amidst the hulking steam engines. Very surreal.
  • The intro/outro of “Eight Days a Week” is utterly brutal in Beatles Rock Band.
  • WittyLama has some amazing news, he is now “volunteer Wikipedian in Residence” for the British Museum! Read all about it on his blog
  • This is a lovely variation on Breakout in Flash. Takes a little while to pick up, but is spectacular once it does.

If it’s the last thing we ever do

Space were a wonderfully eccentric band, according to Wikipedia they were once described as “Black Grape gone flamenco and sung by a man who can’t decide between cartoon Mexican, Ray Davies and Cypress Hill”. Despite this they were fairly successful, having a few big hits in the 90s, but sadly they seem to be largely forgotten these days. This cover definitely deserves to be remembered.
Space – We Gotta Get Out Of This Place

I just found @mr_hopkinson on Twitter, which reminded me of his excellent singing computer. Here it is, performing “Fool’s Gold”, by The Stone Roses.
Mr Hopkinson’s Computer – Fool’s Gold
There’s more at http://www.computersings.com/

Now all you sucker DJs who think you’re fly

A couple of great covers by modern rock groups today. First “Word Up!”, one of the funkiest songs around. The original came out in 1986, but still sounds incredibly fresh today. Korn gave it their own touch on their Greatest Hits: Volume 1.
Korn – Word Up!

Next is Placebo’s great cover of “Daddy Cool” by Boney M. This is from the special edition of Sleeping With Ghosts, which came with a whole bonus disc of Placebo cover versions.
Placebo – Daddy Cool