Voogling

So my writing about All Along The Watchtower is taking me down Bonoville. Prepare yourselves for some fangirling.

I don't remember when I fell in love with U2. All I know is that by the time I hooked up with the father of my children, I already was a rabid fan of the quartet.

The 1980s were not just about corporate greed and yuppies. The height of the war of independence was happening in Ireland with bombings everywhere by the IRA. In Spain ETA was not to be left behind. Central America was covered in the blood of the Iran-Contra war. And in Puerto Rico we had the FALN.

I came to take as "normal" a bombing or two of federal buildings or army equipment at least every 3 months. And there was the molotov coktailing of the paramilitary forces of the island whenever there was a political demonstration. By the time I had made the decision to come to the United States, I ironically made it because I felt that being in the belly of the beast would spare me of the violence and craziness. I really wanted to be as far away of all things political as possible.

Of course, if you are a fan of U2, that's absolutely impossible.

My head is going to explode.

I am actually older than this song.

Urgh.

Goes to tell you how much I don't know about American culture : Even though Jimmy Hendrix immortalized this song, it was actually written by Bob Dylan.

And I just reckoned U2 also did a wonderful cover of it for "Rattle and Hum". OMFG! Do you remember when The Edge had hair!

GACK! I'm officially old.

So, I'm sitting here checking my email and I am reading one sent by a spokesperson for a couple of First People's tribes and all that pops into my head is "whatever happened to A Tribe Called Quest.

There's a Wikipedia page up for them. That you get their page first instead of MTV, show's how cluless they've been about capitalizing on their importance as an archive of Hip Hop history.

I guess MTV has left it up to VH1 to the heavy historical lifting.

Here's Google's compilation of their discography.

And you can find their MySpace page here.

Why can't hip hop be more like them?

Maroon5's "Makes me wonder" is indeed a catchy tune, but, BY BLOG! I have just now ticked the tenth time I've listened to this song today.

In my home, MTV has no relevance whatsoever with my kids. YouTube is where the music video action. At first I thought there was some bizarre reason for their obsession with this song.

Then I observed what they were doing and I got it: One of their favorite things about YouTube are the music videos and mashups made with games and movie previews. The mashup "It's raining 300 men" is incredibly popular with my kids and their friends.

So it's no wonder they are playing Makes Me Wonder, while playing SoulCalibur 2. The song and the tempo are perfect for the kind of combat movement the characters indulge in. Also, the story line that you can create with that game goes perfect with the song. SoulCalibur involves characters who seem to have complex relationships with each other, in a way that involes 'breaking each other's hearts' by entering in combat.

Check out the lyrics to the song and you'll see what I mean:

... and you may end up screwed up just enough to become a wonderfully funny stand up comedian.

Oh.

My.

God.

Ok, so I know there's girls out ther that are totally into action movies; but ... maaaaaan. My boys and I just had to wipe the drool off our mouths after we saw this trailer. Actually, they got pretty spooked but I was like totally,

OOOOH!

AWESOME!

THAT ROCKS!

I can't wait for this movie to come out. Seriously. And I really don't care much if it has a story or not.

Who gives a damn about plot when the story is in how they created the "live action" looking robots?

And the sounds effects!

Duuuuuuuude! Can you dig the sound effects?!?!?!

Ohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygod
ohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygod.

I really,

honestly,

deeply,

truly

can't wait for this movie to come out.

I AM SO THERE ON OPENING NIGHT!

First thing that comes to my mind after watching this anti-drug "edumential" is how fashionable of the drug victim to wear pink capris. I think it is the height of fabulousness to go out in pink capris to buy hot dogs at the taco cart from a Pakistani guy.

Best of all, the screaming hot dog troll is just brilliant.

"Do you know this hot dog is talking to me?"

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGUH!

Forget Hillary Clinton.

Forget Obamamania.

Al Gore talking about the weather is where it's at.

While voogling for clips of "An Inconvenient Truth", I came across this clip of Al Gore at last year's TED Conference.

TED is the "Technology, Entertainment and Design" clusterf0ck of CEOs, VPs and anybody who is anybody in the higher echelons of the ever shrinking (or growing, depending on how much of an optimist you are) creative class.

Al Gore was there last year to talk global warming and, well, hilarity ensues. I haven't laughed this hard in a while. If you have not been impressed by the man's renaissance, I promise you, you will have a completely different perception of Al Gore after you see this clip.

Now I understand why Mary Beth of Wampum couldn't wait to start her campaign to Draft Al Gore.

It's Friday, the perfect day for a time waster. So what did I find on YouTube while looking for silly cartoons? An awfully funny and definitely politically incorrect parody of Nickelodeon's SpongeBob Sqarepants.

Check out the totally not safe for work (NSFW) clip after the jump.

Take all of today's voogling as an example of why DRM or digital restrictions rights management software or licenses are bad for our culture. Without Fair Use, we wouldn't have the little miracle I am about to present : Dreamgirl's original cast's performance of "And I am telling you" at the 1982 TONY Awards.

Matt Lauer had asked Jennifer Hudson if she had seen the performance. She said that the only reference to this song came from a Will Smith lip-syncing bit in one of his movies. She had only recently seen the 1982 clip AFTER years of singing the song and after filming her version of Effie.

Well, good thing for her because she made the role her own. But awesomeness for us that now we will have both versions readily available on the net.