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Before she was Gaga: The unseen photos
A never-before-seen series of photos from a photoshoot of Lady Gaga when she was simply Stefani Germanotta.
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Designing The Well-Tempered Web
I get a little bit hard for any article that compares web design to music theory, and this one from Rob Flaherty certainly fits the bill.
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Weightshift: On rdio
Naz wrote a review of rdio so I wouldn’t have to. I agree with almost every single word (and I’m also pretty much a virgin to music streaming services).
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Syncopation in the Super Mario Bros. theme
Nothing like a good music theory blog post to get me going.
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PomplamooseMusic’s Channel
Discovered these guy today. Too awesome.
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34 Web Rockstars, 1 Question: What do you listen to?
Gavin asked me to participate, and I was happy to do so. I’ve never heard any other web designer (besides myself) say they don’t listen to music while working, and I’ve certainly never heard anyone else cite their musical background as a reason why they’re unable to listen passively, but that’s exactly what Zeldman said. Interesting that he and I share an answer here, when I think our personalities are drastically different (that’s not an insult at all — I love the guy, we’re just very different, is all!).
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Help! My iPod thinks I’m emo
A write up of what I heard was a great talk about music recommendation engines at SXSW. Recommendation engines and collaborative filtering is of great interest to me, lately, since I’m working with it on 97 Bottles. In fact, I’ll be giving a talk on the topic at Webvsions in May.
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Jazz trumpeter Freddie Hubbard dies
RIP Freddie Hubbard. Absolutely in my top three or four favorite jazz trumpeters ever, Freddie was the guy who taught me the meaning of the word “out.” I’m sitting here, in the Indianapolis airport — his hometown — as I read this sad news. Fitting.
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Excerpt: ‘Watch You Bleed: The Saga of Guns N’ Roses’
Oh man, this book by Stephen Davis sounds great. WANT. I’ve said for years that GNR is maybe my favorite rock band ever (this, coming from someone who’s not really much into rock). Check out this bit from the intro:
> An old man limped over to them. He gave them the once-over, seeming to linger over Bill’s cowboy boots. Bill was becoming uneasy now, his friend noticed, which was never a good thing, because, when agitated or upset, Bill’s behavior could get a little out there. Finally, the old man spoke, or rather squawked, in a high-pitched shriek: “DO YOU KNOW WHERE YOU ARE?” The boys, taken aback, just looked at him. “I SAID, DO YOU KNOW WHERE YOU ARE?” Bill Bailey said, “Uh, we’re just trying to get to…” “YOU’RE IN THE JUNGLE, BABY!”
Bill Bailey, of course, is W. Axl Rose’s childhood name (but interestingly, not his given name). Sounds awesome.
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Rob Weychert is Windhammer
Don’t miss Rob’s story and video of his amazing performance at the 2008 Air Guitar National Championships, in which he finished seventh overall. Rob is truly amazing on so many levels. I already loved this guy, but this just makes him that much cooler.
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Ice T vs. Soulja Boy
So basically, Ice T said Soulja Boy sucks, and Soulja Boy came back with a long-winded video that basically called Ice T out of touch with the modern game. But more importantly, Soulja Boy noted that the last time he saw Ice T, he was acting in an episode of Law and Order. Soujla Boys said, “How you gonna make a song called ‘Fuck Tha Police,’ and then 20 years later, you’re playing the police on TV?”
Which sounded like a really good point, until about 10 seconds later, when I remembered that Ice T didn’t make a song called “Fuck Tha Police” — Ice Cube did (with NWA, of course).
I guess they’re both out of touch with the other’s generation. Via Rex.
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Romany Malco: Little Boxes
In the past four days, I’ve watched two and a half seasons of Weeds, and I’m really enjoying the show. In particular, I love the theme song (Malvina Reynold’s “Little Boxes“) which, in seasons two and three, is performed by a different artist for each episode. But here, Romany Malco (who plays Conrad on the show) drops his own entertaining version. Thanks to Bret, who pointed me to this on a comment on this site.
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The New Yorker: The Gerbil’s Revenge
Sasha Frere-Jones has a great little article in The New Yorker about Auto Tune, the effect so commonly heard in today’s pop, R&B, and hip-hop (it’s the effect T-Pain owes his entire career to). I’ve been a fan of this sound for at least 15 years or so — but when I discovered it (back in the days of Livin’ On A Prayer and California Love), it was generated by a instruments, like a vocoder or talkbox (see Peter Frampton, Roger Troutman, or Stevie Wonder). Today, a strikingly-similar effect is created in post-production using Auto Tune.
I personally have no real objection to the use of Auto Tune, and there are times I quite like it. However, I do see one glaring problem for artists like T-Pain that use it so extensively: you can’t perform live. Since Auto-Tune is a post-production effect and not something that can be done in real time (as can reverb, distortion, phasing, wah-wah, and many other effects we’re familiar with), there’s really no way to incorporate it into a live show. I once saw T-Pain sing “Buy You a Drank” on a TV talk show and it was laughable. It just sounded so wrong (and it wasn’t helped by the fact that T-Pain isn’t actually much of a singer).
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CollyLogic: The best cover versions ever made?
Simon has a long list of what he considers to be the best covers in music history. Many commenters have thrown their suggestions into the mix. A lot of music to discover, here.
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Synchronization
An interesting video of synchronization of five coupled metronomes in Lancaster University. Trust me, it’s more interesting than it sounds.
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Prince covers Radiohead’s “Creep” at Coachella
For the three of you out there who still aren’t convinced that Prince is the greatest artist of our time. via Rex
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New Blue Scholars music video released
The Blue Scholars, Seattle’s best and most popular hip-hop act, just released their third single from the Bayani album, for the track “Loyalty.” Love it.
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Beck, STP, Lucinda Set For Bumbershoot Festival
Billboard is reporting that Beck, Lucina Williams, Stone Temple Pilots, and Neko Case are among the first headlines on board for this year’s Bumbershoot here in Seattle. Other confirmed acts include Jakob Dylan, Del Tha Funky Homosapien, Lee “Scratch” Perry, and John Vanderslice. This is, of course, not a full roster. Many more acts will be signed before August 30th rolls around.
Should be a good one!
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Rick Astley on Rickrolling
Funny. Seems like he’s taking it all in stride. I sincerely believe that Rickrolling is the awesomest Internet meme since like, before the Internet.
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Barack Obama-sistible!
Only Obama is Barack Obama-sistible!
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Continuous take Rihanna lip dub
Ridiculous coordination amongst these 2nd year Temasek Polytechnic (Singapore) students doing a lip dub of Rihanna’s Umbrella in one continuous take. Awesome, and funny.
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Tech N9ne in Seattle, April 3rd at Moore Theatre
My favorite rapper from back in KC, Tech N9ne, is coming to Seattle. I’ve got tickets. If you live in the SEA and enjoy mainstream-ish fast-rapping MCs with a dash of humor and another dash of vulgarity (think Eminem, Ludacris, E-40, and Twista), you might want to be there, too.
For what it’s worth, this is the guy responsible for my signature drink, the Caribou Lou, which is earning a reputation for taking out web nerds left and right at conferences and other geek events.
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Seattlest: Sasquatch Lineup Announced
For a bunch of (mostly) white music, this lineup is pretty incredible. I just might have to go…
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Beatboxing Basset Hound
Oh man. Best idea ever. I spent 15 minutes playing with this after I discovered it on Larissa’s site. Sooo good.
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Wyclef Jean at The Showbox
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Wyclef Jean at The Showbox
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Wyclef Jean at The Showbox
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Seen in a store window near the market.
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DragonForce: Through The Fire And Flames music video
That insanely hard song fro the Guitar Hero III credits (that roll after you beat the game). Its a funny song, since it’s obviously been written for the sole purpose of being ridiculously virtuosic on guitar, rather than for the purpose of being good music. And, by the way: if you think playing this song on Guitar Hero is hard, be glad you don’t have to play it on Rock Band: that drums part is even more ridiculous than the guitars parts.
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Rumor: Jay-Z launching record label with Apple
If this is true, it’s both incredibly smart for Apple and incredibly huge for the music industry. Here’s hoping.
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Eddie Vedder + John Legend? Yes, please.
Vedder and Legend will team up to work on music for a documentary miniseries adapted from Howard Zinn’s two People’s History of the United States books. “The People Speak” seems a likely candidate for HBO. Nice.
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Tower of Power at Dimitriou's Jazz Alley, Seattle
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The 10 Most Ridiculous Things About the Beyonce Experience
I actually rather like Beyonce (but not as much as I liked Destiny’s Child!), but this is still pretty damn funny. Via Rexy.
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TMBG doing Istanbul on MTV Europe, 1990
I really never get tired of this song — or this band, period.
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Snoop Dogg: “Sensual Seduction” music video
Aww yeah. Now that is what I call bringing sexy back. As if the old-school soul vibe and blaxploitation stylings on the music video weren’t enough, the Dee-oh-double-gee is rockin’ the talk box, pretty much my favorite musical sound ever since I first heard a Roger Troutman record (although, it has been a bit overused lately — I’m looking at you, T-Pain). Awesome. Love it. Thank you, S. :)
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The Top 10 Rap Songs White People Love
“Having studied White People for 27 years, my authority on the topic is absolute; this list is damn near bullet proof.” Well, I’m not going to argue with him!
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rap represented in mathematical charts and graphs
Holy shit, this is the funniest thing I’ve seen in a long, long time. Favorites: this is how we chill (Souls of Mischief!), what to do with a freak (DU!), three MCs and one DJ (Beastie Boys!), Amount of Obtained Ass (Nate Dogg!), and of course, the one about Caribou Lou, the drink I’m spreading across the country via web conferences (Tech N9NE!).
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Apple dropping price of DRM-free tracks to $.99.
You know what this means: we’re all getting $100 refunds to use at the Apple Store. Woohoo!
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Kanye, Rakim, KRS-One, Nas & DJ Premier: Classic
Damn, I am totally hooked on this song. “Peace, Love, Unity, Havin’ Fun / These are the lyrics of KRS-One!” Great.
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1487: Web Nerd Sing Along from WJS 2007
A video I took of web folks like Keith Robinson, Derek Featherstone, and James Craig, having a sing along after a crazy closing party at Webmaster Jam Session 2007 in Dallas. Taken at about 4:30am Saturday night/Sunday morning. Crazy, crazy night.
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Jeff Croft
I’m a digital product designer and developer in Seattle, WA. I currently work with nGen Works, and recently co-founded Lendle, a Kindle book sharing service.
Some of my clients include Facebook, Microsoft, Yahoo!, Copious, The New York Review of Books, The Lawrence Journal-World, and the University of Washington.
I’ve authored two books on web and interactive design and spoken at dozens of conferences around the world.
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