10 for 2010

Down

One of the best pop songs to come out in a while, imho. I groove to this in the car... every. time.



Pretty awesome cover:



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I'm Yours

I'm yours... somewhere over the rainbow.

Cookie Monster & Rammstein

lol

Sweet Disposition

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Don't Let Me Down

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Speak the Truth

Or your hands.

Somewhere

Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.

- Carl Sagan

A Purpose of Human Life

A purpose of human life, no matter who is controlling it, is to love whoever is around to be loved.

- Kurt Vonnegut

Daylight

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Most College Males Admit to Regularly Getting Stoked

Sell the Vatican

I love her.

Hallelujah

Rare talent.



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Schizophrenic Man Terrifies Kids at Party

Stars

Priming

Random Acts of Kindness

Thought Moments

Tenuousness

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Auto-Tune the News

There are a bunch of these "auto-tune the news" videos... I've watched them all, they're hilarious.

Michael Jackson Medley

Aussie Party

I love this guy.

Break the Chains

True Colours

In my opinion, one of the most moving songs ever written.



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Say It's Possible

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If You Really Pay Attention

--by Paula Underwood (Sep 21, 2009)

When I was a little bitty kiddy, about five, my Dad began a process … anytime somebody came and said something to us, my dad would say, "You remember what he said, honey girl?” I would tell my father what the person said until I got so good at it that I could repeat verbatim even long presentations of what the person had said.

And he did this all the time.

Finally, one day there was this old gentleman, Richard Thompson. I still remember his name, he lived across the street. And every time my Dad started to mow the lawn, there came Mr. Thompson. And so I would stand out there.

Dad says, “You might come and listen to this man, honey girl. He’s pretty interesting.” And so I listened to him, and then my dad would say, “What did you hear him say?” And I would tell him.

Well, eventually I was repeating all the stories he liked to share with my dad verbatim. I knew them all by heart.

And my Dad says, “You’re getting pretty good at that. But did you hear his heart?" And I thought, what? So I went around for days with my ear to people's chest trying to hear their hearts.

Finally my Dad created another learning situation for me by asking my mother to read an article from the newspaper. He says “Well, I guess if you want to understand that article, you have to read between the lines."

I thought, "Oh, read between the lines. Hear between the words."

So the next time I listened to Mr. Thompson’s stories, I tried to listen between the words. My Dad said, “I know you know his story, but did you hear his heart?” And I said, "Yes. He is very lonely and comes and shares his memories with you again and again because he’s asking you to keep him company in his memories."

It just came out of me. In other words, my heart echoed his heart.

And when you can listen at that level, then you can hear not only the people. If you really pay attention, you can hear what the Universe is saying.


--Paula Underwood, clan mother of the Turtle clan, Iroquois nation

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Glycerine

A favourite song.

Oprah's Gotta Feeling

This is just... unreal. It's my goal in life to be in a flash mob like this!

I Gotta Feeling

The coordination! Awesome.



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Faux News

Reason enough to violently hurl your television out the living room window.

To Be With You

A song I like.



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A Capella Rain

I'm a shameless fan of a capella groups and choirs. I'm posting this mainly for the awesome thunderstorm intro to the song, but the song is great too. Check it out.



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The View From Earth

Sony's Latest Release

Hey!

Imitosis

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We're On a Rock Flying Through Space

laffs

MC Hammer Flash Mob

People wearing hammer pants surprise customers in a trendy clothing store. Ahahahaha.

What's My Age Again?

How to Start a Dance Party

A lone dancer ends up starting a massive dance party. Pretty awesome.

Wedding Entrance

An unexpected wedding entrance:



And here is the "divorce" spoof:

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Use Somebody

Becoming a big fan of Kings of Leon, and this song.



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Kuroshio Sea

The end

Do you ever wonder when the end will come? It could be in 50 years, or tomorrow. Life is fragile.

Live each day like it's your last.

Be the person you want to be, not who you think you are.

Be brave. This is no dress rehearsal.

Kid Parallel Parks Like a Champ

Man Stroke Woman

Some of the funniest clips from the British tv comedy Man Stroke Woman. Humour tends to get a little naughty, just fyi.


Nurse in the Bedroom



How Women Get Away With Farting



Operating Room

One of Us

my idea of peace

The Living Library

A library where you can take out people rather than books.

A Difference of Opinion

Poker Face

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Tiny Tim

I get a kick out of this clip. Truly an original!



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Magic

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A Moment

Michael Jackson 1959 - 2009

I don't know what I really think of Michael Jackson overall. I think he was a victim more than anything, in a number of ways.

There's something haunting about this a capella clip. He was undeniably talented.

RIP.




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Expectations

Short Skirt, Long Jacket

Brings me back to summer days of yore. "A little bit I miss de rising action."



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Neo-Nazism

Came upon this article, scary stats from one study.

One in twenty boys a member of neo-Nazi group

March 18, 2009, 13:57

Roughly one in twenty 15-year-old German males is a member of a neo-Nazi group, a higher proportion than are involved in mainstream politics, according to a study released on Tuesday. Anti-semitic crimes are reportedly also on the rise, leaving many politicians worrysome about a potential resurgence of right-wing extremism...

Click here for the rest of the article.

Just Dance - Don't Stop Believing

Awesome remix of Lady Gaga's Just Dance with Journey's Don't Stop Believing.

Eclipse

Sometimes I feel like...

First Day of My Life

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Fatal Distraction

A friend of mine recently sent me a link to this article in the Washington Post. Once I started reading, I couldn't stop. It's shocking, sad, thought-provoking, and well written. It's somewhat lengthy, but a very fascinating, albeit heart-wrenching, read.

Fatal Distraction
Forgetting a child in the back seat of a hot, parked car is a horrifying, inexcusable mistake. But is it a crime?

By Gene Weingarten
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, March 8, 2009; Page W08

The defendant was an immense man, well over 300 pounds, but in the gravity of his sorrow and shame he seemed larger still. He hunched forward in the sturdy wooden armchair that barely contained him, sobbing softly into tissue after tissue, a leg bouncing nervously under the table. In the first pew of spectators sat his wife, looking stricken, absently twisting her wedding band. The room was a sepulcher. Witnesses spoke softly of events so painful that many lost their composure. When a hospital emergency room nurse described how the defendant had behaved after the police first brought him in, she wept. He was virtually catatonic, she remembered, his eyes shut tight, rocking back and forth, locked away in some unfathomable private torment...

Click here to read the rest of the article.

Drinking in L.A.

Nostalgia.



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Night Drive

Another one from Gotye. My favourite song right now.



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Just do it

Learnalilgivinanlovin

Spread the love!  Have a good day!



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Click here for a live version.

In Time

Heart's a Mess

Gotye. I'm his newest fan.



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Love Don't Let Me Go

Great song, supercool video.



Click here for lyrics.

5 Minutes

The Blindmen and the Elephant

It was six men of Hindustan
To learning much inclined,
Who went to see the Elephant
(Though all of them were blind)
That each by observation
Might satisfy the mind.

The first approached the Elephant
And happening to fall
Against his broad and sturdy side
At once began to bawl:
"Bless me, it seems the Elephant
Is very like a wall".

The second, feeling of his tusk,
Cried, "Ho! What have we here
So very round and smooth and sharp?
To me 'tis mighty clear
This wonder of an Elephant
Is very like a spear".

The third approached the animal,
And happening to take
The squirming trunk within his hands,
Then boldly up and spake:
"I see," quoth he, "the Elephant
Is very like a snake."

The Fourth reached out an eager hand,
And felt about the knee.
"What most this wondrous beast is like
Is mighty plain," quoth he;
"'Tis clear enough the Elephant
Is very like a tree!"

The Fifth, who chanced to touch the ear,
Said: "E'en the blindest man
Can tell what this resembles most;
Deny the fact who can,
This marvel of an Elephant
Is very like a fan!"

The Sixth no sooner had begun
About the beast to grope,
Than, seizing on the swinging tail
That fell within his scope,
"I see," quoth he, "the Elephant
Is very like a rope!"

And so these men of Hindustan
Disputed loud and long,
Each in his own opinion
Exceeding stiff and strong,
Though each was partly in the right
And all were in the wrong.

So oft in theologic wars,
The disputants, I ween,
Rail on in utter ignorance
Of what each other mean,
And prate about an Elephant
Not one of them has seen!

- John Godfrey Saxe

Censorship

Go Play

With or Without You

One of my favourite songs.

Third Eye Blind

I just went to a Third Eye Blind concert on Sunday. Not only are they one of my bands-to-see-before-I-die, but we managed to get there early enough to be first in line, first inside, and were front row, centre.

Unreal. So good. So awesome.

Here's one of their newer songs recently released. Their first album in over 5 years comes out this summer.



Click here for lyrics.

Bailey

November 17th, 1997 - April 18th, 2008

A year ago we said goodbye. But not really goodbye, just see you later. I never really knew sadness until that day.

I think about you all the time. I wish we could go for just one more walk.

I will see you again... until then, dreams will have to do. I miss you buddy.

I'll Kill Her

This was introduced to me a while back by my friend Melissa R.

Click here for lyrics.

Us and Them

What the what?

I'm kind of a big fan of this song.



Some people sing hymns on Sunday. I sing fuck the shit.

Click here for lyrics.

You

It's not always easy being authentic and real. It's not always easy being your true self. But when you can and are, it's more wonderful than anything else imaginable.

Respect peoples' differences. You do not have to like everything about a person in order to like a person. We are all different, but for that reason we are all the same.

We are only scared of what we do not know. We are only hateful towards things we do not understand. Always keep in mind that everyone is the way they are for a reason, and although you may not understand why, if you did, you would immediately drop all negative judgment.

Show your true colours. You are beautiful just the way you are.

Maylay Eagle Owl

So awesomely strange.

Dolphin Play

Super Powers

Sunday Humour

Bedouin Song

Matt Corby was a contestant on Australian Idol. I found this clip on YouTube and couldn't believe how effing amazing it was.



Click here for lyrics.

A New World Born

Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.

Anais Nin

Sharkwater

I recently had to do a presentation in one of my classes on an environmental issue. I chose to discuss the dramatic decline in shark populations around the world. This decline is largely due to long-lining and shark finning. Shark finning is the process of catching sharks, slicing off their fins, then throwing the sharks back into the ocean, often still alive.

To help prepare for my presentation, I watched the documentary Sharkwater. It's an award winning film about this horrific problem. I suggest you watch the entire thing, and then tell someone else about it.

Sharks are the oldest surviving group of large animals on earth. They have ruled the oceans for 400 million years. That is about 150 million years before the dinosaurs showed up. They have survived five major periods of extinction on earth. Scientists now estimate that in the last few decades, 90% of the world's sharks have disappeared.

The oceans affect everything on this planet. If something is royally fucked in the ocean, then we're royally fucked too.

I feel sorry for our grandchildren. And the sharks.

Part I


The rest of the documentary:

Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9

And here you can find more information about the documentary and facts about shark finning.

Some Perspective

Sunday Introspection

As far as I can remember, I've never liked Sundays.

On Sunday I always feel an uneasy mix of loneliness, boredom and melancholy. Combined, I'm just left wishing it were any other day. It doesn't really make sense. Sundays are a day of rest and should be enjoyed. But for some reason, to me, they always feel sombre. Perhaps it's because I miss the fun times of the weekend and am unenthusiastic for the week to come.

In addition, this morning I woke up feeling anxious after a night of stressful dreams. You know, the disturbing dreams that linger with you for most of the following day... nestling just beneath your conscious thoughts.

I came across this video a while ago and thought today would be an appropriate day to post it here.



After taking that in, I feel I should say a few things. I don't write much on my blog, so this is slightly unusual, but here you have it.

In the past year or so I've become a big believer in letting others know how you feel about them, regardless of your own fear of what they will think of you as a result, for it could mean more to them than you'll ever know. It is sometimes easier said than done... but life is short. Why not give credit where credit is due, so to speak. To all those who check out my blog, I appreciate that you do. To my friends, you are good people and I feel lucky to know all of you. I am grateful for those who I've known for many, many years, and at the same time I'm amazed that I've still been able to find many really special people with each new path I travel. If you want to know exactly what you mean to me in my life, just ask, because you deserve to know.

Life is exciting. Life is hard. Life is stunningly painful, but also painfully stunning. I'm scared, but happy. Anxious but eager. If you have good people around you, that's all you'll ever need. Cheers.

Beautiful Tornado

These Arms of Mine

Great cover of a beautiful song.

Click here for lyrics.

Walking on a Dream

Click here for lyrics.

A Class Divided

"This is one of the most requested programs in FRONTLINE's history. It is about an Iowa schoolteacher who, the day after Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered in 1968, gave her third-grade students a first-hand experience in the meaning of discrimination. This is the story of what she taught the children, and the impact that lesson had on their lives."

I just watched this PBS program and thought it was thought-provoking and poignant... sad and fascinating. Worth watching all of it. How adults react to the experiment in Part IV is something to see.

Click here to see the entire transcript of the program. Part I starts with Charlie Cobb's first comment.

Part I


Part II


Part III


Part IV


Part V

Foolish Games

I'm not sure live performances get any more gut-wrenchingly brilliant than this.



Click here for lyrics.

In Other Words...

Oh Maria

This is one of my favourite movie scenes ever... when the nuns sing good for the first time.



Thank you Sister Mary Clarence.

Click here for lyrics.

Technology

Unsolvable

"One day In 1939, George Bernard Dantzig, a doctoral candidate at the University of California, Berkeley, arrived late for a graduate-level statistics class and found two problems written on the board. Not knowing they were examples of "unsolvable" statistics problems, he mistook them for part of a homework assignment, jotted them down, and solved them....

Six weeks later, Dantzig's statistic professor notified him that he had prepared one of his two "homework" proofs for publication, and Dantzig was given co-author credit on another paper several years later when another mathematician independently worked out the same solution to the second problem."



"... when people are free to pursue goals unfettered by presumed limitations on what they can accomplish, they just may manage some extraordinary feats through the combined application of native talent and hard work."

[Source]

Someone Once Told Me...

Bokko

Want to learn some new moves? Try some Bokko. Gets intense at 6:49.

Michael Kenna

Click here for more. [update: site has since gone down, sorry... try google!]

Hurt

Big fan of Johnny Cash.... great cover, brutally sad/amazing video.



Click here for lyrics.

Lisa Hannigan and The Low Anthem

Recently saw Lisa Hannigan perform live. She's pretty amazing... I've never heard a voice like hers before. The Low Anthem opened for her, and they were a really awesome surprise... they're quirky, interesting, and have some beautiful songs. Have a look at them both:

Lille by Lisa Hannigan [lyrics]


Cage the Songbird by The Low Anthem [lyrics]

The Wet Fly

Bricks

Daaaaaaamn

Falling Ice

Winter isn't quite over yet!

Light Graffiti

Courage

Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage
is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying,
"I will try again tomorrow."

- Mary Anne Radmacher

Dust Storm

I Don't Know

Click here for lyrics.

The Office Theme

The theme song from The Office... on a marimba!

Got You Where I Want You

A favourite song of mine.



Click here for lyrics.

Her Morning Elegance

Amazing.

Click here for lyrics.

Don't Be Afraid

Click image to enlarge.

Gandhi

"Mahatma Gandhi, as you know, walked barefoot his whole life, which created an impressive set of calluses on his feet. He also ate very little, which made him frail, and with his odd diet, he suffered from very bad breath.

This made him.... what?

A super-callused fragile mystic hexed by halitosis."

[Source]

No disrespect, I love you Gandhi... but that was priceless.

The Freshmen

One of my all-time favourite songs.



Click here for lyrics.

Slingshot

Trapped in an Elevator

Imagine being stuck in an elevator for 41 hours...



Click here to read the backstory.

Mash-Ups

Here are five really well done mash-ups I've come across over time. They're all pretty impressive -- which do you dig?


Britney Spears vs. Enur vs. Gwen Stefani



The Beatles vs. Nine Inch Nails



Avril Lavigne vs. Unk




Green Day vs. Kelly Clarkson



Lady Gaga vs. Eurythmics

Lindy Hop

Impressive. To say the least.