So, I happened to catch the gem below today. Ok,Go’s video for their song Here It Goes Again is rather creative and amazing. The most interesting part is that a alternative rock band has their choreography down perfect all in one shot. Amazing.

With the amazing rise of popularity of YouTube, you had to know that advertisers would start posting ridiculous videos on the site as ways to promote their products. Well, the first to do so in a fairly ingenious fashion is Smirnoff. They have a drink called “Raw Tea” and they made up with whiteboy rap from the P(rep)-Unit singing about how waspy they are and it refers to the product throughout the video. It is entertaining, but i am definitely curious about how well it will translate into sales.

There was a recent Los Angeles Times article that dealt with copyright infringments in music. As a musician, I am always ambivalent on this issue because on one hand, hopefully musicians are in the business because they want to make music and want people to hear their music, but on the other hand it is their livelihood and we don’t tolerate people walking into retail stores and stealing anything, so why would we tolerate the same act digitally?

Anywho, the article finds a growing trend, that younger individuals are seemingly growing more morally convicted about the illegal downloading and distributing of digital music and movies. This brings me to my favorite part of the article. They quote a professor at NYU when he said

At my wedding I handed out about 150 mix-CDs … I was freeloading on songs by Louis Armstrong and others, but I think that’s why they became musicians in the first place. Music has worth because it lets us communicate in ways we can’t manage on our own. But to communicate, we have to be able to share.

If I was a student at NYU, you better believe I would be in his class. How could this man object to plagarism? Knowledge is gained by sharing, so we might as well allow all shared knowledge on term papers and tests.

I’m looking for a dream
Chasing after empty things
Go back to the places I knew where the weeds grow tall

This town has hope enough
Its waiting for something to come
14th Street doesn’t mean anything to anybody but me

I’m standing confident but naked in the spotlight
Ready to take my scene and recite all my lines
But I screw up every part and I think I’ll go and hide
But only for a while, only for a while this time

I recognize this place
Yet everything’s still changed
No one can remember my name and I seem to have lost my way

Along comes a helpful man
I ask “where should I stand.”
He says, “Boy, I believe, you look sure lost to me.
I don’t think you’ll ever be free”

Why did rewrite all my past
Is where I am all that bad?
Hoping to find a place where everything exactly how I remember
Remember me…

So tomorrow night (Monday night) I am playing a show at Smiths Olde Bar. There was a scheduling mixup with northsouth, so instead of cancelling the show, I figured I would just go ahead and play on my own instead. Its been about two years since I’ve actually played my own show, so this will be a bit refreshing and a bit of a departure from what I’ve been doing with northsouth. I’ve never been one to really care about the limelight or attention, which is why I really don’t mind anyone else singing my songs (i.e. northsouth).

When discussing this upcoming concert with some friends, I thought it would be funny if this were really a little “side project” and I only performed children’s songs. It would be like an act. Well, that’s not exactly what’s going to happen, though, in the spirit of it all, I did make an attempt to write a children’s song. I stole a concept from Guster when they wrote a catchy and excellent song about Noah and decided to do something similar myself. Well, it turned out less “children”-like and more just odd humor. I look forward to playing it tomorrown night. Here are the lyrics:

Two by two they came aboard, hoping to find a place to fort
Lucky for them some guy had built a boat.
Penguins, hippos, bears and sheep, hoping to find a window seat.
Maybe the dinosaurs didn’t fit on board.

I am ready so send this rain storm
I’ve boarded up everything so
When you’re ready give it all you can

Forty days it rained and poured, they played spades and games of four
The mammoths cheated and were thrown overboard
All our friends have died and drowned, it sure is starting to really smell
Poor mom and pop never stood a chance.

The dove has flown this land is dry, so we docked on this mountainside
All passengers asked to exit starboard side
Corpses litter this barren land, Charlie and Jack do all they can
“The Others” are here but how did they survive?