Hungry, Hungry Piranhas

A new product after long last, inspired by a late night conversation at the Velvet. I've spent so very long doing nothing but DJing, and refamiliarizing myself with Blender felt sort of like getting a few gentle love bites from these guys.


Unfortunately it's not a dress or other outfit, but I suppose you could wear them if you choose. They're available at my Second Life store, dropdeadcute.

Video must be rotting my brain.

Expect further development, varieties, maybe even a controller HUD if anybody decides to buy these little guys. I might even make some that look like actual piranhas, rather than the toxic pigments that would be sure to exist in the glaze for these sweet little things, if they were actually available in real life. I don't know, maybe I need to contact some old co-workers and see if I can find out how to contract with a sweatshop? Or maybe not.



How I wish I had something witty to say right around here.

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Anthems, Sin and Sing Sing

It was a fairly dead night. Or maybe my set drove them away. Anthems, sin and singing. Not necessarily in that order. I think I might be losing my touch, or it could just be that so many were away for the holiday weekend.

Those who were there (a few of my usual "stalkers" and someone new from Brittany) were appreciative, but probably also tired. And the numbers just weren't there for a huge conversation.

But Nickel was kind enough to help clean up my random (aren't they all?) color-changing particle script. It worked great when I tested it out, though I haven't tried to edit it yet. It definitely looks more elegant and direct than the cannibalized approach I'd taken with all the extra, pointless variables that were survivals from an earlier random shape-morphing script.

Playlist

1. Various Artists - The Anthem of Communism (2:22)
2. Moxy Fruvous - Maple Syrup Time (3:35)
3. Cotton Henry - Eskimo Nell (2:04)
4. Roy Zimmerman - Norwedish Hate Anthem (0:50)
5. Fountains of Wayne - Imperia (1:57)
6. David Byrne - Big Business ( LP Version ) (5:06)
7. David Bromberg - Suffer To Sing The Blues (Album Version) (4:54)
8. David Bowie - Rebel Rebel [US Single Version] (2:59)
9. Roy Zimmerman - Jingle Bell Iraq (2:22)
10. The Chipmunks - Jingle Bells (2:36)
11. Marvin Gaye - Star Spangled Banner (LIVE NBA Allstar 84) (3:12)
12. The Diplomats - Dipset Anthem (4:08)

(more after the break)

13. Roy Zimmerman - Multinational Anthem (2:39)
14. America - Muskrat Love (3:07)
15. GrooveLily - Screwed-Up People Make Great Art (4:36)
16. The IT Crowd - Piracy Ad (0:51)
17. Elvis Costello - Sulphur To Sugarcane (5:59)
18. Terrence Mann, Victor Garber, Greg Germann, Annie Golden, Eddie Korbich, Jonathan Hadary, Debra Monk, Lee Wilkof and Patrick Cassidy - Another National Anthem (From "Assassins") (6:08)
19. Philip Glass - Anthem, Pt. 2 (3:48)
20. Suzanne Vega - Blood Sings (3:17)
21. Leonard Cohen - Anthem (7:20)
22. Coco, Steel & Lovebomb - Les Chrysanthemes (5:39)
23. Theo Bleckmann & Fumio Yasuda - Maskulinum-Femininum (1:49)
24. Frank Zappa - The Mammy Anthem (5:41)
25. Roy Zimmerman - The Man, the Myth, the Mccain (3:15)
26. John Zorn - The Ballad of Hank McCain [Vocal Version][*] (5:27)
27. Martin Wolfson - Morning Anthem (0:49)
28. Kraftwerk - Radioaktivität (Single Edit) (3:19)
29. Roy Zimmerman - Buy War Toys for Christmas (3:01)
30. Patti Smith - Death Singing (3:44)
31. Leap Year - The Rational Anthem (4:57)
32. Carter Burwell - Way Out There (From "Raising Arizona") (1:56)
33. Magical Polaris - Dan Lirette Hearts Lowtax (2:43)
34. Three Dog Night - Pieces Of April (4:12)
35. PJ Harvey - I Think I'm A Mother (4:02)
36. Sinéad O'Connor - Jealous (4:17)
37. Panic At The Disco - Mad As Rabbits (Album Version) (3:48)
38. Melissa Etheridge - Breakdown (3:54)
39. Hege Rimestad - Krishnas Kusine (Krishna's cousin) (3:19)
40. The Bobs - Angels of Mercy (3:04)
41. Erin McKeown - Queen Of Quiet (1:48)
42. Mary Gauthier - Our Lady of the Shooting Stars (3:29)
43. Tom Waits - What's He Building? (3:20)
44. Ira Gershwin/Kurt Weill - Jersey Plunk/The Trouble with Women (Quartet) (3:00)
45. Cliff Eberhardt - Summers in New Jersey (3:47)
46. Arthur Siegel, Denise Nolan, Vera Knotty, Nancy Hilner, Mona Lott - Way Out West In Jersey (2:54)
47. Elvis Costello - Lost in the Stars from Lost in the Stars (3:56)
48. Odette Florette And Jean Lenoir Orchestra - Fiancée Du Pirate (3:20)
49. Felicia Day - Penny's Song (1:23)
50. Teresa Stratas & Richard Woitach - Buddy On The Nightshift (2:45)
51. Theo Bleckmann & Fumio Yasuda - Über Den Selbstmord (Brecht) (3:20)
52. Scott Merrill - Call from the Grave (3:22)
53. The Bobs - Alabama Song (3:01)
54. Ute Lemper / Jurgen Knieper - Trouble Man (3:45)
55. Ira Gershwin/Kurt Weill - Very Very Very/Wooden Wedding (2:40)
56. Theo Bleckmann - Like Brother and Sister (4:44)
57. The Persuasions - Oh, Heavenly Salvation from The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny (3:36)
58. Count Your Blessings (3:14)
59. Liz Phair - 6'1" (3:06)
60. R.E.M. - Radio Free Europe (Original Hib-Tone Single) (3:47)
61. Gerard Schwarz, New York Chamber Symphony & Teresa Stratas - One Touch of Venus: I'm A Stranger Here Myself (4:07)
62. The Dresden Dolls - Sing (4:40)
63. Nancy Andrews - Deep Down In The Seine (3:52)

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Double jeopardy @ Le Velvet

Started out subbing for one and wound up playing from 10pm until around 2 am. Everyone was there and we barely talked about Michael Jackson at all. The playlist appears below the "fold." It started out being about babies and yoga and then the requests started.



Playlist:

1. Ben Folds Five - Satan Is My Master (1:33)
2. Flobots - Anne Braden (4:21)
3. Le Tigre - Phanta (3:14)
4. Stuart Davis - 8 Days in the Lotus (3:08)
5. Nelly Furtado - Baby Girl (3:47)
6. Anne Sofie Von Otter/Elvis Costello - Baby Plays Around (3:12)
7. Ben Folds Five - Twin Falls (2:25)
8. Dar Williams - The Babysitter's Here (3:57)
9. Death Cab For Cutie - Soul Meets Body (Album Version) (3:48)
10. Frank Zappa - Baby Snakes (1:50)
11. Belle & Sebastian - Dirty Dream Number Two (4:14)
12. Mike Craver - Butterfield Stage (2:12)
13. Dressy Bessy - Baby Six String (4:34)
14. Damien Rice - Baby Sister [Live From Union Chapel] (4:24)
15. Richard Shindell - I Saw My Youth Today (3:20)
16. The Young Gods - Alabama Song (5:51)
17. Marianne Faithfull - As Tears Go By (3:47)
18. The Smiths - Pretty Girls Make Graves [Troy Tate Version] (3:35)
19. Felix Da Housecat - Pretty Girls Dont Dance (0:29)
20. Nellie McKay - Swept Away (1:53)
21. Sigur Rós - Fljótavík (3:49)
22. Tom Waits - Little Trip to Heaven (On the Wings of Your Love) (3:37)
23. Veruca Salt - Sleeping Where I Want (3:19)
24. Jacques Loussier - Nocturne No. 11 in G Minor, Op. 37, No. 1 (1:56)
25. Snow Patrol - Isolation (2:36)
26. Metric - Patriarch On A Vespa (4:32)
27. Belle & Sebastian - We Rule The School (3:27)
28. Ladytron - I'm Not Scared (3:58)
29. Paul Siebel - Louise (3:42)
30. Panic! At the Disco - This Is Halloween (3:37)
31. Lou Reed - Perfect Day (3:48)
32. Billy Bragg & Wilco - Walt Whitman's Niece (3:53)
33. Bob Marley - Redemption Song (Live) (4:06)
34. Root Boy Slim & The Sex Change Band - Too Sick To Reggae (3:06)
35. The Fifth Dimension - Puppet Man (Digitally Remastered 1997) (2:58)
36. Flobots - Same Thing (3:29)
37. Laurie Anderson - Baby Doll (3:38)
38. Cry Cry Cry - I Know What Kind of Love This Is (4:30)
39. Trio Bravo+ - Rondo Ukraine (3:45)
40. Rollercone - Palais Mascotte (5:46)
41. Dido - Us 2 Little Gods (4:48)
42. Fifi - Mirror In The Bathroom (2:35)
43. Máire Brennan - Song Of David (4:08)
44. Feist - I Feel It All (3:39)
45. Lollies - Sweet Home Alabama (1:57)
46. Frank Zappa - Lucille Has Messed My Mind Up (2:52)
47. Buffalo Springfield - Broken Arrow (6:13)
48. Darcie Miner - Ohio (3:49)
49. Tom Waits - Rains On Me (3:20)
50. Lura - Romaria (3:59)
51. Marianne Faithfull - Ghost Dance (3:45)
52. David Bowie - Fill Your Heart (3:07)
53. Robyn Archer - Alabama Song (3:43)
54. Roddy McDowall - The Seven Deadly Virtues (1:26)
55. Theo Bleckmann & Fumio Yasuda - Moon Of Alabama (Brecht) (3:49)
56. Stuart Davis - Wand (3:24)
57. Dust Poets - Good Enough For Me (5:22)
58. Veruca Salt - Wolf (4:19)
59. Tom Waits - Clap Hands (3:48)
60. Das Palast Orchester & Max Raabe;HK Gruber - Alabama-Song aus "Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny", 1929 ((Oper in drei Akten von Bertolt Brecht)) (3:32)
61. Neil Young - Motor City (Remastered Album Version) (3:12)
62. America - Ventura Highway (3:47)
63. Lori McKenna - The Needle and the Damage Done (2:26)
64. Bill Whelan - American Wake (The Nova Scotia Set) (3:08)
65. Kathleen Ferrier; Bruno Walter: Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra - Mahler: Kindertotenlieder - Nun Will Die Sonn' So Hell Aufgehn (4:51)
66. Fleet Foxes - Tiger Mountain Peasant Song (3:30)
67. The Mountain Goats - Love Love Love (2:48)
68. Brian Eno/David Byrne - America Is Waiting (Album Version) (3:38)
69. Joy Division - Digital (2:52)
70. The Gothic Archies - Freakshow (2:55)
71. Tomoyasu Hotei - Space Cowboy (2:32)
72. Jef Stott - Aegean Dub (5:08)
73. Charlie Haden - Is This America? (Katrina 2005) (3:40)

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Set for Rapture

Somehow I came to the conclusion during this set that we are in the middle of the Rapture, and that it's not quite the Rapture some might have been expecting. Playlist after the jump.

My theory had something to do with Purim and how God's a real joker, assuming He's anything at all. It started out as something very different, but I'd been offline for the internet meltdown that came from the deaths of Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett Majors and Joe Christ.



1. Philip Glass - Said and His Shadow Dance (2:50)
2. Django Reinhardt - Gipsy With A Song (Take 1) (3:06)
3. Blue Öyster Cult - Flaming Telepaths (5:18)
4. DJ Mariachi - Malo (3:29)
5. M.I.A. - Boyz (3:27)
6. Rasputina - Howard Hughes (3:14)
7. Blondie - Under the Gun (4:53)
8. Patricia Kaas - Regarde les Riches (3:39)
9. Felix Da Housecat - Mad Sista (0:33)
10. Belle & Sebastian - A Summer Wasting (2:06)
11. Professor And Maryann - Good Morning (3:29)
12. Ockham's Razor - The Night Before Larry Was Stretched (3:54)
13. St. Vincent - All My Stars Aligned (3:47)
14. Amanda Palmer - Straight (5:11)
15. John Gallagher Jr. & Boys - The B**** Of Living (2:53)
16. Ry Cooder - My Dwarf Is Getting Tired (3:59)
17. Tom Waits - Heigh-Ho! (The Dwarfs' Marching Song) (3:35)
18. The Heads - Indie Hair (with Edward Kowalczyk) (3:49)
19. Centro-matic - The Fugitives Have Won (2:42)
20. Jackson Browne - Time the Conqueror (5:26)
21. Liz Phair - My Bionic Eyes (3:52)
22. Röyksopp - Boys (4:45)
23. Frank Zappa - Hungry Freaks, Daddy (3:32)
24. Rupaul - Kinky/Freaky (3:58)
25. Roxy Music - Like A Hurricane (7:44)
26. Citizen Cope; Dido - Burnin Love (4:11)
27. Snow Patrol - Set The Fire To The Third Bar (3:23)
28. Indigo Girls - World Falls (3:44)
29. Danny Elfman - Ballet De Suburbia (Suite) (1:17)
30. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Stagger Lee (5:14)
31. Le Tigre - Phanta (3:14)
32. Azasaurus Regina - Various Modems (1:09)

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Kaddish for Stephen Tyrone Johns

Playlist from my Friday set at the Velvet. This set was structured (roughly) around the tradition order of songs during an evening Shabbat service, culminating with the recitation of the Kaddish (the haunting Hebrew prayer for the dead). If James von Brunn dies, consider it Kaddish for him as well.

1. Lion King - Can you feel the love tonight? [Hebrew] (3:00)
2. Rasputina - Hunter's Kiss (4:14)
3. Thomas Newman - Angels In America, Opening Theme (2:27)
4. Stuart Davis - Deity Freak (3:21)
5. Yusuf Islam - In the End (4:02)
6. Tears For Fears - Mad World (3:35)
7. Anne Sofie Von Otter - Rope (3:56)
8. Damien Rice - Accidental Babies (6:33)
9. Loreena McKennitt - Sacred Shabbat (4:00)
10. Neshama Carlebach - Adon Olam (5:26)
11. Al Franken - Ann Coulter in the Green Room, Pt. 1 (2:48)
12. Christine Pedi, Bryan Batt - Kiss Me Kate - Corrective Casting - Jerry & Liza [Forbidden Broadway] (1:49)
13. Stuart Davis - Rock Stars And Models (2:33)
14. David Bowie - Amlapura (3:48)
15. Johnny Cash/kayvee - "Jan Geld" Kayvee Style [from Planet Acid] (2:17)
16. Synthesonic Sounds - House Of The Rising Sun (2:35)
17. Sinéad O'Connor - Jerusalem (4:20)
18. Al Franken - Ann Coulter in the Green Room, Pt. 2 (1:51)
19. Klezmer Conservatory Band - Shlof, Mayn Kind/Zibn Firtsik (3:37)
20. Meryl Streep, Al Pacino - Tumbalalaika [excerpt, Angel in America] (3:44)
21. Rasputina - Incident In a Medical Clinic (3:52)
22. Nick Cave - Mack The Knife from The Threepenny Opera (4:55)
23. Neshama Carlebach - V'shamru (6:44)
24. Paul Robeson - Joe Hill (2:59)
25. Raoul Vaneigem - La Vie S'écoule (2:52)
26. Django Reinhardt - Moppin' The Bride - Micro - (2:24)
27. Abayudaya Congregation, Solo By J.J. Keki - Lekhah, Dodi (5:23)
28. Roy Zimmerman - Summer of Loving (4:42)
29. Zev Feldman & Andy Statman - Wedding March (3:04)
30. Al Franken - Ann Coulter is a ____ (1:09)
31. Kate & Anna Mcgarrigle - Little Boxes (petites Boites) (3:39)
32. Carly Simon & Others - Carly Simon & Others - New Jerusalem (3:22)
33. Laurie Anderson - On The Way To Jerusalem (1:20)
34. John Cage - In The Name Of The Holocaust: A. 3'36" (3:37)
35. John Cage - In The Name Of The Holocaust: B. 2'21" (2:22)
36. Itzhak Perlman, John Williams - Immolation (With Our Lives, We Give Life) (4:43)
37. Ben Shenkman, Jeffrey Wright, Meryl Streep - Kaddish [excerpt, Angel in America] (5:06)
38. Mägo De Oz - Somewhere over the rainbow (4:35)
39. Sung By Gershom Sizomu With Abayudaya Community Response - Kiddush And Motzi (1:14)
40. Lion King - Can you feel the love tonight [Arabic] (2:45)
41. Zev Feldman & Andy Statman - Gypsy Hora & Sirba (4:24)
42. Patsy Cline - Wayward Wind (3:20)
43. Stanford Marching Band - Golgi Apparatus (Stanford Marching Band) (3:56)
44. Wiener Philharmoniker - Pictures at an Exhibition - Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuyle (2:28)
45. Aladdin - A whole new world [Hebrew] (2:36)
46. Stuart Davis - Universe Communion (4:31)
47. Nellie McKay - The Big One (4:02)
48. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Nobody's Baby Now (3:52)
49. Rasputina - Cage In a Cave (3:50)
50. Tears For Fears - Ideas As Opiates (3:45)

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Farewell, David Carradine

It's not your typical fan video. More like a meditation on mortality. I could try to explain, but does explaining really get you anywhere?





RIP, Kwai Chang Caine.

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They Shoot Squid, Don't They?

Deep in the Connecticut woods, in a land filled with the great mystics and the casino aborigines, there lived that most controversial of groups, the fearless seal wranglers known as the Riders of the Purple Squid.

To this day, a controversy rages, at least in certain quarters, over whether their mode of transport was ethical, or as truly cruel and evil as some of the protesters claimed that it was.



One should always lie to children, it prepares them for life in general.



But one group came to dominate this debate. They started out calling themselves "People for the Ethical Treatment of Calimari" but soon changed their name when someone told them that Calimari only referred to the cooked version of their object of pity, the noble squid (Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni). People who still refer to the group as "PETCa" do so at considerable risk to their lives and welfare. The preferred acronym is now PETSqi.

Cute video, evil child liar:

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