Author: Aryn Crowley

So I stumbled onto these “viral” videos awhile back and thought since we are increasingly being innundated with short internet ad campaigns, I should do my part in spreading the word. This is a series of “Will it Blend?” testing by the company BlendTec to show off how neat their blenders are in how they can blend pretty much anything.

Here is one with dental supplies:

[youtube]F3P6nlXhTtk&NR[/youtube]

and one with iPods:

[youtube]B8H29jU8Wrs[/youtube]

and one more with a golf club:

[youtube]7_YaNteKmew[/youtube]

I like their theme song. These clips have acheived success in the world of viral marketing: getting some random guy like me to push their products without getting a dime in payment.. Which I would gladly accept.

Another great show to report. I think someday I will get quicker posting these things…

Opener- My Brightest Diamond… meh. She obviously has a great voice, and I can see how when she is singing other peoples material it could be fantastic. But I thought her performance was a little flat– weak guitar playing and annoying basslines. Maybe I’m not being fair, it is hard to be an opening band. You are there before trying to play to an audience that is most likely there to see someone else and usually you are a lower tier band. I’m sure she will be good someday. OK enough of that on to the main show.

DeVotchKa – Here is a group who’s music was used in the film Little Miss Sunshine which has brought a whole new batch of fans to their mix (i.e. me). A great blend of Latin and Klesmer music, everyone in the group were multinstrumentalists and great showmen/woman. The lead singer, Nick Urata’s heroic chin and coiffed hair recalled a mixture of Clooney, Morrissey, and Bruce Cambell which added to the appeal of his vocals. This guy has so many cojones he needed TWO microphones to capture that voice. He also plays the guitar and laud (??) with a very spanish style strumming pattern.

Violinist/accordionist Tom Hagerman’s virtuostic lines had that spiderlike quality that added so much to the fast eastern european sound. He definitely gave them that Yann Tiersen twinge. Jeanie Schroder on Sousaphone/bass played all of her lines with a smile on her face the entire night. The Sousaphone has such a thick sound, like an electric bass on steriods, that it gives a great pad for Hagermans higher notes.

And last but CERTAINLY not least the drummer. Oh the drummer… this guy was on FIRE! Shawn King. This band plays FAST and he was there, tight as hell, the whole time. I haven’t heard drumming like this in a long time. Very precise and very schooled and very intense. He might even be my favourite aspect of their live show (if I were forced to pick one I suppose).

This was such a fun group to see. Very melancholic yet jovial party music, much like a Day of the Dead celebration in Mexico or something. They even had the bottle of wine to drink from on stage. All in all I think it was the second best show I have seen all year (Andrew Bird is still on top by a hair–not that his hair is better than Urata’s) and its definitely one of my top of all time. If anyone is in Denver over new years I would recommend checking them out, its a cheap show (36 bones) AND it includes Andrew Bird (obviously my new music man crush).

I give DeVotchKa the blue ribbon of success.

Sorry for the delay hello.fan but better late than never I suppose.

So I had the pleasure to see Andrew Bird at the Logan Sq. Auditorium last Friday and I have to say it was probably the best show I have seen all year. But first things first.. openers.. We arrived at the west side Chicago antique ballroom a little early ready to stand in the line snakeing out the door and down the street (a little). Within 4 minutes we were inside and making our way up towards the stage. The Openers, The Occidental Brothers Dance Band International , were pretty good. A nice mix of 60’s esque african jazz with a little modern bass drum in the mix. They reminded me of a Marc Ribot cubanos postizos style band with a little more dance involved. Pretty good way to start out a show, they got the audience moving and ready for the next act.

The Bird set started out with Martin Dosh taking the stage by himself. He doodled a bit until Andrew showed up and added to the mix. They both looped things around swelling and building until everything stoped, and AB (Andrew Bird) started an intro to “A Nervous Tic Motion of the Head to the Left” which both served as a beginning to the song and the chorus backup later(when he switched to a guitar for the different parts of the song). I LOVE the versions of the songs he played live, he changes the vocal rhythms and what not from the album versions. They translated very nicely to the live stage. I have heard that AB practices playing his stuff live a lot so the movement from the studio to the stage is seemless. Both AB and Dosh were really masters of looping. They used them as a way to accent the different sections of the song instead of using them as crutches (which annoys me greatly when bands use prerecorded or sampled loops to add structure to a song)

Anyway I thought Dosh was a really great backup player for AB, he has that laid back intense drumming that works well with AB’s song style. I do think that his solo stuff (Dosh’s) was a lot less interesting than when he played with AB. Great rhythms, just lacking in the melodic. Back to AB though, new songs sound fantastic ( album due in March ), older songs sounded great live, and the overall show I will rate on a scale of 4 lobster claws. ( 4 = best show of year )

I was listening to the song “He’s Simple, He’s Dumb, He’s the Pilot” the other day of the album The Software Slump by the group Grandaddy, and I noticed at around 3:38 you can hear very faintly the main riff from another of Grandaddy’s songs called AM 180. I have located a few examples of these songs, the first He’s Simple is from a youTube montage video someone made for One Tree Hill ( ? )… Anyway you can at least hear the song: [youtube]O_Xhy9Ho7ng[/youtube]

Which at 3:38 if the compression was not crapola, you could hear the reference to the other song AM 180 (from the album Under The Western Freeway or the 28 Days Later soundtrack (when they are in the grocery store)):[youtube]YX-_yLyU1fU[/youtube]

Anyway if you are in need to checking out some new music I would highly recommend The Software Slump, its one of those albums that had to grow on me, but it is now one of my favourites.

I found this little video interesting this morning… You too can learn something today just like me!

[googlevideo]6813529239937418232[/googlevideo]

Micheal Katzif, renaissance man in training, Luddite, and general miscreant, is on the top of his game. He has just come out of a long period of underground studies, where he has been honing his skills in culinary clothing design, and is about to take the West by storm. Hello Come In had the opportunity recently to chat with Michael at a posh downtown cigar shoppe, about his life, liberty, failed pursuit of happiness, and the general trends in media and entertainment.

Aryn: So Mike, whats this I have been hearing about a new clothing line?

Mike: The thing with the clothing line is half accurate.

Only half accurate?

I have been developing new ways in which people can wear clothes in order to maximize comfort and style while at the same time prevent people from having the same styles of clothing. So some of that experimentation has been a clothing line. The other part has been a methodical rounding up or herding of individuals who are deemed redundant and mind wiping their brains.

Is this a sort of ever updated fad chaser that someone can simply put on and not have to worry about looking cool, because the “clothing” does that for them?

The new clothing can be adaptive to its environments, but the mind wipes ensure that no one has a predisposition towards any sort of sameness in the universe.

That sounds a little science fiction to me. What other projects have you been working on?

Well a few things coming up the pipe are a bread baking club; sort of a “choose your own adventure” recipe construction where you never know what you are making until the very end.

Is that a “hip” new term for something else, or are you actually talking about a cooking club? Sounds a bit old fashioned.

I like to live my life dancing between the extreme modern and the horribly antiquated. I call it “digilog.” Or “analogital.” You can choose.

Interesting, I have heard that people only remember the first and last parts of things, sounds like you have revolved your life around that theory?

I really only remember the middle. My favourite parts of calzones were the middles.

I see. Can you tell me your top two presidents (or prime ministers or dictators) from any era, and what their contribution to the fashion world meant in relation to your art?

See most people these days would mention Roosevelt (Teddy) or Taft for their iconic mustaches which have grown increasingly ironic and stylish in the hipster scene, but not me.

Don’t forget Ghengis.

I would say that the most stylish world leaders would be along the lines of someone with killer mutton chops. You cannot deny the influence that style of facial hair has had on the world as we know it. I’d suggest we would not be at war if John Adam’s mutton chops were leading this country, plus it gives ladies something to hold onto in the heat of passion.

How has your facial hair (or lack of) shaped your influence on America and the world? Has it made you a better diplomat?

Well I do have a certain disdain for those with full beards, but i would say I try to be a liaison and ambassador to the fully bearded. I want to work with them to make a difference and cannot get swept up into petty partisanship, whether its with a fashion line of clothing or fishing for lobsters in the Cape Cod.

All right Mr. Katzif, my readers sent me their burning questions, and I sifted through the thousands of letters and got the list down to five, ready?

Naturally.

When did you first feel like a man?

Probably the first time I used a urinal, or any sort of standing while peeing.

How do you tend to rebuild from your many failures as a human?

I find a healthy dose of television tells me all the ways I can become a better person.

What is your favourite luxury item to bring along on a camping trip?

The typical answer would be high class escort…

I take it your not a typical person…

… and while that would be nice if one was sans girlfriend, I expect that camping is better with them, so if and when I have lady friends on trip, I’d bring a fine cheese, maybe an Edam or Gouda of some sort.

What would you choose if forced : a) spilled milk b) turtle on its back c) one clean, one dirty sock , and how would you respond to said problem?

If I was confronted with any of these, I’d probably choose the turtle on its back and here’s why: Spilled milk is not the big deal the mainstream corporate media wants you to believe it is. While devastating on a personal level, it really helps our American farmers sell more milk.

The one clean sock, one dirty sock issue is easy. I hate dirty socks, and for that matter dirty clothes. If there is even chance that a sock is dirty, I might consider just buying new socks or drop everything and launder it.

The turtle seems like the easiest fix emotionally. I once saw a dead turtle next to the road. That was more sad.

You have such refined analytical skills. How were those obtained? extensive training? Sudoku? inherited?

Cereal box prize.

Nice.

It was.

And the number one burning question from all of your hundreds of fans out there…

Dont over sell me, I only have dozens of fans.

What school are you going to donate your fortune to, and what college programme will be created? i.e. (The Katzif school of monogramming, or Mike’s Trikes, School of three wheeled vehicles)

Hard to plan for my own demise, I’m not really sure what legacy to leave.

It could be anything.. what would you most like to be remembered for? Contributions to science? Good will towards man? Hygiene?

… but Gonzaga does have a decent bread resource facility in Finland… While hygiene is important, I’d say that I’d like to be remembered for being somewhat of a renaissance man, a lover of things, and a doer of other things.

Well , thanks for taking the time to speak with me today Michael, is there anything you would like to add before we go?

Just a reminder to the children around the world to support your local superhero, whether its Carpetman, Fluorescent Avenger, or the Bubble Bathtubman.

Great!

Katzif has a new book coming out “Pursuits in Technical Accounting : A Numbers Game that could Save You MILLIONS!” which chronicles his knowledge and experience playing the stock and tax market game. Mike will be available for book signing this weekend at Borders Books on the corner of Pine and Walton.