Note that all items below are audio only, so that there are no strange yet wondrous visuals to interfere with the strange yet wondrous sounds.

First, there's ... this. Which may be, on the one hand, possibly a bit too self aware. On the other hand ... well.



And after that, something genuinely lovely yet melancholy.

For some strange reason, during the odd idle moment, I've been perusing the odd music mashups. No idea why. Just because.

Below is one where the songs, strangely enough, really do work together, and the videos ... really really don't. Seriously, they almost appear not to have been made on the same planet. (Oh, and this actually manages not to earworm you with either song. Weird.)



Two songs that go really well together, and two people/groups that between them seem to have made a total of at least five videos for two songs. And they all kind of fit together, in small bits.



You have to go to the Hype Machine page to hear this one -- there's a "Play this track" button near the top of the page, well above the song title, which is just poor layout design if you ask me (which you didn't, but whatever). My own opinion is that the mashup makes the more recent song much much better. (Though one wonders what Jimi Hendrix would have to say about it. Also, truly hate that video.)

Most ... distinctive singing advice EVER.



And, just because I feel like it.

Did you ever run across one teeny tiny small thing in an episode or something that just bugged you so much you wanted to smack the people responsible? And you know it's tiny, and you know it's not meant the way they said it, and you still want to smack them?

In last night's episode of Glee, they made the students pair up with each other to sing ballads to each other, as it would be required at sectionals. Fine and dandy. And the students were paired randomly by picking names out of a hat, which allowed for people to be paired in hi-larious ways. The club has an interesting yet very Hollywood mix of apparent ethnicities -- a black boy and girl, Matt and Mercedes, and an Asian boy and girl, Tina and .... They have, interestingly enough, resisted the temptation to pair everyone up romantically along ethnic lines. So far, so good. For last night's episode, the black guy, Matt, was supposedly out sick, leaving Mr Schuester, the teacher, to pair off with the student who he discovered had a crush on him. Larf riot! And then Tina pulled a piece of paper out of the hat, and said: "Other Asian."

Ha.

Ha.

Ha.

Here's the thing: Glee club only has 12 students. They've been going for several weeks in the show's time. Mr Schu is practically neurotic about trying to be a good mentor to his students. You're telling me that after all this time, he wouldn't know the student's name? Moreover, he wouldn't know how humiliating it would be for that student to have it stated in public that the teacher couldn't remember the guy's name? Mind, it's also possible -- perhaps even probable -- that Tina said that on her own, as an insult to someone who might well have been one of her persecutors. Which ... OK, but in that case, the teacher should have said something. It shouldn't have passed unnoticed. And in either case, quite honestly, it feels vaguely like the powers that be were trying to avoid giving him a name because once he has a name, he'd actually maybe get lines, and the speaking cast is quite crowded already.

I suppose I shouldn't be terribly surprised. They screwed the pooch rather badly the last time they brought up anything like ethnic issues played for comedy, in the episode "Throwdown", but that was easier to get past, since they were trying to make a point -- albeit badly, and the point was actually quite quite wrong -- and the good intentions were practically glittering on their sleeves. (And, in fact, in light of later revelations about Sue Sylvester, the episode makes a great deal more sense ... though the point Schu makes is still quite quite wrong.) In "Ballad", this was just a small moment played straight up for comedy ... and they should have known better. Anyone thinking about it for a tenth of a second would have known better. It's not true to the characters as they've built them, it's not true to the situation, and it's wrong on its face. Plus, it's just plain not funny.

To be sure, last night's episode was wildly uneven. One thing they did right was showing other parents, finally, and how they react to the news that their children are going to have an untimely baby, which the entire school including faculty already knew. Finn's mother was hurt, but supportive; Quinn's parents threw her out. There's also the gay kid Kurt with a crush on Finn, and Finn having the brains of a flea (and, to be fair, being a teenager) has not the slightest idea how to handle it. And the actual crush plot with the teacher and student was handled fairly well, and done in one, which is good. And we will not speak of Mercedes' advice to Puck, which was not only wrongheaded, but possibly also wrong for the character as we've seen her built to date. (She seems to have very firm ideas about what's right and wrong, and to tell someone that they should just shut up about what's true in order to make life easier for someone else doesn't seem in character.) It wasn't, overall, a bad episode, and it had some very good moments in it.

But that "Other Asian" crack ... it still nags, for some reason. It's a tiny, small thing. I know this, I absolutely know it. It just ... vexes me.

It vexes me, you hear?

One should note that Daylight Savings Time doesn't end in the US for another week, on Sunday, November 1 at 2AM(ish). And, just to make life confusing, DST started in South America last week. However, DST ends in Mexico and in Europe this week. That said ... What an interesting way to remind people about the fall clocks change.



Wouldn't work for spring, though.

Who knew that we'd need this more after Obama's election?

Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: Part Six of Three - And Another Thing… - And Another Thing... - Eoin Colfer

I hadn't even heard that this was in the works. Authorized by Adams' widow and estate. Adams himself seems to have planned to write another book -- he was reportedly dissatisfied with "everybody dies" as an ending -- but died himself before he could get to it. Adams left some notes about what he wanted to do, but Colfer didn't use them. For what it's worth, it seems to be getting fairly good reviews; the only specific complaint that I've seen is that it's too long. (That said, all of the reviews have more than a hint of "Oh, thank goodness, it's NOT AWFUL!" about them. I'm not at all sure that reviews should sound so relieved about the quality of a book, somehow.)

Don't know if I'll give it a try or not.

All's I can say is, Canada is a very different sort of place. Also, apparently the Canadian version of GLAAD must be falling down on the job. If, for example, Subway had tried something like this ad here, they'd have been bludgeoned vigourously about the head and shoulders until they ceased and desisted and went to sensitivity training.



I wonder if this hit the airwaves during Gay Pride Month?

So I posted a version of this some time ago -- can't find it now -- and it turns out that there's a slightly different version available.

I ... really have no idea what to say about this. It's very ... um ... very ... well, very. And, really, quite an appropriate use of a paso doble. I think.


YouTube - Espana Cani: Dance Don't Bullfight Extended Video: