In January, dying magazine Newsweek declared Grand Rapids, Michigan to be a “dying city.” Grand Rapids decided to rebut this vile slander by, uh, doing… this: I love the guy with the Geraldo t-shirt around the 4:30 mark. Here’s how the project’s Director & Executive Producer, Rob Bliss, explains it: The Grand Rapids LipDub Video was filmed May 22nd, with… Read more »
This evening, I went with my parents (who are in town visiting), Kristy and V to hear Brian Clancy, a local Irish pub singer — no relation to the Clancies of Makem/Clancy fame, though he sings a lot of their stuff — sing at the Irish Snug. During his second set, he sang “The Old Dun Cow,” a very funny… Read more »
Apropos of nothing, inspired by a random aside in comments… Yes, the song is called “The Idiot,” but I’m not being snarky by suggesting it as a Tea Party song. Its reference to idiocy is sarcastic: I could have stayed to take the dole, but I’m not one of those I take nothing free, and that makes me an idiot,… Read more »
One of my favorite blog posts ever, back on the old Irish Trojan’s Blog in August 2006, was on the topic of my favorite songs of all-time. The post got 48 comments, and ’twas fascinating to hear my readers’ takes on my favorites, as well as their own favorites. Anyway, the post itself had four postscripts, and it occurred to… Read more »
There’s a lot of talk about the allegedly slow reaction to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill being “Obama’s Katrina.” I haven’t followed it closely enough to have an opinion on that. But could the moniker prove more literal than anyone now imagines? Blogger Alan Sullivan, who predicted “significant harm to the Gulf” from the BP explosion at a time… Read more »
In a shocking oversight, I neglected to blog anything — or tweet anything, or even post something on Facebook — about “Palindrome Day” on Saturday (01/02/2010). I have failed as a nerd! Luckily, I’ll have a chance to make up for it in a little less than 22 months, on 11/02/2011. (Or I suppose I could move to Europe, and… Read more »
So, reading the BBC, and the record industry position on illegal file sharing. The long and short of it is, the record industry association is shocked that illegal file sharing isn’t decreasing. Though, given the economy and the expansion of broadband, I think they should probably just be happy it isn’t increasing exponentially. And then to further demonstrate that they… Read more »
This afternoon, as I was driving home from work, I was listening to NPR’s “All Things Considered,” as per usual. They’d just finished up a story about Afghanistan or some such thing, when, out of the blue, host Melissa Block stated, as the lead-in to a new story: “Bob Dylan once called Liam Clancy ‘the best ballad singer I’ve ever… Read more »
Bwahahaha: Six pregnant sheep belonging to a Protestant farmer from County Tyrone have been daubed with Irish tricolours in an apparent sectarian attack. The sheep had been left to graze in an isolated field near Ardboe when their coats were covered in green and orange paint to resemble a tricolour. According to the farmer, who does not want to be… Read more »
Well, not just me. 🙂 The Augustana Chamber Choir, directed by Dick Larson, along with the Augustana Chancel Choir and the Musica Sacra Chamber Orchestra, will perform the Mozart Requiem this Sunday, All Saints Day. I recently joined the choir (I sing tenor), largely for the opportunity to sing this very piece of music. If you’re in the area, please… Read more »