Well I've not had a good dream recently to write about, but I couldn't let the entire month of August slip by without so much as an entry on my blog, so I'm going to share about one of my favorite new things.
Johnathan Coulton!
Johnathan Coulton is a singer/songwriter who did one of the coolest things I've ever heard of. He made a weekly podcast called "Thing of the Week" where he released a new song via the internet every week for an entire year. But here's the kicker: They're actually pretty darn good! He wasn't just throwing garbage out there, they're actually some really good songs. Another pretty awesome thing is that he charges $1 per song to own, but then you pretty much own the song. You're free to use it whatever you want without fear of getting sued or anything. I'm a fan. And he's definately a tech geek, as is evident by the subject of many of his songs.
The last few days at work I've been listening to a lot of his songs, but BY FAR my two favorite are "Code Monkey" and "Flickr".
For the uninitiated, a "Code Monkey" is kindof a derogatory term for a computer programmer who can grind out computer code, but probably doesn't have the higher-primate skills of software architecture, analysis, and design. I love this song, and there's a kinda cool video somebody made for it on youtube. You can check it out here. Now remember, Jonathan Coulton just made the song, not the video (which, incidentally, was made using the videogame "World of Warcraft"). This may not be as cool to other people as it is to me since I am a computer programmer myself, but even so, I think most people would appreciate the cleverness of the lyrics style and recognize it as a pretty good song overall. As a warning, however, right near the beginning of the song, he does curse once, so you may not want to blast this song where sensitive ears may be.
"Flickr" is also a great song, but more than a song, you GOTTA watch the video. Flickr.com is a photo-sharing website where anybody can stick their photos up there for people to view. Johnathan Coulton went out there and viewed a couple of pages of random pictures and made this song & video about what he saw. Again, this video is watchable on youtube here, but I'm pretty sure that Johnathan actually made this video himself. It's crazy how it's super random, and yet such a good song! Even if I couldn't see the pictures, I think I'd still love it, but having seen the pictures it's just that much better. Again, there's 1 or 2 little moments that may make you blush, but nothing too bad. They could definately play this song on the radio without having to edit it. And watch for my favorite part: Dwyer! haha.
Mmm-K. Go watch, listen, and enjoy!
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4 comments:
Interesting stuff. You caught my attention when you said "You're free to use it whatever you want without fear of getting sued or anything." Unfortunately, it didn't look like redistribution (say in a movie) was an option. =(
Well yeah, you probably can't do anything that would make you money using it. But you're free to just USE it whatever you want. For example, I'd be nervous about showing my movies to the masses (say, on a public access television channel or something like that) due to copyrights on the soundtracks I used, but using this wouldn't be a problem. At least that's the way I understand the Creative Commons License.
I am glad that you are back in the blog. I have missed hearing from you. I love this idea of podcasting music. For some reason I feel the need to "stick it the man" when it comes to music corporations and podcasting is a great new way to do that--of course in my rebellion I am sure to follow all laws...sigh. So much for being a rebel. :)
I agree that Flickr is great. I like the dwyer rocks out and that landlord never learned to spell. It made me smile. The music harks back to some Beatles roots I think. I like the recorders.Very nice.
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