Ah, the wonders of Chatroulette: advertised as “instant video-chat” with complete strangers, in my experience it’s mostly a place where young desperate men log on to, erh, yank their crank for all the world to see. That and loads of badly lit, pasty white fat guys with watery eyes wearing day-old underwear. Some fun to be had there too though:
The BBC is currently broadcasting a superb documentary series about the internet and how it will change any and all of us in the future.
Last night’s episode, Homo Interneticus, was all about social networks such as Facebook and how they influence our lives.
At the end of this episode, an online test was mentioned which attempts to determine how you behave when online, in animal terms.
Of course, I had to take it. My result:
You are a Web Hedgehog
Slow-moving – Web Hedgehogs are careful internet users, taking their time to find the right information – just as the real-world hedgehog carefully searches out insects and berries.
Solitary – Hedgehogs lead mainly solitary lives and are happiest foraging for food of their own. In the ecology of the Internet, you also prefer to go it alone, rarely relying on information on social networks or other sites whose content is created by its users.
Specialised – The hedgehog relies for protection on its highly specialised ability to roll into a spiky ball. Similarly, your test suggests you are a specialised web user, best suited to concentrating on one thing at a time rather than attempting to multitask.
Yourself?
Test requires (painless) registration and about 20 minutes of your time.
Die Beistelltische is a German sextet (from Göttingen) that performs Frank Zappa’s music a cappella. In 2007, they contributed a special edit of their a capella version of ‘The Idiot Bastard Son’ to “20 Extraordinary Renditions”, that was released on Cordelia Records. Check out their hilariously funny and offbeat a capella version of ‘Billy the Mountain’ which bounces back and forth between German and English. Are you hardcore, enough?
(more…)
Funny little anecdote about Zappa’s typical way of dealing with musicians. Act one goes like this:
Just to be sure that Mr. Piano had a fair chance at the reading part of the audition, Frank gave him 2 pieces of music to work on a week before the audition was to take place. One of these pieces is called “The Black Page” which was pretty dense with notes and a real challenge to play. Challenge enough that Mr. Piano kind of gave up learning it as precisely as needed and decided he was good enough to wing it during the audition instead.
Fatal mistake #1! Keep reading for a nice twist at the end.
(Via Paul Carr)
Concert details to be found here. Some more information over at EarBox, written by the conductor. Gotta love the introductory paragraph:
OK, all you Zappa heads out there in the audience. I can recognize you a mile away because of all the midriff bulge, the surfeit of facial hair and that “show me” scowl on your faces. I just hope you’ve not already been served for illegally making your own unlicensed “Burnt Weeny Sandwich” tee shirts.
Heeeee!
(Hat tip: David Ocker)
I honestly like those tiny little (previously unknown) factoids that time after time see the light of day and reveal something we did not know before. Here’s something I know you all were wondering about (just like I did), and this is one more reason why one should follow the ZPZ reviews:
Dweezil proved an easygoing frontman, (…) explaining song titles like “RDNZL,” pronounced Redunzel a contraction of redundant and Repunzel.
Finally. There were several guesses before, and the New Knowledge is already on the site Information Is Not Knowledge as well.
A unique glimpse into Zappa’s creative process as Frank Zappa and members of his Rockin’ Teenage Combo rehearse “The Radio Is Broken” from ‘The Man From Utopia’ on September 27th, 1980 at the Utility Muffin Research Kitchen.
(more…)
Ha! Picture this:
On Sept. 9, 2009 I experienced something that I still am having trouble believing happened to me. I came into the possession of a cassette tape containing a Beatles album that was never released. I dont expect you to believe what happened to me, I sure wouldn’t, but thats why I grabbed the tape as proof that my experience was real.
...