Categories
Music

The Flaming Lips Cover “Bohemian Rhapsody”

It’s going to confirm my old fartdom, but I’ll admit it anyway: I’m old enough to remember the days when Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody came out and got played on Top 40 radio. Hence it warms my heart every time the song goes through a revival, whether via Wayne’s World, or more recently, by way of the Flaming Lips covering it at concerts in spectacular fashion:

Photo montage of the Flaming Lips covering Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody”
Click the picture to see it at a larger size.
Photo courtesy of Miss Fipi Lele.

Here’s a video of that performance:

And if you’re too young to have ever seen Queen’s video, here it is (and yes, it’s the original, not the one with the scenes from Wayne’s World hacked in):

I think it’s time I learned the chords for this song and gave it the accordion rock treatment.

Categories
It Happened to Me

I Made “Reader of the Day!”

Conservative columnist Mark Steyn declared me his reader of the day on his site:

“Reader of the Day” sidebar on Mark Steyn’s site

The quote comes from my recent article on the Conrad Black case. Alas, thanks to some sloppy editing on my part, my quip is missing a couple of key words. It should read (and after editing, it does now):

While I have not been following the details of the Conrad Black case, the fact that such questionable characters such as Mark Steyn and Elton John defend him doesn’t help his case as I am concerned.

I don’t often agree with him, but I’ve got to hand it to him for taking it with good humour. Cheers, Mr. Steyn!

Categories
Accordion, Instrument of the Gods It Happened to Me Work

The Office Accordion

My original accordion, a Titano student model, has been through a lot, from the streets of Accordion City to Burning Man to saving my butt from a mugging in Prague (see this story for details). In spite of a few broken chord buttons, some missing key tops and a slight air leak, I can still get some sweet sounds out of it.

These days, I keep it at the TSOT offices in case of emergencies. You’d be surprised at the number of times having an accordion handy has paid off.

Joey deVilla playing accordion at the TSOT offices
Click the picture to see the video on Facebook.

Last week, I did a quick little medley at the office, and my coworker Dan Williams shot some video of the event and posted it on Facebook. If you’ve got a Facebook account, you can see it here. I’ll see if I can get the video from Dan and post it someplace a little more easily accessed, like YouTube.

A friend of Dan’s saw the video, and she commented that if it were posted on a dating site like LavaLife, I’d get responses like crazy. The accordion has already served that purpose, but maybe it’s time for me to give lessons.

Categories
Uncategorized

Poster of the Day

“Had enough? Vote Democrat” poster featuring hypothetical Republican campaign buttons.
Photo courtesy of Miss Fipi Lele.

Categories
Uncategorized

Snappy Answers for Stupid Hippies

Hippies

Here’s the intro to my favourite article on Valleywag today:

Biodiesel. Hemp. Local sustainable farms. Hippie tech is infuriating. You know in your engineer’s heart it won’t work, but because it’s outside your field of study you lack the handy stats to rebut the moonbat ideas evangelized by modern-day hippies and their shiny shiny cousins, the ravers. Before Burning Man starts up again in earnest, I’ve prepared canned comebacks and bookmarkable URLs from hippie-approved sources like Wikipedia and GreenBiz.

Categories
funny

Seen on the Subway This Morning

Here’s a photo of a poster I saw on the train on the way to work today:

“Window Wonderland” poster with the line “Ryerson students must create holiday window displays on a budget of $100. Come down and see how they fair.”

A quick reminder:

Categories
In the News

The Obligatory Conrad Black Joke

Conrad Black stars in “Let’s Go to Prison” - Coming March 2008

While I have not been following the details of the Conrad Black case, the fact that such questionable characters such as Mark Steyn and Elton John defend him doesn’t help his case as I am concerned.