Scarlett Letters

Why is it Video Saturday? Mainly because the Web today is full of awesomeness.

First, with thanks to solcita for the tip: Dame Shirley Bassey sings Pink's "Get This Party Started." She wipes the floor with every pop singer who's ever claimed to "sing."

Remember the cartoon video of the cat trying to wake up its owner? Turns out that it's part of a series being done by an artist in the UK and there's more feline goodness! The series is called "Simon's Cat"and there are two more videos that must be seen. You can see them all here.

Lastly, I'm going to voice my no doubt unpopular opinion about Joss Whedon's Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. ( I'll do it under a cut to prevent spoilers and to limit the crankiness. )

I'm floored by the comment Adam-Troy Castro has posted on his SFF.net community about "After This Life." Totally floored.

Good day? Yeah, so far, so good. :-)

...to bring you the latest in pop culture meta.

Some of you may remember the momentary lapse of reason that was my discovery of the Dramatic Hamster video on YouTube. In that same LJ entry, I linked to an article we ran on Tech & Gadgets about the most popular viral videos on the Web.

It's a good thing I've seen all those videos, because it allows me to truly appreciate Weezer's new music video for their song "Pork and Beans." The song's about individuality. They've chosen to riff on all those great viral videos to make their point, and they were able to recruit almost all of the original characters (and I choose that word very deliberately) to appear in the video. It's a stellar work of pop culture meta and really ought to be seen. Once you watch it, go watch the behind-the-scenes video, and read an interview with the director.

Clever, clever stuff.

(With thanks to my co-worker RU for the tip.)

PS--Yes, I'm feeling better. :-)

jaylake has started another community fiction project over at his LJ, called "A Walker's Guide to the City of Axqa." Some fun, atmospheric stuff over there, and well worth reading. Yes, I've contributed. Go read.

Flying Spaghetti Monster statue at Tennessee courthouse

Says the article:
"Some members of the local chapter of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster have gotten city approval to erect a statue of 'His Noodly Appendage' outside the local courthouse."

And there's a picture.

Please remind me to write an extensive post on my thoughts and reactions to seeing a production of RUR at Open Circle Theater this past weekend. I have heard about this play my whole life, and through the good graces of lisagail I finally got to see it. (For those not in the know, this is the circa 1920 play that gave us the word "robot" and perhaps the first ever piece of science fiction theater.)

If you don't already know, fantasy author Terry Pratchett's been diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease and has donated a million dollars toward research. jaylake is joining the effort to "Match It for Pratchett" by, among other things, spearheading a matching effort at Norwescon this weekend. See his LJ for more details. Or, you can simply go here, make your donation, and tell them it's in honor of Pratchett yourself.

The ancient world seems to be giving up its secrets lately, especially over the last two weeks:
Ancient temple unearthed near Inca capital
Ancient graves, jewels unearthed in Greece
Rome subway site home to ancient treasures
Mastadon skeleton up for auction on eBay: Get your prehistoric mammal right here!

And for your amusement, I give you the country's worst baby names. Enjoy yourself, at some unfortunately named child's expense.

On Super Tuesday, Tim Gunn (Project Runway's style guru) takes a look at politicians' fashion sense (or extreme lack thereof) on Newsweek.com. Gunn's in top form, though I wish the interviewer harped a little less on Hillary and looked at the other candidates, too. (Just discovered that the others are covered in the related slide show gallery; be sure to click through.) Some great stuff here, but the money shot is Gunn's take on George W.

I love Tim Gunn. He's just a delight.

KK sent me a link to this comic, which pretty much says it all about the African safari experience.

Politics: Know what I hate about election season? How networks and pundits condemn candidates on the basis of one or two votes. John Edwards has it right in this regard: Only a tiny percentage of Americans have participated in primaries and caucuses so far. The fat lady hasn't even begun clearing her throat yet. Ain't nobody done, and I don't think anyone will really be done until Super Tuesday. Only then will I buy who's done and who's not. Maybe I'm naive. Maybe I don't really understand how all this works. But I really think that two states' worth of primaries isn't enough to figure out who's in and who's out yet.

I'm glad to see Clinton's success in New Hampshire. Obama talks about hope and he's a terrific orator—God knows we need some inspiration in this country right now; people are looking for it. But I want to hear him talk more specifically about policy and direction. "Hope" and "change" as concepts are great but pretty general. (This was my issue with Howard Dean years ago--he seemed to be all about passion but not specificity. Even his phoners who called to ask for support couldn't answer questions about his positions and policy.) I'm glad to see John Edwards staying in. I want to hear more from him.

Work: On a different subject, but one still covered by the media, it's fun to see coverage of the Consumer Electronics Show on the big networks when it's something I'm also working on at the office. It's been all-consuming the last two days. Our CES site turns over something like twice a day, so I'm furiously building Web pages, editing and posting images, and scouring our partner sites for the best stories. I feel like I'm a little tiny part of something big. Fun stuff. The only problem with it is that it gives me the greedies for new technology. ::want want want:: Must be strong.

And for your entertainment, in case you haven't seen it yet, take a look at the video Bill Gates showed at CES about his coming last day at Microsoft and his search for a new job. It's pretty funny and there are some great surprise guest appearances.

I hab a code in by doze. And apparently my throat, a little bit. I'm staying in bed to see if I can shake this before or by tomorrow. My junior boss had a 24-hour thing right before the weekend; maybe I got what he had, in which case I should be okay for tomorrow's festivities. Right now, however, I suspect I won't be seeing much of the new room today. I've felt worse but I'm feeling pretty darn crappy right now.

To take some of the sting out of the sickness, I've aggregated some holiday links from my flist so people can find the goodness easily. Also, so people can be amused. I think there's something here for almost everyone and I've added some stuff just to keep it all interesting. Enjoy!

Norad tracks Santa

All about O-Shugatsu

Video: A Festivus for the Rest of Us

Video: What's your favorite part of Chanukah (puppets confess)

Video: Santa visits the International Space Station

Bizarre December holidays: Personally, nextyear I want to celebrate National Gazpacho Day, Mitten Tree Day, National Cotton Candy Day, and most importantly, National Chocolate-Covered Anything Day (that would be December 16, for those of you keeping score)

Bad Christmas sweaters

Video: Chinese food on Christmas

Purple monkey dishwasher!