Some of you may have seen an ad featuring Gene Kelly breakdancing floating around the web over the last few months. Give that thing a view. I know “A-list” blogger Jason Kottke saw it way before I did, and posted an interview with one of the dancers, who calls himself Elsewhere.

I’ve probably watched that ad about 20 times. I absolutely love it, and I love that style of dancing even more. And apparently so does ne-o the vid house that put the ad together, because they also did another really sweet music video for a song called “Late at Night” by Futureshock. In the video, dancing is portrayed as an odd kind of contagious disease. Nothing could be more true! Flee the dancers, dear readers, or they will soon blight us all! The security guards are my favorite. Especially the fat one. That guy rocks.

The really odd thing is that I was into Elsewhere back in April or May. I was Googling his name, looking up information about him, and generally being fascinated. And I thought to myself, “Wouldn’t he be great to have in an iPod ad?” And about two weeks later this ad came out. I’m pretty sure he’s the shadow we first see on a green background (but how could you ever tell?) simply because his moves are so distinctive. What say you?

United State of Electronica is now on iTunes! Check it out. They even have a few remixes that weren’t in their online copy of the album.

I’ve been dreading writing this entry for some time, because I know that if I say everything I want to say, no one will read it. Not much use writing to myself, right? I’ll break it down for you.

Two months ago I wrote about an EP Beck had released that I loved. I wondered aloud if the album would sound like the EP when the album was finally released.

The album, titled Guero (short for “whitey”) came out five days ago. It doesn’t sound like the EP, but it’s okay because it totally rocks.

To find out a bit more about the album, watch or listen to the interview Beck gave on KCRW in Los Angeles last Thursday, or the one he gave to the BBC the day before that (with some really great videos there).

Notable tracks: E-Pro, Qué Onda Guero (wow), Girl, Black Tambourine, Hell Yes, Scarecrow, Go It Alone, Farewell Ride… who am I kidding? Buy the frickin’ album, cheapskate! It’s all good.

Beck is now unquestionably my favorite artist. Yes, that means I like him more than I like U2. Or Harrod and Funck, Daft Punk, John Mayer, Caedmon’s Call, The Flaming Lips, Lemon Jelly, and everyone else. Just check out my Audioscrobbler stats if you don’t believe me.

I just realized that some day someone is going to make a classy, well-done movie about Bono’s life, kinda like they just did for Ray Charles. Maybe not in the next decade or two, but it’ll happen in our lifetime. I’m looking forward to seeing it.

Any moments you’d especially like to see?

I’m so excited. Today is a great day for iTunes, because they’ve finally added the main collection of Daft Punk. Guys, I can’t tell you how much I love some of their songs. Some of them also suck, but there are a few that are like the sweetest candy, dipped in wonderful, and served on a silver slice of radical. Daft Punk has two songs in my top seven most played songs in iTunes, and Digital Love is actually #1. That song is worth $10, not 99 cents. Go get it. Please.

Oh, and Daft Punk just released a new album today (on iTunes too, naturally) called Human After All so you might want to check that out too if you like what you hear from their direction.

If you know their stuff, or are just being introduced to it now, what do you think?

I’ve been really enjoying Nintendo’s creations lately, and I wanted to take a minute to tell you why, and announce something new I’m going to do on my blog periodically. Read on for the full text. I’ve got a lot to say.

Continue reading “Nintendo DS” →

Simpsons fans, be certain to check out this video (it’s in Windows Media, sorry) of Dan Castellaneta (Homer, Krusty, Grandpa Simpson) and Harry Shearer (Mr. Burns, Mr. Smithers, Dr. Hibbert, Kent Brockman) doing several of their voices on Conan O’Brien’s show. It’s fun stuff, and it’s just under 4 minutes long.