Two Girls, One Bike

Posted by MajorLB

File this one under "How the Hell haven't I heard of/seen this before?"

Part figure skating, part BMX, and part circus horse acrobat show. Somewhere around the 3 minute mark they move to just one bike.

A Camel Up A Hill

Posted by MajorLB



Yes this is juvenile. Yes, this isn't that well made. No, I do not care.

Music from last year

Posted by MajorLB



All of December you pretty much can't get go to any website with running smack into some top ten or top 20 list of the year. This year was particularly bad because it was the end of a decade. While I never do one myself I enjoy the music lists because I either discover good music I missed or I have my opinions/tastes validated. A good friend of IR's @BryantBone provided a top 20 songs list that I quite enjoyed. In the comments, however I told him that he was missing two things on the list.

1) Seattle Hip-Hop but I think I may have already shared some a couple of times


2) David Bazan

He's been around awhile, formerly with Pedro The Lion, but this year he release Curse Your Branches and toured with a full band. I was lucky to see him at Neumos earlier this year with Say Hi and Sea Navy. I'm beyond stoked to see him this Friday in some stranger's living room.

This is my favorite song at the moment, but you should really check out the whole album and his myspace page (even though only the first song on there is from Curse Your Branches). Side note: I'm quite sad Myspace has taken over imeem

I Heart Seattle A Lot

Posted by MajorLB


I may not be a native and I may not have lived in Seattle very long, but as I sit here I'm trying to figure out how I can get back to Seattle (and out of Ogden) as soon as possible. Even if it's only a few hours earlier than planned. I love Seattle and it's home. I love the weather (no, seriously - most of the time), the views, the food, the music, and of course most of all the people. It shocks me to think about how many people weren't part of my life last year this time. I can't wait to get back to Seattle where I can breathe again.

Luckily someone put some of my sappy Seattle-loving thoughts into a song and made an awesome video:

Learn more about the video by Zia and Macklemore

It's my party and I'll cry if I want to dammit

Posted by MajorLB

I could go on and on about how I don't like birthdays. Actually I love birthdays as long as their not mine. It has nothing to do with getting older or anything, I just hate the whole awkward day. I'm not much of a crier. I don't cry in movies or at sappy stuff and generally don't get emotional in front of other people. However, I realized today that I have cried on a disproportionate number of birthdays.

Since I have no shame here is a breakdown of the ridiculous reasons I cried since I was 8:

8th - I had to wait until I turned 8 to get my ears pierced, so on my birthday we went to the mall. I chickened out though and then was so pissed at myself that I totally broke down and the day was pretty much ruined.

9th - I had a sleepover with cupcakes that went pretty well until the morning when one of the other little bitches was mean to me. Not only did I cry but I hid in my closet for an hour hoping that everyone would go away. True story.

10th & 11th - I don't remember so I'm gonna go ahead and say I didn't cry. +2 points to me

12th - At least this one wasn't for bullshit emotional reasons. I had a horrible case of foot fungus (so gross) that was making the skin totally fall off and was really painful. Luckily we were in Thailand so my uncle bought some mysterious prescription cream and it cleared up. :)

13th - Technically not on my birthday, but I threw a bday/NYE combo party coming off my success of a Halloween party that year. It did not go well. Food was thrown. There was yelling.

14th - I was sorta emo that year so I probably cried...

15th - I found out we were moving to Nebraska. J/K I don't remember this birthday at all.

16th - I failed my driving test. The guy was an asshole.

17th-20th - I don't remember my birthdays during college. Infer what you wish.

21st - I don't specifically remember crying but I did have the lamest 21st birthday ever.

22nd - For no good reason I cried in the middle of a Banana Republic Outlet store. Hey, everyone reaches a breaking point after 8 days in Ogden, Utah.


Now just try to get this song out of your head:

Merry Christmas from IR again

Posted by MajorLB


This video is of Kseniya Simonova from Ukraine's Got Talent. Usually these foreign American Idol knockoffs are a really good source for a laugh, but this one not so much. This women manages to "paint" or tell a story with sand, creating something amazingly beautiful and also sad. So, yeah, Merry Christmas...

H/T Roger Ebert who is a surprisingly good follow.

Hugs are the Devil

Posted by MajorLB

So much goodness in this song and video. First off, they are completely serious. And I'm glad they are here to warn me of the evils of frontal hugs. All these years I've been hugging my parents and friends without really knowing the dangers. Also, please note that it's always the girls that come at you with open arms and a look in their eyes, so please leave room for the holy spirit because Jesus never hugged anyone, apparently.

(H/T Tabitha)

My Missed Chance at Stardom

Posted by MajorLB


I hate posting two music videos in one day, but if I had known this video was coming out I would have totally skipped the cover this morning. I could have been one of those people in the crowd if I had just gotten out of bed that Saturday. Alas, without finding someone else to go with I didn't have the motivation and have now forever missed my chance to be in a rap video. DAMN

If you liked the song (I do) you should check out more of Fresh Espresso, my favorite local Seattle hip hop that I'm most excited to see at GO! MACHINE this weekend. I know their CD is on iTunes and CDbaby. They were also the inspiration for this amazing t-shirt.

Who doesn't love a cover?

Posted by MajorLB




Sometimes I really need a pump up song to get me going on a Monday morning. However, after a long holiday weekend and 2 weeks away from my physical office, I'm not quite ready for a real pump up song. Therefore I present an upbeat song (Get into the Groove by Madonna) performed in a much less upbeat way by The Solvents.

(H/T to Sound on the Sound)

Halloween PSA

Posted by MajorLB


With Halloween approaching and on a most fortunate day of the week (please tell me you know it's this Saturday) I wanted to remind you about the rules of Halloween:

1. Wear a costume
2. Hand out treats
3. Never blow out a Jack-O-Lantern
4. Always check your candy

5. Stay alive

Blu and David Ellis COMBO

Posted by MajorLB


I'm pretty sure DWheezy has shared some stuff from Blu before, but I'm too lazy to link to it and just want to share this video where he teamed up with David Ellis to make this sweet animation video. Oh and it's a loop!!

COMBO a collaborative animation by Blu and David Ellis (2 times loop) from blu on Vimeo.

Archrival Interns Do It Again

Posted by MajorLB


I almost didn't post this because most of my Nebraska friends will see this through Facebook and Twitter today and the next few days, but then I remember that the majority of you Hop Ons aren't affiliated with Nebraska.

IR has seen these guys before and they deliver another funny, well-produced video to help you get to know them a little bit better.

Personal Things from Dan Sheppard on Vimeo.

goodspaceguy Might Be My Hero

Posted by MajorLB



Yesterday was an election day for King County (Seattle's county), but it's not a big deal because elections are done by mail. Part of the thing that comes in the mail is a pamphlet explaining each candidate. Amongst the candidates for King County Executive (no, I have no idea what this position does) I found a real gem: Goodspaceguy


Click to read (highly recommended)




As seen in the above his blog is http://colonizespace.blogspot.com/ which contains this blurb:

Question 1: What are your priorities, especially as they relate to parks and green spaces in Seattle?

Answer: I, Goodspaceguy, want to increase access to the parks by increasing free parking, and I want to increase access by keeping the parks always open, (for example, for lovers and for gay astronomers) and by providing showers for users of the parks.

Seriously try to read the 1st and 3rd paragraphs of the pamphlet entry outloud and not laugh. Impossible!

They Practiced This

Posted by MajorLB


I'm hoping to see DoubleM and RossAM demonstrating this move at Wheezy's wedding.

Air-dersh

Posted by MajorLB

Lately, I've been very nerdy.

I'm reading this book for the second time and it's awesome. Seriously, if you like history, math and intrigue this is your book. And then somehow I spent 20 minutes of my life trying to find a audio pronunciation of Erdős because pronuciation keys utterly confuse the hell out of me. I could rant on and on about pronunciation keys but the title of this post is my interpretation of the pronunciation. I think it would be totally awesome to have an Erdős number, but it's never going to happen (nor am I trying).

Anyway, I wanted to share this website with you. Sixty Symbols. It explains a variety of math/science/physics/quantumstuff symbols in the form of a short video. To be totally honest the videos can be a bit boring even if they are about sweet topics like black holes (see below).

I think you just can't change the nature of the people in the video. But this lady's hair is awesome. And it's by far the best symbol anyway.

And one more for the pretty vortices.

My latest obsession: The Lonely Forest

Posted by MajorLB

No, not The Lonely Island although they are indeed funny.

I didn't have internet at home for 3 weeks. It suucccked, especially since I'm kinda like the very beginnging of the Web Site Story musical. It appears the rest of IR has been pretty busy with their real life as well. I mean Ross got married, Wheezy is planning a wedding and DoubleM still has that son.

I can't let us go a full week without posting though so I'll share my current music obsession. I found out about them through Sound on the Sound which provides some awesome coverage of Pacfic NW music happenings and great photos from @musicandmoxie. They also happen to be semi-local. They're from this place called Anacortes, WA. The other thing Anacortes is known for is a strait that besides being gorgeous has a BA name.

Anyway, here's their album on imeem. If you're only gonna listen to one song then start with We Sing in Time.

The Lonely Forest

Even "GraphJam" can be made dirty

Posted by MajorLB


Through the joy of the Facebook news feed and a tethered phone with unlimited data plan I found this website called GraphJam. It's part of the icanhazcheesburger family so maybe this is totally old news. Whatever these two graphs made me laugh. This first one is for everyone who maybe enjoyed Twilight (book or movie) but really doesn't understand the obsession.


see more Funny Graphs

The second is for pretty much all of my friends from college and my friends that read this blog.


see more Funny Graphs

Pretty accurate.

Sasquatch Recap

Posted by MajorLB

Sasquatch is at the Gorge Ampitheater in George, Washington and is fucking B-E-A-utiful. There are two stages and a comedy/dance tent in edition to the main stage ampitheatre. I really didn't like the main stage which is a shame because there were some really good acts on it. The lawn was too steep to sit on comfortably for any length of time and the sound quality is not that great and the energy is just dead (at least during the day). Instead of being able to listen to Animal Collective I heard about a lesbian crush, fear of sexual inexperience, and how someone almost got into a fight from the girls behind me. So, while Animal Collective, The Doves, The Decembrists, TV on the Radio, M Ward, and Silversun Pickups were all very good they just weren't that grat of experiences. I now know to get closer or go stand at the front. Erykah Badu came across the main stage really well, too bad most people were at Girl Talk. And the Fleet Foxes were pretty awesome especially with the gorgeous scenery:



Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band
This was the first band I saw off the main stage and it got me excited to be at the music festival. Their matching vests are cute and I loved the chick's energy and the interesting percussion instruments. I wish the other guy would've sang more and that they would have actually had the chick's mic on from the beginning.




Bon Iver
This was probably my favorite set of Saturday and I'm quite pleased that I left the Yeah Yeah Yeahs for this. The had some technical difficulties which made them start super late and kept them from being able to play some songs (Woods maybe? which was sad), but overall I was super impressed with the way the album translated to a band and a live stage. If you haven't listend to his album or EP - DO IT and if you get the chance to them do that too.


When I was going back to camp (by myself because my friends are LAME) after a few minutes at Crystal Castles and Kings of Leon (I've seen them before twice as you know) I ended up on this access road and saw them loading up their gear:



Fences
This was enjoyable, but I wasn't super impressed considering all the good stuff I heard about this guy beforehand. Maybe it was the TERRIBLE sound engineering on this stage. He probably cussed at the feedback between every other song. It was a good lead-in to the nap I took during St. Vincent right afterward. (She was really good, but the blanket in the sun called to me.)


Of Montreal
Yes yes yes yes yes fuck yes. Why did I miss them when they came to Seattle? Oh right, I'm an idiot.

I happen to like the music (a lot), but even if you don't you sorta have to appreciate the show that Of Montreal puts on and I can only imagine how much better it is when not in a festival setting. There were many costumes (fogging jacket anyone?) and props and people in tiger masks climbing the scaffolding, but my favorite was actually the picture below. At first you're like "why are all this people coming on stage and taking pictures of the crowd and doing random shit?" and then the freeze in unison for a minute and you take a closer look and realize it's OTHER ARTISTS. Sweet! I know it's a shitty picture, but who can you identify. There's the guy from Fences in the front left and so is the chick from Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band.

Shoutout to M83 which played right before Of Montreal. I liked.

Horse Feathers
Biggest Regret - not getting my shit together in time to come and here there set. I only caught the last 1 or 2 songs as walked to Santigold when we got into the venue. Albina is probably one of my favorite songs. Seriously, check them out. I will definitely see them live if I ever get a chance.


Santigold
Santigold is the only artist I went down to the front of the main stage. It was suprisingly eay and I should have done it more often, but lots of the main stage acts (during the day at least) were more mellow and I was too lazy to stand for them. It made a huge difference though from my complaint above about the main stage. Sound and energy was better and Santigold rocked it even if it was mainly the songs from her album which you can hear all over TV (seriously I think 8 out of 11 were licensed for TV usage).

I also got to see a litte wrestling down there. I have no idea what this guy did because he got picked up in the middle of the crowd and security was trying to get him out of the crowd when I saw it. My favorite thing about this is how unsympathetic the crowd was. (now security didn't have tasers because that's a whole different thing I can rant on) This guy did something stupid and now a guy 3 times his size is wrangling him and yet he resists. One guy recording it did say "we gotta keep it fair" but otherwise people went and got other security and made joking comments to the guys whining. "What is he doing to me?" "He's gonna fuck you if you don't get up"

School of Seven Bells
I had never heard of these guys but I would go see them again in a dark venue because they definitely didn't look like they belonged in the sun.


What What

I saw this during the Knux (which was sadly meh) and stopped eating chicken fingers long enough to take a picture for those who will appreicate it. If you don't get it then click the links.

I actually like the Knux music and enjoyed when they did Bang Bang but after that there wasn't enough actual performing going on. As I walked away I heard them play MGMT from the sound system (and probably rapped over it) and that was enjoyable...



Other highight was Aziz Ansari. Fucking Hilarious! Except the Raaaaaaaandy stuff was meh but I'll still see Funny People.

I saw Sasquatch and lived!

Posted by MajorLB




No, not that one. This one. 3 days, 2 nights of sweet bands and sleeping on the ground. It’s AWESOME. Except for the sleeping on the ground part. I’m not that prissy it’s just really cold and uncomfortable.

Unfortunately, the lineup was too good and I had to make some tough decisions that not everyone appreciates (no I did not see NIN, sorry). These are the bands I saw at least part of:

Saturday: Kings of Leon / Yeah Yeah Yeahs / The Decemberists / Animal Collective / Bon Iver /  M. Ward / Doves / Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band / Arthur & Yu /  Crystal Castles

Sunday: Jane's Addiction /  TV On The Radio / The Murder City Devils / of Montreal  / M83 / The Walkmen / St. Vincent  / Fences / Aziz Ansari

Monday:Erykah Badu / Silversun Pickups / Fleet Foxes  / Santigold / Explosions In The Sky / Girl Talk / Blitzen Trapper / The Knux / Monotonix  / Beach House  / School Of Seven Bells / Horse Feathers

Music ended pretty early (before midnight) so there was plenty of time for camper-sponsored raves and property destruction. Check back tomorrow for my highlights, but in the mean time enjoy Spin’s photos by the very talented Alex Crick and this little gem that occurred during The Decembrists. I wondered why everyone stood up and clapped mid song…

Yeah, the security guard does give a fist pump to the crowd.

Really, I'm trying to punish myself

Posted by MajorLB




As you can see from the poll at the right, I lost the Immediate Regret TV station draft. Normally the punishment involves watching the worst movie on Rotten Tomatoes now playing and organizing the next draft (which turns out might actually be the worst part of the punishment).

Unfortunately, there really haven't been that many totally shitty movies out in wide release, but I have left the losing poll up to remind myself that I owe all you bastards who didn't vote for my awesome network lineup readers a shitty movie or some other form of pop culture torture.

Feel free to make suggestions, but right now I'm thinking a High School Musical marathon and a complete listen to the Heidi Montag abortion of an album.

If you really think I need to go to a theater to make the embarassment public then find a movie playing in the Seattle metroarea and I will do so.