Sunday Brunch: Oren Lavie

I haven't remembered to do a Sunday Brunch post in awhile, but as I'm sitting here getting ready to head north for the Warrens Cranberry Festival (!), I thought I'd take a moment to share a really lovely music video I stumbled across the other day. It's a good song, but the video takes thing to a whole other level of awesome. Please to enjoy, and have a great Sunday!

Sunday Brunch: Puppy!

Yesterday, me and my fella hopped on our bikes and pedaled our way downtown to enjoy the first outdoor farmer's market of the season. We couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day, too! I remember first outdoor market days of years past that were dreary and cold and rainy, so the 70 degree and mostly sunny weather was a most welcome change.

As we rolled up to the square and went to lock up our bikes, we caught a glimpse of this sleepy little boxer pup, who was so thoroughly zonked out in her mother's lap that I had to wonder if there was even a small trace of wild animal left in her bones. Anyway, the image was too friggen adorable not to share, so here it is, your moment of zen:
And a close-up:

Sunday Brunch: Conservatives go nuts for teabagging

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I love you Rachel Maddow.

Sunday Brunch: Late night ska edition

This, this right here is a piece of fine musical history, folks: A live performance of the song "A Message To You" as played by the Pogues and with guests Lynval Golding, Joe Strummer, Kirsty McColl, David Byrne, and more. This is definitely one of those shows I would have paid good money--or risked sneaking past bouncers--to have been at, had I been of age.

Sunday Brunch: Edwardian Ball

Part of the motivation behind throwing the Fire Ball was to give those of us interested in the so-called "steampunk" aesthetic to dress up accordingly. I've been fascinated by the whole genre for awhile now: I love its combination of history, science, sci-fi, and DIY ethos. And it's catching on around the world.

The second annual Edwardian Weekend in San Francisco (also a de-facto steampunk convention) happened this January, and someone with a camera was there to document the action:

Who doesn't love an excuse to get dressed up and play with mechanical toys? Crazy people, that's who.

Sunday Brunch: Bo-de-ga

Food for thought on this, the second-to-last day of Bush II's presidency. Man, that feels good to type.

Sunday Brunch: T-U-R-T-L-E Power!

I challenge anyone who was roughly my age when this movie came out if they claim they never memorized at least part of this song.

Just sayin'.

Sunday Brunch: Sausages

Ah, Kids in the Hall. How I do miss serialized doses of your insane, delightfully Canadian brand of comedy. Well, barring DVD purchases, there's always Youtube to bring back some of my favorite sketches. This one is probably one of their most absurd, for sure, and has stuck with me ever since I first saw it so many years ago. I share it now with you all:

Sunday Brunch: Stand By Me

I'm in such a good mood about the election, so I feel like this video is appropriate for our brunch today. If only things were as simple and beautiful as sharing a song. And the idealist in me asks, why can't they be?

Sunday Brunch: Send me a BMX angel

I'm just on a bike-themed movie clip roll these days, but I can't resist when they're just this good (and hey, looks like other folks have picked up on the awesomeness that is Lady is the Boss, too!). Recently, I was sent this amazing clip from the 1986 BMX movie Rad. So inspired by the beautiful absurdity of it, I was inspired to sit down and revisit the film in its entirety (jealous?). It is, in fact, a crap fest--but one that includes some pretty decent bike stunts, hilariously awful clothes and hair, a very young Lori Loughlin, and they also somehow manage to get away with making an actual bike company--Mongoose--into the villain. Hey, I ride a Mongoose, and it's a fine bike, damnit! Does that make me a villain?

Anyway, enjoy:

Sunday Brunch: God and Breakfast

In yet another bout of shameless self-promotion, today's brunch comes courtesy of Rob and my latest Wis-Kino short.

I should mention that I normally never ever eat Cap'n Crunch, and that doing so throughout the course of filming caused my stomach to feel like someone had poured a bowl of acid-covered angry kittens into it, and my mouth to become scraped and sore. Gross.

But I did get to pretend to be God, so hey, that was kind of neat (see: delightfully blasphemous!).

Sunday Brunch: Protein synthesis super hippie freakout!

Oh man, if I had been shown this film when I was studying protein synthesis back in school, I might have been compelled to pay more attention and actually retain the information. Or, it's entirely possible I would have been so distracted by the hilarious hippie science orgy taking place that it would have all gone over my head anyway.

Regardless, it makes me happy to know that this is still shown in some classes, and I am pleased now to present it to you in all its glory: "Protein synthesis: An epic on the cellular level" as produced by the Department of Chemistry at Stanford University in 1971 (featuring, if you can spot him, Frank Zappa!).

Sunday Brunch: Rasputin

A friend of mine stumbled onto this gem of a song the other day, and I feel absolutely compelled to spread the joy.

Grigori Rasputin: the "mad monk" of Russia, spiritual adviser to the last Tsar and his family, hard man to kill, and, I think most noteworthy, inspiration for one totally rad song.

First, the original, as performed by German pop group Boney M:


Then, the equally awesome folk-metal take on it by Turisas:



Enjoy!

Sunday Brunch: Shameless self-promotion

I very happily stumbled onto an old video project the other day, and after much wrangling with my poor DSL connection, got it uploaded. This is one of my only directorial projects (I'm usually more inclined just to act or make music), made for Wis-Kino back in March of '07, so while not the most fabulous piece of cinema ever devised, I'm somewhat proud of it. That dashing lady in the film is my sister, who was kind enough to do what I told her to do for one afternoon while she was in town. The music is entirely of my own devising, with guitar work by my good friend and bandmate, Justin. Enjoy!

Sunday Brunch: "The Mad Kings"

Moving is dead. Long live moving! As an aside, I'm still floating on air over how well the show went, so for this Sunday Brunch, I give you a small snippet of last Saturday's entertainment, for those of you who missed out. Oh and, this one is PG rated, so no worries if you're at work.



I'll be back to a regular blogging schedule tomorrow, so prepare yourself for musings on the National Poetry Slam happening here in Madison, plus bits about ridiculous business practices in Belmont, and more.

Sunday Brunch: One (wo)man band

I can play the drums and sing at the same time, which I happen to think is a pretty cool skill (I enjoy it, anyway). Still, I have limits. This lady? She does not seem to know what limits are, and the result is totally rad:



Plus, it's a good song. It's win-win.

Sunday Brunch: "Deadly Sinners"

Well, rain and storms have been blowing through our little town, putting the kibosh on the Waterfront Fest. I was excited about the festival because it's basically in my front yard and I could just sit on the front porch and listen to good music all day. Sadly, nature had other plans, some of which involved breaking a few trees (seen right).

So, as Wisconsinites once again ride out flooding and severe storms, forced to forgo outdoor activities yet again, I offer up this little tidbit of joy, a fan-made video for "Deadly Sinners" by 3 Inches of Blood. Rock!

Sunday Brunch: "Heart's Desire" and building bike trails

Yesterday morning, I had the distinct pleasure of learning about and helping to create new mountain bike trails. I'm still a relative newbie when it comes to mtb, but you could say that I'm already hooked and the more I can learn about what goes into the sport, the better. It was a perfect morning for it, too, with warm temperatures and a good breeze to help keep the insects away as we worked in the middle of a fairly dense forest.

Amazingly, with the help of a few pros, the group of about ten of us managed to carve out around 100 yards of completely new trail in the span of an hour and a half. We worked with three main tools: pulaskis, McLeods and cutters. It helped that there had been rain a couple days before, as the ground was nice and soft without being too soggy.

It was good to get out and work like that, and to learn something new and relatively useful. I'm hoping to get out more in the future, both to ride and to build/maintain.

But, on with brunch! Today's offering comes courtesy of my good friends over at Blame Society Productions (the folks who brought you "Chad Vader" and other such gems). A parody of hair-rock ballads that is both horrifying and strangely compelling, this is the music video for a song by the character Rocker Jimmy Samson, from their "Morning Radio Mysteries" series of shorts. Enjoy!

Sunday Brunch: History Lessons with Kate Beaton

Happy Sunday! What a weekend. Yesterday I went to the Farmer's Market, where an Art Bike rally was making its way around the capitol square as part of the kick-off for Bike to Work Week. Classic Cars on State stretched from the capitol down until construction truncated the scene, and a small contingent of Anonymous were parading around in their V masks, telling people the truth about Scientology. Crazy, man, crazy. Then last night, the MAMAs celebrated Madison musicians down at the Barrymore, and I played a gig with the Shabelles over at the Great Dane afterwards.

Consider me pooped.

So as I'm sitting here, watching "Reds" (Jack Reed and Louise Bryant were fascinating characters), I'm naturally thinking about history. In an effort to educate you all further about some of the many and varied episodes and people from history, I want to direct your attention to Ms. Kate Beaton, who has done a great deal to edify and instruct us all with her historical illustrations. An example:

Take a look around her website, learn, and enjoy!

Sunday Brunch: "Don't Wanna Come In"

Me and my fella went camping this weekend up at Buckhorn State Park. Write-up is forthcoming, natch, but in the meantime, I thought I'd offer up this video, which rather succinctly sums up how I felt about coming home today.



Normally, I wouldn't post a video of a woman talking to her cat (even if the cat is hilarious), but I'm making the exception this time because the woman in question has an English accent. English accents make just about everything better.