Safe As Milk

Nice Hat.

Available at The Velvet Vulva.

I shit you not. And there is sound, so be careful (and amazed!).

[Al, thanks for the heads up]

Link to the page with all the info, a bunch of stills from the short, some desktops, and other goodies. Definitely worth checking out.

And here is a link to the movie. It’s a big file but it’s really funny.

Here’s the link. I forget how much good music REM has made. There are some great songs on that list.

I think it would be tough to come up with a personal top 25 REM songs. I know they have the catalog to support a list that big but that’s too much of a list for me to come up with. I know I can come up with a top 5. Hell, I bet I could even stretch it to 10 if I took some time to research it (but that’s not going to happen) (ETA: I started out with just a Top5 but I was leaving too much out so you get 10). My problem is that I am unfamiliar with their earliest and most recent releases. Plus I kind of hated Out Of Time because I got hammered over the head with it when it came out.

My Top - 5 10 REM songs:

10. “It’s the End of the World As We Know It (and I feel fine)” - This one might not be the 10th best REM song but there was no way I could leave it off my list. It’s still a lot of fun to sing along to and I think I even know most of the words. Document was the first REM album I got into (I know, I was late to the game) so it’s got a warm spot in my heart.

9. “Turn You Inside Out” - REM’s Green tour was my first concert. I love how big this song sounds.

8. “Crush With Eyeliner” - I wasn’t a fan of REM’s “rock” album Monster but I thought this song kicked. And it was such a refreshing change from the folkiness of ‘Losing My Religion’ that I really got into it.

7. “Swan Swan H” - Life’s Rich Pageant is best known for “Superman” (which is a great song) but ‘Swan Swan H’ has turned out to be my favorite. “Hurrah we are all free now!”

6. “Everybody Hurts” - “Automatic For The People” is a classic, classic record. What I love about this song, and so many of my other favorite songs, is that I can sing along at the top of my lungs without a hint of shame. And as much as they played this back when it was new I never got tired of it. Such a sad and beautiful song.

5. “Losing My Religion” - I hated this song back when it was new. It was everywhere and the band just seemed so pretentious then that I boycotted “Out Of Time”. I have since grown to appreciate how pretty that song is. It’s just good music.

4. “Try Not To Breathe” - Another one from Automatic For the People”. I can’t put my finger on what it is about this song that I love, I just love it.

3. “Finest Worksong” - The opening beats of the first song on the first REM album I heard still hit me as hard as ever. With the added bonus that I can understand most of the words in it! I go through a “Document” phase every so often and this song guarantees I start from the beginning every time.

2. “Can’t Get There From Here” - Back in the 1985 my neighbor Geoff Hammond was the only REM fan I knew. And he was a huge fan. He had a rice cake that Michael Stipe threw into the crowd at a concert. He kept it like people would keep a drum stick or guitar pick from another band. And when I asked him what REM sounded like this was the song he played for me. I was too into Run/DMC at the time to appreciate it but the seed was definitely planted that afternoon. Thanks Geoff.

1. “You Are The Everything” - I can’t really explain why I love this song without getting into some mushy details of a whirlwind high school romance. I’ll spare you the gory details and just say that this song played at the absolute perfect moment and for that I am thankful. You don’t get too many perfect moments in life and this song was the soundtrack to one. Cool.

So there’s my top 10. What might yours be?

Ethan sez:

What are you talking about? You knew me in ‘85. I was full album ahead of you, too. My uncle Bobby tipped my dad to Life’s Rich Pageant and I was hooked. (Geoff showed me that rice cake, too).

I read over at Stereogum that Polish radio (!) had leaked the new Oasis single but I got to the link too late to get it.

This bums me out.

So that plagarist story is apparently an (awesome) April Fools joke.

I just read this update at boingboing:

“Update: It’s an April Fool’s Day hoax. Shannon sez, “the student doesn’t exist, that school is a Christian school (that doesn’t teach a course on Hinduism), and it’s hosted on a comedy troupe’s site that’s trying to promote it’s new show, and their webmaster is spamming blogs with their story under a variety of fake names.”

Oh well. Still a good story.

College student Laura K. Pahl went research paper shopping out on AIM and she got a nibble that ended up biting her in that dumb, dumb ass of hers.

Here is Laura K. Pahl’s story.

And probably delicious!

Yes, that’s Ron Jeremy.

[Courtesy of Engadget.]

This is the funniest thing I have heard in a month.

“Most people don’t realize, in 1957 — if you were black, and you were an astronaut …

… you were out of work.”

The Old Negro Space Program.

[thank you, Kung-Fu Monkey]

Croatian Keytar Phenomenon!

See her in action. It’s mesmerizing. I watched the whole damn thing.

[I found this gem at ckelly's ink]