OMG Shoes.

I can't resist any longer.

I have to write a post about Liam Sullivan.

The only reason I even tried to resist is that I'm pretty sure most people already know who he is and have seen "Shoes," at least. I first saw "Shoes" about 2 months ago, and it's just too great not to link to. All his skits are really funny. But I think this is my favourite:

Hard-Hitting Questions


So, rather than write a lot about these funny skits which are self-explanatory, I'll leave you with this final thought:
Liam Sullivan has almost single-handedly made me want to start doing sketch comedy again. I haven't felt this way since The Kids in the Hall in 1994. No amount of MadTV, Saturday Night Live, or even Mr. Show has inspired me so much.

You can watch all Liam's other skits here.

World's Smallest Political Quiz

Most my friends know I'm not the most political person in the world. Sure I have some opinions, who doesn't. But I don't talk about politics a lot and don't care much for many politicians, either.

That said, I'd like to share something with you. This is a quiz that I have heard about time and time again online- over 3,000,000 people have taken this quiz to help figure out where they are politically aligned. It is a rather highly acclaimed quiz (many quotes at the page from all kinds of sources exclaiming how good a resource it is). I am fascinated at how many people seem to forget there is more than just "right" and "left," and who seem to think they fall into one political category or another when they actually don't. So, whether you are someone who has never quite known where you are aligned, or you think you are pretty sure you know where you are aligned- whether you talk about politics all the time or could care less about getting into a political conversation, I encourage you to take the world's smallest political quiz. It's painless and takes like 30 seconds, and you might be surprised at the results.

Quiz Here!

Double Dutch

Over the past two days I've discovered two thoroughly amazing things from Amsterdam.

The first was the result of a search for "Free Design" on youtube:
Orchestral Pop Duo Bauer. WOAH. Where have you been all my life, Bauer?? Apparently in Amsterdam, that's where. And also on the web at these convenient locations:
bauer-plaza.com
on myspace
on youtube watch "Save" and "I'm No Prototype", but start watching here, why not!


The second was the result of perusing their website. I found they had listed a link to the visual works of Persijn Broersen and Margit Lukács- mostly video, some other stuff I'm unsure how to describe, partially due to some language barriers (although I'm surprised how much ik kan lezen and understand thanks to German), but also it's just a dense website with so much to explore. But to help, here's a place to start:
pmpmpm.com
Here is something where they removed subjects from newspaper images, just leaving the backgrounds. Very cool.
And I really liked these two music videos. Both take a moment to get into, but it's worth the wait. I think I like the one from 2002 best. Very clever interaction with the song and very well done using just stock footage, as far as I could gather.
Not sure what this is, but it's so beautiful!!

I hope you'll go check out these links! It's the stink of the day in the very best way.

Now You're On Your Own

My first rock show on cello:


By no means a perfect performance, but a fun one- I think it's not too bad, and you can actually kind of hear it on this one. Right now there are two other videos up from this show at Dolour's youtube page. That evening I also played keys, synth (keytar!), glockenspiel, melodica, and sang (none of which can you really hear in the other videos), so I was running around a lot on a tight stage, but it was worth it. We had lots of fun!

i | ichc

Sorry to inundate you with so many posts right away, but ah, what a perfect follow up to yesterday's last post because it's true- i | ichc.

Last night the hubby and I were just watching some teevee, when I remembered something funny he and I had laughed about a while ago- some pictures of cats with funny captions that I'd seen someplace online. I know, I know- sounds like I'm about 40 years old right now, but I'm not. The thing is, these cats keep coming up all over the place when I'm cruisin' the net. Well, last night I discovered they are called lolcats (sometimes lolcatz, with a z) and they can be viewed at i can has cheezburger?

Here's a GREAT example:


After laughing so hard at the first few that we had to pause our DVR, we decided to just turn the TV off all the way, and we proceeded to spend maybe an hour just scrolling through them and laughing together. It was somehow such a better way to spend the evening than watching Southpark. Apparently, lolcatz are becoming more and more widespread, more people know about them. This is good. I want to do my part to spread the word because I laughed so hard and want you to, too.

I was reading one person's thought about "i can has cheezburger" and the success of lolcatz, and their opinion was that by adding captions to animal pictures, we are admitting that we do prescribe personalities to our pets, and we do believe them to be somewhat human- but the unique grammar and spelling of lolcatz' captions implies that if they do act human, they sure don't speak the exact same language we do, and when they try, they have their own way of doing things. I think this is great.

Go explore them, I hope they make you laugh until you cry, like they do for me.

The Whiff of Love- Or, "The Day I learned to |"

|

Apparently this little mark | now denotes "love" in internet lingo?

This is something I just caught a whiff of about three days ago. And now I'm noticing it EVERYWHERE.

I want to know how this kind of stuff gets started. Who came up with that? And who decided it was such a good shortcut that they wanted to perpetuate it? How do you invent a new symbol and get others to know what it means? If I were to write:

I | You! Would you assume it meant love? Because it could mean a lot of things...
Or maybe the first time it was written was at the closure of a letter:

Lots of |,
So-and-so

(Lots of what now?)

You can all thank me later for enlightening you to this new symbol. Go ahead, start using it. Sure, it's less keys to tap than spelling out "l-o-v-e," and yes it's easier than finding the alt + number combo to get the little black heart symbol, and it's mos def less ugly than <3... but really I don't get it.

Oh well, I'm whiney now, but I'm sure I'll be using it before you know it. (I used to hate text messaging, too...)

Alright, | y'all, you |ely |birds,
Gwendo|

Fruity Candies

I've been loving the latest ad campaign for Skittles and Star Bursts. It's like they hired my friends from highschool to create them or something.

Singing Bunny:


Berries and Cream Lad:

(the kick at the end is the best.)

Bearded Man:


Earlier today I found a pretty awesome blog that reviews candy, and does a really great job at it:
Candy Blog!
(Also- takes nice pictures of candy, and they can be viewed on flickr here.)

From Galoob

Micro Machines have come up in conversations twice within the past week. One time I initiated the topic, but the second time was completely out of nowhere by one of the guys in the band I'm playing in these days (Dolour).

Micro Machines are notable to me because I never liked car-type toys as a kid. I liked She Ra and Barbie, My Little Ponies, and Glowworms (even though I could never get the big one to light up because I couldn't squeeze hard enough)...

I secretly wanted the dolls you could turn into a cupcake... I just saw a new version at Walgreen's the other day, brought back all kinds of memories about how I would never admit to liking something so overtly ruffly and girlie (as though ponies and Barbie aren't girlie enough already?).


(I just tried to find a commercial for these dolls, but all I could come up with was this:)


Anyway, so I thought Micro Machines were cool because they made even me want to play with cars. Here's a commercial for them- I still think these are great toys, and kind of want to build a little city and play with some right now.

Silver Jubilee- Jaan Pehechaan Ho

Today I came across this clip by way of the myspace page of a friend named Toshi. I guess it's from a scene in the movie Ghost World, but I have never seen that movie so for me it really came out of left field.

Here's what I like about it:
- I like that it's got a 50s style lead singer, 20s style flapper dresses, surf-music coming from a big band stand with Indian lyrics, and everyone is wearing masks.
(Which, I'm sure all make perfect sense if you understand the language, and have seen the rest of the movie.)

- Haha, the sound that is supposedly coming from the guitars...

- Please note how ungraceful the women's leg movements are- their toes are often turned in for a good knock-kneed effect or just appear sloppily planted for some other reason, and the lead woman's facial expressions are extremely hard to interpret. I like this.

- Ruffle blouses

- Also, yes I realize this isn't western, but from a western standpoint, this has got to be some of the weirdest choreography I've ever seen. And I've seen Starlight Express.

Why do you like it?

Welcome to the Stink.

Recently a friend of mine suggested I blog about things I find on the internet. "But I never find anything on my own," I said, "I am not that original, I always get tuned in to stuff by way of everyone else." He quickly reminded me that that is how anyone ever finds anything on the web. Oh yeah, that's true.

So this is a new blog for putting links to all the stuff online that crosses my path and that I wish to hurl at the path of the rest the world, or at least my friends who come and read here. I may not be the first one to know about all these fun things, but at least I can share my personal "journey of discovery" with you all- the journey I like to call "Virtual Stink."

Expect links to:
- YouTube
- Flickr
- Other blogs
- Websites
- N' other stuff.
- I will probably explain about the things I'm sharing, or talk about why I like or don't like it.

Don't expect:
- To always see things you've never seen before.
- Me telling stories, unless they are somehow related to the stuff I'm linking to.
- Any regular flow of updates. I have no idea how frequently I'll post.