Whistling in the dark » videos

Photos in Copyright Criminals by tacet

Yaffa — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 00:06:20 +0000

State of Everyday Madness pt. 2

Yaffa — Sun, 08 May 2011 22:18:05 +0000

Video by tacet for Ghost K – State Of Everyday Madness (Strings n things Remix)

Inspiration for the lyrics from tacet

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Ghost K – State of Everyday Madness featuring tacet

Yaffa — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 23:34:31 +0000

Inspiration for the lyrics from tacet

Kickstarter: Replacing the N Word with Robot in Huck Finn

Yaffa — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 22:55:44 +0000

Seu browser não suporta iframes.

Only 49 hours left! Watch the video – back it on kickstarter.

$1 will get you a pdf and a part in a completely brilliant plan. More will get you art, robots and jewelery oh my!

Watch the video, really, to see why they’re doing this.

Happy Belated Halloween from TVTV

Yaffa — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 20:43:29 +0000

Enjoy this Halloween special for Transylvania TV that I helped to fund via Kickstarter.

Andrew Marr Show and Carolina Chocolate Drops

Yaffa — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 12:48:23 +0000

Kev and I caught the tail end of The Andrew Marr show…extremely amusing to watch the Carolina Chocolate Drops performing Blu Cantrell’s “Hit ‘Em Up Style.”

Andrew Marr getting really into it, Harriet Harman uncomfortably tapping along to the rhythm with her hand, William Hague who you could see from behind sitting completely still and possibly stonefaced.

Thank you Andrew Marr for that inspired bit of television.

Imogen Heap Math

Yaffa — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 00:45:10 +0000

Visual equation: Sarah Silverman + Fraggle = Imogen Heap. The gig was at the Sage in Hall One. They had a small pit at the front similar to what they had for the Futureheads.

The drive to the Sage was a bit dicey. At one point there were sheets of rain coming down with hardly any visibility. Many cars were stopping on the shoulder to wait it out.

We listened to the Cathy Davey CD from last night still really good.

I’d been listening to Ellipse for a good chunk of the day at work. Could have also been listening to Frou Frou’s Details - happy making she sang Let Go based on the crowd’s votes for 12 songs on the setlist via her website.

She was plugging her new DVD which was just released on the 1st. It sounds interesting Imogen Heap’s Everything In-Between: The Story of Ellipse [DVD].

The bright lights on the stage meant I couldn’t take decent pics on my phone the way I did last night but couldn’t resist trying to capture her with the Keytar :) Also in cartoon format here.

The tree in the set was beautiful, lighting up in different colours with instruments hanging in the branches. She uses a head mic plus mics on her wrists so she can brush up against random instruments and also briefly used wine glasses as in Miss Congeniality.

On of the best bits of the gig was three part harmonies with the crowd on Just for Now. We were in the middle section and I got to hear Kev sing * swoon* . Video below is of a sing along at Webster Hall in NY.

Setlist for the Sage Gateshead is available on Imogen Heap’s website »

The Divine Comedy

Yaffa — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 01:29:42 +0000

Going to see The Divine Comedy at the Sage Gateshead tonight. Official The Divine Comedy site and links to facebook, myspace, twitter and youtube – pick your poison.

Happy Halloween!

Yaffa — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 20:02:17 +0000

Record Club: INXS – Kick

Yaffa — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 22:33:21 +0000

How the heck did I not know about this. Beck gets together with his ridiculously talented pals to just play music – a cover of a cd with no prep but really great production value – awesome.

His vimeo stream is here. Most recent Record Club is actually covering Yanni but Michael Hutchence-era INXS has a special place in my heart. Enjoy!

Record Club: INXS “Guns In The Sky” from Beck Hansen on Vimeo.

Record Club: INXS “New Sensation” from Beck Hansen on Vimeo.

Record Club: INXS “Devil Inside” from Beck Hansen on Vimeo.

Record Club: INXS “Need You Tonight” from Beck Hansen on Vimeo.

Record Club: INXS “Mediate” from Beck Hansen on Vimeo.

Record Club: INXS “Loved One” from Beck Hansen on Vimeo.

Record Club: INXS “Wild Life” from Beck Hansen on Vimeo.

Record Club: INXS “Never Tear Us Apart” from Beck Hansen on Vimeo.

Record Club: INXS “Mystify” from Beck Hansen on Vimeo.

Record Club: INXS “Kick” from Beck Hansen on Vimeo.

Record Club: INXS “Calling All Nations” from Beck Hansen on Vimeo.

Record Club: INXS “Tiny Daggers” from Beck Hansen on Vimeo.

Way to keep me entertained while watching football

Yaffa — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 12:53:10 +0000

Add a bagel with cream cheese and lox and we’re golden.

Gregory Liszt’s Deadly Gentlemen at the Cluny2 in Newcastle

Yaffa — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 22:38:32 +0000

Went to see the Deadly Gentlemen at the Cluny 2 in Newcastle this past Wednesday. It was a Jumpin’ Hot Club gig – they put on lots of folk, alt-rock good stuff on in the area.

Serious Sam Barrett opened. A guy from Leeds singing country…I had an amusing misheard lyric moment on one of his songs. ”She’s as pretty as the hair on the mossad? what?!!…spoke to him between sets to ask him what he was singing…She’s as pretty as the heather on the moorside - makes a lot more sense. : )

Gregory Liszt is the banjo player from Crooked Still. We saw them at the Cluny 2 also. They are amazing and the venue was packed that night. Greg Liszt was very entertaining and as soon as I saw this new project he was doing was coming I immediately bought tickets. I was stunned that there weren’t more people at the gig, maybe people were scared of winter weather.

Happy to document a very fun gig (their first ever in England). First off they are really talented musicians – Mike Barnett on fiddle, Stash Wyslouch on guitar, Sam Grisman on bass, and Greg Liszt on vocals and banjo. They bring to mind a cross between Chris Thile and Mike Ford from Moxy Früvous bluegrass mixed with speed, the ability to communicate lyrics that are super-quick and clever. See for yourself.

Love Hobo Rockstar cause it reminds me of Kitteh and Pip.

Kitteh and Pip the Laugh-Out-Loud Cats

Shot videos while my battery lasted with Greg’s blessing (I asked before they went on stage). Shot it with my new Kodak Zi8 with the internal microphone. The neat thing about the Zi8 is that it can also take an external mic (though I didn’t bring one).

I was pretty close (2nd row) and there was an empty seat in front of me that I could lean the camera on as a makeshift stabilizer. The Zi8 is pocketsize and many people mistake it for a largish smartphone. Nope, just a decent pocket video camera that shoots HD. Should have also brought another recent purchase a portable, rechargeable power supply for when your battery runs out…oh well.

Shot the videos up until the battery went dead which to be fair I didn’t charge it before I left the house so it was on half strength from shooting random stuff.

Wish it would have lasted to the end. The encore was especially great. The small but enthusiastic crowd cheered them on to get back on the stage. They agreed to play another song but did it unplugged, off the stage – near the door with the crowd on their feet. I was not even 2 feet away from them. It was in the dark and awesome.

It would be great to see them in a festival setting like the Cambridge Folk Festival; they’d be loads of fun in one of the tents. The next night they were going to be at Celtic Connections in Glasgow. Check out their myspace page for upcoming gigs.

Random extra info: At one point during the gig, Greg asked if anyone in the crowd or the band plays a banjo. He thinks they’re cool and that people should pick it up. Just don’t give one to a beautiful woman anonymously according to this ask.mefi thread. The consensus is it’s creepy.

Eurasian Woodcock in our garden

Yaffa — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 11:00:14 +0000

The video is shot by Kev from our living room window. I looked out the window and asked him what it was, he had no idea. Turns out the woodcock is a shy, nocturnal bird so it is rare to see one. We used the excellent RSPB bird identifier to figure out what it was.

One of the things I have enjoyed about living in Hartlepool and having a garden is learning the names of birds. Our garden gets visits from starlings and blackbirds, woodpigeons, robins and sparrows. We get loads of seagulls too. This past year we had a bunch of baby seagulls on the roof. Growing up in Brooklyn and reading a lot I could tell you that robins and sparrows are small birds…I couldn’t pick them out of a birdy line-up.

We have a friend who is really into birds. When we go out with him and his wife we look to him to help identify birds. He asks us questions like what did it look like and what did it sound like…we respond (like Mrs. Swan on Mad TV’s “he looka like a man”) it looked like a bird, it sounded like a bird.

We’re getting a bit better. I bought a great book for kids about identifying birds in your garden. It’s meant for kids to keep a log of the birds they see and includes stickers. : ) And, it seems like I am enjoying part of a trend. A comedian we love Bill Bailey (from the brilliant Black Books and his own standup) now has a show about Bird Watching.

Other birds from our garden:

Video Games Live at the Sage – 25 Nov 2009

Yaffa — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 17:42:30 +0000

Kev and I went to see Video Games Live at the Sage – Northern Sinfonia performing music from video games.
Possibly the only time we will see Northern Sinfonia at the Sage decked out in Threadless Gaming T-shirts.
Kev was wearing:

I was wearing:

Would have been just as happy wearing:

Some photos from the evening:

The show was good fun. Multi-generational audience. Our only lament was that we weren’t seeing it in the US or Japan where it would have been sure to sell out and more people would have been dressed up.

Jack Wall was the conductor, Tommy Tallarico was the MC. It turns out he composed the music to one of the games I used to play Earthworm Jim (also loved the cartoon). Martin Leung the video game pianist also performed including a rendition of Super Mario blindfolded. There was also a skype video chat with Marty O’Donnell.

You can watch a good chunk of it with the youtube playlist below.

Hair

Yaffa — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 10:56:52 +0000

I could relate to this trailer. I desparately wanted straight hair when I was a kid because it was shiny. Can’t wait to see this movie.

Ranting about ads: Jeff Buckley

Yaffa — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 17:07:05 +0000

In the last year there have been two commercials screened on TV promoting yet another post-humous Jeff Buckley collection. Below is the original advertisement for “So Real: Songs from Jeff Buckley.”

Original cover

Links to new TV ad

After Alexandra Burke won X Factor (UK singing competition with Simon Cowell as a judge/producer) and the winner’s song was announced as a cover version of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah a grassroots effort was made by the UK public (facebook group) to bring Jeff Buckley’s single to Xmas number 1 instead.

For fans, Alexandra Burke’s gospel-ly version just seemed to miss the point unless it’s ironic but according to this article that does not appear to be the case.

A cheap attempt to capitalize on this fervor came in the form of a new TV ad and CD cover being released.

The new advertisement attempts to capitalize on the X Factor tie-in by increasing the font on “Hallelujah” obscenely, larger than the artist’s name. It also appeals to the same maudlin tactics the television show is skewered for by focusing on the tragedy of his death (in a new print ad and tv ad). On this season’s X Factor, what should have been the personal tragedies and triumphs of the contestants, was spun in an endless parade of PR and airtime, there was a contestant with a dead wife, one with a dead mother, a new baby sister, a dead almost grandmother, etc.

Just thought the bad taste should be documented. When I saw the new ad it made me want to throw up and throw something at the TV. Instead I ranted at Kevin and now I bring the joy to you.

And now for my cheap attempt to capitalize: Amazon Jeff Buckley Store.

Aqualung with Sara Bareilles at Hiro Ballroom 12-March-2007

Yaffa — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 17:33:03 +0000

Went to Hiro Ballroom, straight from work. This is my third show there. Lee was meeting me there. Met a couple of nice, interesting people Jason and Kate (I feel really bad because I’m not sure if his name is Jason or James – it was something with a J) and asked to share their booth. The opening act Sara Bareilles was good. Her voice sounded a bit like Sara McLachlan with Norah Jones and some slight Tori Amos going on. Not bad singers to be compared to….

Aqualung were fun as ever with a mix of old and new songs and cute banter. Pressure Suit is available as of today. I finally have a women’s aqualung shirt….damn American Apparrel….some of their XLs fit and some of them don’t….the cute Memory Man shirt fits! Lee and I both wanted shirts, the trouble was they didn’t take credit cards and we didn’t have cash so we ran out to get money from a nearby ATM (at the bodega where I ran to get batteries during the Robyn Hitchcock/Mark Pickerel gig)….the stupid machine wouldn’t take my card but did take Lee’s card. We ran back and the doors to the venue were closed….we weren’t too worried because the drummer was outside smoking a cigarette but I had left my camera with Jason and Kate and we definitely needed to get back in there….thankfully Jason thought to come out to open the door for us….

We then got to talk to Matt and I asked him to sign the Strange and Beautiful poster I got at the closing Tower Records (R.I.P) for me and Kevin….Kevin sent me their music originally and Strange and Beautiful and Brighter than Sunshine were a part of our soundtrack for our long-distance relationship. We used to listen to them together/apart.

Below are photos and videos from the show and a link to their CDs on Amazon:

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Strange and Beautiful

(Music)

Artist:Aqualung
Manufacturer:Sony
Released:17 January, 2006

Memory Man

(Music)

Artist:Aqualung
Manufacturer:Sony
Released:13 March, 2007

Mark Pickerel Video is on the Bloodshot Records Site

Yaffa — Mon, 27 Nov 2006 12:50:08 +0000

Saw Robyn Hitchcock & The Venus 3 on November 17th. Mark Pickerel former dummer of the Screaming trees opened. He had a very cool dark Sun Records vibe to him and he’s cute. He was also a nice guy – after the show he told me to email his record company with the stuff I shot. Link to their site with the video I shot.

His Cd is worth getting and apparently his dad drew the amazing cover below.

Snake in the Radio

(Music)

Artist:Mark Pickerel and His Praying Hands
Manufacturer:Bloodshot Records
Released:09 May, 2006

Video of Mark Pickerel performing Forest Fire:

For a great look at Sun Records – originally saw it at a midnight showing at Doc Aviv:

Good Rockin’ Tonight – The Legacy of Sun Records

(DVD)

Manufacturer:Image Entertainment
Released:08 October, 2002

Robyn Hitchcock & the Venus 3 plus Mark Pickerel

Yaffa — Sat, 18 Nov 2006 00:31:31 +0000

Went to the Hiro Ballroom tonight to see Robyn Hitchcock & the Venus 3 (Peter Buck, Scott McCaughey and Bill Rieflin) plus an opener I didn’t know. Opener Mark Pickerel was very good. I love it when it when I get exposed to new music I like in an opening act. He had a neat, dark Sun Records vibe. He is the former drummer for The Screaming Trees. And also a nice guy based on the short conversation we had after the show.

Robyn Hitchcock was in excellent form…during his banter he brought up the recent excellent story that has come out about elephants going crazy.

Mark Pickerel : Forest Fire

Popout

Robyn Hitchcock : Snippet of Madonna of the Wasps
Popout

Snake in the Radio

(Music)

Artist:Mark Pickerel and His Praying Hands
Manufacturer:Bloodshot Records
Released:09 May, 2006

Olé! Tarantula

(Music)

Artist:Robyn Hitchcock, The Venus 3
Manufacturer:Yep Roc Records
Released:03 October, 2006

Good Rockin’ Tonight – The Legacy of Sun Records

(DVD)

Manufacturer:Image Entertainment
Released:08 October, 2002

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Jason Mraz and Toca Rivera @ Housing Works

Yaffa — Tue, 18 Oct 2005 16:00:13 +0000

Jason Mraz and Toca Rivera @ Housing Works – July 27, 2005.

Jason Mraz and Toca Rivera at Housing Works Used Book Cafe.

All proceeds for all performances at this venue benefit Housing Works an advocacy and aid organization for homeless people living with HIV/AIDS.

The venue was so packed and sweaty it should have been group sex…it was my first real exposure to Jason Mraz – he was a cross between the laidbackness of John Mayer/Jack Johnson, the wackiness of early Barenaked Ladies mixed with random innocuous boybandness though most of his fans would probably kill me for saying so…

Another version of the audio here.

Great fansite here.

Chunt Lee

Yaffa — Tue, 08 Jul 2003 06:57:04 +0000

Saw the midnight showing of Chunt Lee by Asaf Livny and Nir Waxman at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque. Silly and fun nonsense Kung fu by Israelis. A lot of singers are in this see the cast list at the imdb link.

Update: