Changes - Presidential Candidates Singing To A David Bowie Beat

Thanks to Sully for grabbing this video. Be patient, the good stuff starts at about the one minute point.

Oh yeah, cover your keyboards and yourselves to avoid the splashing bullshit.

Nine Minute Sopranos

Somehow I missed this excellent and well edited summary of all nine seasons of The Sopranos. Enjoy.

Ricky Gervais African Appeal, Sort Of

Thanks to Andrew Sullivan for posting this absolutely brilliant Ricky Gervais piece. Please be sure to stick with it all the way.

Wilco - Thanks I Get

If, like me, you have heard a very catchy tune as part of a new VW campaign, you may have wondered what the song was. It turns out that it is called "The Thanks I Get" by Wilco. The song was apparently recorded as part of the sessions that produced their excellent new album, "Sky Blue Sky". However, it was not included for some reason in the album as released.

I don't have a problem with the band using the VW commercials as a way of getting their work out to the public. I just wish there was a way to get hold of an decent audio version of the recorded song.

This video is a performance of the song done earlier this year, before "Sky Blue Sky" was released.

Update: The Youtube video above has now been removed. As an alternative, try this link to a performance captured in Chicago on 2/18/08 for as long as it is up. Thanks to commenter Brian F.

The Big Lebowski - They Peed on my Rug

The Dude, Walter and Donnie set up the plot for the Coen Brothers superb California pastel update on film noir. Jeff Bridges, John Goodman and Steve Buscemi shine. The timing is marvelous.

The Beauty Is Not About The Fame

Here is a 1970 BBC video of Joni Mitchell performing her wonderful song, "For Free", accompanying herself on the piano. Enjoy.

The YouTubing Of Hillary Begins

Andrew Sullivan posts a YouTube video today that is based on the famous Apple Computer 1984-style ad. The ad is by an anonymous Obama supporter a brings out what is frightening in Hillaryspeak.

One interesting and fun point about the video: notice that the hammer throwing rebel now is decked out with the obligatory iPod. MP3 players were certainly not available back in the days of the first Macs. Their near universality today leads me to feel that they would have been better placed on the countless automatons raptly, if besottedly, listening to Hillary's speech.

Are YouTube and MySpace Enabling Narcissism Or Communication?

The ABC evening news the other night presented a story reporting on a new study that asserted that college students today are more narcissistic than preceding generations. One of the "symptoms" of this narcissism, according to the psychologists doing the research, was the wide popularity of YouTube and MySpace:

"Current technology fuels the increase in narcissism," Twenge said. "By its very name, MySpace encourages attention-seeking, as does YouTube."

Their thesis seems to be that this generation has been over-encouraged since childhood to see themselves as special. The practice of lavishing praise on all participants in sports, school activities, artistic endeavors, etc may have been well intended, but has now left us with a generation that is isolated and regards itself as undeservedly wonderful. Thus, sharing my every action and thought with the world via the internet is worth doing because all I do is inherently interesting. Anyone even quickly perusing these videos and sites available celebrating the self will discover vast quantities of pointless, irrelevant and stupid contributions. The same can certainly be also said for the blogosphere, present company occasionally included.

But, let me proffer an alternative view of the popularity of self-expression on the internet. America and much of the West has become a very disconnected society. We cling to our diversity-sanctioned subgroups. Neighborhoods in suburbia are partially defined by the planned play of our children. Parents schlep the kids to play groups, soccer practice, violin lessons, etc. Gone are the days of unprogrammed play via which children found each other, decided who they liked, invented their own play and came to know one another intimately. By the time kids arrive in high school, usually mixing for the first time with kids from other middle schools, they must try to socialize by presenting who they are to their new peers. This can be a very dangerous exercise in the highly stratified and cliquish adolescent high school milieu.

To survive this social environment, each young person will often withhold any part of their personality that could label them as an out-group member, subjecting them to potential banishment. Black raincoats and guns can become the only avenue remaining for some in that circumstance.

In a front page review of a first novel by Tom McCarthy, Leisl Schilliger reminds us of a valuable lesson from Jean Paul Sartre in "Nausea":

In Sartre’s novel, Roquentin keeps a detailed journal to convince himself of the singularity of his existence, taking care not “to let any nuances or small facts escape, even if they seem insignificant.” He argues that “in order for the most banal event to become an adventure, it is necessary, and sufficient, to retell it.” But if you get too caught up in the retelling, do you lose track of the reality? Roquentin decides it doesn’t matter. “Man is, above all, a storyteller,” he reasons. “He lives surrounded by his stories and by those of others. He sees everything that happens to him through these stories; and he tries to live his life as if he were recounting it.” As for authenticity, he scoffs: “As if there could be true stories! Things happen one way, we tell them in another.” (Emphasis added.)

In this view, YouTube, MySpace and the Blogosphere are nothing more than attempts, often admittedly desperate, to tell the world our story, to proclaim our personhood. Equally important, these media allow us to hear the stories of others. In this exchange we can overcome the separateness imposed by an increasingly separated and dangerous world. The internet is the modern extension of the verbal storytelling traditions of ancient ancestors.

I don't see that as a bad thing. It is a necessary adaptation facilitated by the new technology.