The Daily Marmoset

Your Favorite Destination on the "Next Blog" Superhighway.

Monday, June 30, 2008

Monday Mario!

This really is amusing. Some of the audio is rather unsafe for work.




One of these days maybe I'll write something instead of just putting an M word after Monday.

Friday, June 27, 2008

Carpe what?!?!? (Friday WTF)

This Friday WTF is an important (albeit awkward) public service message.



Good advice. Now let's never speak of this again.

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Thursday, June 19, 2008

Chimp-a-palooza

This very special Daily Marmoset post is a birthday gift, dedicated to my favorite brother, the Marmoset.

I'm burning through a months' worth of potential Friday WTFs here, so he better appreciate it.





This one is so much better than the human version:


and, saving the best for last:


Happy Birthday, you crazy kid. Why don't you go back to your old stomping grounds and get yourself something pretty?

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Rock on

Editor's note: The recent post on the passing of Bo Diddley reminded me of a different post I'd been meaning to write for a while.

Back in March, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame had their annual induction ceremony for a new crop of members. Part of why it took me 3 months to get around to mentioning it was that the list of new inductees left me feeling sort of, ehh.

I'm happy for the Dave Clark Five, a highly underrated band from the 60s. Same goes for the Ventures; the Hawaii Five-0 theme song alone probably earned them a spot. After that, though, John Mellencamp is ok, and I don't really have much of an opinion about Leonard Cohen or Gamble & Huff (songwriters/producers of the 1960s and 70s). My dislike of Madonna, however, knows no bounds, and pretty much eclipsed all of the other, more deserving candidates.

Then, I noticed the last name on the list: "Little Walter" Jacobs (1930-1968), the greatest blues harmonica player of all time. Nobody but semi-recovering blues fans like me has ever even heard of Little Walter, but he was amazing. The Essential Little Walter is probably my favorite album of all time. You know the stereotypical blues riff, the one that absolutely everyone in the world knows? Da DAAAAAA da dum? Guess who made it famous? OK, Muddy Waters made it famous. But who was the harp player for the Muddy Waters Band who actually played it? You guessed it. Little Walter.

You've probably caught on to the fact that I'm a fan of this guy. Let me demonstrate why.

This is "Wild about You Baby", featuring Little Walter with Hound Dog Taylor (who was awesome in his own right, and not just because of his name). It was recorded in 1967, the year before Walter died of injuries he suffered in a bar fight. (Great musicians are not necessarily nice people.)



And here, although they won't let me embed it, is a link to Little Walter's induction to the Hall of Fame.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Praise to the Wise Ones, part II

In this historic 200th posting on the Daily Marmoset, I would like to build upon my brother's last posting with two semi-related articles from Time:

  • Special effects wizard Stan Winston, maker of Aliens, Predators, and Terminators, has died at the age of 62.
  • On Sunday, the day Winston died, Time.com ran the intriguingly titled article Can the Enemy Build a Super-Soldier? Most of the article was about the military cooking up bizarre scenarios, "equal parts Dr. Strangelove and Dr. Frankenstein", in order to get more funding. The photo of Dolph Lundgren from "Universal Soldier" didn't do much to make it more legitimate. These scenarios include things like cybernetically enhanced enemy troops who don't require sleep and American soldiers getting lead poisoning from contaminated foreign vitamins. It's a good thing our own Super Soldier initiative is coming soon.

Monday, June 16, 2008

Praise to the Wise Ones!!!

The following is dedicated to my sister-in-law.



In The Know: Are We Giving The Robots That Run Our Society Too Much Power?

Friday, June 13, 2008

Fiber of the Future (Friday WTF)

Click here or on the image below for an important public service message, brought to you by legendary sci-fi author Ray Bradbury:


At least he got the "giant TVs" part about right...

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Monday, June 09, 2008

Bo Diddley baby, 500 percent natural man

This post is an overdue farewell to the great Bo Diddley, who died last week at the age of 79. Diddley only had one or two hits back in the 1950s, but he was one of the greatest and most original guitarists of all time.

How great was he? Let me put it this way:
  • The Bo Diddley Beat has been used by everyone from the Rolling Stones to the Clash to Grease. How many other musicians do you know who have a beat named after them?
  • His first and biggest hit song was called "Bo Diddley", and he followed it up with other titles like "Hey Bo Diddley" and "Bo Diddley is a Gunslinger". (see also the title of this post, taken from his song "500% More Man") It takes a big ego to do that, and an even bigger talent to back it up.
  • The lyrics to "Say Man" include one of the earliest known uses of the phrase "whupped with an ugly stick".
  • Speaking of lyrics, he was also a highly underrated songwriter. For example:
I walk 47 miles on barbed wire,
use a cobra snake for a necktie,
got a brand new house by the roadside
made out of rattlesnake hide.
Got a brand new chimney laid on top
made out of human skull.
Now come on take a little walk with me Darling
and tell me who do you love?

Now THAT is rock and roll, Bret.

Need more proof? Youtube has a lot of good videos of Bo in action, but this was my favorite:


Note the famous home-made electric guitar.

Also worth hearing, here are links to performances of my 3 favorite Bo Diddley songs:

1. Who Do You Love? - featuring the above-quoted lyrics.

2. You Can't Judge a Book

3. Road Runner - The hair alone makes this one worth embedding:



Meanwhile, in a highly appropriate coincidence, Rolling Stone just put out their list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time. Of course, lists like this are all about making people argue with them, but I can't fathom how Nirvana (much as I like that song) came in ahead of "Voodoo Child" and "Layla", nor do I understand how "People Get Ready" by the Impressions (again, I song I dearly love) came in at all.

My biggest complaint with the list, however: not one Bo Diddley song, except for a cover of "Mona" coming in at #88.

Friday, June 06, 2008

In the Cradle of Destiny (Friday WTF)

This is a much longer WTF video than most, and to be honest, I haven't had time to watch the whole thing yet. But its awesomeness speaks for itself.

It's entitled Shadowman 9: In the Cradle of Destiny, and it's the first episode of the newest season of the Venture Brothers. It picks up very shortly after the end of season 2, when The Monarch and Dr. Girlfriend (Dr. Monarch? Mrs. Doctor?) had their honeymoon interrupted by some, umm, unpleasant secret.

ABOVE: Behold the terrible glory of Brock Samson.

What was the shocking news that brought their wedded bliss to a screeching halt? How the hell do I know? I told you I haven't had time to watch it yet. Click here, or on the image above, and you'll probably know before I do.

What, you don't watch the Venture Brothers? WTF not???

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