Tell Good Stories…..

As first reported in David Menconi’s blog at newsobserver.com, Comboland Radio is live on Live365.com.  In the last 30 minutes or so, I’ve heard Arrogance, PKM, Glass Moon, Brice Street, Mothers Finest, Connells and Mitch Easter.  If you grew up in Raleigh, you must revisit your roots.  I’m loving this – subscribed to Live365.com (you do not have to to listen) and loaded the mobile version on my phone.  I’m hooked.

From the website:

Comboland… this catchy moniker was coined by Godfrey Cheshire in 1985 for a project he and Bernie Reeves were developing at “The Spectator”, a weekly entertainment magazine in Raleigh, NC. The idea was to expose to the rest of the world the many great artists and bands that made up the “North Carolina Music Scene”. 27 bands/artists submitted 48 songs for the project. These tapes were shopped to record companies and found some success in England. A BBC special was filmed and a single compilation album was released on Making Waves records. A couple of the bands secured deals of their own thanks to this exposure. The others either toiled on or broke up. In the process some wonderful music was made. Beginning in the early 70’s the “Comboland” era sort of ended in the early 90’s but great music kept coming out of the region. Today the number of artists/bands making music in Comboland is remarkable! I know I don’t have them all represented here…yet! While Comboland Radio features quite a bit of the older tunes we feature plenty of the recent releases too. Hopefully this new outlet will expose the great new music coming out of Comboland. Comboland lives on!

While it’s still worth your hard earned $3.99, you can see it for free again, via my favorite Internet TV site Hulu

If you want to watch it the way it was originally released, you can break it up into the 3 acts:

Act One:

Act Two:

Act Three:

and spend $3.99 on Itunes to buy "Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog".  It was free last week at their website, but I bought it after the first "Act".

It’s silly, absurd, cheesy, and beautifully fantastic.  Neil Patrick Harris has a really great voice, and his ability to just look at the camera and express a myriad of emotions is nothing short of amazing.  I think they call it "ACTING"!

Nathan Fillion is perfectly over the top cheesy as our "hero" Captain Hammer.

This show has more heart, humor and talent in in than anything on TV right now.

I defy you to find anything more charming than the following:

This is the best show on TV. The “confessional” at the end gives goosebumps, and you cannot help but cheer a little bit.

I’m kinda funny.

I can kinda sing.  This has come as part of my mid-life crisis - until 6 years ago, the only singing I did was to the radio in the car.  Then came Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Children of Eden, a couple of solos in church, and the time since in the Tenor corps of the church choir.  I’ve had a blast…

Stephen Colbert is extremely funny, and based on this clip, can sing too.  The very idea of singing with John Legend is intimidating at best, and Colbert holds his own to create something amazing.

Extremely Funny, and can really sing.  I think I hate him.

…cause if you can’t be funny, why not link to stuff that is…

Saturday Night Live was not spectacular, but it did have some solid highlights, from Tina Fey (across the board - nearly everything she did was funny) to Mike Huckabee on Weekend Update.  Sadly, Adam Samberg’s Digital Short was not that funny - it fell into the “Cats with Lasers” category.  This was the highlight, though:

(This is from hulu.com - the Fox/NBC site that shows what a TV “new media” website should be.  I’ve got some invites to the private beta if you email me.)

Also, after the Oscars (Jon Stewart - great, most everything else blech), Jimmy Kimmel posted his response to the viral video from a few months ago by Sarah Silverman. It is here, with a recap of the first video:

And just for good measure, the original Sarah Silverman video:

Aretha Franklin at the 2008 Grammy Awards

Sea Witch Ursula from The Little Mermaid.

I bet you’ll never see them in the same room together.

R.E.M.

REM’s new one. - MP3 Music Streams on IMEEM

I can’t remember when I was excited about an R.E.M. album.  The last few albums have left me cold, and based on the song above, you can understand the lyrics!

U23D

Last weekend the whole family went to the Imax at Playoris/Exspace/Marblemax facility to see the latest experience of U2’s excess.

I like U2.  I have most of their albums in my collection, leaning heavily to the older stuff.  I have very mild issues with Bono and his self proclaimed messianic complex, but certainly not enough to bother me. Unfortunately, after seeing U23D, he may be right in his proclamation of divinity.

My experience with live U2 sadly is limited to video, but that may be the best way to see them.  I cannot imagine that their power translates to the back row of your local stadium - I could be wrong.  Their set from the original Live Aid is hypnotizing, and the Red Rocks video may rank as one of the greatest concert videos that I have ever seen.  

In U23D, their performance is AMAZING, and the 3-D effect is there only to enhance the experience.  There is one moment, where the audience is sprayed with water, that I nearly reached to dry off.  This was not some cheesy Disney effect, it was just that immersive.  The only time there is anything digitally added to the film for 3-D effect is near the end of the movie, when the letters and words being shown on the giant screens behind the band leave the screens and blanket you in their message.  Totally unobtrusive in execution.

The Fat Boy Movie Review gives it 5 stars!

From the Associated Press, via The News and Observer:

Monkey attack kills New Delhi official

I really shouldn’t find this funny. Sadly, I do.

OK, I realize the song has been around for a long time, but I just saw the video today.  I’m not a Nine Inch Nails fan (whose song this is originally), and I’m not a big Johnny Cash Fan, but wow.  It’s one of Johnny Cash’s last songs recorded.

While I try and put together enough time to adequately write of life’s latest developments, I wanted to share this new video from my brother in law’s band The Old Ceremony.  Some folks at Carolina made this.

America We Stand As One Audio

I’m more disturbed that I stayed until the end. I think I threw up a little in my mouth.

Two evolution stories that tend to prove “Survival of the Fittest”

WRAL.com - Good-Looking People Usually Paid Handsomely

WRAL.com - Obese Shoppers Say Store Clerks Not So Helpful To Them