Youtube has left me in despair!

So I was watching some more youtube videos, and I felt a need to watch listen to some people play Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2.

So first I went with the old holdout, Cziffra, and I found one vid of him doing it awesomely, with that identifiable twist to things he usually puts into his playing. The thing which made his performance different, he didn’t seem to take the piece too seriously, after all, it’s supposed to be reminiscent of gypsy music.

The above on the Tube.

Then I watched some Horowitz, I find he tends to play things a little too straight at times, but technically precise of course.

The above on the Tube.

Then Rachmaninoff, a really old recording though. Felt a little too slow at points, though props for making that last line roll so well.

On the Tube.

I noticed something suddenly, in the related videos section. Maksim playing this piece has roughly 850, 000 views. WHAT?! Sorry, but I had to see what this was all about. Yes, Maksim Mrvica, in his crotch-crushingly tight leather pants and wristlets (his usual outfit that is), playing Liszt. Well, it’s alright, really, but hey, stop staring doe-eyed at the camera for goodness’s sake… And it really doesn’t warrant how popular it is compared to the Cziffra recording above, which I found far more enjoyable.

The Tube is wacked.

Anyhow, thus began my examination of the number of views garnered by different players of this particular piece.

Cziffra:

Horribly underappreciated, however this may also be due to the fact that there are about a dozen videos of Cziffra playing this, though this seems to be the one with the best audio quality (from my cursory examination).

Then, Horowitz:

Yeah, Horowitz got quite a few. I still think his interpretation is a little too dry.

Rachmaninoff:

Yeah. Audio for this one is pretty bad though, I think this must be quite an old recording.

Maksim:

Okay, he’s got some technical skill, but I just don’t feel his pieces like I do with Cziffra or even Horowitz. Overrated…

However, he is topped by none other than…
TOM AND JERRY:

It’s a little sad, when you think about it. Then suddenly I had an epiphany. What did the Maksim and T&J vids have that none of the previous ones had? COLOUR. Yes, there is some colour prejudice among Youtube watchers! Who would’ve thought that in this day and age we would still have people who don’t like black and white.

T&J on the Tube.

However, my conclusion is dulled by the fact that Buggs Bunny’s rendition is far less popular than T&J’s…

I even used the mouse as a control factor, there are mice in both T&J’s vid and Buggs Bunny’s…

BBs are small spherical objects, for more universal truths, check the Tube.

The only quantifiable difference is that the level of violence is higher in BB’s than in T&J’s. Oh wait, BB’s has dialogue! Hmm… unforseen errors means my research is untenable. I suppose I should go back and start from scratch, but I can’t be bothered to.

FINAL CONCLUSION:
Cats > bunnies.

Oh, have some Cziffra, because he’s awesome.

 

More anti-Twilight propaganda!

Twilight: The Broodening

Complete with cheesy narration, bad storytelling, one-dimensional characters and more bad storytelling. Just like the real thing.

 

The next step towards total cyberization?

The MIT Media Lab’s Fluid Interfaces Group has cobbled together several relatively inexpensive and commercially available components to create a constantly reacting interface that might actually be the next big thing. I think it’s pretty cool anyway.

 

Yum, PI!

Yes, as above:

Microsoft Sam recites 9000 digits of Pi.

Someone really had too much free time. On a related note…

IT’S OVER 9000!!!

Sorry, folks.

 

Chill.

As some people may have noticed, I have been watching Youtube. Not, of course, in excess.

While on this subject, I found a song on Youtube that really brought back memories of… something. Perhaps it was the delirium brought on by the excruciating pain of having a kidney stone followed by… say, a shot of morphine; or maybe it was one of those dreams that happens before dawn and then the light comes in and wakes you up and you forget it; it could even have been caused by over-watching Disney Channel until one of their commercials gets stuck in your head. Ah, yes… that was it.

Hence, Cartoon Heroes by Aqua. Probably one of the most infuriating and wonderful songs I’ve had the pleasure of ripping my ears off after listening to. Does that make sense? No? The grammar is bad? Oh well. I just listened to Cartoon Heroes. Try it.

Then I go look up Aqua on Wikipedia, wondering, as some might, where the heck have these people gone… In fact, they broke up after their second album was released (the one with Cartoon Heroes on it). Aww…

Another fact about Aqua, after the release of ‘Barbie Girl’,  (which was their first single and shot them (as in, out of a giant cannon) into international fame and/or revulsion for such a shameless, innuendo laden piece of bubblegum dance music) Mattel, who produce Barbies, as well as Hot Wheels cars (YES YOU BOYS! BARBIES DRIVE HOT WHEELS!) and other die cast model type things, sued them. This was, of course, because the group had used the Barbie name without asking (Bad Aqua, bad!) and not, of course, because little girls everywhere had suddenly got the idea of putting Barbie and Ken in a wholesome family relationship and ‘having kids’ or pulling off Barbie’s arms.

The little girls had been doing that anyway.

In 2002, the case was thrown out of court. Yay for Aqua! The judge ruled: ‘The parties are advised… to chill.’ [My triple dot and italics.]

I like this man.

To wind up:

Aqua does Pirates of the Carribean before Pirates of the Carribean, while exposing the joys of sado-masochism and also showing us that piracy (in general) is good:

 

A Korean movie. Which is a Western. Wow.

This may or may not be the Korean equivalent of Hot Fuzz. I don’t care. I want to watch it.

The Good, The Bad and The WEIRD.

Look at all those things that go boom. Woohoo!

 

Wow… It’s happening… Finally, I can get a computer in my arm.

Yes, someone has made a computer that can fit in my arm. It runs on blood. Which is not, of course to say that it’s some kind of vampiric computer that might conceivably drain your life force to keep itself going.

Electronic tattoo display.

I want one. It’s bluetooth compatible. Now if only it could tie in to my nervous system.

 

US makes another dangerous and stupidly complicated weapon. WITH PHYSICS!

Using the force generated by perpendicular electrical and magnetic fields, a metal projectile is hurled at really high velocities at a target. This is rather cool.

Watch: US Navy railgun test.

That guy with glasses has hairy arms. He pushes a metal slug into a small hole, then clumsily hoists a mechanism to push the slug farther into the hole. Somehow, this doesn’t strike me as being the most sturdy thing to kill people with.

 

Mmm… rabbits… / Circle of life or sth like that.

While surfing my one of my favourite webcomics, Gunnerkrigg Court (available in the links), I Wiki-ed it and found that apparently Neil Gaiman reads it. I am pleased about this. Following a link to Gaiman’s blog, I found something rather interesting.

Those with weak stomachs should not look. Or even if you like rabbits. There is no blood involved, however.

Heron eats rabbit.

Yes.