Lots of Co.

Nerdier on the Dancefloor

I had never heard of a game called SingStar (turns out it's coming out for PS3, not Wii), but how awesome does it look?  Watch this guy make his way through a Sophie Ellis-Bextor classic and try not to fall in love with music all over again (link via Disconap). (Oh, Kris is really going to like this. Mur-daaaaaah...)

In somewhat more pleasant (I hope) music news, I have followed through on my promise to deliver a second May Mix! This one is only an hour long, and while there is a little overlap with the earlier one from this month, I still think you will like it. Highlights (for me, anyway) include the very nice Jason Nevins remix of "No Air," an extended 2008 remix of "Toca's Miracle," and a not-bad-at-all Almighty remake of Robyn's massive "With Every Heartbeat." Just head over here to download it--when it "unpacks," the track listing and everything will be right there for you. Enjoy! (And don't forget that my most recent mixes can still be grabbed from the "Want a Mix?" box over on the right side of the screen--just scroll down.)

A Jewel of a Joke!

A scene from my classroom today, during a student presentation on "conflict diamonds":

Student 1: "As part of the presentation, I brought this bag of gemstones to pass around."

Student 2: "Where did you get these?"

Student 1: "I actually dug them up myself. If you go to Dahlonega, you can go to places where mines used to be and dig around."

Me: "But stay off of those old mine trains, y'all--I heard they can be crazy!"

[cue crickets/tumbleweeds]

Me: "My genius is wasted on all of you!"

(Yes, I have to admit that it saddens me to see nobody showing some love for my brilliant joke or my favorite ride at Six Flags...)

Music for Mothers

This is kind of a Mother's Day post, I guess, but really it's an excuse to throw you some fun tunes with the barest hint of a connection among all of them (and a super-obvious one at that). So have a great weekend as you make your own Mothership Reconnection...unless you got All Funked Up last night and your Mama Said that you need to stay home and just sleep it off.

What? You forgot the holiday completely? Does Your Mother Know?

(I know--what an awful way to sneak four songs into a post. Sorry!)

SJP on SP

As we begin the sure-to-be smothering media blitz for the Sex and the City movie (which, don't get me wrong, I'm kind of looking forward to--after all, I did watch every episode of the show on HBO), it's nice to see Sarah Jessica Parker get genuinely enthusiastic over her other TV series--you know, the one that changed my life (and that comes out on DVD in two weeks).

Kylie Honored in France

I'm not sure if I'm more tickled by the fact that Kylie has picked up a Knighthood (is that the right term for a female?) in France, is apparently known for her "electro dance moves" (I love that--it's just so tomorrow-sounding!), or that my source of this information is the newspaper called The Hindu. (In other news, Ravi bats well.)
 

Blue Bell Centennial Cupcake

If you can get your hands (or spoons) on this new flavor from Blue Bell ice cream, then I highly recommend it. It's delicious--seriously, it's like eating a cupcake made of ice cream--without being cloying like so many "cake batter"-flavored ice creams can be. Still not sure what flavor, if any, the green sprinkles are supposed to be, though. Maybe they're just there for cuteness?

The May Mix (Demo Version)

Back again after another too-long break. I'm going to try to get back into the routine of posting every day or couple of days, though--I miss this! I'm playing around with the look of the place, too--what do you think of this theme? I worry that it's a bit too subdued.

Anyway, I have a May mix all ready to go for you right here (it's a .zip file that should unpack nicely into your music player of choice, complete with track titles), but I'm thinking that I may actually do another version of it in the next week or so, so be on the lookout for that. Nothing wrong with this one, of course--in fact, it's got some great stuff on it--but I just haven't been completely satisfied with the final product, which is a weird hybrid of mixed tracks and standalone stuff. Let me know what you think after you give it a spin or two. Oh, and if you'd like to catch up on some of my older mixes, I've finally started keeping an archive of sorts--there's a list called "Want a Mix?" over there on the right that can get you to any of my recent mixes. Feel free to check them out!

A New Mix, YouTube Videos, and a Visiting Dignitary

Well, that was a long break, wasn't it? Sorry for that, but I was enjoying my spring break (including lots of good food, both highbrow and low) for a while, then I had an absolute bear of a first-week-back when school resumed. I am tired, yo! But it's the weekend now and I'm recharging and feeling great.

I've made a new mix for you to enjoy as the weather keeps getting better and better. It's fun--lots of vocals and disco sounds, perfect for driving or running or just relaxing. I used a new program to process the finished mix, so when you download it, the .zip file should unpack into separate tracks (hooray!), each labeled with the artist, song, and track number. Just arrange them in the right order and play--mixy enjoyment!

I've also been loving a little tool that grabs YouTube videos and saves them as .mp4 files--perfect for watching videos later using iTunes or your i-accessory of choice. I've been loading up my iPhone with music videos, though I'm also grabbing clips to show in class if necessary. Seriously, it's one of the most useful gadgets I've found online in a while.

Finally, I got to go to a really interesting lecture (not an oxymoron, believe it or not) yesterday, given by HRH the Aga Khan (or, as I knew him until now, "Rita Hayworth's stepson"). It was about opening international schools in developing countries, and while it didn't make me start updating my resume in anticipation of a new job search, it did remind me of all of the amazing options there are out there for teachers who are willing to take a risk or two and move around a little now and then. Something for the back burner, as it were.

Happy weekend! And a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Davis today! (That's him in the picture in the corner.)

Links
Bacchanalia (our highbrow dining experience of the week)
Pizza Hut Tuscani Pasta (Our lowbrow dining experience--twice--of the week)
My April 2008 Mix
How to Download YouTube Videos as MP4 Files
Aga Khan Visits Atlanta
The Aga Khan Academies

Dream Reading Syllabus!

Attention all English teachers, wannabe English teachers, English students, former English students, readers, writers, and all-around smart people: I have a favor to ask of you! A good friend and former colleague (who also comments on this site from time to time) is working as a program evaluator at a highly selective (but not snobby and private) high school. She wrote and told me that the humanities teacher is looking for some good suggestions for common texts for this fall's senior class.

Now of course, I had a few books I could recommend (Ficciones by Borges and Saturday by McEwan, to start), but I asked her if it would be okay to put the question out here on the blog, since I think we're all a pretty well-read bunch. She has very kindly agreed, so now I turn to you with this delicious dilemma: If you were going to suggest one or two texts for a humanities course (I think this means both fiction and non-fiction are allowed) for talented and driven highs school seniors, what books would you put on the "must teach" list? Wait, it gets better: there are no restrictions in terms of budget, content, or overbearing parents. So let your inner teacher out and give her a couple of titles (and rationales, if you so choose--mine start off the comments)--she's ready to hear any and all recommendations (so this is more than a nerd-fun thought experiment). I think we can all assume that the classics will be covered, so try to go outside of a standard advanced English syllabus. What book would you have loved to experience in a high school class as a common text?

UR-Speak

Wow--I didn't realize that deliberately mispronouncing words was so common. Kottke.org has linked to an article about premeditated speaking mistakes, and I recognized quite a few of the words that Tim and I both say incorrectly on purpose, usually trying to make the other person laugh (though we also do it out of habit and/or laziness now). Our biggest "deliberate mistake" is to mispronounce the "uh" sound in most words as "urr." This means that "dumb" becomes "dURmb" and "muffin" becomes "mURfin" and "nuts" is "nURts" and so on. For some reason, we both think it's frickin' hilarious (even though we have friends--hi Amy!--who find it a bit irritating). I do it all the time in front of my class as well, and it never fails to make my students chuckle--I mean chURckle. See? It's awesome! I have to be careful, though--one of my fellow teachers heard me doing it in the library and later asked me if it was some kind of Alabama accent thing!

Other words we consistently mangle for laughs: Tim says "bussept" instead of "except," we both say "chimbley" and "supposably" instead of "chimney" and "supposedly," I always say "labtop" instead of "laptop" (it's based on the way one of my young relatives said it at Christmas one year), we get "flustrated" instead of "frustrated," we say "vomick" rather than "vomit," and Tim prefers "Goggle" as his search engine of choice (he always says it as "Goggle dot com," actually, which is even funnier).

What words do you mispronounce on purpose, whether it's to be funny or to make fun of how other people say it (and, sadly, think they're correct in doing so)? Let me know--I need some new ones.

Links
Post at Kottke.org (read it for the comments)
Post at The Lexicographer's Rules