I’ve been a long time fan of this particular piece of music by composer Franz Liszt - and just out of the blue I looked it up today - on YouTube. Turns out, that I’m not the only one who can’t get the tune out of his head. Several hollywood productions, games and what not have adopted the piece to their background score and I (as usual) couldn’t resist posting the videos.

The Cat Concerto

Probably the most well known adaptation is “The Cat Concerto”, the 29th Tom and Jerry short that was released in April 1947, by MGM. This is where I first heard the tune as well and is one of my favorite Tom and Jerry cartoons. The execution and the intermingling of cartoon with real music score has the undeniable finesse and touch of William Hanna and Joseph Barbera that so enchants every one.

Rhapsody Rabbit

This is a Bugs Bunny cartoon that caused some controversy when it was released by Warner Bros. in the same year as the Tom and Jerry one. Both MGM and Warner Bros. accused each other of plagiarism, after all both shorts have the same overall theme and the same musical score. I love this one too.

Daffy Duck Rhapsody

These two videos are user contributed, they are not real cartoons by studios but instead user compilations based on hundreds of clips of different cartoons. That doesn’t detract from the fact that they’re based upon the same music piece, and have a hilarious daffy duck singing in them. I was enjoying laughing out loud on both of these, I really love Daffy. The second video, at it’s end lists all the Daffy Duck cartoons that it was compiled from.

Convict Concerto

The one, featuring Woody Woodpecker has him playing a Piano Tuner, who gets accosted by a bank robber who forces him to play the Piano, “Or Else!”. Not so funny, and at moments downright irritating. But it’s meant for kids and I suppose it was good in it’s time.

The Opry House

This is the one that started it all. This short clip of one of the earliest Mickey Mouse cartoons called “The Opry House” features a black and white Mickey banging Hungarian Rhapsody No.2 away on a piano (ok, I know it sounds nothing like the above, but it is, trust me).  This is typical of the early Disney animation - there are no rules. Everything is a cartoon. The stools, and yes, even the piano can get up and whack Mickey around. I really never liked these, I find the tobacco spitting MickeyMouse portrayed in these to be ugly, almost grotesque and definitely not funny or even appealing in any way. But I had to include it in the list - history is history, Walt Disney pretty much started the whole cartoon thing.

Other Related Videos

Several other videos came up that were related. Maksim Mrvica does a version. Then there’s a really funny one by Victor Borge that you could watch as well.

Another favored Liszt tune, La Campanella also has a few renditions, this is the one I liked the most.

What about you?

Which one of these do you like the most? I’d love to hear your comments and thoughts about this one, haven’t been able to get this tune out of my head for years and years, now.

Further reading:

• Franz Liszt
• Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2
• The Cat Concerto
• Rhapsody Rabbit
• The Opry House

This wordpress easter egg is pretty much the coolest easter egg I’ve seen yet. Works on the latest 2.7 version too, just verified. And yes, I’ve been in the software industry for a long enough time to be a good judge of coolness - most easter eggs are just a glorified way for the team to roll credits - this one reaches out to the ubercool detector in the geek in me pretty effectively.

Anyone remember the Windows 3.1 easter egg where you could Ctrl + Shift + Alt + click on the image in the Help -> About dialog of progman to see the windows mascot bear? That’s pretty much the earliest easter egg that I remember. Or at least I can’t think of an older one right now. Suggest older ones, I dare ya!

Shift happens. That’s the answer to the did-you-know question. Found this video on youtube in my web journey today, but it was too low quality for my liking. So some more googling, and browsing later, found the blog of Karl Fisch, he created the original presentation for teaching staff how to cope with changing times that inspired so many remixes and views.

The blog post that talked about Sony / BMG approaching him for permission to create the video (that, in the end, I found on youtube) also linked to a higher quality .mp4 version of it, so I couldn’t resist downloading it and re-uploading it to blip.tv, which I find churns out much higher quality video than most of the other video sites. Wanted to do a review on that too, but that will have to wait for a later date - reviews take up a lot of time.

The Did you Know? / Shift Happens video presents unique facts about trends that can be seen about geographically distributed individuals and the Internet in general as well as astounding facts that I, at least, had no idea of.

Going through Karl Fisch’s blog also led me to watch this video, titled “Rise of the Rest” which is supposedly inspired by the Did you Know video, which is quite amazing as well. This is available in higher quality on google video (as a download) - found that link on the futuregroup wordpress blog.

Ah well, it looks like this year 2008 is finally coming to an end, and what better way to sum it all up than to see the trailers of movies that have been long anticipated to release in 2009!?

Star Trek

First up of course, is Star Trek. I blogged about this one way, way back in July 2006, and at least we finally have a trailer to watch, if not the movie.

Watchmen

Then, it’s another biggie, Watchmen.

Wolverine

And finally, Wolverine. Finally Gambit makes an appearance! Gambit is my second most favorite XMen, the first being Wolverine of course.

All trailers are courtesy of Trailer Addict, they really know their trailers (and more so, their movies, of course).

The trouble with tribbles is one of my most favorite episodes of the original Startrek Series. And when I found thinkgeek on twitter and also the fact that they’ve actually gone ahead and made tribbles of their own, I couldn’t resist posting.

These tribbles are of course sterilized (according to thinkgeek at least! ) so they won’t multiply and over-populate the apartment like they did the Enterprise. They’re just too cute to not have. At least one. Or two. Or several.

CBS seems to have put up the full, original The Trouble with Tribbles episode on their site and then pulled it down for reasons unknown. So I found 2 parts of it on youtube - for those of you who haven’t seen the video - you MUST see this! It’s also truly funny apart from being the cutest episode in the original series. And then go and get the full original episode and watch that of course!

Part 1:

Part 2:

Other parts are missing, as far as I can see. Do comment if you find them and I’ll update this post.

Watching Battlestar Galactica in DVD quality video has been a cinematic trip by itself, for me. To imagine the kind of triumph in visual effects, story telling and sheer drama on TV is insufficient, one must watch to know what it feels like - the budgets of the Battlestar Galactica franchise must truly be astounding.

Presented here is the much favorited season 3 finale of BSG (as it’s popularly known) and I simply cannot get the theme song out of my mind. This is a rendition by composer Bear McCreary of the much covered Bob Dylan original. Do go here to listen to the CD version on youtube as well - I recommend it. You could buy the original soundtrack from Amazon, as well (much recommended).

Lyrics
“There must be some way out of here,” said the joker to the thief,
“There’s too much confusion, I can’t get no relief.
Businessmen, they drink my wine, plowmen dig my earth,
None of them along the line know what any of it is worth.”

“No reason to get excited,” the thief, he kindly spoke,
“There are many here among us who feel that life is but a joke.
But you and I, we’ve been through that, and this is not our fate,
So let us not talk falsely now, the hour is getting late.”

All along the watchtower, princes kept the view
While all the women came and went, barefoot servants, too.

Outside in the distance a wildcat did growl,
Two riders were approaching, the wind began to howl.

– All along the watchtower
Bob Dylan (1967)

Had to include this youtube video on my site when I found the live/unplugged version. This is a song by K’s Choice, a Belgium brother-sister band that features eclectic vocals backed by a mild rock sound. You might also be interested in watching the original “plugged-in” version.

It’s not a habit, it’s cool
I feel alive
If you don’t have it your on
the other side

The deeper you stick it in your vein
The deeper the thoughts there’s no more pain
I’m in heaven, I’m a god
I’m everywhere, I feel so hot

It’s not a habit, it’s cool
I feel alive
If you don’t have it your on
the other side
I’m not an addict (maybe that’s a lie)

It’s over now, I’m cold, alone
I’m just a person on my own
Nothing means a thing to me
Oh, nothing means a thing to me

It’s not a habit, it’s cool
I feel alive
If you don’t have it your on
the other side
I’m not an addict (maybe that’s a lie)

Free me, leave me
Watch me as I’m going down
Free me, see me

Look at me I’m falling
And I’m falling………

It is not a habit, it is cool
I feel alive I feel…….
It is not a habit, it is cool
I feel alive

It’s not a habit, it’s cool
I feel alive
If you don’t have it your on
the other side
I’m not an addict (maybe that’s a lie)

I’m not an addict, I’m not an addict, I’m not an addict.

- K’s Choice
“Not an Addict”

This guy is so tricked out, seeing is believing. I’ve seen the video around 5 times, and I still can’t believe some of the stunts this guy does with his yoyo are real. Tell me what you think.

When I found the music video to one of my favorite songs on Youtube, I couldn’t resist posting the vid, here. The song is Nothing to fear by the inimitable Chris Rea, and the video looks to be about a bedouin tribe and also an arab village-town and is a stylized, idyllic take of the life there.

Could you do without?

That’s the question that NBC’s Today show special posed to Dennis Kneale from Forbes. He let them take away his cellphone, blackberry and email for a whole week. He lasted 3 days before giving up, teary-eyed. Watch the video to see Dennis’ plight.

In these days of cellphone network congestion, I meet and know a lot of people who depend on not one but two cellphones. Not having both cellphones with them for a whole work week would be quite close to their worst nightmare, I think.

via Sanjay, Gizmodo