So I don’t really think about that book much but somehow it ended up in my head today because when I got to work I had a sudden desire to listen to Kate Bush.

I don’t tend to get this urge much as her voice lives in that ethereal realm of being both beautiful and really fucking annoying sometimes, so I prefer to avoid listening to her in case I can only hear the annoying bits that day. Although I will admit that this doesn’t apply to Running Up That Hill, which I can listen to on repeat (but not the inferior Placebo version they seem to like playing in vampire movie trailers), and often do.

Later in the day I brought up semaphore flags in conversation for some reason I’ve since forgotten, and the other person thought I was talking about those found in operating systems and I had to correct him that I actually meant real flags. Monty Python fans might realize where I then went with this: to demonstrate the concept, I sent him this educational Youtube video (please ignore the subtitles):

So I’ve now spent more time today thinking about that book than I really ever wanted to in my life, but there you go. Mind you, it was really wuthering today in Kelowna, enough to riggwelt a sheep. Or something.

(I blogged about their first video to the song two weeks ago).

Between this sort of stuff and Mythbusters I keep wishing I’d become an engineer instead of a computer scientist. Not that I’d be good at it, I come from a long line of crap engineers (so a great-uncle once told me).

I like, and agree with one of the comments on this video posted at BoingBoing: “shit like this restores my faith in humanity.”

OK Go – This Too Shall Pass from OK Go on Vimeo.

If you can recall, these guys got internet famous in 2006 with music videos of them dancing in a backyard, and again on treadmills. Their new album, entitled “Of the Blue Colour of the Sky”, is out now (for once I mention an album that’s already released). I’m really digging the lo-fi videos from the indie music scene, another one being the semi-deconstructed Cousins by Vampire Weekend.

Many of you don’t know this, but I got into music via marching band. My first instrument was the glockenspiel. Believe me, it’s hard to aim for the right key when you’re stomping around. Also when you have bad aim to begin with. The clarinet was easier, it stayed still.

Man, I usually don’t need a news article to make me feel like an inbred mutant, though up until reading it I had considered my grey-blue eyes to be rather nice and that despite being nearsighted were my best attributes when my tits aren’t visible. But maybe now I’m supposed to recogize them as the aberration they are and feel ashamed.

With this knowledge and forgetting myself for a minute I have a sudden desire to reexamine the Oedipus tragedy, for did he not, upon discovering that his wife was also Mumsy, gouge out his eyes with her dress pins? I bet his eyes were blue, while he still had them anyways.

Moving to other body parts, I’ve also been watching Dumbo again and seeing it as an expose on race relations in the US. I’m not talking about the representation of the crows (that’s obvious!), but of Dumbo himself. My theory is that the backstory has Mrs. Jumbo getting drunk one night (seems to be common enough at that circus:

) and waking up the next morning next to an African elephant who wasn’t her husband (or, that’s what she told Mr. Jumbo later). And lo and behond, 22 months later the stork brings her a baby elephant with big African elephant ears, and she’s like, how’d that get there? And then she’s shamed by her peers and Jumbo Jr’s taken away from her. And he only redeems himself in society by becoming a magic negro elephant who can fly. So really this whole story is just a parable about the unacceptance of mixed-race relationships and the mistreatment of “half-breed” children in a 20th century dual-race society. Interestingly, though, none of the other elephants ever argued that he wasn’t born in the US.

Isn’t it a shame I didn’t do arts grad school?

Yeasayer is one of my favourite bands, making indie rock with a world music vibe and a healthy emphasis on percussion. I’ve probably mentioned them before, but now they’ve got a new album coming out and I totally didn’t get a leaked copy and listen to it and think it is awesome. Nope.

Here’s the video from their first single, “Ambling Alp” (which you can download for free from the band’s website here). Sadly I couldn’t find a version on Youtube where the boobies weren’t blurred out. Shame.

It’s not what they normally do, but this album has a love song, even. Feel free to ignore the fan-made video:

I just discovered that “Odd Blood” doesn’t come out until next month, so, um, if you enjoyed these songs I hope you don’t mind waiting!

When people ask me to recommend relaxing music I usually mention these guys, because the lead singer could sing me to sleep every night and make my life complete. I don’t normally like concert recordings but often go back to the one they did for NPR’s All Songs Considered. Shearwater was founded by two dudes who left Okkervil River to do quieter songs, so if you’re a fan of the latter you might like them too.

You can get “Castaways” for free at their label’s website, and their album “The Golden Archipelago” is set to be released on February 23. Shit, I really should be recommending albums that are out now, shouldn’t I?

Just forget I said anything.

See, we want to think of otters as being cute loving creatures like this, but instead they’re evil attack monsters that bite you while you’re innocently training for Ironman competitions.

Obviously they are intelligent, devious creatures that lull us into submission and then chomp into our tasty manflesh. Rather like cats when they lie on their backs, daring us to scratch their bellies. It’s a good thing the Vancouver Aquarium has that glass up around the otters; obviously it is to protect humans from their subconscious desire to scritch scritch.