Friday October 31, 2008

Punk Rock Name Quiz

Punk rock names are an established tradition.  Why should an aspiring musician have to put up with an ordinary, workaday name when he or she could be Johnny Rotten, Jello Biafra, Siouxsie Sioux, or Captain Sensible?  No reason at all, that's why.  Sometimes, though, somebody gets lucky and is born with a name that's already perfect for punk.

This leads me to today's quiz.  Which of the following members of the band X is not using a stage name?

Billy Zoom (guitar)
DJ Bonebrake (drums)
Exene Cervenka (vocals)
John Doe (bass and vocals)


Answer after the jump.  No peeking!

Continue reading "Punk Rock Name Quiz"

I am The Tensor, and I approve this post.
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Monday May 19, 2008

This I Believe #31

Eye cannon shall obey.

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Wednesday October 17, 2007

A Tale of Two Geddies

Names are tricky.  Many of us are assigned them at birth and accept them without much thought.  Others are bolder, taking control of their arbitrary word-handles, shedding unwanted labels for others somehow more agreeable.  This is a common practice in show business, where stage names serve to distinguish performers from each other and from us ordinary folks.  This is a story of two such performers who, in their quest for uniqueness, landed at nearly the same spot in the vast name-space.

Continue reading "A Tale of Two Geddies"

I am The Tensor, and I approve this post.
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Monday September 17, 2007

Mysterons vs. Mysterians

I suppose confusion is understandable—the names are so similar, after all—but I think it's important that we get this straight once and for all.  So pay close attention:

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Thursday April 12, 2007

Friendly Milk

"Hold the newsreader's nose squarely, waiter, or friendly milk will countermand my trousers."

This is from a hilarious sketch by Fry and Laurie (via), which you can watch after the jump.

Continue reading "Friendly Milk"

I am The Tensor, and I approve this post.
05:07 PM in Improbable Sentences , Linguistics , Music | Comments (4) | Submit: | Links:

Monday April 2, 2007

Video Free Association

After the jump: a random walk though pop culture and my subconscious via YouTube.

Continue reading "Video Free Association"

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06:22 PM in Music , Television | Comments (5) | Submit: | Links:

Monday January 15, 2007

Star Trek vs. Jefferson Airplane

Check out this awesome video mashup.  I hope you relish it as much as I:

Most linguisticky moment: "smoking caterpillar"—the edit is in just the right place to get you to reanalyze hookah-smoking caterpillar in the intended way.  The "remember" bit is clever too—referencing a scene from Wrath of Khan by using a similar scene from TOS without breaking up the visual feel of the video.

It's amazing how close to the surface the drug subtext was in Trek.  For a similar mashup addressing a different subtext, see Closer [NSFW].

I am The Tensor, and I approve this post.
06:33 PM in Music , Science Fiction , Television | Comments (3) | Submit: | Links:

Tuesday November 21, 2006

Take on Me

Those of you who are of a certain age (or who watch too much VH1) will remember the mid-80's synth-pop video I'm thinking about. You know the one: it features a main character who enters a comic book world, a group of leather-clad toughs, and the lead singer of the band bravely rescuing a blonde damsel in distress.

Of course I'm referring to this classic video:

Continue reading "Take on Me"

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Tuesday October 24, 2006

Σnigma

I've been seeing posters all over Leipzig for the new Enigma album.  Remember Enigma?  They did that new-agey song "Deep Forest" [Update: Wrong!  Deep Forest was actually a similar-but-distinct group from the same era...] about a million years ago?  Yeah, they're still around, and they've been based in Germany all along—you could have knocked me over with a feather.

Continue reading "Σnigma"

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04:34 PM in German , Linguistics , Music | Comments (9) | Submit: | Links:

Monday September 25, 2006

Tobes

Here's a puzzler.  The opening to Rush's early prog-rock-meets-D&D masterpiece "By-Tor and the Snow Dog" goes:

The Tobes of Hades
Lit by flickering torchlight
The Netherworld is gathered in the glare
Prince By-Tor takes the cavern
To the north light
The sign of Eth is rising in the air
By-Tor, knight of darkness,
Centurion of evil
Devil's prince

(Bonus points if you now have the song running through your head.)  The question, gentle reader, is this: what the hell are tobes?

Continue reading "Tobes"

I am The Tensor, and I approve this post.
08:17 PM in Linguistics , Music | Comments (11) | Submit: | Links: