sweasel.com

Whoa! If you haven’t read the David Mamet thing in the Voice (Drudge linked it this morning), I urge you to do so. Why I Am No Longer a ‘Brain-Dead Liberal’.

I.
Love.
It.

The audio, I mean!

The cat meows and other “sounds” make it perfect!

That made my morning.

That one I will have to show to the kids and to my sister and to my brothers and to my neighbors and to that guy down the street.

Yeah, I thought of you, McGoo. When you said you hear the Blue Danube in your head, I thought, “I can make it so!”

Uncle B contributed the farts. Not literally (though he would probably have been willing). We sat and auditioned farts from the Free Sound Project via Skype until I thought I was going to blow my kidneys through my nose laughing.

One out each nostril.

That “composition” is just about exactly what I was hearing – and will continue to hear. Downloaded. Saved.

You and badger have really outdone yourselves. Bravo.

My day would have been adequately made with just the Katzenhuffin’s album cover. But the bonus audio? You can take the rest of the week off, Weaz!

Comedy gold.
Have you thought about making it into a mobile phone ringtone? Hell, you’d make a fortune. Like that Crazy Frog bollocks, except genuinely funny.
That way, when I’m on the train and somebody’s phone starts playing the catophone version of the Blue Danube and the person proceeds to start yacking on their phone and I snatch it and hoy it out of the window, I can think to myself: Hey, I sort of know the person who created that viral sensation.

Gibby – off-topic, but did you read about the Cassini Enceladus flyby today? Did you read about how EFFING LOW they will be? 30 miles off the surface!!!

Oh, g’wan, Steamboat — Link to it.

Can they re-route that thing remotely, or is it all pre-programed?

Gibby – off-topic, but did you read about the Cassini Enceladus flyby today? Did you read about how EFFING LOW they will be? 30 miles off the surface!!!

Yeah, I just wrote a stupid comment about it on your blog.

Sorry – I was out getting a haircut. Several, actually.

While I was getting trimmed a daddy and his little (3-4-year old?) girl came in so daddy could get his hair cut. She walked right over and crawled up into my lap. Stunned every soul in the place. Daddy said I looked like her grandpa.

Haven’t been to my blog since I got back. Guess ya know where my priorities are – yes?

Awwwwww…McGoo! Somehow, I can’t see you as the grandfatherly kind. It’s probably all that smut.

God, I do love that audio clip. Who mixed it, Weaz? It’s really, really well done.

Looks like the Mamet article is suffering from the Slashdot effect – from Drudge this time. Drudge-dotted?

Good article though, Weaz.

I thank you, McGoo. ‘Twas I. I use a program called Fruity Loops which, among other things, lets you drop audio samples onto a sort of demented piano.

It’s grievously complicated, especially if, like me, you fail formal musical training. That’s why the clip is so short.

I don’t use it often, so I have to relearn it from scratch every time I sit down to it. And each time they upgrade it, I seem to lose old samples (and, hence, my old tunes don’t work any more). Still, it’s huge fun.

Well, it’s well done, IMHO. You got the right balance between the melody and the “incidental” sounds, without overemphasizing the “incidentals”.

I especially like the necessarily off-rhythm “pause” mid-song, as one of the cats takes care of bidness.

My first instinct was naturally to attempt to play melody with the incidental sounds, but that was all wrong. Once you “tune” a sound effect, it nearly always loses its identity as a sound effect. A fart piano sounds like a kazoo. And we know what happens when you play tunes with meows or barks. Dreadful.

As a matter of catsophone trivia, that’s two different meows and one fart, tuned to different pitches. That long, low purring sound at the end is a fart in extremely low register.

The instrument is a whoo across a 1.75 liter vodka bottle, a whoo across a bottle of diet tonic water and a whoo across a half-empty glass bottle of malt vinegar. I was surprised that the plastic bottles gave a much richer sound.

Shouldn’t ‘Katzenhuffin’ be ‘Katzenpuffin’?
‘Cause huffin something would be sucking fumes out.

They’re German. Best not to inquire too closely.

Good point.

*thinking of in-laws and holiday dinners*

Odd, about the plastic bottle. I would have guessed a glass or ceramic one would sound better.

Well, you certainly put the effort into it. It shows. Bravo. I like the first loooonng meow way in the background. You just know the cat is not having a good time.

I wonder of NYs new Gov will see his way clear to pardon Ol’ Stink Stick?

I dunno about cat poopchute Danube, but were I you, I’d avoid This day, Stoaty

You know, Christopher, I’m not even gonna look. That *has* to be Weasel Stomping Day. I cry right the way through that thing every time.

Hey, have y’all seen hulu? TV streamed at good quality over the web. And you can embed them on your blog. All kinds of contemporary shows I’ve heard about but never seen. (Got this from IMAO).

Whaddya know. Arrested Development is pretty funny. What next? Firefly? Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles?

I haven’t turned on my TV in two years. I’m open to suggestions.

Nova.

Got two hits today on “squeakhole”. Woot.

Nova! Is that still on?

Try misspelling it, McGoo. Then you get all the fatfinger hits.

Of course Nova’s still on. In StL its 7PM (C) for the HD version – 8PM for the regular.

Ya mean like squeek…?

You’re right – there’s a bunch more results in the squeek… search.

Hulu is NBC’s proprietary online site for their shows, great plan on their part. I’m hoping they’ll get their old archival stuff up like SNL seasons and old shows from their black and white days.

Is that so, Christopher? It’s a great idea. I’m enjoying the heck out of it (it doesn’t work under Opera, though).

Hey, the Simpsons TOTALLY sucks now…how long has that been going on?

Terrestrial TV here in the UK is some way behind with the Simpsons but, even so, it doesn’t so much suck as stink!

It was always slanted to the Left, but the recent stuff has been as funny as .. oh, I dunno…. A night on the town with Hilary?

Futurama FTW!

Yah, Simpsons have been sucking for 5 – 6 years now. Every year it gets worse.

There is still some good stuff out there though. Well, on DVD anyway, which is how I watch most of my TV shows. Start filling up your Netflix queue!

Firefly was very good. I was surprised at how much I liked it. Only one season though, and I stretched it out.

Rome – HBO’s big budget series from a couple years ago. A little too big budget, alas – only two seasons. Absolutely amazing show though, and I bought these DVDs.

Dead Like Me was a quirky series that was on Showtime for two seasons. They show cleaned up language versions on SciFi channel I think. I picked up the first disk at Blockbuster on a whim a few years ago and couldn’t stop watching the episodes. It starts off with a cynical and bored teenaged girl getting creamed by a flaming toilet seat from space and builds from there. Bought both seasons.

Dexter is a currently running series on HBO(?). Season one is out on DVD and it stars the guy who played the gay brother on Six Feet Under. He’s a brilliant actor and he plays a serial killer who hunts other serial killers and bad guys. Very excellent.

Six Feet Under was a interesting show. It’s entirely from the liberal perspective – most of the main characters are leftist to extremely leftist as well as the minor characters. Almost all of the problems that they have in their lives stem directly out of the consequences of their liberalism (they have LOTS of problems). It’s almost a conservative show when you watch it in that light. This one had the best series ending episode of any show I’ve ever seen I think.

There’s some stuff to chew on for now.

Awful lot of death programs on your list, Enas. Does that reflect current fashion or personal taste?

Yeah, I was planning on renting many of those programs on DVD when I got to the UK, for a little bit of an Amerifix. But this web dingus is fun.

The Simpsons is the only consideration I had when giving my Sky subscription up. It wasn’t that painful; its best was in its past and them hopping on the anti-America bandwagon only served to make the decision easier. Plus,
Have you seen Bender’s Big Score Musli? It’s the first of the three Futurama movies.
Man, I love Futurama. Billy West is a legend. Speaking of whom – any Ren & Stimpy fans?
I pretty much don’t watch any TV (apart from NASA TV and C-Span online), but I did sort of get into Lost. Admittedly it was mostly due to Evangeline Lily being in it. But then, near the end of the second season, I realised that they were just making it up as they went along.

Oh, sure…I was a Ren and Stimpy fan. Though I never saw the more adult series that ran on Spike TV. How could I not love a program with a character called Stinky Weaselteats?

What rolls down stairs alone or in pairs
Rolls over your neighbor’s dog?
What’s great for a snack and fits on your back?
It’s Log, Log, Log!

It’s Log, Log, it’s big, it’s heavy, it’s wood.
It’s Log, Log, it’s better than bad, it’s good!
Everyone wants a log! You’re gonna love it, Log!
Come on and get your log! Everyone needs a Log!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=dPHtKarae2Q&feature=related

The Blue Cat Blues

I remember that Tom and Jerry cartoon! I couldn’t watch Gibby’s…YouTube is blocked at work 🙁

Loved the T&J. They really don’t make ’em like that any more!

Oh, and how come no one has mentioned King Of The Hill?

Damned fine ‘toon, that one!

Pinky and the Brain

Oh well if were off in to ‘toonland then I think my favorite was the Pink Panther. I’m pretty sure the reason they don’t show that one on TV anymore because he’s smoking a cigarette in many of the introduction scenes.