The Tea Room

A member of the dudevice community.
The Royal Mile in Edinburgh, Scotland. T’is pretty, ain’t it? When I was there, I had a good laugh with a family friend who put me up. He found it funny how Americans he does business with cannot for the life of them pronounce Edinburgh. I figure that I will take pity on my readers from south of the border and give a lesson on proper pronunciation. It’s pronounced Ed-in-bur-Oh. Not Ed-in-BERG like the spelling may suggest. Don’t worry people, I can see how confusion arises. Practice it a couple of times and I have faith you will be able to ace it. To really be authentic, take off your underwear, put on a kilt, grow a beard, dye it red, hold some bag-pipes, feel some angst towards the British and stand next to a sheep while saying it. Beautiful city, I yearn to be back there.

The Royal Mile in Edinburgh, Scotland. T’is pretty, ain’t it? When I was there, I had a good laugh with a family friend who put me up. He found it funny how Americans he does business with cannot for the life of them pronounce Edinburgh. I figure that I will take pity on my readers from south of the border and give a lesson on proper pronunciation. It’s pronounced Ed-in-bur-Oh. Not Ed-in-BERG like the spelling may suggest. Don’t worry people, I can see how confusion arises. Practice it a couple of times and I have faith you will be able to ace it. To really be authentic, take off your underwear, put on a kilt, grow a beard, dye it red, hold some bag-pipes, feel some angst towards the British and stand next to a sheep while saying it. Beautiful city, I yearn to be back there.

Letterman is priceless. Stiller was pretty funny mocking Phoenix last night as well. Here is the full interview for those who weren’t sure what Stiller was doing dressed like that at the Oscars last night. 

And the Oscar goes to…

And the Oscar goes to…

Ok so I have to shout out my brother (non-biological but emotional) vigeant.dudevice.com for bringing this to my attention. What we have here is a fine example of Microsoft Songsmith. The following is a description of this software from vigeant.dudevice.com, just to give you some background on it;

“Songsmith is a piece of software that allows you to sing a vocal melody into a microphone hooked up to the computer, a piece of software then analyzes your key and time signature and generates a musical accompaniment. Songsmith was created by Microsoft and is widely accepted as a waste of money on their part… as the software is horrendous.”

I couldn’t have put it better myself. So Microsoft released this program which seems like it would have wowed audiences in 1986. The upside of this is now we have comical renditions of popular songs having their music stripped and just the vocals run through the software. The program then uses the key and time signature as vigeant.dudevice.com states to create music for the song. The end product results in hilarious music for otherwise decent songs. This coupled with youtubers with too much time on their hands who then take the songsmith versions and sync it up to the video, gives us a grand ole chuckle. 

This is certainly one of my favorites. It may actually even be an improvement. From now on I command you all to listen to this version of Soulja Boy when you are getting jiggy wit it.  NOW I MEAN YOUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!!

Just found a different version of the Haka which is even more terrifying. I know I am now inspired. Did it work for you?

So I am in need of some inspiration and motivation, times are tough. This may seem silly to some of you, my faithful followers, but I am going to share with you something that sends chills down my spine whenever I see it. This video is of the New Zealand national rugby team, the All Blacks, doing their pre-game ritual, the Haka. The Haka is a Maori traditional dance performed at the start of international matches as a challenge to their opposition. It is meant to instill fear into their opponents and fill them with the power they need to overcome. It has become one of the world’s most recognizable events in sport, not to mention possibly the hardest thing on the face of the earth. I am not quite sure what would be going through my head if those dudes were doing this threatening dance in front of me before we were about to play one of the world’s most physical sports. Probably thinking, “Get me the $$$$ outta here, fool”. Even though the closest I am to being Maori or a Kiwi is owning a war stick my parents picked up when they travelled there, I still think the Haka is very inspirational. So next time some dude steps to you all crazy-eyed and whatnot, rep a Haka and see if he doesn’t wet his pants.

The Kooks live at Glastonbury. Good tune, good band, good venue. Small amount of flags?

Black Cab Sessions

When I was in London last year, this bloke and I began chatting at the pub about music and which acts we each fancied. He asked what Brit bands I was a fan of and I told him about my love for The Kooks. We both started discussing how they were a great band but had yet to break through in Canada on a major level and that they just needed more exposure on this side of the pond. He then let me know about this website with an amazing concept called Black Cab Sessions. It is a brilliant concept, 1 artist or group, 1 song, 1 take and of course, 1 black cab. I checked the website out later and it instantly became one of my favorites. It is such a simple and ingenious concept. I imagine that it is quite a good time for the musicians themselves and you can certainly tell by some of their performances. Most of the chapters are british acts, so if you are not up on your current Brit music scene, this is a good way to get started. However, there are quite a few well known Canadian and American acts. Death Cab for Cutie, Ryan Adams and The New Pornographers are some just to name a few. Thank God the Brits use cabs which have the appropriate space for a band to perform a song while driving, I mean, that is why they they produce the biggest bands, they obviously are always practicing. Check out my favorite session, chapter 25, The Kooks.