The Adventures of Accordion Guy in the 21st Century

Kung Hei Fat Choy!*

(* That’s “Happy new year” in Cantonese.)

It’s been a busy weekend, with Blogstravaganza on Friday, a Chinese New Year’s party on Saturday and a big Chinese New Year family outing on Sunday. Today is turning out ot be a very busy day, It’s a busy day today an busier day, so today’s posting is a simple one in honour of Chinese New Year: a summer 1999 photo of a dog sitting in a Montreal apartment window, not far from the corner of Milton and Durocher, a location for many of my youthful indiscretions.

Uncategorized

Happy Birthday, Mozart!

The Google logo has a powdered wig and a musical staff today because it’s Mozart’s birthday. Happy birthday, Amadeus!

Falco and Mozart — together at last!

I don’t have any Mozart here at the office, and it was much easier to find an MP3 of a fan remix of Falco’s Rock Me Amadeus [7.3 MB MP3] than it was to dig up a measly sample of Eine Kleine Nachtmusik [266K MP3], which is a shame. Once I started uploading Rock Me Amadeus, I couldn’t help but post Help Me, Dr. Zaius [268K MP3] from The Simpsons.

It Happened to Me Toronto (a.k.a. Accordion City)

The Disturbing Truth About the Wonder Twins

Post author By Joey deVilla
Post date January 27, 2006
1 Comment on The Disturbing Truth About the Wonder Twins

The characters from 'Suerfriends' and 'Space Ghost' at an illegal underground monkey knife fight.

In response to the Monkey Knife Fight graphic that I posted along with my original announcement about Blogstravaganza (it’s the one pictured above), Damian”Babbling Brooks” Brooks wrote in the comments to Bob “Let it Bleed” Tarantino’s blog:

OK, the monkeys going all Jets-and-Sharks doesn’t bug me. Batman

standing over the little guy like that is a bit off-putting. But the

Wonder Twins swapping spit in the back? Ewwwww.

I pointed him to this Penny Arcade comic (click to see it at full size):

All this reminds me of a story which in turn reminds me of another story.

About a month or so back, I was in a conversation with a group of programmers when one posed a hypothetical business model question that started with “Is it evil if…”

Reg, one of the programmers and an all-round astute guy, jumped in before the guy asking the question could finish: “You know, if you have to ask, it probably is.”

What I decided not to bring up at that point is that I remembered once, back at Crazy Go Nuts University when someone asked me “Hey, Joey, is it, uh, incest if…if I…”

“You know, even though you haven’t finished,” I replied, “I’m gonna go with ‘yes’.”

I’m full of stories. Wanna hear some? Come to Blogstravaganza tonight!

Toronto (a.k.a. Accordion City)

Blogstravaganza (a.k.a. "Monkey Knife Fight") Tonight!

Post author By Joey deVilla
Post date January 27, 2006
No Comments on Blogstravaganza (a.k.a. "Monkey Knife Fight") Tonight!

The preponderence of images of knife-wielding monkeys should be a hint to you that tonight is the night of the Accordion City (a.k.a. “Toronto”) Blogstravaganza, a gathering of this fine city’s bloggers. It takes place at a pretty convenient location: Fiddler’s Green, a pub located at 27 Wellesley Street East, just east of Yonge and Wellesley on the south site, and right above Wellesley Station. For those of you who are driving, there’s a parking lot beside Fiddler’s Green.

Over at his blog, Let it Bleed, Blogstravaganza partner Bob Tarantino writes that Fiddler’s Green has given us the third floor room. This means that as soon as you enter the pub, go up, up, waaay up to the third floor…we’ll be the group with the accordion. (The odds against there being two accordions in the same bar at the same time are almost nil…we observe a Highlander-like “There can be only one!” code of honour in the Brotherhood of the Bellows.)

Postmodern Sass tells me that there might be karaoke there. You might get to see The Master at work, you lucky dogs!

I myself expect to be there around 8:30-ish. I’m taking Wendy out on our weekly “date night” ritual prior. If you’ve got questions for Wendy about her new gig as Editor-in-Chief of Top 10 Sources, this is your chance! If you’d like to make a page for Top 10 Sources — a great way to get you and your blog noticed by the larger blogopshere, by the bye — this is also your chance!

For more on the Blogstravaganza (including why I’ve nicknamed it “Monkey Knife Fight”), see this earlier entry of mine. In the spirit of that entry, I share a song with you — Stevie Wonder’s funkafied cover of the Beatles’ We Can Work it Out [3.0MB MP3].

See you there!

Uncategorized

Katamari Hijinks

The “Katamari Idiocy” video [10.4MB Windows Media] shows the misadventures of a guy who tries to be the prince from the quirky and addicitive Japanese PlayStation videogame Katamari Damacy in real life. In the video, we learn that neighbourhood cats aren’t too keen on this idea, it’s no good for picking up girls and attempting to roll up a baseball diamond and all the people within works only in the game.

Music

The Annotated "Paul’s Boutique"

Post author By Joey deVilla
Post date January 26, 2006
No Comments on The Annotated "Paul’s Boutique"

Pure funky music geek gold: The Paul’s Boutique Samples and References List site examines every song off this seminal Beastie Boys album, sourcing its samples used in every song and explaining every reference in its lyrics. Shhhhake your rump-ahh!

It Happened to Me

0100

(0100 is one possible binary representation of the number 4.)

Mathew Hoy at HellaBoss got tagged to make a few lists of four items. He then tagged Grant Hutchison at splorp, who made his lists. Grant then tagged John Martz at RobotJohnny, who made his lists. Johnny tagged Deenster at pony, who made her lists and then tagged me.

It’s my turn now, so here goes:

Four Jobs I’ve Had

DJ, Clark Hall Pub, Crazy Go Nuts University (Nov. 1989 – Nov. 1994)
Sno-cone street vendor, Hawaiian Snow (summer 1985)
Gopher, Fleishman Auction Company (spring/summer 1991)
Go-go Dancer, The Living Room nightclub, Toronto (early 2002)

Four Movies I Can Watch Over and Over

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
A Clockwork Orange
Blue Velvet
Waiting to Exhale
Okay, I was kidding about that last one. I meant Goodfellas.

Four Places I have Lived

Four Television Shows I Love to Watch

Four Places I Have Been on Vacation

Prague (New Year’s 2000)
Black Rock Desert (Burning Man 1999)
Southwest Japan (Osaka , Kobe and Kyoto, 1998)
Minneapolis/St. Paul (CONvergence Science Fiction Convention, July 2004)

Four of My Favourite Dishes

Yeung Chow fried rice
Filet mignon
My mother’s chicken adobo
My mother-in-law’s coffee cake

Four Websites I Visit Daily

Four Places I Would Rather Be Right Now

Om the Burning Man mobile bar, which is essentially a flatbed truck converted into a lounge. It circles the entire site all night. The bar has an ample supply of Crown Royal, ginger ale and ice, and is occupied by me and a bunch of programmer types — David Crow, Chris Nolan, Paul Baranowski, Michelle Levesque, Zooko, Amber O’Hearn, Bram Cohen, Ian Goldberg, Kat Hanna, David Janes, Randy Charles Morin, Ry4an Brase, Justin Chapweske, Luke Francl, Steve Jenson, Tom and Joe McDonald, Jillzilla, the Ruby programmer known only as why the lucky stiff, David Heinemeier Hansson, John Wiseman and Paul Graham. Yukihiro “Matz” Matsumoto (creator of the Ruby programming language) and Guido van Rossum (creator of the Python programming language) are tending bar, and Doc Searls is manning the barbecue. The truck would be on its way to Mashup Camp.
Onstage at the Coachella Valley Music Festival, invited by Trent Reznor to join him and the rest of Nine Inch Nails for a couple of numbers. I go up with my accordion when Trent says “Hey, Joe, you need something a little more high-tech. I’ve been meaning to give this to you for being so cool.” He passes me a heavy box: it contains a Roland FR-7 Digital accordion hooked to a Korg Radias rackmount synth. “Watch that F-diminished chord button,” says Trent, “it activates the pyrotechnics.”
Sitting butt-naked and hot-tub style in a large vat filled with a mixture of chocolate mousse, intact $100 bills and the entire inventory of the Yorkdale Apple Store (sealed in plastic, of course). I have my arm around Wendy, who is also in the vat with me. Mark Cuban is outside the vat, but leaning over the edge and giving me hot stock tips and financial advice. Tony Pierce is taking pictures and blogging the whole thing. Rachael Ray is cooking and serving her famous cheeseburgers when she whispers in my ear, suggesting that she, Wendy and I get into a “threesome”.
Driving to Buffalo with Wendy so that we can fulfill the final step of her residency visa for Canada — yes, she got accepted! Mazel tov!