Joe Jackson – Steppin’ Out (1982)

del.icio.us Tags: 80sMusic,Joe Jackson,Steppin'Out,JoeJackson,1982


Joe Jackson - Steppin' Out (1982) (UK)


I so love this video. It's clever. It's not until you watch it a few times you "get" it.
There’s a lot more to the video. Watch it a few times! Have fun!

(I’m going Yahoo! with this video. You don’t get the cool freeze frame shot but it’s an official video. To make up I sneaked a freeze frame myself! )
(Click the 2nd box with the Yahoo logo to see video, not my freeze frame.)







The song and video theme of the quest for romance, the harsh realities of peoples’ motives and the move to the big city to “find your place in life”, mirror Jackson’s own life. Around ‘82 he moved to New York following the collapse of his marriage. (Spooky – on the internet I can’t find the poor woman’s name, she’s been erased! I seem to remember it was covered a bit in the papers at the time…)

The maid who goes to the city not just for a job, or a glimpse at the high-life, but wants to be a part of it.
She sees the growth and dynamism of the city as a place where people start at the bottom, and pretty soon reach a better place.
The hotel guest who owns the dress the maid dreams about has a different take on people knowing their place.
As does the male guest, who turns out to be a song writer.
Was he inspired by his night out to write the song when they come back? Or did he have the night out to gain inspiration for a song?
You decide!

Chinese Farmer Handmade $1,600 Helicopter

del.icio.us Tags: Hobbies,Technology,Shanzhai

Yep! You read the title right!
Some people doubt authenticity, but I hope it's real. Says he built it from his high school education and surfing the net on his cellphone.
See also: http://ping.fm/fJV5Hamp-space/article/2009-08/will-chinese-farmers-diy-helicopter-fly

This is part of 'Shanzhai' culture in China. Which basically means see something beyond your budget you like? Make it yourself!

Discussion of 'Shanzhai' is often mixed up with piracy. I think they're different things. THIS is 'Shanzhai'. I don't think anyone is gonna trawl through a market in Hong Kong, buy this baby and go home and pass it off as a Sikorsky Aircraft SH-60 Seahawk!!!

This is admirable! I hope it's real.

YouTube - Chinese farmer and his handmade helicopter
 

Ofra Haza - Im Nin Alu (1987)

del.icio.us Tags: Dance,80s Music,WorldMusic,OfraHaza,1987

 

 

 

Ofra Haza - Im Nin Alu (1987) (UK)
I remember the BUZZ about this song...everyone who heard it once wanted more, but NONE of us knew the title, who sang it, or even its country of origin. You heard it once in London, or Dublin you couldn't forget it.
It was lurking in the club scene for maybe a full year in various tapes, acetate discs, whitelabels before its use in the Coldcut mix of Eric B. & Rakim - Paid In Full guaranteed it's widespread release.
This song really woke me up to global music, globalism etc.
Something exciting and modern from outside Europe/US. We didn't get much of that at the time.
Ofra's story is quite sad. :(
http://ping.fm/QcLXg 

YouTube - Ofra Haza Im Nin Alu
    

Ping.fm URL Shortner Not Great Tonight

In this blog, I'm experimenting with using embedded links on names of artists, years, thing like that. Click on them, you get neat extra info.

I use a service called ping.fm when I blog and one of the things it does is shorten the embedded links.

But it's not working real well tonight on those Artist, Year etc links.
Tonight is the first time I've used it.

This might be temporary, I'll have to keep an eye on it.

The links in D-Mob - It Is Time To Get Funky (1989) post are reproduced below, without using the ping.fm service, these links will work:
D-Mob
1989
UK

Thanks.

D-Mob - It Is Time To Get Funky (1989)

D-Mob - It Is Time To Get Funky (1989) (UK)
(Click on links in line above for more great information!)

Great fun video. Credible track.
We need more fun!

IF CLICKING THE NAME, YEAR ET CETERA DOES NOT WORK, SEE POST ABOVE. Thanks

del.icio.us Tags: Dance,80s Music,D-Mob,Dancin' Danny D,Daniel Kojo Poku,1989

Planning On Taking In A Concert?

Ya know often, it’s better to take in a concert somewhere far from home.

You get the whole travel thing linked into the experience plus it can be cheaper.

Mashed Tickets is a great site allowing you to view all locations a band is playing in, or all bands playing in a location etc etc.

Taken from Mary from Michigan’s list of links.

del.icio.us Tags: Concerts,Computers and internet,Music

Foxytunes Enabled Searches

del.icio.us Tags: Blog,Computers and internet,music

It’s a collaborative world, and first up I would like to thank Mary from Michigan in the heart of America’s industrial belt for drawing my attention to a range of tools that can help improve blogs/spaces.

I will be adding Foxytunes-enabled links to artist names etc in future posts.

It’s a struggle to come up with an engaging space, and Mary sure helped. It takes a village to raise a weblog! Kudos.

You can read Mary’s stuff by clicking here. She does a great job of highlighting interesting stuff on the web.

Foxytunes delivers information on music using Yahoo’s resources. Yahoo have some really great facilities on the web, and it’s easy to forget not only how good they are, but how reliable and fast they are compared to other websites.