So, there’s this video going around of a robot band playing the B-52′s “Rock Lobster”. Read all about it here.
Uh, right, okaaaaay. Let’s compare that to the original, recorded live in 1978:
(It’s a Youtube video, but embedding is disabled for some reason. Click the picture to make some noise.)
Which one did you think was better? I rest my case.
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Bonus video! Radiohead’s “Nude” covered by machine band BUT DONE RIGHT:
I’ve really slowed down on writing things recently, as a lot of energy has been directed towards getting the state to pay me benefits. Unlike my friends, it seems that governance is totally unimpressed at my near-death experience, and I’ve been forced to spend a lot of time filling out forms, making complaints, and talking to call centre staff in Luton.
Which wasn’t quite how I planned to spend my recuperation.
So my apologies for not cranking out grist for this particular mill on a more regular basis. I’ve been busy. I’m probably going to keep on being busy. Here are some links to keep you busy:
Five Creepy Ways Video Games are Trying to Get You Addicted – excellent article about the tricks used to get you playing computer games from cracked.com, which I thought was just a dumping ground for brash American humour. If you read this, you’ll know why you’ve been distracting yourself from work so much.
Idle Words tackles Scurvy – a long and thoughtful article about scurvy, in particular scurvy and the Scott expedition. From Idle Words, which has a great and very long archive of interesting stuff that could keep you distracted for a while.
The Battle for Britain’s Libraries – the Guardian tackles the new library culture spring up, namely a question of if we should have super-libraries (like Newcastle’s new city-centre library) or regional branches (which don’t have gee-whiz stuff like the internet). Contains this amazing factoid – “Since 1997 there has been a 1,150% rise in lap-dancing clubs in Britain, and a 6% decline in the number of libraries”.
The Terminator’s Gun – it must be scifi gun season, as Ars Technica gives us the behind-the-scenes tail of Arnie’s laser-sighted pistol, while Boingboing gives us the making of a replica Blade Runner gun. Frankly, I stopped giving a shit about Blade Runner after the third directors cut, and would have preferred a spin-off, sequel 
Uncovered during seasonal tidying, a small cache of 3.5 floppies, still sealed with their “license agreement” stickers.
Why do I blog this?
One of these disks has been left, unopened, for thirteen years. The other came in an eight-inch box, decorated with Alber’s trademark screenprints, that I used as decoration. Now, possibly six years after tossing the disk but keeping the box, it’s impossible for me to get the Albers font off the physical media that it came with. These objects have changed from useful, legally guarded tools to technological detritus.
