Stand By Me

We can all agree that somewhere around 98% of everything on the internet is deeply useless, weird, awful, boring, and generally not worth looking at. But once in a while, you stumble across something fairly awesome. That brings me to this little clip I bumped into on YouTube; it's a version of the song "Stand By Me," recorded by different people across the globe. I generally use my hardened cynic tone in this forum, but I dare you to not feel at least a little emotion as you watch it. Especially if you like the song as much as me.

Anyway, I ended up on that particular YouTube page as a result of having the song running through my head for several days. On Friday, I believe, a friend was humming "Good Vibrations," which is a magnificent song, and somehow that got stuck in my head, and put me in the mood for 60's psychedelic pop. So that drove me to go to several friends across campus, and accumulate all such music I could, featuring the works of Donovan, The Zombies, The Turtles, The Yardbirds, The Byrds, Simon & Garfunkel, and many others (it was quite an era for one-hit wonders). One of the songs that I grabbed, of course, was Ben King's "Stand By Me," and ever since I've been singing, or more aptly bellowing, the song as I walk the hallways of my dorm. For those interested, my radio show tomorrow will heavily feature such music. Tune in!

In other news:
- This has happened. The creation of a tiny biological battery that runs on human blood really really seems like the premise of a Michael Chrichton novel. I give us, say, 7 years until we see these become autonomous, develop intelligence, and start to enslave humans and harvest our blood.
- Why is it supposed to snow tomorrow? It's April, and such weather seems deeply unfair, especially after that gorgeous stretch we had.
- Sarah Palin is still talking. Yesterday she offered up this gem: "We are strategically placed to defend the critical assets of the United States and our allies in the Pacific Theater.” Excuse me? Which critical assets of the US are anywhere even close to Alaska? Is she still worried about Russia invading or something?
- I can't claim to be a fan of the series "Avatar: The Last Airbender," or to have even seen a full episode, but apparently it is a legitimately good show with a devout fanbase, something I'm inclined to respect. So I can only imagine the agony of having their show turned into a live-action film, directed by none other than M. Night "The Plants Are Going To Kill Everyone Except Mark Wahlberg" Shamalamayn.
- Wondering why I'm so mean to M. Night, even when the only movies of his I've seen (6th Sense and Signs) I've quite enjoyed? Here are some a typical review for his last film, The Happening: "It's a woeful clunker of a paranoid thriller... [with] befuddling infelicities, insistent banalities, a shambling pace and pervasive ineptitude." Or maybe it would be more fair to deliver one of like three positive reviews: "It turns out to be a divertingly goofy thriller."