Today’s Obsession

This is a truly today’s obsession post. I have listened to this song by Phoenix about 20 times this weekend. And watched this awesome mashup video on YouTube about 5 times.

phoenix - lisztomania *brat pack mashup*

I was taking the transbay bus back last evening and listening to the Dark was the night compilation (thanks Randy). Sufjan Stevens’ “You Are The blood” just blew me away. The orchestration, a mix of electronic and sufjan baroque. The lyrics brilliant. And those amazing rich vocals. When I googled the song, I found out that it was a cover version of a Castanets song, a band I had never heard of. So here I present the complete You Are The Blood experience:

The Original Castanets version

The Dark Was The Night Sufjan Stevens Version

The Lyrics:

You are the blood flowing through my fingers
all through the soil and up in those trees

You are electricity and you’re light
You are sound itself and you are flight

You are the blood flowing through my fingers
All through the soil and up in those trees
You are electricity and you’re light
You are sound itself and you are flight
You are the blood flowing through my fingers
All through the soil and up in those trees
You are the blood flowing through my finger ……

You are the blood that I may see you that I may see you
You are the blood in me

You are the earth on which I travel on which I travel
You are the earth under my feet
That I may travel that I may travel with you
you are the earth on which I write the circumstances
you say what you want from me
you are the solitude that goes against me that goes against me
you are the choir in which I dream
in which I sleep in which I wander

I dedicate this song and post to my long suffering, beloved and often amusing wife Aditi.

The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services is having a video contest on YouTube about flu prevention…

This one’s my favorite:

View the 10 finalists here.

Now I will walk over to the restroom to wash my hands.

Just the way Aditi will not read Harry Potter because of the awful covers, I had decided a long time back that I will read Junot Diaz’s book The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao because I absolutely love the cover. And also because years back I had heard this podcast from the New Yorker. The book does not disappoint. I loved this paragraph about Oscar’s mom Beli’s attitude when she joined this posh school:

” (Beli) Was defensive and aggressive and mad overreactive. You said something slightly off-color about her shoes and she brought up the fact that you had a slow eye and danced like a goat with a rock stuck in its ass. Ouch. You would just be playing and homegirl would be coming down on you off the top rope.”

Brilliant! That effortless & conversational reference to the ‘top rope‘ from pro-wrestling, absolutely priceless.

p.s. The book written in Spanglish with copious footnotes about Dominican history absorbs and sometimes frustrates me because I cannot understand any of the dominican slang that’s in the book. But I will stay with it, hijo.

A quick read on ReadWriteWeb + a Sunday evening with not much to do  = A post about Flock and FlockCast on my ’serious’ blog lrnr.

A satisfying burger and a quest for nutrition facts leads to a satisfying online user experience. More at my ’serious’ blog’ lrnr…

Bonus: Link to the not so perfect narrated demo.