Cool Stuff People Send Me: Public Performance Art

I'm a sap, I admit it. This is a wonderful video:



Thank to my Aunt Lee for sending this my way!

Cool Stuff People Send Me: Sheep Art

This is pretty cool:



Thanks to my Aunt Lee who sent this to me back in April!

The Tattooed Poets Project, Day 28 (part 1): Ruth Kohtz

Today's poem, "Phosphorous," comes to us from Ruth Kohtz, in the form of a video:



Ruth is a writer who performs regularly in Twin Cities' poetry slams, readings, and open mics. She studied writing at the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics in 2006. Her work has appeared in college literary magazines, random blogs, and in the bathroom of the Uptowner on Grand Avenue in St. Paul MN.

Thanks to Ruth for her contribution! Head over to Tattoosday to see one of her tattoos.

Cool Stuff People Send Me: Metallikazoo

My friend Brent sent me this YouTube video:

Cool Stuff People Send Me: Banking in Turkey

My Aunt Lee see me this cool video:

Happy Birthday, Eddie Vedder

This is just an awesome little clip, with Eddie and Pete Townshend from an appearance on Letterman in 1999, performing "Heart to Hang Onto":

YouTube Offering for the Upcoming High Holidays

Thanks to Steve for sending this my way! And Happy New Year!

Tino Recommends..... (Metallica Edition)

My friend Tino was telling me via text messages how many cool things YouTube has to offer. "Agreed," I told him, "but what are you finding so awesome?" He rattled off a list of cool videos of rare hard rock/heavy metal performances that are truly remarkable.

"Ok," I told him, "send me the links, and I'll share them on BillyBlog."

The following clips were Tino's picks for the week, the Metallica edition.

An early Metallica demo of "Ride the Lightning" with original lead singer, Dave Mustaine on vocals (audio only):



"Creeping Death" - Demo Version (audio only):



Metallica's classic "Whiplash" covered by Anthrax in 2003:



Thanks to Tino for sharing these clips!

Cleaning Out My Inbox

Here's a bevy of things that have been lovingly cluttering up my inbox for months:

Eddie Vedder sings Old McDonald (sort of) in Kids' Rock by Tim Hawkins:



Thanks to Jonny G. for sending that to me.

Next up, from Santa Barbara, The Dog, The Cat, and The Rat:



Thanks to the BillyBlogMom for sending me that.

If you've ever wondered if there's a website for everything, there is. Or, if you've ever wondered, if you see a story on the news about a truck crashing somewhere, and releasing its load of chickens, and wonder if trucks have ever released, say, alligators,



head on over here and see. Thanks to Ben for sending me the link to TruckSpills.com!

My friend Felicia (Jonny G.'s better, sexier half) sent this link explaining the Time Loop Theory on the show Lost. Very creative. Some people take television very seriously.

Ben (my friend, not the guy from Lost) also sent me more evidence that Japanese game shows are truly insane:



Human Tetris anyone?

Cool Stuff People E-mail Me: Frozen in Grand Central

Worth watching. This is amazing. Melanie sent me this link.

Twist and Shout, Bay Ridge Style

Recorded in Bay Ridge at the Fifth Avenue Festival. Fun Stuff!

YouTube Clip o' the Day

Wow.

Idolator introduced this to me.

And to think the Trombone player went on to compose the music for one of my favorite movies (and has won an Emmy and been nominated for eight Grammys and three Oscars).



That's the Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo, circa 1976.

Check This Out and Wonder Why Its Special

Scroll down for the answer...









I was astonished today to come across this poem, manifested in a YouTube clip set up by a user identified as Pacoevangelista from the Philippines. Astonished because, this is my poem, "I Am a Cigarette, Burning Between Your Lips," which was published in a Canadian online journal called paperplates in the late 1990s.

Would love to hear what people think.

Monday Morning Bummer or, a Viacomedy of Errors

Popularity has it's price, I guess. I have joined the league of bloggers and other YouTube enthusiasts who have received the dreaded e-mail:

Dear Member:

This is to notify you that we have removed or disabled access to the following material as a result of a third-party notification by Viacom claiming that this material is infringing:

Naked Brothers Band "If There Was a Place to Hide" (FULL): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wh25ZoFcSVI

Please Note: Repeat incidents of copyright infringement will result in the deletion of your account and all videos uploaded to that account. In order to avoid future strikes against your account, please delete any videos to which you do not own the rights, and refrain from uploading additional videos that infringe on the copyrights of others. For more information about YouTube's copyright policy, please read the Copyright Tips guide.

Ironically, they pulled the plug on the long video but left the short one.

Naked Brothers Band, ""If There Was a Place to Hide"

A couple of weeks ago, on January 27, I added a forty-second clip of a montage from a movie on Nickelodeon that had five seconds of fame for a couple of people I care deeply about (read the original post here). Well, since then, the bit on YouTube has had 17,366 views, was "favorited" 76 times, received more than 30 comments, and has been rated by 37 viewers. One young fan asked if I could post the whole song. And since, I am appreciative of the huge spike in traffic on BillyBlog as a result of the Naked Brothers Band clip, here's young Nat Wolff performing the whole song from the movie: