so i complain about spam a lot and how stupid it is. i just found this great site called "Spamusement," which is cartoons inspired by actual spam subject lines. it's pretty hilarious.

http://www.spamusement.com

so this is mainly for me, it's my list of concerts i want to go to, because i always forget them.

X Th July 29, Measles Mumps Rubella, warehouse next door

Sat July 31, Assrockers, Velvet Lounge - free beer

X Mon Aug 2, Camera Obscura, $12, Iota

X MON AUG 16- ELEFANT, AMBULANCE LTD., ELKLAND $10 Black Cat mainstage 8:30

Sat Aug 21- Enon, El Guapo, Warehouse next door

SUN AUG 22- MAE, THE WORKING TITLE, WAKING ASHLAND $10 Black Cat mainstage 8:30

TUE AUG 24- Further Seems Forever w/ The Kicks • Brandston • Salem 7pm Doors $12.00 9:30 Club (I'm only going to see the Kicks, people.)

SAT AUG 28- BAD WIZARD, ASSROCKERS, THE WITNESSES $8 Black Cat mainstage 9:30

THUR SEPT 9- LES SAVY FAV, DETACHMENT KIT $12 mainstage 8:30 Black Cat

SAT SEP 11, Guided By Voices w/ Tommy Keene $20.00 9:30 Club

>SAT SEPT 18- THE THRILLS, THE ZUTONS $14 mainstage 9:30 Black Cat

SUN SEP 26, Old 97's w/ Chuck Prophet $20.00, 9:30 Club

TUES SEPT 28 Keane w/ French Kicks Presented by 99.1 WHFS. 7pm Doors $15.00 9:30 Club

WED SEPT 29- RJD2, DIPLO (of Hollertronics) $12 Black Cat mainstage 8:30

>SUN OCT 10- RILO KILEY, NOW IT’S OVERHEAD, TILLY AND THE WALL $12 Black Cat mainstage 8:30

>MON OCT 11- MOUNTAIN GOATS, JOHN VANDERSLICE, JOAN OF ARC $10 Black Cat mainstage 8:30

>TUE OCT 12 Camper van Beethoven $20.00 930 Club

>SUN OCT 17 The Faint w/ TV on the Radio & Beep Beep $15.00 9:30 Club

>TUE OCT 19 The Libertines w/ Radio 4 $15.00 9:30 Club

MON OCT 25- PINBACK, MATES OF STATE, ASPECTS OF PHYSICS $14 mainstage Black Cat 8:30

So I found a bunch of cool new videos on Yahoo Launch, check em out:

Chromeo, a NY hipster-type 80s electronic funk group. The video is really funny: http://search.launch.yahoo.com/search/lsearch/all?p=chromeo

The Thrills, the Irish band I reviewed earlier. Big Sur is a pretty amusing video, haven’t seen the other one yet (I’m at work and trying to be stealthy):
http://launch.yahoo.com/artist/videos.asp?artistID=1099693

Here’s about 800 Beastie Boys videos, which are usually hilarious. Triple Trouble at the bottom is a new one, with my favorite legendary monster, Sasquatch:
http://search.launch.yahoo.com/search/lsearch/video?p=beastie+boys

So what I think is funny and stupid is commercials that edit songs so they sound like the opposite of their actual meaning. The first time I noticed this was “American Woman” by the Guess Who, which was used in an ad for Tommy Hilfiger or American Eagle or something like that. The song is a protest song from the Vietnam era against the U. S., but it was edited so it sounded like it was glorifying American women. Then there was another Tommy Hilfiger commercial that edited “Fortunate Son” by CCR, which is about the sons of rich and powerful people avoiding Vietnam, to sound like it was a patriotic song. They only played “some folks are born, made to raise the flag, oooh that red white and blue,” but they edited out the next line of the song, “And when the band plays ‘Hail to the Chief’ They point the cannon right at you,” as well as all of the draft-dodging stuff. I assume bands do this solely for the money, or maybe they lost control of the rights to their songs, but I think it really sucks, both that the song is being used for basically the opposite of what it means, and that ad people assume we don’t know what the song is about. Either that or the ad people are bad listeners and only notice the very brief parts that they can use, which would not surprise me. Recently, I saw an ad for a cruise or something with Iggy Pop’s “Lust for Life,” which I am pretty sure is about drug addiction, and a car commercial which took one line from the Dandy Warhols' “Bohemian Like You,” which is a sarcastic song that makes fun of young people who are trying to be cool bohemians. Neither of which are things that people selling stuff would want to be associated with, you would think. “Hey, if you guy this car you are a poser! Come on this cruise and do heroin!” But I guess it’s easier to cut up a song by an actual band than to make a catchy song yourself.

so I found a couple of cool websites. the first is an awesome video of a guy playing Mario Brothers music on the piano.

http://media.ebaumsworld.com/mariopiano.wmv

the other is a funny blog called 8th Pres in Da House, a guy pretending to be Martin Van Buren coming back to life and talking about funny crap.

http://8thpresindahouse.blogspot.com/