The Telegraph is finally reporting that the Manchester, UK band The Get Out Clause couldn’t afford to put together a music video, but it didn’t stop them.
No director, cameras, lighting, make-up or production? No problem.
These rockers decided to record themselves for free on local CCTV cameras. Then, in a stroke of brilliance, requested the video from operators using the Freedom of Information act. They weaved it all together and, ta-da, they had a music video.
I remember seeing this video a while back and thinking it was a really cool gimmick. I never got the full story of how the band brought this all together, but it does add something to the video. Say what you will about the music or the lead singers mustache, the video they created is pretty cool.
I wrote an album review for the local magazine that I freelance for, Performer Magazine, and was trying to find a different word for “showcase.” I asked a few other editors if they had any ideas, but nothing captured exactly what I was trying to express.
That’s OK, I thought, there’s still the world of online thesauri. First I tried the old standby, Thesaurus.com. I typed in ‘showcase’ then ‘show case’ and didn’t get a single result for either version. Well, actually, Thesaurus.com asked if I meant ‘show case’ instead of ‘showcase.’ Looks promising. Sure, I clicked, why not? No results came up.
After a couple of minutes of questioning Thesaurus.com’s ability to function as an actual thesaurus, I moved on to Merriam-Webster – that paragon of Word of the Day. Again I tried both ‘showcase’ and ‘show case.’ Again, I got no results. Well, almost no results. Merriam-Webster didn’t exactly say: ‘We ain’t found shit!’ But it was close.
Instead, it asked if I could’ve been searching for either of these two words:
Jocose
Sausage
Really. Sausage. Showcase. Jocose. Showcase. Sausage. Oh yeah, I can see how those might be related.
Those of you who read this blog from time to time know that I have something of a soft spot for one Mr. Wilford Brimley. In fact, in some ways he’s the father of this blog. One drunken night of using a hand a walrus mustache and talking with a gravely voice about the dangers of sugar has launched something like 60 posts so far.
The inaugural post on the site was my take on a remix of a Justin Timberlake song. Check it out if you haven’t read it: Wilford Back (Remix).
While I haven’t delved into Wilford lately… (Oh god. My eyes. Let me rephrase that.)
While I haven’t blogged about Wilford lately, he’s never been far from my thoughts — as if that surly attitude and bushy mustache could ever flutter from my thoughts.
But today, a Wednesday, he returns. Thanks to Gato Island for this real gem:
Found a few interesting Websites this morning that I thought would be worth point out.
The first is ChaCha. It’s sort of like Twitter — but completely different at the same time. Instead of using ChaCha to microblog about yourself, ChaCha is there to answer questions. The similarity? Well, I guess it’s that you use your phone to send an SMS message and then something magical and mysterious happens somewhere in the vast expanses of the Interwebs.
ChaCha, incidentally, is the number you text in order to ask a question: 242242. It could be a bot, but when one user asked the question, ‘What’s the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?’ The answer perceived was a direct quote from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
My initial question was: ‘Who are the Knights who say Ni!’? Not too original, I know, but I was in a Pythonesque state of mind. The response I received was:
“Welcome to ChaCha. Your phone just got smarter. Ask away. Your first answer will come shortly. Std txt charges may apply.”
A few minutes later, as promised, I got my answer: “Knights Who Say Ni! Are a band of knights from the comedy film Monty Python and the Holy Grail.”
Not too witty, but to the point nonetheless.
The other website I found this morning is called The Jargon Database. It looks like a site designed to compete with Urban Dictionary. The latest copywrite on Jargon Database is 2004, so maybe they didn’t compete too well. But, on the upside, I found out what a ‘Groove Digger‘ was this morning. Did you know?
All the basics are there — F.A.Q., contact, and submission. The purpose of the site, as Steve points out, is to provide an alternative for strictly technical or business related jargon sites. And, he hopes, it’ll provide a resource to the blog community looking for a place to link to strange and witty words.
As you might imagine, Jargon Database has nowhere near the number of entries and submissions that UD has, but, if nothing else, it’s an alternative. After all, when I get a daily update from Urban Dictionary defining the word ‘Irregardless,’ I think it might be time to move to a new, different, less mind numbing and soul crushing social dictionary.
I know, I know. Irregardless isn’t a word and neither is a lot of stuff that gets posted on UD. But, honestly, doesn’t that site have editors with brains? Isn’t irregardless quite possibly the stupidest word in existence? If you say “Irregardless of the fact that…” what you are saying is that you are basing an argument on things that are simply made up or don’t exist.
Oh, a quick check proves that the Urban Dictionary community has spoken out on irregardless. Maybe there is still hope for this crazy, online world in which my brain lives.
Posted by Brian 
Posted by Brian 
Posted by Brian 
