Until today, I was not perfectly clear on the words to the iconic tune by Men At Work, let alone the subversiveness of them :

Traveling in a fried-out combie
On a hippie trail, head full of zombie
I met a strange lady, she made me nervous
She took me in and gave me breakfast
And she said,

“Do you come from a land down under?
Where women glow and men plunder?
Can’t you hear, can’t you hear the thunder?
You better run, you better take cover.”

Buying bread from a man in Brussels
He was six foot four and full of muscles
I said, “Do you speak-a my language?”
He just smiled and gave me a vegemite sandwich
And he said,

“I come from a land down under
Where beer does flow and men chunder
Can’t you hear, can’t you hear the thunder?
You better run, you better take cover.”

Lying in a den in Bombay
With a slack jaw, and not much to say
I said to the man, “Are you trying to tempt me
Because I come from the land of plenty?”
And he said,

“Oh! Do you come from a land down under? (oh yeah yeah)
Where women glow and men plunder?
Can’t you hear, can’t you hear the thunder?
You better run, you better take cover.”

=
c

Before you purchase hosting or domains, check out NoDaddy.com, which explains the way GoDaddy.com operates.

Via Slashdot :

When a GoDaddy customer forgets or otherwise fails to renew a domain, GoDaddy sells it off to the highest bidder through their TDNAM subsidiary. Some registrars–even Network Solutions–give the domain owner a percentage of the proceeds of such auctions. But GoDaddy keeps all the spoils to themselves. Anyway, it was recently discovered that the Vice President of TDNAM has been bidding on (and sometimes winning) TDNAM’s own auctions. This drives up the prices for normal customers and also leads to conflict of interest issues since normal bidders need to trust TDNAM to keep various information secret, such as their proxy bids, bidding history, the domains on their watch list. Also, GoDaddy doesn’t tell you when your bid price was inflated due to TDNAM executives bidding against you. They are one of the few auction services which don’t even give you the nicknames of competing bidders.

DomainNameWire contacted other domain auction services, and none allow unrestricted employee bidding on their own auctions like GoDaddy does. Enom (a patner in NameJet) notes that “We definitely do NOT let employees compete in auctions. Even if controlled, that practice has bad news written all over it.” Yet GoDaddy seems to think it is fine for executives to inflate their auction prices by bidding against customers. They responded to DomainNameWire that they allow this. There is a big risk that these employees have access to private information of the normal bidders, that they get special discounts, or that they may sometimes shill bid to increase prices without trying to actually win.

Head on over to NoDaddy.com for more information.

=
c

I’ve really been grooving on my pal AJ’s blog – that boy is on a ROLL this week!

Check out the latest coolness on YouTube compliments of Pop Levi [keep in mind these two videos are supposed to be side-by-side but the effect works just as well top-to-bottom -- hit play on each and follow on screen instructs] :

=
c

A long, lost pal turned me onto Frightened Rabbit this week – the water in Ireland must give them something extra>

From the band’s label :

Comprising Scott (vocals, guitar), Billy (guitar, keys), and Grant (Drums, vocals), the origins of the band are rooted in 2003, when Scott began playing solo shows under the name Frightened Rabbit, with his brother Grant joining in 2004, and Billy completing the line-up in 2006. Lyrically ranging from incisive social commentary, to lucid, humourous explorations of interpersonal relationships, Scott’s songs are essentially folk-tinged pop songs with more fervent ambitions. Somewhat atypically there is no bass, but crucially nothing is missing; Billy’s second guitar augments or bolsters Scott’s guitar/vocal hub, or drops an octave to add weight or bottom end. Grant’s drum patterns are alternately or simultaneously physical and adroit, adding accent and eloquence to the score. But primarily, Frightened Rabbit is so much more than a sum of these parts, the band combining together to form something complete, singular and life-affirming.

Thanks for the tip, AJ : )

=
c

I just haven’t wanted to listen to much of anything besides these fellas lately.

From wikipedia :

The Black Keys are a blues-rock music duo consisting of Dan Auerbach (vocals and guitar) and Patrick Carney (drums and percussion) from Akron, Ohio.

The band’s name was inspired by an artist friend of the band in Akron with schizophrenia, who used the term “black keys” to describe people who weren’t quite right. A double meaning lies in the fact that the black keys of a piano comprise a pentatonic minor scale when starting on E flat, which is often associated with blues and rock music.

One of their trademarks is their preference for “medium fidelity” recording techniques such as using tape recorders and analog effects. The band does most of the recording, producing, and mixing themselves. The majority of the album Thickfreakness was recorded in 12 hours during one day. The band often experiments with odd recording and production techniques, such as leaving in background noises.

The band released their first album, The Big Come Up, in 2002, followed by Thickfreakness in 2003, and Rubber Factory in 2004. October 2005 saw the release of the DVD Live, recorded live at The Metro Theatre in Sydney, Australia March 18, 2005. In 2006 they released Magic Potion and the lesser known Chulahoma EP, as well as a single version of Your Touch.

Their fourth album, Magic Potion, was released on September 4, 2006 in the UK and September 12, 2006 in the United States. It was their first recording for Nonesuch Records.

Attack & Release, their fifth album, was produced by Danger Mouse and released on April 1st 2008, having leaked onto the internet by March 4th.

=
c

Surely, there are many people who strongly disagreed with his views. More conservative folks especially would rather he hadn’t reached the levels of success he did. He made a career out of stirring the pot and providing balance to the hard right and its overwhelming amount of political correctness and closed-mindedness about the world.

Known as the guy who took black humor to new heights, George Carlin also left a footprint on the media world, having ridiculed television for the seven dirty words you can’t hear.

In minutes, he could make us all question what we’ve just always been told.

That’s scary for a lot of folks.

For others, it’s just good exercise :

=
c