Central Perk: 25 dec. 2012

marți, 25 decembrie 2012

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Merry Christmas from Mish and Darlene Love

Posted: 25 Dec 2012 01:04 AM PST

Darlene Love - Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) - Live on David Letterman - 2012

Link if video does not play: Darlene Love on Letterman 2012

I have watched Darlene Love nearly every year at Christmas for what seems like 20 years (a quick check shows I was off by a single year). This is Love's 19th consecutive appearance.

Love sings the exact same song every year. I missed Love's live performance this year, but a very close friend "Liz" emailed a link to the video shown above.

There are changes every year in Love's performance on Letterman. The highlight for me is a sax solo in the middle of the song. Typically a sax player bursts out behind a paper wall, but this year the sax player is in a glass bubble.

I love the saxophone and keyboards over guitars and drums.

Darlene Love was lead singer for the Crystals in a roundabout way as explained on Wikipedia.

The Crystals number 1 hit was "He's a Rebel" (click on link to see an excellent video and hear an excellent sax performance!).

He's a Rebel, written by Gene Pitney, was supposed to be released as a Darlene Love single but was instead released under the Crystals name although Love was not technically in the group.

I heard Darlene Love explain this on Letterman one year. From memory, Love's version goes like this: Phil Spector (the producer for the Crystals, Ronettes, etc.) promised Love that He's a Rebel as well as follow-up singles would be released under her name, but Spector reneged on that promise and instead released all of Love's hits under the Crystals name.

In 1964 the "British Invasion" began (Beatles, Herman's Hermits, Rolling Stones, Dave Clark Five, etc.). The "British Invasion" coupled with the "Surf Sound" (Beach Boys), and the "Motown Sound" (Supremes, Temptations, etc.), marked the end of the line for the traditional girl groups from the early 60's. Darlene Love never got the recognition she deserved.

Here is a link to additional performances of Darlene Love on Letterman.

Merry Christmas Everyone
Mish

We Wish You a Merry Christmas!

Posted: 24 Dec 2012 08:07 PM PST

Damn Cool Pictures wishes you a happy, healthy and peaceful Christmas.

End Of The World Prank! [Video]

Posted: 24 Dec 2012 07:41 PM PST

The Mayan apocalypse sure was a miss, but this prank on the streets of South Florida was a hit after the guys from VitalyzdTv convinced several people that the end of the world is near.

Amazing Christmas Lights

Posted: 24 Dec 2012 07:25 PM PST

One of the best parts about the holiday season is all the great Christmas lights displays. We've put together a list of the most amazing Christmas displays.

Seth's Blog : Learning how to see

Learning how to see

If you want to make something new, start with understanding. Understanding what's already present, and understanding the opportunities in what's not. Most of all, understanding how it all fits together.

Watch the last two minutes of the classic film, 2001. Today's technology would allow someone to make a short film like this with very little effort. But could you? The making isn't the hard part, in fact. It's the seeing.

Would you have the guts to go this slow? To use music this boldy? To combine iconography from three different centuries over two millenia?

Where is the explosion of the death star and where are the hackneyed tropes of a hundred or a thousand prior sci-fi movies?

Stanley Kubrick, the film's director, saw. He saw images and stories that were available to anyone who chose to see them, but others averted their eyes, grabbed for the easy or the quick or the work that would satisfy the boss in closest proximity.

When everyone has the same Mac and the same internet, the difference between hackneyed graphic design and extraordinary graphic design is just one thing—the ability to see.

Seeing, despite the name, isn't merely visual. I worked briefly with Arthur C. Clarke thirty years ago, and he saw, but he saw in words, and in concepts. The people who built the internet, the one you're using right now, saw how circuits and simple computer code could be connected to build something new and bigger. Others had the same tools, but not the same vision.

And all around us, we're surrounded by limits, by disasters (natural and otherwise) and by pessimism. Some people see in this opportunity and a chance to draw (with any sort of metaphorical pen) something. Others see in it a chance to hide, to settle and to sigh.

The same confidence and hubris that Kubrick and Clarke brought to their movie is available to anyone who decides to give more than they 'should' to a charity that has the audacity to change things. While others believe they can (and must) merely settle.

In our best possible future together, I hope we'll do a better job of learning to see one another.

Some people see a struggling person and turn away. Others see a human being and work to open a door or lend a hand. There are possiblities all around us. Not just the clicks of recycling a tired cliche, but the opportunity to be brave. If we only had the guts.