Ah the best laid plans! I volunteered for tonight’s diary in brillig’s absence, hoping to do her a tiny favor after all she’s done for me ... inspired by a link Kathy sent me ... and right at the beginning of the day I either got something in my eye, or scratched my eyeball, so it’s been hurting all day ... and now I’ve come down with something of a cold ...
But my topic tonight still inspires me, thanks to Wouter de Backer. It isn’t an explicitly political diary, but to me it is all about the deepest core of human progressivism - that infinite wellspring of creativity which underlies our greatest achievements as a species.
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I have written before about my ‘sig line’ ... a quotation from Jonathan Larson’s brilliant musical, RENT.
The opposite of war isn’t peace, it’s creation.
Whenever I am down or ‘not feeling myself,’ I try to get back in touch with my inner creativity, as I know that doing that will restore my equilibrium more quickly than anything else. I think that is true for many of us, and that, as Larson said, pursuing our creativity is the clearest path to peace, individually and collectively.
In that spirit, I come tonight to a recent venture of Wouter De Backer. Per wikipedia, De Backer is a “multi-instrumental musician and singer-songwriter.” Better known as ‘Gotye,’ De Backer wrote a fine song that captured the popular fancy, and it struck an ever clearer chord with many others in our world, such that YouTube has become inundated with covers of his song.
What I think of as a ‘conservative,’ small-minded, petty response to that flood of covers would see the artist contacting YouTube administrators on copyright whines. De Backer did not do that. Instead, he CHOSE to interpret imitation as the sincerest form of flattery. In response, he captured some of the more creative covers in YouTube, and created a remix of those covers into a veritable orchestra of his song.
Here, then, is Gotye’s remix of covers of his song, “Somebody That I Used to Know.’ He calls the remix: Somebodies: A YouTube Orchestra.
Here are his words in the description of his YouTube remix of the covers:
Thank you to everyone who has responded to Somebody That I Used To Know via YouTube. It's truly amazing!
All audio and video in Somebodies is from the YouTube user videos featured, each of them a cover or parody of Somebody That I Used To Know. No extra sounds were added to the mix, but I used some EQ, filtering, pitch-shifting and time-stretching to make the music.
How gracious is that?!
Lest you think Gotye cannot himself ‘bring it,’ here is his version, which he posted on YouTube.
In comments I’ll link to two other covers I particularly enjoyed.
Oh ... on his website, Gotye posted links to all the videos he used in his brilliant remix. ::wink:: Very cool. Very cool, indeed. Good on ya, mate!
Hat tip to neatorama for leading Kathy to this creative wonder!
On to tonight's comments and tops, graciously compiled by my personal hero tonight, Chrislove!
TOP COMMENTS
August 14, 2012
Thanks to tonight's Top Comments contributors! Let us hear from YOU
when you find that proficient comment.
From Angie in WA State:
I'd like to nominate this image-heavy comment by Crashing Vor from Meteor Blades' diary. How much more chilling can a mere image be? Ten years ago, or so, I'd have seen this and laughed. After George W Bush and the 2003 Invasion of Iraq? I'm not laughing so much as biting my lip to keep from crying out in fear of a repeat. Close election, next thing you know, we're off to a decade of War!
From nomandates:
In her diary A "PFG" (pretty f'n good) Guide to dealing with Trolls on our Toobz, Lisa Lockwood does an LOL imitation of a troll.
From side pocket:
I'd like to submit this simple comment by hannah which says so much about our differing philosophies.
From mdmslle:
I liked this comment by Kevvboy.
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TOP PHOTOS
August 13, 2012
Enjoy jotter's wonderful *PictureQuilt™ below. Just click on the picture and it will magically take you to the comment that features that photo. Have fun, Kossacks!
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