Ocelopotamus

News, culture, and politics. Not necessarily in that order.

Ocelopotamus header image 4

Entries Tagged as 'Music'

May, 2005: The Arrival of Mr. Blue (and Kiwi, too)

February 9th, 2008 · 2 Comments · Cats, Journal, Kiwi, Mr. Blue, Music, Pets

About two and a half years ago, I adopted a big blue talkative cat named Mr. Blue (aka Barabajagal). Below the jump is the email I sent out to my cat-friendliest friends announcing his arrival. I didn’t have a blog in those days, but I wanted to post it here to document it, and provide […]

[Read more →]

Tags:

The Space, The Face, and Buddy Cole

January 27th, 2008 · 3 Comments · Comedy, Internet, Journal, Kids in the Hall, Meta, Music, Online Communities, Social Media/Social Networking

I’m on deadline tonight with a major deliverable (ahhrrrrr! I just used the word deliverable!) so here I am careening into another week with major blogging operations on hold. Well, maybe after tomorrow I can rev the OcPot up again. In the meantime, I will say this: Now that I’ve been on Facebook a little […]

[Read more →]

Tags:

Mid-January Frosted Mini-Roundup

January 17th, 2008 · 3 Comments · Adobe, Blogs, Cats, Comedy, Comics, Culture, Internet, Journal, LGBT, Meta, Mr. Blue, Music, New Wave, News, Online Communities, Politics, Roundup, Social Media/Social Networking, Tech, The Economy, Stupid, Theater, Video

I’m starting to worry that Ocelopotamus has become like that stock old-man character from sitcoms and things, who falls asleep for a while and then wakes up sputtering and tries to pick the conversation up wherever it was five minutes ago, as if no time has passed. On the other hand, it’s heartening that I […]

[Read more →]

Tags:

Music: The Swingers, “Counting the Beat”

January 3rd, 2008 · 3 Comments · Blogs, Culture, Music, New Wave, Video

Crazy busy with work this week, but here’s a little video fun to keep the Ocelopotamus happy — Phil Judd’s post-Split Enz group the Swingers, doing “Counting the Beat”! Good heavens, I love this song. It was one of my weekly staples back when I was spinning at Club Foot (Sunday nights, “New Toys for […]

[Read more →]

Tags:

Rough Beast

December 11th, 2007 · Comments Off on Rough Beast · Culture, Media, Music, News, Politics

From the profile of Putin’s protégé (if that’s what we’re calling it), Dmitry A. Medvedev, in this morning’s New York Times: Short, boyish with a tuft of brown hair and sometimes described as socially awkward, Mr. Medvedev is also praised for a sharp and lawyerly intellect. Awww … tuft! Don’t you just want to tousle […]

[Read more →]

Tags:

Flight of the Conchords

November 20th, 2007 · 1 Comment · Comedy, Culture, Music, TV, Video

Oh my heavens, these guys are wonderful. I just bumped Flight of the Conchords to the top of my Netflix queue. “Bret You Got It Goin’ On”:   … boom ow ow. I think sometimes you hear what you want to hear. “Think About It”:   Those two both via Candorville. And now, because we […]

[Read more →]

Tags:

Roundup: Flight of the Humpback Edition

November 19th, 2007 · Comments Off on Roundup: Flight of the Humpback Edition · Apple, Blogs, Books, Climate Change, Comics, Culture, Feminism, Fiction, Film, History, HIV/AIDS, Human Rights, Journalism, LGBT, Lit, Macintosh, Media, Music, Nature, New Wave, Politics, Religion, Software, Tech, The Economy, Stupid, Torture

Markos from Daily Kos has a new gig writing opinion pieces for Newsweek, and he’s been in rare form with his first couple of efforts. From this week’s column: “In his first Inaugural Address, Ronald Reagan remarked that ‘government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.’ While the quip has provided […]

[Read more →]

Tags:

Roundup: Monkey in the Bathroom Edition

November 6th, 2007 · 1 Comment · Activism, Apple, Blogs, Comics, Culture, Essays, Food, Heroes, History, Human Rights, Journalism, Labor, LGBT, Macintosh, Music, Nature, New Wave, News, Politics, Religion, Roundup, Science Fiction, Spirituality, Tech, Terrorism, Torture, TV, Vegetarian & Vegan

I can’t scrape together enough time at the moment to do OcPot’s usual painstakingly well-rounded roundup — I’m seeing The Waterboys at the Park West tonight, woo-hoo! — but I wanted to get some of these links up before they fossilized. So here’s a charmingly slapdash, quick-and-dirty roundup. In ripped fishnet and high heels. The […]

[Read more →]

Tags:

B-52’s Sign with Astralwerks; New Album Funplex Slated for Release Feb. 26, 2008

November 5th, 2007 · 3 Comments · Culture, Music, New Wave, News

Get your wig on, girl! According to the official B-52’s site, the 2’s have finally inked a deal to release their much anticipated new album Funplex — the first full studio album from the band since Good Stuff in 1992. Produced by Steve Osborne, Funplex will be released by the very groovy Astralwerks label, home […]

[Read more →]

Tags:

Roundup: Where All the Corn Cobs Are Edition

October 29th, 2007 · Comments Off on Roundup: Where All the Corn Cobs Are Edition · Advertising, Books, Climate Change, Comics, Culture, Death Penalty, Fantasy, Fiction, Film, Food, Health, Healthcare Crisis, HIV/AIDS, Human Rights, Internet, Labor, Law, LGBT, Music, Nature, New Wave, News, Organic Food, Pets, Politics, Roundup, Science, Tech

In order to keep these roundups fresh as a spring daisy, I usually discard any links I’ve been keeping around that are more than a week old. But since this is OcPot’s first roundup in more than six weeks, I’m extending the freshness window slightly to include a few things that were just too good […]

[Read more →]

Tags:

Coming in November: The History of Chicago Punk on Film

October 26th, 2007 · 4 Comments · Chicago, Culture, Film, History, Illinois, Music, New Wave, Peoria, Video

My friend and colleague Chris Tillman and her husband Joe Losurdo, working under the name Regressive Films, have collaborated on a new documentary about the history of punk rock in Chicago. Titled You Weren’t There — A History Of Chicago Punk 1977-1984, the film will have its world premiere on Saturday, November 24 at the […]

[Read more →]

Tags:

The Bowie Video Vault: Live “‘Heroes,'” “My Death,” and “Fashion”

October 16th, 2007 · Comments Off on The Bowie Video Vault: Live “‘Heroes,'” “My Death,” and “Fashion” · Culture, Music, New Wave, Video

This is a gorgeous live version of Bowie’s “‘Heroes’” that gets better as it goes. A really nice contemporary-sounding take on the song (so good I don’t even miss the synth, which is saying something), and a very graceful performance of it by Mr. Jones. The YouTube page doesn’t say where it’s taken from — […]

[Read more →]

Tags:

On The Christians and The Gays, and Keeping the Flock Together

October 15th, 2007 · 4 Comments · Activism, Blogs, Culture, Journal, LGBT, Music, Politics, Religion, Spirituality

So there was a new study written up this past week, supplying evidence that young people in America are rejecting Christianity because they see it as “hypocritical, judgmental, and anti-gay.” The vast majority of non-Christians — 91% — said Christianity had an anti-gay image, followed by 87% who said it was judgmental and 85% who […]

[Read more →]

Tags:

The Golden Compass: Official Trailer and Featurette on Daemons

October 12th, 2007 · 3 Comments · Books, Culture, Fantasy, Fiction, Film, Lit, Music, News, Science Fiction, TV, Ursula K. Le Guin, Video

The official/final trailer for The Golden Compass is out, and the more I see of this film the better it looks. I am somewhere between guardedly optimistic and completely geeked out.   Also, here’s a nice little featurette called “Defining Daemons,” which looks at the animal companion-spirits that accompany the characters on their journeys.   […]

[Read more →]

Tags: