The Bates Dynasty has moved

So I finally took the plunge and setup a website.

I like blogger and could have happily continued to use it as an acceptable blog, but China keeps blocking it and it's just getting annoying.

So I have a fully functioning website now that should be regularly updated and even have lots of media, like photos and videos, hardwired right in.

web.mac.com/thebatesdynasty

enjoy...

Also, if anyone has a clue how I can import some of my blogger posts into my .mac site, let me know...

From the www, Vol. 19 (not from Youtube)

I came across this funny little video while reading my friend's blog. It's a short little clip (or you could call it a lesson) showing why some people shouldn't 'sky to the rack' b/c sometimes the 'rack' fights back.




My favorite part is the textbook ai-ya you hear when it falls, after playing ball countless times in central China, you hear this (and English cuss words) a billion times! Another laughable angle to this is when you consider that the goal was most likely already damaged. (note the excessive flimsy shaking) So they were dunking on this goal b/c it was tilting forward lower and thus more 'dunkable', but none of them thought, "this thing is broke, this might not be safe." This guy is lucky to still be alive b/c until he hopped up, I thought the thing landed on his head!

What's crazy is that I had a similar thing happen to me when I was 15, backboard and all, and it will scare the 'fecal matter' out of you! Before you call me a liar I'll note that the goal that broke and fell on me was 8'6". But in my case there was no indication the goal was gonna 'go'. I'll never forget the feeling of falling straight to my back w/ the rim still in my hands and how disorienting it was to see the backboard and rim following me to the ground.

ONE MORE NOTE! ONE MORE NOTE!!

This isn't another 'Youtube' post, I promise!

So you might be vaguely familiar w/ my love of a little band called The White Stripes, well recently they set out on a tour of 'The Great White North' w/ the ambition of playing every province and territory in Canada. A side cursor to this is that they also played a small secret show before every concert in the town of the tour stop. So they finished up this tour in the little territory of Newfoundland and, of course, every Newfy alive expected to also get treated to a 'super secret small venue show'. (that's not an illogical assumption) Now I don't know the whole story, but I do know that 'super secret' location was being leaked through the local rock station, but someone was having fun w/ the whole situation. To make a long story short; after 3 hours and 5 incorrect location 'leaks' The White Stripes' road crew showed up and told the wandering mass of people that "The White Stripes will arrive in 20 minutes and treat you to a 1 note show." A one note show? What is a 1 note show, many wandered, just as I would. Surely it wouldn't only be one actual note. Well 30 minutes or so later, the crew shows up and sets up all the guitar amps, drums, and musical gear you'd expect a highly respected world class band to use. A little while after that, out comes Jack and Meg, just as they said they would. Things are looking pretty good so far for the average little Newfy rocker...

press play:


I love the chants you hear at the end of the video "One more note! One more note!" In the end Jack says it all "We've now played every province and territory in Canada." Oh man, that's hilarious! I'm sure there's some reason for this, like maybe they were running late getting set up that day and literally didn't have time for a whole show, or maybe they just thought it'd be good for a laugh, either way, it got me!

If you were one of the 300 in attendance, can you actually be mad about this? I mean, it was free. Not to mention, The White Stripes played a 2+ hour show a few hours after this '1 note show'. Also, it's not like The White Stripes charge much for their shows and Newfoundland isn't very big, so I'm certain that everyone that wanted to see them that night had their chance that night. The setlist on Youtube reads:

"1. F"

Hey, who can complain about a free F note from the strings of Jacky White? I myself have never had the honor of attending a White Stripes show, but I will definitely see them soon and I look forward to lots more Fs from Sir Three Quid himself! (hopefully I'll also get some Ds, Cs, Gs, Bs, As, Es, among other chords)

From the www, Vol. 18

I'm sorry, I really don't mean for this to be a blog of only Youtube commentary, but it's digressing into one! I've been entertaining myself w/ Youtube a lot lately b/c my wife's been in America for over a month now. I am amazed everyday by what I stumble across but my newest fascination is the hordes upon hordes of viewer reply videos. These are just webcam responses to real videos and they're chopped full of unintentional comedy.(and tragedy, as we saw in Vol. 16) But this one made me laugh even though it's not really funny, it's just so not funny that it's funny. In fact, it's not really worth posting but I've already typed this all out, so here it is:



I just feel embarrassed FOR this person...

From the www, Vol. 17 (Bet's number)

I 'enjoyed' this website...

Don't be afraid to 'fish around' in there, lots of good stuff.

Here's a preview:



I think this photo is located in that website, not sure though.

From the www, Vol. 16

Ok, before you watch this video, I have to say that I'm not making fun of the guy. Seriously, I'm not, I mean I can't, I just can't. If I did make fun of him I'm pretty sure I'd be scuba diving in a lake of fire for eternity. So don't watch this thinking that I'm making fun of the guy b/c I'm not! This is more of a train wreck type thing. You know, like you can't look away and you can't help but point and say 'look at that'; that's what this is. It's not like you're happy there's a train wreck you're just acknowledging the rarity, the catastrophy, and exercising natural curiosity and amazement. Yes, it's possible that this dude isn't 'playing w/ a full roster' but I don't know, that's for you to decide. He does know how to operate a computer better than most people I know. (and he has made 748 of these beauties!) Either way, I came across this on Youtube and I was like a deer in headlights, I couldn't look away. I don't know who Ashley Tisdale is but I'm guessing she's really famous right now and this dude obviously has a huge crush on her. So now that I've cleared my conscience and fully rationalized posting this, here's the video.

This is BeeBee, Ashley Tisdale's #1 fan:


More of BeeBee, he does these viewer replies like ten times a day!

From the www, Vol. 15

My friend John Taylor mentioned this radio station and, frankly, I'm in love...

Click on the 'listen' tab near the top on the right and you will download a radio file for your iTunes that you can play at anytime from your playlist.

They play a good mix of music, mostly non-mainstream, but always interesting. They don't delve too far into heavy rock, dreary music, noise rock, punk, rap. Basically put, it just plays middle of the road, non-pop radio, quality music; the best parts of every genre. If you dig a little further, I think you can also find their playlists, which is good incase you hear a song you want to hear again and again.

Hope you also enjoy it.

Thanks John!

From the www, Vol. 14 - KICK

These two things are completely unrelated other than the fact they both involve kicking so that's what I'm going with.

This home video, of questionable quality, is a highlight reel of one of my 10th grade students. He's a REALLY good soccer player but the thing he does vastly better than anyone else in our league is long distance running. He's won the varsity city wide Cross Country tournament three years in a row. (since he was in 8th grade) But this video is pretty insane, enjoy. (It's hard to tell due to the video quality but in the parts where he's juggling w/ his feet, the ball never touches the ground. He kicks it w/ the bottom foot after throwing his leg over the ball in mid air.)

Hiko



This video is flat out amazing! The 'unintentional comedy' rating is easily 10 out of 10! Watch for the body hair, ripping of body hair, kitten, and Bruce Lee's 'sound effects'.

Chuck vs. Bruce

Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love you, tomorrow, you're only a day away!

There's a little 'Annie' reference for John Taylor, who is not only a huge fan of 'Annie' but also a huge fan of 'Anne Of Green Gables' and 'Anne Of Avonlea'.

Tomorrow's the day!

Icky Thump will be in my hands (or iPod) around lunch time tomorrow and I'm a little excited about it if you haven't noticed. The White Stripes have quickly become one of my top five favorite bands and tomorrow they release their sixth album. (that's pretty crazy considering they've only been around for about 8 years)

I saved some of these videos for the last days of the count down but I went out of town for three days so 'the last days' became one; this one. WS have become pretty well known for their imaginative videos and that's mostly due to the genius of Michel Gondry. Michel Gondry is a weirdo to be honest, the guy is so creative in a child like way. It's like he took all your weird childhood dreams and put them on film exactly the way they looked.

He's directed films like Eternal Sunshine and Science Of Sleep and legendary music videos such as the Foo Fighters' 'Everlong', the Chemical Brothers' 'Star Guitar', Bjork's 'Human Behavior' and the list could go on and on. But this post isn't about him, it's about the White Stripes; I'll do a post about him next month. I mention him b/c he evidently loves the White Stripes b/c he keeps doing these amazing videos w/ them.

This first video is somewhat like a cartoon; it's made frame by frame w/ a picture at a time, the catch is that each 'picture' is made of Legos! To pull this off they filmed the band doing all these things w/ an old digital camera and then blew the frames up really big so that they could see each pixel individually and thus map out the Legos. Everything you see is Legos, pretty crazy...
This was also their 'breakout' video and introduced the band to the world.

The White Stripes - Fell In Love With A Girl



Next we have a video that uses projectors and silk screens to bring a two dimensional version of each frame. They're projecting video of 'what happened' on to Jack walking around in various rooms. This was all done w/o computer effects, so it has a very real look to it and makes no effort to hide the simplicity of the whole thing. Which is one of the main reasons I love Gondry's work so much b/c it all looks like something any Joe Shmoe could have pulled off if they just thought of it.

The White Stripes - Dead Leaves And The Dirty Ground



Here's a video that takes the previous 'cartoon' idea into the realm of video. This video takes one second (and shorter) shots of video and puts them together like a cartoon frame by frame. They used over 30 drum sets to make this video and if you watch closely you'll notice that each burst, which happens to the rhythm, only contains the exact pieces of the drum kit that she is playing during that beat of the song. i.e. when the drum beat is 'kick-snare-kick-kick-snare' that's exactly what you see laid out across the frame. And if you're catching onto the theme here: No special fx were used in this, everything you see is actual film.

The White Stripes - Hardest Button To Button



This last Gondry video is pretty trippy, Gondry takes a camera/lens that distorts one side to be small and the other to be large, and vise versa. Then he constructs a sound stage full of props that work into that lens scheme and makes for a really weird ride of sizes shifting and changing. It's a lot like when Alice was following the rabbit into Wonderland.

The White Stripes - Denial Twist



Finally, we have a video that wasn't done by Gondry but it has a really cool kaleidoscope effect that I'm sure he'd find a way to do w/o using any special effects. This video won tons of awards and pushed the White Stripes even further into mainstream popularity. Who hasn't heard this song?

The White Stripes - Seven Nation Army (the audio is a little off)

8 days

One of my favorite White Stripes songs is Hotel Yorba, a nice little folk ditty from their third album, White Blood Cells. I have quite a few live versions of this song that are a little more up-tempo and, in my opinion, are better than the album version.

Here's a good example of how good this song can sound:

From the www, Vol. 13

I am all for teaching kids that underage drinking is wrong and dangerous, I'm all for teaching kids the dangers of drugs and all of that. I myself was the victim of a hit and run by a drunk driver and could have easily died that day had it not been for God looking me out.

BUT

This picture was TOO HILARIOUS to pass on!



Where do I start?
1. It looks like the girl is about to have a seizure.
2. You can barely even tell there's a drink in her hands.
3. That's a martini right? What kid starts w/ martinis? They'd have to have a working knowledge of how to mix drinks. (and they'd have to have access to an olive and a martini glass)
4. The tightly braided pigtails. How can we expect the parents of this young lady to talk to her about alcohol when they've obviously not talked to her about her pigtails yet. She's probably been rocking these since she saw Pocahantas or Anne Of Green Gables. (which we all know how Anne and Diane got drunk whilst jabbering about Gilbert)
5. How old is this girl? They couldn't have picked a more ambiguous person for this; I could guess this girl to be anywhere from 14-23.

I guess, in the end, I'm just baffled (like w/ the album covers) that this passed through various levels of production before it became an advertisement. I mean, someone got paid to make this; this is someone's job. They came up w/ this and then someone else, who gets paid to do this for a living, said "ya, Bob, that looks great! Get it to the printers." I guess, even in last phase of the process, the printer should have said "I'm sorry, I have too much integrity and pride in my job, I refuse to print this turd-burger."

Please don't anybody get angry at me for joking on this picture; I fully encourage and support this cause. In fact, go to this website and check out their causes; they do a lot of good work.

12 days

This is a cool little video.


Dead Leaves And The Dirty Ground - Live on VH1

From the www, Vol. 12

Smoke and mirrors baby.

I just came across this, it's pretty funny in a deadpan way. It's really sad that their series was stolen from them; imagine Nash and LeBron in the finals, that's what basketball should look like. That'd be more like the 130 point games of the 80's playoffs, back before cheap shots and boring basketball ruled the day.

LeBron James

Before I get to the subject at hand, I wanted to let you know that I posted like 4 new posts today, very unusual after that sparse month of May. So feel free to scroll down after this.

Ok, back to LeBron:
This is amazing! This guy plays basketball like it's 1987 and he's going toe to toe w/ Bird, Magic, Jordan, and Barkley. This is one of the greatest performances I've ever seen in basketball. He scored 29 of his teams last 30 points, and scored the last 25 outright. He did all of that in about 17 minutes. (from 7 minutes left in the 4th quarter through 2 overtimes) And they were throwing 2, 3, or 4 guys at him! I personally think it wouldn't have mattered if they threw all 12 at him; he wasn't going to be stopped. Now the Cavs play the spurs in the NBA Finals and we get to look forward to Bowen throwing cheap shots at him and trying to end his career.

Now before 'ballhog' can pop into your head (Jordan) it should be said that LeBron only did this cause he had to; he had over half of his teams assists in the game and leads his team in assists in almost every game.

Game 5 on May 31, Eastern Conference Finals, Cavs vs. Pistons
enjoy...

From the www, Vol. 11

I guess you can all tell that I'm done coaching b/c all of the sudden I'm posting like wildfire. (yes, wildfire has a blog)

A friend of mine came into my office and mentioned the name of a comedian I hadn't thought about in a while, Mitch Hedberg, so I hopped on Youtube to find some laughs. If you don't know who he is, that stinks for you. I love his humor b/c he looks at things from a different angle.

If you ever hear him you'll immediately notice that he has isn't exactly 'sober and proud', which might attribute to his askew view, but most definitely attributed to his death two years ago and the ripe ol' age of 37.

Here's a sample of Mitch late in his career, this is from Letterman.

From the www, Vol. 10

I love when I find something cool when I wasn't looking for anything remotely connected to it; today I did that twice. Youtube is like a maze, but there's not really any wrong turns; you see something they think is related and you follow it to things you didn't know you wanted to see or didn't know existed.

That happened to me today and here's the three things that caught my eye.

This is one of my favorite Wilco songs, admittedly it's b/c it refers to Florida a lot and b/c it's upbeat. (just like the sunshine state)
Monday - I believe this is from their DVD 'I Am Trying To Break Your Heart' but I'm not certain about that. (who cares right?)


This is only for people that already like Wilco b/c it's a little rockish and disorderly.

Kicking Television - Live on Sound Stage (from their tour w/ Sonic Youth)


(if you don't like Sonic Youth, you probably won't like this but the last 5 minutes are so good!)
From the same tour, same show, same magical moment in time, here's Sonic Youth w/ Rain On Tin.
Jeff Tweedy stands in on guitar on this one but what I find interesting is that there are four Fender Jazz Master (I think that's what they're called) guitars, making five appearances between the last two videos. (three are identical) One is being played by Wilco's Nels Cline, twice by Jeff Tweedy, one by Thurston Moore, and Lee Ranaldo is playing a red one. Is it some underground secret that this is the best guitar for cool bands?



I also came across a great version of California Stars, one of my favorite Wilco related songs, but the audio/video was off sync. That bummed me out.

Revision: After posting this I watched the videos again and I don't think that's Jeff Tweedy w/ Sonic Youth. I watched/taped this show when it came on TV and I don't remember Tweedy being on stage for a Sonic Youth song. Who knows, either way the guitar thing is still right.

14 days

So I'm officially done w/ all sport related projects, coaching/misc, for the year. I can't tell you how happy that makes me. I mean, I love coaching but I coach 70% of the year, so I'm a little tired and need some rest.

One thing that will definitely put a smile on my face is the White Stripes' new album, which brings me back to the countdown.

(like that segue?)

Denial Twist - Live on VH1
(this version is very different than the one from last week but I like them both)

19 days

I won't be counting down over the weekend (I don't think) b/c I have to make a movie for our sports banquet.

So I'll post two today:

Both songs are from KCRW's 'Morning Becomes Eclectic' which you can get as a free podcast at iTunes.

Denial Twist (A very rocking version. I have another version of this song that's just as cool but very different; I'll post it soon.)


Folk Singer (Brendan Benson cover)


Have a nice weekend...

20 days

Today I bring you one of my favorite songs by The White Stripes, "Death Letter", and it's possibly the best version I've ever heard of it as well. This song was written by Son House around the time my dad was in elementary school and it has aged VERY well. I found a video of Son House playing the original version and included it for good measure. I have to admit that I like the original a little more, but I enjoy the WS version more. (I like to rock)

Death Letter/People Grinnin' - White Stripes



Death Letter - Son House

Music Player (finally)

I finally have a working music player for the site! (in the right hand column) A big thanks goes out to my friend Kellie for pointing me in the right direction.

I'm going to start (randomly, NOT weekly) talking about songs stuck in my head and I'll be sure to add them over there so you can hear that which I speak of.

It's a pretty cool media player w/ more features than I care for but if you want to check it out, go to Stickam.com.