Random link splatterings

Those of you who are Facebook friends with me may have noticed that I’m a freakin’ SPAMBOT there lately. Links, comments, wall posts, chit-chat, apps, etc. I’m really having fun with it, and I hope I don’t piss everyone off by being the hyper monkey that I am. I guess that’s why they make the “Less about Uncle Vinny” link, eh!

Anyway, my little blog is going somewhat neglected, and I’m popping in here to post this amazing thing, a snippet of Swan Lake from… somewhere in Asia, I’m not sure. Even if you’re a little jaded about acrobatics and feats of strength ‘n’ grace, there might be something in it for you. The duo in the last three minutes is just crazily talented… they make it look easy.

I’m finally heading out tonight to see Lucy-the-million-year-old-lady at the Pacific Science Center tonight. I’ve had no luck finding anyone who wants to actually go, so I’m gonna go on Darwin’s birthday. They’re open late tonight, and there’s a Darwin-oriented lecture, too.  Should be fun!

I also notice that Dina Martina has another show starting soon… I laughed my ass off at her Christmas show, so I’m stoked about the next one.

The end of my productivity

Hiya ducklings! I’ve not been posting much lately, but it ain’t cuz I don’t have anything to talk about. The excellent Democratic convention, the astonishingly wack McCain-Sarahcuda stuff, the tons of little gems about Thomas Jefferson I’ve been coming across… I could rattle on and on about it. But for now, I’m going to point you towards what will surely be keeping me glued to YouTube for the next week: A list of the “Top 50″ art videos on YouTube, which I found thanks to Jen Graves over at the Slog.

Oh man, where to begin?

How about with this awesome 2 1/2 minutes of Dolly Parton? If for some reason you thought she was kind of a joke or a punch line, it’s high time someone showed you the light. She’s a tremendous singer, and she has this delightful way of adding a little laughter to so many of her songs. I saw her sing live long ago in Vegas; she is such a sweetie!

Next, try on Stravinsky conducting the finale of the Firebird Suite; if you don’t know this piece of music, this might not be the best introduction to it because it skips all the drama that comes before the sweet “rebirth”… but for a fan, it’s super interesting to see how differently the composer conducts his own music than what I’m used to:

Whoa, it’s like there’s some syncopation goin’ on there… who knew?

Finally, a quiet little bit of ballet with Nureyev and um, someone I’ve never heard of. I don’t know much about ballet, but this I like:

(Ok, it starts a little slow… but it’s lovely.)

Vinny out! I’ll try to post more soon. (PS: My prediction on Sarah Palin is that she’ll have an Eagleton moment sometime in the next week or two, or that McCain will lose the election by an even bigger margin that he was gonna already. Here’s the Thomas Eagleton story, if you don’t know it.)