Classiest way to respond to a thoughtless interruption

Way more gracious and spontaneous than I could ever be.

I thought I'd got sick of these things

1. I'm not a Justin Bieber fan.
2. Over-choreographed wedding dances have used up their freshness.
3. Too many people these days want to video themselves, purely to feed their ego.
Having said all that, this one is kind of neat.

Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue

Pay special attention to the reactions of the troops in this video.  See how American soldiers feel about America.

Doctor My Eyes

Haven't thought of this song in years, but this morning I woke up with it in my head.  A classic.

Your classical music fix

Well, sort of.

An Antoine Dodson Christmas

If you're not already on the Antoine Dodson train, you're missing out on one of the biggest internet memes of 2010.  This trip is worth the twenty minutes or so it will take.  Start out by being introduced to Antoine:





Question:  How does the internet leave poetry like that alone?
Answer:  It doesn't.



And now, the birth of the Christmas classic, the Carol of the Bed Intruder (it's worth watching the whole video, but if you're in a hurry go to the 3:15 mark):

Steve Martin's gospel song for atheists

How am I going to pass up a video with a description like that?  Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers performed "Atheists Don't Have No Songs" on Austin City Limits back in April:

"I Will Always Love You" -- Again

The hottest video online today is a version of the song, "I Will Always Love You" from a Chinese version of American Idol:

The Chinese video, and most other sources, identify this as Whitney Houston's song, because of the popularity of her version, from the movie The Bodyguard:



The song, however, was written by and first made a hit by Dolly Parton in 1974.  She wrote the song about her breakup with longtime musical partner and mentor Porter Waggoner.  Here's an early performance of the song on the Porter Waggoner Show from 1974:



According to Wikipedia, Kevin Costner brought Linda Rondstadt's version of the song to Whitney Houston's attention, which inspired her to record it. 



Finally two more videos featuring Dolly Parton.  The first one, from the movie The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas,  represents what I think is the most accurate sentiment from the song -- a love that simply won't work for the people involved:



This last video is what I consider one of the most beautiful duets of the song (Dolly has performed this song with others a million times over the years.)  She recorded it with Vince Gill and had yet another hit with the same song:

Versions: Roll Over Beethoven

One of my many weaknesses is music videos. I enjoy watching videos of my favorite often-obscure songs online , occasionally catching some unknown version by another performer, or even a talented amateur. The one song that defines the original rock and roll is Chuck Berry's "Roll Over Beethoven." Berry wrote the song in response to his sister Lucy always using the family piano to play classical music when Chuck wanted to play modern "rhythm and blues." The song was released in 1956 by Chess Records.

Here's the man himself.




Another popular version was recorded by the Beatles in 1963 for their second British album, With the Beatles.




The version that I remember enjoying most as a teenager was by ELO in 1973. Besides the great version of the song, I love Jeff Lynne's vocals.




Of course, there are also terrible versions of Chuck Berry's song out there. I understand poor amateur performances -- enthusiasm and energy make them at least sympathetic. But how do you forgive professional, reasonably talented performers who ruin the song? Answer: you don't.