Each week, Jonathan Ross presents music and celebrity chat on his BBC television show “Friday Night with Jonathan Ross.” In this entertaining video clip,  quirky Oscar-winning Hollywood anti-hero Christopher Walken reads a few lines from Lady Gaga’s hit song “Pokerface.”

I suppose we should be thankful he didn’t request “more cowbell!”

Click here to see Lady Gaga perform Pokerface. (more…)

I remember the first time I saw a musician do live music looping on stage: It was this amazing guitarist Newton Faulkner at the El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles last summer, and at first I didn’t know what he was doing. He was moving around on the stage, making a sound on one mic, then another sound with another instrument on another mic; a few moments later, I could hear the sounds building as each of his musical moments looped around and built upon the other create an amazing soundtrack that he created and then sang and played along with. It was fabulous!

While looping is commonly performed in the studio, It’s an amazing thing to watch as a musician employs this talent live. In this YouTube video, violinist Mark Russell rocks out, building a tune live, one musical loop at a time. Mark is also a composer and teacher who began studying classical violin at the Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne, Australia. Find out more about Mark Russell at www.myspace.com/markrussellviolinadventurer.

Have a great week!

Well, it took a little bit of sleuthing, but a friend helped me track down the back story on the Holiday Light Show video we posted a couple weeks ago.

This Christmas light display is produced each year by Richard Holdman,  a professional lighting contractor who creates unique animated and static lighting setups year-round for a variety of commercial and consumer purposes.

Not only is the display quite beautiful, but Goldman uses it to collect funds for the Utah Make-a-Wish foundation to enrich the lives of children with life-threatening medical conditions. The 2009 holiday light show has already raised more than $5000 in donations to grant this year’s wish; his display raised more than $10,000 in 2007, and nearly $4500 in 2008.

This holiday light show is Goldman’s labor of love, and he dedicated more than 250 hours into the initial development, programming, and construction. Each year it takes about 100 hours to set up the display. Goldman’s holiday light display includes around 150,000 lights, transferred from 21 dedicated grounded circuits by nearly 7000 feet of extension cords. The red, green, and white sequencing is programmed using software and hardware from Light-O-Rama. The display for 2006 used 80 different channels, 2007 was 176 channels, and for 2008 it used 215 channels. The music to which the lights are synchronized is broadcast on a short-range FM signal, so viewers can listen from within their cars. They also have speakers outside so pedestrians can enjoy the music as well.

Carol of the Bells – 2008 Holdman Christmas Display from Richard Holdman on Vimeo.

While many might consider such a display to be a waste of energy, according to Goldman, the display is actually 100% wind-powered! Goldman uses electricity provided by his local power company, and then replaces the power back onto the grid with Wind Turbines using a service provided by www.renewablechoice.com – Goldman says his display consumes about 1800kwh; he covers that use by sending 3000kwh back to the power grid. (more…)

To paraphrase some familiar song lyrics, it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas everywhere you go! With that in mind, we wanted to share this awesome light display.

Looks like somebody must have had too much time on their hands and access to some pretty high-tech equipment to pull this one off! And I don’t even want to think about the cost of the electricity!

The Best Christmas Lights Show Around – The most popular videos are a click away

Hypnotist Ricky Kalmon hypnotizes a volunteer on stage to believe he is the greatest puppeteer in the world. The volunteer’s left and right hands are his puppets, and he uses them to perform a very special version of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody.” By the end of the performance, the entire assembly of volunteers is acting as his puppet chorus, and one even gets up to help with backup vocals.

Doesn’t it make you want to play with a hypnotist?

Bohemian Rhapsody Puppet Guy by Hypnotist Ricky Kalmon – Watch more Funny Videos

Find this unbelievable? According to his website, Ricky Kalmon is an extremely sought after stage hypnotist, corporate entertainer, and motivational speaker all over the world.  He is also the star of his own television show, “Seeing Stars,” that airs on the TV Guide Channel.  His show combines hypnotic suggestions with direct audience participation to create an interactive experience unmatched by any other performer.

Thanks to @MarkShepard, for sharing this video,  and introducing us to Oren Lavie and his lovely music. The stop motion video for “Her Morning Elegance” is created from more than 3200 photo stills shot using a camera hanging from the ceiling over the bed.

It took four weeks to create an animated computer-generated storyboard for the video, using 3D dummies for the characters, but it only took two days to shoot the live actors frame by frame to create the 3.5-minute final sequence.

This video has become an international sensation with over 8 million hits on YouTube to date, breaking YouTube’s most highly rated video record. The song can be found on “The Opposite Side of The Sea,” Oren’s debut album, released on his own label, A Quarter Past Wonderful.

According to his blog, Oren is a “songwriter, director, and a writer of funny books for sad children,” who likes to “create dreamy visuals from realistic elements…squeezing big worlds into small spaces.” The gorgeous redhead in the bed is Israeli actress and model Shir Shomron.

“Her Morning Elegance” was also featured in a Chevrolet Malibu television commercial (found here on YouTube).  The songwriter, who has never owned a car, says could not stop giggling for days, though he continues to take the bus.

There’s very little that can be said about this video, except:

• Watch it in high-def;
• Enlarge it to full screen;
• Turn up the volume to enjoy the amazing vocals.

All a capella vocals are performed by Sam Tsui, a junior at Yale Univesity and award-winning soloist for the Duke’s Men of Yale. The vocal “beat box” percussion, arrangement, and production are accomplished by his friend Kurt Schneider.

For more info on Sam Tsui and his amazing a capella vocals, visit www.myspace.com/SamTsui.

For more info on Kurt, including contact info for obtaining an SATB copy of the arrangement, visit www.myspace.com/KurtHugo.

If this video leaves you gasping to watch more, don’t miss his rendition of “Don’t Stop Believing” by Journey. You can watch it here at youtube.com

Okay, my 16-year-old son might have thought I was a little whacked when he saw that this video made me cry, but come on! Don’t you always cry when the beautiful and jubilant bride walks down the aisle?

How could anybody have had more fun or expressed their true love and unique personalities better than these two? Best wishes to Jill and Kevin for many years of happiness together!

And just to show the song’s versatility, another group has created a sequel using the same song for the entry into the courtroom for their last day together.

Rawk on, you funsters!

Have you heard the term “Flash Mob”? According to Wikipedia,  a flash mob  is a “large group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual action for a brief time, then quickly disperse.” So you’re standing around at the mall, and suddenly all the other people engage in a spontaneous pillow fight. Or emerge in groups to begin dancing with each other. Or sing.

The first flash mob was organized in Manhattan in May 2003, but was unsuccessful because the targeted location was tipped off in advance about the plan. According to Dan Hall, brand manager for experiential agency ID, these early flash mobs were seen as such an impressive medium for generating PR that they were soon being implemented by advertisers as a way to gain attention for their message. More recently, the phenomenon has even been exhibited with crowds of zombies.

In an article at AllBusiness, Hall says “Flash mobs are a tremendously powerful medium to surprise otherwise marketing-savvy consumers into recognising and interacting with a brand face to face.’ Through their presence in the spontaneous event, “They allow people to be part of a shared experience they can tell others about.”

T-Mobile has capitalized on the flash mob concept in an ongoing advertising campaign that has used choreographed dances and karaoke events to “bring to life the fact that there are often unexpected, wonderful, exciting things that happen that you want to be able to share.”

What would you do if you were standing in a train station and people around you suddenly started dancing? Would you join in? Would you grab your cell phone and start recording? Would you be frightened? Check out these two videos: The first is a performance of “Do Re Mi”, performed by more than 200 dancers in the Central Station of Antwerp. The second is a video that explains how T-Mobile created their own Flash Mob with 400 dancers in Liverpool Station.

Have a great weekend!

I was home alone late one night nearly 20 years ago, killing time with MTV on in the background when this video from the Indigo Girls began playing.   I had never heard of the duo, and had no idea who they were, but I loved the concept of the video, and the message of the song.

Titled “Galileo,” the song references the circle of reincarnation, making light of the possibility that our day-to-day circumstances could somehow be linked to our previous lives… a fear of flying caused by a previous life’s plane crash, or making compensation in this life to right wrongs we committed in the past, basically “serving time for mistakes made by another in another lifetime.”

I went on a quest to find out more about the band and discovered the Indigo Girls,  an American folk rock duo consisting of Amy Ray and Emily Saliers. Since then I’ve become a lifetime fan of their music and thoughtful lyrics that tell moving and important stories. When I need to find consolation, I listen to their songs to help me identify what’s in my heart.

Beyond the themes of their music, they are also very politically active. According to their page at Wikipedia,  they have championed the causes of the environment, gay rights, the rights of Native Americans, and the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. For many years they incorporated a recycling and public outreach program into their road tours by including Greenpeace representative Stephanie Fairbanks in their road crew. They helped Winona LaDuke establish Honor the Earth, an organization dedicated to creating support and education for native environmental issues. Amy and Emily have also appeared at the annual SOA Watch rallies, the March for Women’s Lives, and several other rallies and protests.

They’ve just recently released a new album, titled “Poseidon and the Bitter Bug” and are touring this summer across the United States and Europe in support of it. As part of their tour, the Indigo Girls have partnered with Rock for a Remedy and are collecting food for people and pets at each venue; these donations then make their way to neighboring families who are struggling keep food on the table.

I hope you will enjoy their music as much as I have. Normally, I embed the music video player directly into our Friday posts, but embedding has been disabled on all the Indigo Girls music videos I can find at YouTube.com. Please click to watch the Indigo Girls perform Galileo and maybe discover other Indigo Girls music as well. You can also find them on Facebook.

Have a great weekend,
Brandy