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Archive for the ‘music’ Category

Soundtrack To Get You Going At Work

Posted by The Gimcracker on January 5, 2009
Posted under movies, music

I need to be inspired to be productive. There is no intrinsic desire within me to work, trust me. There are lots of things that can inspire me to work, most of them having to do with music. We all have playlists of our favorite songs to get us motivated to work, hype us up for sports, or prepare us to party on a Friday night.

There are a lot of good songs out there to listen to for any number of reasons. But there is nothing like a good film score to motivate you. I’ve got plenty of soundtracks queued up in iTunes for just such occasions, and I tap my film score playlist up to 2-3 times per week.

I was able to find YouTube videos of some of the best soundtrack samples in my playlist. If you’re dragging your feet at work and have absolutely no inspiration, I want you to listen to the following 5 audio clips. This isn’t a list of “greatest film scores of all time” because it digs one level deeper and presents to you a specific part of each soundtrack that has particularly inspired me over the years.

This first one is meant to awaken your all-but-forgotten imagination and get the blood flowing to your creative side.

The Mummy End Credits by Jerry Goldsmith (The Mummy)

Now that you’re feeling a bit magical, I’ll turn it up a notch with arguably the best single part of the entire Star Wars film score catalog (it’s possible that I will be murdered for saying that).

Throne Room by John Williams (Star Wars: Episode IV)

I make no guarantees that your head will not explode by listening to this next one directly after listening to that last one.

Batman Main Theme by Danny Elfman (Batman)

You will find that as you listen to this one, something will happen to you. You will either A) complete any and all outstanding projects you’re currently working on or B) join the army.

Leave No Man Behind by Hans Zimmer (Black Hawk Down)

We’re coming to the last song on the list, and I must present you with an apology right off the bat. You will listen to this and then it will end and then you will look around and the world will be so dull that you will regret ever having come to my blog, and for that I’m sorry. It will be like a blind person gaining sight for 2 minutes and 53 seconds and then being struck with blindness again.

Charging Fort Wagner by James Horner (Glory)

P.S. I think they play that last one on the loudspeakers as you ascend into heaven.

Aquarium

Posted by The Gimcracker on November 14, 2008
Posted under music, video

So THAT’S the name of this song! I heard it on a Simpsons episode. I didn’t know the name of the episode, so I had to search for “the Simpsons where they spoof The Perfect Storm”. I found out the name of the episode is The Wife Aquatic. Then I searched Google for “simpsons: the wife aquatic music” and found a blog about the episode. I had to search the comments to find out that the name of the song is Aquarium and it’s from Carnival of the Animals written by French romantic composer Camille Saint-Saens. Finally I went to Last.fm and found the song so I could listen to it. And now I present to you an embedded video of precisely this song. It starts at around :30.

This brings me to a prediction I have about the future of the Internet and search technology. Mark my words: soon every song ever created will be indexed front-to-back, and we will be able to hum a few consecutive notes of either the melody or harmony of any song, and our computer will immediately return every song that contains that sequence. The more you hum, the better your search results will be. It doesn’t matter what key you hum in, whether your pitch is on, or even if you hum the right melody.

And this will happen within the next 10 years.

Oh and also if you are saying to yourself “that’s easy, they can do that in the next 2 years, what’s so hard about that?” then you are technologically ignorant.

*BONUS*

I found out that a song called Danse Macabre also came from Carnival of the Animals, which is another song that I have heard before but could never verify its provenance. Take a gander, I guarantee you’ve heard this at least once before. If you’ve seen Tombstone you have.

Jonathan, please bear with the rest of us non-musical people while we experience things you’ve known since you were 3.

Why I Read “Basic Instructions”

Posted by The Gimcracker on October 9, 2008
Posted under intarwebs, music, rofl, sports

A while back, a good friend introduced me to the web comic called Basic Instructions. As I’m writing this the website is down, and I’m pretty sure it’s because today’s strip is hilarious and everyone’s reading it. It must have gotten submitted to Digg or something. If you don’t read this comic, you should. I’m probably the millionth person to blog about how you should read Basic Instructions if you don’t already, but for whatever it’s worth, I give it my seal of approval. Here is today’s strip:

I think I have a lot in common with the guy who writes this comic strip. Meh, everyone probably thinks they do. Just like everyone thinks their boss is worse than Micheal Scott. If your boss was really worse than Micheal Scott, do you really think he would still be your boss? No, he would be in jail and bankrupt.

Slo-Mo Face Punching

Posted by The Gimcracker on September 29, 2008
Posted under amazing, gaming, music, rofl, video

Need I say more? Best video evar. You can view it embedded below, but there’s an even better version of it that I highly recommend here: Slo-Mo Face Punching.

5 Best Uses Of Music In A Commercial

Posted by The Gimcracker on September 24, 2008
Posted under music, top fivers, video

You know how the taste of something is like 50% based on smell, and communication is like 90% based on your body language? Well I submit that commercials are 100% based on the background music.

The genius ad agencies are the ones that grab your attention. It’s hard to grab peoples’ attention using visuals since most people look away during the commercials, plus the fact that we’re constantly barraged with visuals as we’re watching TV, so our eyes become used to constant stimulus.

It’s different with sound. Say you’re watching football, a sitcom, or a reality show. All you hear is constant cheering & play calling, laugh tracks & stupid jokes, and bitching and moaning, respectively. Then comes a commercial break. Time to go get another bowl of ice cream. But wait, where’s that strange, pleasing music coming from? It’s different than the mindless yakking about Taco Bell’s new spicy Volcano Taco, the liar shouting about the over-stock of Kia Sorento inventory, and the overly dramatic “preview voice guy” telling you how the next episode of Bones will blow your mind. You peer back at the TV in awe, and realize what’s playing is a commercial, but you’re enjoying it.

Has this ever happened to you? If it has, it was most likely one of the following top 5 best uses of music in a commercial (that I can remember):

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