Tyler Glenn just released a new song and video, “Trash.” Tyler’s a gay Mormon who had a faith crisis after the LGBT policy change last November. One of the things that most fascinates me is why people leave faiths, and the process people go through, as it’s usually a difficult change that upends a significant […]
Filk: Sad Puppies Aren’t Much Fun
For those who don’t know, a “filk” song is a science fiction/fantasy folk genre, generally adding new lyrics to an existing tune. Though many filk writers also write original tunes, as I pay tribute to in this post. The rest of this post is written by my husband, Rick Moen. People who’ve been on SMOFS […]
On Zayn Malik Leaving One Direction
I have a little One Direction story. Earlier this month, we rented a car on Maui and drove on the Road to Hana. There are a lot of roadside stands there, people selling home-made goods. We stopped at one where the radio was playing. As I waited for my grown-in-Hawaii coffee, I started singing to […]
World Music Friday: Ledward Ka’apana
I’ve decided to turn my love of world music into a regular Friday feature, with Ledward Ka’apana being my first. In general, I’ll be featuring a few videos or songs from each performer, and, for vocals, I’ll emphasize performers who do not sing primarily in English. The other aspect is that this will be popular […]
I Found the Song!
Six months ago, I was in Phoenix for Overwerk, and I heard lots of interesting stuff. The third DJ played something that stuck with me that I kept meaning to find. Rick reminded me of said song tonight when he and I were talking about the great MentalFloss piece about why clocks were set to […]
A Clean Desktop
Desktop Zero. (Have to show off that fabulous Christmas wallpaper!) #GTD #InboxZero pic.twitter.com/3pQPRmBEto — Colter Reed (@ColterReed) December 22, 2014 So Colter Reed shamed me into cleaning up my own desktop, which had 252 items on it, mostly dragged items or stuff I wanted to upload to my blog (and have done so). Voila! My […]
World Music Break: Tarkan
On one of the facebook groups I’m in, someone posted this video the other day: Kuzu Kuzu song purchase links: (iTunes) (Amazon) Tarkan’s an extremely popular Turkish singer, sometimes called the Turkish equivalent of Elvis, but perhaps a better description would be the Bad Boy of Turkish Pop. The above video’s from 2001, but he […]
Delia Derbyshire, Overlooked Musician and Composer
Delia Derbyshire wrote some of, and played all of, one of the most famous—and earliest widely-known—pieces of electronic music ever. Not only that, she did so before the advent of the first commercially-available synthesizer. (Brian Hodgson composed the tardis sound.) She was a kid in Coventry during WW2, hearing all the weird and haunting sounds […]
Mockup: 307 Ale Bottles
I found this beer bottle mockup last night, and thought I’d have fun with it. Catch is, this particular product would probably be better vended in something stranger—like a Klein bottle. Oh well. Click for full size: It’s an homage to a Tom Smith song of the same title: There’s many drinks you’ll drink, me […]
Support Zoë Keating & Family
Zoë Keating’s husband has had mysterious ailments for several months. As of two weeks ago, that’s no longer mysterious: he has stage 4 lung cancer with mets. On May 13 an MRI found 20 tumors in my husbands brain. On May 15 he could barely breathe and was in a lot of pain. A CT […]