The term "remix" has come to mean a lot of things in the past 20 years. As opposed to a cover song, a remix is usually a new version of a song that one creates with electronic production techniques. A remix will oftentimes contain some samples and chord progressions from the original song, though some remixes bear no resemblance to the original version.

Another concept within the world of remixes is MicroRemixing. Although this has been around for over ten years, it has started to become popular in the past several years. MicroRemixing involves taking sounds (small snippets) from a particular source and combining them in new ways to create a new, different song that bears no resemblance to the original. These are typically released for free on the internet to avoid legal troubles. The most famous MicroRemix was The Grey Album by Danger Mouse, which gained notoriety about five years ago. This album combined elements of The White Album and The Black Album. Another MicroRemix artist who is becoming more well-known is Pogo, who rearranges popular Disney feature films into new songs. His productions have a video element which he considers crucial. Most of his productions are available as free downloads (making even a small sum of money from these videos would instantly put him in a world of legal trouble). He typically introduces his own drum sounds and sometimes synthesizes his own bass parts on top of the songs. His newest offering, Wishery, has accumulated over 1.3 million views just six days after its release. The source material for this song is the Disney classic Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937).

I wanted to see what the Micro Remix thing was all about. For my source material, I used the film score to the 1999 Oscar winner American Beauty. Depending how familiar you are with this movie, you may recognize the sounds that I used, but you will not recognize the song itself. This is no masterpiece, as it took only three hours to make on November 4. The process was easier than I thought; I lost a little respect for the art of MicroRemixing and consequently lost interest in putting the finishing touches on this song. I was fully prepared to introduce my own drums or bass parts, but my version uses only samples from the movie, with no external sounds or effects added (not even reverb/echo).

Here is what happened when I combined eight songs from the American Beauty film score into a new song of my own. This song is available as a free download--just click the down arrow on the right side of the player. Enjoy.

Names of popular fast-food chains and their origins.

McDONALD's. Named after two brothers who were scenery movers in Hollywood during the 1920's--Richard and Maurice ("Mac") McDonald. They started the first modern fast food joint in San Bernardino, California after World War II and sold out to Ray Kroc for $2.7 million in 1961.

ARBY's. Forest and Leroy Raffel wanted to open a fast food restaurant called Big Tex, in Akron, Ohio... but someone else already owned the name. So they settled for Arby's--R.B.'s--after the first initials of Raffel Brothers.

TACO BELL. No, it has nothing to do with mission bells. The chain was founded in 1962 by Glen W. Bell.

JACK IN THE BOX. There was a huge, square metal ventilation unit on the roof of Robert Peterson's restaurant. It was really ugly, but he couldn't remove it... So he covered it up instead, disguising it as a jack-in-the-box. Then he changed the name of his restaurant, making it seem as though the whole thing had been planned.

HARDEE's. Founded by Wilbur Hardee, who opened the first Hardee's in Greenville, North Carolina in 1960.

PIZZA HUT. Frank Carney, a 19-year-old engineering student at the University of Wichita, opened a pizza parlor in 1958 with his older brother Dan. It was in a rented, hut-shaped building with a sign that only had room for eight letters and a single space. Pizza Hut was the perfect name because it described the restaurant and fit on the sign.

DAIRY QUEEN. In 1938, Sherb Noble put together a 10¢ All-You-Can-Eat promotion for his Kankakee, Illinois store. He offered a brand new kind of "semi-frozen" ice cream called "Dairy Queen" and was dumbfounded by the public's response--they bought 16,000 servings of it in two hours. Two years later, Noble opened a food stand that sold nothing but Dairy Queen.

WHITE CASTLE. In 1921, Walter Anderson needed money to open his fourth hamburger stand. He borrowed the money--$700--from a local real-estate and insurance salesman named Billy Ingram, who suggested that the restaurant be called the "White Castle," symbolizing cleanliness and strength. Since it was Ingram's money, Anderson Humored him.

KENTUCKY FRIED CHICKEN. "Colonel" Harlan Sanders had a restaurant in Corbin, Kentucky. His specialty was fried chicken.

WENDY's. Dave Thomas, an executive at Kentucky Fried Chicken, decided to open his own chain of fast food restaurants in 1969. The first one was located in Columbus, Ohio. It was named for Thomas's third daughter, Wendy.

When I was a kid, it was guaranteed that Barry Sanders (Sr.) would show up in the NFL highlight footage... every week.. without question.

You know that kid in the old neighborhood that was just too good at sports for the rest of you? Maybe he was a little bit older or maybe he was just really athletic. This is the kid that didn't need any help when he had the ball because he was just so much better/faster than everyone. Well, that's how Barry Sanders was to NFL defenders. Bo Jackson famously said "When I grow up, I want to run just like [Barry Sanders]." (Bo Jackson was, of course, older than Barry Sanders).

Highlight videos:

1988 College highlights (poor quality video)
NFL highlights and interviews (excellent compilation. my favorite is at 1:59 vs the Cowboys)

I could go on forever about the guy. He had the most prolific ten-year span of any NFL running back and he played for an awful team with no supporting cast. He never once taunted/celebrated despite his endless string of phenomenal touchdown runs. He set 35 NCAA records in his only season as a starter in college--a season in which he AVERAGED over 238 rushing yards per game and nearly 300 all-purpose yards per game. His only season in NCAA football is widely considered the greatest accomplishment for any single player in the history of collegiate sports (for instance, his 1988 season was the only college athlete's campaign to rank in ESPN.com's "End of the Century" list covering all sports). A lot of people like to speak in hyperbole regarding sports and/or athletes, but in all honesty, Barry Sanders did things with his body that most athletes simply can't do. His ability to start/stop was so refined that he could fake out entire defenses with no blockers in front of him. He is also credited with "inventing" the spin move that nearly all running backs use today.

Anyway, I said all that to say this: Barry Sanders Jr. is coming up through the ranks in highschool football, and he seems to be a chip off the old block. Short stature with a low center of gravity and extremely muscular legs. He also seems to have the same reactionary style that his father did. Don't worry about blocking schemes and all that, just run. React to the defense. He certainly has the same knack for making defenders look like idiots.

Amazing touchdown run (freshman) - I count 6 guys who fall while trying to tackle him
3 TD runs in state final (freshman)
Another sweet touchdown run (sophomore) - in this game, Barry Jr. scored three times in the first 13 minutes
67 yard punt return for touchdown (sophomore)
An interview with Barry Jr.

This kid might be good enough to get me to actually watch NCAA football someday.

I grew up on the demoscene, though I never participated. When I was 13 years old, I would dial in to a BBS that had ftp capability so I could download demos and songs off hornet.org. In its most basic form, a "demo" is an executable file that shows off the graphics/programming/music talents of a group of people that form a "demogroup". It can be any visual effects/themes imaginable, synced to music. Demos have been around for over 20 years on all platforms of computers. About a week ago, I was curious to see if the demoscene was still alive, and it is still alive and well (mostly in the EU, just like when I was a kid).

Demos were always "cutting edge" as far as technology was concerned. People were programming 3d effects in their demos well before computer games were using 3d textures and shadowing effects. The average user could not run the current day's demos when they were first released due to not owning the most current model of CPU/graphics card. Nowadays, the visual effects/animation world has completely caught up to the demoscene as far as visual effects go. Special effects producers can now do all the things that programmers could do. This has really made the demoscene less relevant, in my opinion.

One thing that continues to be fresh about the demoscene, though, is the file-size limitations. There are categories for 64k, 4k, and 1kb filesizes. This places a limit on the total size of the demo (including textures, music, graphics, and coding). For instance, this demo has a file size of 1k:

That entire video, including the song, is generated on a PC from a .exe that is 1024 bytes (smaller than the size of this post). These days, it's all about exploiting tricks in people's graphics cards. Even though it has a very small file size, it has very steep system requirements to run this file. There are even competitions who can make the best PC Game at different file sizes. All downloads are free and can be found at pouet.net.

Some more demos with small file sizes:

4k - Elevated by RGBA and TBC (2009)
4k - nasa by Still(2010)
128bytes - spongy by TBC (2009)
32bytes - matisse by orbitaldecay (2010)
1k - Tracie by TBC (2007)
4k - Sincere by TBC (2008)

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. All the King's horses and all the king's men, couldn't put Humpty together again.
Background: According to Katherine Thomas in The Real Personages of Mother Goose, this rhyme is 500 years old and refers to King Richard III of England. In 1483 his reign ended when he fell from his mount during battle; he was slain as he stood shouting "My kingdom for a horse!" Richard's fall made him Humpty Dumpty. Originally the last line was "Could not set Humpty up again"--which can be interpreted as either putting him back on his horse, or back on the throne.

Old King Cole was a very old soul, a merry old soul was he. He called for his pipe and he called for his bowl, and he called for his fiddlers three.
Background: There was actually a King Cole in Britain during the third century. No one knows much about him, but historians agree that he's the subject of the poem. Of interest: There's a Roman amphitheater in Colchester, England which has been known as "King Cole's Kitchen" for centuries.

Little Jack Horner sat in a corner, eating his Christmas pie. He stuck in his thumb and he pulled out a plum, and said "What a good boy am I."
Background: In the mid-1500s, when King Henry VIII was confiscating lands belonging to the Catholic church, the Abbot of Glastonbury--the richest abbey in the British kingdom--tried to bribe the monarch by sending him a special Christmas pie. Inside the pie, the abbot had enclosed the deeds to 12 manor houses. The courier who delivered the pie to the king was the abbot's aide, Thomas Horner. (The name "Jack" was contemporary slang for any male, particularly a knave). On his way, Horner stopped, stuck in his hand, and pulled out one of the deeds from the pie--a plum called Mells Manor. Shortly after, Horner moved into Mells, and his family still lives there today (although they deny the story).

Jack be nimble, Jack be quick, Jack jump over the candlestick.
Background: For centuries, jumping over a candlestick was a method of fortune-telling in England. According to The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes: "A candlestick with a lighted candle was placed on the floor and if, when jumping over it, the light was not extinguished, good luck was supposed to follow during the coming year."

Ring around the rosy, a pocket full of posies
Ashes, ashes, we all fall down
Background: According to James Leasor in The Plague and the Fire, this "had its origin in the [London Plague of 1664]. Rosy refers to the rosy rash of plague... The posies were herbs and spices carried to ward off the disease; sneezing was a common symptom of those close to death. In the Annotated Mother Goose, the authors note that the third line is often given as a sneezing noise ("At-choo, at-choo"), and that " 'We all fall down' was, in a way, exactly what happened."

But Who Was Mother Goose?

No one's quite sure. There are at least two possibilities, according to The Annotated Mother Goose:

• Charles Perrault, a French writer, "published a collection of fairy tales called Tales of My Mother Goose in 1697. The book contains eight stories: 'Little Red Riding Hood,' 'Bluebeard,' 'Puss In Boots,' " etc.
• But many scholars maintain that Mother Goose was actually one Elizabeth Foster Goose, of Boston, Mass. In 1692, when she was 27, Elizabeth married a widower named Isaac Goose and immediately inherited a family of 10 children. One of her step-daughters married a printer several years later and the printer enjoyed listening to "Mother Goose" recite old rhymes to the younger children. In 1719, he published a collection called Songs for the Nursery, or Mother Goose's Melodies.

From the outside, everything looked great for The Monkees in 1967. In one year they had leaped from semi--or total--obscurity to overnight superstardom. They had a hit TV series, two #1 singles ("Last Train to Clarksville," and "I'm A Believer"), and two #1 albums ("The Monkees," and "More of The Monkees"). The only problem was the Monkees weren't allowed to play on their own records. Why not? Because Don Kirshner, the musical supervisor of The Monkees, said so. It was... well... embarassing. Here they were, pretending to be a real group, when in fact they had almost nothing to do with "their" music. Critics made fun of them. Even worse, teenyboppers idolized them for something they weren't doing. And to add insult to injury, Kirshner made more money from their records than they did. They each got a 1.5% royalty, but Kirshner go 15%! They had their pride, after all.

Trouble had been brewing for some time between Kirshner and the group, particularly Mike Nesmith, who wasn't even allowed to play guitar on the songs he wrote. That was Kirshner's studio policy, The Monkees just sang vocals while studio musicians played on the tracks. But what the hell, Kirshner reasoned, he was getting results--hits--and that was his job. So what if Nesmith had to stand by and watch Glen Campbell put the guitar licks on his own song, "Mary Mary"? This was the only way management could be sure it was right. The bottom line was what counted, after all. Nesmith, a genuinely creative individual, just stewed.

"Essentially, the big collision I had with Don Kirshner was this," said Nesmith; "he kept saying, 'You can't make the music; it would be no good, it won't be a hit.' And I was saying, 'Hey, the music isn't a hit because somebody wonderful is making it, the music is a hit because of the television show. So, at least let us put out music that is closer to our personas, closer to who we are artistically, so that we don't have to walk around and have people throwing eggs at us,' which they were."

Eventually the feud came to a showdown in early '67 at Kirshner's suite at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Kirshner had just handed the four Monkees some new demos (including "Sugar, Sugar," a bubblegum hit later for Kirshner's Archies) that they would be putting vocals on. Nesmith stepped forward and demanded that musical control be given to The Monkees. When Kirshner refused, Nesmith angrily smashed his fist through the wall, declaring, "That could have been your face!" Then The Monkees went off to record some original material without Kirshner's approval.

What happened next is a little unclear. While The Monkees were working out their own songs, Kirshner appears to have approached Davy Jones, one of the members of the group, and talking him into going into the studio without the rest of The Monkees. Jones put the vocals on several tunes, one of which was "A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You." But The Monkees weren't doing the backing vocals. Who was it? Eric Lefcowitz, author of The Monkees Tale, speculates "Kirshner was quoted once as saying that Neil Diamond and Carole King had sung back-up vocals on some Monkees songs, and I think that if you listen closely to 'A Little Bit Me,' you can hear them. It sounds like Neil Diamond to me." And why would Jones record without the rest of the group? "I don't know, of course," Lefcowitz says, "but Davy Jones hadn't ever had the chance to sing lead before. This was his session. Maybe that had something to do with it."

Maybe, maybe not. The important thing is that in a power play, Kirshner recorded and released "A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You" without even telling The Monkees he was doing it! That was the last straw. Monkees' producers Bob Rafelson and Bart Schneider wanted hits, but they weren't going to put up with that from anyone. They fired Kirshner, and yanked the single out of American record stores. Then they re-released it with a Monkees original--Nesmith's "The Girl I Knew Somewhere"--on the B side. Finally The Monkees could smile. They were out from under Kirshner... and a song they'd actually played on made the Top 40--"The Girl I Knew Somewhere" reached #39 on the charts.

I'm sorry folks, but I just can not get into the Winter Olympics. I should preface this [rant] by saying I grew up outside of Atlanta, so ice and snow are quite foreign to me. It was rare that I even met someone who had ever been skiing (water skiing doesn't count).

The Winter Games feature far too many competitions that are either a) boring, b) not sports or c) determined by judges.

Am I really supposed to believe that bobsledders are brilliant athletes because they lean into turns to shave 0.02 seconds off their time? It's like having a competition to see who can get down the playground slide the fastest. What's next? Log flume races? A roller coaster competition?

Then there's curling, another non-sport. Look, if you can excel at something while elderly or inebriated, it is not a sport (that goes for you too, Bowling). I understand that it is a game of millimeters and it requires precision and whatnot, but so does Billiards. Billiards has not made it to the summer games because the summer games are full of real sports and do not need all of this filler to draw fans.

Then there is the biathlon, which is the equivalent of the marathon race in the Summer Olympics, except with firearms(?). Involving firearms in an athletic competition is like NASCAR--the car/gun does all the work! I've heard the argument that race car drivers are athletes because they "have to train a lot" and "go on a special diet." You know who else has to go on a special diet? Supermodels! Marksmen can't even claim that. I'm sure there is at least one severely overweight, unathletic marksman in the world.

But, at least the above events are not decided by judges.

If you win something because you received the highest score(s) from a panel of judges, you do not deserve a medal; you deserve a blue ribbon. And up next on the winter games, the science fair qualifying event! I realize that the summer Olympics has its share of events determined by judges (diving, gymnastics), but the Winter Olympics seems to have a lot more of these events. Figure skating and gymnastics fall under the same category for me. It's a high-end dance competition determined by judges. I don't care what anyone says, judges are biased (and they can be paid off). If you have a difficult routine, and you don't make any mistakes, who is to judge who actually won the competition? Does it really come down to who pointed their toes? Up next here on NBC, it's Ice Dancing With the Stars--Olympic Edition! I'm Tom Bergeron; don't touch that dial.. I'm not disparaging the competitors in this case (because gymnasts, snowboarders, aerial skiers, and divers are all athletes, unlike curlers), but I don't think an Olympic competition should be decided by judges.

Why is it that snowboarding has made it into the Winter Olympics, but skateboarding has not made it into the Summer Games? Again, it is because the Summer Olympics does not need all of this filler to draw viewers/interest. They can afford to be "choosy" when it comes to allowing new sports. Don't get me wrong, I think Shaun White is nothing short of a badass. I think he would win no matter how the competition was set up.

If you run a 100m footrace, then you have a chance of breaking the world record, but if you ride down the super halfpipe on a snowboard while doing flips, you can only win for that day. There is no universal standard you can hold someone up to. You can't call Guinness after receiving a high score on a judged event, because you haven't really accomplished anything definite.

So here's what the Winter Olympics have that I'll watch: speed skating, hockey, and the different ski races. Pretty sad list.

Leon Redbone is a fringe performer with a dedicated following. I have seen him 8 or 9 times in concert.. if that's not dedication, I don't know what is. I have traveled to different states on more than one occasion to see him. I was literally the only one left to see his last 3 songs during a hurricane in Chattanooga at an outdoor concert. Leon Redbone strikes a chord with some people, and I am one of them. I am seeing him again next Friday, and I'm already excited.

Redbone's history begins at the beginning of his career because virtually nothing is known about his background or personal life. His real name, birthday, country of origin and ethnicity are all unknown, though people have speculated about these things for 35+ years now. He has claimed to have been born in Bombay during a monsoon to parents Niccolò Paganini (a composer and violinist who died in 1840) and Jenny Lind (a singer who died in 1887), which contributes to the mystique about his age. He has also listed his date of birth as October 29, 1929, the day of the stock market crash that sent America into the Great Depression. He often claims (erroneously, of course) that songs written well before his time were "stolen" from him. It hearkens back to the days before information was so readily available about celebrities' personal lives and upbringing. It appears he has worked very hard to create and maintain this mystique.

Leon Redbone has made a career out of arranging and performing songs that originated before my grandparents' time, though he attracts a wide and varied audience, ranging in ages and musical tastes. His style is hard to pin down as it is a mix of old-time blues, ragtime, jazz, country, and vaudeville. If it were necessary to sum up his style, one might say he does cleaned-up renditions of Tin Pan Alley classics from the 1920's and 30's. He has a very unique voice and is able to pull a lot of yodel-style octave jumps. He is also an excellent acoustic guitarist, which is often obscured by his interesting baritone vocal stylings. He is somehow able to emulate all the counterpoint of ragtime on a six-string acoustic guitar--a feat not attempted by many. Upon his arrival to the music scene, Leon Redbone was rumored to be an alter-ego of Bob Dylan, Andy Kaufman and even Frank Zappa.

He composed/performed the theme song to Mr. Belvedere (and apparently composed/performed the theme song to the sitcom version of Harry and the Hendersons, which I did not know existed). He voiced the character Leon the Snowman in the 2003 film Elf, where he was also featured heavily in the soundtrack and film score.

Seeing Leon Redbone live is akin to stepping in a time machine. His fedora hat, dark sunglasses and cane contribute to the mystery and timelessness of the act. The stage versions of his songs are stripped down to the bare essentials. For the past ten years or so, he most often performs with just a trumpet player and pianist. His act is peppered with banter and jokes that feel over a century old. He often shuffles through papers and proposes "a sing-along" to his instrumentalists; the suggestion is met with a sigh and eyerolls as Leon breaks into song (usually "I've Been Working on the Railroad" or "Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star"). At the end of nearly every show, he re-emerges on stage to take a picture of the audience. If I were to ever develop a stage presence, I often wonder which of Leon Redbone's stage gimmicks I would "borrow."

Here is a video of Leon performing Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone, originally released in 1930:

Some of those guitar licks are extremely difficult. It is very laid-back and does not give that impression, but do not be fooled. This is the magic of Leon Redbone. It sucks that his left hand is obscured in this particular camera angle. Here are some more videos...

On Alf's talk show
I Ain't Got Nobody
Walking Stick
Harvest Moon (better version than the Alf one)
Leon Redbone can certainly whistle

This "lovers' holiday" is an anomaly. It was actually an effort by the Catholic Church to keep teenagers from becoming lovers.

Before Christ was born, it was a Roman tradition for teenage girls and boys to gather every February in the name of the god Lupercus, and randomly select a "mate" for a year. They were permitted to do anything they liked together (and what else would teenagers do?).

When Christians gained power in the Roman Empire, they wanted to bring this practice to an end. So they selected a substitute for Lupercus (to be the focus of a parallel holiday)--St. Valentine, a bishop that had reputedly been tortured and executed by Emporer Claudius II in 270 A.D., for performing marriages after Claudius had outlawed them in the Empire. This symbol of more "wholesome" love was reluctantly accepted by the Romans. But just to be sure no one gave in to temptation, the Catholic Church made it a mortal sin to worship Lupercus. Eventually, Valentine's Day became a recognized holiday throughout Western Europe.

If teens couldn't get together in February, what could they do? They could send each other respectful notes of affection. And they did, although it seems like a poor substitute. At any rate, sending lover's greetings became a part of the Valentine's day ritual, and when Christian influence grew, the practice of sending notes on February 14 spread with it.

The first greeting cards didn't appear until the 18th century. Printed cards were common in Germany by the 1780's; they were called Freundschaftkarten, or "friendship cards." The first American cards were manufactured in the 1870's, at an amazing cost of up to thirty-five dollars apiece.

In the spirit of Valentine's Day (sort of), here are a few public marriage proposals gone wrong. Very, very wrong. I think maybe the theme is that these were all on Valentine's Day. Poor guys.

Two notable events that happened February 11, 1990.

First, Nelson Mandela was released from prison after 27 years. He was imprisoned longer than any of the other defendants who were charged in the Rivonia Trial in 1963-64.

On the other end of the spectrum, in what is now being called "the biggest upset in sports history," Mike Tyson was knocked out by Buster Douglas. The betting odds were officially 42:1 at the time of the fight.

More notable events from February 11.