Stuff for Sam: March 2009

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Octopus Arms and Plants with Eyballs

via Pixelsumo

Extreme sheepherding

YouTube via koldayinhell.
"A few guys some great dogs and a flock of sheep wearing led suits put on a great show!"

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Invisible fish: The mystery solved

YouTube via ITNExtreme
"It has a transparent head and tubular eyes, but now the "barreleye fish" may be better understood, thanks to scientists at the MBARI."

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Louis Armstrong - What A Wonderful World

YouTube via saks61
"LouisDaniel Armstrong (August 4, 1901 July 6, 1971), nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer.

Coming to prominence in the 1920s as an innovative cornet and trumpet virtuoso, Armstrong was a foundational influence on jazz, shifting the music's focus from collective improvisation to solo performers. With his distinctive gravelly voice, Armstrong was also an influential singer, demonstrating great dexterity as an improviser, bending the lyrics and melody of a song for expressive purposes. He was also greatly skilled at scat singing, or wordless vocalizing.

Renowned for his charismatic stage presence and deep, instantly recognizable voice almost as much as for his trumpet-playing, Armstrong's influence extended well beyond jazz, and by the end of his career in the '60s, he was widely regarded as a profound influence on popular music in general: critic Steve Leggett describes Armstrong as "perhaps the most important American musician of the 20th century."

"What a Wonderful World" is a song by Bob Thiele (using the pseudonym George Douglas) and George David Weiss. It was first recorded by Louis Armstrong and released as a single in 1968, and was inducted in the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999.
Intended as an antidote for the increasingly racially and politically charged climate in the U.S. of everyday life. The song also has a hopeful, optimistic tone with regard to the future, with reference to babies being born into the world and having much to look forward to. The song was not initially a hit in the United States, where it sold fewer than 1,000 copies, but was a major success in the UK, reaching number one on the UK singles chart. It was also the biggest-selling single of 1968 in the UK. The song made Louis Armstrong the oldest male to top the charts, at sixty-six years and ten months old.

The opening lyrics read: I see trees of green, red roses too. I see them bloom, for me and you. And I think to myself... what a wonderful world. I see skies of blue, and clouds of white. The bright blessed day, the dark sacred night And I think to myself, what a wonderful world...

The song gradually became something of a standard and reached a new level of popularity. It was re-released in America shortly after Armstrong's death in 1971 and became a top ten hit. In 1988, Louis Armstrong's 1968 recording was featured in the film Good Morning Vietnam and was rereleased as a single. The single charted at number one for the fortnight ending June 27, 1988 on the Australian charts. It is also a jazz standard ranked number 945 at Jazzstandards.com."