Space unicorns and other creatures

I should have been much more productive this morning. Instead, I have been catching up on the song-a-week output of the inimitable Parry Gripp. If you like cute silliness and insanely catchy pop tunes, you’ll understand. Gripp writes and performs songs—usually only one or two minutes long, sometimes even shorter—about hamsters, kittens, space unicorns, nachos, and other subjects of deep and lasting importance. His oeuvre includes This is the Best Burrito I’ve Ever Eaten, the not-to-be-missed Young Girl Talking About Herself (the accompanying video is spliced together from actual YouTube clips of girls’ video blogs), The Girl at the Video Game Store (with a video starring none other than the hotness of Olivia Munn), and of course, the classic Hamster on a Piano (Eating Popcorn).

While away your morning at parrygripp.com—the weekly output means not all of them are brilliant, but there is a lot of good, funny, and smile-inducing stuff there (he’s been doing it for at least three years now!).

2ne1: Half a Party

KITTENS: They are often on Parry Gripp’s mind

“I am so mad right now, I can hardly compose my thoughts,” began a Tumblr entry posted on June 5 by acclaimed artist/director Avid Liongoren. He had just come from the 2NE1 show at Araneta Coliseum (a.k.a. The Return of Sandara Park). “The 2NE1 Concert was promoted as a CONCERT, look at that poster. It was in Araneta and was PRICED as a concert. The front act was two hours long, consisting of five artists and then 2NE1 performed for JUST 40 Minutes. Concerts are at least an hour and a half. When I watched the Black Eyed Peas, they performed for over two hours!”

“I’m a 2NE1 fan. But if I knew that the front act was longer than the actual show, I would not have paid that much for a ticket… we paid Php 2800, I can only imagine how frustrated those who paid Php 8500 are right now.” As Avid pointed out, the group has “18 songs (two albums), plus Big Bang covers and other collabs that they have done in shows in Korea.” Avid added that “it was more like a mall tour show, eight songs, no back up dancers, no costume changes. That was not fair to the fans.” Don’t know who the organizer was, but here’s hoping they’ll take this into consideration. Read more at misteravid.tumblr.com

Music in The Age of No Effort

SPACE UNICORN: Apparently, they deliver rainbows all around the world

There’s an interesting essay over at Fingertips Music about the perceived value of music in today’s world, “10-plus years into the download era.” There are those who conclude that people don’t think of music as special any more, due to the sheer volume of it and the ease with which it can be obtained. “In retrospect we can see the inherent wisdom of the physical marketplace. This is not to say that the digital marketplace doesn’t have its own wisdom, only that we haven’t located it yet. Attempting to protect and limit access to digital files as if they are physical products makes no sense. And yet—this is important, folks—pretending that digital files have no value at all, because they aren’t physical products, also makes no sense.”

Read the whole thing at www.fingertipsmusic.com/?p=4198—it makes for thought-provoking material while you wait for your torrents to finish downloading.