Hey there space monkeys! Welcome to another wacky and wonders waltz through the world of the weird and the wild inhabitants of the Land of the Foobs. Please try to keep your hands, legs, genitals, pseudopodia, flagellae, antennae, extrusions, and fronds inside the tour vehicle at all times, and if you absolutely must indulge in flash photography, please try not to flash anything that will upset the other passenger. Smoking is permitted only if you happen to be on fire. Passengers must remain behind the yellow line at all times, as our driver is easily spooked. No gum chewing either.

First on our safari tour, we come across a handsome and well proportioned example of a wild and untamed satirical comedy skit. This one is a British species, so be warned, it is especially venomous and toxic, and deadly accurate as well, so stay well back, and enjoy!

Brilliant stuff. I have seen other clips from these two, and they do amazing work. Sharp, funny, stingingly accurate, superbly executed, and best of all, cheap to make. It just requires the two of them and a couple of TV cameras, and, of course, a really good script. My kind of comedy.

And honestly, the whole voodoo cargo cult that passes itself off as a meaningful guide to anything known by its adherents as “economics” needs to be exposed for the shallow fraud it is as hard and as often as possible. It is rich bastards and their pet economists and other academics that got us into all this economic bullshit that we are all suffering through in the first place anyhow. The whole financial sector is based on lies, delusions, shell games, deliberate obfuscations, and outright fraud anyhow. The sooner we stop worshipping the appearance of respectability and learn to call a crook a crook, the better.

And speaking of the evil old men who rule the world so god damned poorly, you would never guess who has joined the list of those lining up in the rotunda to stick a dagger into Rupert Murdoch’s twitching corpse?

Why, none other than his archenemy, Lord Black himself.

The bad news first : Conrad Black is not going to spend any more time in jail. He and his league of evil lawyers have defeated all charges against him.

Bummer, I know. But at least he spent some time in jail, and how he is in a perfectly wonderful position to take potshots at Murdoch from the high moral ground of someone who is not only looking pure and righteous and exonerated, but someone who has been his chief rival for years and ergo knows Murdoch quite well, and who furthermore has always been the classier of the two, and thus is perfectly situated to look down his nose at Murdoch and say “Well, he was never really our kind of person anyhow, was he?” and cost Murdoch all cred and clout and sympathy from the Upper Upper types who are the only ones who could save him now.

And what hurts Murdoch hurts Fox News. Remember that. For Fox News alone, he deserves eternal pain.

And lastly, something I have had kicking around for ages now, and so I feel I should share it along with these other signs of the times type stuff.

It’s a posting to the local craigslist that made me, and my friend who is a chef in this area, very happy.

As regular readers know, I have a big soft spot in my heart for the well executed rant, that special art form where righteous anger and eloquence combine to state the truth forcefully and sometimes even hilariously.

I mean, check this shit out :

That one is quite long in the tooth (hence low video quality) but has lost none of its potency. That dude is really angry and uses it to marvelous effect.

Or how about this recent love of mine? (warning, tons of swearing)

I love the relentless energy and especially all the genuine frustration and anger and sheer ARRRGH in the singer’s voice. You can tell he really means what he says, and I can only imagine that millions of other Tube using Brits felt exactly the same way at the time.

And that brings us to the end of today’s tour through the wild and savage jungles of Foob. Please be sure to wait until the vehicle has come to a complete stop relative to the planet’s surface, and be sure to check the seats and cushions for any articles of clothing, carry-on luggage, or spawn you might have left behind.

Now get the heck out.

Yup. I am doing more music from Grooveshark. I just can’t help myself, I keep finding all this awesome music and I am compelled to share it with people.

Plus, I am just so pleased that something finally came along that made finding new music easy enough for my lazy and somewhat conservative ass to be bothered with.

Before, the stuff I downloaded tended to be stuff I already knew from my extension exposure from many years of various dabblings. That is still a pretty broad palate, including stuff my brother exposed me to, stuff that was in my parents’ record collection when I was a kid, stuff I heard off listening to the CBC, all the stuff I found when I was a volunteer at CIMN, all the stuff I caught on videotape when I was a MuchMusic junkie, and so on.

(Holy crap, CIMN is no more. Wish I had not looked it up on Wiki. And after they finally got a real broadcast license. Bummer. )

But now, I actually get to find awesome new music just with a few clicks. Stuff like this!

I immediately fell in love with this song’s darkly orchestral mix of pretty pizzicato strings and harsh, dissonant vocals. It reminds me a little of 21st Century Schizoid Man by King Crimson, and various industrial artists like Skinny Puppy and Nine Inch Nails, in that it combines the highly mechanical sound of a distorted, filtered human voice with raw, dark, painful emotion. This creates a sound that is somehow more emotionally compelling than mere unvarnished sincerity, to my mind. Sadly, the rest of AWOLNATION’s work is not quite so dark, although there’s still good tracks, so give them a listen if you like this kind of thing.

I just plain could not love this song more. I had no idea what I was in for when I clicked a song called Size Matters, but I certainly didn’t expect a fun, funny, sensitive song about being big of heart and great of spirit. I endorse the song’s message wholeheartedly. I am a big believer in spiritual growth and choosing the bigger hearted option. It is not only the right thing to do, it also makes you happier in the long run because problems which seemed huge before now seem trivial and easily overcome. Just as if you had physically grown from the size of an ant to the size of an elephant. And, on a personal note, I must really love the song in order to forgive it for saying “big up the love” so many times. I mean ouch!

Funky does not begin to describe this song. Muscially speaking, it’s like a phenomenal amalgam of hiphop, jazz, Latin music, and pure uncut hardcore awesome. It is the kind of song that makes even a fat ol slug like me want to get up and dance. And it makes me happy, because while I love the electronic sounds of yesterday and today, I am highly pleased that people have finally realized that you can also use your computer to make something that sounds more or less just like any other genre of music you like, or even to make something that synthesizes elements of previous styles into something greater than the sum of its parts. The work of Gnarls Barkley (now sadly defunct) is a great example of this. It’s soul music, and yet, also something more. Do they have a name for this yet?

I am addicted to this song. I love its walking, swaying beat and sort of Western movie influenced sound. You can just imagine the singer walking along to the beat of the song on his journey. How appropriate! And the lyrics speak to the side of me that longs to just wander away and never come back. The part of me that doesn’t want to come home when I have out and walking for a while. The side that gets wistful in airports, wishing I was going somewhere. It is the complete opposite of my socially anxious side that wants to stay home forever and not deal with the world at all. That side is in control of me, and has been for most of my life. But there is still a part of me that just wants to wander the world and see what happens to me.

Well, I guess that’s it. Can’t think of another song to add, though I have this vague feeling that I am missing something I usual do now. Hmmm. Like I missed something.

Oh right! An Eminem song!

SPOILER ALERT. Please listen to the song before reading the rest of this article.

This song really blew my mind not just because it is another fine example of how Eminem is a master of expressing life and pain in rhyme, but because it also fooled me right until the end. The whole song sounds like he is talking about a woman, presumably Kim, his ex-wife, and then at the very end, he reveals he is talking about the rap industry itself. Did not see that coming. Then, of course, when I listened to the song again, I had a whole new appreciation for it. That is some literary shit, Marshall. I am impressed. Say, is there a word for his kind of rap? None of that gangsta bullshit, just the truth of life expressed in all its pain and messiness and reality? Because if so, I would like to know it, so I could find more of it. It might actually get me into rap enough to consider myself a rap fan, as opposed to a nonfan with just a few rappers he likes, like Eminem, MC Frontalot, and MC 900 Foot Jesus. (All white guys… hmmm… )

OK, that’s it for realz. Seeya later folks!