First of May Bench
In the continuing celebration of “First of May Month (April)” I pose this holiday question: what the heck is going on here?
Actually, the song was Hodgman’s suggestion (that is actually true). And the whole concept of a dirty rhyme that references the first of May is stolen from some kind of traditional dirty rhyme that people used to say. In the past. Honestly I’m not entirely sure where it originated, but my grandfather used to say it, and I have met other people who’s grandparents used to say it. I think it may have been the Greatest Generation’s equivalent of “Me Chinese, me play joke, me put pee-pee in your Coke.” Anybody have some more definitive explanation?
Question for the Internet
So there’s this site called ustream.tv that lets you stream live video for free to a URL so that anyone can watch it in their browser – kind of like YouTube but live. I’ve been thinking it would be really fun to start streaming video of all my live shows (there’s also a way to get the stream to show on a surface in Second Life from what I understand, though I haven’t tested it – JoCo theater anyone?). But for extra coolness, I’d love to let the audience shoot the video, which as we learned from the Beastie Boys is fracking awesome. The problem is, I don’t really want the audience passing my laptop around, especially one that’s connected by a firewire to an expensive camera.
So is there any wireless thingamajig that would work for this? I know there are a bunch of wireless nanny-cam-type video cameras out there, but I get the sense they all stream over wifi to some kind of proprietary software on the computer, which I don’t know is compatible with the ustream interface. I’ve got an iSight, which would be perfect if it there was wireless firewire (erm, is there?).
Anyway, if anybody has some kind of wireless camera situation already and wants to try it out with ustream.tv, I invite you to do so and share your results. Or if there’s something that can be hacked together that’s cool too, as long as it’s small and light and doesn’t cost a million dollars. Whoever finds the solution will get shiny new dollar.
Creepy Uke
Those of you who came to the NYC show at the Cutting Room were certainly as thrilled with Kristen’s ukulele contributions as I was (not to mention the solid backing vocal work of the ever-solid Paul and Storm). Proof of awesomeness provided by Scott – check out the Creepy Doll video.
My Monster
Len has finished my monster, and I expect it is in the mail to me even now. The word was “Octopus” and I am glad of it. Here is the image and here is the video of it being made. Feels like old times…thanks Len!
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