Friday Fun: Rap Meets Harry Potter

I don't know about you all, but I'm dragging my feet today. Though I don't get a traditional weekend being self-employed, there is still always something about Friday that makes me anxious for the day to end. So, let's have a little Friday Fun with some book-themed rap!

Last night on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, The Roots performed a Harry Potter-themed rap. 

Throughout the song, the band made references to The Boy Who Lived, butter beer, quidditch, Diagon Alley, the Hogwarts Express, and more. 

We’ve embedded the video above for your enjoyment–have you ever composed a song about one of your favorite books? (via Defamer.com, via GalleyCat)

This is probably the first time in my life I've truly enjoyed rap.

Attention All DORIAN GRAY Fans

This is kind of hilarious.

Thank you, Flavorwire, for yet another random and entertaining break from the workday:

If you’ve ever wondered what your favorite literary characters might be listening to while they save the world/contemplate existence/get into trouble, or hallucinated a soundtrack to go along with your favorite novels, well, us too. But wonder no more! Here, we sneak a look at the hypothetical iPods of some of literature’s most interesting characters. What would be on the personal playlists of Holden Caulfield or Elizabeth Bennett, Huck Finn or Harry Potter, Tintin or Humbert Humbert? Something revealing, we bet. Or at least something danceable. Read on for a cozy reading soundtrack, character study, or yet another way to emulate your favorite literary hero. This week: everyone’s favorite hedonist, Dorian Gray.

In Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, the eponymous character is a young, beautiful man who, after sitting for a portrait, finds that he no longer ages — but that each of his years and sins is reflected on the face of his painted self. Spurred on by his friends, lovers, and new sense of invincibility, he fully embraces the hedonistic life and the idea that the only things worth pursuing in life are those that feel good. Selfish, indulgent, and sometimes cruel, his portrait becomes uglier and uglier as he lives in this unchecked debauchery. Finally, of course, he must destroy the painting, destroying himself in the process. We think Dorian would have an iPod full of songs to fuel his party, reassure his ego, and lure girls to his side — what else could a handsome career partyboy ever need? Here’s what we think Dorian Gray would drink, indulge, and play Prince Charming to.

Stream the mixtape here.

“Look” — Sébastien Tellier

A master of seduction, we think Dorian Gray would pretty much swear by Sébastien Tellier. This may or may not be his closer.

“It’s a Curse” — Wolf Parade

We think the strange but sexy darkness of Wolf Parade would be on constant rotation in Gray’s pretty, twisted little head.

“The Greatest Man That Ever Lived” — Weezer

Dorian would sing along to every verse of this self-aggrandizing patchwork anthem.

“Heroin” — The Velvet Underground

For indulging his hedonism are much as humanly possible. We bet that the picture gets ten years older during this song.

“Boys Don’t Cry” — The Cure

We think Dorian would be most into the Cure’s Gothic phase — though he might dabble in other periods too. After all, he dabbles in everything.

“SexyBack” — Justin Timberlake

A modern ode to narcissism, we can see Dorian strolling through the VIP section with this playing in his head. Plus, he knows to listen to the songs that the girls like.

“Drunk Girls” — LCD Soundsystem

For embracing your hedonism.

“AA XXX” — Peaches

Dorian’s devotion to Peaches is indicative of his desire to try everything that might feel good — yes, everything. Bring it on.

“Horror Show” — The Libertines

This song would soundtrack Dorian’s more sinister drug-fueled ragers — plus, there is no way he wouldn’t pick up an album by a band called the Libertines.

“I’m Too Sexy” — Right Said Fred

For the ultimate narcissist, the ultimate song for singing into your hairbrush in the mirror.

See the original post HERE

MTV Under the Microscope in New Book

My mom never let me watch MTV when I was a kid. It was crude and too mature for us, she'd say. Which, looking back, was true. (Even now it offends me a large portion of the time.) Not that VH1--which I watched religiously--was all that much better. But at least what VH1 did was truly about the musicians and the music videos and not about the late teen-early 20-something insanely unrealistic lifestyle. It had a different kind of merit, that's for sure. MTV's tactic never made much sense to me, to be honest, especially given it's supposedly music television that is less and less focused on the tunes every day.

I'm not the only one baffled by this change in concept, and I'm certainly not the only one who misses true VH1 and early MTV style video programming ("Pop-up Video" anyone? which apparently has made a recent reprise). Even people in the music biz are curious about this crazy evolution. Take former Blender editors Craig Marks and Rob Tannenbaum, for example. They were so intrigued they've investigated the matter for us viewers in their new book I Want My MTV: The Uncensored Story of the Music Video Revolution.

The Observer's "Very Short List" tells us a little bit about it:

Can you imagine a world without MTV? If so, the joke’s on you, because MTV hasn’t been itself for something like 20 years now—ever since it strayed from its raison d’être and pretty much stopped airing music videos.

In this fascinating oral history, ex–Blender editors Craig Marks and Rob Tannenbaum tell the story of Music Television’s incredible first decade. The authors have done their homework, interviewing hundreds of VJs, musicians, and industry insiders—most of whom sound like they’ve been waiting years to get these stories off their chests. It all makes for riveting (if occasionally revolting) reading, and a book we expect to see on the best-seller lists.

See the original review HERE

I'm not typically one to be instantly curious about nonfiction titles, but this one jumped out to me. I may have to check it out.

While I decide though, let's flash back to the "Pop-up Video" phenomenon I mentioned earlier...I cannot stop thinking about it now!

Decemberists Meet David Foster Wallace

Some of you may not know this about me, but I love The Decemberists. I've seen them in concert twice (not a lot, I know, but for me that's a big deal!) and have a guitar pick of theirs that I caught at one of said concerts. I saw them as recently as this past June.

So when I saw them pop up on GalleyCat today, naturally I was intrigued. Their lyrics in themselves are poetic and powerful--maybe they're doing a book? I thought at first. But no. No, they have put out a video of one of their hits...and based it off Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace.

GalleyCat tells us more:

The new video for “Calamity Song” by The Decemberists reenacts a scene from David Foster Wallace‘s masterpiece, Infinite Jest. We’ve embedded the video above–what do you think?

In the video, a group of teenagers play Wallace’s imaginary Eschaton game, a combination of tennis match and computer simulation for nuclear war. Follow this link if you want to play the game in real life. Singer and novelist Colin Meloy told NPR he had just finished reading Infinite Jest and wanted the video to be a tribute to the late novelist.

Check it out: “I had this funny idea that a good video for the song would be a re-creation of the Enfield Tennis Academy’s round of Eschaton — basically, a global thermonuclear crisis re-created on a tennis court — that’s played about a third of the way into the book. Thankfully, after having a good many people balk at the idea, I found a kindred spirit in Michael Schur, a man with an even greater enthusiasm for Wallace’s work than my own. With much adoration and respect to this seminal, genius book, this is what we’ve come up with. I can only hope DFW would be proud.”

See the original post HERE

I'm not going to lie: I've never read David Foster Wallace. Thus I don't have much of an opinion on this, but I thought it was cool anyway. ;)