tag archive: youtube

A world with Martin Sexton in it makes me happy. What can I say about seeing him perform live? It was awesome. He is such a gifted artist. His songs, whether glad or sad, inspire me and make me feel good. Maybe it’s his sincerity that is so appealing. He puts it all out there.

Here’s a photo from before the show, just down the street from the Fitzgerald:

Mickey’s Dining Car in St. Paul, which seems fitting to include here given Martin’s song “Diner.” You might have seen one out in Minnesota…

I liked the Fitzgerald Theater. Small theaters are great for concerts. I don’t know if I ever want to see a band play in a stadium again. The last stadium concert I attended was Rush at the Target Center, and it was awful. What a terrible way to experience live music. Not least because people usually feel …

Martin was awesome. He almost lived up to my impossible expectations for seeing him live.

But first, let’s talk about the opening act: Ryan Montbleau. I had never heard of him before learning that he was opening on this tour. He normally plays with a band but last night performed solo in keeping with the spirit of Martin’s “Solo” tour. I had downloaded a few freebies from his web site and liked what I heard, so was looking forward to seeing him also.

Unfortunately, I don’t have a music reviewer’s vocabulary and training, so I can’t say something like, “he is evocative of the classic period of American folk music in a way that the neofolkists never fully understood,” but I can say he was GOOD. You can see and hear for yourself in my first attempt at a blurry and muffled YouTube upload that fails to capture any nuance of the actual experience:

Ryan Montbleau: It’s All Been Done Before…

At last! Martin Sexton at the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul, Minnesota. The “Solo” tour.

Row 1, Seat 1!

Martin Sexton: Happy

Related

Mah Na Mah Na » Scrubs » Martin Sexton, ‘Diner’
Martin Sexton, ‘Hallelujah’
Ryan Montbleau at the Fitzgerald Theater
Martin Sexton at the Fitzgerald Theater

Some or many of you have probably heard about Randy’s Pauch‘s “Last Lecture.” Randy is a professor of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He gave a stirring and inspirational talk on September 18, 2007, titled “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams.” I was emailed a link to a condensed version of this talk and I loved it, getting a bit choked up about somebody so enthusiastic and full of life and with a wife and young children, having to be “done too soon.”

However! Randy’s still hanging in there. He worked with Jeffrey Zaslow on a book version of the talk, which expands on the lecture. You can see the full talk for free on YouTube — I embedded it at the end of this post. Even so, I think it was well worth the $12 I paid at Amazon for the book. …

Martin Sexton, Hallelujah

Absolutely loving Black Sheep and Wonder Bar, and I’ve already ordered two more of his albums: In the Journey and The American. I may have missed out on years of listening enjoyment, but now I get to experience it all for the first time. Woo Hoo!

I read some of the comments on Amazon about Black Sheep, and see that lots of squares like me first discovered Sexton by hearing “Diner” on Scrubs. At least one nimrod complained because every song on the album wasn’t just like “Diner.” Oh, man. It’s so sad that this philistine was given the opportunity to enjoy such emotional and powerful music, but failed to appreciate it. Not that everyone should feel the same way about his music, but to me this stuff is amazing. It’s true, and it’s …

It all started when I had my daughter sitting on my lap and I decided to play for her:

Mah Na Mah Na

(Bummer. The original video had the sound removed. Substituting a similar one.)

Which she seems to enjoy. (Me too!) In the related clips, I saw one for The Muppets meet [Scrubs], and watched that one also. I love Scrubs. That further led to a click on a related video for Scrubs outtakes. Outtakes are usually fun to watch. For shows that I enjoy watching, I like seeing the actors enjoy themselves making them. At about 6:20 of the outtakes reel, there was this catchy song that I immediately liked. A quick search of some lyrics snippets turned up that it was “Diner,” by Martin Sexton.

It was also used in this collage from season 6 (I think) …

Please, forgive me another YouTube:

Turist Ömer Uzay Yolunda

Deliciously incomprehensible. The captain appears to be related to Dieter from Sprockets. Awesome transporter and phaser effects. A first class production.

It’s when I encounter things like this that I truly appreciate how great the Internet is.

And speaking of cool things, I should mention that I found it via the forum for the excellent Starship Exeter fan production.

And then I look around and see that Ömer made the rounds over a month ago. Oh, well, I guess I’m just not meant to be a breaking news blog.

In a discussion at digg, it’s pointed out that this was made in the 70s and that it is a parody. I don’t speak Turkish so can’t evaluate the intended humor very well, but I want to believe this is true. It seems plausible. …

I thought it might be fun to try hosting one o’ thems fancy YuuuwToob videos here. Don’t know if it’s something I’ll want to do that often. I’m leery of relying on another web site to provide a major component of a post, especially in this case where I don’t know how long-term I can depend on a YouTube video to be available with all the take-downs happening and sure to come. I’d hope that the owner of the copyright on this particular clip wouldn’t demand its removal, but you never know. Another potential problem: Can you even view YouTube videos with free software?

This is a companion piece to this week’s Free Software Magazine entry, and related to the Gandhi quote in this recent post. Beyond that, I’ll let the FSM entry and the film/commercial say the rest…

Truth Happens…