Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Pt. 1

HERE'S WHERE I RUIN THE FLAMING LIPS: YOSHIMI BATTLES THE PINK ROBOTS, PT 1

I remember in 1995 the Flaming Lips were playing at the Peach Pit in Beverly Hills. At least, I remember when Beverly Hills 90210 featured the band in one of their episodes, and all the kids at Beverly High were stoked. I thought they were pretty good, and I didn't think about them much after that.

I moved to Germany when I was 19 years old in 1999.

When I was 26, a student at UC Berkeley, I hung out a lot in Oakland bars. At some point, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Pt 1 came on, and everyone was surprised I hadn't heard it. Their most successful album Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots had been released in 2002. I'd missed it abroad.

I instantly fell in love with the experimental psychedelic sound and the lyrics that seem to be saying one thing but meaning something entirely different.

My friends at the time were mostly artists and poets, people who maybe often feel like they are alone without anyone looking out for them. Maybe it was just me. Either way, my circle of friends took to singing the song at the tops of our lungs any chance we could. If there was a jukebox, we chose it. If we were closing down the bar, our friends behind it put this song on and sang along.

Here's what Billboard said about the album:

"beneath the sunny, computer-generated atmospherics and the campy veneer of talk about gladiator-style clashes between man and machines with emotions, Yoshimi is actually a somber rumination on love and survival in an unfathomable world."

During the chorus we'd choose someone to point at and sing that they wouldn't let the robots eat us. Every time we shouted "Oh Yoshimi!" we pointed at a new person until everyone was included. The robots are everywhere. They're programmed to destroy artists and writers or people who just care about anything in the indifferent universe. Sometimes, for fleeting moments, maybe you have a few Yoshimis around you who might take their vitamins, learn karate, and keep you safe. When those people are around, sing them a song. If you can't sing, just play them this.

Welcome to the Robot Utopia

Hello. Welcome to the Robot Utopia.

preliminary QR hacks

These are experiments in QR Codes. At the moment they bring you to a dummy page that I'd like to make a reality eventually.
I think they can be an incredible new way to engage audiences. I see nothing but potential in this technology.
Imagine a world in which you can engage the companies you like on your own terms. A lot of people are afraid of privacy, but I think that this gets around that issue nicely. You actually invite more content by scanning the code. Thus, you only get the advertisement that you really want.

But speaking of privacy, wouldn't it be great to only be advertised things you might really want? I feel like the filter on my brain doesn't need to be as active if advertisers already know to not bother with pitching stuff to me I won't ever want or need. The question "what can they do with all that information they have about us?" always comes up when talking about the future of media, but I have to counter it with, "what would they want to do with it?" The only thing that makes sense is to sell us stuff. . . which is exactly what businesses have always been doing. Now they can more accurately target us. Targeting is a good thing. It keeps you from having to deal with Viagra and Lipitor commercials when you're 15 and from dealing with World of Warcraft ads when you're 72.

Anyway, aren't QR codes cool?

Podington Bear

Sometimes I think that I am the least knowledgeable of my friends when it comes to music because I lack the encyclopedic memory necessary to call up facts about drummers from obscure hipster bands, but I have to say that, as surprising as it may seem, I am way ahead of a lot of people I know on Podington Bear.

Podington Bear is a guy named Chad who lives in Portland. That's about as much as anyone knows, and even that is pretty newsworthy, as he has kept his identity shielded for a very long time. He publishes music he writes and arranges via a weekly podcast (iTunes) and his website PodingtonBear.com. I have been a subscriber for a while now, and his music, sometimes reminding me of Richard James's best moments and sometimes of my favorite viedeo game victories, is always fresh and interesting. And free! Plus, he has done amazing midi work with Beatles songs. All of it is worth a butcher's, mate.

When I talk about music, I always excpect everyone to be like "oh yeah, Jack Morgan, I already knew about that." I am sure I will get a couple emails this time like that. But if you haven't already heard of Podington, you should really check him out.

I Thought My Life would Get Better when I Got an iPhone, and It Did

I got myself an iPhone a few weeks ago. It's the first new phone I've bought in 5 years, and it was worth it. I hear a lot of people complaining about things I've never noticed (it doesn't support stereo bluetooth headsets), but even the shortcomings I do notice are tolerable in light of everything it does well.

Every morning, I read the NY Times and the AP to find out what has happened around the world while I've been sleeping. I check my emails to see who wants things from me. I play a Tetris-type game. I text people. I check my Twitter. And all of that happens before I get out of bed.

When I'm out and about, I take pictures that I can instantly add to my twitter or to my blog. The GPS makes me a little blue dot on the Google Maps so that I always know where I am going and where I am. When I get one of those texts that ask "Where you at?" I can give people latitude and longitude if I were a jerk like that. When I'm hungry, I can look for vegan-friendly spots that are open and near my current location.

I also like the way it organizes calendar events and text messages. My calendar automatically syncs with my laptop, and I can see every text message I've ever sent or received in a chat-like window that makes me feel like I can look back on how my relationships with people have developed. Speaking of syncing, everything's automatic. I remember when USB came out standard on Macs and how excited I was about the possibilities. The iPhone, more than ten years later, finally seems to live up to the USB's potential. It even charges while it syncs.

And it has an iPod inside of it.

I wish it would be able to copy and paste lines of text. I can't believe it can't.

Another nice feature is that the iPhone has a little switch on its side that makes it silent without waking it up. It doesn't have to make a sound to tell you that it won't make anymore sounds . I think it is utterly ridiculous and laugh every time a person in a theater audience turns off/silences their phone only to make a superfluous sound effect of a plane flying by or a silly copyrighted tone.

My iPhone has improved my life more than any other gadget I've ever had, seen, or heard of.
I love my iPhone. I have the 16 gig one, but I got it in black.

Robot Utopia

I feel a little bad that that book went so fast and I realized that I haven't done a Robot Utopia post lately. So just so you don't feel ripped off:

I love the slow-mo bit in the end.