Miscellaneous and Useless Information
James Lin’s infrequently updated blog
This holiday season, I learned that the melody of the Christmas carol “Carol of the Bells” is from a Ukrainian New Year’s song called “Shchedryk” (Щедрик), first arranged in the early 1900s, which in turn is based on a traditional Ukrainian folk melody. Here is “Shchedryk” sung in its original Ukrainian: Happy New Year everyone …
Continue reading “Carol of the Bells in its original Ukrainian”
I’m a bit too young to have watched (or certainly understood) the sitcom Taxi, but I remember the opening theme song vividly. Here is Bob James, who wrote the song, performing it with his jazz trio at age 82. (Sometimes the YouTube algorithm is good for something!)
Last night, I watched Yang Liping’s interpretation of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring at Stanford. Totally stunning and definitely worth watching. We also enjoyed her conversation with Thomas Mullaney (Stanford professor of history and East Asian languages and cultures) — like him, I didn’t fully understand what I saw but it set off my brain in …
James Landay: “Nice profile of Scott Klemmer’s work in Technology Review: Tools for Better Web Design” Watch President Obama announce the death of Osama bin Laden: MSNBC [May 1] Osama’s death have prompted huge crowds to gather at World Trade Ctr. (Wall Street Journal) Hard to believe I was there <36 hrs ago. Sadat Shami: …
Sadat Shami: “Giving up tenure… and getting happiness in return? Reflections from someone who did” (The Scientist via Nick Diakopoulos) I think I’ll get a standing desk (New York Times) Jeffrey Bigham: “How languages may have diffused from Africa, modeling phonemes” (New York Times) Boris Smus: “Allow me to explain sorting algorithms through interpretive dance” …
This is the ultimate rickroll:
Last night, an old song that I first heard in high school suddenly popped into my head. I didn’t know the name or any of the words, but I could distinctly hear in my mind the haunting melody and the clear singing but the indistinct lyrics. I also knew it was by the ’90s British …
Some songs that have been circulating in my head over the past few weeks (not all at the same time, thankfully): In Your Eyes by Peter Gabriel Wonderwall by Oasis Hey Jealousy by the Gin Blossoms Carnival of Sorts (Boxcars) by R.E.M. World (The Price of Love) by New Order Rock the Casbah by The …
Just in time for the end of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month: Secret Asian Man by Tak Toyoshima is a nationally syndicated comic strip (one of the few, if not only, by an Asian-American), that often deals with racial issues in the U.S. I first saw it in the Mercury News. One book on my …
On my recent trip to Italy, the first two songs I heard in that country was Supernatural Superserious by R.E.M. and Love Song by Sarah Bareilles, in a taxi in Pisa. At first, I wondered if the cab driver was playing American music only to satisfy the tourists, until he started singing along to “Love …