What's the name of that darn song? (also: I was right.)

(update on my Kimcheerleaders post & "I Was Right" in the title: call me a hater if you want, and nothing against Korea, but THIS does not happen to the world's most influential person.)

Soundtrack: Mr Brightside

By The Killers

I'm a bit pissy and out of sorts today. Comes of dealing with banks -- not that I enjoyed Canadian banks or anything, but adding a language gap to the already mood-killing combination of money stress + bureaucratic paperwork is a perfect recipe for a headache and a big, glaring grumposeyo. Yech.

However, I have a happy thing to share. After making a random online comment about "that darn song running through my head," I got an equally random message from a waybackdays friend named Sparky (blog here - same topic I'm writing about today), suggesting I try out a site called watzatsong which is basically exactly what you're looking for if you always get songs in your head and you don't know where they're from. All you need is a microphone that hooks up to your computer, and you can sing the part you know (as best you can), or upload the tv commercial jingle or whatever, add all the info you can about the song, and post it anonymously on the site. Then other people will listen to it and make guesses about which song it is, suggesting song titles and artists, until you find the right one.

I hummed into the mike, added some info about this darn song with a catchy chorus that always gets stuck in my head (and for me, a song won't get UNSTUCK until I know where it's from -- that's just my way), which my friends all knew well enough to sing along, even though I somehow hadn't heard it before that night I went to the club, and went to work. By the time I got home that night, somebody had posted an artist and song title, and by gum, they had nailed it! It was the song you're listening to right now -- "Mr. Brightside" by The Killers, one of the more singalongable songs I've heard.

So, if you can't place the tune stuck in your head, go there and they'll help you out. In the spirit of sharing, you can also listen to other people's sound clips and make guesses. It's great!

I had one complaint from my sister that the poll on my sidebar kept sending annoying popups across her browser, and taking control of her mouse, and other obnoxious tricks like that. Did any of my other readers have that trouble, or was it just Becca? If it causes trouble, I'll drop the polls, but if it isn't, I kinda like the interactive thing. Comment -- let me know.

(here's another song that I had in my head, that I finally found.)

Hush, by Kula Shaker

cover of a Deep Purple (who themselves were covering another artist. . . but that's how it goes sometimes.)

Another song genealogy:
Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen,
covered by John Cale,
Jeff Buckley (imitating Cale)
and finally Rufus Wainwright (imitating Buckley and Cale on the Shreck soundtrack),

then a bunch of other people (including American Idol, who will go to hell for co-opting such a lovely song) decided to send it up the "most slaughtered song ever" list --

though it has a lot of ground to gain on Amazing Grace (second place) this one hurts.

and The Star Spangled Banner (first place)

Speaking of national anthems, how about Canada's Edmonton Oilers fans taking it home during the Stanley Cup Finals -- gives me chills every time.

Finally, our sidebar poll winners for next blog topics are "the five things I'd change about Korea if I had a magic wand (that worked)" and "the goofiest urban legend ever" -- stay posted and I'll put those up as soon as I can. Next, you might find "Great Korean Movies you should track down and see" and "the movie I hate the most" combined into one post. . . or maybe two, if I'm just not up to that kind of a mega-post, or if I decide my "movie I hate" rant deserves a post of it's own (it's gonna get ugly, dear readers. Uuuug-leeee).

Way uglier than this.

Uglier than this, too. Turkeys are cute -- come on!
Uglier than this.Try harder, Roboseyo! What about . . .
Now we're on the trail! Maybe. . .

Yeah, I'm feeling it. What about this one. . . Yikes! Maybe not that bad.


After all that skeezy scary, let's cool down a bit. . . My friend's friend's little sister (above)
And my other friend's friend's baby -- just to finish on a cute note. (I hope she doesn't mind I borrowed it.)

If anybody's still reading, though -- let me know if the sidebar poll was harassing your web-browsing/blog-reading experience. I'll drop'em if they do.