Posts Tagged ‘brain’


Random Internal Soundtrack

August 27th, 2007 by Oskar Kennedy

  Ever since I managed to wash my iPod in the pocket of my jacket, the soundtrack of my commute has been a collection of overheard conversation, transit engine noise, and the tinny buzz of music from out of the headphones of the future deaf community. On days when I forget to bring something to read, my brain often fills the background noise with snatches of poorly remembered songs. I can usually only recall a few bars or so, and that short bit invariably lodges in my brain like a tumor with ninja training, repeating on an endless, maddening loop until I get involved in some task or other.

  This morning, for some unfathomable reason, I got brain-smacked by the opening verse of the showtune Big Spender. I haven’t heard it in years, but that’s de rigueur for these random songbombs. What made it notable was that my stunted, malformed psyche managed to conjure up a version I’ve never heard before. I was hearing it sung by bathhouse-era Bette Midler. Loud, brassy, lungs that could power a small wind farm. I didn’t even know that she’d recorded the song; thirty seconds on Google revealed 2005’s Sings the Peggy Lee Songbook, containing Midler’s recording of the song, a version arranged by her old bathhouse piano player, Barry Manilow.

  I haven’t ever heard this version of the song, nor do I plan to, so I guess I’ll never know how similar it is to the one my brain vomited up. I just found the whole episode mildly disconcerting, and I thought I’d share my disquiet with the Internet. Isn’t this the kind of thing that convinces the credulous that they’re psychic?

spread the panic!
[Ask] [Bloglines] [del.icio.us] [Digg] [Facebook] [Fark] [Google] [Mixx] [MySpace] [Newsvine] [Reddit] [Slashdot] [Sphere] [StumbleUpon] [Technorati] [Twitter] [Windows Live] [Yahoo!] [Email] More »
└ Tags: , , ,

Links For Brains: 10/24/2008

October 24th, 2008 by Oskar Kennedy
  • New study supports method of safe, selectively targeted memory deletion. (Lab mice petition for “All of High School” setting.)
  • FDA approves magnetic brain stimulator to treat depression. (Douchebags with useless magnetic bracelets suddenly a tad more smug.)
  • Columnists points out how American secularists are excluded from the national conversation. (We’re sitting in the corner of the national lunchroom, talking smack about the national popular kids.)
  • New study supports method of safe, selectively targeted memory deletion. (Lab mice clamoring for “My Horrible Ex” setting.)
spread the panic!
[Ask] [Bloglines] [del.icio.us] [Digg] [Facebook] [Fark] [Google] [Mixx] [MySpace] [Newsvine] [Reddit] [Slashdot] [Sphere] [StumbleUpon] [Technorati] [Twitter] [Windows Live] [Yahoo!] [Email] More »
└ Tags: , , , , , , ,

Links for Brains: 12/29/2008

December 29th, 2008 by Oskar Kennedy
  • The Independent’s Science Editor laments scientific illiteracy among the chattering famous. (Don’t read if you ever again want to vote or go to the movies without feeling slightly dirty.)
  • Proporietor of silly little blog wins Skepchick’s Comment O’ The Week contest for the third time. (Self-promotional linkwhoring still not a federal crime.)
  • Actual headline from Discovery News: How Visiting Your Family Warps Your Brain. (It turns out that they do make you crazy. But not horny. Praise Darwin.)
  • Pakistani Taliban threatens to blow up girl’s schools, because “female education spreads vulgarity in society.” (“Vulgarity” raises hand, asks to not participate in such a stupid sentence.)
  • New Scientist’s Top 10 Articles About Evolution of 2008. (It’s kind of an all-purpose “bugger off, Creationist” link.)
spread the panic!
[Ask] [Bloglines] [del.icio.us] [Digg] [Facebook] [Fark] [Google] [Mixx] [MySpace] [Newsvine] [Reddit] [Slashdot] [Sphere] [StumbleUpon] [Technorati] [Twitter] [Windows Live] [Yahoo!] [Email] More »
└ Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,