Music composed using data from goals scored during the 2012 NHL playoffs

Animated ambient data visualization of all goals and penalties of the 2012 NHL Stanley Cup playoffs.

"There's one instrument sound for Western Conference teams, and another for Eastern Conference teams. Higher-seeded teams are assigned a higher pitch. This means you can actually hear whether higher- or lower-seeded teams are scoring more, and if Western or Eastern Conference teams are producing more goals. A melodic loop of lap steel guitar plays in the background, tying the sounds together into some kind of pseudo-ambient, pseudo-listenable music." More info here.
Stanley Cup Summed Up from Bard Edlund on Vimeo.

"Animatronic Siamese Accordion Players Perform Katie Perry's California Girls"

The Secularization of Shrove Tuesday

Happy Pancake Tuesday everyone.  Hope Aunt Jemima is good to you.

30 True Grammy Facts, Compiled

I've been researching all day to come up with these little-known Grammy facts and pop music trivia.

1. Grammy Fact: LMFAO's new single is actually a remake of an old Irving Berlin showtune, "Please Accept My Apologies For Party Rockin'" 
2. Grammy Fact: The term "Grammy" is a nod to the proliferation of cocaine in the music industry. 
3. Grammy Fact: Original Lyrics to Adele's hit song: "There's a fire / burning in my yard." 
4. Grammy Fact: "Moves Like Jagger" by Maroon 5 only has one chord. 
5. Grammy Fact: Forget Adele's return from throat surgery. Music insiders are eagerly anticipating Tony Bennett's return from laser eye surgery 
6. Grammy Fact: Tonight's Coldplay performance deliberately scheduled at end of broadcast so that they don't put everybody to sleep. Thank you. 
7. Grammy Fact: I'm not familiar with Deadmau5 but I did find one in my basement once. 
8. Grammy Fact: An old tradition is that whoever wins "Best New Artist" has to buy all the other artists a round. 
9. Grammy Fact: The award for "Best New Artist" has been handed out since 1959. Christina Aguilera has won it three times. 
10. Grammy Fact: Diana Krall, the only Canadian performing at this year's awards, was invited by accident. 
11. Grammy Fact: To reduce the length of the broadcast, all musical performances have been cut from the show this year.
12. Grammy Fact: It took me more time to write all these facts than it did for Bruno Mars to write his entire album.
13. Grammy Fact: Maroon 5 set to introduce their follow-up single, "Sits Kind Of Awkwardly At Piano Like Tori Amos".
14. Grammy Fact: LL Cool J and Dexy's Midnight Runners set to perform "Knock Out Eileen" at tonight's awards: http://t.co/shixezqN
15. Grammy Fact: Carlos Santana still refuses to do a duet with Taylor Swift.
16. Grammy Fact: The Grammy Awards have been held every year since 1959, except for 2010 during the Bird Flu epidemic.
17. Grammy Fact: Legend has it that after Alanis won in 1996, she threw her award into the Rideau Canal.
18. Grammy Fact: My kids have listened to Katy Perry's "Fireworks" about 850 times in the past year, iTunes reports.
19. Grammy Fact: Hootie and the Blowfish won Best New Artist in 1996.
20. Grammy Fact: In 1998, I was nominated (but did not win) for "Best Hockey Organist". (The category has since been dropped.)
21. Grammy Fact: Prince and Adele to perform "Some 1 Like U" on tonight's broadcast. 
22. Grammy Fact: Janet Jackson is the only artist to receive a "Best Album" award posthumously.
23. Grammy Fact: Robert Goulet, who won Best New Artist in 1963, went on to a 14-year career with the Chicago Blackhawks and Quebec Nordiques. 
24. Grammy Fact: As if Walter Ostanek has not been nominated this year. Seriously Grammys, WTF. http://bit.ly/5a85N4
25. Grammy Fact: The broadcast has had a 10-second delay ever since Raffi's explitive-filled tirade about endangered whales in 1985. 
26. Grammy Fact: The Recording Academy blamed the 1989 snub of Technotronic on a rounding error, and fired their accounting firm. 
27. Grammy Fact: DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince was originally a prank to get nominated in the "Best Contemporary Jazz Artist" category. 
28. Grammy Fact: Due to changing demographics, the Academy has added a "Best Old Artist" category this year. Nominees: Usher, Green Day. 
29. Grammy Fact: The Grammy Awards are usually held in Los Angeles, except for in 1989 when they were held in Neil Young's barn.
30. Grammy Fact: Unlike the MTV Music Awards, performers on the Grammy telecast are encouraged to play instruments.

Actually only two of these are true. Which ones?

Post Script: Incredibly, Grammy Fact #25 made it back to Raffi, who denied it via Twitter: "in a word, no. def not my style"

For Better Or For Worse, translated into mock Swedish

Earlier today on The Twitter, we were talking about the decreasing quality of For Better or For Worse, and I was inspired to dig up a zine that I published in high school.

The zine was called "YOU'RE TOO UGLY FOR TV", released May 1, 1995. Somehow I was able to submit it as a project for English class.  (Received an A+.)

It was 12 pages, photocopied at the local staples.  I typed out the articles on my dad's 30-year-old Olympia typewriter. I wrote some of the articles, and a few friends contributed columns.  One of those friends went on to become a well-known journalist.  Another was later exposed as a plagiarist and I now suspect his/her entry in the zine was not original.

It was fascinating to read through it.  Part media critique, part found photos, mostly fun.  I had much the same sense of humour and similar writing style as I do now.  Example: "When Hercules held up his fist and shouted "OLYMPIA!", he was shouting for this brand of typewriter."   

At 120 characters, that's a direct precursor to the kinds of mildly amusing tweets that I write every day over 16 years later.

But here's the page that made me rummage through the old boxes in the basement in the first place.  It's the storyline from For Better or For Worse where Farley dies while helping to rescue the family's youngest daughter.  (Heavy stuff.)

I took the text and ran it through a mock-Swedish translation web site. Here is the result (click for larger view):