This fascinating, brilliant 20-minute video narrates the history of the "Amen Break," a six-second drum sample from the b-side of a chart-topping single from 1969. This sample was used extensively in early hiphop and sample-based music, and became the basis for drum-and-bass and jungle music -- a six-second clip that spawned several entire subcultures. Nate Harrison's 2004 video is a meditation on the ownership of culture, the nature of art and creativity, and the history of a remarkable music clip.

YouTube - Video explains the world's most important 6-sec drum loop

This is not an easy thing to describe. It's a film. It's not long. You should watch it.

Le Grand Content

Decius found this little treasure by Negativland in YouTube's trough. The theme is torture conflicting with American values.

Negativland - The Bottom Line

Bumping Cypherghost's link through to BoingBoing, but this burning Elmo video is one part of a three part series that starts with this video. Watching the chared, burning robot flailing its metal limbs against the ground and laughing manically evokes some of the more disturbing scenes from the Animatrix. The future is machines that don't break down, they die.

Immolate Me Elmo

Revealing more about himself than he ever has, Garry Trudeau gives us tantalizing clues about what's behind his venerable comic strip's recent burst of genius, and pain.

As noteworthy might put it, this is a gold star article. Read the whole thing. It's a rare insight into the world of Garry Trudeau, who is nothing short of a pop-culture hero of mine. It's rare there is anything written about Trudeau that isn't an op-ed either complaining or cheering about this work.

Doonesbury's War - washingtonpost.com

Richard Hell in the New York Times...

CBGB’S shuts down this weekend.

It was a private world. We dreamed it up. It flowered out of our imaginations.

How often do you get to do that?

CBGB’s was like a big playhouse, site of conspiracies, orgies, delirium, refuge, boredom, meanness, jealousy, kindness, but most of all youth.

God loves CBGB’s.

I will always remember the line that Sunshine Flipside once opened a show at CBGB's with. "Hello everyone, we're here to fuck it up for everyone!"

Rock ‘n’ Roll High School

This website will let you create your own South Park characters.

Neat. So, is this accurate?

Update: Woohoo for Bi-polar disorder!!

Rattle as a South Park Character?

This bold new series takes the paranormal/crime-solving phenomenon one step further by following psychic profiler Carla Baron, medium John J. Oliver, and paranormal investigator Patrick Burns as they visit "haunted" crime scenes. Working together, can this unconventional team of experts find clues that will provide new insights into real-life cases that have gone cold?

Well, this isn't something I expected.. Patrick, who is the MemeStreams user Laughing Boy and a PhreakNIC regular attendee, has a television show premiering tonight on CourtTV, at 10:30pm. In the picture on the show's page, he is the one of the right.

I don't buy into this stuff... But I know what I'll be watching tonight. Way to go Laughing Boy! For those in Atlanta, on Patrick's website, information about a premier party can be found.

A number of us have known Patrick for several years now. He always showed up at PhreakNIC with his laser rig, which was damn impressive. I don't remember the specs, but it was strong enough to light a cigarette with. It blew up one year.

I'm glad to see things are going good for him. The New York Post gave the show a good review:

IF you're a fan of "Psychic Detectives" - and really, which loony among us isn't? - and also of the phenomenally successful "Cold Case," then do I have a show for you.

"Haunting Evidence" combines the best of both shows: Good-looking, blond, female detective among good-looking male detectives. The only difference is that instead of finding clues in carpet fibers, they see ghosts.

When all else fails, bring in the psychic-detective cold-case squad! Together they work the crime scene. (Don't look for swabs and tweezers here - it's more like eyes rolling back into the head and cold spots!)

Haunting Evidence on Court TV

MemeStreams user terratogen has dropped prices on all Muhammad merchandise in response to recent activity on the Flickr post of his famous Muhammad comic. T-Shirts, pillows, coffee mugs, beer steins, teddy bears, tote bags, stickers, refrigerator magnets, and much much more is available branded with depictions of the prophet. Support the troops in the cartoon war!

These t-shirts will not get you laid, but they might get your head sawed off.

I have a hunch something is up here...

I'm sure everyone has seen the video of the live-action Simpsons opening by now. Its the hot net meme of the moment. There may be a little bit more here than expected. This may very well be a test run to get feedback on a plan.. Or an event strategy that just started..

Take note of the linked article from The UK Sun:

Simpson’s maker Matt Groening has approved the human version of the show’s opening credits to promote the brand new series.

An insider said: "We're really excited about it.

In the context of the story, that can easily be dismissed as a typo, as "new season" would make the most sense. However, lets keep one thing in mind here... The Sun is also a Murdoch paper. The Simpsons is Fox's longest running series and a big money maker. Nothing runs for 17 seasons without a chorus of bean counters screaming for a way to expand the empire using its following. That typo has been up there for awhile and no one is correcting it. Since March 3rd, complete with links to the video in multiple formats. That's an intended leak.

Also something to make note of:

And you can be among the first to watch the hilarious titles, filmed over 18 months in Britain, by clicking one of the links below.

"We used regular actors, not so much for their resemblance - as you can't copy a bunch of yellow characters - but becuase you can easily identify with them."

All that language that denotes something more there than a one off thing.

18 months is a long time to make that, unless most of the focus was on casting for the long term, and planning sets that are intended to be reused. Who the hell are these people?

Basing a Simpsons spinoff in Britain makes a lot of sense too. I can think of numerous reasons why. There was talk of a Simpsons live-action movie awhile back... That could be what's going on too. Its possible that right now someone is trying to make a decision which way to go with it. Positive reaction == series. Negative reaction == movie.

So what does everyone think.. Is my hunch right? Have I finally become capable of reading Rupert Murdoch's mind? Did they cast Lisa Simpson in a way we can live with?

The Sun leaks The Simpsons live-action series meme