Things Rick Astley Would Never Do: 30-Year Anniversary

I wore my 'Things Rick Astley Would Never Do' shirt two days ago, but had I known that the song was released 30 years ago yesterday, I would have instead worn the shirt yesterday to celebrate in a proper manner.

30 years ago today I said I was Never Gonna Give You Up. I am a man of my word - Rick x pic.twitter.com/VmbMQA6tQB

— Rick Astley (@rickastley) July 27, 2017

The Proper Way to Record 'A-Ha' Moments

We've spent a lot of time this week talking about A-Ha moments for students, and now I know the app that I'm going to use to record them!

(I don't normally care about gratuitous apps, but I am seriously geeking out over this one! I want to try this out.)

P.S. The video for "Take on Me" is the best music video of all time! And this is one of the best songs all time — definitely in my top 5.

Land of Confusion

Here's a thematic song (an awesome song) for the night before. It also has one of the all-time great music videos.

"The Tale of a Post Doc": A Parody of "Bohemian Rhapsody"

This parody of "Bohemian Rhapsody" waxes poetic about the life of a postdoc. It's funny because it's true. :)

Rock Tribute String Quartet

The Tribute String Quartet plays some very familiar songs, such as this one (hint: best. music video. ever.) I approve!

(Tip of the cap to whoever posts for A-Ha on Facebook.)

Claymation Video for "Re: Your Brains"

Here is a really cool claymation video to go along with the song "Re: Your Brains".

An Aural Poincaré Section

This musical creation seems to essentially amount to an aural representation of a Poincaré section of the dynamics of a triple pendulum (though the description provided with the video is a bit hard to parse, so I am not 100% sure that this is precisely a legitimate Poincaré section).

(Tip of the cap to whoever posts for Physics Today on Facebook.)

Update: Here is a different aural Poincaré section of a triple pendulum.

Bohemian Gravity

If you want to listen to some tidbits about string theory and the like to the tune of "Bohemian Rhapsody", then I strongly suggest that you watch the music video by Timothy Blaise called Bohemian Gravity. It's awesome!

(Tip of the cap to Jeff Moehlis.)

"We're NASA And We Know It"

If you haven't yet watched this parody of this song, you really should because it's pretty funny. On a more serious note, this kind of thing is really good for conveying the excitement of science to the public, and I would very much like to see more stuff like this.

(Tip of the cap to several people.)

More Fruit Fly Sex

One of the winners of the 2011 Dance Your PhD Contest comes from Oxford, and the video is about mating in fruit flies.

And if you're wondering about the title, it's because of this blog entry.

(Tip of the cap to Philip Maini.)

Tarzan Boy

Until just now, I had never actually seen the music video for Tarzan Boy. The only word that I can use to describe the video is "awesome", and the quotes have to be included with that statement. That song typifies the 80s even more than I thought it did.

"Bad Project" from the Zheng Lab

Making the rounds at Facebook has been the video Bad Project from the Zheng Lab. It's a parody of a Lady Gaga song that I have never heard, but the video is pretty damned funny.

The Muppets do "Bohemian Rhapsody"

Here is a cover of "Bohemian Rhapsody" by the Muppets. Awesome! Simply awesome!

(Tip of the cap to Dave Relyea.)

A recent tribute to the original "Enjoy the Silence" music video

The alternate version of the music video for Coldplay's 2008 song "Viva la Vida" was specifically meant as a nod to the Enjoy the Silence music video. I approve! ("Enjoy the Silence" is one of my favorite songs of all time, and its music video is one of my favorite music videos of all time.) The Coldplay song is actually pretty good too.

Alternative lyrics for "Take On Me"

Courtesy Lemming--who got it from Jonathan (who got it from... Agnes?), here is video for "Take on Me" with some alternate lyrics. I approve! That video also included a link to a brief spoof of the video from Family Guy. Once again, I approve!

As many of you know, "Take On Me" is on the short short list of my favorite songs ever, and it's music video is also on the short short list of my favorite music videos ever. (I have harped on it on many occasions.)

Also, one of my Somerville colleagues talked about how "stuck in the 80s" was for me to use Pine---this from somebody who has absolutely no clue just how apt his comment truly was! :) Slowly but surely, I'm making my presence felt here...

The LHC Rap

Courtesy Predrag Cvitanovic, here is a music video about experimental attempts to go beyond the Standard Model. (You can also hear some MC Hawking at the beginning and the end.)

In case any of you, gentle readers, were wondering how something can be simultaneously awesome and "awesome", I ask you to behold this video!

Awesome reference in music video for "The Sun Always Shines On TV"

At dinner in Somerville's hall tonight, I actually had a conversation about 80s music---including obscure stuff. As it turns out, the graduate student sitting next to me has her own radio show on Friday nights and they always play music with a theme. This week's theme is television, so I was trying to convince her to play "The Sun Always Shines On TV" which is distinctive because (1) it's one of the best songs ever and (2) it's the song to bring up to point out that A-Ha is not a one-hit wonder. (I was apparently the second person to try to convince her to include this song and to use reason (1) as why.) Anyway, she told me that the music video for that song actually has a reference to the video for "Take On Me" in it (including the same girl from that video!). I approve! As I have told Lemming on numerous occasions, the video for "Take On Me" is just fucking awesome and in many ways it helps define 80s music for me. I also suggested Trans-X's "Living On Video", and her response to that one was receptive.

Anyway, a night when I can talk about 80s music (including obscure stuff) with an interesting person is always a good one. And after dinner, some of my friends and I hung out in the SCR, which is also obviously a good thing.