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Tabletop Transitional – An introduction to Andrew Bird

When I post about a musician or band on here under the guise of a Tabletop Transitional, often I’ll only embed one video of their music. But surely that’s a bad way to really get to know their musical style, right? After all, a sample size of 1 is negligible, statistically speaking.

So, yes, in this short introduction to Andrew Bird, singer-songwriter and violin virtuoso, there will be three songs to listen to: each from a different album of his. Ooh, variety! Variety indeed.

Andrew Bird is a [...]

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Tabletop Transitional – Dirty Projectors and Björk team up for “All We Are”

In 2010, Dirty Projectors and Björk, two of my favourite musical artists/bands, teamed up to record an EP called Mount Wittenberg Orca, a group of songs inspired by Amber Coffman, one of the vocalists in Dirty Projectors, seeing a pod of whales off the coast whilst hiking. See, it’s tangentially related to biology! Anyway, the EP is great, and one of the best songs on it is “All We Are”.

Just listen to the beautiful vocal duet with Dave Longstreth and Björk at the end. Chilling.

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Tabletop Transitional – St. Vincent’s “Cheerleader” video is a work of art, in more ways than one

St. Vincent is touring Australia in March, playing at the HiFi Bar in Melbourne on the 14th, and I’m considering it as a slightly late, but ultimately amazing, birthday present from the universe. It’s not often that North American artists come to Australia to perform, you see, so to have the opportunity to see the glorious solo musical project of Annie Clark in my hometown is something I’m incredibly grateful for. I’m not quite sure who I’m grateful to, since none of the organisers had me in mind [...]

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Tabletop Transitional – Shit Skeptics Say

This video has been making the rounds in the skeptical blogosphere, and for good reason: it’s a goodnatured jab at the skeptical community from the inside. Everyone loves making fun of themselves. Well, almost everyone. There’s nothing wrong with analysing your own movement every now and again!

I’m sure we all have our favourite lines, but mine is “We should totally start our own podcast!” Ahh, so true, so true…

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Although it’s been said, many times, many ways…

Merry Christmas, everyone. I hope you spend it with friends, family and/or cyborgs you programmed to be optimal social partners. Whatever makes you happy.

In my opinion, the greatest Christmas song ever written is Tim Minchin’s “White Wine In The Sun”. Chances are you’ve heard of it, but if not: prepare to develop a whole new level of respect for the guy.

Have a good one.

Tabletop Transitional – “WoodyAllenJesus” by (the scandalous) Tim Minchin

Tim Minchin! Australian native! Funny man! Piano player! This song of his, written for the Jonathan Ross Show on UK channel ITV, has been making the rounds, as it was cut from the December 23rd show due to fears it would cause outrage from sensitive Christians. Well, there’s nothing like the Internet to amplify banned or censored content against the wishes of those who would suppress it, so Tim uploaded the cut clip to YouTube. It is – naturally – embedded below, for your convenience.

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Tabletop Transitional – Comedian Louis C.K. on evolution

What? You1 haven’t heard of Louis C.K.? Really? Then you’ve been missing out on one of the best stand-up comedians alive today. His bits on the inquisitiveness of young children and why the world is amazing, yet nobody cares were formative in my appreciation of good comedy. He’s a comedy [...]

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Tabletop Transitional – “Bizness” by tUnE-Yards

I’ve been getting into the quirky, lo-fi, R&B and Afrobeat-inflected music of tUnE-yArDs1, the musical project of Merrill Garbus, lately. It’s not hard to understand why: Merrill’s stunning vocal ability, mixed with interesting percussion, bass, tenor ukulele and saxophone arrangements, produces a truly unique bunch of songs on their latest album, W H O K I L L» Continue reading “Tabletop Transitional – “Bizness” by tUnE-Yards”

“Let’s Talk About Evolution” – Promoting the worth of evolution education through video

Sadly, it seems to be a pervasive trend in many countries to deemphasise the proper teaching of evolutionary biology. There are probably a few causes of this, ranging from anti-evolutionary pressure from religious traditions who dislike children being taught something that they feel denigrates their belief system, to unenthusiastic school boards and curriculum committees that, for whatever reason, come to the conclusion that evolution is not an important enough subject to teach students in detail. There are also numerous anti-evolution-education voices in the media (primarily in the US) that go [...]

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Tabletop Transitional – St Vincent’s gorgeous 4AD Session

St Vincent’s third album, Strange Mercy, was released back in September and it’s fast become one of my favourites of 2011 (you may have noticed that I have inordinate musical fondness for her). If you bought Strange Mercy and wanted to see more from Annie Clark – or didn’t buy the album because you hadn’t made up your mind about her – you can now catch her new 4-song 4AD session, artfully recorded at Shangri-La Studios in Brooklyn. It’s utterly gorgeous – plus, [...]

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