Afternoon Snooze Button

afternoonsnoozebutton:

It’s summer, so that means it’s time for another mixtape from yours truly. You can download it for free, as always, here. 

This one has some names that probably aren’t too familiar to a bunch of you, but I promise that this is just a really fun, enjoyable batch of summer music that’s supposed to be reminiscent of a short summer getaway. 

1. Mind Your Manners - Chiddy Bang
2. Momma’s Boy - Chromeo
3. Sexy and I Know It (LMFAO cover) - Noah
4. I Love You - Andrew Jackson Jihad
5. Youth - Foxes
6. Stray Dog and the Chocolate Shake - Grandaddy
7. Ride with Us - Tayyib Ali ft. Cisco 
8. And it Spread - The Avett Brothers
9. Rebels in the Light - Manicanparty
10. We are Nowhere and it’s Now - Bright Eyes
11. L’Appuntamento - Ornella Vanoni.

And, in case you were wondering where I got the title from: 

“I almost wish we were butterflies and liv’d but three summer days - three such days with you I could fill with more delight than fifty common years could ever contain.”

― John Keats, Bright Star: Love Letters and Poems of John Keats to Fanny Brawne

imwithkanye:

Actor Turned Root Musician. THR reports that Ed Helms and his band, The Lonesome Trio, are releasing a bluegrass album. Of course, this follows in the footsteps of Steve Martin who has taken over bluegrass in a brilliant career shift and John C. Reilly who with the aid of his ‘Friends’ has recently released several singles. All three actors will perform during The L.A. Bluegrass Situation, a bluegrass music festival co-founded by Helms.

Is there a new trend bubbling in Hollywood? I wouldn’t mind seeing a few other actors get into the mix. Remember when Meryl Streep took on Prairie Home Companion? Or Christopher Guest and company embodied folk music in A Mighty Wind? All of them could easily segue into fulltime music careers. Heck, even Lindsay Lohan could find solace in this genre.

(h/t OneMansWords)

I can totally support this

(via vinegarwilliams)

Because I’m an instrument.

(via bestnatesmithever)

So, you think you hate opera - an afternoonsnoozebutton.com mixtape

Opera is, in my opinion, one of the least appreciated art forms. It combines the drama of theater with a ridiculously high level of musical skill to tell a story. This playlist/mixtape is not meant to educate you on the great operas or arias, but hopefully to convince you that maybe opera is worth a chance. Since opera is such a visual experience, I would ask that you watch, rather than listen to, the pieces - at least the first time through. You can’t capture the drama without also seeing it.

You can watch the whole thing as a playlist here, or just watch the videos in order as I’ve embedded them in this post. I haven’t uploaded the mp3’s to mediafire or anything, mostly because I don’t think anyone will want them. If anyone does, I can do that for you.

The one thing that I would ask is that you give each song a full minute before you click away - arias are not meant to draw you in immediately. Since I am all about the lay person, my mixtape is arranged in the following order:

1. Something fun
2. Something frightening(ly good)
3. Something epic
4. Something sexy
5. Something pretty
6. Something (not really) sad
7. Something for the masses
8. Something perfect
9. And now for something completely different

Enjoy!

1. Something fun: “The drinking song/Brindisi” - from “La Traviata” by Giuseppe Verdi

A young woman named Violetta has (supposedly) recovered from a bout of tuberculosis, and throws a huge party to celebrate. A man, Alfredo, who has been in love with her for quite a while, shows up, and declares his love for her on the way to the party. After her current lover refuses to give a toast, Alfredo chimes in - hence the drinking song.

2. Something frightening(ly good): “The vengeance of hell boils in my heart/Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen” -  from “The Magic Flute” by Mozart (start at 2:10)

The Queen of the Night is pissed off. Her husband off and died, but he decided to give his powers to a man named Sarastro, since she’s a woman and therefore incompetent. In this song, she gives her daughter a dagger and threatens to disown her unless she kills Sarastro.

3. Something epic: “My sun/O Sole Mio” - by Giovanni Capurro

This one is kind of cheating. O Sole Mio isn’t from any kind of an opera, I just really like this clip because it showcases the camaraderie of the Three Tenors (if you don’t believe me, look how cute they are when they joke around). The song is in the Neapolitan language, which is cool. Also, I just wanted an excuse to include this exact clip.

4. Something sexy: “Love is a wild bird/Habenera” - from “Carmen” by Bizet

This song is right at the opening of the opera - the cigarette girls, including Carmen, have just come out of the factory on break, and are surrounded by a group of horny young men. Carmen, seeking to seduce a corporal named Don Jose, sings the famous Habanera. The group of men asks her to choose a lover from the crowd, and she instead takes a flower from her bodice and throws it at Don Jose, who has somehow managed to ignore her.

(Note: this is is not the best version of the song - others have undoubtedly sang it better [paging Maria Callas], but Anna Caterina Antonacci really looks the part in this clip)

5. Something pretty: “You ladies who know what love is, is it what I’m suffering from?/Voi che Sapete” - from Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro

Cherubino, a page boy to he Count, has fallen in love with the Countess. He’s also just incredibly horny. The Count is not amused, and plans to send him to Seville for army duty, but the Countess and her maids want to keep him - so they decide they’re going to dress him up as a woman. This song, in which Cherubino describes his love for the countess before going transvestite, is sung in the dressing room.

For additional fun factor, note that the character of Cherubino is played by a woman. So, this is a a woman pretending to be a man pretending to be a woman.

6. Something (not really) sad: “One furtive tear/Una Furtiva Lagrima” - from The Elixir of Love by Donizetti

A poor country man named Nemorino falls in love with a woman named Adina. She’s not interested in his, so he spends all his money on a magical elixir to make her fall in love with him. The potion is actually just some cheap red wine sold to him by a con man, but Adina does fall in love with Nemorino, which he knows when he sees her weeping. Nemorino then sings this song, in which he talks about how he feels so overwhelmed that he could die of love.

7. Something for the masses: “Chorus of the Hebrew slaves” aka “Fly, thought, on golden wings/Va, pensiero, sull’ali dorate” - from Nabucco by Verdi

This song tells the story of Jewish exiles to Babylon after the loss of the temple in Jerusalem, and was also used as an anthem for Italian patriots seeking to unify the country.

8. Something perfect: “No one shall sleep tonight/Nessun Dorma” - from Turandot by Puccini

The opera “Turandot” takes place in Asia, and centers around the beautiful but cruel Princess Turandot. The princess has a system where any man who wishes to marry her must correctly answer three riddles - if he can’t, then he’s immediately beheaded. Calaf has answered all three riddles, but she refuses to marry him. So he makes a deal - if she can discover his name (it’s Calaf, but no one in the opera knows that) by dawn, then she can kill him. If she can’t, then she must marry him. The aria is sunf by Calaf during the aforementioned night.

This is also Pavarotti’s signature piece (seriously, he owns the song like none other).

9. And now for something completely different (and in English): a stand-up comedy piece by Victor Borge parodying a Mozart opera.

theatlantic:

Leaked Emails Reveal Assad’s Love of LMFAO and Right Said Fred

Syrian opposition activists quietly watched President Bashar al-Assad trade crisis-management tips with Iran and order Right Said Fred songs from iTunes as they secretly accessed his email until Assad shut down his account after a totally separate hack by Anonymous. Before the account he shared with his wife Asma went dead, the activists managed to download about 3,000 messages from it, which The Guardian reported as an exclusive on Wednesday.

One email conversation that truly stands out from the reams of communication The Guardian posted, is Assad’s correspondence with iTunes, from which he ordered country singer Blake Shelton’s “God Gave Me To You” to send to his wife, Asma, the day after Syrian forces started shelling Homs. Assad also had an affinity for Chris Brown, Right Said Fred, and New Order. “In January he bought a number of songs by the popular US dance group LMFAO including their hit Sexy and I Know it,” The Guardian reported. But it’s Right Said Fred that cracks us up: Assad ordered “Don’t Talk Just Kiss“ because, we’re guessing, he already had “I’m Too Sexy.”

Read more at The Atlantic Wire.

If this doesn’t demonstrate how much of a threat data leaks are to civilized society, I don’t know what does.