While Amanda Palmer has been working as a solo artist for years, she teamed up with former Dresden Dolls drummer, Brian Viglione, during the pandemic for this digital show. They're performing a cover of "Science Fiction/Double Feature" from the Rocky Horror Show. No that's not a typo, Rocky Horror was a stage play before it became the Rocky Horror Picture Show movie that most of us know.
The internet. Some people swear it's the best thing that ever happened to human communication. Other people see it as evil, a horrible abomination. Some see it as a mind killing collection of porn, cat videos, and "Liberal" propaganda, promoting terrible things like equality, human rights, and transgender people. They think the internet is ruining society.
The internet and social media are indifferent platforms, not inherently good or evil. Those effects come depending on how we use these communication platforms. One of my many odd jobs was working as a porn store clerk way back in the 1990's. Do you know what the most popular form of porn was (and probably still is)? Transexuals. Or transgender, using today's term. That really surprised me back then. Chicks with dicks, cocks in frocks, hoes with hose, and "summer girls" videos, because some 'r girls and some are not. Those were actual video titles in the 1990's, by the way. In 2023, Porn hub was getting 2 billion views per month. During any given week, tens of millions of people are watching trans porn (mostly Baby Boomers). There's a ton of trans porn because people watch it. And there are a ton of cat videos because people watch them. The 2 million+ cat videos on YouTube have over 26 billion views. People watch tens of millions of cat videos per week, as well.
Trans porn and cat videos are two HUGE categories of content on the internet. But you don't have to watch either of those kinds of videos, and neither do I. I've never been a big fan of either of those, but a lot of people are. A LOT. I used to rent VHS videos to them back in the 1990's. The trans smut fans, that is, not cat videos. Nobody was renting cat videos on VHS back then that I know of. That would have been weird.
The point here is, there are all kinds of things that are popular on the internet, but none of us has to watch those categories.
Personally, I see the internet as the greatest collection of human information ever compiled, in human history (with the possible exception of Atlantis). All of this information and creative work, 181 zettabytes worth (that's 181 trillion gigabytes, kids!), was collected, compiled, created, cataloged, posted, and mashed up, mostly by amateurs, and largely for free. All of that was done in roughly thirty years. The Library of Congress? The Encyclopedia Britannica? Even the legendary lost Library of Alexandria in the ancient world? They don't even begin to compare to the vast array of cool stuff and legit information and creative work available on the internet. Yes, there is a lot of bad information, misinformation, and disinformation, too. But we don't have to watch it.
But the good info and really interesting content is out there. Stop whining about the lame stuff, and look at the good stuff. You don't have to watch trans sex videos or cat videos. You can learn about quantum mechanics, triangle numbers*,(Pythagorus loved these things), the odd ancestry of aardvarks, French Canadian slang, how to start a home cupcake business, and a few billion other things. There has never been a better time to learn more kinds of information in all of human history. But you're sitting on the couch smoking weed and playing GTA5. Lame.
Among all the great content on the interwebs, there is an amazing collection of songs covered by other artists. Here are a bunch of my favorites.
"Hallelujah" by K.D. Lang (Leonard Cohen cover)
"Dream On" by Morgan James/Postmodern Jukebox (Aerosmith cover)
"Son of a Preacher Man" by Joss Stone (Dusty Springfield cover)
"Paint It Black" by The Big Push (Rolling Stones cover)
"Nothing Compares To You" by P!nk (Prince cover)
"Landslide" by Kerry Getz (Fleetwood Mac cover)
"Tainted Love" by Imelda May (Gloria Jones cover- yeah, I thought Soft Cell did the original too)
"Lola" by Lake Street Dive (The Kinks cover)
"Tainted Love" by Marilyn Manson (Gloria Jones cover)
"Seven Bridges Road" by Foxes and Fossils
"The Weight" by Various artists/Americana Awards 2012 (Robbie Robertson/The Band cover)
"Angel From Montgomery/Sugaree" by Susan Tedeschi/Tedeschi Trucks Band (John Prine and The Grateful Dead covers)
"Jackson" by June Carter and Johnny Cash (Billy Edd Wheeler cover)
"House of the Rising Sun" by Puddles Pity Party (Animals cover)
"Rich Girl" by Lake Street Dive (Hall & Oates cover)
"Ob-la-Di Ob-La-Da" by No Doubt featuring Eric Stefani & friends (The Beatles cover)
"Heartbreak Hotel" by Johnny Cash (Elvis Presley cover)
"Ring of Fire" by Mike Ness (of Social Distortion, June Carter Cash cover)
"The Crowd" by Jenn Fiorentino (Operation Ivy cover)
"Strong Reaction" by Rise Against (Pegboy cover)
"Oi to the World" by No Doubt (The Vandals cover)
"The Kids Aren't Alright" by Jenn Fiorentino (The Offspring cover)
"Lose Yourself"- Robyn Adele Anderson (Eminem cover)
"Sweet Child of Mine" Slash featuring Fergie (Guns n' Roses cover)
"I Shot the Sheriff" by The Big Push (Bob Marley & The Wailers cover)
"Sympathy For the Devil" by Popa Chubby (Rolling Stones cover/mash-up)
"Hey Joe" by Popa Chubby (Jimi Hendrix cover)
"All Along the Watchtower" by The Indigo Girls (Jimi Hendrix cover/mash-up)
"Cry Baby/Take Another Piece of My Heart" by Joss Stone and Melissa Etheridge (Janis Joplin covers)
"All Summer Long/Sweet Home Alabama" by Kid Rock (Lynyrd Skynyrd/Warren Zevon cover/mash-up)
"Stairway to Heaven" by Heart, Jason Bonham, & ensemble (Led Zepplin cover)
"Let's Do It" by Joan Jett & Paul Westerberg (Cole Porter cover)
"Miserlou" by Dick Dale (1927 Greek wedding song cover)
"Miserlou" by Agent Orange (Dick Dale cover)
"Pump It" by Black Eyed Peas (Dick Dale cover/mash-up)
"Madman Across the Water" by Brandi Carlile (Elton John cover)
"Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" by Foxes and Fossils (Elton John cover)
"Knockin' on Heaven's Door" by Guns n' Roses (Bob Dylan cover)
"Simple Man" by Shinedown (Lynyrd Skynyrd cover)
"Me and Bobby McGee" by Janis Joplin (Kris Krisofferson cover)
"I Put a Spell On You" by Chinchilla (Screamin' Jay Hawkins cover)
"The Chain" by The Highwomen (Fleetwood Mac cover)
"Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)" by Alice Phoebe Lou (Cher cover)
"Creep" by Daniela Andrade (Radiohead cover)
"Everybody Hurts" by Puddles Pity Party (REM cover)
"People Get Ready" by Jeff Beck featuring Joss Stone (The Impressions cover)
"Walk Away Renee" by Kerry Getz (Left Bank cover)
"Summer Wine" by Lana Del Rey (Lee Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra cover)
"Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Tori Amos- (Nirvana cover)
"Southern Cross" by Foxes and Fossils (Crosby, Stills, and Nash cover)
"Walking on Broken Glass" by Laike Street Dive (Annie Lenox cover)
"Jailhouse Rock" by Meatloaf (Elvis Presley cover)
"Knowledge" by Green Day (Operation Ivy cover)
"End of the World" by No Doubt (REM cover)
I do most of my writing now on a platform called Substack. Check it out:
* Two consecutive triangle numbers equal a square number, every time. For example, 6 + 10 = 16, or 4 squared. Crazy.
Did you find the Jay and Silent Bob Easter egg in this post? Why not?
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