Random Video - Vampire Weekend

Here's another indie group that has found themselves featured in commercials for just about everything: Vamprire Weekend and their video for "Holiday":

Not sure why, but the imagery of men in clothing out of the 1700's riding around L.A. in Chevy Impala cracks me up.  Add in a bit of uncharacteristic partying, and for some reason I love this video!

One Hit Wonders Weekend

Now I don't know about most of you, but when I hear the phrase "one hit wonder," I normally think of the 80's.  Maybe it's because my age was still in the single digits when the Berlin Wall fell, but I find that a lot of the songs I liked back then were by a group from whom I never heard another song.  I think of groups like Information Society and songs like "What's on Your Mind (Pure Energy)" or the ever so famous "Come on Eileen" (and yes, I know the lyrics):




That said, I'm forgetting that the 90's had plenty of OHW's (I like my acronyms...I like 'em a lot!).  Consider "Lucas with the Lid Off" or Us3's "Cantaloop":



Why am I having this random thought?  First, this is my blog and I can think whatever random thoughts I want to, of course.  The second reason is the title of this post; one of the local stations here in town had a One Hit Wonders Weekend.  Always nice to hear some songs I haven't heard in awhile!

What were some of your favorite One Hit Wonder tunes?

I Should Be Doing This Right Now

How do I find these random videos all the time?

Good question!

In any case, I present you Vampire Weekend's "Holiday":





Now seriously...who would think of rolling in an Impala through the hills of LA all while wearing 17th Century garb?

The Search for Better Driving Music (or, Google the Lyrics FTW)

For those who don't know, the Internet is a wonderful thing.  With little more than a few words or lyrics, you can find just about anything!

In any case, I was watching America's Got Talent from 7/13 with Mrs. Wyatt tonight, when I heard a really cool song playing in the background for one of the acts (in case you're curious, it was the brother/sister tap group).  With only 5 words from the chorus, I was able to find the song within one search.  I give you Norwegian (?! yep...I'm as shocked as you) duo Madcon's "Beggin'":




Because the Internetz are so boss, I could also go to, say iTunes or Amazon and have my choice of either downloading the song for my iPod or buying the CD--all without ever getting off my chair.  Yay for new driving music!

RC'ing over New Year's

After celebrating Christmas with my family (with many thumbs up), we went to Texas to spend New Year's with Christy's family.  I was really looking forward to the trip because I love getting to see my nieces and nephew, but this trip was extra cool because I was finally going to get to meet the little gal that Christy's middle sis and her hubby adopted!

I'll let Christy and her middle sister (yay, btw, for middle children!) tell you the rest of the story with her family went (short version, it went very well).  Instead, I'll tell you about another part of our trip: RC'ing!

The last time Christy and I went to Texas for Thanksgiving, her dad surprised me by unveiling a plane he'd made based on a color scheme I'd modeled on the RealFlight RC simulator.  The plane was a 38" Yak-54 sold by DWFoamies.  He'd already put the airframe together and I did the stripes on wing.  I also helped add the various electrics and the engine as well as the landing gear.  Here is the finished product: the Yak-2!

Christy's dad called it the Yak-2 because it was the 2nd DW Yak-54 he built--the first was still flying, though heavily patched.  In fact, the Yak-1 was the first of the two I got to fly.  I left after Thanksgiving with the plane assembled but its first test flight had not yet taken place--my father-in-law reserved that honor for me on my next visit!

On New Year's Eve, we met up with some of his friends to do some flying.  Here was my debut in front of my father-in-law (doing the filming), his boss, and one of the project managers for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter:

I couldn't have been more pleased with how it went!  The second flight went pretty well, though I nosed over on landing.  The third flight was on video, though--with a perfect landing!

Needless to say, I was pretty pumped!  In the meantime, we added a battery strap to hold down the battery instead of the velcro pad that held it down previously.  We liked the feature so much that we retrofitted it to the Yak-1:

 

 

Unfortunately, it was not meant to last...Statistically, the longer you fly without an accident, the more likely you are to have one.

It only took two days for me. 

I crashed the plane nose-first into a parking lot following a flight that'd been going great.  I'll have the video later, but it appears from the pic below that the elevator ripped in two during one of my flights on a somewhat windy day, causing a loss of control.  

Here're some of the pics:

 

Thankfully, my father-in-law is a very easygoing guy and reassured me that foamies are very rebuildable, as the Yak-1 can testify (man, I wish I'd have gotten a close-up of it!).  I started working on it that same night:

 

 

As of yesterday morning, the plane was completely ready for an engine test and then another flight test.  Perhaps I'll have the honor of doing a first test flight for the second time!

To close, I'll leave you with a couple pics of my father-in-law's fleet as well as some of his friends.  I really had a great time and look forward to maybe one day building my own plane!

Odd Stuff of the Day - The Garden of Las Pozas

It all started with a song I couldn't get out of my head. If you've seen the recent "V" Vizio ads, you know what I'm talking about:

After running around all day yesterday with that song stuck in my head, I decided to look up where the tune came from, and that's where the story begins.  The song is "We Are the People" by Empire of the Sun, an electronic duo from Australia:

 

The video for the song was shot in various locations in Mexico.  The most striking of these was the garden of Las Pozas, a surrealist concrete garden built between 1949 and 1984 by Edward James.  As the story goes, James, a British poet and patron of surreal art, wanted to build a veritable Garden of Eden but decided that his current location of Southern California was unsuitable.  Heading for Mexico, he contracted a guide and together they found a location in Xilitla, San Luis Potosi.  Already home to several natural pools and waterfalls, Las Pozas was built at a cost of $5M US.  It has a collection of temples, stairways, arches, and palaces, among other features.

Looks like I've got another destination for the bucket list!

Links:

Travel and Leisure: "Concrete Jungle" by Gini Alhadeff 

Google Image Search for Las Pozas