Lady Gaga - Telephone "The Dude's Version"

I never know whether I should post spoofs because they do get tiresome. I think this one distinguishes itself on account of its wholesomeness. This world gets far too raw and cynical at times. This spoof is just... sweet.

I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight

Just because I had an overwhelming urge to hear this song today, I concluded that everybody else should too. The incomparable Richard and Linda Thompson.

Why you've never really heard the "Moonlight" Sonata

Fascinating article on a piano collecting couple, how very different pianos existed at the same time in different corners of Europe and made different chords possible and why some well-known pieces can no longer be played properly on the modern piano. 

The Slate article offers great audio clips of pieces you know as you've always heard them compared with recordings using much older pianos.

[Slate]

Favourite music of dictators and aspiring despots

We thought you'd get a chuckle out of this: Mahmoud loves Chris de Burgh and the misguided singer almost became the first Western pop singer to sing in Iran since 1979. It took last July's elections for de Burgh to realise that maybe this wasn't such a great idea and he cancelled.

Ahmadinejad isn't the only one with a penchant for Western music:

Osama Bin Laden: reportedly believes Whitney Houston to be "the most beautiful woman I've ever seen" and he listens to Van Halen and the B-52's.

Robert Mugabe: Cliff Richard

Colonel Gaddafi: Lionel Ritchie

Nick Griffin: English folk singers Kate Rusby and Eliza Carthy

Kim Jong-Il: Eric Clapton

[Guardian]

Canadian Folksinger Kate McGarrigle Dies

"Canadian folk and roots music singer Kate McGarrigle, best known for her work with her sister, Anna, as the McGarrigle Sisters, has died at age 63," reports the CBC.

I remember being a kid in Montreal riding in the back seat of my parents' car and hearing Complainte pour Ste.Catherine for the first time. I'd never heard anything like the eerie and beautiful sound of those weird sisters.

The CBC article links to archives, vids and articles. Leaving you with the amusing homage to the McCarrigle Sisters Kate's children, Rufus and Martha Wainright made and posted on youtube. [CBC]