Tuesday, August 19, 2008

The "I'm Sorry, Madonna" B-Side

Now, doubtless you've been listening to "I'm Sorry, Madonna" pretty much non-stop since it was released two weeks ago -- playing it loudly in public places, burning it to CDs for all your friends, air-guitaring to it with your tennis racket.... No? You haven't? Well, whatever.

Anyway, "ISM" was a ~single~, and one thing for sure about a single is that it has a B-side, right? So here's the B-side. It's a cover of a song by Norman, Oklahoma's The Flaming Lips, "Waitin' For a Superman." Dedicated to all you Normaniacs out there. DrSchnell! Blythe! Here's your long-distance dedication.



















Out of grudging respect for the whole copyright thing, I will only have the song on the internet for one week. So live it up while you've got it.

Guitars, voice, and percussion programming by me, natch. No trumpet this time, sorry. If my paper-thin voice and spare-bedroom production values don't do it for you, why not check out the original version? You can find it here, with a little poking around.

If you are a legal professional in the employ of the Flaming Lips, or more likely of Warner Bros Records, please note that this is a hobby recording and that no money is changing hands in this wholesome act of homage.


Meanwhile, in Beijing

The L.A. Times continues to impress with its coverage of Olympic medals per capita, and there have been some exciting changes since we last checked in. Armenia has slipped all the way down to fifth place in the standings. Australia continued to dominate among the large countries of the world, and ranks fourth overall, but feisty neighbor New Zealand has meanwhile lept into second!

Give it up for southeastern Europe, though, as little Slovenia takes a commanding lead over the rest of the world. But most exciting of all, the L&TM5K's own Most Favored Nation, Estonia, has leapt into Sixth! Go, Estonia!

1. Slovenia (5 medals) - one per 401,542 Slovenians
2. New Zealand (8) - 521,862
3. Jamaica (5) - 560,866
4. Australia (35) - 588,595
5. Armenia (5) - 593,717
6. Estonia (2) - 653,802
7. Bahrain (1) - 718,306
8. Belarus (11) - 880,542
9. Denmark (6) - 914,120
10. Norway (5) - 928,891


A disappointing Olympics so far for us in the United States of America, however; our athletes have managed only a rate of one medal for every 3.8 million of us in the population, putting us in 42nd place.

At least we're beating the hosts, China, who are having a truly dismal year. At only one medal per 17.5 million citizens, China is in 58th place on its home turf. I would imagine the hometown crowd is getting pretty ugly at this point.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love it that the LAT is publishing those stats, they must be getting static from traditionalists and nationalists. Aren't they owned by Rupert Rupert or somebody? Bravo.

Point of Information: Doesn't one play air guitar with just the air? Tennis-racket guitar is a whole other animal I belileve.

Anonymous said...

Now wait a minute. The song's title is Waiting for a Superman? What's with the "a"? All these years, I'm quite sure I never heard you sing an "a". We don't need no stinkin' indefinite articles weighing down Superman! That would be wrong!

Wouldn't it?

Anonymous said...

Go Estonia!

I have never heard that song before and it made me cry a little. I liked the performance very much. Nice B side.

Tereza said...

Speaking of the Olympics, I must say the coverage here in the Czech Rep. is sooo much better than in the U.S. It's live, it's all day on a regular, non-cable channel, NO ADS, plus they show all the sports, not just the ones in which this country's athletes have the biggest chance at a medal. Also, women's competitions get tons of coverage here unlike in the U.S. As do the non blockbuster sports like: synchronized swimming, discus throwing, fencing etc.