Posts Tagged ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’
“Here we are now, entertain us”*…
It’s that time of year again…
Tom BetGeorge, professional light show artist, is showing his amazing haunted light show in real life, using his house as the backdrop.
This year’s spooky display includes a Halloween take on Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” (above). Using tens of thousands of lights, he offers a 2-hour viewing on the weekends for locals to take it all in. Luckily he lets us outsiders watch some of it from afar, and it’s spectacular, even online.
BetGeorge has been uploading his light show videos to his YouTube channel (where you can get the address to his IRL extravaganza) for seven years, and they’re not only Halloween displays. He donates proceeds to McHenry House, a shelter for homeless families.
“This at-home haunted light show gives a whole new meaning to Nirvana’s ‘Smells like Teen Spirit’,” from @Carla_Sinclair @BoingBoing via @LaughingSquid
* Nirvana, “Smells Like Teen Spirit”
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As we hum along (and contemplate what we’ll be offering trick-or-treaters), we might recall that today is National Chocolate Covered Insect Day.
“Here we are now, entertain us / I feel stupid and contagious”*…
Bardcore: “Smells Like Teen Spirit Cover In Classical Latin (75 BC to 3rd Century AD)”
[TotH to Jonah Goldberg]
* Kurt Cobain/Nirvana, “Smells Like Teen Spirit”
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As we scale the top of the pops, we might that it was on this date in 1969 that photographer Iain MacMillan shot the cover for what would be The Beatles’ last studio album, Abbey Road, just outside the studio of the same name, where the band recorded many of its classic songs. Macmillan, who worked quickly while a policeman held up traffic, used a Hasselblad camera with a 50mm wide-angle lens, aperture f22, at 1/500 of a second; he produced six shots, from which Paul picked the cover.
The photo, which simply shows the band crossing the street while walking away from the studio, has become iconic in its own right and provides “Paul Is Dead” enthusiasts with several erroneous “clues” to his “death,” including the fact that Paul is barefoot (supposedly representing a corpse, though McCartney has averred that it was simply a hot day).
Here we are now, entertain us…
Hannah and her patron (source)
Readers may have encountered the storm that’s arisen online over the release of a video of Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana in a Quito concert covering Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” It is, in fact, execrable. But then, in fairness to Ms. Montana, so are many of the attempts to capture Kurt Cobain’s lightning in a different bottle… as is amply (if not indeed painfully) demonstrated in Flavorwire’s “10 ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ Covers That Are Worse Than Miley’s.”
From the louche stylings of Paul Anka and Michael Bublé, through folk, a cappella, pop, R&B, even classical, to a stunningly-bad rendition by Limp Bizkit, there is video evidence for review. But lest readers click away with bad tastes in their mouths, the good folks at Flavorwire conclude with “Nyevana”‘s delightful “Smells Like Air Pressure.”
(Readers may recall that RD has visited “Smells Like Teen Spirit” before– in what may be the strangest mash-up ever… some songs are just so good that no one can leave them alone… Your correspondent’s own favorite cover: by the always-astounding Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain.)
As we promise to pay our exemplars more respect, we might recall that it was on this date in 1660 that Isaack B. Fubine of the Hague patented macaroni… and thus made possible, on this date in 1947, the launch of the first-ever weekly TV series – “Kraft Television Theater.”
The Sincerest Form of Flattery, Part Three: Got You Covered…
Readers will recall Europe’s “The Final Countdown” (brilliantly mashed up with “Smells Like Teen Spirit”); now, via Cover Song Archive (“a collection of songs you know, by people you don’t”)…
As we limber our fingers, we might wish an orderly Happy Birthday to agronomy pioneer Jethro Tull; he was born in Basildon in Berkshire on this date in 1674. While probably best remembered for inventing the horse-drawn plow (around 1701), he is arguably more important for his promotion of sowing seeds in rows rather than “broadcast” (simply throwing them around), so that weeds could be controlled by hoeing regularly between the rows. To this end, Tull invented a seed drill, which could plant three rows at a time: a rotary hopper distributed a regulated amount of seed; a blade cut a groove in the ground to receive the seed; then the soil was turned over to cover the sewn seed. Because of its internal moving parts, the seed drill has been called the first “agricultural machine”; in any case, its rotary mechanism became standard for all sowing devices that followed.
source: Royal Berkshire History
The Journal of Radical Juxtaposition: Battle at the Top of the Charts…
What happens when the avatars of Grunge, Nirvana, meet their rough contemporaries, the Swedish Hair Metal band Europe? Australian video producer and musician “Tom,” purveyor of marvelous mash-ups via Wax Audio, mixes two signature tunes– both multi-platinum hits– to give us a peek: “Smells Like Teen Spirit” vs. “The Final Countdown”…
As we struggle to regain our equilibrium, we might recall that this date marks a singular moment in the history of sibling rivalry. On November 2, 1991, as “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and Nevermind, the album it led, were climbing up the charts to displace Michael Jackson’s Dangerous at #1, Jermaine Jackson released “Word to the Badd!!,” an anti-Michael song. Jermaine went on to make history as the first housemate to enter the Celebrity Big Brother UK house in 2007.
Jermaine and Michael in happier days (source)
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