Curtis Eller has been an artist who has been circulating through my ipod for around about a year. I feel as though I was pretty late on the uptake of this guy. His first two records ‘1890′ (which was nearly impossible for me to find) and ‘Taking Up Serpents Again’ showcased Eller’s ability to craft foot stomping stormers and also slow, emotional ballads with the odd yodel somewhere in between. With his most recent effort ‘Wirewalkers and Assassins’ Curtis Eller took yet further strides forward and shows that there is thankfully more to come.

With lyrics about the Civil War, John Wilkes Booth and Buster Keaton, you know that this ‘angry folk-county-punk-blues’ (as last.fm labels him) artist is going to be something of a joy to listen to.

By the way, I caught him live several months ago and it was total entertainment from start to finish! I highly recommend going out and seeing one of his shows.

www.myspace.com/curtiseller

There has been a haircutting incident. I won’t go into it now, more importantly, Dokken’s manager says they won’t go on the show without MONEY, something we don’t have. I just fired off a few quick emails, to important people, and whatever, but you guys deserve to know that aside from grammar correction on the script, I have done NOTHING of any objective value on the show as of yesterday. However, we have gotten the beginning of the PROJECT GENOME PROJECT finished, we have 50 men and 50 women all chosen to represent the entirety of humanity, as it pertains to the cartoon. Fancy, huh? Free Leonard Peltier.DW, Owner, Sunday Morning ANimation

#mobile# got a lot of calls in, and talked with a fella from the sacremento kings b-ball team. a productive day to say the very least.

Excuse the casual nature and relatively short nature of this post. it is being texted from my personal phone. all further posts likewise will be
marked with the following annotation: #mobile# which should clear up any misconceptions in the future. working on the audio, yodelin kerry christensen is sending me audio and the crystal method may be on the show!!! – b.o.f. – t0mmy aka dw merritt, owner, sunday morning animation

I was aimlessly viewing through YouTube, and somehow stumbled upon this video featuring a contestant from the America’s Got Talent reality show. It was the first season in 2006, and Taylor Marie Ware sang and yodeled to a stunned and impressed panel of judges. Eventually, she came in third in the finals, behind Bianca Ryan and Celtic Spring.

Yodeling is a form of singing that involves singing an extended note which rapidly and repeatedly changes in pitch from the vocal or chest register (or “chest voice”) to the falsetto/head register; making a high-low-high-low sound. This vocal technique is used in many cultures throughout the world.

In Alpine folk music, it was probably developed in the Swiss Alps and Austrian Alps as a method of communication between mountain peaks, later becoming part of the region’s traditional music.

To me, yodeling is really intriguing, and reminded me very much of country music. Impressive indeed. Love it!

I Did.

It’s my Yahoo! Yodel.

I think it’s actually reasonably good. Aside from the fact that I can’t sing. And that I’m completely off key. And that it sounds more like a howl than a yodel…

Aside from all of that, I kind of like it.

Mary

p.s. was that the most entertaining thirty seconds of your life or what?

dolcie odille brought yodels + sheep to the ATL.  i love these plush props + scenic backdrop.  fortunately, it happens to be my birthday party planning season . . .

smilebooth

more photos on our-blog-of-love from photographers our labor of love whom recently teamed up with our beloved max wanger + dj michael antonia to form the incredible collab flashdance!

It’s nightfall in New York’s Time Square…

And the Yahoo! Yodel Studio ROCKS ON!

Tomorrow, as dawn breaks over the Big Apple, the Yahoo! Yodel Studio will be live in Mubai’s High Street Phoenix Mall!

Here’s a quick look back at some of my favorite pics from today courtesy of Yodel Anecdotal.

Remember to check out my very own Yahoo! Yodel (if you’re so inclined).

The Yodel Studio takes on the Big Apple:

Or maybe the other way around!

The Big Apple takes on the Yahoo! Yodel Studio:

But wait! There’s more!

You can get in on this game without even having to leave the comfort of the chair you’re sitting in right now.

Mary

Check out the action at the Yodel Studio set up today in London’s Convent Gardens!

And in a private recording booth near you!

Y-A-H-O-O!

(man, I wish I were there….)

Mary

People around the world watched NASA’s LCROSS mission make impact with the moon on NASA TV this week.

NASA TV has a “brought to you by” partner.

This week’s Friday Free Stuff challenge is to name that partner!

Post your entries as comments to this blog entry. Get creative! Extra consideration goes to entries which include leverage multimedia. Humor is good. But let’s keep it clean, people. This is a family rated program.

BIG HINT: this might help.

The prize package?

As you (regular and long-time) readers know, I happen to have a personal connection to this whole thing.

On more than one level, it turns out.

I was in Florida to watch the launch of the LCROSS/LRO from the Kennedy Space Center in June.

While there I purchased this 100% cotton, pre-shrunk, totally awesome long-sleeve t-shirt.

That’s part 1 of this week’s fabulous prize package.

And here’s part 2….

a notebook that I got a few weeks ago — at Yahoo! at employee orientation.

I figure these two would go together given this week’s challenge.

(hint, hint)

Get yourself in the running for the shot at this week’s fabulous prize package by naming NASA TV’s brought-to-you-by partner by posting a comment to this blog entry! Don’t forget the BIG HINT. It’s going to seriously improve your shot.

We’ll announce the winner Friday, October 16.

fun, fun, fun!

Mary

p.s I choose the winner. My decisions are final. I pay for shipping the Friday Free Stuff to the winner with stamps that I buy at the post office. Previous Friday Free Stuff winners can be found on every continent including Antarctica.

p.p.s. And to think, this is where we started… things change, I guess… .

One of the things I love about Twitter is the way you can get an immediate response on a question you might have. For example…

I tweeted:

MMaryMary tweets about Yahoo's new Yodel

And in minutes, folks in my Twitter network responded:

Tweeps telling me what they think about Yahoo's new yodel.

One of the most useful business applications is to get that kind of immediate feedback.

Really appeals to the marketing girl inside of me.

Mary

On Wednesday, I was presented with the opportunity to join Yahoo!

I start my new job on Monday.

(I jumped all over it, obviously.)

It’s really hard to capture how thrilled and excited I am about what’s ahead.

So I’m going to just going to have to take you along for the ride as we start the next chapter of MaryMaryQuiteContrary.

I’m a Yahoo!

Come on! Let’s go!

Mary

p.s. I’ve been practicing my yodel. We’re not quite ready to go public on it. practice, practice, practice…

p.p.s. I’m so happy I think I might pop.

Thanks to Eve Polich, I learned that the Cangelosi Cards debut CD was not only finished but on sale.  I’d been thinking about this disc since Tamar Korn had said that the Cards were making their first-ever formal recording.   

But at the same time, bringing this extraordinary group into a recording studio made me anxious.  The Cards create an ecstatic spectacle whenever they perform.  Even if there isn’t a whole line of dancers in front of the band, the music makes everyone bond joyously, and the band climbs higher and higher. 

I’ve been at recording sessions, observing the most experienced professionals, and I know the effect that even the most congenial studio can have on creative improvisers.  Everyone plays splendidly, but there is the chilling effect of being watched too closely, of having your every breath recorded — literally — for posterity.  It’s a rare band that’s totally relaxed in the studio, and most musicians seem exhausted at the end of the session, relieved that it’s over, vaguely dissatisfied with the results.  I wondered if the artificial environment of the recording studio would cause the Cards to lose some of their exquisite energies?   

I need not have worried.  Yes, there’s no crowd audible on the CD, and the absence of enthusiastic noise took a few minutes to get used to.  But the music comes through more clearly than it ever does in live performance.  I hear nuances of timbre in solo and ensemble that I would only have sensed in a club.  And the Cards seem not at all intimidated by the microphones, the weight of being captured for immortality.  From the first notes of MY BLUE HEAVEN, the Cards rock — without strain or tension, but with a graceful intensity.  The rhythm section is splendidly easy; the front-line players show off their distinctive voices and timbres.  Subtle, convincing little arrangements, too.  As we’ve seen, the Cards are full of surprises: no performance is predictable, although there is none of that irritating seeking-after-novelty that distinguishes lesser groups.  You’ll hear a persuasive, irresistible swing that gives way to tender ballad playing, in their characteristically varied repertoire — hinting at Billie Holiday and Jimmie Rodgers, to mention only two names. 

Tamar’s voice is, as always, a delight – and in this form, I can hear textures that a club audience might have over-ridden.  She sings sweetly, growls the blues, becomes her own trumpet / hi-hat cymbal, and yodels — her focused but expansive vocal instrument responding to every nuance of the music.  And I truly admire the witty trombone playing of Musselman, Lichtman’s fluent clarinet and eloquent mandolin work, Milius’s forceful harmonica solos, Meyer’s perfectly poised violin playing, Sanders’ solid rhythm playing and eloquent lines, Holden’s deep-down bass support, and Webster’s nimble, searching piano.  The Cards would have been welcome on Fifty-Second Street in its glory days: hear the rocking momentum they create on IDA, as well as the Victorian delicacy of TREASURES UNTOLD.       

And, although it seems paradoxical, the disc isn’t too long.  Many CDs are filled to the brim with twenty similar performances, making listening to them somewhat exhausting.  The eight selections here are a wonderfully satisfying banquet.     

The details?  The CD is available for $10 from La Compania de Musicos Viajeros (www.losmusicosviajeros.net) 718-744-7391; email is correspondence@losmusicosviajeros.net.  Obviously, the ideal way to buy it is to pick up several copies at a Cards appearance.  Why “several copies”?  They make ideal gifts;  they will be collectors’ items; they help fund this irreplaceable band.  But you already have figured that out.  I heard rumblings that it would be possible to download the music from the site, but you’d have to check there.

The disc is called THE CANGELOSI CARDS: CLINTON STREET RECORDINGS.  My Blue Heaven / It’s Like Reaching For The Moon / Blue Yodel No. 2 / Ida, Sweet As Apple Cider / September Song / Puttin’ On The Ritz / Treasures Untold / The Anniversary Song.  It features the full octet: Jake Sanders, guitar; Tamar Korn, vocals; Cassidy Holden, bass; Matt Musselman, trombone; Dennis Lichtman, clarinet and mandolin; Marcus Millius, harmonica; Karl Meyer, violin; Gordon Webster, piano.

It delights me — and I can’t wait until the next one!

Last Wednesday I attended the IAB’s mobile forum (presentations are uploaded here).

It was an illuminating afternoon, though mainly in terms of what I didn’t take away. Mobile is still nascent as a media platform, and the industry understanding of it is still at a fairly basic (in my opinion) level.

Most information on how people use mobile seems to be on potential behaviour rather than actual (though there were exceptions).   As such, the emphasis of the event was very much on inspiration rather than effectiveness or impact. In part because of the fragmented nature of mobile (different handsets, networks, operating systems, functionality etc), it is difficult to emerge with overarching advice on using mobile.

However, it is clear that it is a medium ripe for innovation. Nearly all of the speakers had case studies as illustrations on how mobile can be used in new and interesting ways. These include:

• Fitness First cold-texting people with information on their local gym (once people had responded with their postcode)
• Comic Relief raising £7.8m through people messaging in to pledge donations that would be added to their monthly bill
• The ringtone from the Cadbury’s “eyebrows” advert was downloaded over 250,000 times in less than a month
• Pizza Hut’s pizza-building application where you can shake to remove toppings, click to order it (including regional discounts) and play a game while you wait for it to arrive
• Ikea augmented reality tool to superimpose furniture into your living room
• An Ocado shopping app that requires a four digit pin rather than a username/password each time you want to purchase.

Despite not coming away stunned, there were some useful pieces of information that I picked up at the event.

• Chris Boddice from O2 made the comparison of a mobile phone to a personal assistant or life manager – it can do everything from diary management to your shopping via being an alarm clock
• Alex Kozloff from Orange made the point that in addition to being relevant and innovative, mobile marketing also needs to reassure. Trust is much more of an issue on your mobile (it has people’s lives on it, yet there is no anti-virus or anti-phishing software) and so consumers need to be reassured that your site/brand is trusted and that they aren’t going to be surreptitiously charged for anything. For people who pay for their data, zero-rating can be used whereby the advertiser foots the data charges to visit that site.
• Justyn Lucas from yodel warned of advertisers getting blinded by technology, and that the role of mobile should be established before deciding on how to proceed. In fairness, integrated marketing is hardly a new piece of information, but it is worth re-iterating
• Jonathan Abrahams from Admob revealed that they are now seeing more traffic from Andriod than they are from Windows Mobile. This reinforces the asymmetry of mobile use in that while iPhones and Google phones still have relatively small penetration, they are driving the use of the mobile internet
• The IAB’s Jon Mew said that the user experience should be paramount when browsing – from their first ad effectiveness study (for KitKat), they noted that respondents were much more likely to remember the ad if they had enjoyed browsing the site. Furthermore, regular users of the site were more likely to notice the ads (this was contrary to my assumption that the novelty of mobile ads would cause stand-out, but this effect is no different to other media platforms)
• Tim Hussain from BSkyB had some great tips on apps – which he argued should provide a richer more creative experience for your customer. He also alluded to the asymmetry of action – in 6 weeks more people were using the Sky EPG on the iphone than on the 300 other handsets it is available on AND the pc combined. He pointed out that the iPhone has a massive advantage in that, from our iPods, we are familiar with iTunes and the iTunes store and so the comprehension barrier has already been overcome.

Tim’s six tips for apps were

1. Understand the target audience
2. Ensure the app is different to a mobile website
3. Make it a destination, not a driver
4. It should either save time or kill time (I liked this point, even if it does overlook the other uses of an app, such as inspiration)
5. The idea should be aligned with the brand
6. The app should be integrated to the wider campaign

Additional statistics I picked up from the event were:

• Gartner predict that by 2012, 70% of all phones will be smartphones
• There is an average of 37 apps per iPhone in the UK
• Orange research suggests that 87% of mobile media users (“anything that a message can be delivered through” – so including SMS) use it at home
• 95% of us don’t switch our phones off
• Yahoo! is bigger than Google in mobile search (though I think this will change as iPhone/Google phones etc take share away from the network portals)

Although I didn’t pick up as much new information or knowledge as I was anticipating, it was an event worth attending. I’d particularly recommend Tim’s presentation on apps  – it can be downloaded here.

As the industry develops and matures, it is inevitable that our understanding of consumer behaviour and marketing effectiveness will improve – from my various discussions with people in the space there is definitely a market opportunity to fulfill some of these needs. I’m confident that the study I’m about to embark upon will contribute to this.

sk

Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kamshots/

“¡Yorolei larolei laroleio larolei lariuuuuu!” El yodel, la canción sin palabras, el melódico canto de altibajos de los Alpes, es el sonido típico de Austria y de todos los países alpinos (es decir Austria, Suiza e Italia).

Se canta al aire libre en lugares que tienen eco, cómo por ejemplo cerca de lagos o de paredes rocosas.

Este tipo de música ha inspirado a millones de artistas, los cuales han incluido partes de yodel en sus canciones. Tenemos, por ejemplo, a Sinnead O’conner, Sheryl Crow, Avril Lavigne o el mismísimo Kurt Cobain, todos ellos inspirados en el grande, fabuloso, fantástico, maravilloso rey del yodel (o Jodlerkönig, en alemán): Franzl Lang, el considerado mejor yodelr de todos los tiempos.

Aquí os dejo un vídeo de la estrella, el cual he subtitulado al español, para que podais disfrutar de su música y de cómo habla el señor viejo del acordeón del principio (a parte de para que veais el  maravilloso vestido de señora loca que lleva la presentadora y a su acompañante):

Artista: Franzl Lang Canción: “Me gusta oir yodel“

¡Buenísimo!

A few months later, on October 20, 1928, Jimmie Rodgers recorded four songs but this time with the support of a band (Dean Bryan, guitar; C.L. Hutchison, cornet; John Westbrook, steel guitar; James Rikard, clarinet; George MacMillan, string bass). These songs are some of the best he made, with train whistle imitation in Waiting for a Train and a new Blue Yodel.

Between this time and the next session in 1929, he made a short movie and toured in vaudeville shows around the country, mostly in the Southwest because of his tuberculosis. Here’s one of the clips:

Blue Yodel No.4 (Rodgers)

My Carolina Sunshine Girl (Rodgers)

I’m Lonely and Blue (McWilliams – Rodgers)

Waiting for a Train (Rodgers)

Today we head to the theater to see a play. The funny, yet sad play about an alpine monkey!

Silly Monkey – The star of our production, this monkey is really named “Sir Fredrick Monkeyston Hijinximus III”. You can buy him at the gift shop for 102 robux!

Alpine Hat – Yodel-aya-Yodel-ayeee-Yodel-ay-360-robux-oo!

Comedy – It wouldn’t be a play about a silly monkey without 31 robux worth of comedy!

Tragedy – The mask to wear when Silly Monkey’s mother dies in act III. But don’t worry, You’ll be wearing the comedy mask soon when you realise that this mask is only 31 robux!

And that concludes our production of Silly Monkey The Musical! This is turkeylurkey saying that I hope you have enjoyed the presentation.

~edited by kunfu11

Flotando entre los mundos del yodel y el canto difónico me encontré con este instructivo tutorial de cat yodeling. Si es que… Aquí el “mejor” playbacker de Yodel alpino. Aquí el clásico Jimmie Rodgers con su aun más clásico Blue Yodel No 1. Posiblemente el primero en mezclar tradición europea yodeliana y herencia africana de blues (en 1927), con el permiso de Tampa Red, que hizo lo propio entre 1934 y 1935. Aunque entre los clásicos hay que citar a los Sons of the Pioneers con ese gran clásico “Devil’s Great Grandson” (que está aquí). Para más info consultarlas páginas 84-88 del número 36 del Mondo Brutto, que NO está aquí, o al menos yo no he podido localizarlo. Hilarante sería imaginar un cruce entre yodel (en la vertiente que sea) y cantos difónicos rollo mongol. N-joy

Is there an itch that the iPhone app store cannot scratch? Looking for the music from Raising Arizona, I went off on a Google fugue  that led me to this gem of an app: U 2 can Yodel.

The app takes you through a detailed yodeling tutorial, including a record-and-playback feature, then on to a “yodeloke” where you can sing along with a professional yodeler, and a free-style section.
The app is highly usable and very engaging, largely thanks to the charming animated backdrops and easter eggs (well, egg).

Yodeling is supplied by Kerry Christensen, Master Yodeller (who has a CD by the same name). I’m not an expert on yodeling, but boy, he sure can yodel.

There has to be a fascinating back-story to this app, particularly since it is free – the production values are so high that this must either be:

• a “free for a while” app – until yodeling becomes a world-wide craze and they can charge mad bank for it;
• secretly financed by a Swiss yodeling / illuminati cabal intent on world domination via yodel-mediated sonic mind control.

Don’t be  disappointed that it isn’t Bono in leiderhosen yodeling – this is even better.

Tested on: iPhone 3Gs || Price: Free.

Rating: it’s yo-de-lo-dee-yo-dee-lo-de-licious! Recommended.

ps: the owner is listed as http://playvisions.com – who don’t mention it on their site, but who do have awesome toys.  The developers are www.substantial.com, who clearly know how to make an app engaging – one to watch out for.

Bonus yodel video feat. Kerry Christiensen:

Two regional powerhouses go head to head. Can the Flagship Tastykake survive the Drake Swiss Roll? The hopes and dreams of a city hang in the balance!

Les DeZurik Sisters sont si mignonnes et leur yodel et cackle si touchant ! J’espère que vous les apprécierez autant que moi ! Je crois que ce sont elles qui ont provoqué mon addiction au yodel…