The Specials - Gangster

This band represents the best of British ska. Their songs were well-crafted and rhythmically catchy and upbeat. Of course, they also had a message in many of their songs, politically and socially, and were not afraid to voice their concerns and objections. I had several albums which have been lost in the intervening years and must now settle for a live compilation cd of the Best of British ska and the Best of singles cd collection which has an excellent live version of "Guns of Navarone". The cd cover for the singles collection also had an alternate design which featured the band in a car or taxi...I prefer the brighter colours and the expressions on the faces of the band.

Oil On Water

This movie follows an artist who begins experiencing "voices" and other strange phenomenon that he cannot understand or explain to his girlfriend. A visually stunning film that traces a creative life spiraling out of control due to schizophrenia, "Oil On Water" has been compared to "A Beautiful Mind" and "Trauma" by one reviewer. Check out the site with synopsis and trailer.

Where the hell is Matt

Cool video of guy visiting over 40 countries and dancing in various locations with people joining him. Pretty cool.

Beverley Knight - No Man's Land (Acoustic)

This lovely lady, Beverley Knight, has a sweet, smoky and vibrant voice that comes from over a decade in the industry. Her last album, "Music City Soul" was recorded in Nashville and brims with sass and an awful lot of soul.

Another good video search site

http://www.truveo.com/

Has many channels and excellent selection direct from the start page. Some video streams, such as Hulu, may be restricted to viewing in the United States, which is a shame since viewing a full episode of Family Guy on my computer screen is a dream for me and my optometrist.

However, you can find some interesting and complete shows, for example, this show about Douglas Adams that originally aired on ZDTV(Later TechTV). This particular interview occurred eight days before Adams passed away.

Douglas Adams clip (22:26)

Related videos will also show to the right of the video description.

Video search engine

Blinkx is a site that allows you to search for videos from all over the web. It is a publicly traded company in UK and has several patents related to its technology. This is the first time I have heard of this site but it looks quite interesting. Claims to have 26 million hours of video to search through...that's a lot of covert cubicle viewing. Check out the faq and about pages for the lowdown.

Blinkx

Uncyclopedia

A spoof of Wikipedia that has a sense of humour. You can contribute articles yourself to hone your silly and satirical side.

Uncyclopedia

Flash Games

This site has simple yet addictive flash games to play and waste some time.

http://www.k2xl.com/

Cool site for musical discoveries

This site allows you to set what mood you are in and it will then select music from the decade that you decide. A great way to discover music you never knew was out there. There is a free and a premium version. Free is lower quality audio and you cannot mark your favs or ban songs you do not want to see. Excellent resource to find artists and then download through peer to peer clients. You can click on the genres to fine-tune the music you are presented as well. If you click the album covers, you will be be taken to Amazon site (assuming you allow pop-ups...if not try disabling pop-up blocker for the musicovery site) and you can get info on album/cd and the cover art.

Musicovery

Dylan Thomas - Poem in October

Read by Richard Burton, a fellow Welshman, "Poem in October" is one of my favourite of his poems. I love his description of rising early and slowly gaining height from which he sees the harbour town and the gardens and fields. His memory of walking with his mother comes as "the weather turns round" and the sunlight brings colour from under clouds filled with flying larks and he revisits his memory with such clarity that the child he was is reawakened wholly, heartbeat and tears on cheeks.

It was his 30th year to heaven and he had nine years remaining.

http://www.dylanthomas.com/

Oh Sussana - "Pretty Face"

I had not known of this singer/songwriter until I saw her do a duet with Blue Rodeo singer Jim Cuddy. This song is, like most good country tinged songs, simple and direct. She has a wonderful voice and writes songs that are personal and true.