Adam recently sent me this TED talk, with the simple words “you have to watch”. It’s a tale of geekery, Guitar Hero, and a guy with cerebral palsy that creates and conducts his own musical scores. More than anything it’s a powerful demonstration of the use of music to bring people together to create.

It’s one of a handful that I’ve sat through for the full 20 mins without skipping – testament both to my impatience and the brilliance of Tod Machover and Dan Ellsey.

Radiohead’s new album came out on Saturday. It’s awesome.

The first single, Lotus Flower, was realeased on the same day. Also awesome.

The video to Lotus Flower, featuring Thom throwing up some crazy shapes, get’s remixed by hundreds of people and posted to this Tumblr account. The most awesome thing ever.  Fact.

Download the new album here. It’s not free, but it’s only $9, which is basically free.

Ke$ha, Katie Perry, Kanye.  Not to my tastes.

In the spirit of showing that being adored by millions takes about a day of work if you’re surrounded by enough talented studio techs and producers, two guys from Calgary and Victoria gave themselves 8 hours to record a pop song.  From scratch.

The end result starts at around the six minute mark.  Awesome.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpePyoqbtJ0

We often spend a lot of time in post production.  File management, batching digital negatives, lots of retouching. Hours in front of a screen.

Sometimes music just doesn’t cut the mustard for background entertainment, and we turn to the marvels of TV and film, but the tricky part is you have to be able to follow what’s going on without needing to constantly look at another screen.

Lost did the trick for a while (it was endlessly on repeat until the finale -- which left us feeling cheated and used -- but that’s another story), we’ve done The Office (the proper one) and Extras a few times, and it’s Ricky Gervais and Steven Merchant who’ve pulled the magic out of the hat once more.

Aided by Karl Pilkington, possibly the most northern northerner who ever existed, they’ve created yet another masterpiece.

Please step forward; An Idiot Abroad.

Genius.

Unless your heart’s made of granite and you burn kittens for fun, you’ll fall in love with the shell-headed guy with the oversize feet.

Whatever you had planned for the next three and a half minutes, this is probably better.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=idLG6jh23yE

Production budget: $10,000,000 plus.

Hi-def 1080p screen to watch this in it’s full glory: $300.

Seeing future World Cup winner Wayne Rooney living in a caravan: priceless.

Nike have created possibly the most epic non-interactive advertisement ever made.  Though we do like the Adidas house party ads…

(Check this out for the interactive champion -- it’s worth the load time).

www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtGkvgP8MwQ

When an awkward band cover a song by Black Box, and somehow make it very, very cool, it’s something to be applauded.  Worshipped even.  The original is below, just in case 1989 passed you by.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiJ2B8PFjqU