Favorite Music #1: Something For Everybody: Baz Luhrmann

I am moved by too many albums, songs and snippets to have one favorite piece of music. But, Something for Everybody is one album that never fails to bring a smile.

The most famous song from this album is Baz Luhrmann's Everybody's Free (to Wear Sunscreen). KarmaTube has a better description of the song than I could offer (part is from Amazon.com I think):

[Quote from KarmaTube] Described as the commencement speech she would give if ever asked to deliver one, this charming, whimsical music video found its origins in a 1997 Chicago Tribune column by Mary Schmich. Two years later, Australian film director Baz Luhrmann (who would go on to direct the Academy Award-winning Moulin Rouge) set Schmich's musings, virtually word for word, to music. Rumored--falsely--to have been an MIT commencement address given by the author Kurt Vonnegut, the Luhrmann production reached #1 in the UK and Ireland, and became a cult hit in the United States.

Here's the Everybody's Free (to Wear Sunscreen) video (7 minutes):



Everybody's Free is not the only gem on this album. It is full of silliness and wonderful surprises. The music ranges from techno to Doris Day to opera. If you need some music to move, groove and grin by...get this album! Here's the list of tracks:

1. Bazmark Fanfare
2. Young hearts run free (the overture mix)
3. Lovefool (snooper version)
4. Perhaps Perhaps Perhaps
5. Time after time (the S.F.E. version)
6. Che Gelida Manina (your tiny hand is frozen)
7. When doves cry (extended mix)
8. Love is in the air (fran mix)
9. NUTBUD (houseboats of Kashmir mix)
10. Happy feet (high heels mix)
11. Angel (7 inch mix)
12. Os Quindos De Ya Ya
13. Aquarius & Let the sunshine in
14. Everybody's free (to wear sunscreen) mix
15. I"m losing you
16. Now until the break of day (single version)
17. Jupiter (edit) [from the planets]

More from YouTube:


When Doves Cry--Romeo & Juliet Remix (4 min)

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Perhaps Perhaps Perhaps--Doris Day (2.5 min)

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Aquarius & Let the sunshine in (4 min)

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Che Gelida Manina--La Boheme (5.5 min)

Weekly Wonder #1: To Think is Human, an interactive, multimedia magazine

I have determined to discover and showcase at least one site per week that enhances our shared state of being human. I hope to find sites offering publications or activities that promote both introspection and connection. Let us hope my quests are successful and my determination lasts :-).

My first "Weekly Wonder" is To Think Is Human. The online, interactive , multimedia magazine describes itself this way:

No other media covers the past three thousand years of global thought the way we do. We want to make it easy for you to stay familiar with the great minds and incredible works of art that have created our civilization. Eternal wisdom needs to be reviewed and reviewed again; inspirational guidance needs to be constant. That's what we offer. We are certain that you will be happier and healthier if, often enough, you read To Think Is Human instead of the news. And, no one else goes to the great lengths we do to select Passages for you personally -- each of your Issues is uniquely crafted based upon your Ratings and upon your responses to our unique "picture ending" artwork presentation.

As this description mentions, To Think is Human, like Pandora from the Music Genome Project (maybe next week's wonder), endeavors to personalize content based on user feedback. Each post finishes a with set of images. Subscribers are asked to select which image best represents the text and multimedia content, for them. In other words, you introspectively reflect on your experience interacting with the content and select a visual representation of that experience.

Here is a link to the Sample/Free Tour offered as an example of the magazine's passages. This is another sample, from the category Spirituality: The Dhammapada-Gautama Buddha. Other samples can be found through the links near the top of the site's home page.

Though I wish all the conscious-enhancing wonders on the Web could be free, producing quality content does call for cash. From what I have seen, unlike Pandora, To Think is Human is not splashed with corporate advertisements (encouraging). Instead, there is a yearly subscription cost--currently $29.95, including a free T-Shirt. Subscribers receive five passages each week, selected in accordance with their previous feedback.

The publication also has a presence on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/tothinkishuman. Here, you can view an array of videos that are included as part of passages, along with the text and graphic art. Here is an example (well worth viewing):

YouTube Video-Prentice Mulford's Thoughts Are Things

To Think is Human draws from literature, philosophy, mythology, spirituality, history and some politics and science. From what I have seen, editor Tom Lombardo and his colleagues find content that truly reaches beyond the mundane world toward building the internal connection between each individual's mind, body and spirit...and, in turn, that individual's connection to the whole of the human experience.

I won't write on and on about my impression; I will encourage you to have To Think is Human experiences of your own.