Thanks

In reply to this comment by rasch187:
Congrats, mikes! I don't know how you find the time to take care of 4 kids, be a workaholic and sift the way you do. You truly are a multitasker of the highest order. Love a lot of your vids and your upbeat attitude. Keep up the good work, girl!

Congrats, mikes! I don't know how you find the time to take care of 4 kids, be a workaholic and sift the way you do. You truly are a multitasker of the highest order. Love a lot of your vids and your upbeat attitude. Keep up the good work, girl!

I like all you guys making this such a positive transition. It's by far the most upbeat evolution I've experienced here. So, thanks, guys and gals.

Something else I like is the new VideoSift t-shirt that everyone seemed to overlook.

It's like watching a parallel universe. Everything is so upbeat; like an episode of Fox and Friends.

Hmm, let's try one of the more upbeat ones, with no particular point.

I've discovered that I have much more swagger and confidence when I speak English than when I'm in Danish. I'm not sure why, but that's what I've noticed.

Two years ago in the summer I put it to the test, when I was back at my home island of Bornholm. A friend of mine from Texas was over here as well, playing at some different bars over here in the summer. We were in the other part of the island at a bar there, when we got to talking with 3 girls and a guy, who was one of the girl's cousin. Now, my buddy only speaks English, so we were just speaking English to these guys too. After a while one of the girls asked me where I was from, since my buddy was from Texas, but I didn't want to say that "i'm from just around the corner 20 miles away from here", so I asked her and the rest to try to guess. Well, they started to guess different states in the US which was a pretty big ego-boost to my English abilities (hmm, or a lack of English skills on their part). Eventually I got them convinced that I was my buddys cousin from Mississippi (even though I talk with a Texan accent).

This deception went on for about a month, where every time we met them, we spoke English to them, and it got increasingly difficult as more people that knew me got involved. We got the whole bar, who basically all knew me, to play along, which I thought was hilarious.

We had a few drunken nights together, which were great, and at one point, when I was showing off on a guitar, they asked me to play a traditional song from Mississippi. That almost fucking nailed me, because I have no idea what music is played there (I thought about playing something about cotton picking, but I decided against it.. gotta love stereotypes). I avoided it by saying that I didn't really cared for the local music and played something else.

I never really exploited the situation, because I'm too much of a chickenshit, but in hindsight I feel pretty good about it (*bites hand*).

Eventually I was busted, when two of the girls came down to my side of the island for a local harbor party. No big scene or anything, it was just "uhm, hello.."

And they were never heard from again...

No point, just a sequence of events in my life.

EDIT - Actually, instead of just listing it, I'll copy out my descriptions of them too since I already wrote this up for another forum:


1. The Flashbulb - Soundtrack to a Vacant Life | Instrumental | 4.5/5

Simply put, a seamless, sweeping epic of genres that dabbles in everything from sombre piano ballads, to upbeat flamenco, caustic electronica, serene ambience, rhythmic percussive tribal drum sections and haunting string sections, imposing every possible emotion on the listener. If anything, the sole weakness is that the rough 2-3 minute length of each of the 31 songs means they don't work so effectively as standalone compositions but as verses in a protracted poem, making the idea of listening to the entirety of it a tad daunting.


2. Protest The Hero - Fortress | Progressive Metal | 4.5/5

Metal that while relatively intricate yet melodic enough and hell, catchy enough to avoid divulging into incomprehensible technical wankery. Lyrics abound with references to goddesses and dethroned kings but it's decidedly tongue in cheek. Perhaps the biggest weaknesses resides in a lack of coherence, a tendency for the album to mesh together as a string of riffs, with little sense of a recurring chorus or verses within songs, but then you can take that as a plus depending on how you look at it. Besides that and a couple of immensely obnoxious vocal lines it's a pretty solid effort all around.


3. Blue Sky Black Death - Late Night Cinema | Instrumental Trip-hop | 4.5/5

One of the least expected surprises this year for me, partly because I generally despise anything that relates in any way to hip-hop or remixes yet I was sold on first listen. It’s just such a supremely chilled out but simultaneously melodically multilayered album which weaves hip-hop/trip-hop styling with a fairly significant utilisation of violins, trumpets, keyboards and an organ, capping it off with a distinct jazz tinge.


4. In Mourning - Shrowded Divine | Melodic Death Metal | 4/5

Genre-wise they’re probably best described as melodic death metal based but with progressive and doom influenced sections, reminiscent of Opeth, but not exactly the same. I initially junked this when I first picked it up but it’s grown on me immensely since then. There’s nothing immediately about them that sticks out as particularly impressive, the riffs aren’t all too complex, the melody isn’t overly diverse. If anything the drumming is quite good and both the harsh and clean vocals are solid. Nevertheless they clearly have a knack for creating memorable melody lines, and many minor touches such as the use juxtaposed clean and harsh vocals of essentially the same lines, coupled with a number of sexy breakdowns and a consistently bleak and permeating tone really make this album memorable in some indescribable way.


5. Transcending Bizarre? - The Serpent's Manifolds | Avant-Garde Black Metal | 4/5

Typical black metal brain mashing, but nicely broken up by violin sections to prevent migraines! Again it really feels like this band just clicks, but that not to say they can’t put out some impressively melodic riffs, and solos or bring it intensity-wise. In terms of criticism, there’s probably too much reliance on violin for a metal album, but that’s a very subjective disparagement, also a select few sections drag a bit ... oh and the intro is obnoxious and highly skipable. Oh and keyboards, oh the humanity! Run for the hills!


6. Thrice - The Alchemy Index - Vol.3 & 4 Air & Earth | Experimental Rock | 4/5

Partially successful but suffers from issues strangely distinct from the first two volumes. Whereas the first two could perhaps be argued to have taken the element concepts too literally both melodically and lyric-wise, this time around there are fairly tentative connections to the elements. With Air there’s simply a heavy use of reverb and echo to create the impression of an expansive soundscape, among a number of other tricks; whereas Earth is merely embodied by heavy use of stripped back and stark acoustic guitar with an American folk grounding. In all, neither really captures the concept as effectively as the haphazard, chaotic, distorting Fire; and if anything the biggest weakness of Air is it doesn’t distance it enough from the seeping smoothness that characterised Water to offer anything particularly distinctive. All in all it still remains an intriguing unconventional attempt with a number of standout songs, particularly the sonnets that outro each of the volumes oddly enough, led by consistently strong vocals.


7. Bar Kokhba Sextet - Lucifer The Book of Angels - Vol. 10 | Jazz | 4/5

I'm not really qualified to comment on or critique jazz as I'm very much a neophyte to it, but this is some excellent stuff.


8. Lights Out Asia - Eyes Like Brontide | Post Rock | 4/5

To me the main element any post rock effort needs to really be effective is a pervasive, consistent atmosphere, which this album abounds with. It doesn't fall into clichés such as blasting you into submission by badgering you with volume changes, or an over reliance on monotonous arpeggios, but builds upon subtle layers of sound to create a vast, rich soundscape of echoing guitars, staccato electronica beats and fleeting vocals.


9. Opeth - Watershed | Progressive Death Metal | 4/5

Disappointingly inconsistent by their standards, but still a pretty solid album all around. Some songs definitely drag massively, and certain parts sound technically overindulging and tiresome particularly the outro to Burden. On the other hand in my humble opinion it also has some of the best songs they have written, the way the progressive acoustic guitar section fades in and out in Porcelain Heart for example is seamlessly mesmerising, Hessian Peel is almost equally memorable. Regardless this is no Blackwater Park unfortunately.


10. Mutyumu - Ilya | Post Rock | 4/5

Post rock doesn't really give this band justice. It's like an odd mix of opera and hardcore Japanese vocals, with heavily piano reliant post rock grounding. Awesome? Somewhat. Half the time its carried by stirring complex but seemingly effortless piano and string sections unfolding at a blistering pace coupled with occasional strangely effective hushed murmurs, yet the other half of the time it cascades into almost unbearable droning repetition. Now given that, Prayer is damn well one of the best post rock songs I have ever heard and it really is a pity that the rest of the album wasn’t equally brilliant. I probably overrate this a tad too but well ... goshdarnit it’s all gotta be about job creation and shoring up our economy.

For those not in the know, the style this man's playing in is known as Gypsy Swing. A genre started by a Belgian jazz guitarist named Django Reinhardt who is known as of the greatest guitarists of all time. Not only did the man play such upbeat material such as this, he did so using only two fingers.

Amy Macdonald:Poison Prince
This song is performed by Amy Macdonald and appears on the album This Is The Life (2007).

A poetic genius is something I don't see
Why would a genius be trippin' on me?
And he's looking at me now
But what he can't see
Is that I'm looking through his eyes
So many lies behind his eyes

And tell me stories from your past
And sing me songs you wrote before
I tell you this my poison prince,
You'll soon be knockin' on heavens door

Some kinda poison prince with your eyes in a daze
Some kinda poison prince your life is like a maze
And what we all want and what we all crave
Is an upbeat song so we can dance the night away

Oh who said life was easy?
Who said life was fair?
Who said nobody gives a damn and nobody even cares?

The way you're acting now like you left that all behind
You've given up
You've given in
Another sucker of that slime

Some kinda poison prince with your eyes in a daze
Some kinda poison prince your life is like a maze
And what we all want and what we all crave
Is an upbeat song so we can dance the night away

Some kinda poison prince with your eyes in a daze
Some kinda poison prince your life is like a maze
And what we all want and what we all crave
Is an upbeat song so we can dance the night away

One of my favorite animes, if not for the clever social critique then for the sheer wackiness of direction. Particularly the utterly random internet suicide cult episode and the way the episode is so disturbingly upbeat.

For background of where my comment comes from understand I'm a Republican, a McCain supporter and disappointed the Condi Rice had no interest in running even after the draft Codi movement that rose up within my party at the start of the primaries.
The video shows us some racist individual morons with a couple choice quotes. Beyond that, I suggest you see past what the videographer and editor is feeding you.
1. There was a crowd of pissed McCain supporters. Why so angry? Maybe because they came to a McCain rally to be confronted by sign-carrying Obama supporters. How warmly would McCain chanting supporters be welcomed at an Obama rally?
2. Were the Obama supporters shouting anything rude and provocative? Obviously not. They were silently waving their signs in slow motion to hip, upbeat music as the video shows. Opposition that shows up at a prearranged political rally would never be rude. Right.

If you are so easily lead to judge a large group of people by a small number of individuals fed to you by the media (even small indy web media manipulators can use misleading techniques) then you may be past being able to think for yourself.

Me? I'll choose not to judge all Obama supporters by a few worst examples, who would say hateful things like, "A perfect opportunity to call in an air strike," and "...and 2 days after the election they will go back to eating potatochips and watching tv."(jsut one of several snarky, urban elitist jabs in the comments at perceived hillbillies between New York and L.A.) I'm afraid of the kind of easily manipulated people who are fed a piece of video propaganda and are ready to propose opposing "ignorance" of "30-40% of the population" by "getting rid of religion to start with, or forcing some mass mandatory re-education program..." I hope they are rare as I think.

It was the only upbeat one if I remember.

nah... ken doesn't cut it.
a voice so famously dreary, blur used it for a song about a boring man.

i don't think the politics really matter much, he hasn't got the power to cripple london, as mayor he just needs to be upbeat and inspire others to do good work, and i think he does that better than ken.

>> ^CrushBug:
Wow, gas was 57 cents back then...


I was feeling pretty upbeat after watching this, then I read your post.

What's the name of this song and the artist? I usually dislike jazz but this is nice and upbeat.

Upbeat music suggests we've found a four-leaf clover instead of a debilitating birth defect. Otherwise this video would be sad.