Then, a “Beautiful” video, interpreted into ASL by D-PAN — and I think that’s Rosa Lee!:

And next, not exactly my cup of tea, and not suitable for young ones, but very cool interpretation nonetheless:

If The National Anthem Were A Rock Song, What Song Would You Pick?

My favorite and most unexpected suggestion from the commenters - thus far - has to be Twisted Sister’s We’re Not Gonna Take it:

WE’VE GOT THE RIGHT TO CHOOSE ANDTHERE AIN’T NO WAY WE’LL LOSE ITTHIS IS OUR LIFE, THIS IS OUR SONGWE’LL FIGHT THE POWERS THAT BE JUSTDON’T PICK OUR DESTINY ‘CAUSEYOU DON’T KNOW US, YOU DON’T BELONG

• The Pretenders | I’ll Stand By You
• Donovan | Season of the Witch
• Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds | Christmas Song
• The Clash | Train in Vain
• Blue Oyster Cult | Don’t Fear the Reaper
• Velvet Underground | Pale Blue Eyes
• The White Stripes | My Doorbell
• Iggy Pop | Sea of Love
• Johnny Cash | Hurt
• Nina Simone | Sinnerman
• Emmylou Harris & Gram Parsons | Love Hurts
• The Flaming Lips | Do You Realize
• Rolling Stones | Beast of Burden*

*you simply can’t convince me Mick is not singing “I could suck a duck” in this version — especially irresponsible in this age of rampant avian flu.

One need not be a chamber to be haunted;One need not be a house;The brain has corridors surpassingMaterial place.~ Emily Dickinson 

Darkness Falls Across The LandThe Midnite Hour Is Close At HandCreatures Crawl In Search Of BloodTo Terrorize Y’all’s NeighbourhoodAnd Whosoever Shall Be FoundWithout The Soul For Getting DownMust Stand And Face The Hounds Of HellAnd Rot Inside A Corpse’s ShellThe Foulest Stench Is In The AirThe Funk Of Forty Thousand YearsAnd Grizzy Ghouls From Every TombAre Closing In To Seal Your DoomAnd Though You Fight To Stay AliveYour Body Starts To ShiverFor No Mere Mortal Can ResistThe Evil Of The Thriller~Vincent Price / Michael Jackson from Thriller

From Salon.com:In France, you can get super-fast DSL, unlimited phone service and 100 TV channels for a mere $38 a month

My cable bill savings alone would pay for two one-way tickets plus freight for the hounds, cat and poultry.I bit the bullet last month to prepare for a potential upcoming budget squeeze: I downsized my cable access to basic TV (plus cable modem, of course, which meant not quite basic TV). We tend to watch an hour of TV a night, with a cup of tea (or a pint of ice cream, depending on the day … ) just before bed — the dogs like the wind-down time. I need my Medium fix and John can’t go without a week of Veronica Mars. We were big Carnivale and Deadwood fans once upon a time, too. And we live and die for special events, like PBS’ piece on Dylan and for our weekly on demand movie. We no longer have unlimited access to those 900 channels as members of Platinum Digital, and we’ve now lost the basics. Our cable went out altogether a couple of weeks ago (cable guy is coming on Saturday!), and we’ve being making do with the visual equivalent of a well-scratched vinyl record. Oh, for crying out loud — me and my archaic terms — sorry for the obscure reference kids:

From Wikipedia:The record, in one format or another, was the dominant musical format for seventy years. It overtook the phonograph cylinder in the first quarter of the century, and was ultimately surplanted in the late 1980s by digital media and audio tapes. Considering that many of the audio formats had a heyday lasting only a few years - such as the 8 track - the durability of the record is amazing.By 1988 digital media such as the compact disc surpassed the gramophone record in popularity, but gramophone records continue to be made (although in very limited quantities) into the 21st century, particularly for DJs doing live remixes and for local acts recording on small regional labels.

Well it ain’t no use to sit and wonder why, babyIf’n you don’t know by nowAnd it ain’t no use to sit and wonder why, babeIt’ll never do somehowWhen your rooster crows at the break of dawn,look out your window and I’ll be goneyou’re the reason I’m a travelling onBut don’t think twice, it’s all right And it ain’t no use in turning on your light babethe light I never knowedand it ain’t no use in turning on your light babeI’m on the dark side of the roadWell I wish there was something you would do or sayto try and make me change my mind and staywe never did too much talking anywayBut don’t think twice, it’s all rightSo it ain’t no use in calling out my name, gallike you never done beforeand it ain’t no use in calling out my name, galI can’t hear you any moreI’m a thinkin’ and a wonderin’, walkin’ down the roadI once loved a woman, a child I am toldI give her my heart but she wanted my soulDon’t think twice, it’s all rightSo long honey babewhere I’m bound, I can’t tellgoodbye is too good a word babeso I’ll just say fare thee wellI ain’t a sayin’ you treated me unkindyou coulda done better but, I don’t mindyou just kinda wasted my precious timeDon’t think twice, it’s all right~ Bob Dylan, Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right 1963

American Masters and Martin Scorsese bring feature-length film documentary “No Direction Home — Bob Dylan” to PBS.

Is it nature or is it nurture, heredity or society? In that great debate of our time, conservatives lean toward the former and liberals toward the latter.I believe both are asking the wrong question. I believe it’s nature and nurture, and this is why…

Maybe I didn’t treat you quite as good as I should have. Maybe I didn’t love you quite as often as I could have. Little things I should have said and done, I just never took the time.You were always on my mind. Maybe I didn’t hold you all those lonely, lonely times. And I guess I never told you IÂ’’m so happy that you’re mine. If I made you feel second best girl, I’m so sorry, I was blind.Tell me, tell me that your sweet love hasn’t died. Give me, give me one more chance to keep you satisfied.

Johnny Christopher, Mark James and Wayne Carson Thompson wrote this song that’s been on my mind all day. I do buy into Elvis as a god, but I’m partial to Willie Nelson’s version. Astounded to find that Thompson also penned “the Letter” performed by the Boxtops (I always thought that was an Alex Chilton hit).