In the anti-SOPA/PIPA furor from last week, someone stepped out to become a big star.  That person is YouTube user LaughPong, who produced the best song parody since Weird Al’s last song parody, except this one was for a good cause.  It was called “The Day the LOLcats Died,” and it’s an anti-SOPA rendition of Don McLean’s “American Pie.”  Let’s cue it up, shall we?

The song is great, and while it’s no longer right on the cusp, the SOPA/PIPA movement is still alive and still active, and if you think you’ve seen this bill for the last time, think again.  It will be back in some different form; don’t you worry about that.  The media cartels are scared, and since they don’t know how to bring their business back, they’re going to lash out in a public manner.  Since they own so many Congressmembers, it’ll be in law form.  SOPA and PIPA will be back, eventually.  Just wait.

Once upon a time, Apple wasn’t at war with the music industry.  Indeed, they weren’t even involved in the music industry at all!  Apple’s only real association with music was with promotions.  Namely, The Apple Boogie.  For those that are just now hearing of it (like me!), the Apple Boogie was a promotional cassette tape given out by Apple for their 1984 International Sales Meeting.  We’re not talking a few songs, either.  This is a full album of 8 songs, released on commemorative cassettes like the one seen above!

The songs on this album, though I’ve never heard any of them, sound amazing.  There’s  ”Power to Be Your Best,” “We’re So Excited,” Apple II Forever,” Building the Future with You,” and even “Blue Busters,” a parody of the Ghostbusters theme wherein Apple takes on Big Blue, BKA IBM.  If this exists, or if you have a copy of it, feel free to let me know, because I’d love to hear just how awesomely bad this thing is.

How does this work?  I have no idea.  However, it’s a pair of old 3.5-inch floppy disk drives playing the Imperial March from the Star Wars series.  If that’s not worthy of a few views, I don’t know what is.  Thanks to @sarahdobbs on Twitter for posting it, and thanks to me for stealing the video and reposting it here.

This music isn’t from a video game you’ve ever played.  It’s not from a video game anyone’s ever played.  The song, “Under Fire” is from a cancelled EA video game called Road Rash.  As the title might suggest, it was a racing game.  The song itself was composed by Jesse James Allen, who has composed songs for other video games like Tiger Woods 2011 and Mass Effect 2.

Amazingly, this incredible work may not ever see the light of day in any official release, as it is owned by EA Trax and unless EA wants to use it, it’ll never get out.  At least Jesse was able to display it on his YouTube page and share it with the world.  Music this good (and it’s not even a genre I like) should be heard by the world.

Just because you’re white and nerdy doesn’t mean you can’t also be the coolest cat in the building.  For example, there’s no one on Star Trek nerdier than Data the android, but despite this, he still manages to be the best character on the show and an enduring icon for robots everywhere.  Now, to pay Data his proper respect, some enterprising Star Trek fan has mashed up TNG and Weird Al to pay tribute to Data, everyone’s favorite white and nerdy android.

Just when you think the Internet can’t get any better, this happens.

There are a lot of versions of the Star Trek theme, as it’s one of the most iconic themes in television history.  In fact, Blastr has pulled together 12 interesting versions of the Star Trek theme, but there’s one that I feel stands out.  It’s from Natalia Paruz, AKA the Saw Lady, a street performer who plays the saw as her instrument of choice.  Say what you want to about the saw, but it’s awesome, and it sounds great when covering the Star Trek theme.  Check it out below, and enjoy!

I really can’t provide any more helpful information than that provided by Mo Serious, the SEO Rapper.  So rather than add my two cents into the debate on search engine optimization, I’ll just let Mo take over.  After all, he’s got serious flow, and I am the antithesis of rapping skills.  Not only is this guy talented, he’s got some GREAT tips for optimizing your website and getting your content polished and placed to where the maximum amount of people can view it.

Take it away, Mr. Mo Serious!

In the real world, Mo Serious’s name is actually Charles “Chuck” Lewis, and in addition to being the SEO rapper, he also runs an entertainment company and releases his own musical recordings, both as The SEO Rapper and as Poetic Prophet (for his religious-themed music).  You can hear more of Mo’s music in video form at his YouTube page.  It’s definitely worth checking out if you’re into this sort of thing; if nothing else, it’s a lot of good, free SEO advice for beginners!

Actually, Mario does more than get jazzy with Super Mario Galaxy 2, which came out over the weekend.  Mario actually gets the full orchestral treatment thanks to composer Mahito Yokota and the Mario Galaxy Orchestra.  Even better, the entire OST for Super Mario Galaxy 2 (including the song playing right now, Supermassive Galaxy) is available for streaming at Mahito Yokota’s YouTube channel.

It’s a great soundtrack, and an even better way to get the day moving in the right direction.  Yokota manages to find the right balance between stirring, whimsical, nostalgic, and modern for this sound track, which is probably the best soundtrack ever included on a video game, or at least for a video game of this generation.  It’s definitely music worth streaming sometime today.

This is a wonderful tribute to webcomic xkcd and the Internet in general, featuring most of the Internet’s notable celebrities and/or writers and thinkers.  There’s literally hundreds of millions of hits between these collected folks.  Just take a look at the list:  Neil Gaiman, Wil Wheaton, Cory Doctorow, Lawrence Lessig, Bruce Schneier, Jason Kottke, Google Zurich, Hank Green, MC Frontalot, Patrick & Teresa Nielsen Hayden, Mr. Toast, Miss Cellania, Team Genius, Phil Plait, Allan Amato, Maddy Gaiman, Charissa Gilreath, Belinda Casas, Chuck Martinez, Jeremy James, Joanna Gaunder, Lee Israel & Octavio Coleman Esq. of The Jejune Institute.

It’s based off this strip, which is further based off those Discovery Channel commercials.  It’s so sweet and wonderfully cheerful that I can’t help but smile.