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.

The stringer at the end of this video is hilarious and true.  Pretty much every one of the web or phone-based meetings I’ve ever had have been a huge waste of my time (and, presumably, everyone else’s time).  I’ve never had a conference break down into a Queen singalong, though.

A couple of weeks ago, I got to go to a double feature of The Muppet Movie and Labyrinth.  I have to say, The Muppet Movie holds up REALLY well.  It was metatext before metatext was cool.  Great, classic, still very funny movie that hasn’t aged a bit.  As for Labyrinth, well… it’s still very weird.

I love this movie.  The Nightmare Before Christmas is one of my absolute all-time favorites.  Stylish, incredible music and songs, and great character design.

Man, this multi-track human beatbox version of the Ghost Busters theme is just incredible!  That reminds me, I need to watch Ghost Busters again sometime.

I seriously have no words.  If I did, I wouldn’t be able to type them without a Klingon keyboard.

Okay, I’ll admit it.  I’m getting excited about Tron Legacy.  It took YEARS for the original Tron to grow on me, but now I’ll kind of see anything with Jeff Bridges in it.

Once upon a time, Napster was the biggest name in music.  It was the first service that most people used to download music off the Internet, and was the linchpin of the RIAA’s war on the Internet.  It has changed hands several times, and tried several different ways to turn legal, and thanks to Best Buy and a monthly subscription model, they’ve survived.  However, in these lean times, a business has to grow.  Entertainment outlets, especially subscription services, need to prove they’re worth the investment.

There are two ways a company can do this.  They can add new features or lower prices.  Napster has decided to do both.  Not only do you get access to their streaming music for only $5 a month on their lowest-cost access tier, you also get 5 free MP3 downloads per month.  That means for the cost of five downloads on iTunes or Amazon, you also get unlimited streaming music!

One of the problems I have with downloading music and not listening to/having any good radio stations is that I’ve gotten into a serious musical rut.  I need some sort of targeted way to get new music into my brain and MP3 player, but I don’t know of any really good, free sampling services.  Anyone have any recommendations?

You might not believe it, or understand WHY, but Vitaly Komar, Alex Melamid and David Soldier have been hard at work putting together the worst song in the world.  Blending opera, country, tubas, accordion, rap, bagpipes, synthesizers, Wal-Mart commercials, and who knows what else, the 21 minute monstrosity of unappealingness is available for download here or for streaming off Wired's write-up.  If this is what science is going to do for us, then I think it's about time we cut all federal funding to science and start a bonfire to burn all musical instruments and lab coats.  This song is kind of catchy and fun in some places, but in other places it's brain-damagingly bad.

I have to apologize for this one; I made it about halfway through before I accidentally clicked off the page.  I think that my mind forced me to accidentally browse away to preserve what's left of my mind from rapping opera Bavarian folk music mash-ups.  This is the musical version of being beaten with a sock full of quarters.