Back to the 8-track theme.

Chicago was a rocking band in the 70's. Unfortunately for them they were eventually hit by a bad case of sappy ballad syndrome courtesy of Peter Cetera. But let us not think about that right now. Let's focus on when they rocked, their full on brass section sound, and Terry Kath's guitar work. Let's pull out that old Chicago II album, and play "25 or 6 to 4." There ... much better!

What does the Chicago lyric "25 or 6 to 4" mean? You can check out the explanation over at the Straight Dope.

"Waiting for the break of day
Searching for something to say
Flashing lights against the sky
Giving up I close my eyes
Sitting cross-legged on the floor
25 or 6 to 4

Staring blindly into space
Getting up to splash my face
Wanting just to stay awake
Wondering how much I can take
Should I try to do some more
25 or 6 to 4

Feeling like I ought to sleep
Spinning room is sinking deep
Searching for something to say
Waiting for the break of day
25 or 6 to 4"

Additional info:

• Wikipedia: Chicago
• Song at iTunes: 25 or 6 to 4
• Album at Amazon: The Very Best of Chicago: Only the Beginning

» Tags: Song of the day, Music, iTunes, 8-track

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Published: (2006-02-07 10:11:11.0)

Dragon is an amazing commercial for United Airlines. The story is the visualization of a child imagining what his father does at work. Hand cut-out paper characters are wonderfully animated using the stop-motion technique (can you say labor intensive?) It was directed by Jamie Caliri, who did the closing credit sequence for Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events. United Airlines has the commercial as well as a making-of documentary (also very cool) on their site.

And now for something mechanical. Think you've seen good computer-generated water? Then you should check out Flowline's demo reel. What's really impressive is that the clip is rendered in one pass and there's no compositing. Oh and the shark is pretty cool as well.

» Tags: Animation

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Published: (2006-02-07 09:28:28.0)