On my way into my second job last night, I heard “I’m Henery the Eighth, I Am” in my Music from A-Z playlist. The song on my iPod, according to Wikipedia, is a 1911 recording of the song. (The article links to the MP3 file.)

Contrary to what some may think, the song is about a man named Henery (or Henry, take your pick) who marries a woman who was married seven times before him; her previous husbands all share the same name: Henery. It’s not about King Henry VIII, who himself was married six times before he finally died of syphilis. (At least we think it was syphilis, anyway.)

And speaking of King Happypants Henry, this weekend is the final one for my show, A Man for All Seasons. The final two performances are Friday and Saturday nights at 8:00 p.m. If you want to see it and haven’t reserved tix, visit the Arlington Players’ website.

It’s been a while since I last updated on my progress with my Music from A-Z Project. I reached the “I” songs the other night; Live’s “I Alone” kicked off that section.

The highlight of the I section so far, though, was a four song block of the deliciously classic “I Touch Myself,” originally recorded by the Divinyls. Their version popped up first, followed by Eve6’s live version; Jack Off Jill’s punk version; and, my personal favorite, a classically inspired choral version by Scala & Kolacny Brothers. Imagine a troupe of sweet-voiced teenaged girls singing, “I don’t want anybody else / When I think about you, I touch myself.” Classic!

And, oh look, here’s the video!

I finally made it to the E portion of my Music from A-Z Project last night. I’ll be in the Es for about 200 songs; the Fs are an additional 300. My friend Paul recently reached the Gs on his playlist.

Currently, I’m in the middle of what I call the “Eight Easy Steps” suite, which includes the album version, several remixes, and a live version.

Earlier this morning, I heard the Violent Femmes’ cover of “Eep Opp Ork Ah-Ah,” featured on the album Saturday Morning Cartoons’ Greatest Hits. This is easily one of my favorite covers of all time; the song was originally from the Jetsons’ episode “A Date With Jet Screamer.”

If you follow follow my friend Paul’s LiveJournal skacubby, you may have noticed that I was tagged for a meme. (I’m cubdrummer.) Normally, I don’t do memes (especially from LiveJournal), but because I like Paul so much — and because I really need to reflect on the things in this meme — I’m taking a rare turn in obliging.

So here’s the meme:

Write 5 things that make you happy (in no particular order) and then tag 5 others to do the same.

1. Friends who *rawk!* (”Rock,” for those of you do don’t instant message with me very often.) Recent events (yes, plural) in my life have led me to turn to some of my friends for advice, an ear, or just a beer.
2. My photography. It’s the one hobby I take a lot of satisfaction in. I don’t claim to be some great photographer, but I do enjoy trying.
3. Music. Whether listening or playing, there’s a lot of power in a note. It helps with the emotions and leads to feeling better.
4. Family. As out of touch as I can be with them, they’re far too important to not include here.
5. Cartoons. Especially the classic Looney Tunes shorts.

And from here, I shall only tag the dust bunnies under my futon. If you care to do this one too, by all means, please go ahead.

Lots o’ news from the good folks in Cupertino today.

At an invitation-only event in San Francisco, Steve Jobs unveiled the Rokr mobile phone, capable of playing music from iTunes. The project was jointly produced by Motorola and Apple and was in the works since May 2004.

Apple also introduced the iPod Nano, a slim, scaled down version of the current fourth-generation iPods. The Nanos feature flash-based hard drives (similar to those in the shuffles) and full-color screens. The Nanos are available in white or black with either a 2 GB (500 songs) or 4 GB (1,000 songs) capacity.

On top of this hardware bounty, Warner Bros. is set to make a mint on iTunes: Madonna’s complete music catalog was released exclusively to the music store (I can almost hear every homo squeal with delight over that), and all six audiobooks in the Harry Potter series are available for purchase on iTunes. Apple also released a collector’s edition Harry Potter iPod, a 20 GB model featuring the Hogwarts crest laser engraved on the reverse.

The audiobooks range in price from $33 to $50; all six can be purchased for $249. The Harry Potter iPod is $299.

Alright, I know… it’s time for me to put down the cup of Apple-flavoured Kool-Aid.

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