Neatorama

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• Inhaler Of Worlds - Kirby Is Mighty Hungry
• Inanimate Objects Turned Into Colorful Characters
• This Cat is the Best Car Alarm Ever!
• Tarot Mythology: The Surprising Origins of the World's Most Misunderstood Cards
• OK Go's New Video is Packed With Optical Illusions
• The Best Things You Can Do At Costco Without A Membership
• 29 Weird Museums
• Honest Video Game Box Art
• Betamax vs. VHS
• The Spotted Lake of Osoyoos
• Powerful Animal Ads That Tell The Uncomfortable Truth
• All Men Must Die - George And The Bloody Pen
• Full Contact Skydiving
• Photos of Death-Defying Activities
• My OCD Song
• 10 Great Songs Envisioned as Buildings
• State Worker's Close Encounter with an Alaskan Brown Bear
• Meat Rushmore: Mount Rushmore Made with Jerky
• Rainbow Tie-Dye Surprise Cake
• Who's Afraid of the Big, Bad Hiccups?
• Who Needs Paper When You've Got Stones And Skulls To Draw On?
• Dog Enjoys World Cup
• Dexter's Cereal Killer - The Taste That Knocks 'Em Dead!
• Fantasized Turns Trash Into Home Treasures
• “Yesterday”: The Most Recorded Song of All-Time
• Great Landscapes Lent Focus by the iPhone

Inhaler Of Worlds - Kirby Is Mighty Hungry Posted: 19 Jun 2014 04:00 AM PDT Inhaler of Worlds by Mandrie Being an eater of worlds is a whole lot harder when you have to bite, chew and swallow planets one piece at a time, but when you can just inhale the whole thing in one big breath munching your way through the entire galaxy is a breeze! Attain a geeky wardrobe high score with this Inhaler of Worlds t-shirt by Mandrie, it comes from a world where comic books and classic video games collide, and anybody who sees you wearing it will want to eat you up! Visit Mandrie's Facebook fan page, Tumblr and Twitter, then head on over to her NeatoShop for more adorably geeky designs: My Little Artax A Nice Cup of Tea Who's Sweater Forever Late View more designs by Mandrie | More Funny T-shirts | New T-Shirts Are you a professional illustrator or T-shirt designer? Let's chat! Sell your designs on the NeatoShop and get featured in front of tons of potential new fans on Neatorama!

Inanimate Objects Turned Into Colorful Characters Posted: 19 Jun 2014 04:00 AM PDT French multimedia artist Gilbert Legrand is either in need of some really strong psych meds, the kind that keep you from hallucinating, or he simply has such a vivid imagination that he sees colorful characters in every inanimate object he comes across throughout his day. His whimsical series of sculptures turn the objects we use in our daily lives, like corkscrews, zippers, faucets and spray bottles, into hilariously lively anthropomorphic characters, some of which seem to personify the object itself while others simply use elements of the original object as part of the character design. I'll never look at a dripping faucet the same way ever again! -Via The Wondrous

This Cat is the Best Car Alarm Ever! Posted: 19 Jun 2014 02:00 AM PDT Forget car alarms, here comes cat alarm! Redditor ArdousErials introduced us to this particularly menacing automobile guardian. Woe is the unsuspecting car thief who dares to break into its domain! Via Cheezburger.

Tarot Mythology: The Surprising Origins of the World's Most Misunderstood Cards Posted: 19 Jun 2014 12:00 AM PDT Using cards for divination goes back to the 14th century, and the deck that was later known as tarot cards evolved through both gaming and fortune-telling, with innovations coming from several different cultures.   Contrary to what the uninitiated might think, the meaning of divination cards changes over time, shaped by each era’s culture and the needs of individual users. This is partly why these decks can be so puzzling to outsiders, as most of them reference allegories or events familiar to people many centuries ago. Caitlín Matthews, who teaches cartomancy, or divination with cards, says that before the 18th century, the imagery on these cards was accessible to a much broader population. But in contrast to these historic decks, Matthews finds most modern decks harder to engage with. “You either have these very shallow ones or these rampantly esoteric ones with so many signs and symbols on them you can barely make them out,” says Matthews. “I bought my first tarot pack, which was the Tarot de Marseille published by Grimaud in 1969, and I recently came right around back to it after not using it for a while.” Originating in the 16th century, the Tarot de Marseille is one of the most common types of tarot deck ever produced. Marseille decks were generally printed with woodblocks and later colored by hand using basic stencils. With so many different tarot cards from different periods of history, it’s hard for anyone to understand what they are supposed to mean. Collectors Weekly talked with several different experts to bring us the history of tarot cards, with plenty of pictures.

OK Go's New Video is Packed With Optical Illusions Posted: 18 Jun 2014 11:00 PM PDT YouTube Link OK Go, an alternative band originally from Chicago, is known for their interesting music videos. Neatorama has featured several of their previous videos, including one with a Rube Goldberg machine. Their new video for "The Writing's On the Wall"  —  from their studio album Hungry Ghosts, to be released in October, 2014  —  is not a disappointment in the "interesting" category. The video contains one trick on the eyes after another, and has the appearance of being filmed in one take (although it's not a true one-take shot). Read more on the video in this Rolling Stone article. Via Colossal.

The Best Things You Can Do At Costco Without A Membership Posted: 18 Jun 2014 10:00 PM PDT It seems like everybody knows somebody or someone else who shops at Costco these days, buying massive packs of food stuffs and other stuffs they don’t necessarily need at a decent price, and if you don’t have a membership you might feel like you’re being left out of all those member type benefits and mega deals. Truth is- there’s lots of cool stuff you can do at Costco without having to pay annual dues, and maybe if you hang around the store long enough they’ll make you an honorary member! Buy some pizza while you have your eyes examined and stock up on some vodka, all without needing a card. Now that’s what I call free validation! Read all the fun things you can do at Costco without a membership over at Lifehacker

29 Weird Museums Posted: 18 Jun 2014 09:00 PM PDT (YouTube link) Would you like to visit the Barbed Wire Museum? The Spam Museum? Or the Vent haven Museum of Ventriloquist Dummies? Sounds like a great idea to plan a road trip around! John Green tells us about the weirdest museums ever, many of which are open to the public daily. I’m surprised by how many of these I’m already familiar with because we’ve posted items about them here over the years. They’re all here together in the latest mental_floss video.

Honest Video Game Box Art Posted: 18 Jun 2014 08:00 PM PDT Avid gamers can become extremely jaded towards cover art full of empty promises and paid reviews, especially when they’ve played one too many games promising the moon but delivering little more than a slice of cheese, so wouldn’t it be a real hoot if game companies started telling us what we should actually expect when we play their game? Mario Kart will test the limits of your friendships, Skyrim is full of crazy glitches, and there’s no getting the love back once you’ve played Duke Nukem Forever…these facts would have been helpful to know before we started playing these games and went through all the heartache! These honest video game box art treatments, and many more, have made their way into a Facebook group called HonestVGBoxArt, which boasts a whopping 14,000 members and over 100 modded video game boxes for your viewing pleasure. -Via Gamma Squad

Betamax vs. VHS Posted: 18 Jun 2014 07:00 PM PDT (YouTube link) Young people puzzle over videotape, and we may laugh at how outdated it is, but at one time it was a revolutionary idea for consumers. This is a history lesson. Way back when, viewers had no choice about what to watch in their homes, except for the few TV channels that broadcast what they had on their own schedules. Then home video debuted and opened up an entirely new world. Sony’s Betamax format was first, followed by JVC’s VHS format. Betamax was the higher-quality format, but VHS soon buried them as the consumer’s choice. Why? Bill Hammack, the Engineer Guy, explains what happened in the late 1970s to settle the videotape war. -via Viral Viral Videos

The Spotted Lake of Osoyoos Posted: 18 Jun 2014 06:00 PM PDT    Image: Flickr User Calypso Orchid Osoyoos is a small town in British Columbia, Canada that is home to an incredible natural phenomenon called the Spotted Lake, thought to be the most mineralized lake in the world. The Okanagan people — aboriginal people of Canada, collectively called the First Nation — believe the lake is sacred and has medicinal power. The Okanagan have been coming to the lake for centuries, in search of healing for their ailments.  During summer, most of the water in Spotted Lake evaporates, exposing large mineral deposits. The mineral in highest concentration is magnesium sulfate, which crystallizes in the summer. Spotted Lake also has high levels of calcium, sodium sulphate and eight other minerals, as well as small concentrations of silver and titanium. Read more about the Spotted Lake of Osoyoos in this article. Via Unique Daily.    Image: Flickr User Christopher Wenger    Image: Flickr User Calyspo Orchid

Powerful Animal Ads That Tell The Uncomfortable Truth Posted: 18 Jun 2014 05:00 PM PDT (Image Via Partners Lisboa, Portugal) (Image Via Stick, South Africa) (Image Via Ogilvy, France) We're at a point in our existence on Earth where we can truly help animals, yet poaching and needless hunting still goes on despite the warnings and knowledge that humans may very well cause some animal species to go extinct, and it seems like some people just don't understand the gravity of the situation. Perhaps if there were more ads out there like the ones present in this collection of 33 Powerful Animal Ad Campaigns That Tell The Uncomfortable Truth people would have their eyes opened to the seriousness of the situation, and how every little bit we can do to help bring animals back from the brink of extinction, or keep our furry critter friends safe from exploitation, will ultimately benefit our lives as members of Team Earth. (Warning- contains graphic imagery that may be shocking to some people)

All Men Must Die - George And The Bloody Pen Posted: 18 Jun 2014 04:00 PM PDT All Men Must Die by Legendary Phoenix He may not look like a man to be feared, he may not seem like your typical killer, but Mr. Martin has proven the pen is mightier than the sword by slaying his way through one fantasy kingdom after another, and if you read his books you'd better not get attached to your favorite characters! Bring the power of the written word to your geeky wardrobe with this All Men Must Die t-shirt by Legendary Phoenix and share your love of bloody good fantasy fiction. Visit Legendary Phoenix's Facebook fan page, then head on over to his NeatoShop for more bloody good designs: You Have Failed Hyrule Super Fighting Kart Le Tournee du Xenomorph Noir Schraderbraud Home Brewed View more designs by Legendary Phoenix | More Funny T-shirts | New T-Shirts Are you a professional illustrator or T-shirt designer? Let's chat! Sell your designs on the NeatoShop and get featured in front of tons of potential new fans on Neatorama!

Full Contact Skydiving Posted: 18 Jun 2014 04:00 PM PDT (YouTube link) What’s new in the extreme sports world? Think of the two most insanely dangerous sports you can think of and combine them: mixed martial arts and skydiving. Full Contact Skydiving involves MMA fighting during the scant minute of free fall from 15,000 feet to 4,000 feet -the point you must deploy your parachute, according to the rules. This has got to be some kind of viral marketing stunt, I just haven’t yet heard what for …maybe Go Pro? The campaign looks plenty expensive, much too expensive for just satire, and they’ve got the UFC’s Urijah Faber involved. -via With Leather

Photos of Death-Defying Activities Posted: 18 Jun 2014 03:00 PM PDT Have you ever known anyone with a "death wish?" I know I have, and it didn't end well. Adrenaline junkies who push the boundaries of safety sometimes play the odds and lose. Others seem to have a special kind of luck that keeps them living a life full of death-defying stunts. The subject of the photographs included in the article "30 Death-Defying Photos That Will Make Your Heart Skip a Beat" are hopefully in the latter category. Via Bored Panda Image: Dan Carr Image: Gordon Wiltsie25  Image: Brian Mosbaugh Image: Alex Emanuel Koch

My OCD Song Posted: 18 Jun 2014 02:00 PM PDT (YouTube link) The latest music video from Rhett & Link is about OCD- Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. I had my doubts about posting it, because this is not what OCD is like at all. This is about the popular misconceptions of OCD. However, there is a disclaimer at the YouTube page: NOTE: We understand that OCD is a serious mental disorder that significantly affects the lives of millions of people (including Rhett's wife).  This song is not intended to make fun of people with OCD, but rather to demonstrate and poke fun at the tendency of so many people to point out things that are off-center, off-balance, etc. and say "It's driving my OCD crazy!".  We have an extensive discussion about this very thing, as well as what OCD really is, on tomorrow's episode of Good Mythical Morning.  Thanks - R&L When you know the intention, the song makes more sense. The song is more in line with OCPD, an unfortunately-named personality disorder which contains neither obsessiveness nor compulsiveness. Freud called it “anal-retentive.” While most people like a sense of order to varying degrees, actual OCPD as a disorder is not all that common.

10 Great Songs Envisioned as Buildings Posted: 18 Jun 2014 01:00 PM PDT Ever wonder what your favorite song would look like as a building? Wonder no more, thanks to these posters by Italian architect and illustrator Federico Babina. In his Archimusic series, Babina took songs from various singers and composers and imagine them as whimsical architectures. "The parallels between architecture and music are diverse and extraordinary," Babina told Deezen, "they have a common mathematical order which regulates the forms and rhythm." "The idea was to tell a story starting from the soundtrack, listen to the music and imagine the shapes hidden behind it," he added. So What by Miles Davis Babina started with So What, a track in the 1959 Kind of Blue album by Miles Davis. The building's balconies and chimney evoke the form of a giant trumpet, befitting of the legendary jazz trumpeter. "His music moves in a perfect balance between harmonic simplicity and an ingenious difficulty," Babina told Deezen. "It was the perfect example to transform the rhythm of notes into a sequence of colours and shapes." Take a look at the rest of Babina's fantastic Archimusic series: Let It Be by The Beatles Can't Help Falling in Love by Elvis Presley Love Will Tear Us Apart by Joy Division My Funny Valentine by Chet Baker Naima by John Coltrane Space Oddity by David Bowie Requiem by Mozart Suite Pour Violoncelle No 1 by J.S. Bach Hey Joe by Jimi Hendrix View more over at Deezen and Federico Babina's official website.

State Worker's Close Encounter with an Alaskan Brown Bear Posted: 18 Jun 2014 12:00 PM PDT YouTube Link Drew Hamilton, a photographer and tech worker at the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, encounters a (luckily for him) friendly, satiated brown bear at the McNeil River State Game Sanctuary and Refuge in Alaska. I don't know if Hamilton felt as nervous during his bear visit as I did watching the video of it, but when I see "Alaska" and "bear," all I can think of is Timothy Treadwell, The Grizzly Man, who had one encounter too many with Alaska's bear population and did not live to tell about it. Via Tastefully Offensive.

Meat Rushmore: Mount Rushmore Made with Jerky Posted: 18 Jun 2014 11:00 AM PDT What better way to commemorate the National Jerky Day than to recreate Mount Rushmore with meat jerky? Beef jerky manufacturer Jack Link's commissioned a team of artists led by art director Alex Valhouli to recreate the iconic granite sculpture of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln* in jerky. The team spent 1,400 man-hour "meatsculpting" a scaled replica of Mount Rushmore with 1,600 pound of jerky. "It celebrates America's lifelong relationship with meat snacks," said Valhouli, "The big challenge with meat sculpting is that it hasn't been done before and you can't possibly know what to expect." The piece has generated some online controversies (just read the comments left on the YouTube video), but there's no question that the publicity stunt is unique. *Abraham Lincoln is rumored to be a vegetarian and an animal rights activist, though there's no evidence of that.

Rainbow Tie-Dye Surprise Cake Posted: 18 Jun 2014 10:00 AM PDT Isn’t this cute? Cut open a birthday pound cake and every slice has your age -or actually, a child’s age, because anything over nine might be hard to fit. How did they do it? The secret is to bake the number first, then the rest of the cake around it. And the icing is fondant. Honestly, I’d lose the fondant and keep the surprise, if I were making this cake. But you’ll want to use it if your goal is to be the talk of the neighborhood moms. You’ll find the recipe and instructions at Tablespoon. -via Bits and Pieces

Who's Afraid of the Big, Bad Hiccups? Posted: 18 Jun 2014 09:00 AM PDT YouTube Link ...not this wolf pup! In fact, Nikai, the yawning, young wolf shown here, would likely be asleep if it wasn't for his hiccups!  Nikai is in the care of The Wolf Conservation Center (WCC), an environmental education organization and sanctuary located in South Salem, New York. A portion of the work done at the WCC helps preserve two critically endangered wolf species, the Mexican gray wolf and the red wolf, which are among the rarest mammals in North America. At one time, both species were completely extinct in the wild. Currently, there are approximately 400 Mexican gray wolves and 300 red wolves remaining in the world, the majority of which live in facilities such as the WCC. Via Viral Viral Videos.

Who Needs Paper When You've Got Stones And Skulls To Draw On? Posted: 18 Jun 2014 08:00 AM PDT When art lovers feast their eyes upon the artwork of French illustrator DZO Olivier one main question comes to mind- "why skulls and stones?" DZO claims to have turned to skulls and stones in a time when he was out of paper and looking for something new to draw on, but regardless of how he began illustrating upon these unusual canvases there's something so right about the way they look when they're all inked up. Like a flat ink version of scrimshaw, DZO's solid linework stands out bold and compellingly illustrative against the flat color of the skulls and stones that make up his appropriately entitled series "Stones and Bones", and your eyes get lost while trying to take in every dreamy detail drawn on the very earthy surfaces. -Via Beautiful/Decay

Dog Enjoys World Cup Posted: 18 Jun 2014 07:00 AM PDT (YouTube link) Georges is a real football fan -and a real TV fan, too! He’s getting so much pleasure out of watching the World Cup games that you can’t help but get excited yourself! Georges really doesn’t care who wins, as long as he gets to watch the action. You can almost read his mind: “Throw the ball! Throw the ball! Throw the ball!” But it’s also true, not every dog is a soccer fan…  -via Daily Picks and Flicks

Dexter's Cereal Killer - The Taste That Knocks 'Em Dead! Posted: 18 Jun 2014 06:00 AM PDT Dexter's Cereal Killer by rustenico Wake up to a bloody big bowl of Dexter's Cereal Killer brand cereal and you'll be waking up in a really dark place. This is the cereal best eaten at night, when no one is watching, maybe on a boat or in a blood splatter lab, and even though it kills your hunger there's a surprise inside that makes it really hard to stomach! Everybody's favorite serial killer now has his own brand of breakfast cereal, help spread the word with this Dexter's Cereal Killer t-shirt by rustenico. Visit rustenico's Facebook fan page, then head on over to his NeatoShop for more groovy designs: Dude, I'm Not Zelda Joker Laugh Plastic Rambo Vaas Definition of Insanity View more designs by rustenico | More Funny T-shirts | New T-Shirts Are you a professional illustrator or T-shirt designer? Let's chat! Sell your designs on the NeatoShop and get featured in front of tons of potential new fans on Neatorama!

Fantasized Turns Trash Into Home Treasures Posted: 18 Jun 2014 06:00 AM PDT If you ever owned a desk fan or box fan, then you know their motor will eventually die and while resourceful people might be able to fix them, most people find it's cheaper and easier to get a new fan than fixing the old one. With so many fans inevitably ending up in the dump, it's nice to see someone turn them into something beautiful again, and that's exactly what the team at Fantasized does. The group purchases fan guards from local scrap yards and plastic scraps from a local chair-making factory, supporting the local economy, and they then paint them and bring them to local artisans, who weave them into beautiful and useful home accessories. Learn more about the concept and see more pictures at Homes and Hues: Discarded Fans Made Into Home Decor Products by Fantasized

“Yesterday”: The Most Recorded Song of All-Time Posted: 18 Jun 2014 05:00 AM PDT Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website or at Facebook. “I reckon ‘Yesterday’ is probably my best song. I like it not only because it was a big success, but because it was one of the most instinctive songs I’ve ever written. I was so proud of it. I felt it was an original tune- the most complete thing I’ve ever written. It's very catchy without being sickly" -Paul McCartney. “Yesterday,” written entirely (or almost entirely- read on) by Paul McCartney, is the most widely recorded song of all-time. To date, at least 4,000 different versions of the classic Beatles tune have been recorded by artists as diverse as Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Liberace, Tammy Wynette, Daffy Duck (!), The Mamas and the Papas, Marvin Gaye, Ray Charles and Placido Domingo. In the mid-sixties, long before “Yesterday" was known to the general public, singer Billy J. Kramer said he was looking for a new song to record and Paul played him “Yesterday.” Poor Billy turned it down because he said it wasn't right for him. Chris Farlowe also turned down the number, telling Paul, “It's not for me. It's too soft. I need a good rocker, a shuffle or something.” Although “Yesterday" has been covered by thousands of different and diverse artists, only four versions have actually made the charts: those by the Beatles, Matt Monro, Ray Charles and Marianne Faithfull. “It was the only song I ever dreamed,” said McCartney. True- “Yesterday" came to Paul McCartney in a dream. Paul woke up one morning, late in 1963 in the attic bedroom of Jane Asher's house (Jane was his then-girlfriend) with a complete melody in his head and set some nonsense lyrics to it. The original title was actually “Scrambled Eggs.” Although the melody was magnificent, Paul's original lyrics were slightly sophomoric: “Scrambled eggs, oh you've got such lovely legs, scrambled eggs. Oh, my baby, how I love your legs." Paul was initially unsure whether he had actually thought up the song himself or if he had unintentionally stolen it from another composer. He played the tune to the other Beatles and recalled: “It was like handing in something you'd found at the police station and waiting to see if anyone claimed it. After two weeks they hadn't in this case so I felt entitled to collect it and call it my property.” Still unsure, Paul played the melody to several other musicians and composers, but each one assured him that the song was his and he didn't unintentionally steal it from another source. Nowadays, and in every McCartney interview since 1980, Paul has claimed complete 100% authorship and ownership of the song. But, as with so many "facts" in the history of the Beatles, this now-gospel is disputed by other sources. According to author John C. Winn, author of an excellent recent Beatles book That Magic Feeling: The Beatles Recorded Legacy, when Paul first played the song to his fellow Beatles, it was John who suggested the three-syllable title “Yesterday." In a pre-1980 interview, John also stated: “The song was around for months and months before we completed it" (note the "we"). Lennon continued, in the same interview: “Paul wrote nearly all of it. We just couldn't find the right title" (note the "nearly”). But by 1980, even John had changed his tune (no pun intended), saying in his Playboy interview that “Yesterday" was entirely Paul's and that he had nothing whatsoever to do with it. “I never wished I’d written it and I don't believe in yesterday". Whether or not “Yesterday" is indeed 100% Paul's song or whether John helped in any way with it joins the scores of other "mysteries of the Beatles" that will undoubtedly remain a bit baffling and will be "unsolved completely" for the ages. Okay, let's not nitpick, suffice to say the song was definitely a “Paul work,” with a possible very, very minor contribution from John. The inspiration for the song? Obviously, a great majority of Beatle songs were about a man's love for a woman, and this seems almost too obvious. But another school of thought says Paul's "unconscious inspiration" was his beloved mother Mary, a nurse who died of cancer when Paul was just 14. Although Paul denies this theory, he does allow for it's possibility. It apparently took almost two full years for “Yesterday" to be recorded. According to Beatles producer George Martin, Paul first played the song for him in Paris in January of 1964 and told him he thought the title “Yesterday" might be "too corny,” but Martin assured him it was not. Witnesses recall Paul fooling and noodling around with the tune during the filming of the Beatles' second movie Help! in early 1965. It was finally recorded officially in June of 1965. At first, they tried different ideas, including with John playing the organ, but eventually everyone finally decided it should be a Paul solo. Thus, “Yesterday" became the first-ever Beatle song recorded with only one Beatle and one Beatle alone. The other "evolutionary" factor in the recording was the bringing in of a string quartet to back up Paul on the song. This was quite a huge breakthrough at the time, for a mere "pop record". These two factors were not without minor repercussions i.e. jealousy from the other Beatles. (Interestingly, “Yesterday,” in spite of all its huge worldwide success, was to be an early indicator of the chinks and cracks in the armor of early Beatle unity.) “Yesterday" was released on the Beatles Help! album in 1965. The song was never released as a single in Britain until after the band had officially split up (the “Yesterday” as a single idea was vetoed by John, George and Ringo). George Martin knew it was a “Paul song" and thought it should be released as such. But Beatles' manager Brian Epstein quickly put the kibosh on this idea: “No. It is the Beatles.” According to Martin: “He did not want to divide his holy quartet. Though it wasn't the Beatles at all, it had to remain so, as part of their recordings. I don't think it irritated Paul at the time because he considered himself a Beatle above all other things.” True, John did reap one-half of the composing royalties from “Yesterday" although it was Paul's baby, but very shortly thereafter, Paul would reap the same one-half from songs completely written by John (“Strawberry Fields Forever,” “Come Together,” “I Am The Walrus,” “Revolution" and many others). The truth is, as great as John and Paul were as a writing team, they had each always written songs alone, not needing the help of a co-writer. There was a fairly major flap between Paul and Yoko Ono in the mid-1990's, when Paul tried to get the composing credit of “Yesterday" changed from the customary “Lennon/McCartney" to “McCartney/Lennon.” Yoko (as usual) was not amused, and refused Paul's humble request in typically unequivocal fashion. When the Beatles began touring in June of 1965, Paul initially didn't play “Yesterday" because he thought it might upset John. When the Beatles appeared on Blackpool Night Out in August of 1965, Paul performed “Yesterday". (YouTube link) Apparently John didn't like this solo spot idea and made sarcastic remarks all through Paul's rehearsals. (As an interesting sidebar, at the <>Blackpool Night Out performance, Paul reportedly dedicated the song to his ex-girlfriend, Iris Caldwell. Other sources claim Iris had once called Paul "unemotional" and he called Iris up and played “Yesterday" to her over the phone to prove otherwise.) On August 14, 1965, Paul performed the song on The Ed Sullivan Show. When he finished the number, John cuttingly said: “Thank you Paul, that was just like him.” George was to complain about Paul's going on and on about “Yesterday": “Blimey! He's always talking about that song. You'd think he was Beethoven or somebody.” Despite the other Beatles' occasional grumbling under their breath, Paul was to perform the song solo at many of their live concerts during their 1965-66 tours. The Beatles all sang a drunk-like, sarcastic version of the song on their 1965 Christmas record. Even the great Bob Dylan joined the anti-“Yesterday" chorus, saying: “If you go to the Library of Congress you can find a lot better songs than that.....there are millions of songs like “Michelle" and “Yesterday" written in Tin Pan Alley". (Ironically, Dylan was to record his own version of the song four years later. It was never released.) Despite the puerile jealousies of his friends and colleagues, “Yesterday" remains a classic, easily the best-known and most beloved of Paul McCartney's legions of compositions- his "signature song" (Interestingly, Lennon's best-known work and "signature song" is “Imagine,” a song he wrote and recorded after the Beatles' split.) In 1997, “Yesterday" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. “Yesterday" was voted the best song of the 20th century in a BBC2 poll of music experts and listeners. It was voted #1 pop song of all-time by MTV and Rolling Stone magazine. Broadcast Music Incorporated (BMI) asserts that “Yesterday" was performed over 7 million times in the 20th century alone. [Ed. note: Paul McCartney turns 72 years old today. Happy Birthday, Sir Paul!]

Great Landscapes Lent Focus by the iPhone Posted: 18 Jun 2014 02:00 AM PDT New York City-based freelance photographer Sam Alive's project “Through the Phone” features landscapes and urban cityscapes as seen through an iPhone. Adding interest to Alive's photographs is the juxtaposition between the crisp, clear image within the frame of the iPhone camera and the blurred bokeh effect of the real background behind it. Shots were photographed through a digital lens.  The artist's project began in 2012; since then he has traveled and photographed Taiwan, Japan, Hong Kong and San Francisco, in addition to his home city of New York. Alive says, “Life is like an adventure, because you never know what is going to happen next; you only have one life, all we can do until we die is live everyday to the best of our ability. As long as I am still alive, I will continue to take pictures everyday of my life.” Visit Sam Alive's Tumblr site as well as his Instagram,Flickr and Facebook accounts to see more of his beautiful photographs. Via Beautiful Decay.

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