Things I'm Currently Obsessed With: music tv goodness

I've finally managed to click a different Firefox tab than the one I've been staring at for the last several hours: Last.fm + YouTube = music tv goodness. It's a beta creation by a fella named Tim Bormans. It has a simple premise: somehow, in the magical collection of tubes that hides somewhere behind our computer screens, it mashes up Last.fm recommendations based on artist with YouTube videos that come from similar search terms. Much like Last.fm and YouTube, it's not perfect, but it's still really fun. An artist search for Ladysmith Black Mambazo yielded me videos of Miriam Makeba and Paul Simon, a search for Cherish the Ladies got me a video of Irish music Altan, and a search for godfather of zydeco Clifton Chenier gave me a wild video of Buckwheat Zydeco rockin' out on "When the Saints Go Marchin' In." It's not totally perfect (the problems seem based on YouTube and Last.fm's flaws, not flaws in Mr. Bormans's programming), and it throws you some non sequiturs occasionally, but it's a fun toy anyway. Just be sure to bid a fond farewell to any hopes of productivity you may have had before you go there.