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If you've visited this site lately, you'll have noticed that I've had no end of problems with the videos. First, there was a bug with Dreamwidth that would modify other posts than the one you were editing (!!!) and change the URL of the videos in those to the one you just added. Once that was fixed (yeah, Dreamwidth team!), I apparently had screwed up the HTML I was using. The problem is that the "embed" code given by YouTube these days seems to work on LJ, but not Dreamwidth, so it's been a challenge finding something that works. Well, I finally did and I've reposted all my videos using the new code (and added a Money Mark video to a post that didn't have one, but should have, heh). So I don't forget, and so you can use it too... here's the code I'm using now (works great for crossposting to LJ as well). All you need to do is put the size you want it to display in your page in both places (width/height need to match in both tags... I chose 480x390, there's nothing particularly magical about it), and then insert the coded tag from YouTube into the code in two places as well (it's "9WiU7cMDrx8" in the sample code below... replace this with what you are given by YouTube from either the link or embed code, or your URL bar).

<center><object width="480" height="390"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/9WiU7cMDrx8?fs=1&hl=en_GB" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/9WiU7cMDrx8?fs=1&hl=en_GB" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="390" /></object></center>

Once you've posted, if you go back and edit the post, you will notice that "site-embed" code has been automatically added to the post by Dreamwidth (LJ does this too). If I need to edit an entry, I go ahead and delete the start and end tags and let Dreamwidth re-create them. They look something like this (don't delete the "object" tags or anything inside them):

<site-embed id="9"><object ...>[...]</object></site-embed>

Spotlight on Plexi...

Here's the playlist, etc. for my eighth show (Mar. 14, 2011)... which also went for a double shift because there is apparently no host for "Mid-Day Mind Control" which runs after "The Dollar Bin". Once again, I was joined by my younger daughter Laura who was off from school that day. Again, she proved remarkable in her adaptability to a live radio environment and comported herself with a professionalism that belies her age (she just turned 15, fyi, earlier in April!). As a reminder, my show is broadcast live and prone to mind-altering chaos every second Monday from 2PM to 3PM (Eastern Time) on 93.1FM in Ottawa or streaming audio on http://www.ckcufm.com/. You can always go here to find out when the next show will be (or read my playlists). Of this show, I wrote:

Most tracks chosen by Laura who is on March Break from Canterbury HS... from the emo to the more emo and plenty of pop and rock. Nana korobi, ya oki. Our thoughts and prayers went out today to the people of Japan reeling from a 9.0 magnitude earthquake, tsunamis, over 10000 dead, and the meltdown of multiple nuclear reactors.

Yes, the Great Northeast Earthquake had just occurred and the initial reports of scores dead from the earthquake itself (which was amazing and hopeful given the power of the thing) was giving way to reports of tens of thousands likely dead from the tsunami that followed (some of which were found to have been over 37 metres (!!!) high as they swept inland). In parallel with the devastation of entire cities, was a further tragedy what would evolve into the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl because of the failure of the Fukushima Daichi nuclear station (which is a situation still out of control as I write this). We dedicated the last track of The Dollar Bin to the victims in Japan, and Laura said a few words in Japanese to the effect of "fall down seven times, get up eight times". The "fromage" track (Landscape) did talk about the nuclear issue, but more from a Cold War perspective. With regards to the show's overall contents, from the written part of the script (critical for when there are more than one, even if it's sparse in places, it keeps us on track and we can fill in on the fly), I had the following to say:

Reading Week has come and gone at Carleton, but it was pointed out to me a few days ago that it’s March Break for the high schools in Ottawa this week. To that end I'm joined again by Laura Kurosakura, a Canterbury High School student, who will be co-hosting the show today. Welcome back Laura [Laura says hello]. I've invited her back because she did a bang up job last time and she has demonstrated her appreciation for the musically unexpected. I asked her to pick a few tracks off my dollar bin collection and she came back with two-thirds of the show, including a spotlight on Plexi. To her credit, as she searched through the collection, she randomly ran across it, and although she'd never heard the band before, after listening to a few tracks and doing some research on this rather unusual band, she asked if we could do the spotlight on them. Well, sure I say! I'd listened through it myself a while back and liked what I heard, but didn’t know anything about the band. [...]

Now I have to say I had absolutely nothing to do with the choice of music, I wasn't even there when she was doing it, and I don't think she heard my last show... but Laura somehow chose the song that I kicked my last show off with. Well, not this version of the song, rather it was the 4-track demo for it that I found on a compilation. Yes, none other than London, England's Elastica. Together from '92 to 2001 with two album releases. They were a mainstay of indie and alternative radio at the time, and remain one of my favourites. I had been planning to play this particular track myself on one of my shows, but apparently, out of the thousands of songs you could have chosen, you picked "Blue" by Elastica. "You're a little scary sometimes, you know that? Brilliant... but scaaary."

Heh. Without further delay or ramblings, here is the playlist for The Dollar Bin:

Soul Coughing, Songs In The Key of X, "Unmarked Helicopter"
The Hunger, Cinematic Superthug, "Phoenix"
Elastica, Elastica, "Blue"
Boo, Oh Yah! Records Sampler, "Johnny"
Downstroke, Distorted Sunshine, "Wednesday Again"
Plexi, Cheer Up, "Forest Ranger"
Plexi, Cheer Up, "Dayglo"
Plexi, Cheer Up, "Fourget"
Landscape, Electricity: 18 Synth Pop Hits, "Einstein A Go-Go"
Mosquitos, Planet Buzz, "Boombox"
Jane Siberry, No Borders Here, "Mimi On The Beach"
Machete Avenue, Make Trade Fair, "Cut To Pieces"

We then spontaneously put together what I thought was a great show for Mid-Day Mind Control:

Filter, Songs In The Key of X, "Thanks Bro"
Ultravox, Electricity: 18 Synth Pop Hits, "The Thin Wall"
Goldfrapp, Winter Chill 2, "Utopia"
The Verve, Urban Hymns, "Bittersweet Symphony"
The Cure, Galore, "Pictures Of You"
Foo Fighters, Songs In The Key of X, "Down In The Park"
Emily Haines & The Soft Skeleton, Knives Don't Have Your Back, "Crowd Surf Off A Cliff"
Our Lady Peace, Gravity, "Innocent"
Garbage, Absolute Garbage, "The World Is Not Enough"
Daft Punk, Harder Better Faster Stronger 2008 (Alive Club Mixes), "Harder Better Faster Stronger 2008 (Alive Club Mix)"
Great Big Sea, Play, "Ordinary Day"
Goodnight Nurse, Our Song, "Milkshake"

The Emily Haines and Great Big Sea were both requests (woot! callers!) and Laura picked the last song of the show, and I just about pissed myself it was so funny (2 hours in "the booth" and I gotta go pretty bad... especially since I usually buy a coffee just before going in, heh). And on that note, I hope you find it as funny as I did... warm it up, the boys are waiting... hahaha they didn't even change the lyrics, ftw!