Welcome back to This Week in the Yahoo! Directory -- or perhaps we should say "This Month" in the Directory. Regardless of the time since our last meeting, we've been working harder than a Wall Street stock ticker here, and we'd like to share a fraction of our findings. Of course, "sharing" is redundant, since what we do reflects what you're interested in. Like us, when you learn something, you want to share it, which is obvious in our Mommy Blogs and Education Blogs categories. We've also noticed that you can't get enough of video games (honestly, don't you people do anything else?). And since you're all over Gears of War 2, Mercenaries 2: World in Flames, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09, NHL 2K9, the ungrammatically emphatic TNA iMPACT!, and Mario Super Sluggers, we did your homework and located the best sites about them. Now that the summer blockbusters have come and gone, you're probably wondering what movies you'll be seeing come fall. Well, we know, and we'll bet that while pictures like "Zack and Miri Make a Porno," "Nights in Rodanthe," and "The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus" will hold your interest, we can almost guarantee such instant "classics" as "An American Carol," "Bolt," and (our old nemesis) "High School Musical 3" will be candidates for the "how soon can we get this into the stores?" file. Of course, everything isn't all that lighthearted. We've been here to provide quality information on Hurricanes Gustav, Hanna, Ike, and Josephine, and will continue to do so throughout the rest of the season. And when musician Richard Wright, author David Foster Wallace, and voice-over king Don LaFontaine passed away, we found sites about their lives and work. So until the next time, that's all from the Yahoo! Directory -- the world's favorite source of aggregated information for over a tenth of a century. Suggested Sites... Yahoo! Directory: Video Game Cheats - well, it's not like you're looking over your neighbor's shoulder, is it? Yahoo! Directory: Upcoming Movies - be the first on your block to know all the next hits and flops. Yahoo! Directory: Hurricane Preparedness and Safety - forewarned is forearmed. Yahoo! Directory: Authors - information for homework or just pleasure. Yahoo! Directory: Voice Actors - in a world where you only hear actors and not see them...

Directory categories: Blog Directories, Video Games, Movies, Hurricanes, Typhoons, and Tropical Cyclones, Rock and Pop Music Artists

Archived under: Authors, Babies, Blogs, Books, Celebrities, Children, Childrens Health, Dead Celebrities, Disasters, Education, Entertainment, Flops, Games, Hurricanes, Movies, Music, Musicians, Parenting, Video Games, Yahoo!, Yahoo! Directory

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Lost in music (Photo by Gary Simmons) Over the last few years, I've reduced my net weight by a trunkload by moving my CD collection onto my computer. But this creates a new problem: What if I want to bring a CD to a friend's house, or to work? The solution lies in a relatively new Internet business model: the online music storage locker. These browser-based businesses allow music lovers to upload and/or access their entire collections from any Internet access point on Earth. Online music storage lockers come in a few varieties. Some, like Streampad, Simplify Media, and Orb Networks, let you remotely access the music stored on your home computer. These services create a private or sharable network between your home computer, your hand-held device, and/or any other computer with an Internet connection. It's almost like running a tube from your home computer to another computer (hmmm... maybe Senator Ted Stevens was right, after all). Dot.Tunes and nuTSie work in a similar manner, allowing you to access and share your iTunes collection from anywhere. Others within this milieu -- like Anywhere.fm, MP3tunes, and MediaMaster -- allow you to upload all of your MP3s and ripped CDs to their servers (for a reasonable fee) so that you can stream or download your audio files on any Internet-enabled device. MeTracks provides this service for free, but storage space is limited to one gigabyte. And once you have your music uploaded to your favorite storage locker, Mixwit will help you create a web-based mixtape for that extra special someone. If you're ready to give your music collection wings and liberate those audio files from the hard drive prison they've been languishing in, visit our Online Music Storage Lockers category in the Yahoo! Directory. Suggested Sites... Sideload - stream music from online music storage lockers other than your own. Mixx Maker - create online mixtapes with music uploaded by you and your friends. Share and access your mixtape from any Internet connection. Ivoon - upload music and create playlists that can be streamed from anywhere or played on your MySpace, Tagworld, Stickam, Hi5, or Facebook profile. Lala - upload your music, purchase online-only songs, share songs with friends, and discover new music through the Lala community. My Collection of Recorded 78 RPM Records - download free mp3s of this person's vast collection of rare and previously digitally unreleased songs from old 78 rpm records.

Directory categories: Online Music Storage Lockers, Online Mix Tape Makers, Social Music, Music Storage, Personal Information Management

Archived under: Collecting, Computers, File Sharing, Internet, Music, Social Networking, Web 2.0

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Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam, famous for mumbling his lyrics "Blinded by the light, wrapped up like a douche..." whoa, what did he just say? Technically, he (Manfred Mann) sings "revved up like a deuce," but it sure sounds like he's singing about a feminine product, doesn't it? That example is just one of many misheard lyrics from popular songs. Another recent example is from the ever-so-talented Pussycat Dolls' contagious anthem "When I Grow Up," in which they sing about being a young girl wanting attention, fame, nice cars, and -- um, "boobies?" No, wait -- as it turns out, they just want to have "groupies." Eh... we like "boobies" more. And then there are the songs in which, instead of just a few words, the majority of the lyrics are undecipherable. These are candy to web geeks who gobble them up and spit them out as parody videos, usually with bizarre images of what the lyrics sound like. One example: Pearl Jam's B-side hit "Yellow Ledbetter," in which frontman Eddie Vedder apparently sings, "Anna Nicole's mama said I won't wanna see Anna fall down again." Some of these homemade parodies are pretty far-fetched, but entertaining nonetheless. But it's not just casual listeners who get it wrong. Thanks to the Internet, we can now prove to the world that Joe Cocker was indeed on something serious at Woodstock while singing The Beatles' "With a Little Help From My Friends," making up words like "hoggify" and "kia." Of course, Joe Cocker doesn't really need to be on something to be misheard. Misheard lyrics are often cause for debate, such as Jimi Hendrix's classic "Purple Haze." Does he say "'scuse me while I kiss the sky" or "...kiss this guy"? In this particular case, both. Speaking of Hendrix, how about the Star Spangled Banner? Many singers claim it to be the toughest two minutes of their career -- not only reaching the whole difficult range of the song, but remembering those pesky 1814 lyrics. Suggested Sites... KissThisGuy.com - mostly silly, but there's definitely some funny alternate lyrics to read. Am I Right: Misheard Lyrics - a little less silly, but still silly. YouTube: Misheard Lyrics Videos - search results for video parodies of misheard lyrics -- all silly. LyricsCafe - large database of actual music lyrics. Dark Lyrics - strictly metal music lyrics, but a swell site.

Directory categories: Misunderstood Lyrics, Music Lyrics, Music Humor

Archived under: Entertainment, Humor, Lyrics, Music, Music History, Words

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Well, it's been almost two weeks since we updated you about life at Directory Central. I've become an active user of Twitter as a way to find folks who have Directory-related problems, and try to help them. One of my tweet conversations led to the creation of a PR Blog category. That same day the Yeti from The Mummy 3 made a brief visit to the office. I'm sure it was just coincidence. It wasn't coincidence, however, that we beefed up our K2 category. After the tragic news, we jumped on it and added several sites run by climbers. Of course, nature never leaves us alone for long, because is was only a matter of days before we needed to create a category for Tropical Storm Edouard. There was also the usual activity in TV, movies, and music. But what caught me by surprise in the world of pop culture was when one of our editors pulled out her furry feet and Hobbit ears and started adding sites like mad to the J.R.R. Tolkien area. We maintain the highest literary standards, you know. One last item: a couple of our editors, Chris and Lydia, started SearchMonkeying around and put together a couple of fantastic presentations on how to create your own SearchMonkey application. Speaking of which, be sure to add the Directory app -- it puts a little Directory back into Search. Suggested Sites... Twitter - blogging for the short attention-spanned. K2Climb.net - climbing news and information, by climbers. Search Monkey Gallery - it's your search -- own it. YETI@Home - truly abominable.

Directory categories: PR Blogs, Mount K2, Tropical Storm Edouard, J.R.R. Tolkien

Archived under: J.R.R. Tolkien, Movies, Music, Storms, TV, Weather, Yahoo!, Yahoo! Directory

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Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong While it's always dangerous to indulge in hyperbole, we feel pretty secure in saying that if Louis Armstrong had never been born, American music today would be completely different. Armstrong (also known as "Pops" or "Satchmo") was born on August 4th, 1901 into the humblest of circumstances -- out of wedlock in one of the roughest neighborhoods of New Orleans. As a child, he found himself drawn to Storyville, the city's red-light district, where brothels and dance halls abounded -- and where a new form of music, jazz (or "jass" as it was called then) was evolving from ragtime. One of the town's top musicians, cornetist Joe "King" Oliver, took a shine to him, and taught him how to play the cornet, and eventually hired him for his band. By 1922, Armstrong had moved to America's new jazz center, Chicago, where he began his prolific recording career. He turned out dozens of sides, including 1928's "West End Blues," which featured his poetic horn solo and scat singing -- an art form he is usually credited with inventing. The record set a standard for virtually every jazz and pop musician and vocalist who followed. Although musical tastes changed over his lifetime, he was able to knock the Beatles off the top of the charts with his 1964 recording of "Hello, Dolly!" And in 1954, his statements condemning President Eisenhower as having "no guts" and being "two-faced" during the Little Rock desegregation crisis were crucial to the Civil Rights Movement -- coming as they did from such a beloved entertainer. And speaking of movements, there were two topics Pops never tired of talking of: his daily use of "reefer" and Swiss Kriss laxative, samples of which he gleefully handed out to anyone he met -- up to and including the British Royal Family. Suggested Sites... Satchmo.net - Pops' home in Corona, Queens, NY. Visit his house and archives. Red Hot Jazz: Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong - illustrated biography and discography. You Tube: West End Blues, Part 1 - jazz critic and historian explains Armstrong's importance and influence, from Ken Burns' PBS series, "Jazz." You Tube: West End Blues, Part 2 - jazz musician Wynton Marsalis continues the illustration. allmusic: Louis Armstrong - biography, discography, and list of musicians who influenced and were influenced by Louis.

Directory categories: Louis Armstrong, Jazz Trumpeters, Jazz Vocalists, Jazz, Jazz History

Archived under: Birthdays, Civil Rights, Composers, Dixieland, Entertainment, Jazz, Louis Armstrong, Music, Music History, Musicians

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