What’s the sto­ry behind this video? Here it is, straight from the pro­duc­er, Jar­bas Agnel­li from Brazil: “Read­ing a news­pa­per, I saw a pic­ture of birds on the elec­tric wires. I cut out the pho­to and decid­ed to make a song, using the exact loca­tion of the birds as notes (no Pho­to­shop edit). I knew it was­n’t the most orig­i­nal idea in the uni­verse. I was just curi­ous to hear what melody the birds were cre­at­ing.” You can get more details here.

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On Fri­day, we gave you this ani­mat­ed piece that shows the genius of Bach. Now, we give you an ani­mat­ed score of Beethoven’s 5th, and here you can find a chart that explains what the col­ors in the score mean. Essen­tial­ly each col­or rep­re­sents a par­tic­u­lar instru­ment. Get the chart here, and don’t for­get that you can find more free clas­si­cal music in our Music Pod­cast Col­lec­tion. (We’ve added this clip to our YouTube Favorites.)

via The Dai­ly Dish

Speak­ing of The Bea­t­les, I’m remind­ed that The Bea­t­les: Rock Band, the new video game hon­or­ing The Fab Four, is hit­ting the streets this week. (See the soft­ware on Ama­zon for the Wii or Xbox.) The clip above shows you the intro to the game, and this Ars Tech­ni­ca piece tells you why The Bea­t­les: Rock Band (which can be pricey if you need to buy instru­ments) may actu­al­ly be worth your hard-earned mon­ey.

Today is a hol­i­day in the U.S. But I leave you with this bit of Bea­t­les good­ness. Back tomor­row.

(If you want to find more clips of 12 year old Sung­ha Jung play­ing rock clas­sics, check out this page.)

Bob Dylan sings your favorite Christ­mas songs. “Here Comes San­ta Claus,” “Win­ter Won­der­land,” “Lit­tle Drum­mer Boy” and “Must Be San­ta.”

It sounds strange. But it’s very real. All mon­ey will go to char­i­ty. You can pre-order now. And although the album won’t be released until Octo­ber, it’s already #4 on Amazon.com’s sales chart.

If any­one comes across some mp3s from the album, Christ­mas in the Heart, please send them our way. Get more details on the project here.

Flash­back to 1966. The Bea­t­les hold a press con­fer­ence in LA, on the eve of their very last live con­cert. As you’ll see, the ques­tions range from the friv­o­lous (“What do you think of Amer­i­can wom­en’s legs?”) to the more seri­ous (“Do you real­ly think you’re more pop­u­lar than God?” Or, “What would hap­pen if you came to an event with­out an armored truck and with­out police?”). A brief glimpse into a day in the life of a Bea­t­le. Part 1 is above. Part 2 is here. And Part 3, here.