Bored? Not a fan of the snow? Trapped in your home and running desperately low on food?

http://www.ronwinter.tv/drums.html

The creation of Ron Winter, a director of commercials and music videos, this little gadget should provide you with ample distraction. Use your keyboard to lay down some most danceable beats! My personal favorites are the letters “M” and “B”.

While we’re on the topic of things musical, don’t forget to cast your vote for your favorite student-produced music-video in The Rebellion‘s Music-Video Contest. The triumphant director will (definitely not) receive a 2009 Kia Sedona and a $1000 gift certificate from Hickory Farms! Wow!

To aid you in your judging, allow me to present to you a yardstick for assessing the quality of a music video. It is true that some might claim that the video for the Avalanches’ “Frontier Psychiatrist” relies too heavily on a literal interpretation of the song (certainly, a not-uncommon practice — for excellent comparanda, consult the visual presentations for “Down Under” by Men at Work and, going back much further, for “Mother Nature, Father Time” by Brook Benton). However, here the literalism is so intense, so absolute that it raises this video from the mundane to the sublime. Furthermore, one could argue that, quite convincingly I feel, that the video makes direct references not only to everything mentioned in the song, but also to everything which exists in the known universe. The coconut puppet is also really cool — I’ve got to get one of those.