The Noise of the Long Tail

I'm not always a fan of Joey Sweeney's hipster Philadelphia blog Philebrity, but this is pretty cool: YouTube clips of "50 Fabulous American Freaks." It's mostly musicians like David Byrne, Tom Waits, and Missy Elliot, but also includes people like Allen Ginsberg, Gilda Radner, John Waters, and Richard Pryor. It doesn't capitalize very well on the "Martin Luther King" was a nonconformist conceit -- where are all the other political freaks? -- and I think Sweeney had it in the bag before he decided to use it on MLK. It's a nice reminder that today isn't just about us all getting along, but about some of us having the courage to refuse to fit in. (More thoughts on MLK later.)