Welcome to the third go-around of what we are calling Brian’s Unexpected Covers. Essentially, popular songs from 1980 – 2005, performed in a style very different than originally intended. This video is also an homage to one of childhood retail heroes. Toys R Us was one of the most iconic children’s stores in the US, and all over the world. In 2018, after years of battling financial troubles, the company began shutting down all of its store. In its glory days, the Toys R Us jingle was an unforgettable and interconnected part of the brand’s dominance over the toy industry and the whimsy in children’s hearts. This version takes influence from the symphony-style guitar arrangements of musician and astrophysicist Brian May. May, most notably the lead guitarist of English rock band Queen, experimented with gigantic guitar tones and interesting harmonies, found in songs like Killer Queen, I Want to Break Free, and God Save the Queen. In this version, I started out with the familiar, major-key version of the Toys R Us jingle, but stick around for the second half, when I share a “minor” surprise. If you have any songs from the 80s, 90s, or early 2000s you’d like to hear covered, please feel free to request a song and, if you’d like, the style of music, and we’ll do our best to try it out!

On this episode of Paul Builds Something Useless I’ll mount a phone on top of a steam controller to play some Rocket League! All this possible by the new Steam Link app for android.

Welcome to the second attempt of what we are calling Brian’s Unexpected Covers. Essentially, popular songs from 1980 – 2005, performed in a style very different than originally intended. What It’s Like was a minor key acoustic song covering three stories of folks struggling with poverty and the adversity of life, from the stylings and songwriting of hip-hop star and guitarist Everlast. This version takes influence from late 90s pop rock bands like Deep Blue Something, Eagle Eye Cherry, etc, but generally sounds a lot happier and major-key-sounding than the song’s subject matter would call for.

In this episode of Paul Builds Something Useless excited by the upcoming Atari VCS console , I setup a home retro gaming console using a Raspberry Pi 3 with a 3d printed Nintendo case with some usb snes style controllers made by Buffalo. The operating system is recalbox available at https://www.recalbox.com/ . Recalbox uses Emulation Station as it’s user interface and Retro Arch for system emulation.  Enjoy!

Parts Used:
Raspberry Pi 3
Retro Flag RetroPi Case (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073ZC4TZY/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_U_x_bw9SAbWNKR6ED)
Recalbox 18.03.16 (https://archive.recalbox.com/)
Buffalo Classic USB Game pad (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XWD8QQJ/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_U_x_Xx9SAbJYE1M7M)

Back on Episode 7 of Dating Ourselves, we talked about the MTV classic Total Request Live, and how the song Livin’ La Vida Loca by Ricky Martin has all the elements to be a pretty cool heavy metal song. So, this might be what it would sound like.

This is the first installment of what we are calling Brian’s Unexpected Covers. Essentially, popular songs from 1980 – 2005, performed in a style very different than originally intended. Livin’ La Vida Loca was originally a Latin pop song performed by Ricky Martin. This version takes influence from 90s and early 2000s metal bands like Iced Earth, Trivium, etc, but doesn’t really fall into one particular metal subgenre.

In the first episode of Paul Builds Something Useless , I try and recreate the high school car audio experience with a barely usable 3.5″ MP3 Player built on a Raspberry Pi. Velcro and car wiring harness not included.

Parts used:

Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+
Kuman 3.5″ TFT Touch Screen
9 Layer acrylic Raspberry Pi case
Starter kit: https://goo.gl/7cDZak

Code:
my install script can be found here:
https://goo.gl/RB7EZV