Tom L DVD and Birthday and You Tube and...

April 9 was Tom Lehrer's 82nd birthday! To celebrate I give you breaking news that a Tom L DVD was released April 13, 2010. It seems to have some videos of him performing and some other things. It also has The Derivative Song which is not available anywhere else (except on You-Tube, so I suppose its actually available to anyone).

I first became aware of this material from someone who thought it would NOT be coming out on DVD. I got this email a few months ago:

I believe (or hope) that you are the blogger Gasarch who in 2007 wrote a blog called The definition of rare. And you had a good point: after some stuff has been made available on You Tube it's not rare anymore. Here are some more examples: Tom Lehrer material that's never been -- and probably never will be - commercially available to the public.

Right before I was going to post this I emailed the author if it was okay. He said that it was and he emailed me (1) about the DVD collection coming out, and (2) some more clips on You-Tube that were posted (I think) to advertise that the DVD is coming out. Here they are:

1. My favorite: Tom L doing a song by Danny Kaye that Tom L himself has said was the inspiration for his classic The Elements. Here it is: here.
2. Tom L singing two of his songs. Nice to see what he looks like, but nothing really new here.
3. Ad for the Tom L DVD.
4. Misc Stuff The first clip shows that Tom L is surprised it is coming out.
5. A letter from Tom L about having his stuff on You Tube. I wish more artists felt they way he did.

Will I find or be send other obscure Tom L stuff for next year. I kind of doubt it. However, I last year I would have doubted I would have more stuff this year.