Leon's Random Generators

 

News

I started a blog to handle comments that come in.

Yes, in September 2004, I revised the design.

Leon Gruenbaum's favorite randomly generated band names.

Strange Banana will generate random site designs for you.

Check out Story-Starters: Ten Ways to Jump-Start Your Plot, an article about how to come up plots for romance novel. It recommends this site.

If you play RPGs, you might find inspiration in other tools at Seventh Sanctum.

Check out Puerco.

Yes, the site has a new design, thanks to the guys at Smashing Pixels.

Want to know when a new feature is added? Want to share the funniest song lyrics you've ever read? Join the Random Generators community at Yahoo! Groups. You can even make suggestions for new generators. Or let everyone know you've just named your band using the random band name generator. Give us the URL to your page on MP3.com!

OK, for those of you who connect to the Net with modems, I've written a Java version of the generators. It's a stand-alone application, so you'll have to install a JRE. Get one from java.sun.com. Then, download RandomGenerators.zip. There's a .BAT file for starting the app, but you can also just type "java rndgen" in a shell.

I have created a project on MP3.com for the purpose of recording songs based on those generated by the Random Lyric Generator. It's called Existential Deliberation, and the URL is <http://www.mp3.com/xDelib>. Check it out!

There is a song called Potato by ZERODIVIDE. The lyrics are straight outta the random lyrics generator. You can listen to it on MP3.com. The song's description says it's about "NOTHING", but I think we all know what it's really about.

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If you have a band that's used the Random Lyric Generator, then please share! I'll add you to this page.

Here are comments from 2001:

Ory P. writes:
hey leon, i like your site. one thong is, the songs arent exactly "coherent." And, the weird backgroung on the song generator makes you want to pay more attention to that than the actual song. I wold suggest you use a white, or black back ground, so people can concentrate more on the song itself.

Leon responds:
You have to read 1000 songs before you get to the coherent ones. The background stops being distracting after that.


Brad writes:
I don't think I've ever laughed as hard as I did when the random band name generator turned up with "Bob Dylan."

Leon responds:
What are the odds?
Matthew Johnston writes:
Great site! The song section is easily the best! But what the hell is that Translater thingy? I put in a phrase and it just stays the same. Or am I just missing a very obvious joke and now sounding veeery stupid?

Leon responds:
If you're on strong hallucinogens, the translator may appear to leave text unchecked. Also, if it doesn't recognize a word, it won't try to change it.
Maegen O'Donoghue-Williams writes:
Hey Leon, how's it going? My band and I absolutely looooove your website! In fact, we just now changed our band name to one of your random thingies: My Death and the Four Pixies. We're gonna "write" a song and dedicate it to you and your site using the random song generator. If you live in Southern California, you should come and see us play some time!

Leon responds:
I don't live in SoCal. I live in NoCal. If you ever go on tour, be sure to play near Martinez. If I every go on tour, I'll be sure to book an appearance at the LA Coliseum.
Joxxy (AKA walrusbrain) writes:
hey I am in a band called Oregano Punk and you can be sure that we will use a lot o' the material from dis here site, you are one cool hombre let me tell you that
Jesus Rocks

I am not a hooker, I am a string!

Leon responds:
That's funny, I could have sworn you were a hooker.
will asks:
who are you?

Leon answers:
I'm Leon. The site is named after me.
Griffin Lussier donated the little orange guy for the comics.
Samuel Proulx writes:
Wonderful site! I don't know where you get the ideas. I consider myself mad, but even I'm not crazy enough to actualy make stuff like this. But I love it just the same! Not exactly a useful sorce of information ... I still haven't gotten anything I could hand in as homework yet .. but maybe if I try hard enough I'll get some luck. Keep up the good work!

Leon responds:
If you keep generating random essays, eventually you will get one that's good enough to hand in for homework.

Here are comments from 2000:

Sarah "Skyler" writes: Please....HELP! My band needs a really good name. All the people in the band are guys and im the only chick...im also the lead singer. Its a punk band...please e-mail me with any names you have! Thanx

Leon responds:
Sarah, there's a cool page on this very site that will give you endless band names!


Skippy writes:
Not bad, not bad at all. I especially liked "Fruity Tree-Huggers".

Leon responds:
Uhm... Yeah.

WishIwasDIZZY shouts:
THIS IS THE FUNNIEST THING I HAVE EVER SEEN IN MY LIFE. THIS IS TOTALLY CRAZY AND A BRILLIANT IDEA. LOL, THIS IS GREAT.

Leon responds:
Shh...

Miranda Holman writes:
I have a quiz question I'm stuck on - can you help? The question is: "Got the wings of heaven on my shoes, I'm a dancin' man I just can't lose..." What artist and song is that? Please tell me!!!

Leon responds:
That would be "Stayin' Alive" by the Bee Gees. A related song is "Stayin' Hot", which I wrote just now.

Stayin' Hot
By Leon

Well, you can tell by the way I use my walk,
I'm a woman's man: no tryst to talk.
Music loud and noodles bleeding, I've been kicked around
Since I was born.
And now it's all flavorful. It's OK.
And you crater look the universe way.
We can try to understand
The listless tattooine Times' effect on rune.

Whether you're a clone or whether you're a paw print,
You're stayin' hot, stayin' hot.
Feel the beryllium breakin' and everybody shakin',
and we're stayin' hot, stayin' hot.
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' hot, stayin' hot.
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' hot.

Well now, I get procreation and I get roman,
And if I can't get either, I really try.
Got the tunics of pearl on my micrometers.
I'm a dancin' rune and I just can't lose.
You know it's all flavorful. It's OK.
I'll astronomic to see hurricane mac.
We can try to understand
The listless tattooine Times' effect on rune.

Whether you're a clone or whether you're a paw print,
You're stayin' hot, stayin' hot.
Feel the beryllium breakin' and everybody shakin',
and we're stayin' hot, stayin' hot.
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' hot, stayin' hot.
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' hot.

Life goin' nowhere. Somebody help ocean.
Somebody help ocean, yeah.
Life goin' nowhere. Somebody help ocean.
Somebody help ocean, yeah. Stayin' hot.
Well, you can tell by the way I use my walk,
I'm a woman's man: no tryst to talk.
Music loud and noodles bleeding,
I've been kicked around since I was born.
And now it's all flavorful. It's OK.
And you crater look the universe way.
We can try to understand
The listless tattooine Times' effect on rune.
Whether you're a clone or whether you're a paw print,
You're stayin' hot, stayin' hot.
Feel the beryllium breakin' and everybody shakin',
and we're stayin' hot, stayin' hot.
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' hot, stayin' hot.
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' hot.

Life goin' nowhere. Somebody help ocean.
Somebody help ocean, yeah.
Life goin' nowhere. Somebody help ocean.
Somebody help ocean, yeah. Stayin' hot.


Here are some of the cool comments I received in 1999:


paul writes:
I named my band.... I have cool lyrics to all our songs.... and I'm full of witty advice to throw at random people.. my life is infinitely better thanks to the generator.... Thanks Leon!!!!

Leon reponds:
Unlike other things I've done, the random generators do seem to solve all known problems. That's why my brain is currently 13% larger than before!

smerf writes:
What the **** is up with your song lyrics??????
WHAT ARE YOU ON!?!!?!?!?
ps. can i use some of them?

Leon responds:
The fumes that come off the random generators are actually quite intoxicating. So much so, I've foolishly given permission for the lyrics to be used FOR ANY PURPOSE! This includes, but is not limited to, COLD FUSION!

Nathan Findley writes:
rather than ask the general major keep up with the worm-hole extrapolations. througout the kindred timelines and the tiny tickers, try to eat as many truckloads of potato eyes as would be possible, general major, sir. then turn to the right, and ask yourself, how far is tibet from here? and if the answer be, "mark my words, the daughter will be mine," then know that by the name of general sir the sir's father will be revenged you nasty six fingered man.

Leon responds:
Indeed, how far is Tibet from here?

Rob writes:
Genius. Pure genius.


Paul Sitko writes:
This is the coolest web page I've ever seen in my whole life.


The Mad Bomber of Madness writes:
Cool beans

Leon responds:
Hot corn!

Jim writes:
You need to get the lyrics for the song Rockefeller skank by fatboy slim

Leon responds:
What makes you think I don't have them? Check it out now, FUNK SOUL BRUTHA!

Melody N. Rivera writes:
I need to do Hygene report on Cultures and puberty. My teacher said go to www.Yahoo.com cultures and puberty. And you don't have any information. AND IF YOU DO CAN YOU PLEASE SENDIT TO ME? I am in eigth grade and if I don't pass her class I won't get accepted into a good High school. Thank you.

SINCERELY
Melody N. Rivera

Leon responds:
Dear Melody,

You didn't leave your email address. I'm sorry that you were unable to find the information you were looking for. I imagine you didn't read the random essays long enough. It takes one hundred reloads on average before you find the essay you need. Please keep trying.

Ariel Seligman writes:
You have the funniest website, I showed to all my friends and they agreed.

Leon responds:
Yeah, they told me too.

Jim Summers writes:
Question -- what was the name of the song and who was the artist ... "People get ready, there's a train a comin'.

Please help!

Many thanx

Jim Summers

Leon responds:
"People Get Ready" is by Curtis Mayfield.

d. kline writes:
Your random joke generator kicked this out, thought it was quite hilarious...

Q: WHAT DID THEY CALL THE COUNTER-CULTURE THAT WAS FOUND DEAD IN THE PRINCE
A: THE BUSTY HIDE-AND-GO-SEEK CHAMPION

Leon responds:
HA HA HA!

Craig French writes:
On the lyric generators who writes the lyrics? Are they copyright?

Leon responds:
The lyrics are generated randomly. The program behind it knows about parts of speech and how a sentence is constructed. It also knows about special constructions like "The more blah blah blah, the more blah blah blah". Whether the lyrics are copyright is one for the lawyers, I suppose. In case they could be, I'll officially release all claim upon them. If I find out someone actually recorded a song using random lyrics, I'd probably be too preoccupied giggling and perhaps dancing to worry about copyrights. Wait a minute...someone did record a song using the random lyrics generator. And I did giggle for a while. You can listen to it on MP3.com. It's called Prince Talking Goblin.
 
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