The great Rube Goldberg illustrated this otherwise forgettable barber shop quartet record “Barber Shop in Hi-Fi”   Harmonized by The Play-Tonics.   Goldberg became synonymous with fantastically imaginative machines set in motion by a series of comical (and at times complicated) reactions and effects.   Here for example a mechanical barber is powered by the quartet’s sad song provoking the parrot’s tears; the plumbers response triggering the mouse, the cat lifting the candle to ignite the rocket, etc… Good fun always.   There are books of this stuff and there are several contests around the world known as Rube Goldberg contests which challenge high school students to make a complex machine to perform a simple task.   According to Wikipedia, the term “Rube Goldberg machine” first appeared in Webster’s Dictionary with the definition “accomplishing, by extremely complex roundabout means, what actually or seemingly could be done simply.”

(23 votes, average: 3.00 out of 5)

 Loading ...