"Imitation is the Sincerest of Flattery" .....

... Englishman Charles Caleb Colton once suggested ..... yeah, I guess so ..... but perhaps the flattery only comes in if the imitation is done well .....

Case in point, the Christmas lights sync'd to music by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. snopes.com offers this look at the creation of Ohio electrical engineer Carson Williams, and the urban legend that has emerged from that creation. It's hard to say just how many people have seen and been entranced by Mr. Williams' work.

That includes the brewers of Miller Lite, who have produced their own sync'd-lights-and-music video for a holiday commercial (this one offered by bsmister at YouTube) ..... not as good, really ..... for one thing, it relies a lot more on video editing, which was among the first 'How?' questions raised by those who saw Willams' original (he didn't ..... it's all carefully, electronically sync'd). And even with the shortcut of video editing by Millers' producers, the synchronization of lights and music is not as tight as Williams had managed through the hours he spent on dozens of Light-O-Rama channels.

By the way, Williams now has his own business website.