Installing an early version of the Paik-Abe Synthesizer in the studio, Paik mixed recorded video with live camera footage, freely tweaking colors and contours in a four-hour-long riff accompanied by a Beatles soundtrack.

FORBES: If You Think 'Breaking Bad' Is Edgy, You Obviously Haven't Seen Nam June Paik's 'Magnet TV'

Vik Muniz, for instance, does a nice riff on Magritte's declaration by faking a quite authentic-looking Vincent van Gogh painting from the back.

WSJ: Too Clever by Half | More Real? | Minneapolis Institute of Arts | By Peter Plagens

The result is a fast, tough, deadpan-funny pop epic about the Queen of the Hop getting kidnapped by the Leader of the Pack and rescued by the Soldier Boy as well as a postmodern riff on the abduction of Helen of Troy.

NEWYORKER: Streets of Fire

The blues riff you hear is an interpretation of Muddy Waters' song, Mannish Boy, and is performed by Nas' father.

NPR: Young People and the Future of the Blues

And wander it will, especially when playing the closest thing to a must-have Wii U launch title, NintendoLand, a theme park game inhabited by Miis (Nintendo's virtual caricatures of players) with a dozen mini-games that riff on Nintendo themes and characters.

CNN: Nintendo Wii U review: A tale of two screens