Um Bop

This music hits me right in my sweet spot.  A cappella plus sci-fi and cartoon theme songs.  What more could I ask for.

A New Leaf

As we now head into our next 100 blog posts, it seems like a good time to rethink how I go about doing my irregular writing.  I recently read an article about a guy who did a blog post about Mario (The Plumber not the former Bayside Wrestler) every day for the year.  I found that article a bit inspiring.  Why can't I do that?  Maybe if I found a topic that I really cared about it might be easy to bang out a little something, something everyday.  Heck, if this person can do a post (almost) everyday, why can't I.

The problem isn't a topic that I am interested in enough to dive into it for a full year.  I certainly don't have that passion for a video game (except for maybe Tecmo Bowl and Agent USA) like my inspiration.  So instead of fixating on a single topic, I am going to try doing a rotating schedule of alternating subject matters to power me through this mission.  

Do I believe that this is the trick that it will take for me to post regularly?  Not in a million years.  How long do I think it will take before I miss a day or abandon the schedule all together?  Wouldn't be surprised if it was within the week.  But hey, why not at least try.  And with that as my introduction, here is the tentative schedule with explanations to come as to what many of these topics actually represent.

Sunday - The Solitaire Odyssey Update

Monday - Pen of the Week

Tuesday - A Science Like Substance

Wednesday - Art Apprectiation

Thursday - This Week in Pirate Futility

Friday and Saturday - What ever strikes my fancy

And there you have it.  The quest begins.  But before I call this post to a close let's enjoy a fine piece of classical music.  Rock it Rockapella!

This blog post is sponsored by Buy More.

I Love Lady Gaga's New Back-Up Dancers

I have now been forwarded the Lady Gaga in a lab coat video enough times that I just have to go ahead and archive it here.  It doesn't hurt that no matter how many times I receive the "You have to watch this" e-mail, I can't help but do just that.  It is addictive.  It is hilarious.  It is the lab rats of the world taking something cool and dorking it up for their own amusement.  The fact that those who haven't done time in a lab can only shake there head at is they say, "Why would anyone make this" only makes it that much better in my mind.  Best use of NIH grant dollars yet.

This blog post is sponsored by Veidt Enterprises.

Who Says TV Isn't Educational

It is very likely that if you are fan of musical theater, you are fan of Glee. I know I'm that toe tapping kind of guy. A weekly song and dance extravaganza staged with tongue firmly implanted in cheek. What is not to like? Well, I will tell you in two words, Will Schuester, the most annoyingly awful main character a popular show has had to bear since Joel Fleischman. It is not clear whether it is the actor or the script that has led to such repulsion but what appears on screen is a most hateable personage unlike anything outside of Wysteria Lane. The first season presented us with a hapless sap with little backbone but the second season of the show has advanced him to a selfish, self-serving whelp with little redeeming value. And every time they try to find an excuse to feature him in one for the show's main pieces, he comes off as if he assembled the entire Glee club in a desperate bid to finally feel like the cool kid in high school (And wow was his rendition of Make 'Em Laugh just painful to watch). A sorry little creature. He is a fantastic argument for home schooling. Let's just hope the rest of the show doesn't go the way of the Schue although the last couple of episodes have shown a troublesome trend. The Kurt storylines have been both heavyhanded and predictable while this week's substitute episode had breakneck shifts between plot points was all over the map. But as long as they keep filling their hours with classics of rock like below I will be there.

Side complaint - As great as Hulu is for subverting commercial TV, it is still a shame their clips have a freshness label on them. It won't be too long in the future until the above highlight becomes non-functional. And won't we all be a little worse off for the loss.

Now for the unreplicated genius of the original source material as well as the best of this lot of educational diddies. "I'm Just a Bill" gives you a better understanding of our form of government than any civics class. Plus it rocks.

This blog post is sponsored by Rapunzhair.

Award for Best Use of a Tuba

Since I am on the topic of high quality musical numbers from Saturday Night Live, I had to highlight this bit of high art. It has got everything or at least everything that matters to me. Nostalgia for a well remembered piece of pop iconitry. Close but not quite over exposed Dr. Horrible. Overproducing what had typically been considered background noise to a ridiculous level. If only all iconic TV theme songs got such treatment.

This blog post is sponsored by Morley Cigarettes.

It's Saturday Night !!!

Despite Saturday Night Live's long history of producing comedy superstars, it has an equally long history of not being funny. With each passing year, critics like to sound the bell that Saturday Night Live has lost its way. It relies to heavily on catch-phrase spewing stereotypes. Skits are based on a single joke stretched out for 5 minutes. The skits meander with no real ending. Blah. Blah. Blah. The complaints don't change. Just the date on the columns. The problem is the complaints could justifiably apply to any year of the show's existence. It has always been the way it is currently described. Our collective memory is just clouded because of the post-SNL success of the actors. Because they are funny now, they must have been hilarious on the show. And then when they cherry pick the best parts of the few good comedy bits for those retrospectives, our distorted memory is confirmed. From the Eddie Murphy era to the Will Ferrell era to the glorious current rein of the Fred Armisten era, the show was and is 95% awful on a weekly basis. The current version of the show only has two parts that work. The Weekend Update is always worthwhile although it was at its best when it paired Amy Poehler and Tina Fey. Secondly, SNL does musical comedy well, particularly as part of their internet-driven Digital Shorts. Surprisingly, one of my favorite resent musical jokes came outside of this format in a normal skit. I have to say, I continue to laugh when I see. In fact it was so good that is accomplished the primary goal of all SNL shows, to advertise and sell its host and musical guest. I was so taken with the tune that I went looking for a Micheal Buble song that sported the same melody and what I found wasn't half bad.

This blog post is sponsored by MacMillian Toys.

And Starting at First Base, Aaron Carter

I have always been a sucker for All-Star games. Despite the fact that the games last half the day and no one under 50 watches the sport on a regular basis, I still make time to take in baseball's Mid-Season Classic every year. Despite the fact that the NFL has to typically go to its seventh choice at each position to get enough players to actually field a team, I willingly extend my football watching by a weekend for the Pro Bowl. Even though I know that the entire sport is rigged by the league and gamblers, I will even channel surf to the NBA All-Star Game. (Sorry, nothing can convince me to waste my time on the NHL defenseless shoot out) There is something about seeing all of those famous faces in unique arrangements that has always tickled my fancy. Stockton to Drexler. Ozzie Smith turning the double play with Ryno.

My fondness for the athletic mash-up carries over to other arenas as well. As a kid I always enjoyed those cheesy 80's TV movies that were cast with actors from that network's current line-up of shows. Spotting the next familiar face as it popped up was sport. The same goes today for any surprise TV and movie cameo's. Seeing the big star pop up unexpectedly in a flamboyantly out of character supporting spot (Madea Goes to Star Fleet Academy). Quality doesn't matter (Cannonball Run), I still get joy out of it. The only version of this phenomenon that I can't get behind is the reality show variation (Dancing with the Stars is the NHL of the celebrity all-star game). I have no interest in actors being themselves. They are only interesting as empty vessles for the manipulation of writers and directors.

A final variation on this theme is the name-dropping song which brings me to the below posted videos. Both feature catchy toons centered around random assemblages of real and fictitious characters (although how Aaron Carter warrants the same air space as luminaries like Chuck Norris, Batman, and Abe Lincoln is beyond me). In case of the first video, I can't stop myself from repeating the chorus of "Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny" in my head on a continuous loop. In the case of second, the gratuitous Jake Gyllenhaal appearance is the perfect cap to the completely hilarious send-up of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

This blog post is sponsored by Speaker City.

Here We Go

I am willing to risk jinxing it in favor of showing my supreme confidence that Big Ben will not do his typical Brett Favre impersonation and the Steelers will be the defacto league champion by the end of the day (Does it really matter who the NFC puts up - the Super Bowl happens today at 6:30). The only thing that gives me pause is that all of the talking heads seem similarly convinced that the black and gold are moving on and anytime all the talking heads are convinced of something, it invariably doesn't happen. Despite that misgiving - Ladies and Gentlemen, your soon to be six-time Super Bowl champions, the Pittsburgh Steelers.

This blog post is sponsored by Callahan Auto Parts.

And To All a Good Night

Sometimes nothing beats the classics.





This blog post is sponsored by Bailey Brothers Building and Loan Association.

When Shows are Nothing but Product Placements, the Commercials are the True Entertainment

I continue to contend that the best advertisements never make it to our TVs. Whether it is because they focus on too narrow a target audience (like lab coat clad test tube jockeys) or they are a tad bit too edgy (how this stuff is considered too edgy when the questionable content is bleeped out and shows like Grey's Anatomy are allowed to continue their assault on all that is good and descent I will never understand), we are missing out on some quality salesmanship. If my argument wasn't strong enough already, I now have two new pieces of evidence to present to the court. First is a combination of two of my most favorite things - geeky science in-jokes and boy bands (Why oh why have you forsaken us N*SYNC). If Eppendorf had the gumption to pony up the money for a TV broadcast for these entertaining productions, every kid would be asking Santa for a pipette in their stocking. For under the radar commercial number two, I give you a movie house exclusive. Not sure why this one hasn't seen the small screen yet. Catchy tune, funny lyrics. What am I missing? Is it the explosive combination of Wal-mart and Coke? Those two revelutionary brands being on the screen at the same time too much for the average consumer? Anyway, now that the commercial is on YouTube, I can finally learn the words to the new Christmas classic, "Joy! Enough to go Round". "My judo coach, my allergist, my MySpace friends, my Twitter list."

This blog post is sponsored by the Nakatomi Trading Corporation.

The Real Thing

An update to my recent post. I was able to find an MP3 of the Video Games Live! performance of the Mario Brothers' Theme Music. I am not sure if it is an authorized version but it sure does make me want that full sound track. Here it is for you to enjoy as well.

What It Would be Like to be Married to an Entire Choir

In my ongoing series on oddball music comes the appearance of Complaint Choirs. All of your most petty gripes set to a musical accompaniment. Release your daily frustrations while entertaining others (and call me weird, I do find it entertaining). I am now waiting for the appearance of the "Airline Lost my Luggage" Aria and the "Comcast is an Evil Monopoly that Milks Me for Every Cent I have yet Constantly Drops my Internet Signal" Carol. There are a million of message boards out there waiting for a matching melody.

Modern Classical Music

It seems people have finally found a better use for all those concert halls than presenting poorly attended, stodgy operas or putting on the 1,342,922,102 orchestral rendition of Tchicovsky's 1812 Overature. Instead, some people have picked up on the idea that they can fill those seats by playing music most people of today know and love. At least on the subliminal level. Whose ears don't perk up with instant recognition at the first couple of notes of the Mario Brothers theme? Someday our grandkids will wonder they are forced to dress up and go to the theater for a performance Donkey Kong's Unfinished Symphony. My only question is why aren't they selling a CD of their performances of Video Games Live? I would like one please.



Speaking of good uses of empty concert hall seats, here is another fun one. Although less culturally relevant, still a fun bit of pop art utilizing a common language known world wide. Video games, especially our old 8-bit favorites, are now a firm part our shared history.

The Original Human SPACE INVADERS

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