Skip to content

zwolanerd

“I guess I just like liking things”

August 22, 2013 Kermit & Steve

This thing was all over the Internet yesterday, but I couldn’t let it slide without a mention here.

 

It’s not hilarious, but it’s fun and catchy.  What I really love about this video with two of my favorite characters ever, though, is the history it represents. Steve Martin’s episode of The Muppet Show is my favorite, and his cameo as a cranky waiter in The Muppet Movie is a highlight of that as well.  If I were ever to become famous, I’d want to be this kind of person: willing to honor my roots and not take myself so seriously that I could never work with Muppets.  In fact, the main reason I would like to become famous is so that I could work with the Muppets.

Tags: ,

August 21, 2013 Ranking Straight Outta Lynwood

I’ve been bringing over the Weird Al series I started on my other blog for a while now.  As of the last one, though, I’m caught up as far as I made it. So now what used to be a piece of cake, copying and pasting an article, has turned into “oh, right, actual writing again.”  Granted, I ran them on Saturdays because it was copying and pasting, so I wasn’t really saving myself any work.

Seriously, that dog is awesome

Seriously, that dog is awesome

So now we’ve come to Straight Outta Lynwood, which most people think of as “the White & Nerdy” album. One of my favorite bits of trivia about this album is that the dog on the cover wasn’t planned, he just happened to be on a walk with his owner at the time. Yay, suddenly-famous dog!

Here is the order in which I like the songs on this album, with the reminder that actually not-good Weird Al songs are very few and far between, so just because something is farther down the list doesn’t mean it’s bad, it just means there are other songs I like better.

12. “Do I Creep You Out” – Gross and creepy, but very well done.  I mean, that is what he was going for, after all. Gross outweighs funny for me, though.

11. “Confessions Part III” – I’m not familiar with the Usher songs that precede this one, but his many ridiculous confessions in this song are quite amusing.

10. “I’ll Sue Ya” – While I agree with the sentiment behind this one (frivolous lawsuits are frivolous), the style isn’t my favorite.  It’s styled after Rage Against the Machine, and it’s not really my thing.

9. “Close but No Cigar” – The reasons he dumps these almost-perfect women get more and more ridiculous as the song goes on, and, really, it’s insightful commentary on how many of us react to to things in our lives.

8. “Virus Alert” – My favorite part of this song is the very end when he’s telling you what to do with your computer. I think this one succeeds with me because I’ve worked on so many computers where the person says “How did my computer get a virus?? I didn’t do anything!”

7. “Canadian Idiot” – I’ve been accused by a couple of friends (some of them Canadian!) of being a Canadaphile, mostly because I love Tim Hortons donuts and hot chocolate. While this song lists many reasons a person would not want to be Canadian, it’s secretly a love letter to all things wonderfully Canadian.

6. “Trapped in the Drive-Thru” – Epic while being everyday. This is kind of a masterpiece, but I’ll admit I don’t listen to it every time. It’s a long haul. Plus, I get worried for the couple in the song. They scream about things a bit more than is healthy, I think.

5. “Weasel Stomping Day” – This song is so twisted I can’t help but love it. Have you seen the Robot Chicken-made video? Mess you up, man. But as the song says, “It’s tradition, that makes it okay.”

4. “Polkarama!” – I really don’t think there’s a Weird Al polka song I don’t like. Highlight on this one is the banjo behind “When the pimp’s in the crib ma/Drop it like it’s hot,” at least for me.

3. “Don’t Download This Song” – Beautiful in sound and sentiment. I love the choice of the “We Are the World”-type sound for this, like there should be a fundraiser for all of the musicians who’ve had songs stolen from them over the years. This song is kind of brilliant.

2. “Pancreas” – I am one of maybe three people in the world who will rate this song this high. A friend of mine from high school helped me appreciate The Beach Boys on a much deeper level than the usual “girls, cars, and surfing” level, and that spilled over into an appreciation for some things Brian Wilson (note: not all) whose compositions this is modeled after. Throw in the fact that there are good bits of medical info, and you’d be surprised how often I sing snippets of this one.

1. “White & Nerdy” – I’ve already talked about this one extensively, but it’s one of my all-time favorites of Al’s songs. So many great concepts wrapped up in it and a great tune to boot.

Tags:

August 20, 2013 Tuesday Eight: Newspaper Comics

The Internet has changed comicry forever, but growing up all we had was the newspaper. Whenever the local paper would take a poll to see what was popular and what wasn’t, it was a very stressful time for me. We often lost brilliant strips because the (usually older) votes “didn’t understand it” or “didn’t think it was funny.”  It was at those times when I felt most like people needed to take some sort of test before they could vote.

Weirdly, I don’t think I’ve ever felt as strongly about a political vote as I did about those comics votes.

It didn’t matter what comics our paper had, I’d read them all – even Mary Worth.  I don’t really know why I read the “serious” ones, because I never liked any of them, but they were there, so I read them. But the list below is of some of my all-time favorites:

 

8. Garfield – I haven’t read this regularly in years, but when I was a kid I bought every strip collection I could afford to, and even watched the TV specials. He might be long in the tooth these days, but when he started out, there wasn’t anything quite like Garfield.

7. Calvin & Hobbes – This is the one that is supposed to be #1, I know. And if you’d asked me 20 years ago, it probably would have been in my top three. It hasn’t held up for me, though. I loved it then and have good feelings for it now, but don’t have any interest in re-reading any of them. I know that makes me a horrible person.

6. Dilbert – I still quite enjoy this one, but it’s a different kind of enjoyment these days.  I think now it’s more of an experiential/relatable enjoyment. Maybe “enjoyment” isn’t even the right word anymore. “Recognization”? I do miss Bob the Dinosaur, though.

5. Pearls Before Swine – The newest entry on the list, but so far it’s still great.  The Sunday pun strips are some of my absolute favorite things.

4. Foxtrot – I couldn’t tell you how many times I read and re-read the books at one point.  I’m sad it’s only Sundays now, but I still read it every week. I used Quincy the iguana as my avatar on some sites for a while there, even.

3. Bizarro – Two of my top three are one-panel gag comics. Huh. If you ever get the chance to read through the Bizarro archives, do so. Then read Bizarro Among the Savages, to this day one of my favorite books I’ve ever read. I had the chance to go see/hear the author in Indianapolis several years ago but didn’t end up going (and I don’t know why). I’ve regretted it ever since.

2. Bloom County – I wonder how much I’d like this one again if I tried to re-read it.  It was such a product of its time – in fact, I learned more about current news reading Bloom County than anywhere else for a time. Opus and Bill and Steve Dallas and all the rest… great stuff. I never got into the follow-up comics as much, though.

1. The Far Side – The biggest and the best. A few years back I got the complete anthology from my folks for Christmas, and it’s one of my favorite possessions.  Years before that, a friend of mine used to test me on Far Sides – she’d either give me the caption and I’d have to describe the picture or she’d describe the picture and I’d have to give the caption. I used to be really, really good at that game.  I’ve probably lost most of that by now. Such a loss.

August 19, 2013 Better Off Ted S02E10 – Lust in Translation

First it was Daleks, and now Veridian is stealing from Star Trek, trying to perfect a universal translator. This seems like a positive direction, but I think I’m in Phil and Lem’s camp: Veridian doesn’t deal in non-evil. They already have plans to use it in prisoner interrogations, and I’m sure there are other terrible uses lined up for it as well. It’s funny that it took the guys this long to figure out they were evil scientists, but I’m pretty sure they’ve just been taken with the science so much that they didn’t notice much else. We know they aren’t evil guys, so the realization that they’re evil scientists is quite humorous.  However, once they’ve realized it, they end being sorta “meh” about it, as it doesn’t get mentioned anymore after this episode (that I recall). So they’re more apathetic scientists than evil ones?  But apathy in the face of evil is akin to evil, methinks.  Hmm. This is a quandary.

Meanwhile, Ted is mixing business with pleasure, despite Veronica’s warnings. Ted thinks he can’t mess anything up ever, though, so he keeps on keeping on, only to mess things up. But then he fixes things, so it’s all okay?  I don’t know, this episode leaves a lot threads hanging, I think. Veronica was initially right, but then wrong after Ted found out she was right.  A world where Veronica isn’t 100% right all the time is a scary world, folks.  It’s better we know things are how she says they are, isn’t it? Regardless, this is the second woman in the series we’ve seen Ted “date,” and he certainly seems to like blonde ladies, doesn’t he? We get a few jokes at the expense of the Germans, but I like how the stereotype gets turned on its head: you don’t expect the tough-seeming German woman to want to talk about her feelings. It’s a fun twist in the middle of other fun twists. Phil’s voice on the translator is one of those perfectly hilarious ideas that this show is so good at. I’m guessing Ted wouldn’t be able to talk to Phil for a few days after this episode.

Linda is once again finding some small way to rebel against a company that rules her life in so many ways. I think it’s strange Veridian has these little apartment-like rooms scattered around, but it’s a pretty big building, so I’m willing to overlook it. Besides, it sets up some more comments from Veronica about how she thinks the cubicle dwellers live there, like Hobbits, and that’s some good stuff, especially when we find out Linda is sensitive about the size of her feet. Anyway, nobody is better at Linda Bagel than Linda, but Veronica reacts like Veronica would: she must excel at this new thing. This same drive, of course, is what put her where she is at Veridian, but it’s fun to see it applied to such a meaningless thing. I was never very clear on the scoring for Linda Bagel, so it isn’t immediately clear how she wins off just one miss by Linda, but it’s enough to know that Veronica will overcome. I was surprised by how few bagels were in that vent, though. For as much as Linda had been playing, I would’ve thought there would be many, many more. Perhaps Veridian has some duct-cleaning robots or super-mice that took care of them.

I grew up watching The Three Stooges, so I enjoyed all the references and (especially) the ending of the episode, but I don’t really understand where it all came from. I guess one of the writers just really wanted some Three Stooges stuff?  It worked for me.

 

Bits and pieces:

  • “Hey, cats and kittens, what is going on with the multi-language translator device?” – Ted
  • “Maybe we’re evil scientists.” – Lem
  • “Bragging is the one thing I’m not good at.” – Veronica
  • “Thanks for the clarification, Herr Buzzkill.” – Ted
  • Linda’s victory dance is one of the worst things ever.
  • “Who wouldn’t want to sound like a 90-foot robot?” – Lem
  • “I not wish to die from Ted’s underboots.” – Greta
  • “Oh, Queen Linda, the Dainty-Footed.” – Veronica
  • “Heavy is the head that wears the $10 haircut.” – Veronica
  • Linda has an Art History degree
  • I love that Klingon is also on the translator
  • “Using them for wickedness would be like beating a unicorn to death with a bag of rainbows.” – Lem
  • “This is for the World Championship of the World.” – Veronica
  • The bagel briefcase – not only did Lem and Phil create this perfectly aerodynamic bagel, they felt the bagels were important enough to get carried around in a special case.

Commercial:

No commercial for you!

Ideas/Inventions mentioned in this episode:

  • Multi-language translator device
  • Long-range people-skinning laser
  • Man-eating ficus
  • Talking frying pan
  • Perfectly balanced aerodynamic bagel

Coworkers named/seen:

  • Brett
  • Paul from Accounting, who Linda made out with (not seen)

Next week: S02E11 – Mess of a Salesman

Tags: ,

August 16, 2013 Elysium

Remember that issue where Richie Rich built a huge orbiting space station and then went to live there and never invited any of his poor friends up to hang out? Neill Blomkamp made it into a movie.

Now, it’s actually been a long time (30+ years) since I read a Richie Rich comic, so I don’t remember exactly if that was an issue, but the caricature of rich people in the movie sure reminded me of those comics.  I sorta remember Richie being nice, though?  But his defining personality trait was that he was rich – he had the fur-lined sinks, the solid-gold Dachsund, the platinum bow ties, all of that. Honestly, the more I think about it, the more I don’t get what the Richie Rich people were trying to do. Were we supposed to wish we were super rich?  I mean, more than we already did?  Or were we supposed to consider our current state and be happy? Or maybe we were supposed to make rich friends?  I really don’t know.  Bruce Wayne and Tony Stark being rich let them become superheroes, but I don’t remember Richie Rich having a Richcave or a Richsuit or anything.  Now I want to research Richie Rich some more and figure out what the deal was there.

You know it's a Paradise when you've got metal pieces screwed into your skeleton

You know it’s a Paradise when you’ve got metal pieces screwed into your skeleton

But back to this movie. I realize they were trying to make a point, what with the Everything Clean and White and Perfect Spacestation contrasting the Dirty, Dusty, Brown, Gross, Trashful Earth, but there’s “making a point” and MAKING A POINT SEE? RIGHT HERE? THIS POINT? HERE IS A POINT WE ARE MAKING. I dunno, it just seemed kind of heavy handed and full of itself. And we’re supposed to immediately side with Max because… he’s Matt Damon? And the story is told with him at the center?  I never found a handle on the character that let me like him, and without that the whole movie ended up not being my thing.

I go into most movies expecting to like them. Actually, it’s more correct to say that I usually go into movies knowing how much I’ll like them. I’m rarely surprised, but this time I was.  Scifi movies get extra bonus points up front just because, so I was really expecting to like it. There were some neat action pieces and some nice scifi touches, but I left the movie with a solid “meh” next to it in my mental notebook.  I didn’t dislike it, but the difference between my expectation of liking it and the meh it ended up makes me feel like I did.

But we like to be positive here, yes?  So here’s a few things I did like:

  • Robots all over the place, doctors and policethings
  • It takes 19 minutes to get from Earth to Elysium
  • There was a particular explosion that caused a particular thing to happen that was simultaneously EWWW and COOL
  • After seeing this movie I no longer need wonder whether or not I would want an exoskeleton attached to me. I would not.
  • Sharlto Copley’s accent
  • Jodie Foster!

I probably won’t buy the Blu-Ray, though.