Bookmark: Locke & Key

I’m reading “Clockworks” the 5th collection of Locke & Key, the incredibly high concept horror comic series from Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez.  A fun story but more importantly a fun gimmick that centers around the Locke family home (appropriately called “Keyhouse”) where there exist a growing number of magical keys that do strange, wonderful but weird and downright creepy things when inserted into the right lock. Rodriguez’s art is almost always fantastic and adds a lot to the suspense.  Hill has a big imagination but it wouldn’t pack half the punch without the visuals. And now just as with …

Bookmark: Arrested Development

It’s still a bookmark if you’re watching episodes of a teevee show, right?  I never watched Arrested Development but hey, soooo much hype over the new fourth season on Netflix and the first three seasons are free on Amazon Prime.  So I just finished the first season of the show.  Very funny; I can’t remember what else was on in the early Oughts to compare it too.  I suppose that’s part of why it’s fans loved it so much. FEB 28 2013 UPDATE: I watched the 2nd season and and now I’m onto the shortened third season. It’s amazing how …

Weird Al in the 21st Century

Maybe it’s harder to parody when pop stars are smaller than they used to be? Weird Al did parody a Lady Gaga song; it’s not bad but for someone who has recently refreshed his memory of Al’s whole career — Al’s parody of Lady Gaga is more similar to his parody of Madonna than… well you get the point. But he’s had a string of songs over the last decade that are more broadly aimed at problems; annoyances of society; technology run amok. The problem with email [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCSA7kKNu2Y?rel=0&w=550&h=309] The problem with cell phones [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwqFgnl4rMs?rel=0&w=550&h=309] The problem with the …

My Favorite: Movies: 1988

1988 in retrospect doesn’t seem to shape up as a great year for great films, but oh boy am I missing seeing some very highly rated movies.  Still a lot of the comedies from that year are ones I think back about and still find very funny.  I need to rewatch a bunch of them. HAVE SEEN: Die Hard, Scrooged, Beetlejuice, Rain Man, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Coming to America, Big, Cinema Paradiso, Heathers, Cocktail, They Live, Young Guns, A Fish Called Wanda, The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!, Midnight Run, Twins, Stand and Deliver, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, The Adventures of Baron …

Weird Al Raps… Really!

I don’t know how much credit is given to him, but Weird Al basically inspired a whole musical subgenre, Nerdcore, with his parodies of rap music that focused on suburban, middle class, well nerdy, subjects. He’s had three fairly large hit songs parodying rap songs and his last one, White & Nerdy was a top ten hit, a Platinum single according to the RIAA. Amish Paradise [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOfZLb33uCg?rel=0&w=550&h=413] All About the Pentiums [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpMvS1Q1sos?rel=0&w=550&h=413] White & Nerdy [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9qYF9DZPdw?rel=0&w=550&h=309]

Weird Al Finds The Force

This is turning into a whole week of Weird Al posts I guess.  There’s a whole string of parodies Al did in the nineties where he took a popular song and then made fun not just the song and the band but a whole bunch of other pop culture stuff.  More of a blender, shotgun approach. Smells Like Nirvana parodies the ur grunge song but also the whole grunge movement. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FklUAoZ6KxY?rel=0] Bedrock Anthem parodies a couple of Red Hot Chili Pepper songs in the course of its affection for the television show The Flintstones. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtV_nQKhkdY?rel=0] Gump parodies not only …

Thank You Michael Jackson for Weird Al

I had forgotten how Michael Jackson MADE Weird Al. If Michael Jackson hadn’t gotten to be such a huge pop star — in a way I’m not sure anyone growing up in the 21st Century will understand – – than Weird Al might not have broken as big as he did in parodying two of Jackson’s hit songs: Beat It and Bad. Both songs from Al are pretty funny actually although fully appreciating the original is probably necessary to really laugh at the parody. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcJjMnHoIBI?rel=0] Brothers from another mother? Weird Al in a fat suit and Eddie Murphy in …