The Tick vs. Season One

Posted on November 11, 2006 by Steve

tick1

Before The Venture Brothers and Freakazoid, there was The Tick. Based upon the comic books of Ben Edlund, the Tick is an invulnerable being with superhuman strength and no clue. Thankfully his invulnerability keeps him from being killed by his foolish actions because he’s a living cartoon trapped in a “realistic” world that has fringes of craziness.

It was really odd for Fox to show a cartoon of this sort when children usually watched. Most of the show’s jokes were about superhero names: the cowarldy knock-off of Batman called Die Fledermaus, the obscure joke about a plant villain named El Seed or the play-on-words with heroine American Maid. The Tick was more appealing to fanboys than children. On the other hand, it aired when Fox still took chances on its programming to get out from under the moniker of being “the fourth network.” After three seasons, it was suddenly cancelled. My friend José was (and still is) working at a Fox affiliate at the time. He told me there was a fourth season planned but then the network announced its cancellation. I don’t recall any explanation. Years later, The Tick reappeared on Comedy Central briefly and I stumbled upon it on Toon Disney. Now the first season has appeared on DVD.

As a DVD, this two-disc set is rather weak. After wading through all the Disney plugs before the main menu, there really aren’t any additional features to compel anyone to buy it. No sketches, no animatics, no deleted scenes, so on. Not even the super-easy and cheap-to-do audio commentaries. To add insult to injury, the 11th episode is missing due to “creative differences,” whatever that means. If it weren’t for my aversion of most things associated with Disney and its air time competing with Adult Swim, I could’ve saved the money on this and just recorded it on my DVR from Toon Disney. The ending credits are frustrating too; all the actors for the season are listed at once even though Roddy McDowell was only in one episode as the Breadmaster. Other than easily recognizable voices from Rob Paulsen, Tony Jay, Mickey Dolenz, Jim Cummings and Roddy McDowell, it would still be nice to see who was the voice of which character?

As a cartoon, I had forgotten how poor the animation was for a hand-drawn show but the jokes, dialog, plots, voice acting and other elements are what attracted me to it. This is the same strategy used by Adult Swim’s more original programming too. Which now dove tails into The Tick’s relevance to Adult Swim and The Venture Brothers. Chris McCullough wrote three episodes of The Tick cartoon and one of the short-lived, terrible live-action version starring Patrick Warburton. Then he went on to create and develop The Venture Brothers with Doc Hammer. His involvement with both versions of The Tick probably explains why Ben Edlund has written several episodes and why Patrick Warburton provides the voice of Brock Samson. More importantly, I think McCullough’s cartoon displays its lineage of humor from The Tick through the Phantom Limb or White Noise (there’s that play on words again) and parodies of well-known superheroes (everyone loves Stephen Colbert’s version of Professor Impossible, the cold, self-absorbed version of Mr. Fantastic). I only hope a better job is done on the season two set.

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Happy Fourth Anniversary Rad & Kim!

Posted on November 9, 2006 by Steve

On an overcast Saturday afternoon, my friend Rad married his wife Kim at this really cool club house out near the desert in Phoenix. There was a sprinkle of rain before the ceremony which I think is par for the course with Arizona weather in November. The bulk of Rad’s guests were from Illinois and whenever it’s over 50 degrees with no snow on the ground, a little rain is a minor inconvenience. Their wedding was quite enjoyable followed by a neat reception which also accomodated a sizable vegetarian faction including our mutual friends Steve and Patty Bryant. I don’t think their son Chance was old enough to bother eating the same food as the adult guests.

The whole time in Phoenix was an awesome few days too. It was my third trip to the city but it’s my favorite one. In addition to the wedding, Somara got to meet the Bryants in person. Steve was no longer just a voice on the phone, Patty more than a picture in my Illinois frame and Chance was two. We all managed to get rooms at the same hotel near Camel Back Mountain (what a great view). Due to Chance’s age, we rented a minivan (makes the minivan like a mobile apartment). There was also a Carl’s Jr. near the hotel which I snuck away to with Somara because it would gross out the Bryants. Lastly, due to the travel, I gave Somara her Christmas present early, an iPod. In 2002, the iPod was now on its second iteration so it hadn’t quite set the world on fire yet. For her recent birthday, she received a new blue, engraved Nano iPod to replace it.

Back to the long weekend in Phoenix. It was a reunion and introduction for a small part of my Austin world with the bulk of my old Illinois past.

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Week Five of NHL 2006-07

Posted on November 9, 2006 by Steve

The Flyers’ losing skid continues and trade rumors abound as the big GM meeting in Toronto takes place. With the salary cap and the season still being young (under 25 games), no one wants anything Philly has over 26 years of age. Hopefully, the new GM knows not to give up any of the younger players as Clarke did with Justin Williams for Danny Markov. Williams has his name on the Stanley Cup via the ‘Canes. Markov left during the lockout and ended up with Nashville and now Detroit. Not a smart deal. Anyway, anything could happen but I’m not holding my breath. I consider this season a wash for my Flyers, they should just treat it as a long, long series of scrimmages to toughen up the younger players while running out the clock on the useless guys with ridiculous contracts. I’m looking in your direction Hatcher, Rathje and Forsberg. I also read about Head Coach Stevens going to Home Depot to build a contraption around the goal at the practice facilities. Seems the team is shooting too high and this collection of plywood will get them accustomed to aiming at the goalie’s five hole or gaps to the sides of his feet. Whatever it takes dude. Now to find out what to do about their awful power play. Finally, despite being waived and no one wanting him, Petr Nedved has improved with his demotion to the Phatoms so he returns tonight to try again.

The Coyotes were a more exciting story on Saturday night! After watching the Flyers go down the toilet against the lackluster Caps, I decided to see if the more star-studded lineup in Phoenix would fare better than my Flyers and Icebats (6-5 OT loss Friday night at the nearby rink) over LA. The ‘Yotes scored first and then CuJo gave up two goals on three shots soon afterwards. Gretzky pulled him, put LeNeveu in. The back-up quickly got hit to give the Kings a 3-1 lead. Something clicked because the Coyotes rallied to stomp the Kings 6-4. What a game! What a comeback! Even my fave JR had an assist. He’s doing better too. Gretzky has him playing Wing on the big scoring first line. Hopefully, they can get on a roll while Comrie is recovering from his injury.

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Futuristic Airline design is silent and more fuel efficient

Posted on November 6, 2006 by Steve

This is a pretty cool development for aviation. The story spends more words going on about all the drawbacks of current designs though. There is a link off the story about how the new design will work. I think these new SAX-40s could be awesome if they deliver on the article’s promise and are built. My brother lives near O’Hare (I think all houses in Mt. Prospect are) and like other people who live near a flight path, the noise makes life unpleasant, lowers property values, there’s a chance of getting hit with “blue ice” and safety is my biggest worry; I’ve seen too many disaster-action movies. The SAX-40 has a cool, sci-fi look. It has some resemblance to an Earth Alliance shuttle and Thunderbird 2 with its small head and wider wings.

Posted in Physics, Science & Technology | Leave a comment

The Republican War on Science by Chris Mooney

Posted on November 4, 2006 by Steve

waronscienceChris Mooney’s book is a frightening wake-up call about the attacks on Science from the Republicans and their allies of Industry and Religious Fundamentalism. Only recently have their efforts been rewarded but it’s a campaign that is 40 years in the making; since the trouncing of Goldwater in 1964. Chapter by chapter he elaborates on how the current herd of Republicans have been undermining American Science at many levels through their think tanks, lobbyists, Industry allies, Religious Right allies and the most insidious of tactics, staffing key positions with appointees who share the Agenda. The problem reared its ugly head years before the current Bush administration. There were major pushes during Reagan’s presidency through de-regulation; the “myth” of acid rain; the idiocy of SDI or Star Wars actually working despite the mathematical odds against it. There were many moments of Science professionalism to counter the first Republican Revolution such as Surgeon General Koop putting aside his opinion on abortion to present a report on the actual long-term effects. After the Republicans took control of the House in 1994, the War on Science escalated to the problematic situation it is now. Any remaining Republicans who heeded the findings from Science, like Koop, were marginalized this time and all restraint went out the window. With Newt Gingrich as Speaker, Industry and the Religious Right started getting the free pass they’ve continued to enjoy today, now the Republicans control two branches of the government and are gradually seeping into the third.

War begins with Bush’s incorrect statement about how many viable stem-cell lines are already in existence so his law banning any further development of others would not jeopardize future or ongoing research (an outright lie). This is followed by individual chapters on the Republican campaigns and their frightening successes against Global Warming (an alleged hoax), the Endangered Species Act, Evolution (where there is NO controversy), laws favoring clean air and water (some think mercury is good for you), abortion (even though EU studies show no long-term side effects such as drug usage or depression)…the list goes on and it’s infuriating.

Mooney does a great job translating the science into layman’s terms, especially stem-cell research and deflating why “adult” stem cells are useless. He does point out the errors of the Democrats overselling stem-cell research in the 2004 election and their Left-leaning allies over genentically modified foods (displaced fear over corporate control of the food supply). The most egregious misinformation has come from the Republicans which is why the book is focused on them and there’s no need for “balance,” because Science isn’t democratic. Journalists also need to learn how to properly cover Science. It doesn’t follow the same “he said, she said” rules or why breakthroughs shouldn’t be announced until more studies prove or disprove someone’s findings.

As the book comes to a close, the future appears pretty bleak. The wrecking-ball approach to gut Science that doesn’t agree with the Republicans’ agenda is currently winning. The repercussions are only beginning to show; foreign scientists are choosing other nations to study, test scores and the general public’s understanding are declining, Industry is choosing other nations for their future R&D centers, the list goes on. Mooney still ends his book on a high note about the tide of Greed, Ignorance and Fear possibly cresting by now. There are many Republicans breaking ranks from Bush on Science because they’ve had enough. Seems plausible to me, three of the biggest, diehard Republicans I went to college with were an engineer, a pharmacist and a geneticist. You could never change their minds about welfare, abortion (legal or moral arguments) or foreign policy. On the other hand, none of them believed in the “God of the Gaps” to explain the alleged holes in Science’s explanations due to their studies nor let their socio-economic stances cloud their understanding of Science. I was even shocked when one of them told me how foolish SDI was, a cornerstone of Reagan’s defense policy. So Republicans like them are growing disgusted with the War on Science and eventually their numbers will reach critical mass to steer their party back on course. I think it won’t actually happen until the Wall Street Republicans are finally affected. What should the rest of us do? Voting is a start but also hold the Democrats’ feet to the fire should they do the same thing.

Clarification/Correction, Nov. 6, 2006: My friend Bryant made a comment today about the first sentence of the second paragraph of the review. So I went back to the beginning of the book. On August 9, 2001, Bush would only allow federal funding for “more than sixty genetically diverse” embroynic stem cell lines. Thus he could still appease the religious conservatives he courted in 2000 on holding up a campaign promise. Turns out there’s only 22 that qualify for funding and most scientists have found them useless.

The author was correct with Bryant and I was incorrect about it being a law. However, when it comes to the current mindset of this administration and its allies in Congress, there is no so-called “difference” since the Republican War on Science is being executed by any means at their disposal to achieve their ends: executive orders, legislation, lobbying, misinformation campaigns and talking points.

Posted in Books | 1 Comment

Week Four of NHL 2006-07

Posted on November 2, 2006 by Steve

For Philly, the new coach is 2-1-0 and he’s off to a shaky start. Stevens won in his debut against the Atlanta Thrashers but it required a shootout. Then there was another humiliating defeat from the Penguins starring their new diving champ, Sidney Crosby who is exceeding Bill Barber’s innovation to the NHL for drawing penalties. If they didn’t have Mark Recchi and John LeClair, I could really dislike them more with less guilt. Finally, the Flyers did have a clear 3-0 victory over the Blackhawks yet it was at the expense of Brian Boucher and the team’s collective injuries. It would’ve been better if the Blackhawks were healthy, especially Michal Handzus who Philly gave up for the disappointing Kyle Calder. The season’s still young and the Atlantic Division leader is only ahead by 10 points with over 65 games remaining. I do not share Peter Forsberg’s upbeat comment to the team about how the Avs were 2-8-1 one season and they went on to win the division. He forgot to add that he was probably injured most of the season thus making no contribution to the comeback, they still had Roy in goal and the only competition in the Northwest then was Vancouver. I will close on the Philly section with good news. Today, Ken Hitchcock was officially made the Flyers’ scout, quelling any rumors that he’d be the next head coach of the Coyotes. Colin Campbell turned them down for the GM gig but I think Holgren will be alright until the trade deadline or 2007 Draft. Turns out my friend Brian in IS&T actually played with Campbell back when they were with the Petes. Brian says he’s a good guy despite the unpopular job he has in the NHL, something to do with discipline.

My Coyotes still struggle with all the talent. The good news is JR getting more ice team. I miss his enthusiasm with Philly. He may not score as many goals as he used to, yet he wants to win as much as possible. Gretzky just can’t get it through the team’s head to stay out of the penalty box. When the ‘Yotes are at even strength, they’re pretty decent but they’re getting killed on special teams since they’re outmanned by one or two guys for almost 20 minutes a game. Oddly the penalties aren’t coming from Laraque and JR too. Again, the season is early. Dallas may be off to a strong start now with the Ducks and Sharks but it’s where everybody ends up by March that will matter.

I watched the final moments of the Buffalo winning streak end at 10, tying them with a record set by the Leafs in 1993-94. Tense to the end but at least the Sabres went down fighting with a loss in a shootout. Then Marty Brodeur is the number four goalie in shutouts with his back-to-back victories putting him over Jacques LaPlante. Seems the higher scoring isn’t really hindering his chance to beat the all-time shutout record set by Terry Sawchuk. Lastly, I went to my first Bats game of the season. With them playing closer to my ice at the local rink, I caught a Sunday afternoon match against the Laredo Bucks. I don’t agree with my friends who say the Bats stink. Sure they lost the game but it was still some skilled, quality hockey on the ice compared to what I’ve seen of the high schools and UT. It didn’t hurt that my ticket was free, a couple of nice ladies let me have one and it was behind the visitors’ goal. Pretty sweet since it was a $20 spot. As I said, Austin lost 5-3. The score is misleading since Laredo cinched it with an empty netter at the end and the Bats couldn’t hold on to their lead. Hopefully, I will be catching a rematch this Friday with friends.

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Happy 49th Birthday Lyle Lovett

Posted on November 1, 2006 by Steve

I thought he was somewhat older. Must be how he looks and definitely the hair. Lyle is a treasure from the Austin area although I think he’s more culturally tied to Killeen (a small city northwest of Austin) and he did his graduate work at Texas A&M; there’s a story about him giving his English students extra credit if they came to watch him perform.

Not to brag but I was into his music years before he married that skank Julia Roberts. When I was an intern at WQFM, I was paid in music which was fine since my tuition was already covered and I had work-study for college necessities (beer). One of the records Downstairs Dan gave me was Pontiac. I remember Dan pointing it out saying Lyle was gonna’ be big one day. When I saw that Lyle was on the MCA Curb label, I had doubts I would like it because Curb was MCA’s Country music division. Then again, Dan had good tastes despite working at a radio station that behaved like Led Zeppelin never broke up. Still, being a know-it-all college student, I never bothered playing the record. A year later, I started listening to WBZN, a contemporary Jazz station which would play “What Do You Do/The Glory of Love.” A pretty funny track and it grew on me. After I moved back to Central Illinois, I discovered how to pick up WXRT from Chicago by connecting the cable TV’s coaxial to the stereo. Lyle was a staple of the station so when Joshua Judges Ruth was released in 1992, I was pretty well versed in his current material. My friend Fast would play other tracks and albums on his WGLT show (ISU’s NPR station). We immediately jumped at the chance to see Lyle appear in Chicago later on in the Summer of 1992.

Then I moved to Austin and seeing Lyle Lovett is nearly impossible due to him having a larger following. Personally, I think most of his current “fans” around Central Texas are the same people who only like Willie Nelson because his weed smoking is more public. Oh well, it’s one of the trade offs I’ve accepted for living here. I still get all his records because even a mediocre record of his is better than some people’s A-list material. The memory of his Chicago appearance 14 years ago will always be awesome since he opened my mind up to different “types” of Country music that don’t stink.

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Happy Belated Birthday to Lee, aka Doc

Posted on October 30, 2006 by Steve

His birthday was on the front of my mind after I had recovered enough from my latest head cold. I also called the number I had on file in my cell phone, no luck. Some other gentleman in TN answered and said he had owned the number for a while. I guess I entered it incorrectly or the number I knew was pretty old.

I hope Lee (aka Doc) had an eventful and pleasant birthday. Around this time in 1996, he was celebrating it during his first of three years in Japan. Since his return to the States in 1999, he has been a resident of Knoxville, TN. He grew up around the area and even attended the big school there, the University of Tennessee which is also known at UT and has similar colors but they’re the Volunteers, or Vols for short.

I keep trying to convince him to move back to Austin like he did for me 13 years ago. Shortly after my friends Paul and Helen were married, we all reunited to celebrate Helen’s birthday in Milwaukee. It was a great time yet I got rather depressed while driving home. I missed these friends, I missed the conveniences of Milwaukee (believe me Bloomington-Normal, IL is an armpit of a “city.”), and so on. Thus a plan to return to Milwaukee was devised during the drive back in Mid-October. I was already living at Grandma’s house due to my own incompetence on housing; my roommate Greg decided to share a house with two rather unreliable friends and he didn’t care to tell me. All I would have to do is cut down my other expenses, put aside the money for a couple of months, quit DG and haul what little I had to Milwaukee, get something to pay the immediate bills until I landed a better gig. Now it dovetails into Lee’s birthday! He had moved to Austin after a year in Beaumont to pursue his personal dream of attending film school. It had been rough going during his first few months but I knew he was working for a private dorm near UT (Texas) and taking classes at ACC until he could be admitted to UT’s film program. I called him on or around his birthday to say hello, see how he was doing, what was new in Austin, etc. Then the conversation came around to my plan for Milwaukee. Now Lee’s two years in Milwaukee with Marquette weren’t a good time for him (something he told me later), thus, he had was prejudiced against the place. Lee had tried to entice me to Austin back in 1992 while GDW was hitting the skids and with great hindsight, I should’ve taken it after seeing how badly my world imploded months later! He tried to lure me again because the current Macintosh helper his boss hired didn’t know jack. In Central Illinois, late October to early November is cold, dark and has many days with icy rain. In Central Texas, late October to early November is sunnier than Illinois, has a few rainy days but overall the weather is gorgeous after the May-September heat wave is over. I was now interested and when he told me Austin wasn’t the same place my mother described in 1983 (a sleepy college-government town), my resume was in the mail the next morning. Then the coworkers who I despised at DG were in dick overdrive mode for practically the next few days which prompted me to call Lee and say, when you get my resume, tell your boss I can start immediately.

The rest, as the cliché goes, is history. Lee’s friendship and generosity led to bigger and better things which I will never be able to pay him back for, namely because he won’t let me. He probably knows the only way I can is by helping him and his wife move to Austin. Oddly, Lee has expressed little interest in returning. He is a much better son to his parents (last time I checked, only his mother is alive now) than I ever could be. A major reason for his resettlement in the Knoxville area was to help his parents through their retirement and battles with cancer. Lee’s generous personality extends much farther than mine ever could with his family. Don’t fret for him though. He and Masami are doing pretty well. He currently works for the university and is building a house in the countryside, a personal goal he always shared with me during our Austin days.

So if you know him yourself, send him an e-mail if you didn’t. If you want to wish him well, especially for him being my initial Austin benefactor, post something here and I’ll make sure he gets them…once he answers my latest e-mail due to the phone number being a dead end.

Posted in Birthday, News | Leave a comment

Happy 67th Birthday John Cleese

Posted on October 27, 2006 by Steve

He’s still doing pretty well too. The imdb.com site has several projects in the works for him. I mainly decided to do a quick plug because I’ve been out sick for most of the week and my friend Helen feels he’s an attractive man. That or she thinks he’s very funny. To me he’s very smart and generous with his time. Smart for his law degree from Cambridge which would explain his performance in A Fish Called Wanda and the MP skits. Generous for all the educational programs he still does for the “educational” networks when he could use his time on more lucrative productions. A great example is a special he recently did for the Food Network on how to select wine which I purchased for the same Helen on DVD as a gift. I myself am pretty clueless about wine other than the “rule” of red with red meat and white with fish and poultry yet I’m pretty partial to white overall, reds tend to have an aftertaste I dislike. Cleese made the show entertaining as it was informative with his rude waiter and struggling diner characters and then he held a wine-tasting party at his California home to illustrate the point of price doesn’t equal good.

In honor of his birthday, I want to recommend a little known movie of his I saw in college 19 years ago at Milwaukee’s Oriental Theater, when art house theaters weren’t subdivided into multiplexes too. Clockwise is probably one of the best examples of John Cleese “being” the stereotypical, uptight, punctual and pompous character he has perfected over the years.

Posted in Diversions | 1 Comment

Week Three of NHL 2006-07

Posted on October 25, 2006 by Steve

A pretty quiet week since the Flyers Organization had the hammer come down on Hitchcock and Clarke last Sunday. We’ll see what kind of production Stevens and Holgren get out of these candy-asses against the Thrashers tomorrow night. The Philly paper says the younger players will fare better because Hitchcock wasn’t as forgiving of their mistakes as Stevens was with the Phantoms. I agree, yelling and berating people runs out of gas pretty quickly even if you have your name on the Stanley Cup. I still feel that Forsberg and Hatcher are the other cancerous presences the organization will need to ditch. Rathje is probably on his last season along with Kapanen, the guy who should be wearing the C. I’m going to wait several games to see what my revised prediction will be. Hopefully, the new management team will be given plenty of patience since any spot in the playoffs will be a miracle by the way they’ve played up ‘til now.

My other team is faring as poorly. The ‘Yotes are having the same darned problem as last season, penalties. Gretzky practically restaffed the defensemen and yet these guys can’t stay out of the box. There’s also a good grouping of vets to calm down the younger players. Nope. I see the frustration set in and off they all go, making even more dumb mistakes which result in them being shorthanded and then down another goal. I feel the Great One will have to shake up the lines and get some trades if he wants his coaching and team to be taken seriously. The Pacific Division is proving to be tougher this season with the records San José, Dallas and even Anaheim are cranking out. But that’s still no excuse since half their opposition have been outside the Pacific. As they have only completed 10 games, I’ll wait because injuries have yet to take their toll on everyone and that’s when you see which teams can go the distance.

Outside of my two teams? Just Buffalo trying to extend their undefeated start to 10 games which hasn’t happened since the 1993-4 Maple Leafs (another long-suffering franchise without a Cup in 40 years). The Sabres deserve it. They’ve been toughing it out for years, getting little respect, especially how they got rooked out of the Cup in 1999 and their previous ownership being those Adelphia crooks, now picking up garbage off the interstates of the Northeast.

I couldn’t make the Icebats opener due to my prior Ecology Action committment (see Ladytron entry in Music). Maybe if the money and wellness are there, I can catch their next home game later this week. I think I will also try to console myself by actually finishing what could’ve been for Philly and Phoenix with my NHL 06 game. I know NHL 07 is out but I barely touched the last one so I need to get my money’s worth out of it first since the only major difference between them are the lineups.

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Under the Weather, still; same goes for my car

Posted on October 25, 2006 by Steve

I did everything I could to avoid catching Somara’s head cold, ha! Vitamins, rest, soup and over-the-counter medication. No luck. I felt like I was on the mend Sunday then it hit me like a freight train Monday afternoon through this morning. It made watching the new 3-D version of The Nightmare before Christmas even harder to watch with the funky glasses and how slow the movie really is. I like it still, but I’m sure the little kids in front of us were getting antsy.

Meanwhile, my car had its battery incident on Sunday and ran like a champ until Monday afternoon when the symptoms it had two weeks ago returned. Fortunately, the in-laws not only helped but they’re loaning me a spare car while Toby tries to see what’s bothering my car now. Not a ringing endorsement of VW from my site. Sorry. They’re nice cars and they’re often reliable, just when they break, they’re pretty mysterious.

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Somara has a new job as head baker for Kenny’s Coffee Co!

Posted on October 23, 2006 by Steve

This was only tentative yesterday and I didn’t want to jinx it for her but it became official today. Somara will be the head baker, I think, for Kenny’s Coffee Company. Kenny’s business is still expanding through the catering side which where they (Alice, Kenny and probably Sarah) need her. The downside will be her moving over to third-shift hours with a near-midnight start and an early morning finish. The upside is her finally getting to bake from fresh materials (HEB is decent but it’s pre-manufactured in San Antonio) and design new desserts. I had my concerns, mainly being accused of bias since my relationship with Kenny goes back six years and Somara is my wife. Yet I knew Somara could do this. She has the skill and more importantly, the desire to succeed. You just can’t always avoid some people’s cloud of jealousy or accusations of nepotism. Alice is the head cook and if she’s excited to bring Somara aboard, then I’m convinced it won’t be a problem.

So if you have her e-mail, congratulate her. If you don’t, you can post something here. Meanwhile, I’m probably going to gain another 10 pounds from sampling all her new creations courtesy of Kenny’s restaurant-level kitchen.

Posted in News | 3 Comments

Happy 47th Birthday Weird Al Yankovic

Posted on October 23, 2006 by Steve

For almost 30 years he has been an intermittent musical presence on the radio, a fixture of Dr. Demento’s gradually vanishing show and always a constant in any nerd’s music collection (I have all the standard, commercial releases). What a nice birthday present he received recently too. His new album Straight out of Lynwood came out several weeks ago and today it is number 13 on the iTunes Top 100 Albums with its first single “White & Nerdy” at number five on the Top 100 Songs section. I personally feel Weird Al has used the three-year gap since Poodle Hat to seriously hone his own songwriting and style parodies. “Pancreas,” on the surface sounds like another one of his food songs (Kurt Cobain’s only objection to his material being used) yet if you know music, Pop-Culture history and/or are a Beach Boys fan, it is a very impressive and skilled style parody of the hits from Pet Sounds.

The straightforward parodies of contemporary hits may pay the bills for him but the general public is pretty ignorant of his original work. I read he still is interviewed by morons, aka music journalists, asking him, “Do you ever write any of your own songs?” Even last month, a young man at the coffee shop was not only unaware of Weird Al being around since the late Seventies, he then stated, “He does some of his own songs?” I’m sure the birthday boy learned to take this in stride after the first decade of his career.

He has a special place in my life, mainly the North Dakota days. Before there was They Might Be Giants, Weird Al usually “spoke” to me and my clique of friends who would leave the crummy little town of Beulah for college. We weren’t geniuses but we were the smart kids. It didn’t help being the “foreigners” too; as in, not from North Dakota or in Jon Kulas’ case, not from West ND. The popular or dominant clique of kids there were jocks, junkies, sluts, “native” NoDaks or any combination of the previous four. Their music of choice was Eighties Hair Metal: Ratt, Motley Crue, Ozzy, etc. Blech! Weird Al was our louder counterweapon to their trash. Okay, we were 15-17, we knew everything then. Looking back 20 years later, it seems rather silly and petty. Yet I always have great memories from when Jon Kulas introduced us to Al’s first, self-titled album while we were working on the school paper. Those original tracks cinched me into always liking him. My appreciation wavered with Polka Party which is his least favorite because the record label rushed him to complete something or else he’d be forgotten. I bought it on CD in the early Nineties to be a completist and again, his original work compensated for the three uninspiring parodies, all of which came from crappy movies. Whoever can tell me which three movies correctly and first wins a funny t-shirt from me.

For more information, try to catch the 1999 episode about him on VH-1’s Behind the Music. You may be impressed. He’s a rather modest guy who feels no resentment over any failures in his career. For example, his only movie UHF was a flop at the box office when it debuted in 1989 yet he has a positive attitude regarding it; he actually got to make a film which is something few get the opportunity to do. That and the royalty checks for when Comedy Central shows it to fill time.

Update Nov. 14, 2006: Since this is the last day the story will appear on the site’s front page, I have closed the contest. Sadly, Mark was the only person who tried and he was about half right so maybe I’ll get him a muscle shirt to relive the glory of the Eighties White Trash fashion statement.

The question was, “Which three horrible movies did Weird Al derive his weaker parodies from on Polka Party? The answer is Rocky IV, Ruthless People and Short Circuit. Three utterly awful and forgettable films that I don’t think even cable channels will air in the middle of the night…Comedy Central, I’m looking in your direction. I didn’t ask for the songs but I’ll throw them in too. Rocky IV had James Brown’s “Living in America,” which became Al’s “Living with a Hernia.” Clever but not memorable. Ruthless People had Mick Jagger’s song of the same title and resulted in Al’s rather uninspiring “Toothless People.” This probably strengthened the concerns of Kurt Cobain having his songs put to food. Finally, Short Circuit had El DeBarge’s annoying “Who’s Johnny?” salvaged into the rather timely joke “Here’s Johnny” for those of us who remember Ed McMahon being the number two guy on the Tonight Show.

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Ladytron comes to Austin

Posted on October 22, 2006 by Steve

Sadly, I don’t have any pictures due to the shortcomings of my digital camera. I can’t emphasize the importance of an optical zoom if you buy one or you’re looking into your next one. Despite the lack of good photos, the Ladytron concert was quite good. The opener was some guitar-heavy act from Brazil with CSS in their name. They weren’t awful, they were quite memorable since they made me think of what Sleater-Kinney could be if they took some tips from Puffy AmiYumi across the board.

Ladytron definitely didn’t disappoint. They took advantage of the outdoor awning on the outdoor stage of Stubb’s with a projection system showing lava-lamp-like movies to match the mood of their songs. I especially enjoyed their use of it when they hit the stage during the opening song “High Rise” (hopefully my concert conspirator Mark will correct this if I’m wrong), it was a red screen with white letters showing up saying “Hello Austin.” Okay, it seems impersonal but this is an Electronica/Pop band so it’s more in the nature of the music’s genre. I was really impressed with Helen Marnie’s vocals because Electronic bands either succeed live or fail miserably due to the heavy technical aspects of their sound. There was some modification on her voice yet I could clearly hear her actually singing. They did the bulk of everyone’s favorites, or at least what I knew, “Evil,” “Playgirl,” “Blue Jeans” and “The Last One Standing” amongst many. They didn’t do “The Way That I Found You,” yet they saved “Destroy Everything You Touch” for the encore after a Shocking Blue cover (yes, the band that originally did “Venus” that Bananarama covered in the Eighties).

I know Ladytron isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. I do recommend their albums, especially the current one Witching Hour. They are mandatory for fans of Kraftwerk, Epoxies, early Berlin, later Underworld and the one they remind me of the most, Propaganda.

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Flyers make at least one right decision today

Posted on October 22, 2006 by Steve

The hammer finally fell unfairly on Hitchcock and deservedly on Clarke. I figured they’d wait until a weekday but better now so the new coach, John Stevens, has a chance to get this batch of schmucks together to salvage what’s left of the season. The upside for this guy is that he coached 11 of them from the Calder-winning Phantoms in 2005 (they were awful last season because the Flyers gutted all the reserve talent for injuries). So Stevens will have the ear of the younger talent: Umberger, Richards, Carter, Meyer, Niitymaki, Picard, Kane, so on. As for the “pros,” I think he has his work cut out for him and if the ownership and new GM are serious, they will trade Gagne, Forsberg and Pitkanen because they share a large chunk of the blame. The Flyers can’t unload Hatcher and Rathje due to the pricetags and lack of talent, I mean speed. I take solace about Forsberg only having this season left on his contract, I still dislike him and now he gets to add Ken Hitchcock to his list of coaches he threw under the bus, see Marc Crawford and Bob Hartley, he’s a big baby who can’t lead and shouldn’t be wearing the C. It’s wishful thinking, but I really doubt Keith Primeau would’ve let his support waver no matter what he was feeling.

Anyway, I’m glad to be rid of Clarke as GM. He made horrible trades ever since the lockout ended. As I said before, he paid too much for Gagne and now Philly is stuck with him being partially snakebit. Will the interim guy be better? Maybe but this I know, even if the Flyers somehow make the playoffs in April, this is a damaged season. I’ll keep watching to see how they’re doing yet with the car trouble I developed this afternoon, I think I may let the whole Dish thing go for the year. I need the mobility for work and life more than seeing the Broad Street Bullies play like they’re the Baylor Bears getting pounded by the Texas Longhorns in football yet their club hockey games are equally lopsided.

I know it’s just a game but when one is paying for “professional” hockey from a favorite team and its opposition, you expect some effort. I would be equally bored if my Flyers had an 82-0-0 season because the rest of the NHL played at the NCAA Division III level.

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