Day 13 - A Song That Is A Guilty Pleasure

I try not to have guilty pleasures. If I enjoy something, I rarely feel guilty about it. But I suppose, if I had to try to embarass myself, I really do enjoy "This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race" by Fall Out Boy. I know, conceptually, that Fall Out Boy is not a band that I should like. But that song is a lot of fun, despite some unfortunate lyrical issues for radio play. It's surprisingly smartly-written and catchy, okay?

Day 9 - A Song I Can Dance To

I am putting this song on because it is a newly-discovered song and it is incredibly dance-able while also being funny, creative, and a surprisingly good pop song. That song is "(Rockin') All Nite Long" by the folks at Bad Lip Reading. They took a Taylor Swift song that I have never heard, watched the video, figured out other lyrics she could have been singing by watching her lips, and then wrote an entire new song about it. And then added a rap by doing the same thing to a Wiz Khalifa song. And the funny thing is? It's actually a really well-crafted pop song and you can dance to it to boot. So yeah. I was surprised too, but really, you have to check it out. (And then find Gang Fight on YouTube by the same folks.)

Here it is. Marvel at its majesty.

Day 06 - A Song That Reminds You of Somewhere

John Denver's "Rocky Mountain High" always reminds me of the highway into Jasper just as you make it into the mountains. My parents loved John Denver (and I did too when I was a kid) and my mom loved singing along to that song on our road trips to the mountains during summer vacation. Just thinking of the chorus invokes the giant snow-capped peaks and the highway winding in between them.

Not much to say about this song: it's cheesy and not everyone's taste - it even grates on my nerves at times - but there are times that I find it almost transcendent. Weird how nostalgia and memory works like that.

Day 5 - A Song That Reminds You of Someone

There are a lot of songs that could fall into this category. And after a while, I actually came up with a positive one! "Bring The Noise" by Public Enemy always reminds me of my good buddy @worstninjaever. Not just because it is our karaoke song (and we ROCK THE HELL out of that song live). But it's part of the reason we're friends, I think we really started becoming better friends when we found out we were both PE fans, and that happened when we both started singing that song at a party once. It was a big deal in my life. And also: we are AMAZING. I am the Chuck D to his "Flava Flav and dude from Anthrax."

While he prefers the Public Enemy w/ Anthrax version, I prefer the original (although I do like the guitars on the remake). A little slower delivery makes for a better song. I'm presenting this live version (starts at about 2:00 on this video) because he and I were actually both at this show. Me at the front of the stage, him sitting way at the back at a table. Because he's a gimp. And if you check REALLY closely, you can see me in the crowd. Just look for awesome sideburns.

30 Day Song Challenge - Day 01

Decided to do something CRAZY and do a two-year-old internet meme to try to improve my writing ability and frequency. Look at me keeping up with the times.

Your Favourite Song

As a man with over 700 physical albums and even more downloads, "My Favourite Song" is really, REALLY goddamned hard to think of. A number of them come to mind right off the top of my head, all battling it out. However, I think at this very moment, the only one that is coming out as the king of the hill is "If I Had A Boat" by Lyle Lovett. When I first heard the chorus of this song, I groaned aloud at how stupid I thought it was. And then less than three minutes later when I heard it the last reprise of that same chorus, it gave me chills. It's a poignant, whimsical, slightly cheesy song about the desire to be free that breaks my heart and makes me choke up just thinking about it. Ask me tomorrow and it might be "Maggot Brain" by Funkadelic or "A Kiss To Build A Dream On" by Louis Armstrong or "Coffee Stain" by Sarah Harmer or "Swan Swan H" by R.E.M. or "The Graveyard Shift" by NoMeansNo or "Move On Up" by Curtis Mayfield or any number of other songs. But today it's "If I Had A Boat." And I have no problem with that.

(Here's a live performance of this song. The mix isn’t perfect - some of the instruments are a little loud - but it’s the best version of it I can find.)

The 50 Greatest Sketches (Plus Ten More)

Last week, the brainy hedonists at Nerve teamed up with the film fanatics at IFC to co-present their list of the 50 Greatest Comedy Sketches of All Time. All lists like this suffer from the same kinds of problems: overrepresentation of a certain groups or styles, people complaining that they're too mainstream or not mainstream enough, token inclusions, and so on. And while this list isn't flawless, they overcome a lot of potential problems by including sketches from the Golden Age of Television & radio through to the 2000s, and from Canada, the U.S., and the U.K. (obviously they're the 50 greatest English-language sketches). Nearly all of them are brilliant, some of them I'd never seen before, and yes, the sketch you were hoping/fearing would be number one is. And here in the second intermission of the Habs game (GO HABS GO!), I've decided to make a list of my own. Most of them don't have video links, but some do. Just consider these my own addendum to the list, from a guy who likes to think he knows a little about sketch comedy.

The Doc's Top 10 Comedy Sketches NOT on Nerve's/IFC's List:
1. "The Audition", Mr. Show, 1998. This sketch takes absurd to new levels of absurdity. (Video link.)
2. "The Funniest Joke in the World", Monty Python, 1969. My favourite Python sketch of all time. (Text link.)
3. "Shakespearean Baseball Game", Wayne & Shuster, 1958. Wayne and Shuster were completely shut out of the Nerve/IFC list, which is kind of understandable but I've always loved these two guys, and this is one of their most well-known bits. (Link to text & video.)
4. "Adultery", Mike Nichols & Elaine May, 1960. I've already talked about Nichols & May on the blog before, but it bears repeating: these guys were brilliant. (From An Evening With Mike Nichols and Elaine May.)
5. "Scrapbook", The Upright Citizens Brigade, 1999. Initially a fairly pedestrian sketch that quickly detours into the absurd, then disgusting, then metahumourous. UCB brilliance. (From the Season 3 episode "Mafia", no link anywhere I could see.)
6. "Nervous Break(fast) Down" (aka "Whole Lotta Milka"), Kids in the Hall, 1991. I could probably have put any number of other Kids sketches here, but this one really speaks to me because it makes great use of the often-underrated Kevin McDonald. (Text link.)
7. "8-in-1 Super Pan Infomercial", Mr. Show, 1996. From the first show of the second season, this show makes you laugh and then gasp. And then laugh again. (Text link; about 1/3 the way down, under "Thrilling Miracles".)
8. "Ben Hur", SCTV, 1982. The only memory I have of SCTV when I was a kid was John Candy talking in a weird high voice in a toga. And as an adult, it's just as funny for other reasons. (Review link.)
9."Spies One", A Bit of Fry and Laurie, 1989. A great send-up of Cold War spy stories, one of my favourite Fry & Laurie bits. (Text link.)
10. "Cheese Shop", Monty Python, 1972. Palin and Cleese have a few different clerk/customer sketches, and all of them are comedy gold; this one is a classic. (Video link.)

Anyone else have any suggestions? That's what the comments are for, baby!

Today's Moment of Irony

Nearly being driven off the road by an idiot in a white truck who's going the wrong way on a one way street while listening to this song on the radio. (Standard YouTube warning applies.)


It just proves what I've been saying for years: the moment that snow stays on the ground for longer than an hour, drivers become idiots.

Horn of...well, not Plenty. Horn of Something.

All right, people. The Peach and I are off to Vancouver for the Thanksgiving long weekend. I don't want to leave you all with nothing to do, though, so here's a little cornucopia of odds and ends to entertain you while I'm away.

If you're an American and are confused about why Thanksgiving is a month and a bit earlier in Canada, or if you would like to know more about Canadian Thanksgiving in general, I would like to direct you to an old Electric Mayhem Non-School Research classic.

If you would like to see an amazing performance of Frank Zappa doing "I Am The Slime" on Saturday Night Live - one of my favourite fun Zappa songs - here is where you could go to do that. (Thanks to icculus on the CGS forums for the link.)

For those who like things a little more superhero-y, Kevin Church has done the nearly unthinkable: combined photos of the campy 60s Batman with dialogue and captions from Frank Miller's Dark Knight Returns. It made me cry a little. Go see.

And of course, there's always the Aquaman Song Contest, for 2 or 3 Geek Points. Go here and scroll to the bottom for a quick refresher on the rules.

So there you go, folks. Have a fun time, and keep the place clean. I want to come back here and find things exactly how I found them. Except for comments and song lyrics, you can leave plenty of those lying around.

Tales From The Answering Machine

"You have one new message. First message."

"Hey, it's Jago. Just calling to say, if you haven't heard Cake's cover of War Pigs, do so immediately. It's...just...gaaah..." *click*


Yes folks. It's pretty good. I'm not sure that it's so good that it shoudl cause Jago to lose the ability to talk, but we've all got our own opinions on music.

Pop Culture Moment: Mike Nichols & Elaine May

Lately I've been listening to a lot of old comedy albums that I found at the library. I've taken out some Bill Cosby classics (like Revenge, which is even better than I remember it), and Lenny Bruce (amazing when he's not ranting about his legal troubles), but I've been stuck on two artists in particular: Mike Nichols and Elaine May. Today Mike Nichols is famous director, with such films as The Graduate, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, and Angels In America to his credit. Elaine May is less of a household name but has directed a few movies (including the infamous Ishtar) as well as garnering two Academy Award nominations for writing (Heaven Can Wait and Primary Colours).

In the late 50s and early 60s, Nichols and May were well-known for their brand of improvisational comedy, and their performances on stage and on television were always a big hit. They put out three albums: Improvisations to Music, Mike Nichols & Elaine May Examine Doctors, and the Grammy-award winning (and my favourite) An Evening With Mike Nichols and Elaine May. Their repartee is amazing: they go back and forth with ease, and whether they're working off a script or from the seats of their pants they're always right on. It's not fast-paced standup comedy, nor the kind of improvisation you might be familiar with, but their cerebral humour rewards careful listening.

As I was enjoying a nice lazy long weekend, I decided to see how many of their performances were available online, and I'm happy to say that there are quite a lot of performances to choose from. I encourage you to take a few minutes out of your day and follow the links below: if you've never heard them before, like I said, they're a real treat, even if you have to go to the accursed YouTube for some of them:

• Nichols & May at YouTube. I love "A Dentist In Love" and "Dating".
  
• Nichols & May at Rhapsody (U.S. only, dammit). I particularly recommend "A Little More Gauze" and "Adultery".

I'll add more if I can find them, but it's hard to find free streaming audio if you're a Canadian. Damn RIAA...