Sesame Street Turns 40!

I can't believe that it's been 40 years since Sesame Street first appeared on the airwaves. Elmo's been 3 1/2 for 25 of them, it's probably time for him to learn to not be so damn annoying.

Seriously, in forty year's time, Big Bird's head grew in size, Oscar The Grouch dyed his fur from Orange to Green, Grover went from Green to Blue, Cookie Monster improved his diet, and Snuffy was proven to exist. But then again, these all occurred when Jim Henson was still with us. The people that wrangle the show now seem to just keep around the young, energetic, annoying characters. And Telly.

I figured you all noticed Cookie Monster up on that list. His eating habits are nothing new. The song I linked to, "Healthy Food"



Is an old-school rap about...healthy food. Which was made in 1987. It sure explains why he looks like a member of Run DMC. Which is, of course, awesome. Also, did you know that most of the cookies we've seen him eat are actually rice cakes decorated to look like cookies? He's been deceiving us since the start! But I forgive him, I can't stay mad at that face.



Forty years is a long time, and the standards of education and the irrational fears of crazy soccer moms change over time, so Sesame Street changed with it. But with most members of the Old Guard either retired and/or dead, there doesn't seem to be much true wit anymore. Sure, it's still got some great punch and wit (Their parody of Mad Men is about Don Draper finding an ad agency that won't make him Mad. I find that brilliant.), but seriously, compare how Big Bird learns the alphabet:



With Elmo's method:



I pity children today. Elmo's video had ADD written all over it.

And now, because it's late and I'm tired, here's a smathering of videos of my (and most likely, your) favorite songs from Sesame Street:

C is for Cookie


I Love Trash


Honk Around The Clock


Monster in The Mirror (featuring loads of celebs, including an early appearance of the Simpsons!)


"O"klahoma


A New Way to Walk (Definitely a case of The Weird Al Effect™ in effect. The singers are The Oinker Sisters, a play on "The Pointer Sisters")


Put Down The Duckie


The Pinball Count


Ladybug's Picnic


Alligator King


Yip Yip...Phone


And, of course, The Song of The Count



I'd like to thank Muppet Wiki for, well, just being there! A big help for Muppaphiles such as myself. Here's an In 10 Words entry for Sesame Street, and one for The Count.

TV Confession

Okay, people, I have one hell of a confession to make with you all.

I like Glee. There, I said it.



And the thing is...I have no idea why. Seriously, I don't know any of the characters' names, nor why I should care about their Glee Club and their obnoxious rival Grown-Up-Cheerleader-Bitch-Who-Grew Up-Into-A Bitch who-now Coaches Cheerleaders.

But I think I do know why: It seems to be a Stealth Parody of other dumb dramas that have come by Fox and other networks. Everything about that show seems to intentionally BEG for Fox to cancel it, yet it's not going anywhere anytime soon. It's, well, a drama, but a comedy. The songs are current, so are probably notoriously expensive to license...and then horribly auto-tune the hell out of them. But perhaps the over-usage of the auto-tune is also intentional, as a parody of stuff like "High School Musical" and the like to have crappy singer massacre crappy songs and have the T-Pain Machine™ "fix" the problems away.

Then there's the characters themselves. Like I mentioned up there, I honestly have no idea what any of those characters in that picture are named. All I see are Old Bitchy Cheerleader, Young Bitchy Cheerleader, Sassy Black Chick, Guy Who's in Charge of Glee Club (who definitely reminds me of Michael Bluth), Asian Girl, Preppy Girl, Protagonist Girl, the Big Eyed Girl From Heroes, the Guy Jock who got Preppy Girl Pregnant, The Gay Kid, The Gay Kid That Came Out in Episode 2, and a Nerd in a Wheelchair. This is all some sort of parody on the quote/unquote "diversity" that shows up in these kind of shows. They are only defined by their archetypes and that's all they got going for them, and rarely do they have names worth remembering other than by the stereotypical roles I just mentioned. TV Tropes defines this as a "Five Token Band."

THERE'S A NERD. IN. A WHEELCHAIR. A character detail ignored by everyone except "Old Bitchy Cheerleader." That has to be some sort of satire.

Also, the show is shown in letterbox form, and is scripted. What does this all mean?

I really miss Pushing Daises.

More Haunts For Halloween

I couldn't let the big spooky day go by without a post, now could I? Sure, I'm making it with the skin of my teeth, but seeing how Daylight Savings Time is at 2am, I'm taking full advantage of that extra hour.

Last year I posted a list of Songs that defined Halloween. After much thinking, I decided thatt I should show off some more spooky tunes!

Feed My Frankenstein - Alice Cooper



Alice Cooper rocks the socks off the ghouls and goblins of the night with kickass tune about Frankenstein, and how it's the greatest Universal Monster in the land. Also, Frankenstein is his penis.


Time Warp - Rocky Horror Picture Show



You can't define "Halloween" without good ol' "Rocky Horror." And nothing gets the hips going at any Halloween party or Rocky Horror bash quite like the eponymous "Time Warp." It's just a jump to the left. And step to the right. We all know how it goes. Also of note is how "Sweet Transvestite," belted out by the great Tim Curry, immediately follows it.


Anything Can Happen on Halloween - The Worst Witch



Speaking of Tim Curry, there's also this now-legendary song he sang in the forgettable halloween special "The Worst Witch." It's pretty much the dumbest, campiest Halloween song I've ever heard, but Curry makes it awesome. You can find a hilarious review of entire special here at X-Entertainment.


Tubular Bells



Ah, "Tubular Bells," or how others know it: the theme from "The Exorcist." It's music like this that defined modern horror. Something's just not right when you hear this playing, and I usually whip out the plastic I take to Gallagher concerts to shield myself from any projectile pea soup.


Smithy's Theme - Super Mario RPG



Here's a video game theme that oozes "creepy" and "end of the game" music. Which was then followed by the less creepy but more definite end-of-game-boss sounding True Smithy Theme (8000 hp! Damn). Either way, if felt that you were in for one hell of a battle. Very awesome of the composers of Super Mario RPG to compose unique leitmotifs to every major event in the game (Bowser's Keep, Booster's Tower, Smithy's Factory, Mid Boss, Definite Boss, Sunken Ship, etc) while keeping most of them as remixes of the main 4 levels of Super Mario Bros.


Silent Hill



While we're on the subject of video game music, here's the theme to Silent Hill. I shudder just hearing it, even though I've yet to play any of the games. Pyramid Head, stop humping Nemesis!


When You're Evil - Voltaire



Don't know who Voltaire is? If you've ever watched "The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy," you may have seen the episode where giant meteor crashes to Earth and makes Billy seeks out brains for it to eat in a dual parody of "Little Shop of Horrors" and "Thriller," or even the TV movie "Big Boogey Adventure," where he performs the awesome theme song. That's him. Most of his songs deal with the strange and the macabre, with some tongue firmly planted in cheek. This song exemplfies the Black/White that is stereotypical "Evil."


And, to cap everything off, here is the scariest song I can find:



AAAHHHHHHHHH!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!! IT BURNS!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!

Happy Halloween, everybody!

Creepy & Kooky, Altogether Ooky

Halloween is at the end of the week, and I'll admit that I haven't been feeling too spooky this year. Perhaps it's that I'm out of college and thus, no annual Fall Fest to wear a costume to. All I have is my job, and even then I have no ideas. I've been considering to finally buy one of those over the top pimp hats and just wear it on my shift on Saturday and simply pretend it's not there.

Then there's the spooky movies & shows. The only thing I have under my belt this year? Zombieland.



...and that's it. Granted, the movie was awesome, but that's all I've seen this year. Hell, I'm pretty sure I missed this year's airing of The Great Pumpkin. Sure, I've seen Charlie Brown get a rock dozens of times already, but it just doesn't feel like Halloween without it. (EDIT: It turns out I didn't miss it! The spirits did it all in one night! I mean, it aired the day after I wrote this!)

So, I decided to get my spook on by going to Great Adventure via my college's annual Fright Fest Trip. A place where the scariest things...are the prices! Hahahahaha!

As it turns out, a forecast of rain drove away any potential crowds, meaning no lines for anything! Except Superman: Ultimate Flight, but even THAT had a 15-20 minute wait. The newly rechristened Bizarro was a main highlight of the trip. Medusa, the first floorless species of roller coaster, had been aging in its ten year history, but a blue paint job, retheming the ride to classic Superman villain Bizarro, and the installation of speakers, mist cannons, and fireballs did that ride good. What was once a "meh" inducing ride that had seen better days has now taken a level in badass and is completely awesome once again! I managed to ride the back row, and then immediately into the front row, and then once again at night. Awesome, especially with no waiting.

Of course, there were the other rides: Nitro (again, was able to get successive rides in front AND back rows with no wait), both sides of Rolling Thunder, Dark Knight (whose only wait was via standing through the 5 minute preshow!), Batman, and El Toro three times, once accomplishing that holy trinity of "Awesome Wooden Coaster, At Night, with a rained-on track, providing more speed). Did I mention no waits whatsoever, save for Superman? I almost rode Scream Machine, but seeing a train get stuck on its mid-point brake run...twice put the kibosh on that. Kingda Ka was up, too, but the rain and wind forced it to act like the tempermental bitch that it was.

I also got on Skull Mountain, accomplishing my goal of riding every coaster in the park. It only took me 4 years to do so.

But when the sun went down and the ghouls attempted to come out, but alas, even zombies hate the rain. And I'm not talking about the light sprinkles that showed up throughout the day. I'm talking about downpours that disintegrated even the cheapest of plastic ponchos. It made it quite difficult to re-enact Zombieland's climax, especially since I got my gun confiscated at the front gate. But I managed to do it anyway, even as Harley Quinn's dysfunctional family reunion tried to pie drenched parkgoers in the face. As the rain haad the absolute gall to cancel the Dead Man's Party twice, the trip made a unanimous decision to get the hell outta there. The topper came when, around 9 and everyone was in the parking lot, a flash of lightning appeared not 100 feet away from us and caused a blackout.

Sucked to be the people who were actually on some of those rides, but if there was an omen to tell us to leave, that was a damn good one. I was rightfully spooked, and I'm happy to announce that my spookiness is back! On to watch Homestar Halloween toons for the rest of the week!

Trailer Trash

You know, watching the trailer for "Paranormal Activity" reminded me of something that seriously grinds my gears:



I fucking hate commercials that show the audience outside the theater and saying how good the movie was. The people, usually girls in large groups, say stuff it was "AWESOME!" or "BEST MOVIE OF THE YEAR!" or even "MADE ME DANCE IN THE STREETS, SAID DICK PATRICK OF THE LA TIMES!"

This isn't limited to movies, either. I live on Long Island, so I see ads for Broadway musicals all the time.



At least Spamalot made fun of this when they did it.

It's giving unnecessary hype to a movie that CLEARLY needs it. Notice how they never do those type of commercials for movies that are actually GOOD. And they're usually kid's movies, too. You'll never see Pixar or GOOD Disney movies use this, it's usually the Country Bears, or some other non-Disney flick like Hoodwinked or the live-action Alvin & The Chipmunks movie. And they'll always, ALWAYS show these ads at least the 2nd or third weekend after their release.

"They're not seeing the movie!"
"Let's pay actors to gush on how they don't mind giving generic compliments to the movie! That'll drive attendance!"
"Brilliant!"

...The reason why you don't see more videos that describe this phenomenon is that...there aren't really any on Youtube. That, and it's a pretty hard to describe term to search for.

For a movie I DID recently see, Zombieland was pretty awesome. I'm not a fan of zombie/horror movies, so the first five minutes was a little...nausea-inducing and full of nightmare fuel, but I got through it and I'm glad I did. If you're a horror junkie, or just think that The Tar Monster is your favorite movie character ever, this should be no problem for you.

It was pretty much an American version of Shaun of The Dead: Woody Harrellson in place of Simon Pegg, a variation of "the infected" in place of traditional zombies, a "will they/won't they" romance bet, usage of a Hummer, and scenes taking place in Texas and an amusement park in California. There was even a cameo by Bill Murray! (Btw, I apologize, because that's the only thing that amounts to a spoiler to the movie). By the way, I am in no way using that as an insult. It pretty much IS what the US equivalent of "Shaun" would be like.

If I had any negatives about this flick, it would be that they used "the infected" as zombies, and that there was no shout out to SotD with the usage of a cricket bat. The scene in the grocery store has him whack a fat zombie with an aluminum bat was awesome, but it just wasn't the same. An In 10 Words entry can be found here.

Summer's Over!

Okay, I froze my ass off today, time to officially call an end to Summer.

Let's check my To-Do List to see if I did everything:

-Graduate College. I'm still a graduate, and my parents are still on my ass to get a real job. I'm just waiting for In 10 Words to get my foot in the door with a book deal.

-Go to an Amusement Park. If you remember correctly:

A few weeks ago, I went to Six Flags: Great Adventure in NJ once again, and I had good times. It was the Friday before Memorial Day, a sure bet for an easy day at the park, as I had done a similar trip on that day two years back. That trip might've benefited from the rainstorm earlier in the morning, as the sun was out in full force this time, which had everyone in the whole damn state say "Hey, it's sunny, let's all go to Six Flags at the same time!" Jeesh, you'd think it was June with that crowd.

-Go to a Yankees game. As I wrote in that original entry:

Did that on May 20th with about 9 other people from my CVS job, their home game facing the Baltimore Orioles. It was one hell of a game to go to, as my beloved Yanks shut the birds out 11-4. I sat in the left-center bleachers and I have to tell you, the cheap seats give you a pretty good view. It was sort of a shame that we weren't sitting in the right-center bleachers or center field since that's where EVERY BALL EVER HIT went to. I later found out that the new Yankee Stadium was built to do this. Sneaky, Yanks, and the whole architecture seemed to scream "Looks swanky enough to justify the price gouging." Mmm...$9 Bud Lights.

-See the following movies: Up and Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen. Yep and Yep. Saw both movies on their respective opening days. Up's reviews can be found here and here.

As for Revenge of the Fallen, it had everything I expected in a Transformers movie: Giant robots, coming from space, transform into cars and blow shit up. With some humans getting caught in the crossfire. Plus, it had Soundwave, Devastator and Jetfire, not to mention a Wheelie that wasn't as annoying as the G1 version! A 10 Word review of it can be found here.

-Watch all the DVDs I haven't gotten around to watching yet. Sadly...nope. Despite having all the time in the world, those DVDs continue to gather dust. I did pick up Simpsons Season 12 and watched the hell out of that, though.

-Go to American Roadside Burger and get my name on the wall. I did get my picture on the wall...At Cheeburger Cheeburger. I have yet to get to American Roadside, but I'll fill you all in when I do!

-Blog some more. I obviously did that.

...It kind of says something about my summer if I accomplished more than half of my list before even writing said list. I mostly wallowed in self depression, which was mostly cured by Simpsons DVDs and picking up Pokemon Platinum. I'm currently rectifying all problems in my life right now, such as finding a REAL job, and writing more kickass entries (one is DEFINITELY coming soon!). There's also my updated-more-frequently blog In 10 Words, which recently celebrated its 1 year anniversary!

BTW, you can become a fan of this very blog on Facebook! Click here or click on that Facebook Badge thing at the top of the page! Don't forget to suggest this blog to your friends!

WTF Video Time!

As much as I hate filler entries, I have to let you, my readers, know that a really long and awesome entry is currently in the works. It'll be done...soon, I promise.

Until then, here's a video that I've always wanted to show you: Ice Cream for Dinner.



Don't forget to follow the blog on Facebook! And visit my Spin-off Blog In 10 Words!

In 10 Words Turns 1!

Hey, my spin-off blog, "In 10 Words," celebrated its first birthday today! Read: http://in10words.wordpress.com/

Labor Dayborin'

Yes, it's Labor Day once again, the unofficial end of Summer. You can always tell it is because the temperature begins to cool, pools start to close up, the tourists finally leave, the thought of school looms just a day or two away, and Jerry Lewis makes his annual TV appearance. Since I missed Jerry this year, I won't post up my "Summer Wrap-Up" post until I see some leaves changing brown. Since I live on Long Island, this is a definite promise. Also, my summer has been sadly eventful, aside of Graduating from college and getting half of my Summer To-Do List completed before June even hit.

What I will comment on, however, is that I recently started playing Pokemon Platinum on Thursday.



I beat the Pearl version some 2 years ago, so after I heard that there were plenty of changes to justify a purchase, I thought I'd give it a go once again. If only I did actually purchase it. You see, I hit a great opportunity at a Dave & Busters back in late July/Early August that just so happened to offer the game at the price of 6,000 tickets. Since I got lucky on those "drop the token into the bed of other tokens and hope they get pushed into the hole" game, I decided to get it for myself. And then it just sat on my table collecting dust until I heard about the "Member Card" promotion.

This is an event that's only available over the Nintendo Wi-Fi connection that gave you the card that opened the locked door in Canalave City that lets you encounter Darkrai (until Sept. 13th). We in the USA had a Darkrai promotion a year or so ago, but it just gave you a Darkrai, but with the incredible moveset that was given away in Japan for the opening of the Darkrai movie. Also, this promotion in general was given in Japan well over 2 years ago, and we're finally getting it, and hopefully we'll get the events to catch Shaymin & Arceus as well.

The point of that ramble? I've decided to give everyone updates of my progress via the blog's Facebook Page. Become a fan of it if you're not already! My current status: Made it to Solaceon Town, and I'm about to venture into the Solaceon Tower to get the HM for De-Fog.

My Current Team as of this writing:

-Grotle lv 29
-Staravia lv 29
-Kirlia lv 21
-Stunky lv 24
-Geodude lv 23
-Marshtomp lv 30

Now Marshtomp is an interesting choice. One might wonder how I managed to get my hands on THAT one, but I'll spill. I started an Emerald game with Mudkip, raised it until it evolved into a Swampert, bred it, then Pal Park'd it to Pearl. I rasied THAT new Mudkip into another Swampert, bred THAT one, and then sent over to Platinum. Same went for Stunky, as they're not f'ing obtainable in neither Platinum nor Pearl. Sure, they stopped listening to me for a while, but three badges changed all of that.

So stop by the FB page for my progress! Also, I promise one more Soundtracks For Summer entry before the season's done.

The Mouse & The Marvel

As you might have heard earlier today, Disney bought the comic company Marvel for $4 billion. As some might have feared, this is NOT necessarily a bad thing. For one thing, Disney doesn't need the comics. Hell, it's probably more convenient since quite a few comics from then had been produced by Marvel. My blog buddy Mark Evanier had some thoughts on the subject. This being one of them:

This isn't about publishing. Disney didn't say, "Gee, it would be great to own a comic book company!" They could have started fifty comic book companies for four billion clams. This is about characters and properties which can be exploited in many forms. The publishing of comic books may or may not always be one of them. But Disney's interest here is in two closely-related areas. One is to be able to market all these great characters and the history that rounds them out and makes many of them beloved. And the other reason is to make sure nobody else gets 'em.

The best news for the comic book division of Marvel in all this is how unlikely it is that anyone at Disney will care much what they do as long as the department shows a profit. If it generates new properties that can be turned into movies and video games and iPhone applications, so much the better. But the future of Spider-Man has very little to do with the Spider-Man comic book. That hasn't mattered for a long time.

It's more about the ever-expanding Disney Marketing Machine™. You know, that force that shoves stuff like Miley Cyrus, The Jonas Bros, unnecessary Disney movie sequels down your throat for the sole purpose of embedding them into your head only because of the relentless advertising? Yes, that. For one thing, DC has got the goods on its own, what with the awesome Comics, TV shows, and movies, along with the fact that they're owned by Time Warner. Marvel, however has been..,lacking in pretty much all departments. Sure, the movies are STARTING to get awesome, and they won't be affected by the DMM™ (Iron Man in particular being with Paramount). If the DMM™ will take full advantage of Marvel properties whose name isn't Wolverine, this can only help.

This does, however, raise the question of the theme parks. While it WOULD be awesome to see The Hulk trudge around Fantasyland

There's the fact that Marvel has its own land at Universal's Islands of Adventure. While its parks are owned by NBC/Universal (and by proxy, its parent company GE), I have no clue on how this'll play out. I'm guessing even though Marvel Island is only one land, it still seems that Disney might have some sort of odd theme park monopoly in Florida.

"Hey the recession is dropping attendance, what do we do?"
"Raise ticket prices!"
"Brilliant!"

There's also a great silver lining to this: How about thinking up some Marvel/Disney crossovers that are now much more possible? Here are some of mine or ones that I saw:

-Namor the Sub-Mariner destroying Atlantica & The Little Mermaid with it.
-Xavier Institute Musical (alt name: High School Mutanical)
-Donald meeting up with Howard The Duck
-Darkwing Duck crossing paths with Spider-Man
-Gizmoduck and Iron Man switching suits
-A Kingdom Hearts-eque epic, but with Marvel characters in place of Final Fantasy ones
-Deadpool and...anyone, really
-Scrooge McDuck competing against Kingpin on who is the most powerful...thing in the world
-and My favorite: The Jonas Brothers vs The Punisher

Galileo Goes to Atlantic City!

For those of you not in the know, I live on Long Island. If you don't know what that is, it's that fish-shaped island hanging off the tail end of New York. It's quite close to a number of great places: New York City, Upstate NY, Six Flags, and of course, Atlantic City and the rest of the Jersey Shore.

I've been talking about wishing to travel to good Old AC since around the "Things That Start with A" and "B" entries from last year. I had always wished to see its Boardwalk and the awesomeness that lied within.



And here it is! That's my buddy Steve candidly posing for the picture. I believe that's Carmine's behind him. As you can see, it was a great day with perfect visibility throughout the day. I went last Friday (8/21) for a day-trip via Coach Bus, and you couldn't ask for a better day. Sun, no clouds, hot-but-not-too-hot, and thanks to the recession, not a crowded boardwalk!



This shot didn't come out as good as I wanted it to, but you can still see some rust and dilapidation on the facade of this building. When Steve ask me why I was taking a picture of THIS building, I told him that this building in particular lived up to every visual expectation that I had of Atlantic City. So of course I had to take a picture. All in the name of web journalism.



Here's a picture of the buffet I ate at. This was just the dessert island, and there were worse puns at the other stations. I kept getting hints that the Virginia City Buffet in Bally's Wild Wild West is the best one in AC, and I'm starting to agree. Sure, it's the only one I've been to so far, but it set the bar. Sadly, looking through all my pictures again, I realize that my current camera is much more prone to blurring than my old one was. Not to mention the crappy lighting.



Like this shot I tried to take of some desserts. Shot-glass sized strawberry shortcake and chocolate whatever-the-thing-on-the-left-was. The flash on my cam has the following settings for a shot like this: "Blinding" "Unrecognizably Blinding" and "Too Dark To See Any Damn Details." This shot was the latter.



We found this on an oven at that buffet. Good advice.



Found in a candy store called "It'Sugar" that was in a mall next door to Bally's Wild West. Excellent signage, crappy picture. These pictures came out awful.



Another example of unintentional blur ruining a good picture. That marquee on the theater on the right says "The Color Purple. And Red, Blue, and Orange..."

Besides a Conestoga Wagon and an elephant made entirely of Jelly Bellies, those were the worthwhile moments of my Atlantic City trip. I lost about $60 to slots and video poker, but I don't care, I had an awesome time and I'm up for going again. I still need to saltwater some taffy and find more Monopoly properties. I found several, but I'm looking for Baltic Avenue on the entire standpoint of just liking the name.

I did find Mediterranean Ave, though, and I designated the area between it and the Boardwalk as "Go." I also realized a solution to the bailouts: Have someone stand on that spot and give people $200 for crossing it. If they trey it again, the guy would tell them "Nope, you gotta go the whole way around again!"

...Ok, here's the Jelly Belly Elephant:

Soundtracks For Summer: Tequila

Part 14 in my ongoing "Soundtracks For Summer" Series.



Entry #14 in my series of songs that define "Summer" arrives at that staple of carnival games, Tequila. Ok, so this wasn't on my list of upcoming entries, but this song got brought up in conversation by my friend Steve asking me "WHY WASN'T THIS SONG COVERED YET?!" I have no clue, and so I'm making one. So there.

The above video is probably the reason why we all remember the song: The biker bar scene from "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure" (Song start 2:39 in). And of course you have to do that awesome dance whenever it's played. I know I do. Hell, Mr. Herman pretty much has an obligation to make tribute to one of his finest hours at least once in just about every Pee-Wee project since this movie, and we love him for it. He even busts it out during a tightrope walk at the end of "Big Top Pee-Wee." That's awesome right there.

What doesn't hurt at all is that great rhythm. Duh duh duhduhduhduh duh duh. Duh duh duhduhduhduh duh duh. Duh duh duh duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuh duh. Dununununuh, TEQUILA! It' universal, it's catchy, and it's a great song to do...fun things to. That's a winner right there.

Since I mentioned carnival games, I've heard this song play during many a round of various shooting games, most notable at the "shoot the water gun at the clown's mouth to make a balloon explode" game.



Since those days of yore, it's the only song that runs through my head whenever I stroll through a carnival or the games area of a theme park. Damn you, Six Flags.

BTW, I'm also taking reader submissions for future "Soundtracks For Summer" entries. The next few Soundtracks For Summer entries will be: Paradise City, Holiday Road and Californication. If you've got an idea, pop me an email at beamingforbunnies@gmail.com with the name of the song, and a reason or two why it defines "Summer" for you. You'll be glad you did.

Also, does anyone know the name of that Red Hot Chili Peppers song where the music vid was them just riding in a car? That one's perfect for a late summer entry.

God Bless Stock Footage

To cheer myself up a bit, here's a monkey washing a cat:



A man getting hit with a cannonball:



Some old ladies clapping:



And, as promised, a video of a man wrestling a bear for no reason:

Why Shark Week is Awesome

As you may know, here in the US, the Discovery Channel is running its annual Shark Week.



It's when channels such as it and Animal Planet devote much of its programming to Sharks. Sure, there is shark-centered programming year round, but this is the one week out of the year where they show EVERYTHING they have about sharks, with lots and lots of hype and advertising. There has been rarely a year where it didn't disappoint. They also re-theme all their major shows around Shark Week, like Mythbusters, Dirty Jobs, and that one episode of Cash Cab where the cab the contestants were riding in plunged into shark infested waters.

Sadly, as I'm not on top of mainstream TV advertising and I don't pay attention to TV guides anymore, I had no idea it even WAS Shark Week this week until I saw people's Facebook status saying "Watching Shark Week!" That's when I go "OMG, SHARK WEEK!!1!" And I proceed to watch in awe, even if there are only 4 new shows total and the rest are reruns. The fact that they got Malcom MacDowell to narrate a few of these shows doesn't hurt at all.

Thanks to the movie Jaws, most of the programming is devoted to Great Whites. Sure, they cover many other sharks, but they focus on the Great Whites mostly because other shark species haven't randomly swum into New Jersey rivers to attack people for some reason. They sometimes focus on Tiger sharks, who are mostly dicks, as well as the Whale Shark simply because it's the biggest damn fish in the water. Smaller shark species, like Bull, Nurse, Hammerhead, Sandbar and Galapagos have been featured in programming mostly to compare it to Whites. "Oh, these sharks are plentiful around here, but these things get emasculated by the freaking huge Great Whites that show up around here!"

Most of the Great White programming this year deals with these topics: their eating habits, their migration, seeing if they'd attack a cardboard seal decoy, and their tendency to JUMP OUT OF THE FREAKING WATER. It gets repetitive, but awesomeness always seems to trump that. But speaking of Jaws, it's that freaking movie that pretty much made me stop going to the beach. Specifically, it was Quint's bloody death that did me in, and that one scene was what cemented an irrational fear of "sharks are always watching, even in the pool." The tendency for shark programming showing their scale compared to humans didn't help my cause. Of course, now I think it's awesome, but I still can't watch Jaws when I know Quint's about to bite it.

If you're wondering what my favorite shark is, it's the Hammerhead.



I just love the shape of its head, really. Plus, they swarm, which every show that mentions them always manages to show this in action.

Soundtracks For Summer: Walk The Dinosaur

Part 13 in my ongoing "Soundtracks For Summer" series.

Here's an entry that I've been wanting to do for a while, but could never write it down.



"Walk The Dinosaur," the biggest hit for the band Was (Not Was). I'm highly aware that this isn't the original, iconic video. It can be found here. Damn record label not allowing embedding.

This is actually the first song in this series that I have no experience with whatsoever. It's mostly due to this song being my most requested entry. Still, this is a pretty damn good song. Here's what I do know about it: Released in 1987 during MTV's heyday, it was one of those songs that experienced quite a heavy rotation, and thus, becoming quite ingrained in viewer's minds. The visuals certainly help. 80's Pop? Yes. Lame Dance? Yep. Hot women? Hell yes. Cheap soundstage? Check. Public Domain Looney Tunes? Checkmate. All for an awesome video.

I can quite imagine this song playing on a boombox during a beach party in the late 80's and beyond. It also reminds me of someone boldly attempting to pick up chicks in a beach-themed bar with this song playing. Then getting rejected. Then getting trashed. Then repeating the cycle. Good times.

I've also got this memory from regular reader and blogging friend Dan:

One of my personal fave's! I remember I was about 16 or 17 when I went to my sister's place out in the middle of nowhere for a bonfire/weenie roast. This song came on the radio and everyone was singing along and dancing (poorly) to the music. It's such an odd song anyway but it'll always have a spot in my heart.

And it's a good thing that I saved this entry until now, it's actually been getting a slight resurgence thanks to appearing on the soundtrack for Ice Age 3. It's a cover by Queen Latifah, but still. It's also been more famously covered by George Clinton (& The Goombas) for the Super Mario Bros. movie. I'll let you be the judge of which one is freakier/more awesome.



BTW, I'm also taking reader submissions for future "Soundtracks For Summer" entries. The next few Soundtracks For Summer entries will be: Paradise City, Holiday Road and Californication. If you've got an idea, pop me an email at beamingforbunnies@gmail.com with the name of the song, and a reason or two why it defines "Summer" for you. You'll be glad you did.

Also, does anyone know the name of that Red Hot Chili Peppers song where the music vid was them just riding in a car? That one's perfect for a late summer entry.