Category: Videos

Saturday Matinee: Sucky Song & Favorite DooWop


Clever stop motion stuff outclasses a sucky song.

The Dell-Vikings’ “Jitterbug Mary” is an unrecobanized classic.  They were my  favorite doowop group.  I hear this kinda stuff and it makes everything better.

My favorite doowop group was The Five Satins. Here they lipsynch for a bunch of white people.

Gene Chandler was better known for “Duke of Earl.”  Here’s the Duke singing “Good Times.”  Although this song is R&B, he’s my favorite doowop singer.

“Love of My Life” is one of the greatest songs ever, and  Frank Zappa’s bands are my favorite doowop group.  (This song is still my favorite — too bad The Ramones aren’t still around to do a Zappa tribute album.)

[ Woohoo! Post No. 700!]

28 MARCH 8:30PM – PARTY LIKE IT’S 2009

Earth Hour – Let’s celebrate!

At 8:30PM tonight, make sure you turn all your lights on, power up your TVs and stereos, and celebrate the Technological Achievements of Humanity.  Get in your cars and drive somewhere, just for the sake of it, and just for fun.  Raise and lower your garage doors, and run your washing machines.  Run the dryer without anything in it.  Got a power mower? Crank it up.  Heat up your cat’s food  in the microwave.  Take your dog out to Burger King.  Make as many long distance telephone calls as you can.  Run your dishwasher with half of the normal load, and run the other half separately.  Open up your refrigerator door, and look without removing anything to eat.  Do it again.  Download updates for all your computer programs and email them to all your friends.

LET’S CELEBRATE AMAZING ACHIEVEMENTS FOR A CHANGE!

“But why should I do that?” you ask.  I’ll tell you.

We’re fighting Global Cooling.  Mostly we’re fighting Global Idiocy, but let’s call it Global Cooling for now.  The feel-good crowd will never know the difference anyway.

Those folks who think that turning their electricity off for an hour will “save the planet” (or “send a message” to someone or something) are the same folks who stood outside their homes a couple of years ago with candle wax dripping over their fingers, believing that the space shuttle was gonna zoom by and take a photo of the earth lit up with peace candles.  My message is:

PUT YOUR LIGHTS ON!

Saturday Matinee: Judge ’em for yourselves

They have a website.  Really.

[Links above were found via AfroJacks.]

Great parody by National Lampoon, back when they were funny existed.

Nice reference to Ten Years After’s “I’d Love To Change The World”  at 2:25 above.  So here ’tis:

“Tax the rich, feed the poor, until there are rich no more.”

Alvin Lee and Ten Years After (live at Woodstock 1969) covered over a dozen classic blues songs in one great jam.

Saturday Matinee – Kid Ory’s Muskrat Ramble

Kid Ory was one of the greatest trombonists and band leaders of the 20th Century.  One of the early jazz pioneers, his career spanned decades and influenced uncountable others. From Wikipedia:

Kid Ory had one of the best-known bands in New Orleans in the 1910s, hiring many of the great jazz musicians of the city, including, cornetists Joe “King” Oliver, Mutt Carey, and Louis Armstrong; and clarinetists Johnny Dodds and Jimmie Noone.

For many years I thought King Oliver formed the band. Here’s Kid Ory’s band in 1959, playing “Muskrat Ramble,” a song he wrote in the 1920’s.  [Bonus: Interview with Kid Ory.]

Satchmo got his start playing 2nd trumpet in King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band, later married the piano player Lil Hardin. Here’s Louis Armstrong’s version of “Muskrat Ramble.”

Country Joe MacDonald blatantly and unashamedly ripped off Kid Ory’s tune (probably without paying royalties) and warped it into a sarcastic war protest song.  Here he is in his blissfully ignorant glory (apparently without the Fish) at Woodstock 1969.

Here’s a kinda related video:  Small Faces’ “Tin Soldier.” There’s a reason they had few TV appearances and I don’t think Spinal Tap could’ve topped that spastic performance. [Found via Mogadonia.]

Just sealed it. I’m going to hell for connecting Kid Ory with Spinal Tap Lego animation.  I am very sorry and I promise that it won’t happen again as far as you know.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

st-patricks-day_flyboyz

Since we can’t post SeeqPod music on WordPress yet, I dropped a small load on Amy Oops.  Meanwhile, here’s a fightin’ song: The Pogues’ “Young Ned of the Hill.”

[Image from here.]

“Congratulations! You Are A Piece of ____ !”

asparagus

You’ve seen them.  They began on the C and D Blogs, and they’re all over the B Blogs now. Dopey questionnaires that ask you to answer five or six odd questions, none of which can be answered wrong. Then you submit your answers, and the magic internest blogsite genii tells you what kind of breakfast cereal you are, or some such drivel.

Don’t know what I’m railing about? Here are a few examples:

What kind of afro-desiac are you?

What kind of paper clip do you most resemble?

If you were a freakin’ cupcake, would you be less of a dork?

What kind of imaginary powers that would raise you up from your own miserable pathetic little life that you would wish for, assuming you have a life to begin with?

The results of these inane surveys are then posted on the authors’ websites with a proclamation such as “I am a furry little wombat/budgie hybrid who enjoys hot cocoa.”  Barf.

So, then, I have a proposal for y’all.  Whenever and wherever you find a blog that asks you to take a dopey “What Kind Of ___ Am I”  type quiz, don’t bother clicking on the link.  Just answer “I’m Asparagus.” No further explanation is necessary.

Let’s get rid of this obnoxious trend so we can get on with REALLY inane blogging, like cat snoring videos:

Saturday Matinee – Harp Guitar, Graffiti Removal, Paint it Black, Black Betty

That’s a harp guitar, folks, being played by Andy McKee. This is the same Larson-Dyer version that I learned on; it was my great grandfather’s, and I still have it.  It’s got a wide fretboard with 6 strings and 6 free bass strings above (hence the “harp” moniker).  I’d never heard one played properly until I saw this video.

The Subconscious Art of Graffiti Removal.  [Found via here.  Related post here.]

Okay as long as we’re still talking about painting…

RamJam.  Amazing one hit wonder, based upon Ledbelly’s classic.

Whoa. Meatloaf covers RamJam’s version of Ledbelly’s classic.

And, um, Tom Jones did it, too.  Whoa, whoa, whooaa…

Here’s Ledbelly speaking for himself.

You said, “Jaco WHO?”

Bonus video of Jaco Pastorius:

Saturday Matinee: Watchmen, Evil Rainbow Pollution, Weather Report

[Folks, I still got some computer glitches left over from earlier this week.  I had to go into safe mode just to uninstall Microdork’s Service Pack 3.  Unfortunately  the uninstall takes some stuff with it that affects FireFox as well as some other applications.  The computer was limping, now it’s walking. Tomorrow I hope to get it running again.  Guess I gotta buy more RAM.]

A friend “let” me read his cellophane-clad mint copies of the Watchmen twenty years ago. I was amazed at the level of artwork as well as the entire concept, but the final episode sucked donkeys big time.
[Karen found and posted this here.]

This video reassures me that people like her are allowed to vote.  And really now, what is oozing out of our ground?
[Video rediscovered at Wombat247.]

Weather Report was way ahead of their time jazzbo wise, or maybe they hit it at just the right time in order to get my attention.  Jaco Pastorius was amazing.

Babe Magnet: The VW Basbo Flash

I honestly don’t know the story behind this amazing feat of engineering, but here it is.

vw-tadpole-6

Very cool.  The styling just screams high performance babe magnet.

vw-tadpole-4

Serious aerodynamics here.  This dragon wagon chills at close to the speed of light and it beats your ride even while parked.  Okay, it’s got an unfortunate license plate, but hey, the hotness overrides the WOBL1.  Let’s have a look at the interior.

vw-tadpole-3

IT’S A COCKPIT! Way cool.  But, um, where is the  silicone/saline siren supposed to sit?  Seems to be a slight design oversight, but admit it, you’re still cruising at 3,000 feet right?

vw-tadpole-21

Not quite.  Sometimes scale matters.  You are travelling at whelp speed in a truncated tadpole…

vw-tadpole-1

..only worse.  It’s a Mars Bar with wheels and an embarrassing license plate.

vw-tadpole-5

Screw it; it’s basic transportation.  Let’s mess with the traffic and laugh about it while feeling Green and saving the planet.  (Sorry, there’s no room for you. Get your own tadpole, mooch.)

So is it a Babe Magnet or not?  Phhht.  For the money, I’d buy a Harley and a rainsuit instead, and I’d still get better mileage than Mr. Tadpole.

BUT if  I were forced into driving a dorkmobile, and only upon penalty of death, I’d choose this, if only for the nostalgia:

3-wheel-messerschmidt

Sam Lowry drove a Messerschmitt in BRAZIL.

[Top images via email from Dan S.  Don’t miss this excellent collection of Babe Magnets.]