Category Archives: funny

Obit: Leonard Nimoy (1931-2015)

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nimoySo Leonard Nimoy was not so much rock’n’roll, but he did release eight (yes, eight) albums.

  1. Leonard Nimoy Presents Mr. Spock’s Music From Outer Space.
  2. Two Sides of Leonard Nimoy
  3. The Way I Feel
  4. The Touch of Leonard Nimoy
  5. The New World of Leonard Nimoy
  6. Space Odyssey
  7. Outer Space/Inner Mind
  8. Highly Illogical

Who knew? Who even heard?

Of course, we all remember William Shatner’s kitchy cover of Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds.

But, the pair also cut a disc together, as you can see. nimoykirk

Still, there is no question of the influence of Star Trek and its characters on us boomers, and the cottage industry it spawned (I watched Next Generation and Voyager in addition to the original series).

There was also some music on the actual original Star Trek show, most of which was awful.

In honor of the life of the esteemed cultural icon, Spock, here is part of what was perhaps the worst episode, with some of the worst music. I do remember watching this when I was 16, and being half embarrassed, while half laughing my ass off.

But, Nimoy was indeed a mensch, as witnessed by his final message/Tweet, earlier in the week: “A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory.”

Irrespective, Live long and prosper, Nimoy. You were a good egg.

TV: “Mr. Pickles”

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Indulge me a little bit here, as this entry has virtually nothing to do with music.

However, like my mate Peter, this site, though primarily focused on music–specifically rock’n’roll–is also about art and culture.

Hence this entry, which involves my favorite TV show at present, Mr. Pickles, which appears on the Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim.

In contextualizing Mr. Pickles, it is important to note the brilliant concept Adult Swim has for a lot of their shows, not all of which are cartoons, but all of which represent some of the truly original and creative work anywhere.

A lot of the network’s (Adult Swim operates from 10 P.M. to 5 A.M. EST, daily, after which some very creative younger humans programming takes back over) brilliance comes from packaging. Shows generally run about 11 minutes, so, a Mr. Pickles that begins at say 9:30 P.M. will run for that time span, without commercials, and then be followed by three-to-four minutes of breaks, followed by another 15-minute program running under the same format.

Mr. Pickles, specifically, is about the Goodman family, their community (“Old Town”) and their “lovable” dog, Mr. Pickles. Mr. Pickles is beyond loyal to his owner, Tommy (who legs are inexplicably in braces) and the Goodman family, but Mr. Pickles also has a satanic streak, where he has some magic dominion over other animals, and can control them accordingly.

Mr. Pickles also has a serious sense of justice to go with that evil, if you will, streak. The thing is no one knows about Mr. Pickles’ dark side save the Goodman’s grandpa, who is always maintaining the dog is indeed evil, but is always disproved by the episode’s end, leaving the elder man with a wild tale that makes everyone know he is crazy.

I tend to describe the show as Leave it to Beaver, meets Scooby Doo, meets Dexter. The storylines get complex, but by the end of the 11 minutes, all the crazy loose ends are indeed tied up. But, in addition to the wild plots, there are all kinds of great things the creators have tossed in.

For example, Mr. Goodman is always reading the paper and the news of the story is often reflected in the headlines of his daily news, or within the sherrif’s office, the same can be said about the wanted posters.

Similarly, there is a lot happening in the background, with a lot of very off-the-wall stuff–particularly sex, as Mr. Pickles does indeed like to hump and grope almost anything, especially Mrs. Goodman–going on all over the place.

Mind you, this is a cartoon, but don’t let your kids watch, at least not without checking it out first, because this show is hysterical and as creative as it gets, but it could also be disturbing.

There are 10 episodes available (my favorite is The Lair) but what I linked to below is the Pilot as it gives a pretty good overview of the whole melange of craziness. But, if you go to the Adult Swim website, you can stream all of them (yay, they have been renewed for a second season!).

Lunch Break: The Kinks, “Maximum Consumption”

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Wow. You get sick and wind down your main work career, missing. or better being distracted for a week or so and look how much you miss.

I got a lot of catching up to do on “posts ex facto,” but just before I disappeared, Steve wrote about listening to something and watching football, when the viewer suddenly switched on the Food Network.

Seems like Steve couldn’t get his fork around that.

Well, as an admitted foodie, and pretty serious cook, I can totally understand. I watch the Food Network as a staple–along with the NFL network, MLB network, TCM, and Adult Swim–checking out at least one complete show of something every day (I not only learn places to eat on the Network, but some pretty interesting and valuable cooking techniques).

But, the whole food/music thing made me think of food songs. Ode to Bobbie Joe sneaked in there, along with Mashed Potato, Hot Pastrami, and of course Gravy, but I went with the Kinks during their fabulous Muswell Hillbillies period.

Night Music: Animal Crackers, “Hooray for Captain Spaulding”

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About a year ago my friend Lisa’s husband died. Tonight there was a memorial for him in the Great Hall at Cooper Union, where his friends and family talked about his especially vibrant life.

Not neglected was his love of movies and comedy. Oh, and the Marx Brothers, who so often combined the two.

Good night, Peter.

Lunch Break: The Who, “Tattoo”

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Well, since we have been talking about both selling out, and tattoos, it just seemed right to post this as some lunch break fun.

The Who Sell Out is my favorite album by the band, and I brought this disc into the tattoo parlor when I was inked with my Tigger/Owl tat (in memory of my late wife Cathy, and son Joey) as I thought it would be perfect background music (it was).

BTW, I love Keith’s playing, but I also think it is a good example of Townshend being frustrated with him when he says “can’t you just be a metronome?”

Thanksgiving Breakfast Blend: Danny Kaye, “The Dodger Song”

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As I have probably written before, when I was little, I did not realize I was contrary.

But, I was a Dodger fan in Northern California during the 60’s, so that should have told me all I needed to know.

In 1962, this song by Danny Kaye, made the local charts for obvious reasons.

And, Peter’s Wilco/DiMaggio posts made me think of this song (of which I can still remember all the words).

This is a pretty cool video, by the way. Leggo city (all we had were Lincoln Logs and Erector Sets).

 

Me Talk Pretty One Day

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Any of you read David Sedaris’ very funny reflections, Me Talk Pretty One Day?

Well, I am not sure why that emerged as an appropriate title for this, but Diane and I schlepped up to the Tahoe house for the Thanksgiving holiday (rest of family will start arriving tomorrow) and we were watching Life of Brian (watching Brian, or The Holy Grail when we get here is part of the ritual for us).

Of course I was cracking up, as I think Life of Brian is not just one of the funniest–and best–movies ever, but I felt strongly that before America engaged in any invasions of Iraq or Afghanistan, every American should watch the film (and then keep watching it once a week until we were out of the middle east).

That is because the issues in that region are indeed 6000 years old, and, well, they run deep and silly. But, as the “Biggus Dickus” scene popped on, it made me wonder why it is so extra funny when characters are speaking the same language, and yet still cannot understand one another.

Not to mention, maybe such language miscues really get to the heart of human problems: that we simply don’t listen or hear to one another.

Here are some pretty good cinematic examples of this, starting with the oh so brilliant Pythons.

Yet another favorite, and perhaps the greatest parody of all time (sorry Spinal Tap), this scene also completely kills me.

While Father of the Bride does not even close to rank in a favorites list, this scene with Franck (Martin Short) does always get me, especially in the sense that the women totally get Franck, and poor, flustered Steve Martin has no clue. (I know this scene is pretty much ripped from the original, with Elizabeth Taylor and Spencer Tracy, but I like this sequence better.)