Yank Blog

Boy, if only there was a way I could broadcast to everybody I meet in person what my all-time favorite movie starring Weird Al as a dreamer who takes over a small television station is…

Waitaminute! There is a way! I could wear this Spatula City t-shirt, whose logo is modelled after the billboard in the movie. Experts agree it is the peak of trendy fashions and completely functional as well.

Or perhaps for a more subtler reference, I could wear this Badgers t-shirt. While it doesn’t actually reference UHF directly, it does focus on one of the best quotes from the movie. I’m positive that this shirt will be a total chick magnet for you. If nobody complements you on your cinema preference after wearing this shirt for more than three weeks in a row, then the problem must clearly be with you. There just isn’t any other possible reason. Or try putting on some pants as well. Maybe that’ll help.

Check out this cool mashup of Weird Al’s eBay and the Four Tops’ Baby I Need Your Loving entitled eBay, I Need Your Lovin posted to the “Get Your Bootleg On” webforums by DJ B.S. It’s his first mashup and we hope to hear many more like these in the near future.

And scroll down the page to find another mashup, this one by a Bob Barker, that mostly consists of samples from Dare To Be Stupid and some other obscure tunes.

(Source: a1mfw)

Wow! Check out this very cool hand-made T-shirt made to look like the one in the Jurrasic Park video created by lifexgoesxon. Click on through to view the entire T-shirt making process. It looks really great. Like she reached into her TV screen and pulled it right out of the video!

Mark your calendars! The Ben Folds album we reported back in November (and now called Songs For Silverman) will be out on April 10th (see update below). As reported in the Sydney Morning Herald (registration possibly needed):

Ben Folds’s new album is a collection of 11 tunes brimming with his signature quirk and piano thumpings. Entitled Songs For Silverman, it turns out that the title is meaningless: there is no Silverman. Made following the split of his famed trio, Ben Folds Five (they of the rousing ballad Brick) in 2000, Songs For Silverman is a bold album complete with an Elliott Smith tribute, a song for his daughter Gracie, guest vocals by Weird Al Yankovic and more of the wry observations that have made Folds the nerdy baron of pop.

Keep at least one ear open to hear Al singing in the background for the song Time.

Update: The SMH article stated that “Songs For Silverman is out through SonyBMG on April 10.” Elvis points out to me that according to BenFolds.com, the album will be in stores April 26th.

Central Coast Teens presents this great interview with Al back in August 2004. He describes how he comes up with his parodies, his musical influences, what Prince songs he wanted to do, and much much more. And don’t forget to check out all the nice slanted concert photos included.

(Link found by Orthography Enthusiast)

The “All Al Hour” will be on XMKIDS on Friday, April 1 at 11pm EST/8pm PST. It repeats on Saturday, April 2 at 9am & 5pm EST and 6am & 2pm PST, and Sunday 4/3 at 12 noon EST/9am PST.

XM Kids is Channel 116 on XM Online. You can subscribe for free for 3 days, so now you have no excuse not to tune in!

Jim will be performning live again. You can catch him at…

Room5 Lounge
143 North La Brea Ave.
Los Angeles 90036
(323) 938-2504

When: Sunday, April 3rd 2005, 7:30 PM

It’s an upscale lounge/restaurant with great food.
Cover charge will be $5

www.room5lounge.com

And for those of you who like to wake up early on Sunday morning and eat Hawaiian food…

Also, most Sunday mornings 10AM - 1:30PM with “Hui!!”
at Bob’s Okazu-Ya Hawaiian restaurant in Gardena.
16814 Vermont, just of the 110 freeway at the 91 West exit
310-515-2250

Shpadoinkle! If you’re a fan of Matt Stone and Trey Parker’s pre-South Park movies involving Mormons getting tricked into the porno biz, then have they got a treat for you! Today’s VH1 Movie News reports that the Orgazmo Special Edition DVD will be released on March 29th. The DVD will feature an audio “drunken” commentary by the creators and friends, AND a second audio commentary with completely random celebrities who had absolutely nothing to do with the film, including Kevin Smith, Dave Foley, and “Weird Al” Yankovic.

And in case you haven’t guessed by now, this movie is not suitable for kids or Mormons. Although, somehow it is perfectly fine for Mormon kids. I don’t know how, but magically it just is.

Back in January, Al-oholics Anonymous brought you a depolkafied version of the “Angry White Boy Polka” from Poodle Hat. Well slowly but surely, the task of doing this to ALL the other polka medleys is under way. Today, we annouce that a depolkafied version of Polkas On 45 from the In 3-D album is now available. Like the last one, this combines sections of the original songs into the medley. So, what purpose does this serve? Entertainment? Improvement? Hardly. It’s mostly for educational reference. Chances are you know “Every Breath You Take” by the Police, but “Jocko Homo” by Devo is a little more obscure. This lets you hear how close Al really got it. Of course, if you decide to dance around to this mix while wearing a badger costume on the rooftop of a anthill while drinking a pint of motor oil…well, more power to you.

From USA Today’s less-than-funny Pop Candy article on spoof pilots:

Nearsighted Parodist - Before fans recognized “Weird Al” Yankovic for his clever song parodies, his family and friends just knew him as Al, The Kinda Odd Guy Who Needs To See An Optometrist. Part musical, part documentary, this show sheds light on Yankovic’s imperfect sight …and phenomenal artistic vision. Viewers will be riveted as Yankovic inserts contact lenses without a mirror, organizes an all-star “Bifocals Rock!” benefit and runs into Eminem on the street - but, because he’s not wearing glasses, just sees him as a pale, blurry blob.

Well, that’s nice, but maybe they forgot all about Al’s LASIK surgery back in 1997? And “B-List”? “Fading, less-than-perfect celebrities”? Obviously they have Al confused with Carson Daly.