Yank Blog

On Sunday, October 30th, most folks will be turning their clocks back an hour as Daylight Savings Time comes to an end. However, if you wish you could keep turning back time…ALL the way back to the 1980s and re-live those ten great years, and have Al help you re-live them but only for a day, then boy howdy are you in luck. On Sunday, VH-1 will be doing a full marathon of their newest “I Love the 80s: 3D” series. Al has a special segment in each episode called “Films that should’ve have been made in 3D but weren’t”. He also talks about other great memorable moments of the decade like “You Can’t Do That on Television”, “Children of the Corn” and the band Heart. Sounds like a great way to waste a day! So sit down, shut up, and fire up the Tivo! It all starts at noon Eastern STANDARD time, but check your local listings just to be sure.

Huzzah! It’s time to blow out the candles and have a piece of cake because today, October 23rd, is Weird Al’s birthday! The folks here at Yank Blog wishes you a very very happy birthday. May you finally get that super secret Orphan Annie decoder ring you’ve always wanted.

And now for the very first annual, yearly, dodeca-monthly super difficult brain-stumping cranium-smushing birthday puzzle. I’ve cleverly scrambled the titles to several of Al’s songs, see if you figure out what they are:

TAF
TAE TI
BOB
YPPAH YADHTRIB

(answers printed upside down on the reverse side of this page, stare at back of monitor upside down to read)

Once again, Happy Birthday Al!

For all you fans of the hit TV show “Lost”, check out this fan-made video to Weird Al’s “Bohemian Rhapsody”. Ha ha ha! Excellent work there, Robert Montjoy.

Back in 2002, Grant Baciocco of Throwing Toasters, organized a benefit charity CD to help the victims of the disasters on 9/11. The CD was called “Laughter Is A Powerful Weapon” and featured a basket full of comedy music artists. Well, now in light of Hurricane Katrina, he’s at it again producing Volume 2 with his friend Jean Prior. Grant recently revealed to the world that our pal Al is donating a rare track to this project. On the CD along with other acts like Barnes & Barnes, Carla Ulbrich, The Great Luke Ski, and Rob Paravonian you’ll hear Al’s original Placebo EP release of “Happy Birthday”. What? That’s not enough for you? My, aren’t you greedy, but alright, there’s more! In addition to that, Jon “Bermuda” Schwartz is donating one of his early works, remixed (well, remastered actually) for stunning clarity never heard before in his rendition of “Mr. Ghost Goes To Town.” This is going to be a great CD, and the proceeds from it will go to the American Red Cross. So in addition to about two dozen great comedy tracks, you’ll also get a warm fuzzy feeling each time you listen to it, knowing that you helped make a difference. Grant expects the CD to be available in mid November. Check out http://www.funnymusicians.com for more details.

Weird Al Star Fund just added the 2006 AL GALendar and four poster ALendars at our merchandise shop or directly by clicking here.

We’re still working on one more 12 page ALendar which will have more, but smaller pics. We hope to have it available in early November.

Remember, if you order now you can save some bucks on the 12 page ALendar. Cafepress has a coupon code on wall calendars, expiring October 15. Enter the code CAL2 and get two bucks off. Keep in mind though, it won’t give you a discount on the poster ALendars since cafepress only recognizes them as posters.

As Dave Rossi commented in a previous entry, the official site’s Ask Al section has also been updated. WOOOO!

Ha ha… I *really* like his response to the third question…

Hannanh of St. Louis, MO asks: Why do you write dirty songs? Since I’ve heard a few (like “Bill Clinton Bimbo Number 5″) myself and a few of the kids at my school (like 183) are boycotting you and spreading the word fast. You disgust me!

[Weird Al:] As I’ve stated very clearly in the FAQ, there are a lot of crude and vulgar parodies floating around the peer-to-peer sites that have my name attached to them. They are NOT by me. All of my material is really pretty family friendly. Of course, you would KNOW this if you actually BOUGHT my CDs instead of trying to ILLEGALLY DOWNLOAD them off the Internet like the amoral-yet-self-righteous HOOLIGAN you obviously are! YOU disgust ME!! Ah, the delicious irony of it all…

Bwa ha ha ha! Remember kids, when you download music, not all songs have been credited correctly. Too often somebody assumes that if it’s a parody, it MUST have been done by Weird Al. To make sure if a song really has been recorded by Al, you can first check the Official WeirdAl.com Catalog which just happens to list every song from every album, or you try the Weird Al songography, or you could even try looking up the List of songs NOT done by Weird Al (but is usually credited to him). So many resources… check with at least one of them and you save yourself the embarrassment of having Weird Al totally rip you a new one.

The year just marches on and with it, comes October. This month Kristine Slipson provides another desktop calendar with a nice fall and Halloween theme. In case you can’t quite make it out, Al is performing Dog Eat Dog from Polka Party and behind the calendar is Darth Rubén. Of course, the 23rd is highlighted to remind you of Al’s birthday…which just coincidentally happens to be on the 23rd. Wow. Wacky! Do you want the fame, prestige, and free ham* that you get by having one of your “Weird Al” inspired desktop wallpapers make it on to this site? It’s really easy. Just read the rules and send it in for the monthly contest. It’s just that easy.

*=free ham not included

Three new items have sprung up on WeirdAl.com:

AL WITH THE PRESIDENTS!
On September 23rd, Al joined his pals The Presidents of the United States of America on stage at the Key Club in Los Angeles for a spontaneous performance of “Gump.” Gee, you never know where that guy will pop up next…

AL GETS EXTREME!
You’ll be able to see Al on an upcoming episode of “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” set to air on ABC in late November. No, he’s not getting a new house.

AL LOVES THE 80’s… 3-D!
Yes, Al’s back on VH1 giving idiotic answers to stupid questions on their new 5-part series “I Love The 80’s 3-D,” which is scheduled to run October 24-28. Also keep your eyes peeled for Al’s featured appearances on other VH1 shows like “I Love The Holidays” (scheduled for sometime in November) and “I Love The 70’s II” (airing early next year).