Yank Blog

…and sadly, Al did not make the list. Al is having a great 2011 so far. We’re around halfway in and already there’s a new album, new book, and new music video out, and new tour on the horizon. It would have been a nice feather in his cap, but I guess it wasn’t meant to be this year.

We wholeheartedly believe Al deserves a spot on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame. We will be nominating Al once again next year, and we will continue to do all we can until Al gets his well-deserved star!

For a full list of Walk Of Fame recipients for 2012, check out this link.

Hey, I hope everyone is doing well. I thought I’d give you an update on a few things going on recently since I haven’t posted here in a while.

1. We’ve nominated Al once again for 2012! The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce is expected to make their decision in June. So cross your fingers, uvula, and pancreas that this is Al’s year.

2. Speaking of, if you haven’t heard by now, at the end of last year, the Hollywood Walk of Fame unexpectedly raised their price to $30,000. That leaves us just over $5,000 short again. Please visit our donation page at www.weirdalstar.com if you can help.

3. We finally got ourselves a Facebook page. So please come over to www.facebook.com/weirdalstar and give us a like, and share with your friends.

4. There’s a great brand new Weird Al tribute album coming out any day now. The album contains over an hour of amazing Weird Al tribute songs as performed by people like MC Frontalot, Shael Riley, Nuclear Bubble Wrap, mc chris, Steve Goodie, Al’s Band, MC Lars and many, many others. You can preorder and get more details over at www.weirdaltribute.com. A portion of their sales are being donated to the Weird Al Star Fund.

5. And speaking of tributes, there another Weird Al Star Fund benefit show planned for July 13 at 8 PM at diPiazza in Long Beach, CA. Raymond & Scum, Tony Goldmark, Throwing Toasters, Dino-Mike, and TV’s Kyle will be performing. More details can be found at www.weirdalstar.com/tributeshow2011.html. A portion of their ticket sales are being donated to the Weird Al Star Fund as well.

That should keep you guys busy until next update. I’ll be in touch if any other big news breaks. Enjoy the ALPOCALYPSE on June 21!

Keep an eye on the news today. And not just for updates on that big storm that’s affecting 100 million people, and dropping moisture over 2,100 miles in 2 dozen states. Weird Al’s hitting the airwaves and uh, printwaves, for his book promotion tour. Of course he was on The Today Show this morning. But prior to that he also hit Fox 25 Morning News in Boston. You can watch the video here. Or if you prefer reading to video (after all this is a book he’s promoting) you can check out the text interview on CNN.com.

If you see or hear Al anywhere else, let us know!

Weird Al is launching his children’s picture book, When I Grow Up, on Tuesday, February 1, 2011 at 6:30 pm at the Barnes & Noble, 3535 US Route 1 South in the MarketFair Mall, Princeton, NJ. Ticket distribution begins at 4:00 pm on February 1, 2011. Seating is on a first-come/first seated basis.

More details here.

Al added two new U.K. dates to his tour.

Thu Dec 2, 2010 Birmingham, UK The Academy
Fri Dec 3, 2010 Manchester, UK The Academy

Both presale tickets go on sale in only a few short hours from this posting. That’s Thursday, 09.30.10 at 05:00 AM ET. Or 30.09.10 at 10.00 AM GMT for those of you who are most likely to buy tickets. There’s also a rumor of a concert in the Netherlands but nothing official has been announced yet, so stay tuned for more info on that, hopefully soon!

We all know the story. On September 14, 1980, Al was live on The Dr. Demento Show to debut his new parody “Another One Rides The Bus.” Also at the show that day was Jon “Bermuda” Schwartz who was there because he had submitted a few homemade tapes to Dr. Demento several years earlier. Since Bermuda was a drummer, Al recruited him to drum along on Al’s accordion case, and the rest is history!

Happy 30th anniversary Al & Bermuda!!!

The actor, Kevin McCarthy, who played super villain R.J. Fletcher, Sr. in UHF died of natural causes yesterday, September 11, 2010. He was 96. Our condolences to the family of Mr. McCarthy. I personally will remember Mr. McCarthy for his role in UHF, and his role as the mayor in The Weird Al Show‘s “60% Chance Of Rain” skit. R.I.P. Kevin McCarthy.

Austin Aeschliman of Rycehat and Jace McLain of Nuclear Bubble Wrap are working on new Weird Al Tribute Album called “Twenty-Six and a Half.” They’ve already got over 20 deeeeeemented artists signed up to contribute, and here’s the cool part…. 40% of all sales are going to the Weird Al Star Fund!!

No release date yet, but they’re hoping to have it out by the end of 2010. Right now, they’re soliciting donations to help cover the cost of pressing the CDs. If you want to help, or see more about the project, you can do so here.

The tour’s not over yet! Al just added 4 more dates.

Sun Aug 8, 2010 Port Theatre Nanaimo, BC
Sat Aug 28, 2010 The Riverside Theater Milwaukee, WI
Sun Aug 29, 2010 The McAninch Center at College of DuPage Glen Ellyn, IL
Sat Sept 4, 2010 Sherman Theater Stroudsburg, PA

Interesting, all are on the weekend for your traveling convenience. And heads up for those interested, the presale for the Nanaimo started already on weirdal.com.

Al’s got a new blog up. Go read it. He talks a little about the tour, the European dates, the possibility of a new album, the aborted Cartoon Network film, his children’s book, and some other super secret projects he’s working on. Hmm, actually that about sums it nicely, so I guess you don’t have to go read it now after all. Never mind.