Yank Blog

Celebrity gossip site TMZ has an article:

Lady Gaga is adamant … she did NOT ban Weird Al Yankovic from parodying her hit song “Born This Way” — despite Al’s accusation that the pop star shut him down hard recently.

And the New York Times managed to catch up with Al shortly after the song was posted. So they got to dig deep, peel back the layers, and expose the real Al and the story behind the story. What will happen next in this saga? Will she publically announce her blessing for this song? Would she make a guest appearance in a video if she did? Will she reveal she’s really Justin Bieber’s mother? How should I know?

Of course, none of this should really matter since Al originally got permission for Madonna to do a parody of her work over 20 years ago. #addingfueltothefire.

For what it’s worth, a new documentary film on the founder of the Jelly Belly brand jelly bean is just being released. To you, this news probably doesn’t amount to a hill of beans, but if you watch the trailer here, you might see why this film is getting a mention here.
During the opening theme for The Weird Al Show, Al sang that he made a really fine jelly bean and pickle sandwich. If anyone could combine those two tastes and just make pickle flavor jelly bellies, it would this guy!

So Al has been doing all sorts of interviews to promote his new book When I Grow Up. It seems like things are going pretty well, and here’s another interview from the folks over at English, baby.

After years and years of playing the same songs on stage, Al is going to let YOU suggest some songs he add into the setlist of his next concert tour. He made this announcement via a tweet.

I’m putting together the set list for my 2010 Tour tonight – which songs (other than the super-obvious ones) would you like to see included?

So if you’ve always wanted to hear Franks 2000″ TV, or pull some of those musty older songs he did EONS ago like “Brady Bunch” or even something a little more obscure like Mr Frump in the Iron Lung or even Still Billy Joel To Me, now is your chance! Just tweet to @alyankovic and watch your request be ignored!

Don’t send in too many suggestions though. Al and Suzanne should be celebrating their 9th anniversary instead of looking at your pitiful suggestions. We here at the Yank Blog with them a Happy Anniversary and hope they have many more.

Al once said that the one song that changed his life the most was “Eat It” because it let him buy a house. No other song had let him do that before. Of course, “Eat It” would not have been possible without Michael Jackson and “Beat It”. So in memory of Michael Jackson, here’s the scene from the mockumentary “The Compleat Al” in which Al asks Michael for permission for the parody.

And of course, also check out Al’s spot on parodies of Eat It and Fat.

You’d better back up your hard drives and protect your backups. There’s been a lot of talk recently about the Conficker worm virus that’s going to wreak havoc on the world on April 1st. It’s rumored to do all sorts of nasty things like delete your email, make your TV record “Gigli” and give your poodle a hickey. Hmm, where have we heard warnings like this before….

Hey would ya look at that! Today is Al and Suzanne‘s eighth anniversary! Big congrats to them from EVERYONE on the Internet. Yes, that even means Leroy Finkelstein over there hiding in the corner. We see you. But the good news doesn’t stop there. Tomorrow is Nina’s 6th birthday. WOOHOO! Remember what it was like when you were six? Sure you do. Al’s music brings out our childlike innocence in all of us. I know I still have the heart of a child…. although it’s in a jar under my bed. Hmm, wonder if that kids needs it back? Anyway, make sure you wish everyone the appropriate good wishes.

Hey, check this out! MSN Video found Al, threw him down into a chair and said “Now that we have you’re attention, we want you to answer these ten questions!” Al said “uhhhh, k?” You’ll learn his views about Hawaii, fatherhood, and movies, and watermelons. It’s certainly one of the better interviews that’s been posted online in recent memories. Thanks Al!

In the not-too-distant future, next Sunday, A.D., there was a guy named Al. He was weirder than you or me….

And the folks at Rifftrax asked him if he’d like to add some commentary to their upcoming version of “Jurassic Park” to which Al said “ummm, sure”. What is Rifftrax? Well, Do you remember that show Mystery Science Theater 3000 where Joel (or Mike) and his two wise cracking robots were made to watch really bad movies and poke fun of it all the way through? Well, this is the next version of that. It’s like DVD commentaries, but intentionally funny. For the moment, this is really only a rumor, but it’s coming from a reliable source. So that’s basically the deal. Al will be a guest “riffer” providing commentary with a few other robots people. Perhaps he will tell them where to stick it! More details will be posted as it becomes available.

1/31 Update: Well, it’s now official. The track will be Al with Mike Nelson and will be available for purchase starting on Feb 5th.

If you are in the Hollywood area this weekend, you may want to wander over to the Steve Allen Theater for their holiday sing-a-long show. It promises to be fun and entertaining with some extra special guests.

The Steve Allen Theater and Courgette Records are proud to present actor/comedian Harry Shearer (The Simpsons, Le Show) and his wife, critically acclaimed singer/songwriter and humorist Judith Owen, in an evening of holiday music and mirth. The evening unites Christmas-lovers and Scrooges alike, in traditional and nontraditional holiday music, part performance, part sing-along. Both reverent and irreverent…a perfect kick-off to the holiday season featuring surprise special guests, including Jill Sobule and The Bobs!

Ok, so Harry Shearer would be cool to see, but so what? So WHAT?! So what if you knew that Al was scheduled to be one of those super secret special guests! That’s so what! Can you imagine seeing Al doing a sing-a-long with Harry Shearer live and on stage? Probably, but your imagination also probably sucks compared to seeing it live! What are you waiting for?! GO! GO! GO!

Tickets are available on the website for either the Friday or Saturday show, both at 8pm, for $25.

Thanks to anonymous tipster, UHJeff, who passed along this joyous bit of news.