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Archives: November 2008
30 November 2008 | 11:32 PM
As a latch-key kid whose formative years were spent suckling from the warm, glowing teat that was 80’s and early 90’s television, I can honestly say that everything I ever needed to know I learned from the boob tube. Alas, since I spent so much of my youth glued to the idiot box, I now remember next to nothing because, as my mother always used to point out to me, TV rots your brain. But being a classically trained (read, I was forced to take piano lessons) musician, the things that do still stick with me from that golden age of entertainment are the theme songs. To be honest, while I can only dimly differentiate Facts of Life’s Mrs. Garrett from Mona on Who’s The Boss, I can still sing you the songs that rolled under each show’s opening credits pretty much verbatim. While I’m prepared to admit that this memory quirk is evidence of some insidious moral turpitude and completely messed-up priorities on my part, one can hardly deny how awesome those old theme songs were.
Which brings me (finally!) to Television Tunes, an exhaustive archive of the theme music from just about every show ever aired, from The Jack Benny Program to That’s My Bush to Cop Rock, and everything in between. Here’s some of the awesomeness I found:
- Parker Lewis Can’t Lose – Synchronize swatches!
- Jennifer Slept Here – Boy, did I ever have an embarrassing crush on Ann Jillian…
- Dinosaurs – Inexplicably, I never missed this show when I was a freshman in college, and I was rarely (if ever) high.
- Hong Kong Phooey – Go back and watch some of these and you’ll be stunned by how much sexist content could be snuck into a kids cartoon in the early 80’s.
- Max Headroom – Imagine, a show who’s gimmick is based on the premise that buffering is hilarious!
- V – Damn, I miss those slimy green bastards.
- The Liberace Show – Somewhere, Noel Coward is thinking, “Um, really, that’s a bit much, don’t you think?”
- Tales Of The Gold Monkey – My favorite show as a kid and easily the best seaplane-themed adventure-comedy show of the mid 1980’s
I should warn you that I managed to blow well upwards of an hour in the dead of night down this rabbit hole, so beware if you venture down it yourself. And remember, if you get lost just look for this gem to get your bearings.
Posted by Andy in Nerdapalooza |
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27 November 2008 | 10:37 PM
How do you know when a goofy web meme has officially jumped the tracks and crossed over into everyday popular culture? Probably when something like this happens:
The only way things could’ve gotten any more meta is if they had figured out how to ironically avoid including the Garfield balloon or if they caught Matt Lauer coming back from break asking “I can haz cheeseburger?“
Posted by Andy in Nerdapalooza |
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27 November 2008 | 4:36 PM
For most people with families, the festive aspects of the Thanksgiving holiday are often overshadowed by the fact that we’re forced to, you know, interact with our family. And while I’ll agree that there’s no amount of pie, cranberry sauce or alcohol that could possibly make these dinners “fun”, its perhaps a good idea to reflect on how lucky you are. You see, friend, you could have it much, much worse. I’m not saying, but I’m just saying.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.
Posted by Andy in Wincing The Night Away |
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26 November 2008 | 4:17 PM
Forgive how brief (and, I’m sure, poorly-worded) this post is, but I’m having trouble stopping myself from trembling with waves of jubilant laughter ever since I found out that Ann Coulter’s jaw has been wired shut. Go on, say that sentence aloud a few more times – it’s like eating PopRocks while drinking soda!
Yes, it’s due to some accident (actually, I believe the word is “karma”). No, it isn’t permanent. But still, is it not the best news you’ve heard all day?
So it would appear that this Thanksgiving we’ll all have something to be truly thankful for after all.
Posted by Andy in Politcally Incoherent |
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26 November 2008 | 2:49 PM
Some of the things one finds on the internet are so obscure or arcane that they require countless tangential and referential pieces of nerdy knowledge to properly enjoy them.
This is not one of those things.
[Via Geekologie]
Posted by Andy in Ummm...? |
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26 November 2008 | 11:40 AM
With the whole of our society poised to give eachother the bird, I think it’s best to stuff ourselves full on silly links today, so we can leave room for that extra piece of pumpkin pie tomorrow. Ready….set….go(rge)!
Posted by Andy in Linksploitation |
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24 November 2008 | 4:56 PM
If history (and by “history”, I mean “the internet”) has taught me anything (and by “anything”, I mean “nothing”), it’s that there is no bigger treasure trove of comedy in this world than local television news broadcasts. I mean, where else could you see something as truly awesome as this:
Dearie me. Let’s welcome this clip into the pantheon of local news hilarity, joining the panicky meteorologist, the awesomest sportscast ever, the interview segment gone horribly awry and of course the poor 60 Minutes reporter forced to cover a story on the heat-ray.
Thank you, jumping lizard: I honor the place where your impetuousness and your quarry’s cat-like reflexes become one.
Posted by Andy in Comedy = Tragedy + Time |
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23 November 2008 | 12:17 AM
As you know, it’s my civic duty to post anything related to geekly musician extraordinaire Jonathan Coulton. So it should come as no shock to you that I’m pointing to you this live performance of the early 20th century hit song “Tonight You Belong To Me” at the Live Wire Wordstock Extravaganza earlier this month. That said, it might interest you to know that this clip also includes John Hodgman, a ukulele, The Long Winters and what I can honestly say is the most wicked comb solo I’ve heard this year. Perhaps I’ve said too much?
Although there’s something disquieting about a Windows PC crooning those particular lyrics, don’t you think?
Posted by Andy in Nerdapalooza |
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22 November 2008 | 11:51 PM
While I’m too squeamish, inept and uncoordinated to participate in most console gaming, I have always had a soft spot in my heart for viral web games. This is probably because the Flash or Shockwave environments are highly interactive and stylized, while the games themselves are short and to the point. Such is the case with this simple promotional bit of (literal) fluffiness from the Dutch interactive firm 10mg, a silly and harrowing bit of emergency stuffed-bunny surgery which will either lead our hero Bre’r Rabbit down the path to enlightenment and eternal life, or send him packin’ for the pearly gates. Yes, it’s easy to solve (even for a dunce like me), but it’s also is tightly produced and pretty cheeky, leading me to believe that maybe, finally, there might be an interactive firm out there whose own sense of self-importance might be overshadowed by its sense of humor. No, it’s not as cool (or nearly as addictive) as my favorite one of these kinds of things ever, but it’s pretty clever nonetheless. And I will say that, as someone sitting in a house filled chock-a-block with stuffed animals, the temptation to put one under the knife is growing by the second.
Posted by Andy in Ummm...? |
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21 November 2008 | 11:24 AM
I realize that I’m a hardcore Apple apologist, and that my preference for products with the company’s logo on them might make me a little biased about other companies’ stuff. That said, I think I’m on safe ground when I say that Microsoft would’ve been better served to never have created their god-awful “iPod killer”, the Zune. While its failure is the stuff of legend in the tech world, Redmond continues to push it upon the world, valiantly tilting at Apple’s windmills in the hopes of gaining even a zillionth of its market-share. One of the more hilariously Microsoftian elements of the product is the notion that you can “squirt” DRM-laden music from one Zune to another for some sort of social listening experience. Trust me, after seeing this ad (which, admittedly, is probably a fake), you won’t want to get within 500 yards of your average Zune user:
When one can easily relate your product to explosive (albeit colorful) diarrhea, perhaps that’s a good time for your company to ask if perhaps you’ve miscalculated a bit. Although, in my own experience, it’s pretty customary for Microsoft products to perform like shit, so maybe this is apropos?
Posted by Andy in Nerdapalooza |
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