Nurse, I spy gypsies! Run!

[vovat]

SPAM SUBJECT LINE OF THE DAY: "SATISFYHERgoaksfhowey." I don't know. I've heard that goaksfhoweys are pretty difficult to satisfy.

And now, based on something was thinking about the other day, here's an exercise that's guaranteed to be fun for everybody! [1] I'm going to say what age I was when I got interested in various things. I remember doing something like this when I was in fifth grade health class, but now it's for fun, and there's a lot more stuff to add. I'm going to go with ages, rather than years, but since I was born in November 1977, I'm sure you can figure out the years if you're interested. You're all smart, right? {g}

About 2 or 3: Winnie-the-Pooh
Probably around 8 or 9: Lewis Carroll/Alice in Wonderland
About 9 or 10: Narnia
11: Oz
13: Nintendo (especially Mario) [2]
14: Dave Barry
16: "Weird Al" Yankovic"
17: The Simpsons [3]
19: Douglas Adams, Tom Lehrer, They Might Be Giants
20: Moxy Früvous, XTC, Discworld, Tori Amos
21: Futurama [4], Camper Van Beethoven, Hypnotic Clambake, Young Fresh Fellows
22: Frank Black
23: The Posies, Laura Cantrell
24: Neko Case, Harry Potter
25: Lemony Snicket
26: Magnetic Fields

It seems like, for the most part, I got into fantasy books in elementary school, comedy in high school, and music in college and beyond. College was also when I got into the work of authors like Adams and Terry Pratchett, who mixed my love of fantastic settings with my love of humor. Truly a match made in Heaven, I suppose. {g}

As you'll notice, Weird Al and TMBG were the first musical artists I really got into. After that, I started listening to a lot more bands, but I've never been quite as obsessed with any of them as I was with those first two. I guess it makes sense that, the more I'm into, the less I can concentrate on each one. I don't mind, though.

Speaking of Weird Al, I'm listening to Poodle Hat, and it's driving home how much more creativity Al puts into his originals than his parodies nowadays. It's not like the parodies on this album are bad (well, aside from the desperate and disjointed "A Complicated Song," and even on that one I like the last verse), but they're kind of more of the same. It's more stuff like "Hardware Store," "Bob," and "Why Does This Always Happen To Me?" that proves to me that there's still plenty of comedic life left in Al. Yet when you read a critical review, it pretty much always says the parodies are great and the originals weak. It makes me wonder if the critics even LISTEN to the originals. Oh, and the last element of most Al albums, the polka medley, will probably never get old.

Anyone who wants to do my when-you-got-into-things exercise can feel free, but I don't think anyone will. No one ever does, after all.

Your Social Dysfunction: Normal Being average in terms of how social you are, as well as the amount of self-esteem you have, you're pretty much normal. Good on you.

Take this quiz at QuizGalaxy.com Please note that we aren't, nor do we claim to be, psychologists. This quiz is for fun and entertainment only. Try not to freak out about your results.

Yeah, right! Like I believe THAT.

Your Inner Blood Type is Type B

You follow your own rules in life, even if you change the rules every day. Sure, you tend to be off the wall and unpredictable, but that's what makes you lovable. And even though you're a wild child, you have the tools to be a great success. You are able to concentrate intently - and make the impossible possible. You are most compatible with: B and AB Famous Type B's: Leonardo Di Caprio and

What's Your Inner Blood Type?

My actual blood type is AB, by the way. I was one of only two or so people in my ninth grade biology class to know this. My mom told me my blood type when I was a kid, and I've remembered it ever since.


[1] Not a guarantee.
[2] I actually got a Nintendo Entertainment System fairly late in the game (no pun intended). Kids in my class at elementary school would talk about Nintendo, and I was totally lost. When I finally got one, it wasn't quite as popular anymore. Of course, now it's retro, which presumably makes it cool again.
[3] The show came on when I was 12, and I did watch and enjoy it from the beginning, but it wasn't until around the sixth season or so that I grew really obsessed with it.
[4] About the only interest of mine where I came in at the ground floor. Stands to reason that it would have been cancelled, doesn't it? :(

Comments

[zimbra1006.livejournal.com]

Speaking of Weird Al, I'm listening to Poodle Hat, and it's driving home how much more creativity Al puts into his originals than his parodies nowadays.

I actually started realizing several years ago that I was enjoying his originals a lot more than his parodies.. I assumed it was a taste thing as I got older, though I guess it's also possible they were getting weaker on the newer albums that were coming out.

And by the way, I forgot to mention I got your CD. Thanks! I like it a lot, and most of it I hadn't heard.

Hmm, the age/interests thing is cool. I might have to do that myself.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

I actually started realizing several years ago that I was enjoying his originals a lot more than his parodies.. I assumed it was a taste thing as I got older, though I guess it's also possible they were getting weaker on the newer albums that were coming out.

I don't know if they're getting weaker so much as that they're essentially more of the same. I mean, the first single from PH is "Couch Potato," which is based on a subject he's covered so many times in the past. There are still some good jokes, but it's hard to find an idea as funny the twentieth time around, you know? Maybe if I'd heard "Couch Potato" before any of Al's other TV parodies, I'd like it a lot better.

I think there's something to the taste thing, too. Kids probably tend to get into the simple parodies, many of which (especially the food-related ones) are fairly juvenile in nature. The originals are often less obvious in their humor, so perhaps kids are more inclined to disregard them, and adults to like them a little more. I also think that, when Al writes both the words AND the music, there's more in the arrangements and such to appreciate from a purely musical standpoint. I think you have to have an interest in novelty music in general to like the originals, though, which might be why critics tend to dismiss them.

And by the way, I forgot to mention I got your CD. Thanks!

You're welcome. Are there any songs you particularly liked?

Hmm, the age/interests thing is cool. I might have to do that myself.

That would be cool. Then I'd be a trendsetter! {g}

[zimbra1006.livejournal.com]

I liked the XTC and Frank Black songs (not surprising since I like all those artists, just hadn't heard these songs yet) and I also really liked the Laura Cantrell and Carolyn Mark stuff.. I've never really listened to either of them.

I know I've heard the Ben Folds song "There's Always Someone Cooler Than You," but I don't own it. Is that on one of the EP's?

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it was on Super D and Songs for Goldfish. I used the Goldfish version, since that was the one released in 2005.

[revme.livejournal.com]

I tend to think of Poodle Hat as a weak album BECAUSE of the parodies. But I'm thinking it's not so much because of the parodies themselves are weak ("Complicated Song" aside, which is pretty weak), but because the songs they're parodying are weak. ("Couch Potato" was brilliant, though.) But yeah -- it's the originals on that album that save it. About the only original on that one I don't care for is "Party At The Leper Colony", which is just a little bit easy. But "Hardware Store" is brilliant.

And that's one of my favorite polkas of his, too.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

But I'm thinking it's not so much because of the parodies themselves are weak ("Complicated Song" aside, which is pretty weak), but because the songs they're parodying are weak.

Yeah, there's probably something to that. There have been Weird Al parodies that I liked even when I didn't much care for the original, but it's definitely easier when you like the pre-parody song.

I agree that "Party At The Leper Colony" is pretty easy as far as the jokes go, and I don't think it's particularly good musically, either. I also think "Wanna B Ur Lovr" is a little overly long, although the lyrics are good.

[revme.livejournal.com]

I think, too, though with songs where the original sucks, there's typically (at least in The Before-Time), there was usually something there, too -- some sort of quality about the song that kind of said "Even though I don't like this song and wish it weren't a hit, I can at least see WHY it is a hit". Sorta like with a lot of U2 songs -- I despise U2 and while I don't quite get why they have the bizarre devoted allegiance to them they've got from their fans, there's at least some sort of intangiable quality to their songs that at least can pass themselves off as "content". So, even though I wish they weren't, I can kinda see why they've got a bunch of hit singles. (Also, workin' so much with Eno can't hurt, either.)

But with a lot of these songs now, you get the impression that they're hits not because they've got some sort of innate quality couched in the inanity, but just because so much money has been thrown at them, there's this sense of "By god, it BETTER be a hit". Not so much that it's manufactured, either -- I mean, the Monkees were manufactured, but they also had a lot of astoundingly good songwriters providing their songs. There was money thrown at them, too, sure -- but they actually were making sure they had a quality product that they were applying the Monkees Gloss/Shine to. With, say, Britney Spears, there might be the occasional good song, but for the most part, it's all Gloss, No Substance. (I think this is one of the reasons Liz Phair's s/t album was received so poorly -- the type of gloss that's on that is typically reserved for songs that don't have any substance, so when it was applied to her songs (which DO have it), a lot of people were fooled by the production into thinking it was Britney Stuff, instead of, you know, quality songs with a Britney-veneer -- which I think also helps to explain why folks have slowly begun to come around on that record.

"Wanna B Ur Lovr" is pretty good, though -- a little long but I like the sound of it.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

I mean, the Monkees were manufactured, but they also had a lot of astoundingly good songwriters providing their songs.

Not to mention that they DID write some of their own songs. But I don't think who writes the songs is necessarily as important as whether the songs are written and performed well. It's cool when a multi-talented person can do both, but that doesn't mean someone who sings and doesn't write their own songs is automatically worthy of contempt, like some people seem to think.

[revme.livejournal.com]

That's true -- I've been meaning to pick up Headquarters, which is basically the Monkees album where they played everything and I believe wrote everything, too. (Not to mention that Nesmith almost always wrote the flip to each single and some of the album tracks, too, even aside from the other Monkees.) So, yeah. I tend to prefer it when people sing their own stuff (and always find it mentally strange when you have genres, like, say, Country, where the singer-songwriter thing is surprisingly rare), but it's not really a pre-requesite. In a way, it's too bad we don't ahave more stuff like Goffin/King or Boyce & Hart. Because they were aweseome.

[bethje.livejournal.com]

They didn't write all of the songs on Headquarters, but they did write most, and they played most of it (few session musicians were brought in) and produced pretty much all of it. I think it remains the album they're most proud of, and it remains the one (not counting Justus) that they all pitched in most on.

Headquarters was their third album. The first two were extremely manufactured, and while I really like some of the songs on them, there are things about them that are totally ridiculous. Peter neither sings nor plays on a single song from the first album, and he's given only a novelty song to sing on the second! And for the most part, they were pretty okay with that, because, at the time, that first album was mostly meant to be a sort of soundtrack of the show. From what I've read, though, they were really pissed about the second album, which was released without their knowledge while they were on tour (someone had to go across the street and buy it for them, so they could see what was on it). They were also pissed about the picture that was used for the cover.

But I think the first two albums sold something like five million copies each, and Headquarters sold maybe half as much. That's the public for ya. :p

Uh, I forget where I was going with this, but yeah, the Monkees really did have a bunch of really good songs and songwriters and that helped a lot. Headquarters is a good album. Blah blah blah...

[rockinlibrarian.livejournal.com]

Of course, now it's retro, which presumably makes it cool again.
It is, isn't it I think?

I think your results for social disfuction would fit me, looking at where the star falls on the graph, but this is what I actually GOT:

Your Social Dysfunction: Paranoid You show pervasive and unwarranted suspiciousness, and mistrust of others. You are overly sensitive and prone to jealousy.

Take this quiz at QuizGalaxy.com Please note that we aren't, nor do we claim to be, psychologists. This quiz is for fun and entertainment only. Try not to freak out about your results.

Yeah. Stay away from me you evil freaks!

[rockonliz.livejournal.com]

Hi Nathan!
I'm back on the LJ scene, so I have added you back as a friend! Looking forward to exchanging surveys and the minutiae of life with y'all again!

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Cool. I added you back, too. I always get kind of worried when someone removes me, because I wonder if it was something I said.