'TBH Politoons'
Baron Dave Romm
Worm Quartet
By Baron Dave Romm
During Marscon 2005 (pictures coming soon!) I had a chance to hang out a little with Shoebox. He's a gentle, soft-spoken guy with a wife and a child on the way. He little shows the manic loggorhea of his music.
Worm Quartet owes as much to They Might Be Giants as any other influence, but that might just be me. He doesn't play an instrument (at least not live) but constructs odd little tunes that aren't parodies but occasionally turn back on themselves. He is willing to explore length as a musical variable. The subject matter of his rants range from places he hates to dogs he hates to his mother. John Cage would have loved this guy. Sometimes the lyrics are dead on point, and in a few words he can paint the rise and fall of an entire relationship. And sometimes you just have to let the words wash over you because if you stop to create a mental image you'll get whiplash.
| Baron Dave pics from Marscon 2005 | |
|---|---|
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| Shoebox and The Great Luke Ski
performing Frank's Not In The Band Anymore |
Spreading his bad
influence, Shoebox whispers in the ear of Sudden Death during Inner Voice |
Worm Quartet's initial CD was Stupid Video Game Music. As conceptual art, it works quite well. You never know what you're goin to expect and the continuous takes of Mommy's Broken serve to sew together the disparate ideas and musical stylings. He has nifty multi-track a capella instrumentals. He rants and raves about life and love. He's even got a bit of science fiction with It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad Mad Mad Mad Mad Us.
Shoebox is obsessed with Pac-Man, and his First Church of Pac-Man was featured on VH1. I suppose you have to be non-verbal sometimes. He turned his obsession into a song, Pac Man Is Naked And So Should You, which is kinda fun but probably more fun if you're equally obsessed. (Will no one write a song about Pong?)
A freshmanic effort (as opposed to a sophomoric one), Stupid Video Games ups the ante for comedy music CDs. I'll talk about some of the others who have seen his raise in later reviews of Marscon.
As reviewed here last year, Faster Than A Speeding Mullet by Worm Quartet continues to fit semi-neatly in that space between the Punk and Bouncy Pop. Shoesbox has grown up a little, but not much thank heaven. This is an album for adolescents, or those of us who remember adolescence with at least a grain of nostalgia. Not for kids, unless kids grow up faster than I remember.
Great Idea For A Song wound up as the #1 requested song on the Dr. Demento Show for 2004. My initial impression: Another thrash song that gets its charm from a thesaurus and breakneck speed. But the lyrics are clever and the tune infectious. Anyone who's ever lost at love will appreciate Shoebox's sheer hatred of his former girlfriend, the extroverted take of Weird Al Yankovic's disgust in One More Minute. The CD has few songs I can play on the radio with some serious bleeping, but, oddly, one of the cleaner songs is I'm Gonna Procreate. The song I wind up playing the most is Eskimo Pie Is Not Pie and Contains Very Little Eskimo even though those words appear nowhere in the lyrics. Indeed, the Shockwave Riders declared it "the hardest song to pick the title from". I collect songs like this, and I'd really love to see the meeting between Shoebox and the Rev. Billy C. Wirtz.
Coffee (2003 Blend) is caffeinated and hard to understand what the heck he's talking about until the chorus of "Coffee! Coffee! Coffee!" kicks in. The Short Bus Suite -- 17 songs in 4 1/2 minutes -- is pretty cute, ranging from the Ernie Kovacs-like intrumental Sonata For Piano and Moron in C Major to the brief capitalist exegisis Sorry, We're No Longer Buying Lizard Shit. This compares favorably to the randomness of the placement of the short songs in Stupid Video Games but both are fun to listen to on Random... at least this album has the times listed.
Faster Than A Speeding Mullet won't hang out in my car CD player, since I generally like to obey the speed limit. And it's kind of on the icky side. But I'm probably going to take the time to carefully bleep songs that might otherwise not get airplay. Recommended for adults who want to rage at the parts of life they hope they've left behind but probably haven't.
The line of comedy music meanders from Gilbert & Sullivan through Flanders & Swann, Spike Jones, Homer & Jethro, Allan Sherman, Tom Lehrer, Weird Al Yankovic and The Great Luke Ski. But sometimes, it stops at Worm Quartet.
Baron Dave Romm is a conceptual artist and a noble of Ladonia with a radio show, a very weird CD collection and an ever growing list of political links. He reviews things at random for obscure web sites. You can read all his music recommendations from Bartcop-E here.
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Recommended Reading
from Bruce
MIKE MILIARD: Vice in a vise: A tirade against the tyranny of health (Boston Phoenix)
"The whole world is about three drinks behind." -- Humphrey Bogart
Bruce's Video Recommendation: Kill Bill Vol. 1 (Review by Roger Ebert)
"Kill Bill, Volume 1" shows Quentin Tarantino so effortlessly and brilliantly in command of his technique that ...
Bruce's Video Recommendation: Romeo and Juliet (1968) (Review by Roger Ebert)
"Romeo and Juliet" is always said to be the first romantic tragedy ever written, but it isn't really a tragedy at all.
Technical Virtual (Check out the parody TV apublic service announcements - Adult)
Passion Parties (Adult)
Better World Links
Thought for the Day
Compassion
Comes in many colors
Compassion
Covers every income
Compassion
Carries no expectation
Compassion
Cannot be rejected
Compassion
Could be contagious !
Zen Man
Hmmmmmmmm
Re: Monkey Mail
Last Friday (11 March), there was monkey mail from
Tony Fronczak, Jr. of SOUTHWEST METAL FINISHING,
located in New Berlin, Wisconsin.
Then, this past weekend:
BROOKFIELD, Wis., March 13 -- The sermon had begun when Terry Ratzmann entered from the back of the room and started firing. The shots came so quickly that a churchgoer said it sounded like a hundred balloons exploding. A friend called out, "Terry, don't!"
< snip>
Ratzmann, who lived with his adult sister and mother in a modest clapboard house in neighboring New Berlin, was unmarried and largely kept to himself, said neighbors who were trying to make sense of a crime that matched nothing they knew about him. Investigators hoped to learn more from encrypted files discovered on three home computers.
Police Search for Motive in Wisconsin Slayings - Churchgoer Who Killed 7 Was About to Lose Job; No Note Found, but Computer Files May Hold Clues
Coincidence?
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Overcast and drizzly all day.
'60 Minutes' jumped the shark again tonight when they 'reported' that poor Ken Lay was a 'ruined man' with only $20 million left.
I just felt so bad for him - only $20 million. How will he ever make it?
Not at all like the yard sale down the block - a single mom selling her kids toys for rent. Sold her furniture the month before.
The Tallahassee Lassie
Hunter S. Thompson
Everyone has a before, a back story to the person he became.
Hunter S. Thompson had one. And he lived part of it here, in Tallahassee.
Those were the very early years, before he started rushing down fearsome highways in search of truth and, occasionally, pharmaceutical insanity. Before the books made him a hero, or a menace, or both, depending on whom you asked.
Back when he had the uncertain love of a sparkling-eyed girl.
"Life is short and yesterday and tomorrow are always dreams, but I think I prefer those moments which make up the 'Tallahassee dream' to most of my others," he wrote in a letter in 1958. "They were so lazy and warm, and yet so full of the tension of being almost in love."
For a sweet read, Hunter S. Thompson
Thanks, EJ2E!
To Pay Fine Over Contribution
Rhea Perlman
Actress Rhea Perlman has agreed to a fine against the DeVito Family Trust for failing to file a major donor report on a $10,000 contribution to Californians for Schwarzenegger in 2003.
The state's Fair Political Practices Commission said Friday it would fine the trust $400 for failing to disclose political donations during the 2003 gubernatorial recall campaign that put Arnold Schwarzenegger in office.
Rhea Perlman
Fighting Fruit Fine
Hilary Swank
Hilary Swank, the Oscar-winning star of fight flick "Million Dollar Baby," is going toe-to-toe with New Zealand authorities over a $150 fine for bringing fruit into the country, local media reported Sunday.
Swank was fined in January for failing to declare an apple and an orange in her luggage when she arrived at Auckland International Airport, The Sunday Star-Times newspaper reported.
New Zealand is largely free of pests which cause billions of dollars in damage to crops and livestock in other parts of the world and has strict quarantine guidelines.
Swank has instructed lawyers to appear in court next week to contest the fine, the paper reported. It quoted Swank's publicist, Troy Nankin, as saying "Oh, that was the apple in the purse incident," and declining to elaborate.
Hilary Swank
Snubs Istanbul Festival
Emmanuelle Beart
French actress Emmanuelle Beart has cancelled a trip to Turkey for a film festival in protest at the beating of women by the police at a recent demonstration, a Turkish newspaper reported.
Beart, who was to be a guest of honor at the opening of the Istanbul Film Festival next month, said she did not wish to travel to a country where women are subject to violent treatment, the festival's director, Hulya Ucansu, told the Vatan daily.
The heavy-handed police response to a women's demonstration in Istanbul on March 6 unleashed harsh criticism by the European Union and raised doubts over the country's resolve to abide by the the rights norms of the bloc which it is seeking to join.
Emmanuelle Beart
Author Chosen to Write
Peter Pan Sequel
Peter Pan and the wily Captain Hook are set for a rematch. Children's author Geraldine McCaughrean has been chosen to write the official sequel to J.M. Barrie's "Peter Pan," the London hospital that holds the copyright to the classic work said Sunday.
Barrie willed the "Peter Pan" copyright and royalties to the Great Ormond Street Hospital when he died in 1937, and the institution has long wanted to commission a follow-up.
It has stipulated that the new work, titled "Captain Pan" must feature the original characters: the boy who never grew up, along with his pals Wendy, fairy Tinkerbell and the Lost Boys - as well as the fearsome pirate Hook.
Peter Pan Sequel
Out of 'Sweet Charity'
Christina Applegate
Christina Applegate, star of the Broadway-bound revival of "Sweet Charity," broke her foot during a performance in Chicago and will be out of the musical through its Boston tryout engagement, which begins Friday.
Applegate is expected to return to the musical by the time it starts preview performances April 4 in New York, John Barlow, a spokesman for the show, said Sunday. The musical is scheduled to open April 21 at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre.
Applegate will be replaced for the Boston engagement of the show, March 18-March 27, by her standby, Charlotte d'Amboise, who currently is playing Roxie Hart in the Broadway company of "Chicago."
Christina Applegate
Compilation Offers Ozzfest Tie-In
Ozzy Osbourne
Early purchasers of Ozzy Osbourne's March 22 boxed set, "Prince of Darkness," will get a little bonus.
The initial pressing of the set will include a buy-one-get-one-free coupon for this summer's Ozzfest, valued at $40. To redeem, customers go to the ozzfest.com Web site and punch in the code on the coupon.
The set's suggested list price is $49.98, although it will probably sell for closer to $40. Ozzfest's lineup is expected to be announced this month.
Ozzy Osbourne
Succeeding Eisner
Robert Iger
Walt Disney Co.'s board on Sunday named company President Robert Iger to succeed Michael Eisner as chief executive of the film, television and theme park company, effective Sept. 30, 2005.
Eisner, who previously had indicated he would stay until his contract ended in Sept. 2006, said in a letter that he would retire as CEO in September and remain on the board until the 2006 annual meeting.
Iger was the front runner in the race to replace Eisner, but the timing of the announcement was sooner than expected, since the company's board had set a June 2005 target to find a new chief.
Robert Iger
Anti-War Memorial Stirs Passions
'Eyes Wide Open'
Laid out in rows stretching longer than a football field, 1,513 pairs of black military boots gave a sunsplashed park the quiet, somber mood of a cemetery.
The "Eyes Wide Open" exhibit, created by the American Friends Service Committee, a branch of the pacifist Quaker church, began its nationwide tour in Chicago with 500 boots - then the war's death toll.
Fernando Suarez del Solar of Escondido supports the exhibit, and donated the boots worn by his son, Lance Cpl. Jesus Suarez del Solar, 20, who was killed during the March 2003 Iraq invasion.
"We don't need more empty boots," Suarez del Solar said. "We need the people inside the shoes home with their families in peace."
'Eyes Wide Open'
Fan Gets Guitar to Replace Fake
Garth Brooks
One Garth Brooks fan who spent $1,200 to buy a guitar signed by the country singer - only to find out it was a fake - has received an authentic signature.
Toby Bradley, 34, a long-haul trucker, put the guitar up for auction on eBay in January hoping to raise $50,000 for Asian tsunami victims.
Brooks' attorney saw the eBay listing and asked Bradley to send it to him so the signature could be verified. It turned out to be fake, but Brooks signed the guitar and sent it back to Bradley.
"I appreciate that they made it authentic," Bradley said in a telephone interview with the Yakima Herald-Republic.
Garth Brooks
Two Penises, No Wife
Michael Gruber
Plastic surgeons constructed a new penis for Michael Gruber, 40, after a motorcycle crash left him without one, reports ananova.com.
But, despite fathering a child with wife Bianca, 25, Gruber asked doctors to repeat the operation and build him a better organ.
Ananova.com reported Dr Markus Kuentscher, a plastic surgeon at Berlin's Accident Hospital, as saying: "We left the old one attached until the new one is properly supplied with blood."
But Gruber's wife went home and packed her bags after her husband showed her the results of the operation.
From his hospital bed he said: "I've got two penises but no wife, but I am hoping when I get rid of one of the penises I will get her back."
Michael Gruber
