Thanks For Checking In

Bobby McFerrin stops in to tell us he’s going on vacation:

For years he’s been telling people, “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.” Now Bobby McFerrin has decided it’s time to take his own advice.

“I’ve got one week left, and then I’m done for a year,” a weary McFerrin told The Associated Press during a weekend visit to UCLA, where he was accepting an award from the Henry Mancini Institute for his contributions to music.

“I haven’t had a sabbatical, I haven’t taken a year off from touring in 15 years at least,” said McFerrin, whose bright and bouncy ditty, “Don’t Worry, Be Happy,” seemed to put his name on everybody’s lips in 1988 when it won Grammys for song of the year and record of the year.

Some of us might be forgiven in thinking that McFerrin’s been on vacation for about 17 years, give or take.

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Starting a Rumor

Hey, did you hear that Roger Waters and Dave Gilmour were seen going into King’s Rood Studios outside of London on Monday?

Me either, but since this is the Internet, it might be true. If true is a synonym for “made up on the spot.”

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Dare to Dream

Pink Floyd to reunite for London concert July 2:

Four members of seminal British rock band Pink Floyd will play together for the first time in 24 years at London’s Live 8 charity concert for Africa on July 2, publicists for the event said today.

Guitarist David Gilmour, drummer Nick Mason and keyboard player Richard Wright will be on stage with bassist Roger Waters for their first public performance since they played at London’s Earls Court in 1981.

I would welcome a new studio album from Pink Floyd as long as it’s a Pink Floyd album and not a bad Roger Waters album.

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Weber and Dolan Are My True Masters

Woohoo! My first Saw Doctors CD arrived in the mail today.

I know, after listening for six years, you would think I would have one by now; however, every time I looked for them in the local music shops, they weren’t in stock. I am always so very slow to Amazon one.

Feel free to use that new verb in your sentences from now on: To Amazon (v tr). I Amazon it, you Amazon it, he she or it Amazons it, we Amazon it. Remember, to keep the short o sound, when you add a suffix, it’s Amazonned, Amazonning, Amazonner.

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Scientists Discover Paradox in Pop Song; Universe Collapses Upon Itself

Vanessa Carlton, “A Thousand Miles“:

    Making my way downtown
    Walking fast
    Faces pass
    And I’m homebound

How can she be walking fast downtown if she’s homebound? This paradox clearly threatens the universe as we know it, and we can all blame our impending annihilation upon Vanessa Carlton.

UPDATE: A respected correspondent writes and offers proof that this does not mean that the true and the impossible have not collided in the universe due to this song, as the narrator of the song might use the mechanism of astral projection to walk, using a spirit body, downtown. We thank the correspondent for his insight and credit him with the continued presence of existence as we know it.

UPDATE: Another correspondent, albeit one of somewhat less savory character, points out that homebound is actually two words in the text: home bound. This means that she is actually, at the time, tied to a chair in her kitchen/dining room and is still not capable of being home, bound, and walking downtown; however, the astral projection postulate holds, and this second correspondent will be disappointed to learn that he cannot upset the balance of the universe that easily.

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Musical Interlude

I don’t know if Hillary! has a theme song for her presidential campaign or not (but who could top Bill Clinton’s use of “Don’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow” with its prescient lines “I know you don’t believe that it’s true/I never meant any harm to you”), but I proffer the following (with apologies to Herman’s Hermits):

I’m Hillary ’08, I am
Hillary ’08 I am, I am
I got married to the fellow named Bill
He’s been president, now I’m on the Hill.
All the Dems shout Hillary! (Hillary!)
They don’t want a Kerry or a Dean (no Dean)
I’m their only hope, I`m Hillary!
Hillary ’08 I am

Second term same as the first

I’m Hillary ’08, I am
Hillary ’08 I am, I am
I got married to the fellow named Bill
He’s been president, now I’m on the Hill.
All the Dems shout Hillary! (Hillary!)
They don’t want a Kerry or a Dean (no Dean)
I’m their only hope, I`m Hillary!
Hillary ’08 I am

—— lead guitar ——

I’m Hillary ’08, I am
Hillary ’08 I am, I am
I got married to the fellow named Bill
He’s been president, now I’m on the Hill.
All the Dems shout Hillary! (Hillary!)
They don’t want a Kerry or a Dean (no Dean)
I’m their only hope, I`m Hillary!
Hillary ’08 I am

Hillary!
Hillary! (Hillary!)
Hillary! (Hillary!)
Hillary ’08 I am, I am
Hillary ’08 I am

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Build a Meme Workshop

This morning, Weber and Dolan (teh best morning radio show evar!!!1!) asked listeners what albums they could sing from memory. I didn’t call in because I would have filled the segment myself.

Not that you care, but here’s a partial enumeration of albums I could sing end-to-end were they playing (although for many, I am taken aback when they’re played on CD and there’s no pause between the song at the end of side 1 and the beginning of side 2).

So, anyway:

  • 52nd Street by Billy Joel
  • Glass Houses by Billy Joel
  • An Innocent Man by Billy Joel
  • Piano Man by Billy Joel
  • Greatest Hits Volume 1 by Billy Joel
  • Greatest Hits Volume 2 by Billy Joel
  • Scoundrel Days by a-ha
  • Hunting High and Low by a-ha
  • Stay on These Roads by a-ha
  • East of the Sun, West of the Moon by a-ha
  • Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd
  • Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd
  • Animals by Pink Floyd
  • The Wall by Pink Floyd
  • A Momentary Lapse of Reason by Pink Floyd
  • Flesh and Blood by Poison
  • Dirty Rotten Filthy Stinking Rich by Warrant
  • David Gilmour by David Gilmour
  • About Face by David Gilmour
  • Sports by Huey Lewis and the News
  • A Pocket Full of Kryptonite by The Spin Doctors
  • I’m Your Man by Leonard Cohen
  • These Eyes by The Guess Who
  • The Return of Bruno by Bruce Willis
  • No Time to Kill by Clint Black
  • Repeat Offender by Richard Marx
  • No Fences by Garth Brooks
  • Greatest Hits Volume 1 by The Eagles
  • The Scattering by Cutting Crew
  • David Gilmour by David Gilmour
  • Weird Al Yankovic by Weird Al Yankovic
  • Dare to Be Stupid by Weird Al Yankovic

What can I say? I listened to these things over and over in my high school and college years. Note that none of these albums dates past 1994. Telling.

Now, you play. What albums could you sing every song on if that album is playing?

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Forget the Articles, Send Me More Naked Women E-Mail

Playboy sends me this junk mail teaser:

On the eve of the re-issue of R.E.M.’s last eight albums on special-edition CD and DVD, front man Michael Stipe spoke openly with Playboy.com about the band’s early days, his disappointment over last November’s elections and why R.E.M. never called it quits.

Which is different from his other interviews, where he had to speak guardedly in case the editorial staff at Rolling Stone, Esquire, Spin or Gentleman’s Quarterly were members of the Bushtapo.

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