Copious Free Time

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I haven't slavishly passed along enough links from Mark Evanier lately. No amount of shame will suffice, so I'll just post a link instead.


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Here's a father giving a toast at a wedding. Lucky there were cameras on hand to catch it!



I can't think of any wedding I've been to in person where I actually cried, but this one got me, in a good way.

thanks to Mark Evanier
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The Fab Faux sit in a studio and play side two of Abbey Road, more or less. Mostly done in two takes, three at the most with minimal post-fixes; a superb simulacrum of the wonderful original -- one of my favorite sides of anything. Watch them do it.

Mood: Happy Protoplasm
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Thanks to a fellow commenter at The Comics Curmudgeon for bringing the existence of this to my attention. The story I got along with it is that Julie London sang this version of Jimmie Dodd's greatest hit live before a session of Congress to make the point that the performer of a song deserved royalties as much as the writer of a song. It would certainly make my mouseka-ears go up.

(It reminded me of another children's celebrity's appearance before the hallowed halls of Congress as well. Interesting for entirely different reasons, here's Fred Rogers charming the flinty heart of congressmen who were planning on giving a budget axe to PBS.)


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In case you don't have easy access to a copy of this superb video -- my pick for the best animated video EVAH -- here's an online version of The Squirrel Nut Zippers doing "The Ghost of Stephen Foster" with black and white faux-Fleischer that is absolutely convincing. One of their CDs has the video on it. I think it's "Bedlam Ballroom." Anyway, it's a Christmas present, of a sort.

Ho Ho Ho!
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For the past day or so I was engaged in delicate negotiations with Bob to go see a movie Saturday night (which was tonight). Earlier in the day, the whole thing was off. Then it was on again, as Bob called me from the mall and asked if I still wanted to see a movie -- most likely The Incredibles, since Mrs. Bob wasn't up for Team America. Bob also mentioned that this place on the mall had Invader Zim action figures, and also filled me in that the second and third Zim DVD sets were out, completing the series. Oh, and then later he called and said Mrs. B's cold had taken a turn for the worse, so he was going to do the nursemaid thing, and the movie was off.

That, to me, meant one thing: I'd be seeing Team America. And I did. And it was, well, fairly amusing, though not as much as the South Park movie had been. After a while I was looking at my watch, and by the end, when the obligatory murders of misguided liberals were going down, I was thinking of my post-movie plans. On balance, there was maybe 30 minutes of inspired, first-rate material, another 30 of solid yuks, and another 38 of humor by-products. None of the songs was that great, but when they did the end credits, they did them as a medley, so none of them was on long enough to be really boring, so that was nice. The projectionist cut off the final word, which I expect was "carring."

As I endured the exit lines from the theater, I remembered Bob's words from earlier in the day: Invader Zim DVD sets. Wal-Mart. I was in the center where K-Mart was, so I looked there first. Then I went to Wal-Mart and poked around until I found both sets (and some dollar DVDs that I expect to get my six bucks of entertainment from later on), and drove home, enjoying the funny effect the Doppler Shift had on street lights. Once inside, I chatted briefly with Cathy, and then nipped back to the computer and put a Zim disk in. It was the wrong disk. I tried again, and found what I was looking for: "Zim Eats Waffles." I watched it.

Now, even if the world ends before morning, I have seen "Zim Eats Waffles." It's all right for you to envy me. Heck, I'd be envious too. Every bit of it was super. It was, as my title will amply verify, an imcomparable viewing experience. And there are more unaired Zim episodes in the set waiting for my attention.

Life is sweet, ya know?
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They call him Painty. I guess his full name would be Painty the Pirate. He leads the singing in the Sponge Bob Square Pants theme song. That's where I saw his name -- the sheet music for the song. It's a great song. I'm glad to know the name of the fellow who kicks it off. There are only 60 Sponge Bob episodes? Wow! I could try to get them all!
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