Thursday, August 24, 2023

Jim Croce - Things 'Bout Goin' My Way | Home Recordings: Americana

Jim Croce - In The Jailhouse Now | Home Recordings: Americana

Jim Croce - Living With The Blues | Home Recordings: Americana

Jim Croce - I Got Mine | Home Recordings: Americana

Jim Croce - The Wall | Home Recordings: Americana

Jim Croce - Cigarettes, Whiskey and Wild Wild Women | Home Recordings: A...

Wellerman

Santiana

Randy Dandy-O

Old Maui

Drawing Things Our Fans Explicitly Told Us Not To

Letting Stream Chat Speak Through Gobbo

Fairy Tail (Official Music Video) | Mia x Ally

New discovery in One Song to the Tune of Another research:

Thanks to the David Byrne vocal goofing in Drawing Characters From Memory With Barrett - YouTube , I have now realized that

"Rainbow Connection" written by Paul Williams, sung by Jim Henson
can swap lyrics and tune with
"Life During Wartime"written and performed by Talking Heads



Wednesday, May 24, 2023

#Repressed Anger #ThisDidn'tActuallyHappen

Today's bad idea: answering all work questions with Duran Duran lyrics.
This was triggered by the lyric "I'm on a ride and I want to get off / But they won't slow down the roundabout."
If I knew more people in the office, they might ask why I was there, and I'd claim "Watching over Lucky clover.  Isn't that bizarre?"
But, my team shifted office space during the plague, so no one there would know me well enough to shrug it off with "Who really gives a damn about a flaky bandit?"

Saturday, May 06, 2023

Maternal Wisdom

"A lot of times, couples need their own paperwork." - Mom, explaining why there's two copies of this visit's itinerary in the bag of snacks she handed us as soon as we got out of the car.

Sunday, February 19, 2023

And today I learned: SPQR IMDB

 And today I learned Julius Caesar has an IMDB page:





Never be afraid to look at the people giving you guidance, and wonder, "Are they high on their own supply?"

Tuesday, December 20, 2022

Singing about annoyances.

While dealing with a glitter-shedding Christmas card today, I started singing, 'Craaaaft herpes, wiider than a mile...."
So, it's still a good thing I've been too lazy to learn video editing.
Or YouTube would have Audrey Hepburn singing something very different on her balcony....

If I Wasn't So Lazy, I'd Be Dangerous

If I weren't so lazy....

- I'd have learned video editing software to replace the Millennium Falcon with the P-Funk Mothership.

Saturday, November 19, 2022

Married Conversations: One Concern to the Tune of Another

(Frage sits in the recliner in the living room, watching HGTV.)
(UIM, just-showered and half-dressed, strides out with determination, picks up the letter-size notepad, grabs a pen, starts scribbling and mumbling.)
(After a minute of this...)
Frage: "Should I be worried that you're mumbling 'cut you down and destroy'?"
UIM: "It's 'one song to the tune of another'.  I realized you can sing the verses of Johnny Cash's 'God's Gonna Cut You Down' and Metallica's 'Seek and Destroy' to each other's tunes."
Frage: "Ah."
UIM: "But I understand you worry when your pants-less husband mumbles like that.  You concerns are valid."

Saturday, October 29, 2022

Married Conversations: Saturday Wait (for a breakfast sandwich)

Frage: "I got you a different breakfast sandwich.  It's called The Cure."
UIM: "Is it supposed to be a hangover remedy."
Frage: "No, it's cured meats."
UIM: "I guess I'm just glad it doesn't look like Robert Smith."
Frage: "Every time I see it, I chuckle and think, 'Friday I'm in Love'."
UIM: "But today is Saturday."
Frage: "Yes."
UIM: "Are you all out of love?"
Frage: "No."
UIM: "Because that would be an Air Supply."

Friday, October 14, 2022

Married Conversations: Something Might Be Found

(After Frage comes in, and is throwing out her coffee cup.)
Frage:"So, yeah, I got myself coffee as a little treat."
UIM: "The pool was closed, so you walked the whole time?"
Frage: "No.  I swam, then walked."
UIM: " I really should just standardize it as 'How as your walk/swim?'"
Frage: "Or you could look for clues, like, my hair is wet."
UIM: "Now, listen, I am barely awake until noon, on my best days.  So, don't expect too much from me and -" (realizes) "you might not be let down and goddamnit I am quoting a Gin Blossoms song."

Friday, August 12, 2022

Poo Hearts Beating In Just One Mind.

(Context is lost, but....)

Frage: "It's all about the poo with you."
... devolving into Lyric Word Replacement - 'poo' for 'two' ...
Frage: "Just the Poo of Us."
UIM: "It Takes Poo to Make a Thing Go Right."
...
UIM: "And, of course, the Spice Girls singing, 'Poo Become One'."

Tuesday, May 03, 2022

Wrapped in white tissue as cold as the - ewwwww

During the 15-minute-or-so break that Frage and I took today to get sympathy about our respective jobs...

Frage: "I'm not a manager or a supervisor, but somehow the circus is mine."
UIM: "Other folks just keep assigning you monkeys."
Frage: "And I did not want responsibility for these poo-slingers."
Frank: "Now, I'm just imagining two monkeys in cowboy outfits facing off at high noon in a town, with holsters full of poo."

Reactions by other folks after I shared the above bit:

'Backer (my cousin): "I'm going to commission someone to draw that, and put it up on the wall above my home desk."

Shell (my brother):  "This town ain't big enough for the poo of us."

UIM: "I am now scared `Backer will make it an NFT with that title, and somehow I'll be responsible legally for whoever he sells it to."

Stringer (my other brother): "Non-flingable turds."


Wednesday, February 09, 2022

Songs That Are Fun To Sing in Fred Schneider's Voice

 most Doors songs, but especially Roadhouse Blues  (as noted here: https://thegroupwbench.blogspot.com/2021/10/same-situation-different-emphasis.html )
Mother, Danzig
Forgot About Dre, Dr. Dre and Eminem

Friday, January 07, 2022

Nerf and Theft

(During a Zoom meeting.)
Meeting co-ordinator "Hey, UIM, is that a Nerf gun behind you?"
(UIM unmutes, nods, grabs the Nerf gun, and holds it closer to the screen.)
UIM: "Yeah.  Doesn't work.  Five bucks in a thrift shop."
Developer: "I saw the orange bit and thought it was a traffic cone."
UIM: "No, in my family, we steal those.  We don't pay five bucks for them in a thrift shop."
------
Some of the responses when I texted this to family members:
My brother, Shell: "Stop revealing family secrets."
My other brother, Stringer: "I have two of them in my shed."  (He did not clarify whether he meant cones or Nerf guns.)
My cousin, `Backer: "Of course we don't- we already paid for them with gas taxes."

Friday, December 31, 2021

2022

I was about to express hopes for peace and joy and change in the new year.
And then a second later, random dingleberries started setting off firecrackers at midnight.

Knowledge I Learned from My Friends This Year

If there's something on the floor, don't stand in it. (January 2021 - It was a world of Warcraft statement, but it's really applicable everywhere.)

You'd think if you hadn't eaten all day, anything would taste good.  (January 2021)

People made of fluff should be last in the battle order.  (January 2021)

The octopus is judging you.  (February 2021)

We aggro'd the fucking world.  Why not drive off the cliff?  (February 2021)

Knob Creek immediately goes up your nose and burns your brain.  (March 2021)

Some nights, you'll need some help with a quest you shouldn't have gotten into.  (March 2021)

A really-nasty one-star review actually means you've touched the reader.  (April 2021)

Under normal circumstances, Urgent Care never tells you to come back the next day for a follow-up. (June 2021)

A case of shingles can feel like a midget trying to drive a spike through your ear for three weeks.  (August 2021)

Chickens are nasty.  That's why they are so tasty.  (October 2021)

Your child will be aghast that you know the lyrics to 'The Time Warp'.  (October 2021)

Do not hide bodies in the attic - that's the first place they look.  (December 2021)


Sunday, December 12, 2021

I don't think 'Weird Al' did this in concert, but I'm also too lazy to verify that....

During my lunch break on Tuesday, I took the parts I wanted from several meal-plan meals, stuck them in a bowl to microwave them.  They key piece of this was the provolone slices I took from two of the meals, and laid on top of the other components.

All while singing the word 'Provolone' instead of 'Kodakchrome' in the Paul Simon song.

Obviously (because it's me), this grew out of control....

When I think back on all the lunch I had in high school,
It's a wonder I can eat at all.
Oh, but my lack of good nutrition never hurt me none.
I still can read a menu on the wall.

Provolone
(something some thing something)
Gives me a happy stomach.
Makes all the world a cheesy day, oh, yeah.
With my Italian sandwich
(something some thing something)
Mama, please don't take my provolone away.

If you took all the meals I had when I was drinking,
And put them in a buffet for one night,
It would never match my flavor recollection -
Everything tastes worse in sober light.

Provolone
(something some thing something)
Gives me a happy stomach.
Makes all the world a cheesy day, oh, yeah.
With my Italian sandwich
(something some thing something)
Mama, please don't take my provolone away.

Wednesday, November 24, 2021

#RepressedAnger

"Look, on my best day, I am a chaos gremlin, but most days I am a vicious vengeful bridge troll.  So, maybe you want to start listening to what I'm saying, instead of making me repeat everything three times by asking questions that I specifically answered in the previous sentence."

Saturday, November 20, 2021

Songs That Are Fun to Sing in My Dad's Voice (Sarcastic Heavy Brooklyn Accent)

No Sleep Til Brooklyn, Beastie Boys
Paul Revere, Beastie Boys
Keep Their Heads Ringing, Dr. Dre
Forgot About Dre, Dr. Dre and Eminem
Waterloo, ABBA
Fernando, ABBA
Lady Marmalade (Moulin Rouge version) - Mya, Pink, Christina Aguilera, Lil Kim, Missy Elliott
Berzerk, Eminem
Thrift Shop, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis
Love Runs Out, One Republic
I'm Too Sexy, Right Said Fred

Songs That Are Fun to Sing in a Chipmunk Voice

Chip Away the Stone, Aerosmith
Immigrant Song, Led Zeppelin
Vacation, Go-Gos
Dancing in the Moonlight, King Harvest
Fire, Jimi Hendrix

Friday, November 12, 2021

Songs That Are Fun To Sing in A Kermit Voice

(in rough order of how they occurred to me over the last thirty-odd years)
Red House, Jimi Hendrix 
You Shook Me All Night Long, AC/DC
Closer, Nine Inch Nails
I Wanna Be Sedated, Ramones
(This will be updated as I recall more of them)
Life During Wartime, Talking Heads (noting the verses can be sung to Rainbow Connection) 

Thursday, November 11, 2021

Not-so-repressed anger

 (UIM direct-messaging a cow-orker.)

"How bad a sign is it that I'm singing 'This Ain't a Vendor, It's a God-damn Trash Fire' to a Fall Out Boy song?"

With nothing to consider, they forget my name?

(Frage making her coffee in the kitchen.)
(UIM in the living room, working on data correction and singing along with 'That's Not My Name'.)
UIM: "They call me quiet / but I'm a riot / Mary Jo, Lisa / It's all the same...")
(UIM looks up as Frage walks with her coffee back to her spare-room work area.)
Frage: "I have never called you quiet..."

Saturday, October 30, 2021

Baby, if you ever wondered, it's time to play the music....


Yesterday’s dumb idea:  A WKRP-Muppet Show crossover episode.

They both were airing during the years 1978 - 1981.

Admittedly, the Muppet production was based in England, but a partial detachment of the Muppet team to LA for a WKRP episode wouldn’t have been impossible.

The only A-plot I can imagine is an Electric Mayhem show in Cincinnati, and WKRP covering it like any other rock concert.

And WKRP’s Andy Travis was basically the Kermit of the show - trying to keep the chaos moving in a positive direction.

Sam the Eagle and Les Nessman certainly could have bonded.

Mostly, I thought of this just for the running gag of Dr. Johnny Fever assuming that seeing Gonzo, Fozzy, and Animal was just more drug flashbacks.

“I swear, man, there was this little red furry guy standing behind Jennifer, groaning,’wo-man’...”

Married Conversations: joke handling

UIM: "Sorry I stepped on your joke."
Frage: "You stepped on my joke, smeared it in poo, then gave it back to me."

Married Conversations: definitions and resistance

Frage: "Are those boots waterproof?"
UIM: "They're water resistant.  I wouldn't want to jump in a river wearing them."
Frage: "Well, there goes our plans for the afternoon."

Saturday, October 16, 2021

It's been a long plague.



 

Mistakes in passing

I saw this sponsored ad in passing, and my brain immediately parsed the shape and layout as “Paramount is putting out retro console cartridge games for Star Trek: Lower Decks”?

 

Heirloom Siege Engines

 Quiet and Distant and Remorseful — thestuffedalligator: thestuffedalligator: ... (tumblr.com)

In my young adulthood, my mom heavily collected spinning wheels.  

I am now mentally constructing an AU for my own life where her membership on the high school rifle team took a sharp turn into collecting scaled-down siege engines, and in her 50′s she forms a LARPing group named The 516th Battle Nurses Regiment. 

Motto: “We can heal your wounds.  We can cause your wounds.  Your choice.”


The Six Words Frage Has Come to Dread

When I moved in with my then-girlfriend-now-spouse, one of the communication compromises we needed was a balance between my "I just thought of/read/saw this thing I must share right now" with her "Sudden noise/movement/conversation startles the hell out me".

Apparently, a 6-foot 215-lb man bounding into the room at top speed cackling about ... oh, let's say a posting on Fark.. is really really stressful to a 5'2" woman who has been living quietly with her cats for most of the previous decade.

Eventually, I understood that 'so startled she can't appreciate whatever I'm trying to say' was not a rejection of love.  (Had I learned that earlier in life, I'd have been a lot more pleasant to be around.)

And so, we developed the Six Words That Frage Dreads:

"I feel the need to share."  

Usually, the scene will be thus:

(Frage and UIM laying in bed.)

(Frage is playing game on her phone, half-listening to either an audiobook or whatever is on Hallmark Mystery Channel.)

(UIM is obsessively scrolling through YouTube or through the same six text web sites he always reads on his Kindle .)

(UIM laughs at something.)

(Pause.)

(UIM takes out his earbuds.)

(UIM takes a breath.)

(Frage holds her breath, hoping against hope.)

UIM: "When you reach a stopping point."

Frage: (weary) "yes?"

UIM: "I feel the need to share."


Friday, October 15, 2021

I got your oak wisdom right here, buddy.

My brother Shell called me for my birthday.

During the call, I threw out a new Dad-riff idea:  "Dad as a Druid."

He ran with it immediately.

"Oh, sure, the holly berry is sacred - because it's growing on my trees, you damn moochers."

"Goddamn squirrel chewing the thatch of my hut. I cast spells, it does nothing.  Damn squirrel won't listen."

"I shoulda listened to my father and joined the warrior class."

I contributed:

"The goddamn sacred pool is full of goddamn flies, because the goddamn birds aren't doing their job."

Later in the day, when my brother Stringer called, and I updated him on these gags, he responded, "Well, now I have my next character for D&D."

Same situation, different emphasis.

One of the old Dumb Ideas from one of the previous iterations:
Doors covering 'Love Shack'.
B52s covering 'Roadhouse Blues'.
I know it's not as simple as 'switch major key to minor key' and 'switch minor key to major key'.