SOUNDTRACK: Songs for Stuffing: A Thanksgiving Mix (2011).
There are not too many Thanksgiving songs. But our friends at NPR created this Thanksgiving mix back in 2011. It seems to lie dormant for much of the year but they bring it back at a seasonally appropriate time.
I have to admit I have not actually listened to it (at least not yet). But it includes this rather broad selection of artists (designed to please or alienate everyone on Thanksgiving).
A Band of Bees • Amadou & Mariam • The Andrews Sisters • Louis Armstrong • The B-52’s • The Beatles • Ludwig von Beethoven • William Billings • Willie Bobo • Bow Wow Wow • Greg Brown • Cab Calloway • Cyrus Chestnut • Guy Clark • Nat King Cole • Joe Craven • Joseph Curiale • Guy Davis • Champion Jack Dupree • Bob Dylan • The Flaming Lips • Dave Frishberg • William DeVaughn • Rick Gallagher • Dizzy Gillespie • Johnny Griffin • Patty Griffin • Golden Smog • Benny Goodman • Arlo Guthrie • Herb Alpert’s Tijuana Brass feat. Ozomatli • Herbie Hancock • Bill Heid • David Holt • The JB’s • Jay & The Techniques • Louis Jordan • Lambert, Hendricks & Bavan • Paul Lingle • Lyle Lovett • Eric “Two Scoops” Moore • New England Conservatory Wind Ensemble • Harry Nilsson • Tim O’Brien • Lee “Scratch” Perry • Michelle Shocked • Dmitri Shostakovich • Southern Culture on the Skids • Spearhead • Still on the Hill • Rufus Thomas • Traffic • Bobby Troup • Jay Ungar & Molly Mason • Warrant • Ethel Waters • The Wiyos • “Weird Al” Yankovic
You can hear the mix streaming on NPR.
[READ: November 27, 2014] A Load of Hooey
Just in time for Thanksgiving, McSweeney’s has sent us A Load of Hooey.
Bob Odenkirk has been cropping up a lot lately (not as much as erstwhile partner and financially secure comedian, David Cross, mind you), and that’s a good thing. There’s something about Odenkirk’s persona (crotchety, uptight, white guy) that is usually really funny. He often elevates crappy sitcoms just by yelling at one of the characters.
This book is a collection of short pieces (most are 1-3 pages), including “unabridged quotations” and poems. They cover a variety of subjects, but pretty much all upend expectations. And, as one might expect from Odenkirk, there’s a lot of religious and political jokes as well.
The “unabridged quotations” allow Odenkirk to append something that removes the pomp from some famous quotations. The poems are usually funny, twisted barbs at some subject or another.
But the main targets are religions and politicians.
Although religions don’t really get skewered (not like the way Cross does it), they just get gently mocked. In “An Angel of the Lord” an angel explains that there are two religions that are correct. When Bob asks for a hint he has to admit that, “Scientology is NOT one of them” is not a terribly good hint. “I Think I Just Met God” shows proof that God gave Bob gifts, but Bob seems to have misplaced them. “The Second Meeting of Jesus and Lazarus” is very funny indeed (“am I ever going to die?”). And “Actual-Factual New Jesus Facts” is very funny too.
The political ones include: “Putting It Out There” in which a politician reveals all of his flaws (all of them) before they can be “found out” by his opponent. “Politician’s Promise” in which the elected representative reveals that he knows literally nothing about Washington. “I Misspoke” concerns a slight gaffe when a politician uses the words rape and guilty and pleasure in the same sentence.
Some of my favorite pieces in here are “Didn’t Work for Me,” in which an online critic trashes the “classics.” “Louvre Audio Tour for Homeowners” is a funny look at how much work has to go into the museum to keep it clean. And “The Origin of ‘Blackbird'” in which Paul McCartney shames everyone into admitting how good of a song it is.
“So You Want to Get a Tattoo!” is hilarious and then goes in a very unexpected direction. “A Vision of the Future” has a wonderful twist (everything is gluten free!–imagine the time saved by people who don’t have to ask “Is that gluten free?”).
I loved “Martin Luther King Jr.’s Worst Speech Ever.” And “Obit for the Creator of Mad Libs” is sheer genius.
As with many funny books, I didn’t laugh as much as I expected. Either I’m a bad audience or I just like my jokes to be shorter. But there was enough funny stuff here to make this a good collection of comedy for reading on the toilet (even if you’re not supposed to).
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