SOUNDTRACK: “WEIRD AL” YANKOVIC-“Mission Statement” (2014).
This was the final video pre-release from “Weird Al”‘s new album. I’m not sure why he didn’t make videos for the other four songs, but whatever.
Man, do I love this song. This is a style parody of Crosby, Stills, Nash (and Young, I guess). It’s not exactly meant to be “Suite Judy Blue Eyes,” but that’s probably the biggest touchstone, especially after the middle and end parts kick in. Aside from the music (and harmonies) being perfectly spot on what is so genius about this song is the lyrics.
The lyrics themselves are four and a half minutes of corporate mission statements. I have been involved in two companies’ creation of mission statements, and while non has been as ponderous and jargony as this one (I haven’t actually tried to parse if there is actually anything being said at all here). But to throw this corporate nonsense as a CSN&Y song is just outstanding. If the hippies every sold out, this is what they would have made. And it is stellar. I hope he plays this live, because I can’t imagine how hard it would be to memorize these lyrics since they don’t actually say anything, but are actual English words.
I love the idea of CSN&Y harmonzing “monetize our assets.”
The video is a hand drawn (you can see the hand) hippie cartoon. It’s funny and spot on to the theme of the song.
[READ: July 15, 2014] Burnout
This was one of my least favorite Minx books in the short series. I was poisoned against it right from the start because I don’t particularly care for stories about, well, about divorced mothers getting mixed up with trashy/drunken men who abuse their sons and intimidate the divorced mom’s daughters. I don’t know how common a trope that is, but this felt pretty story-of-the-week right from the get go.
Danni and her mom are moving to Elkridge, Oregon (pop. 460) to move in with her mom’s boyfriend. As in all stories where the new boyfriend is a jerk, he’s a jerk right from the start (even yelling at her adorable dog) and the mom tries to convince Danni that he’s not so bad. The one unexpected thing is that she is forced to share a room with the guy’s son. (Given their ages, I wouldn’t think the mom would like that).
So the son is hot (in a Danzig sorta way) and has things up all over his room about the environmentalists who are waging war against the loggers. He also has a locked chest full of stuff (inexplicably right in the center of the room). That first night he sneaks out the window (on a grappling hook). Did any reader not see that he was doing anti-logging things? Why can’t characters put two and tow together? Anyhow, this part of the plot was interesting (even if it could have been handled better) and I was really surprised to have the story turn into a kind of discussion vis a vis the rights of loggers vs the rights of environmentalists. (more…)
I Just Read About That... 