Happy 50th Showbiz Anniversary to "Weird Al" Yankovic!

It was fifty years ago tonight, on March 14th, 1976, that radio personality Doctor Demento played a song that had been submitted by one of his listeners.  "Belvedere Cruisin'" was composed and performed by a sixteen-year-old young man with an accordion from Lynwood, California.  His name was Alfred Yankovic.

Doctor Demento could not have known it then, but he was premiering the music of one of the greatest artists that has ever come in the history of pop culture.

Happy fiftieth anniversary to "Weird Al" Yankovic!

Here is the recording of that fateful evening:

There is another Weird Al anniversary this week.  March 12th marked the thirtieth anniversary of the release of the album Bad Hair Day.  For a number of reasons that is one of my favorite albums by Yankovic.

Here's looking forward to many more years of Weird Al music!

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Me according to ChatGPT

Lately there's been a little bit of a fad on Facebook: where people are asking ChatGPT to make a caricature of them based on what the AI knows of them.  ChatGPT asks for a photo and some information and it chucks out a pretty neat likeness.

I joined in on the fun.  This is a rather accurate facsimile of my life right now (note the Vault Boy poster from the Fallout games behind me):

Of COURSE I had to include Tammy!  She is certainly a major component of the operations here at Knight Shift Headquarters.  Of my life in general actually, more than I've let on.

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The Super Bowl halftime show that I watched tonight

I refused to watch the official Super Bowl halftime show featuring Bad Bunny.  Seeing a grown man in a dress who has burned the American flag on a number of occasions isn't anything I was interested in.

I did not watch the Turning Point halftime alternative either.  I was told that my doing so would be "supporting hate".  Even though those making such accusations are responsible for more hate than anyone else in America right now.  But I digress.

So what did I see instead?

I opened YouTube and started up the legendary In Living Color halftime special from 1992!

From a time when it wasn't demanded of us that we be angry enough to hate others without reason.  It was a better age.  More joyful and innocent.  In Living Color's halftime spectacular was a stroke of genius on the part of Fox Network and 34 years later it's still very entertaining and hilarious.

Watching this was my own little act of defiance against the bitterness suffusing our culture.  It may not have had the viewing numbers tonight, but it was all mine.

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What if Andy Kaufman really did fake his own death?

I swear, the craziness that pops so seemingly randomly across my synapses sometimes...

For whatever reason, this afternoon I found myself thinking of Andy Kaufman, the "song and dance man" who entertained millions with his unique shticks.  Sadly, Kaufman passed away in 1984 at the much-too-young age of 35.

Or did he?

Andy Kaufman's sense of humor was notoriously eclectic, to put it mildly.  And among other things there were a few times when he did state a desire to fake his own death.  It would have been the biggest joke of his life, to make everyone believe he had passed only to show up ten or twenty or... maybe forty years later.

Now, I do not believe that Kaufman really faked his death.  His family has testified many times that he did indeed pass on in May of 1984.  There is no disputing that.  And yet, this is Andy Kaufman we're talking about here...

So the idea hit that maybe I could use artificial intelligence to create an image of what Kaufman would look like today, had he pulled off the ultimate prank and disappeared without a trace.  He would be 77 years old now, which is certainly within the realm of possibility for a person who successfully falls of the map in the mid-Eighties.

Here's the first rendering that I had generated, from ChatGPT:

ChatGPT went into some detail about what Kaufman's features would be like more than forty years later.  Comparisons were made with Steve Martin and Albert Brooks.

I guess, it kinda looks like Kaufman after four decades since his "disappearance", one way or another.  But I wanted to see what other AIs would deliver.  So I opened up Google's Gemini.

Here is where things started getting interesting.  This is what Gemini returned with when I submitted my prompt.  Click to enlarge:

Google Gemini had to think about it extra hard, then it gave up and declared that it's having technical problems... and further adds that this the same kind of thing that Andy Kaufman would have done!

Undeterred, I changed up the language of my query.  And this time Gemini produced something.

Here it is:

Holy cow, it looks just like a senior-ized Andy Kaufman!  He's got the right features, the mad-man sparkle in his eyes...

The image has a few telltale signs of it being created by artificial intelligence.  But otherwise that really could be a pic of Kaufman circa 2026.  Just... wow.

Well now, maybe we should pass this pic around.  And start asking people "HAVE YOU SEEN THIS MAN?"  Maybe Kaufman himself will find this post.  If so, it's time Andy.  You've had your joke.  But the world needs you now, more than ever.  Come back to us and make us smile and laugh again.  The world is ready for you, in ways you can't imagine.

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There is now an "Autistic Barbie" doll. So that got me thinking...

This week toy maker Mattel has introduced the world to "Autistic Barbie".  The latest in a line of the classic doll's attempts to aim for more inclusion and representation which have already produced Barbie with Type 1 diabetes and Barbie with Down syndrome.

According to the link above going to the Fox News story about it, Autistic Barbie "includes articulated elbows and wrists to allow for movements such as hand flapping and other gestures used for sensory regulation or expression."  Barbie's eyes are "positioned with a slightly averted gaze, reflecting how some people on the autism spectrum may avoid eye contact."  Autistic Barbie includes a fidget spinner (that really spins), noise cancelling headphones, and a pink tablet displaying symbol-based apps to help with communication.

Okay, I have no problem with Barbie depicting autism.  It's a condition that millions of people, including not a few children, have to live with.  If little girls might benefit from a doll that is "just like them" then I'm all for it.

But I'm also thinking that maybe we need even more diversity in Barbie.  And hey, there are a lot of grown-ups who also collect the dolls.  I think some of them could appreciate a bit more variety also, reflecting on who they are.

So here's my idea... and Mattel is free to run with it, I hereby revoke my claims to it if they want to use this... for Bipolar Barbie.  Yes, I think that Barbie as a manic depressive should be next.  She could have a wild crazed look in her eyes, disheveled hair, legs that won't stop moving, four or five bottles of medication, pale skin from not getting outside in the sun...

Maybe having bipolar disorder could explain all the accessories that Barbie has.  I mean, reckless spending is a common characteristic of those with manic depression.  It also leads to delusional thinking (didn't Barbie claim to be an astronaut once?).

I'm only suggesting that of which I know firsthand as a real-life manic depressive.  Awww c'mon, I have to laugh a little 😛 

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Calvin and Hobbes ended thirty years ago today

On Sunday, December 31st 1995, the last Calvin and Hobbes comic strip was published.  For ten years readers had laughed and thrilled at the antics of Calvin and his wild imagination.  It has gone on to be regarded as among the greatest comic series of all time.

Here is that last cartoon, which ran thirty years ago today.  The very greatest finale of anything, ever...

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Why the Star Wars Holiday Special was so bad, in the words of the man who made it

It's become something of a tragic holiday tradition for me.  Every year about this time, I watch The Star Wars Holiday Special - considered by many to be the very worst two hours of television ever produced - and do a running commentary about it for my friends on Facebook.  Why do I torment myself like this?  I have no idea apart from the comedy (?) value.  I'll do most anything within reason (emphasis on "reason"!) to make my friends laugh.  And if it takes subjecting myself to this... thing... then it's a minor sacrifice to make each holiday season.

Pic I took of my TV screen while watching The Star Wars Holiday Special,
here depicting the lowest moment of Harvey Korman's career

For whatever reason, I didn't watch the Star Wars Holiday Special when I usually do between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  I wound up setting it to play last night, after I came home from helping some friends catalog and inventory a bunch of Cabbage Patch Kids, Pound Puppies, and Care Bears (do kids still go for things like that?).  I think maybe I did it because I was reminded about lunch time yesterday that I still hadn't seen the special this year.  What jogged that thought was this interview that SlashFilm did with Steve Binder, the director of the special.  This interview was originally published in 2015 but it's so authoritative and enlightening that it should be required reading for anyone who during the holidays is curious enough about the Star Wars thingy to want to watch it.

Long story short: Star Wars, the epic space opera that had thus far only had one entry to establish itself and call its own, something that had already won millions of fans across the globe, was treated like a Seventies-era variety show.  It was two successful genres that enough people thought were compatible with each other as a combined product.  Instead it produced one of the biggest FUBARs in the modern history of all pop culture.  And that's how we got the Jefferson Starship, Harvey Korman (in three different roles!), Art Carney, Bea Arthur, and Diahann Carroll (what was that she was doing?) mushed together with ten minutes (?!?) of Wookiees growling at each other, an overly made-up Mark Hamill (I call him "Mannequin Skywalker"), Leia looking a little tipsy, and a cartoon short featuring Boba Fett (his first ever appearance).

So the holiday special is a collision of Star Wars and variety show.  I can see that.  I can even appreciate that.  It does make sense, in a perverse sort of way.  And now that we've got artificial intelligence wheedling its way into everything, maybe by next year some enterprising youngster will fix the Star Wars Holiday Special by inserting Jim Nabors or Sonny and Cher into it.

Jim Nabors as an Imperial officer?  Well gaw-aaahhh-lee!!

(I almost forgot to note that I did NOT finish watching the special last night.  I got as far as the animated short before deciding my heart just wasn't into this this time.  Maybe it's something better appreciated between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  So I guess there's always next year!)

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Fallout presents: The Ghoul Log

The second season of Fallout premiered a few days ago on Amazon Prime.  I haven't seen it yet but I'll probably watch it later this evening.  Have had a few things on my plate lately.  Although at the recommendation of a friend last night I did watch Wake 

Up Dead Man, the latest of Rian Johnson's "Knives Out" series starring Daniel Craig.  I really liked it.

Anyhoo, the new season of Fallout is unfolding this holiday season.  And as part of the festivities Amazon has posted on YouTube a special lil' treat.  In the tradition of broadcast Yule logs that goes back many decades across the history of television, here is... the Ghoul Log!

Nothing says Christmas cheer quite like ninety minutes of Wayne Newton music and the fattened arm of some poor sap roasting over an open fire.

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Hair-raising true story of Yours Truly and manic depression

So, TWO people have asked me the same question in private message on Facebook.  Having seen my new photo, they're wondering if I've colored my hair.

Okay, sure, why not?  It might be a little fun to answer this...

NO!  I am not currently coloring my hair.  What you see is all natural brown, honest.

HOWEVER, for awhile I did color my hair.

I was afraid that I was going gray prematurely.  So I turned to Just For Men...  with tragicomic results.  One more thing that I did while deep in the throes of mania.

The complete story - which really is pretty hilarious - is in chapter 56 of my book Keeping the Tryst.  Along with what I did when I thought my hair was falling out.  Not one of my prouder moments, but the tale is there if anyone wants to be a little entertained 😮

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It's five days until Thanksgiving 2025

 Remember...

A bit of classic humor from good friend of this blog Lee Shelton who first created this pic in 2009 :-) 

(In case anyone's wondering, I will sadly not be deep frying a Thanksgiving turkey this year.  Maybe for Christmas though...)

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Random fun with AI

 Here is a Chiss playing chess while chomping on cheddar cheese:

EDIT: A friend came up with a good one...

Chiss chess champion chewing cheddar cheese.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Someone suggested that he could also be "cheating".  But that's something that Grand Admiral Thrawn is above doing.  He certainly wouldn't do that with chess.  It would be too dishonorable.  Still a fun idea though :-)

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I know why CBS is canceling Stephen Colbert

 

Colbert and Trump in happier times (2015)

Stephen Colbert can stamp his feet all he wants about CBS ending his late-night show.  He can scream and tantrum to his heart's content.  But in the end the loss of The Late Show is squarely on him.  And the rest of the "talent" on late at night would do well to learn from his example.

Here's the secret to success at television after the eleven o'clock news.  Most people do not want the last thing that they allow into their minds before going to bed be unrelenting bitterness.  Late-night hosts like Johnny Carson, and Jay Leno after him, knew that people at that hour wanted one last shot of laughter to end their day on.  And those hosts provided that.  Viewers tuned in, got a good chuckle, and wound up going to sleep feeling that however rotten the day had been, it ended on a somewhat happy note after all.  It's a formula that kept television audiences tuned in for decades to those hosts of times past.

Colbert and the rest of his kind never understood that or ever really cared to.  That kind of "comedy" isn't their forté.  They believe that "humor" is vile and mean-spirited and they went to great lengths to proclaim that they represented "new comedy".

But in the end, their "comedy" for the past decade had only one setting: "Trump Bad And Republicans Evil"(tm).  People got tired of that.  Bitterness can only go so far in a business that is allegedly about entertaining people instead of preaching down to them.  If nothing else, Colbert was doing his best to insult half of his potential audience... and that's never a good practice, either.

No, it wasn't politics that led CBS to can The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.  It was solid numbers that Colbert and his staff weren't justifying having a presence with.  I'm seeing that it cost the network $40 million a year to keep the show running.  What kind of an audience does that kind of money supposed to achieve?  Carson had higher numbers than that during his long tenure on The Tonight Show, with far less a budget.

It wasn't politics.  It certainly wasn't President Donald Trump waving a cloaked sleeve like he's a Dark Lord of the Sith telling his minions to "do it!" to anyone who merits his wrath.  It was nothing but raw hatred and anger, perpetuated long past their expiration dates.  It's kind of ironic: Stephen Colbert liked cancel culture.  Until cancel culture came to cancel him.

Maybe the pendulum will begin to swing the other way now.  I've believed for awhile that the ground is fertile for a late-night host in the tradition of Carson and Leno.  Hosts who devoted at most three jokes a night about the president.  They were men who understood laughter and people's need for it.  Something that Colbert and his sort never did and probably never will.

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In memory of Malcolm-Jamal Warner

The very sad news broke today that Malcolm-Jamal Warner, the extremely talented actor and director and producer whose greatest role Theo Huxtable on The Cosby Show kept us uproariously laughing, has passed away at age 54.

It was hard to name a favorite character from that series, but Theo was definitely up there on my list.  Maybe because he was the only son of Cliff and Claire.  A lot of the comedy was his to bear because of that and he did it magnificently!

When I think of all the Theo-centric episodes of The Cosby Show, there is one stands out above the rest, and I believe that a lot of other people are going to say that this is funniest the character had.  Here in Warner's memory is a clip from the first season episode where Theo buys a "Gordon Gartrayal" shirt.  The interaction between Theo and his parents is hilarious!

Thoughts and prayers going out for his family.

EDIT: Wow, there's a part 2 from that episode that's been uploaded!  Here it is, Theo in the shirt that Denise made for him:

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Found on a Peanuts page on Facebook today...

This definitely made me crack up.

It is said that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.  If that's true then Lucy Van Pelt's grasp of astronomy is downright lethal.

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Forcery turns twenty!

Things like this usually doesn't go past my notice.  Guess I've been so occupied with other stuff lately.  But yesterday was the anniversary of something very special and I need to make a note of it...

May 25th, 2025 is the twentieth anniversary of my... or rather I should say our... first motion picture, Forcery.  An almost hour-long parody of Rob Reiner's film adaption of the Stephen King novel Misery.  Forcery depicts Star Wars creator George Lucas, hot off of finishing the script for Episode III, being rescued from certain death by his "number one fan" Frannie Filks.  It's not long before Lucas, who used to create Star Wars for a living, is now making it to stay alive.

This was an idea that hit me about a week and a half before 9/11.  Indeed, I started writing the screenplay (though I had no idea HOW to really go about doing that) on the night before the attacks.  I knew nothing about filmmaking at all.  But I began learning everything that I could about it.  I read, studied, watched how-to videos, got really good at scriptwriting and lighting and editing and whatnot.  Most of all I learned anew how to work with people and collaborate with them on a project.  It's amazing how so many good people came together to work on this.  Forcery is a monument to them and their sacrifices toward making this dream into a reality, and I'll forever be thankful to them.

In the end, our movie was finished, just in time for Revenge of the Sith being out in theaters.  And it's gotten some appreciation over the years.  "Weird Al" Yankovic saw it and told us "Nice job!"  Then it wounded up being featured a lot in the award-winning documentary The People vs. George Lucas.  But I'm especially fond of all the good word that has come from Star Wars fans who've watched and enjoyed it.  I think Melody Daniel - who plays Frannie in Forcery - is quite fond of all the guys who have said they  like her especially.  I'm going to be forever indebted to Melody.  She brought a LOT of knowledge and wisdom (and patience) to the set and it would have been a far lesser film without her being there.  Ed Woody, my college roomie from Elon, came up with the portable greenscreen and the "nine dollar dolly" and a lot of other inventions used in production.  And of course there is Chad Austin, my best friend since third grade, who absolutely rocked it as George Lucas.  I told him he could do this and he delivered magnificently.  And there were many others also, who believed in this project and helped it come into being.

Well, you can read more about it on the Forcery page that's on this site.  If you've never watched it before you can click on that link and then watch the original on Google Drive.  Or you can watch it here courtesy of YouTube.

Thank you to everyone who in the past two decades has watched Forcery and took the time to tell us that they enjoyed it.  We had fun making it for you :-)

(And to George Lucas, Stephen King, Rob Reiner, and the estate of Slim Whitman: thank you for not suing us!!)

Note: The top image was made by feeding the original poster for Forcery - which did not depict anyone - into ChatGPT and instructing the artificial intelligence to simply produce a cartoon rendering.  And that is what it came up with.  I am STUNNED.  That looks exactly like cartoon versions of Chad and Melody in costume.  I've no idea how the AI knew to do that... but ChatGPT did it!

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The night I tried to call John Paul II

This may or may not be a fun time to share this.  But there's been a lot of good humor about the papacy in the past couple of days (I think the best joke I've heard is that Chicago's NBA team is changing its name to the Papal Bulls) so why not?

Inspired by Steve Jobs (who had tried impersonating Henry Kissinger), in the spring of 1996 I attempted to telephone Pope John Paul the Second.  I had managed to find the number to the Vatican switchboard and so I called it.  I disguised my voice to sound like that of President Bill Clinton.  I told the operator who "I" was and that I had to speak with His Holiness.

Several minutes after being put on hold a gruff-sounding man picked up the line.  He said something in a thick accent and then demanded "Who is this??"

"Sir, I am President Bill Clinton of the United States, and I need to speak with the pope."

"You do not sound like President Clinton.  You should be much ashamed young man!"

The line went dead.

I'll never know how close I was to talking with John Paul II but I like to think that I wasn't too far off 😛

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Blast from my past: A Star Wars song parody of "Cat's In The Cradle"

There is a lot on my plate right now.  I'm having to figure some things out.  Time is not on my side.  But sometimes things percolate to the surface of my mind that I haven't thought about in years, or even decades.  And that's what happened today.

Waaaay back in 2001 and thereabouts  I was on the staff of TheForce.net, which at the time was the biggest website devoted to Star Wars on the whole heapin' web.  It wasn't long after I came onboard that I volunteered to take the vacant position of humor editor.  That was my main job for the next two and a half years, and it was a lot of fun!  I got to see quite a bit of reader-generated funny stuff that almost always left me smiling.

One of the things that I got to curate as humor editor was song parodies.  And they were out the wazoo.  There were tons of spoofs of well-known tunes that got the Star Wars treatment.  They were quite clever.  Here they are, still archived away on TheForce.net after all these years.

It was so much fun reading the song parodies, that I found myself wanting to write one of my own.  I wracked my gray matter trying to come up with something that would be on the level of the material that our readers were submitting.  Finally, one day an idea hit like a bolt of lightning.  I had the lyrics written in less than twenty minutes.  Then I shared my creation with the rest of the staff: it needed to pass muster with them before I could post it alongside the works of our readers.  The staff approved.  And so I shared my parody with the world.

It's a bit of a product of its time.  We had plenty of insider knowledge of Star Wars Episode II, but as you can see, especially with the reference to clones, I was a little off.  But it don't matter.  That makes it even more an artifact of its era.

So without further ado, here is my saga-fied parody.

Boy's In The Boonta 

Parody of "Cat's In The Cradle" by Harry Chapin
New Lyrics by Chris Knight

Found a child just the other day
Came to the world in an unusual way
He's got no dad, and his mom is a slave
He races pods in the desert haze
And he was flying 'fore we knew it, and as he grew
He'd say, "gonna use the Force like you, yeah
I'm gonna use the Force like you"

And the boy's in the Boonta racing on the dune
Against a Dug and a Tusken or two
"Weesa going home soon?"
"We don't know when, but he'll be a Jedi then,
You know he'll be a Jedi then"

Got to Coruscant just the other day
He was strong in the Force, Yoda had to say
"Can you teach me the Force?" They said "Not today,
You're too old to learn," he said "That's okay"
He walked away, but he smiled at Qui-Gon Jinn
And said, "I'm gonna be like him, yeah
You know I'm gonna be like him"

And the boy's in the Boonta racing on the dune
Little punk makin' the bad guys go boom
Is he a Padawan now?
He don't know when, but he'll be a Jedi then,
You know he'll be a Jedi then

Well, he met Lord Sidious just the other day
Became a Sith, Kenobi had to say
"I'm ashamed of you, you're now evil and vile"
He shook his head, and he said with a smile
"You're being a pest Ben, like stinkin' Bantha fur fleas
What you doing? Not that lava please!"

And the boy's in the Boonta racing on the dune
Fought the Federation, clones and Dooku
When'd the bad breathing come?
We don't know when, but he turned to the Dark Side then,
You know he had the Dark Side then

He's long been a Darth. His kids hid away.
He fought his son just the other day.
"Come to the Dark Side if you don't mind."
Luke said "I'm a Jedi, Dad, of the Lighter Side
You see my friends are my strength and the Emperor's through,
But it's sure nice fightin' with you Dad.
It's been sure nice fightin' with you."
And as he cut off the hand Luke could plainly see
"He grew up just like me,
MY DAD IS JUST LIKE ME!"

And the boy's in the Boonta racing on the dune
Palpatine's screaming down a mile or two
Will Vader be a ghost now?
He don't know when
But he'll be a Jedi then,
You know he'll be a Jedi then

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Happy Birthday Barney Miller!

Barney Miller premiered fifty years ago today, January 23rd, 1975.  This is definitely high up on my list of most favorite television series ever.

Here's one of my favorite episode, "Hash".  This is the one when most of the detectives get stoned from eating cannabis-laced brownies...

Happy fiftieth Captain Miller and the staff of the 12th Precinct!

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"The Dukes of MAGA" (and who I am supporting in this election... for now)

I spotted this clip yesterday and it is definitely one of the better pro-candidate videos that I've ever come across.  This is the kind of thing that the more creative types of candidates' supporters should aspire toward.  For a lot of reasons I really like this one.

Behold "The Dukes of MAGA":

So, about who I'm supporting in this election.  Something I've very rarely tipped my hand about throughout the history of this blog...

As many readers know, I have a rule.  It's one that I initiated after my own run for public office years ago, and the TV ads I made for that campaign.  Here it is: I do not vote for a candidate if he or she runs a negative campaign commercial targeting an opponent.  I made three commercials and each of them was positive, upbeat, humorous at times and serious when need be.  There was another candidate in that race who went negative and I did NOT want to be like that.  I went full-throttle the opposite direction.  And I discovered something: when you're positive, you find creativity that you never knew existed.  If I'm going to vote for someone, that person has to demonstrate that not only is he or she not in the race for the power, but also that he or she has vision and imagination.

That being said, at the moment I plan to be casting my vote, for the very first time, for Donald Trump.

If Trump runs a negative television commercial, he's lost my vote.  So far though, he hasn't done that.

For now I intend to vote for Trump, and his running mate J.D. Vance.  In my sincerely held belief, Trump was the most effective and proactive president that the United States has had since Ronald Reagan.  His first term was an astounding success and I believe his second will be even better.  He made some mistakes, especially with the people he chose to be on his staff and appointments.  I like to believe that Trump has learned better.  You won't find me wearing a red "MAGA" hat, but my heart is definitely inclined toward that direction.  "Make America Great Again": what is wrong with that?  Trump in 2017 began doing just that and I believe he stands to be an even better statesman in 2025.

As for the opposition: Joe Biden has been the worst president in any living memory.  For all intents and purposes there has been no competent leadership in the White House for the past three and a half years.  Kamala Harris however would be even WORSE.

In case anyone's curious, I'm independent.  Have been for a very long time now.  I don't fit in the political parties' scheme of things.  That kind of thing never really had any appeal for me.  It means that I'm an outsider more often than not but I get to live with my conscience that much more.  I'm unaffiliated with any party.  And right now, even if I don't vote for Donald Trump, he certainly has my support.

Who knows.  Maybe I'll end up making a pro-Trump video too.

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"Weird Al" Yankovic releases his first single in ten years!

Right when the world needs laughter the most, Weird Al comes through for us.

The last time that "Weird Al" Yankovic released a new song, other than "The Hamilton Polka" or the end credits tune from his movie, was ten years ago this week when his Mandatory Fun album dropped.  That was the final album he was contracted to produce and he said at the time that he'd probably release singles via digital platforms from now on.  But that hasn't happened yet...

Until today.

This morning Yankovic unleashed "Polkamania" upon the world.  It's one of his polka medleys of other artists' songs.  It shows how out of the loop I am though in that I can't recognize any of these tunes that Al incorporated.  And I was kind of hoping his new song would be something like a straight-up parody or a style parody... but maybe it's true, that modern music has become too homogenized to be able to readily pick out any outstanding work.  And so far as style parodies go, well... is there any unique style that Al hasn't done?  I think the guy has spoofed every form of western music except for contemporary Christian, and the guy is too respectful than to do that.

But even so, it's a new song by my all time favorite recording artist.  Just at a time when we all could use something to make us laugh and smile.  For a few brief minutes, all is right with the world.

Well, anyhoo, here is "Polkamania", which despite my unfamiliarity with its components is really a quite catchy song!

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