Slashdot Mirror
It's All About the Pentiums
Keith Calder writes "Weird Al's new video is going to be viewable online today at 3:30 PM (edt) after its debut on MTV's Total Request Live. The song is "It's All About the Pentiums", and has a lot of funny net-references. Probably the closest thing to a nerd song that MTV will ever play. The website is thepentiums.com (will launch later today). It's apparantly done by the same team that did sagabegins.com. "
This is the Windows generation. They're morons.
I havn't actually tried this (d/led the album in mp3s) but a friend told me about it:
.mov file.
:o)
Go to the subdirectory 'hidden file' on your Running With Scissors CD, inside you will find a hidden QuickTime
Have Fun
...nuff said
Weird Al in my humble opinion is unbearable. He lacks the creative skills and talents to manufacture any form of music that is actually his. All he does is parodizes other songs but through this almost all artistic expression is lost. Sure they might be funny, yet it still leaves you with the taste of "RipOff" in your mouth. Weird Al lacks the talent to produce quality music (His dad rocks though) all his is a one gimic hack. Just like Nada Surf's popular song except instead of one song it's multiple gimicy stupid songs.
Also.. What sickens me are the people who don't even know what songs Weird Al is ripping off. What is the point if your not pop cultural versed enough to know what he is parodizing?
Thus in conclusion, Weird Al is a hack who lacks greatly in artistic integrity, he is a leech on successful artists profiting from their success. Sadly so many will follow him... BTW I've been to Weird Al Concert with all his costumes and antics and he still was horrible.
Hmmm.... Disagree with moderator and your score is -1.
Agree with moderator, score > 1.
I suspect Mr. Z laughs histerically every time he farts as well.
You're both right (moderator and Mr. Z):
Weird Al is a genius.
What the hell was I thinking having a contrary and equally articulated opinion?
How very true. I'd like to think that I've grown up past the point of age 10 where "dental higentists with spatulas tatooed on their arms, alongside a BIG BOWL OF SOUR KRAUT" stops becoming funny. For those who think that this is funny, I have 2 things to say:
1) Grow up
2) Get some class.
and you are the dickless wonder. See? I have an opinion too. And it means just as much yours. See ya DW.
pr0n?
It has its uses. Great rumor-mill. Occasionally it's right. I spend about 2 hours a day reading my groups. =)
I think that "Running with Scissors" is definately a new high point for Al, especially after "Bad Hair Day," which I thought was severly lacking.
The parodies are great, especially "Pretty Fly for a Rabbi." ("Oy gervalt, I'm so verklempt that I could plotz!"). Also, "Jerry Springer" and "Grapefruit diet," are based on very good originals, very clever, and very Al (TV and food are the top two topics for an Al song, after all!).
As far as original songs, "Horoscope for Today" ranks right up there with "The Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota" and "Frank's 2000 Inch TV." I don't care for "Germs" at all, but that's my only complaint about the album. And WHO could possibly deny the rambling brilliance of "Albequerque"?
Best of all, the polka ROCKS! I loved the way he really mixed up songs of all different styles (as opposed to "The Alternative Polka," for example) and subjects. Didn't anyone else fall over laughing when they heard "We're all stars now/In the Dope Show/Mmmbop/Baduba zap ba du bop"?
As for the topic at hand, "It's All About the Pentiums," why would anyone want Bill to do their tech support?
bought the cd a while ago and ripped my favourite two songs from it: the saga begins, and it's about the pentium.
ain't mp3 great?
Please let us know if "It's All About the Pentiums" gets played tommorrow, and if so, at what position.
I very, very rarely watch "M"TV. 90% of the time I flip by, it's something like the Real World or some interview. The last time I saw MTV for more than 3 seconds was when they were playing the Duel of the Fates video.
The ONLY good think to come from MTV(in my opinion) is Aeon Flux, which MTV canceled after it's first season. I suppose I'll try to catch It's All About the Pentiums some time anyway.
How many web TV posts have you seen that have midi files, HUGE animated gifs and whatnot attached to them? I've seen way too many. I've stopped reading alt.food.mcdonalds (hey i used to work there, and that newsgroup was darn funny) webtv users where one of the reasons that i stopped reading it. geez, even AOL users where not bad as they where.
ufdraco [my account is currently fubar :( ]
Damn, slashdotted already at 3:50p edt... anyone put up a mirror?
I don't know. I still use newsgroups regularly. Great for binaries ( much less combersome and advertisement based than web sites ), classifieds, faq's, or just good old fashioned high performance flame wars.
I never get lag when downloading newsgroups from my local server, and when I have access, I can just dump an entire news group to a zip disk from a local work-station, and bring it home.
Maybe I'm just one of those few remaining users from the early 90's.
What's obvious about a 42-pound shadow?
What ethnic sterotypes does he advocate?
Have you ever listened to his music?
Are you a musician? If so, you might notice that Al and all band members have a solid understanding of different music styles, pop and otherwise, and that's why they can reproduce them so well. They don't just replicate existing arrangements - they also have many original tunes, which tend to be better than the parodies. When parodying songs they're limited to following the original arrangements which are often rather lame because the original artists are lame musicians.
yadda yadda yadda, etc, I don't agree with you so there Thhbbbrt! Or something like that.
Everyone should vote for it and maybe it'll get to #1 on mtv for a few weeks.
You're just about as useless as jpegs to Helen Keller.
Get yourself a copy of xfileget at http://www.2bsys.com/downloads.htm
It can download real audio files even when the server does not allow it.
Wow.. that's new...
Livin On The Edge was Aerosmith.
But the parody was still hilarioius.
Did anyone else misread this as "It's All About The Penguins?"
I need to get new glasses.
Yes, I do blame them for the slow server. The morons set it up as streaming, which means:
A) The quality sucks.
B) The server is bogged down every time someone watches it.
If they get a clue when distribting a song about computers, then I might consider buying the CD. Until then, I keep my money.
It dosn't work with this. Or am I doing it wrong?
http://www.theonion.com/onion3529/weird_al.html
It will most likely be pretty fly for a rabbi and lesser likely to be jerry springer. I'm voting for albuquerque but 12 minutes for a music video has got to be expensive.
It's a windows 95 reference. My windows nt computer never crashes, his computer never multitasks.
a really bright individual wrote:
The man is brilliant (not just wrt music). Sure he doesn't seem to be able to write music, but he is one hell of a lyricist.
Yeah, Weird Al's brilliant asshole is also a fusion reactor... Greenspan consults brilliant Weird Al on matters of economic policy... Weird Al's rhyming couplets rival Shakespeare's greatest works.
Just listen to yourself - you actually believe the words you are writing.
Now THAT's funny!
Do yourself and the rest of us a favor, idiot, and keep your cakehole shut.
www.weirdalstore.com is running Stronghold/2.4.1 Apache/1.3.3 C2NetEU/2409 (Unix) on Linux
more brilliant Weird Al parodies:
Madonna: Like a virgin
Weird Al: Like a surgeon
The Knack: My Sherona
Weird Al: My Bologna
Please tell me why he hasn't received the Pulitzer prize?!!! This man's mastery of the english language and comedy is clearly second to NONE.
I'm still waiting for his zany re-mix of "PacMan Fever". Word on the street is that his version will be named "Drat, Pam's Beaver" or something equally hilarious.
What a wordsmith that Weird Al is - he certainly has his finger on the pulse of society!
Can anyone get a mirror up? The site is /.'d...
Large print giveth, and the small print taketh away
The slashdot effect may have won the battle, but the war will go on! (gonna distribute images across other servers)
You have the right to record it off TV. The problem isn't your right, but rather our rights (the record label). I don't know all the details, but if it makes you feel better I tried to get downloadable instead of streaming.
I took a few screen grabs from the video when it was aired on eMpTyV. If you're impatient (like me) and you can't wait to download an entire video file, you can see them here.
"While your computer's crashin', mine's multitaskin'"
\\'
Just a few weeks ago in Boston area. It was one of the best concerts I've been to in a while. Al did a lot of new stuff, followed by his classics. Many were done in costume (bedrock anthem, fat, etc) and in between songs, there were video clips from either his TV show, UHF, or references to him in mass media (Naked Gun, King Of the Hill, etc).
Afterwards, he came out and signed his autograph for everyone that waited around (about 100-150 of us). Bass and keyboard player came out as well and chatted with us for a while. If you're a fan, definately check out if he'll be playing near you and go. Worth the trip.
Pretty Fly for a Rabbi is my vote.
Tho Jerry Springer would be the second vote.
I'd have much rather seen *any* of the other songs turned into videos. (Somehow I think the song that would be best enhanced with visuals is "Truck Drivin Song" - that could come out very funny if it was doen right.
IMO "All about the Pentiums" is the second worst Al song ever. It would be the worst if it weren't for the existence of "Waffle King".
Other than that one song, though, it was a great album.
Don't label something "offtopic" unless you know the topic well enough to tell what's on topic.
Watched something about him on VH-1 a while back. He also got a bachelors in architecture while he was starting his music career on the side.
It's not enough to bash in heads, you've got to bash in minds. - Captain Hammer
you're just mad because he dissed your favorite Cindy Lauper song.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
-jafac's law
These are my friends, See how they glisten. See this one shine, how he smiles in the light.
I can solve your slow server problem!!!
Provide the file as downloadable, NOT as a stream.
Person A downloads the file, distributes it to person B, and person C, who distribute it to persons D, E, F, and G, etc. INSTEAD of persons A-Z trying to all view the stream at once, and not one of them getting a decent viewing experience because the server's bogged.
If I ever get a chance to view it on your site, I'll decide if I like it, THEN I'll buy the CD. Until then, my money sits in MY bank account, collecting interest for me, instead of your bank account collecting interest for you.
Multiply that by 100,000 pissed off would-be internet viewers, and you have probably enough money to pay off Puff-Daddy's punk ass.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
-jafac's law
These are my friends, See how they glisten. See this one shine, how he smiles in the light.
Sometime in my dreams
I can still hear her screams
Oh, I wonder if she ever made it home?
This Signature does Not Exist !! FNORD
I admit its not his best, but its still Al.
Germs is actually my least favorite song on the Album, and I think "Your Horoscope for Today." is the best.
This is the second album in which I had to see what was a parody because I hadn't heaed the originals, since I stopped listening to mainstream music.
It peaked at 16 on the billboard and has alread gone gold in 4 weeks (not that thats an indication of quality, the Backseat Boys went gold instantly)
I think Bad Hair Day was the best of the recent Stuff.
And If you get a chance go to a concert. They are great. I went during the Bad Hair Tour, and actually got to meet the man. He signed my Hat.
I think I miss the best part of AL, since I have cable that doesn't carry VH1 or MTV so I never see the videos or AL-TV.
--
Cheez
This Signature does Not Exist !! FNORD
1) We had to do streaming because we don't have rights to let people download the original song (puffy's)
What has that got to do with anything whatsoever? You wouldn't be distributing the original song aither way -- just making it possible for people to see a version of this one that doesn't suck. You're already distributing this song. What possible difference could it make whether you stream it or just serve up the file?
I'm sure media-streaming is the coolest thing to be invented since, well, ever, since that's what everyone seems to think and who am I to argue, but it should always be an option, not the only one.
Obviously, when you stream something, you have to use the bitrate dictated by the user's connection speed, but how dare you assume that the user wants to stream it in the first place? It's just evil to refuse to give an option where the user can say, "Streaming's cool and all, but my connection is slow, and I want to see it at high quality. I'm willing to wait; just give me the whole file."
I'm trying to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that the issue is not that you're trying to prevent people from saving the file to disk, though it's hard to see any other possible reason. Given that you're going to make it available at all, you have absolutely no right to even try to control how I use it. Once you send me the bits, they're in my computer's memory, to do with as I please. Of course, applicable copyright restrictions forbid me to redistribute or sell it, but why shouldn't I be able to keep it and view it again later?
I can't even imagine why you would want to do that. When you're trying to get some content out to the largest possible audience, you'd actually rather have the extra bandwidth load on your server when the same person wants to watch it again, or show it to a friend, and not just give him the file once and be done with it? You'd also rather have people see what I got -- one small (~200 pixel) frame that could have been Weird Al on a stage, quickly replaced by a garbled mess of partially-loaded frames, changing about every two seconds -- instead of a near-broadcast-quality version that would actually show me how cool the video is?
Please try to see past all the over-hyped technologies du jour, think about the actual results, and make the site good.
David Gould
David Gould
main(i){putchar(340056100>>(i-1)*5&31|!!(i<6)<< 6)&&main(++i);}
...does the song mention slashdot?! :)
Inspired by what I don't know :)
But seriously, it definately takes mad lyrical skillz to combine several different parodies of pop crap into one cohesive whole. Funny, his polka parodies are often better than the songs which comprise it. The whole really is more than the sum of its parts.
"Dogs and cats, living together...it's mass hysteria!"
I'm getting a 404 on the RealAudio version (at pnm://www.peeps.com/peeps/weirdal2/pentium .rm), is it actually not there? Or is this this server's response to being /.ed?
right here. The root of that site may be interesting also (lot of Retro Hell stuff).
Chuck
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
I missed it, doh. Anyone know where I could download it in some video format?
-A
----------
"They misunderestimated me." --George W Bush, Nov. 6, 2000
I met weird al the other day backstage at the Myrtle Beach show (after getting hooked up by Steve Jay, the bassist).. and I complemented him on the accuracy of "It's All About the Pentiums" :)
--
Except that in the lyrics included with the CD, he spells it "loser".
-LjM
In my ever-so-unsolicited opinion, the only difference between high-brow humor and low-brow humor is the amount of fun you have to give up to appreciate it. If you truly don't LIKE Weird Al, that's fine. But if you're just acting like you don't like him so you can appear to have some class, kill the sham. Masking your inner self ultimately nets nothing, and you might as well give it up now.
Mod down posts with a "Free Mac Mini/iPod" sig, they're spam!
He's actually quite the internet nerd. His website has something explaining his nerd-dom. From what I understand, he even does some programming.
By the way, if you have MTV and happened to miss the video earlier today, TRL is on again at 8pm. I'd tune in at about 9:15 (they played it before the number one song) if you want to catch it.
Oh yeah, there's a *clip* of the video at
It's a 45kbps network stream, so 28.8 or higher connection (28.8 took about 40 sec to buffer) you should be fine. You'll need real player.
Aargh, Should have used preview. But that's what happens when you forget the "/a" tag
If you would like to see this video on MTV but don't want to wade through MTV's bloated content, I've greatly simplified their vote page. This is for TRL for Thursday (tommorow). The url is:
http://www.madwolf.net/zug/trl.html
Let's kick some BSB ass! =P
Weird Al is pretty damned nerdy himself. First the man's mega-smart (graduated highschool 1st in his class two years early). Second...look at him, the man has to be a die-hard geek, even if he doesn't know it yet.
-matt
Maybe you have never really listened to Weird Al. The man is brilliant (not just wrt music). Sure he doesn't seem to be able to write music, but he is one hell of a lyricist. If he really had no tallent I doubt he'd be so popular. He's not the only person on the planet who does paradies.
-matt
has struck down the Al that is Weird. Darnit I wanted to watch the video. I guess this Jedi needs to learn patience.
I'm a loner Dottie, a Rebel.
I'm fond of "Dare to Be Stupid" for quite another reason--it was featured in the soundtrack of Transformers: The Movie, one of the best works of feature film animation made for primary consumption this side of the Pacific in the 1980s. As the theme for the Junkions, in fact. Those wild and crazy guys... :)
(And if anyone has the Vince DiCola special-edition TFTM soundtrack sold at the BotCon Transformers conventions, you can hear the "Dare to Be Stupid" riff incorporated most ingeniously into one of Vince DiCola's instrumental pieces..."Unusual Allies," I think it is.)
Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org
I love the marbles in my mouth part...it had me rolling.
--Hunter Pankey
this is just proving what i've been saying all along-- that Puff Daddy isn't anything more than Wierd Al yankovic without the lyrical skillz.
Anyway, if you'll look at both www.sagabegins.com and www.thepentiums.com, you'll notice that in the part of the page that links to the other site, there is an obvious blank spot to fit in a third video/website when it comes out. So, any guesses as to what the third single will be?
Irritable, left-wing and possibly humorous bumper stickers and t-shirts
Actually, I'm so damn out of touch "All about the Pentiums" was one of the only songs where I had heard the original. In fact it's the only song I've ever heard Puff Daddy do that I like, so needless to say I like the Al version.
Hmm, interesting. I thought "Running with Scissors" was his best album yet.
In the real old stuff, when it was just him and John "Bermuda" Schwartz (his drummer), Schwartz 'drummed' on Al's accordian case.
To make it easier, here are the direct URL's to get the Windows Media Player version of the video: 300KBPS
128KBPS
56KBPS
28KBPS
I'll try to get the other formats up soon if someone doesn't beat me to it...
Never ask a geek why, just nod your head and slowly back away. -Rob Malda
T1 (campuscommonsapts.com), at any rate the audio on Real Player couldn't be much worse... (maybe beat by some 4khz java internet radio applet I've heard) and the video for quicktime is just as good (and you can resize the thing)...
Windows media ran mysteriously well, but the fscking drivers for my video card messed up all media player videos (jail bars, Diamond Stealth 2k)...
appearing with his hair straight and a cheezy goatee he looks too much like me... (find my pic on one of my sites if you really care to know how much)
Metallica: Livin' on the Edge
Wierd Al: Livin' in the Fridge
turned this into an honors english poetry analysis... loads of interesting parodies on many levels
ah, you're right... what crack was I smoking last night?
Well, I can't seem to get the actual file yet, but the link in the webpage is:
d al/media/itsthepentiums.mov
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/showcase/live/weir
- Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set him on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
> Do I not have the right to record it off TV?
No, as a matter of fact, you don't. Sorry!
--
- Sean
It's a fine line between trolling and karma-whoring... and I think I just crossed it.
- Sean
It wouldn't have made a difference how he had spelled "loser" since this is a song...
Heh, remember the story here on /. that Weird Al == Larry Wall? hmm...
I met Larry once, at Internet World or some similar thing, at the O'reilly booth. And I've seen Weird Al on TV. When I saw the story here, my first thought was 'Wouldn't suprise me'
Calmacil
I can't seem to face up to the facts, I'm tense and nervous and I can't relax... --Talking Heads
"I beta tested every operating system
Gave props to some, and others? I dissed 'em"
Sounds like Linux people dissing Windows to me.
I disagree. While I think he has had other, better albums, what about "The Saga Begins" and "Polka Power!" . . . I'm a fan of both, and I think the whole album is not bad. . .
I couldn't tell if you were experimenting with poor-man's cryogenics or looking for the orange sherbet.
5) Sorry about the slow server, we'll try to fix.
/. effect is pretty much unstoppable, after all. . . :-)
Do you think that anyone actually blames you for the slow server?!?!? The
I couldn't tell if you were experimenting with poor-man's cryogenics or looking for the orange sherbet.
> PS. There's a data track too...
WHoa...didn't notice that!
183 Meg movie? And it even runs under Xanim...COOL!
Almost perfect, just a Linux reference and it would have been there.
I have a question though, are the mainstream really aware of all these terms? I never open my mouth about a "nerd" issue with non nerds, so I have sort of assumed not. This had to be written by "one of us"...
What I find most interesting is that these are really all first half of the Ninetees Usenet terms. After all, while there are quite a few trolls here, I haven't seen any complaining about Me Too!'s or AOLers for that matter. After all, we could have AOLers among us here and never even know (ok, we probably would know).
It's funny that one is still hearing the newsgroups pitched as an Internet feature Joe Unconnected, when in fact it is dead for all but very few uses...
It's all about the Pentiums, baby
Uhh, uh-huh, yeah Uhh, uh-huh, yeah
It's all about the Pentiums, baby
It's all about the Pentiums, baby
It's all about the Pentiums!
It's all about the Pentiums!
(Yeah!!)
What y'all wanna do?
Wanna be hackers? Code crackers? Slackers
Wastin' time with all the chatroom yakkers?
9 to 5, chillin' at Hewlett Packard?
Workin' at a desk with a dumb little placard?
Yeah, payin' the bills with my mad programming skills
Defraggin' my hard drive for thrills
I got me a hundred gigabytes of RAM
I never feed trolls and I don't read spam
Installed a T1 line in my house
Always at my PC, double-clickin' on my mizouse
Upgrade my system at least twice a day
I'm strictly plug-and-play, I ain't afraid of Y2K
I'm down with Bill Gates, I call him Money for short
I phone him up at home and I make him do my tech support
It's all about the Pentiums, what?
You gotta be the dumbest newbie I've ever seen
You've got white-out all over your screen
You think your Commodore 64 is really neato
What kinda chip you got in there, a Dorito?
You're using a 286? Don't make me laugh
Your Windows boots up in what, a day and a half?
You could back up your whole hard drive on a floppy diskette
You're the biggest joke on the internet
Your database is a disaster
You're waxin' your modem tryin' to make it go faster
Hey fella, I bet you're still livin' in your parents' cellar
Downloadin' pictures of Sarah Michelle Gellar
And postin "Me too!" like some brain-dead AOL-er
I should do the world a favor and cap you like Old Yeller
You're just about as useless as jpegs to Helen Keller
It's all about the Pentiums!
It's all about the Pentiums!
It's all about the Pentiums!
It's all about the Pentiums!
Now, what y'all wanna do?
Wanna be hackers? Code crackers? Slackers
Wastin' time with all the chatroom yakkers?
9 to 5, chillin at Hewlett Packard?
Uh, uh, loggin' in now
Wanna run wit my crew, hah?
Rule cyberspace and crunch numbers like I do?
They call me the king of the spreadsheets
Got em all printed out on my bedsheets
My new computer's got the clocks, it rocks
But it was obsolete before I opened the box
You say you've had your desktop for over a week?
Throw that junk away, man, it's an antique!
Your laptop is a month old? Well, that's great
If you could use a nice, heavy paperweight
My digital media is write-protected
Every file inspected, no viruses detected
I beta tested every operating system
Gave props to some, and others? I dissed 'em
While your computer's crashin', mine's multitaskin'
It does all my work without me even askin'
Got a flat-screen monitor, 40" wide
I believe that yours says "Etch-A-Sketch" on the side
In a 32-bit world, you're a 2-bit user
You've got your own newsgroup, alt.total-loser
Your mother board melts when you try to send a fax
Where'd you get your CPU, in a box of Cracker Jacks?
Play me online? Well, you know that I'll beat you
If I ever meet you I'll control-alt-delete you
What?
It's all about the Pentiums!
It's all about the Pentiums!
It's all about the Pentiums!
It's all about the Pentiums!
What y'all wanna do?
Wanna be hackers? Code crackers? Slackers
Wastin' time with all the chatroom yakkers?
9 to 5, chillin' at Hewlett Packard
Hey kids, I forgot to mention some other fun stuff...
:)
MTV's site that allows you to vote for this video on Total Request Live(wouldn't it be nice to beat out Backstreet Boys for once?) doesn't protect against ballot stuffing. You can vote, hit back, vote again, hit back, vote again...down with Backstreet! heh...well...do it if you want, I know I am
Dan "Replying to myself" Turk
oh, forgot this part... http://www.mtv.com/mtv/tubescan/trl99_new/playmy/p laymy.tin?sPollName=reqmain_wednesday
the only song i've ever been dedicated over the radio was Wierd Al's "you make me wanna"
just in case you wanted to know
The site is up and it looks like the videos are available for download. It's been slashdotted something fierce, however, so good luck downloading anything.
I think the purpose of calling Billy to do your tech support is to pester him. Of course.
Running With Scissors, I think, is the best of Al's albums. "Germs" is the only song I really don't like, though the chorus ain't half bad. "It's All About The Pentiums" and "Your Horoscope for Today" are the best on that album, I say.
Now, to get a better connection to my house so the RealPlayer link doesn't look like crap...
---
Demanding constant attention will only lead to attention.
It was a long wait to get it, but I got it, and it was worth it :)
/right/on/ the songs he is goofing. ;)
Say what you will about Al, but he really is a fairly talented boob. If you listen to the spoofs he does, all of them (A-L-L) are almost note for note and beat for beat
I do prefer some of the older covers he has done, like "Another one Rides the Bus", where he slips in armpit farts as an instrument. Now, that's class
But he doesn't take himself seriously, he's just goofing, you know? He is doing what he enjoys, he's having fun, and he's getting paid for it.
Killing spammers is too good for them.
What is the difference between downloading the video and taping it off MTV? I don't understand the "don't have rights to let people download the original song." Do I not have the right to record it off TV? Because that's exactly what I did. Just wondering.
I dunno, i saw a recording of Kraftwerk show on MTV months ago and some of the videos on AMP are pretty nerdy. It would still take a lot more than that from MTV to make up for all of the crap they show though...
I still think Weird Al is great. My favorite will always be "The Good Old Days" though.
Weird Al's official web page has several pictures of him with very different looking haircuts. I think he really likes to change it to look like the people that he is making fun of...
official site
Then I tied her to a chair and I shaved off all her hair and I left her in the desert all alone
... that Carson Daly today will introduce this video and try to interject a few "tech phrases" in there? Damn preppie crap....
Damn, I miss the old MTV days... wait! There's MTV2! Yeah!
=)
Plankeye
Who the hell told Carrot Top he was funny?
There are tons of parodies (including some very good ones at the Computer Songs and Poems page. Check it out!
Hey, I'm Keith (one of the designers of the sites). I figured I should answer some questions.
1) We had to do streaming because we don't have rights to let people download the original song (puffy's)
2) I don't think Al uses Linux, but we do (but who cares?)
3) I don't think Al reads Slashdot, but we do. (but who cares?)
4) The site is obviously a parody of intel.com
5) Sorry about the slow server, we'll try to fix.
6) If you like it, _please_ buy the CD or at least vote for the video at Total Request Live.
I can try to answer any questions or whatever.
- keith
"I never feed trolls and I don't read spam"
"You've gotta be the dumbest newbie I've ever seen"
"And posting "Me too!" like some brain-dead AOL-er"
"You've got your own newsgroup, alt.total-loser" (it would have been better had he spelled it "luser" but I digress)
I was really surprised to hear it. I love the song - in fact the whole album is really good, particularly the track right before "It's all about the Pentiums, "Your Horoscope for Today" - it made me laugh out loud - and it's definitely a worthwhile album to buy.
(PS: I have written to him on his website to ask if he reads Slashdot - still waiting on a response ;)
I love Al. I think Al is the best thing since Twinkie Wiener sandwiches. But Al is not quite so funny as he used to be. "Running With Scissors" is probably the first album of his that I wish I hadn't bought. About the only good songs on there are "Jerry Springer," "Germs," and "Your Horoscope for Today."
I dunno... maybe so much music is crap nowadays that any parody Al does will be dragged down. But I'll still wish we had the Al of "Dog Eat Dog" or "Yoda" back.
(And what's up with the new look? I didn't even recognize him at first!)
-- This and all my posts are in the public domain. I am a lawyer. I am not your lawyer, and this is not legal advice.
*sigh* Yet another person who regrets his childhood rather than revelling in it. Bad memories, eh? I bet coworkers don't bother passing around the joke sheets to you, fearing you'll grumble something about "having work to do, don't have time for such nonesense." Remember that when you have a major coronary due to cumulative stress at the age of 45.
I'm quite happy to proudly proclaim my allegiance to Weird Al. While songs such as Albuquerque are little more than a (fun) stage for really bizarre jokes, songs such as Germs have more subtle messages interleaved in the obvious humor. Even his polkas and their arrangements make a message, at least about the songs being paranoid. (For instance, how about Intergalactic and Ray of Light in Polka Power?)
I have to admit, I personally treat Dare To Be Stupid as a personal anthem of sorts, for two reasons: For one, it savagely pokes fun at the commercialism and common sensibility of our day (eg. "Buy some sensible shoes and a Chevrolet", or perhaps "It's like they say you gotta buy one if you wanna get one free."). For another thing, the title says it all -- you don't always have to be smart, at least not in the conventional sense. You should dare to be stupid, which I interpret to mean (according to the subtle sarcasm of the song) challenge the norms. Dare To Be Stupid presents a very deep, right-brain-centric message that also permeates his work. Anyone who deeply appreciates Dave Barry's or Michael Abrash's works should be able to see this nearly immediately.
And on a separate note...
--JoeI have way to much class to let this thread linger.
Come over here and pull on my finger...
(With apologies to Weird Al on the paraphrased lyrics.)
--
Program Intellivision!
I said:
Program Intellivision!
While the "Eddie Vedder" song isn't exactly as masterful as, say, Dare To Be Stupid, you've gotta admit that Albuquerque is one of Al's greatest accomplishments on Running With Scissors .
--JoePS. There's a data track too...
--
Program Intellivision!
I suggest you take the cotton out of your ears and listen a little closer... After all, what's so formulaic about dental hygentists with spatulas tatooed on their arms, alongside a BIG BOWL OF SOUR KRAUT?
--Joe--
Program Intellivision!
Al also does some of his own composition without a net, besides the polka tunes. Things like "You Don't Love Me Anymore" or the last track on this album (I don't have the title on me--the sauerkraut one). They just don't turn into signals.
--The basis of all love is respect
I wonder how many slashdotters have heard the original, though? If you go out looking for the mp3 of it(for evaluation purposes only!) make sure you get the "Puff Daddy featuring Mase, Notorious BIG, and The Family - All About The Benjamins(Rock Remix)" make sure it's the rock remix, or you'll be confused!
Dan "white boy that likes rap" Turk