Category: YouTube

The Sexiest Vegetarian

First, I MUST recommend Steve Bissette’s recollection of FantaCo’s horror publication Gore Shriek. Here’s Part 1 and Part 2, with more parts promised. I’m particularly interested in the future installments since they took place after I left FantaCo in November of 1988. Even if you’re not into horror, it is an interesting tale about artists, editors and publishing.
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Also, Librarian 2008 responds to my tag.
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I did not known until recently that June is Black Music History Month. Once upon a time, there were no black people on MTV videos. Hard to believe now, but the company thought their audience would shy away if certain performers showed up. After SONY forced MTV’s hand and got Michael Jackson on the network, one of the ubiquitous performers was Prince Nelson Rogers.

It’s peculiar that Prince is lashing out at YouTube, eBay and The Pirate Bay, as I think those videos are keeping him in the mindset of folks. Even funnier is this story where a Mother protects YouTube clip by suing Prince.

Prince turns 50 today. At least his name is pronounceable now. Who knows how long these clips will be available?

From my two favorite Prince albums:

Purple Rain

and Sign O’ the Times

I also own Dirty Mind, Controversy, 1999, Around the World in a Day. The Black Album, Batman, and a 2 CD greatest hits. I also have a 12-inch, 7-minute version of Let’s Go Crazy.

Here’s a song, like the Sinead O’Connor tune i posted on Wednesday, written by Prince:

Finally, a George Harrison tribute I remember watching at the time it first aired. His Purpleness really kicks about three minutes in:

ROG

May Ramblin’

Black Television News Channel (BTNC) announced plans to launch the nation’s first all-news cable network dedicated to the African American community. That was sort of interesting; more intriguing to me was this: “Based in Washington, D.C., BTNC is the creation of J.C. Watts, the former Republican congressman from Oklahoma.” I figured that if Hillary Clinton somehow won the Democratic nomination, and I suppose it could still happen, the Republicans would counter by putting a black conservative Republican on the ticket. Actually, I was specifically thinking J.C. Watts. Guess that’s not going to happen.

Speaking of McCain, take the Bush-McCain Challenge, an online quiz to see if you can tell the difference between George W. Bush and John McCain.

And, as I said, Hillary’s not dead yet, but the funeral’s been planned: In Loving Memory of the Hillary for President Campaign.

Is everybody happy? Well, no, and age, gender and race seem to be factors. I suppose a story like this – E-Mail Shows Racial Jokes by Secret Service Supervisors – while disturbing, doesn’t fill me with as much outrage as it used to, maybe because I’m less surprised than I used to be. I appreciate whimsy more, e.g. Czech crash victim wakes up speaking English. And maybe I can laugh a little at myself more. This is a thread for label suggestions for a homebrew called Old Librarian Ale. BTW, I am NOT responsible for the content. The NSFW item (clearly labeled within) REALLY is NSFW.

So always remember, and never forget: Nothing is more dangerous than a wounded mosquito.

ROG

ROG

Roger Answers Your Questions, Gordon

Gordon, who knows I’ve met Rod Serling, asks these questions:

1) What’s your favorite Twilight Zone episode?

Certainly, Time Enough At Last with Burgess Meredith:

The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street with Claude Akins and Jack Weston, and A Game of Pool with Jack Klugman and Jonathan Winters are up there. It’s a Good Life with Billy Mumy and The Dummy with Cliff Robertson and Frank Sutton scared me as a kid.
But perhaps, as a librarian, I relate most to The Obsolete Man with Burgess Meredith and Fritz Weaver, about librarians and religion and politics, which can be seen, in three parts, below:


Yes, it’s heavy-handed and preachy, but that’s OK by me.

2) What have you been asked to do professionally that has you going, “I can’t believe they pay me to do this?”

When I worked at the Schenectady Arts Council on a CETA grant in 1978 into January 1979, I was hired as a bookkeeper and to run a biweekly craft show, but there really wasn’t that much to do to fill 35 or 40 hours a week, though I was on the telephone selling ads for a benefit to revitalize Proctor’s Theatre for a couple weeks. So I found other things to take on. The dancer, Darlene, was teaching elementary school kids dance in the elementary schools, including disco, and she needed a partner, so I was drafted. The secretary, Susan, decided that she and I would go sing to the developmentally disabled from time to time. I loved that job, loved dealing with artists and musicians, and we stopped only because the money ran out.

3) What’s the deal with “Chocolate Rain”? I don’t get it.

You mean this thing that got 16 million hits and won some YouTube award?


Damned if I know. I have little idea WHY something becomes a hit on the Internet: LOLcats or lonelygirl15 – don’t really get it.
That said, let me spitball here. It may be the juxtaposition of the unexpected. This nerdy-looking black guy with a deep voice that one might not be anticipating, with lyrics that seem to be saying SOMETHING, but we’re not sure what; better play it again. Or maybe it’s that he’s put his listeners in a trance with the keyboards.
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The footer to an e-mail I received yesterday (no, I don’t know the parties involved)-
Mr. Diefenbaker:…I mentioned the cost of living a moment ago, and while I speak the cost of living has gone up.
Mr. St. Laurent: You should stop speaking.

ROG

ROG

The Rest of the Story

PART ONE:
Last week, I wrote a story on the Times Union blog about reconciliation. I mentioned listening to a podcast operated by a US expat living in New Zealand. But I didn’t just happen upon it. Nik from the Spatula Forum, a blog I read regularly, was being interviewed by his fellow expat, Arthur. At the end of the interview, Arthur indicated that his next podcast would be about reconciliation in Australia, so, of course, I listened. Not so incidentally, at the end of that podcast, he reads listener/reader comments, including a couple from, of all people, me.
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PART TWO:
For the Albany Public Library blog, I noted Green Eggs and Ham, admittedly my favorite Dr. Seuss book, had won some library award. So, I thought it would be fun to add some YouTube videos, and I did. One was a straight reading, one was a seven-minute cartoon, and the third was the same cartoon, altered and sped up. I was going to also use the famous Jesse Jackson reading of Green Eggs and Ham from Saturday Night Live; the picture quality is marginal, but the sound is good. What prevented me, ultimately, was a series of racist remarks in the Comments and Response section.
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PART THREE
Someone named Gail, a “dorm mom” from Texas, asked me about the group that sang the Brian Wilson song Love and Mercy at the Kennedy Center Honors back in December. The group is named Libera, and they have a new album called New Dawn coming out in March. Gail says that Love and Mercy will be on that album. Here’s the video from the TV program via YouTube:

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PART FOUR
Rose is having a thing called What the hell is blogging – Blog Contest where one has to define blogging. Off the top of my head – I was on a 15-minute computer at the library before a meeting – I came up with “Blogging is the organization of the important and the ephemeral in the life of a person or organization, ideally in an appealing manner.” If I had had more time, I’m not sure WHAT I’d have come up with.
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PART FIVE
I’ll have to write something more substantial about William F. Buckley’s passing. I was a devotee a LONG time ago.
ROG

ROG
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