Last night's LOST

Last night was the third season premiere of Lost and it was a heckuva good episode, especially the opening: we got to see where the Others were and what they were doing when Oceanic Flight 815 came crashing out of the sky. But Lisa and I had to wonder: in all this time that the crash survivors have had to go from one end of the island to the next, how is it that the Others have an entire frickin' town that hasn't been run across yet? Others-ville can't be more than a two hours walk or so from where the mid-section of the fuselage came down... and you mean that at least Locke and Sayid didn't know about it? What about Rousseau: she's been on the island for a long time and she's never said anything about it to the crash survivors either.

I'm starting to wonder if the "island" is even an island at all. Maybe it's just one really big peninsula of a much-larger landmass. Heck as far off-course as Flight 815 was it could be part of Antarctica that somehow stays tropical (think the "Savage Land" from Marvel Comics). However it is, that lil' island is starting to get awfully crowded with crazy geography. Maybe the producers will release a comprehensive map of the place someday.

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Ten years ago Part 1

To anyone who will understand,
I still remember everything that happened starting that night and across the next few days.

To everyone who was involved: thank you.

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Harry Potter is causing school shootings, claims mother

I will say once again: if the Harry Potter books weren't so popular, these kinds of people wouldn't be paying them any mind. Deep down, these people are happy that there is something like Harry Potter to kick around. Twenty years ago it was Dungeons & Dragons. Then it was Pokemon. Today it's the Potter books and five years from now it'll be something else. These people are in it for the attention and they'll say anything stupid to get it. Here's the latest story of anti-Harry hysteria from the Daily Mail...

'Ban Harry Potter or face more school shootings'

Last updated at 13:20pm on 4th October 2006

A woman who maintains that the Harry Potter books are an attempt to teach children witchcraft is pushing for the second time to have them banned from school libraries.

Laura Mallory, a mother of four from the Atlanta suburb of Loganville, told a Georgia Board of Education officer that the books by British author J.K. Rowling, sought to indoctrinate children as Wiccans, or practitioners of religious witchcraft.

Referring to the recent rash of deadly assaults at schools, Mallory said books that promote evil - as she claims the Potter ones do - help foster the kind of culture where school shootings happen.

That would not happen if students instead read the Bible, Mallory said.

She added that the books were harmful to children who are unable to differentiate between reality and fantasy.

The children, she said, try to imitate Harry Potter and cast spells on classmates.

"They're not educationally suitable and have been shown to be harmful to some kids," Mallory said.

She argued that teachers do not assign other religious books like the Bible as student reading.

It was Mallory's second public campaign against the popular fiction series, after trying to get her son's elementary school to ban the books in August 2005.

Victoria Sweeny, an attorney representing the Gwinnett County Board of Education in Atlanta's eastern suburbs, which had ruled against her in May, said that if schools were to remove all books containing reference to witches, they would have to ban mainstays like "Macbeth" and "Cinderella."

"There's a mountain of evidence for keeping Harry Potter," she said, adding that the books don't support any particular religion but present instead universal themes of friendship and overcoming adversity.

Sweeny said parents, teachers and scholars have found them a good tool to stimulate children's imagination and encourage them to read.

The hearing officer presiding over the appeal will make a recommendation to the state board, which will then decide the case at its meeting in December.

Mallory is appealing after the Gwinnett County school board ruled in favour of the books.

Wiccans consider themselves witches, pagans or neo-pagans, and say their religion is based on respect for the earth, nature and the cycle of the seasons.

This woman is positively nuts! Everything she is claiming about J.K. Rowling and the Harry Potter books is a bold-faced lie... and she's using the name of God to perpetrate it.

I'll leave with this thought to ponder: people like Laura Mallory will no more understand the Holy Bible than they will the Harry Potter books. And when it all gets boiled down, Mallory is approaching the Bible as a "magic spellbook" even more than she thinks the Potter novels are.

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Thank you for smoking

Wow, that has to be just about the worst picture of Yoda ever...
Why is he smoking a cigar? Or maybe its medicinal marijuana: "When 900 years old you reach, your eyesight not be so good it will."

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23 hours = 1 minute

It's 12:15 a.m. on Tuesday morning as I write this. The last time I got any real sleep was before I woke up Sunday morning. The better part of the past 48 hours I've been kept going on a steady stream of Mountain Dew and re-heated pizza and a twisted combination of personal drive and utter frustration.

What's the deal? My first-ever campaign commercial. So far I've notched up 23 hours dedicated to getting this one minute of footage assembled together. Some of that is time that could have probably been saved 'cuz I've been doing some "tweaking" in Premiere Pro and After Effects. What benefits come from that may not show up that well on TV anyway... but I'm a compulsive perfectionist. If it can possibly be made better, I'll take the extra effort to do it. In the end it's all the little things that make the difference.

It's coming. Soon. Brace yourself: I was told tonight that one thing that happens in this commercial makes Lyndon Johnson's "Daisy Girl" ad seem mild in comparison :-P

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Foley ballot flap more indication that the parties are too powerful

The Republican Party in Florida has picked Joe Negron to replace disgraced former House Representative Mark Foley - who resigned last week after it turned out he was an e-mail pedophiler - on the ballot in next month's election.

Which proves all the more that the major parties - Republican and Democrat alike - have too great a stranglehold on this country.

Negron didn't have to submit himself to any of the scrutiny that is supposed to come with being a Congressional candidate. He's not going to be running because he gathered enough signatures on a petition to warrant his name being on the ballot. No, the only reason he's running is because the party bosses hand-picked him to be "their man". Because all that matters to them is "keeping control" of Congress... to hell what is in the best interest of the people of that district.

I've written in the past few days how the process of my being an electoral candidate for the first time has led to some personal change and growth. Well, I'm going to write more about this in the weeks and months following the election, but I'm compelled to say this much now at least: for all the talk about "voter apathy" in this country, why should the average American feel morally obliged to go to the polls in an election, if the American people aren't in charge of their own country anymore?

In a sane world, nobody would be filling in for Foley on the ballot. The contest would belong to whoever it was who's left in the race (which I guess would default to the Democrats, since no one else is really allowed to run in an election in this country)... and tough cookies for the Republicans.

But I guess I shouldn't be expecting anyone - from either of the two major parties - to do the decent thing by not circumventing the American people, should I?

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SOUTH PARK set to skewer World of Warcraft

I don't play World of Warcraft (but I know some people who love it a lot) and I barely ever watch South Park but this looks too hilarious not to check out when it airs Wednesday at 10 (right after the season premiere of Lost). Here's the preview...

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More Weird Al stuff, including the REAL reason why Atlantic tried to squash "You're Pitiful"

Ain't It Cool News has an interview with "Weird Al" Yankovic about Straight Outta Lynwood which came out last week. Meanwhile thousands of miles away the West Australian has another interview with Al, who reveals why it was that Atlantic Records tried so hard to keep Al's parody of "You're Beautiful" from being released...

Ali versus Frazier it wasn't. Things took a serious turn when Atlantic Records didn’t see the funny side of "Weird Al" Yankovic's parody of James Blunt's hit, You’re Beautiful.

Yankovic recorded You're Pitiful as the lead single to his new album, Straight Outta Lynwood, but pulled the track when Atlantic refused to give permission. Blunt had apparently told the Los Angeles based comedian he was fine with it but Yankovic's label, Volcano, didn't want to mess with the major.

Either way, Yankovic usually seeks the artist's blessing as a courtesy before commercially releasing his skewed remakes of hit songs.

Prince, Paul McCartney and Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page have apparently knocked back Weird Al makeovers but most artists relish Yankovic's humorous and harmless homages.

Dire Straits' Mark Knopfler played guitar on the Beverly Hillbillies parody of Money For Nothing while executives at Nirvana's label once told the comedian that his Smells Like Teen Spirit remake sold an extra million copies of Nevermind.

However, the wise men guiding Blunt's career don't share Yankovic's zany sense of humour.

"The reason I heard was that they felt like You're Beautiful was getting too much attention," Yankovic, 46, explains from his home in LA. "They don't want him perceived as a one-hit wonder. They thought You're Beautiful was getting bigger than he was... and that my parody would put more focus on that song."

Atlantic didn't immediately put the kybosh on the parody, rather the suits asked Yankovic to wait until the soppy UK singer-songwriter had established himself as an artist. He obliged, for a while, but the album full of timely parodies couldn't hold for more than a few months.

A frustrated Yankovic pushed the label for a final answer and was eventually told that they didn't want the song to ever see the light of day.

"At that point I just lost my mind because they had basically pushed back my album and I had no idea what I was going to be doing," he says. "They basically jerked me around."

While the song won't be commercially released, Yankovic made You're Pitiful available for free download via www.weirdal.com — and the MP3 became a worldwide viral hit. Despite his run-in with Atlantic, Yankovic will stick to his policy of seeking approval before unleashing his comic gems. "I've always done that historically and I'd like to keep doing it, but I'd have to say that experiences like this make me wish that I wasn't so dependent on the kindness of strangers."

Thta's the DUMBEST thing I've ever heard in my life!! No wonder Al is editing the Atlantic Records entry on Wikipedia to say "YOU SUCK" in the "White and Nerdy" video.

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Old Sears Wish Books getting archived on Flickr

Someone appropriately enough called Wishbook is scanning the entire contents of old Sears Wish Book catalogs and putting them on Flickr. There's only seven of the classic catalogs online so far (along with a few other retailers' Christmas catalogs) but what a joy it is to be able to look through these catalogs from years - and decades - gone by. Here's a page from the 1979 Wish Book, showing part of a two-page spread featuring Star Wars toys...
I actually used to have almost every Star Wars toy on this page! The only exception was the 13-inch Boba Fett figure. That's worth mentioning because this is the 1979 Sears catalog and Boba Fett didn't actually make his big-screen debut until the following year in The Empire Strikes Back. As far back as the Holiday Special in 1978 (which George Lucas will probably thank you for not thinking about) they were hard at work cultivating Boba Fett into a future bad-a$$ and he was already getting action figures made of him. As for who this "Zargon" guy is in the lower right-hand corner, I've a very vague recollection of the toy line he was from but it wasn't Star Wars: guess they needed someone as big as 13-inch Fett to balance out the rest of the page.

Anyways, if you have some time to kill, you might enjoy looking through the rest of Wishbook's photo sets. Which you'll probably wind up laughing at when you check out how people used to dress back in the early 70s and 80s.

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TV ads from other school board candidates

The rest of this weekend is going to be spent finishing up my first-ever TV political advertisement. What will it be like? You'll just have to stay tuned and find out. I'll be posting it here after its done and it gets the nods of approval from my inner circle of trusted advisors. For a minute's worth of footage, it's sure involving a lot of work though.

In the meantime, two other candidates for Rockingham County Board of Education have television commercials already up and running. Being that I'm into filmmaking/video production and have ummmm... more than a little interest in this election, I thought it would be neat to post links to their commercials. If any other candidates produce commercials and put them online, I'll post links to theirs too.

So here they are: the first two candidates in the Rockingham County Board of Education race to have TV commercials. They are in Windows Media format so make sure you have the right player installed on your computer...

Eric H. Smith's commercial "No More Bricks"
(You can also watch Eric's commecial on YouTube)

Richard Moore's commercial "A New Sheriff"

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The current situation

There's been something that's been on my mind for awhile, especially since I first got serious about running for public office. I'll probably write more about this later, after the campaign, when I've had a lot more time to meditate upon some things. I can definitely say that ever since throwing my hat into the ring, that it has been a real growth experience in a lot of ways for me. I can't help but think that even if it's not in God's will that I am to win a seat on the school board, that He is using this to plant the seeds within me for something further down the road. I don't know what that might be, but the learning and understanding that He has been guiding me through during this has very much made me a different person over the past couple of months.

Running for local office has lent itself toward much contemplation about where we are as a country. Especially in the past few days and weeks. And I hate to say this but the more I've let this new eye bear down on things, the more disillusioned I've become with the current state of things in America.

How has it come to this: that we are a nation run by a gang of liars and opportunists and petty hustlers and con artists and adulterers... and now pedophiles? I know, that's more or less a rhetorical question because this sort of thing has been going on for so long now that we've actually become inured to it. But that doesn't mean that it's no less a damning conclusion to draw from the shape of things.

Like I said, I'm probably going to have more to say about this in the near future, after the election is finished, however that goes down. But I'll end this post on one thing that I've come to realize: that the root of much of the misery and malfeasance that's taking place in this country is that we have pursued power instead of righteousness before God.

And I'm especially levelling that charge at a lot of the Christians in this land.

(Yeah I mean you too Jerry Falwell: "The Lord will take care of that" indeed!)

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More DOCTOR WHO goodness tonight

On the same day that American audiences finally get to watch Season 2/28 of Doctor Who comes word that the show has officially been recognized by Guiness Book of World Records as TV's longest-running science-fiction show. And yep, they're counting the revived series in with the originals too. With a 43-year history and 723 episodes to date under its belt, Doctor Who is still going strong.

And with tonight being when Season 2 (or 28, your pick) debuted here in the U.S., here is the "teaser" video that aired on Doctor Who Confidential last year. This really gives you an idea of what to expect in the coming months...

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My yard signs have arrived!

Most of them arrived yesterday (there was one box of metal frames that UPS just dropped off). Here's the finished product:

I used a company called RUNandWIN.com to fill my yard sign order. They did some really amazing work on these signs. They also had a very fast turnaround time from the time I placed my order and were exceedingly prompt in answering all of my queries. They are definitely to be recommended if you yourself ever wind up running for political office :-)

By the way, speaking of printed advertisements for my campaign, here is the bumper sticker that's on my car:

You can buy a pack of blank bumper stickers (2 per letter-sized sheet) at Office Depot. Then download a Word template from OfficeDepot.com and use your ink-jet printer to make your sticker. They're supposed to be pretty water-resistant as they are, but I also gave it several coats of transparent gloss spray paint before I peeled it off the sheet. And so far, in spite of all the rain storms we've had, it looks as fresh as it did when it came out of the printer. No doubt there'll be a lot more fun to be had with these sticker sheets after the campaign is over :-)

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"Merry Christmas!" New DOCTOR WHO season starts tonight on Sci-Fi!

When we last saw the Doctor and Rose, they were flying through time/space in the TARDIS having just destroyed the Dalek Emperor. Unfortunately the Doctor had to make a self-sacrifice and absorbed a LOT of energy that was slowly destroying his body. He had some poignant words for Rose (Billie Piper), telling her that she would never be able to see him again... well, at least "not like this, not with this daft old face". The last thing he told Rose was that she was "fantastic. Absolutely fantastic! And do you know what? So was I!"

And with that, the Doctor (who had been played by Christopher Eccleston) regenerated... and became the new Doctor: played by David Tennant (Barty Crouch Jr. in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire).

People in Great Britain have already seen what happens after that on Doctor Who. Tonight, American fans will finally get to see the further adventures of the Doctor and Rose. It all starts tonight at 8 o'clock with last year's holiday special "The Christmas Invasion" (I downloaded it the day after last Christmas: click here for my review of it). Taking place immediately after the last moments of last season's finale "The Parting of the Ways", the TARDIS crashes near Rose's old home just in time for Christmas. Tennant's Doctor walks out and collapses outside and Rose spends much of the episode trying to convince Jackie and Mickey that this is, indeed, the same Doctor that she had been travelling with. As the Doctor recovers from his regeneration, aliens arrive and start trying to take over. Won't say anything more than that but there are some really crazy visual gags you have to see to believe in this episode.

"The Christmas Invasion" lasts an hour and a half, and will be followed by the first real episode of Season 2 (or 28 if you're reckoning from old-school Who), "New Earth". Which I didn't think at the time that this was all that strong an opening for a new season of Doctor Who but it does have two things going for it: another appearance by the Face of Boe. And it has the return of the Lady Cassandra: arguably one of the most bizarre Doctor Who villains of all time ("Moisturize me! Moisturize me!"). There are some really excellent episodes coming up though in the next few weeks (like "Class Reunion") and I'll be posting more about them as they're about to broadcast. In the meantime, sit back tonight and enjoy some the newest season of Doctor Who... which is coming about six months earlier than most of us were expecting!

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Review of "Weird Al" Yankovic's STRAIGHT OUTTA LYNWOOD

Today is the day that "Weird Al" Yankovic's new album Straight Outta Lynwood came out (as if I haven't been talking about this album enough already on this blog over the past few weeks). I've been playing around with the new CD for several hours now – after having to go all the way to the Best Buy in Burlington because no place in Rockingham County has yet to get it in stock – and I can confidently say that the long wait was well worth it. Weird Al is one of the few musicians who has consistently upped his game since the start of his career and with Straight Outta Lynwood he has once again not only met his fans' expectations... he has surpassed them brilliantly.

I've noticed a trend over the past few albums that Weird Al has done: his humor, while still very family-friendly, has definitely gotten a lot edgier/more daring. "Wanna B Ur Lovr", one of my favorites from his last album Poodle Hat, was one of his more outrageous songs (and maybe even a little shocking to some longtime Al fans). Straight Outta Lynwood stays well within the lines of good taste – which is just one of the reasons why I believe Yankovic has enjoyed so much success over the years – but the pattern has definitely persisted in this new album. The result: Weird Al is sounding as fresh with Straight Outta Lynwood as he did when he first burst into the mainstream with In 3-D more than two decades ago. Indeed, if this keeps up I absolutely believe that "Weird Al" Yankovic is going to be entertaining us with new albums for another two decades... or more.

Straight Outta Lynwood is a DualDisc: the CD audio tracks are on one side and there is DVD content on the other. As a result the disc feels slightly heavier than a standard CD. On the positive side of things you're definitely getting more bang for your buck so far as material goes (more on that as the review progresses). The bad news is that, as a label on the back of the shrink-wrap says: "The audio side of this disc does not conform to CD specifications and therefore will not play on some CD and DVD players." And indeed when I tried to play the CD side of Straight Outta Lynwood with Windows Media Player on my computer, there were intermittent pauses on each song that I tried: almost as if the CD-ROM drive was trying to "catch up" or something. However when I tried to play it on a five-year old stand-alone boom-box there were no problems at all. Looks like if I want to listen to Straight Outta Lynwood while I work, I'm going to either have to rip the tracks to the hard-drive (which I was going to do anyway so they'll go on my MP3 player) or play it the old-fashioned way. But if you've got a fairly recent CD player, you probably won't have any trouble enjoying the CD. And the DVD stuff worked just fine when I played it on the computer with PowerDVD.

Awright, here's the stuff you'll find on Straight Outta Lynwood...

Side 1: The Audio CD

1. "White and Nerdy": This could have been my theme song had this album come out when I was in high school. A parody of "Ridin'" by Chamillionaire, "White and Nerdy”" is as strong an opening title for a Weird Al CD as was "Amish Paradise" on the Bad Hair Day album (my all-time favorite Weird Al album for a lot of personal reasons) ten years ago, which is saying quite a bit. Al must have some of the most versatile lips in the music biz, the way he's spewing out those lines a little further into the song. A great song and a hilarious video that Chamillionaire himself has said he likes a lot.

2. "Pancreas": A spot-on tribute to the musical style of Brian Wilson. What if the Beach Boys had all majored in biology? Well they would have probably made a song like "Pancreas". This one is probably going to grow on me after while, the way "Hardware Store" did after listening to it a few more times when Al released Poodle Hat. This song certainly makes me wonder (and not for the first time) about the wonderfully bizarre thought processes that must go on in the head of one Alfred Yankovic, what with associating internal organs with a tribute to Brian Wilson.

3. "Canadian Idiot": The new "Blame Canada". This one is a fine North America companion to "American Idiot" by Green Day. I actually got to listen to this a few weeks ago and it's been stuck in my head ever since. Al makes a mockery of just about every stereotype and motif of Canada out there: from hockey to Kraft Macaroni to Celine Dion. So far as parody goes, Al completely apes Green Day on this one.

4. "I'll Sue Ya": Definitely a style spoof of Rage Against The Machine (so much so that I can easily imagine Weird Al contributing to The Matrix soundtrack if he'd ever been asked to). A hilarious head-banging commentary about people who are all too eager to litigate.

5. "Polkarama!": The only song that I didn't really "get" but only because I'm unfamiliar with a lot of the lyrics (which just goes to show how out-of-touch I've wound up being with recent music, I hate to admit). On every album Weird Al does a medley of other artists' songs... as a polka. Gonna have to listen to the originals before I can really get a sense of appreciation for this one. By the way, my good friend "Weird" Ed has made the excellent suggestion that if Al ever performs "Polkarama!" in concert, everyone should stand up and start doing the "Chicken Dance" at the beginning of the song. It could be the start of a whole new "Weird Al concert thing" like doing the "Yoda chant"!

6. "Virus Alert": Don't know what kind of style is at work here but it sounds like some of Weird Al's mid-late Eighties stuff. This is Yankovic's completely over-the-top warning about opening e-mail attachments because of the threat of computer viruses. Another song that will probably grow more on me with time.

7. "Confessions Part III": As you probably might guess, a parody of "Confessions Part II" by Usher. It's absolutely hysterical to listen to Usher's original and then play this one by Weird Al.

8. "Weasel Stomping Day": The music on this short sounds like it could be used to advertise for an Oktoberfest. A light, violent song about an annual holiday involving putting on Viking helmets and mashing the daylights out of innocent weasels.

9. "Close But No Cigar": Probably the most randomly offbeat song on the CD, sorta reminds me of "Everything You Know Is Wrong" from the Bad Hair Day album. It's about a guy who is hitting on all these girls but finds something insanely miniscule about each one that turns him off.

10. "Do I Creep You Out": Just eight short months ago Taylor Hicks was a struggling musician who had "played in every honky-tonk and chicken coop there is". The man has worked hard, paid his dues, wound up winning on American Idol and for his efforts he's now received the ultimate prize: being parodied in what must be the fastest turnaround in Weird Al history... before his own album even debuts two months from now! A great spoof of Hicks' "Do I Make You Proud". Al definitely nails Hicks' signature vocal style here.

11. "Trapped In The Drive Thru": BEST SONG ON THE CD! And absolutely one of the greatest and most hilarious songs that Weird Al has ever done. This is also the longest song that Al has ever produced to the best of my knowledge ("Trapped In The Drive Thru" clocks in at very nearly 11 minutes), handily beating the lengths of "Albuquerque" and "Genius In France". This is also the first food-related song that he's done in awhile... and very well may be his culinary masterpiece. A parody of "Trapped In The Closet" by R. Kelly, this "hip-hopera" by Yankovic is the story of a husband and wife who are trying to decide what to do for dinner. No joke: I listened to this song three times in a row after buying this CD, it's so uproariously funny. Weird Al is at the top of his form on this song: not only does he imitate everything that R. Kelly did in "Trapped In The Closet" – including dividing the song into three "chapters" – but I think more than anything else on this CD, this one spotlights the full range of Yankovic's vocal talents. An instant classic.

12. "Don't Download This Song": ...which Weird Al already released last month on the Internet as a completely free MP3 download. Done in the spirit of "We Are The World" and all those other "touchy-feely" songs of the 1980s, "Don't Download This Song" is a heart-tugging plea to the listener not to violate copyright laws by swiping songs from Limewire and the like. Even if I'd already heard this song many times since Weird Al posted it on his Myspace page, I thought that this was a great way to wrap-up the album.

Side 2: The DVD Content

A lot of thought apparently went into the production of extra material for this album. That's obvious just from the beautiful menus on the DVD side of Straight Outta Lynwood.

If you have a top-of-the-line home entertainment system, you will be excited to know that the entire album is available on the DVD side in 5.1 Surround Sound (a first for Weird Al). Which we don't have anything like that here, but it's good to know that it'll be waiting for us someday when we do get a rig that nice.

Or if you don't have a 5.1 Surround Sound system, you can enjoy listening to Straight Outta Lynwood with on-screen lyrics and karaoke tracks for each song (no doubt that will be a lot of fun for parties). However it is that you listen to the music, you will also be treated to several childhood photographs of Weird Al.

The DVD side also features videos for each of the six original songs that Al performs on this album. Most are animated (the sole exception is the one for "Pancreas" by filmmaker Jim Blashfield). For these Al wound up getting some of the hottest talent in animation to produce them. The one for "Don't Download This Song" was created by Bill Plympton. "I'll Sue Ya" (pictured at right) was done by Thomas Lee. "Virus Alert" comes from David Lovelace, the creator of Retarded Animal Babies. The guys behind Robot Chicken on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim are responsible for "Weasel Stomping Day". But by far the most bizarre of the videos has to be the one for "Close But No Cigar" done by John Kricfalusi, the creator of Ren & Stimpy. "Close But No Cigar" features Cigarettes the cat and more scenes depicting female buttocks than I've ever seen in a cartoon in the history of anything.

Rounding out the video content of Straight Outta Lynwood is "Al In The Studio", a nine-minute long documentary of Weird Al and his band as they work on the album, filmed by Al's wife Suzanne. It's a great look at the fun – and the hard work – that went into making Straight Outta Lynwood. And it has a really sweet closing scene that will make you go "Awwww..."

I could also talk about the 24-page full color booklet that comes with the CD, with lyrics and credits and all that, but this review is getting too long as it is. The only thing I will say about it is that it has what must be one of the most disturbing photos I've ever seen come out of the wacky world of Weird Al (and if you ever read this Al, I'm talking about that one in the very middle of the book :-).

So to wrap things up: I am being very thoroughly entertained by Straight Outta Lynwood... more than I was anticipating even. This newest album by "Weird Al" Yankovic is one of his best ever, and it's going to make a fine addition in my collection along with his other work. Do I recommend this CD? Heck yeah! So go out and buy it. And if you've already downloaded the entire album, GO OUT AND BUY IT ANYWAY YOU HOOLIGAN!

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They are mad as hell, and they aren't going to take it anymore

Darth Larry (who has been woefully absent of late even considering his recent trip to Denmark) scores big with some of the first released photos from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which is due out this coming July. Lots of good pics here, including the first I've seen anywhere of Dolores Umbridge.

But this is the pic that I absolutely love...
Harry, Ron, Hermione, and the rest of Dumbledore's Army: the secret group that Harry starts training on his own when the Ministry of Magic clamps down on teaching defense against the dark arts. The little blond girl on the right is Luna Lovegood, who was one of my favorite new characters from the book. But maaaan, just look at the countenance of Neville's face. He looks... I don't know if words can really express it, given what Neville's been through if you know the book. The boy is a seething volcano of rage just waiting to violently explode. So help me I honestly believe Neville is going to actually kill Bellatrix Lestrange if he gets the chance... and hopefully he'll get that before this series is out. The Weasley twins are looking pretty fed-up too: if we don't get to see The Escape - the scene where the twins decide it's finally time to leave Hogwarts for good but not before giving a giant "F--- YOU!" to Umbridge - it will be a cinematic sacrilege.

So far, looking pretty good. I'm starting to get strong vibes out of this next Harry Potter flick. Maybe next time we'll have a picture of Grawp to look at.

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For crying out loud: I'm ALREADY TAKEN!

Since 6 o'clock last night (it's half-past 1 in the morning now) I've received eight "friend requests" to my Myspace account. All of them are from people I've never heard from before in my life. Every one of them is a young woman. And each one has popped up the same screen every time I clicked on their name to see who the heck this is supposed to be...
I have no idea what the "Myspace Adult Content Viewer" is supposed to be, but there's no way I'm letting that thing touch my hard-drive. Lord only knows what it would do to my system. Neither do I know why so many girls are asking to be my "friend". I've a policy when it comes to Myspace: I have to absolutely 100% know a person before I add them to my "friends" list thingamabob. Every person you see on my Myspace friends - with the exception of Myspace Tom and The Official "Weird Al" Fan Site one - I know from real life.

Why are all these girls trying to get me to add them? I dunno. Lisa says it's because "you're good-looking" to which I asked why doesn't she get slammed from guys as much as me ' cuz she's beautiful... but then again she's got a bunch of our wedding pictures set on her page so maybe that's why. Perhaps if I stick up a photo of her and I getting married as my main pic then these girls will leave me alone finally, 'cuz this happens all the time. Someone suggested that these are people who see that I'm a film-maker and that maybe they think I can get them a role in a flick or something. Well, I hate to disappoint anyone who might think so, but my operation has never had a "casting couch".

So if any young lady is reading this and contemplating sending me a Myspace friend request and I don't already know you, and especially if your profile is filled with photos of a less-than-prurient nature: please don't. I've been in love with one woman for the past six years - the only woman I have ever truly loved - and my heart totally and completely belongs to only two people: God, and her. So kindly desist with sending me Myspace requests that won't get you anywhere at all.

I will welcome anyone who wants to write me a friendly note through Myspace though, and let whatever friendship happens that may spring from that... and you'll find that I'm a pretty loyal guy to have as a friend. But that comes with time: something that I doubt anyone who makes the "adult content" red flag pop up would really appreciate.

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