I saw this video on ABC’s Funniest Videos show. This child is I think they said two years old and knows her states plus she does the best smarty-pants dance I’ve seen. I may have to start doing the smarty-pants dance whenver I do something of note… I bet my co-workers will be thrilled!
It kind of makes you wonder, why all children don’t learn geography at this age – maybe cause no one is teaching them – it could also be that Lola is exceptionally geographically gifted… oh well, its back to the online geography tests for me CLICK p.s. I got 236 this time! woo hoo! Here goes my smarty-pants dance, smarty-pants dance….
Little to win but nothing to lose. Those lyrics have been rattling around my head. They even pushed the Eels right off their perch on my frontal lobe. Those lyrics originate from “Incense and Peppermints” by the Strawberry Alarm Clock. They were the only lyrics I rememebered of the song (except of course for “incense and peppermints”) – I was a wee, wee lass in 1967 when this song came out (wipe that smirk off your face, I was a wee, wee lass). Anyway, in searching for the lyrics of the song – I found some very weird variations on the words. This is what I think the lyrics probably are:
Good sense, innocence, cripplin’ mankind
Dead kings, many things I can’t define
Occasions, persuasions clutter your mind
Incense and peppermints, the color of time.
Not the deepest or most grammatically correct but what I assume the true lyrics to the song are. Below is another version of the same verse from another website that will remain nameless (I don’t want to embarrass them):
Good sense, innocence, cripplin’ and kind.
Dead kings, many things I can’t define.
Oh Cajun spice, sweats and blushers your mind.
Incense and peppermints, the color of thyme.
There is a certain poetic quality to “cripplin’ and kind” but “Oh Cajun spice?” Really? It never occurred to anyone that those might not be the lyrics? All the different lyric sites agree on the words to this part though:
Who cares what games we choose?
Little to win, but nothing to lose.
Here - take a listen for yourself. I’ve put in the YouTube version that’s straight off of the record (that’s that black thing going round and round) with the original lead vocals by Greg Mumford. He only sang with the Strawberry Alarm Clock for this one time and never performed it with them again (at least that’s what I read here – I wouldn’t know first hand because I was a wee, wee lass when all this was occurring…..)
Just goes to show you – don’t take every thing you find out there as being correct. You need to do a little work to get at what is true.
Its a bit long but very well done and it just goes to show you that we all have the same problems. Altho’ I think those of us who have dipped into Northern European/Slavic genetic pools have a natural aptitude for complaining. Here is the St. Petersberg Complaints Choir:
I had this little snippet of music going through my head – listen: Flyswatter I knew it was an Eels song but I had to go through every dang Eels video on YouTube to find it. I have a tendency towards OCD-type behavior doncha know. Anyway, it is such a wonderful little riff (if that’s the right terminology – I’m no musician). That little pattern of music just feels like a fresh splash of water on the face and opens up the mind to all sorts of possibilities – is catchy but not insipid yet has a certain fairy tale-ish kind of quality – like a remembered song from childhood. The lyrics are equally as mesmerizing – almost makes me want to break out the old cels and animate (I won’t – too labor intensive and I’m just lazy these days). Below is the “official” Eels video to the song:
Its fun, and Mr. E is cute as all get out but I think the images detract focus from the song itself - a little too, and I hate to be critical but then who the hell is reading this stuff anyway but me – the video comes off as too young teenage boy (nun shedding habit, etc.). I know all videos are aimed at teenage boys and this one is really very mild by comparison. I would have liked a more surrealistic approach to the video . I think the illustration on the cover is closer to what I perceive is the spirit of the song – but then what the hell do I know.
Here’s just the song without the “official video” and some of the lyrics underneath (I’m OCD’ing again aren’t I…) … I may yet end up doing some illustrating if not animating …
Little field mice
Living under the house
Never eating much
Tough life for a mouse
And if you think you’re
Gonna be spared
You’re wrong
Field mice, head lice
Spiders in the kitchen
Don’t think twice ’bout
Whatever keeps you itchin’
Ice water, flyswatter
Gonna get you through
the day
Okay to be thoroughly anal about this – here, this is the quality that is missing in the Flyswatter video. This is kind of steampunky before steampunk: Last Stop: This Town
The video is remarkably well done. I particularly like the bored expression on Putin and the concentration as Ahmadinejad knits his little potholders. I’m glad that that cocky little self-congratulating half grin of Mr. Bush (that I so dislike) was finally put to good use. I just wish there was a good a mechanism (free elections) for Russia and Iran to get rid of their “leaders.”
I know Amnesty International’s message is a heavy one, but the above is funny and well made and carries their message much more so than other of their advertising I’ve seen in the past. It goes back to George Bernard Shaw – you get the message across with humor or perhaps Mary Poppins said it best “just a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down.”
p.s. I got 236 this time! woo hoo! Here goes my smarty-pants dance, smarty-pants dance….
