Turning Japanese starring Kirsten Dunst

The girl from Spiderman did this cover of the 1980s song “Turning Japanese” by the Vapors. It’s an eight-year-old video, but I haven’t seen it until recently.

Much better than the original music video (although though the Vapors did the song a lot better).

Rhinestone Cowboy

By Glen Campbell, 1936-2017

I remember when this song was overplayed on the radio.

I think he looks pretty skinny for a country singer. A modern-day country singer would be more obviously jacked up and full of muscle.

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The song is actually about how the singer wants to make it big in New York City. The chorus about being a “rhinestone cowboy” is an analogy for how it will feel to be famous in the big city, it’s not literally about being a cowboy.

Even back in 1975, New York City was the place where everyone wanted to make it.

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The biggest hit country song of 2016, H.O.L.Y. by Florida Georgia Line, is just a boring love song.

I think the girl in the video has more muscle than Glen Campbell. Okay, that’s a big exaggeration. But she does have a nice body compared to skinny 70s girls like Farrah Fawcett.

Mooch walking away from Washington?

Wayne and Garth do Bohemian Rhapsody

1. Did Queen predict the Mooch?

2. The scenes of driving around in some suburban area feels like it happened 25 years ago and it wouldn’t be like that today, but I can’t put my finger on why that’s the case.

Lady Gaga – The Fame Monster

Listening to this album because of a work conversation about Lady Gaga this morning. Great music. Although I don’t think I’ve ever linked to one of Lady Gaga’s music videos because they are too weird for me.

This album was released in 2008. Wow, where have the nine years gone? This is no longer new music. What are kids listening to this decade?

Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band

This album celebrated its 50th anniversary last week.

I’m listening to it right now. Great album! Too bad they don’t make stuff like this anymore.

Ray from Girls and wisdom from Jimmy Soul

It’s good that this video shows the lyrics, because they’re hard to understand from just listening.

Do view, it’s such a fun song, and perfectly safe for work.

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I’ve been thinking about “Cookie Monster’s” comment:

I like Ray ending up with the fat girl. Ray is probably the most (only?) really redeemable character on the show and deserves better than Shosh and certainly Marnie. Fat or not Abigail is the kind of woman who fills gaps with a guy like Ray, and vice versa. I know some awkward guys like Ray who end up with less-attractive-but-more-open girls like Chubs. Sometimes it even works.

Plus she’s not exactly unattractive, at least IMO.

If we look at the photo in this Huffington Post article, I would sadly have to disagree with Cookie Monster that “she’s not exactly unattractive.” Even though I think that skinniness is highly overrated in women, Abigail is simply not a physically attractive woman. Not even in a chubby kind of way.

But at least with Abigail, Ray, who’s not buff and in-shape like Adam and Elijah, doesn’t have to worry that she is going to start criticizing him for having a pot belly and being flabby.

Cookie Monster is right about Marnie. This stanza from the Jimmy Soul song describes Marnie perfectly:

A pretty woman makes her husband look small
And very often causes his downfall
As soon as he married her and then she starts
To do the things that will break his heart

Marnie is the most self-centered and toxic of all the girls on the show, even more so than Hannah. If you like her, it’s only because her looks have blinded you to seeing who she really is.

Now let’s talk about Shoshanna. Most male viewers consider her to be the most likeable of the four girls. Her body isn’t marred with ugly tattoos. She’s nice to Ray.

But let’s be honest about her flaws. She’s not very smart. Yes, she’s the only girl with a corporate career, but that’s a conceit of Lena Dunham and the other script-writers for the show that creative people like themselves are a lot smarter than corporate workers, so they made Shoshanna, the dumb one, a corporate worker. In the context of the show, having a corporate career is not considered a positive trait, even though I suspect that most readers of this blog would disagree and hold the opinion that having a corporate job demonstrates responsibility and groundedness.

Also, Shoshanna is very shallow. For example, in the penultimate episode, she touts her new friends as being better than Marnie, Hannah and Jessa because, among other reasons, they are “pretty” and have “purses.”

Shoshanna will never get, the way Abigail does, Ray’s interest in his late friend’s collection of audio tapes, because it doesn’t help Ray make more money so that his future wife can buy expensive purses.

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Another significant line from the Jimmy Soul song:

Don’t let your friends say you have no taste
Go ahead and marry anyway

A lot of people let society tell them what to do instead of doing what will make them happy.

For example, suppose Ray were a real person, and then he read my post about the episode and read all of the comments disparaging Abigail and saying that Ray could do better. If Ray were an insecure person, he might very well take that stuff to heart and dump Abigail, even though she would make him happy for the rest of his life.

Unfortunately, many of us are like Shoshanna. We can’t help but base our own happiness on what other people think about us and how we stand in the rat race for status, and how our purses and other clothes and accessories compare to our friends (last clause only applies if you’re a woman or a gay man). Even if we have a genuine desire to change, we can’t overcome our nature.

Veruca Salt, Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory

That’s a pretty awesome performance by a child actress! And after her possible death, which Willy Wonka played by Gene Wilder doesn’t seem very perturbed by, below we see the Oompa Loompas singing in celebration.

Barry Manilow is gay

Not gay as in his music sucks, but gay as in he puts his penis into orifices in which it was traditionally believed that Mother Nature never intended it to be put. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

I never knew, but I’m clueless about those things.

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Mandy is the most quintessential Manilow, but perhaps his most fun song is Copacabana, and I enjoyed watching this live rendition at YouTube in which he’s wearing an outfit that reminds me of Gene Wilder’s character from Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.

Barry, part Irish-Catholic and part Jewish, grew up in the same neighborhood in Brooklyn as my mother.

I come from nowhere Brooklyn, New York. Williamsburg, Brooklyn. These days Williamsburg is kind of a hip area, but when I grew up there, the taxi drivers wouldn’t even go over the bridge, it was so dangerous.

When I grew up there it was a dump. All I remember is running home from school so I wouldn’t get beat up.

Laga Gaga halftime show with drones

Wow, the drones were amazing! Everything was amazing! Maybe the greatest halftime show ever!

My only complaint is that the studio versions of her songs are better; but then you have to appreciate that she had the guts to sing live and not lipsynch.

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Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert, agrees:

That Super Bowl halftime show will never be topped. You just saw five-dimensional chess from Master Persuader #LadyGaga

— Scott Adams (@ScottAdamsSays) February 6, 2017

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And following the halftime show, the biggest comeback in the history of the Superbowl.

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Lady Gaga vs. Katy Perry

So some commenters have voted for Katy Perry’s halftime show from two years ago.

Now I love Katy Perry. She’s gorgeous. And cute. And her songs have such a endearing touch of whimsy. But Lady Gaga has her halftime show beat by a mile. Besides the drones, there was Lady Gaga’s athleticism and the much larger scope of choreography. Plus Lady Gaga’s show wasn’t interrupted by some crappy hip-hop/rap number by Missy Elliott.