An Ode To Al

bwfcusa16 writes "The Boston Globe has up a feature story on Weird Al in its Sunday edition. The article refers to his staying power as prince of the parody. It's an ode to his determination, talent, and relevance ... and, of course, the funny." From the article: "Novelty artists--and he is one--have a notoriously short lifespan. They age badly, they run out of gags. But Al, by simply refusing to stop, has turned himself into a sort of cultural Geiger counter, ticking and squawking around the hot zones. The oddity of a humorist titling himself like a pro wrestler (there's no "Funny Jerry" Seinfeld) has long since worn off--he's the champ, and he's earned it.

Moo

[Chacham]

Nice that he got an article, but....

it isn't comprehensive in the slightest.

doesn't mention Al-TV "taking over" M-TV for a half-hour.

doesn't mention the problems he's had except one album.

Must be slow news day.

Nothing to see here, please move along

[patio11]

Seriously, there is nothing in that article worth reading for anyone with a passing aquaintance to Weird Al. Why don't you spend your time by going to iTunes or the record store and picking up his new CD (he has said he makes vastly more money from the CD sales, if that makes your decision easier). "White and Nerdy" is one of the funniest songs I have ever heard, and I've all but adopted it as my personal anthem.

Addicted to Love - Miscredited

[joeware]

"Addicted to Love" was done by Robert Palmer not Robert Plant. Duh.

Re:Nothing to see here, please move along

[__aaclcg7560]

Code Monkey [jonathancoulton.com] is a close second.

Re:DRM?

[Mr. Hankey]

FWIW, to my knowledge there's nothing on the disc that prevents it from being copied. As I always do with my CDs, I ripped the disc to my computer and put the CD on the shelf. After looking at the videos on the other side that is. I suppose I might have watched the DVD half more if it had the "White and Nerdy" video on it, but the animations aren't terrible and the album itself doesn't disappoint this long-time Al fan. For those who care, which excludes myself, there are enhanced stereo and surround versions on the DVD side as well. Anyway, White & Nerdy, Canadian Idiot and Trapped in the Drive-Thru (a great sendup of Trapped in the Closet) were the album's high points for me. Even "Don't download this song" has enough sarcasm to make it funny, in a "We are the world" parody sort of way.

Re:DRM?

[FuzzyFox]

I read that sticker with some trepidation too, but I haven't had any trouble ripping the tracks and encoding them for my MP3 player. The disc appears to be a standard red book audio disc. I can't figure out what is supposed to be different about it. The only thing odd is, of course, that it is a DVD on one side, and a CD on the other side. I believe that makes it slightly thicker than a normal CD? Perhaps that is what makes it "non-conformant" to the CD standards.

The disc is not copy-protected in any way that I can detect.

Re:DRM?

[NecroPuppy]

At least some computers (such as mine) have issues with ripping it.

And my car CD player doesn't like the CD/DVD - there's potential jamming issues with the DualDiss format.

Horror of DualDisc

[Channard]

As one poster has pointed out, the disc is a DualDisc format. This is not copy protection, but a 'clever' way of having DVD and CD content on one CD. And you know what? It sucks. So much so that I ebayed my DualDisc version and bought the Australian version which, while not having the Karaeoke option of the US DVD, actually does run on a PC. Then I sold the DualDisc version on E-Bay and I sure as hell won't ever be buying a dualdisc version again. The only way I could get the DualDisc version onto my MP3 player was to make a copy of the CD, then put that copy in the computer. The disc completely failed to either play on my Apple Mac Mini or my PC, and could only be read by one particular laptop I tried. It may not be actual copy protection, but it sure as hell worked like it, well, until I found a laptop it worked on.

Perhaps this will make you feel better:

[Kazzahdrane]

From Al on MySpace: (no, I can't be bothered formatting it)

Hey everybody, Apparently there is some creep out there pretending to be me, and he has been spamming my MySpace friends list with offers to see me in Las Vegas if people sign up for a lot of garbage online. Just to be clear, this is definitely NOT ME. This is an IMPOSTOR, and we are looking into having his MySpace account yanked, after which he will hopefully be flogged and tortured. I'm very sorry if any of you were inconvenienced by this. Really, I don't suck. Thanks, Al Yankovic


I never actually got the invite, though I did get a very similar-sounding one supposedly from the Goo Goo Dolls. I guess that was a dud too.

Al deserved it!

[Anonymous Coward]

Weird Al is truly the prince of parody, he really deserved it!!!
You can see all the videos and the originals he makes fun of here:
http://www.indextube.com/Weird_Al [indextube.com]

Re:Self-Deprecating Humour is the Key

[Willy Wong]

No they're not. Matt Stone was born in Houston and then his family moved to Colorado, and Trey Parker was both born and raised there.

Re:Self-Deprecating Humour is the Key

[Dragonslicer]

Dr. Demento's show was around before Weird Al ever got big

On the off chance someone didn't know, Weird Al started his career by having his songs played on the Dr. Demento show.

Re:Perhaps this will make you feel better:

[joshsisk]

Myspace is fine, if you only add friends you know in real life, enable the "you must know my email address or my full name to add me as a friend" setting, and have ad block turned on. It's even better if you disable macromedia Flash.

Re:Perhaps this will make you feel better:

[Kazzahdrane]

"We've been getting a lot of messages regarding an bogus contest involving many major bands including our own to win tickets for a show including the Goo Goo Dolls in Las Vegas this December. Please understand that this is not an official Goo Goo Dolls contest and we are not booked for this event. If anyone contacts you regarding the contest or tries to offer you free tickets or prizes for this alleged event, please report them to the myspace administrators. Thanks! The Goo Goo Dolls"


I guessed right. +3 /. respect points for me, if such a thing existed of course. Seen the Dolls live? Saw them in Glasgow a few weeks back and they were excellent.