This Music in History: Puttin' On the Ritz

I was listening to some random music on my computer and I realized that I had 2 versions of this song on there (the Taco one and the Fred Astaire one), and I wondered what was up with that. So, I bring you the first installment of the Chickens! "this music in history" series.

Inspired by the Ritz hotel, "putting on the Ritz" is an old timey slang expression meaning to dress fashionably (also used to refer to something being high class or extravagant ie. "this room is very ritzy"). This popular song was first written and published in 1929 by Irving Berlin and introduced by Harry Richman in the musical film "Puttin' on the Ritz" in 1930.


Its next famous film depiction was by Clark Gable in the 1939 film Idiot's Delight.


Next we have the incomparable Fred Astaire in the 1946 film Blue Skies (note the revised lyrics)

Of course the amusing Young Frankenstein version performed by Gene Wilder and Peter Boyle in the 1974 Mel Brooks film.


Then we skip straight to the highly popular synthpop version recorded in 1982 by the one hit wonder Taco Ockerse. This baffling music video was the only music video version of this song ever made.


The most recent version is by Rufus Wainwright. He went back to a more classic version on his 2007 DVD release "Rufus! Does Judy Live at the London Palladium".

Anonymous

Project Chanology: Anonymous' war on Scientology.
Anonymous is a movement that began with the picture and opinion forum website 4chan (this is an encyclopedia link, if you are interested in going to the actual website there is an external link to it at the bottom of the article).





Possibly fueled by the hilaristurbing Tom Cruise Scientology indoctrination video. Possibly not. Who knows.

Anyway, FOX did an "expose" on Anonymous.


Anonymous launched a video announcing the war on Scientology.

Operation Clambake author criticized the supposed DDoS attacks that Anonymous was launching (though he also pointed out that there is no proof of any such attacks). And Anonymous listened, and a massive peaceful global picketing of Scientology centres worldwide was accomplished in February. Then, in honour of the Ides of March, L.R.Hubbard's birthday, they did it again.
Disclaimer: Chickens! does not associate itself with the group Anonymous or any of its works. I don't think I am bored or angry enough. Therefore I feel justified in violating rules #1 and #2 (see Fight Club if you don't know what they are). Frankly, some of the things spouted by anonymous individuals are just awful (from racism to homophobia, it's disgusting and upsetting).















However, I do consider the movement to be cool in a scary way and probably inevitable. Also, I approve of the good they are trying to do, if not the boredom fueled anarchy (real or imagined by FOX). Also, I applaud their use of peaceful tactics in their protests against Scientology. Violence (real and virtual) will only trivialize what you are trying to do. You have to use the power of the Anonymous mob for good, not evil. Just remember what we've learned from Spiderman.



p.s. I forgot to give a shout out to Updog&Indy's post on Scientology. And Madman's post.

St.Patricks Day reprised

I refer you to my "St.Patrick's Day is Crowded" post of a year ago. Wow has it been a year already? Where has the time gone?

Additional Fun Facts to learn and know about St.Patrick:

A popular legend about St.Patrick is the one that tells of him driving all the snakes from Ireland. This is most likely a metaphor for driving pagan religions from Ireland, the serpent being a common symbol for such things at the time.

In fact, there have never been any snakes in Ireland, New Zealand, Iceland, Greenland, or Antarctica as well as many of the smaller islands. In addition, there are no known examples of snakes migrating to islands over water. And even if snakes would have slithered their way over to a northern island (like Ireland) during a time when it may have been connected to the mainland by a land bridge, the Ice Age would have made snake-sicles of them.

p.s. The above Irish beer panda is brought to you by the Scary Go Round shop. It's a so-so, but kinda funny sometimes, internet comic from the UK with cool images on their merchandise. Like several other comics that I have swiped images from, I found it because he did a guest comic for Dr.McNinja.

And I'm cute too!

This reminded me of one of my favorite Sesame Street characters. I also liked when Kermit did the news. Ah memories.

So tired...

"Quit changing the size of my hat David Blaine!"

You may remember these parodies from such posts as "A Response to "Yes I Watch Bad TV"". The ThoseLilRabbits guys made a third installment of their David Blaine Street Magic Parodies. "He sent me back to Dinosaur times!"



p.s. Click the image at the top for their official website.

He's so dreamy

So so dreamy.

Of course The Hour has had innumerable amazing interviews with everyone from Gerard Butler to Andrew Lloyd Webber but for a quick sampler also check out SJ and WF and the other side of the spectrum DC and JC. Crazy. McShanty points if you can guess who the initials stand for before you look at the interviews.

He also always does a funny skit at the beginning of each episode. Here's one with Dave Grohl. George has done several interviews with the Foos, maybe I'll post one later in a concert series post.

p.s. Feel free to comment and recommend your favorite interviews that George has done.

A Chickens! Educational Sidebar: NOT 10,000BC

Terror birds (Family: Phorusrhacidae): Giant, flightless carnivorous birds, which stood up to 10 feet high, lived in the Americas (mostly South America) during the Cenozoic. Anything even close to resembling it in the old world died out millions of years ago. It had been previously thought to have existed as recently as 10,000BC in South America but the most recent fossil has been re-dated to around 2 million years ago.

Woolly Mammoths and Mastodons: Mastodons were native to both Eurasia and North America but died out in Eurasia approximately three million years ago and were browsers not grazers like the mammoths. The woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius aka tundra mammoth) was found in North America, Northern Eurasia, and Siberia. They evolved from the steppe mammoth (M.trogontherii) which was 15ft at the shoulder and lived in Northern Eurasia but it was replaced by tundra mammoth about 250,000 years ago. Most mammoth species were no more than 10ft tall at the shoulder max (that's 2 ft taller than my ceiling) and had much smaller ears than modern elephants (closer to 30cm long compared to 6 feet). They began disappearing with the other Pleistocene megafauna about 12,000 years ago, with the last dwelling on islands in the Arctic until as late as 3,000 to 4,000 years ago. They did not (and could not) live in any warm locations such as Africa (besides the long fur, mammoths had a 8cm think layer of blubber beneath their thick skin), although there is some evidence that suggests that Egyptians may have known about them. Also, while the tradition of training elephants may go back some 4 000 years in the Hindu valley, there is no evidence to suggest the taming of elephants or the use of elephants for labour in any way before this time (let alone mammoths!).

Sabre-toothed cats: The most popular sabre-toothed cat was Smilodon (aka the sabre toothed tigre; no close relation to actual tigers). It stood about as tall as a modern lion (but was about twice as heavy, around 400kg) and lived in the Americas.
The lesser known Homotherium (aka scimitar cat) lived in Eurasia, Africa, and the Americas but only survived in the old world until about 30,000 years ago. It was the size of a modern lion and had relatively short upper canines compared to Smilodon. The giant sabre-toothed cat depicted in the movie was at least 2 to 3 times larger than anything that ever existed in real life. Just like this:

Animal Domestication - Horses: As early as 30,000 years ago we see depictions of horses and horse hunting in Paleolithic rock art. In 10,000BC horses were still being hunted for food and in the process of going extinct in the western hemisphere (though there is evidence to suggest that some of the North American horse species migrated to Siberia before this time). The horse may have been domesticated in central Asia as early as 4000BC (around the same time the wheel was invented. Yes, I know the "wheel" existed earlier than that but that was for pottery not transportation), but these may have been merely "tamed" wild horses; the earliest evidence of bit wear dates to around 3500-3000BC; chariots and other material evidence clearly indicate the horse was definitely fully domesticated by 2500 - 2000BC and in common employment throughout Eurasia. Anatomically modern horses (Equus caballus) are a product of selective breeding by humans.

Animal Domestication - Sheep: Sheep were one of the earliest agricultural animals to be domesticated (along with goats), perhaps as early as 9000 years ago (even as early as 10 to 11,000 according to some, soon after agriculture, but that is still only 9000BC at the earliest) in SW Asia. But woolly sheep weren't being selected for until several thousand years later.

Plant domestication: Occurred independently in several major centers around the world. It occurred in the Fertile Crescent region of the Middle East as early as 9000BC. Here we have grains and some legumes like wheat (einkorn and emmer), barley, pea, lentils. Around 8000BC, we see the domestication of Mesoamerican/South American plants like corn, squash, tomato, lima beans, white potato, sweet potato, chili peppers, peanuts, guava, and avocado. These species don't make their way to the old world until the 1500's. So, to sum up, while arguably a case could possibly be made for horticultural cultivation of some transitional domesticate crops in some regions of the Middle East as early as 10,000BC (though there really isn't any evidence for this), these crops would not have included New World domesticates like corn or chili peppers.

Metallurgy: While small amounts of soft natural metals like deposits of gold may have been cold hammered and/or used as decoration as early as the late Paleolithic period (40,000BC), the technology of metallurgy began around 3500 B.C. in the Bronze Age.

Monumental Architecture: The earliest Neolithic townsites date to around 8000BC, actual monumental architecture (except for megaliths) doesn't clearly show up for at least a few thousand years after that.

p.s. Visit some of the other blogs in my blogging community for more angry rantings about 10,000BC here and here.
p.p.s. Another rider to this. I guess the movie isn't so bad because my Mom didn't have to worry about anyone in it, everyone got theirs in the end. In my disapproval of the movie I failed to give extra points for its Mom-friendliness. Let that be a lesson to me. Also, in further defense of the movie, the only thing that actually didn't ever exist were the giant sabre-toothed tigers (of course even though the other things existed, they didn't exist in the same times or places and definitely not in the Old Wold in 10,000BC).

stuff that contradicts the other stuff

Brought to you by Captain McShanty's "Topic o' the Day" topical ointment and rejuvenating cream cleanser and by the Chickens! Procrastinate By Learning Foundation.

Question: What characterizes a religion? What I mean is, in a religion debate is it more important to discuss what can be determined as the "facts" of a religion ie. the widely accepted doctrine of a religion or do we consider the opinions of anyone who claims to be that religion regardless of how their beliefs coincide with the core ideas typically associated with that religion? Does any crazy whack job with crazy whack job ideas who calls himself a Christian or Muslim or Deist or whatever, have the right to call himself that because that's what he thinks he is? Who is another Christian or Muslim or Deist or whatever to say that that crazy guy is or is not what he says he is just because their belief in that religion is defined differently? I guess what I'm asking is are religions defined by their believers (even the crazy whacked out ones) or the other way around? Maybe, like most problems, it comes down to a misunderstanding of what things are or on judgments based on a misunderstanding, lack of information, or a stereotype (often all three), whether it be about religion, or a scientific concept, or a culture and not just about other peoples religions, cultures, etc. either, but one's own as well. The funny thing is people often get angrier with people of their own religion or group that they think are misrepresenting their group in some way, than they do with people of different religions or groups with opposing ideas. You know why? Cognitive dissonance (this one's for my Dad)!

A lesson in intra-religion intolerance and cognitive dissonance:

Let's say person "A" feels they are part of a group and so feels defined (at least partially) by that group. Now let's say that persona is damaged when another member (person "B") of that group commits an act that is not in line with what person "A" understands to be what he and his group represent (say by discriminating against an outsider, person "C", in some way). So there is cognitive dissonance in person "A"; "A" doesn't think he is a mean person who would discriminate against the innocent "C" just because "C" is different, but he saw that someone in his group, someone who is part of of a defining portion of his identity, would. So, to relieve the resulting dissonance does person "A" change his understanding of himself and his group to include person "B"? No, of course not! Person "A" strives to separate himself and his group-related persona from person "B" through disapproval, or anger, or hate. If anything, person "A" is more enraged by person "B" than person "C" was. What's more, the reverse is the same because "B" thinks "A" is a bad group member for not standing up for the group and for being too soft on outsiders like "C". So, there you have it - intra-religion intolerance explained by cognitive dissonance.

Wait! What about person "C" you ask? Well that all depends. "B"'s actions probably caused "C" to develop some unseemly stereotypes about "A" and "B"'s group, especially if this was his first interaction with one of them. If "A" works hard enough to separate himself from "B" then maybe "C" will recognize them as separate groups (like protestants vs. evangelicals or something), or maybe "C"s initial experience will create a stereotype towards everyone identified as that broad group (like all Christians). So, it all depends.

All pancakes aside though, this is all a rambling spurred by the various angry rants of my friends here and here. Like I said, I think much of the various religion or ideology controversies can be chalked up to lack of understanding. Just like religion vs. science and science vs. science and culture vs. culture controversies. So to remedy a small fragment of this and for a final kick at the religious can I have decided to pit various religions/anti-religions against eachother in an all out battle royale! BwaHaHaHaHa!

Round 1: Scientology vs. Operation Clambake
Notes: a simple and very specific religion vs. anti-that religion pairing. Of course I think Scientology guys are freaks but those Clambake people are pretty angry.

Round 2: Fundamentalist Christians vs themselves
Notes: There's no better adversary for fundamentalist anything than themselves.

Round 3: Roman Catholics vs. Evil Bible
Notes: Swears you can say because they are in the Bible: hell, damn, ass, whore, etc.

Round 4 (Half-time exhibition match): Buddhism vs. ummm I dunno this is a tough one...something old, monotheistic, and zany...how about Zoroastrianism
Notes: Neither of them showed up because the Buddhists were too busy being peaceful and trying to find enlightenment and the Zoroastrians believe you must be born to the religion and so they tend not to recruit. Oh well. Instead of our half-time exhibition match we bring you a cat trying to take down a deer:




Round 5: Any non-Evangelical religion...how about Hinduism or Jaimism or...NO! I know! The Mormons (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) vs. the Christian Countercult movement (aka Discernment ministries)
Notes: Check out the irony of using a religious tolerance website to explain about a religious movement based on intolerance of other religions (I love irony). Now something like the Christian Countercult movement is basically against almost everything so that one is a bit of a cop-out, I could've used it for anything. But Mormonism is one of the major no-no's according to discernment so it's a good match.

Round 6: Religion vs. Science/Non-religion - CANCELLED
Notes: I'm not going to pit science against religion because science is not religion and vice versa, ergo they shouldn't be compared in this context. That's that. I suppose in lieu I could do something like compare religions with a non-religion religion like Atheism (yes, what's known as "strong Atheism" or the belief in no god(s), is a belief system too because, while there is no way to prove there is a God/god(s), there is no way to prove that there isn't a God/god(s) either) but, I could've compared this to anything too, which was too easy, easier than countercult even, so I won't bother. I suppose we could also go with Satanism against any of the Christian-y religious factions, although apparently only one branch of Satanism is actually defined as the "Anti-Christian". Interestingly, for Satanism I used the Wikipedia article for the link because it had an illuminating yet brief description (I did not find this for most other religions on there, which tended to be long-winded and baffling). But I digress.

And the winner is...[drumroll]... the Christian fundamentalists who defeated the Christian fundamentalists with a clear KO. Wow! What an upset!

p.s. Obviously any literature promoting a religion (or defaming one for that matter) will be biased and must be taken with a grain of salt. However, I like these two websites for "unbiased" info on basically everything:
Religious tolerance
Religion Facts

Best Prank Ever

This is from an improv group called "Improv Everywhere" whose motto is "we cause scenes". What an awesome sociological experiment! A group of over 200 people froze in place in Grand Central Station for 5 minutes. See the back story here.



This was so popular that other groups have been staging their own copycat stunts in multiple countries around the world. Here is one from London:

Super Cow!

Ah nature! It's is so beautiful and mysterious! I like my evolution medium-rare please.
Meet the Super Cow


Even National Geographic has a MySpace page! There is a sweet video on there of an octopus eating a shark! And there's one about how Neanderthals may have made glue (the actors remind me of Klingons).

Sunshine, lollipops, and rainbows

Sunshine Village ski resort in Banff. Sweet!
Update: Perfect weather, perfect snow. I'd go back in a heartbeat!

Gorgeous tiny chicken machine show

I thought I'd take a page from Jeremy's book and show a hilarious Japan inspired internet comedy talk show parody thing. It has been described as "a cross between David Letterman, Pee-Wee Herman, Steve Irwin, Emeril, and a Japanese schoolgirl on meth." No kidding! Plus it's about chickens...kind of. The difference here is that they are doing it on purpose as opposed to being a serious thing that ends up being hilarious because of wacky exuberance combined with cultural and linguistic differences. I'm not sure which is funnier. I wonder which is more politically incorrect? In this you're laughing with them not at them, but they are laughing at someone so we are laughing at someone by association. Hmmm, I guess it's like anything. It's easier to laugh at jokes about things that are serious but intrinsically funny for whatever reason than actually laughing at the thing itself because the original usually has other emotions and meanings wrapped up with it. Adding a layer in between softens the blow. Like political comedy or social satirists for example. This hour has 22 minutes or The Daily Show make fun of some social, religious, or political folly which, though hilarious and ironic, is often also tragic or upsetting or a chilling vision of human ineptitude placed in power and run amok. It's funny because it is supposed to be funny, not funny because if we didn't laugh we'd cry (although I do love irony). Or take people getting hurt. You may think it is funny when you see someone get hurt but there is little bit of you that remembers, "oh wait that guy got hurt! I hope those burns don't prevent him from having children! I hope his family will be able to support itself while he's in recovery! I hope that dog doesn't have to be put down!" and so on. But, what if I told you about the moron who got bit in the crotch by a pack of toy poodles because he accidentally spilled hot bacon grease down his pants? Hilarious! And it is far enough removed from the actual people that it's OK to laugh at their pain. Well anyway, enough of my musings.

Watch the first episode:


p.s. There is an official website of the GTCM show but the myspace page is funnier and has all the shows on it (I think the second episode is actually funnier than this one). It's by a comedy group called Mediocre Films which has quite a few hilarious shorts. Also it's linked to a movement called Group 101, which is apparently the largest short film content generator in the world. Go figure.
p.p.s. Rick Pope aka. Lick Poop also has a myspace page and so does the Unicow.

Monster Truck Week Part 5: Monster Truck Freestyle

Everyone secretly hopes there will be some crazy accident but it never happens and when it does it's never caught on tape. But this time it did and it was! Ha!

How do they get the truck back upright you ask? Here's how:

Also, Jurassic Attack blew a tire! Oh, and there was some other less tragic stuff that happened too.

This wasn't the last event of the show. The demolition derby was after this but the video is too big. It was fun, it's important to end an event like this with a destructive free-for-all. Gives the audience a sense of closure. Anyway, thus ends Monster Truck Week. I know it was only 5 days but I don't get my Tim Hortons on weekends either (so nobody wins I guess).

Monster Truck Week Part 4: Extreme Lawnmower Racing

Apparently there has been organized lawn mower racing in the U.S. and in England for more than 30 years, with the annual Fourth of July Race in Twelve Mile, Indiana and 12 hour lawn mower race in Wisborough Green, England the oldest known events. Who knew? The first rule of lawnmower racing is take off the blades (no not "you don't talk about lawnmower racing"). Events are open to all self-propelled rotary or reel style riding lawn mowers. The mower must originally have been designed and sold commercially to mow lawns and it must remain suitable for lawn cutting (apart from the removal of the blades). After that, the degree of modification of the lawnmower decides what racing class you are in. I'm pretty sure this was an anything goes kind of race but apparently there are 4 different classes of lawnmower race:

Stock Class - As delivered from the factory.
IMOW Class - (Int'l Mowers Of Weeds) Front engine, highly regulated.
Prepared Class - Prepared (modified) drive train, engine, etc.
FX Class - (Factory Experimental) Major modifications allowed.

It seems that lawnmower racers never race for money either, just trophies, bragging rights, etc. You might be inclined to chalk this all up in the "guys are stupid" category, but it just looks like so much fun that I can see why they do it. It's just like go-carts but sillier.
p.s. I remember being allowed to mow the lawn on the riding mower when I was little and how much fun that was. Good times. Why not turn it into a race?

Monster Truck Week Part 3: Motocross

There were races and freestyle jumping. There were 2 races of 8 and then one of 10 or 12 (I don't remember) to determine the ultimate winner. The last one was pretty crowded so it was the most exciting. The 1st place guy was the pretty clear victor, he even fell down and was able to get up and still win. The other places were a little closer, I was routing for the 14 year old kid but he didn't do very well. I have a video of a part of the race but it won't load. I'll keep trying but you may have to be contented with the freestyle jumping, which was pretty spectacular. The one guy was even sick and he still did his thing. In this part the announcer was particularly entertaining, he kept saying "No man! No! You can't do that! You're crazy!" and so forth. Good times. It kinda reminds me of the Saturday Night Live skits of "The How Do You Say? Ah Yes, Show".

Monster Truck Week Part 2: Tough Truck Races

The second clip for Monster truck week on Chickens! is from the tough truck races. There were a bunch of trucks and they raced around the track one at a time and the fastest time won. The clip doesn't show the winning truck but I think he came in second. You get the picture anyway.

Monster Truck Week Part 1: Monster Truck Drag Racing

On Sunday! Sunday! Sunday! Get ready for Mayhem! Mayhem! Mayhem! It's Monster truck week on Chickens! We'll start off with Monster Truck Drag Racing! Woo Hoo! There were three series of races that went on throughout the show. There is a clip from each series, the last one being the final race to determine the winner. There are other trucks (Big Cactus Crusher and The General Lee) but they weren't as good. Apparently the winner was a bit of an upset. You go girl!

Maniac vs. Bear Foot


Bear Foot vs. Jurassic Attack


Maniac vs. Jurassic Attack

Here is a picture of a spirochete

"This is my angry face!" ______________"I found an arrowhead"
If you listen to both of the clips below you'll get classics like "I'm a brick" and "I ated the purple berries" as well as "Here is a picture of a spirochete", "When I grow up I'm going to bovine University", "Me fail English? That's unpossible.", and "I'm learn-ding". Good times, but the second one doesn't have video.

Auto Trader Motorsports Spectacular!

You pay for the whole seat...but you'll only need the edge! Not just a stereotypical nonsense saying typically associated with car-themed destructive events or various other wholesome activities involving beer and idiots hurting themselves for no reason other than the adrenalin rush, it is also the title of the second album from "Animal Alpha" a genre defying Norwegian metal/rock band. Ah Google, where would my blog be without you? I can't say I like them very much but from what I understand they take some getting used to. Anyway, notes on the event in question to follow later.