The LyricWiki Quiz

It's kinda like "Name That Tune", but without the music. Use LyricWiki.com to identify the song these lyrics belong to.

1. You get the gray skies outta my way,
You make the sun shine brighter than Doris Day.

2. They put up my picture with silence
'cause my identity by itself causes violence

3. It seems my life is through
and I'm so doggone blue

4. I blew up your body
But you blew my mind

5. I was born a unicorn

6. We're sorry to inform you
Tony Orlando has been postponed

7. Skeedle-a-booka-diki biki skeedly beeka gookity woop!

8. The bulgin' eyes and the twisted mouth
Scent of magnolias sweet and fresh
Then the sudden smell of burnin' flesh

9. Die Fahrbahn ist ein graues Band
Weisse Streifen, gruener Rand

10. All the leaves are off of the oak and
All the sheep have followed the spoken
Word I'm coming, Constantinople
Here I come

11. watch out, touch monkeys
all that blood
they're gonna swallow you whole

12. Did you feel like Jesus?
Did you realize that you were
A champion in their eyes?

13. Be a loyal plastic robot
For a world that doesn't care

14. Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeahyeahyeahyeah!
Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeahyeahyeahyeah!

15. One two three four five six

(I tried to provide a link to LyricWiki but I'm still learning all these fancey-schmancey blog tools. All I saw in the place of its code after my original post was a huge blank space. So, in lieu of that space, enjoy these words and the artwork for one of my favorite records this year. No, no; at the top of the page.)

And Now For Something Completely Different

I'll be posting a Lyric-Wiki quiz later today or tomorrow. In the meantime, if you haven't registered to vote yet, here's a quick and easy way to do so. I'm not gonna get all preachy and tell you who to vote for, why you should, etc etc. If you want that, I can recommend some really slanted films to do that for you. Rather, I'll provide you with this fancey-schmancey widget to make it that much easier.







There's also this really neat-o registration count, which shows you how many people have registered to vote from your site. If it wants to work, it should go right here:



If anyone wants the code to embed this in their site as well, just ask.

When I was growing up in Georgia, Van Halen's "1984" used to spin constantly on my first record player. (Actually, I'm sure that was its' name: the Fisher-Price My First Record Player.)

I was at least 5 or 6 years old when 1984 found its way into our house. My parents wouldn't let me listen to my brother's other record: Twisted Sister's Stay Hungry. So, it was either VH or The Chipmunks Greatest Hits (this was during their 80's revival, so they sang songs like Elvis Costello's "Pump It Up" instead of "Witch Doctor"). I chose both, but oddly, it was the Chipmunks that stayed in my record collection the longest. Still, I had some good times listening to 1984.

Like the time my older brother and I argued over the words to the title track. At that time, I was only interested in two cuts off the album: "Panama" and "Jump". The argument was pure older/younger brother material. I argued that my words WERE the words to the song. He argued that it didn't have any words. He was right; still, I thought my words were a pretty good fit. (Don't ask me to remember them all; though I do remember shouting "Nineteen-EIGHTYFOUR!" a lot.)

Later, I would discover "Hot For Teacher". Around this time, I also found out how to change the speed on a record from 33 to 45 and vice versa. I still can't figure out why listening to that opening guitar solo on 45 RPM was so hilarious, but to me it was.

When I was 9 years old, going on 10, we moved to our first house in Norfolk. My Fisher-Price record player was still working. My brother was moving on from Van Halen to hardcore punk, Metallica, and the Dead Kennedys. I was still listening to 1984 and the Chipmunks. My younger brother, David, and I shared a room and a two-tiered bunkbed. Around this time, we had also gotten cable. MTV was still airing videos and so I got my first glimpse of DLR in action. Oh, sure - I had the photo grabs on the Panama single of him flying tethered through the air in his spandex pants, giant sunglasses, and ghettoblaster, but nothing could prepare me for seeing the man in motion. Of course now that I'm older, I know where he got all that extra energy from (rhymes with "propane"). Still, it didn't stop me from climbing atop my bunkbed and launching myself to the floor with every "Might as well jump"...

Years went by. I found They Might Be Giants, then Nirvana, and with my teenage years came the rejection of all that dorky, younger James found enjoyable. That also included Van Halen.

And now, here in 2008 I find myself stealing..err...downloading...err "previewing" Van Halen's 1984 so that I can have it in my collection again.

Boolzie-boolzie-bop!

And Then This Happened...

Is it just me or do those wine bottles coming out of the chocolates make it look like some sort of misshapen snail?

Shameless Plug

Oh, you weren't aware that ODU has a radio station? Don't feel bad; it seems like this comes as a surprise to most of our students. I host a show every Friday 3 to 7 PM. (See, I told you this was a shameless plug!) To get an idea of what you've been missing, here's the setlist from last week's show:

OFF THE RECORD 02-01-08

Vampire Weekend - A-Punk
Sons & Daughters - Gilt Complex
Beck - Minus
Brunettes - Brunettes Against Bubblegum Youth
AM Syndicate - My Friend The Sleepwalker AKA The Cowbell Song
Faunts - meno mony falls
Saviours - Into Abaddon
Black Mountain - Stormy High
Ungdomskulen - Ordinary Son
Hot Chip - Out at the Pictures
Kenna - Loose Wires / Blink Radio (w/ Malcolm Gladwell)
Isotope - Crunch Cake
Meat Puppets - Ice
Electric Wizard - Raptus
Rafter - Cuddling Raccoons

4:20 Long Song Set - 1 VERY long song, played as close to 4:20 as possible
Glenn Branca - Symphony No. 8, 2nd Mvmt

(Fire Drill) - No, a REAL fire drill like in elementary school days, courtesy of ODU

They Might Be Giants - Havalina
Joy Zipper - Wave of Mutilation
Fashion Victims - Hey (Double Dragon Redux)
Daft Punk - Human After All/Rock N Roll
Ghostland Observatory - Dancing On My Grave (Let There Be Vinyl Mix)
Tilt - Arkade Funk
Mark Lanegan - Man In The Long Black Coat
The Hold Steady - Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window?
Sonic Youth - I'm Not There
Shortstack - Pretty Saro
Beck - Devil Got My Woman
Cat Power - I Lost Someone

Super-Egotistical Set Piece
James White & The Blacks - Contort Yourself (August Darnell Remix)
James Chadwick - The Wooden Floor
James Figurine - 55566688833 (The Field Remix)
Thurston Moore - Honest James
The Whitsundays - Sorry James
M.I.A. - Jimmy

The Velvet Underground - I'm Sticking With You
Kimya Dawson - Tire Swing
" " - Tree Hugger
Magnetic Fields - California Girls
Lightspeed Champion - Everyone I Know Is Listening To Crunk
Jens Lekman - Kanske Ar Jag Kar I Dig
Daedelus - Fairweather Friend
Beck - American Wasteland
Bonde Do Role - Office Boy (CSS Remix)
Gnarls Barkley - Run (I checked; this was a WODU & possible WORLD premiere - See, it pays to listen to college radio sometimes)
Lou Donaldson - Who's Makin' Love (To Your Old Lady?)


End of shameless plug.


Listen:
http://www.woduradio.com/listen.html (Requires a decent copy of Windows Media Player or plug URL into iTunes.)