The Newfangled Four - A Spoonful of Sugar (parody) [from Mary Poppins]

I  found this the other day on YouTube while looking up prune videos.  Not sure why it would come up there, but I am glad it did.  

This video resonated in me for multiple reasons: 1. I have had multiple family members over the years who have participated in singing groups.  My first trip on an airplane was because my Mom's Sweet Adeline's group was going to sing in Washington D.C. and families were allowed to come with.  Both my sisters have been in Sweet Adeline's as well. I also have several family members who have been in Barber Shop Quartets.  2) I love parodies, write them myself, and love to see them performed.  3) Since the time my youngest daughter was in 4th grade started performing in speech contests, my wife and I have been volunteer judges in them. This performance is a send-up of judging rubrics, especially for judging barber shop quartets, but I found it matched up to speech judging in a most delightful way.

 

Extra Bonus Video: Judges by The Fabulous Bentley Brothers from Jelly Telly which was Phil Vischer's follow up to Veggie Tales.  And, yes the Bentley Brothers are Rhett & Link.  

U is for UHF

Hello and welcome back to A Month at the Movies,  my contribution to the A to Z challenge for 2023.

This year I am copying from a myriad of other A to Z  challengers by reprinting the same synopsis about my theme with every letter.  You can skip over this part if you want to.  

I love movies and have decided to share with you a movie each day that I have enjoyed to one degree or another.  With each entry, I'll give a brief synopsis of the film, share a positive and negative review from Rotten Tomatoes ( a website, I didn't use much at all until preparing for the challenge), discuss its resiliency (the theme of the A to Z challenge this year), and other tidbits like whether the film may appear in my top 100 film list, which I have been revamping this year. I think that's enough in the way of introduction, considering you'll be reading it (hopefully) 5  more times this month.

Film: UHF (1989) 

Director: Jay Levey

Weird Al's Apartment in UHF
By Mountain Mike Johans…, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=47260199

I love parodies. I grew up listening to one of the greatest parodists of all time, Allan Sherman.  My Mom and Dad would send out a Christmas Card each year where they would write our family's annual exploits to the tune of a Christmas carol.  I myself have written a number of parodies and have posted many in my blog. 

I even wrote a parody last Saturday to publicize my S is for Silverado post and put it on my Facebook page.

 (Sung to the tune of Desperado by The Eagles) 

Silverado, you are in my top eleven.

You star two great Kevin’s 

Plus one Glenn, and one Glover 

You’re a western

 But so much more than your genre 

Which is why I’m so fond a 

 This joy I’ve discovered.  

But with no disrespect to Alan Sherman, my parents, or myself, my favorite parodist is Weird Al Yankovic.

When Weird Al first started out he would send his songs to Dr. Demento who would play them on his syndicated radio program.  My favorite of which, and my all-time favorite Weird Al Song, is It's Still Billy Joel to Me, performed to the tune of It's Still Rock and Roll to Me by (Wait for it ....) Billy Joel.

 

I mean Weird Al had the audacity to rip Billy Joel's music while performing Billy Joel's music. I was impressed. In 1989, Weird Al set his sights on television and the movies at the same time by starring in and co-writing UHF a movie about a t.v. channel.  

At the time most network television was broadcast on VHF (Very High Frequency) and most independent stations were broadcast on UHF (Ultra High Frequency).  While some might argue about the quality of these frequencies.  The quality of the programming was generally regarded as infinitely better on VHF. 

 Positive Tomato - The individual parts may be greater than the sum of the whole, but man, are those parts funny. Austin Trunick - Under The Radar

Negative Tomato - This is the dreariest comedy in many a month, a depressing slog through recycled comic formulas. Roger Ebert - Chicago Sun-Times 

If I were to give UHF a 6 or less-word film review it would be: Walter Mitty meets SCTV. The film is essentially a bunch of parodies with a plot sandwiched in between them.  The movie begins with a pretty good Raiders parody.

Resiliency: Michael Richards (Kramer from Seinfeld) is the best part of this movie.  He plays Stanley Spadowski who shows resiliency after being fired from the best t.v. station in town where he worked as a janitor and ended up getting hired as a janitor at the station Yankovic manages to host a wildly successful children's t.v. program. 

Top 100: This movie straddles the fence between so dumb it's funny and so dumb it's dumb. It has many fine moments, but it is nowhere near making my top 100.

A to Z Connection: This is the 2nd film in the challenge about television (Quiz Show). 

Next Time: VHF (Very High Fears)

Six Word Saturday - Lyrics By Dave

Yes it's Six Word Saturday again and my top 25 label celebration is continuing.

These are not my six words: LABEL # 20 (7 way tie) Lyrics by Dave.

I have been writing songs for most of my life. I can carry a tune, but only in a bucket. As you know, buckets are hard to come by in this economy. Often when I sing, the only one who recognizes the tune, is me. This can be difficult, since I also wrote the music.

I occasionally write parodies so anyone I can con into listening will at least recognize the tune. I was trying to think of what parody lyrics to share in this post, when I saw this video on a friend's facebook page.

That video reminded me of today's six words:

Some people say I Monkey around.

I love the Monkees, they and the Beatles more or less created the music video along with the folks at School House Rock. Last Train to Clarksville is one of my favorite Monkee's songs. Let's face it any Monkee's song I happen to be listening to, has the tendency to be my favorite. My all time favorite has got be, I'm a believer. So sometime in 1987 while singing it to the top of my lungs alone in my van I came up with these alternate lyrics (All but the last verse those I made up as I typed. Hey it's a gift. But after you read it, you might want to send the gift back.) ...

I thought God was only true for little ones
Like Santa Claus, you find He isn't real
But God was out to save me, I just couldn't see
When I was at lowest, He died for me

That's when I felt his grace (bomp Ba da da da)
Now I'm a believer (bomp ba da da da)
And there's now a place (bomp ba da da da)
In Heaven that's mine
And He's my Lord (Ohohohohohhhh)
Now I'm a believer
Now I'm a receiver
And I'm glorifyin!
(Bomp Ba da da da Bomp ba da da da)

I could never think of a second verse
I racked my head
I tried and tried and tried
Then a few years later
I heard a Christian version
And my chance for CCM* fame died

But I still feel His grace (bomp ba da da da)
I'm still a believer. (bomp ba da da da) )
There's still a place (bomp ba da da da)
in Heaven that's mine
He's still God. (Ohohohohohhhh)
I'm still a believer
still a receiver
And still glorifyin!
(Bomp ba da da da bomp ba da da da da bomp ba da da da daaaaaaaa)

* CCM = Contemporary Christian Music

So that's all we have for Dave's top 40 today. I'll keep writing em down and you keep your feet on the ground, and keep reaching for the stars. (Sorry, had to be said.) For more Six Word Saturday, head on over to show my face dot com.

Next Time: All good trips must come to an end.

Song Parodies

If you haven't figured it out already I am unusual. A former seminary professor described me recently as marching to a different drummer. That's putting it mildly. That's why I am using this household hints/time saving carnival to tell you why I like song parodies. But bear with me before you move on to the next post, I do have a WFMW method to my madness.

It all started with my upbringing. The music I remember most vividly listening to when I was a child was Allen Sherman, most famous for his song Camp Grenada (Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah) also known as a Letter from Camp. My siblings and I had all of his songs memorized. Sherman would take simple songs like On Top of Old Smokey and put a bizarre twist on:

On Top of Old Smokey
All covered with hair
Of course I'm referring
To Smokey the Bear

Down by the Riverside became Don't Buy the Liverwurst and there were so many like that.

My Mom and Dad celebrate the holidays by writing their Christmas Letter to the tune of popular Christmas Carols. Thus for Christmas 1974, the year when their final child, my sister, was born their friends and family were treated to this reworking of Hark The Herald, Angels Sing

January 27
We were 6 and then were 7
On that day in early morn
Bonnie Eileen, at last was born

She is Kathy's pride and joy
'Specially because she's not a boy.

As I continued to grow I began to shift from Allen Sherman to a weirder Al, that being Mr. Yankovic. Being a big fan of Billy Joel, I liked how Yankovic skewered him in "It's still Billy Joel to me." ...

Bought a couple of his record albums and they're starting to sound the same
It might be Elvis and it might be the blues
It might sound like the B-52's
But it's all Billy Joel to me.

Song Parodies work for me first because I am a man with a passion for song writing who can't carry a tune, with or without a bucket. So my melodies do not sound, when I sing them, like they sound in my head. If I write a straight song, I need to find someone to write music for my lyrics. If I write a parody at least the public knows what it's supposed to sound like.

Parodies, don't have to be funny. I have written touching songs like the time one of the girls the college group moved away. I wrote a farewell to the tune of Hakuna Matata called Hakuna Renatta. Her name is Audrey, so it didn't work that well. Her name was Renatta, I'm just kidding about Audrey.

I got to thinking about song parodies recently when one of the contributors here, dropped out of blogging last week. See my post Danger:Blogging for further details. Instantly the first stanza and chorus of a song to the tune of the Everly Brothers' "Bye Bye Love" hopped into my mind. Now this person came back to blogging less than a week after she left, ruining my second verse and chorus. Real life gets so much in the way of the creative process. But I went back to the drawing board and I present in homage to the fine upstanding mother of 5 pirates and a princess:

Bye Bye Blogs

She was a blogger

A virtual friend

'Til her days of blogging

came to an end

Her blog was helpful

And filled with mirth

But her 6 children

It was not worth

So she said

Bye bye blog

Hello family

Do you remember me?

I used to blog about you

Bye bye blog

I'm sad we had to part

You're not my children's heart

I'm not called to care for you

Your not the love that's true

'Twas not a fortnight

Less than a week

Her blog came back

With a few tweaks

Blogs can be useful

When in their place

She'll find the balance

with our Lord's  grace

So she said hello blogs

You're not my idol now

Won't make you a golden cow

I know what matters most

Hello blogs

My blog's not what I am

If it was, it would all be spam

I won't forget my post

Or I'd be a bad host

Song parodies work for me, to find out what works for normal people, go to We are that Family and check out Works For Me Wednesday.

Next Time: The Kids Bike