So, this is what I'm thinking...» Brian Hoover

We are hopeless at charades

Brian — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 07:52:51 +0000

We had an impromptu session 0f charades during dinner the other night, in response to the question of what we could do for family home evening the next time it rolled around. I’m surprised that we haven’t actually done charades in our family, but also surprised that the kids didn’t know what it was at all. I can’t believe that they hadn’t done it at school before. So, to prepare them for our family night we explained some of the rules of charades. They got the idea that you have to act out something without using words. We tried to make it as easy as possible by choosing some examples of movies we own or they had recently seen, such as Edward Scissorhands and The Karate Kid. Jett said he wanted a go and decided that his movie was 4 words. He made many gyrations and actions and it turns out that his movie was “Helicopter Running Robot Dog”. It must be the new Pixar movie or something. Ashton tried “Labyrinth” by walking around in random directions and searching which was a good try but a very difficult one.

I decided to test Suzanne, and there was also the off chance that the kids would get it too. I wanted to do Michael Jackson.

I figured the easiest way to convey “Michael Jackson” was to invoke his best and most well loved dance routine from Thriller.

Look, I’m not Michael Jackson. I realise this. I a fat, balding, middle aged white guy with little to no coordination or artistic credibility. But I did a pretty damned good Zombie Dance from the Thriller music video, including most if not all of the most easily identifiable dance steps. But could Suzanne get it? She just pointed and laughed and started thinking up random words and names which had absolutely nothing to do with thriller or Michael Jackson. The kids could be forgiven because they weren’t around in the 80s or 90s, but surely Suzanne knew what she was looking at.

Eventually, with a bit of humming and whistling, it was Ashton who finally got it. I really don’t know what was going on in Suzanne’s head. Heaven help us in our next FHE.

Will we be ruined by that which we love, or that which we hate?

Brian — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 01:51:24 +0000

An interesting web comic/graphic I found on the tubes. I can see that that there’s a lot of truth in this. In today’s society, we do indeed have in infinite appetite for distractions which lead us away from what is really important in our lives and I’m somewhat guilty myself. Can these distractions ruin a person? You betcha.

Galactica: Sabotage

Brian — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 08:38:09 +0000

This is awesome:

If you don’t get why, then watch it side by side with the original Beastie Boys music video for “Sabotage”:

Aliens movie rap

Brian — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 04:49:43 +0000

Quite a funny ditty. Well done.

Abbey Road album cover

Brian — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 02:02:21 +0000

OK, so yesterday was the 40th anniversary of the release of the Abbey Road album. I’m not a Beatles fan, never have been, but I guess this album is significant in being the last album released by the Beatles. It’s also significant because of the cover. It’s somehow iconic and has been copied and parodied on at least a hundred albums I could find with some quick google-fu. It’s one of the most popular album covers to immitate along with The Velvet Underground and The Who Live at Leeds. Apparently it took only ten minutes to put together. Not a bad return for minimal effort, but that’s how it usually works, huh. The best photos just seem to happen. Here are a couple of my favourite immitations.

Imagine there’s no heaven

Brian — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 01:56:57 +0000

So Triple J had another one of their Hottest 100 of all time countdowns last week. I’m not all that keen on these “All time” themes. Triple J normally have a Hottest 100 for song released during the previous year but a couple times they’ve had an All Time countdown. Which is cool, because they don’t overdo it. Suzanne’s favourite radio station often has X Top Y songs, where Y is some awful theme, and X is in the hundreds or even thousands. They recently had a top “2400 love songs” countdown or somesuch and it went for a week. Good grief.

Anyhow, it turns out I already have 92 of these songs on my iPod, so it’s an easy task to make a playlist. I’m missing some. There’s a few I’ll admit I have never heard of and a few I wish I had. But there’s one song that will never make it’s way onto any iPod I own, ever. That song is John Lennon’s “Imagine”.

Why is this song such an abomination in my eyes (or ears)? Take a look at the lyrics to find out why:

Imagine there’s no heaven
It’s easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky

Are you kidding me? I can’t imagine there being no heaven, and no loving God dwelling there awaiting our return. Well, yeah, I can imagine it but the world then becomes a pretty sucky place.

In the first “bridge”, I think you call it, he pretty much declares greed and hedonism is a pretty good idea. Do your own thing, don’t worry about tomorrow:

Imagine all the people
Living for today

Lennon goes on to attack nationalism and religion in the next verse:

Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too

The next bridge is OK, I guess. All the world living in peace isn’t all that bad. This line dilutes the rest of this insidious, repugnant song.

The rest of the song is about having no possessions, a new world order and one world government. I’ll leave it to the reader to research why abolition of property (or abolition of ownership), and socialistic/communistic ideas are bad. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for nothing to kill and die for. I’m all for no hunger and a brotherhood sharing all the world in peace. But there is no earthly power which can govern the entire world correctly.

Regurgitator

Brian — Thu, 07 May 2009 06:16:25 +0000

I’m a bit surprised to learn that my top 25 most played tracks on my iPod consists mostly of Regurgitator. I’ve been hunting down and collecting all the Regurgitator CD singles I can find and ripping them off to MP3. The CD singles have tracks which I haven’t been able to find elsewhere, and some of them are pretty damned good. But mostly I’ve been grooving on Jingles, apparently with ! (The Song Formerly Known As) played 99 times.

The list:

! (The song formerly known as) by Regurgitator, Album: Jingles
Walk This Way (Boom Boom Booty Remix) by Aerosmith
Happiness by Regurgitator, Album: Jingles

Blubber Boy by Regurgitator, Album: Jingles
Fat Cop by Regurgitator, Album: Jingles
Crush The Losers by Regurgitator, Album: Jingles
Better Than by John Butler Trio, Album: 2007 Triple J Hottest 100
Everyday Formula by Regurgitator, Album: Jingles
#1 Crush by Garbage, Album: Singles
Cosmic Girl by Jamiroquai, Album: High Times
Just Ace by Grinspoon, Album: Just Ace
Confusion by New Order, Album: Blade Soundtrack
Virtual Insanity by Jamiroquai, Album: High Times
Straight Lines by silverchair, Album: 2007 Triple J Hottest 100
Rip It Up by 28 Days, Album: Rip It Up
How Soon Is Now? by The Smiths, Album: 1989 Triple J Hottest 100
Superstraight by Regurgitator, Album: Jingles
Black Bugs by Regurgitator, Album: Jingles
1979 by Smashing Pumpkins, Album: Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
A Small Victory by Faith No More, Album: Who Cares a Lot?
Lotion by Greens Keepers, Album: 2004 Triple J Hottest 100
Freshmint! by Regurgitator, Album: …art

Slim Dusty dies

Brian — Fri, 19 Sep 2003 07:23:00 +0000

Slim Dusty died today. In 1958, Slim received Australia’s first Gold Record for a song called A Pub With No Beer, which he recorded in 1957. He was the first Australian to have an international hit record and the first singer in the world to have his voice beamed to earth from space.

Thirty-three years later he released his 50th record, The Golden Anniversary Album, which went multi-platinum in Australia.

In June this year, Dusty was recording his 106th album and at the time his management denied he was battling cancer.