This Leslie character has no shame. I like it. Let me go slip into my spandex for the day. Watch out for my no-ass and huge gut. I hope Lizzo invites Ms Hall to collaborate soon! Maybe do a remix of this? That would kick ass.
The video is not embedable so watch it on youtube proper.
You need this if you are old enough to remember Fraggle Rock. Either way it’s great. PLUS it’s METAL! YEAH!
We’ve been following Leo Moracchioli and his Frog Leap Studios YouTube Channel for years now. This guy is the best. We play a few tracks on our station. This is his latest effort.
The first time I ever heard of ball of twine was in a song by Weird Al Yankovic. It appears on his soundtrack album for the movie UHF. The film bombed at the box office, has since become a cult classic.
I always assumed it was a fictional story. I had no idea that the ball of twine was a real thing that anyone can see for themselves. It’s really located in Minnesota. The name of city is Darwin, which seems ironically appropriate.
Francis A. Johnson began constructing a ball out of leftover twine from his family’s farm when he was 45 years old. A reporter from the Minneapolis Tribune asked why it had gotten so large.
Johnson replied, “My mother taught me not to waste anything.”
Francis was a thrifty man, but he was also a collector. He once had 7,000 pencils. The ball of twine was just one of his many, though it became the most important.
Francis pulled in leftover twine from nearby farms, square-knotted the pieces, and added them to the enormous sphere in his yard. To spin the ball and maintain the roundness, he used a railroad jack. For a while he hung the ball from a tree.
From 1950 until 1979, Francis wrapped his twine ball strand by strand. He only stopped because he developed emphysema. He then died in 1989. His family believes that because he didn’t smoke, his ailment was caused by twine ball dust.
After his passing in 1989, the ball was trucked into Darwin’s downtown, where it is still located today. Now it’s a major tourist attraction. The nearly two-ton twine ball averages 150 visitors a day during the summer months. It now lives inside a glass-walled gazebo in a museum. If you ask nicely, they’ll unlock the gazebo to let you get within sniffing distance of Francis’s creation.
Maybe it’s time to plan a trip! It’s not that far from the Twin Cities Metro.
source: RoadsideAmerica
If you heard this track on FunHouse Radio, it was off the LP Trapped In The Body Of A White Girl. I have a copy of the 1987 release in my vinyl collection. It was her second full length album. The track had been previously released as single in 1983. The song was featured in the movie Earth Girls Are Easy in 1988.
I remember Julie Brown most for her music, valley girl character and her Madonna parodies. Other may remember that her music was featured on The Dr Demento Show.
She’s done more than comedy music.
Checking out her Wikipedia reveals that she has had a surprisingly storied career in show business. She’s been in movies like Attack of the 5 Ft. 2 In. Women. She’s appeared in TV Shows like The Middle & Happy Days, She’s even voiced cartoon characters for Animaniacs!
Today is American Redneck Day. Y’all ready to get busy? I’m crazy therefore this was the first song that came to mind for the occasion.
Sir Mix-A-Lot had an album and singles out on the scene long before “Baby Got Back”. His album Swass came out in 1988 on the strength of their single “Posse on Broadway” which was not a a comedy track like this one. I had the album on cassette.
“Square Dance Rap” was actually released as a single. I first heard the song on the radio but was a different mix. The version that appeared on the album had some editing done to it that makes it a little more goofy.
My fifth grade teacher managed to get our class to square dance back in 1985. Square dancing was really a thing in American culture, even as recently as the 1980s. The photo above was found on this great article about the square dancing fad. It’s from 1986 and shows an Ohio square dance club enjoying one of their twice monthly dances.
Have you ever learned to Square Dance? Let us know in the comments.
-Wacky Alex
Knock-Off “Muppets” go metal to tell the world about their arithmetic angst. You know it’s frustrating when you can only count to four (unless you are a punk-rock drummer). The band called Psychostick made this hilarious parody of of “Bodies” by Drowning Pool. Rock on!
Did you love or hate this? Something in between? Let us know in the comments.
-Wacky Alex
Today is National Eat Your Vegetables Day. Don’t let us down! I just had some carrots. Let Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention inspire you to eat a more healthy diet while they feed your head.
Zappa explained the meaning behind the song in Absolutely Free: The Complete Libretto:
“The best clue to this song might lie in the fact that people who are inactive in a society … people who do not live up to their responsibilities are vegetables. I feel that these people, even if they are inactive, apathetic or unconcerned at this point, can be motivated toward a more useful sort of existence. I believe that if you call any vegetable it will respond to you.”
So go eat a salad or prepare a veggie plate. Something. JEEZ.
-Wacky Alex
Hooray!! It’s National Falafel Day! Nearly every Turkish restaurant (outside of Türkiye) offers this delicious fried chic-pea dish. Conversely, people living in Türkiye do not frequently consume the dish. It’s not really a Turkish food. Unlike in The Middle East, Falafel is not served as street food in The Republic.
The City of Istanbul was once called Constantinople. Türkiye was formerly known as Turkey. Now it’s Türkiye not Turkey. Why did Turkey get the works?
The version by They Might Be Giants appeared on the album Flood which was released in 1990. It also appeared in an episode of Tiny Toon Adventures.
The song was first made famous in 1953 by The Four Lads.
The most recognizable landmark in The City of Istanbul would be the Haga Sofia. Below is a photo I found from “7 Interesting Facts About Haga Sofia“. First it was a Church then a Mosque. Then it became a Museum and then a Mosque again. They switch things up a lot.
What food do you eat that has been wrongly lumped in with a certain culture’s cuisine? Tell us about it in the comments.
-Wacky Alex
FunHouse Radio 