I Still Love Mother’s Cookies

I received a nice email from the cool folks at Mother’s Cookies:

As you know Mother’s cookies are back! And now that we here to stay we want to invite Mother’s Cookies lovers Share The Love. We know you are a fan so we wanted to let you know about this contest right away!

Share The Love
We are asking Mother’s Cookie lovers to create a short video about their love. Cookie lovers can visit http://www.motherscookies.com/ShareRegister.aspx and enter their video! The first 100 submissions that also tweet using #motherscookies before December 21, 2009 at Midnight will win a yummy cookie prize!

Well, twist my arm…

I’m still playing around with shooting and editing video on the iPhone. The front of this clip was cut off because I didn’t understand how the trim feature works. And the cutting and splitting in the ReelDirector app is not intuitive. Nonetheless, hope you enjoy Mother’s Cookies as much as I do!

The Sad Revelation of “Vienna Calling”

Back in ’86 I really dug Falco’s “Vienna Calling,” the follow-up single to the number one hit “Rock Me Amadeus.”  Despite the oft-repeated moniker, Falco was no “one hit wonder” as “Vienna Calling” went Top 20 on the U.S. charts. And, to my ears, is still the stronger single. Much dancier but still with the Austrian flair the late performer was known for.

falco

I’ve been hearing Falco a bit more on XM radio lately, so I dug into my MP3 collection to find this 80’s gem. You can watch the YouTube video here. It’s really a great song.

Of course, most of the song is in German as were most of Falco’s songs (especially the parts of the songs actually sung by Falco himself). With a song like this I really don’t mind the foreign (to me) language as it actually kind of sets the mood. It’s probably my second favorite song sung in German, the first being Rammstein’s “Du Hast” (which is the music Hitler’s stormtroopers would be dancing to if they survived into the 1990’s).

Anyway, I though I’d see if the internet could help me interpret Falco’s lyrics to “Vienna Calling” and behold look what I found!

Hello, Vienna calling
Hello, hello, Vienna calling
– Cha!
Hello, hello, Vienna calling
– Cha! Cha!
Hello, oho, Vienna calling, na na na na
Hello, oho, Vienna calling, na na na na

Talking about
Stella sits in Rio
Stella lies in Tokyo
Men ask her for a light,
for the other thing as well

Sugar Chris misses you a lot
your legs and your face
You can do without me –
just not without luxury.
What do little girls play with today,
here and there and there,
whether in Tucson, Arizona;
Toronto, Canada.

Vienna, only Vienna you know me up,
know me down
You know me.
Only Vienna, only Vienna, just you alone
Where have your women gone

Ohoho, operator (so alone am I)
Ohoho, operator (need you to come tonight)
Hello, oho, Vienna calling, na na na na
Hello, oho, Vienna calling, na na na na

Two, one, zero
The alarm is red
Vienna in need
Cha, cha, cha

Vienna calling, oho, Vienna calling, oho

And suddenly Mary is named Marilyn
and Eva is named Yvonne
A young Bogart hangs on
your lips, Kid, and says come.

The glory of the curls is finished
the dancers have stopped
It’s 4:45,
now the position is rehearsed.
What do little girls play with today,
here and there and there,
whether in Tucson, Arizona;
or Toronto, Canada.

Vienna, Vienna, only you know me up,
know me down
You know me.
Only Vienna, only Vienna, just you alone
Where have your women gone

Ohoho, operator (so alone am I)
Ohoho, operator (I need you here tonight)
Hello, oho, Vienna calling, na na na na
Hello, oho, Vienna calling, na na na na

Two, one, zero
the alarm is red…

(courtesy About.com)

Wait a minute…

“Vienna Calling” isn’t some sort of heartfelt shout-out to Falco’s hometown? Not about life on the road and wishing he could call home and talk to his family? It’s about… the fact that Vienna doesn’t have any more good prostitutes?

Well,  I guess this is good news as I’ve been trying to find the third track for my 1980’s Call Girl Mix (to go along with “Roxanne” and “Call Me”).   Seriously… wow.

William Shatner is Everyone’s Favorite Poet

If you didn’t catch Sarah Palin’s rambling farewell speech you certainly missed one of the best trainwrecks of the year. If you’re a fan of copy-editing you might like Vanity Fair‘s take on the speech.

This post isn’t intended to ridicule Sarah Palin (though it happens to be a wonderful side benefit). Instead, let’s highlight another example of the Creative Genius of William Shatner. Seriously.

Conan O’Brien needs ratings for his Tonight Show, so when Palin’s speech hit the airwaves there were many ways that Conan could employ to use this event for comedic effect. Then, a brilliant idea stuck.

Call Shatner.

Now!

The clip speaks for itself. But I’d like to highlight the vast and thunderous applause Shatner gets when introduced. And let’s also acknowledge another brilliant performance from everyone’s captain, William Shatner.

Update:

Shatner made a return appearance to read Sarah Palin’s Twitter messages.

Life as an iCelebrity

A couple days ago I mentioned my encounter with Justine Ezarik at MacWorld, where she was preparing for a “workout” while I was waiting for the MacWorld Town Hall to start. After snapping a quick photo for my MacWorld Checklist I went back to the Town Hall where I fell into the “younger third” age bracket (which is sad when you’re 40).

Anyway, here’s what I missed…

So, let’s review. Instead of hanging with cool, gorgeous, and tech-savvy girls, I went over to hang out with old Mac geezers who pontificated about the “good old days” when the Mac launched in 1984 and demanded a “schwag” trading event be added at MacWorld next year so they could trade NeXT tshirts! 

Really.

As bad as the decision might seem to be on the surface, I’ve got to imagine it would have been poor form to try to join Justine and company with their workout. I mean, what good would it have done except to make a fun YouTube game: “Which one of these is not like the other.”  I mean this in the least self-loathing way possible that it was good I didn’t try to invite myself into the video and, let’s face it, ruin the aesthetic.  Still, it might have been fun to watch.

Ezarik, or “iJustine” for those in the know, is the part of the first generation to grow up with “iCelebrity” as a career path. One part blogger, one part reporter, one part model, and one part sysadmin. There’s a ton of these people and while the trend is young and female it’s not exclusively women. They’re having a lot of fun and let’s face it using their youthful energy in generally positive ways. So, you’ve got to hand it to them for working hard and making a name for themselves. In fact, there’s a host of career opportunities or at least ways to make a quick buck online if you have the right look or the kind of content that can go “viral.”  Remember “Chocolate Rain?”

I’d like to think that I played a tiny part in this burgeoning world with my exploits as Kevin C. from Lip Balm Anonymous. Jeeze, Justine might have been all of twelve years old when I appeared on The Internet Cafe way back in 1997 or on The Daily Show in ’98. Of course, Kevin C. still comes out from time to time. I appeared twice on Sirius Radio in December and my interview with The Baltimore Sun got a lot of press last fall.  

But LBA hasn’t made me any money. There are a lot of reasons, mostly due to lack of time and interest. Plus, it’s hard to run a lot of advertisements on a site that’s supposed to look like a non-profit organization.

Every year I say I’ll redo the LBA site. And this year I might actually do it. Maybe I’ll make some crazy YouTube videos talking about lip balm addiction. They’ll go viral and maybe I’ll get just as much attention as Justine does.

Okay. Maybe not…