Author: Steve

Last weekend, a man bit part of another man’s finger off at the Beyoncé and Jay Z concert in Pasadena, California at the Rose Bowl. The biter – 25-year-old Roberto Alcaraz Garnica – was the rambunctious instigator of the incident, as he was groping a woman during the show (a sexually charged show, one can imagine), and that woman’s boyfriend got all indignant about it. A physical altercation ensued, resulting in Garnica biting off part of the other man’s finger. The man was taken to the hospital and is presumably fine, other than wondering what he did wrong in life…

Chances are, you’ve read a Thought Catalog article or two or thousand about how you need to smile through adversity. Or a study somewhere that outlined the positive effects of maintaining a sunny disposition, which is to mask whatever numbing pain you’re feeling. Or, God help you, you’ve taken the advice of some linkbait garbage from Upworthy that promised to “restore your faith in humanity.” And for some reason, you’ve decided that you would take your quest for happiness to Instagram or Twitter or Facebook. Your ratio of selfies to actual pictures becomes 10:1 as you find every reason to force a…

Well that was fun, wasn’t it? Thanks in large part to a brilliant marketing strategy that included releasing eight music videos in eight consecutive days, Mandatory Fun was the first Weird Al album to debut at No. 1. So where do we go from here? In the myriad of interviews Weird Al has done in the past few weeks, he has alluded to the notion that Mandatory Fun would likely be his last traditional album. Of course, that doesn’t mean he’s done producing music by any means; he’ll just be searching for new ways to distribute it. In the interest of being…

Me give my heart to a woman? Not for nothin’, never happen I’ll be forever mackin’. – Jay Z, “Big Pimpin'” In terms of rappers abandoning roots established in their old-school songs, usually having to do with hard violence, Jay Z is hardly the most egregious example. But he PROMISED us that he would be forever mackin’ in 2000 with the song “Big Pimpin'”. And then he turned around and married Beyoncé in 2008, as if he completely forgot that he specifically told the world that his “heart cold as assassins, I got no passion.” If Jay was really a pimp…

FX debuted two sitcoms last week that focus on adults traversing through the muddy, murky waters of love, told from two different, but not all that different, angles. With Married and You’re the Worst, the network is doubling down on what could be the offspring of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, both born with just the slight beating of an actual heart. Which is completely fine; the so-outrageously-self-absorbed-it’s-acceptable-and-funny sitcom resonates quite well, especially as everyone hopelessly aims to capture the spirit of the godfather of the genre, Seinfeld. And sure, both Married and You’re the Worst are commendable entries into that genre after just one episode. The…

Weird Al Yankovic’s career began around the dawn of man, but he’s never had a No. 1 album – until now. Mandatory Fun is currently sitting atop the Billboard 200 chart after selling 104,000 copies in the week ending July 20, after being released on July 15. It edged out Jason Mraz’s Yes!, which sold 81,000 copies. The success of Mandatory Fun is due in large part to Weird Al releasing eight videos from the album in eight consecutive days, releasing them on various websites – including Nerdist, College Humor, The Wall Street Journal and Funny or Die – and gaining plenty of…

The week of Weird Al, like all great things, was not eternal but a fleeting period of time in our existence. But what a glorious period it was, with eight videos released in eight consecutive days, capped off with the video for “Mission Statement,” a tribute not just to Crosby, Stills & Nash, but to all of the corporate buzzwords Weird Al has come to know in his long career of being tortured in meetings. Enjoy the tremendous animation in “Mission Statement”, learn how to speak like a CEO, and then go back and watch Weird Al’s seven other videos…

“Lame Claim to Fame” is maybe the most catchy song from Mandatory Fun, and its stop-motion video is just as good. Plus, Dr. Demento makes an appearance, which automatically makes the video a must-see no matter what. Like much of the latest album from Weird Al, this track is thick on taking a certain segment of society to task; this time, it’s the name-droppers of the world. Some people may wonder how Weird Al has remained so relevant for 30+ years, but he’s fully embraced the world of social media and how it has affected our general view on the world. Mandatory…

Mandatory Fun is a great album, and it really has a much more skewering tone as opposed to some of Weird Al’s previous work, which often leans more heavily on food and general forms of mayhem and absurdity. But a change of pace without sacrificing quality is always welcomed, and that’s what Weird Al achieved with this album. “First World Problems” is, of course, Al’s take on our society’s notion to exaggerate its problems without considering how minuscule they are in the grand scheme of actual worldwide problems. I will admit, though, that not being able to order off the…

Weird Al hardly ever ventures into the realm of sports, but he did on Mandatory Fun, and the result is one of the best songs on the album. Here’s the gist of “Sports Song”: Your team sucks. No matter what you think or say, it will always remain vastly inferior. Which, when you really think about it, is true. As always, it’s great to see Weird Al’s original music get some recognition. The only bad news is that we are more than halfway through the Week of Weird Al, and the flood of thinkpieces and interviews will eventually slow down. But the Internet has…