I had to put 4/20 in my blog title, it only makes sense on a day like this. Did you know that in Austin, Texas today at 4:20pm they are going to unveil a statue dedicated to Willie Nelson! Here, I just found that “The statue stands along Willie Nelson Boulevard at Lavaca Street, near the ACL Live at the Moody Theater studios. The 8-foot-tall, 1-ton bronze cast was created by sculptor Clete Shields of Philadelphia and is a gift to the city from Capital Area Statues Inc.“ How cool is that? I’ve never smoked the stuff, but I can appreciate the humor in a statue for Willie on April 20!

So, now on to movies! I cheat, I had to look up what is being released in theaters this weekend. Thanks to Nicholas Sparks, looks like another heart throb crazy movie for the teen girls, “The Lucky One” opens in theaters starring Zac Efron. I still have no idea who that kid is. The other movie this weekend is “Think Like A Man”, starring Gabrielle Union and Chris Brown. The rapper? … Sure enough, how does he keep getting work?

Well there you go either way, if you are looking for new movies this weekend, that’s it! And if you get the munchies at the theater, go with my favorite, Buncha Crunch. Love those things! I’m going to go find some Willie Nelson music. Later.

Can you see it? The weekend, it approaches!. This has been one long week, plenty busy with plenty yet to be done. No matter if you work the weekend or not, you ever notice how it just feels better when the weekend is here! Well, it sure does feel better for me. I’ll still put in a 10 hour day on Saturday, but just the fact that it’s Saturday makes me smile.

Speaking of which, I better make this quick – I’m working a new “Weekend” cd. The one I’m using now is from last summer, time to put together a new one to crank up on Fridays after work! Anyone do that? I remember in high school when a bunch of classmates would always be the ones to put a song list together and burn it just for the weekend festivities! I just googled “Feel Good Weekend Songs”, see if you agree with any of this list… I’m stealing a few of the songs for my list.

Time to jam, later!

Here we go again… seriously? Another set of books and movies that are going to make the preteens and everyone else go nuts! “The Hunger Games” opens up at midnight tonight (12:01 AM Friday), and I’m already so sick of the publicity and craze the movie has received. From what I gather, the only good news coming out of this movie is that no one is a vampire! So perhaps a little different from the last big movie for this demographic, the Twilight series, does that mean it’s any better – or even original? There is a lot of movies that have very similar plots to this one, books as well. So, maybe not original, but following the recent formula with any movie or TV show lately, just pitch an old rehashed plot with some young, fresh faced, sexy, up and coming stars to play the main characters!

Let me remind you of the recent “Footloose”, which was bearable, but nothing compared to the original! OR… how about the new TV series, “Dallas“, that is going to be so terribly rehashed – but they have some returning original characters which could keep it interesting.

The list of copy cat movies and plot lines goes on and on, so I guess the reason I titled this post Hungry Games, is because I want to know is anyone still even hungry for something original? Does anyone still have the hunger to write and be original standing out from the crowd? These things need to be found and cherished in the movie, book, music – any kind of industry.

Now I’m going to make me a Hungry Man TV Dinner.

These guys are animals. Timeflies Tuesday is a group of two guys, one providing the beats and the other primarily singing and rapping. Basically, every Tuesday they release a song and it’s usually a freestyle over some creative and usually familiar beats. For examples, check our their YouTube channel. Nevertheless, about three weeks ago they posted an iTribute and it is actually available via iTunes and has done quite well.

Hopefully you appreciate it as much as I did. The lyrics are actually really deep. While this one wasn’t freestyled, it was certainly still clever.

Let it be noted that this is a little different than most of the postings here. I recognize that and realize it fully. However, I couldn’t find a lot and knew that many of you would consider this spam, anyway. So here it is.

Yes, I grew up to that outcast child that constantly listened and memorized “Weird Al” Yankovic’s songs. But I figured I would share some interesting things regarding him that might open your eyes and not hate him because he’s different.

First, half of his songs are his own. Only roughly half of his songs are parodies. So people can definitely stop with the “make your own” rants. Second, he gets permission from all of the artists, even though legally he doesn’t have to.

Yankovic actually made a song “You’re Pitiful”, that is after James Blunt’s “You’re Beautiful”. You can listen to the song here, as he can’t put it on a record due to Blunt’s label going against his own words and trying to not let Yankovic publish the song.

Oh, did you know he wrote a book? It’s a picture book for Children, titled When I Grow Up. The book even reached the #4 spot in the New York Times Best Sellers for Children’s Picture Books for the week of February 20, 2011. Not bad for an “amateur” writer. I call him an amateur because he’s been cleverly writing lyrics and rhymes his whole career.

And for those of you who think I just like him because he’s different and I’m just this one kid who has no voice, he’s a little larger than that. By little, I mean that he’s had 9 platinum records just in the United States. He also had 3 platinum and 1 double platinum record in Canada.

Finally, he’s also had quite a few TV appearances, which include:

• The Simpsons (2003)
• Lilo & Stitch: The Series (2003)
• The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy (2003)
• Johnny Bravo (2004)
• Ren & Stimpy: The Lost Episodes (2006)
• The Simpsons (2008)
• Halloween II (by Rob Zombie)(2009)
• Batman: The Brave and the Bold (2011)

Surely he’s almost “noticeable” by now, even if before reading this you thought he was just some Yugoslavian accordion-playing song-stealing outcast. Maybe you even respect him as a singer, parody artist, and writer.

UPDATE1:  He was also voted #1, followed by Rush and The Moody Blues, in a 2009 Rolling Stone poll for which artist should be in the Hall of Fame.
UPDATE2: He has directed many music videos for the band Hanson, and was also in their 2010 song titled “Thinking ‘Bout Somethin’.”

Okay, problem solved. Many thanks to Jenn.

Now, I normally don’t do this, but since the last post was a little off-topic, here’s something to lighten the mood. Background first. I went to Mankato East, and there’s a senior there named Ryan Duff who is hilarious and will pretty much do anything to get positive attention. He made this video last summer, and I thought it was absolutely hilarious. This, my friends, is why I’m proud of East.

Hopefully you find this as entertaining as I do.

“The GROW-UP® Plan is a whole life insurance policy designed for healthy children ages 14 days through 14 years.

Get 13 FREE Music Downloads when you request life insurance for your child!”

Now when I have my first child, I can sign up for life insurance at 14 days and even get him or her an iPod with 13 songs! I sure hope they have Barney and Dora on iTunes! *end sarcasm*

Now I knew that the technology era was increasing exponentially, but this sure took me by surprise. If pirating music isn’t enough, now people are signing their children up for life insurance policies just for some new tunes? That really isn’t my idea of being an educated parent. Let’s at least hope they’re picking good songs! Yes, I am only kidding with that last line.