Tag Archives: entertainment

True Music Stories Part 2 – The Funky Hunks

BQB here.  I hate the Yeti for sharing this transcript.

Hip Hop/ Rap - Rare Music Video

ANNOUNCER:  From the Learning Center Annex of East Randomtown to Hollywood, the Funky Hunks were on their way to a career in showbiz.  They signed up with Reuben Torkilsen, whose other clients included “The Mysterious Lenny” aka “Mr. Guesses Your Card within Seven Tries or You Get a Coupon to the Sizzler” and Twinkles the Tap-dancing Poodle.

REUBEN:  Boys, we need a third fellow to round out your group.  The more hunks, the better!

BQB (whispers to Bernie):  Um, can we bust on him for saying that?

BERNIE:  I don’t know.  I mean, we’re still in the 90’s but it’s almost 2000 so…

(CUT TO A GRAPHIC THAT READS “FUNKY HUNK AUDITIONS”)

ANNOUNCER:  Reuben, BQB, and Bernie spent the next three days auditioning every aspiring rapper they could find.

REUBEN:  What did you say your name was again, sonny boy?

ASPIRING RAPPER:  Curtis.  Curtis Jackson, Sir.

BQB:  You’re going to need a rap name.

CURTIS:  Well, my friends call me 50-Cent.

BERNIE:  No offense, but that’s the worst rapper name I’ve ever heard.

BQB:  What about “MC Rappy Rap” or “Doctor Rhymey?”

REUBEN:  Boys!  We’ll talk about names later!  Let’s hear what Curtis has to lay down.  Go ahead Curtis!

ANNOUNCER:  There in Reuben’s office, Curtis Jackson laid down the lyrics from the song that would one day make his career:

PARTY IN DA CLUB

BY: 50-CENT

Go, go, go, go, go, go
Go shorty, it’s your birthday
We gonna party like it’s your birthday
We gonna sip Bacardi like it’s your birthday
And you know we don’t give a f#$k it’s not your birthday

Party in the club, bottle full of bub…

(BQB and Bernie look at each other, dumbfounded expressions on their face)

BQB:  Dude, seriously?

CURTIS:  What?

BERNIE:  You’ve got a lady friend and you don’t care whether or not it’s her birthday?

CURTIS:  We’re partyin’ like it’s her birthday.

BQB:  But this woman is supposedly your friend and yet you clearly state “We do not give a f%$k it’s not your birthday.”

REUBEN: Now, hold on, boys.  I think I see the picture here. The song is not so much about the woman’s birthday as it is an expression of the level at which Curtis and his friends are going to party.  They’re going to party at a level which correlates to the amount of glee one would have if it were the birthday of a female friend.

BQB:  I’m sorry.  The song’s total crap.  Sorry Curtis, I don’t think it’s going to work.

ANNOUNCER:  Curtis Jackson aka “50-Cent” went on to dominate the rap game in the early 2000’s, “In Da Club” being blared over the loudspeakers of every sweat dance joint from LA to New York.  Meanwhile, Read N. Plenty went on to become Bookshelf Q. Battler, the proprietor of a book blog with only 3.5 readers.

And Bernie?  He sells oranges on the side of a freeway offramp.

BQB:  I stand by our decision.  Party in the club?  Please.  That song’s going to fizzle out any day now.  By 2030 it will probably only get played on the radio like 20 times a day.

BERNIE:  I don’t stand by our decision at all.  I haven’t sold an orange in years!  Come back to me, Curtis!  I’ll sip all the Bacardi you want and I won’t give a f%$k about anyone’s birthday I swear!

TOMMORROW ON TRUE MUSIC STORIES:  THE AUDITIONS FOR THE THIRD FUNKY HUNK CONTINUE!

“MUSIC” image courtesy of Flickr user raremusicvideo1 via a Creative Commons License

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True Music Stories – The Funky Hunks Part 1

THE YETI:  Hello, insignificant 3.5 readers.  Perhaps given the mild success of #ReplaceSongLyricWithYeti you may have developed the foolish notion that BQB and I have, how you say, “buried the hatchet.”  LIES!  Bookshelf Q. Battler is my mortal enemy and I will never relinquish control of his Headquarters!

Further, I will now embarrass him by sharing the transcript of a tape I found hidden in his closet.

Yes, the rumors are true.  Bookshelf Q. Battler was once in a boy band.

Hip Hop/ Rap - Rare Music Video

ANNOUNCER:  Welcome to another edition of True Music Stories.  The year was 1999.  The band?  A duo of dudes who called themselves, “The Funky Hunks.”  From their meteoric rise to their stupendous downfall, we’ll peel back the curtain and see it all.

BQB:  What can I say?  We were young with stars in our eyes and wanted to be famous.

ANNOUNCER:  A year before the dawn of the new millennium, Bookshelf Q. Battler and his long time friend, Bernie Plotznik took the stage of the Greater Randomtown Learning Center Annex and made their debut performance.

CUT TO:  Shaky hand shot camcorder footage stamped March 1999.  Bookshelf and Bernie on stage – three old people in the crowd watching.  BQB wearing a backwards hat, shades, a golden clock on a chain around his neck.  Bernie wears a track suit with a backwards Kangol hat.

BQB:  Yo yo yo, I’m Read N. Plenty!

BERNIE:  And I’m MC Plotz!

BQB AND BERNIE TOGETHER:  AND WE ARE THE FUNKY HUNKS!

(An old woman raises her hand).

BQB:  Um, we’re not really taking questions but ok, what is it?

OLD LADY:  Is this Swan Lake?  I thought this was my granddaughter’s dance recital.

BQB:  That’s tomorrow night, lady.

ANNOUNCER (VOICEOVER):  And with that, the Funky Hunks introduced themselves to the world with their first song, “Be Nice and Stuff” off their debut album, “Non-Threatening White Boys.”

BE NICE AND STUFF

By:  The Funky Hunks

Yo. 1999. It’s singin’ time!
Let’s kick it!

Funky Hunks are on the scene,
Always polite and never mean!
Brush your teeth and say your prayers,
Ladies at dinner? Pull out their chairs!

Funky Hunks, don’t disrespect!
Or a stern rebuke, is what you can expect!
Carry an umbrella, in case there’s sleet!
Look both ways before crossin’ the street!

Funky hunks, we’re on a mission.
Tellin’ you to turn off the television.
Go outside.
Read a book.
Grab a friend, and a casserole you’ll cook!

Give that food to a homeless man!
Then sing a funky hunk jam!
‘Cuz you know deep down in your heart
Doin’ good is where to start!

Ugh…ugh…yeah….break it down…

(The Funky Hunks drop their mics, fold their arms, and desperately await the critics’ incoming reviews).

OLD LADY: Um, it was ok, I guess?

ANNOUNCER:  On a whim, the dudes dubbed copies of their performance and sent them to every Hollywood producer listed in the phonebook.  Um, kids, do you know what a phonebook is?  Before the Internet got really popular and allowed everyone to know everything at any time, people had these big yellow books that had everybody’s phone numbers and addresses printed in them?  I know.  It sounds tedious.

REUBEN TORKILSEN, BIG TIME MUSIC AGENT:  I get this horribly produced tape in the mail.  Two of the flabbiest, pudgiest, dorkiest white kids I’ve ever seen.  I mean, they look like they’ve never lifted a dumbbell in their lives and yet here they are calling themselves “The Funky Hunks.”

BQB:  Yeah, we were pretty ripped back in the day.

REUBEN:  And their rap – all about “helping people” and “doing good deeds” and so on.  But then it dawns on me.  These guys are being facetious!  They’re a couple of youngsters poking fun at what “the Man” thinks they should be doing!

BQB:  We were totally serious.

BERNIE:  I would bake a casserole big enough to feed the entire world if I could.

ANNOUNCER:  Reuben signed the boys instantly and flew them out to Hollywood…with two coach class tickets…the cost of which they were required to reimburse.  As it turns out, Reuben was the cover boy of Sucky Hollywood Agents Magazine every month.

(Cut to grainy security camera footage of Reuben’s office)

REUBEN:  Boys, so nice to meet you!  Do you know the big celebrity I’m going to introduce you to?

BQB and BERNIE look excited.

REUBEN:  No, seriously.  Do you know any celebrities?  Any celebrities at all?  Because I hear that knowing a celebrity could help in this town.

ANNOUNCER:  And so the Funky Hunks began their new life in Hollywood.  First on their agenda?  They needed a third hunk to turn their duo into a trio…

TOMMORROW ON TRUE HOLLYWOOD STORIES:  THE FUNKY HUNKS HOLD AUDITIONS!

“MUSIC” image courtesy of Flickr user raremusicvideo1 via a Creative Commons License

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#ReplaceSongLyricWithYeti

Hello 3.5 readers.

Any assistance you could provide in getting this trending would be appreciated:

 

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BQB and The Yeti: Buddy Cops

ANNOUNCER: This Fall, there’s a new duo of law men in town:

BQB:  Yeti!  Where did you put the evidence from the Coopatelli Murder investigation?

YETI:  Um, you mean I wasn’t supposed to eat it?

BQB: (Arms folded in a stern manner)  Yeti!

(Cue canned laughtrack)

ANNOUNCER:  You’ve heard of good cop, bad cop?  Try bad cop, hairy cop!

BQB:  Start squealing, stool pigeon, or we’ll run ya’ in downtown, see?

SUSPECT:  I’ll talk!  I’ll talk!  :::Sneezes uncontrollably:::  Just get that big white dog man away from me!  He’s shedding like crazy and I feel like every breathe I take I’m consuming 5 pounds of hair!

YETI:  10 pounds, but who’s counting, comrade?

ANNOUNCER:  They threw out the rule book a long time ago.  These two play by their own set of rules.

CAPTAIN:  (pounds fist on desk) – Damn it, BQB and the Yeti!  Ever since that stunt you two idiots pulled, the Mayor’s been so far up my ass I had to cancel my colonoscopy!  What do you morons have to say for yourselves?

BQB:  I hate Yetis?

YETI:  This bores me.  I must watch more Olga.

ANNOUNCER:  They always get their man…

BQB:  Any last words, punk?

SUSPECT:  It was just a lousy tag on a mattress!  It was itchy!  I’ll sew it back on if it’s such a big deal!

BQB:  Sew this, creep!

(Yeti roundhouse kicks the bad guy upside the cranium).

ANNOUNCER:  And they always get their women…

KATEE SACKHOFF:  Hi.  I’m perennial nerd fantasy Katee Sackhoff and I’m pretending to have the hots for BQB because the network paid me.

SHE-YETI:  And I’m a random extra the network covered with a bunch of sewn together mops and paid me five bucks for the day to pretend to be a she-yeti.

BQB:  That’s some impressive acting, ladies!

YETI:  Neither of you are worthy of licking Olga’s boots!

ANNOUNCER:  Action!  Drama!  Explosions!  Car chases!  Romance!  And a big ass hairy snow beast that just won’t go away!  Coming to your TV this Fall…BQB AND THE YETI: BUDDY COPS!

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Donate Meow

Had I been able to afford the $600 required to get Broken Lizard to tape a 45 second video written by me (now sold out):

The Super Troopers in the station, reading books.

FARVA:  What’re all you chickenf$%kers doing?

THORNY:  We’re reading books.

RABBIT:  Yeah, they were recommended by Bookshelf Q. Battler

FARVA:  What?  That a-hole only has 3.5 readers what does he know?

MAC:  You don’t even know how to read, Farva.

FARVA:  Do too!  (grabs a book)  – “It was…uh…the best…of times?  It was the…ahh f$%k it I’m going to Dimpus Burger.”

I don’t know.  Something like that.  Short and sweet.  Not much you can do in 45 seconds.  Alas, I couldn’t justify dropping 600 bucks, as awesome as it would have been.

Anyway, the original  Super Troopers movie was great and I’m glad to see the Broken Lizard boys are back at it.  They started a campaign on Indiegogo to raise $2 million to create a sequel and met the goal on their first day.  Now the more they collect, the better the movie will be.

Super Troopers 2 Indiegogo Site

I’m amazed technology has reached the point where people can do this.

I talk about self-publishing on this blog a lot.  Indie Movie Makers are basically the self-publishers of Hollywood, right?

In conclusion, I want a liter of cola.  Shenanigans.

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Additional Situations that Will Not Stop the One Post a Day Challenge

Bears.  Ninjas.  Aliens.  Asteroids.  Highlanders.  All have tried to get between me and my computer in a vain effort to stop me from bringing you a daily dose of Bookshelf Battle wit and wisdom. All have failed. Alas, evildoers don’t want your blog feeds to be filled with this much awesome.  So here are a few more hypotheticals as to what dangers may unfold against my blog challenge, and how I will circumvent them so as to continue to bring you ongoing, uninterrupted book bloggery.

QUESTION:  Apes.

ANSWER:  What?

QUESTION:  You are transported to the legendary Planet of the Apes.  As a human, they afford you no rights and keep you as a slave.  They will not allow you a computer to post on your blog.

ANSWER:  I would lead a human slave revolution, overpower my simian captors, steal their computers, and blog about my victory.

QUESTION:  You are placed onto a large, oversized slingshot.

ANSWER:  A fear that constantly keeps me up at night.  Go on.

QUESTION:  You are loaded onto the slingshot at midnight, the enormous rubber band holding you is snapped, and scientific and mathematical analysis indicates that it takes 24 hours for a person snapped with an enormous slingshot to circumvent the circumference of the globe.  You will spend an entire day in the air without any electronic devices.

ANSWER:  Simple.  I guide my carcass to the nearest flock of birds and explain to them that I need them to fly to the earth, abscond with a cell phone, and fly it back up to me.  I use the phone to post, then have the birds return it to its rightful owner.

QUESTION:  You’re on Dexter’s table.

ANSWER:  Ridiculous!  Only bad people end up on Dexter’s table!  I am a delight!

QUESTION:  He believes your blog is making people dumber.  He has you wrapped up tight with saran wrap and is ticking off a list of reasons of how your posts make people stupid.  His sharp knife is at the ready.

ANSWER:  I offer to work his lumberjack job for him for a month if he lets me go.  If that fails, I flex my muscles, break out of the saran wrap, and overpower the Bay Harbor Butcher.  I then use his phone to post on my site.

QUESTION:  Jabba the Hutt has frozen you in carbonite.

ANSWER:  Preposterous.  Hutts only freeze people who owe them money.

QUESTION:  He took your Super Bowl action.  A thousand space bucks on the Seahawks?  Idiot.

ANSWER:  Princess Leia will rescue me.

QUESTION:  She doesn’t give a crap.

ANSWER:  Luke.

QUESTION:  Also doesn’t give a crap.

ANSWER: And I can’t reason with Jabba?

QUESTION:  Nope.  Admit it.  You’re stumped.

ANSWER:  I admit nothing.  Clearly you have forgotten my signature move – the muscle flex.  Everyone forgets the muscle flex.  Ropes, chains, saran wrap, carbonite – I let the bad guys think they’ve beaten me and then…BAM!  MUSCLE FLEX!  And I have busted out of captivity.  And then I steal Jabba’s phone and post.  I post that I have defeated Mighty Jabba.

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Top Ten Jokes About X-Files Return to Televison

10.  Cigarette Smoking Man Replaced With Vapor Huffing Man

9.   Scully and Mulder now solve every mystery through Google.

8.  Aliens check out latest Earth news headlines.  Decide they aren’t interested.  Scully and Mulder retire.

7.  Agent Doggett fills in for a season so Duchovny can star in Evolution 2.

6.  The Lone Gunmen provide assistance faster now with Wi-Fi than they ever did with Dial-Up

lone-gunmen_x-files_frohike_thriller_dramatic_television_series_desktop_2492x3250_hd-wallpaper-220773

5.  ADA Skinner is too busy with the Sons of Anarchy

4.  Nerds demand Mulder and Scully arrest Jar Jar Binks on whatever trumped up charges they can come up with.

3.  Today’s average street gangs have more firepower than the aliens, thus rendering efforts to protect the Earth from aliens obsolete.

2.  X-Files/Californication Crossover.  The aliens never wear pants anyway.

1.  The Truth is Out There…Huh?  I said, “The Truth is Out There!”  What?  “THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE, MULDER!  TURN UP YOUR HEARING AID!

Seriously, this is good news. I can’t wait.  I remember watching the original series and the first movie and it honestly feels like it was yesterday.  Maybe Scully and Mulder can solve the mystery of why time flies by so fast.

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Ask the Alien – 3/22/15 – Pixels

Greetings Earth Losers.  Alien Jones here to answer your questions and The Esteemed Brainy One
pump your planet full of extraterrestrial intelligence.

Why?  No offense, but your planet is dumb.  Very dumb.  There are no words to express its level of dumbositude.  So very, very, very dumb.

This week I answer a question from none other than Blogger-in-Chief, Bookshelf Q. Battler, who continues to be a Yeti hostage:

Alien Jones!  BQB here.

Pixels – WTF?

WTF indeed, BQB.  WTF indeed.

Feast your vision receptacles on this trailer, insignificant humans:

Pixels Trailer – Sony Pictures Entertainment

Coming to a theater near you this summer…assuming the North Koreans are cool with it.

To elaborate on BQB’s “WTF” I will ask and answer questions I assume are on the minds of this blog’s 3.5 readers:

Q.  In Pixels, 1980’s era humans place a time capsule on the Moon which contains, among other examples of Earth culture, 1980’s video games.  The aliens misunderstand and take the time capsule as a threat of war and respond by creating massive video game characters, which they use to attack Earth.  The trailer shows Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, and Space Invaders attacking Earth.

Is it possible for such a misunderstanding to lead to an intergalactic war?

A.  Such misunderstandings happen all the time.  The Moloklaxons have been on a thousand year campaign, sweeping through the galaxy, taking one planet after another, all because an ambassador from the Intergalactic Diplomacy Organization broke wind in their ruler’s presence.  It wasn’t meant as an insult.  The ambassador had some bad tacos the night before and couldn’t help it.

Q.  But seriously, aliens think video games are real and respond with giant video game characters?

A.  Most species laugh at your video games because ours are so much better.  Few species would respond with war, though the Moloklaxons are willing to fight over anything.

Q.  What’s the point of this movie?  Is it serious?  Is it a comedy?  What the hell is going on?

A.  There are some serious looking Independence Day-esque scenes of monuments being attacked by video game inspired space ships.  On that note, it looks serious.  On the other hand, it stars Adam Sandler and it is about attacking video game characters, so it must be a comedy.

Q.  Is it going to be good?

A.  It will either be great or it will suck with the force of a thousand Dysons.  There will be no in between.  It will either be considered a unique and fun premise or will be Sandler and co’s attempt to run around with video game characters of their youth that sadly today’s kids don’t care much about.  Pac Man was fabulous for its time but today’s youngsters want Call of Duty.  

I fear young people will be like “Who’s Pac Man?” and old people will be like, “I’m so old because I used to play Pac Man!”

I will withhold judgment until I see it and will hope that it is excellent.

Q.  Is there a ray of hope?

A.  It stars Peter Dinklage in a role where he is not Tyrion Lannister.  He is always great as Tyrion but this will give him a chance to branch out.

Thank you for your time, 3.5 readers.  Kim Magennis, loyal Bookshelf Battle fan and proprietor of the Whimsy Blog  submitted some questions.  I have been a bit swamped this week, what with my ongoing diplomatic efforts to convince various worlds to stop trying to annihilate one another.  I will definitely get to those next week.

Alien Jones is the Intergalactic Correspondent for the Bookshelf Battle. Do you have a question for the Esteemed Brainy One? Submit it to Bookshelf Q. Battler via a tweet to @bookshelfbattle, leave it in the comment section on this site, or drop it off on the Bookshelf Battle Google + page. If AJ likes your question, he might promote your book, blog, or other project while providing his answer.

Submit your questions by midnight Friday each week for a chance to be featured in his Sunday column. And if you don’t like his response, just let him know and he’ll file it into the recycling bin of his monolithic super computer. No muss, no fuss, no problem.

Alien Image Courtesy of “Marauder” on openclipart.org

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Best Video Game Ever

What is the best video game ever?

I’m asking my 3.5 readers to put their choice in the comments and if they want to, explain why.

The Yeti votes for Tapper.  He loves Tapper.  So much Tapper.

"Pour the beverage on the right...slide it down to the left...the perfect game to help children develop obsessive compulsive disorder and alcoholism!" - Tapper, 1983, Game by Bally Midway

“Pour the beverage on the right…slide it down to the left…the perfect game to help children develop obsessive compulsive disorder and alcoholism!”
– Tapper, 1983, Game by Bally Midway

Hmmm…well, I suppose for the record, we must note that Tapper apparently did not work in a bar but rather, a soda fountain, where he poured sodas (in case you missed the big “soda” sign.)  So, no alcoholism.  Just raging caffeine addictions and sugar buzzes.

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Celebrity Retweet

Hello 3.5 Readers.

As you know, I am in quite a struggle against the Yeti, who for no practical rhyme or reason, refuses to leave Bookshelf Battle HQ until I receive 4000 twitter followers.

Now, I’m no name dropper and in fact, I pride myself on my humility.  I’ve got humility by the truckload.

Imagine my delight when I saw a tweet I wrote about Irish Author James Joyce on St. Patrick’s Day was favorited by a prominent Hollywood entertainment lawyer.

Further, when I tweeted that I was honored by my tweet being favorited by this tremendous legal scholar, said barrister further honored me by retweeting said tweet:

You don’t recognize prominent Entertainment Attorney Jeff Cohen?

Perhaps a photo from his younger days will refresh your memory:

warnber_bros

Truffle Shuffle 4-Life!

Honestly, sometimes it’s the little things in life that get you through the day.  Chunk.  The guy who played Chunk favorited my tweet.  And the guy who played Chunk rose past childhood stardom to become a professional attorney.  Good for him.

My 3.5 readers know I am incredibly sarcastic.  Please know this post has no sarcasm whatsoever.  I remember watching Goonies when I was a kid, thinking it was a perfect blend of comedy and adventure. That someone who starred in that movie noticed something I wrote (and yeah, it was just a stupid little tweet and for all I know he hit the favorite button by accident) brought a smile to my face.

So, it is with full sincerity and without my usual brand of sarcasm that I say, “Thank you for making my day, Jeff Cohen.”

That’s all the superfluous name dropping I’ll do for today.  I won’t even mention that I am still followed by @TayeDiggs, probably because his assistant clicked my follow button by accident.

Checkmate, Yeti.  Checkmate.

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