Sunday, February 15, 2009

Recently, I had to attend and was pall bearer at the funeral for the parent of a friend. We were close and was a very sad occasion. Added to that, it was a Catholic service. For those who have never had to endure one, a Catholic funeral almost makes you envy the dead person.

In the funeral procession from the church to the cemetery I called my friend Bismo. We have long had a connection of Blues music and "The Blues Brothers. I asked him to enter into the same agreement John Belushi and Danny Ackroyd made to each other that which ever one survived the other would play The Ventures "2,000 Pound Bee" at the funeral. We agreed.

Then, I kept thinking. I do not want my funeral to be a sob fest. Even if I were to die tomorrow in some freakish accident, I would only want my friends to gather to remember me, tell stories about me, sing and laugh. To that end, I am currently working on my own "Funeral Burn". The first song will be Paul McCartney's "Dance Tonight". I like the irony of such an upbeat song at a funeral. I also have Parliment's "Give Up the Funk", J. Geils Band "Love Stinks" along with lots of Sinatra, blues, Al Yankovich, Alan Sherman....well, you get the idea.

I picture a keg set up next to the casket. In the casket I would by lying in repose dressed in jeans, Hawaiian shirt with my "Village Idiot" t-shirt underneath, a cigar clamped in my teeth and my Elvis shades on. I want something that, with a combined effect, would make my sisters just stand there shaking their heads and sighing.

While not a binding contract for my funeral, I would suggest to anyone who attends and finds anything different than this to simply stand up and start singing the theme to "The Muppett Show". You would have my eternal thanks.

Sunday, February 01, 2009

I kept these quick notes during the Superbowl commercials today.

The Trailer for "GI Joe" looks interesting...much better than I had thought in another "reboot" movie season.

Jason Statham's Audi commercial was better than any movie he has made since the original "Transporter".

Pepsi - "Forever Young" Perefect for us baby boomers. The "I'm good" was laugh out loud funny.

Free Doritos had a good punchline

Bridgestone tires with Mr and Mrs Potatohead could have only been funnier if it had been the people who voiced them for "Toy Story". The ad on the moon was very, but did they really have to put the disclaimer "not to try this on your own"?

Castrol's grease monkeys was very funny. You can never go wrong with monkeys!

"Land of the Lost" looked OK, I just hope it isn't "Bewitched 2"

Go Daddy....can't say much wrong with Danika Patrick in a shower!

Pedigree's pet adoption drive was cute.

Each of the Budweiser commercials were as good as ever.

Star Trek.....I so hope this movie is good.

Cars.com was a well written narrative.

I was disappointed the Pixar hadn't produced a new trailer for "Up".

NBC had some great promos. Jay Leno promo was cute. The Thursday night LMAO promo was VERY funny. Monday night's karaoke was great.

I love the cgi Cheetos cheetah.

The Heroes NFL promo ROCKED!

Monster.com with the guy working under the backside of the moose was very good and hot home with yours truly.

Cash4gold.com was funny although Ed McMahon looks as if they rolled him out of the home.

The Coke Zero take off on the Mean Joe Green classic commercial was just as classic.

I was annoyed by the GE commercial using the blatantly lifted voice of Ray Bolger as the scarecrow from "The Wizard of Oz" for some creepy looking electronic CGI scarecrow.

The Hulu spot with Alec Baldwin was fantastic. Attention grabbing and funny.

Pepsi must have thought that the "MacGruber" skit from SNL was funny.....they were wrong.

My choice for best commercial; Hulu.