Just whipping this entry out while I continue to prepare for the Scrabble meet.  I'm currently studying what they call "High Fives":  five-letter words that begin and/or end with an F, H, K, V, W or Y, but do not contain a J, Q, X or Z.  There are 2622 of them.  Obviously a great many of them are common, like FOCUS, MONEY or what have you.  But who knew that DYKEY was a real word?

So for what it's worth, here's a song title containing "five."  It doesn't contain "high", but I reckon it's possible that band members were high when they recorded it.

Hear "Five Magics" on YouTube.

This will be an abbreviated week of posts.  Starting Wednesday, I will be in Reno for five days.  While there I will play 28 games of Scrabble.  They have two major tournaments there a year.  In fact, I played in a small six-game tourney yesterday.  All I'll say about it is - the word WARTIEST is a valid play.  I found out the hard way.

So here is the Minutemen's "The Glory of Man."  Wait, what in the utter hell does this song have to do with Scrabble?  Well, it was featured prominently in Word Wars, a documentary film about competitive Scrabble.  I watch this roughly once every couple of months.  I'd recommend it to anyone, whether you play Scrabble or not.

My fondness for the topic aside, Word Wars does what every good documentary film should do - it actually documents.  Meaning, it follows its arbitrary subject (or subjects, in this case, as in four elite and quirky Scrabblers) to some inevitable conclusion while staying totally faithful to the subject.  Too many "documentaries" made nowadays do just the opposite - the conclusions are completely predetermined and everything in the films exists solely to support those conclusions.  That's the whole problem I have with, for example, Michael Moore's films, as well as those made as Michael Moore rebuttals.  Ditto for that god awful F**k doc.  Call them "polemics", "propaganda pieces", or whatever.  But they're not really documentaries.

Or sometimes the conclusion is way too inevitable and obvious.  As if we needed some movie to tell us that you will run into health problems if you eat McDonald's food non-stop for a month.

But yeah, in any case, let's get back on topic.  God, look at me rant on about staying focused on a subject while completely losing focus on the subject of this post - a kickass Minutemen song.  I'd be a horrible documentarian.

Hear "The Glory of Man" on YouTube.

Good lord.  The passing of Michael Jackson just came out of freaking nowhere.  The deaths of Ed McMahon and Farrah Fawcett may have been complete bummers, but they were hardly shocking.  They had both been suffering from major illnesses for years.  But the King of Pop buying the farm was one great big pop culture facepunch.  I debated whether to post an actual song by Michael or one of Weird Al's parodies, but since I just put up an Al mock-up two days ago, I am opting for the former.  Pat's got you covered if you want the high weirdness.

I was not what you would consider a Michael Jackson fan.  I was never that big on Thriller, and I hated everything I heard off of Bad.  I may have poked fun at him at times by making up names like "Baron Noseoff von Oneglove."  And although I never automatically bought into any of the things people accused him of, let's face it - he was, well, out there.  I mean, sure, eccentricity is hardly rare among famous people, but the "Wacko Jacko" moniker wasn't completely unwarranted.

But man, could that guy sing.  And holy hell, could that guy dance.  You look at many of the videos he made, being surrounded by some of the best dancers in the business, and he made them look like rank amateurs.  Seriously, go watch the "Thriller" and "Smooth Criminal" videos again.  NO ONE moved like he did.  Come on, he took a song written about a fictional RAT and made it compelling - when he was friggin' fourteen.  And I've made clear twice before that I dig his 1979 release Off the Wall, so it's not like I have to make some big stretch to pay tribute to him with a song I like.  So here is the album's opener, "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough."

Love him or hate him, you can't deny him his talents or his accomplishments.  You simply don't achieve what he achieved without doing something right.  Be at peace, Mikey.

Michael Jackson
1958-2009

Watch the video for "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" on YouTube.  This would appear to be on a dedicated Michael Jackson YouTube channel put up by Sony, so it's legit, and good on them.  (Are you paying attention, Warner?  Duh, of course not.)  Again, I wish those major labels wouldn't compress the living crap out of the clips they post.  But at least these will stay up.

Wikipedia blurb

Oh come on, you knew this was coming.

UPDATE:  OK, I really wanted to come back here and update this entry.  It may have come off as a bit crude.

I'm certainly old enough to remember Farrah Fawcett from her heyday, although I was very young.  Single-digit age.  Still, I thought all of the Charlie's Angels starlets were complete foxes.  Does anyone use the term "fox" anymore?  That seems so 70s.  But it fits.  Every era seems to have that one goddess-like figure that every guy wants, and every woman wishes she could be.  You could argue over who fits that bill today until you're blue in the face.  But make no mistake, in the late 70s, with no Internet, cable or satellite TV to saturate the culture, Farrah was the one.

And yes, I had the poster.  I totally had it.  I think my Dad picked it up somewhere, and it hung next to the bed for years.

And now she's a genuine Angel.  RIP, Farrah.

Hear "The Day Farrah Fawcett Died" on MySpace Music.  Now, I'm not sure how this MySpace dealie works.  Sometimes you click the "Play" link and it will play the song in its entirety, sometimes it will cut out after about 30 seconds or so.  When I clicked it, it played the whole thing, so hopefully it will for y'all as well.  Hell, if it works, hear the whole album while you're there.  It rocks seriously hard.

On a big Thomas Dolby reawakening now.  I think it started when I posted "Hot Sauce" a while back.  I ordered this from an Amazon third-party seller, and put all of the Dolby I own on my iPod.  Those CDs were getting pretty dusty.  So here's another fave from The Flat Earth, called "I Scare Myself."  I didn't even realize until now that this is a cover of a Dan Hicks tune.

I can understand if you wanna write Thomas Dolby off as some sort of synth-crazy new wave dinosaur who hasn't been relevant in decades, but his stuff really does have a timeless musical quality to it.  Seriously, does "I Scare Myself" really sound like some dated period piece?  Discuss.

Dammit, I need to stop saying "discuss."  I need to get an actual audience before I say things like "discuss."

Watch the video for "I Scare Myself" on YouTube.

Ed McMahon died earlier today.  He was 86.  Upon hearing the news, I immediately thought about posting this Weird Al parody of the El DeBarge song "Who's Johnny."  It's the only song about Ed McMahon that I know of.

Then Pat beat me to it.  Eh, screw it.  I'm posting it anyway.

Maybe now he can create a kickass new afterlife-based Star Search show.  "Ladies and gentlemen, Jimi Hendrix..."

YouTube fanvid for "Here's Johnny"

Ugh.  I still can't come up with a theme.  At least one that I'm really prepared to commit to.  I'll come up with something next week.  Fer sher.  Even if it's something inane like "songs I've heard while constipated."

So, let's get down to brass tax.  (yes, I know it's supposed to be "brass tacks."  Humor me.)  William posted a White Zombie song earlier today for his 666th entry, which seemed apropos.  It probably seems less so for a 702nd post, but oh well.  Sera que que.

He posted "More Human Than Human."  I hate "More Human Than Human."  So I am posting a track I like more, which just happens to be the song that really jumpstarted their career - "Thunder Kiss '65."  When that song was featured on Beavis and Butt-head, that band really took off.  Really, Beavis and Butt-head actually made careers.  Hey, whatever works!

Watch the video for "Thunder Kiss '65" on YouTube.  It's from UMG, so it's kosher.  Man, YouTube isn't working for squat for me right now, maybe it'll work better for y'all.

Wiki linky

Pat just unearthed this way cool (and wacky!) French band on MySpace.  I swear, between them and Maisman, I'm beginning to think everyone in France is crazy for Boingo and Bungle.  Not that that's a bad thing.

Where are all the North American groups that sound like this?  Just once I'd like to find this type of band in our own damn hemisphere.

Hear "Les enfants des autres" (and some other cool stuff) on the band's MySpace page.