The Adventures of Accordion Guy in the 21st Century

Last year, for The Onion’s AV Club “Undercover” project, in which they invite bands to do (often unexpected covers), one of the stand-out performances was given by GWAR, who performed Kansas’ Carry On Wayward Son.

I have been a big fan of GWAR since I’d first heard of them, and my fanhood was cemented when I saw them live — along with my friend Rob Strickler, who may have been the most unlikely person there — at The Rialto in Montreal on New Year’s Eve 1991. They hit the stage by bursting through a fake brick wall at midnight, with frontcreature Oderus Urungus (played by Dave Brockie) yelling “HAPPY NEW YEAR, HUMAN SCUM!”, followed by an assault of heavy metal, some amusing performance art, and the front rows being sprayed with fake blood and semen. It was one of the better ways to start a new year.

With such a great performance last year, it only made sense to bring GWAR back to do another cover. Here they are, performing Billy Ocean’s 1988 hit, Get Out of My Dreams, Get Into My Car. Better still, they mash in a classic rock staple near the end — you’ll have to watch to hear what it is.

There’s some swearing in this video, so it may not be appropriate for your workplace. You make the call.

GWAR covers Billy Ocean

For reference, here’s the Billy Ocean version:

And here’s the Kansas cover they did last year:

GWAR covers Kansas 

They just don’t appreciate my “Colonel Sanders Horror Movie” concept.

It’s the creepiest placeholder text ever. The only worse place to put it would be in the horoscopes section.

Ayn Rand — born Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum, but renamed herself after her Rand typewriter — is a great philosopher to some (my girlfriend, for one), and an overrated hack to others (Yours Truly, for instance). My girlfriend’s licence plate frame asks “Who is John Galt?” and my own internal voice usually answers “No one you’d really want to know.”

I’ve read Rand’s stuff, and back when I was a young adolescent fascinated with computers, it held some fascination for me, partly because I was a teenage boy with all the associated self-centredness, and partly because Rand’s writing appeals to geeks with their revenge fantasies. It’s lost its appeal and isn’t really for me, and if it’s for you, well, I try not to let politics get in the way of personal relationships, as my continuing status of Really Awesome Boyfriend shows.

I don’t think any Rand fans will be fans of the comic biography created by Darryl Cunningham, but it does put a little context behind her writing — and maybe even her being a fan of the 1970s TV series Charlie’s Angels. There’s an excerpt below, and you can read the full comic (so far) at Act-i-vate.

I hope your Monday goes much better than this.

…especially those two poor ladies who have to huddle together to keep warm.

The headline reads like an Onion article, but it’s true: Anchor Communications’ CEO got a Klout score of 68 and decided to put out a press release saying “Hey! I’m a social media guru, ’cause I’ve got a great Klout score!”:

Before you know it, he’ll be posting press releases for every little thing:

If that’s all it takes to merit a press release, maybe I should put one out too:

Update

The Next Web have discovered the press release and are having their own fun with it.