September 9

First, happy birthday to Doug Ingle, vocalist for Iron Butterfly and chief composer of the seminal classic “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida”. This seventeen minute psychedelic epic is in the DNA of every heavy metal song, so that deserves a raising of the horns. Story goes, Ingle was partying hard when he told the song’s original title, “In the Garden of Eden,” through slurred lips. The mis-spoken name stuck, but the original name hasn’t been forgotten:


In the “Big in Japan” department, Ai Otsuka is the Miley Cyrus of Japan. Here's a video for her single "Smiley"; you should probably turn down the brightness on your monitor before you watch this:


Hugh Grant: women love him, men would love to get away with half of what he does. His disdain for acting suggest that he knows how inane his films are, but he finds a way for himself – and us – to enjoy the ride.
One of my guilty pleasures is the film “Music and Lyrics”, a movie that was supposed to be his last acting job. He must have enjoyed the experience; his next film with the same director comes out later this year.
In “Music and Lyrics,” Grant plays a washed-up ex-“boy band”-er, and we get to see that band in action during the opening credits…


And now, a commercial message:



Finally, before everybody thinks I’ve gone soft, light some candles for John Kricfalusi, creator of Ren and Stimpy, and inspiration for every TV-MA animator working today. Matt Groening may have made it okay to make jokes for more than kids, but “Ren and Stimpy” was like the drunk uncle at Thanksgiving that totally ignored the fact that he was telling blowjob jokes to the fold-out table.

Happy Happy Joy Joy

Can’t think of a happier ending for today’s column than that…