Almost Worth Knowing: Anya Marina's "Whatever You Like" Cover

Right now, I cannot get enough of this song. T.I. did a nice job, but Anya's version seriously gives me chills. There's just something about the way she barely intones the beginning of the song...

For the record, there are two versions of this song. Despite the fact that the video calls this the album version, I think this is the single, and the album version is slower. Also, Anya's version of this song was featured on The CW's Gossip Girl.

Almost Worth Knowing: Should be Offended, but Can't Stop Laughing...

First off, I'd like to congratulate Doug for earning about 10 points on my challenge from two days ago. I won't bother trying to add to his answers. Congrats!

For some reason, I was inspired today to look up Vegeta's Over 9000!!! Video on YouTube. For those of you who do not know, Over 9000 is an old internet meme based on a short clip of the show Dragonball Z. I've posted my favorite remix below, but the original meme can be found here.

The actual point of today's entry, however, is not an old and obscure meme that any of my readers, who would care, have already seen. Instead, in the course of my studies, I discovered another video based around the same theme. The background is that, at some point, Oprah delivered a speech imploring her viewers to join her in stopping a pedophile ring. The ring, as it turns out, has over 9000 members. Oprah, in her speech, decided to refer to the members of the ring as "9000 penises." A video of the speech can be found here, but it became a meme when it was contrasted against the Vegeta Over 9000 video in a number of ways. The following is my favorite.

Here, the creator made a techno remix of the Oprah speech, turned it into a full song, and then created a DDR/ Stepmania level to match the music. Wow...

Almost Worth Knowing: Well, I said I'd follow it up...

I got a little busy since I wrote Part 1 of this series, but here is a small update. One of the best athletes turned artist I came across in my research is Major League Baseball first basemen and designated hitter, Aubrey Huff. At the time of my original research, Huff played for the Baltimore Orioles, but was traded to the Detroit Tigers on August 17, 2009. From what I can tell, he is a pretty decent baseball player. As pertains to this post topic, Aubrey Huff also has a really good voice.

In 2005, Huff was named by his teammates as someone who could sing "a little." In turn, he was approached by the producers of a would-be album, called Oh Say Can You Sing, featuring MLB players singing different songs. When the producers heard his voice, they were blown away. Me too. Check Huff singing "Letters From Home" below.

Almost Worth Knowing: and Back to Kanye...

So the other night, Kanye West committed an one of the more memorable pop culture atrocities in recent memory... I blogged about it already, but I have to come back to it. Now, I'm sure that, for some time now, this was cause for people over at E! to go into seizures about; but apparently, it has also become somewhat of an internet phenomenon.

Here it is... ImmaLetYouFinish.com. Below are some of my favorites... you get the gist of what the website is about...

This one is my favorite of favorites...

Also, Obama called him a jackass.

Almost Worth Knowing: There is a surprising volume of professional athletes turned published musical talents

First off, I would like to make it clear that I am using the words "talent" and "artist" in the loosest way possible. Nonetheless, I have a couple of favorite athletes turned artist, and some of them are even somewhat talented. This issue came up in my post from three days ago, when I ran across the musical exploits of one Justin Fargas, aka Young Hugg. I issued a challenge for my readers to name any other professional athletes who have published musical careers. BAyates was the first and only to respond listing Shaq, Deion Sanders, Ron Artest, Troy Hudson, and the entire 1985 Chicago Bears Team. BAyates gets a whopping 5 points!

If you haven't seen the Super Bowl Shuffle yet, it's actually quite fun. The Wikipedia article on the song provides some greater detail behind the history and production of the song, but I particularly liked the stanza by #4 Steve Fuller and the sax solos by #33 Calvin Thomas. Check it out:

Comically, it's quite clear the white guys in the video have far less rhythm. #45 Gary Fencik is especially bad. Also, as a bit of clear trivia, #9 Jim McMahon and #34 Walter Payton were spliced into the song and video afterward, because they were not available for the filming. Dan Hampton declined participation because he felt that the song was too cocky. Furthermore, the song and video were produced on the Tuesday following the 1985 Bear's only loss of the season to the Miami Dolphins. This is significant because it prevented them from becoming the second team in history to have an undefeated season and win the Super Bowl. Lastly, the 1985 Chicago Bears was not the only Superbowl Championship team to produce a song; the 1984 San Francisco 49ers also produced a song called "We are the 49ers" before becoming Superbowl Champions (according to Wikipedia's Superbowl Shuffle page). I searched for the song online, and came across the following video, but I admit I'm not sure it is same song that the Wikipedia article is referencing.

Honestly, I think I like this song even more than the Superbowl Shuffle. It makes me nostalgic of that great era of music: the 80's. Tomorrow, I'll get into some more modern examples of athletic musical venture, but for now let's just consider these two curiosities. Are the current works, by the likes of Shaq and Fargas entertaining? Yes... but it also lacks the charm of the aforementioned videos.

Almost Worth Knowing: Fallout 3 Rap

For those of you who are unaware, Fallout 3 is the award-winning game by Bethesda Studios, released in 2008 for Microsoft Windows, X-Box 360, and PS3. Multiple media outlets went on to name Fallout 3 Game of the Year for 2008.

The focus of today's post, however, is not the game, but a video and song related to the game, which I came across in my internet journeys. To preface, a game mod is an alteration to video game code frequently seen for computer games. A mod can do anything from making cosmetic changes, to adding game content, to changing fundamentals of how the game is played. I came across the following video on a Fallout 3 modding website, and it uses several other mods in order to make the characters dance like that. I assure you, the 2008 Game of the Year did not come standard with those character animations. Check out the Fallout 3 Rap below:

First off, the characters in the video dance better than I do. Moreover, I hope you paid particular attention to the song in the video. I cannot get enough of it. I am further haunted by the fact that I cannot find an Mp3 copy of the song anywhere, thereby forcing me to listen to it on YouTube when I want to listen to it. To the best of my information, the song is listed in the beginning caption as the "Fallout3-Rap," by DJZB Project, or by the alternate title of "What I'm Living For (Fallout Radio Promo Edit)" in the end credits. Still, I can't find a website for the DJZB Project that has the song listed, so I'm not sure what to do.

Sigh... my favorite lyrics are from the chorus. "This is serious, suckas gettin' furious. I'm like a virus, spreading on bacillus." Very clever...

Almost Worth Knowing: Life of Young Hugg

Last night was the oh-so-stressful draft for the EB Fantasy IV fantasy football league. Man, what a hair-yanking ordeal that was. Nonetheless, something good certainly came of it, and I don't just mean my team.

In the course of my research, I happened upon an interesting note about Oakland Raiders running back, Justin Fargas. The following lyrics come from track 11 on his solo rap CD, published under the stage name Young Hugg.

"Gonna have a drink to this one
We gotta bang her
E'rebody to the dance floor for this one
I got a story to tell..."

You can listen to this track, "Life of Young Hugg," as well as any other songs from the album on Rhapsody's website for the artist here: In Black and White, by Young Hugg. Curiously, Hugg is also the son of Starsky and Hutch actor, Antonio Fargas, who played Huggy Bear (I wager this is the justification for his chosen alias). Fargas published his rap album in late 2006, becoming this feature artist around the same time he was promoted to first string running back for the Raiders. Indeed, after listening to a few tracks, I must say, "what an artist he is." Certainly, Young Hugg's own words put it best... "from a pimp, to a player, to a baller..."

Challenge: How many other professional athletes can you name that have published music careers? Internets not allowed, except possibly to elaborate upon your response...

Almost Worth Knowing: Moonwalker

A few days ago, in A Life Not Quite Black or White, I challenged all my readers (probably just Brett) to name 5 Michael Jackson songs, not including the 7 or 8 that I previously mentioned. Bad Ass Yates was the only person to respond, listing "Jam," Ben," "Don't Stop 'til You Get Enough," "The Way You Make Me Feel," and "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'" amongst his responses. Not only did Brett answer correctly, but he also mocked me for making the challenge too easy. Too easy, Brett? Well, I don't see you answering my OTHER challenge!

My second challenge was for any reader to name the Michael Jackson video game that was often found in arcades in the 90's. This game was none other than Michael Jackson's Moonwalker, the video game based on the movie comprised of a number of music videos featuring songs from the Michael Jackson album, Bad.

I remember the game pretty well actually. It came out in 1990, following the movie's release in 1989, and was a staple at one of the theaters I often went to as a kid. My recollection of the gameplay is even quite accurate; the game is played from a 3/4 perspective, and follows Michael Jackson, wearing his suit from Smooth Criminal, as he tries to rescue children and fight off gangsters or other bad guys using dance moves and dance magic attacks. At certain points in the game, Jackson can activate his super-powered Dance Magic attack and cause all the enemies on-screen to dance with him until they can no longer keep up and die. Curiously, and I do remember this, at certain points in each stage, Jackson can find his real-life pet chimpanzee, Bubbles, activating a power-up that turns him into a robot that can shoot missiles and lasers. Furthermore, the game can be played with up to three players at once, with each player controlling Jackson in a different colored suit.

Interestingly, and I did not know this, the game also came out for Sega Master System and Sega Genesis with different gameplay. For more information on both games, check out the Wikipedia Article and gameplay footage below.

Worth Knowing: At Age 50, Michael Jackson has Passed Away

If you haven't heard the news yet, Michael Jackson, 50, died yesterday from cardiac arrest. Rumors and media speculation have focused on his deteriorating health for some time now. You can read more about it and watch a pseudo-tribute to the artist in Time Magazine's article - Michael Jackson Dead at 50: A Life of Talent and Tragedy.

Jackson's latter years were certainly filled with weirdness; his once spectacular media persona fell to the wayside as the life-long hit artist became the focus of much negative media attention and the butt many jokes. Still, his legacy cannot be denied, and, as a public figure, he affected much positive change through his music and philanthropy. In remembrance of the artist, here is a list of my favorite songs by Michael Jackson:

5) Dirty Diana - Many people don't count this song among MJ's greatest hits, but if you listen to the way MJ sings it, you can tell that he's singing with everything he's got. His intonation, more than the lyrics, really conveys how much he wants to resist her, but just can't. This song is a perfect example of what makes him the King of Pop and one of the great voices in music. Man, Diana was so dirty - noo.

4) Black or White - I remember watching the music video for this on MTV, back when MTV had music videos, and thinking how cool it was the way one person was warped into the next. Jackson's songs were as much about presentation as they were about the music. In re-watching the video just now, I'm reminded of how truly epic and globally unifying Michael Jackson was. "I'm not gonna spend my life being a color."

3) Man in the Mirror - For some reason, I used to sing this song ALL THE TIME when I was younger. I would just leave this song, from the Bad album, on repeat and let the words inspire me. Don't be too hard on me: I was still young and fat then, and I needed some motivation.

2) Thriller - If not Michael Jackson's most famous song, it is certainly his most famous music video. I would argue that it is the most famous music video of all time (and I wouldn't be alone).

1) Billie Jean - At the end of the day, Billie Jean is still, undeniably, my favorite MJ hit. Many people might not agree, but I like the song for it's awesome dance beats, and the way the emotion comes through in his voice (like in Dirty Diana). It's also one of his earliest hits and the one I like singing along to most.

The songs are linked to their YouTube videos, so you can just click the links to hear the songs. I also just want to make honorable mentions of Heal the World (which may have been a little sappy, but I have fond memories of when it premiered) and Smooth Criminal (which inspired the awesome cover by Alien Ant Farm and was, possibly, their only hit).

Almost Worth Knowing: X-Men Origins: The Musical

X-Men Origins is coming out tomorrow night. As you might have heard, however, the movie has already leaked via the internet, much to the chagrin of many producers and movie execs. Well, here's something to cheer them, and you, up a bit. I came across this video of Hugh Jackman, behind the scenes, during the filming of The Wolverine Movie, and he is awesome... Check it out!