George Hrab *is* Mur Lafferty's Man in the Boat

Our huge home town annual event, Musikfest, has come and gone a few weeks back. My friend Jon turned me on to an amazing musician and lyricist, George Hrab, with his excellent philosofunky band the Geologic Orchestra in tow. Awesome night - instant fan. Geo's show was the highlight of my Musikfest 2006, even considering the fact that I got a chance to see Brother twice and the return of the mighty Alice in Chains, virtually in my own back yard.

In seemingly unrelated news, I recently downloaded show #75 of the Wingin' It podcast. I'm not a regular listener, but I am a fan of Mur Lafferty's Geek Fu Action Grip 'cast. Ol' Mighty Mur had explained that this Wingin' It episode had been taped live at DragonCon, and that the antics weren't to be missed.

Imagine my suprise when, only seconds into the show, Mike and Evo announce their musical guest, George Hrab! George busts into a live accoustical rendition of Cruel Spines; the crowd goes wild in drunken hilarity.

Not to be outdone, Mur soon launches into a fervent reading of her essay on the clitorus and associated male incompetance, written on the spot only several minutes before. Laugh out loud stuff, and the audience is totally eating out of her hand. The whole nutty performance is capped off by, at the request of an enthusiastic male audience member, a show-and-tell how-to, complete with a large scale model constructed from a jacket and starring George Hrab's bald pate as the man in the boat. Unbelieveable!

Mike and Evo wrest control back to a degree, do their thing, and the show ends with another tune from Geo, this time Brainsbodyboth.

So, be sure to check out Wingin' It Show #75, whether you're a fan of Mur, Geo, or just want a good laugh.

Edit: I just found out that George Hrab actually lives in central city Bethlehem - got to be a short walk from my house. I'd thought he was a Philly resident, seeing as he's the drummer for the Philadelphia Funk Authority and all. Just makes the coincidence even stranger in my mind.

Back to the Future, with Zack in Tow

My wife Heather and I have been digging into our mental hit lists of kid-friendly movies from our growing years. Some of our recent Netflix rentals have included Krull (in all its cheezy glory),
The Lost Boys, and a few of the Pink Panther movies. Want to see your 10-yr-old boy rolling around on the couch, belly laughing out loud? Think Inspector Clouseau and Kato trashing their flat in furiously-inept mortal(?) combat. Yep, that'll do it.

Obviously, I've been injecting a healthy dose of some of my geeky cinematic favorites - not trying to influence him or anything, though. Nope, wouldn't do that.

One series that has really been a hit with young Zack has been Back to the Future. Great movies, obviously, and barring a few comments from the peanut gallery regarding some 80's fashion choices, the series has weathered the years pretty well.

The cliffhanger endings of the first two actually left him in a state of frustrated excitement, and he'd asked me several times when the next installment was to arrive in the mail. In the end, when the credits of Part III began to roll, my little geek in training was actually frustrated and bummed out that it was all over, and that he didn't know where (when, actually) the Doc and family were headed in their hopped-up, time-traveling steam engine.

Yes friends, life can be good, and sharing something one loves with one's kids makes it so much richer. I think it's time to pull out the big guns - maybe Hawk the Slayer? :D

Spiff's WoW-based Jonathan Coulton Music Videos

Using captured and choreographed World of Warcraft footage, Mike "Spiff" Booth has created some great music videos for a few of Jonathan Coulton's funny, geek-centric songs, including "Skullcrusher Mountain" and my absolute favorite, "re: Your Brains". Check them out on Spiff's YouTube page, and be sure to visit Jonathan Coulton's site as well of course, if you haven't already.