January 20, 2004

A Little Political Commentary

Two things, both about Howard Dean. First, given our lack of television watching, I missed the Iowa Caucuses last night. Can't say that I'm too broken up over it, but today I read on the net that Howard Dean made quite the speech. In fact, according to different sources, he "had a complete meltdown," "sounded like a WWF wrestler." and his "unearthly squawk" sounded like "the last angry cry of the last dodo bird."

Thanks to the power of the web, I got to hear this squawk just as if I'd been there myself. In fact, some people even put it to music like a dance remix. The best is the one from James Lileks whose blog is one of my absolute favorites. Click on the link to hear
Lileks' YEEEEEEEEAAAAAGGGGHHHHH Remix. It's hilarious.

The second thing is one of Dean's catchphrases, "People-powered Howard." Now for those of you who remember Schoolhouse Rock, the cadence of this phrase always makes me think of one of the Schoolhouse Rock songs. Yes, every time I hear "People-powered Howard" I start singing "Inter-planet Janet." You know, same number of syllables, same rhyme scheme.

Just had to get that off of my chest. Now back to our regularly scheduled, politics-free Shelby's Life and Whatnot.

Posted by Shelby at January 20, 2004 06:46 PM
Comments

Hi Shelby -- I was just surfing the web for stuff about Howard Dean, and was amazed (amused?)when I came accross your school-house rock comment on the people-powered howard phrase. You haven't heard my song, have you, people-powered howard? I was sitting with my friend this summer, reading about the people-powered howard sleepless summer tour, and I suddenly had the feeling that this phrase simply had to be set to song. Funny enough, my first idea was when I said to my friend, "It's gotta be something like... like... fighting hegemony..." and my friend responded, "what, like 'in the twenty-first century?'" and I knew we had struck gold. Then I wrote the rest of the song, around that little rhyme, with the school-house rock theme very much in my head the whole time. I don't even know the song you're referring to, but the cadence must have been subconsciously stuck in my head from when I watched those videos back in school. You might get a kick out of my song, it's at www.geocities.com/shloopfrig -- I'd love to hear what you think, whether or not you're a Dean fan or whatever. You might be one of the few people who actually finds the song semi-humerous, like it was meant to be. Anyway, thanks, Marcus

Posted by: Marcus at January 22, 2004 09:05 PM

Hi Marcus,
Hilarious song! No, I hadn't heard it, but I see we're on the same wavelength. Inter-planet Janet is more of a pop-type song while yours struck me as a folk ballad. I loved "He's a doctor, can't you see?/Gonna cure our economy!" Thanks for the laugh.

As for Howard Dean...I'm undecided still. I really liked Dean a lot in the beginning, but I find his behavior in Iowa to be troubling. The negativity really turns me off, and I haven't been too happy about things he's been saying lately. I would like to see him get back to the campaign he was running before all of this.

But I try to stay away from politics on my blog as much as I can. Thanks for reading!

Posted by: Shelby at January 22, 2004 09:25 PM
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