Categories
Uncategorized

“Downton Abbey” pickup lines

downton pickup line 1

What we calling “picking up” in North America, they call “pulling” in the UK, but no matter what you call it, there’s nothing like getting your game on Downton Abbey style!

downton pickup line 5

downton pickup line 3

downton pickup line 4

downton pickup line 2

For more, take a look at 10 Downton Abbey Pick-Up Lines That Would Surely Get You Laid (Following The Proper Period of Courtship, Of Course).

Categories
Uncategorized

Odd photo of the day #2: “Come on, little pony — this is no place for you!”

come on little pony

I have no idea what’s going on in this photo.

Categories
Uncategorized

Odd photo of the day #1: “I’ve been expecting you, Mr. Tree!”

i've been expecting you mr tree

Every now and again, I have a day that starts like this.

Categories
Uncategorized

Meanwhile, in Australia…

all out of eucalyptus

This is what I imagine my friend John Bristowe, who moved to Australia (where all the creatures are deadly), has to put up with every morning.

Categories
Uncategorized

Racially charged toy packaging

kid trax packaging

Found via AcidCow. Click to see the source.

The placement of the boxes doesn’t help. In case you were thinking that the labels were Photoshopped, allow me to show you the images from the Walmart.com pages for the two kiddie cars shown above. Here’s the SRT Viper

kid trax srt

Image from Walmart.com. Click to see the source.

…and here’s the police cruiser

kid trax police

Image from Walmart.com. Click to see the source.

On the other hand, the Fisher-Price toy Escalade looks like the racial harmony kiddie car:

fisher price escalade

Image from Walmart.com. Click to see the source.

Categories
Uncategorized

Good point

Now that’s what I call an answer:

why use google

But seriously, He probably knows a good site or two:

“xHamster.com, my child, xHamster.com.”

Categories
Uncategorized

As The Atlantic observes, the accordion is so hot right now

The best accordion picture ever: A lovely young lady dancing with Joey deVilla, who is wearing his accordion. She's brushing her hand against his keyboard.

Me and a new friend at the “For the Love of Breasts” fundraiser, 2003.
Click to see the accordion awesomeness at full size.

The accordion often comes in handy

“You brought the accordion!” said my friend as I entered the restaurant for a little impromptu class reunion last night.

“It often comes in handy, and you never know when you’ll need it,” I said in reply.

Not ten minutes later, one of the waitstaff approached me. “Could you play something kid-friendly for my friend’s six-year-old daughter at the table over there?” she asked. “She would be so happy if you did.”

I walked over, and she and I performed The Hokey Pokey to the great amusement of the little girl and at a number of the other diners.

“Like I said,” I quipped as I rejoined my classmates at our table, “you never know when it’ll come in handy.”

I’ve been the Accordion Guy for nearly 15 years

Joey deVilla and Karl Mohr flank bouncer Mark with their accordions at the Sanctuary Vampire Sex Bar nightclub, May 1, 1999.

May 1st, 2014 will be the 15th anniversary of the day that my friend Karl Mohr and I took our accordions out on the streets of Toronto. It was an unusually warm day for that time of year, and the bright, sunny weather brought throngs of winter-weary people outside, making the perfect audience situation for our busking debut. We ended the afternoon with an invitation to play our accordions onstage at the notorious goth club, the Sanctuary Vampire Sex Bar (it’s a Starbucks now), where DJ Todd said that if we could get any applause from the audience, he’d supply us with all the beer we could drink. Here’s how that turned out:

Karl Mohr and Joey deVilla, with pitchers of beer, enjoying all the beer they could drink.

The longer version of the story is in this post from 2012: 13 Years Ago, I Became the Accordion Guy.

The Atlantic says the accordion is “so hot right now”

Cover of the album 'Dick Contino and His Accordion'.

“Once considered glamorous and sexy, then forgotten,” reads the subtitle of The Atlantic’s article on the accordion’s resurgence, “the instrument is making a comeback.” It had a heyday in the 1960s, with Myron Floren (the accordionist in Lawrence Welk’s orchestra) and Dick “Daddy-O” Contino as the instrument’s standard-bearer in popular culture, and countless bands playing polkas at weddings across North America, and with the occasional cultural blip from “Weird Al” Yankovic and Walter Ostanek, it remained a fringe instrument for the longest time.

Joan (Christina Hendricks) from 'Mad Men' playing the accordion.

Hey! I have a Crucianelli accordion too!

Over the past little while, the accordion has picked up in popularity. Celebrities like Lucy Liu, Christina Hendricks, Tommy Lee and Michael Fassbender have turned out to be accordion players. Bands on the alt-rock/indie scene, from They Might Be Giants to The Arcade Fire to Mumford and Sons and Of Monsters and Men have put the accordion front and centre in some of their numbers. With Nirvana’s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, bassist Krist Novoselic will likely become the first accordion player to join those hallowed ranks:

The article closes by talking about the increased demand for accordion session players at recording studios or to join bands. I may have to take advantage of this trend.

Read the article: Accordions: So Hot Right Now

Thanks to Julie Leung and Jill Nurse for pointing out the Atlantic article to me!