Herc! Herc!

Speaking of schoolyard songs, in second grade, a boy named Balty taught me a spoof song that he sang to the tune of the theme song to the animated show from the 1960's or 1970's about Hercules.

Hercules, you're a real big phony,
Hercules, eating cheese and baloney,
Fighting for his life, with a rubber knife
With the strength of ten (?)
'Fraid of army men
That's the pride of Hercules!

I don't quite remember how it goes unfortunately. The real theme song had the line "With the strength of ten ordinary men."

Amusingly, years later in an animation class at UCLA, our professor, Dan McLaughlin held the Hercules cartoon up as one of the worst of examples of cheap animation. For instance, it's challenging to animate the act of walking, so in Hercules, all the characters would always walk behind bushes or low walls.(You can also see this shortcut technique used sometimes in the Peanuts specials; Think of Charlie Brown and Linus walking across a bridge) Also, the animators would animate a movement and simply repeat the movement, using the same cells, over and over to fill time. It truly was a terrible cartoon. Of course I watched it in repeats every day before school in 6th grade.

Another spelling chant, sort of

My niece and her friend, Perry. reminded me that another old schoolyard rhyme has spelling in it. However, they had learned some additional lines I've never heard. Here is the rhyme as told by Molly. The names have been changed to protect the innocent.

Bonnie and Michael sittin' in a tree,
K-I-S-S-I-N-G
First comes love,
Then comes marriage,
Then comes the baby in the baby carriage,
That's not all
That's not all
The baby's throwing poo against the wall,
That's not all
That's not all
The baby's drinking alcohol

Good for you, girls, for continuing this folkloric tradition.

The Mystery of the Valentine

I know all four of you who read this blog were waiting with bated breath to find out where Todd Hughes found the heart-shaped road for the valentine in the previous post. It is of course Forest Lawn cemetery's "Babyland"!

Todd Hughes Is a Genius

He created this valentine. See if you can guess where this heart-shaped road is. Heh heh.

MUN MUN QUIZ 2006

(See the answers at the bottom of this post)

1. TK met Mun ______

a) On a tour of the Sony archive
b) On the Internet
c) On the Arpanet
d) At a Christian puppeteers convention

2. What part of Los Angeles did Mun grow up in?

a) The Palisades
b) West L.A.
c) The Valley
d) Oak Knoll

3. In kindergarten, Mun decided to vandalize her classroom’s bathroom by writing the only “bad” word she knew how to spell which was,

a) Pee
b) Fuck
c) Poop
d) Butt

4. Mun’s favorite fingerplay begins,

a) The Eensy Weensy Spider…
b) These are mother’s knives and forks…
c) Here’s the church, here’s the steeple…
d) There was a little turtle…

5. Mun has never

a) Licked the sidewalk on a dare
b) Laid down in the middle of the street on a dare
c) Caught a fish
d) Seen the Rocky Horror Picture Show in a theater
e) Been to a performance by Frank Sinatra

6. Mun prefers

a) pulpy orange juice
b) low pulp orange juice
c) Sunny Delight

7. Mun and TK spend a lot of their free time

a) Cleaning their apartment
b) Exercising
c) Learning the art of feng shui
d) Volunteering at a homeless shelter
e) Watching Werner Herzog’s oeuvre

8. The following are punch-lines to oft-told stories by Mun except:

a) I sought you war having a nervous breakdown or somesing.
b) …And so I kissed her on her black lips.
c) …And around the cat’s neck was a little swastika.
d) …And then P.David went ape-shit.
e) You mean you bought him a Happy Meal?

9. Mun has had ____ dental cavities filled in her lifetime.

a) 0
b) 2
c) 4
d) 12

10. Mun’s favorite new gadget is

a) Salad Shooter
b) Hairdini
c) Clack Egg Cracker
d) Cork Genie

11. The official brand name for the large piece of cat furniture in Mun and TK’s living room is

a) Puddy-tat Penthouse
b) Purrfect Pagoda
c) Kitty Cabana
d) Meow Manor

12. Mun has never

a) Been in a limousine
b) Played at Dodger Stadium
c) Eaten cat food
d) Seen a glacier in person

13. Mun has on at least one occasion

a) Been to a Grateful Dead concert
b) Fainted
c) Dropped a baby
d) All of the above
e) None of the above

14. The other week while working at the library, a teenage girl called Mun a ______

a) “bitch”
b) “white bitch”
c) “old, white bitch”
d) “fat, old, white bitch”


15. What don’t TK and Mun have in common

a) a hatred of Bono
b) disturbing childhood memories of the movie, Digby
c) friendships brought nearly to the breaking point after playing Diplomacy
d) a fascination with Jesus Christ
e) a fondness for Rowdy Roddy Piper


16. TK and Mun missed the first 20 minutes of a Neil Diamond concert last year because

a) TK insisted on going to the emergency room
b) Mun’s toenails weren’t yet dry
c) Mun’s massage went overtime
d) Mun was shopping for bon bons
e) The switch to Mun’s heart-light was broken


Answers: 1b, 2b, 3d, 4b, 5d, 6b, 7e, 8d, 9a, 10c, 11b, 12a, 13e, 14a, 15d, 16a

Worth mentioning

I don't know if anyone has commented on this, but I feel I must bring to your attention that the popular children's book The Day My Butt Went Psycho is a modern update of the Nikolai Gogol story "The Nose."

That's Puppetainment

TK and I are hooked on the short film series Puppet Rapist viewable on the web. Tres amusing. We cannot wait for the next installment.