You Were Working As A Waitress In A Nice Things Bar

Don't you want some Nice Things? Don't you want them ohhhhhh?

It's Sunday, so it's Nice Things! That's how it works, you know. Set aside the newspaper and switch off the interview shows, which you weren't really watching anyway, and take a break from the quotidian madness, OK?

Also, here is Thornton, who whose favorite toy now is this bag (in which noted political pundit Our Girlfriend put our Christmas gifts, including some cat toys for the kittycat). He likes to hunt out toys hidden under the tissue paper. then take a nap in the Christmas cave.

Wonkette Book Club Returns And Is Thinking About War Stuff

Next Sunday we're going to start discussing Michael Isikoff and David Corn's book on the run-up to the Iraq War,  Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War , which is suddenly very relevant again. It's a great big book, so we'll break our book club into three chunks. For next Sunday,January 19,we'll look at Chapters 1 through 7, thenJanuary 26,it'll be Chapters 8 through 14, and we'll finish up the book onFebruary 2,with Chapters 15 through the afterword. Or both afterwords, if you have the 2007 paperback , since Isikoff and Corn added an update covering the "surge" and the trial of Scooter Libby for interfering into the investigation of his leaking Valerie Plame's identity.

As always, you don't need to buy a new copy (although this linky gives Yr Wonkette a nice kickback; and can be used to order the ebook and used copies). Hit the library or your local used bookstore if that works for you! And please feel free to jump into the discussion even if you don't finish each week's reading, because lord knows all but our youngest readers -- both of them -- were here when the events happened. Yes, you are allowed to read ahead, too. It's not like there's many spoilers to the story.

We've Got You Covered

The other morning Radio Boise, the local community radio station (which is what you call a college radio station that dropped out three credits shy of graduating and won't bow down to the NPR man, man) played a whole bunch of cover versions of pop & rock songs. They were odd, so here I am sharing several with you.

This Annie B Sweet cover of "Take On Me" is the one that made me say OK, this goes in the Sunday thing. And that was before I even looked up the video, which features the Spanish indie/folk musician and her band in animal onesies.

ANNI B SWEET- TAKE ON ME    www.youtube.com 

Like "Anni B Sweet," "Cat Power" is also a stage name, which is a cover version of a given name. Thornton approves of her stage name. Here is her cover of "Satisfaction." I giggled when I recognized the lyrics:

(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction - Cat Power    www.youtube.com 

My Morning Jacket, "Rocket Man":

My Morning Jacket - Rocket Man    www.youtube.com 

I went looking for amusing trivia on cover versions of pop songs and found this nifty  New Yorker essay on the trend of incorporating pop covers in movie trailers, which got started when trailer editor Mark Woollen used a 2001 cover of Radiohead's "Creep" by Belgian girls' choir Scala and Kolacny Brothers in his 2010 trailer for The Social Network. 

He liked the counterintuitive notion of building a trailer around a song whose refrain is "What the hell am I doing here / I don't belong here." "The irresistible ingredient," Woollen said, "was one hundred Belgian girls singing 'You're so fucking special' in full voice.

It's a very good cover.

Scala & Kolacny Brothers - Creep (Radiohead cover)    youtu.be 

 The New Yorker's Alex Pappademas calls Wooden's Social Network  trailer "an unsettling masterpiece," and notes it

quickly became a profound influence on how movie trailers sound . The auditory signature of the modern movie trailer is a deliberately eerie cover version of a recognizable pop song, usually sung at a dramatically slower tempo, often by a breathy female vocalist whose delivery suggests a ghost beckoning a living playmate from the far end of a haunted-house hallway. The production of custom-tailored, trailer-ready, high-drama cover songs has become a cottage industry.

Well that explains a lot! You mean to say quirky covers of pop songs have gone commercial? Inconceivable!

Also there's this NPR essay on Weezer's cover of Toto's "Africa" and why even is it a thing that happened?

Here's a weird-ass cover that predates the movie trailer trend, at least; Shonen Knife's "Top Of The World," from an entire weirdass album of weird-ass Carpenters covers. ( It's not weird-ass, it is awesome and I happen to own this album. It's very good! — Robyn )

shonen knife - top of the world (the carpenters cover)    youtu.be 

Richard Carpenter did not like Sonic Youth's cover of "Superstar," which turns the song into an anthem for stalker groupies.

Sonic Youth - Superstar    youtu.be 

But I digress. Some of the Radio Boise covers have made been used in movies and TV trailers. Like Nothing But Thieves' versiion of "Holding Out for a Hero"

Nothing But Thieves : : Holding Out For a Hero (From Vikings: Series 2)    youtu.be 

Also too Paloma Faith's version of INXS's "Never Tear Us Apart," used in the Netflix series The Umbrella Academy (the actual soundtrack, and was there a trailer? Dunno!)

Paloma Faith - Never Tear Us Apart (Audio)    www.youtube.com 

(She also did a pretty faithful cover of Eurythmics' "Here Comes the Rain Again")

Not a movie trailer as far as I know, but I heart this country western cover of Nirvana's "In Bloom" by Sturgill Simpson, featuring a dude with a cannon on his head.

Sturgill Simpson - "In Bloom"    youtu.be 

I'll close with this cover of "Don't You Want Me" by Bahamas ("featuring The Weather Station"), which was used in that Thurber adaptation I still haven't seen:

Bahamas Featuring The Weather Station - Don't You Want Me    youtu.be 

I'm not crazy about that cover, but it's an excellent excuse to repost this brilliant silliness, which you might mistake for the original Human League video for the first 23 seconds. It's really the best version of the song, ever.

Working as a waitress in a cocktailbar    youtu.be 

And Now It's Silly Twitter!

First up, more birbs! (Did you miss the time Audubon magazine wrote about birbs? Go read it now.)

This thread made me follow nature cartoonist Rosemary Mosco on the Twitter. Birb with weird feets!

Male curl-crested jacanas carry their chicks under their wings, so sometimes they have even MORE totally normal feet https: //t.co/qKykjDBCjL

— Rosemary Mosco (Bird And Moon) (@Rosemary Mosco (Bird And Moon)) 1578605581.0 

Moar weird birb feets:

@RosemaryMosco Good Dadding that bird! I really like coot feet and I don't care if they are weird https: //t.co/VamYH9bMwN

— Jane 🖤⭐#KeepBritainKind 🌱✌️ (@Jane 🖤⭐#KeepBritainKind 🌱✌️) 1578611334.0 

Check out her neato web cartoon too! She also sells rude coffee cups! 

Remember, SO DOES YR WONKETTE 

I really need to get out more. Or not.

Boise forecast: Mixed rain and snow, 100% chance of naps. https://t.co/GHWIdW6jB9

— Doktor Zoom (@Doktor Zoom) 1578769146.0 

French Fries Alignment Chart https: //t.co/ZLSU37dMCu https://t.co/PNXwF9KFGS

— Laughing Squid (@Laughing Squid) 1578700982.0 

Dumb ridiculously fun Twitter game, works most randomly if your phone offers gifs to throw into texts and stuff:

When you search your last name in gifs, what comes up first? This is mine and I’m not mad about it https: //t.co/RR9QuvBy2p

— Mollie Wood (@Mollie Wood) 1578536655.0 

I thought "Kelley" would bring up Dr. McCoy images. Boy, did I guess wrong!

Well then, that's a "no" https: //t.co/mg55C86AUP

— Doktor Zoom (@Doktor Zoom) 1578696444.0 

Others got strange results, too:

@Chinchillazllla Have a good weekend, Ms. Bearchickenkisser

— Doktor Zoom (@Doktor Zoom) 1578699192.0 

Kitty punctuation!

A sweet little old comma taking a much-deserved nap from supervising me. https: //t.co/Ct5dI9B2hv

— Shecky (@Shecky) 1578686820.0 

STILL MORE BIRB! (Volume must be on)

✨SOUND ON✨ Tony's grooving to that #FridayFeeling! Macaws in human care often mimic sounds they hear and love to e… https: //t.co/lLe1ey2PmO

— Nashville Zoo (@Nashville Zoo) 1578664889.0 

Japan was doing dog memes long before the Impact font was designed.

Here are some "Puppies in the Snow" in case your feed needs them. This 1778 woodblock print from our… https: //t.co/nJ5XEZC8up

— Smithsonian (@Smithsonian) 1578666576.0 

True:

This place looks like it was designed to go out of business after a year to be a metaphor in a Bruce Springsteen so… https: //t.co/0ng2TrHv6D

— Schooley (@Schooley) 1578636857.0 

Also true:

Puppies help sadness, so if you are in a tough place, please let the Goblin King inspire you with his mighty battle… https: //t.co/dgmzEtHgJI

— Sam Sykes (@Sam Sykes) 1578621992.0 

Mark Hamill translated a very important question from French, and also answered it.

Translation: Hey @HamillHimself What's under the hood of the Jawas? It is for my 6 year old son who is asking. Ans… https://t.co/XyiaBWBg99

— Mark Hamill (@Mark Hamill) 1578693170.0 

Coming soon, the first NC-17 Star Wars movie, "Utini after Dark."

Drama

I don't think this is a very accurate adaptation of Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash. But I keep watching.

Miami Vice Bone Bone. https: //t.co/HalmlvnRQO

— Brandi Thee Poli Sci Major 😾 (@Brandi Thee Poli Sci Major 😾) 1578363515.0 

Silent movies! Charlie Chaplin!

@silentmoviegifs @DoktorZoom My favorite Chaplin gif: https://t.co/kCOa2gJv92

— 𝙹𝚊𝚗𝚒𝚌𝚎 𝙼. 𝙴𝚒𝚜𝚎𝚗 📚 (@𝙹𝚊𝚗𝚒𝚌𝚎 𝙼. 𝙴𝚒𝚜𝚎𝚗 📚) 1578693594.0 

Also too, Charlie Chaplin once dressed up in his Little Tramp outfit and LOST a Charlie Chaplin look-alike contest. 

everyone: my dogs just sleep when I'm not home dogs when you're not home: https://t.co/EixX7ZX5Pf

— 𝕽𝖊𝖓.🕊️ (@𝕽𝖊𝖓.🕊️) 1578309201.0 

This is amazeballs:

Nice variation on the "The animal is not enjoying this" cliche:

Hi, dog expert of 20+ years here and this isn’t cute dogs believe in the social construct of monetary value when… https: //t.co/ghyvyRmokU

— Blizz (@Blizz) 1578345403.0 

And finally, an Iranian dude does some live-action trolling. I especially like how the reporter simply doesn't get it. (Could have been a translation thing; reporter didn't have the subtitles.)

One Iranian attending Soleimani's funeral ruthlessly mocked western media coverage of the events "Why did you come… https: //t.co/Fqg2I0JJAa

— Wyatt Reed (@Wyatt Reed) 1578428111.0 

 His coming was foretold, you know.

Now get outta here, get to reading  Hubris , and have a nice Sunday, you!

[ Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War   / New Yorker / NPR / Bonus NPR ]

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