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Make the Rock Hall Weird's Blog

  • Vote for Al in the Plain Dealer's Rock Hall readers poll!

    Current mood:determined

    Cleveland's Plain Dealer--the Rock Hall museum's hometown newspaper--has started its annual unofficial Rock Hall readers poll, which asks...um, readers...who they want to see...um, in the Rock Hall. Ahem. As it often does in the past, the poll has a write-in option, and in previous years Al has routinely topped the write-in portion of the poll. This year will be no different!

    The poll will run until October 11. Just vote once; don't do anything fishy like vote numerous times from numerous computers. But, by all means, spread the word! Tell everyone you know! Post the link on your Twitter and Facebook!

    http://tinyurl.com/pdrockhallpoll

    The poll page is inviting comments, but it's not necessary to vote. It's mostly in case you want to submit a soundbyte for use in the eventual article about the results. Be warned, though, that the comments are quickly turning extremely argumentative, combative, and just plain old ugly. Weird Al fans are above that. If you must leave a comment, then speak your peace, don't argue, and quickly move on. (If you plan on leaving a comment, you must register to the Cleveland.com web site first: https://signup.cleveland.com/register/?return_to=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cleveland.com%2Fpopmusic%2Findex.ssf%2F2010%2F09%2Fbon_jovi_neil_diamond_and_alic.html)

    Help give Al another landslide!
    6:33 PM

  • On to 2011!

    Current mood:disappointed

    Wow, what a day yesterday was for the big news, huh? Can hardly believe it that after all these years Southwest and AirTran are merging!

    Oh, and the nominees for the 2011 induction class of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame were announced.

    Unfortunately, for the seventh straight year, Weird Al did not make the cut...even though he won Rolling Stone's own Rock Hall readers poll last fall...and even though he routinely tops the write-in option in the Cleveland Plain Dealer's readers poll...and even though he is the most successful rock parodist in music history, one that has sold more records than 108 of the 169 acts already inducted into the Rock Hall.


    FULL BLOG ENTRY HERE: www.allthingsyank.com/blog
    10:07 PM

  • Essential Spatulas

    Current mood:excited

    First of all, today marks our sixth anniversary...so, um, Happy Anniversary Us! We would sincerely like to thank all of you who have stuck with us over the years and are always willing to leap at the chance to help out. This campaign only exists because we have great friends out there willing to actually work on it.

    For those of you wondering about the status of Yankoheit 27, our feature-length documentary...it IS coming. Production will ideally wrap this month, with final editing taking up the month of August. It might still be a little while after that before it gets formally released as we try to line up a distribution deal, but copies will make their way to the Rock Hall Foundation as soon as it's completed.

    Also, we are still scheduled to have our second annual Make the Rock Hall "Weird" Tweet-In on October 23, Al's 51rst birthday. If you haven't been following us on Twitter already...good god, man, what is wrong with you?!? We're @rockhallweird

    Most importantly, though, today we are launching our summer 2010 campaign project. Taking inspiration from the "Spatula City" commercial in UHF, we will be urging fans to show how much they care by sending spatulas to the Rock Hall Foundation in New York. All we ask is that you attach a gift tag onto your spatula conveying your desire to see Al inducted...but the type of spatula is entirely up to you! Decorate it, paint it, let your creative juices flow if you'd like. And please, be sure to take a picture of your spatula before you send it out. We would like to have a big "Spatula Map" on our home page showing everywhere they're being sent from.

    Also, for those of you with a little more time and money on your hands, we are asking fans to send copies of Al's recent The Essential "Weird Al" Yankovic compilation to specific members of the Rock Hall's nominating committee. This is a new strategy that we're taking this year, targeting the individual committee one-to-one...as Darth Vader said in Star Wars, we'll need to attack them ship-to-ship.

    On our new campaign page, we have listed the thirty-four known members of the nominating committee and, in most cases, where they normally reside/work. If you would like to send a member a CD and a heartfelt letter, please e-mail us to request a member, and then we will get back to you with their contact information. We already have a number of members already spoken for, so send in your request soon!

    Full details and instructions on the new campaign activities can be found here:
    www.allthingsyank.com/rockhall/spatula.htm

    To commemorate our anniversary and our new project, we have also opened up a brand new campaign shop. More items will be added very soon, but to start things off we have parodied--alluded to--ripped off, whatever verb you'd like--two of the biggest pop culture phenomena of the last couple of years, The Dark Knight and the insufferable Twilight franchise. We're especially proud of the "Team Yankovic" design and hope it becomes the next big thing even for those who don't necessarily know about the campaign...after all, making fun of Twilight should be a universally shared experience.

    The new store is here:
    www.tinyurl.com/twilightshop
    (or for you sticklers for real URLs, www.cafepress.com/teamyankovic)

    As said, some more designs will be added in the coming days, and we'll gladly be taking suggestions for things to play up or parody. Think of this new shop as the "Hot Topic" of our stores. All trend, very little substance.

    And of course, you don't necessarily have to send either a spatula or a CD to the Rock Hall to show your support...like before, a nice, polite, heartfelt letter would do just fine. But we need to get their attention, so let's have some fun doing it!

    Get out there, send your spatula, buy your CD, pick your nominating member, be sure to see Al out on the road this summer, and Make the...well, you know the rest!
    4:10 PM

  • Al Odds and Ends

    Current mood:busy

    Wow, it's November! We don't have an actual news update or anything to announce, but we did want to catch everyone up on a few miscellaneous Al things going on.

    Greg is still hard at work on our big documentary, Yankoheit 27 (he decided against the movie's working title, Tyler Perry's Yankoheit 27), sifting through archival footage and sending requests out to various entities for assistance. We will soon update our documentary wishlist on the main site, but by all means, if you have Al concert footage that you yourself had shot that you would be willing to let us use, please give us a holler.

    If you happen to live in or around Los Angeles, you might want to head to The Echoplex on December 8 for the two-day Winston Calling rock/comedy benefit. Al will appear on stage that first night with none other than the Pixies! Tickets are either $20 in advance or $25 the day of the show. You can order general-admission tickets online through TicketWeb: http://www.ticketweb.com/t3/sale/SaleEventDetail?dispatch=loadSelectionData&eventId=500645

    Speaking of Al-related events in Los Angeles, the AlFest 2009 DVD is still for sale, featuring highlights from all the events, live performances, the UHF panel, and even a special video cameo from Al himself. Order here: www.alfest2009.com

    Meanwhile, as we look ahead to the holidays, we are delighted to say that we will again be posting our annual gift guide, offering suggestions on what can be sent to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation to help show Al's body of work. And yes, the recent compilation The Essential "Weird Al" Yankovic will be featured prominently...which leads to the bigger question of, have YOU bought it yet?? All thirty-eight tracks have been completely remastered, sounding better than they ever have before, and the liner introduction by NPR music editor Stephen Thompson makes no bones about it...Al belongs in the Rock Hall! And remember, when you buy things through the links we'll provide, you will in part be helping to fund the campaign, maintain the web site, etc.

    On the same wavelength of buying stuff, we did want to mention to our fellow U.S. fans a huge sale going on online that we won't be reflecting in our holiday guide only because the sale will soon expire after our page goes live. DeepDiscount is having a gigantic across-the-board sale until November 29 on everything...DVDs, books, CDs, etc. It is quite possibly the biggest sale they've ever had, and you don't even need a coupon code this time out!

    Anyway, we bring it up because all of Al's CDs are dirt-cheap during this sale (except for Straight Outta Lynwood, only because it seems to be on permanent backorder there or something). Al's back catalog had recently gone down in price in general at retail, so this current sale at DeepDiscount really puts them in the "you can't pass this up" category. These are quite possibly the lowest prices these albums have ever been offered for by a retail outlet.

    As of this blog update, these are the current sale prices (current RIAA sales statuses noted in parentheses)....

    "Weird Al" Yankovic - $5.59 (not yet Platinum)
    In 3-D - $5.59 (not yet Double Platinum)
    Dare to Be Stupid - $5.59 (not yet Double Platinum)
    Even Worse - $6.29 (not yet Double Platinum)
    Greatest Hits - $6.29 (not yet Gold - includes Polka Party! tracks no longer available on CD)
    Off the Deep End - $6.29 (not yet Double Platinum)
    The Food Album - $6.29 (not yet Platinum - includes Polka Party! and UHF tracks no longer available on CD)
    Alapalooza - $6.29 (not yet Platinum)
    Greatest Hits Volume II - $6.29 (not yet Gold - includes Polka Party! and UHF tracks no longer available on CD)
    Bad Hair Day - $6.99 (not yet Double Platinum)
    Running with Scissors - $6.29 (not yet Double Platinum)
    Poodle Hat - $6.29 (not yet Gold)

    In addition to Al's own albums, there are also sales on some of the other Al-related releases of the last couple of years such as the Pokemon 2000 soundtrack, the Halloween II soundtrack (featuring an excerpt of Al's cameo on the explicit version), and the Simpsons Testify CD...not to mention even bigger sales on such Al DVDs as UHF and The Ultimate Video Collection.

    This is the perfect time to fill those holes in your Al collection...and by buying them from a retail outlet you'll not only be contributing to the albums' respective sales status, but you'll also be giving Al his due royalties. Just be sure to get your order(s) in by November 29...even if a certain album is out of stock, you'll get it as soon as it comes back in, and at the price you ordered it for!

    Speaking of Halloween II, it seems as if it has been quietly announced that the movie will be released on DVD on January 12. So if you want to own Al's hilarious cameo as he razzes Dr. Loomis on a talk show while host Chris Hardwick looks on, click here to pre-order it (or click here for the Blu-ray).

    And speaking even more of movies, Al appears on the recently released anniversary edition of Say Anything (um, of course), showing up in an "I Love the..."-style featurette poking fun at the film. If you don't have the DVD yet, order here (here for Blu-ray).

    And speaking even MORE of movies, head to your local multiplex December 16, as Al will be the featured guest on the one-night-only RiffTrax LIVE: Christmas Shorts-Stravaganza!, appearing alongside Mystery Science Theater 3000 stars Michael J. Nelson, Kevin Murphy, and Bill Corbett as they mock a number of Christmas-themed short subjects. This will be a satellite-provided live feed, and hundreds of theaters across the country will be showing it. Click here to find one near you and order tickets: http://www.ncm.com/Fathom/Comedy/RiffTrax_Xmas_Live.aspx

    And in addition to continuing work on Yankoheit 27, we are slowly formulating our big mail drive for next year. We can't say too much just yet, but we guarantee that you will not think of a better way to express your love for Al.
    5:40 AM

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