Friday Video: Sir Mix-a-Lot & The Seattle Symphony

I love when symphony orchestras do things that you don't expect. I mean sure they can play Beethoven or Mozart, but I find it cool when they play along to live showings of movies or Looney Tunes or even Baby Shark. So when I recently learned about this video of Sir Mix-a-Lot with the Seattle symphony orchestra, well, mind blown. Enjoy!

Even White Boys Got To Shout

We occasionally have dance parties in our house where we play fun songs and our five year old and two year old boys dance and jump around. Fortunately, there are no cameras to document this (particularly of their father dancing). Anyway, Dynamite by Taio Cruz and Taylor Swift's Shake It Off are popular songs, but I like going back to "classic" songs like It Takes Two by Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock and Groove Is In The Heart by Dee-Lite. Over the weekend, we added Sir Mix-a-Lot's Baby Got Back to the playlist. Now, perhaps the lyrics aren't appropriate for pre-kindergarten kids though we skipped over the "I like big butts and I can not lie" line. It's not like they understand what "But Fonda ain't got a motor in the back of her Honda" means.

Anyway, the point of the post is The Moose's reaction to hearing the song. My five year old said, "That's not even music."

I grounded him for a week.

Asking For Forgiveness

Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, begins on Tuesday evening. I'll spend much of the Tuesday evening and Wednesday at synagogue praying for forgiveness while also trying not to think about the fact that I'm not eating or drinking. However, another important part of this holiday is asking those you have wronged over the past year for forgiveness. While I still need to contact several people, in looking at my blog posts, I think there's some atoning I have to do.

I apologize to Chicago Cubs OF Chris Coghlan for essentially calling him a racist. That wasn't fair. He might be a dirty baseball player, but I crossed the line.

I'm sorry for criticizing the grammar used by Dale Lolley, the Pittsburgh Steelers beat reporter for the Observer-Reporter of Washington (PA)

I'm sorry for using Sir Mix-a-Lot's Baby Got Back to describe the 2015 Pittsburgh Penguins draft class.

I'm sorry for making fun of Parents Magazine. I may even read one of the last two or three editions that are sitting in a pile under the newspapers.

I'm sorry that we didn't get Jagoff in the dictionary. That would have been cool.

I'm definitely not sorry for winning free burritos for a year again. They are quite tasty.

I'm sorry for criticizing how Peyton Manning dresses. I mean, you would think with the amount of money he makes, he could dress better. I'm going on a tangent here. Sorry for the tangent and sorry Peyton.


For those of you observing Yom Kippur, have an easy and meaningful fast and day. Now, do I need to look at my Twitter posts from the past year to see what I wrote there?

Penguins Got Back (Pittsburgh Penguins Draft Recap)

It seems like less than three weeks ago when I did a recap of the Pittsburgh Pirates draft, but I'm back with thoughts about this weekend's Pittsburgh Penguins draft...inspired by Sir Mix-A-Lot's classic song, Baby Got Back. Enjoy!

Name: Daniel Sprong
Selection: 2nd round (46th overall)
Position: RW
Height: 6-0
Weight: 180
Amateur Team: Charlottetown (QMJHL)

The Penguins went right with the opening few lines with this selection:

I like big butts and I can not lie
You other brothers can't deny
That when a girl walks in with an itty bitty waist
And a round thing in your face
You get "Sprong"

Name: Dominik Simon
Selection: 5th round (137th overall)
Position: C
Height: 5-11
Weight: 176
Amateur Team: Plzen (Czech Republic League)

Yes, you guessed it. Simon is white so...

Then turn around, stick it out
Even white boys got to shout

Name: Frederik Tiffels
Selection: 6th round (167th overall)
Position: LW
Height: 6-0
Weight: 192
Amateur Team: Western Michigan (NCHC)

Tiffels was born in Cologne, Germany. You know what else is German? Mercedes-Benz

Ooh, Rump-o'-smooth-skin
You say you want to get in my Benz?

Name: Nikita Pavlychev
Selection: 7th round (197th overall)
Position: C
Height: 6-7
Weight: 200
Amateur Team: Des Moines (USHL)

From Yaroslavl, Russia, did you know that Nikita has a rigorous workout routine?

So your girlfriend rolls a Honda, playin' workout tapes by Fonda
But Fonda ain't got a motor in the back of her Honda

Let's hope that these future Penguins players have hockey careers as successful as Baby Got Back!


This is either brilliant, or more likely, one of my worst blog posts.

Sean Analyzes Song Lyrics

It’s has been nearly two years since I analyzed lyrics of popular songs. What has kept me from analyzing song lyrics over the past two years? No idea. Anyway, here are lyrics from relatively recent songs.

fun. – We Are Young

Tonight
We are young
So let's set the world on fire
We can burn brighter than the sun

It doesn’t matter what age you are. Setting the world on fire is not okay. I believe they call that arson.

Alicia Keys – This Girl Is On Fire

This girl is on fire
This girl is on fire
She’s walking on fire
This girl is on fire

This is clearly fun.’s fault!

Taylor Swift – 22

I don't know about you
But I'm feeling 22
Everything will be alright
If you keep me next to you
You don't know about me
But I'll bet you want to
Everything will be alright (alright)
If we just keep dancing like we're
22

I’ve admitted to liking Taylor Swift songs in the past. I don’t know about this song though. Artists sometimes write songs thinking back to their younger days. Eddie Money’s I Wanna Go Back and Bryan Adams’ Summer of 69 are examples. So with all of her life experiences, Taylor Swift writes a song about her experiences being 22. That’s fine, except that she’s now all of 23. Nice perspective there, Taylor.

Demi Lovato – Heart Attack

Puttin’ my defenses up
'Cause I don’t wanna fall in love
If I ever did that
I think I’d have a heart attack

Demi Lovato – Give Your Heart a Break

So let me give your heart a break
Give your heart a break
Let me give your heart a break
Your heart a break
Oh, yeah yeah

Is Demi Lovato a cardiologist? What’s with all of her songs about hearts? Demi Lovato is to hearts as Sir Mix-A-Lot is to butts.

Things I Learned Being Home

With the exception of trips to the hospital, doctors’ offices and the rare excursions to grocery stores, I spent most of the past three weeks at home. Therefore, I thought I would share my experiences at home as well as some additional notes from my first few weeks of being a father. (This is basically part two from last week's post.)

- There’s not a worse TV talk show on the air than the Rachael Ray Show. She is painfully annoying. I’d much rather watch two hours (maybe even two consecutive days!) of The View than two minutes of Rachael Ray.

- Speaking of painfully annoying, let’s talk about Bravo. I remember watching Bravo for West Wing reruns, but now, the station is all about Housewives or a former Housewife, Bethenny Frankel. If those programs aren’t airing, the station shows some type of talk show where the housewives talk about the episodes with some random guy who appears to be an executive producer for the shows and/or network. The only way to make the network worse would be to start showing the Rachael Ray Show or have Rachael Ray host the housewives shows.

- The local ABC station, WJLA, sponsored the National Cherry Blossom Festival Parade with promos that included information about Grand Marshall “Brick” from The Middle. I love the fact that the ads never mentioned the actor’s name, Atticus Shaffer, only the character’s name. Did any parade ever say that the grand marshall was Webster instead of Emmanuel Lewis?



- It is so much easier to feed the cat and change the litter box than it is to feed and change the baby.

- Speaking of our cat, I’ve received several questions about how ZIggy is doing with the new baby. On the negative side, Ziggy was overfed when we were in the hospital and gained some weight. Then, I don’t think he was happy about being locked out of several rooms being used by either the baby or guests. Now that things are back to normal (with the exception of the new baby), Ziggy is doing fine. He keeps a safe distance from the baby but is comfortable being in the same room as him if we are there too. Overall, Ziggy is doing just fine.



- I spent time at two hospitals recently, and I didn’t see any doctors or nurses sneaking into rooms together or even flirting with each other. Television shows such as Grey’s Anatomy, Scrubs and even ER always featured "relationships" among employees. I think something might be wrong in the hospitals we visited.

- I am one of those people turns on the air conditioning only when I know that I won’t be using heat for the rest of the season. With the temperature bouncing up and down, however, I’ve switched back and forth between heat and air conditioning recently because I want to make sure that the baby isn’t hot or cold. I hate doing this.

- I’ve noticed that I spend a lot of time walking around the house wearing a burp cloth on my shoulder. It’s quite the fashion statement!

- I am a sucker for VH1 countdown shows. The newest show was the top 40 one-hit wonders of the 1990s. I think they made this show just for me. Anyway, I agree with the selection of Sir Mix-a-Lot's Baby Got Back for #1 and the inclusion of The Macarena, Chumbawamba, Right Said Fred and Vanilla Ice in the top ten. However, the fact that "Rico Suave" was #3 is a travesty. VH1 should be ashamed of themselves for putting Gerardo that high. My only other complaint is Whoomp! There It Is at #40 on the list. 18 years after its debut, the song is currently featured in two commercials for diapers and cell phones. Tag Team deserved better.


(I completely forgot about the Free Mike Tyson shirt at 2:18 mark.)

- Except for walking up and down stairs, I have had no exercise over the past three weeks. Remarkably, I think I’ve lost a few pounds.

Back to life. Back to reality.