Coffee Talk #372: My “Weird” Al Accordion Confession

I recently downloaded every polka by “Weird” Al Yankovic to serve as my soundtrack for my trip to Hawaii. And really, nothing says tropical island fun or celebrating your brother’s wedding like…

Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, Novak Djokovic’s Wimbledon victory, your favorite BBQ food, or looking forward to airplane movies, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

I recently downloaded every polka medley by “Weird” Al Yankovic to serve as my soundtrack for my trip to Hawaii. And really, nothing says tropical island fun or celebrating your brother’s wedding like a “Weird” Al polka. I’ve always loved “Weird” Al. When I was a kid, I thought he was hilarious. As I grew older, I learned to appreciate his witty parodies and his clever polka arrangements. He’s just awesome.

“Weird” Al is so awesome that he inspired me to learn how to play the accordion in grade school. I defy you to think of three instruments lamer than the accordion. (You can’t.) That didn’t matter to me. The accordion was one of Al’s most potent weapons and I wanted to be more like him. Who doesn’t?!?

Today I have two questions for you. 1) Have you ever been inspired to do something silly or lame because of music, movies, or games? 2) Which “Weird” Al polka medley is best? Click on the links below for samples!

These polkas are fantastic. The arrangements are funny and expertly done. The song choices do a great job of reminding you of popular songs of a certain era. “Weird” Al 4 life!!!

Author: RPadTV

https://rpad.tv

123 thoughts on “Coffee Talk #372: My “Weird” Al Accordion Confession”

  1. Okay… before I display my awesome surprise for everyone… I'm gonna stay on topic.

    Ray… I accept your challenge.

    1) French Horn

    2) Recorder (unless of course it's a small child)

    3) Oboe

    Unlike the preceding "musicians"… at least the schmuck with the accordion has personality.

    To answer the question -"Have you ever been inspired to do something silly or lame because of music, movies, or games?"-… the answer is yes… I call it life.

    The second question is hard. I like them all so much. Polka Your Eyes out was the right place and right time for me, so it has the most sentimental value to me. But all of them are very well done and hard to judge.

    My favorite polka song EVER… has to be the Steeler Fight Song.

    Yoi and Double Yoi!

    1. I accept your challenge of the challenge and raise you a Frottoir and the double key-tar.

      3. When I think bagpipes… I think of Rowdy Roddy Piper and Groundskeeper Willy.

        That's pretty cool.

        Also, there's a band called the Real McKenzies that ROCK the bagpipes. Let's not forget about the Dropkick Murphys (Big Blak will back me up there).

        In all fairness though, you have to inflate them for like 20 minutes before you can play anything… that's pretty lame.

      6. I had to Google frottoir…I agree in it's lameness, but at least the person playing one has to have a little bit of spunk in them. Annoying, yes. Lame… not necessarily.

      1. One example does not a cool instrument make. There are many, many more examples of cool songs with accordions than anything aforementioned.

        If I MUST replace it… let me throw in the Didgeridoo.

        *edit* And I know you know that I feel the Beatles were lame performers. Adding something like a french horn only solidifies that theory. That song in particular would have been less lame without the french horn as it was well written.

  2. Back… by popular demand…. *drumroll*

    <img src="http://forums.g4tv.com/picture.php?albumid=200&pictureid=1182"&gt;
    <img src="http://forums.g4tv.com/picture.php?albumid=200&pictureid=1183"&gt;
    <img src="http://forums.g4tv.com/picture.php?albumid=200&pictureid=1184"&gt;
    <img src="http://forums.g4tv.com/picture.php?albumid=200&pictureid=1261"&gt;
    <img src="http://forums.g4tv.com/picture.php?albumid=200&pictureid=1434"&gt;
    <img src="http://forums.g4tv.com/picture.php?albumid=200&pictureid=1316"&gt;

    These are the one s of the folks who are still around these parts. If I'm missing some one that I made one for (I look at some and can't remember) let me know and I'll edit this.

    I'm just gonna post these for now and see how the page loads. If it gets slower or seems like it will… I'll post almost all of them on different threads.

    Now for the folks I never made one for (and everyone really)… If my experiments go smoothly and Ray gives the okay… I'll make new ones, optimize old ones, and even take requests for new ideas.

    Happy Fourth.

    2. They are all blue ? boxes on Safari. Perhaps the host is not allowing them? I can't see them on my end at least.

      I must know what they are!!

      1. They don't work on my Safari either… but they work in FF and Chrome. I assume IE too.

        But… that makes this a good test.

  3. Everyone has that weird quirk in music tastes. Mine is a bit more centric to my location, but I do like zydeco music at times. The rhythms and cajun french sound pretty nice. Especially in a large social setting.

  5. Here is a nice article depicting how old and relatively inferior the architecture on our consoles have become. Really puts things into perspective. The 360 architecture is 7 years old. I honestly think machines should be cheaper and come out every 4-5 years as opposed to a 10 year life cycle. I don't think that life cycle will be viable with OnLive and similar services always upgrading.
    http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2011/07/arm-c…

    edit: actually the chip designs for the 360 are probably closer to 9 than 7. The memory on both machines are pretty slow as well.

    2. Damn it!

      I was saving that one.

      If the cowbell wasn't so lame, that BOC sketch on SNL wouldn't have been so funny.

  7. @ Ray

    I get logged out of ID every time I refresh the page. Is that something I'm doing wrong?

    @ everyone else

    This next set were ones I made for other people you may recall.

    <img src="http://forums.g4tv.com/picture.php?albumid=200&pictureid=1440"&gt;
    <img src="http://forums.g4tv.com/picture.php?albumid=200&pictureid=1705"&gt;
    <img src="http://forums.g4tv.com/picture.php?albumid=200&pictureid=1695"&gt;
    <img src="http://forums.g4tv.com/picture.php?albumid=200&pictureid=1472"&gt;
    <img src="http://forums.g4tv.com/picture.php?albumid=200&pictureid=1974"&gt;
    <img src="http://forums.g4tv.com/picture.php?albumid=200&pictureid=1337"&gt;
    <img src="http://forums.g4tv.com/picture.php?albumid=200&pictureid=1317"&gt;

    More to come.

      1. On the Mac, and it seems to only be Firefox… but I'm not positive.

        If it is only Firefox, I'll leave this post the way it is without editing it.

  8. What about the kazoo!!!! Mexican norteñas all use accordions and my fave accordion player is Ramon Ayala, that guy is bad ass. He did inspire me to learn the accordion but then i realized how hard it was and gave up lol.

  11. I'm sorry but a piccolo is pretty lame, well the dude I knew that played it was about 6'1 and about 230-250lbs and he was/is lame.

      2. I used to see that gut all the time when I was little and that was pretty funny!

      3. Great seeing my family in Hawaii. I'm in Waikiki, which is a total tourist zone. After spending time in Phuket, Krabi, and Koh Samui, Waikiki feels like a crap version of a Thai beach town. The North Shore is much better and way more real. Hopefully I'll get to go to some other islands next week.

        Also, the two Kona coffees I've tried are good, but not outstanding. Part of it is that they were made by hacks on bad equipment. I want to get some good beans and brew on my Chemex (with the Coava Cone, of course).

      7. yes I probably should know better. in my defense I know how to properly 'shih-tzu' which most people mess up.

  12. Great seeing my family in Hawaii. I'm in Waikiki, which is a total tourist zone. After spending time in Phuket, Krabi, and Koh Samui, Waikiki feels like a crap version of a Thai beach town. The North Shore is much better and way more real. Hopefully I'll get to go to some other islands next week.

    Also, the two Kona coffees I've tried are good, but not outstanding. Part of it is that they were made by hacks on bad equipment. I want to get some good beans and brew on my Chemex (with the Coava Cone, of course).

  16. <img src=http://wheresrandysavage.tumblr.com/photo/1280/7272140047/1/tumblr_lnvkcnrsfi1qfhcap>

    1. Tried posting Big Blak's picture for him, and now that's not showing up for me. I also can't edit the post. Weird. N8R's pics never showed up on my computer though either (chrome or firefox). Not sure what's up with it.

      1. I heard the one in Barstow wasn't as bad as the one I went to.

        I will say this though… No matter how rich or poor you are, no matter what race you are, or whether you're handicapped or not… the DMV will make you wait alongside of everyone else.

        That alone makes them the fairest government department in the state of California.

        @ Ray

        I tried posting this from FF twice… both times the wheel just spun on me.

      2. I absolutely love that song man. I don't think I have heard of Primus but I know I would like them.

      4. I absolutely love that song man. I don't think I have heard of Primus but I know I would like them.

  22. I see the pics N8 posted on my iPad. The only problem I'm running into with ID is login issues using iOS devices from time to time. I try to login using WordPress and it just tells me my credentials are bad. Same with ID. I should probably reboot those devices though in case there is a cache problem.

    1. Yeah it does that to me on some of the older articles with logging in. I don't know why the pictures are showing up for some, but not for all. I can't see N8R's pics on my laptop (firefox and chrome) or my ipod touch.

  23. you guys gotta look at this final fantasy stop motion video…its kinda awesome

  24. So I just got a new phone (kind of). My fiance and I finally merged our accounts and I let her take my upgrade so she could get the iPhone 4 and keep her unlimited data. Then I took her blackberry so that I could be locked into unlimited data as well, and my plan is to now just find another smartphone to activate later when I can afford to buy one (not a contract upgrade or anything) so that it will also be eligible for the unlimited data. The great thing is that since we switched to a family plan and did all of this, my fiance's monthly plan only increased in price by $30 (for my data plan).

    An interesting rumor that the lady we dealt with today (different than the guy I tweeted about which helped us yesterday) mentioned was that the way the unlimited plans have been explained to her so far is that anyone with an unlimited data plan will still get unlimited data when they upgrade to a new phone AS LONG as it is also a smart phone. Then, if at ANY time you put a non-smart phone on the contract (say your phone breaks and you put an old flip phone on the account until you can get to the verizon store, etc.) you will automatically lose the unlimited plan. Sounds sketchy, but who knows. That would be nice since I never plan on downgrading from a smartphone. That would be like insisting I go back to a 486 instead of the laptop I have now, lol.

    Anyways, new conspiracy theories in the air. I'm glad we both got locked into the unlimited data, even though I'm still not convinced I will use a ton of data when I get a smartphone I want. I don't like the idea of not having unlimited simply because I don't like being limited on anything. I would have liked to get a new phone today, but I wanted her to get an iPhone since I can just get another phone later, or since I have the blackberry I can just wait until I can use her upgrade in several months so it's not a big deal. Still getting used to the blackberry, and wanting to delete everything that my fiance had on it—but pretty happy with it overall.

  25. I just picked up Def Jam Rapstar at best buy for $10 yesterday and i'm looking to pick up dead rising 2 this weekend, either on Amazon or Best Buy for $20.00. I'm really looking forward to Rapstar though.

    1. I just picked up Def Jam Rapstar for my fiance earlier today. She really wanted this game since it came out, but I couldn't justify spending $60 on it, $10 was a bargain I couldn't pass up though.

  29. My wife will be giving birth at about 8:00 pm tonight. Wish us luck. I'll post a pic when I can.

    3. Gratz good sir. Let us know how it went. Guess your gaming is gonna be a bit nonexistent for the next few months!

      1. Gha! Tell me about it! And I was just starting to get really hooked onto Fallout 3. I'm about halfway through and I really want to finish it and enjoy it more.

        -M

      2. I think I actually did more gaming for the first 6-8 months of my oldest's life than I did in any compressed amount of time.

        When I got home from work, I would let my wife get her sleep. Until a baby starts crawling, they stay wherever you put them. When they want something, they holler. Between having a baby swing and one of those bouncy chairs… babies will be happy people.

        Fallout 3 is a good one too because you can pause it at any time. The online multiplayer games are the ones that are not new daddy friendly.

      1. He's only 4 and a half, and his birthday falls in early January (the 10th), which means he's actually got 2 more years the way it is out here because they have to either be 6, or have their 6th birthday fall on or before Dec 31st. But he's already doing basic math, some sight words, can count to 100, etc. So by the time he gets into school he's going to be way ahead.

      2. So… he doesn't start this year… but next year. That's awesome.

        My daughter (the younger one) is starting school this year. This will be the first time in 9 years that there have been no children to look after during the day… I'm kind of tripped out.

        My wife has no idea what she will do with herself. I'm saying she should go back to work, but she hasn't worked in 6 years and her last job was in PA. Given the employment situation… it may be easier said than done.

        Either way… it's weird for us. It also doesn't help that my kids' school start making all Kindergarten classes full day as of this coming year.

      3. No, he won't even start next year unless we move to a different school district with different rules. At least that's my understanding. I'll need to double check with the local schools though.

      4. That's not how it works here or in PA.

        Basically, when the kid turns 5, they start school at the soonest start of the school year. My son's birthday is in early August and he usually starts school in mid August. There fore, he will be turning 9 in less than a month and starting 4th grade in a little more than a month.

        @saving you from the math

        He was 5 for his entire Kindergarten year.

        The only reason I could see for AZ to do things different (which they are no strangers to doing… Daylight Savings, MLK Day, etc) is because they want to stack the graduation numbers… Which is a pissing contest for them.

      5. It's done different;y by school district out here. So in Tempe, it would be exactly as you described it, where is in Queen Creek it's the way I described it. Makes no sense, but it's Arizona. Nothing here makes much sense.

      7. We're actually looking at charter schools since we're in a "new" school district. I have no issues with public school, but I'd rather they work out the kinks on somebody else's kids, ya know?

    1. Congratulations Iceman! Can't wait to hear more updates and see some more pics. Although, as I'm sure you've been up for quite a bit of this you probably need some rest at some point too. Take care!

      @N8

      thanks for posting this!

  34. So apparently… I've been refreshing the page the last couple days and turns out, all I had to do was drop everything in the url after .tv and I could see the site…

  35. Thanks for posting that, N8. My wife and I have been discharged from the hospital, but the baby will remain their for the next two weeks at least. That's the standard procedure for premature babies. I'll be on my way back to the hospital shortly.

    Thank you guys for all of your support and good wishes (and N8 for the advice).

    Also; sorry, Mr. Padilla for stealing the spotlight from your brother's wedding (ha, ha). I hope you're enjoying yourself and getting piss drunk!

    -M

    1. Wow… stay awesome, dude.

      If they would have told me that one of my kids had to stay an extra 2 weeks… I don't know how I would have handled it. Not to scare you or anything… but here's why.

      When it comes to "standard procedure" for hospital stay times… all of that is basically governed by insurance companies. The insurance will only pay for so much while the hospital is not trying to lose money. So the medical community got together with the insurance community and came up with a set of "standards" that the insurance community has been shaving down ever since.

      Put it like this… when my son was born, I wandered the same floor we were on and found these AWESOME maternity suites just down the hall from the room my wife was in. They had a wood finish crib in there, an oak armoire, the bed was also trimmed with oak sides and posts but did all the things a hospital bed does, and the tv was like 3 times bigger. The nurse came to fetch me and I asked her "why can't my wife get in this room?" (since it was obviously vacant), and she said straight up "these rooms are for our patients who pay with cash or check".

      Also, they made my wife stay an extra day because we found out during birth that she was anemic. We found this out because of the massive pool of blood on the floor. Anyway, she hated the thought of not going home so she was distraught with the doctor. During the doctor's "calm down" speech, she said "If it wasn't for your insurance, we would have kept you for 5 days rather than 3 regardless of your condition. They hold us down to 3 days for maternity when 5 was the standard when my kids were born."

      There's a documentary called something like "The Business of Life" (not sure if that's the right name" that goes into great detail about not only this, but all those people that want to convince us that natural births and water births and all that stuff is worth giving them your money for. It's a little gross.

      @ Ray

      I saw a fake grass skirt for sale at Big Lots the other day and I thought of you. We want pics of hula lessons!

      1. Damn, thanks for making me think even less of those bastard insurance companies than I already do. I never liked the medical insurance business since it seems to operate on such a different level than the other insurance products. Of course, they point to the rampant medical malpractice suits that drive up the cost of insurance. The lawyers blame the doctors while the doctors blame the insurance companies and the whole cycle of shit keeps snowballing into the extremely large shitball we have today.

        The worst part is that the shit snowball of healthcare is still rolling down a mountain that makes Olympus Mons look like a kiddie slope.

        The last thing I need to do is watch a documentary that is going to get me even more pissed off at the system that has been so obviously hijacked by greed that even Bernie Madoff would look at it and say: "Damn!"

        -M

    2. "For you (insert child's name) there is a real treat in store. One day THIS will be yours!"

      **Iceman sweeps his arm out wide showcasing his Explorer.

      2. AHhh! (*SOB!!*) I don't even have my Explorer anymore! I had to sell her two weeks ago because her engine overheated and caused damage to the engine block. It would have been $500 for a replacement engine and then another $400-$500 for the labor & installation. I ended up selling her to the mechanic for $400 (pretty much book value). Of course, my sister believes that he payed $398 dollars too much.

        Anyway, the mechanic (a friend of the family, by the way) is going to buy an engine and fix her up and give it to a friend of his (I met him) so that he can get around and go to his chemo sessions without inconveniencing his family members. I'll chalk this up as my charitable contribution for the year. I'll be using my wife's car for the foreseeable future since she won't be needing it for quite a while. That will give me some time to save up for another car.

        Any suggestions? (No minivans and obviously, no sports cars either).

        -M

        PS- My son's inheritance will actually be the small stash of silver and gold bullion that I've managed to scrape together. Unfortunately, my outlook for the dollar is pessimistic at best, and you may be one of the few people out there that would understand why without having me explain.

      3. I'd suggest a truck. Four doors, and 8 cylinders. You will need this to haul larger items now like swing sets, basketball goals, etc. Also trucks are just awesome. Whenever you get asked "What do you want for Christmas/Birthday?" You can just tell them something for your truck….like a boat.

        I can't even consider a car or anything else for that matter since I have only driven trucks my whole life. Too convenient. Also if you drive a full sized truck, it's hard to go to anything smaller and less powerful.

        @the real inheritance
        Good one. Do you think gold will always have that value or will some other precious earth metal/mineral will displace it one day in our digital economy?

      4. Smartguy; (sorry for the delay in responding)

        I don't really want a car, but I can't really justify a (traditional) truck, either. I think I'm going to stick to an SUV. I'm pretty picky when it comes to vehicles, though. I want to get an American SUV or at least one that was assembled in this country. I kind of want to get another Explorer (and, yes, I know it's made in Mexico), but my wife wants me to get a Lexus or an X5. I really don't want a Toyota (Lexus), though. I don't want to give the Japanese any more money after buying Bayonetta. Unfortunately, we don't really have the money for an SUV, so it looks like either my wife would have to go back to work or I hit up the First Union National Bank of my Parents (they have great rates, but the guilt trips make you feel like you are paying four times over).

        @ the real inheritance;

        The value of anything is subjective, but in short; No. No other precious metal will replace gold in our lifetime. Gold (for better or worse) is universal money. Silver is the runner up since it (like gold) has historically been used as money for us commoners, merchants, and traders. Plus, it has the added benefit of being plentiful. Platinum and palladium are the new kids on the block. They are both too unproven and untested to be considered real money. I wouldn't risk my savings with either of them. Gold, on the other hand, is being hoarded by the Federal Reserve (a.k.a. the greatest thieves in all of human history), the world's biggest banks, and countries like India and China. You should be, too. Gold WILL be at $2,000 per ounce in the near future (within a year or two at most) if the Fedral Reserve continues their policy of rampant inflation known as "quantative easing" or QE, and QE2 (round three is probably just around the corner). The dollar (Federal Reserve Note) is pretty much done. It is in it's death throes. The problem is that I don't know exactly when it will be "dumped" in favor of somehing else. It could be next month, next year, or next decade. But whenever it happens, I will be ready for it. Unfortunately, those who have their wealth or savings in dollars will be royally f**ked. It's happened in other countries around the world countless times from ancient Rome to post-WWI Germany. It will happen here in the US. The dollars' status as the world's reserve currency will not last long. Anyone who thinks otherwise is either very foolish or extremely arrogant.

        The new digital economy you speak of is nothing more than a new medium for the exchange of money. At the end of the day, you still have to exchange something for goods and services, and it is not going to be simply a line of code. That line of code still has to represent something in the real world. For something to be considered as sound money or to function as money, it has to be 1) Portable, 2) Divisible, 3) Have inherent value, 4) Be easily recognizable, 5) Unable to be counterfeited, 6) Have a finite supply and 7) [Damn, O.K., I forgot this one]. A "digital currency" would only meet maybe two of these criteria and would therefore, not be considered sound money. The US dollar doesn't even meet all of these criteria, because it is not sound money (it's fiat money). But gold and silver do, and that is just one of the reasons it will ALWAYS be valuable or hold it's value throughout time.

        Just remember; "Gold is the currency of kings. Silver is the currency of merchants. Barter is the currency of phesants. And debt is the currency of slaves." The Fedral Reserve Note (a.k.a. The US Dollar) is an instrument of debt, not an instrument of wealth. Hold onto it at your own peril because it has made slaves of us all.

        -M

  36. @Iceman

    Both my Step-Brother and Step-Sister were born premature, and both turned out just fine. So while I wish you well and will keep your family in my thoughts, I'm shure everything will be just fine.

    As an aside, my son was born with born with a hypospadia. Basically, his urethra opened up in the wrong place and he had to have corrective surgery at 6 months to get it fixed. It wasn't a big deal or anything, but I know from experience that nothing scares a new parent quite like the word "complication," especially from the doctor who was doing the circumcision.

    1. That is just crazy. I don't think I'd be able to handle that (emotionally). I'm glad everything worked out well for him. I just hate seeing the little guy hooked up to all of those tubes and wires getting oxygen, drugs, photo therapy, and formula by artificial means. It's like his hooked into the Matrix.

      Ultimately, I know he'll be O.K. and that there are infants in much worse condition that turn out just fine, but I just can't shake the desire of wanting to have him at home now with us instead of in a plastic box 15 miles away fighting his own Agent Smith.

      -M

  37. -"Basically, his urethra opened up in the wrong place and he had to have corrective surgery at 6 months to get it fixed."-

    He didn't pee out of his nose, did he? Because I dated a girl like that once and it was a total dealbreaker.

    (Many apologies for poking at this… but I couldn't resist)

    1. I laghed at that if it makes you feel any better.

      Actually, I know some people that wouldn't mind a girl peeing out of her nose if it meant they could get laid. She'd just have to be hot.

      Hell, R. Kelly would love a girl like that! And he'd even write a new song about it, too.

      -M

  38. Why is it that the comments I post on my iPhone on this site do not show up when I'm browsing at home? I assume that my iPhone 3G uses Safari and I also use Safari when I go online with my MacBook at home. What gives?

    -M

    2. @Ray

      This could be just me or a caching issue as well, but the 'recent comments' section hasn't been reloading for a couple days now. No matter who else posts that area stays the same for me. Not sure if you had any idea why, or if anyone else had this issue.

      @Iceman

      I'm not sure about why, but I have noticed an increasing amount of posts which are replies being hidden until you click the section under the original post which says how many replies there are to that post.

      2. Chrome on win 7. Not sure what's up. It just sort of happened a couple days ago.

      3. Has it stopped happening? Perhaps ID was on the fritz at the time. I'm still not familiar with the system's quirks and glitches on a user level and haven't experience anything strange myself.

      4. Actually yes it has just recently stopped doing that. I guess all I have to do to fix my computer problems is bring them up on here and they disappear. If only all solutions were that easy.

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