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Tag: Weird Wilbur

  • YouTube talents…

    YouTube talents…

    November is upon us and I feel the need to focus on YouTube talents today…

    One of my favorite ways to kill time is to troll YouTube for cool videos. Sometimes, I like to see if I can find old songs I thought I had long forgotten. Sometimes I get curious about a certain user’s videos and start looking though their catalog. That’s how I found my old friend, Weird Wilbur, whom I have written about several times on Pop Rock Nation. Wilbur’s songs are funny and profane and probably offend people as much as they make some folks laugh.


    “Fuck You Texas” is probably Weird Wilbur’s biggest “hit”.

    But I have also found some other talented folks on YouTube who aren’t as inflammatory as Wilbur can be. One such user is my friend George, who goes by the name “shargram” on YouTube. I first encountered George when I was looking for a video of the song, “Mary Skeffington”. I knew it as an Olivia Newton-John number, but it was also a Gerry Rafferty song. And George covered it himself and posted the video on YouTube.


    I commented on George’s video and he answered back. Now he watches my videos.

    From George’s page, I ran into a few other YouTube talents. Here’s a video by my YouTube friend, Dave, whose YouTube handle is “A297MAN104”. Dave writes and performs a lot of his own songs.


    “To A Better Place” is a song by Dave, but is sung by Steve Jackson in this video.

    Sometimes I run into YouTube talents after they leave me a comment on my own page. Here’s a video by Jonas Sköld, a guy who plays a mean guitar and sings.


    Here Jonas sings his version of “The Lucky One”, a song originally made famous by Alison Krauss and Union Station.

    I found Frets Nirvana on one of George’s videos and was impressed by his guitar playing. He’s quite the YouTube talent!


    Here’s an original composition called “Jack Rabbit”, dedicated to a recently deceased rabbit named Jack.

    I found Ken Turetzky on a Red Peters compilation album that I reviewed on Epinions.com. He sought me out and sent me more music. We have since become friends and I do enjoy his YouTube videos…


    Here’s Ken performing his ever popular hit, “My Fat Ass Itches”. There are days when I really relate to this song too well.

    Here’s a video by my friend, Tim, whom I originally met on a message board for exMormons. He and his wife, Lisa, happen to be talented animators and Tim also plays a mean electric guitar.


    A Halloween cartoon.


    Here you can see Tim jam with his electric guitar as he sings his praises to G.I. Joe…

    I myself have made some videos. I like to find songs that aren’t particularly well known and put my own spin on them. Unfortunately, I have to use pre-recorded versions of music because I don’t have any talented guitar or piano players as friends who live close to me. I often wish I had stuck with the piano lessons my mom arranged for me when I was a small child. I also don’t do well on camera, so my videos are all photos from my travels.


    Yours truly singing “Angel From Montgomery”, one of my more successful covers.

    I mostly make YouTube videos for fun and because I like to experiment with music. It’s not something I do for money, nor do I have any delusions that I’ll ever be famous. It’s just a creative outlet, much like writing. I probably shouldn’t share my videos, but every once in awhile, they lead to meeting someone cool and talented on YouTube. Of course I like it for the more established artists, too. But every once in awhile, I like to give a shoutout to people who are just hiding in YouTube’s depths, waiting to be discovered.

  • Songs that cheer me up…

    Songs that cheer me up…

    When things go south, sometimes I like to listen to songs that cheer me up…

    My husband, Bill, has been out of town since last Thursday. Although I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself and sometimes even enjoy the solitude, the last few days have been difficult for me. Besides feeling sad, lonely, and bored, I have also been dealing with the house we’re renting, which has some problems that our landlord doesn’t seem interested in correcting. The bright side is, in less than three months, our lease will be up and we’ll be free to move. The dark side is, Bill is still looking for his first post-Army job.

    Last night, things kind of came to a head. I had been fretting about the busted pipe connected to the pool pump which gushes like a geyser and can’t be allowed to run. But then the other night, as I was trying in vain to fall back to sleep, the smoke alarms sounded for no apparent reason. It happened during the wee hours of the morning. I couldn’t discern which of the eight smoke alarms was causing the racket because the horn only sounded for a few seconds… long enough to scare the daylights out of me and completely obliterate any hope that I’d get back to sleep. That night the smoke alarms went off twice and pretty much ruined my REM state.

    I had no problems with the smoke alarms again until about 7:00pm, when they went off again, once again almost giving me a heart attack. After the second incident in twenty minutes, I got pissed off and started disconnecting the alarms, one by one. I slept fine last night and Bill comes home today. Still, I’m feeling pretty pissed about this house and needed to hear some songs to cheer me up. In this particular instance, such songs might be about revenge. Here’s a favorite revenge song by Heywood Banks…


    Heywood Banks cracks me up as he sings about the things he might do to get revenge on someone who messes with him…

    I would probably dedicate this to the property managers who act like they can’t be bothered to do anything but take our $1700 a month…


    Miles Betterman is a very funny, witty guy. I once shared this video on my blog and he left me a common. It gave me a thrill!

    Miles follows up with this hilarious song called “I Hate The World”. I relate on so many levels.


    I was feeling like this night as my heart rate struggled to get back to normal.

    Awesome Americana musician Paul Thorn came up with this hysterical song, “It’s A Great Day To Whup Somebody’s Ass”…


    I will have to listen to this song if I end up writing one of my trademark nastygrams to our landlord… On the other hand, I might just go to the Department of Health and complain about the filthy swimming pool he doesn’t want to fix.

    While I don’t hate Texas and may even decide to stay here, our move here has been fraught with issues. My friend Weird Wilbur came up with this anthem after some local government officials hassled him over his music. This song makes me laugh, though I wouldn’t want to play it in a Texas roadhouse.


    Yeah… I don’t hate Texas, really, but I hate where we live. I want to move.

    I just discovered Dave this morning when he noticed a comment I left on a fellow YouTuber’s recording. He listened to one of my songs, which prompted me to check out his channel. He did a great cover of “She’s Not There” by The Zombies which made me laugh and smile.


    I am grateful for the smile this put on my face this morning. I needed that in the worst way.

    Truthfully, I know these issues are temporary and we’ll get out of this place soon… This song hasn’t failed to cheer me up.


    Though we aren’t at war, it feels like one could start…

    Hopefully not. For now, I’ll just look forward to Bill coming home today and do my best to find us a new lot in life. Wish me luck!

  • Fight the power!

    Back when I was in the Peace Corps, a few of my colleagues were upset about a local kiosk owner ripping us off. A friend of mine said, “C’mon Jenny, fight the “green shack” power!

    Lately, I’ve been feeling like protesting. Ever since our move in late July, I have had to deal with several companies that seem ill inclined to either do what they are being paid to do or correct their mistakes. I don’t want to get too much into my personal issues because if I start writing about them here, I will likely get carried away and never get around to writing about music. But I will say that these recent issues, which seriously, in the grand scheme of things are probably pretty minor, have made me feel kind of feisty. No one likes to feel like they’re being ripped off or cheated. No one likes to feel oppressed by “the man”. No one likes to pay for services not received. Those feelings have led to some great songs.

    Fight The Power by The Isley Brothers

    I was first introduced to this song by my friend, Weird Wilbur, who had used it as background music for one of his videos on YouTube. There’s something about this funky groove that makes me want to fight the power.

    Fight The Power by Public Enemy

    Years later, Public Enemy had their own hit called “Fight The Power”. It was used as the theme for Spike Lee’s film, Do The Right Thing, and includes samples from James Brown’s “Hot Pants”. Granted, both “Fight The Powers” are about racial oppression, but in the end, we all hate being screwed.

    Cash In Your Face by Stevie Wonder

    “Cash In Your Face” is a great song by Stevie Wonder addressing racial discrimination. The lyrics are heartbreaking; Stevie adopts a flat voice as he plays the man in charge denying housing or employment to people of color.

    Backstabbers by The O’Jays

    “What they doin’?” Smiling in your face, right? While they smile at you, they screw you over. This song is about dishonest “friends” trying to steal the singer’s woman. Personally, I don’t think it’s possible for people to steal other peoples’ significant others. However, the “smiling in your face” motif definitely comes into play when you’re dealing with politicians and customer service people. They bullshit you into thinking they’re helping you, when in fact you’re about to get it.

    Fucked Up, Fucked Over, and Hungry by Weird Wilbur

    Here’s a song by Weird Wilbur about a guy who gets screwed over when trying to launch a record deal because he fell for bullshit promises.

    If I Had The Copyright (The F Word Song) by Carla Ulbrich

    This song isn’t so much about being screwed by the man. It’s more about someone imagining being one of the wealthy making money off others. For some reason, this song skips at the end. Other versions are on YouTube, but they’re bleeped and I’m in the mood for profanity. I must warn you that the above song is not work or kid friendly.

    Anyway, I know I should write letters, make phone calls, and complain a lot. But despite appearances, I don’t enjoy complaining and I hate being on the phone with people who are both unsympathetic and uninformed. Anyway, I hope to be in a better mood by Friday.