This Blog Post is Dedicated to a Band Named Steam

Chances are that you have never head of the late 1960's-early 1970's band Steam. However, there's a very good chance that you have heard of Steam's first and only hit song: "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye". Here's a clip of the band performing (okay, they are more likely lip synching) that song in their heyday.

Over the years that song has been resurrected many times in the form of covers by other bands (such as Bananarama's 1980's version) and being used in ad jingles (like the one for Tide to Go in 2005). This week, the song was resurrected once again on Inauguration Day as Former President George W. Bush (God, how I love saying that!) was boarding a helicopter out of DC and crowds of people were singing that song to him. Of course, there have been a few YouTube clips posted of that incident already such as these gems.

The Wikipedia page about the song has even been updated to include this sentence:

On January 20, 2009, after the 2009 Inauguration of President Barack Obama, the crowd outside the Capitol (which had been estimated at 2 million people at its peak) began singing the song as the helicopter lifted off carrying the former President George W. Bush out of town.

That same page also has an interesting background story about the song that became more famous and longer lasting than the band. The song was originally written by Gary DeCarlo, Paul Leka, and Dave Frashuer in the early 1960's when they were members of a short-lived band called The Chateaus. In 1969 Paul Leka produced a few songs that his ex-Chateaus bandmate Gary DeCarlo recorded for Mercury Records.

This was back in the days of vinyl records when record labels routinely issued seven-inch singles that played at 45 r.p.m. (which was why singles were sometimes called "45's"). Normally a seven-inch vinyl single has two sides: an "A" side featuring the song that is generally played by the radio stations and is considered to have potential as a hit single and a "B" side that includes another song mainly as filler and it is usually considered to be inferior to the "A" side.

The record label liked all the songs that Gary DeCarlo recorded and wanted to issue them as A-sides on the singles. That left the challenge of finding and recording more songs to serve as the B-sides. So Paul Leka and DeCarlo decided to resurrect that song from their former band because they felt that it was inferior enough to serve as a B-side so, together with fellow ex-Chateaus bandmate Dave Frashuer, they recorded it. They improvised parts of the song by singing "na na na" and recycling a drum track from one of DeCarlo's other recording sessions.

Well the record label liked that song so much that they decided to release it to the public as the "A" side of the 45 r.p.m. The musicians who created that record felt too embarrassed by the song to be publicly associated with it so the record label created a fictional band named Steam and the song was released under the Steam name. The song became a hit single in 1969 so Paul Leka assembled a touring band under the Steam name and the group even made a few subsequent recordings that went nowhere.

Steam quickly ran out of, well, steam and they disbanded in 1970. But the song lives on and will probably continue to live on for years to come.

A Bizarre Episode of "The Dr. Phil Show" Featuring Ann Coulter and Alan Colmes

I came home from another round of physical therapy today and I felt tired so I turned on the television to an episode of "The Dr. Phil Show". Dr. Phil was devoting this episode to the inauguration of President Barack Obama (God, how I love to say that) and it started off benignly enough with clips of person on the street interviews with people expressing their hopes for the new administration.

After the commercial break, Dr. Phil announced that he was having two guests debating the political impact of the new administration--one from the left and one from the right. For the right wing, Dr. Phil had Ann Coulter on. Yes, THAT Ann Coulter, the same person who writes all those vile books that say just one thing: If you disagree with her or the previous Bush Administration on any issue or hold a political opinion that's different from Ann Coulter or George W. Bush, you are a traitor, Godless, full of slander, lacking a brain, and you're not worth talking to unless the other person MUST talk to you. (Now that I wrote the previous sentence that provides a synopsis of all of her books, I've just saved you a lot of money and a trip to the bookstore or library. You're welcome.)

For the left wing, Alan Colmes was brought on to represent them. Yes, the same Alan Colmes who, until recently, was a co-anchor of that notorious Fox News show "Hannity & Colmes" (or as Al Franken once called it HANNITY & colmes). Watching Ann Coulter debate Alan Colmes with Dr. Phil moderating is just like watching Snow White taking on the Tasmanian Devil with Yosemite Sam moderating. Yes, it was THAT bad. Yet I couldn't change the channel because, for some strange reason, it was like watching a train wreck.

At one point former White House press secretary Scott McClellen came on and Ann Coulter went after him like he was the anti-Christ. McClellen took it all in stride and showed that he had two things that Ann Coulter clearly lacks--humility and class.

The end of the episode was golden when Dr, Phil took on Ann Coulter for some of her writings. He mentioned that one of her books not only disrespected single mothers for being responsible for many of society's problems but she referred to children of single mothers as "future strippers". Coulter claimed that she was quoting statistics that claimed that many girls who grew up with single mothers ended up becoming strippers. One irony that wasn't mentioned on the show: Barack Obama grew up in the home of a single mother because his father left his mother soon after he was born and Obama only saw his father one other time when he was 10 years old. Look what became of him!

At that point Dr. Phil ran out of time but he invited Ann Coulter back for a future episode debating single mothers and she accepted! He also invited all single mothers and children of single mothers to write in to the show in order to become a guest for that episode. Oh man, I see another train wreck episode in the future.

But, to be honest, given how skinny Ann Coulter looked on television, I think Dr. Phil should've had her on as a guest the next time he does a show on people with anorexia. She looked downright skeletal and scrawny. I know that television tends to add an extra 10 pounds so I shudder to think how skinny she looks in real life.

By the way, you can see today's episode in all of its fuckery right here. You can also check out the message board with tons of heated discussions about Ann Coulter.

Stephen Harper's Latest Shenanigans

First Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper dissolves Parliament before it could give him a vote of no confidence. Now he's trying to re-make Parliament in his own image.

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/editorial/story.html?id=d84bc837-ac71-4c70-bbf9-c56b1b0aab56

Just days after shutting down Parliament because he lost the confidence of the House of Commons, Prime Minister Stephen Harper is now turning his back on years of self-professed democratic principle by announcing he will stack the Senate with 18 Conservative patronage appointments.

Such a move is clearly undemocratic, shamefully hypocritical and according to a growing chorus of scholarly experts, constitutionally questionable.

Just a short while ago, Harper stated that "an appointed Senate is a relic of the 19th century." In 2004, he promised never to appoint any Senators until the upper chamber became an elected body. Far from the Senate becoming any more democratic, Harper now wants to go back on his word and stack this legislative body before he loses office, which may be as early as end of January.

Despite the fact that he's lost the confidence of Parliament, Harper should be focused on the 71,000 Canadians who lost their jobs last month, not on the 18 Conservatives who he wants to finds work for next month.

This hypocritical and undemocratic move is also pretty expensive. Remember when the Conservatives said it was important for public officials to tighten their belts, just as average Canadians were doing during the recession? This patronage spree will cost millions annually. The average Senator receives $130,400 in salary and spends about $89,539 a year on travel. The Senate of Canada sits three days a week.

That's good work if you can get it. No doubt there are many Conservatives willing to take one for the team should Harper ask them to serve.

It seems like Stephen Harper is a spiritual brother of George W. Bush in terms of ruthlessly subverting his own nation's democratic traditions in order to get his own way and to enrich his already rich and powerful buddies in the process. In the process, the financial woes of ordinary citizens get ignored.

Video Most Likely to Become a Video Game

I have to give President Bush this: He's very agile in ducking those shoes for a sixtysomething person. And the guy who threw the shoes was pretty good with him aim, even if he barely missed.

Of course this footage has not only been turned into a video game but also provided fodder for late night comics and YouTube mash-ups.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

EDIT: I was proven right in the title of this post. There are a few such games based on the show-throwing incident but the best one I found is one called Sock and Awe.

Remembering the 2008 Elections

Best Parodies (Saturday Night Live Edition)

Saturday Night Live hit its stride this election season with frequent skewering of the politicians. Its new creative peak started off during the primary campaign season when the Obama Girl parlayed her Internet fame into an appearance on Saturday Night Live.

Then Amy Poehler as HIllary Clinton appears alongside the real Hillary Clinton.

When Sarah Palin first came on the national scene, many people felt that she resembled Tina Fey, who had recently left the cast of Saturday Night Live. Well, in a genius stroke of casting, Tina Fey was allowed to return to the show playing only one character: Sarah Palin. Thanks to her, the writers, and the election itself (which provided plenty of fodder for satire) the show had its best ratings in years.

Tina Fey's first appearance as Palin came when she appeared alongside Amy Pohler as Hillary Clinton in this hilarious sketch.

The following week Fey and Pohler teamed up again to provide this scathing parody of Sarah Palin's disasterous interview with CBS' Katie Couric. Ironically, Tina Fey basically recited word-by-word Palin's actual words in that interview while doing the occasional over-the-top comic punctuation.

Queen Latifah makes a special guest appearance as moderator Gwen Ifill in this parody of the vice president debate.

President Bush endorses John McCain and Sarah Palin.

The real Sarah Palin meets her doppelganger...

...then makes an appearance on "Weekend Update".

The real John McCain also makes an appearance on the show with Tina Fey portraying his running mate.

Like his running mate before him, John McCain also makes an appearance on "Weekend Update".

The real Sarah Palin makes a return appearance on Saturday Night Live where she talks about what she will do to NBC when she gets sworn in as Vice President.

John McCain also makes a return appearance.

Not to be overlooked, Barack Obama also makes an appearance on the show as he attends the Clintons' Halloween party.

Then there is the scathing parody of MSNBC's Keith Olbermann (played by Ben Affleck) who starts off by trying to portray George W. Bush as a Nazi and ends the sketch by making a special comment against the New York co-op who denied his application on the basis of his cat, Miss Precious Perfect.