Parody and Puppy

 

WONDERFULLY WEIRD: Last night, the dogs and I dropped Christian and the kids off at the zoo. You'd think they'd be there to check out the wild animals. Instead, they were there to enjoy the antics of Weird Al. 

Here's a (too short) snippet from Annabelle about the event. ... 

At the Woodland Park Zoo, as part of their ZooTunes program, Weird Al Yankovic played a show as part of his “Mandatory Fun” tour. The show included many classics, such as “Perform This Way”, “Party in the CIA” and, of course, “The Saga Begins”, but it also included a few songs I haven’t heard before, such as a parody of Piano Man about Spiderman. It was a fun concert even though we were somewhat far from the stage. We brought our own chairs and a blanket, so we were comfortable. It was great, because we had a view of the stage from where we were. The show has fun and I would encourage you to go see him, or see a concert at Woodland Park Zoo!

CJ had a bit more to say. ... 

Rarely, our family visits the Woodland Park Zoo, which, as its name implies, is a zoo with several animals on display (however, several animals there are *not* from the woods). However, when we visited last night, we went to the property for another, very different reason. We were going to see "Weird Al" Yankovic.

According to their website at thezoo.org, the ZooTunes concerts at the Woodland Park Zoo is a tradition that has been going on for more than 30 years. Attending the ZooTunes concerts will supposedly help "save animals", though I don't understand how. At this year's ZooTunes event, there were around 9 different artists performing, one of which was "Weird Al" Yankovic, who performed on the 26th and 27th. Dad, Annabelle and I went on July 26th, and we stayed for about 2 and a half hours.

Before the performance started, there was a clip show featuring small bits of unrelated shows and media. This lasted for a bit before the show actually started. When Weird Al performed the first song on the setlist, "Tacky," a parody of Pharrell Williams' "Happy," he actually walked on the trail to the stage while performing the song, like he did in the music video. After he was done performing the song, there was another clip show, except this one was a little different. Instead of just random clips put together, the clips in this one had a common theme: Weird Al was in all of them. Afterwards, he performed "Lame Claim to Fame," which, according to Wikipedia, is a " Style parody of Southern Culture on the Skids." The concert was very fun, with several parodies of famous songs, but it's a shame that the Mandatory Fun Tour is going to end on September 14.

Helpful links:http://weirdal.com/tour/http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/weird-al-yankovic/2016/woodland-park-zoo-amphitheatre-seattle-wa-4bff6b46.htmlhttp://www.zoo.org/zootunes#.V5ko8IMrKUl

Both of the kids agreed that "Word Crimes," a play on the mega hit "Blurred Lines," was their favorite song of the night. It really is pretty brilliant. 

PUPPY LOVE: We have a new member of the extended family. His name is Pretzel. He's eight weeks old, and he's adorable. We met him today.

 The kids rolled around on the floor with him for the better part of an hour.  CJ for scale. ;)

I'm not sure who enjoyed it more, the pup or the kids. :)

When he's not busy playing, Pretzel just sits around being cute. 

 It's nearly a full time job.

 Those puppy eyes!

 Heart melting, no?