RuthEllison.com

Tonight, hubby and I watched the hilarious Weird Al Yankovic performance at the Canberra Theatre. Weird Al is a very talented American musician/satirist/parodist who is best known for his parodies of some of the biggest names in the music business - Michael Jackson, Eminem, Nirvana, Madonna, James Blunt, etc.

Some of the songs performed tonight to a very enthusiastic audience included White and Nerdy, I’ll Sue You, You’re Pitiful, Canadian Idiot, Amish Paradise, Pretty Fly For A Rabbi, Fat, and my two absolute favourites, Yoda and The Saga Begins. I also loved the Weird Al TV interviews that played through out the night, inbetween songs.

Despite a slight technical hitch towards the end of the show (involving some device freezing and the projector stopping at a particular frame), the entire show was really fun, really funny and worth the money.

After a very delicious fast meal at Jewel of India (the takeaway stall in Civic), we made it to Little Britain Live which was showing in the Australian Institute of Sports Arena. It was a massive very well produced show featuring Matt Lucas and David Walliams and their huge range of characters. The technical components of the show was pretty amazing, with an elaborate stage floor with track lines for the quick setting up and removal of props, and sets projected onto the background of the stage (apparently the transitions were designed by video and lighting designer Willie Williams). The costume changes were super quick and I’m still not sure how the two managed to do the costume AND makeup changes so fast and so well.

Highlights of the show:

• Carol Beer “computer says no” skit - come on, it’s the ultimate usability error message (or is that unusability?)!
• Seeing David Walliams naked (warning: nudity alert!)
• Audience participation
• The fantastic ad lib in the Mr Mann “Roy’s Paint Shop” skit (oh boy, if only I was that smooth and that funny when things go wrong!)
• Local references
• The encore featuring Daffyd and the other cast members doing the “Police” and “I’m Gay” songs.

We hanged around after the show for quite a while, hoping to see Matt and David to get an autograph and/or photo with them, but despite my optimism (that I admit started to fade into extreme disappointment), we didn’t see them. Most of the audience had disappeared by then. I sadly (and extremely slowly) walked back to our car, hoping to catch a glimpse of my two favourite stars but no such luck.

There was also a fairly good range of merchandise on sale, tempting me with their evil slogans and pinkness, or even the priceless “Computer says no” mouse pad or mug. But I manage to fight the temptation all night and didn’t any thing (although I was sorely tempted to get one of the “Computer says no” products, or the “I’m the only gay in the village” or the “Want that one” t-shirts).
But aside from missing out on seeing my idols closer up, we had an absolutely fantastic night. I loved it loved it loved it!

Ok. I admit it. I’m easily amused.

But this should put a smile on every geek’s face: The Infinite Monkey Protocol Suite (IMPS)

This memo describes a protocol suite which supports an infinite
number of monkeys that sit at an infinite number of typewriters in
order to determine when they have either produced the entire works of
William Shakespeare or a good television show.