Thank all that is funny I moved the Lazy series to Tuesday. I’m still incredibly sore and tired from our weekend shows — all my fault. I took over making the set lists and put myself in all the physical games. Oy. There was a moment on Friday night where three of us had to do an interpretative dance of the Gettysburg Address. I was Lincoln dancing to Tchaikovsky’s “Trepak” — or the Russian dance from The Nutcracker. There is supposedly video and I hope to get a copy of it. I will indeed post it if I do.

And now for this week’s selection — yet another video. You’ve seen the Josie & The Pussycats and the Mars Forever Cartoon Network Groovies and here is another. I know Craig hates this series and thinks that Jabberjaw should have his fins cut off, served as soup and left to die of asphyxiation at the bottom of the sea; however, for me the show was a staple of my childhood and this song by Pain is fun as is the video, so there! :-P Please enjoy.

Listening to: “Keep It In The Pocket” - The Magic Numbers

I completely forgot that I did this until tonight. At The Simpson Movies, an sPhone in the film turned me into a completely animated character much like Cap’n Crunch does to those poor children in his commercials.

Howard as a Simpsons character

No, that iPhone ‘joke’ wasn’t in the movie. I just had nothing better to post today. Waaa-waaa-waaaaah. Yes, I have a pair of Converse shoes that blue color.

You can make yourself into a Simpsons character over at the movie site.

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Listening to: “Alien (Live)” - Erasure

Since I posted the Josie Cartoon Network Groovie, here is my other favorite. The music is done by the fabulously fun Fantastic Plastic Machine and features Bugs Bunny and Marvin The Martian. It’s more fun than an Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator.

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Listening to: “Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves” - Eurythmics & Aretha Franklin

One of the great things about “Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?” was the chase sequences in the first two seasons. They always had some rockin’ ’60’s-type jam written by Danny Janssen which completely fed my love of bubblegum pop. (I still need to tell you the “Sugar, Sugar” story.) When Hanna-Barbera decided it was time for them to cash in on the sweet, sweet sugar “The Archies” was harvesting, they decided to buy another Archies property called “Josie And The Pussycats”.

Lap up the theme song:

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The first thing H-B decided to do was put together a girl group to be the live-action counterparts of their animated characters. If you didn’t know, the woman behind the singing of the ditsy Melody was none other than Cheryl Ladd. When Danny Janssen presented the singers he had chosen to H-B, they had some bad news. Valerie had been retooled as a white chick. Janssen was livid and refused to recast Patrice Holloway.

Thankfully, H-B backed down and kept the characters as they appear in the comic book. This gave “Josie And The Pussycats” one definite distinction. It became the first Saturday morning cartoon series to have a major black character — by 30 minutes. “The Harlem Globetrotters” debuted right after “Josie”, which was good for me. I’ve never like basketball, but the Globetrotters are freakin’ awesome!

I loved “Josie”, too. It was the music. That toe-tapping bubble-gum pop that was pure earworm syndrome Janssen wrote so well. The plot? Eh, watch an episode of “Scooby” and it’s the same thing except for guys in masks, it was megalomaniacs trying to take over the world only to be thwarted with the power of ROCK. {This is where I’ve fallen to my knees playing air guitar like a rock god.}

This September I finally get to relive being 4-years-old. The first (and only good) season of “Josie” is released on DVD. SQUEAL! Sixteen episodes of stupidity and great music. Can’t wait! I did a little research into the Josie And The Pussycats album Capitol released in 1970 and found that Rhino re-released it in limited edition in 2001. You can get it for only the small pittance of $200. Ugh. Maybe the DVD release will — in turn — get a music collection release. {Crossing fingers while playing air guitar. Oy, the F chord is hard that way.}

As an extra bonus, here is a video that Cartoon Network had made a few years ago when they were doing their Groovies bumpers. I can’t tell you how excellent I think this is. It’s the Josie theme done in six different music styles including disco, punk and trance all crammed in a minute and a half. Righteous!

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Listening to: “I Think We’re Alone Now” - Tiffany