Jeff Overturf who? part 2: "I Love Rachael Ray"

I like writing songs. I like singing songs. I'm no Stevie Ray Vaughan on the guitar (I'm sorry to say) and I'm no Michael Bolton when it comes to my voice (I'm very, very, very happy to say) but I sure have a good time doing it. Who has more fun doing nothin' besides me? NOBODY, that's who!

This is a song about Rachael Ray, the TV food and talk show host.
Before all you folks from the "The Rachael Ray Sucks Community" (yes, there is such a thing out in cyber-land) get up in arms and start hatin', let me point one thing out to you. You're all watching her wrong. TURN THE SOUND OFF!

You HAVE to watch Rachael without her screechy, nasally voice to distract you and then you'll realize, she is one of the all-time great "girl-next-door" hotties on TV. I like the natural. The natural sometimes comes with unpleasant attributes, but the attractive is framed all the better with those attributes. If you were able to visit inside my head for real and take a peek in my "Spank Bank" (guys...you know what I mean) you'd see a pattern for who gets membership there. "Uncle Jeffy's Spank Bank" prefers MaryAnne over Ginger, Betty over Veronica, Janet over Chrissy...you get the idea.

Case in point...let the images speak for themselves...
One lucky door jam...

She likes booze and wieners...go ahead...argue with me...

You don't want this in your kitchen?...

Or your back yard??? I mean...just look at HER back yard (not The Grand Canyon dummie...I'm being clever and making reference to her BUTT)!...

The benefits of anti-oxidants found in berries...

And chocolate...

A boneless breast and a crispy thigh, sittin' at the bar givin' me the eye! Spicy wings too and just lookee them drumsticks! Yummmmmmmmmm...

No more scouring...

Parody ad making fun...still a turn on.

True she doesn't look quite as good now since Oprah's handlers have gotten their claws on her and changed her look so gain more ethnic appeal and she now works 14 shows a week instead of just 3, so the miles are starting to show...but I still think ya got it Rachael!

"I Love Rachael Ray"...enjoy>



Thanks to Scott & Brian Campbell, Mike & Mark Crowley and Rick & Michelle Ravanello for their help with the video.

Thanks to Dave Vasquez for the software help.

Good Morning Captain!

Today would have been the 82nd birthday of Bob Keeshan...Captain Kangaroo

As the Captain, Bob greeted us every morning from his "Treasure House" from 1955-1984, making us kids glad to get up on a school day and to teach us a few things and sing a few songs to us.

Then CBS decided to compete with the ratings garnered by NBC's Today Show and Captain Kangaroo was replaced by CBS News This Morning or Morning News or whatever. A noble thing to do, were it not for the fact that, 1984 was also about the same time that network television was abandoning the idea of a broadcasting the news, and all the morning shows quickly devolved into happy, sappy info-tainment crap! The vapid nonsense that fills the airwaves as news on the network shows is as empty and pointless as the regis and whoever and mike and maddy's that compete with them in syndication or follow them. A parade of capped teeth, orange spray-on tans and fake tits talking about what filled the airwaves like septic gas the night before on "Dancing with the Survivors of the American Idols". Pure creative vacuum.

I miss the Captain. I miss all his Treasure House pals too. Mr. Greenjeans...

Dancing Bear and Grandfather Clock...

Bunny Rabbit and his eternal quest, not for carrots, but rather new ways to bilk the Captain out of HIS carrots...

Mr. Moose and his ping-pong ball dropping jokes.

I miss Tom Terrific, Magic Drawing board and all the rest. They made for some enjoyable morning times and I still remember how to make a toy grandfather clock out of a shoe box and a tom-tom drum out of an oatmeal can to this day.

My favorite Bob Keeshan memory, post-Captain? Seeing him on C-SPAN fighting for legislation for quality children's television that wouldn't be inspired by a breakfast cereal/candy or toy/video game. Seeing him speak before the house and get downright angry, coming just this side of Nikita Kruschev's shoe pounding speech.

And he was doing it for us...the kids he spoke to on television for 30 years, just because we needed someone to.

The Captain Kangaroo Show:

Here's a link to a long form interview with Mr. Keeshan which is bitchin'! If you've got about 3 hours to fill and a desire to listen to someone worth listening to, this is it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgsDXspJm-c

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehEf_X-8M9c

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsgaUazLAm0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJHFsazvpgU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bp6lMjoEj-Y

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBEX48qo1dM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5aZ0ooezBw

Change in Name...Game stays the Same

Mahmoud Ahmadinajad

"Smegma Wad of the Week"

I'm afraid the term "Douche-Bag of the Week" has become assed-out. While doing a "Google" search on it, I discovered 1,110,000 different posts for it. It seems every shock-schlock-jock radio guy or columnist uses this tool as a weekly feature. I still think it's a viable idea, so let's change the name. I came up with "Smegma of the Week".

I was surprised to find how many people I tried this out on, weren't sure just what smegma was. Smegma is a combination of secretions of the sebaceous gland, sweat and dead skin cells, which collect (in men) just behind the glans of the penis, and (in women) around the clitoris and folds of the labia. In common parlance "Dick Cheese" for the fellas and "Clitty Litter" for the gals.

Yes, yes, I know...is this accurate for the purpose I'm using it? After all smegma is actually useful in a biological sense, and my weekly picks certainly serve no gain to mankind whatsoever. True. But just imagine a pile of smegma the size and weight of a grown human. Unpleasant?

I thought so.

Bridging a Post Gap

Phil Harris

Wolfgang "Woolie" Reitherman

Today I'm bridging a gap in posts. There is nothing much to report here from "Uncle Jeffy's Big Almanac of Cool Stuff" for June 25th, so today I'll mention Phil Harris' birthday on June 24th 1904 and Wolfgang "Woolie" Reitherman's birthday on June 26th 1909 and briefly explain how these two diverse talents from different fields crossed paths in the 1960's.

Phil Harris was a singer and bandleader who came to prominence on The Jack Benny radio show in the 1930's. He came across with a realy original persona of a cross between a streetwise urban hipster and an everyman proud of his southern and rural heritage. He would come on the show and flippantly call Jack Benny "Jackson", flirt with Mary Livingstone (Jack Benny's on air girlfriend and real life wife) then turn and cue his drunken and sloven band to break into "That's What I Like About the South", a song hailing the virtues of butter-beans and black eyed peas.
He eventually spun off into his own radio show with his real-life wife Alice Faye and also had a respectable recording career, including a monster novelty hit with "The Thing". Then he broke into the big screen and met with Woolie Reitherman.

Wolfgang "Woolie" Reitherman was an animator who began with the Walt Disney company in 1934. Woolie was one of the key innovative people there who helped the Disney company grow artistically as they moved from animated shorts through their culmination in the first animated feature "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs", the key people Walt Disney refereed to as his "Nine Old Men". The "Nine Old Men" moniker was a goof on how FDR referred to his sitting Supreme Court Justices at the time, though all of Disney's "Men" were very young at the time. Woolie became Disney's chief animation director in 1961 beginning with "101 Dalmatians", and in 1966 when Walt passed away, Woolie was a key figure in unifying the in-turmoil studio and helped organize what was to come "After-Walt". As an example of how the Disney folks were really one extended family and gave their all to their films, over the years all 3 of Reitherman's sons did voices for Walt Disney. Bruce was Mowgli in "The Jungle Book", Richard was Christopher Robin in the "Winnie-the-Pooh" featurettes and Robert was Wart in "The Sword in the Stone". Woolie himself even appeared as himself in the 1941 feature "The Reluctant Dragon".

Bridge?: They came together when Woolie directed Phil as Baloo in "The Jungle Book"...and as Thomas O'Malley in "The Aristocats"...and as Little John in "Robin Hood".


Check out this documentary of Woolie discussing his career...








Here's Phil Harris in a cheesy 70's special, reminiscing with Scatman Carothers about "The Aristocats"...he sneaks in some Baloo too...



And an earlier Phil showing his "slick/hick" persona and musical interpretation...



Two greats crossing paths and birthdays just 2 days apart.


In Closing: Remember that this blog is about people who have done stuff that was worth doing. I see lots of folks (tele-journalists, bloggers, etc.,) who report on what is the "flava-of-the-day" or mainstream personalities (i.e. those who appeal to the lowest common denominator) and I feel those folks who deserve the least attention, receive far too much of the attention. You won't see much focus to those "non-celebrities/entities" here as I try and do what I can to re-calibrate the balance of the universe and give those who earned our admiration what's due them.


p.s.: Michael Whojacallit died today I guess. You know...the guy who's hair caught fire in the Pepsi commercial in the 80's and was in that "Captain Eo" 3D thingie at Disneyland? oh well...sorry, I couldn't find any pics of him on the net. Sha-mon!

ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive: Pop Cultural Literacy 101: Summer Screening Series At Woodbury

ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive: Pop Cultural Literacy 101: Summer Screening Series At Woodbury

For those of you in the Los Angeles vicinity, and are interested in early 20th Century Pop Culture (even if your not as downright religious about it as me), do yourself a favor and check out this post from ASIFA and make some time this summer to attend.

It all sounds awesome to me.