English: "Weird Al" Yankovic perform...
English: “Weird Al” Yankovic performing live in concert during his 2010 Tour. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

So I’ve been doing a whole bunch of stuff at UnicornBooty.com lately… so instead of doing a post for each one, I’ll do compilation posts!  So yay!  Dig it!

  • ‘YOUR LIE IN APRIL’ HAS ALL THE AMAZING MUSIC AND ABUSE OF ‘WHIPLASH’, BUT IS AN ANIME: FujiTV’s dramatic anime Your Lie In April (available in the US on Crunchyroll and Hulu) recently closed out its second and last season – and I’m here to tell you that it’s an awesome show y’all gotta see.

    The animation is absolutely gorgeous and it’s based on an award-winning manga — that’s what us anime nerds call “comic books.” It won Best Shōnen Manga at the 37th Kodansha Manga Awards, which is what we anime nerds call “a really big deal.” And, if that weren’t enough, it features a lot of absolutely amazing musical performances.

  • 10 MUSICAL ARTISTS YOU MUST ENJOY OR YOU ARE WRONG: There’s LOTS of music in this world — it’s hard to know where to begin! But we assure you, if you follow this list of greats, your journey deeper into the wonderful world of delightful sounds will be a fruitful one.Thanks to science, we’ve determined that you’re 100 percent guaranteed to enjoy all 10 bands on this list — if you do not, we will send you an official Certificate Of Wrongness, suitable for framing.  Enjoy!
  • MD STATE ATTORNEY CALLS FREDDIE GRAY’S DEATH A HOMICIDE. HERE’S WHY THAT’S A GOOD THING…On May 1st, Maryland State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby announced six Baltimore police officers have been charged in the death of Freddie Gray — an illegally arrested 25-year-old man who died under police custody after suffering a broken spine and cardiac arrest. The officers turned themselves in that afternoon, and have been released on bail (set between $250,000 and $350,000).In the wake of way too many black people killed by the police in the past five years, it’s cause for hope that Gray’s death has officially been called a murder caused by police action – and that the state’s justice department is taking the matter seriously.
  • THE GUY WHO TRIED TO SHOOT RONALD REAGAN WANTS A MUSICAL CAREER: According to NBC’s Washington DC affiliate, John Hinckley Jr., the man who tried to kill President Reagan in 1981 to win Jodie Foster’s love, is looking to start a band. As it turns out, though he has been in a mental hospital since around ’81, his lawyers and treatment team have been working to get him released to his mother’s care. Hinckley’s shown an interest in music while he’s been in the mental hospital, but most people don’t realize that he’s actually been paid by Warner Brothers for years for an odd bit of musical work.
  • SCARS OF SAN FRANCISCO’S 1906 QUAKE REMAIN IN ITS STREETS: If you’ve been to San Francisco, you’ve probably noticed those weird brick circles that are sometimes on the street. What are they? Decoration? Proof of alien life? Cat traps? As it turns out, it’s none of these!  (Well, okay, maybe they can do double-duty as cat traps.)  As it turns out, it’s history and infrastructure all rolled into one!

  • SEE YOU IN COURT! NEBRASKA WOMAN FILES SUIT AGAINST ALL GAYS AND THEIR ALLIES: A woman has filed a court case (no foolin’) against homosexuals and their “alis”; we’re guessing she means “allies”? Sylvia Driscoll (not pictured above) — a 66-year-old from Auburn, Nebraska and self-declared ambassador of God — filed suit in federal court May 1.  In her petition to the court, she wants Judge John M. Gerrard to declare that homosexuality is a sin.

    Sure, that doesn’t seems like something for a federal judge to decide, but hey.  At least it reminds me of one of my favorite Achewood strips…

  • PHOTOS: TRANS MMA FIGHTER FALLON FOX IS YOUR NEW FAVORITE BADASS: Fallon Fox is the first out trans mixed martial arts fighter, an artistwriter, and professional speaker.  She’s got a 5-1 record since starting her fighting career in 2013 (though she’s been training since 2008), so it’s safe to say she’s, uh, pretty damn good.  She also tours, giving lectures about how MMA and other contact sports can empower women.  And she’s about to get a lot more famous as one of  two subjects of the new documentary Game Face.

  • WOMP, WOMP! RACIST HIGH SCHOOL BASEBALL PLAYER LOSES SCHOLARSHIP FOR RACISM: Some moments in life can only be celebrated by Edd Kalehoff‘s fantastic music from The Price Is Right — and some fails, by The Price Is Right losing horns.

    Today’s fail: ABC News reports that after being caught on tape referring to a black family as “fucking [unpleasant racial slur beginning with the letter N]”, Pinole Valley High School’s star baseball player has lost his college scholarship. The incident occurred after a baseball game last Wednesday, when the player called the family of an opposing team member the awful name.

  • 10 OBSCURE FILMS YOU NEED TO SEE IMMEDIATELY — GO GO GO!: Top ten lists are arbitrary by nature — so I’m not even going to pretend these are an actual top ten, but rather a list of films that may or may not become your all-time favorite movies and cause you to throw out your entire DVD collection. But here are some films that you may not have heard of that may become your all-time favorite movies and cause you to throw out your collection to start over.

  • EVERYTHING YOU THOUGHT YOU KNEW ABOUT THE COLUMBINE SCHOOL SHOOTING IS WRONG: As “Weird Al” Yankovic said, “Everything you know is wrong.” Admittedly, he wasn’t talking about the school shooting 16 years ago at Columbine, Colorado — that’d be a little bit of a downer. Yankovic got the quote from the Firesign Theatre comedy troupe, and they weren’t talking about Columbine either; a school shooting is ill-suited for a comedy record.

    Nevertheless, the statement still holds where Columbine is concerned. Just about all of the accepted wisdom about what happened on April 20, 1999 isn’t right at all.

  • THE SECRET BEHIND NEIL YOUNG’S OUT OF PRINT 1982 ALBUM WILL MELT YOUR HEART: Neil Young’s strangest film, Human Highway, will come to theaters in a new director’s cut on April 17th. The film features songs from Trans, arguably Neil Young‘s most inaccessible album, and also one of the hardest to find. Out of print in the US for years, the album is only currently available for download in the European iTunes Store.

  • M’S “THE OFFICIAL SECRETS ACT” IS PARANOID POP PERFECTION: For years, it seemed that whenever I’d go to a used record store, I’d always find a copy of M’s 1980 album The Official Secrets Act (and strangely, none of his other records).

    I think I ended up giving up looking for M vinyl after around a year or so, and to date, I only have two: The 12″ of “Moonlight and Muzak” and (my first M release ever) Official Secrets Act. It’s funny; I couldn’t even find a copy of his hit album/single (New York London Paris Munich / Pop Muzik“). I mean, I’ve got all the material on the CDs released by Westside in 1998 (out of print now, though JVC Victor in Japan is re-issuing these discs in mini-LP sleeves, complete with the same bonus tracks), so it’s not like I don’t have the material… butstill… Why does this drive me crazy? I tell you why:

    The Official Secrets Act is a pop masterpiece.