Day: July 7, 2012

Genius in France

Yes, the phrase I was hinting at in last night's post was "Genius in France" -- Weird Al's tribute to Zappa, featuring Dweezil on the intro.

Last night I noted that Zappa was often dismissed as a novelty act. Well, Weird Al is a novelty act, and proud of it, but I've heard people take that to mean he's not much of a musician.

But here's the thing: Al and his band are the ultimate chameleons, and that takes some serious talent. They've successfully imitated (deep breath) Eminem, Avril Lavigne, Bob Dylan, Don McLean, Madonna, Michael Jackson, Devo, both Billy Ray and Miley Cyrus, Ritchie Valens, the Talking Heads, Bob Marley, Green Day, the Presidents of the United States of America, Coolio, Billy Joel, They Might Be Giants, R Kelly, Lady Gaga, Nirvana, the Doors, Usher, Queen, John Mellencamp, the Kinks, Joan Jett, the Beatles, Stevie Knicks, the New Kids on the Block, the B-52's, the Police, Randy Newman, Huey Lewis and the News, Tiffany, Billy Idol, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Soul Asylum, Elvis Costello, Nine Inch Nails, the Barenaked ladies, and, yes, Frank Zappa, to name a few -- and on more than one occasion I've seen them do probably half that list in one night.

Imitating one band's style may be easy, but imitating dozens' takes some chops. And being consistently funny while doing it for 35 years is, near as I can tell, unique.

Not Again

Welp, another migraine today.

Went to see the doctor a week ago about all the headaches. She said some of them were probably tension headaches from sitting at a desk all day, and recommended I exercise more and do some neck stretches. She refilled my existing prescription and gave me a sample of a new one -- well, sort of new; it's a triptan and so it's a descendant of what I used to take in high school.

I've managed to put in some exercise every day since (though I might give it a miss today). We're into the part of the year where 102 is a cool day, and the air quality is simply awful, so I can't really ride my bike like I'd like to. But we got a stair machine awhile back and I've been using that.

I'm sure that's helping me get in better shape, and I feel better too, but it sure doesn't look like it's helping with the headaches.

Must say the new prescription's working out so far, though.

The one I used to take in high school didn't work this well -- it would give me a reprieve for a couple hours and then bounce back even worse, and if I took a second pill it would give me such a nasty case of the jitters that I was just as useless and nearly as uncomfortable as if I just had a migraine. After awhile I stopped taking it and switched to over-the-counter stuff (which tends to have roughly the same effect).

Well, I tried the new drug when I got up this morning. The immediate effect seemed to be nausea, which kicked in about 15 minutes after I took it. (Or it could have just been part of the migraine. It's hard to tell.)

But I managed to get back in bed and fall asleep for about two and a half hours, and wake up functional.

The headache's not gone, and when I first got up it pounded with every step I took. After I got some food (Cup Noodles, the thing I keep around for when I can't cook anything more complicated -- plus I've got a sore throat in addition to the headache, so it soothes that a bit) and some coffee in me I started to feel better. Still a bit jittery and out-of-it (I think I've stamped out all the typos in this post, but if you find any that's why), but much better.

Guess I'll have to get this script filled.