Tuesday, December 6, 2005

The Foremen on iTunes

Ten years ago or so, Roy Zimmerman put together a folk-rock parody group called The Foremen. Originally a folk spoof group, a bit like the groups from "A Mighty Wind," they quickly went into topical parodies, from a liberal perspective.

Their last album came out in 1996 and, as far as I was aware, didn't do that well, but I liked it and managed to get hold of their other three albums. To my surprise, their last album came out today on iTunes. "What's Left" is a sort of left-wing folk-rock album, with songs parodying the Byrds, Simon & Garfunkel, and Crosby Stills & Nash, with lyrics referencing the election and political issues from 1996. (The first cut features Sheila Kuehl as the emcee at a Republican get-together...)

Apple also put up a video of "Ain't No Liberal," a song from the previous album, "Folk Heroes."

I don't really know why this nine-year-old album and video parodying forty-year-old music have been released now, but however dated, they are very funny, and (to me anyway) the musicianship does a good job of evoking '60s groups.

Pennies from Hell

Someone posted a rant on Craigslist, the gist of which is that we ought to get rid of pennies. He or she is right. Pennies have so little value with today's inflated dollar that it makes a great deal of sense to round prices off to the nearest nickel, as is done in Australia.

There used to be an organization called the Coin Coalition promoting the replacement of dollar bills with dollar coins and the elimination of the penny. Unfortunately the organization does not appear to exist anymore.