The Coneheads Cartoon

A decade before the Conehead family made the transition from "Saturday Night Live" to the silver screen, there was a brief detour into prime-time. Yep, somebody had the idea to bring the Coneheads to TV in their own weekly series. Instead of shooting a live-action version, it was decided that the series would be animated. Unfortunately, there hadn't been a successful weekly prime-time animated series since "The Jetsons," and there wouldn't be another until "The Simpsons" debuted in 1989. Adding to the factors going against "The Conheads," the animation production team at Rankin/Bass butted heads with "SNL" writers Al Franken and Tom Davis over the vision of the show. The result is one of the strangest half-hours of television ever produced -- though basically, the live-action CONEHEADS film was a remake of this pilot.

The Coneheads (Pilot)
1983 Not Rated 24 minutes

DOWNLOAD LINKS:
RapidShare, MegaUpload (Divx Rip)

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A Whole New World!

Despite the fact that DVDs have room for things that never could've been included in video releases, the House of Mouse frequently opts exclude things that, by all logic, should be released on their DVDs. Here's one such instance. When their version of ALADDIN was new, a TV special, "The Making of Aladdin: A Whole New World," was released as promotion. A few clips from it were jammed into the exclusive DVD documentary "A Diamond in the Rough," but "A Whole New World" featured a lot of footage that didn't appear on the DVD -- perhaps most notably footage of the recording sessions with singers Brad Caleb Kane (Aladdin) and Lea Salonga Chien (Jasmine). Anyhow, here's that original making-of, which is hosted by actor John Rhys-Davies.

The Making of Aladdin: A Whole New World
1992 Not Rated 25 minutes

DOWNLOAD LINKS:
RapidShare, MegaUpload (Divx Rip)

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A bunch of "Treasures"

Following the release of Dolly Parton's 1996 album "Treasures," a tie-in television special premiered that aired a grand total of once (anyone know why TV specials aren't ever rerun?). This one is pretty unique -- instead of just a standard concert or series of music videos, it plays like a documentary. Each of the songs on the "Treasures" album are covers of classics. For the TV special, Dolly gives a backstory on how she became familiar with the tunes, the songwriters and original singers are interviewed and, as Dolly sings, it frequently cuts to newsreel footage of what was happening in the world the year the original versions of the songs were released. I haven't seen another special quite like this before or since.

Guests include: Mac Davis, Kenny Rogers, Alison Krauss, Suzanne Cox, Cat Stevens, John Popper (of Blues Traveler), Raul Malo (of The Mavericks), David Hidalgo (of Los Lobos), Merle Haggard, Freddy Fender, Kris Kristofferson and Ladysmith Black Mambazo. Songs include: Something's Burning, Behind Closed Doors, After the Goldrush, Peace Train, Walking on Sunshine, Don't Let Me Cross Over, Today I Started Loving You Again, Before the Next Teardrop Falls and For the Good Times.

1996 Not Rated 44 minutes

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 (RapidShare)
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 (Sharebee)
(Rar-compressed Divx file; you need all 3 parts to decompress)
OR
CLICK HERE TO GET IT (MegaUpload)

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And here's the "soundtrack" for the TV special (as it's billed in the ad)... I wasn't gonna post this, but after I posted the special, I discovered the album is out of print. 320 rip.

01. Peace Train/Isitimela Lokuthula
02. Today I Started Loving You Again
03. Just When I Needed You Most
04. Something's Burning
05. Before the Next Teardrop Falls
06. After the Goldrush
07. Walking on Sunshine
08. Behind Closed Doors
09. Don't Let Me Cross Over
10. Satin Sheets
11. For the Good Times

DOWNLOAD LINKS:
RapidShare, Sharebee

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Here's the remixes of "Walking on Sunshine." I previously posted this album, but this is a brand new 320 rip!

01. Walking on Sunshine (Mark Kamin's Radio Mix)
02. Peace Train (Junior Vasquez Mix)
03. Two Doors Down (Boy Wunder Radio Edit)
04. Walking on Sunshine (Original Mix)
05. Peace Train (Bounce Euro Mix)
06. Two Doors Down (Cyphonix Radio Mix)
07. Walking on Sunshine (Mark Kamin's Harder Mix)
08. Peace Train (Holy Roller)
09. Two Doors Down (Boy Wunder Mix)
10. Peace Train (Junior's Arena Mix)
11. Two Doors Down (Cyphonix Extended Mix)

DOWNLOAD LINKS:
RapidShare, Sharebee

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And here's the remixes of "Peace Train." Again, this is a new 320 rip. Both of these remix albums went out of print almost instantly and, for a time, they used to sell for megabucks -- but it appears interest has waned and they're not too expensive anymore.

01. Holy Roller Mix (Extended)
02. Junior's Arena Anthem
03. Julian's Morning Passage Mix
04. Paul's TGV Mix
05. Holy Roller (Radio Edit)
06. Original Album Version

DOWNLOAD LINKS:
RapidShare, Sharebee

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Here's an 8-page interview with Dolly about the making of the album from a 1996 issue of "New Country" magazine.

DOWNLOAD LINKS
RapidShare, Sharebee (PDF Format)
OR
CLICK HERE TO VIEW IT! (Gallery)

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Around a month after "Treasures" dropped, Dolly starred in another Christmas TV movie which, like SMOKY MOUNTAIN CHRISTMAS a decade earlier, went on to become a holiday classic. UNLIKELY ANGEL teamed Dolly with Roddy McDowall, in what was one of his final roles. Here's a promo from the original airing:




Dolly performed three original songs in the movie (though the title song is basically a retread of her 1987 tune "More Than I Can Say," from her "Rainbow" album, with different lyrics). Just cuz I had these sitting on my computer, here's rips of those three songs...

Songs from UNLIKELY ANGEL
01. What'cha Tryin' to Do to Me?
02. Unlikely Angel
03. Hallelujah

DOWNLOAD LINKS:
RapidShare, Sharebee

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If you look around, there's plenty more Dolly Parton rarities to be found on the site...

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Krofftapalooza: Fol-de-Rol

After hitting the bigtime on Saturday mornings, the brothers Krofft decided to venture into prime-time. For their first prime-time offering, they revisited "Fol-de-Rol," a live show that they'd first staged at HemisFair in 1968. For the filmed version, they assembled a great cast of celebrities including Ann Sothern, Mickey Rooney, Ricky Nelson, Cyd Charisse, Guy Marks, Totie Fields, Howard Cosell, Milt Kamen, Yma Sumac and Robert Shields (of Shields and Yarnell)... plus there's a few other familiar faces whose names you might not know (Lynne Thigpen) and the obligatory Krofft regulars (Billy Barty, Lenny Weinrab, Joan Gerber, etc.).

"Fol-de-Rol" (a fancy term for "nonsense") is exactly that. There's not much of a plotline, it's 51 minutes of off the wall skits and whimsy loosely tied together by the Renessaince Fair setting -- and it's got Krofft written all over it. From the cardboard sets to the tacky musical numbers (including a two really good ones by Ricky Nelson) to the bad jokes (more drug references!) to the camera-mugging celebrities to the puppets (several of which were recycled from other Krofft productions) to the familiar voices, it's delightfully obvious that this is a Krofft production.


"Fol-de-Rol" aired on February 28, 1972 on ABC's "The Monday Night Special." The special doubled as the pilot for a weekly television series, though that never materialized (I don't know how they could have done this weekly anyway), and the show was never seen again. However, the internet can be a truly wonderful thing...

It was a nightmare trying to simply find information about this utterly obscure pilot -- imdb didn't even have a listing for it until I added it six months ago (and now, not surprisingly, it's listed on a bunch of sites). With a little resilience and a lot of searching ("fol-de-rol" brings back 70,500 hits on google -- the bulk of which are unrelated to the Kroffts), I was finally able to obtain a copy. The picture's sort of washed out (it's obviously transferred from film to video) but it's certainly watchable, it's complete (including a bumper!) and the sound quality's not bad. So now, for the first time in 38 years, you can relive the wonder and majesty of "Fol-de-Rol!" Here's a sneak preview of Ricky Nelson singing "Life," a song that first appeared on his '71 album "Rudy the Fifth" which he composed new lyrics for specifically for this special....

And below, you can download the full-length special!

Fol-de-Rol (Video)
1972 Not Rated 51 minutes

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 (RapidShare)
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 (Sharebee)
(Rar Compressed Divx File; you need all three parts to decompress)
OR
CLICK HERE TO GET IT (MegaUpload)

OR
Watch it now!

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I can see the writing on the wall. Since I offered the video, somebody's gonna ask for the songs. Yep, I'm psychic. So here's most of the music (except for some of the score and Nelson's two brief reprises of "Life," which are so brief that they weren't worth bothering). I was able to clean up the sound quite a bit, but keep in mind that the quality of the video isn't crystal...

Fol-de-Rol (Songs!)
01. Fol-de-Rol
02. Main Titles
03. Life - Ricky Nelson
04. Joy to the World (Jeremiah Was a Bullfrog) - The Willis Sisters
05. My Sweet Lord - The Willis Sisters
06. Fol-de-Rol Bumper
07. The Mime Cleans Up
08. The Butterfly Dance - Yma Sumac
09. Love - Ann Sothern, Totie Fields, Yma Sumac, Cyd Charisse & Lynne Thigpen
10. He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother - Ricky Nelson
11. Walk 'Em Up - Cast
12. End Titles: Life (reprise)/Fol-de-Rol (reprise) - Ricky Nelson & ???

DOWNLOAD LINKS:
RapidShare, Sharebee

More Krofftapalooza can be found right here!

Warning! Those who watch "Fol-de-Rol" may experience certain side effects including, but not limited to: staring in disbelief at your computer monitor, uncontrollable laughter (at things that weren't intended to be funny), mocking Totie Fields, hearing "Jeremiah was a Bullfrog" on an endless loop in your mind and, in rare instances, one may develop a strange desire to consume the flesh of Billy Barty. Offer null and void for residents of Tranquility Forest.

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Everything's Archie!

"Archie's here. Betty's here... Veronica too. Reggie's here. And here comes Jughead..." but I guess 15 years later, Hot Dog was dead, so instead Jughead dragged along his delinquent son, Jordan. Yes, in the late '80s, someone had the brilliant idea to transplant the classic Archie characters into a weekly live-action TV series. The result was ARCHIE: TO RIVERDALE AND BACK AGAIN, a pilot/movie of the week. A cartoon series had been made in 1987 that featured the characters as tweens, so they went in the exact opposite direction for the film and depicted the characters as adults. Apparently the Archie gang graduated from Riverdale High in 1975 and went their separate ways -- during the '80s they all became yuppies, and they reconvened for their high school reunion in May of 1990. During the course of their three-day reunion, Reggie evicts Pop Tate with plans to expand his gym into the malt shoppe, so Archie and friends rally around to keep the smug Mr. Mantle from seeing this plan through. Here's the promo:

Archie (Christopher Rich, "The Charmings," "Reba") was still living in Riverdale, but he'd gotten his law degree and was on the verge of moving to the city with his finance and joining a law firm. Jughead ditched the crown, married and divorced, and became a psychiatrist (!!?!) who employed some very unorthodox tactics. The oft-divorced Veronica (Karin Kopins, ONCE BITTEN) found that money can't buy happiness -- after all, she was still hung up on Archie Andrews! Betty (Lauren Holly) had become a school teacher who was dating a two-faced jerk, though she too was still hung up on Archie... only she didn't even realize it. Reggie (Gary Kroeger) owned and operated a gym; Moose (Jeff Hochendoner) became a chiropractor; and Big Ethyl (Cindy Ambuehl) underwent a drastic transformation of her own.

Despite a great cast (several of whom were mis-cast) and a few fun, comical moments, the film came under fire from fans of the comic books and was blasted by critics (one of whom derogatorily dubbed it "Archiesomething"), so a series never materialized. It didn't click with kids either -- there's some blatant sexuality (which was tame in 1990 and is now pretty dated) with Veronica and Betty each trying to seduce Archie, and Mr. Lodge has become oddly nasty... his henchman makes several attempts at killing Archie! But the part that everyone seems to belittle most is Jughead's silly rap rendition of "Sugar, Sugar" (which I've always thought was cute in a meant-to-be cheesy way).


Many of the cast members do bear an uncanny resemblance to their comic counterparts -- I first knew Rich as Prince Charming on a short-lived sitcom a few years earlier, but for nearly 20 years now, I've continuously associated him with Archie Andrews. Similarly, Karin Kopins was born to play Veronica Lodge. And the late, lanky Sam Whipple was so perfectly cast that he could've been the basis of Jughead Jones in the comics... unfortunately, however, the character itself went through some rather drastic changes from the comics to the film. On the opposite end of the spectrum, David Doyle was completely miscast as Mr. Weatherbee and Cindy Ambuehl was wrong for her part too, though the latter is the fault of the writer. And speaking of both the writer and people who are wrong for their part, the screenplay was written by Evan Katz, who went on to write and produce many TV dramas -- most notably he's been a staple writer / producer on "24." Weird, huh?

The movie was released on video under a different (actually a better) title, ARCHIE: RETURN TO RIVERDALE -- however, ten scenes that aired in the network version were trimmed from the VHS release. What makes this particularly strange is that some of these scenes strengthened the story (notably the flashbacks), and a few others were some of the better comic moments -- I don't know what the video editor could have possibly been thinking. The video release doesn't seem to be too hard to find (it's still available to buy on the Archie Comics website), but I personally haven't seen the film aired on TV since it was rerun in 1991.

So here's the full-length TO RIVERDALE AND BACK AGAIN version of the movie, taken from a tape of the original 1990 airing. It's obvious that this is from an EP VHS, but hey, it's pretty rare and still highly watchable!

ARCHIE: TO RIVERDALE & BACK AGAIN (TV Version)
1990 Not Rated 96 minutes

Download Links:
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5 (RapidShare)
OR

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5 (Sharebee)

[Rar-compressed divx file; you need all 5 parts to decompress]

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And here's the comic book adaptation of the movie. Interestingly, with the exception of the flashback scenes, this book is not drawn in the familiar, cartoony style of the Archie comics. To save myself the trouble of scanning the book, I snagged this scan from Who's Who Cares (a great comic book blog that I just discovered).

DOWNLOAD LINKS:
RapidShare, Sharebee (PDF Format)
OR
RapidShare, Sharebee (JPG Format)
OR
CLICK HERE TO VIEW IT! (Gallery)

And when visiting Riverdale, remember to stop in at Pop Tate's!
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Puss Bucket (the Musical)!

Skeeter the evil lawn gnome has been complaining that I've been posting too much quasi-mainstream stuff, so he's demanded that I share his favorite movie with you! And Skeeter doesn't like it when I defy him... So you think you've seen it all? Well you haven't yet... cuz I guarantee* you haven't seen PUSS BUCKET! Yes, for those masochists out there who like their terrible b-movies corny, demented, sacrilegious and completely obscure, here's a must-see!

1991's PUSSBUCKET (allegedly adapted from a Broadway musical -- though I find that highly unlikely) is the story of two retarded, telepathic brothers who are instructed, by an alien posing as the Virgin Mary, to "kill for Jesus" and collect the pus of their victims in a bucket. Blend Ed Wood's special effects, Curt McDowell's claustrophobic, home movie style and David Lynch's weirdness, pepper in some of King Herod's blasphemy and you have PUSS BUCKET... though that sounds like a far more intriguing mixture than it actually is. Filmed "in glorious black white," the acting is terrible, the dubbing is worse, the plot is illogical, the effects are abysmal, the jokes are unfunny, the characters are inane, and then there's the songs, which are mostly unintelligable grunge and hard rock dirges... This movie epitomizes the bad movie genre in a way that few bad movies do.


Here's an impressive homemade trailer from YouTube:

And here's a few quotes from the scant few reviews on imdb (there's not a good one to be found):

"I cannot stress enough that no viewer should waste an hour and 45 minutes of their life to see this film."

"How could a movie featuring a character named "Corned Beef" not be a cult classic?"

"This movie really and truly is the worst movie of all time."

Well, there you have it. There's no good reason to download this film, but you know you want to... just to see if it's really that bad. Yep. I've done my best to warn you, so I cannot be held responsible for what you do next...

PUSS BUCKET
1991 Not Rated 105 minutes

DOWNLOAD LINKS:
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5 , Part 6

[Rar-compressed divx file -- you need all six parts to decompress]

*In the unlikely event that you've seen this film, I will offer a 100% refund of your free download price. Just send your name, address, mailing address, date of birth, mother's maiden name, social security number and bank account information to me, then your refund will arrive promptly in 4-6 years. Some terms and restrictions apply. See your local Puss Bucket retailer for more information. Offer prohibited in the city of Midian.

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A Few More Re-Ups

Yep, it's the new year, so it's time again to find that some of my links are dead... though some of 'em have already been dead for a year... Anyway, here's a few of the albums recently re-upped:

Cabin By the Lake/ Return to Cabin by the Lake - Songs from the Films
Tim Curry - Read My Lips & Simplicity
Fannie Flagg - Rally 'Round the Flagg
The Jets - Kool-Aid Koolers Hot Hits

I'm sure there's more that I'm forgetting, and there will doubtlessly be more re-ups on the way...

Spaced Out!

Okay, I know when I stray away from movies and television, the downloads aren't as popular, but it's my site and I can post what I want to! I was trying to clear some stuff off my mp3 player when I was reminded of this... and I love this strange psych-lounge-muzak album! Enoch Light was one of the earliest musicians to experiment with stereo sound. His albums were well known for having a "ping-pong" sound -- that is, the music bounced back and forth between stereo channels (constantly during the opening of each of the songs on this album!).

I downloaded this from someone else's blog and found it was littered with hiss, crackle and pops, so it underwent some heavy audio restoration on my end... it's not quite pristine CD sound, but I'm still extremely proud of the results (you would be too if you'd heard what it sounded like before I cleaned it!).

01. Bond Street
02. A Lover's Concerto
03. Knowing When to Leave
04. My Silent Song
05. Walk On By
06. Eleanor Rigby
07. A Little Fugue For You and Me
08. Norwegian Wood
09. Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da (Life Goes On)
10. What the World Needs Now (Is Love, Sweet Love)
11. Petite Paulette
12. Get Back

DOWNLOAD LINKS:
RapidShare, Sharebee

No, that's not Jane Fonda pictured. The similarity seems wholly uncoincidental though, doesn't it? One can almost hear "Barbarella" playing...

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Da-Da-Da-Dum, Lick, Stick...

Before the scans are looted, photoshopped, and scattered all over the internet, you -- yes, YOU! -- can download the Addams Family Sticker Fun book! And perhaps it's you -- yes, YOU! -- who's planning on photoshopping the pics and using them for AIM icons and whatnot. Fine with me; have fun!


This unused coloring and sticker book is from the '90s retread of the '70s cartoon based on the 60s sitcom that was, in turn, based on the classic Charles Addams comic panels. Follow?

The Addams Family
Sticker Fun Book

DOWNLOAD LINKS:
Sharebee: PDF, ZIP
MultiUpload: PDF, ZIP
Rapidshare: PDF, ZIP
OR
Gallery!

UPDATE! For reasons unknown to me, this post has become extremely popular. Just thought I'd point out that there's a bunch of episodes of the '90s show at The Manchester Morgue, and the '70s variation is available for purchase at The WB Archive.

Skeeter, my lawn gnome, told me to post this. You should hear some of the other things that Skeeter tells me to do...

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On the Set: Name of the Rose

NAME OF THE ROSE is a movie that means nothing to me... though I'm talking of a murder mystery in a monastery, and that sounds just bizarre enough to be up my alley. Plus it has Sean Connery, Christian Slater and Ron Perlman... that's one of the strangest casts ever assembled! Anyway, here's an on-set article from the making of the film, taken from the September 1986 issue of American Film Magazine.

DOWNLOAD LINKS:
RapidShare, Sharebee (PDF Format)
OR
RapidShare, Sharebee (JPG Format)
OR
CLICK HERE TO VIEW IT! (Gallery)

And the soundtrack with James Horner's score is currently available at The Stigma Restroom.

This sentence serves no purpose.

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New Year's Horror Stories

A friend of mine walked in yesterday and announced, "I've already gotten laid this year!" For a fleeting moment, I secretly wished he'd contracted a nasty case of the clap. He went on to detail the events of a New Year's party, where one obnoxious chick got sick and puked on the couch... and on herself... and on five other people. After they kicked the drunk chick out (I didn't ask how she got home, cuz I'm sure I don't want to know), he wound up on an air mattress in a guest room with some other drunk chick... "and there's only one position to do it in on an air mattress." You learn something new every day.

Suddenly it didn't sound so bad that I was in bed sick watching the "Twilight Zone" marathon on New Year's. Certainly preferable to banging some chick who's slathered in someone else's vomit on an air mattress...

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Krofftapalooza: It's Fake Jan Day!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVgMqzit1y8


And more Brady Bunch Variety Hour news...

ECW PRESS SIGNS ‘BRADY BUNCH’ STAR SUSAN OLSEN FOR NEW COFFEE TABLE BOOK

Hollywood, CA – (January 2, 2009) Brady Bunch star Susan Olsen and ECW Press announced today their joint collaboration for the coffee table book Love to Love You Bradys: the bizarre story of The Brady Bunch Variety Hour which is scheduled to be released in September, 2009. Susan’s co-author is Los Angeles writer Ted Nichelson and pop-culture maven Lisa Sutton will serve as art director.

This colorful, glitter-filled retrospective will take a look back at the most disastrous offering in television history and explain how and why the rarely seen Variety Hour was conceived, produced, and ended up ranked in TV Guide’s top five “Worst Shows of All-Time.” Behind the scenes, this production was chock full of very serious human conflict: drug addiction, sexuality, weight issues, religion, and heated power struggles - all ultimately shattering the Bradys’ perfect image and forever scarring the legacy of TV's favorite family.

Originally airing as a 60-minute special, The Brady Bunch Variety Hour was produced by Sid and Marty Krofft and premiered on ABC on November 28, 1976. It featured the actors from The Brady Bunch sitcom singing and dancing their way through the disco era on stage above an enormous swimming pool populated by the enchanting Krofftette Water Follies. Largely derivative of the hit series The Donny and Marie Show, from the same production team, the success of this special led to a semi-regular series of which eight additional 60 minute episodes were produced and aired as monthly specials from January to May 1977. None of the installments were ever repeated on network television. Now a confirmed cult classic, the Variety Hour has been successfully parodied on such recent hit television series as The Simpsons, That 70’s Show, The Family Guy, Tiny Toons, and The Gilmore Girls.

The book features hundreds of never-before-published photos and interviews with cast, crew, and production staff, including the Brady Bunch, Sherwood Schwartz, Sid and Marty Krofft, Bruce Vilanch, Paul Shaffer, and Rip Taylor.

Vinnie's New Year Resolutions

I, Vinnie Rattolle, being of a questionable state of mind, do hereby declare this to be my latest 2009 Top Ten New Year's Resolutions.

1. I will stop speaking to the voices in my head.
(I will, however, continue to listen to and obey the voices in my head.)

2. I will stop pursuing people who are out of my league.
(Instead, I will start dating people who are beneath me... like anyone who's ever been on "The Jerry Springer Show" or "Cheaters.")

3. I will start keeping up with my email.
(Actually, that one's a lie. I know me and I'm a flake.)

4. I will do something important with my life.
(As long as it doesn't interfere with my quest to never do anything worthwhile.)

5. I will stop smoking.
(Cigarettes. I'm not giving up my glaucoma medication...)

6. I will, you know, leave my house once in a while.
(Except when I don't.)

7. I will lose weight and get my body into shape.
(Though I refuse to specify what shape.)

8. I will get everyone who visits this site to drink the Kool-Aid.
(Oh, yeah!.)

9. I will stop picking my boogers and wiping them on the cat.
(Don't judge me!)

10. I will die.
(Cuz, you know, it's my greatest goal in life.)

If I have not achieved these goals by midnight on January 1, 2009, I will fling my body off the fourth story balcony of my single-story home. Unless I don't want to.
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