MetaFilter posts tagged with Showbiz

Bozo the Clown dead at 83

longsleeves — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 15:15:17 -0800

With a big red shoe, Bozo has kicked the bucket. Larry Harmon, AKA Bozo the clown, gone to heavenly syndication.

Nostalg-afire Explosion

pokermonk — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 19:58:17 -0800

Searching for animatronics that'll take you out and do you right? Long beyond their glory days, renowned Showbiz Pizza house band, The Rock-afire Explosion, is attempting a comeback. Not that they haven't tried before, but this reunion is driven on multiple fronts: the refocussed creator Aaron Fletcher, the head (and tail) of Creative Engineering; accomplished custom performances by Chris Thrash (previously on Metafilter) and his fellow fan programmer/collectors; and a cameo in the technicolor orgy of an MGMT music video. (Noticed on the fittingly titled Gorilla vs. Bear.) The fateful history of The Rock-afire Explosion on Wikipedia.

Do you really care about the starving children of Africa.

Student of Man — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 18:24:37 -0800

Development porn and Humanitarian badges. A moment of Truth

Stringbean. And his banjo. And those pants.

flapjax at midnite — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 03:53:04 -0800

For lovers of old-time, mountain banjo styles and songs, Roscoe Holcomb and Dock Boggs are revered figures. To many, however, plucker and singer David Akeman remains uncelebrated or unknown, even by his stage name of Stringbean. Is it because he was for a time actually famous as a country music showbiz staple, and therefore lacks folk cred? Or maybe the purists just can't get with those low-hanging pants the man was known for, his original hillbilly homeboy styling? Or was it cause on any given tune his left hand would likely be off the neck of the banjo more than on it? Whatever the reason, it's time folks took a new look at Stringbean. After all, the lines between folk and commercial styles have always been blurry in American music. Let's hear it for Stringbeeeeeeeaaan! Pssst... there are actually TWO Stringbean pages at MySpace, one of which I just discovered upon completion of this FPP. All the YouTube clips I've linked to are (I think) embedded here on this page! And there are record jackets and such here that I've seen nowhere else. However, the MySpace page that I first linked to in the main part of this FPP is the one with 4 songs, as opposed to only one on this page I've just discovered. Anyway, the more the merrier. Here's the other one!

Step Right Up

Miko — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 06:19:01 -0800

Circus History, with photos, logos, show routes, and more. See also Circus World, Circus Web, and Princeton's Circus Poster Archive.

just another nice little hobby---everybody needs a hobby, right?

metasonix — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 02:14:31 -0800

It seems that this gentleman bought a set of musical robots from the defunct Showbiz Pizza restaurant chain. This gent has been reprogramming the robots to sing recent hit songs, rather than the '60s Motown hits they sang originally. He then takes video of these performances, and posts it on YouTube. I guarantee this version of Evanescence's "Lithium" will haunt your dreams (or, perhaps, make you hurl).

Hey Ralphie, boy!

thrakintosh — Tue, 11 Nov 2003 14:33:44 -0800

Art Carney ...dead @ 85. My favorite Ed Norton quote: "One hand washes the other... And both hands wash the face."

swell — Thu, 18 Apr 2002 20:07:06 -0800

The good news is that Tawny Kitaen, star of "The Perils Of Gwendoline in the Land of the Yik Yak" looks like she's about to become single. The Bad news is she may have a problem.

lawtalkinguy — Thu, 17 Jan 2002 14:23:56 -0800

Oh how the mighty have fallen. He went from this to this. There's nothing like watching the "downward spiral" segment of an E! True Hollyword Story unfold before your very eyes. Any other favorite falls from grace?