NOTE: The getwild.com website is gone. Fortunately, I archived the page for your viewing pleasure.
No One is Safe |
Every musician with a record out has admirers. But there are fans and there are fanatics. Lovers of "Weird Al" and his music definitely fall into the latter category. Few personalities throughout time have ever inspired the level of devotion that Mr. Yankovic has roused. There are so many sites out there dedicated to the man and his work that to list them all on one page would surely be a long, long download. If you want to start with the "official" site, that distinction has been wrested from the record company's site and bestowed upon weirdal.com, the new address of the Bermuda Files, a site created and maintained by "Weird Al" drummer Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz. Speaking of Bermuda, he has been in communication with our own Matt Lindley. He tells our illustrious host that word on the "Weird Al" wire is that our segment about Mr. Yankovic received the much-coveted seal of approval from the fans! We are deeply honored. In addition to all he has done for us and for the entire Web, Jon has also been so kind as to compile for us a list of his own favorite Web sites. Check them out for a truly authentic "Weird Al" online experience! This crazy music seems to attract the type of folks who know how to build Web sites and build them well. It seems that roving packs of "Weird Al" Yankovic fans are creating monstrous clones of sites that are probably familiar to just about anyone who's spent more than a few weeks on the Web. Is nothing sacred? Apparently not, as you'll see in my little piece I like to call The Weird Weird Web. --Al Natanagara |
The Origins of Al  
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The Origins of Al 
Born Alfred Yankovic, "Weird Al" picked up his first accordion at age 7. The rest is history that you probably learned while watching MTV. But in case you never had cable (or you've been living under a really big rock for the past 10 years), I'll tell you some of it anyway. The "Weird Al" Information Source can break it down for you in agonizing detail (sans pictures), but I like my version better.
Al's big break came when he performed his song Another One Rides the Bus on the Dr. Demento radio show in 1980 and subsequently signed a record deal. Not many artists have conquered the stigma of being a Demento staple and subsequently sold more than a handful of records, let alone millions. Take a look at Whimsical Will's Demento site or Blasted Bill's Land of Dementia to see if you can remember any of the one-hit wonders who had two minutes and 45 seconds of fame on the good Doctor's show. Thanks to parody songs such as Eat It, I Lost on Jeopardy, and Like a Surgeon, Al's fame skyrocketed. MTV helped further propel his career by airing his brilliant videos. (Beverly Hillbillies, his parody of the Dire Straits hit Money for Nothing, was pure genius from beginning to end!) MTV submitted to his indomitable will on numerous occasions as he took over their station and renamed it "Al TV." Al's latest recording, Bad Hair Day, has gone platinum and shows no signs of slowing. He's just finished a whirlwind international tour in support of the album and is currently hard at work on his Saturday morning TeeVee series, The Weird Al Show, a national CBS show that debuted this fall. Two other fans who are privy to inside information (usually via his drummer, Mr. Bermuda Schwartz) are Marty "Gumby" Lick (keeper of the Al-oholics Anonymous site) and "Happy" Steve Chai (whose Yankovic! site eerily resembles a certain Web search catalog). They are just the tip of the iceberg of an online fan base that rivals that of no other musician in existence. --Al Natanagara |
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The Weird Weird Web "Weird Al" Yankovic and parody -- who'd have made the connection? Obviously, his fans have, because it seems to be a custom amongst those of them who are proficient in HTML to create parodies of big-name computing Web sites.  Take, for instance, the Al-4-Pres site, which looks strikingly similar to AltaVista. It promotes the concept of electing "Weird Al" Yankovic as president of the United States of America. How this fits in as a parody of a Web search engine eludes my limited mental powers. I chalk up my failure to understand to the inscrutability of the fans -- they so crazy!
Then there's ALNET, a dead-on parody of C|Net, right down to each mustard-yellow pixel. Unlike C|Net, however, ALNET does not offer shareware or computing news. 
It does, however, offer pictures of Al and the band that you can share with your friends and news about "Weird Al" tours and album releases. That's almost the same thing.
The site that is simply and elegantly called Yankovic! bears an eerie resemblance to the Web catalog Yahoo!, while Yankscape parodies the home page of the Web browser giant Netscape. W.E.I.R.D. is the site of "Weird Al's" record company, Scotti Brothers. It also looks suspiciously like the WIRED Web site. I do believe it's intentional. Is anyone safe? --Al Natanagara |