Weird Al Yankovic picturesAdvanced Photoshop Pictures Contest - 18 image entries
Contest Directions: 
"Weird Al" Yankovic, the master of song parodies, is turning 50 this Friday. Since the release of his first parody song in 1979, Yankovic brought us hilarious parodies of the hit songs - "Fat", "Eat It", "Like a Surgeon", and wrote many original songs too. Weird Al sold over 12 million albums - more than any other comedy act in history. Yankovic's first top ten Billboard single ("White & Nerdy") was made nearly three decades into his career, so we think the best "Weird Al" song is yet to come! Happy Birthday, "Weird Al"!
To mark the (upcoming) 50th birthday of "Weird Al" Yankovic, photoshop him any way you wish.
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Jackpot: 1st place: $5, 2nd place: $3 , 3rd place: $2 , 4th place: $1
Started: 10/21/2009 1:00:00 PM, Ended: 10/24/2009 5:00:00 PM
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| | Alfred Matthew “Weird Al” Yankovic, born on October 23, 1959 in Downey, California is a popular American musician, famous for his parodies of contemporary English radio hits. To a large extent, words of his songs are based on making fun of modern popular (American) culture including TV, cinema, food, music & news in media.
Though parodies made him famous, Yankovic also penned many humorous songs with original melody. Some of them are stylizations (parodies of style of performance), when he chooses not some song for parodying but mimics original style, peculiar to individual performer or group. Majority of his albums include potpourri, in which chorus from various songs are mixed & performed in Polish style accompanied by accordion.
One of his most famous parodies is on Michael Jackson, more precisely, on his song “Bad”. Parody is called “Even worse: Fat”.
Only child of Nick Yankovic (June 4, 1917 - April 9, 2004, American of Serbian descent) and Mary Elizabeth (nee Vivalda, February 7, 1923 - April 9, 2004, American of Italian & English descent), Alfred was born in Downey, California and grew-up in Lynwood. Nick was born in Kansas City, Kansas and moved to California after his term in Armed Forces during Second World War. He believed that “key to success” – “to do anything for living, which makes you happy” & often reminded son of this wisdom. Nick married Mary Vivalda in 1949. Mary, who moved to California from Kentucky, gave birth to Alfred after 10 yrs into marriage.
On October 22, 1966, just a day before his 7th birthday, Al attended his first lesson on accordion, which determined his career in music. Direct-sales representative, traveling through Lynwood, provided an opportunity to parents of Yankovic to choose training on accordion or guitar in local musical school. Yankovic asserts that the reason for preferring accordion over guitar by parents was that “they considered that one more Yankovic- accordionist” should be there in the world, having Frankie Yankovic in view, who had no connection whatsoever with the family. He continued attending school for three years till he started studying on his own. During that period, Frankie Yankovic & Myron Floren (accordionist on The Lawrence Welk Show) served as his role models. In 1970s, Yankovic was big fan of Elton John and asserts that John's album “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” to some extent had helped Yankovic in learning play Rock’ n ‘Roll on accordion”. Yankovic repeatedly played the album & attempted playing on accordion without lagging behind. Regarding the influences on his humorous & parody music, it is necessary to mention Tom Lehrer, Stan Freberg, Spike Jones, Allen Sherman, Shel Silverstein & Frank Zappa” and all other amazingly sick and offset actors, whom we hear on radio-show Dr. Demento”. Other sources of inspiration were Mad magazine, Monty Python and parody films of Abrahams & Zuker.
Yankovic attended kindergarten a year earlier than majority of children & missed second class. “My schoolmates thought that I any genius & nicknamed me at once “Botanist” - he recollects. Yankovic was younger in class for two years & was not interested in sports or in social school life. Among senior classes, he affirmed as the best student, which provided him the opportunity to valedictorian of his class. Yankovic was fairly active in extracurricular activities including National Forensic League (in which he “usually brought home some kind of trophy”), game, based on Rebel Without a Cause, yearbook (for which he wrote majority of captions) and Volcano Worshipper’s Club, in which it was required to absolutely do nothing. We created this club only to have our photograph published in yearbook”. |
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