2010 Nomination Round-Up/Tweet-in Announced!
The nominations for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's class of 2010 inductees were announced today. Unfortunately, Al was not nominated yet again, but there was a glimmer of hope, as two longtime snubbed acts are finally in the running this year.
But first, let's update everyone on some of our new outlets for that social interaction thing that the kids seem to like these days.
First, because we want to catch up to the world of 2008, we are proud to announce our brand new, official, and rather anemic Facebook page. There had been a group page for the campaign on the site before, but we wanted to make sure we had an official presence there as well: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Make-the-Rock-Hall-Weird/160475345080
Also, like everyone else on the planet who has exactly 140 characters of thought at a time, we're now on Twitter, too! We have a big Twitter event coming up (see below), so it might be a good idea to follow us so that everyone's on the same page...err, tweet...or whatever: http://www.twitter.com/rockhallweird
And of course, we're still on MySpace, us and maybe about three other people anymore: http://www.myspace.com/rockhallweird
Now then, the nominees. We are proud to say that we have predicted exactly 31.87 percent of this year's nominations. Okay, that's not true at all, but it sounds cool and creates this false sense of mathematical legitimacy to our site.
The big news, at least to us anyway, is that two perennial shut-outs have been nominated for the first time ever: Genesis and KISS. This is a long time coming for each act, and we couldn't be happier for our comrades in spirit who had been campaigning on KISS's behalf. Whether or not they were given the nod because of the campaigning, we don't know (strangely, not a single news outlet today has mentioned the fans' effort to get them in), but we nevertheless can't help but feel optimistic about our own cause after today's news.
The other big news is that two acts were nominated in their first year of eligibility: rapper and Toys star LL Cool J and Al parody target and Tough Guys stars Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Previously nominated friends include Mamma Mia! composers ABBA, girl group pioneers the Chantels, Lethal Weapon 4 star Darlene Love, aging grouches the Stooges, and disco queen and Thank God It's Friday star Donna Summer.
Newbies this year are reggae icon and Club Paradise star Jimmy Cliff and Graham Nash's whiny Beatles wannabes and After the Fox theme song performers the Hollies.
Another newbie is the late singer/songwriter Laura Nyro, who didn't really have any commercial hits on her own but whose songs led to moderate hit covers by such groups as the Fifth Dimension and Three Dog Night. No offense to her, of course, but we're not quite sure why she was nominated...at least in the main performer category. According to the RIAA, none of her releases have ever gone Gold. Meanwhile, she never had a top twenty single or album...in fact, only one of her singles even charted in Billboard: "Up on the Roof," which reached #92 in 1970. In fact, her greatest claim to fame might be that she launched the managing career of David Geffen.
As they do every time they have a "WTF" nominee, the Rock Hall attempted to justify Laura's nomination with a quote from a celebrated rock/pop legend. In this case it was Elton John, who apparently said, "The soul, the passion, the out-and-out audacity of her rhythmic and melody changes was like nothing I'd ever heard before." It should be noted that he had also told Billboard in 1999 that having Al cover your song is "a compliment" and "really quite a thrill," as long as we're using Sir Elton as ammo (even though, ironically, Al has yet to do an Elton John parody).
Seriously, we congratulate all of this year's nominees and wish them well.
BUT, this campaign isn't about reporting news and patting the Rock Hall on the back; it's about getting Weird Al inducted!
Greg is still holed up in his Unabomber-like bunker working on Yankoheit 27, our group documentary. We are grateful to everyone who allowed themselves to be interviewed at Al Fest 2009 last month, as it was literally the final place we were interviewing anyone for the movie. Hopefully--HOPEFULLY--the whole thing will be done and ready for release by year's end.
In the meantime, our Great Greeting Card Project is still going on, so if you haven't sent a greeting card to the Rock Hall Foundation yet, now's your chance.
In fact, on October 23, Al's fiftieth birthday, we're going to end this latest project with a bang!
We will be urging everyone to send out two cards to arrive on October 23: one to the Rock Hall Foundation urging them to induct Al, and one to Al himself wishing him a happy birthday. We want EVERYONE to participate, even if you've already sent a card to the Rock Hall.
Send your card to the Rock Hall to:
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation
Attn: Joel Peresman
1290 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10104
USA
Send your card to Al to:
Close Personal Friends Of Al
PMB #4018
8033 Sunset Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90046
USA
Also, on October 23, we will be staging a brand new one-day event: THE FIRST ANNUAL MAKE THE ROCK HALL "WEIRD" TWEET-IN!
The what, you may ask? Well, hypothetical person, 2009 has been quite a year for hippie culture. The summer marked the fortieth anniversary of the ultimate expression of peace and harmony, Woodstock, and this month saw the unprecedented reissue of all the Beatles' studio albums remastered on CD. So, keeping in with the spirit of peaceful protests--the sit-ins, the love-ins, the laugh-ins--we will be urging everyone to join us on Twitter for a "tweet-in!"
Essentially, we will spend the day tweeting the Rock Hall's Twitter account to ask why Al hasn't been nominated or inducted yet. We will also be encouraging fans of other snubbed artists to join in, creating a virtual love fest for those acts who have been shunned so far.
More details to follow, but in the meantime be sure you're a member of Twitter, even if you have no other plans to use it anytime soon!
And in the meantime, if you haven't yet, also be sure to pre-order your copy of the new two-disc collection The Essential "Weird Al" Yankovic, in stores October 27. It will cover Al's entire career with thirty-eight songs, including the rare and sought-after "Extra Gory Version" of "The Night Santa Went Crazy!"
We will make our voices heard!