Saturday Snapshots #138 - The Answers

That's Krysten Ritter, from Breaking Bad & Jessica Jones, two fine shows.

I have no puns... just answers!



10. Piano playing dog meets marvellous man at the end o' the road.

The piano playing dog on The Muppet Show was Ralph.

Stan Lee was a Marvel-ous man.

Ralph Stanley - O Death

Worth watching the video for a truly chilling live performance.

(That one made its was onto my Songs For Dead Heroes compilation.)

9. Romantic fullstop for feathered Shakespeare.

The feathered Shakespeare is a cross between bird and bard...

A fullstop is a period.

Dan Baird - I Love You, Period

You may know him better as the lead singer of the Georgia Satellites.

8. Moorland flowers explode like stars... just like Caine.

Heather goes nova.



Jules:
First I'm gonna deliver this case to Marcellus, then, basically, I'm just gonna walk the earth.

Vincent:
What'cha mean walk the earth?

Jules:
You know, like Caine in Kung Fu. Walk from place to place, meet people... get into adventures. 

Heather Nova - Walk This World

7. What happens when Essex stops dreaming... flatulent warmongers.

David Essex sang about a Silver Dream Machine. Take the Dream from that and you get what a windy hawk (as in Hawks & Doves) might sing about...

Hawkwind - Silver Machine

6. Should a mother be so confident in her prowess?

Should a mother = Shall a ma?

Shalamar - I Can Make You Feel Good

Although half a mark to Charity Chic, because A Night To Remember would also fit the clue.

5. Shortened tyres preferred by drivers in motor city when chased by small Spanish wolf.

Michelin make tyres. Shorter = Mitch.

Motor City = Motown = Detroit.

A small Spanish wolf?

Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels - Little Latin Lupe Lu

4. Shipwreck connected to disastrous backbone.

The tragic hipbone's connected to the disastrous backbone. Hear the word of the lord!

The Tragically Hip - Nautical Disaster

3. Taxi driver meets depressed meteorologist.

Travis Bickle was a Taxi Driver.

Travis - Why Does It Always Rain On Me?

2. Mythic ruse, honest.

Mythic ruse is an anagram. I am telling you the truth!

Eurythmics - Would I Lie To You?

1. Mentally fixated, like a Boy, Solo.

Boy George + Harrison (Han Solo) Ford...

I love this song and George is by far my favourite Beatle... but that is a truly awful video.




More next week!

My Top Ten Punctuation Songs

Following on from my grammar pedantry Top Ten, here's ten songs celebrating the wonders of punctuation.

Special mentions to Question Mark & The Mysterians, Slash, The Parenthetical Girls and !!! (which is a contender for worst band name ever: how do you even pronounce that?).



10. Discount - Apostrophe

Floridas own Discount. Sorry, I meant Florida's.

Being an English teacher, getting people to use the possessive apostrophe is the bane of my life.

9. The Wombats - Sex & Question Marks

Sex is one big question mark to me too.

Fans of the most inquisitive form of punctuation might also enjoy The Fuzztones - Look For The Question Mark.

8. Wire - Dot Dash

Wire use punctuation as Morse Code. Don't crash!

7. The Beat - Ranking Full Stop

Ranking Roger loved his Full Stops from the very first Beat single, of which this was double-A side with their more-played version of Tears of a Clown. The final full stop comes right at the end of the song though...

6. Spearmint - Punctuation

Today, class, Shirley won't just be teaching us about punctuation... but alliteration too!

Words! 
Alliteration 
Helps you hide inside your head 
Typewriter taps: use it as punctuation 
To escape every grey degrading day of your life

5. The Libertines - Up The Bracket

Pete and Carl in parenthesis. (Pair of annoying chancers?)

4. Thea Gilmore - Punctuation

In legal documents and religious texts, punctuation is all-important. Thea proves that here... 

‘Cause you see, I’ve got this theory that it’s only punctuation
That separates the list from you to me
And you can have your little war of full stops and meritings
But the real power’s in parentheses

3. Amanda Palmer - Ampersand

The ghetto boys are catcalling me
As I pull my keys from my pocket
I wonder if this method of courtship
Has ever been effective
Has any girl in history said
Sure, you seem so nice, let's get it on
Still, I always shock them when I answer
Hi my name's Amanda
And I'm not gonna live my life on one side of an ampersand 

Wonder what Neil Gaiman makes of that philosophy? (Let's not ask him, his answers tend to go on for years without end, like his stories.)

2. Vampire Weekend - Oxford Comma

So the Oxford Comma, if you don't know, is the optional comma you may sometimes use before the 'and' at the end of a list. Used properly, it can avoid confusion and comedy...

Vampire Weekend though, they don't give an f-bomb about it. Philistines.

1. Dan Baird - I Love You, Period

Top single from the former Georgia Satellite in which Dan's affair with his English teacher is curtailed by bad punctuation...

That's the problem with English teachers.They let pedantry get in the way of romance.



Question mark? Exclamation mark!