Oingo Boingo is a strange band with an odd name, but not quite as strange as the group started out. In 1972, they were originally a performance art group called The Mystic Knights of The Oingo Boingo. The group was a blend of theater, comedy and music. There were up to 15 members at any given time and over 30 instruments involved in the show –some of them handmade by band members. Most of the members would wear clown make up and the band played tunes from anywhere between the 1890’s and 1950’s.

In fact, the band’s most famous member, Danny Elfman, wasn’t even in the group when it started. Instead, his brother, Richard, was the band’s leader and founder. Both Danny and Richard grew up listening to music very outdated for kid’s their age –Danny’s said his favorite tunes were obscure jazz records from the thirties.

The original band was named after a fictional secret society in Amos n’ Andy called The Mystic Knights of the Sea. As far as the “Oingo Boingo” part of the name, it’s hard to say. The words mean nothing and there seems to be no reason for the band using the title other than liking the way the two words sounded.

There are few recordings of the group in their pre-Danny Elfman times, but during the period, they did release a record about Patty Hearst called “You’ve Got Your Baby Back.”

In 1976, Richard decided he needed to focus more time on his film-making, so Danny took his place in the group and they began shifting their efforts from the theatric side into the musical aspect they are now known for.

One of Oingo Boingo’s most famous performances during this transition period of the band was on The Gong Show. The group won with 24 out of a possible 30 points.

• In 1977, the group played in the movie “I Never Promised You A Rose Garden.” They appeared during the dream sequences of the main character. This was to be the first of many movie and soundtrack appearances for the group, including “Fast Times at Ridgemont High,” “Weird Science,” “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2,” “Back To School” and “Bachelor Party.” By this time, they started getting a decent underground following from their Gong Show appearance and part in the film.


• Interestingly, one of the least known movies Oingo Boingo took part in may have been the best insight into both the psyches of the Elfman brothers and the essence of the early work of the Mystic Knights of Oingo Boingo. That movie is Richard Elfman’s cult classic, “Forbidden Zone.” This strange movie was filmed in black and white with the intention of post-production colorization (something which wasn’t completed until last year). In the movie, Danny plays the devil and sings a swinging cover of Minnie the Moocher with some modified lyrics to suit the film’s plot.

• By 1980, The Mystic Knights of Oingo Boingo became an actual rock group, which was cheaper and easier to travel with than a full stage show. They also slimmed down their line up to a respectable 8 members, fittingly, they also shortened their name to only two memorable words: Oingo Boingo. At this time, the group also released their first hit single, “Only a Lad.” By 1981, the group was signed on A&M and released their first full length album, also called “Only a Lad.”


• One of the tracks from this first album, “Capitalism,” was considered to be one of the “50 greatest conservative rock songs” by The National Review.


• The group's third album was “Good For Your Soul.” On this record, the group inserted a secret message on the song “Cry of the Vatos.” When you play the song backwards, a pro-Christian message is heard. They wanted to make fun of all the conservative paranoia about music that was popular at the time.


• Within a few years, Danny already had some issues with A&M and he decided to release a “solo” album under MCA Records. In actuality, the record was a group effort that was only released under Danny Elfman’s name to get around the band’s contract with A&M.


• Oingo Boingo’s best known song, “Weird Science” was actually written specifically for the John Hughes movie and was included on the 1985 album “Dead Man’s Party.” By the mid eighties, Danny Elfman already began working heavily on movie themes and had began his long-term work with director Tim Burton. Elfman has done almost all of the soundtracks for the Tim Burton collection of films.


• 1988’s “Boingo Alive” was recorded live on a soundstage, without an audience.


• Oingo Boingo left MCA in 1991 and rearranged its line up, removing a lot of the influence of the group’s horns. They also decided to shorten their name even further, this time to only Boingo.


• After that album, the group went back to their old name. The momentum seemed to have left the band by this point though and they opted to separate after their yearly Halloween performance in 1995. This show was recorded and while the cd is not hard to get, the DVD is rare enough to be worth over $100.


• Since the group’s parting of ways, Danny Elfman has become one of the most famous composers in the movie industry. He almost exclusively hires Boingo guitarist Steve Bartek as his orchestrator. You may know some of his theme songs from such classics as The Simpsons, Batman, Spider Man and Tales From The Crypt.


• John Avila and Johnny Hernandez have continued to work in a number of groups together, including Food For Feet, Tito & Tarantula, Psychotic Aztecs and Doug & The Mystics. Additionally, these two members and a few other ex-Boingo members put together an Oingo Boing tribute show in Anaheim in 2005.


• Throughout the entire span of Oingo Boingo and The Mystic Knights of Oingo Boingo, over 30 people were in the group.


• Danny Elfman insists that there will never be an Oingo Boingo reunion. He says he suffers from irreversible hearing loss and does not want to make it worse by touring.

Source #1 and #2

Do you hate being the only person that doesn't bring lunch to work or school in a brown bag? Well, now you can keep up your old ways while following the bag trend with this entirely felt lunch set. If you're interested, instructions are available to make your own chips, bag, sandwich and treat from felt. They even tell you how to sew a plastic sandwich bag for good measure.

Link Via CraftZine

Veterinary medicine is a truly interesting field. On one hand, many procedures and medications are created for and tested on animals before they are used on humans. Alternatively, because there are so many species of animals out there, sometimes a basic medical procedure can present a whole new series of problems when applied to a certain animal. When veterinarians work with zoo residents or wild animals, they are confronted with even more challenges, often times needing to drug the animal before they can even investigate the cause of its discomfort. Looking at the amazing care veterinarians provide does not only show what ingenious and fantastic people these animal doctors are, but also how amazing and unique each of their patients are.

Elephant Acupuncture

Regardless on your opinion of Eastern medicine, it’s undeniable that the countries that practice these methods are true believers in their effectiveness. That in mind, it’s only fair that they would use these same cures and treatments on their animals. Of course, then the question arises, “how do you provide a 5,300 pound elephant with acupuncture?” Tun was a 15 year-old Asian elephant with a long-lasting leg injury caused by a male elephant crushing her when she was only 4. The zoo veterinarians worried she would have a hard time supporting her body as she continued to age and gain weight. They decided to bring the zoo’s resident acupuncturist, Oh Soon Hock, in to give her some therapy. Oh Soon Hock had performed this therapy on cheetahs, orangutans and giraffes, but never on the world’s largest land mammal, the elephant. Tun’s biweekly electric acupuncture sessions were expected to last for almost six months. To get her to lay down and cooperate, her keepers cooed at her, gently tugged on her ears and rewarded her with bits of fruit. While handling the sessions well for the most part, she would occasionally become restless from lying on one side. Acupuncture is generally a painless procedure, but that didn’t leave Oh out of danger from the unanesthetized animal. Once, the electric charge in the needles led her whole body to jerk violently. After only a month and a half, she already began showing a noticed change. "After the first treatment, she was more mobile. Now her leg can be bent better and her muscles are more relaxed," said Oh. Source

Sturgeon Sterilization

It may seem a little strange to sterilize an animal to help save a species from extinction. It also may seem a little strange to sterilize a fish at all. But that’s just what researchers from the University of Georgia did in order to help protect the wild short-nosed sturgeon population. As to why you would “fix” an animal that’s going extinct, the fact is they sterilized a captive-bred sturgeon for release into the wild population. The number of farmed sturgeons is just fine, it’s the wild ones the doctors were concerned about. This special fish was going to be placed in the wild so the scientists could gather more information about the sturgeons, like their habitat viability, mortality rates, and distribution. At the same time, the scientists wanted to protect the gene pool of her wild counterparts. Naturally, sterilizing a fish is not quite the same as spaying your dog. To anesthetize the fish, drugs were added directly into its water. The veterinarian, Dr Stephen Hernandez-Divers, inserted two endoscopes with cameras into the fish so he could get a clearer picture of what he was doing. He then had to cut out the ovaries and cauterize the wound, which he was able to do simultaneously using one specialized instrument. He also tied the fish’s fallopian tubes. Throughout the surgery, there were only two pinhole incisions cut into the fish and these both were stitched up as soon as the procedure was over. The fish recovered from the surgery well and was soon released into the wild to help learn more about our wild sturgeon population. Source

Owl Eye Surgery

A lot of animals rely much more on their sense of smell or sound than they rely on their eye sight. Owls are the opposite. They are even more reliant on sight than us humans are and will eventually starve to death if they cannot use their extraordinary sight for hunting. So when a great horned owl showed up at the Colorado State University with a damaged cornea, the school’s ophthalmology department knew than something had to be done soon. Dr. Julie Gionfriddo was placed in charge of the surgery and she opted to attach a piece of the bird’s muscle to the damaged cornea. The muscle worked as a bandage and allowed the eye to heal on its own. After several weeks, the bird’s eye was mostly healed, and a second procedure was done to cut the muscle away so the owl could see again. This operation was performed with the help of a specialized microscope. The cornea was stitched up to let it complete the healing process. Because the eye needs proteins from inside the eyelid, the eyelid was stitched closed as well. Within the following week, the eyelid was unstitched and the bird finally had its sight back completely. Eventually, the beautiful bird of prey was released back into its natural habitat, none the worse for the entire experience. Source | Photo: apurdam (Andrew) [Flickr]

Neuticles

These may not be a common procedure, but dogs across the country have had their testicles not only removed, but replaced. Creators of Neuticles claim that dogs who are neutered lose self-esteem, are traumatized from the experience and don’t look as good as other dogs. So to help loving dog owners fix their pets without having to traumatize them, the company has released prosthetic dog testicles designed to trick man and beast alike into believing the pup has not been tampered with. Reading a variety of pet forums and testimonials, it seems that Neuticles are of greater benefit to dog owners than the dogs. The products seem to sell very well in places like Texas, that are known for having very masculine populations. There are a lot of people feel like they are emasculating themselves by having their dogs fixed, and these people are ideal clients for the Missouri-based company that produces Neuticles. According to their website, over 100,000 animals have been “neuticled” already. As silly as these products may sound, it seems even stranger that some people are genuinely offended by the concept of artificial dog balls. Who are these people –dog show operators. All dog shows expect the animals being presented to be of breeding stock, as such, all of the dogs must be “intact.” The AKC keeps its eyes out for sneaky pet owners who want to neuter their dogs and still allow them to be show animals. If owners are caught having dogs with Neuticles, they will be permanently barred from future events. Source

Elephant detox

How do you treat a 9,000 pound animal addicted to heroin? That’s what veterinarians in China had to find out when they encountered an Asian elephant with a major drug problem. The smugglers that illegally attempted to capture Big Brother fed him bananas laced with heroin in an attempt to keep him under control. Unfortunately, when they were arrested, Big Brother started to go through withdrawal symptoms. So the veterinarians at the Beijing animal protection center Big Brother was sent to had to learn how to make a drug detox program suitable for a mammal of this size. For the first year of the treatment, the elephant had to receive methadone injections five times the dosage given to humans. Gradually, the dosage was lowered until Big Brother was clean and sober. The program took over 3 years for Big Brother to complete, but now he seems happy and healthy. Source

Turtle gets prosthetic fin

Sea turtles rely heavily on their big front flippers –not only for swimming, but for climbing onto sandy beaches. Without being able to get on dry land, turtles are unable to lay eggs and continue their species. So when a sea turtle missing her front fin was rescued in southwestern Japan, the Sea Turtle Association of Japan arranged immediately began brainstorming. It wasn’t long before everyone involved agreed to give the little girl a new lease on life with the help of a prosthetic fin. "We need to pay special attention as the forelimbs will have to be strong enough to (allow her) to climb up a beach," said Erika Akai, a researcher at the non-profit Sea Turtle Association of Japan. The turtle is believed to have lost its fin after a shark attack, making her a very brave girl. This bravado should help when it comes time for her to re-learn to swim once again with the help of her artificial limb. The team hopes her strength will come back enough for her to be able to lay eggs in the future. The project will begin in May, once there has been time for the rescue group to raise funds and develop a working prototype for the animal’s fin. It will be exciting to find out how the turtle fares. "We are fully aware that it will be a difficult challenge," said a spokeswoman for the prosthetic limb company, Kawamura Gishi Co. "But we were moved by the passion of the association and decided to take part in the project." Source If you like these sorts of stories, I highly recommend The Rhino With Glue-On Shoes, a book about vets and their most memorable patients.

These three girls are the first official ambassadors of cute for Japan. In an effort to compete with China and other world super powers, Japan has decided to exploit their status as one of (if not the) cutest countries in the world. To reach this goal, they've hired the girls above. The one on the left is a school girl. The one on the right is a Japanese Lolita girl. The one in the middle makes up her own style, but has become a semi-celebrity in the trendy Harijuku district.

As fun as this idea is, do you really think cute ambassadors will help Japan compete in a world market?

Link

A yearly contest in my hometown of San Diego is the Ugly Dog Contest, we actually held one of the first ugly dog contests in the world. This years winner was little Chomper, a boxer mix who can't put her toungue in her mouth. A video of the event can be found here. It's very cute to see happy Chomper's toungue wagging about throughout the event.

The event actually is great for our city's animal shelters, as all proceds are donated to them. The San Diego Kiwanis put the whole thing together and other catagories include best St. Patrick's Day costume, Best outfit, cutest dog and best mutt.

http://www.muttskis.com/short_hair/the-ugliest-dog-in-san-diego/

Hey Neatoramanauts, I'm testing out a new section here, kinda like Stacy's Movie Trivia -only for music. For the first one, I decided to do one of my all time favorite musicians, Iggy Pop, but I'd love some suggestions for future pieces. (Photo: Robert Scales [Flickr]) If you want to know about Hank Williams, The Beatles, Oingo Boingo, The Killers or even, Billy Ray Cyrus, I'd be happy to look into it to help answer your burning music-trivia questions. So whoever you want to know more about, let me know.

• You may have heard Iggy Pop called "the Godfather of Punk," but I was surprised to find out he is also called "the Rock Iguana." In case you were curious what his actual name is, it's James. James Newell Österberg, Jr.. He came up with his stage name in high school, after playing drums in a band named "The Iguanas."


• The Stooges were originally called "The Psychadelic Stooges," but they changed it when they were signed to Elektra Records. Supposedly, Moe Howard of The Three Stooges was asked if the change was ok with him, but Moe replied, "I don't care what they call themselves, as long as they're not the Three Stooges!"


• Many of Iggy's stage antics were inspired by watching Jim Morrison play in The Doors. He wanted to push things even further than Morrison though, and as a result, The Stooges shows were known for having an outrageous show. It was typical for Pop to slice himself open with glass, vomit, roll around on stage in glass and vomit. He was also known for and showing his "special parts" to the audience.


• The last Stooge's show with their original line-up ended in a fight between the group and a bunch of bikers. The show was actually being recorded and the fight can be heard on the album, "Metallic K.O.."


• Many people credit Iggy Pop with being the first person to stage dive. Even if he wasn't the first, everyone agrees he was one of the first.


• Iggy Pop and David Bowie had one of the more legendary friendships of rock history and many people believed they actually had a sexual relationship together. Their friendship resulted in some great music, including the Iggy Pop albums "The Idiot" and "Lust for Life," which included the songs China Girl, Tonight and Sister Midnight. Later in his career, Bowie covered those three songs and his success helped Pop rake in a ton of royalties.


• Iggy's had a ton of fans in Australia ever since he went on the pop music show Countdown. During his performance, he repeatedly swung the mic at the audience and made no attempt to hide the fact that he was lip-syncing. He also gave an interview where he repeatedly jumped up and down on the chair and screamed "g'day mate" in a terrible Aussie accent. If you want to watch it, the clip's below and here's a link.

• Despite having been a raging drug addict and alcoholic, Iggy is quite intelligent. He has the distinction of being the only popular musician to be published in a journal of classical scholarship.


• Iggy has worked on soundtracks for multiple films, including Repo Man, Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare and Arizona Dream.


• In the last few decades, Iggy Pop has been increasingly used as an actor. He performed as prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi in the opera The Manson Family, played a redneck relative of Johnny Depp's character in Cry Baby, had a recurring role in the Nickelodeon show The Adventures of Pete and Pete, provided the voice for Lil' Rummy on Comedy Central's Lil' Bush, has done voices for Fox's American Dad and has been in 4 other shows and 15 movies.


• Iggy has inspired more than just musicians. Ewan McGregor's character in Velvet Goldmine was loosely based on him and James O'Barr, creator of The Crow, used Pop's anatomy as an example for his main character. In turn, when the comic was adapted to film, Brandon Lee said he used Iggy as inspiration for his portrayal of Eric Draven.


• A movie based on Iggy's early life and career with The Stooges is currently in works. It will be entitled The Passenger. Elijah Wood will be playing Iggy, a role he was intimidated to take because he is a huge fan of the rocker.


• When Madonna was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last year, she refused to play in protest of the fact that The Stooges have not been inducted yet. Instead, she asked the remaining living members of The Stooges to perform her songs for her. They played Burning Up and Ray of Light. As Iggy left the stage, he quoted Like a Virgin to her, saying "You make me feel shiny and new, like a virgin, touched for the very first time."

This video is really cute. Make sure you watch the whole thing and don't forget to turn the sound up loud enough to hear the conversation. If only this little guy really came out to welcome me to Canada, I would be there daily.

Link Via Yes But No But Yes

These cuckoo clocks by artist Nathan Skiles are created with cardboard and rubber. They may be a good option for people with walls too weak to hold up heavy wooden & metal cuckoo clocks.

Link Via Craftzine

This adorable video is brought to you by The Cooks Den. In trying to evaluate whether organic veggies and fruits actually taste better, they decided to try an unbiased judge -Hammy the Hamster. How semi-scientific of them.

The results seemed to show that the little girl preferred organic veggies in five out of the six foods tested.

Study Link & Video Link Via Boing Boing

We've all heard someone complain about the stereotypes and sexism associated with Barbies, but now Democrat Jeff Eldridge wants to have the dolls banned in West Virginia. He claims the dolls encourage girls to focus too much importance on looks, rather than brains.

The announcement came right as Mattel is prepping up to celebrate Barbie's 50th birthday on March 9th.

What are your thoughts, classic American icon or symbol of of an outdated 50's mentality?

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/03/04/national/a105706S37.DTL Photo Via CherrySoda [Flickr]

This image is not photoshopped. This is a rare albino dolphin found in a salt water lake just north of the Gulf of Mexico. Captain Erik Rue who first saw the pink dolphin says it seems quite healthy:

"Surprisingly, it does not appear to be drastically affected by the environment or sunlight as might be expected considering its condition, although it tends to remain below the surface a little more than the others in the pod."

Link Via Weird Stuff News (Photo: Caters News)

Sweet lovers like myself will love this brilliant concept on The Cupcake Project blog. It's an Oreo cupcake with Oreo frosting, topped with home-made Oreos and served with a glass of milk built inside. This ingenious dessert marvel is made possible with the help of those delightful chocolate liqour cups. I totally want to make these myself, if you do as well, let me know how they turn out.

Link

Have you every read about some new science experiment or research study that just seems... well, stupid? If you've ever gotten to the point where you've wondered what other bogus things they'll pay people to learn about, you're in luck. Here's 7 of the most ridiculous studies ever:

Sex, Drugs and Science

If this first group of studies show us anything, it's that scientists are as drugged up and crazy as the junkies up the street from me.

Elephants on Acid:

If you were going to see the effects of LSD on an elephant, wouldn't you start with smaller doses and progressively increase the dosage until there was a noticeable change in their behavior? I sure would. But the researchers on this one aren't like you and me. Instead the researchers working on this one started off by injecting the poor beast with 3000 times the dosage needed for an average human, despite the fact that elephants weigh around 50 times what the average human weighs. Within two hours, the animal died. The scientists defended their actions by saying they had used LSD plenty of times and were sure it was safe. They then concluded, "elephants are highly sensitive to LSD." Apparently another scientist found their results to be suspicious, so he gave elephants LSD in their water. In his study, the elephants acted a little funny, but were totally fine.

Source

Turkey Arousal:

We've all heard stories detailing how stupid turkeys are -like the one that says they'll drown if you leave them in the rain. Well, some of those turkey stories may be bogus, but two Penn State researchers discovered that turkeys are so stupid they can be trained to be aroused by little more than sticks. Their experiment consisted of creating a model female turkey that could be progressively deconstructed. The scientists would then gauge the turkey's interest in the "female" and then remove some parts of her body and try again. They were expecting the birds would lose interest after is was stripped down enough. Surprisingly, the turkeys were aroused even when the model became little more than a stick with a head. I guess this not only shows how stupid turkeys are, but how perverse they are too.

Source | Photo Via Vicki's Nature [Flickr]

Semen As an Anti-depressant?

I always thought scientists were supposed to be unbiased. I mean, if you're hoping for certain results, might that affect your research? Obviously these researchers bypassed that concept, by attempting to prove that semen works as an antidepressant. They decided to study this theory by interviewing college women who were sexually active. Their conclusions proved that women who had sex without condoms were less depressed than women who used them. Of course, their research was extremely preliminary and they didn't even bother to take into account additional factors, like the fact that women not using condoms are more likely to be in serious relationships. It doesn't take a scientist to figure out that this might play into someone's relative level of happiness. But like I said, this study was about as unbiased as all those tobacco company ones that couldn't connect smoking with cancer.

Source | Photo Via Zen [Flickr]

Paging Dr. Obvious

The rest of these studies are amazing -in that someone actually bothered to research things so obvious:

Head Banging is Bad For You:

Who would have ever thought that aggressively and repeatedly throwing your head up and down would be bad for you? Gee, I never would have imagined that spinal damage and brain trauma could have resulted from head banging. Obviously, I'm being sarcastic. After years of dating a metal head, I can assure you that head banging can certainly make you retarded...or at least, it doesn't help your intelligence at all. The only good thing researchers found was that head banging is unlikely to leave you unconscious. What is really funny is the researcher's suggestions for the metal genre. They suggest metal bands play more mellow tunes and less "beat oriented" music. They also urged label to place anti-head banging warnings on their cds. Oh, and listeners were advised to start listening to "adult-oriented rock" instead of heavy metal. Yeah, that's gonna happen real soon.

Source | Photo Via Cayusa [Flickr]

Male science nerds likely to be virgins:

Hmmm, who is most likely to be a virgin, a party-girl, a jock, or a nerd? Think about it. No surprise here; male science nerds between 16 and 25 are the most likely to not have had sex. At least the study provided some legitimate reasons for this statistic, rather than the typical "nerds are pimply and boring" theories of popular media. The study reasoned that these nerds were the population segment least likely to be in situations where they would meet potential lovers. Apparently, doing homework and going to the library doesn't help you meet chicks. Hey, at least they're being productive. Interestingly, female art students were the most sexually active.

Source | Photo Via Miss604 [Flickr]

Bullies Like Seeing Pain:

If bullies were compassionate they would sit around crying whenever they picked on people. The fact that they don't do so might just indicate that they are mean. Why did anyone need to set up a study to confirm that bullies enjoy seeing other people in pain? An interesting thing about this study is that it was the first time anyone used fMRI to evaluate how respondents reacted to different emotions. Instead of being empathetic like the brain of a normal person, bullies mind's activate their reward centers when they see videos of other people being picked on.

Source | Photo Via ZZClef [Flickr]

Television Viewers Are Unhappy:

It's common knowledge that television and other forms of entertainment are a way for people to escape their problems. If you run home to watch tv instead rather than hanging out with friends, you might be unhappy. Did we really need a scientist to tell us that people who socialize are generally more happy than people who sit at home watching tv all day? What's more crazy is that they needed over 30 years of data to back up their claims. The only unique thing the study discovered was that many viewers are actually addicted. (Marx was right about television, is this evidence that the scientists are commies?):

"Addictive activities produce momentary pleasure and long-term misery and regret," said Steven Martin, co-author of the study. "People most vulnerable to addiction tend to be socially or personally disadvantaged. For this kind of person, TV can become a kind of opiate in a way. It's habitual, and tuning in can be an easy way of tuning out."

Funny, I've was using the audio/visual equivalent of heroin the whole time I was researching this. I swear I could quit any time. Source Now that I've written this, I think I've got a couple of ideas I could get funded. For example, are people happier when they're warm at home or cold in the middle of nowhere? Or maybe I could find out if donkeys really die when they take a bunch of cocaine and other drugs at a bachelor party. Do you guys have any ideas for awesome studies?

How you know your kitty needs to go on a diet.

http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1902110Via GiggleSugar

Update 2/28/09: Let's not forget our article on this very subject: Top 15 Amazingly Fat Cats

These Japanese snacks are actually called "Sea Otter Boogers" and apparently are quite tasty treats made of candied black beans. They're yours for only about $6, of course, you have to speak Japanese to order them.

Link