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Yes we did it, good work everyone! With all this streaming revenue coming in, Ron can now finally get himself that nice handful of loose candy from the corner store he's been eyeing!

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i'm having an amusing sort of revelation right now. there's few things more familiar (and frankly, precious) to kids who were raised Christian in the 90s and 00s than Veggietales, and honestly, Veggietales is good enough on its own that I've even seen those who have converted or outright renounced their faith still share their fondness for it.

some of my earliest memories related to music besides new wave bands like Depeche Mode and The Human League playing from my parents' stereo were the Silly Songs With Larry portions of the show, which would be complete breaks from the regular story just to do a fun musical number. i've been nostalgic for some of them recently and in my listening, not only have I found that they're much more musically robust than I ever noticed before, but my god some of these songs just sound like Sparks.

this began when I posted the Manatee Song (one of my favorites) a few days ago and a couple of friends pointed out that it sounded like something Sparks would do, imagining Russell taking over for Barbara the Manatee's high vocal parts and alternating (with himself? with Ron? who knows). i could hear it immediately, and even the string arrangement feels like something ripped out of Indiscreet.

but it turns out, the biggest culprit was right under my nose the entire time, being possibly the most famous song to come out of Veggietales: The Hairbrush Song. please, I implore you to listen and tell me this doesn't sound like something from the Lil' Beethoven trilogy: think Photoshop, Ride 'Em Cowboy, etc. theatrical, ascending vocals set to a highly melodic piano line (that varies delightfully as the song progresses), tricky key shifts, and above all else, the dramatic, emotionally-charged approach to a mundane, familiar subject matter, which is Sparks' bread and butter. i have no idea if Mike Nawrocki or Kurt Heinecke had any familiarity with Sparks or if it's just a matter of drawing upon similar influences, but i still thought this was too funny not to share.

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Whoa.

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Remember, remember, the 14th of November!

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50 years of Sparks Propaganda.

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Exclusive interview with weirdos Sparks: "We don't want to be a pop band who only strives to meet expectations"

The original interview in Lithuanian can be found here. I have translated it to English to share with fellow Sparks fans.

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Their music has been heard in the biggest art galleries, popular films and TV shows – the Sparks duet, who have conquered such a wide audience, will be playing again in Lithuania. Two brothers, widely known for their unlimited imagination , will begin their European Tour in Vilnius on October 4. The vocalist Russell Mael talked with us about eccentricity in pop music, „ridiculous Lady Gaga“ and the vodka commercial their music was used in.

„How drunk do you have to be to understand what the hell they are doing?“ – my friend exclaimed once after an in depth discussion about pros and cons of Sparks music. The comment would have amused Ron and Russell Mael – brothers who have been breaking the limits in pop music for almost 40 years.

Keep reading

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just lost every sparks meme file i have ever created (including a lot i haven't posted yet) due to a stupid stupid icloud glitch...

*insert angry sparks picture here*

have this random collection of things i had saved elsewhere but never posted:

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Recently I've been trying to remind myself to take in more "slow media" (akin to the "slow food" movement)- less content, more longform art. I've dusted off a very old list of films that I haven't seen but should, gleaned from the AFI Top 100. Some of it is patience-testing, from musicals (My Fair Lady) to epics (Lawrence of Arabia). Most of it is stuff that didn't necessarily appeal to me initially but is one of those Movies One Should Watch: From Here to Eternity or The Wild Bunch. And some of them are shameful, glaring gaps from the days before you could instantly stream gigabytes of data per second through a screen and into your faceholes. A film of the latter variety is The Third Man.

I watched it last night to keep from doomscrolling and doom-refreshing. (A strange and fascinating choice, in retrospect.) I had heard the above speech before, but in the context of the film it hits even harder. It's not exactly true —Germany invented the cuckoo clock, for one thing— but this speech, as well as others most of Orson Welles' film-defining dialogue, shows you just what kind of man Harry Lime is.

Like the protagonist, we're swayed by Harry's charisma even as we are repulsed by his words. By vastly oversimplifying a paradigm-shifting period in human history and adding a little rosy hindsight, what Harry's saying almost makes sense in a 'big picture' kind of way. But when you find out how Harry made his money and the human toll it took, the picture becomes much, much smaller. It's a great promise to think that hard times may make you into another DaVinci, but it is perhaps more likely that you'll simply be poor and die of the plague.

Relatable, right?

I guess what I'm saying is this: Watch a classic film. Really watch it. Even if that actor or director is "problematic". Put your phone away, even if you feel the urge to look up something that you think will clarify an aspect of what you're watching. Be discomforted. Ask what the film is trying to say. Read or watch The Celluloid Closet. Try to see what's between the lines. Buy physical copies of media you treasure. Put it in your memory where it can't be deleted from collective consciousness. So many classic films —Spartacus and High Noon, just to name a few— were allegories necessitated because of The Hays Code. And whatever censorship Project 2025 has coming down the pike means the great possibility that something like the Hays Code may exist again. You will be forced to learn the differences between queerbaiting and queer coding, because coding might be the most queerness you get. Sometimes ancient Rome is just ancient Rome, and sometimes it's Hollywood under a combination of self-preserving, self-enforced guidelines and government witch hunting overseen by a petty tyrant.

We've seen this shit before.

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Tumblr's favourite Sparks song - Round 1

Something For The Girl With Everything

Looks, Looks, Looks

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Tumblr's favourite Sparks song - Round 1

Wacky Woman

Moustache

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Tumblr's favourite Sparks song - Round 1

Amateur Hour

Hasta Mañana, Monsieur

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Tumblr's favourite Sparks song - Round 1

Suburban Homeboy

Waterproof

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Tumblr's favourite Sparks song - Round 1

Everybody’s Stupid

I’m Not