I got so much to share on this “Fun-Filled Friday,” let’s just get right to it!
Since I started with the serious stuff last Friday, how about we begin this week with some fun nuggets that’ll get your funny bone to tingling? One of my favorite entertainers growing up was this parody guy named Weird Al Yankovich who had a knack for taking the most popular songs and artists of the day and putting his own unique spin on them. Well, Weird Al is at it again and now he’s taken on Lady Gaga’s mega-smash hit “Born This Way.” His version is called “Perform This Way” and it’s all about Gaga herself. The lyrics to this parody are hilarious:
Although Lady Gaga’s people initially told Weird Al he couldn’t use the song, they finally relented and it’ll now be featured on his upcoming June 2011 album. This guy is the best at what he does. Somebody else that’s pretty darn good at his craft is comedian David Armand when he performs as Johann Lippowitz doing mime interpretations of songs that will have you rolling. My low-carb cruise buddy Ailsa sent me this video of him performing with Natalie Imbruglia on her hit song “Torn”:
That’s AWESOME! Ailsa wants me to try to do the mime part while she sings the song during karaoke on the cruise–that’s a lot to memorize in just a week. I’m still working on it, but I’m not so sure I can pull it off. Great song though! I wonder if the oddly-charming Keenan Caheel has covered the song. I just found out about this YouTube teenage sensation this week who has made quite the name for himself doing lip-synch interpretations of the hottest pop songs. Here’s Keenan doing his own version of the top song in America right now by Katy Perry and Kanye West called “ET”:
This kid is definitely enjoying his 15 minutes of fame with over 235 million upload views of his videos over the past year and a half so far…and counting! WOW! Here’s a radio interview Keenan did talking about his overnight success that has famous people like 50 Cent, Nick Cannon, Jennifer Aniston, Katy Perry, and others taking notice with Keenan-fever:
Keenan has a degenerative disease that has stunted his growth and doctors say his prognosis for living beyond 20 years old is very slim. Good for him deciding to enjoy the life he’s been given and making the most of the precious time he has been given on this Earth. Keep doing your thing, buddy! Someone else doing their thing is UK celebrity chef and health advocate Jamie Oliver who has taken his “revolution” to the United States the past couple of years with his ABC-TV show Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution (I’ve asked several times for an interview with him on my podcast, but have received no response to date). My wife Christine and I enjoy watching how this one man is seeking to make a difference in the food culture of America. Here’s a fabulous TED2011 presentation that he shared a couple of weeks ago:
And here’s the accompanying promo video for the work he is doing right now:
While Jamie’s message isn’t always perfect, I think he’s closer to being on target with what he’s saying than not. I wholeheartedly support what he is trying to do and we need more world changers like him who are willing to become a part of the “revolution.” I consider what I’m doing through the “Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb” brand to be a part of that education process with the consumer and will continue to shout it for as loud and long as it takes until people get it.
The earthquake that spawned a tsunami last month in Japan was horrific for the people impacted by this devastation. I don’t think many of us truly understand just how bad it was–but I’ve got a video of the destruction as it was happening to show you just a glimpse of what these people had to deal with. I can’t believe how calm the guy shooting this video stayed as the water kept rising and rising:
WOW, just wow. Although it hasn’t been as bad as the Japanese tsunami was last month, we’ve had some really volatile weather in the South lately including this tornado spotted just last Friday, April 15, 2011 near Jackson, Mississippi:
Those guys are crazy being out there in the middle of a storm like that! All it would take is a quick shift in direction from that twister and they’d be toast. I’m all for adventure, but that’s a wee bit ridiculous to me. Christine would LOVE it though! Ahhh, I’m such a wimp I guess. Of course, I could just be a dancing fool like Matt Harding:
How much fun would that be to travel around the world taping yourself dancing with people on every continent and garnering over 36 million views on YouTube? COOL! You know with all those takes at various places around the world, Matt ran into some interesting scenarios when his dancing didn’t work out so well:
I love the one with the monks just standing there looking at this crazy dancing American–HAHAHAHA! Speaking of dancing and craziness, check out what a group of Christian music artists (Mercy Me, Jars of Clay, and others) did for fun while on tour last month singing a cover of the song “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da”:
Who says these Christian singers can’t have some fun, too? GREAT JOB GUYS! I’ve got a few low-carb diet and health stuff to share with you today:
- A team of biochemistry experts are working on a brand new nutritional biochemistry textbook to be used in medical school to teach the biochemistry, the physiology, and the clinical results about nutrition. As you know, nutrition education is sorely needed by the future doctors of America and this could be a way to empower people entering the medical profession with solid information about the dietary relationship to health. The authors are requesting input from YOU about what types of questions you’d like to see addressed in this book. They’re presenting their synopsis for the book early next week and need your input ASAP! E-mail the questions you think they should address to pogozels@geneseo.edu no later than Monday, April 25, 2011. Feel free to share your questions in the comments below as well.
- One question that WON’T be in that textbook is this one asking if low-carb diets during pregnancy leads to fatter kids. This kind of nonsense is why people are so darned confused about how to eat. The study doesn’t define what they mean by “low-carbohydrate diet” and really makes no connection between the actual diet of the mother and the resulting weight of the baby. And yet how many expectant mothers will simply read that headline and say to themselves, “Well, I guess I won’t be eating low-carb because I don’t want my kid to get fat!” *SLAPS FOREHEAD*
- When Gary Taubes wrote his tremendous New York Times Magazine piece last week on sugar (see what Melanie Warner at BNET says Gary “missed” in his column), he featured a name familiar to many of us in the low-carb community: Dr. Robert Lustig. I’ve interviewed him a couple of times in the past year and now a brand new interview with him on KQED Radio on the relationship between sugar and health aired on Thursday. Lustig never disappoints!
- My low-carb story was featured on Free Workout Plans For Busy People this week. They asked me about various aspects of my low-carb life, this blog, my podcast and more! If you wanna learn a little more about the man behind “Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb,” then check it out.
- In the “gee, why am I not surprised” department, I just found out that Dr. Oz will be featuring the new vegan propaganda film Forks Over Knives on his popular syndicated daytime television show on Thursday, April 28, 2011. Although the film is only supposed to be released in about 100 theaters nationwide the first week of May, this massive exposure may increase demand for it to be show in more theaters for its May 6, 2011 debut. The vegans are trying desperately to paint this film as nothing more than a loving way to teach others how to be healthy, but don’t be fooled–they’re pushing hard the notion that the ONLY way to eat is by consuming a plant-based diet devoid of any animal-based foods. That’s not tolerance for other nutritional plans as they claim but indoctrination. I’ll reserve full judgment until I’ve seen the film for myself, but T. Colin Campbell has already proven through his previous commentary about the Atkins diet that he cannot be objective about this subject.
- Did you know consuming MSG will help you lose weight? That’s the assertion being made by the USDA in this press release about their partnership with Ajinimoto Corporation–the world’s largest manufacturer of MSG–on a new study that seeks to prove it. As absurd as this sounds, they’re dead serious about it. Of course, this is the same USDA that gave us the equally laughable 2010 Dietary Guidelines for how Americans should be eating, too. *SLAPS FOREHEAD…AGAIN*
- Now why can’t we do school lunches in America like they do in France?
Can you imagine how much healthier we’d be as a nation if we did this here?
- Wanna make a difference in the future product development of one of the world’s largest food manufacturers? Kraft Foods is looking for people to join their Cultivar advisory community to share feedback about the products they are serving to customers. I’ve been a member of Cultivar personally for about a year and they’ve been very grateful for my honest input on the foods they are trying to market. Wouldn’t it be great to get more voices to stand up to the high-carb crapola they keep pumping out? JOIN TODAY and let’s make a difference together!
- Congratulations to my low-carb blogging buddy Tom Naughton for having his outstanding documentary film FAT HEAD honored as the #1 documentary on Hulu and #3 for ALL MOVIES today. WOO HOO! Way to go Tom! I’m looking forward to seeing Tom again on the Low-Carb Cruise next weekend (we may have to sing some more karaoke like our rendition of “Elvira” last year) as we’ll have well over 100 of our fellow low-carbers sailing the high seas–I CAN’T WAIT! If you can’t get enough of Tom, then be sure to listen to him in Episode 2 of my new “Low-Carb Conversations” podcast as well as this Chicago Open MIC interview from last month. And if you don’t think FAT HEAD has made a difference in how people view low-carb living, take a look at the comments on this thread at the “Skeptic” message board. We’re chipping away little by little!
- Did you know nearly half of the U.S. meat supply is “tainted” with drug-resistant bacteria? This is yet another reason why you should try to source your meat from local farmers–find one near you by visiting EatWild.com!
- So, you don’t think the USDA’s Dietary Guidelines will impact your life in any way? This story from The Reporter notes that a new law called the “Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act” is pushing new standards on the National School Lunch and Breakfast programs requiring them to “cut sodium, boost the amounts and types of fruits and vegetables offered, cut saturated fat, increase whole grains and limit calories.” And they wonder why we are so angry about food policy in America! We’re probably gonna be seeing more banning of homemade school lunches like they’re doing in Chicago public schools in the coming years, too. This battle is not going away anytime soon.
- Although they’re still pretty fat-phobic, it appears The Biggest Loser Australia is getting closer to promoting a Paleo/low-carb way of eating than the American version:
AWESOME! Now if we can get Bob Harper and Jillian Michaels to do the same with the contestants here in America–FAT CHANCE!
And finally, today is Good Friday–an historic day in the history of the world that at the time was anything but good. The man who knew no sin named Jesus Christ was crucified on a cross to take on and pay with His blood the price for all the sins of the world past, present and future committed by every man, woman and child. It was the ultimate sacrifice and act of love by God who wanted to create a way for anyone who chooses to call upon His name to be saved from the bondage to their own sin. Without the shedding of Christ’s blood on the cross, we would all be on a one-way ticket to eternal damnation in Hell which we all deserve. But only by the grace of God are we able to become a part of His family and live with Him forever in heaven someday. Here’s a beautiful picture of what that glorious Easter Sunday may have looked like 2,000 years ago when Jesus rose triumphantly over the grave (this was from the made-for-TV NBC miniseries called Jesus):
HAPPY EASTER everyone and thanks for reading this edition of “Fun-Filled Friday!” Have an amazing weekend and we’ll be back on Monday for more exciting low-carb stuff to share with you. Since I’ll be leaving on the Low-Carb Cruise next weekend and will be returning home from the cruise the next weekend, we won’t have another “Fun-Filled Friday” post for a few weeks. But we’ll be back with a brand new one coming on May 13, 2011. If you have something to share with me, then please e-mail it to livinlowcarbman@charter.net. THANKS for reading!
