Give a Hedgehog a Home
Y'ever see a video on YouTube, and think it's the stupidest thing you've ever seen? But then you find yourself thinking about one moment that tickled your funny bone, and pretty soon you go back and watch the video again? And again and again and again, because now it's growing on you, until finally you've memorized the whole thing?
It happened to me with the following British PSA for nurturing urban wildlife (via Cute Overload). The grasshopper at 0:40 was the seed of the obsession that eventually hijacked my brain.
I love how the hopper stays absolutely still, except for the leg it summons to hit the cymbal. The trumpet-playing yellowjacket and the fox at the end are also worth a chuckle.
Exploring the site advertised, I learned one thing that would have made me seriously consider a postdoc in England had I known about it ten years ago: the British have hedgehogs running around their yards! How can a temperate biome be any more amazingly cool than that? Though I usually detest construction projects, I'd happily break out the hammer and saw to craft a hedgehog hôtel.
I watched "One Thing" enough times that I started to pick up the words-no small feat given the discrepancy between the range of the basso solo voice and of my speakers, and the porridgy thickness of his accent. It doesn’t help that the animals, with the exception of the seal at the very end, are terrible enunciators. Still, I managed to get down all the words except the two names in the first verse, of people I didn't know and couldn't puzzle out phonetically through that unfamiliar British dialect. A commenter on YouTube kindly supplied them: perhaps the first time in the history of the most popular video site on the Internet that a comment on a video contained useful information.
So, for those of you who would like to know what the singer is on about, here are the (closely approximated) words to "One Thing." Although I didn't recognize it, the tune is not original: it originally belonged to a Jonah Lewie song, "Stop the Cavalry." At left I list, to the best of my ability, the animals who lip-synch each line. Please let me know if I got one wrong, or not specific enough. Same goes for the words, though I'm surer about them.
(Deer) Hey, there, Internet, we
(Water snake) Don’t want you to fret,
(Owlet) But we’re not doing splendidly.
(Crow) It is very cold
(Hare) Out here in the snow, without
(Mouse) Our friend David Bellamy.
(Hedgehog) Bill Oddie’s doin’ stuff
(Salamander) But it’s not enough, so
(Deer) Can you do one thing for me?
(Brass interlude, avec red squirrels, muskrat and yellowjacket?!)
(Three otters) We have here to fight
(One otter) For every single bite
(Mouse) While you scarf your Christmas tea,
(Owl) That is why we say
(Grasshopper) Oh, yes, yet again
(Dragonfly) Can you do one thing for me?
(Five deer) Breathing places,
(Stickleback) Space to roam,
(Hedgehog) Somewhere that I can call my home,
(Bumblebee) Wish I could’ve been safe and sound
(Honeybee larva) In a pocket beneath the ground.
(Mole) Duh-buh-duh-buh dum, dum,
Duh-buh-duh-buh dum, duh-buh-
(Badger?) Dum, dum, duh-buh-dum,
(Beetle) duh-buh-duh-buh daaah,
(Mole) Duh-buh-duh-buh dum, dum,
Duh-buh-duh-buh dum, duh-buh-
(Bird) Dum, dum, duh-buh-dum, duh-buh-duh-buh dum.
(Seal) Wish I’d a home, for Christmasssss...
(Bumblebee, bird, otter, moth, seal, mouse) Merry Christmas!
(Fox) Find out about it on line, yeh?
It happened to me with the following British PSA for nurturing urban wildlife (via Cute Overload). The grasshopper at 0:40 was the seed of the obsession that eventually hijacked my brain.
Click to viewI love how the hopper stays absolutely still, except for the leg it summons to hit the cymbal. The trumpet-playing yellowjacket and the fox at the end are also worth a chuckle.
Exploring the site advertised, I learned one thing that would have made me seriously consider a postdoc in England had I known about it ten years ago: the British have hedgehogs running around their yards! How can a temperate biome be any more amazingly cool than that? Though I usually detest construction projects, I'd happily break out the hammer and saw to craft a hedgehog hôtel.
I watched "One Thing" enough times that I started to pick up the words-no small feat given the discrepancy between the range of the basso solo voice and of my speakers, and the porridgy thickness of his accent. It doesn’t help that the animals, with the exception of the seal at the very end, are terrible enunciators. Still, I managed to get down all the words except the two names in the first verse, of people I didn't know and couldn't puzzle out phonetically through that unfamiliar British dialect. A commenter on YouTube kindly supplied them: perhaps the first time in the history of the most popular video site on the Internet that a comment on a video contained useful information.
So, for those of you who would like to know what the singer is on about, here are the (closely approximated) words to "One Thing." Although I didn't recognize it, the tune is not original: it originally belonged to a Jonah Lewie song, "Stop the Cavalry." At left I list, to the best of my ability, the animals who lip-synch each line. Please let me know if I got one wrong, or not specific enough. Same goes for the words, though I'm surer about them.
(Deer) Hey, there, Internet, we
(Water snake) Don’t want you to fret,
(Owlet) But we’re not doing splendidly.
(Crow) It is very cold
(Hare) Out here in the snow, without
(Mouse) Our friend David Bellamy.
(Hedgehog) Bill Oddie’s doin’ stuff
(Salamander) But it’s not enough, so
(Deer) Can you do one thing for me?
(Brass interlude, avec red squirrels, muskrat and yellowjacket?!)
(Three otters) We have here to fight
(One otter) For every single bite
(Mouse) While you scarf your Christmas tea,
(Owl) That is why we say
(Grasshopper) Oh, yes, yet again
(Dragonfly) Can you do one thing for me?
(Five deer) Breathing places,
(Stickleback) Space to roam,
(Hedgehog) Somewhere that I can call my home,
(Bumblebee) Wish I could’ve been safe and sound
(Honeybee larva) In a pocket beneath the ground.
(Mole) Duh-buh-duh-buh dum, dum,
Duh-buh-duh-buh dum, duh-buh-
(Badger?) Dum, dum, duh-buh-dum,
(Beetle) duh-buh-duh-buh daaah,
(Mole) Duh-buh-duh-buh dum, dum,
Duh-buh-duh-buh dum, duh-buh-
(Bird) Dum, dum, duh-buh-dum, duh-buh-duh-buh dum.
(Seal) Wish I’d a home, for Christmasssss...
(Bumblebee, bird, otter, moth, seal, mouse) Merry Christmas!
(Fox) Find out about it on line, yeh?