Today at Flavorpill, we wondered how this clip of Alice Cooper, Steven Tyler, and Weird Al covering The Beatles’ “Come Together” on New Year’s Eve in a restaurant on Maui came to be. We started speculating about what Apple might be planning to announce at a media event in New York later this month. We were happy to hear that Aretha Franklin is engaged to her longtime boyfriend Willie Wilkerson. We experienced a year’s worth of backpacking around the world in just five minutes. We wished that we’d had this awesome Lego machine when we were kids. We were impressed by Michael Chrisman’s timpelapse pinhole photo of Toronto — an image that he spent an entire year capturing. We were surprised by how well The Lion King mashes up with The Dark Knight Rises trailer and Van Gogh’s Starry Night goes with the Bat signal. We found out how 30 Rock plans on addressing the death of Kim Jong-Il in the coming season. We got a shot-by-shot look at all of the old adventure movies that the opening scenes of Raiders of the Lost Ark borrows so heavily from. And finally, we were thrilled to see that first episode of the second season of Portlandia — which officially premieres on IFC this Friday — has already landed online. We’ve missed Toni and Candace so much!

Today at Flavorpill, we listened to a new song from Björk’s Biophilia and Missy Elliot’s remix of “Last Friday Night.” We were surprised by what Australian artist Jun Gil Park can create using bananas as his canvas. We channeled our inner Lloyd Dobler. We liked the looks of director John Ford’s Forever stamp, which is the first in a series honoring American filmmakers, and will be issued by the US Postal Service next year. We were excited to hear that Comedy Central is teaming up with Weird Al to premiere his first televised concert special in over a decade. We wondered what could have possibly inspired the Farrelly Brothers to give the Jersey Shore cast a cameo in their upcoming Three Stooges reboot — because it’s certainly not their acting skills. We loved these cheeky (but totally spot on) ads for the New York International Latino Film Festival. And finally, we got our first look at Jon Hamm taking on his new director role in the upcoming season of Mad Men. Is it just us, or is it totally bizarre seeing him and Elisabeth Moss goofing around in their normal clothes while on set?

Today at Flavorpill, read about Peter Terzian’s experiences as a “park ranger” at John F. Kennedy’s birthplace in Brookline, Massachusetts. We found out what butter-laden, delicious desserts Paula Deen will be serving at her Fourth of July picnic. We explored the current golden age of all-female tribute bands, from Sheagles and Blonde Jovi to AC/DShe and Cheap Chick. We found it hard to believe that Independence Day is 15 years old. We tried to match the grunt with the tennis pro. We memorized Weird Al’s lyrics to Conan’s theme song. We decided that Entertainment Weekly’s new cover — which features Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter back when he was 11 — makes us feel incredibly ancient. We listened to what Dan Savage had to say about monogamy. We were surprised to learn that Shaggy’s real name is Norville Rogers (did Scooby know?). And finally, we enjoyed these clever responses to the 20 craziest job interview questions, a list which includes, “How many cocktail umbrellas are there in a given time in the United States?”

If you’re behind on your New York Times bestseller list, you might not realize that America’s poet laureate of musical parody, Weird Al Yankovic, has earned himself a plum spot with a new children’s book, When I Grow Up. And in honor of April Fools’ day, GalleyCat has posted an illuminating (and not particularly joke-y) interview with Weird Al. Among his great responses are some thoughts on how his years of songwriting experience helped him write his first kids’ story: “Both songs and picture books (rhyming ones, anyway) should have a distinct rhythm – the works need to flow easily off the tongue. One difference between the two formats would be that song lyrics should be self-contained – that is, work without any additional visual aids to express an idea – whereas with a picture book, an illustration can be used to move the story along, even if nothing is specifically alluded to in the text.” Click over to GalleyCat to read the entire interview.

Today at Flavorpill, we decided that our next DIY project will involve turning our old paperbacks into a pretty colorwheel. We poured some out for 16 sodas that we’ll never drink again. We wanted to live in this big, ugly pyramid with a hole in it that’s going up in Hell’s Kitchen. We watched Weird Al burn Christina Aguilera on Twitter. We wondered how Chris Farley would feel about a new show about his life called The Fatman Cometh. We were duly impressed by this Belgian runner who completed 365 marathons in 365 days — but we’d hate to see his toenails. We visited some of the most beautiful caves in the world. We got a look at what might be Facebook’s new headquarters. We appreciated the inclusion of Robbie Robertson in The Last Waltz in this roundup of 13 rock movies that make their subjects look like dicks. And finally, we were saddened to hear that Bristol Palin (who’s only 20, mind you) has a memoir due out this summer — and it’s 304 pages long. We’re going to assume that it was written in Courier New.

Today at Flavorpill, we argued over the symbolism of Kanye’s artwork for “Power.” We learned where some of the not-famous subjects of a few famous photographs are now. We were happy to hear that the smoking baby has cut back to a pack-a-day habit. We had flashbacks to middle school health class. We were proud that 82-year-old New Yorker W.S. Merwin has been named Poet Laureate. We watched Weird Al shred at a live show in Toledo. We decided that Awkward Family Pet Photos might be even funnier than the original. We were shocked by how much these tapestries look like actual photographs. We listened to previously unheard recordings of David Foster Wallace in conversation with David Lipsky. We downloaded Air’s remix of MGMT’s “It’s Working.” We liked this steampunk Ghostbusters tribute. And finally, we were blown away by 25 super creative product packaging designs — including, but not limited to, vagina can.

1. 10 YouTube Videos of People Doing Amazing Things [via Mashable]
2. How Weird Al Predicted The Future [via eMusic]
3. The Summer I Spent Committing Forgery For A Terrible Cause That Is Ruining The World [via The Awl]
4. Google Maps Alphabet Creates Letters From Land [via HuffPo]
5. Six Degrees of Black Sabbath Links Any Two Musicians or Bands Instantly [via Urlesque]
6. BP Logo Gets Oily, Gruesome Redesigns Courtesy of Greenpeace Followers [via Fast Company]
7. How Marina Abramovic’s Red-Velvet Rope at MoMA Works [via Vulture]
8. Come party with Lady Gaga [via Times Online]
9. Watch: LCD Soundsystem’s “Empire State of Mind” NYC Tribute [via P4K]
10. Pippi Longstocking, With Dragon Tattoo [via NYT]

Reportedly the work of a conjoined-twin sister duo, Amanda Palmer and Jason Webley’s Evelyn Evelyn project has numerous talking points — not the least of which is the phenomenal music.

With a track (“My Space”) featuring gang vocals from a bizarre crew including Frances Bean Cobain, Neil Gaiman, Weird Al, Tegan & Sara, Eugene Mirman, and Andrew WK, a series of spoken-word storytelling interludes, and a backstory spotlighting the fact that the twins are “fluent in chicken,” the album provides a wealth of fun material to explore.

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1. James Franco will not be stopped at a double masters; after he finishes at NYU and Columbia, he’s reportedly heading to Yale to pursue a Ph.D. For a taste of Franco’s English mastery, read his short story from this month’s Esquire magazine. [via The Daily Beast]
2. Serpentine Pavilion’s latest starchitect pick Jean Nouvel gets snippy when asked about that MoMA project and declares that Abu Dhabi “doesn’t even know there is a financial crisis.” [via Bloomberg]
3. A New York dealer is hawking what he claims is the last privately held copy of “Schindler’s List,” a manuscript typed by German industrialist Oskar Schindler, whom you may recall from a little 1993 indie movie of the same name. [via Reuters]
4. At the Movies — the show that made Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert into household names — is being canceled after almost 25 years in national syndication. [via Variety]
5. Back issues of SPIN magazine are now available to read via Google Books. [via Fimoculous]

Bonus link: watch the (mock) trailer for the forthcoming Weird Al biopic.

We never knew that you could have a bubble wrap fetish… and then we watched Weird Al’s new “sex tape.” As far as these things go, it’s somewhere between a Screech and a Verne Troyer on the gross-out scale. Check out the extremely scandalous footage after the jump, and then someone please explain to us why he thinks that it’s OK to get down and dirty with his socks on. Also: Does it still count as a sex tape if there’s only one person participating?

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