Chocolate Reigns

Unless you have either 1) been in a cave for the past few weeks, or 2) don't have a computer, you've probably heard the song "Chocolate Rain" by Tay Zonday (if you haven't, click here). The song has taken on quite a life as an Internet meme over the past several months. The song actually has a really deep message about racism, even if, upon first hearing, it almost comes off like a parody. (Between the extremely deep voice coming out of Zonday--he's actually a 25-year-old Ph.D student at the University of Minnesota, but he looks so young that I'd probably card him if I worked at a movie theatre--and the random graphic messages such as "**I move away from the mic to breathe in" superimposed over the top of the video, it takes a while to realize that he's serious.)

But the song has spread like wildfire. I've had friends tell me that they'll break into that song in random public places and always gotten a laugh out of someone. And the parodies are great; the song has "performed" by Darth Vader and McGruff the Crime Dog, spliced into a really old McDonald's commercial, mashed up with Radiohead and Snoop Dogg and sung by someone using a helium balloon. But the funniest by far are the individual parodies, the best of which is Vanilla Snow. (Not so successful, but still funny, is the song being sung rather badly by a fat white guy.)

UPDATE: How about a DDR remix?

Among all the hype, Zonday actually is a serious musician; other songs (with more than a single looped chord progression are on his MySpace page. A recent article about him from the Minneapolis Star-Tribune appears here.

This place was so secure, it made her feel insecure: A woman in California, examining her safe-deposit box, was accidentally locked in the building for six hours after closing time.

Some people blew their tops over this: Signs advertising a "topless car wash" in New York state were quite disappointed when they arrived to find that all the car-washers were shirtless male firefighters.

Thinking way outside the bun: Police were called to a Taco Bell parking lot in Arkansas after patrons noticed a couple apparently having sex in a van. (The guy was also busted for pot at the same time.)

When animals attack...each other: Croc vs. shark.

The most tabloid-sounding story of the day that's actually true: Elvis's stolen handgun found in portable toilet.