Franz of the Week

This week's Franz is Franz, Ontario. Yes, a town in Canada. Actually, it's an unincorporated community. But how fun is that, to have a town named Franz? Pretty cool, if you ask me.

Franz of the Week

Oh, my! I almost forgot the Franz of the Week!

This week's Franz is Franz Liszt. This composer and piano virtuoso was adored by women for his onstage flair. If you ever get the chance to see a pianist perform a work by Liszt, I highly recommend it. Many of his compositions require stunning technical ability from the pianist.

Here's something I didn't know about Liszt -- According to Wikipedia, he was known as a generous man who often contributed financially to orphans and victims of disasters.

Franz of the Week

I am so tired.....I almost didn't post a Franz of the Week. But then I thought of you, gentle reader, and decided to endure.

Actually, I thought of something else to post, so I figured I might as well post about ol' Franz, too.

This week's Franz of the Week is ..... Franz! Of Hans and Franz fame, of course. For the uninitiated, Hans and Franz is an old SNL skit about European body builders (think Arnold Schwarzenegger) who are going to "pump [clap] you up!" with their exercise show. Now, do I actually remember anything about the skit? Nothing except the tag line. I was too young to watch it. But I thought it was worth mentioning anyway.

Franz of the Week

Okay, this week's Franz of the Week is the band Franz Ferdinand.

Franz Ferdinand is cool. First of all, their music is cool. I know them best from "Take Me Out," which was featured in a car commercial last year. That song is so funkily fun.

The other reason they are cool is that they named themselves after Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, whose assassination essentially sparked World War I. How geek cool is that? That is very geek cool, peeps. Not only that, but they wrote a song called "All for You, Sophia," which references the assassination.

Franz of the Week

This week's Franz of the Week is Franz von Suppe. He was a composer, known mostly for his operettas and overtures.

You probably would know a couple of the operetta overtures if you heard them.....definitely the overture to Light Calvary and possibly the overture to The Beautiful Galatea (shout-outs to Emily Sherman on that one!). You might know Poet and Peasant -- it's also an overture, but it doesn't have an operetta to go along with it.

Suppe's music, while not the deepest or most complex in the world, features memorable melodies and melodramatic moments that make it ideal for cartoons. In fact, Light Cavalry was featured in the Disney short Symphony Hour, in which Mickey directs an orchestra in a broadcast for radio. However, before the broadcast, Goofy drops all of the instruments, so the performance doesn't go exactly as planned.