Jack Black's polka fail.

Watching Jack Black play a new character/alter ego, a polka band leader:

1)  This is the uncomfortable intersection between shtick, performance and satire.

2)  It's not a very good polka song, or even a good song.

3)  John Candy and Eugene Levy as brothers Yosh and Stan Schmenge did a much better job of spoofing/honouring polka.

4)  I have inconsistent feelings and opinions when it comes to artists evolving through musical genres.  When Charlie Watts wants to branch out on his own and explore jazz and graduate from the dirty adolescent phase the Rollings Stones incarnated, as he careened through his fifties and sixties, as contrasted with Mick Jagger still having to prance and preen on stage as a grandfather, I applaud that.  Same with Bob Mould or Paul Westerberg or Paul Weller, starting out as punk/garage band members and angry young men, then mellowing out and turning more introspective and melodic.  Better that than be Iggy Pop, still with his shirt off and playing the cuckoo bird on stage in his fifties.

Some progressions seem more manufactured.  When critically-revile Metal Queen Lee Aaron decides to ditch the shiny bikinis and suggestive swords and becomes a jazz chanteuse, and tells me on MuchMusic with a straight face that this has always been her first love, I feel patronized and used.  You lied to me before or you're lying to me now, but most probably you were lying both times and you're never not lying.  

5)  When Jack Black spoofs/honours 70s classic metal in Tenacious D, I buy in, completely.

But with the polka thing, I couldn't even get through the whole video.  It's like this was his fifth or sixth best or last idea, like Mike Myers' "Love Guru".

Canadiens trade Al Montoya to Oilers for draft pick.

The Canadiens have traded one of their surplus of goalies, namely Al Montoya, to the Oilers in exchange for a conditional fourth-round pick.

For me, this is a huge win.  After years of letting Tom Gilberts and Alex Radulovs walk away on July 1 instead of cashing them in at the previous trade deadline, and a couple of seasons where we, an already talent-poor and prospect-starved team, get picked clean on waivers, surrendering Mike Condon, Mark Barberio and Brandon Davidson for nothing in return, and when we were the suckers surrendering draft picks for the Steve Otts and the Brian Flynns of the world, we're now doing the opposite.  We're trading our no-names on expiring contracts to playoff hopefuls and banking draft picks for Trevor Timmins.

We're headed into the draft with a first, three seconds, a third, and three fifth rounders.  The two extra fifths, courtesy of the Torrey Mitchell and Al Montoya trades, could become fourth-round picks.

We're short our fourth, sixth and seventh this year, and one of the second-rounders, obtained in the Lars Eller trade, was liable to land in Steve Yzerman's pocket at the onset of the season, a result of the Drouin-Sergachev trade.  So, since I've often bemoaned recently that we'd show up for drafts with five picks while the Leafs and Lightning had nine to play with, we're turning this ship around.

There's more assets we can realize before March 1.  Tomas Plekanec, Andrew Shaw, Paul Byron, Daniel Carr, Byron Froese, Jordie Benn, Antti Niemi, they're all burning a hole in my pocket.  Come on down.  No reasonable offer refused.  Everything must go.

Next season, Mike McCarron and Nikita Scherbak aren't waiver-exempt any longer.  They have to be on the team.  We have to make room for them.  Let's clear out some pieces which have some value to other teams, but which to us in the grand scheme of things will make no difference, whether we make or miss the playoffs, whether we win a round or not.  Jordie Benn won't win or lose us a Stanley Cup.  Let's flip him for a pick and move on.

We got Al Montoya as the steady-eddie who'd spell Carey and solidify things in nets, after the Mike Condon rollercoaster put us off our feed in 2016.  He never really did that job, he had some uneven performances, and this season got injured and couldn't do his part.  Now it looks like Carey will be in net even more than usual, as the coaches try to play catchup.  In that environment, we had no use for Al, especially when it seemed that Charlie Lindgren can do just as well as he does, and when Mr. Niemi can lead us to Rasmus Dahlin just fine.

So to take a UFA-signee like Al Montoya, a player we got for free and who underwhelmed, and turn him into a shot at the dart board in June, that's a big plus.  It's a step in the right direction.  In a season when we let Andrei Markov leave, when we traded away Mikhail Sergachev, and when we signed Karl Alzner to that huge contract, I'll take those small steps forward.

EDIT: Evidently, Eric Engels is copying off my homework...

http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/marc-bergevin-can-retool-canadiens-short-order/