Today's Mood...

Will you look at Nick Rhodes' AMAZING black ruffled, puffy shirt. He was my first crush that made me feel all weird inside because his sexuality was so ambiguous.
BTdubs - Rhodes still looks amazing today in his 50s!

Today's soundtrack...

The Bee Gees -
 Album: "Main Course"
Song: "Nights on Broadway"
Video: From an episode of "The Midnight Special" featuring a COKED OUT Natalie Cole

I'm in denial y'all

One of Earth's angel-voiced divas has lost her battle to cancer. I won't make any "Last Dance" comments.

"Heaven Knows" I love you Donna Summer!!!!

I'm sadder than you can possibly know...

"Don’t send me no distant salutations,

Or silly souvenirs from far away.

Don’t leave me alone in the twilight,

Twilight is the loneliest time of day.

Don’t put me in a frame upon the mantel,

For memories turn dusty, old, and grey.

Don’t leave me alone in the twilight,

Twilight is the loneliest time of day"

American music treasure and touchpoint of my growin'-up years, Levon Helm, lost his fight with cancer this morning in New York City.

I'm in total mourning y'all. I'll just be here in the corner listening to The Band and tearing up. You will be greatly missed sir.

But can we talk about this awesome photo to the right here, that I found online? Levon Helm with the wacky hat, sheepskin coat barely on his shoulders, holding a VOLLEYBALL?! I don't know, you guys. But I love it.

"...I sacrificed to make you happy, kept nothing for myself..."

"...Now you want to leave me for the love of someone else. My pride is all gone; whether I'm right or wrong. I need you baby, girl, to keep on keepin' on. And you know I tried to do my best, you know I tried to do my best - don't do it. Don't you break my heart. Please, don't do it, don't you break my heart."

I know that he's been sick for some time, but it still came as a serious blow yesterday to hear that Levon Helm, one of our greatest music treasures, is in the final stages of his battle with throat cancer.

My love of The Band, and particularly my love of Levon Helm, has been a part of my DNA since my 1970s childhood. Music From Big Pink, Northern Lights-Southern Cross, and The Last Waltz were played and sung constantly in my house by my mother and her friends. The music of The Band also had a huge impact on my college years at the University of Miami. Shared love of this music and these men shaped and cemented life-long close friendships with people that I love and treasure more decades later.

Levon Helm is an amazing drummer; but it's his voice, especially on songs like "The Night They Drove Ol' Dixie Down" and "Don't Do It", that has always touched my soul. 

I don't know what I'm going to do when the inevitable happens. But you can bet that it's going to involve me pouring a beer and singing "Acadian Driftwood" at the top of my lungs.

So long, for now Dick Clark

Dick Clark has passed away at the age of 82 after suffering a heart attack. It feels awful to say this, but for me, it seems like Clark had been taken away from us years ago when he had that major stroke that really took him out of commission. People will go on and on about American Bandstand and New Year's Rockin' Eve, but for me his greatest accomplishment was hosting and creating the Pyramid game show franchise.

You will be greatly missed Dick.

When I get to Heaven...

This is what I want waiting for me.

Anatomy of a Music Video - Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam's "Lost in Emotion"

Let's analyze this gem, shall we?

1. A few words about the clothes just to get them out of the way. There are TWO people wearing Hammer-style harem pants with reeeeeeally long zippers sewn into them. One is a man and the other is Lisa Lisa herself. The purpose of these 14 inch zippers is lost to time.
2. Speaking of zippers...wow, I forgot how popular it was in the mid 1980s to have multiple zippers (that again, served no purpose) on everything! Pants, jackets, shirts, SOCKS. This video has them all.
3. It also has men wearing multilple, colored skinny leather belts wrapped around the legs of their pants. Was this a style?
4. One of the main guys in the video is sporting a Civil War era inspired Confederacy hat. Charming. Maybe that's why Lisa Lisa gives him the stink eye.
5. I hated this shit back then when I was living it - Shoulder Pads in every single blouse, jacket, and T-shirt. Both men and women; young and old.
6. And so many headbands.
7. One of the dudes working at the carnival is wearing what can only be called a "tropical shant suit". "Shant", for the uninitiated, stands for "Short Pant". Take a gander around minute 2:00.

• One of the plot points at the beginning of this video, which is set at some kind of carnival or as the sign says - "New Street Fair", involves one of Lisa's homegirls not being able to get ketchup to come out of the bottle onto her burger.
• I guess Lisa Lisa is looking for love, but isn't interested in any of the guys who are trying to pick up on her and her friends?
• And then there's a bit about Lisa climbing on stage because there's a carnival sign that says "COME - Sing with the Street Fair Band". WTF? Weak plot.
• Finally everyone does a synchronized dance to the last verse of the song, that Lisa Lisa has been singing by herself for over 3 minutes.
• Did she actually go by Lisa Lisa in real life?

Que sera, que sera.

That voice! It will be missed.

A sampling some of my favorite Whitney Houston songs and performances - Damn, drugs are so fucking evil.


That turban! WERQ!



Why did I ever think Kevin Costner was hot in this movie?






Off her last album. God, I love her on this track. "...and I know just what to do..."

Anatomy of a music video - Bee Gees Edition Volumes 1 and 2

The music videos made in the late 1970s for two of the hits by the Bee Gees off of the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack are a study in contrasts.
Let's examine the contrasts between the videos for "How Deep Is Your Love" and "Staying Alive".

We'll start with "Staying Alive" -

• I dare you to pull your eyes away from the moose knuckle that Barry Gibb is sporting in those TIGHT white pants of his. You can't do it can you? His junk is mesmerizing.
• Umm, where was this filmed? The words on the old train car looks like it says Cork? But would there really have been an area in that part of England that was that run-down and abandoned looking?
• Can we just all agree that Barry Gibb had fucking fabulous hair? Feathered, bouncin' and behavin' perfection.
• Maurice and Robin on the other hand...no. Those twins definitely got the raw end of that deal.
• Actually Maurice had a nice face, and his beard is neat and trimmed here, unlike some people, Barry.
• When I was 11 my two friends and I would imitate the moves the Gibbs make when they pop into the open window and door frames during the "ah ha ah ha stayling alive" part.
• What is with Barry's silver jacket? And does he really need a gold necklace and a larger chain with a medalion? Or his cuban-heeled ankle boots? He's a tall dude. All this is still not enough to distract me from looking at his crotch.
• I think my dad had the same shirt as the one Maurice is wearing.
• Seriously, where was this filmed? Were there still war-torn parts of Eastern Europe in the 70s? What is with all of the empty and destroyed houses?

Now comparatively the video for "How Deep Is Your Love" is on a whole other level. And it's not necessarily a better one.

• The budget was considerably lower for this one obviously. They're on some studio soundstage with random lights set up and the camera is following the Gibb brothers as they alternately walk around in a circle, or stand in a circle as the camera pans around them.
• Seriously, more than half of the video is them WALKING AROUND IN A CIRCLE. They could've filmed this in my garage.
• And who are those random handful of faceless people standing around in the center of the circle? Party guests? Electricians and best boys that work at the studio who didn't realize they were in the shot?
• Robin Gibb really is unfortunate looking, isn't he.
• Barry on the other hand is looking his most fantastic. His hair was never more lustrous and his beard is neat this time around. Also, while I'm sure he's wearing the tightest possible trousers, the camera never pans down past his mid chest until the end of the video, and then it's only his butt that we see  so we're not nearly as distracted.
• BTdubs, check out the top of the comment thread from the link above for a gem from some dude named serq199113. I admire his sentiment.

Sometimes it just takes a little picture to make me feel better...

Sigh...Andy Gibb really was so dreamy.
"Lay your head upon my shoulder. Put your worries in my pocket. Lay your love on me awhile."

American Idol Season 10 - The Final Baker's Dozen

After last season's horror, I had kind of decided that I was through with American Idol. But then came the new judges (I'm an unabashed fan of both J. Lo and Steven Tyler), and although I didn't watch the audition episodes I heard they were a lot better, actually showing people who could sing etc. And they made other changes too like adding online voting. And then came Hollywood Week which is when I would typically start my AI season viewing, and somehow I just got sucked into the machine again.
Then came the top 24 performances this week. I loved the fact that they were being so brutal and not prolonging the torture by cutting 12 folks right away this week to come up with the finalists. But I was so disappointed in the actual 24 people that I felt totally let down. Seriously there were barely 4 performances total that I liked for the week. Last night the finalists were revealed - 10 chosen by America (aka dumbass tween girls and creepy old men) and two 3 chosen as "wild cards" by the judges. I'm non-plussed by the results. There's only a couple of people to root for and there aren't enough people for me to hate (although you're on notice James Durbin and Scotty McTeery). I am firmly on Team Casey and Team Thia who share no common denominator other than they're awesome. And that Stefano kid is okay; also his mother works in my office so I feel like I kind of have to cheer for him. But I won't be wasting valuable DVR space on this show. I think I'll be catching the performances online the next day and maybe throwing some votes Thia's and Casey's way on americanidol.com

Television in Review - 2011 Grammy Awards

It's been years since I've actually watched the live Grammy telecast all the way through. But last night, hopped up on cold medicine and in a sated food coma from a delicious roast chicken meal prepared by my friend John, I was in just the right mood and position to watch the show. All 3 and a half hours of it! And here are some of the random thoughts that I came away with.

• Almost 85 minutes in and they had only given one award out for best Pop Album. It was disconcerting, but gave the message loud and clear that the night's telecast would be about the performances and not about the awards (most of which ended up being given out earlier in the day).
• Suprises of the night:

Arcade Fire winning Album of the Year and denying Lady Antebellum the top 3 sweep

Esperanza Spalding winning Best New Artist and denying the Bieber dominance. I love her and didn't even know she was nominated in this category. When her name was announced, the shock on everyone's faces was awesome!

• It's official. Katy Perry has won. I kind of love her now. Damn it.

• I still don't really get the Bruno Mars thing. But after last night's incredible performance with Janelle Monae and B.O.B., I'm starting to see the appeal.

• As much as I loathe Bob Dylan "singing" live, I enjoyed the hell out of the performance he did with Mumford and Sons and The Avett Brothers. Mostly because it contained more Sons and Brothers than Dylan.

• Cee Lo Green dressed like a 1975 Elton John and singing Muppets (and Gwyneth Paltrow in a cat suit and killer pumps) makes anything better.

• Lady Gaga is a fawking nut but she sure can write a catchy song. And knows her audience. But seriously I don't get the continuing comparison to Madonna or understand why people think this new song copies her?

 

RIP John Barry

I've already tweeted about my heavy heart in hearing Sunday evening that one of my favorite movie music composers, John Barry, had died of a heart attack at the age of 77. Barry composed many of my all-time favorite film scores. He, along with Ennio Morricone, was much loved by my mother, who appreciated movie scores, and what the music actually did for and to the film more than anyone I've ever known.
She passed this appreciation on to me at a fairly early age; so I was the dorky kid who was buying the Somewhere In Time soundtrack album in the Classical section of the Tower Records store, while all of my friends were buying the latest Duran Duran and Cure albums. Don't get me wrong, I was just as much into the new wave music, but when I wanted to daydream in my room or when I was writing my little short stories and living in my own fantasy world in my head, I would always turn on the John Barry music.

My favorite of the Barry scores may be the music he wrote for the cheesetastic film Somewhere In Time. The main theme evokes such emotion; love, loss, memory, longing, joy. It's so beautiful.
The most well-known John Barry music is probably all of the James Bond movie themes he composed in the 1960s and early 70s. And of course his Oscar and Grammy winning top ten hit "Born Free".
One of his Oscar score wins was for another favorite of mine, the music from Out of Africa. Barry's score and Meryl Streep are the only good things about that bloated film.

If you're interested in listening to some of John Barry's movie scores, I recommend downloading the album "Moviola". Rest in peace dear sir. I hope my mother gets to meet you up in heaven.

Damn you Ryan Murphy! - Glee Season 2 Episode 6

For making me LOVE a gawddam Katy Perry song! I watched the "Teenage Dream" performance on tonight's episode of Glee about 23 times in a row. And how 'bout that Darren Criss kid? He charmed the pants off of me as Blaine. He's adorable!



Keep it up Murphy & Co.

Edited to add - Everyone should go read Tom and Lorenzo's recap of this episode. It made me cry. At 9:30 AM. At work.

The power of Journey can make ANYTHING happen

When I first saw this picture this morning, my eyes bulged right out of my head.










What ON EARTH was going on that created a situation where Lady Gaga, dressed as Miss Havisham from Great Expectations, was happily smiling with, and in the arms of one Bruce Springsteen?!

Evidently this picture was snapped after they'd just finished a star-studded rendition of Journey's "Don't Stop Believing".

Proof once again that no matter how played-out, and karaoked (I know that's not a word) to death a song is, it's still a f*cking Journey song, and Journey songs RULE THE EFFIN' EARTH, and make you insanely happy when you sing them, because Steve Perry and Neal Schon were AWESOME, so even "edgy" performance artist dance divas like Lady Gaga and jaded old "rockers" like Springsteen and Elton John will gladly get together and belt out a tune that's been covered ONE MILLION TIMES by everybody from 5th grade classrooms to Glee cast members to Sting at a benefit for the rainforests.

Seriously, I think Journey songs could bring world peace.

Poor Whitney...

Maybe she made her "comeback" too soon. I think she needs to take a break from the road...and maybe the drugs.

"Concrete jungle where dreams are made..."

I know I'm late to the party but OMIGOD how awesome is the Jay Z and Alicia Keys duet, Empire State of Mind?
I've had it on a constant rotation this week playing with Alicia Keys own version of "Empire State" called Part II Broken Down. Both songs put me in the best mood. And seriously make me want to hop on the first plane I can get to NYC.
If I lived in one of the 5 boroughs I would be skipping down streets, grinning like a fool, and throwing my hat in the air Mary Tyler Moore style.