a brief discourse on Sammy D

richagram: that sammy daivs 70s musical thingwas RIDICULOUS
me: right?
richagram: What's it from?
me: Sweet Charity
richagram: ahh...never seen it.
sammy davis jr converted to Judaism?
me: yes i beleive so
richagram: I see
He did
I did a project on him
for Sunday School
a very long time ago
and at the end of the report
I said he was still alive
and my teacher laughed
and I learned the lesson of not trusting books.
me: hahahahahahaha
richagram: bbut I do know about the glass eye

more RHYTHM

a pretty clever ad that uses Sammy Davis Jr.'s RHYTHM OF LIFE.

I also feel like I'm just now discovering that Sammy Davis Jr. was awesome. Better late than never I suppose

Speaks for itself

Sherie Baby

I just saw EVERYDAY RAPTURE (pretty good, didn't LOVE it), so I naturally looked up Ms. Scott on YouTube. Apparently I haven't done this for awhile, because in October 2008 someone uploaded a shit ton of videos from the original LAST 5 YEARS. The below is probably one of my favorite songs of all time, but I always thought, as I listened to the cast recording, that this should wouldn't gain anything by being put up on stage (as opposed to exisiting only in record form). This video pretty much confirms my suspicions. Watching people pretend to talk to people who aren't there is not fun (and so SONG AND DANCE), and the physical production is a bit of a mess. And what's with that lipstick? Anyway, here's "I Can Do Better Than That"

Disney Cheats

video from god knows where pointing out Disney's tendencies to essentially copy/paste sequences from movie to movie with different characters (and it doesn't include any direct-to-DVD sequels).

Taylor Through the Ages

Sometime between winning the Tony for YOU'RE A GOOD MAN CHARLIE BROWN and going off the deep end, Kristin Chenoweth sang this adorable song called "Taylor the Latte Boy." (I think there could be a drinking game with this wherein you drink every time the camera pans the fake flowers, and every time Kristin makes an overly broad musical theater gesture with her forearms.)

This was pre-YouTube, but during the heyday of Napster, so I had it in MP3 form (and listened to it...obsessively) for years. It was writers Zina Goldrich and Marcy Heisler's claim to fame for yawhile (and pretty much the reason DEAR EDWINA got an off-Broadway run or Junie B Jones got written, which in turn is the reason 25% of the city's waitstaff has their Equity card). Every girl with a belt and comedic timing put it in her book. College Cabarets were never the same.

Then some years passed, K. Chen was in WICKED, dated Aaron Sorkin, fancied herself a movie star, lost the big hair and hooker red lipstick, and released an album called "As I Am" featuring songs about Jesus...and "Taylor" (which she had never actually recorded before). But it is clear that the only person Chen-bot is worshipping is herself, and "Taylor" suddenly has a new bridge and an extra chorus.

For herself she made it triple, and she doesn't think I knew. (By the way, giving someone 50% more caffene than they are asking for is kinda dangerous...).

Here she is singing the new version on Craig Ferguson (in front of a grand piano, so no flowers, but just as many broad MT gestures and a lot more mugging). I really hate the bridge. HATE!

Sometime after that some guy who works at Disney World did this fairly funny parody (which, by the way, includes the new bridge and chorus).

Festival Sanctus

Consider this a Palm Sunday/Easter-related post (if you're into that kind of thing). This is a song I used to sing (in a treble arrangement) in my choir boy days. I *believe* the first time I sang it was in Carnagie Hall. Seriously. For years after that Barb--the precocious perfect one who has since become a music teacher--would play this at the piano and everyone who knew it would gather around and sing it. It's such a fucking happy song. I'm always looking for a satisfying YouTube incarnation, and stumbled accross this one, which uses a orchestra (or ensemble of instruments...a pit?). The under-tempo beginning does bother me, and, for sentimental reasons, I miss the piano, but it is posted below for you amusement and easy reference.