Nobody Puts This Baby in Any Corner, Not Even Usher!

Why is it that when I want to use the iconic 1987 film "Dirty Dancing" as a point of illustration, all the good videos have disabled embedding, which means that I can not easily include the video as a linkable image here?





 I fully believe in protecting Intellectual Property, but it only works against Lions Gate Films, the distributor of "Dirty Dancing."

 Oh well, that's not the point of this post...

 Here are some links to some clips of the great movie.

 Nobody puts baby in a corner:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28A9Jgo92GQ

 The final dance scene:
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpmILPAcRQo


My point is, again thanks to trusty spin class that keeps me on my toes with new music, I get to hear a most atrocious tune entitled "Dirty Dancer" by Enrique Iglesias and Usher.  The only good thing about hearing this song that hit all sorts of charts in 2010 and 2011 is that it reminded me of the aforementioned 80s movie, produced on a skeleton budget and yet a blockbuster nonetheless.

Honestly?  Am I *that* old fashioned that I think this is awful and an embarrassment to the way popular culture has journeyed?  I was embarrassed when I saw the original "Dirty Dancing" with my mom in the movie theater, and obviously that level of bumping and grinding was peanuts compared to the near-porn that appears in the video below.  I present this video again only for pure illustration purposes (as in my previous post) and do not recommend watching it if you want to stay positive. I watched just a few seconds of the pole dancers to know that I'd had enough, but I guess it gives me pause to realize that in a couple of years when my children have free reign of their computer time they will be able to watch everything and anything.

Smartening up your children before they get to this narrishkeit and educating them as to what is good and what is not good to view is the key.




Check out Jennifer Grey's father, Joel.  Now, that's entertainment!

Know Your Zosos from Your Ziljians

Everyone from Bob Lefsetz to your brother has lamented how bad the new music is today.  It doesn't take a rock star to come to this realization.

Ah, spin class, the trusty go-to for exposure to new music.  Spinning today to LMFAO's "Party Rock Anthem," which hit #1 on charts last year throughout Europe, the UK, the US, New Zealand and Australia, got me wondering:

What the heck is up this dreck?

The lyrics:  empty, offensive and below fraternity house antics.
The electronic beat:   catchy but gets annoying.
And the chutzpah to make a Zeppelin reference.
Where, exactly, is the skilled musicianship?
Nary a drum kit to be heard.
Oh, right, that is the definition of electronica.
And, shouldn't everyone in this tune be doing the Hollywood Shuffle instead?  Now, that is quality shufflin'.
The part that bothers me is the thought of the millions of kids listening to this as their early exposure to music.
Oy.


I don't even want to watch this video.
But for pure illustration purposes, here it is.




Ok, I do like to focus on the positive.  I appreciate the club kid influence as evident in some of the outfits in the video and the dude with the big fro's huge white glasses, reminiscent of Laura Biogottis from the 80s.  I like the acting in the beginning.  And, nice fancy steps at the end of the video.   That's about it.

Still, I continue to lobby for real music like Kashmir in spin class.
Robert Plant.  Now there's a rock star.




Then I can envision myself as Jennifer Jason Leigh in "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" and rock it out on the spin bike like it's 1982.

(they cut out at 2:00 when Kashmir comes on the scene.)
This scene is the reason why I bought Led Zeppelin IV on tape, one of my earliest music purchases.

And we all know that Kashmir ain't to be found on that album!
Oh, Cameron Crowe, the film's screenwriter, is a genius culture maker of my generation.




Good thing the Allmans let him tag along as a teenager.

It sounds so cliche to think it was all better when you were a teenager, but I do think that when it comes to music and popular culture, I was better off without the acronym and certainly the band LMFAO.

Davy Jones, Goodbye, Let's Meet the Walrus

Listening to Soundcheck with John Schaefer on NPR right now, and I can't believe that I missed the news from last week that Davy Jones passed away at age 66.  I must have been raging the Purim festivities too much which kept me out of the loop.  As a great contributor to 60s popular music, he will be missed.  Not that I watched the Monkees when it first came out.  I was too young.

I also can't believe that Stango doesn't recall this episode of the Brady Bunch with Davy Jones.  It was always one of my favorites.

Here is where Marcia tries to bust into the recording studio to confirm that Davy will perform at her prom, only to be turned away.




Here is where Davy comes to the Brady house and meets her, finally, and satisfying every rock star's dream.




All thanks to the Beatles, the Monkees were a cultivated, made-for-TV band inspired by the Beatles that actually turned into something.

Speaking of which, I played one of my favorites, "I am the Walrus," for the kinderlach today.  When I asked their feedback, Concealed Light replied, "He said I am the egg man."  We all agreed it is weird and different.

When I asked about the line "sitting on a cornflake," I lost them.




Finally,  you should watch this pretty awesome animated interview with John Lennon called "I Met the Walrus" which is actually the reel-to-reel interview done by Jerry Levitan as a 14 year old when he snuck into Lennon's Toronto hotel room in 1969.