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Entries tagged with 'Dancing'
Posted Jan. 2, 2008,
May The Muses of Xanadu Visit You in '08!
By Ann Magnuson
Gotta love those long-limbed dancers! (Leg warmers notwithstanding.) I remember seeing this movie when it played at the legendary St. Mark's Cinema ( closed to make way for, you guessed it, The Gap.) It was a midnight show and packed. We laughed our ironic butts off -- just like folks are supposedly doing at the camp revival on Broadway now. Irony aside, there is something very life-affirming about this clip. Good for beginning the New Year! May you all be inspired by your favorite muse all during 2008! (I just hope my muse can dance better than Olivia Newton-John, fetching though she may be... especially on those roller skates.)
Posted Nov. 30, 2007,
Jerry Lewis, The Ladies Man
By Ann Magnuson
It's kind of amazing what you can find while sick at home during a rainy Friday morning in L.A. I used to be part of that snobby set that thought Jerry Lewis wasn't funny. (Odd, considering I took French lessons for five years.) But I saw him perform in Vegas during his "comeback" (was it '99? 2000?) and while I can't say it was the funniest show I'd ever seen it was definitely the most surreal. At times he was hilarious, other times painfully not so and then others so full of rage that you could feel the audience gasp like one singularly abused child worried if Daddy was going to really hit us. Then he'd catch himself, toss off a one liner and we'd all breathe a collective sigh of relief as he went on with the show.
Posted Nov. 11, 2007,
Joey Arias in ZUMANITY!
By Ann Magnuson
We went on a road trip to Las Vegas last weekend and caught one of Joey Arias's final performances in the sex-themed Cirque du Soleil show ZUMANITY! Joey (seen above in the green room after the show) was nothing less than fantastic... as were his fellow performers. The bodies on these gals and guys have to be seen to be believed! There were some amazing acrobatics and dizzyingly dynamic dancing. The cast is multi-national and every one of them is a star! Of course there was lots of sex, sex and more SEXXXXXXX! The lesbian waterdance in the giant cocktail glass is definitely one of the highlights! As is the devlish satyr (Simon Tinham), the mysteriously androgynous blue-haired cape twirler (Jacobo Espina), the contortionist/dislocation artist (Aslan Gusengadzhiev) and the wonderful pianist Eliot Douglas (who commutes down here to L.A. on his days off to keep his garden well-tended!)
There are also many awesome Russians in the cast including three uber-limber Mongolian lasses and the fantastic Anton Kumikeyev, formerly of the Bolshoi Ballet! And lets not forget the several delightfully comic folks who infiltrated the audience with their horny antics and the incredible Wassa Coulibaly from Sengal who left us breathless with her opening number! (My favorite performer of all, the diminutive and incredibly handsome Brazilian Alan Jones Silva (seen here after the show with Joan Collins!), wasn't in his usual number -- the incredible "ariel silk" dance -- because his partner suffered an injury during rehearsals. But I hear he and a new partner are now back stealing the show!)
Posted Oct. 18, 2007,
Julie Newmar's Gold Dance From Serpent of the Nile
By Ann Magnuson
Julie Newmar, my favorite Catwoman, had THE body to die for -- and she's all natural kids! No silicon for this Living Doll. (At least not back then.) And is that Raymond Burr at the end? Good God! 1953 was a freaky year in filmland! Enjoy!
*Factoid from her Wikipedia entry: Newmar invented and marketed her own brand of pantyhose, "Nudemar," in the 1970s & 1980s. She holds three U.S. patents: 3,914,799 and 4,003,094 for "Pantyhose with shaping band for Cheeky derriere relief" and 3,935,865 for "Brassiere."
Posted Oct. 10, 2007,
Dancing With the Star Wars Trumpet Strumpet Stacey Hedger
By Ann Magnuson
Who said talent isn't enough? If I were judging this pageant, Stacey Hedger would win whatever crown she is competing for (Miss Central Iowa? Miss Greater Orlando? Miss Bridges of Madison County?) Many thanks to the just-as-talented-as-Miss-Douglas, L.A. art-rock choreographer Carol Cetrone for the clip above. I wonder if Miss Cetrone will be co-opting some of Miss Hedger's very special dance moves in a nearby alternative space in the near future? (Keep watching -- it happens right after the R2D2 squawks, during the Droid Dance Break... but wait, is she doing C3PO?) Alas, no performance artist in the world can hope to measure up to this terminal uniqueness!
Posted Sep. 10, 2007,
Carol Channing Wipes Floor With Britney's Lurid Lurex Ass.
By Ann Magnuson
I don't know why I think I need to "keep up" with current "culture." I had such a lovely meditative media-free weekend in the desert then had to return to the outside world and this. Thank goodness I stopped watching Britney Spears' VMA performance half-way through or I'd have that gimme/gimme/gimme hook embedded in my brain for days rather than just hours. (The more inane the hook, the more it sticks in yer craw.) I offer this video sorbet to help cleanse the psychic palate.
Britney could learn a few things from Carol Channing about putting on a show. And about dieting. Hey baby, THIS is the way to age gracefully! The video above comes from an appearance Miss Channing made on Dean Martin's TV show which ran between 1965 and 1974 (those were the days!) The tall, lanky lead hippie is the legendary dancer/choreographer Tommy Tune (try as he may to feign a Riot-on-the-Sunset-Strip accent, Mr. Tune can't disguise that lil' ole Texas accent!) The dancers are from the cast of Seesaw, then a big hit on Broadway. Fantabulous! And old Dino appears at the end. Too much, man! Call me old-fashioned (or just old), but that's entertainment!
Posted Jun. 7, 2007,
Eight Items or Less: Twilo Folds in Miami, Cocaine Gets Cheaper and One Person Didn't Like Knocked Up
By PAPERMAG Editors
1. When the world famous New York club Twilo folded in 2001 the owners tried to re-establish the venue in Miami last year. Now the Miami branch has also folded. Located in the downtown Miami 24-hour nightlife district, the club encountered many of the same problems currently being felt on West 27th Street in New York’s nightlife district. The cities' original concept of keeping all the clubs in one zoned area has backfired by also bringing all the attendant problems to one neighborhood -- and then blaming the clubs. In a recent posting on burlingtonnights.com, regular Twilo DJ Danny Tenaglia observes that "Miami is being completely taken over by hip-hop, reggaeton, VIP rooms and non-intelligent teenage drop-outs with gansta tattoos."
2. The next time your favorite house-music anthem exhorts you to "Jack your body, ja- ja- jack your body!" your feet might be doing more than just making you sweat. British newspaper The Independent reports that Enviu, a nonprofit organization for eco-projects, and a Dutch architectural firm called Doll have teamed to create a Sustainable Dance Club. Though still in the planning stages, the dancers will eventually "squeeze a surface membrane in the dancefloor which works a flywheel to generate voltage, which is then fed back into the system to light it." If you can't see your date, just dance harder and brighten up the room. (via The Wall Street Journal).
3. Must be the Shoes (part III): The Consumer Product Safety Commission reported this week that Heelys (shoes with wheels in the heels) caused 1,600 emergency room visits, 64 injuries and one death from September 2005 through December 2006. Wear your helmet, Mr. Mickey!
4. According to the Atlantic, the price of cocaine is falling dramatically. Perhaps diverted by the hunt for terrorists, the DEA claims that the price of a gram in New York City was $20 to $25 in 2005.
5. When you're to trying come down, consider a Mediflow pillow. Its inventor claims that the "patented water-based design therapeutically relieves chronic neck pain" and that you will wake up feeling "rejuvenated, soothed and energized."
6. Or, better yet, skip the powder and the pillow and go to www.i-doser.com where you can download 30 minutes of aural stimulation for $3.75. Their version of "cocaine" supposedly induces a "simulated state achieved through the use of advanced binaural methods." And, like rap music, it comes with a warning: "This one comes close." Sgt. Pepper comes close enough for us.
7. Apparently, someone doesn’t like Knocked Up.