Wednesday, March 19, 2008

The Rhythm of Life

The questions are as old as time.

Who am I?

What made me the way I am?

What sparked the bizarre amalgamation of my likes, my dislikes, my fears, my passions?

Everyone asks these questions, but when I step back and examine all of these things in myself, I feel like some sort of show-tune-singing, redneck, homosexual version of Composite Superman.

As played by Yul Brenner.

Who else would freely admit that their favorite movie is Casablanca and that a close second is Smokey & the Bandit?


Did anyone else on the planet open up their iTunes this past weekend and purchase Madonna's Bond song Die Another Day, Amy Adams singing That's How You Know from Disney's Enchanted and the Barbara Mandrell classic I Was Country When Country Wasn't Cool? I highly friggin' doubt it.

And if you did, call me. I'm single, have plenty of oral experience and I'm willing to relocate.

But yesterday, I think I may have found a little piece of history that explains how one man can be a gay, white trash, musical theatre loving Trekkie with a serious Robin the Boy Wonder fetish.

My friend Michael Pacas emailed this clip to me yesterday and I haven't quite been the same since.

This is Minnie Pearl introducing Dean Jones and Ricardo Montalban singing Rhythm of Life from the musical Sweet Charity without the benefit of Bob Fosse choreography and surrounded by what looks to me like the chorus My Fair Lady on the set of Chess. I shit you not.

This is bizarre, fabulous, retina-burning, jaw-dropping, "What the fuck were they thinking?" tv camp and I love it. It's 100% me.

11 comments:

Stan said...

What cracks me up is the line "Hit the floor and crawl to Daddy"???? This clip is as gay as a picnic basket! Thanks for sharing. It really picked me up on this otherwise gloomy rainy day here on the east coast.

Anonymous said...

Um...yeah. That was a little surreal.

But damn...Ricardo was a hot little number, wasn't he?

Aaron said...

Ah, the 60s...so MANY things were unlikely and jaw-dropping then, and yet they happened!

I bought Barbara Mandrell's "Treat Him Right" (from when country REALLY wasn't cool, like 1970 or so) and Fountains of Wayne's "Stacy's Mom" on the same day...we're all the sum total of all our parts! And we cannot deny any of them...

Stan said...

BTW forgot to mention how I always had a fondness for Minnie Pearl known for wearing a big hat with a price tag that read "$1.98" hanging off the side. "HOWDEE!" Born in Centerville, Tennessee she was tuely country camp!

Stephen R. said...

stan - Glad camp tv could get rid of the gloom. Yeah, "Hit the floor and crawl to Daddy" is a great lyric, isn't it? And also a fun phrase on a Saturday night. Amen.

atatomicsd - Ricardo was definitely hot. Hell, I even like him all crazy-assed and (fake) bare chested in STAR TREK II: The Wrath of Khan. "Khan!!!!!!!"

aaron - So true! The 60's were unapologetically bizarre. The clincher for me in this clip is Minnie Pearl introducing it. WTF?

stan - Definitely!! We Tennessee are country camp classics!!!

Gregory said...

You're just honestly you.

And it is marvelous in our eyes.

Stephen R. said...

gregory - That is just about the nicest thing that anyone has ever said to me. Thank you!!! That made my day!

Doug said...

The Ascot Gavotte meets the Rich Man's Frug meets Hair meets...

I loves it!

xoxo,
Doug

Anonymous said...

huh. That's about all I got to say about that.

Polt said...

Well, I do so love making rhythms in my bedroom and rhythms in the street....but I'm not really sure what that has to say about me exactly....

Lord, I wanna try the drugs these people were on when they thought THIS one up!

HUGS...

Scooter said...

It's sort of Chess meets Bob Mackie meets Hee Haw!