Category Archives: Friday Morning Videos

I Love Sororities.

In the wake of “The Rape of Betty Childs” last week, and also due to an appointment with the dentist, I never got around to posting a Friday Morning Video. But I’m glad I waited, because this is so, so much better.

Why am I posting it here? Because, Lerlines, where would Betty Childs have been without the Pis? Where would Bluto be without topless pillow fights?

WordPress is being annoying, so you’ll have to click through the image to FunnyorDie.

funnyordie

Recently, one of the fine sisters of Delta Gamma (U Maryland) took her sisters to task for being a bit more loserly than she appreciated. I’m not sure what her role is in the house; I’m guessing she’s in charge of social events, or possibly rush; she’s most definitely not a freshman or sophomore, I know that. In any case, displeased with the public personas of her fellow DGs, she composed a brilliant diatribe on just how disappointed she is in her sisters, and how they’d pretty much better get into shape, lest she get really angry and, say, cunt-punt them.

People have read the letter and called it “insane” and “deranged”; I think it’s brilliant. Despite a stuck caps lock, her grammar is surprisingly good, and she’s a terrific monologue writer. (Tip: use this at your next audition. You won’t be sorry.) Michael Shannon brings it to a David Mametesque level, which usually, to me, means something like “Good god, shut the fuck up and stop repeating yourself,” but in the context of Glengarry Delta Gamma, is an eloquent pouring-forth of profanity bordering on true beauty. It’s a glistening waterfall of verbal daggers.

deltagamma_fuckingup

I’m in agreement with the rest of the internet that “cunt-punt” is most certainly the best phrase, and here’s why: it’s not just the rhyming, or the visual; it’s that it’s not using “cunt” as a derogatory term. Instead, it’s expressing a very specific act of violence AGAINST the cunt. It’s “kick him where it hurts,” only it’s her, and it rhymes.

Then there’s the part where she issues a number of invitations to her sisters, such as asking them to email her back and let her know of their level of mental retardation, and also punch themselves in the face so she doesn’t have to do it for them.

deltagamma_fuckingstupid

Here’s what I love the most about the letter, though: I KNOW HER. OK, well, I don’t know DG Rebecca. But there was a junior my freshman year, and we’ll call her Mary Jane, who so terrified me that I’m STILL afraid of her. Mary Jane is a wonderful person, by all accounts: she volunteered for Special Olympics as a hugger, for instance, and I loved most of my sisters well enough to know that if they loved her, that she must have  a sweet chocolatey center, unlike Rebecca, who may actually be as horrible as one imagines shrill sorority sisters to be. But Mary Jane suffered no fools. NONE. And man, did she have a mouth.

You see, the true secret of Greek life is this: no way will 60 women all like each other equally. It’s just not emotionally possible. After living with someone for a few years, you forge your close bonds, and your less-close bonds, and one or two, you might even just not get at all. For the record, no, I did not dislike any of my sorority sisters, but some of them–well, we just didn’t get each other.

Of course, not even Mary Jane ever threatened physical violence, but that was 15 years ago, before all those violent video games made everyone crazy.

deltagamma_assault

But when it comes down to it, you’re all in it together, you share the same rituals and handshake–yes! Rituals! Handshakes!– and I know that if I’d been at a party, and someone had done something untoward to me in Mary Jane’s presence, they’d have received a tongue-lashing that would have terrified even DG Rebecca into submission. Why? Because I was Mary Jane’s sister, goddamnit, and she’d fucking cunt-punt any boot-licking asswipe who’d ever disrespect me, even if I was some pledge whose name she couldn’t quite remember. It’s a family; the name “sister” is not an accident.

I hope nationals doesn’t come down too hard on DG Rebecca. Despite using extremely poor judgment in scribing an email (seriously, why couldn’t she scream at them in chapter?), being generally racist and unapologetically privileged, she probably has the group’s best interests at heart. Given a chance, she’ll be the fucking president of the goddamn national alumnae association someday, and do NOT fucking think she will accept that you assholes think you’re not going to donate. Delta Gamma gave you the four most fun years of your entire sorry existence, so fucking pay up and stop putting us off in your whiny little bitch voice.

Either that, or Rebecca: bone up on your screenwriting skills and go to Hollywood. You have a future there.

Suck on that, David Mamet.

** She also mentions Sigma Nu, specifically, and how the DGs would be unhappy if they invited Zeta over. Speaking as a Zeta (Bethany College, ’97) who regularly enjoyed the company of the Sigma Nus: thanks for the callout. It’s appreciated.

Friday Morning Videos: “Mind Over Matter”…. And a tribute to Roger Ebert.

It’s not Friday. I don’t care.

I checked into Facebook an hour or so ago and saw that one of my friends had changed his cover photo to an adorable picture of Siskel, Ebert, Telly the Monster and Oscar the Grouch. I laughed. Then I scrolled down and saw why he posted it: after many years of an epic battle, cancer finally proved, again, that it sucks the most of all the things that suck. It took Roger Ebert. Come on, cancer. We all agree you’re the Suckiest of the Suck. Just stop.

My dad, sister and I watched Siskel and Ebert religiously. Our local movie theater, a converted opera house, had its own balcony, and it was always closed because of the extreme rat infestation up there, but we always fantasized that we’d sneak up there, just like they did, and get to Talk Movies. In college, my pledge name was “Siskel,” presumably for all the VHS videos I had in my room, and I remember grumbling to a friend that I was SO more Ebert than Siskel.

In the last few years I’ve been reading Ebert’s blog regularly, checking into it every few weeks, and realized some things I hadn’t known about him. He’s a brilliant writer, first of all. He’s a compassionate person. He’s a devoted husband, crazy about his wife in a way that most of us can dream about, and she’s the most extraordinary person: beautiful, strong, and fiercely caring for him. Of course, those descriptions all came from him, and I can’t imagine that he’d ever see her as anything but a warrior angel.

It breaks my heart to re-read those sentences and realize I inadvertently used present tense, and that I should’ve said “was.” He WAS those things. Cancer. Suck.

After wiping the tears from my keyboard, I knew I’d have to post a SlumberPartyMovies tribute to him. To what I’m sure would’ve been his horror, I first thought of “Summer School”–a movie I saw in a drive-in double feature, paired with “Lost Boys.” (BTW: How radical am I? Except that was the first time I’d worn my contact lenses, and one fell out during “Cry Little Sister.”)

My sister and I loved this movie. Like, LOVED it. Like, one summer, when we were totally bored, I helped Samantha write down every word of the movie in the computer so we could print it out and have the whole script. Kids, this is what your elders did before the internet.

Thumbs way up!

Thumbs way up!

I tried finding a scene from the movie when Chainsaw and Dave give one of their Siskel and Ebert reviews–like after the roller coaster, when they give a thumbs-up/thumbs-down, and then confirm it’s a thumbs-up when a classmate barfs into the garbage can. But I couldn’t find it. What I did find was this gem.

The song, “Mind Over Matter,” rocks on every level, and we had it on our version of repeat, which is to say, we recorded it over and over on a whole tape and let it play continuously. The song plays when the students are taking their Big Test and going into labor, and–miracle of miracles–is sung by “Better Off Dead” singer EG Daily. (How did I not know that?)

Watch this video. You won’t regret it. Especially not the part at about 2:10 when motherfucking Carl Reiner dances in a linen suit.  I can’t say for certain, but I’m reasonably sure this is the only appearance he ever made in a music video. What else? Strobe lights, aerobic thongs, and the cast performs onstage, something you won’t see happen again until Rockula.

What did Mr. Ebert think of Summer School? I’d tell you, except the SunTimes server crashed under the weight of millions of internet mourners moments after the news broke. I can tell you what the excerpt on Google says: “Summer School is a movie like that, a comedy so listless, leisurely and unspirited that it was an act of the will for me to care about it, even …”

My guess is, the rest of the review don’t go so good.

But Mr. Ebert, I still choose to pay tribute to you with “Mind Over Matter” anyway. And this might sound as hokey as a principal letting a teacher get tenure even though 80% of his class fails summer school, but you, sir, are the greatest example of mind over matter I’ve ever known. You fought cancer. You lost half your damned face, for Christ’s sake. And still, you wrote to us, and spoke to us, and we developed with you the kind of one-sided personal bond that one can only get by being a blogger, and allowing comments, and sharing your story with the world.

We’ll see you at the movies.

The name’s Gil. As in Gil-ty.

Yesterday was my youngest daughter’s birthday–the little peanut’s two!–and so today I wanted to share a birthday scene. I could’ve gone with “Sixteen Candles,” or any number of other teen party scenes, but this was the first thing that came to mind: Cowboy Gil from Parenthood (the 1989 version, not the Gilmore Girls version).

cowboygil

It has a number of things going for it:

  • Steve Martin in bathmat chaps.
  • Steve Martin describing slipping in a dead cowboy’s guts to seven-year-olds.
  • Steve Martin.

Really, though, the best part of this scene is that, to me, it perfectly demonstrates how feeling silly is its own parental reward.

I couldn’t find the whole clip ANYWHERE on YouTube, so I have to send you over to a site called AnyClip. They won’t let me embed the clip, and it doesn’t show all the balloon animals, or him riding away on a horse, leaping over the neighbor’s shrubbery. But next time this is on cable, catch the whole movie. It’s worth watching for this scene and to see Keanu Reeves ask Dianne Wiest if she knows what a boner is.

Steve Martin in bathmat chaps >>

Friday Morning Videos: Is There Something I Should Know?

I was in the mood for Duran Duran during bathtime last night, Arena-style (the greatest live album ever; if you don’t agree with me, you’ve never listened to the transition between “The Chauffeur” and “The Seventh Stranger”), and as we all know, it kicks off with this perfect concert opener. Duran Duran is begging you: please, please: do you love them? How much?

The answer, of course, is a lot.

This is a gem of a video in a library of great videos–it’s Duran Duran, after all, and they did videos up right. I don’t need to mention the hair (swoopy) or the makeup (perfect) or John’s cheekbones (swoopily perfect), so let’s just skip to the part where Simon’s a flea, walking across a dog’s back, and wonder: what?

dd_flea

 A few highlights:

  • Neckties.
  • Lots of children and babies. I don’t remember them being in the video, but watching it now, I wonder: Why didn’t they give Simon a baby to hold? Were they worried he’d drop it during a dance move? Did it not fit the milieu of the video? Or did they know that Simon Le Bon  + Baby would instantaneously send thousands of viewers into spontaneous ovulation?
  • Derby hats.
  • Lumberjacks in derby hats.
  • Cheerleaders.
  • Giant steps.
  • Split screens.

I count five scenes from previous Duran Duran videos–how many can you find? Here’s a hint for one.

ddvideo

Lastly, and certainly not least: “You’re about as easy as a nuclear war.” Those of you who understand, understand. Those of you who don’t, perhaps never will, but can try. This moment is the secret handshake of SlumberPartyMovies.com; when I performed this song in karaoke 20 years post-video, I performed the secret handshake and watched as the other writers of this blog performed it, as well, thus guaranteeing that a decade later, though we live 1,500 miles apart, we’re still singing about Duran Duran together.

If you already know “You’re about as easy as a nuclear war,” you may continue reading SlumberPartyMovies.com. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you must buy “Decade” immediately, watch it five times this weekend, including all four versions of “New Moon on Monday,” whilst drinking Bartles & James and eating Likem Stix, and then write an essay of apology to me and the rest of us Lerlines here at SPM.

I’m not going to be easy on you.

Friday Morning Videos: Lights Out

There was this thing that happened almost a whole week ago, and you probably either don’t remember it, are reliving every moment, or are trying desperately to forget it ever happened. But it’s true: sports anchors had to talk for a half an hour about something other than overgrown men chasing a brown ball around a green field. I shudder.

Halfway through The Half Blackout of 2013, I thought that this would surely be the weirdest Super Bowl ever. And then the game started, and the team that had been losing in epic fashion came back in epic fashion, and then I thought it was definitely the weirdest Super Bowl, and then a guy from the winning team stood and wandered around the end zone, thus winning the game, and then I thought, “I missed Downton Abbey for this?” (Slate.com backed me up.)

The upside of it all was that I knew what this week’s video would be. Last week, I mentioned how The Escape Club always sends me back to watching my sister spin in front of a mirror, so it’s only appropriate that I have reason to post “Lights Out,” by Peter Wolf. I don’t remember how or why, exactly, but this song was designated as our “spinning song.” On Saturday afternoons, while my mom made pepperoni rolls or bread or both in the kitchen, we stacked all the 45s on the record player and commenced lip sync contests. (Kids: “stacking 45s” was our way of putting a playlist on shuffle.)  If “Puttin on the Ritz” played, we grabbed our glitter batons and made like Fred Astaire. If “Almost Paradise” hit the deck, we sang a mournful duet.

And if “Lights Out” came on, we spun ourselves into a nausea so delightful that even Southern Comfort can’t recreate it.

Video highlights:

  • Actual Degas-style dancers in the dark.
  • Peter Wolf’s impressive stature. A cursory search of internet revealed no height statistics, but I’d guess he’s about 8’1″.
  • A new wave tuba player.
  • Peter Wolf’s loss of muscle control at 2:30.

Friday Morning Videos: Wild, Wild West

I’d never seen this video before today. But occasionally I’d hear the song on the radio, and have a very vivid memory of my sister dancing in front of her oversized mirror in my grandmother’s house. Samantha attended Catholic school for three years, living with Grandma and assembling a hefty collection of cassingles in the meantime. As she was a big believer in playing songs until every lyric was memorized, we still know all the words to this song, and it’s always been associated with me sitting on her bed, watching her quick-draw on her reflection before executing a nice cross-ankle/spin.

That was before I’d seen the video. If you have a good memory associated with this song, close out of this browser and never come back. Because if you follow through and watch this video, your nice teenaged memory will be forever tainted by the most disturbing mirror effect ever used in a video. I may never touch a tambourine again.

Can I get a what the fuck?

Can I get a what the fuck?

On the upside, The Escape Club’s lead singer makes Simon le Bon look like Mikhail Baryshnikov. And is that Ralph Fiennes playing the drums?

Friday Morning Videos: California Girls

Three hours ago, we had a light dusting of three-day-old snow on the ground. Now there’s about two inches with no sign of stopping, and most of the businesses and schools in the Pittsburgh area are calling for early dismissals.

Take it away, Mr. Roth.

Friday Morning Videos: When The Going Gets Tough

This video brought to you by our weekly Friday Morning Videos sponsor, the JCC of Squirrel Hill.

Like any good New Year’s resolver, I headed for the gym this morning, and did not disappoint myself: 20 minutes on the bike, followed by 40 minutes wandering around circuit machines, trying to decide which to use and how to use them. My regular workout soundtrack–NPR’s Morning Edition and Marketplace–was interrupted for this delight coming from JCCTV, who, if you’ll remember, also brought us Debbie Gibson and Barry Gordy’s The Last Dragon.

Not since “St. Elmo’s Fire” has a video so seamlessly tied in a movie and its stars. The Brat Pack only stood in a cold alley and grooved with ennui. Billy Ocean, however, has the music mojo to get three of the 80s’ biggest stars to be Motown-style backup singers. And they do it with such sincerity and panache that one can only sit back and wish we’d been at the wrap party.

The video opens up with Jack telling Joan he’s going to kill her, which means that, even though it’s a sequel, they’re still in love and have fantastic sex. Then we transition to your typical concert video, only this one features Billy Ocean instead of Bon Jovi. We see his ensemble band–horn section, keyboardist, guitarist, drumset… and off to the side, the backs of his backup singers, nattily clad in white tuxedos.

Sneaky!

Sneaky!

Then, at minute 1:18… BAM. Faster than a Colombian mudslide, Kathleen Turner, Danny DeVito, and Michael Douglas spin about and break into full choreography. They’re Billy Ocean’s White Knights.

THE Joan Wilder?

THE Joan Wilder?

Danny DeVito, I get. He’d do anything less boring than watching his hairline recede. And Kathleen Turner clearly harbored a secret dream to be a Ronette. But Michael Douglas? He was already a producer and director and movie star and totally sexy in a Harrison Ford way, except without the indigestion. He’s not as comfortable with dancing, but he demonstrates exactly WHY Jack was such a great character: because the ultimate romantic hero is fun.

They didn’t have to do the video. They had plenty of star power, and money, and the movie was a “Jewel of the Nile,” a less-than-awesome, but still awfully fun, sequel, to “Romancing the Stone,” which is, hands-down, the best romantic adventure ever filmed. Maybe it’s because there are only like five out there, but still. That’s saying something.

I wasn't the only one disappointed when he went for Melanie Griffith.

I wasn’t the only one disappointed when he went for Melanie Griffith.

So I leave you with two lessons from this video, to ring in your New Year: When the going gets tough, the tough get going, and the tough also get rough. And if you get an opportunity to do something completely shameless, that puts you at risk for public humiliation and is outside your working skill set: do it. And when you do it, think of Danny DeVito.

I don't often play the saxophone, but when I do, I wear sunglasses.

I don’t often play saxophones, but when I do, I wear sunglasses.

P.S. If you’d like your own Colombian mudslide, go to Applebee’s and snort cocaine off the drinks menu.

Friday Morning Videos: The Glow

Yesterday morning, I awoke at 7 AM, wide awake, and realized something profound: for the third day in a row, no toddlers had awoken me in the night. And I’d gone to sleep at 10 PM. This meant one of two things: either I could get up and go to work early, or I could actually use the gym membership that had been languishing for two months.

Oh, sure: I’d been to the JCC once a week, to get Eliza swimming with other kids. And we’d used it a few times for the playroom. But I had yet to utilize the $35-a-month CenterFit Platinum membership I bought for myself, which allowed me into the 18-and-over locker room. It’s like first class for gym-goers.

On this morning, I had no more excuses, and opted for the gym. And, it turns out, the gym has just been waiting for me to show up. It’s been just sitting there, looking at the door every time it opens, thinking, “Dang it! That’s not Jody! I have all these THINGS just for her, and she’s not coming!”

I have a labral tear in my hip, which sounds much worse and much dirtier than it actually is. My physical therapist prescribed the exercise bike to me, which instantly made me think, “Oh, yippee. The best aerobic exercise for me is the one that’s lobe-splittingly boring.” But… the JCC knew this about me. And it was waiting with an exercise bike that has a built-in video game. Like with steering and gear changes and other cyclists, and a landscape that could be Cambodia, or maybe Peru, and every once in awhile the geeks that wrote the software–because, let’s face it, if it’s got a computer chip it crossed the desk of a geek at some point–programmed in little supportive messages. Like “Keep going!” and “You’re doing great!” and also “Never give up! Never surrender!” and “Do or do not. There is no try!”

My exercise bike quoted “Galaxy Quest” and Yoda to me.

Never give up. Never surrender.

Never give up. Never surrender.

After working up a good sweat on the bike, I headed downstairs to the weight room. Allow me to interrupt myself and say that the median age of JCC clientele is about 58, and that’s including all the toddlers taking classes. It’s kind of demoralizing for a 37-year-old woman who once ran a half marathon: dude, she’s in better shape than me, and she probably only has one unreplaced joint in her body. That said, I think I fit right in, as the coffee I’d had pre-workout was now beginning to repeat on me in a rather painful way.

So I figured, at this point, I’ll do my hip exercises, lift a few dumbbells to work my biceps and triceps, and head back. “Only in My Dreams” played during my hip exercises, which cracked me up, especially because the two guys under 50 were totally big tattooed dudes spotting each other on the benches, and I just know one of them was silently jamming in his head.

Then, halfway through a tricep exercise, this song came on.

The music couldn’t have motivated me more had it been “You’re the Best Around.” I’d never heard any song from “Barry Gordy’s The Last Dragon” in the gym, no less the “The Glow,” which, in a brilliant 80s twist, is a preparation montage including montages from other movies. (FYI, this clip is a montage of clips from the movie, but the actual song starts the way it shows here.)

It’s a meta-montage, powered by Bruce Lee, Daddy Green’s Pizza, and Barry Gordy, and as a result, I now feel pleasantly sore, endorphins are high, and I could totally kick Shonuff’s ass.

** Yes, I will be doing an in-depth “Barry Gordy’s The Last Dragon” post.

Why Don’t You Play Videos Anymore?

Alas, today I’m actually in the office, not working from home, so I can’t do the in-depth talk-about that I usually do with our Friday morning taste of MTV. And honestly, I haven’t been terribly inspired this week. Generally FMVs come about because I’ve been singing a song all week, or some event inspires me, but this week? De nada.

Except this began circulating around the Facebooks, and I think it’s fracking brilliant. Some of MY best memories are of watching videos (that is, videos taped from my grandmother’s cable, since we didn’t have cable, or from Friday Night Videos), and I, too, wondered for awhile why MTV stopped showing videos. And then, honestly, I realized I hated most of the music MTV was playing, and stopped caring, except for in that “I wonder what the M stands for these days” kind of way. I don’t feel bitter about MTV not playing videos, because I have YouTube, and that’s where I can watch 25-year-old videos of music I never stopped loving.

I love many things about this question and response, but several things jump out at me:

  1. The guy is roughly my age. So when he’s bitching about Natalie, he’s totally bemoaning the youngsters and effectively telling her to quit whining, because SHE’S GETTING OLD TOO.
  2. The “executive” he’s playing is named Michael Destiny.
  3. He’s filmed in front of the astronaut.
  4. I didn’t realize it was a parody until I looked up “Michael Destiny” to find out how old he is. That’s how good it is, and how much I wanted to believe a network head would actually say this.

Here’s the truth about me and the other bloggers here at Slumber Party Central: we are getting older. We don’t watch MTV, and haven’t for some time. It’s no coincidence that the videos we play are from the days when MTV DID play videos, because that was the best way for bands to get their music heard. Now, there’s the internet, and YouTube, and little brats who think they’re entitled to steal music just because they can. (Newsflash: IT’S STILL STEALING. YOU ARE A THIEF.)

Very, very rarely does a video trickle up (or down) to my public-radio-listening, antenna-TV-watching household, but when it does, it’s something like this, which I can watch with my two toddlers. Thank you, OK GO, for putting your videos on YouTube, and providing us with an updated version of Sesame Street’s stop-motion animation videos.

Back to your regularly scheduled programming!