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.
slumber party movies 