Remember this TV commercial from the 1980’s mocking the Soviet Union?

My favorite part is “eveningwear,” where the model continues to wear the same sack dress, but now is holding a flashlight.

If you enjoyed the last Sweeney Sisters blog entry, you’re going to love this one. It’s from the Christmas episode of Saturday Night Live in 1986:

(please pardon the first few seconds of the clip)

I have tickets to see the new Dreamgirls movie on Monday.

For your viewing pleasure, I’ve attached a clip from the 1982 Tony Awards, where Jennifer Holliday belted the hell out of the song “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going” from the Broadway production of Dreamgirls. Holliday practically tears herself in half during the performance. Can it be topped? Ask me Tuesday.

Every time I watch the clip below, I just think: “Wow.” In the last millisecond of the clip, you can see a woman in the audience (wearing a puffy-sleeved 80’s dress) saying the same thing.

If you’ve never seen this before, be patient during the first 2 minutes or so while she builds up. After that, you’ll see what I mean.

Wow.

It bothers me that most Hollywood movie trailers either spoil the plot entirely, or are designed to mislead you about the film.

In 1996 I remember seeing weeks of advertising for the movie Independence Day. At first, the advertisements accurately portrayed the film as a drama/action/adventure movie. However, as popularity of the film waned, the Hollywood marketing geniuses re-framed the movie’s advertisements to portray the film as an hilarious Will Smith slapstick comedy. Was it a comedy? Well, the movie is basically about how nearly everyone on Earth is killed by some aliens. Other than that, sure, there were some funny bits. Ha.

If the movie Mary Poppins were released for the first time today, it might be pitched as a horror film instead of a family friendly musical. After all, that might pull in bigger crowds and be more popular with the important “tween” crowd. Here’s what the trailer would have looked like:

Remember the Sweeney Sisters? They were a (fictional) musical “medley” duo with a recurring Saturday Night Live sketch in the mid 1980’s. One of Jan Hooks’ funniest roles.

By the way, don’t you think they make a great Halloween costume idea?

(ignore the first 30 seconds)

UPDATE (3/30/2007): Unfortunately, the video was removed from YouTube. Sorry!

Some of you have asked: “your blog claims to be ‘one third political, one third cultural, and one third gay,’ but recently there’s been a lot of politics and not a lot of gay. What gives?”

By popular demand, I’m addressing the lack-of-gay in today’s post.

Nothing is gayer than a Broadway showtune. Here’s a clip from the cartoon series Family Guy, where (in keeping with the style of the show) they take a joke waaaaay beyond the logical stopping point and the result is hilarious. Er, I mean the result is fabulous! The spoofed song — “Shipoopi” from the show The Music Man — contains some of the most absurd lyrics since someone left Donna Summer’s cake out in the rain in the 1970’s:

Here’s a video you’ll either love or hate. In my opinion, it’s hilarious:

There are two types of people in the world: People who think this video is hilarious, and people who don’t get it at all. Dad, I love you but I’ll bet money you’re in the second group (sorry).

It’s the original “Lillian Verner Game Show” sketch from Mad TV. Please let me know if this link below doesn’t work properly for you — for some reason on some browsers the video stops about 25% of the way through:

UPDATE (11/8/2006): Dad did like the video.

UPDATE (3/30/2007): Unfortunately, the video was removed from YouTube. Sorry!

Symbols of San Francisco:

1. Golden Gate Bridge
2. Transamerica Pyramid
3. Lombard Street
and until recently…

4. Mayor Gavin Newsom’s famously shellacked hair

Take a look at the before & after:

If you’re not a San Francisco resident, you probably don’t realize what a big deal this is. But for those of us who live here, Mayor Gavin Newsom’s hair was something we didn’t necessarily like, but that we could depend on, much like like our earthquakes and cold summers. Landing at SFO, one looks out the window and admires the San Francisco Bay, Twin Peaks, the bridges, and Gavin Newsom’s Hair. And now, without fanfare, the city is changed forever.

This is certain to shake up local politics. Up until now, it was accepted wisdom across the San Francisco political spectrum that Gavin Newsom would easily walk away with the title of America’s Most Handsome Mayor, were it not for The Hair. Without The Hair, we can expect to see heated debate over whether or not Gavin Newsom is more, or less handsome than before. Science has shown us that that a handsome mayor is a good mayor, so a split on this critical issue could result in a divisive reelection campaign. In addition, in San Francisco’s gay community The Hair was seen as proof positive that despite his good looks and strong advocacy for gay marriage rights, he could not possibly be gay. Is San Francisco really ready for a Mayor who is perceived as gay?
For more information, visit: San Francisco Chronicle, “Where were you the day Gavin changed his ‘do?” (10/06/2006)

This clip from the 1980’s is one of the funniest sketches I’ve seen:

Deuteronomy, 22:11 “You shall not wear cloth of two different kinds of thread, wool and linen, woven together.”

The new fall fashions are in, and there’s going to be a big fundamentalist religious protest down at Macy*s tomorrow. Wool and linen woven together, you see. Big scandal. Wanna go?