Placido Domingo
Enter to win tickets to an exclusive HD theatrical presentation of "The Placido Domingo 40th Anniversary Gala Concert" at The Sunshine Cinema on Mother's Day!
Lit Lounge
Enter for complimentary admission to see Power Solo from
Denmark with Band Antenna, Sea That Dried Up, and Chem Trail at Lit Lounge!
Rasputin
Enter to win dinner and drinks for two at Rasputin Restaurant and Cabaret!
DeVotchKa
Enter to win tickets to see DeVotchKa on Tuesday, May 20th at Terminal 5!
United Artists
Enter to win a 90th Anniversary United Artists DVD prize package!
Jazz at Lincoln Center
Enter to win admission for two to one performance of the Québec Jazz Series at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola!
Iron & Silk
Enter to win 5 personal training sessions at Iron & Silk Fitness!
Posted by Michael Musto at 3:58 PM, April 16, 2008
The breathless email came in from a reader: "If you want a real YouTube treasure, how about fierce, weirdly mannish Nina Simone doing a cool jazz 1960s version of a Hebrew folk song???!!!???" HELL, yeah! Bring it on, babe. To life!
Posted by Michael Musto at 3:00 PM, April 10, 2008
Scottish child singer Lena Zavaroni was a '70s talk show regular who belted songs out of the park like a pint-sized Ethel Merman. With pitch-perfect musicality unfettered by any shred of self-consciousness, Lena barreled onstage and pitched her notes to the balcony, creating a seismic shift in the room with her tumultuous talent. Here she warbles "Ma! He's Makin' Eyes at Me" on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, who's suitably awestruck. Sadly, Lena battled anorexia for years and died at 35 in 1999—but her voice remains large.
"I've got 36 expressions," sings Barbra Streisand as Fanny Brice in 1968's Funny Girl, the most astounding female musical vehicle of all time. Well, she's got about 3600 outfits in the film, from vaudeville shmattes to glorious gowns to slinky peignoirs, all accessorized with everything from bird feathers to Pilgrim's hats. In this YouTube oddity, a short called "The Look of Funny Girl," Babs dutifully shows off Irene Sharaff's stunning array of fashion—some of it never seen in the film—as gays re-experience the first orgasm they ever had while watching a woman. Hello, gorgeous!
Posted by Michael Musto at 12:00 PM, April 2, 2008
My YouTube treasure of the day is Lena Horne's version of "I'll Plant my Own Tree," a wonderfully sick Dory Previn song from the gay camp classic Valley of the Dolls. In the 1967 film, Susan Hayward—as aging stage diva Helen Lawson—sings the number, dodging a revolving mobile as she expresses urgent sentiments like "It's my yard, so I will try hard to welcome friends I have yet to know." Well, it may be her yard, but it's not her voice; Hayward was actually lipsynching to Margaret Whiting. But Lena—seen here on a long-ago Dean Martin Show—is doing her own singing and eyeball flaring as she attacks the song like a pit bull, giving it some real meaning and fire while wending through a scary post-apocalyptic forest. Lena Horne's tree flourishes, honey—and with no manure thrown on it whatsoever!
I just got an exciting email from a fan: "Hi Michael, thought you would appreciate this. It's done by a group called Artists for the Advancement of the United States of America. It seems to be someone shooting HUGE loads on Bush's face all to a Stevie Nicks song?" Well, I watched the short yet potent clip and I have a few questions: (1) How could someone actually orgasm while loooking at Bush's face? (2) Why on earth would you waste good cum? And: (3) Isn't that song by all of Fleetwood Mac rather than just Stevie Nicks?
Posted by Michael Musto at 12:30 PM, March 28, 2008
The saying "Flo, she don't know" does NOT apply to Florence Henderson. The woman--a bonafide Broadway star before she became the stationary-haired mama of the Brady clan, complete with dripping Wessonality--Flo is actually a fun gal with a winning sense of self-mocking humor. Take this clip from a 2003 Kander and Ebb tribute I never knew about until searching for Flo on YouTube. Singing "When You're Good To Mama"--the corrupt prison matron's bawdy song from Chicago--to a bunch of dancers with Brady Bunch masks, Henderson strips down to a black leather dominatrix outfit and proceeds to kiss a female, grab men's crotches, and pretty much
leave Shirley Partridge behind in the dust. No wonder Greg Brady fell in love with her.
Posted by Michael Musto at 9:15 AM, March 27, 2008
"I never miss a Liv Ullman musical," Bette Midler immortally quipped about the bizarre 1973 remake of Lost Horizon, which also starred Oscar types like Peter Finch, Charles Boyer, John Gielgud, and Sally Kellerman all either singing or sync-ing with a unifying sense of charmlessness. Thanks to a surprisingly bland score by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, a much fucked-with script by Larry Kramer (yes, THAT Larry Kramer; no wonder he's angry), and a tacky production by Ross Hunter, the whole thing came off like a giant, numbing fortune cookie shot at the courtyard of a Ramada Inn in Burbank. Watching it, you can't imagine anything was cut—but it turns out something was! On YouTube, I've found a deleted scene complete with boringly banal dialogue and yet more of the chemistry-free Finch and Ullman "singing" as they randomly move around the mountain vistas and fake foliage. Enjoy this snipped visit to Shangri-Blah and wonder if it's really that much worse than what was left IN the film.
Posted by Michael Musto at 9:00 AM, March 14, 2008
A '60s waif from Buffalo who came off sort of like a mildly hipper Eydie Gorme, Joanie Sommers is best known for having sung the hit "Johnny Get Angry" and also for helping make Pepsi palatable to the youth explosion via various swinging commercials. But her most rivetingly weird appearance was on the contempo music show Hullabaloo, when she covered Freddie & the Dreamers' "I'm Telling You Now" in a sultry, seductively nasal samba style as the cameraman zoomed in on her face and practically shot up her nasal cavity. Was it perchance an Ingmar Bergman cinematographer slumming on a day job? Did Sven Nykvist maybe shoot Hullabaloo on the side? I don't know, but I do know that looming behind Joanie at the top of the clip (courtesy of YouTube, of course), Diana Ross looks hauntingly like Grandpa Munster.
Posted by Michael Musto at 1:00 PM, February 29, 2008
Way back in the 1950s, Debbie Reynolds emerged as a bright-eyed, efficient singer/actress as well as a fabulous professional victim. (Liz Taylor stole her husband, Eddie Fisher, away in a whirl of whoriness, and Debbie truly worked it, though now both she and Liz are united in deep hatred for Eddie.) She was sort of the original Kathie Lee. In other words, soulful wailing and protest music have never been Debbie's strong points. And yet, in this clip from some 1960s Scopitone, whatever that is (actually it's a short made for a video jukebox)—Debbie tries on the Pete Seeger/Lee Hays classic "If I Had a Hammer" with absolutely shocking results. Far from punching out a rallying cry for social justice, Debs makes it a kitsch, Vegasy swirl about eye makeup—a feelgood opportunity for some bland dancers to make weird hand gestures as the pert princess vocally bounces around and embarrasses herself like a hausfrau on too much Lemon Fresh Joy. Only Diana Ross's swing version of "I Loves You Porgy" misses the boat more vehemently—though if the boat is the Titanic, Debbie definitely makes it. If I had a hammer, I'd. . .no, I'm not a violent person.
Posted by Michael Musto at 1:00 PM, February 28, 2008
Not since Justin and Britney had that dance-off has there been such a playful competition as Jimmy Kimmel and Sarah Silverman's now immortal dueling videos of romantic spite. Earlier this week, Kimmel's "I’m Fucking Ben Affleck" provided a saucy reply to Silverman's "I’m Fuckin’ Matt Damon" and got way over two million YouTube clicks in the process. Not to make this into even MORE of a contest, but I feel it's even funnier than Sarah's clip, with hilariously deadpan setups leading to that surreal "We Are The World"-style finish with Don Cheadle, Robin Williams, and Cameron Diaz all wailing the title refrain. (And even Josh Groban! That earnest-eyed moppet has a sense of humor?) The two videos prove beyond a doubt that Matt and Ben have always had a great attitude about the fact that everyone wants them to be gay: They obediently act like they are! And you can't argue with Ben's logic: Jimmy has much bigger tits than Sarah. Since you probably haven't watched the vids in about 20 minutes, I've dutifully posted them both for your sardonic re-enjoyment. And now I'm off to fuck Ruby Dee.
Posted by Michael Musto at 1:00 PM, February 25, 2008
The wickedly funny Hispanics over at Broadway's In The Heights have done a mirthy spoof of that Rihanna "Umbrella" song, which was semi-permanently lodged in the recesses of my noggin until her "Don't Stop the Music" came out. In their version, the Heights-ies change "Umbrella" to "Abuela," which of course means grandmother, and feature the show's hot, gray haired lady slithering around for your dark delectation. This one never gets old.
Posted by Michael Musto at 1:15 PM, February 6, 2008
I almost plotzed at the Monday karaoke night over at Chi Chiz, the African American gay bar on Christopher Street, when a zany queen grabbed the mic to sing "Miss Honey" by late drag star Moi Renee as the crowd giddily chanted along. Apparently, the original record—which is basically my aural bible—has become a cult classic among the down-low set! It's an obscure dance number whereby the drag queen rants and raves to some imperiously absent "Miss Honey," snapping, "Where is the bitch? She's got some nerve. Here I am and feeling fieeee-eerce!" The tune is repetitive, droning, and—whoever the fuck Miss Honey is—absolutely genius. And now, a clip of Moi Renee performing it (with two endearingly ragtag backup dancers) on Sybill Bruncheon's old public access show miraculously turns up among the other broken toys on YouTube. Renee is gorge in her neon-green wig and black bodysuit with very fashionably arranged holes in it. All MY holes come alive for this crazy nightmare of a clip. It's a tiny piece of gay history that is mystifying yet essential, seeing as the bitch is indeed fieee-eerce. Mwah, Renee!
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