Reposted from 2013 to add updated incredible numbers (see embed above) for this morning's weather.
Compare that modern version with the original from the musical romantic comedy "Neptune's Daughter" from 1949, where the heavy-handed seduction of Esther Williams by Ricardo Montalban is almost painful to watch:
And I'll close with a shout-out to young Lucas, who lives across the street. At 9:30 last night after he finished his activities at school, he braved sub-zero temps to clear our driveway to facilitate our travel to a medical appointment this morning:
It's been pretty cold in my area for a few weeks now, feesl like end end of January weather. Brrrrr...
ReplyDeleteDuring the original run of The Muppet Show, Miss Piggy was guilty of using similarly heavy-handed seduction techniques on a half-naked Rudolph Nureyev.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EJ1SBAO1HU
This one is almost painful to hear.
heavy-handed -> ham-handed
DeleteI've always been a strong believer in winter weather being needed for a proper Christmas/New Year week, but having spent the last week in southern California, I have to say 68, sunny, with a slight breeze is pretty nice after a week of sub-freezing temps in WA.
ReplyDeleteOh, and I don't know whether it's the dress, the confident seduction, or the role reversals, but I've never been more attracted to Lady GaGa than I was while watching that video.
What's painful about the Neptune Daughter's rendition? Its the best rendition of this classic I've ever seen, and if you actually watch it you'll see that it covers both the traditional and the role reversal. There's nothing original about the Gaga / Gordon-Levitt version.
ReplyDeleteThere's nothing off about Ricardo's version. It wasn't anything pretty much every guy might wish: to find some way to be secluded with their girl. If you want to read sex into it, fine. I choose to interpret it as a boy paying "No, you hang up first.".
ReplyDeleteI dare say that only the terminally woke wish to reap some sort of rapist fantasy in what has long been understood to be a sweet effort to persuade.
I agree, the song is pretty innocent and has the whole flip thing. Nobody at the time was thinking "the implication...", but "terminally woke"? Who hurt you, sweetheart?
Delete"Who hurt you, sweetheart?" Firstly, the term "terminally woke" applies and I fully concur. Secondly, the "who hurt you" thing translates as, I don't like your opinion so I'm going to suggest that your failure to agree with me must be due to some kind of psychological damage. I lose a lot of respect for people when they use this form of attack. Better to just say, "YOU'RE NUTS!" The passive-aggressive, condescending, fake compassion approach is no bueno.
DeleteGood luck out there in the North where I'm sure you'll deal with the weather way better than we will here in DC and our pitiful few inches of snow.
ReplyDeleteAlso, to anyone criticizing Miss Piggy: HeeeeeeeYA!
That rendition perfectly makes the point of whatever problems people have with the song.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby,_It%27s_Cold_Outside
If you read about the origins of the song, you'll find that a lot of those problems are projected by people onto the song.
Personally, I feel there's a very fine line between trying to figure out what the context was in which an author wrote something, and personal projection of later readers of said text.
It's very funny to see people hold whole treaties on the interpretation of some word(s), while the meaning those words have changed in the time since the text was written, or when current readers simply ignore that an author may really not have spent as much time writing the text as that is spent interpreting it. Especially in poetry and song writing, sometimes a word is just there because it fit well. And then the author moved on.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XssPitrqOXM
Check for instance from 15 minutes in where there's quite some discussion about what fits on the rhythm and what Freddy Mercury can get out of his mouth.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLwBXLqypys
Or how Neil Tennant did not mean with It's a Sin what most people hear in it. Even though it seems all pretty obvious.
And then there's Dutch singer Frank Boeijen who famously sang poorly articulated and refused to print his lyrics on his albums because he thought his fans should be making up themselves what he was singing. Which led to hilarious debates on what the hell he was singing at all.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Boeijen
[Frank lived in my undergrad town of Nijmegen and could be found all over town in bars and clubs looking for your adoring young ladies to take home and, well, warn them it's cold outside.]
Good job Lucas, well done!
ReplyDeleteIyam, the Muppets is the cure for much of what ails the world. Hang in there.
ReplyDeleteI do not recommend "cold outside" as a life strategy. When I was in college (and 1984 was still a date in the future), I had a lovely evening with a nice young lady. It was our first date, very low key, no fireworks but pleasant. At some point, she politely informed me it was time for me to head home. It was January in Indiana and so I played the "baby, it's cold outside" card. She threw me out. She was right and I never had the nerve to ask her out again.
ReplyDeleteAnd in doing so she almost certainly changed your entire future life - whether for the better or worse there's no way to know. That's one of the fun things about pondering alternative pasts.
DeleteTwo of my favorite updated versions:
ReplyDeleteLydia Liza and Josiah Lemanski https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amK4U4pCTB8 I cannot hear "Say, what's in this drink?" without hearing "Pomegranate LaCroix" in my head now.
And from this year, the Doohickies: https://youtube.com/shorts/Xkv7_CoKfWI?si=bNnNuvuA1uSvZsQi