Category Archives: Video Links

Jonathan Winters just being Jonathan Winters. A thing of beauty and a joy for a very long time…

The clip I linked to yesterday of Flanders and Swann brought squeals of delight into my e-mailbox. So let's give you another one…

Are you a fan of Flanders and Swann? Well, if you aren't, you're about to become one. Michael Flanders and Donald Swann were an English duo who wrote and sometimes performed very silly songs between around 1943 and 1967. Their performing was in a couple of revues with names like At the Drop of a Hat and At the Drop of Another Hat, and these appeared on Broadway here as well as in England. They also released some very successful (and still in print) records, most of which were produced by George Martin. Mr. Martin turned a nice profit with Flanders and Swann but probably did a wee bit better with those four Beatles guys.

Often, others sang and recorded Flanders and Swann ditties…but I like their tunes best when Swann is at the piano and Flanders in his wheelchair (he had polio) and is vocalizing. Sometimes, they vocalized together, as well. Here they are with a number that was part of a taped-for-TV version of their last show on Broadway…

The video clips on the C-Span site do not play well on any of my computers but I managed to figure out a way to view Bill Clinton's speech today in Florida. (If you want to try, here's a link.) Clinton has been criticized lately because his pro-Obama remarks have seemed half-hearted, perfunctory and less than enthusiastic. Today's speech was pretty good, though. Without saying anything against McCain, apart from the fact that he thinks Obama would be a lot better, Clinton fired up the crowd for the Democratic ticket. Even when I disagree with Bill Clinton, which I do on a great many issues, I marvel at his ability to talk to an audience. There's a reason he's done as well as he has.

Here's the first Presidential Debate chopped down to a minute. You don't lose that much…

As I mentioned here that night, I didn't think either guy landed any serious punches. I'm amazed that all the major polls scored it as a decisive win for Obama and that it seems to have given him a nice boost in his electoral prospects. Quinnipiac, which is usually a good one, now has him above 50% in Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Those numbers are a bit higher than other polls but he certainly isn't doing badly in any of those states.

The Quinnipiac people note that "No one has been elected President since 1960 without taking two of these three largest swing states in the Electoral College" but as I read the electoral map, Obama could win easily even if he lost Florida and Ohio. John Kerry lost both and wound up with 251 votes. The only state Kerry won that currently looks marginal (and only in some polls) for Obama is New Hampshire. That's four electoral votes…but Obama is comfortably ahead in Iowa, a state whose seven electoral votes didnt go to Kerry last time. If Obama lost New Hampshire and won Iowa, he'd be at 254. That would mean he'd need 16 votes to get to 270 and win the presidency.

Bush carried Colorado (9 votes) and New Mexico (5) and Obama is presently ahead in both. Winning both would get Obama to 268. He's currently leading in Virginia, which Bush won and which has 13 votes. He's tied in North Carolina, another state Bush won, which has 15 votes, and some polls show him within a point or two in Indiana and Missouri, each of which have eleven.

If he holds onto all of Kerry's states or even if he loses New Hampshire, there are many combinations that could result in 270+ electoral votes without Florida or Ohio…or he could just win either of those two. McCain could still take it but he obviously has a rougher time of it. He probably does have to win both Florida and Ohio…and even that may not do it for him.

In other news, the ABC News/Washington Post poll now has George W. Bush at a record 70% disapproval rating, the lowest ever. That's two points lower than rectal itch and a statistical tie with cholera.

The Broadway show Xanadu closed last Sunday, two weeks before its announced end date. A national tour kicks off in La Jolla in November with new leads. It goes from there to Chicago for what is planned as an extended stay…and may eventually make its way to your city. I don't know how good this production will be but if it's anywhere near what I saw in New York last year, go see it.

Two weeks ago, the cast performed a number from the show at the annual Broadway on Broadway concert in Times Square. The NBC station in New York used to tape this event and broadcast it but they gave it up for some reason probably having to do with ratings and money. Here's a clip that someone with a camcorder shot there…and they didn't do a bad job of it.

Stephen Sondheim is interviewed briefly about Anyone Can Whistle (one of his quickly-closing hits), followed by Millicent Martin singing a song that was cut from Follies.

From a tribute show for producer Cameron Macintosh: Stephen Sondheim and Andrew Lloyd Webber perform a duet…

Illusionist and professional masochist David Blaine spent much of last week hanging upside-down in Central Park for a TV special. At one point, he had a visit from Triumph the Insult Comic Dog. Here is that visit…

Here's a famous (and apparently, effective) commercial that ran in 1952 for Dwight D. Eisenhower. Can we imagine a candidate using a spot like this today?

The opening to The Flintstones — in Polish. Doesn't need a lot of explanation…

Every so often here, I direct you to an example of someone doing something about as well as it could possibly be done. Here's a clip of Ricky Jay. Card manipulation doesn't get any better than this…

I was directing a recording session yesterday where everyone stopped to watch this. It's a 4.5 minute parody of the Sarah Palin-Charles Gibson interview with Lisa Donovan as Palin and Dan Oster as Charlie Gibson. Very funny…and it isn't even that much of an exaggeration.

I understand why the McCain-Palin forces are running around charging that the press and Democrats are being mean to her…but really. Nothing is hurting her reputation more than the way she's being hidden and kept from situations where she'd have to answer basic questions. They seem to be afraid that every press encounter's going to come out like this…

The musical It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's Superman didn't do so well on Broadway in 1966. It only lasted 129 performances. Still, it's had a pretty healthy afterlife in local and community productions.

In 1975, there was a low-budget TV adaptation and this clip is from it. That's Gary Owens narrating, David Wilson as Clark Kent/Superman and Loretta Swit (of M*A*S*H fame) playing a lady named Sydney who has some contrived reason to seduce the mild-mannered reporter. The production also featured Lesley Anne Warren (as Lois Lane), Kenneth Mars and David Wayne. This was the most popular number in the show, which featured a score by Lee Adams and Charles Strouse.

I have no idea where this is from, other than it must be from around '63 when John Glenn's name was in the news and the movie of Bye Bye Birdie was hot. It's Ethel Merman on some variety show singing "I've Got a Lot of Livin' To Do" with special lyrics. It was probably shortly after she sang this song, that she married Ernest Borgnine, who was not exactly what she was describing in this number.