It's a process

The character of "Racist" Bannon in the 1964 animated Johnny Quest adventure series was quickly re-imagined when he didn't scale well with focus groups.

See the original Johnny Quest title sequence here and the fantastic stop-motion homage here.

Shoo-Be-Doo-Bah

On this lazy Sunday here's some more Korean pop music I'm familiar with only because they play on the televisions (alternating with sports) that provide atmosphere in my favorite Korean restaurant in San Diego. As ever it is the choreography, costumes and set changes that drives these videos almost as much as the catchy tunes.

Rainbow - Sweet Dream (2011): I have no idea what they are saying but it has a good beat and you can dance to it. As one video commenter puts it, "Twinkle, twinkle little star. How I wonder what you are" fits the bridge just right.

SISTAR19 - Ma Boy (2010): This K-pop entry is really hot and sexy and not part of the reserved Korean image I remember from the 1980s. Wow to this. I doubt the positioning of that monkey arm was a coincidence. Marketing!

Secret - Starlight Moonlight (2010): This group is just 100% Hayley Mills-level adorable in this video. They are incredibly cute in this, but not all of their videos have them appearing so sweet and innocent. This music video looked ridiculously expensive to make.

All in color for a won

I'm pretty sure I wouldn't recognize South Korea if I visited it again. When I was there almost no one had internet and now it is one of the most connected countries on the planet. My impression of the country was that a person could walk a mile and the landscape, lifestyle and technology would change to resemble anything from 1930s American Heartland to the 1980s and back again all within a comfortable stroll. From new pictures I can see that many of the cities are completely transformed.

The popular music I heard while out was more often than not self-produced, self-promoted and self-distributed and the bands commonly consisted of a small electric organ with pre-programmed bossa nova beats. One of the interesting things to watch while I was in Korea was the evolution of rap and rock music. As restrictions of an oppressive government eased and Korean youth could speak out they did so angrily through their songs, though more polite by several degrees than the urban American inspiration that shocked so many people.

Watching the slick, corporate-owned and high production values of some of the newest Korean pop groups is something of a shock since all I recall are stiff, rote performances to a cassette tape playing on a chair next to the performer. There are few surprises in the music videos though and all pretty much follow the standard themes familiar to anyone born after the 1980s. The girls are cute, bouncy and sexy (very few affect a public street or gangster persona though this is changing) and rapid changes in costume and sets are the rules. A lot of cosplay costumes are involved though I'm sure this is what producers are confident that the audience wants.

The male performers in videos are usually depicted as living large and horribly tortured by emotion, definitely appealing to teen girls. The videos are hilarious because of the overwrought scenery chewing of the performers. I suspect focus groups or something similar dictate the format and themes of the music videos to an extreme perhaps more than their American counterparts and that these groups are similar to the heavily-managed and manufactured boy and girl groups of the American 1990s music scene.

5 Dolls is a typical Korean girl bubblegum pop group featured in a video with a comic book layout theme. Kind of fun and a little daring.

On the male side is So Goodbye from the City Hunter television series soundtrack and it's pretty slick. My wife is addicted to the show and many others that are not fun to locate in the US but she enjoys immensely. Being a good husband, I focus on procuring Korean films and television nearly as much as I do gathering Hayley Mills memorabilia.

Pink Rocket

Retro future purple monkey Korean pop from Dal*Shabet (2011).

A lazy, Sunday sexy taxi driver post.

The occasional four-letter word in context

The much-covered Working Class Hero from John Lennon (1970). The song has a curse word in it so don't be stupid in a place you shouldn't be.

A hard-working Sunday post.

Hayley Hayley

Me and Hayley sitting in the backseat cruising with some pals, listening to some tunes on the 8-Track.

Here is the band Prefab Sprout with their 1986 shout out to Hayley Mills, Goodbye Lucille #1 more popularly known as Johnny Johnny.

Still in love with her? Perfectly understandable. Who isn't?

Not a lazy Sunday post.

The Morning After

Well, everybody is still here, unless only two or three people world-wide qualified to be taken to Heaven and no one misses them. To mark the occasion of absolutely nothing happening I present the lovely voice of Maureen McGovern singing The Morning After, an uplifting tune about hope against a backdrop of disaster and horrible death by drowning from the 1973 film The Poseidon Adventure.

I really hope someone pokes into the Rapture Guy's finances. I'd be curious just how much cash the dude raked in from the gullible, scared and stupid. I just hope no one killed themselves or any others in fear or anticipation of the 21st of May.

A lazy Sunday post.

The corner of Abbey Road and Broadway

Nice mash up of Stevie Wonder and the Beatles. It does rock.

Clavinet Together by ccc1

A lazy Sunday post.

This is vewy, vewy distuwbing

If you have not watched any episodes of the new animated Looney Tunes show then you are missing scenes like this.

-Elmer Fudd Grilled Cheese Sandwich song-

Another example of a cartoon not really made for the kiddies.

A lazy, slightly creeped-out Sunday post.

Cry havoc and let slip the hogs of war

Archer is currently one of my favorite animated shows. The adventures of Sterling Archer and the dysfunctional spy agency ISIS and the cast of characters is wrong on many levels. The show is obscene, rude and pushes boundaries. The delivery of H. Jon Benjamin, who voices Sterling, is comedic and note perfect. The recent two part episode where Sterling battles breast cancer and goes on a deadly rampage when he discovers his costly, life-saving medication was replaced by sugar and Zima was the funniest television I've seen in ages.

While the animation is what brings people to the show it is the characters that make them stay. The entire cast is great and they play horrible, flawed people with few redeeming qualities seemingly effortlessly.

The title sequence is awesome and retro, capturing the pastiche of the 1960s-1970s era of spy thrillers perfectly. You can view the lead in to Archer at the website The Art of the Title Sequence which breaks the creation of the opening credits down a bit.

Visiting hours are 24-7, so click the picture and get your visitor pass!

A lazy Sunday post.

I want to break free

Nifty anti-oppression song from 1984 performed by Queen that did well in Europe but not so much in America. The video featuring the male band members in drag, a frequent comedic trope in the UK, was marginalized or banned from play in the United States. That some members of the band were homosexual was known though not generally acknowledged at the time by the media and many fans. I've seen references likely repeated from the same original unverified source that this video heralded the death of Queen as a music force in America. While the sight of Freddie Mercury in a dress probably made some stupid and prejudiced Americans uncomfortable, even though being gay and donning ladies fashions has little or nothing to do with the other, it was more likely that the style of music Queen produced was becoming unpopular rather than public reaction to band members in costume.

While controversial in 1984 it seems American evolution has progressed to the point where many would find the video whimsical and ironic or just another entry in typical bad 1980s MTV.

A lazy, shwooshy peplum Sunday post.

But will it play in the Borscht Belt?

Today's musical video comes from an episode of the animated Batman: The Brave and the Bold series. The clip has been out there for a while and while I usually watch the show, I passed on that particular episode due to my general dislike of the Matches Malone character. That is a choice I now regret.

From September 2010 here is Catwoman, Huntress and Black Canary singing the Birds of Prey Song. Words by Gail Simone, sounds by Nika Futterman, Tara Strong and Grey DeLisle.

The entire act is pretty naughty for a show that is supposed to be for children and it was reported that the US release was delayed to reanimate some of the more suggestive scenes. I have no idea if this is the reworked version or not. For those of you who don't understand all the innuendo, the Birds are rating the male members of the DCU superhero club by size and stamina.

A lazy, kinda risque Sunday post.

Like caviar with chocolate bar

Does Everyone Know About This?
Performed by Martha Tilton with Paul Weston & His Orchestra.
Written by Arthur Altman and Charles Newman (1944).

While driving the car one day about 6 years ago I discovered the Liltin' Martha Tilton and her beautiful voice when a local radio station played this song as part of a big band/rug-cutter swing/jazz compilation. Been in love with her sound ever since. Movie aficionados will recognize the tune from the soundtrack of the 2001 film, Focus.

A lazy, really rainy Sunday post.

I think serial monogamy says it all

Tracey Ullman in 1983 covering They Don't Know, originally released in 1979 by Stiff Records contemporary Kirsty MacColl. Tracey didn't add much to this version except she is a bit more peppy than Kirsty's early-punkish sound though both efforts are tinged with despair.

A lazy Sunday pre-Valentine post.

Tomorrow: A Mysta Monday entry and for V-Day, The Top Five Love Songs of All Time.

Gee, Thanks

Buck Owens is a pretty familiar performer to many non-Country music fans, thanks to his years of exposure through the syndicated faux-hayseed television show Hee-Haw. As a youngster I watched that show a lot. Really a lot. Not because I really cared to and was a fan of the music but because in Michigan farm country that was often the only show our television could receive with any clarity other than the early morning Farm Report. This early exposure to urban life lead to my life-long aversion to corn fields and rednecks.

Not as well known though perhaps equally familiar to anyone watching repeats or videos of Buck Owens and his band was musical colleague Don Rich, who collaborated for years with Owens as leader of the back up band The Buckaroos.

This clip from Buck Owens' Ranch TV show displays what a great team Buck and Don were.

Buck Owens was a savvy promoter of his brand of music and if the stories are to be believed had a complicated love life and made hard decisions when it came to the music side of the business. Yet whatever minuses and pluses he had as a person Buck didn't let it get in the way of showcasing the other talent. Don Rich was often in the spotlight through their careers and his contribution was not downplayed.

Don Rich and the gang also had a sense of humor it appears. The following song of the relationship-shy is about as R-Rated as it got back then. While it is clear from Don's expression and delivery he was aware of how inappropriate the tune was for the evening television of the era it isn't as obvious that the phrase "Wham, Bam, Thank You Ma'am" had much meaning beyond the literal for most of the viewers. Like the infamous Brewer and Shipley song that the Lawrence Welk Singers obliviously covered (to the delight of later generations of online viewers) the tune, however salacious, would be perceived as perfectly innocent by much of the targeted audience. As a kid I myself equated the "Wham, Bam" title to the sound of a door slamming as some hapless guy ran apologetically from the chains of matrimony. The lyrics are probably not real safe for the work environment so be cool before clicking

Here is Don with a song from 1970:

And finally their first huge crossover hit in which legend has it Don Rich had to convince Buck to record:

A not-so-Lazy Sunday post, because I couldn't care less about the Superbowl.

Lesson One

Teacher, Teacher performed by Rockpile (1980).

I don't know why but I feel that Katy Perry could do a good job covering this song. I've never heard more than a minute of anything she did but Teacher, Teacher sung by a woman would be cute and evoke enough sexual ambiguity for her to be far superior to the first shallow, calculated, PR firm-driven hit I Kissed A Girl.

Beautiful Love Song

Sexy and scary, Wanda Jackson performs Hard-Headed Woman from back in 1958. This rocks.

Once a day, everyday, all day long

Connie Smith belts one out way back in June 1965. A perfect music video with the one exception of the director inexplicably lingering on the backup singers overly long. Check it out.

A lazy, Sunday post.

Better watch out, now!

Shortly after Thanksgiving is when the song by the lovely and still very much active Kay Starr, The Man With the Bag begins to play on the radio, in malls and stores all over the nation. A big hit for Miss Starr in the 1950s, it nonetheless in this day and age has no quality videos representative of it. Many, like myself, enjoy the vintage acts as a part of music history and become all frowny when we receive hear of archives being destroyed through neglect, mishap or because they were not considered important enough at the time to save for the future. Considering how popular The Man With the Bag was I'm surprised Kay Starr did not sing it for film or television. I would have expected a Scopitone at the least. If she ever had recorded the tune in any other media of the era then I can't find it or sadly there is no publicly available or archived footage of that particular performance.

As much as I generally dislike a static image used for a music video there is not a lot of suitable footage of Starr that I could artfully apply to this song. Many of the fan-made videos while heart-felt include images or scenes that kind of bug me, only because I'm old. So I put together a fake-ish LP cover to accompany the tune. I also included the lyrics because while this is a song which nearly everyone is familiar with very few know all the the words to it. Sing along and Enjoy!

Oh, Mr. Kringle, is soon gonna jingle,
The bells that’ll tinkle all your troubles away
Everybody’s waitin’ for the man with the bag,
‘Cause Christmas is comin’ again.

He’s got a sleigh full, it’s not gonna stay-full
He’s got stuff to drop at every stop on the way
Everybody’s waitin’ for the man with the bag,
‘Cause Christmas is comin’ again.

He’ll be here,
With the answers to the prayers that you made through the year
You’ll get yours
If you’ve done everything you should, extra-special good.

He’ll make this December, the one you’ll remember,
The best and the merriest you ever did have
Everybody’s waitin’ for the man with the bag
Christmas is here again!

Oh Mr. Kringle, is soon gonna jingle,
All the bells that’ll tinkle all your troubles away
Everybody’s waitin’ for the man with the bag,
Christmas is here again.

He’s got a sleigh full, and it’s not gonna stay-full
Got stuff that he’s dropping every stop on the way
Everybody’s waitin’ for the man with the bag,
Christmas is here again.

He’ll be here,
With the answer to the prayers that you made through the year.
You’ll get yours
If you’ve done everything you should, extra-special good.

He’ll make this December, the one you’ll remember,
The best and the merriest you ever did have
Everybody’s waitin’
They’re all congregatin’
Waitin’ for the man with the bag!

Better watch out now!

A lazy, pre-Holiday Sunday post.

Between a ROK and a hard place

Korea has been in the news lately and appears it will be for some time as the North and South are up to their usual saber-rattling, possibly abetted by their allies though that may change in the future as the usual supporters are becoming irritated with each other and their shenanigans. The Korean War is officially still going even though there has been a cease-fire since 1953. The armistice has been broken on occasion by posturing and squabbling that has led to violence. The region has a special interest to my spouse as she is Korean, has family in that country and she watches the goings-on between Northside and Southside with concern.

Here is a scene from the Korean War drama Welcome to Dongmakgol (2005). It is 3:43 in duration and worth it for the cinematography.

A lazy Sunday learning post.