There's a site out there uploading my new videos right after I upload them, and claiming them as their own. I've made a couple copyright claims, but thus far nothing has come of it. The only way to really fight this if YouTube does nothing is to spread the word of my original upload as fast as possible. I've been pimping all morning just so the copycats don't take a huge chunk of my views.
I would really appreciate people spreading the word about MY YouTube copy of this video. Especially to sites like GorillaMask & Phun.
These videos generally do pretty well in terms of views over time. I have 4 others on YouTube at the moment, and one of them has well over 380,000 views, another over 110,000 views, and the other 2 are around 70,000 views. I also have some on Metacafe, and 2 of them on that site have well over 100,000 views, with 6 others in the 10,000-70,000 range. If you are interested in covering my theme song, or writting a featured track for a video, it will probably be heard by a large number of people. So contact me if you're interested.
Ok...with all the Christmas stuff I've been posting around here, I haven't had time to mention any of the musicals I've watched during the past month. So today I'm going to give my thoughts on a few movies, and share a few highlights.
Love Laughs At Andy Hardy (1946) I love me some Andy Hardy flicks. Seriously if life ever seems to get too complicated & stresses you out...just watch an Andy Hardy film. Most of the usual cast of characters is back in place for this film. No Polly this time, but Mickey Rooney of course falls in love. Not only that, but he wants to get married! Unfortunately for him, things don't go as planned. In the process of trying to win his girl, he meets 2 other girls. That's where the musical numbers come into play. You can watch the Entire Film on YouTube if you get the notion.
Jitterbug Dorothy Ford makes an entertaining dance partner for the rather small Mickey Rooney.
Dance A Polka Hand-In-Hand Lina Romay trying to catch the eye of Mickey.
I, Yi, Yi, Yi, Yi (I Like You Very Much) Lina Romay finally catching his eye.
All Ashore (1953) I couldn't find much of anything about this film online, and that's a shame. It's one of the few Mickey Rooney movies I've enjoyed in which he didn't play a kid or college aged student. The movie is about a sailor (Mickey) who is constantly being taken advantage of by 2 of his friends. After getting a weeks leave, he decides to take the dough he's saved up & take a vacation to Catalina. His 2 'friends' are broke due to some unlucky gambling, and end up using Mickey for a fun night out in which he gets his money stolen. His friends try to make it up to Mickey by finding creative ways to get to Catalina & getting room & board. Most of their idea just end up with Mickey taking odd jobs & having a crappy time in general. When one of his friends steals the girl Mickey is interested in, he decides to ditch his friends & go back to the ship. Before he makes it there a fortunate accident has him stranded with a pretty girl in the middle of nowhere. Mickey then saves the day, and finally starts having a good time. It's really a fun little movie, with a few numbers I wish I could share. I recommend you watching this if you're ever lucky enough to catch it on TV.
Call Me Mister (1951) This film stars Betty Grable & Dan Dailey...unfortunately for them. I spent most of my time hoping this would end or hoping Danny Thomas had a bigger part in it. I normally like Dan Dailey, and I have to admit he plays a good 'wolf'. Normally in this type of role the character redeems himself at the end in some fashion, which helps the audience deal with some of the less ethical choices the character may have made. This movie doesn't really do that, instead the character is given a get out of jail free card without having to DO anything. Forgive the lack of detail, but this film isn't worth the time to lay them out. Just know that Dan Dailey's character annoyed me, and that there wasn't much worth watching anyways. 10 points to anyone who can spot Dick Van Dyke's future neighbor in an unaccredited appearance...
Japanese Girl Like American Boy Too Much This is the only number I could find worth sharing. Betty Grable does a good job, and it picks up around the 1:25 mark.
Rebecca Of Sunnybrook Farm (1938) Shirley Temple tries out for a radio part, and nails the audition. But because of a miscommunication, she ends up walking away from the job thinking she didn't get it. The movie is about Randolph Scott & his assistant Jack Haley trying to find the little star that got away. When they do find her, they find she has went to live with her aunt who HATES showbiz. Nothing too complex, and not the best of her films, but it's worth watching. Bill Robinson does a couple numbers with Shirley & Slim Summerville is entertaining as Randolph's butler. Most of the videos I found had the embeds disabled, but you can watch the Trailer or the Entire Movie (Part 1 of 8) on YouTube. I'll link to all the musical numbers below:
Parade Of The Wooden Soldiers They were famous partners for a reason. Enjoy this Shirley Temple & Bill Robinson routine.
Fun Facts: - Bill Robinson visited Shirley Temple at an exclusive and restricted hotel to rehearse the "Parade of the Wooden Soldiers" number for this film. Temple later recalled, "I asked Bill what cottage he was staying in. He told me, 'I'm staying in the chauffeur quarters above the garage.' It wasn't until years later that I understood why." - IMDB
- The original script calling the sponsor's product "Crackly Corn Flakes", was met with objections by the Quaker Oats Company, with whom Shirley had a tie-in deal for their Puffed Wheat and Puffed Rice cereals. They thought that the sponsor's name sounded too close to Kellogg's Corn Flakes, a rival product. In the finished script, the product was re-named "Crackly Grain Flakes". - IMDB
Stowaway (1936) Another Shirley Temple film, and yet again she's an orphan. This time she's stranded in China, and befriends a rich playboy (played by Robert Young). Most of the movie revolves around Robert Young & Alice Faye falling in love, even though Alice is already engaged to someone else. In the end they get married so they can adopt Shirley, and save her from having to go to an orphanage. You can watch the Entire Movie (Part 1 of 9) on YouTube.
You Gotta S-M-I-L-E To Be H-A-Double-P-Y I bet you can't not smile while watching...
Goodnight, My Love Shirley Temple singing herself to sleep.
That's What I Want For Christmas Happy endings...ALL movies need them.
Happy New Years! 2010 was a good year for Spintown. Not only did I start a songwriting contest (SpinTunes), but thanks to the wonderful people who participated it went over better than I expected. I look forward to starting up the 3rd edition of the contest sometime in June 2010.
The "Pain For Laughs" series is still going strong. The last video had over 100,000 views in less than a week, and I've got another PFL video ready to upload Monday or Tuesday.
"Spintown Interviews..." continues to be a favorite project of mine. I hope as my total number of viewers increase, I can promote some of those people a little more. I'm very grateful to everyone who has done a interview up to this point. I don't interview anyone I'm not a fan of, so it's fun for me to do those.
The rest of the blog is doing alright. The views on the home page is pretty steady even if they aren't coming in swarms. The lame music reviews, "YouTube Treasure Hunts", and other projects will hopefully continue throughout 2011. I think the new format has went over well, but there could be more tweaks in 2011...we'll see. I do like the fact that something is getting updated every single day now. Even if I don't have anything for the home page one of the other pages gets updated. The home page will probably be updated every day for the next week, but look for things to slow down a bit after that.
2010 Rap Up: The Year Of WTF Sean Ireton did a great job with his 2010 rap up rap.
Top 25 Pop Songs Of 2010 Mashup Individually I'm not a fan of most of these songs, but they sound better in this mix.
