I Love Melvin (1953) & Paint Your Wagon (1969)

Spintown News:
My back is still giving me problems & I'm not feeling so great. So I'm posting something I had already thrown together for such an occasion. It’s just some videos & thoughts about some movies or shows I’ve recently watched…

It looks like the last episode of "Spintown Interviews..." season 1 could be late. I don't expect it to be too late, but I'll upload it as soon as possible.

I Love Melvin (1953)
I watched this the other night & badly wanted to share multiple song & dance numbers with you. Unfortunately I couldn't find much of anything to share of this movie online. I will say that if you get the chance to watch this film you should definately do so. The best part for me was the number "Life Has Its Funny Little Ups And Downs". Starts of with a little girl singing to Donald O'Connor, and ends up being an incredible dance routine on skates. It's not the first time this has been done, but it's still very good.

Debbie Reynolds is incredibly HOT in this movie, and I think I drooled a number of times. She shows real athleticism in the football dance routine, and her & Donald were adorable in "Where Did You Learn To Dance". Besides Donald O'Connor & Debbie Reynolds there isn't much "star power" in this film. Jim Backus is entertaining as a cruel photographer & Robert Taylor makes a quick cameo. This film is extremely short, and honestly I wish they spent a little more time on character development, but it's a fun musical that you won't regret watching. Click HERE to see the trailer.

Jivin' In Be-Bop (1947)
Ralph Brown dances to Charlie Parker's "Ornithology".

Sensations Of 1945 (1944)
The "Queen Of Tap" Eleanor Powell dances with a horse after the Jumpin' Jive Girls do their thing. You can definately see the Nicholas Brothers impact on this routine.

You Can't Have Everything (1937)
A wonderful routine from Tip Tap & Toe.

Smash Your Baggage (1933)
I had never heard of Ace & Eddie before, but these 2 guys were amazing.

Paint Your Wagon (1969)
Clint Eastwood in a musical...yeah...doesn't make much sense to me either. This movie isn't a bad time though, and Lee Marvin was a worthy adversary/friend. My favorite number from this film is "The Gospel Of No Name City" sung by Alan Dexter. This is actually one of my favorite tunes to sing in the car, but I couldn't find a good version of it to share. This is the best video I could find, but I suggest you go download the track on i-Tunes.

Mario Kart Love Song Cover

I was going to post a really long response to some comments made on my recent blog about the Song Fu voting problems. My back is hurting a bit tonight, so I decided to put that off, and post something shorter. Here's a few items I've been meaning to mention for a little while, and a couple new things to check out. Oh, and I found a great video of my favorite song.

- CLICK HERE to listen to the newest TMA Podcast featuring Sammy Kablam & Joe "Covenant" Lamb.

- CLICK HERE to listen to Walt Ribeiro's latest For Orchestra cover. This time he covers Kings Of Leon's "Use Somebody".

- The Hair Kid made a bootleg remix of Capsule's "Hello" that I enjoyed. I wish he would have made a video for it though. CLICK HERE to listen.

Mario Kart Love Song
Häakon recently uploaded a new cover of one of the greatest songs of all time. Sam Hart wrote the original song of course.

Song Fu 6 Round 2 Review

Ok, I know my reviews aren't as useful as what my guest bloggers have provided, but it's time to share my votes for Song Fu 6 round 2. I listened to every song at least twice, although most of them got listened to about 4-5 times. The challenge for this round was:

Write a song that does not rhyme.

CLARIFICATION: Your song can be in any style, but must not contain any rhymes of 2 dissimilar words within a traditional verse structure. Exact repetition of a phrase or word is permitted. Your song must run no shorter than 1 minute 30 seconds..

My Votes:
Right Click "Save As" on the names of the artist to download a MP3 of their entry.

Edric Haleen (This Song Doesn’t Rhyme) - What I'm going to do is enter "excellent" into Merriam-Webster's Online Thesaurus & copy & paste the results. Add in "Edric" & "Musicals", then arrange your own review of this song. "crackerjack, dandy, divine, fabulous, fine, first-class, first-rate, grand, great, groovy, heavenly, jim-dandy, keen, marvelous (or marvellous), mean, neat, nifty, noble, par excellence, prime, sensational, splendid, stellar, sterling, superb, superior, superlative, supernal, swell, terrific, tip-top, top, top-notch, unsurpassed, wonderful"

Caleb Hines (Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliaphobia) - This is the first time I've voted for Caleb...I think. I know I've liked a couple of his previous entries, but this is the second song in a row that I thought was catchy, fun & just made me smile. It's a bitch to sing, but fun to attempt.

Inverse T. Clown (An Angry Rant) - Agreed with most of his comments (except the Lombardo comment & the escalator comment) while laughed almost constantly. Not only is it funny, but the performance actually has some personality in it this round.

Mike Lombardo (I Found You) - If I could only snap my fingers. *snap fail* I LOLed at the cough, and have to say...this didn't suck. Got my vote for not sucking...that's how much it doesn't suck. :p

Jeff MacDougall (Ken Plume Is To Blame) - I enjoy singing this song the way Jeff starts to sing it. Of all the songs that went in this direction, this was my favorite.

Honorable Mentions:
To listen to the following songs you'll have to go to "A Site Called Fred". Please listen to all the songs, then vote for yourself.

Godz Poodlz (Blue Sky Thinking) - It was catchy & a good idea. Had I ever worked in an office environment....it could easily have got a vote from me.

Glen Raphael (Song That Doesn’t Rhyme) - This didn't get a vote, but it was very close. Both of Glen's Song Fu songs have been very enjoyable, and I'm thrilled I found him on one of my "YouTube Treasure Hunts". He's bound to get votes from me eventually if he keeps this up.

Ian "2 Shades" Johnson (Two Words) - During the LP, I wasn't impressed, but the lag was really hitting me at the time. When I listened later on I enjoyed the idea & the song. It was a little long for me, I didn't really see why the simple story needed to be close to 5 minutes. A trimmed down more compressed version might have got a vote.

Zero Guy (Guitar Tonite) - LYRICS!!!! HOLY *&#@! I can actually consider you for a vote this round....considering....considering.....CONSIDERING....nope. I did like the tune for the most part, and I can honestly say I look forward to hearing more songs with lyrics from you.

Shadow Entries:

Joe "Covenant" Lamb (The “Jay Is Awesome” Polka) - I like Joe, I like Bobby & I like accordion...somehow this missed with me. I don't have anything constructive to say, but Joe is one person I always look forward to getting new music from.

Side Notes:

- At one point in Song Fu 5 I was hoping to hear instruments & music in Kylie's entries. With recent entries I've been longing for just Kylie's voice again. You can sing, and you can keep my attention with just your voice. So if you add anything, don't let whatever you add cover up, distort or distract me from your voice.

- If your song wasn't mentioned, it obviously wasn't one of my favorites. But it doesn't mean I didn't like it, could just mean that I didn't have any feedback that I thought would be helpful. But I did take notes down for each entry as I listened...so if you want to see the notes for your song just leave a comment below. As I already mentioned...they probably won't be helpful.

- Taryn Miller...I REALLY didn't like your round 1 entry, but I was looking forward to seeing if you could produce something closer to what you have on MySpace. I know that sometimes "Life Happens", and there are good reasons for skipping a round that can come up. Hopefully all is well with you, and you're back for round 3.

Ken Plume Is To Blame
Jeff MacDougall sang his entry for his latest "YouTube Tuesday" video.