Saturday, May 30, 2009

Tocatta and Fugue in D Minor: The Dance

This has been kicking around for a few days; I have just been "marking it as unread." After a certain amount of time, my reader looses track of these sorts of items if I don't get back to them. But Saturdays and Sundays are slower RSS-wise, maybe a third to a half the quantity of stuff as weekdays. So I've spent a good part of the afternoon going through and watching the vidclips, and reading longer articles that looked interesting. This was a fun one. As I implied in the post title, the thing that impressed me was the grace that was required, not just demonstrated, but required, to pull this off.

It reminded me of "Billie Jean," by Michael Jackson, and this hilarious send-up by Steve Martin. The grace is umm, less pronounced in this one, and the lights are not as cooperative...

3 comments:

Dean Wormer said...

I'd forgotten that Steve Martin bit. God, he was funny in the day.

Don't forget Tom Hanks in Big.

Micgar said...

That was vaguely familiar-I love that bit! Steve can/could really move! That was when their was great variety sketch comedy-Fridays, the old SNL, this show....

Lockwood said...

Dean- how could anyone forget that scene? The thing that grabbed me about this one was that it rose above delightful and comedic. The grac and coordination really made it feel like I was watching a piece of fine art being "danced." Which, I guess, I was.

Micgar- I was never really a big fan of MJ- not trying to knock him or anything, just not my style. But he was big in the heyday of MTV, when they completely dominated the music scene: if it was big on MTV, it was everywhere. YOU COULD NOT ESCAPE IT! So the Martin bit came out a few weeks into the "Billie Jean" era, and I have not been able to hear that song for nearly 25 years without thinking of this clip. Haven't watched the current incarnation of SNL for years. (Watched some YT clips, though; some are pretty funny)