STUFF YOU GOTTA WATCH

FRIDAY FUN - The Girl from Ipanema

There is something about the classic Getz/Gilberto bossa nova album that makes me think of summer. Maybe because it's so warm and yet so cool, like a summer night ("Quiet nights and quiet stars, quite chords on my guitar" as one of the songs on the album say). Maybe it's because I've never heard of anybody doing the bossa nova in the winter. Anyway, "The Girl from Ipanema" became a hit single in July 1964, so there's your summer angle. Here's a clip from the 1964 film Get Yourself a College Girl, a film that features the great Stan Getz and his cool "less reed, more breath" style of saxophone and the lovely Astrud Gilberto, whose odd, delicate deadpan voice and occasional uncertain pitch are endearing no matter what song she sings. So enjoy "The Girl from Ipanema". The scene obviously takes place in winter (ironically). Take note of that wonderful little sax riff at 1:43 and Astrud's probably unintentional "Drop Dead, Why Don't You?" smile at the crowd right at the end. I don't blame her - this brilliant, enormously catchy blend of jazz/bossa nova, featuring one of the great jazz sax players of all time and an exciting new and different kind of vocalist, and the reaction is polite applause by a crowd that includes a woman in a blue shower cap?

Our Summer Tribute to... Summer

1960s Palisades Park Commercial

Ride the Roller Coaster in Puyallup, Washington

Our Spring Tribute to the Art of Sketch Comedy

Bob and Ray: "The McBeeBee Twins"

Bob and Ray: "Condors"

Tim Conway and Harvey Korman: "The Dentist Sketch"

Mad Tv: "Dateline - George Lucas"

The Kids in the Hall: "Citizen Kane"

Monty Python's Flying Circus: "The Restaurant Sketch"

The Two Ronnies: "It's a Duck"

Abbott and Costello: "Bagel Street"