Showing posts with label Cyndi Lauper. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cyndi Lauper. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Backup Dancers From Hell: Cyndi Lauper - “Girls Just Want To Have Fun”

We start out with Cyndi’s mom sitting in her kitchen, cracking eggs into a bowl for no apparent reason. Odd music is playing and Mom keeps looking at her watch, so we know she has issues. Cut to Cyndi, wearing one of her trademark what-the-hell outfits and strutting along a sidewalk. Then we ping back and forth between Mom violating poultry products and Cyndi still strutting and performing dance moves that are very questionable.

Cyndi finally makes it home, and prances into the kitchen where Mom is none too pleased about Cyndi’s late arrival. Cyndi decides that the best way to handle this is to start singing to her mother while being overly dramatic and squatting a lot. Cyndi does a really special move which causes her mother to smash an egg against her chest and a box of Corn Flakes (is that Mikey on the front?) to fall over. Cyndi is WAY talented.

Cyndi then sashays her way down a hallway, still dancing or possibly just losing control of her motor skills. The phone rings, in the middle of the night, and Cyndi, now magically appearing in bad-choice sleepwear, tries to answer it. But her efforts are rudely stopped by her dad, who likes to wave his finger a lot and not exercise. Cyndi is really not in the mood for late-night lectures, so she strong-arms her dad (who weighs roughly 400 times her own body mass) up against a wall. Daddy then runs down the hall because he can‘t remember what he‘s supposed to do next in the script.

Cyndi finally gets to answer the ringing phone (after she remembers how such a thing works), and we are treated to a montage of all her friends that are calling. All of them are in serious need of a stylist and most of them think it’s really sexy to open their mouths as wide as possible, even though it’s not pleasing at all. (At least one of them is clearly an alcoholic, and another one seems to have issues with hygiene, scrubbing away in a shower whilst wearing an unflattering cap.)

Then we cut to a rousing tribute to the “Brady Bunch” opening credits, with Cyndi and her questionable friends doing a 9-square formation. They are bopping their heads around like it’s the best time ever, but you know they did this scene at least 20 times and they all secretly hate each other at this point, with aggressive hair-weaves poking everybody in the eye. This transitions into a bubbly animated sequence, with things flying about, breaking up and then reforming. (This is probably the part where somebody on the film crew who took a lot of drugs said “Hey, I have an idea!”)

Back to Cyndi sitting in front of an obviously fake TV, where we are treated to ancient black-and-white footage of Bigfoot snatching some girl and heading into a tower. Luckily, we don’t spend much time dwelling on that, and cut to Cyndi and her asymmetrical hairdo bellowing more of the song. Now we have another montage of Cyndi and her random friends trying on sunglasses, interspersed with more “Brady Bunch” tomfoolery. (I think they’re trying to row a boat, not sure.) This goes on for much longer than it should, even if somebody spent a lot of time on the choreography.

Now we have Cyndi in another outfit, one that looks extremely painful for her breasts, as she leads her troupe of manic friends down a sidewalk. We seem to have a lot of construction workers and people who generally like wearing flannel. Cyndi’s gal-pals are really excited about this part, so I’m guessing they didn’t get a lot of attention in high school.

Next thing you know, Cyndi is leading her posse out of a subway station, even though the previous scene was not underground and trains were not involved. Oh wait, now we seem to be at a courthouse, even though it’s fairly clear that none of these dancing people are lawyers. Cyndi’s Twirling Troupe then storms an odd restaurant where anal-retentive citizens just want to read the paper and not have floozies dancing in the vicinity. For whatever reason, the patrons of this restaurant decide to join Cyndi’s Gang, even though they are inappropriately dressed and they don’t know the words to the song.

The growing parade of Cyndi-lovers troops down the street and into Cyndi’s house, where Momma is still sitting in the same chair at the kitchen table and Daddy is wearing an African print that does nothing to conceal his fondness for fried-grease products. The parents have given up on ever trying to get Cyndi to do something better with her life, so they let Cyn and her 40,000 friends dance through the house and toward her bedroom. (At one point, Cyndi stumbles and slams against the wall of said dwelling, so I’m guessing the spirits were flowing freely during this shoot.)

Everybody piles into Cyndi’s bedroom, an action that is probably very familiar to Mom and Dad. Cyndi keeps bouncing and welcoming her hundreds of guests. She then puts a record on her puny turntable, which prompts delivery men to arrive bearing pizza boxes. Everybody is having a very excellent time, manically dancing and such, until some guy shows up wearing a tuxedo and asking for Cyndi.

Who the hell is he? Oh, who cares.

Cut to Cyndi’s parents in the kitchen. They don’t have a clue what to do with their demon offspring, but they wave their hands about a lot during the heated discussion, so they’re probably Italian. They march down the hall to Cyndi’s Boudoir de Crazy, and Daddy peaks through the keyhole. He spies his little girl planting a smooch on the Tuxedo Guy, so he naturally opens the door to stop further sinning, and 375 people fall out of said doorway and presumably Daddy is crushed to death for wearing a muumuu at the wrong time.

The party in Cyndi’s room continues, with everybody VERY happy about everything. Confetti is thrown, bouncing is predominant, and total strangers have sex to the relentless rhythm of the song. We fade out as Cyndi jumps jubilantly to the beat. Dancing is so much more fun than getting a job or paying for your own outfits. Woo hoo!

Back in the kitchen, Mom continues to crack eggs for an omelet the size of Manhattan…

 

Click Here to Watch the Video on YouTube.

Friday, October 29, 2010

Backup Dancers From Hell: Divinyls - “I Touch Myself”

Editor’s Note: This is another one of those jump-cut videos where we don’t linger on any one scene longer than a few seconds, so there’s really no point in trying to develop a story. Basically, the lead singer, Christina Amphlett, wanders around some mansion, looking for provocative locations where she can touch herself, and then she does. Rinse and repeat. So we’re just going to do the timestamp thing with this one, mmmkay? Ready, go!

0:02 Some guy playing a guitar.

0:03 Christina pouts her lips.

0:06 Some guy carries a woman across room, as if they just walked in the door after getting hitched. She’s wearing a white dress, but we know this is a lie, because she looks awfully trampy. And we basically get to see some lower cleavage as it bounces toward the camera.

0:10 Christina starts singing, rockin’ that hairstyle which so many found incredibly stimulating back in the day. I suppose it has its charms, but really, how can the poor girl see anything?

0:11 Christina admires her lips in a mirror.

0:15 Chris is wearing just a towel while sprawled on a bed. One of her hands is precariously near the danger zone. I’m expecting Cyndi Lauper to walk in and provide a tutorial.

0:17 Christina singing with the Guitar Guy. Chris seems to be having an issue with her hand stuck to her face.

0:21 Black-and-white shots of people being moody.

0:25 Chris on one of those fancy fainting couches, caressing the fabric with animalistic desire. Or maybe her short-shorts are too tight and she’s signaling for an intervention.

0:28 We start seeing shots of these two girls who don’t sing or anything, but sure like to pose seductively while clutching things like garden hoes and each other.

0:30 Chris and that mirror again, waving goodbye to her anonymity.

0:37 One of the twins appears to have snagged her panties on a chair.

0:39 Christina singing and sort-of dancing with Guitar Man again, but I’m more intrigued by the woman on the left who seems to have been nailed to the door jamb even though her golden dress is really pretty.

0:44 Here come the Sex Twins marching along, wearing super-tight shorts and providing a clear example of how the phrase “camel-toe” originated. They strut right past the tortured woman in the golden dress without even bothering to help. I don’t think I like the Sex Twins. They’re rude.

0:48 Christina back on the fainting couch, where she’s suddenly inspired to purse her lips and flip to the other side of the couch, so we can see one of the Sex Twins. This twin has her head between her legs and is carefully studying her cooter. Not sure what she’s expecting it to do, but it most be something fancy if she has to contort herself like that to get a gander of the goings on.

0:52 Brief glimpse of a hot guy and I’m suddenly inspired to pay more attention.

0:53 More of the Sex Twins, rubbing their backs against one another and chewing gum.

0:58 More of Christina and her Special Towel.

1:06 Christina and another mirror, where she finally seems to be realizing that maybe those bangs of hers are a bit much.

1:08 Another shot of Golden Women, still in the same pose of anguish and suffering. Poor thing. People are still not helping her with whatever her issue might be. In the background, Christina twirls around so we can see she has something frilly on her butt.

1:12 Quick scene of somebody wearing go-go boots while they iron something red.

1:14 The Sex Twin who really enjoys watching her squeeze box is still watching it.

1:21 Number 17 in the ongoing parade of gratuitous cleavage shots.

1:24 More of Christina and her pouty lips, thinking they’re in an Estee Lauder commercial.

1:26 More frilly butt.

1:33 Christina looking like Paula Abdul’s sister just sat on something intrusive.

1:39 Rod Stewart?

1:44 Towel again.

1:45 Couch again.

1:48 Courtney Cox in a Mardi Gras hooker outfit.

1:58 Somebody (maybe one of the Sex Twins, not sure) furtively picks up a phone and calls the SPCA and reports that livestock on the property might be in sexual danger.

2:06 Christina, on the fainting couch, showing us that she can stick her leg straight up in the air and sing at the same time.

2:17 Another somebody (hard to tell with the artsy sunlight) is standing at a window and showing the landscaper outside that she has her own bush that needs tending. She also appears to have velvet ram horns on her head, but I have no idea what that might mean.

2:21 Christina has a brief mental breakdown, messing up her hair in a frenzy of despair. But things must not be too bad, because she manages to keep her lips sexily protruded throughout the psychotic snap.

2:23 Ram Horn Girl turns away from the window and the landscaper, unsatisfied. What did she expect, with that stupid thing on her head? Then again, maybe the landscaper prefers tree trunks to bushes. We’ll never know.

2:26 Christina really, really loves her right leg.

2:32 Is that Helena Bonham-Carter just before she lost her mind and married Tim Burton?

2:35 Some Lady in Red seems to be tormented by the fruit bowl on her left. She then kicks the hated thing over, vowing never to eat citrus again.

2:41 The fruit tumbles downward, spilling all around Cute Guy who has apparently been sleeping on the floor. I’m going to take this as symbolism that he plays on my team. Yay!

2:46 Ram Horn Girl is still looking for love in all the wrong places.

2:52 Christina is suffering from a really bad gas bubble.

2:54 Christina gets poked in the eye. This just isn’t her day.

2:59 Christina has found a stripper pole, so things are suddenly looking up.

3:01 Which inspires Christina to pretend that she’s in “The Sound of Music”.

3:12 The Sex Twins pose seductively in the baptismal chamber at a failed church in Old Mexico, circa 1867.

3:15 Christina sings into the armpit of Golden Girl, because it just seemed like the right thing to do at the time. It wasn’t.

3:21 More Ram Girl twirling. Someone should really speak to her about just taking that damn mask off and trying to find a guy the normal way, like getting drunk and wallering around on the pool table in some trashy joint named “Bubba’s Grunt and Run”.

3:25 The Sex Twins want us to be very quiet about the naughty things they have done in the last three minutes. No problem. I’ve already forgotten, trust me.

3:32 Christina violates a potted plant.

3:39 Christina and her lips finally get some rest.

Despite the warbled encouragement, I really don’t want to touch myself. Maybe next time.

Click Here to Watch the Video on YouTube.