Cam Bert

Just thinking more about it, to me the best example in this movie of how Phil Silvers normally is was the cow milking scene. He tricks Gene Kelly into doing something for him and then is saucy to the cow.

This is not the best example of Phil Silvers in my opinion. To me his style of comedy was that of being the smarmy ass. He was smarter than those around him and had contempt for those around him in it came out in his little asides. We was never really the wacky slapstick guy even though his comedy contained some element of that. For me he was more like weaselly yet likable guy kind of guy.

This explains so much. When that final number happens I was thinking "Wow, they really dressed her kinda frumpy for this big reveal." I think this is because, and I might be wrong, I heard that they use to de-sexy her. She was popular from Wizard of Oz in which she was a innocent teen so to keep that image they'd have to hide her figure and that. I kinda assumed that's what was going on in the first half of this movie, now it's just kinda sad.

Ha! What's with those feet? I mean naturally I too jumped to hobbit but is it suppose to be a slam on country folk. How or why? "So guys, I'm working on this new show. She my lady friend is from a farm and she said we can put on the show in her barn. Ain't that swell? Now here's the kicker, we make it farm themed as well! Won't those folks dig it. So the big act one closer will be me and another fellow dressed as two farmers and making horrible animals noises that attracts dogs. You see the country folk aren't talented singers like us city folk. For costumes I want the shabbiest hats you can find and patched up long johns and oversized ratty pants. Yes, that'll show them. Also don't forget to blank out some teeth because those bumpkins have bad dental hygiene and will eat that up. However, the most important thing is we have GIANT FEET! Take that you bumpkins!"

So what kind of show exactly was it that Gene Kelly was trying to put on? It just seemed like random song and dance numbers with no unifying theme or anything. Some of them were farm related or themed but not all of them. Was this a kind of common show? I know it's the kind of thing the Ziegfeld Follies did but this seems almost too late for that. Maybe I'm wrong. Also, I find it odd they set up that big shot booking guy shows up to show only to never pay it off.

I've been enjoying everybody's picks so maybe I'll keep this going awhile long. For the last (offical) day of posting these songs I am going to take a risk and post some songs you'll probably won't listen to all the way through but might find interesting. So I've been living in Japan now for... 15-16 years and to me one of the things I miss is Christmas. Now Japan does Christmas but it's for little kids and lovers. New Years is just around the corner and that's the big "return to your family's home and have a big meal" holiday. As a result while Christmas decorations are everywhere they don't celebrate in the same way. When it comes to Christmas music you basically just get one Christmas song and some generic pop song played non-stop everywhere (All I Want for Christmas is You and Last Christmas) so when Japanese singers write Christmas songs they tend to be love songs because Christmas is for lovers. Some are Christmas themed in word others are not. Every so often one of these songs will break through and become a "classic" destined to be played in December. Here are some. The children's Christmas song of Japan. Flustered Santa! Christmas Eve by Tatsuro Yamashita. This song was used in special Christmas Japanese Rail ads throughout the 90s and even early 2000s. It is THE Japanese adult Christmas Song and if a Japanese person heard it would either say "Ah, Christmas" or just laugh. My love, Santa Claus by Yumi Matsutoya is somewhere between I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus and Backdoor Santa. Originally recorded in 1980 and covered by most every pop idol since. Everything by Misia. Is a really beautiful song and a personal favourite of mine. It's not really a Christmas song per say but actually a love song. But it happened to be released around Christmas, deals with love and was on a hit drama which used this song in a Christmas context. You'll hear it outside of Christmas but has kinda defacto became a Christmas song. So great was it Boyz II Men covered it!

I missed yesterday! Double post incoming!

Happy Turkey Day y'all! For today's entry I want to talk about the importance of the mix in the playlist. See you can't just have all upbeat or downbeat songs. You can't go all hard or soft you need to vary things up. One of the things all Christmas playlist should have is an instrumental piece. You can have a few but I believe every Christmas playlist needs one good instrumental piece in it. If you're having a party it's all background anyway so you just need the feel and mood of the music. If you're just listening to it, the instrumental is just a nice little break. The trick is find the genre and tone that's right for you. From Newage! To Jazz! To surf rock! To funk! There is an instrumental piece right for you!

It still blows my mind how new this is.

In sorta keeping with the punk theme for my pick today I have two Christmas song with the same name but are very different in tone. One very sweet (by Allo Darlin') One a bit more punk (but still happy)

Seeing as we have The Ramones why don't we go a little more punk with Christmas as well

It's my go to song for people who say they hate Christmas.

As soon as I saw Phil Silvers my mind was made.

YES! I would love for everyone to join in. Bring on the Christmas tunes y'all!!!

B-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-bonus content-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t! So I really wanted to do something Christmas related because I love Christmas music. I spend a good two weeks in November every year just combing throw all my Christmas music to make a new playlist every year. So I thought while I'm picking a movie why not pick some Christmas music for you guys as well. Everyday this week I'll add a new song to this thread to many inspire you or add something new an interesting to your playlist. See my problem is there is tons of Christmas music out there but everybody seems to stick to the same versions of the same songs. There are lots of options. Also, nothing more would delight me than a whole thread of Christmas music. For starters, want some Spanish flair to your Holidays but tired of Feliz Navidad?

Well first off no Thanksgiving planned musical, I apologize. I honestly thought it was last week for you guys. At first I was going to get us in the holiday spirit by kicking thing off with a Christmas musical. However, there aren't that many and I didn't want to steal anything away from somebody that might want to do one next month. So I thought about this for awhile. There are a few musicals I think are a bit out there that I wanted to cover. I found one, not going to say which yet, that I really wanted to do but I don't think it is streaming anywhere. I tried using a few sites but was getting conflicting results as to what was streaming and what wasn't. Finally, I thought why throw caution into the wind with a film I don't think any of us have seen and pick something with two leads that everybody loves that might warm us up if where you're from is starting to feel a little cool. I present to you... I don't think it is free anywhere (sorry) but it is a cheap Amazon rental from what I can tell.

Sorry everyone. Having a busy morning. Give me a few hours. Sorry.

I know this topic was covered in the podcast but I want to share my first hand experience with this. My family was a camping family. We tented for awhile then eventually upgraded to a camper. Every long weekend and most of the summer was spent camping. We tended to go to the same campgrounds all the time and they were great. Then the ownership changed and they started putting in cabins and such so it was time to find new camp grounds. Now this was the late 80s and early 90s so sure enough if the campgrounds had a pool right next to it was a small shop full of cheap candy and the odd arcade machine. What child would not want to play games when surrounded by nature? We are camping one long weekend and there is a boy in the site next to ours who is about the same age as me so we start talking and decide to hang out. We explore the woods, rides bikes, etc. but eventually we pop into the shop for some snacks. There we see the arcade cabinets. There was Double Dragon and the game looked like fun. We go back to our camp sites and get some quarters and run back to the machine. The two of us start playing the game together. It was a real fun game. We were having a great time. "Look out kid I just met!" "No worries, got your back Cam Bert!" I think we only needed to continue once maybe. We were doing great. We get to the final boss and he was tricky but we quickly figured out how to beat him. The boss was downed and there were high fives a plenty. We look back at the screen and there are our two characters just standing there. The game is still going. We were both utterly confused and didn't know what was happening. We both questioned whether the game was bugged. Then as we were trying to figure out what to do, I accidentally hit his character and noticed I was hurting him. So I just proceeded to start killing his character. The new kid noticed and panicked and started trying to fight back but it was too late. I was already ahead and too skilled for him. I killed his character and the game proceeded to end. The kid was livid. He started shouting and yelling at me and I remember saying "We still beat the game." He wasn't having it he started crying and ran off to his camp site. I eventually made my way back to mine and when I got there my mom was also very upset. She explained that he had got back crying and saying it was all my fault and his mother was upset. I explained to my mom what happened and she didn't seem to care. I explained until I was blue in the face that's what we were suppose to do but she wasn't budging. I was just playing the game and that is what it wanted us to do. This was the game's fault yet somehow I am in trouble? I had to go over to his camp site and surrounded by both our families give him two quarters and apologize for killing him in the game.

It's interesting because by all accounts this was a passion project for Jackman. Like something he had been working on and trying to develop for a long time something like 5 years. With that in mind I think he just liked the idea of "circus the musical" and he probably thought the message of accepting and loving yourself despite of appearance and what society thinks was good. What says that more than the freakshow, who is famous for the freak show, etc. and it was backwards worked into being Barnum.

I mean the movie as it exists now is like 75% fictitious (he met his wife in his 20s, there was no affair, his museum burnt down a bunch of times, Zendaya and Efron weren't real people, he didn't retire to be a father) so I don't know why they didn't just full hog on making things up. I think having a made up story about Barnum is very much in keeping with the spirit of Barnum.

I agree. I think that’s why the back half of the movie is a bit of a struggle for me. The “affair” story line is kinda a miss and you’re furthering this romance I didn’t connect with. I would have been very happy with Jenny Lind being dropped or part reduced to have more scenes and another song for Zendaya and Efron to flesh out their burgeoning romance at that point.

I agree with this and I am also very curious about why the film even hired Rebecca Ferguson to play her in the first place if they were going to redub her completely after the fact as well. I get them redubbing Tom Thumb (although maybe not give him such a cartoony tough guy voice) because they needed an actor of a certain height, but you're telling me they couldn't find another actress that could sing and act? I read they redubbed it because she's suppose to be this great singer and Rebecca Ferguson wasn't good enough. Why was she cast then? I'm very curious at point in the process was it decided to completely redub her.

That said I loved some of the dance numbers a lot. Visually the rope dance is great. I was particularly a big fan of the Zac Efron and Hugh Jackman number in the bar. Just some sold prop choreography and work there. I also loved some of the little things like the hammering of posters to the rhythm of the song and little touches like that. There is a lot of things in this movie to charm you.

Again this is a case of love the soundtrack but not the movie. The movie is great to look at but anytime starting around the middle of the movie people started talking and not singing I felt the movie really started to drag for me. It has less to do with historical inaccuracies and more about the half baked Zac Efron and Zendaya romance. One one hand I get it that you can't sell a historical musical biopic on the charm of Hugh Jackman alone so you have to spice things up with a younger hotter romance. I get that and I can't fault the movie for throwing it in. However, that doesn't stop it from feeling thrown in. Zac Efron doesn't enter the movie until nearly halfway through and falls in love with Zendaya at first sight. Up to this point I'm not sure she has had a line of dialogue. You have basically two new characters meet. Then there is a bit of stink eye from her trapeze partner who is her... father or brother or something, again underdeveloped character. So he's all lusty eyed and she's whatever. The next time we see them interact is her asking if she's allowed to go meet the queen and Zac is like "Of course." So now they have talked once but the next scene with them is when Zac chooses to go stand in the back with them and they start holding hands. These three scenes are all basically one after the other too. This relationship builds so fast and out of nowhere. What is her attraction to him? Is it just two hot people recognizing the other is hot and they should make it a thing? Zendaya is pretty much a nothing character at that point.The only "freaks" at this point with any kind of story about them are Tom Thumb and the bearded lady. This movie is a very breezy 100 minutes or so. I think that's great, but spending another 10 or so to maybe make Zendaya a character, have more scenes of her and Efron flirting, a song about them meeting and how it was love at first sight or just something more would have sold me on their romance. The rope dance is fantastic but I just can't get into the emotion of it all. The thing is both the characters are completely fictional so you could do whatever with them. How about he works at the bank and he's checking in with PT Barnum about how the place is going and status of the loan. This would lead to him being better with money and again place him in the story earlier and have a chance for earlier and more scenes with Zendaya. Or just more scenes or lines for Zendaya. Maybe have her talk more in the interview. Have her explain to PT how hard it is to be a person of colour at that time. Something. Anything. Just make her more of a character than "trapeze girl." But hey, if it works for you than I'm glad. I just wish there was a little more so it could have worked for me as well.