The Disco Ball!

On October 13, 2002, a wide array of celebrities gathered together for a salute to disco in a big, blowout concert. As far as I know, the concert only aired once in January '03... and it has a ridiculously low rating on imdb (1.5/10?!!) despite many stellar live performances from classic and then-contemporary artists -- Mya, Usher and Taylor Dayne turned in particularly phenomenal covers of classics, and all of the disco legends crooned great renditions. Matter of fact, there's not a weak song in the bunch -- though Roselyn Sánchez made Donna Sommers' "Hot Stuff" so much her own that it sticks out in a "one of these things is not like the others" sort of way (but it's not a bad cover in its own rite).


And speaking of not belonging... What makes the special unusual is the bizarre amalgam of celebs who appear. Actress Sara Rue can really belt a tune, but she didn't. Actor Wilmer Valderrama can dance his ass off, but he barely did. Don't ask me why comedians George Lopez and Cedric the Entertainer were there. If they'd gathered stars solely from ABC (the network that aired the special) it would make sense, but it seemed to be mostly a combo of faces from then current shows on both ABC and Fox who introduced each performer. Very odd. Here's a couple clips with the full roster of stars:

As is generally the case with TV specials, there was no DVD/CD release of The Disco Ball, which (predictably) is where I come in. So, about the shares... While ripping the music, I made a conscious decision to trim the 87 minute special to under 80 mins so it would fit both on a CD and on Sharebee (which currently hosts a max 150 MB). "Dancing Queen," which is performed by a chorus and drag queens, initially got nixed, as well as the opening credits, Whoopi Goldberg's moronic joke interlude, The Village People's YMCA tutorial and any other fleeting moment I could trim. I then realized that even without those segments, the file was too big for Sharebee, though it'd fit on a CD. So I decided to make a CD version available as a FLAC file, and include "Dancing Queen" as a bonus mp3 track (it would be too much trouble to re-edit it -- and this long-planned share's already been nightmarish). So here's the multiple shares of The Disco Ball...

THE DISCO BALL (live!)

01. Macho Man - The Village People
02. Turn the Beat Around - Mya
03. Disco Inferno - The Trammps
04. (Shake, Shake, Shake) Shake Your Booty - K.C. & the Sunshine Band
05. Get Down Tonight - K.C. and the Sunshine Band
06. I Just Want to Be Your Everything - Aaron Carter
07. Don't Leave Me This Way - Thelma Houston
08. Flashdance... What a Feeling - Irene Cara
09. La Freak - Chic
10. I Love the Nightlife (Disco 'Round) - Taylor Dayne
11. Working My Way Back to You - The Spinners
12. Staying Alive - Natural
13. How Deep Is Your Love - Natural
14. You Should Be Dancing - Natural
15. It's Raining Men - Martha Wash & Whoopi Goldberg
16. Ain't No Stopping Us Now - Usher Raymond
17. Total Eclipse of the Heart - Nicki French
18. Got to Be Real - Cheryl Lynn
19. Hot Stuff - Roselyn Sánchez
20. I Will Survive - Gloria Gaynor
21. Jump for My Love - The Pointer Sisters
22. I'm So Excited - The Pointer Sisters
23. YMCA - The Village People
24. Last Dance - Whoopi Goldberg, Thelma Houston, Mya, Taylor Dayne & Gloria Gaynor
BONUS TRACK (mp3 only!)
25. Dancing Queen - Chorus

DOWNLOAD LINKS:
The Special (avi)
MP3's: Rapidshare, MegaUpload, MultiUpload
FLAC

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Man, my site seems to just keep getting gayer and gayer, doesn't it?
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Stacey Q, Cyndi Lauper, J-Lo, Kirstie Alley...

My internet line's been putzing out, but I have managed to get a few clips on the video site in the past day. Up to about 80 rare video clips that span six decades. A few of today's shares will doubtlessly interest visitors here, so as shameless cross promotion...

Stacey Q: We Connect (Live on Joan Rivers)

1986 Cyndi Lauper Interview


Christa's Challenge (with a tubby Jerry O'Connell!)


The Nag (Narrated by Jennifer Lopez)


Kirstie Alley: Santa Baby

AVI versions of all of these clips (and many more!) can be downloaded from Vinnie Rattolle's Videos!

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Vinnie's Videos!

A year and a half ago, I decided to start another blog to clear some video files that I'd ripped for Retro Junk and my defunct You Tube account off of my computer. Never followed up on the blog (formerly titled "Classic Clips and Commercials"), never posted a link from here and quickly lost most of the files in a harddrive crash. So before that happens again, I'm clearing off more commercials and clips that I ripped earlier this year... like these ones, which I never got around to uploading anywhere:

"Almond Joy's Got Nuts... Mounds Don't!"

The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

Unlike the videos that I posted eons ago, the new clips are downloadable in their original avi format so you can burn 'em to DVD, You Tube 'em, put 'em on your own site or whatever. There's a wide array of interesting, obscure and familiar commercials, vintage TV promos (Batman, The Six Million Dollar Man, Wings, The Pruitts of Southampton, Three's Company, The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries, etc.) and more, complete with celebrities (Michael Landon, the governator, Burt Reynolds, Amy Grant, etc.), catchy jingles ("Sometimes you feel like a nut...") and the depraved rantings that regular visitors here have grown accustomed to. It's exactly the kind of pop culture mélange that one would expect of me, so check out:

Vinnie's Rattolle's Videos!

Fear not, regular visitors! Out of print movies and obscure TV shows are still going to reside on this blog; the other is solely for commercials, trailers, TV show promos and other short clips from my monstrous video collection. Matter of fact, once I clear off a ton of clips I've got, that site will probably go dormant again for a while. This site's the one I'm passionate about, but for the next few days, I'm probably gonna be working hard on the video site.

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Anyone else getting that pre-rape feeling?

Love the movie or hate it (there seems to be a split reaction), there's no denying that Teddy Castellucci composed a great Southern Rock score for the 2007 film Wild Hogs. Unfortunately, it was only released as a promo (like all of Castellucci's scores, it seems). Fortunately, however, I downloaded it from some other site before the site vanished, so here it is! Thanks again to whomever initially ripped and posted this!

WILD HOGS
Score by Teddy Castellucci

01. Wild & Free
02. Slap the Bull
03. Del Fuegos Arrive
04. Doug's Breakdown
05. The Pond
06. Tent Fire
07. Bikers Drive By
08. Madrid Showdown
09. Damien Leaves
10. Wives Arrive
11. Children of the Corn
12. Cutting Gas Lines

DOWNLOAD LINKS:
MultiUpload, Sharebee

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2 tracks from Beautiful Kate!

I've been a webmaster since 1997, so I'm used to getting strange and unusual emails ("upload the soundtrack for...," "get a non surgical penile enhancement!," "grant access to your bank account and I'll send you eighty zillion dollars"), but the email I just got is sort of a first: (I'm paraphrasing) "Here's two tracks from the soundtrack for the new film Beautiful Kate; please consider promoting it on your site." Movie lover (and whore for free stuff) that I am, I'll play along...


Written and directed by actress Rachel Ward (The Thorn Birds), Beautiful Kate follows writer Ned Kendall (Ben Mendelsohn, Vertical Limit) as he returns to his family home on the Australian outback to see his sister Sally (Rachel Griffiths, Brothers & Sisters) and say goodbye to their dying father (Bryan Brown, F/X), whom he hasn't seen for two decades -- since the summer his twin sister Kate (Sophie Lowe) died. Soon after arriving, the past and the present collide as Ned's childhood memories bubble to the surface and a shocking family secret is finally revealed.... Here's the trailer:

Adapted from a novel by Newton Thornburg (which was set in America), the film is currently playing in wide release in Australia and it opens at the Toronto Film Festival at the end of the week. The film's score is by Tex Perkins, best known as the frontman of the Australian rock band The Cruel Sea. Written, performed and recorded with Dark Horses (his current band) co-member Murray Paterson, Beautiful Kate is Perkins' first film score, and the soundtrack (released in Australia last month, on i-tunes and in U.S. stores as an import today) features his cover of John Loudermilk's haunting 1973 tune "This Little Bird."


Bleak Australian indie, great actors and actress writing/directing, haunting soundtrack... all sounds right up my alley! Hadn't heard of the film until an hour ago, but now I'm kinda looking forward to seeing it (at which point, I'm sure I'll have to run out and buy the full soundtrack!).

Beautiful Kate Soundtrack
By Tex Perkins
(Preview Tracks)

17. This Little Bird
18. Closing Titles

DOWNLOAD LINKS:
YouSendIt, Sharebee

Buy the full album on i-tunes and check out the Beautiful Kate Official Site!

Attention filmmakers: Send me free stuff and I'll plug your movie too!

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If it's murder who dunnit?

Four strangers. One dead body. Three of them think they dunnit. But how did Harry really die? Alfred Hitchcock's only all-out comedy, The Trouble with Harry, is one of his most overlooked films -- and one of my favorites. It also holds the distinction of being the first collaboration between Hitch and composer Bernard Hermann... so here's the score!


1. Overture
2. Autumn
3. Murder
4. Captain
5. Body
6. Miss Gravely's Test
7. Jennifer
8. Doctor
9. Tramp
10. Cup
11. Autumn Afternoon
12. Sketch
13. Doctor's Return
14. Police
15. Country Road
16. Tea Time
17. Burial
18. Waltz Macabre
19. Waltz Reprise
20. Valse Lent
21. Miss Gravely Digs
22. Homebodies
23. Closet
24. Harvest Eve
25. Phantom Coach
26. Walk
27. Wish
28. Proposal
29. Suspicion
30. Porch Talk
31. Duo
32. Ostinato
33. Encore
34. Cortege
35. Slumber
36. Afterbeats
37. Bathtub
38. Confession
39. Solution
40. Finale

DOWNLOAD LINKS:
MultiUpload, Sharebee
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We forgot about the flowers...

What can I say about the movie Ice Castles? Not much, considering I haven't seen it. But that doesn't stop me from offering you the soundtrack with music by Marvin Hamlisch! I've read that the film, which revolves around a teenage ice skater (Lynn-Holly Johnson, Watcher in the Woods) who goes blind, is so overwrought that it's unintentionally hilarious, so I surmise this album will be right at home with all my other shares from campy '70s and '80s movies...

01. Theme from Ice Castles - Melissa Manchester
02. They Threw Flowers
03. Scarlotti's Suite 1
04. Deborah's Rock
05. Theme from Ice Castles (Instrumental Version)
06. Voyager - The Alan Parsons Project
07. Touch
08. Learning Again
09. Finale

DOWNLOAD LINKS:
MultiUpload, Sharebee

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The Universal Studios Tour Album!

If you're a fan of films and TV from the '70s (and why else would you be here?!), you're gonna wanna download this one! This utterly obscure LP was released as a souvenir at The Universal Studios Tour in 1979. The album includes an in-depth audio tour of park attractions, such as The Bionic Test Center (a tie-in with The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman), The Battle of Galactica (from the original Battlestar Galactica), the special effects attraction The World of Cinemagic, the park's staple Jaws ride, the monster makeup show Land of a Thousand Faces, the Airport '77 Screen Test Theatre and familiar sets from countless film and TV productions, including The Munsters, Leave It to Beaver, The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries, Rescue from Gilligan's Island, Animal House, Psycho, Harvey, and much, much more!

Should be noted that this isn't my share, it was sent to me be a visitor to share with all of you. The album itself is pretty damned cool but what makes this share truly special is the extras that Mike's assembled. Not only can you hear the album, but you can see what they're talking about! Included are hundreds of rare and unusual photos taken from a wide variety of sources (books, videos, film, the internet) which illustrate what people who took the tour were seeing. So don't thank me for this one, thank Mike for all the hard work that he obviously put into this incredible, elaborate share!

DOWNLOAD LINKS:
MultiUpload, Sharebee

Remember to keep your arms & legs inside the vehicle at all times!
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Here's the story....

Here's the story of a brief revival
Of a TV show that everybody knows
But it failed to maintain the ratings
And people say it blows...

But the one thing that nobody thought would happen
It endured, even though it's really bad
Well the singing and the dancing is atrocious
And in drag, you will find the Brady dad!

(Now's your chance to see the Brady parents in drag!)

For nearly nine months now, I've been plugging Love to Love You Bradys, the tell-all book about The Brady Bunch Variety Hour, sight unseen. Much like the other thing that takes nine months, I've built it up, endlessly obsessed over it and wondered if it could possibly live up to my expectations.... but man, it exceeded my expectations!


The original sitcom has been the subject of countless books, with the same stories rehashed time and time again ever since Barry Williams (Greg) wrote his best-seller Growing Up Brady. We all know that Barry had a raging hardon for his TV mom, that Robert Reed (Mike) was continuously at odds with creator Sherwood Schwartz, etc. But aside from being a footnote, little attention has been given to the subsequent revivals -- and of all the revivals, the one that people are most interested in is the variety show. It was the Bradys out of their element, singing and dancing in a blatant knock-off of Donny and Marie... and it's so campy, corny and visually assaulting that it's unforgettable -- and somehow charming, despite itself. Well, now the story's finally out on this bizarre low in television history...

Yes, the book's filled with insights into the little show that shouldn't have, including the story of the genesis and cancellation of the show, anecdotes about a myriad of behind-the-scenes production nightmares, remembrances from a wide array of cast, crew and other people associated with the show, and TONS of rare and never before published photos!

The book answers burning questions such as:

*Why didn't Eve Plumb star in the show?
*Which famous socialite was a top-contender to play (Fake) Jan?

*What happened to guest-star Lee Majors' steak before he ate it?
*Which guest-star staggered through a taping drunk?

*Which Brady actress became a hostile diva during tapings?

*What happened when series writer Bruce Vilanch asked to see guest-star Milton Berle's infamous endowment, and which underaged male TV star was Vilanch smitten with?

*Which Brady actress was nearly reduced to tears by producer Marty Krofft and why?

*What did Susan Olsen do to her audio rehearsal tapes?

*Why did H.R. Pufnstuf appear on the show?

*Whose coochie did Chris Knight sneak a peek at during a taping?

*What did they fill the swimming pool with?

*Which Brady kid can be seen flipping off the camera in an episode?

*Why (in the world) did Hollywood legend Natalie Wood show up at tapings?

*Which series regulars were mortal enemies?

*Why did the Brady kids' teacher accost guest-star Rick Dees?

*Which celebrity guest-star backed out of the show at the last minute?

*Which Brady kid was told to lose weight?

*How do Chevy Chase and Paul Shaffer fit into the grand scheme of the show?

*Which cast and crew members were using drugs?

*What did guest-stars The Hudson Brothers do in the swimming pool?

*Which of her co-stars did Fake Jan sleep with... and which did she want to sleep with?

*Why were the Brady kids forced to wear name tags around their necks?

In addition to all of that, there's a complete episode guide (which details a variety of flubs and other things to watch for) that stretches to promotion on other shows and specials, an entire chapter devoted to the show's resident dancers/swimmers, The Krofftettes (who were subjected to endless physical tortures), cast and crew remembrances of the guest stars, costume and production sketches, script excerpts, information about skits that were dropped (like the Halloween skit The Fraidy Bunch!), blueprints for the sets, and so much more! Although amazon wound up leaking the book almost a month early, it's officially out today. For fans of the brothers Krofft, The Brady Bunch, or '70s TV in general, I highly recommend picking it up!

Okay, this is the last Brady Hour post for a while... probably.
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