11-26-00
Tales of the Lip Sync
Show!!
This year's Lip Sync Show on Saturday, November 18th, was clearly our
most successful revue to date. I am well aware this event was a lot of
work, but the concentrated efforts of the SSQQ Staff and Friends produced
a fun, highly entertaining show. The list of people to credit is a long
one, but here goes:
Special Thanks go out to:
Susie Merrill. She worked hard to organize her dance team to rehearse
"Big Spender" and the notorious "Skit". Then she
turned around and Emcee-ed the event very well.
Ben Liles, who passed the torch to a new generation of talented Village
People by training them in the act he had helped develop.
Rachel Seff, who put her creative talent to good use and helped create
two new very well received skits: Little Red Riding Hood and Copa Cabana.
Ann Bush, who was in every skit… or practically every skit. Her
leadership rescued the Supremes, a skit that I thought went very well plus
volunteered for the new Do-Re-Mi skit (which with a little practice could
probably go in many perverted directions!!), plus helped with the Beach
Boys and Big Spender.
Anita Williams, who allowed herself to be persuaded to do "Last
Kiss" again despite severe time constraints. She also was a smash hit
in "Strangers in the Night" plus appearing in two other skits as
well.
Brain White, who single-handedly saved the Beach Boys skit from
oblivion, plus was terrific in the Village People act.
Joanne Spuck, who as Connie Francis was absolutely perfect in
"Where the Boys Are".
Wil Coulbourn, who organized an entertaining Rolling Stones skit…and
to Carol and David Armand for participating.
MG Anseman, who is considering a new career in show biz after his
success as Little Red Riding Hood, a handsome man in "Where the Boys
Are", and the Biker in Village People.
Marla Jennings for lending her experience to the Supremes.
Tracy King and Jeff Perry, for helping complete the Supremes act.
To all the Heartbeat dancers for two great acts, including "Big
Spender" and this year's smash hit, "The Skit".
To Jorge Rodriguez and Brian Spivey for the Village People (as well as
Robert Goins, MG Anseman, and Brian White).
To Jack Benard for Where the Boys Are.
To the Heartbeat, including Ann, Brian, Candi Angulo, and Mo Hendrix,
And to all the "Civilians" who also contributed greatly:
Gloria Sanchez, Randy Goshorn, Robert Goins, Joe Lachner, John, Tracy, and
Rick from the Rolling Stones, Steve Bahnsen in Where the Boys Are, and
especially to Mike Waltz for being man enough to be Tiny Tim!!
Great Show!! And we got many thank you notes. Here is my favorite from
Margaux Mann, the crazy Balloon Racer with the name that drives my
computer's "spell check" mad with passion:
Hi, Rick,
Just called up the December schedule to see what's on. My figuring is that
if Carl isn't going to play volleyball on Tuesday nights then we can
finally learn Latin dances. Does that make sense? (I haven't spoken to
Carl about this yet.) Also, I love the '4 deliberate mistakes' page. Wish
me luck.
AND, I never got to thank you for a fun lip sync night. Carl really
didn't want to go so he took me to a movie instead, and on the way home,
when I still whined about not going (about 10:45), he pulled into the SSQQ
parking lot at the last minute. Well, you sure got him hooked. He loved it
and was even critiquing as to how he could do some of the songs better.
Uh-oh. He might be signing up for next year. (Not me, though. I embarrass
myself enough on balloon night -- or should I say YOU embarrass me . . .)
My favorites of the night: your rendition of that horrible song (where the
girl dies), Little Red Riding Hood, Joann's song, and the YMCA. There may
have been others, but I forget.
Thanks (again),
Margaux
11-21-00
Grumpy Old Rick
Archer, aka the Arrogant Bastard
I had the unpleasant experience of being
labeled an "Arrogant Bastard" by one my dance students last
week. This was the straw that broke the camel's back, so to speak. So I
decided to say what's on my mind. If you are curious, click
here.
11-17-00
Heartbeat Dance Team
at the Dallas Dance Festival
Heartbeat blew away the competition at this
event (November 4-5). There were four teams that competed and no one else
was even close to us. The team did the most perfect performance they have
ever done. Half the audience gave them a standing ovation--something
unheard of in teams competition. We had dancers from all over Houston come
over to tell us how amazed they were. Many had never seen the team perform
before. Several who dance on other teams from here in Houston could not
get over the difficulty of the choreography and the expertise of the team.
We received a personal invitation to the world championships from the
directors of the teams competitions at both UCWDC and Fun Country! And
perhaps the biggest compliment of all came from the other competitors who
came over and asked our women dancers on the sly where on earth we had
ever found men who could dance like ours do!!
Susie Merrill
PS - the Heartbeat Dance Team is looking for new members. Email Rick
Archer at dance@ssqq.com if you are
interested in performing and training with the Heartbeat.
11-16-00
Bush-Gore Election Musings
Someone asked me the
other day why I was keeping my mouth shut on the Election since I usually
shoot my mouth off about everything. Hmm. The truth is I have been
following the Election controversy closely. I was even one of the idiots
who stayed up to 4:30 am the night of the Election only to realize how
much trouble we were in as dawn approached. I definitely did not sleep
well that night! Nor was I able to get much work done for the next
two days after that as well as I followed the disturbing aftermath. After
I finally got back to work, I was too busy catching up to do much
writing.
In addition I have been
fighting a depression about the whole mess ever since and have noticed I
am not the only one. I will admit I nurse a warm-fuzzy wish the two men
could co-lead the nation for 4 years. They both seem like good men to me
although some of their aides irritate me a lot.
I was appalled at the
Election coverage. I believe the TV people deeply influenced the election
with their premature projections. I think that early call of Florida for
Gore could easily have cost Bush dearly in west Florida as well as in
other states. And I hate the Pandora's Box of the mis-punched Palm Beach
ballots. There is no doubt in my mind that this catastrophe may end up
costing Gore the election, but I don't know of any remedy that is fair to
both men given what we know now. I have little doubt Dewey would beat
Truman if they let people vote again after the fact.
My contribution to the
Election Mess is to reprint this excellent letter I read in the New York
Times:
"In
view of our predicament arising from a flawed presidential election,
these lessons should be learned:
-
There
should be a uniform closing time nationwide for voting.
-
Exit
polling should be banned by federal law.
-
There
should be a uniform ballot for all states.
-
There
should be federal oversight of the presidential and congressional
elections process
in each state.
-
Campaign
finance reform is needed.
-
The
Electoral College system should be constitutionally dissolved, and
the election of the president
should conform to the popular national vote.
Michael W. Richter
Ridgefield, Connecticut.
Amen. Rick.
11-16-00
Ella O'Neal and Robert Goerz Get Engaged!!
Ella O'Neal and Robert
Goerz announced their engagement this week. They got engaged on November
4th and are getting married in the spring. Robert and Ella met here at the
SSQQ during a Sunday practice night in July.
I doubt any of you know
this, but Ella beat the devil out of Robert during the Sadie Hawkins Man
Chase. I have the footage on video. She grabbed him with both hands, threw
him around, and generally pounded him until she was able to pop his
balloons. Ella was after this guy, believe me!! It looks like this
Man Hunt was more than a symbolic exercise... Ella caught the man she was
after!! ;-) Judging from the smile on Robert's face in
the video, he didn't seem to mind one bit.
Congratulations to
both!
11-16-00
Mike Fagan and Trisha Bradford Get Engaged!!
Mike Fagan is my best
friend. He is a computer professor at Rice (oops... he is now head of the
"Applied Mathematics" Department) who is also a former State Whip
Champion. His style of dance has always been so unusual that Mike was the
guy "Martian Whip" was named for. A very talented man, he is not
only a genius Computer Science researcher at Rice, but a State Whip
Champion, a State Bridge Champion, and a champion at Foosball (although I
am not sure what level). His only weakness is he has a great deal of
trouble working a VCR remote. I believe it is this tragic flaw that allows
me to like him because otherwise he would be too perfect for me.
Another thing that
aggravates me is that Mike is able to
get by on about 4 hours of sleep a night. As a result he frequently comes
over to my house and watches Rockets and Comets basketball with me on
videotape till the wee hours of the morning. Due to my odd lifestyle, it
is no big deal for me to get up at 8 or 9 am the next day, but Mike can
still get to the office at 7 or 8 am if he has to. I sure wish I had his
ability to get by on so little sleep! He teases me because unless
the game is very exciting, I start to doze sometime around the 3rd
quarter, waking up periodically to check the score. If the game is close,
I struggle to reawaken so I can cheer my team to victory even though deep
down inside I realize the game was over 4 hours ago. It is during these
dozes that I hand the remote to Mike. The other night I awoke because Mike
was cursing - he couldn't get the new VCR to fast forward through the
commercial!! I regained consciousness long enough to show him how to
gently nudge the edge of the rotary dial as opposed to sticking his thumb
through the middle of the device. Then I dozed back off to the most
peaceful sleep in weeks - I was better than Mike at something.
I have known Tricia
Bradford for about 10 years. She is the youngest of 4 sisters - Jan,
Elizabeth, and Louise - who have all taken classes here at the studio over
the years. When she came to the big city to join her sisters, they
immediately dragged her over to SSQQ. She learned to Whip very fast and is
now one of the best dancers in the city as far as I am concerned. My guess
is Trish has had her eye on Mike for a long time and Mike had the good
sense to reciprocate. Trish is good for Mike in that she matches his brain
power pretty closely and she teases him back just as much as he teases
her. Good for you, Trish!! You go, Girl!! Mike beats me regularly in
the quick wit department, so I applaud anyone who can dish it back!!
Mike and Trish will be
married in April. I am very happy for both of them!!
