More Xuxa? This video features Latin superstar Ricky Martin when he was starting his solo career. He wouldn’t make the jump to success in English until the end of the decade. Xuxa made the attempt only a few months later, and failed utterly. But at the time of this appearance Xuxa was the superstar, and Ricky Martin was the kid who used to be in Menudo.
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Year: 2008
Xou de Xuxa
Sociologist Amelia Simpson says in her 1993 book, XUXA: The Mega-Marketing of Gender, Race, and Modernity…
She descends from her spaceship as if it were a fashion show runway, her blondness on display along with her other physical attributes, highlighted by the revealing costumes she never repeats. The ritual of arrival places the star in a glamorous context that conveys the modernity and sophistication of the first world.
I first heard about Xuxa on an NPR segment. My curiosity piqued, the first Xuxa show I saw was also the last that was shown on Univision. It was unlike anything I had ever seen. The cultural differences between mainstream America and Latin America were as stunning as, well, Xuxa herself. The blending of catchy songs, weird games, and an unbelievably flagrant display of hotpants went way beyond the Mickey Mouse Club and boys staring in wide-eyed wonder at Annette Funicello and, my favorite Mouseketeer, Cheryl Holdridge.
See for yourself in this video of Xou de Xuxa I edited from a recording made on January 9, 1993. It’s in Spanish, and not Portuguese, Xuxa’s native language. It features a few songs from the show. They are, like the K3 tunes, exemplary examples of the craft of Pop music.
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From Brazil to Belgium
OK, you’ve had your little break from K3, but now we’re back with more of Karen, Kathleen, and Kristel. I can’t say if Xuxa’s success in Brazil 15-20 years ago had any influence on Studio 100’s introduction of K3 as a Pop act that hosts a children’s show, but watching these videos I have to wonder.
This is K3 with a Latin beat. The second video, “Feest” (Celebration), has some bizarre CG models of the ladies. The last video is a live version of the same song, and at the moment it’s having buffering problems on YouTube, and that’s why it’s last. If it locks up, drag the button past that point and it should pick up again. The third tune is their brand-new single, which is somewhat evocative I think of ABBA’s “Fernando.”
But now let’s meet Xuxa. This is a 1993 feature from Inside Edition, and it’s introduced by none other than…. Bill O’Reilly.
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CSI: Cardboard Submarine Immersed
When FiOS kicked in with all of the HD channels I wasn’t getting, but should have, I also started getting HD Video on Demand offerings. I like Gary Sinise’s work, so I watched a few episodes of CSI: NY. One was really good, another was pretty good, but one was flat-out lame. Here’s the big finish.
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This really gets my comic book fan hackles going. It portrays comic books as having a bad influence on kids, and I’m really tired of that misconception. In fact, it makes comic book readers look stupid, and their parents too, because in the show what those kids needed was some adult supervision.
How old is the character supposed to be whose friend drowned in the cardboard sub? At the oldest I’d say he’s 35. And the death happened when he was, say, ten years old. Better make it eight. Ten-year-old kids aren’t that stupid. OK, so that means the flashback takes place 27 years ago, in 1981. The drawings appear to be the character Bullseye, from a Frank Miller issue of Daredevil. Miller took over writing the series in late 1980, and that type of ad was long gone from comics by then. The age of the newsstand comic book was pretty much already over, and comic book shops had taken over. Further, there weren’t any “Laughing Larry” type figureheads that I can recall, for any of the cheap outfits advertising in comics. And the idea that he’d still be in business is, well, silly. But I bet the character actor playing Laughing Larry had a good time with the part, because he looks like he usually gets stuck playing a gangster.
Above is one of the original ads for the cardboard submarine, taken from a 1967 Marvel comic. I never owned one, but Boing Boing has a picture of the real thing, also from 1967, at this link. Hmm… maybe they’ll do a show where some kid dies abusing the Digi-Comp 1.
Cyd Charisse in “Party Girl”
Cyd Charisse is gone. She’s best remembered for the Broadway Melody sequence with Gene Kelly in Singin’ In The Rain. Charisse was later featured in a relatively unknown movie called Party Girl, directed by Nicholas Ray, who made Rebel Without A Cause. Charisse, lookin’ great at 36, had a couple of big dance numbers in Party Girl, and you can watch them on the video player.
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Coaxing Coax for FiOS
Six months ago I talked about my options for TV on the remodeled porch. I was going to string coaxial cable with the assumption that the analog channels on Verizon FiOS TV weren’t going away. Well, they went away. But now I have something much better. Free FiOS TV.
Verizon provided two free digital converters. They don’t control the HD DVR like a full-featured set top box can, but they give me everything I want. The converter needed to be small for the porch, and I was frustrated that I couldn’t find a picture of one online. So here one is.
It’s the Motorola DCT-700, and as you can see it’s plenty small. It’s sitting on top of a Magnavox DP100MW8 DVD player, made by Funai, that I bought at Wal*Mart for $27.88. I think this is the best inexpensive DVD player, partly because it has an S-video output, which is something other super-cheapie models have been dropping. The picture is excellent on the old Sony XBR 32-inch set, but on the Panasonic video projector its progressive component video image can’t compare to my Panasonic DVD-recorder.
My friend tastewar lent me his well-stocked tool kit, and after my contractor drilled a hole in the floor of the porch, Eric and I strung new RG-6 coaxial cable. Eric got the hang of using the stripper and crimper, and soon I was ready to activate the boxes online. The process took about 20 minutes, and when it was done everything worked. Thanks again for the parts and loan of the tools, tastewar!
Happy as I was with having FiOS TV on the porch so I can watch The Colbert Report up there, I’m even happier now that downstairs I have all of the HD channels I was supposed to be getting. My friend across the street and my buddy Bismo followed my lead and got FiOS, but both had many more HD channels than the meager five I was getting. A phone call to Verizon fixed that in a matter of minutes. What a difference! I now have over 20 HD channels. I also now have access to free Video on Demand HD programs, about which I’ll be saying more in my next post.
Am I mad Verizon didn’t set the HD service up right in the first place? Not really. Did I hassle them for a credit? Nah, not after getting two free digital converters. What’s the second converter doing? It’s set to Comedy Central and patched into the DVD recorder. Its sole purpose is for recording The Colbert Report for my friend Morris, who doesn’t have cable TV.