The TV Listings (5)

It's only been just over three months since I last did one of these roundups of my YouTube postings, but.... well, it has been a bumper three months! I'd better try and get into a regular habit of doing these listings every quarter - otherwise things could soon get completely unmanageable.

The Comedy/Movie Channel

Fantasy football!! - a childhood favourite dug out of the YouTube archives on grounds of 'topicality', given my present obsession with the World Cup: the animals' football match from Disney's Bedknobs and Broomsticks.

When I See An Elephant Fly - a series of links to articles on the 'greatest animated films' is my pretext to embed my favourite clip from Dumbo.

Lego eases the pain... - a re-enactment of the two key moments in England's 1-1 World Cup draw with the USA, animated with Lego figures. Actually, no, it doesn't make things any better at all: funny, yes, but still acutely painful to watch.

Darling Lulu - ultimate 'Fantasy Girlfriend' Louise Brooks, in a wonderful montage of clips from her greatest film, Pandora's Box (set to Mr Brightside by The Killers).

"This train'll stop at Tucumcari" - the marvellous opening scene from Sergio Leone's For A Few Dollars More rounds off my monthly 'Film List' on 'Crowning Moments Of Awesome'. This post also included links to great moments from Fistful of Dollars, Top Gun, Commando, Lawrence Of Arabia, and.... Duckman.

The sexiest secretary in the world - this month's 'Fantasy Girlfriend' is Miss Scott (as played by English model/actress Tracy Reed), the ravishing PA to George C. Scott's General Buck Turgidson in Kubrick's Dr Strangelove. So, of course, I have to embed a clip featuring her scene (and also Slim Pickens, as B-52 pilot Major 'King' Kong, announcing to his crew that they are about to go "toe-to-toe with the Russkies").

Faces - two favourite movie scenes that make stunning use of extended, extreme close-up on an actor's face: Gérard Depardieu at the start of Alain Corneau's Tous Les Matins Du Monde and Glenn Close at the end of Stephen Frears's Dangerous Liaisons.

OK Go vs. The Rube Goldberg Machine - one of the best pop music videos ever made (thanks to the inimitable JES for bringing this to my attention).

The Music Channel

When I See An Elephant Fly - pretty nearly my favourite Disney song, from Dumbo (see above).

Three Lions (2010 Version) - the latest retread of England's suprisingly rousing, eye-moisteningly poignant football song makes an appropriate inclusion (during the World Cup, just as we're about to go crashing out, yet again) to my Great Drinking Songs thread.

Mr Brightside - The Killers' song accompanies a superb little video of silent screen siren Louise Brooks (see above).

(You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party) - the upcoming 5th anniversary bash for Beijing's best live music bar, 2 Kolegas, seems like sufficient excuse to dig up this classic '80s party anthem from The Beastie Boys.

I'm walkin' - a post on my preference for music venues that I can walk to (rather than ones that are ridiculously remote, way over on the far side of town) prompts me to put up this clip of Fats Domino performing his classic song, with a little help from Ricky Nelson.

Hot For Teacher - I've been going through a bit of a spell of nostalgia for the 1980s, evidently; this time, one of my favourite bits of Van Halen, from the 1984 album that everyone was playing to death in my first year at university.

The 'Z Cars' Theme - incessant balalaika playing from one of my musical neighbours somehow puts me in mind of the opening music from this classic British cop show of my childhood.

Fly Me To The Moon - a montage of photographs of the lovely Julie London accompanies her classic rendition of this song. Also, links to versions by Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, and gorgeous contemporary Polish singer Karolina Pasierbska.

And The Band Played 'Waltzing Matilda' - I commemorate ANZAC Day with Eric Bogle's heart-wrenching First World War ballad about one of the Australian casualties in the Gallipoli landings: versions by Bogle himself, The Pogues, and Liam Clancy; along with links to a further version by The Pogues, performing it live, and also to renditions by Joan Baez and by Australian folk singer John Williamson.

Lili Marleen - the great WWII love song performed by the German actress Hanna Schygulla in Rainer Werner Fassbinder's 1981 film Lili Marleen. There are links to several other interesting versions of the song, including the classic original by Lale Andersen.

It Might As Well Be Spring - Jeanne Crain in the film version of Rodgers & Hammerstein's State Fair (although I discover that her singing was in fact dubbed by a Louanne Hogan). I also threw in links to versions by Dorothy Collins, Dick Haymes, and Ella Fitzgerald.

I Wanna Be Like You - the Easter Monday Bank Holiday in England reminds me of the regular childhood holiday TV treat of Disney Time, and prompts me to put up this clip of the great Italian bandleader Louis Prima as King Louie in The Jungle Book, and some links to other versions of the song in a range of foreign languages. (Also, a home video from my old university pal The Swordsman, recording his family's recent visit to Cinderella's Castle.)

This Too Shall Pass - a great little song from a Chicago band previously unknown to me, called OK Go. I originally posted this primarily for the remarkable 'Rube Goldberg machine' in the video (see above), but I found that the music grew on me. And I added several links for other videos of theirs.

The Sports Channel

England's greatest football moments - the fan video accompanying the latest version of the fine football song Three Lions (see above) includes a particularly good selection of England's best (and most heartbreaking) moments in the last few decades of footballing competition (and high quality video, too).

England's greatest goals - from the last three decades, anyway: Gazza's at Wembley in '96, John Barnes's in the Maracana, and a 'Top 10' from a YouTube poster. No additions to this collection in 2010 (sigh).