Dearest Amigos y Amigas,
For those of you who may not know, aside from being a singer I am also a tv host and one of the perks of this lovely job is that I get to interview peeps in the entertainment biz. Now, thankfully enough I do not have that engrained mechanism most humans do around celebrity whereby you are awestruck and left at a physical impasse or at the very least left secretly drooling (if it's even possible to internally drool). No folks, for this line of work keeping your cool is best BUT there are exceptions and namely it's the celebs I have a nostalgic connection with. Listen, Ashton Kutcher and Orlando Bloom are cute but they are zygotes, therefore no nostalgic connection and no drooling. But Johnny from Menudo? Bring on the panting, hyperventilating and uncontrollable screaming. Yes, he may have a receding hairline and a beer belly NOW, but the sheer memory of him circa 1981 would take me back to my shrieky early years. This is also why I, in part, love Ricky Martin. Though I am not a fan of his music the man was a Menudo so when he empahtically sings: "shake your bon bon shake your bon bon shake your BON BON!" I most willingly oblige. Why? Because I remember all 4 feet of him singing "gimme rock! rock ii chicki rock! gimme rock!" Oh, and his nickname back then…. was Little Kiki.
All this preamble brings me to this: I interviewed FRANK STALLONE…yes Sly's brother. He has been nominated for a Grammy, that little golden gramophone of musical achievement, but what really deserves at least a golden star in my pop culture book is his soundtrack contributions to "Staying Alive". For those of you too young to know what movie I just referred to (and consequently make me feel olde with a Shakespearean "e") "Staying Alive" is the sequel to "Saturday Night Fever" and though it failed to impress audiences in 1983, it won over my little wannabe dancer/singer heart. This movie was the bomb chicki-bomb-bomb. My father, knowing my creative leanings, did what any Dominican dad from Washington Heights with limited means would do: he got a bootleg copy made just for me. I must have watched that movie for days? Weeks? Years? My mother explained it away, like any Dominican mom would if her child seemed a little, shall we say, loquita: "La nina le ENCANTA el baile y la musica! Jesu' Santisimo!" If such a thing exists, I am convinced I had Obsessive Compulsive Disorder of the Young. I believe I wore tights and leg warmers with a high-cut leotard just to watch the movie…and a headband. And so, it became an interactive experience. As a result of my repeated viewings I learned the lyrics to this fabulous soundtrack which includes: "Far From Over", "Waking Up", "Moody Girl" "Never Gonna Give You Up" among other smooth-rocky greatness. Amidst this aural delight is the 80's John Travolta in all his feather-haired, butt-chinned, soft-focused glory. The close-ups are so tight his sweaty dance rehearsal skin is virtually palpable. Hell, they're so close you could probably smell the cheap cologne Tony Manero had purchased at some Brooklynite corner bodega. I currently own the DVD, for when the mood strikes…(once a month) and though the O.C.D HAS subsided, when I press my nose against the screen hard enough, I swear it's Drakar.
Well spring chickadees I have included some youtube clips for your orientation. And, again, Frank, thank you for being such an inspiration to my artistic insanity.
STAYING ALIVE OPENING CREDITS (shampoo hair, stag leap, turn turn, lay out!!!)
MOODY GIRL (please note Johnny's "not trying hard yet meticulously done" feather-haired mullet -copete). AND that little gold cadenita 'round his neck...no jodas!
CYNTHIA RHODES (Jackie) singing beautifully for el pendejo mentiroso de Tony Manero. Her "reach-out, pull-it-back-in's" are CLASSIC.
CYNTHIA AND JOHN dance to "NEVER GONNA GIVE YOU UP" two words...or is it a one-word hyphenate??: "cross-fade".