Easter 2024: Jesus Christ Is Risen Today

Christus Consolator, Carl Bloch, 1875

 

The Lessons Appointed for Use on

Easter Day

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Good Friday, 2024: He Was Despised

Cristo Crucificado, Velazquez, circa 1632,

 

 

The Lessons Appointed for use on 

Good Friday

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Palm Sunday, 2024: Ride On, Ride On in Majesty

Click to enlarge.

 

The Lessons Appointed for Use on the 

Sunday of the Passion: Palm Sunday

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Statement by the Princess of Wales

I can add nothing to the worldwide coverage of this poignant announcement other than my own prayers for the swift recovery of the Princess and also the King from their afflictions.  May God bless all the Royal Family as they continue to serve the people of Britain and the world.

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Waitin' for the Weekend

How do you feel, now that spring is here?

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Sermon: The Rainbow

An intriguing meditation on the meaning of the rainbow by Father Sean Mullen at St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Philadelphia:

The Great Litany that Fr. Sean refers to is found in the Book of Common Prayer here.  These powerful words are especially appropriate to pray in Lent--and moreover, I dare say, at this particular moment in the history of the world.

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Sunday Drive: Danny Boy

As performed by the great Tom Jones on the Ed Sullivan Show, April 21, 1968:

 

BONUS: Where, when, and how this beloved song originated:

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Waitin' for the Weekend

You have the right to bare arms . . .

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Flashback: Gary Puckett and the Union Gap, 1968

OMG, that voice.  I haven't heard these songs in years, but Gary's deep velvet tremolo still does things to me.  Wow. 

FYI, there was no lip-syncing on the Sullivan show; all vocals had to be performed live.  Imagine that.

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Sunday Drive: Sugar, Sugar

Your Head Trucker couldn't get enough of this bouncy tune when it came out in the fall of 1969.  I got the 45 as soon as I could, and played it over and over and over again, dancing around the house.

My dancing days are long past, but the song still makes me smile.  And I'm loving this brilliant little collage with classic dancers from the golden age of the movies.  Enjoy.

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Waitin' for the Weekend

Pickings were slim in the man groves this week, and I was afraid I wouldn't have anything to offer.  But M.P. threatened to put the kitchen on lockdown if I didn't post this hairless hunk, so here he is.

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Wah-Watusi!

Booklet of dance instructions, early 1960s.

Lately it's been hard to get my mind and body in gear.  Perhaps it's just hibernation time.  There's nothing wrong beyond the usual creaks and rumbles of old age.  Guess I'm just in a blah mood.

The state of the world being what it is, I've tried today to think of something I could blog that might give me a lift - maybe it will help somebody else, too.  So here goes.

I'm sure many of my truckbuddies remember the Watusi song and the dance of the same name - or do you?  Alas, by the time I started going to high-school dances, say about 1968 or so, all the cutely named dances popular in the early sixties had degenerated into miscellaneous twitches, jerks, and shuffles.  There were no steps to learn - you just stood there and wiggled as you pleased, more or less in time with the music.  A couple of years later, the Cool Kids in their puritan zeal declared that dancing was "not relevant" - and so there were no more dances, in high school or college.  They didn't return until the rise of disco, about 1976.

But I digress.  Just what was the Watusi?  I've tried to look this up before, and apparently nobody really knows.  I've seen comments from dance teachers on YouTube who say they can't find any actual steps to that dance.  Well, here are some historical videos that might give a clue.  See what you think - and I think you will smile.

1.  The lovely Lennon Sisters on the Lawrence Welk Show:

 

2. Wednesday and Lurch from The Addams Family:

3.  The KCTU Dancers from Wichita, Kansas, in 2014, having big fun with something that may or may not be historically correct:

4.  Luci Johnson and Steve McQueen certainly ought to have known what they were doing in Beverly Hills in the summer of '64, so perhaps this is the definitive performance:

5.  On the other hand, how can you get more authentic than these chaps?  From the 1959 film Watusi, I think:

Vote for your favorite version in the comments section.

 

P. S. -- Actually, there is documentation for how to dance the Watusi.  See it and try it after the jump.  And let me know how that works out for you.

Waitin' for the Weekend

Need a good lineman? 

To see the pole, click here.  (NSFW)

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