OKAY GO PARODY ON THE SIMPSONS

Reading about Sasha and Dave and the OK Go video for Here It Goes Again (choreographed by Trish Sie), I remembered that The Simpsons parodied the video recently. So here it goes again—thanks to YouTube!

Also, for a long overdue follow-up, make yourself comfortable and click here for winners of OK Go's Million Ways contest!



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YOUTUBE AWARDS 2006. YouTube just ran a quickie contest for the best videos in seven categories. I didn't pay much attention to it, but now that the winners have been chosen, I predictably find that it's time to crap--I mean carp. Heh.

My two main gripes: Some of the winners simply cannot be representative of the best of original YouTube video, and in a way it's a shame that non-original material doesn't/can't get any recognition. I mean, isn't this the first time in history that many precious motion picture moments have become readily viewable by millions, on demand? Scopitones...The Nat King Cole Show...Morricone moments--this is the stuff of cultural history!

Anyway, congrats to OK Go for taking Most Creative with the treadmill routine for "Here It Goes Again"--that's a helluva video! UPDATE: The band is supposed to play the Apple Store SoHo tonight. Beware of crowd!

And here's something else that won me over: "Hotness Prevails/Worst Video Ever" by thewinekone. It's the winner for Best Commentary. I'd post it when the weather gets hot, but I think that would be too hard to bear.



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SPRING AWAKENING. I can't think of a better time to write about Spring Awakening, which is currently enjoying a successful run at Broadway's Eugene O'Neill Theatre. The story, based on a controversial 1891 play by Frank Wedekind, captures the tension between adolescent passion and adult repression in a German town in the 19th Century. The dialogue is (intentionally) stiff, like an early English translation of Wedekind's play, but when the performers deliver the Duncan Sheik/Steven Sater songs, it's as if their microphones finally enable them to pour out feelings that have been bottled up far too long. The contrast is unusual and effective.

The vocal scoring of Spring Awakening exposes many individual parts but the casting of the production is impressively deep, with many of the performers--not just stars Jonathan Groff, Lea Michele, and John Gallagher, Jr.--possessing strong and beautiful voices. I was impressed by Brian Charles Johnson and Jonathan B. Wright and most especially Lauren Pritchard (left), who plays the non-conformist Ilse with disarming quirkiness and also has this MySpace page.

The music director for Spring Awakening is the amazing Kimberly Grigsby (right), previously noted here for her conductorship of the Summer 2005 Two Gentlemen of Verona, which should still be playing today. This woman simply casts a spell on me: I didn't realize she was at a Spring Awakening event at the Virgin Megastore until a glimpse of her graceful hand movements caught my attention....

My enthusiasm for the show has grown since I saw it and gave the cast recording a number of spins.

Here's "The Bitch of Living," featuring choreography by Bill T. Jones that reminds me of Trish Sie's routines for OK Go.



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MORE FEIST FEST! Here's the beautiful video for "One Evening," by Guitarchik Leslie Feist. Production-wise, it's like Sade meeting The Fifth Dimension. Choreographically, it's just this side of OK Go. I love it!

Oh yeah. Shadow puppets, too.



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OK GO: HERE IT GOES AGAIN. The band OK Go has a great new video out on YouTube. Kudos to everyone, including the choreographer(s)--this is outstanding!



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In other OK Go news, the band extended the deadline for Million Ways contest submissions.

Previous coverage here.