Don't hold your breath

When Donald Trump got hired four years ago, I trudged out to my favourite neighbourhood Hades coffee shop to numb myself with chocolate and caffeine. 

Four years later, I was sitting in my favourite coffee shop in Victoria about 8:30 on a November Saturday morning. I needed to check something on my phone, and was ambushed by my FaceBook feed. 

I texted elder daughter in England: BBC is saying that Biden got it. She confirmed that CNN was saying the same thing, and I staggered over to the counter to gasp at the barista: "BBC and CNN are saying that Joe Biden has won the American election." 

She said something like "Thank goodness!", and outside, a car flew down Cook Street, honking like a wedding day.

I found myself fighting back tears; it's like I've been braced and tensed since November 2016, and could finally breathe. 

Of course, this doesn't solve everything. However, this latest Randy Rainbow offering is fiendishly clever, and parodies one of the most fiendishly difficult Sondheim songs. Which is saying something. And here is the song on which the parody is based, sung, in this instance, by the late great Madeleine Kahn. Don't hold your breath.

"I'm not a doctor." "No kidding."

Apparently, Julie Andrews sent Randy Rainbow a message of approval about this video -- via Carol Burnett. That's got to be Gay Guy Cloud Nine.

For all you Mary Poppins fans, who don't mind the occasional cuss-word. (I gather Julie Andrews is one of those.)

Cuomo-sexual

Fortunately, younger daughter was in the room when I first watched this, and explained that this is a parody of "Sandy" from Grease - not my favourite musical. However, Randy Rainbow can make anything more palatable -- even White House press conferences with the current incumbent.



We're having similar fan-girling with our provincial health officers. Here are two tributes to Dr Bonnie Henry, the chief medical health officer for British Columbia:




Not nearly up to Randy Rainbow's production standards, but equally heart-felt, wouldn't you say?

I will save the world by lying on my couch

This Randy Rainbow parody reminds me of both my daughters.

Elder daughter, who has been huddled in her Ottawa apartment for the past week, working from home, is appalled because, as she is getting necessary supplies, so many people she encounters are not observing the holy protocols of staying two meters away from others, nor coughing into their elbows. She would heartily agree with the closing line.

Younger daughter, who, as someone on the autistic spectrum, is rather a self-isolator anyway, would object to the swearing, but recognized the song being parodied -- which is more than I did. It's from the Disney animated film Hercules; I've never seen it.

A person could develop COVID

Journaling in the half-empty coffee shop this morning (where I'm not sure I should be, anyway), it occurred to me that my daily entries are rapidly turning into a plague diary.

Thank goodness, Randy Rainbow had something new on YouTube. It's about coranovirus, unavoidably, and neatly itemizes many of my concerns (I even have a pink bathrobe), but hell, you gotta laugh!



Don't you?

So if you've lost your mind or you hate your children....

So thank goodness Randy Rainbow is at it again, because this has been a particularly bad year for news --- so far.

Younger daughter really loved this. Except for the swearing.

He's got a funny feeling that he's won

As depressing as the news is, whether here in Canada, or over the border, or overseas, a bit of clever political satire can brighten things up. This is why I rather adore Randy Rainbow and his pink cat-eyed glasses. This week, he's gone after the impeachment hearings in the States, using one of my favourite songs from Rodger and Hammerstein's Oklahoma.

For you infants - or philistines - who don't know your musical theatre, here's an excerpt from Trevor Nunn's 1999 London production - which starred a relatively unknown Hugh Jackman as Curly - here featuring Vicki Simon as "Ado Annie", whose English accent occasionally slips through. She's singing to Josefina Gabrielle as a barefooted and over-alled Laurey.


I notice that later productions change the last verse, which originally ran:
I'm jist a girl who cain't say no,
Kissin's my favourite food.
With or without the mistletoe,
I'm in a holiday mood.
Other girls are coy and hard to catch,
But other girls ain't havin' any fun.
Every time I lose a wrestling match,
I have a funny feeling that I won.
Although I can feel the undertow,
I never make a complaint,
'Til it's too late for restraint,
Then when I wanna, I cain't,
I cain't say no.

Over the rainbow

I'm tired. I'm taking the Randy Rainbow escape. Because he is an escape. A big, campy, over-the-top escape - with a spot-on parody of the opening of Disney's Beauty and the Beast.

(Am I the only person who thinks William P. Barr looks like Elton John?)

Appalled when it comes to a Baldwin

I think Randy Rainbow's videos are clever, hilarious, and loaded with high production value. They can also sting, and not just his targets. This one makes me laugh and wince.



Maybe I need to sing "Cockeyed Optimist" to myself at bedtime?

I know it sounds a bit bizarre

After a weekend of musical theatre - which I'll tell you about tomorrow, all being well -- I was in the mood for something shorter, but equally as musically pleasing and witty.


Gawd I love this guy. The production values, the incisive (with considerable incisors) commentary, the clever lyrics, the wigs, the pink pussy hats....