Ears in place - almost ready!

Just a couple of Spock pictures. He's sitting in the chair, getting his makeup, just chillin'.

Never mind Spock's brain - it's Spock's hair!

This must have been the start of the process - no ears!

And below - ta-da! - the hair in action!

Jonathan Harris and some of his young fans, with Leonard Nimoy.

2019

Yes, that is an ice sculpture.

I'm not sure how it happened, but I've become a big fan of the Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival.

I've never been to Harbin, which is practically in Siberia as I understand it. In fact, I've never been to China at all. The closest I've ever been was either Bangkok or Kuala Lumpur, whichever is closer. Which means, I've only admired these sculptures from afar.


However, the pictures I've seen of their ice sculptures are really extraordinary. Before learning about the festival, my only experience with ice sculptures constituted seeing guys standing at hotel entrance ways chipping away to create dolphins and such. Very nice, very artistic, and very small.

Opening ceremonies, January 2015.

Well, Harbin changed all that for me. There is something about the sheer audacity of people who would even think to create something as massive as their sculptures - and all along knowing that they are doomed to melt away by summertime. It's quite imaginative.


Anyway, the 31st Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival opened with a theme "Ice Snow Harbin, Charming China Dream" on January 5 in 2015. There was a grand opening ceremony, a fireworks display and a series of theatrical performances, ice snow activities in Sun Island, Ice and Snow Amusement World, Zhaolin Park and more venues around the ice city Harbin.


There seems to be some competition for the snow sculpture crown these days, with some other Chinese cities getting into the act as well. However, the Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival definitely became the largest of the kind.


Apparently, the Festival began in 1963, when it started life as a traditional lantern and garden party before transforming into the extravagant event we see today. Now, it is composed of mountain-sized representations of figures out of Chinese mythology and even entire, life-sized buildings.


In general, the sculptures - at least the smaller ones - are carved from giant blocks of ice taken directly from the frozen surface of the Songhua River. However, for some of the larger, more elaborate sculptures, the builders cheat a bit by using steel frames and molds and spraying water on them, which of course freezes immediately in the frigid temperatures. The builders still, though, have to get up on the sculptures and smooth all the rough edges and do other fine-tuning. There also are elaborate swimming pools and other outdoor facilities that some of the more adventurous citizens and tourist can use if they can brave the cold.

The temperature and weather outlook in Harbin as I type this. That temperature is Fahrenheit, all the Celsius temperatures are way negative. So, bring warm clothes if you ever visit Harbin!

I'll almost certainly never make it to the actual festival - but it would be awfully cool to try someday. I'd like to try for the Iditarod someday, too. If only it didn't look so cold!


2019

Wicked Dance Moves by Liz Brewer aka Liz Derringer

Liz Brewer (or is it?) dancing to "Hang On Sloopy" by the McCoys.

Since I first posted this article, the dancing "Sloopy Girl" has become a sensation. There now is controversy about the identity of Sloopy Girl. The main candidate remains Liz Brewer, but another professional dancer now claims to be the attractive blonde in the video. I'll discuss this controversy down below, but first I'll discuss Liz Brewer and Sloopy Girl.

There are some different versions of this epic dance performance by Liz Brewer floating about, and they are all well worth watching. We'll get a little bit into who Liz Brewer is below.
First, below is what appears to be the original promo video, which naturally focuses on the singer as well as the dancer.
There also is a version that focuses solely on the dancer and that appears to have had some processing done to it to make it more vivid and closer to how it must have looked originally. Anyway, I've included several different versions here for your delectation.

In any event, there are other versions/copies down below if you're interested. The video is from 1976, not from 1965 when the song originally came out. If you thought music videos began in 1976, well, they didn't.

"Hang On Sloopy" is just a fun song that makes everyone want to dance!

Some folks think that everything is done better today than in the past.
Not so. And this video is a prime example.
All right, now some background details below for those interested.
This is a promotional video for 'Hang on Sloopy,' a mid-'60s hit for The McCoys. Hang On Sloopy was written by Bert Berns and Wes Farrell (Rick Derringer claims it was written by "a high school kid in St. Louis" who just sold it to Berns and Farrell, but those two guys wrote a lot of hits on their own, so who knows). The first group to record "Hang On Sloopy" was the R&B group The Vibrations as ‘My Girl Sloopy’ in 1964. 

The song was kicking around for a while, and even The Rolling Stones played it. The name Sloopy may derive from Dorothy Sloop, a jazz singer and pianist in the ‘30s and ‘40s who just went by the name Sloopy. An Ohio waitress also has claimed credit for the name. The credited writers claimed the name originated from a Cuban waitress they met on vacation.

Rick Derringer, Todd Rundgren, Bebe Buell, Liz Derringer.

Anyway, the record company liked the song and decided that it just needed a better act to sell it with a more compact, radio-friendly arrangement. Thus, "Hang On Sloopy" by the McCoys came about.

This was a time when music executives just put bands together, like The Monkees, who were just a bunch of random actors and unknown musician wannabes who looked good together. The McCoys were an actual group from Fort Recovery, Ohio ("Hang On Sloopy" is now the state song of Ohio), but they weren't called that before this record.

They changed the band name for the record because music executives didn't like the band's most recent names, The Rick Z Combo and later Rick and the Raiders - but the band had been called the McCoys years earlier.

The record company didn't want to use anything to do with "Raiders" because "Paul Revere and the Raiders" was hot at that time, so they went back through the band's history and found that original name of The McCoys. So, it wasn't that difficult a change to make for them, they just reverted to their original name.

Liz Brewer crosses that road like a gunfighter ready to draw.

Naturally, since the song is known to derive from 1964-65, everyone thinks that everything related to it dates from that era, including this video. At first glance, you might think so about this promotional film for the song, too. It does have an intentional '60s vibe to it, after all. After all, the band is dressed in the foppish artist style of the 1960s, and everything is made to appear timeless - no cars to identify the time, etc. So, the video was intended to be timeless, and it succeeds largely because Liz Brewer brings to it her timeless beauty.
However, as noted, this early video actually is from a decade later, shot in 1975. I say the video is "early" because despite being long after the song's original popularity, the video was filmed years before MTV launched in 1981.

They weren't making videos like this in 1965 (though the Beatles were just about to originate the modern music video around that time). The 1970s, though, began the true music video era.

Even in 1975, promotional films for songs were rare and produced only for top acts and for special purposes (television special appearances and so forth). It did happen, but not just for average bands and songs. Not that The McCoys were average, but the song was over a decade old at the time.
Rick Derringer has an interesting story. Rick Derringer was the founder, lead singer, etc., for The McCoys. Years after recording "Hang On Sloopy," he eventually went solo and had another hit, "Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo," in 1973. That was off of his first solo record, '"All American Boy." The follow-up to that initial, successful solo project was the album "Spring Fever" in 1975. They had high hopes for "Spring Fever" and needed a splashy way to promote it. And, that's where this video came into being.  "Spring Fever" included a remake of "Hang on Sloopy," still Derringer's signature tune at the time. The remake was in a different musical style from the original. There was no way the remake could be as recognizable, of course, because the original had hit No. 1 during a period when just about every record being made was a classic. Anyway, to promote that album and the remake of the McCoy's hit, they made this promo video in the song's original '60s style.
The music of 1975 was fine, but it was the beginning of the disco era. There were fun, enjoyable songs by KC and the Sunshine Band, Donna Summer, and others. But, well, a lot of those mid-'70s tunes were not, shall we say, as timeless as the '60s classics. "Kung Fu Fighting" ring a bell? Or "The Streak"? How about Rick Dees' "Disco Duck"? All big hits in the '70s. Of course, there were lots of classics released then, too, and many consider the '70s the epitome of rock-and-roll, but it was a ragged decade in terms of music quality and a lot of people still remembered the classic '60s tunes fondly (and also '50s nostalgia was big with "Happy Days" and "MASH" and the like). "Hang On Sloopy" fit into that nostalgia trend. It was a nice throwback that reminded everyone of how good '60s music was. The remake promoted by this video actually made the Billboard chart in the mid-1970s, topping out at No. 94. That's pretty cool. I bet Liz shaking her thing had something to do with that.
Rick Derringer was working with Steely Dan and on other projects at the time, so he was well-known in the industry. However, his public image was still kind of low-profile. Not too many people knew his name from The McCoys - heck, they probably thought that he was named McCoy. It was an era of one-hit wonders, so his more recent hit "Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo" hadn't really established him in the public mind, either. You know, good song, who was that singer again?
So, Derringer's record company decided to promote the new record by hearkening back to the original, classic version of "Hang on Sloopy" that everybody knew (and that people still know today, in fact, long after any remakes were forgotten and "Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo" got lost in the '70s).
None of the original McCoys, which had disbanded in the '60s, appear in this mid-'70s video except, of course, for Derringer himself. The guys in the background are probably just session musicians or, more likely, actors (if you look closely, they don't appear to be playing or singing). But then, musicians didn't actually play live for these videos anyway. Rick's brother Randy who was later known as Randy Z, played drums on the original recording, and Dennis Kelly played bass guitar. Kelly left the band for college, so the Zehringers were joined by bassist Randy Jo Hobbs, saxophonist Sean Michaels, and keyboardist Ronnie Brandon. They recorded the hit "Hang On Sloopy."
But we don't really care about them. Rick Derringer is a Rock God who produced the first six albums of "Weird Al Yankovic" and also albums by Cyndi Lauper and did a lot of other great things. However, great as Rick is, we are concerned here with the identity of the beautiful blonde dancer. That has been the subject of much debate and confusion for many years. It now is clear that it was Rick Derringer's first wife, Elizabeth Brewer aka Liz Brewer aka Liz Derringer.

Rick Derringer and wife Liz Derringer (Photo by The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images).

Incidentally, Rick Derringer's real last name wasn't Derringer, it was Zehringer. Derringer was just a stage name. Rick changed it to Derringer legally in 2007, long after he did "Hang on Sloopy" and his other hits. But, we won't dwell on that here. Let's focus on Liz Brewer, who has her own dramatic story.

When a crazed stalker shot Andy Warhol in the 1960s, they grabbed an old file photo of Andy sitting with a woman. The woman on the front page just so happens to be ... Liz Brewer. That's right, that is her on the right. A lot of people probably thought that Liz was the shooter from this picture.

Liz lived in Greenwich Village and was born ca. 1947 (as a frame of reference, she is roughly the same age as Olivia Newton-John and both of them are still around as of 2021). Liz ran away from home at around age 20 and tried some ventures in Portugal. That wanderlust could not be contained. Liz Brewer knew everybody then - Andy Warhol was a close friend, and she knew Mick Jagger and all the other top names. Liz hung out at Warhol's The Factory and was, well, basically a groupie.
Let's refine that a bit and say that Liz Brewer was a high-class groupie who hung with many rock legends like Jimi Hendrix and the Rolling Stones. She actually had a lot in common with another top groupie of the era, Linda Eastman who became Linda McCartney, but Linda had the whole photography thing going for her. Liz was just there because she was gorgeous. Oh, she styled herself a "music journalist and publicist." Anyway, Liz hung around the scene for years and was a player. She was the one that introduced her friend Bebe Buell to Steven Tyler, with whom Liz had gone to school in Yonkers. Steven and Bebe begat the actress Liv Tyler, who you may have heard of. In fact, Liz Brewer is Liv Tyler's godmother - I bet you didn't know that. Liz Derringer is still very much around. Oh, and so is Rick, though they are long since divorced ca 1990. However, I highly doubt most of you came here to see Rick Derringer, the fine musician and songwriter that he is, but instead are more interested in the fascinating Liz Brewer.
Let's dispel a myth right now. According to many sources, Liz Brewer was an unknown dancer who simply was hired from an agency for this video. However, being Rick's wife certainly helped Liz get the gig, wouldn't you agree? You know what they say - make the most of your opportunities. Since her performance is now legendary, Rick hiring his own wife turned into a fabulous decision. Probably saved him some money, too. There is still a lot of confusion about this, and some believe that Liz Brewer and Liz Derringer are different people entirely. Entire message boards debate her identity to this day. But now you know the real deal.

Rick had classic youthful looks in the 1970s. That hair was a touch long, though. I mean, dude, really. Looks like a wig tbh.

Liz Brewer and Rick were married for 22 years. Rick once said:

Liz and I were always on the scene. We were the consummate partiers.

Well, I can't think of many ladies better to party with than Liz Brewer. And that's how it goes down in the big town. In fact, Liz is such a good party girl that since then she literally has made parties into her business. Liz wrote books about her experiences called "Liz Brewer's Ultimate Guide to Party Planning and Etiquette" and "Liz Brewer's Partying Bible." She describes herself now as:

A world-renowned events organiser and expert on social behaviour and etiquette.

Yes, with the British spellings and all. And Liz Brewer is not doing kids' parties down at the local VA hall - she has worked for the Trumps. She has been called the "Queen of Cafe Society." And, perhaps we can all agree that Liz Brewer is an expert on partying from way back. As to whether the current party planner Liz Brewer is the Liz Brewer from the video, there's a definite resemblance even after more than four decades. That beautiful nose is unmistakable.
So, to sum up, there are some who want to romanticize this and claim that Liz just "showed up" for the shoot, you know, at random or something, and started dancing because the song was so good. Friends, that would be wonderful if it ever happened, but goddesses do not just "show up" when you happen to be filming a video on a backlot. Rick had his wife do the dancing, simple as that, and she did a hell of a job.

Controversy Over Sloopy Girl Identity!

The Sloopy Girl phenomenon has really taken off in recent years. All you have to do is look at the video to see why. It's a masterpiece of filmmaking, singing, and especially dancing.

It turns out that there is controversy over the actual identity of Sloopy Girl. The common view is that it is Liz Brewer, and that is what I've gone with above. However, there are other claimants to the crown.

One of these top candidates is Lisa Leonard Dalton. She was a local LA club dancer in the 1970s who performed with the Gazzarri Dancers. Lisa herself claims she was hired to perform in Rick Derringer's 1975 Sloopy Girl video.

Dalton certainly bears a strong resemblance to the Sloopy Girl, so who knows. I'm not going to pick one or the other, because there is a lot of good evidence for both. All I'll say is that Liz Brewer and Lisa Dalton were both very pretty girls and great dancers who looked like the Sloopy Girl! 

This page is dedicated to and honors Sloopy Girl, whatever her identity!

So, I offer Lisa Dalton as another candidate. I mean no disrespect by either lady if anything here is erroneous, we'll just present the information out there and let the reader decide. If you're curious, watch the video below and decide for yourself.  It has some terrific high-definition footage of Sloopy Girl, whoever it is!


All young ladies who want to know how to dance should study this "Hang On Sloopy" video. Sloopy Girl shows you how to shake it!



Here are the lyrics to "Hang On Sloopy" (Wes Farrell/ Bert Berns).

Hang on, Sloopy
Sloopy, hang on
Hang on, Sloopy
Sloopy, hang on
Sloopy lives in a very bad part of town (Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh)
And everybody, yeah, tries to put my Sloopy down (Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh)
Sloopy, I don’t care what your daddy do (Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh)
‘Cause you know, Sloopy, girl, I’m in love with you (Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh)
And so I sing out
Hang on, Sloopy
Sloopy, hang on
Hang on, Sloopy
Sloopy, hang on
Sloopy wears a red dress, yeah, as old as the hills (Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh)
But when Sloopy wears that red dress, yeah, you know, it gives me the chills, oh, oh (Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh)
Sloopy, when I see you walking, walking down the street (Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh)
I say, “Don’t worry, Sloopy, girl, you belong to me” (Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh)
And so I sing out
Hang on, Sloopy
Sloopy, hang on Hang on, Sloopy
Sloopy, hang on Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Give it to ‘em right now
Sloopy, let your hair down, girl
Let it hang down on me (Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh)
Sloopy, let your hair down, girl
Let it hang down on me, yeah, yeah (Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh)
Come on, Sloopy (Come on, come on)
Well, come on, Sloopy (Come on, come on)
Well, come on, Sloopy (Come on, come on)
Well, come on, Sloopy (Come on, come on)
Well, it feels so good (Come on, come on)
You know, it feels so good (Come on, come on)
Well, shake it, shake it, shake it,
Sloopy (Come on, come on)
Well, shake it, shake it, shake it, yeah (Come on, come on)
Oh
Hang on, Sloopy
Sloopy, hang on
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Hang on, Sloopy
Sloopy, hang on
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Hang on, Sloopy
Sloopy, hang on


2021