Victor Fiorillo’s Weekender: Sexy Beasts, Cockroaches, and the Boogaloo
Ah, the promised wintry mix. The gaudy department store decor. The month of Law & Order reruns and stop-motion reindeer on TV. It all can only mean one thing: The dreaded holiday season is upon us. Enjoy yourself while you still can.
I’m guessing only one of them can get it up … This weekend, three very different shows featuring singers of the male gender hit town. My personal pick: the swaggering Tom Jones. Oh, excuse me, Sir Tom Jones, as his office in the UK pointed out to me. Sir Tom (at the A.C. Hilton all weekend) may be best known for his hit singles “It’s Not Unusual” and “What’s New Pussycat,” but they are child’s play compared to his balls-to-the-wall Thunderball. If Sir Tom exudes too much testosterone for you, there’s always the thoroughly asexual (and thoroughly magnificent) Vienna Boys Choir at the Kimmel and Bobby Rydell at the Keswick. Sure, Rydell hasn’t had a hit since more than a decade before I was born, but the high school in Grease was named after him, so he must have been pretty cool at some point.
Just what you need, more food … We may have lost Lollapalooza, but we will always have Latkepalooza. This year (the fifth annual), chefs from places like Bar Ferdinand and Marigold Kitchen will spruce up 3,000 or so of the lowly potato pancake. In case you lost track, Hanukkah starts next week.
What the hell is an Electric Boogaloo anyway? … I wrote off breakdancing a long time ago as one of those things that I think I would really like to do but will never actually do, and I’m fine with that (though I do remember doing a mad Worm at a drunken party in the ’90s). I would much rather watch the experts at work in the Kings of the Floor competition at Society Hill Dance Academy.
Yeah, but I get to bang Fran Drescher … I’m pretty sure that on my wife’s list of men that she could guiltlessly make out with if she just happened to be hanging around Phuket at the same time as him is Anthony Bourdain of No Reservations, the Travel Channel show where he scoffs down goat colon soup and mealworm pie. (Fran Drescher has never had a cockroach in her mouth, so I think I have the better deal.) He’s totally arrogant, which is actually what makes his show so good. See him be arrogant at the Free Library on Saturday in support of his new book.
And because I can’t decide … Bowling Against Bullets at Lucky Strike … (one of my favorite movies) Donnie Darko and cheap beer at the Troc … and 1812 Productions’ politically charged (and no doubt very funny) This Is The Week That Was at the Adrienne.
