My younger brother was a real comic as a teenager. Night after night, doing the dishes after supper, his song-and-dance routines used to get the rest of us just splitting our sides with laughing.

(Notice I’m not telling you my brother’s name? — that’s because I enjoy my life and limbs intact, and would prefer to keep it all that way, even if he finds out that I’m telling about his entertaining teenage years!)

As I recall, he did a great straight-faced parody of different tunes from our parents’ collection of funny old LPs — I can still almost hear him singing the Big Bopper’s “Chantilly Lace” in a basement-deep voice, doing a cool little jive step, making goo-goo eyes at his dish-towel dance partner.

And there was a sort of Russian-inspired squat-kicking dance routine he did sometimes, and an Al Jolson (“Swanee River” era) impression… but my all-time favourite After-Dinner Show was when my brother danced the Charleston.

See, he’s a tall man, my younger brother.

And he was one of those tall skinny impossibly-long-legged teenagers.

So you can just imagine how that whole Charleston loose-jointed, leg-sliding, knee-crossing fast Roaring Twenties jazz-baby style llooked when those long legs got flying!

Well, just have a look at the video (below) and you’ll see what I mean — the tall guy who’s 4th on the floor in this dance-off competition? I have no idea who that dancer is, but his Charleston style just reminds me of so much of my brother showing off his own moves, when we were kids.
Good times, good times!

Dance while you clean! Listening to music makes an exercise program go better, so why not bop your way through the housework chores, too?

Yes, we’ve harped on this before — the power of blasting Benatar (or whoever) to make cleaning fun and trim down those little rolls of fat around the belly and butt — but a few things came up recently to bring it back to mind:

1. My New Shiny Shoes spotted a CD made for the purpose — Housework Songs — with 42 upbeat songs to get your dustpan in gear.
2. Joey Moggie turned onto my old favourite Montreal radio station, CHOM-FM — Spirit of Rock — and mentioned that they’re streaming the classic rock online.
3. And for the great giggle of truth, Alison May posted the funniest piece over at Brocante Home — The Skinny Housewife — this week’s must read:

… work up a bit of a sweat, go at a steady speed, don’t sit down to debate the rights and wrongs of men with too many wives on Jeremy Kyle/Jerry Springer, stretch more than you need to, jig about with the hoover and your housekeeping music of choice and don’t stop for a “rest”…

Do the things you can’t be bothered to do like cleaning out the cupboard under the stairs and getting in the bath naked and scrubbing the grouting with a toothbrush. Put your bum into it. Make a song and dance out of it. Take the rugs and bash the hell out of them in garden.

It takes effort, but if the thought of a perky bottom gets you through the daily grind, then I say all the better…

Really, go read it.

And then, the very second that you’re done reading, get up and do what the lady says — blast the tunes that get your motor running, and get on with it. Those dust bunnies won’t chase themselves, you know!