When Men Were Men (and women were women)

Read a fascinating article by Barb Jungr in The Singer magazine this week about changes in popular singing. Specifically, she points out that "adult" voices have gone out the window in the last decade and we now have pop stars that sound like infants. She also highlights the replacement of authentic communication through song with "vocal gymnastics" and simulated, disconnected (though often heightened) emotion. If this sounds dull don't read on, but if you're a geek like me- here are some extracts:
"Song structures designed in studios and not on the pianos of Tin Pan Alley did not have the breadth of harmonic and melodic architecture that 'confined' singers to delivering the song. These new structures abandoned the rigidity of traditional melodic and harmonic shapes. The singer, thus 'liberated' is confined to gyrating around the repetitive patterns of the musical frame, making their mark through elaborate ornamentation."
"Quivering vibrato, curlicued melisma, notes held past the vanishing point: the favourite tricks of American Idol contestants are often like screams divorced from the pain or ecstasy that inspired them.
"The separation of 'authentic' emotion from its performed facsimile links these ubiquitos phenomena in contemporary singing- the breathy child and the gymnastic vocaliser."
"Ben Brantley argued that the influence of American Idol had infiltrated musical theatre voice production...'Good, well-trained voices that can carry a tune and turn up the volume come cheap. What does not is the voice that identifies a character as specifically and individually as hand-writing.' And herein lies the problem. It doesn't come cheap to invest in talent, to allow it to mature, to support its development and cherish its blossoming. We 'find'our voices over time, experience and understanding..."
"The auto-tuner effectively flattens out the vocal to the exact tonal pitch required, removing all idiosyncrasies which make the voice special... Factor in a society where people in their mid-twenties live at home..., a culture of fast-fix where it seems what is best required for commercial success is to be the most like something already on the market. Add to that a reluctance to engage in what is real, but to emulate ...a soundalike emotion, and what you get is a wall-to-wall carpet of similarity of either tone or vocal styling and increasing youthfulness...of sexlessness or of simulated sexuality."
"Fame must be achieved at all costs, and one very easy route...is pop stardom, because anyone can sound like today's singers. And anyway, everything can be fixed in the studio (or the operating table) and it doesn't require any actual ability or need to communicate. And...we...they...are cheated of something. And only time will tell what the price of that will be."

Quick Update

SO...

• I have somewhere to live- I'll be moving in with Hannah West in Hammersmith from end of October to end of January...
• I have no job. Please pray!
• I'm currently staying with Sarah and Matt- who I have so far forced to play roulette, scrabble and learn to play "Craps" with Marlon Brando's recording of Luck Be A Lady playing in the background (and if you think the name of the game is rude wait til you discover the names of some of the points within the game). Incidently, having run out of betting chips, Sarah placed the winning bet of the game with a cashew nut. Theoretically I think she now owns every cashew nut in the London area. They have both been stars, as has my sis.
• Feeling: Very happy to be here with so much time to hang out with people I think are great. (Have had such a busy social schedule!) BUT anxious about lack of jobbage and ever increasing overdraft. Trusting God to have a plan but wingeing to Him a lot as well! Also have quite a few random and unformed ideas floating around my head about things I'd like to do/set up/be involved in here so I'm trying to weigh them up and decide whether any of them have legs... All prayer most welcome.

Assassination : Just Not Cricket

Went to see Rob and Rho in a production of Stephen Sondheim's Assassins on Wednesday. For those unfamiliar with the show, it's a fictional (and musical!) account of the historical characters who attempted the murder of various US presidents with some attempted guess-work at what drove them to it. The lovely thing about it dramatically (well it's Sondheim-the music takes care of itself), is that the stage becomes this timeless void where the assassins (from different decades...centuries even) can communicate and philosophise over their similar/differing predicaments. The central idea being that Abraham Lincoln's assassin set the precedent and assassination became the most extreme way to register your socio-political discontent: Within the piece he becomes the ring leader, inspiring/coercing the others into action- and with every murder his celebrity is reincarnated-every dead assassin needing the next one to survive in the eye of History.
ANYWAY- I didn't mean to tell you any of that- I just wanted to discuss Britain's comparitive LACK of assassination attempts on kings/queens/PMs. My suggested theories:
- Separation of powers= since our PM doesn't have the individual power/authority inherent in the American presidency, political discontent does not rest so heavily on one man's shoulders. (Plus in a geographically smaller country it is easier to register your discontent and 'have your voice heard' through peaceful protest and the media).
- British cynicism and "we've had it worse" syndrome = This country has a history of class-based oppression, whereas America was built on the dream of a better, fairer land for its poor immigrants. When the dream repeatedly fails to become a reality, the victims of poverty, feeling cheated by political hypocrisy place their blame where the buck stops.
I dunno- just thoughts...

For Jude really...

http://www.wibsite.com/features/olympicdesserts/

Islington Fame Academy Update

Chords learnt:
C G D A E B Em F Am B7 G/B Bm Fm Am7 Em7 C#m G7 E7 D7 A7 D/F#

Current musical triumphs:
Oh Sit Down/ Common People/ American Pie

ONE FOR THE GIRLS: a review

Austen for dummies? No. Austen for the impatient.
The new 90 minute beautifully cinematic adaptation of Pride and Predudice is a chick flick for anyone who liked Bridget Jones. And what's wrong with that?
The fast pace of the action serves romantic intensity (an intensity increased by a couple of rather emotional declarations of love by Matthew MacFadyen's Mr. Darcy). However, the plot's velocity strips away the tone of female m/c boredom from Austen's world of needlecraft and pianofortes (a tone inevitably far more pervading in the 5 hour BBC adaptation), but with it is also lost the sense of desperation for diversion and eventual rescue from the mundane life of maidenhood.
Here the emphasis is placed, quite reasonably, on the need for fnancial rescue - The social difference between the Bennetts and the Darcys so marked it sometimes feels like a Cinderella story. But no-one ever wrote so well of the economic need to marry or of the gulf between country and city life better than Jane Austen and this is an adaptation rooted in these themes.
The biggest victim of extreme editing is the character of Mr.Wickham, who's minimal appearance allows Keira Knightley's Lizzy to make it to the finish line with her halo pretty-much intact, creating a less flawed, less modern, less lovable heroine.
Mind you, it's easy to be high-brow about such things: Jude and I had raised eye-brows at some new, clonky, 20th century-sounding dialogue in the final act, but it's worth remembering that Jane Austen wrote witty romantic fluff with some social commentary thrown in (Helen Fielding knew exactly what she was imitating when she wrote her updated version), and this is the film to match...
It is filled with lovely performances, of far more subtlety than the charactured BBC portayals, from the likes of Brenda Blethyn, Tom Holland, Judi Dench...and...dare I say it... a thoroughly entertaining and intelligent turn from young Miss Knightley. And all ye who cry "NO!" remember: We only dislike her because she's pretty.
You might well feel a little short-changed by the abrupt ending, but this will put a smile on your face for an hour and a half and change the way you feel about Matthew MacFadyen forever.

LOST Untold

Miraculous healings? The dead rising from their graves? Mankind reverted back to a primitive almost mythical land where it must fight for its survival against nature, its own individual inner demons and its fellow man? Not to mention the apparently beautiful (!) “eye of the island” which makes monster-y noises and knocks off the inhabitants leaving them on tree-tops. I am of course talking about the wonderful Channel 4 show, Lost. Easily the best US import to hit our screens since The West Wing, debatably the best telly to hit our screens since The West Wing Series 4. Oooh...controversial.
If you’re a fan of the show (and if not, why not), you might be interested in knowing that it has the most fantastic website. Go to the LOST Untold section and you could spend literally days investigating characters’ backstories, finding clues and trying to work out what the flip is going on. It’s really dark and very interactive - my sis and I were actually a bit scared at one point that something was gonna pop out of the screen and get us! Great fun.

Home is where the heart is

1. May have somewhere to live... (i'll keep you posted but looks good...)
2. Prayed with my sister today and we were both really struck with how God so often seems to have us both going through really similar stuff at the same time- It's like he uses our sisterhood for blessing/empathy/encouragement. She also used an image whilst praying which was exactly the same as the image I had had when praying earlier in the day. Anyway, it was really lovely-thanks em.
3. No job yet, I'll let y'all know...

The Islington Fame Academy

Guitar chords learnt so far:
A E D C G F Em Am Dm Cm

Only thing is: I took up the guitar to look cool.
So far: Not looking so cool.
Last night's rendition of Killing Me Softly after 2 glasses of wine: Anything but cool.
Although my sister thinks that my extended vowel sounds ("kiiiiil...no..er...kiiiilll...wait...kiiiiiiiilling me softly with hiiii...hiiiiiiiiis song...") may spawn a new art form.
But not a cool one.

An Even More Trivial Pursuit

The questions on Trivial Pursuit have got easier.
How do I know? My friend (who shall remain nameless) and I were playing 3 very clever people last night. In order to stand a fighting chance we teamed up against them. After many many years of being whipped at TP every Christmas, I was expecting the same old bashing. But lots of the questions in this very 'new' edition were "guessable" and had a clue to the answer in the question. What's more, the roll again squares have been replaced with these zoomy things that take you straight to the widgys. The net result of which was my friend and I actually gaining all our widgys but one by the end of the game and even having a clear lead at one point. Shocking stuff huh. NOW where will I be now that I've lost one of the good solid pillars of my intellectual inferiority complex?
Oh, and if anyone from the Trivial Pursuit company is reading this: With a Little Bit of Luck is from My Fair Lady, not Oliver. We may be thick but we know our shows.

Dick Whittington with a bag about 50 times the size of a hanky and no cat

....and who is under no illiusions when it comes to the colour of London streets.
Well, I've arrived in Islington , my temporary home. Sarah, Matt and Em are being total loves in letting me stay on their floors (and use their computers!) and it's been so nice hanging out with them. Also, I have an audition every day this week except wednesday (weird-but good!); the nicest so far being auditioning for a fringe play some mates are doing at the Etcetera. It just felt so good to go read for a play and not have to sing a single flippin note. Hooray. Also, my director from panto last year wants me to go audition for him again- I guess just in case I've got really fat since January?! (Please no comments!)

RETURN OF THE MAC

Yes....Ladies and Gentleman....she's back..