I am intrigued with this blog thing and want to try it out myself. My name is Mark Gaulding and I live in Palm Desert, CA. I love books, music, theater, film, food, animals, travel. Oh, and did I mention books? I hope to hear from you!
Since La Beyonce has not yet responded to reports that she lip-synced at Obama's second inauguration on Monday, I thought this very interesting analysis, by a fellow singer Mike Doughty, was fascinating. It will be interesting to see what the real story is. But either way, his observations were so cogent.
I read today that Aretha Franklin laughed when she heard Beyonce lip-synced. Whether she lip-synced or not it's irrelevant as the song we heard performed WAS sung by Beyonce and no one else. The only question I have is if she lip-synced, why did she have the beautiful, dramatic moment when she tore out the earpiece?
Kudos also to Kelly Clarkson who gave a magnificent performance at the inauguration. Did she or did she lip-sync?
POSCRIPT: Although Slate Magazine and Wall Street Journal are insisting Beyonce did NOT cheat, CNN is insisting that she did. I guess we'll have to wait for confirmation from Beyonce herself (see today's 1/24/2013 article in the Huffington Post.)
This is an astonishing video which features two virtual videos of people from around the world singing and compiled into a choral work, composed by the gorgeous Eric Whitacre. It is astonishing.
And Mr. Whitacre is awfully easy on the eyes too. Really. I mean who needs Brad Pitt.
photo from by Sibielusblog DANIEL SPREADBURY on AUGUST 4, 2009
This is an amazing musical video. Thanks for this from Flesh Addicted for this find! Cebu Dancing Inmates – Michael Jackson’s This Is It DVD. The “Thriller” routine of the Cebu dancing inmates captured audiences worldwide, including the King of Pop himself, the late Michael Jackson. Payne, along with two of Jackson’s backup dancers, taught the inmates at the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center new routines for a special dance video that will be released to coincide with the “This Is It” DVD launch.
The number was called “The Drill,” the last choreography Payne and Jackson collaborated on before the King of Pop died in June 2009.
The performance was uploaded on the video-sharing site YouTube last January 22. Accessed on the morning of January 26, the video clip had already been viewed 417,610 times. The number also showed the inmates forming a huge peace sign, possibly in remembrance of Jackson, who advocated world peace. Dancers Daniel Celebre and Dres Reid also joined the inmates, who wore black “This Is It” shirts.
The choreographer said it was but fitting to include a special dance number from the now world-renowned Cebu inmates for the special “This Is It” DVD launch. The Cebu dancing inmates even made it to the “Michael Jackson Opus,” the only new publication that was approved and endorsed by Jackson himself and the estate of Michael Jackson.
What a great, understated new album by the original Diva herself. Lady Gaga? Mariah Carey? Who's that? No one....and I mean NO ONE embodies every element of the term diva more than this goddess.
Before anyone (except Garland, Callas, and Merman) there was and is La Diva Streisand. This album is a lovely selection of some of my favorite old standards. Before her overdone symphonic albums like Yentl, etc, Ms. Streisand was putting out some of the most brilliant works ever recorded. This album harkens back to that time, in my opinion.
The entire collection of songs and Streisand's restrained and brilliant vocal interpretation coupled with the exquisite piano and instrument arrangements by Diana Krall and her band, make this in my opinion one of the diva's best albums ever.
Here's two of my favorite songs that are on her new album. See what I mean. Sheer perfection, this woman.
Some Other Time Music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Comden/Green
On the Town is a musical with music by Leonard Bernstein and book and lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, based on Jerome Robbins' idea for his 1944 ballet Fancy Free, which he had set to Bernstein's music. The musical introduced several popular and classic songs, among them "New York, New York", "Lonely Town", "I Can Cook, Too", and "Some Other Time". The story concerns three American sailors on a 24-hour shore leave in New York City during wartime 1944. Each of the three sailors becomes enamoured of a particular woman — and of the city itself.
On the Town was first produced on Broadway in 1944 and was made into a film in 1949. The show has enjoyed a number of major revivals. The musical integrates dance into its storytelling: Robbins made a number of ballets and extended dance sequences for the show, including the "Imaginary Coney Island" ballet.
See my other blogs about the masterful Leonard Bernstein.
Landesman's first career was in the fashion industry in New York. She and her husband then moved to his home of St Louis, where he and his brother started up the "Crystal Palace", a cabaret. This was a successful venture, attracting big-name acts as well as producing avant-garde theatre.
Fran Landesman's experiences sitting in the bar of the Crystal Palace, listening to musicians and audiences, led her to begin writing song lyrics in 1952. One of her best-known is "Spring Can Really Hang You up the Most", her exploration of T.S. Eliot's "April is the cruelest month..." The Palace's pianist Tommy Wolf set her lyrics to music, and the song became a hit, leading to more Landesman–Wolf creations.
This is an album for anyone who truly is devoted to the honest telling of brilliant lyrics, songs sung angelically, and the emotional landscape realized perfectly.
Thanks to my friend, Staci Pope in Austin, for sending me this link to KUT radio in Austin which interviewed the fabulous Wainwright yesterday.
I love Rufus Wainwright. He is one of the most intelligent and gifted songwriters/composers. And his voice makes me tremble. He can go from a very deep rumbling base that shivers your timbers to a wail that can break your heart.
Rufus shares one of my own passions: Judy Garland. I won't go into that just yet.
Rufus is as equally compelling visually as he is aurally:)
He was interviewed yesterday on Austin's KUT radio station and it is a wonderful interview with three song performances.
The intro on KUT's website is great:
Rufus Wainwright, son of folk singers Loudon Wainwright IIIand KateMcGarrigle, has established himself as a songwriter of his generation. He’s an artist with great reverence for the masters before him. He’s captivated fans with his original works, crossing the genres of rock, pop, and opera (Prima Donna premiered at the Manchester International Festival in July 2009 and will make its North American debut in Toronto at the Luminato Festival next summer), and his exceptional tributes covering the songs of his personal favorites, such as Judy Garland. You can catch his live performance onEklektikos with John Aielli right here.
I've never seen him live in concert although I have seen two DVD recordings of his concerts and he is brilliant. Someday....
The interview is 25 minutes long but I encourage you to listen to it in its entirety. You too will see how exceptionally bright this boy is and how gifted musically. And stay tuned to the end because the very best and most moving of the performances is the last song he sings.
CLICK HERE to got to KUT website and then play the recorded interview under "Attached Files"
See my previous posting with Rufus covering Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah. Click here.
I think I've mentioned before that I'm kind of old. Proof of that is that I just discovered a wonderful band/singer, called Evanescence (the band's name) and two of their songs which resonated with my current existence a bit.
What little concept I had of Evanescence was that is was ala Marilyn Manson, sort of a satan worshipping thing. I have no idea why I thought that. Maybe I saw a photo of the lead singer and she is sort of goth-ish. So I was shocked when I was at Mango Tango with The Bug having yogurt the other day and I was enchanted with the song MY IMMORTAL that was playing on the muzak (what do they call that these days?). The teenage staff person told me and I was amazed.
This word, evanescence, what does it mean? I just looked it up. What a beautiful word.
Origin: 1815–25; < class="ital-inline">ēvānēscere to vanish
Related forms:
ev⋅a⋅nes⋅cence, noun
ev⋅a⋅nes⋅ci⋅ble, adjective
To dissipate or disappear like vapor. See Synonyms at disappear.
[Latin ēvānēscere, to vanish : ē-, ex-, ex- + vānēscere, to disappear (from vānus, empty; see euə- in Indo-European roots).] ev'a·nes'cence n. --------------------------------------- Here's the video for the first song, GOOD ENOUGH. Will post on their other song, MY IMMORTAL in a future blog.
This video is rather interesting. I abhor the burning of books, or even the thought, but I don't think that this video is intended to mean what this act of hatred usually means. I was also attracted to the use of so many beautiful books in this video, even though they are eventually burned.
This video is about redemption somehow, no? What do you think about the song, the video and the word evanescence.
This is a very hard song to top. Janis Ian's song is a masterpiece. But somehow I think Barbara Cook bests Ian. Maybe it's Cook's own story that informs the song and imbues it with such power. Whatever the case this is another example of a brilliant cover song that just slightly bests the original. This singer is like Meryl Streep......she just never does anything less than perfect.
There are a few women artists (singers, actors, personalities) that I consider to be goddesses. I worship at their feet. Here's a few: Jodie Foster, Jessica Lange, Meryl Streep, Renee Fleming, kd lang, Judy Garland, Cate Blanchett. More recently, Kate Winslet. I can't think of them all right now. (Oh, Susan Sarandon was until she caused Al Gore to lose the 2000 election by urging voters to vote for her candidate Ralph Nader. I consider her largely personally responsible for the disastrous years of Shrub. And I lament the loss of such a beautiful goddess.)
One of my very first goddesses was singer Joan Armatrading. I've been in love with this singer since the early '80s. She has such a wonderful body of work. And she is fabulous in concert.
Here's a recent live studio recording of her early classic Willow.
This song by the talented songwriter Craig Carnello is literally plumbed, wrung through by David Burnham. All that beauty and all that talent...all in one person.
You can watch this live performance which is wonderful but the sound isn't as good so I used his recording above first.
David Burnham singing "Flight" by Craig Carnelia at the Caffeinated Cabaret in Riverside 4-19-2009 his album is available....Here it is.....he is quite the little hottie, no?
Continuing with my love for choral music, I should talk about another documentary that we watched recently which was titled THE SINGING REVOLUTION. The film tells the story of the tiny Soviet Union country of Estonia, who managed to win their independence without guns or tanks or bombs. Their weapon was their voices. The collective singing of a million people set them free from the Soviet Union and led to the eventual crumbling of the entire Soviet Union.
From the website for the documentary (click here to visit the singing revolution) "Most people don’t think about singing when they think about revolutions. But song was the weapon of choice when, between 1987 and 1991, Estonians sought to free themselves from decades of Soviet occupation. During those years, hundreds of thousands gathered in public to sing forbidden patriotic songs and to rally for independence.
'The young people, without any political party, and without any politicians, just came together ... not only tens of thousands but hundreds of thousands ... to gather and to sing and to give this nation a new spirit,' remarks Mart Laar, a Singing Revolution leader featured in the film and the first post-Soviet Prime Minister of Estonia. 'This was the idea of the Singing Revolution.'
James Tusty and Maureen Castle Tusty’s The Singing Revolution tells the moving story of how the Estonian people peacefully regained their freedom--and helped topple an empire along the way."
This film demonstrates the power of music and singing. We got it on NetFlix.......you won't be disappointed.
I was on facebook (grudgingly--it is rather a silly venue to me) the other day just to get caught up on messages. One of my friends sent me one of those tests that you take to reveal yourself. It was an interview......it was an eternal interview which wouldn't end which seems to me to be metaphoric of facebook.
One of the questions that I had to answer really made me pause, though. Still does. So I thought I'd post on it here (I don't know if this was the exact question):
Which would you most regret losing?a. Sightb. Sound
I know, all of us immediately would say, "Neither, thank you." Stupid question we all agree (as were most of the facebook interview questions). But, that wasn't an option....there was no "c." So I sat there in that "Groundhog Day" (another one of my favorite movies ever) moment in that eternal facebook interview and really had to think. I love two things in the world more than anything really. I love reading and I love music. Most of my life has been integrally wrapped up with these two passions, in one way or another.
I really couldn't decide........the visceral experience of reading and the meditative qualities it has are so singular and special to me that I couldn't imagine not being able to experience that ever again. But every time I listen to music I become spiritual almost (it's probably the only time that I am ever spiritual). Music does that to me.
So, I've really been thinking about that question since then.....what if I really had to lose one of my two most favorite things (the third would be food and the fourth would be vodka)? I finally came to a decision.
I would regret losing sound more. While I wouldn't wish it, I could imagine living without ever seeing blue sky again. But the thought of never hearing another song seems too unbearable, too utterly desolate and lonely.
Growing up, I loved singing and I sang in choirs for most of my school years. I developed a love for choral music as a result which has lasted my lifetime. There is nothing more amazingly vibrant and spiritual than standing in the middle of a bunch of other choristers singing a beautiful song. Something happens and your voice blends with the other voices and it becomes this living breathing thing. There is this remarkable vibration (I'm not talking new age here) or wave that happens. It doesn't happen often. It usually happens after intense rehearsals, after voices learn to blend with each other, but when it does there is nothing better in the world to experience, period. I mean NOTHING better.
So one of my many musical interests and passions is choral music. Over the years we've collected recordings and attended concerts periodically. Last Christmas Eve we were listening to a concert on NPR (I adore NPR) by a choir called, CONSPIRARE, and I literally started crying it was just so magnificent and beautiful. All these years arguably one the very best choral group in the world has been singing away and I've just learned about them!
CONSPIRARE is, I believe, a musical term which means "to breathe" or something like that. The group is a professional choral group based out of Austin and is led by the most appealing, engaging dude, Craig Hella Johnson. His beauty is not just external. It is his intelligence and passion for his music that makes him even more appealing.
CONSPIRARE is really one of the preeminent professional vocal groups in the world. What I find so impressive and attractive about the group is that they incorporate all sorts of music into their repertoire. They also do rock songs, cover songs, jazz, spiritual stuff of non-traditional choral music that I think is unique and wonderful.
I have yet to see them live in concert. But I love listening to their music. When I first started this blog I couldn't find any video footage on CONSPIRARE to post on them. But I finally found some great clips that I think will illustrate just how amazingly beautiful their music is and how very special choral music can be.
The first clip is a short (2min) interview with conductor Craig Johnson which a good introduction to the group.
The second video, is a short (10min) clip from a recent concert which offers 3-4 songs and shows their range of material--one of the songs is Carly Simon's gorgeous "Let the River Run". It also demonstrates, I think, for someone who has either never sung in a choir or never listened much to choral music, that "thing" that happens as a singer in a choir. If you listen closely sometimes you can hear the collective vibration of the voices which becomes sort of a single "wave". Goosebump city.
I'm never sure if there is a God. But when I hear this song I certainly think it's possible, particularly because of diva Fleming. Perhaps this is one of the most beautiful songs ever written?
Well that title oughta catch your attention. Actually, I have to admit that I'm kind of old. A sign of my antiquity is that I sort of knew but couldn't have explained what a "remix" is. This song caught my attention when it was played on KCRW (another obsession for another blog post...but this is the most important radio institution in the universe) a few months ago. When I went later to the playlist and saw that it was the Tet Four Remix, I really was kind of clueless. I just knew that I loved the beautiful song that I heard. Turns out there is a wonderful sweet short film that goes with Tet Four's remix. Doesn't that cute bloke seem awfully sad? Watch:
After doing a little surf/sleuthing I stumbled upon the original song as released by the band Caribou. There is a world of difference no doubt. While I liked the song, I LOVED the Tet Four remix which in my opinion transcended a very special and inspired song from just an interesting one. So, our lesson for the day was: what is a remix and wow sometimes remixes can be better than the original. I'm sure all the youngsters must know this.
Here's the original if you want to compare. I think you'll agree that whoever that Tet Four dude is, his version was inspired.
That concludes today's lesson for us old folks and hopefully we turned some young folks on to a great remix. At least, we all know what remix means now!
This is one of the best cover songs I've ever heard....it is better than the original. Holly Cole Trio doing I Can See Clearly Now. And, Carla, if your reading this: "she feels it, she really feels it." No doubt that you really see clearly now: Carla just graduated from law school and I am so in awe of her. Congratulations, Carla. This one is dedicated to you!
Yes, indeed, I do believe that Holly does feel it's going "to be a bright sunshiny day."
I know I always do when I listen to this song....one of my favorites:
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