For the past 54 years or so, the member nations of the EBU (European Broadcasting Union) send their best pop singers and songs to compete against each other to be declared the best. This competition known as Eurovision is the longest running tv show and is one of the most watched programs in Europe. Each year many countries send awesome songs but most are utter crap. For more information on the contest itself check out their site. This year the contest will be held in Düsseldorf Germany. In the final round of the competition 25 songs/singers/groups will compete. The winner doesn't receive a prize but their career is furthered by all of the publicity. This list is my top 11 acts for Eurovision
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Ensemble cast
I love musicals. I love the stage productions and sometimes the movie adaptations of musicals. The one flaw with large stage productions is the fact that they're always ensembles. Most of the time the casting is done right but of course there is always one or two that are off. For example, the 25th anniversary of Les Misérables. Nick Jonas, he is über distracting because he is not at the level of the other performers. He is a pop singer. Admittedly his performance wasn't bad, but put against the others he was definitely the weakest link. He has the least control, least training, and looked like he was in constant pain while he sang. Plus, he tried to have a British accent, which was hit and miss and dreadful. He did his best and it was obvious, so props to him. Still half the people in the chorus were better then he was. When he is singing towards the end and incredibly emotional song, "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables", it's the lyrics that grab you not the performance. *sigh* Oh well, moving on to bigger and better things.
The Broadway production of Hairspray the musical had a good ensemble; however, the original Tracy was not to my liking. She was a bit shrieky and just overall not that good. Nikki Blonsky in the movie production was much better.
Lets talk Phantom. The movie was pitiful. Sad, bad, horrible, and all around disappointing. Gerard Butler did a good job as Phantom, but he was no Micheal Crawford. Emmy Rossum was a good Christine, but again Sarah Brightman was way way better. Patrick Wilson as Raoul was, in my opinion, as good as the original. Worst, Minnie Driver as Carlotta. She didn't do any of her own singing and she was extremely distracting and detracted from the whole thing. She is a good actor, but her performance was weak and laughable. Jennifer Ellison as Meg was brilliant and Miranda Richardson as Mme. Giry was incredible; in fact, she may have been the best part of the movie.
The best ensemble cast in a movie ever, that I've seen, is the 1973 movie production of Jesus Christ Superstar. Not one of the best musicals of all time but not one of the worst either. Ever single person in that production was insanely good. Yvonne Elliman was an exceptional Mary Magdalene. See, I don't hate all ensemble cast. : p
Sunday, February 27, 2011
The way I treat me
This post is motivated by things my friends and family have mentioned to me.
I treat myself very differently then I treat my friends and family. I treat myself "worse" then I treat them: I can seem rather self-deprecating. I don't view the tendency to judge myself more critically and harsher then I judge other people as bad. For one thing, I'm me and you're you. Kinda obvious I know, but still that is the chief difference. Anyway, I know what and why I do things, what my motivation is, and the circumstances I'm in and have been in. You, not so much. I judge myself more harshly because I know that I have a tendency towards being conceited, self centered, and rather diva-ish. I use this system of self-critiquing as a way to check these harmful attributes of my personality. However, I do recognize when I make a major accomplishment and when I have success, but I don't wallow in self-praise. This may seem odd towards our very ego centric western society, yet it works well for me. I always remember there is room for improvement and growth. I do not believe there is such a thing as perfection; however, we should strive towards improvement of self. This is a fairly common concept in Eastern belief and philosophy. I think this ability to critique myself and use that critique to strive towards improvement comes from my four years of martial arts training. Admittedly, I'm not the best of martial artist (I have a lot of room for improvement) yet I'd like to think that I've learned how to implement many of the concepts taught by my instructors and the art itself.
In Tang Soo Do (my martial art) we have 7 tenets:
- Integrity
- Concentration
- Perseverance
- Respect and Obedience
- Self-Control
- Humility
- Indomitable Spirit
These 7 tenets mean this to me: Integrity - no matter what, I must remember that I have value and that people have placed value in me and that I must not disappoint them or myself, Concentration - I must focus on what I'm doing at that moment and it's outcome, Perseverance - ok, in the words of the Cobra Kai "never give up, never surrender," only applied to self improvement and improvement of technique etc, Respect and Obedience - there is always someone who is better then me at something, this means that in some way everyone is my superior; therefore, deserving respect I give obedience to those that are in leadership over me, Self-control - not smacking down that person that just really pissed me off, Humility - know that no matter how good I get I can always improve, Indomitable Spirit - always getting up and continuing to fight and improve no matter what.
We also have 14 attitude requirements. Most are very long so I'll include the three that most apply to this blog entry: 3 - All out effort: everything gets 100%, 8 - Do not be overly ambitious: basically don't try and learn black belt techniques at white belt, and 9 - Frequently inspect your own achievements: this shows where I can improve and where I have made progress.
Atop all 21 of our other core philosophical concepts are 5 codes:
- Loyalty to country
- Obedience to parents/ instructors and seniors
- Honor friendship
- No retreat in battle
- In fighting choose with sense and honor
I have been surrounded by these philosophical concepts for four years and had to study them and know what they mean and how they are applied to my life and my art. They have become an integral part of my character. If you ever wondered how people functioned without a god inscribing in stone what they should and shouldn't do, these 26 concepts are good evidence. There is no god punishing those who do not implement these concepts properly or rewarding them if they do. There is only the pride of their family and themselves. This is trained into us at my Dojang (Korean term for Karate school): we make our instructors proud, our families proud, and ourselves proud when we do right. We dishonor the afore mentioned people when we do bad. This shame principal is pretty much nonexistent in modern protestant cultures. I feel that this system is superior because it has immediate determinable results: someone shows they are displeased with some action now as opposed to some abstract future date. In the end, I'm different. I need to do different things to be a better person and improve myself.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Albums that have no skipped tracks.
I admit it, I'm a playlist kind of a person: I love music but I don't always listen to an album all the way through multiple times. So, when I listen to an album all the way through multiple times that means it's really good or I love it, or usually both. This is a limited list and very exclusive. So lets look at the albums lucky enough that I listen to every track:
Madonna - Ray of Light: her best album in my opinion, each track is brilliant.
Kylie Minogue - Fever: One of her best albums and most of the tracks are good.
Thierry Amiel - Où Vont Les Hiostoire: Thierry ventured into dangerous waters with this album: he covered Sarah McLachlan and he sang two tracks in English. His English is good especially for a young French person.
Alizée - Un Enfant Du Siecle: I really like this album, it shows a more mature side of Alizée that has been hiding it's a good album and each track is solid, not a lot of single bait or tracks to listen to separate of the album.
The Green Children - Encounters: I've known about this band for awhile, I had a single from them but didn't listen to it much. Amazon ran a deal after Christmas where their album was $5 so I bought it and just started listening to it a couple of days ago and haven't stopped.
Ricky Martin - Musica+Alma+Sexo (aka MAS): I love this album. There isn't a bad track, I love that he included, at least in the special edition released through Target, extra versions of some of the tracks including English versions of a few tracks. I have my fav tracks but over all a really solid album
Natasha St-Pier - anything she's ever done: Every single one of her albums are amazing each track is good and her voice is amazing. This is her latest album one of my absolute favs.
Kylie Minogue - Aphrodite: This has been in my Alarm clock (it's also a cd player) since I got it and I've never skipped a track, I wake up to it every morning.
BoA - Hurricane Venus/ Copy & Paste: This is BoA's sixth Korean album and it was repackaged with two extra tracks, the repackage was called Copy & Paste. She really stepped up her game with this album and made up for her fairly lack luster American release. She wrote lyrics for several tracks and even fully composed a full track by herself. She returned to her more Jazz and R&B roots with a few solid pop tracks to use as singles to stay on the charts.
Friday, February 18, 2011
The GaGa Code.
Ok, so for the last week, everybody has been bashing on Lady GaGa. Oh GaGa your only mediocre now. Oh GaGa, you used a chord from Express Yourself in Born This Way. Oh GaGa it's not as good as some of your other music, too much hype not enough product, blah blah blah. Lets start with this simple phrase, y'all are dumb asses: of course it isn't as good as the hype, nothing is, ever, it's called advertising. Sell records, make millions, retire and over dose on crack, that is the music industry in a nut shell. If she and her slew of advertising cronies hadn't over inflated the single she wouldn't be making headlines right now. GaGa is a genius of one thing and one thing only: marketing. She knows how to market herself, her product, etc. that is what we love about her not her music, it's all been done before. She’s copying Cyndi Lauper, who copied Madonna, who copied Cher. Anyway, what most people seeking headlines and featured videos on youtube are missing is that Born This Way did something that no other song has ever done: it is an intentional gay anthem. Cher, Kylie, Pink, Gloria Gaynor, Madonna, and any other stereotypical gay icon you can think of, have all had songs that became gay anthems; however, none of them were ever intended to be such. All of the songs those women wrote and or performed were intended to do one thing: hit the top 40, stay there for a couple of weeks until the next single is ready, or the album is. So GaGa may have used two or three classic Madonna tunes, as Cheeks points out in his video Born This Way MEGAMIX, whatever. Madonna's hit album from 2005, Confessions on a Dance Floor, unabashedly borrowed themes from classic Disco groups. Don't believe me? Go listen to Madonna's Hung Up, then Abba's Gimme Gimme (A Man After Midnight) or the other way round if you prefer, Future Lovers by Madonna uses the main theme of I Feel Love by Donna Summer as the bass line. (Abba is credited in the album booklet but Donna Summer isn't) Most pop albums flirt with variations on themes by other big artist because it's a guaranteed way to sell records. In fact back in the Baroque period, variations on a theme was the highest form of music and the highest praise one could give a composer. Did anybody stop to think that maybe, if at all, she is giving a nod to other big gay icons. Furthermore, there are only so many notes and so many note combinations, especially in pop music, eventually we're going to run out. Some have argued that Raise Your Glass by Pink, We R Who We R by Ke$ha, and Fireworks by Katy Perry are better gay anthems for bullied LGBTQ youth then Born This Way because they were released first. Don't get me wrong, I love all of those songs, but only one of them even slightly resembles a gay anthem: Raise Your Glass by Pink. We R Who We R sounds like all the rest of Ke$ha's pro partying and be as weird and grundgy/slutty as possible, and Fireworks, who new it existed before the video, right? Don't give me that, "oh I new about it before the video and new it was a song of support" garbage, it was a Katy Perry album track not a single. People who listen to her albums, all the way through, knew about it, then she made the feel good video of the year for it and now everybody knows it and it get's sung on Glee. Ok, so I'm a little weird that I actually spent time on this topic. It's ok if you don't like GaGa's new single, really I won't judge, but stop blaming her, it's not her fault: she wrote a song that isn't up your alley, fine, don't listen to it. If you bought it, get rid of it, change radio stations when it comes on, whatever you need to do, do it, and shut the hell up already.
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