bloggie blog

For some reason, the song I Try by Macy Gray has popped up my on radar recently, including a very fun closing bit in an episode of The Office from last season that I just recently saw, the one where Andy appears in a community theater presentation of Sweeney Todd. Great episode! But anyway, back to the song:

Macy Gray sings, “I may appear to be free, but I’m just a prisoner ….” And I think that lyric shows the problem and the wonder of this song. It’s a song that is strong and free, an uninhibited performance by a woman with a solid grasp of her talent. And yet it’s a song about the way in which she’s weak. This strong-weak dichotomy is kind of awesome. It leads me to think the song makes no sense, yet the song keeps pulling me in. Feel me?

So, The Cars are back. My first reaction: Seriously? My second reaction: “Let’s go!” Boy, does this take me back to the day when I pored over the paper insert of their self-titled debut album. Their latest single can be seen on the YouTube:

If you like “Sad Song” with its classic Cars clicky eighths and Ric Ocasek’s vintage voice, you can download it for free from iTunes. The Cars are dead, long live The Cars! (Does not apply to Benjamin Orr, RIP.)

Adele may be this era’s Dusty Springfield. It’s too early to say that definitively, but I’ll toss that out there. Anyway, Adele’s new album has one cover song on it, The Cure’s Lovesong. See the original music video (embedding disabled) and a video of Adele’s cover version (below). Worth taking several minutes to listen back to back!

Recently, I finished work on An American Dream. It’s a short film where I play a taxi driver who picks up a fare that he recognizes. When I first read the script, I thought it was a familiar story, and I was right! Director Ryan Velásquez says his dad was a Harry Chapin listener, and the script was inspired by Harry’s song Taxi. Take a look, take a listen — this is Harry’s last recorded concert. (Please note that An American Dream is drug-free.)

I’m a long time listener to Coverville, a podcast of cover songs. Just recently I heard etgilles’s cover of “(Nothing But) Flowers” and it really struck me. The Talking Heads were smart and the writing was powerful, but this version really brought home the ironic lyrics of this song. You can download this song plus many other Talking Heads covers here, or listen below. Good stuff.

06 (Nothing But) Flowers.mp3

Jonathan Coulton’s excellent cover of Baby Got Back and his original song Code Monkey have been favorites of mine for years. Recently, I have undertaken a project of listening to more of his songs in order to find another gem. I may have found it in Town Crotch.

My “undertaking” has simply been to listen to Thing a Week in its entirety. I recommend it to you, and what could be easier? The free 52-week podcast by the creative force who calls himself JoCo is still available on iTunes. Let me know if there’s a “thing” of his that you think is better than the 3 I mention here!

Lena Horne was a wonderful singer. Her most famous song, I suppose, is Stormy Weather, which I was introduced to via M*A*S*H. (Dang, that show made me smart. Do sitcoms do that anymore?)

But Lena also sang some cheesy, fun lounge classics. On this day of her funeral, take a moment to enjoy these two songs that appeared on the Ultra-Lounge compilations. Wives and Lovers. It Had Better Be Tonight.

RIP, Lena. Rest in peace.

As mentioned previously, I downloaded a very fun iPhone app called iCaroler (iTunes link). It’s a great way to start the Christmas season! You play with carolers, muting or highlighting the Victorian singers in your choir while they sing very fun arrangements of some Christmas favorites. I don’t know why it’s fun, but it is!

It’s even better when multiple people play with your carolers. A friend squealed, “I love it!” after just a few seconds of setup between iPhones.

That was a few days ago. This morning she texted me: “I’m having serious iCaroler withdrawl!” Enough said — worth 99¢ right there!

Some months ago, I met with a color specialist and learned what colors look best on me. Since then, I’ve bought brown not black, cream not white, gold not silver. No royal blues, no grays, nothing cool. Warm, warm, warm.

But here’s the thing. Most uniforms (literal or figurative) are cool. Waiter, cop, Maytag man, lawyer: the trend is for cool colors. Sure, some cops and lawyers wear brown, but you know what I’m saying.

So why did I buy a black shirt? Because the choral group I’m in wears all black, and I didn’t have a black shirt, and black is the uniform of large on-stage ensembles.

It’s for this. Which is, shall we say, cool.

Glee has many great things about it — and you can read about those all over the internets, so let me offer a couple of minor complaints. The show could be so much better.

1. Any scene with cheerleaders wearing cheerleader outfits in it pretty much sucks. Painfully clichéd, caricatured and shallow, especially when there’s more than one girl wearing her cheerleader outfit around school.

2. The musical numbers don’t sound like what they look like. Big problem. Huge problem! Come on — give us cred. We are smart viewers, we can handle it. Many (most?) of the actors on this show can really sing quite well, so let us see what it would sound like if we were present in the scene as we see it. Instead, we see obvious lip synching, and we hear instruments that make no sense. Not right! (Please note: I am not talking about fun, surreal moments like when the football team dances to “If you liked it then you should’ve put a ring on it.” Nope. That’s great. It was staged and we bought it. But almost all other numbers where you hear and see something that doesn’t add up: these make the show less than it could be. If you show four vocalists, let us hear four vocalists in the moment. Etc.)

So much good. So much potential, also, to be that much better.