Darth Vader plays the gurdy.

The things I find on the internet.

World's Funniest Classical Music Performances

Now trying to find each of these individually.

If any knows where to find them, please let me know! :)

'Singing in the Rain' for Today

Some of you may recall a post I did about a year and a half ago concerning a cover of one of my favorite songs, 'Singing in the Rain'.  The only thing I will repeat about that post is that the writers and music arrangers for the show 'Glee' should still die.

Anyway, I found a cover of the song done by another popular singer, Usher.  I'm not a huge fan of him, but I'll listen to him when he comes on the radio and I find him a good singer I'm not embarrassed to listen to.  In my roaming on Youtube I found his cover and I thought it was a very good homage to Gene Kelly.  What do you think?

Please enjoy!

The Avengers Intro - Firefly Style

This makes me very very happy!!!!!!
:)

Les Miserables - Official Trailer (HD)

OK, I'm excited!!!!!

Lady Egad!!

Give me the allowance to indulge myself in a small rant.  I have often verbally ranted and I have found it to be very therapeutic.  I'm sure many of you girls know what I mean.  Well, here it is!!

I very strongly with a passion, dislike, yes dislike for hate is too strong of a word, dislike Lady Gaga.

I now duck for a moment as some readers will most likely throw something at their computers.  If everyone has calm down, I shall proceed.

When she debut on radio she was singing techno and has gone on to join the collective 80s throwback.  Neither genres of music I particular clamor to listen to.  But when she first appeared everyone fell head over heels infatuated with her.  Which meant more songs for me to suffer through.  Truth be told Lady Gaga is one of the man reasons I stopped listening to the radio altogether, but that is a story for another time.

The more songs I heard of hers the more I realized that I did not like her style of music.  Just a personal touch.  Than I saw her . . . a little part of my artistic soul was hung, drawn and quartered, twice, than buried in unconsecrated ground.

Do not get me wrong, I support people who express themselves through their manner of dress.  I applaud the man who can pull off a kilt or waist coat.  I cheer the woman who can carry a parasol down the street without a second thought.

At first I thought the outfits were for her music videos, but I was sadly mistaken.  She wears the over the top and, quiet frankly, unflattering clothes all the time.


A moment of silence please for another part of my artistic soul that has been tortured to death.

**Moment of Silence**

Moving on.

Despite all this I was willing to just not really care about along with a bunch of other 'singers' out there.  Not actively seeking out or outright ignoring them.  Oddly enough when a song of hers came on and I did not know it was Lady Gaga I still did not like it (proof I have taste).  It was not until I saw one of her music videos for one of her more recent songs (I now use that term loosely in regards to her) that took her to my 'strongly dislike' category.


I won't say which one, but I will say that the imagery was confusing and pornographic.  Yes, I accuse Lady Gaga of making readily available porn.  Defend yourself!!!!!  In that same music video you can see her holding what looks like a rosary or something close enough to it, dressed similar to a nun of some sort, puts the pseudo-rosary in her mouth and makes mockery of the symbol of the cross.  Yeah, be surprise that I still have a computer to update this blog on.  It took all that I had not to burst out into tears because, to be perfectly honest, that music video felt like it was slapping me in the face, stabbing me in the gut, twisting my arm, mocking my faith, and all around doing everything it possibly could to make me hurt.

Now many of you may think that's over reacting to an artistic vision of a music video.  Well, see it from my side for a moment:  Imagine that something that is very essential to you and is part of who you are is taken to the public square and everyone in town  throws knifes at it and insults it for everything it's worth reducing it down to rubble.  After that everyone proceeds to stamp it into dust as they drunkenly dance on the remains, desecrating it and then throw all sorts of trash and muck on it.  All for the sake of art.

That, my readers, is not art, it's bullying plain and simple.

Cello Wars

This must be shared!
Enjoy!

Christmas Songs

"Christmas time is here
Happiness and cheer
Fun for all that children call
Their favorite time of the year ….."
            - 'Christmas Time is Here', Charlie Brown Christmas

Yes it's that time of year in which I hide as much as I can from the secular Christmas. I was shocked to find that some radio stations that play the non-stop Christmas music for the season did not even have the decency to wait until after Thanksgiving (US) to start playing 'Jingle Bell Rock'. I shudder (a lot).

This year is especially hard to enjoy the overly joyous occasion considering the year I had to content with ( the loss of my nephew and of a job to name of few). But I fully intent to have a good Christmas – when December 25^th comes around.

I will confess that I do listen to the radio stations that have non-stop Christmas music, mostly because most stations in my area play music that I do not really enjoy. One song has caught my attention, and I don't really remember it being played on the radio in years past. Namely this one: Prayer of St. Francis, (sometimes mistakenly called 'Make Me a Channel of Your Peace').  A nice, simplistic, beautiful hymn when done right.  Thing that I do not get is why is this considered a Christmas song?  My Church has often sang this song for one reason or another, but never for Christmas and I, myself, have never really considered it a Christmas song.  A head scratcher this one.

Which leads me to another point that has plagued my (sometimes) thinking mind for some years.  I find it interesting that the only time God can be mentioned in any causal conversation that won't lead to arguments or death threats is during the month of December.  Just about little more than half of the Christmas songs deal with the Incarnation and God the Father.  It's probably the safest time to be Catholic when so much Catholic Theology is being sung on the radio.  Don't believe me! Well let's take a look, shall we (please note I will focus on songs that are oft played on the radio):

Silent Night:  This German carol basically recites what occurs in the Gospel in a sweet, simple tune.  It sings of the Virgin Mother, the shepherds the angels speak to, and there's even a subtle reference to Easter.

Twelve Days of Christmas: Even though I think it's neat, I really don't believe that this song was written by English Catholics during the days of heavy persecution in Great Britain to teach the faith in secret.  For one thing, partridges are not native to Great Britain and I believe that they weren't on the island as of yet when the song was written.  But that's not the point!!  The point is it got you thinking about English Catholics and different aspects of the faith.  So ha!

God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman: An oldie but goodie English carol that, like Silent Night,

recites the events of the Gospel.  Here we are told that this event brings us 'comfort and joy', also harkening to Easter.

The First Noel/Nowell: This carol sings of the Announcement of the birth of Christ, both of the Christmas Star for the Magi and the Angels speaking to the shepherds.  This is not played as often as the other carols aforementioned, but it is heard and I have yet heard a version that has made my ears bleed. :)

Ave Maria:  This one actual surprises me with the frequency I hear it on the radio.  I am referring to the Franz Schubert version of the song.  Though not originally intended for the Latin prayer, Ave Maria, (original lyrics Ellens dritter Gesang) the prayer slipped into the melody with moving and uplifting results.

These are just a few examples of songs that I have found, and I am sure there are more out there that I have not mentioned.  But this is just to get you thinking.

I must be going now, the clink and the clank I hear is the notice that my parents have begun pulling out Christmas decorations from the attic and my cue to hide before I'm overwhelmed with merriment!!

Happy Advent!

The 'Glee' I Heard Made Me Cry

It's been awhile since my last post and my only reason is that I've been extremely busy with ....stuff. A poor excuse indeed, but alas, my only one.

At the persistence of some girls I'm working with in a play, I watched a clip of 'Glee'. I guess it was the end of the episode performance there was no other way for it to fit into the show. The clip was entitled "Singing in the Rain/Umbrella"; it should be noted that I loved the movie 'Singing in the Rain', I grew up watching it, singing the songs and even trying to dance along (the last bit was at the expense of my head and furniture). So I see the title and I think that they are trying to reintroduce old classical showtunes to the modern audience. With that thought I click play . . . two and a half minutes of my life later and I was ready to do two things. The first being to plot the death of the 'Glee' writers and music arragners; second listening to the original 'Singing in the Rain' with Gene Kelly over and over and over again until my mind was purged of the sacrilege I has just heard.

I sent a link of the 'Singing in the Rain/Umberlla' clip to my friend Jackie, who has a much better ear for music than me and can sing fantastically, to get her opinion. Jackie is my go to girl for music, she has been singing Gilbert and Sullivan operas since she was a wee lass and loves theatre as much as myself. I knew I would get a good and through examination of the piece. I wait for her to listen and gather an opinion.

But as I waited for Jackie to get back with me I started listening to other 'Glee' recordings and I noticed something rather interesting about the voices. Let me first say that the singing is decent - no one, from what I've heard, is 'nails on the chalkboard' bad, but that just it . . . they're not bad. There's nothing about the singing that makes me say 'Wow, they're really good!' or 'I want to listen to more of their songs!', it was more along the lines of elevator music -- something to listen to so there no awkward silence between you and the other five strangers going up with you.

I then hear a ping noting Jackie response. Her reaction, I quote, "The cast of Glee should DIE!" I am sure this was a rather mild reaction (it's always so hard to gauge emotions over chat). She makes mention of how the voice sound as though they have been corrected by a computer thus robbing them of any personality in the voice. I agree with her whole heartedly.

The arrangement of the piece also left something lacking. The title suggest that the song 'Singing in the Rain' would be the predominate one of the two merged together, so you could imagine my surprise when I clicked play another song started. It took me a while to remember that 'Umbrella' was a pop song that was over played on the radio a few years back. I was disappointed to find that there was only ONE verse of 'Singing in the Rain' in whole rendition which was over dominated by 'Umbrella'. I was never really a big fan of the song, nor a big opponent -- it was just REALLY over play for me. Out of the two songs I believe that 'Singing in the Rain' deserved more air time, because it is a song that has defined music; its listed as number three on American Film Institute's 100 Years . . . 100 Songs list. Number 3, people!!

On a final note I would like to say that I do not think that the cast of 'Glee' is talentless, I just find them . . . untrained. Give them all good voice instructors and then imagine what they could do. Whatever that would be, it would at least be better then it is now.

Until the next post -- God Bless!