Category Archives: Music

Tales of the tape

Remember the very first scene of Downton Abbey in Season 1, when the operator learns the Titanic has sunk by reading the telegraph machine’s paper tape?

Is reading Twitter really all that different?

reading telegraphOn Sunday evening, I was one of maybe 10 people on the planet who wasn’t watching the Grammys.

(Doing so would only highlight how little I know about music.  Plus, Downton Abbey was on.  Please.)

Of course, I was checking Twitter while I was watching PBS.  And by evening’s end, it felt like I had watched the Grammys…because every news outlets, friend and celebrity I follow had blabbed all the details from the ceremony.

The Twitter version, that is — 140 characters or less.  So I had been reading a kind of modern version of the telegraph tape.

Look how far we’ve come in 100 years!

Nick Miller, King of Pop?

I have to believe that, if Michael Jackson were alive today, he would not only approve of this version of his famous moonwalk, but change his to match.

It’s that awesome.

 

Ya can’t beat it.

Deep in my heart

I fly to Germany tonight.

It’s for business — as is most of my travel — but every time I think about my upcoming stay in Heidelberg, it takes me back to junior year at the University of Kentucky.

I ushered every performance of The Student Prince, an operetta in four-acts that did a week of performances at the university arts center. The musical is set in Heidelberg, and after seeing that many shows in succession, it is what I associate most with the city.

When I walk into a pub this week, I fully expect to hear choruses of “Drink, Drink!” (and if I don’t, might be forced to start a round or two myself).

That operetta must be playing year round in Heidelberg — wonder if I could see it again in the motherland?  It has been a year or two since my junior year.

Time to make some new memories in Deutschland.

Not guilty at all

“Guilty Pleasures” week on Dancing with the Stars has been fun on a couple of levels.

(Yes, I am just now catching up on DVR.)

First, it’s fun to see what cliche songs ‘speak’ to the celebrities.  The theme to Titanic.  Copacabana by Barry Manilow.  Disco anthems.

Stars…they’re just like us.

Which leads to the second thing I enjoy — imagining what song I would select in the same circumstance.

The Barry Manilow song catalog would be a good place to start, although probably one of the love ballads like Ships or Weekend in New England.  Or maybe I would pick a hit from the Kansas ‘Point of No Return’ album.

I thought they were very deep at the time.

Or we could always pull out the soundtrack to Les Miserables.

Bring Him Home should score a ’10′ with the judges.

The score

I’m not one to typically notice movie scores. And that’s not the reason I decided to watch Pride and Prejudice on E! tonight.

I have Matthew MacFadyen to thank for that.

But as I watched the Jane Austen classic for the umpteenth time, it was hard not to appreciate the music that underlies each scene — not telling us how to feel, simply providing the perfect accompaniment to the action.

I had a much more immediate appreciation of the score to Little Women when it was released in 1994. In fact, I bought the score before I bought the movie — an almost unheard of action on my part.

The music that accompanies the news of Beth’s death is in and of itself a showstopper.

And more recently I loved the soundtrack to The Social Network, which won a well-deserved Oscar.  I remember being excited that the same composers were doing the score for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

Which makes me think I pay more attention to movie scores than I originally thought.

Twice

I loved the movie Once. 

So much that I boycotted the musical when it opened off-Broadway .  The original stars weren’t in it — how could the musical compare?

My heart was closed.

Then the show moved to Broadway, and the TV commercials began.  Yes, ‘guy’ and ‘girl’ were different, but their voices, the harmonies were as beautiful as the movie that inspired them.  So I decided to give the show a shot.

Last night I was in the audience for Once on Broadway. I loved the staging, a working Irish bar — they even served drinks during intermission — that was transformed throughout the evening by creative lighting.  Every actor also played an instrument, so there was no orchestra pit.

Most importantly, every voice, every note was perfection.  There were a lot of tears in the audience.  (People were talking about it as they left the theatre, so it wasn’t just me.)

The only thud in the production — which occurred at the start of the play and made me sad — was the playwright’s need to ‘funny up’ the script, making the characters extreme stereotypes of themselves.  This was especially true of ‘girl,’ who was a quirky, jokey one-liner, which was counter to her gentle spirit in the movie.

But once she and ‘guy’ began to sing, she softened and the music drove the show, as it did the movie.

And all was forgiven.

Sick

I’ve been rather obsessed with Downton Abbey lately, and a good friend asked if it was time for an intervention.

It might be now.  But not just for me.

Adam WarRock, the Internet’s ‘foremost comic book rapper,’ has gone gaga for Downton Abbey, too.

A rapper….all wrapped up in the soap opera at Grantham Hall.  He even posted a confession on his website:

Downton Abbey is the kind of thing that you hear about, and you’re all like, “That sounds terrible.” And then even one of your best friends won’t shut up about it, and then you have to fly to Seattle, and you watch it on the plane, and get completely obsessed with it. And then you’re calling your friend and saying things like “I’m at the part where Matthew Crawley is investigating the entail for Lord Grantham, and the Dowager Countess finds out about it,” and you realize you’re whispering because honestly, what the HELL are you even saying?

I love this guy.

Now he’s gone one step farther and written a rap about Downton Abbey. You gotta give it a listen.

Can’t see any problem with that!

Let me go on

The Violent Femmes have gone commercial.

And I couldn’t be happier.

I have always loved “Blister in the Sun.”  It’s an anthem of sorts for me…and my bear Snuffles’ favorite dance number.  And now the theme song for HP, which just happens to be my laptop.

What are the chances?

Here are the Femmes performing the song live.  I was lucky enough to see them myself back in the day.

Let me go on.

One hit wonder

What’s your fantasy band name?

I confess, I’ve never given it much thought.

Until now.

In a current TV ad campaign, a teenage boy asks Siri to remember the band name “Migraine Headache.”

And the terminally-quick Craig Ferguson will label any funny-sounding phrase he utters as the name of his band or the movie he’s writing.

And now I find myself doing the same.

Funny headline on nytimes.com?  Could be a band name.  Someone posts a photo on Twitter or Facebook with an odd title?  Band name.  Someone misspeaks in everyday conversation?  Band name!

My favorite from last night’s Twitter feed?

Mid-Winter Popsicle

Don’t steal that one.  It’s mine.

Head case

I’m looking at world through frog’s eyes
Looking at the world through frog’s eyes
Looking at the world through frog’s eyes
And you can just hop off!

My apologies to Heywood Banks.  And you can buy the frog hats, too.

(You know you want ‘em.)