Is it just me or have we all just had just about enough of Lady GaGa? I say this not as a player-hater but as someone who has been watching, ever slowly, the steep decline in pop music and Lady GaGa is their straw that’s broken this particular camels back. Recently we did as story about Grayson Michael Chance, who’s cover version of Lady GaGa’s Paparazzi has become a genuine Youtube hit (with close to 20 million hits).
Am not convinced that there is much hope left for the pop industry and with acts like Lady GaGa all we are getting is a generic, over produced sound that lacks any real feeling, power, emotion, or legitimacy. By legitimacy I mean someone who has something to say, something about themselves. LG has nothing real about her and the image that she’s created lack even the faintest bout of originality it makes me gag.
She reminds me of that kid in school who always tried way to hard to be cool, buying the best cloths, always trying to act like they where with the cool kids. LG will, I bet my macbook pro, go down in history as one of the biggest try-hards within the music industry – and that’s saying something you listening Madonna.
For Grayson he has taken a awful song and given it some life. Some of the comments within that other piece have suggested that LG has also done a piano version that she’s been singing at concerts, so what, she’s not released that version as a single she released the over produced, sound destroying, ‘another’ gay club song. And that’s GaGa in general, her core audience seems to be musically challenged gay men* who like a beat over whether the singer can sing or whether there are good lyrics.
For Lady GaGa I see a poor future unless she tried to get over the fact that this is not the 1980′s, she’s not an 80′s child, grows her music up, and storys trying to become a ‘style icon’ that’s a title only the legendary Grace Jones has earn.
*The young gay man is now so ignorant it seems to music and their musical taste seem more towards a sick sad beat than actual music that I am calling them musically challenged.
Indiana Jones 4…is there anything that can be said that will make this film at the very most a half decent offering? Nothing is going to help this bastard of a film and nobody will argue for its induction in to the Smithsonian Institute. So are the remarks by the world renowned actor Shia LeBeouf going to add more insult to injury or is it just a sign that even half talented halfwits like Shia just don’t know when to keep their mouth shut.
In Cannes for the worldwide premier the sequel to the classic 1980′s Oliver Stone film ‘Wall Street’ Shia has told the LA Times:
“I feel like I dropped the ball on the legacy that people loved and cherished. You get to monkey-swinging and things like that and you can blame it on the writer and you can blame it on [director Steven Spielberg]. But the actor’s job is to make it come alive and make it work, and I couldn’t do it. So that’s my fault. Simple. [Harrison Ford and I] had major discussions. He wasn’t happy with it either. Look, the movie could have been updated. There was a reason it wasn’t universally accepted. I’ll probably get a call. But [Spielberg] needs to hear this. I love him. I love Steven. I have a relationship with Steven that supersedes our business work. And believe me, I talk to him often enough to know that I’m not out of line. And I would never disrespect the man. I think he’s a genius, and he’s given me my whole life. He’s done so much great work that there’s no need for him to feel vulnerable about one film. But when you drop the ball you drop the ball.”
Ouch, but from our ever reliable sources we are told that this was not the only film he’s been bad mouthing on the red carpet in Cannes. His near classic Transformers 2 also got the Shia review saying:
“…we got lost. We tried to get bigger. It’s what happens to sequels. It’s like, how do you top the first one? You’ve got to go bigger. Mike (Bay the director) went so big that it became too big, and I think you lost the anchor of the movie. … You lost a bit of the relationships. Unless you have those relationships, then the movie doesn’t matter. Then it’s just a bunch of robots fighting each other.”
This was the same film in which his co-star was reported to be disappointed with the final product, yet neither seem to be offering the movie viewers much more than the same generic films with the same generic plot…or may be they are just bad actors?
BBC Worldwide has announced a series of arena dates for the very first production of Doctor Who Live. The new stage show, based upon the BBC’s Iconic smash-hit, award-winning series Doctor Who, promises to deliver a spectacular audio/visual experience featuring live music, special effects and appearances from the show’s most popular monsters.
Taking in nine cities and 25 dates, Doctor Who Live kicks off in London at Wembley Arena on 8th October, and will visit Sheffield, Glasgow, Birmingham, Manchester, Nottingham, Cardiff and Liverpool, culminating in Belfast on the 7th November.
Developed in association with Doctor Who’s Executive Producer and show runner, Steven Moffat, Doctor Who Live promises the same excitement, adventure and suspense that viewers have come to expect from the TV programme and will feature specially filmed new video scenes.
Steven Moffat said:
“This is everything I ever wanted since I was eleven. A live show, with all the coolest Doctor Who monsters, a proper story, and brand new screen material for Matt Smith’s Doctor! I’ll be writing scenes for it, and probably attending every single night!”
Opening in wartime London and concluding in an epic onstage battle, audiences should expect the unexpected as the The Doctor’s arch-enemies the Daleks are joined by some of the best-loved and most terrifying monsters from the TV series including the Cybermen, Weeping Angels, Judoon and Oods to name but a few.
With an out-of-this-world set, Doctor Who Live will feature special FX, optical illusions and spectacular pyrotechnics building to an epic finale. Specially edited video clips, drawn from the TV Programme will be shown on a massive screen and accompanied by the music of longtime Doctor Who composer Murray Gold. These iconic scores will be brought to life by a 16 piece orchestra live on stage.
Murray Gold said:
“The live element always adds something extra, but these will also be brand new arrangements for a new band of very talented musicians. It’s very exciting.”
Doctor Who Live has been conceived as a fully immersive music and monsters spectacular. Please note that actors from the TV series will not be appearing live on stage. But, am sure your well aware if that!
I didn’t think it would happen much like I didn’t think that a cover of a NIN song would be as heartfelt and memorable as it was, but, Lady GaGa has been given some legitimacy after 13 year old Grayson Michael Chance did a cover of Paparazzi for a school assembly. And as with tradition with ‘Youtube’ sensations Grayson appeared on US talkshow “Ellen” who did her usually scatty bit.
What is undeniable is that Chance does have a gift and the 14 million people so far who have seen his video will no doubt be in agreement that there is definitely something here. The song is stripped bare and lacks all the tech that the original has, his piano playing is top notch and his voice is sweet but strong with a gentle vibrata that gives the song its power. There is a 80s feel to the version but it remains contemporary and well executed.
At the end of the performance he gets up and bows and runs off at which point his teacher comes on and just before the video ends she says ‘Well in my opinion he’s just taught Lady GaGa a lesson.’ And she’s right. The original version of the song is just another gay themed example of the generic sound she has created. I say generic because she has released too many singles and has now released a ‘remix’ album which is just too much. She has done what few artists would have dreamed of doing and she has created a persona that’s too big and she has give us TOO much.
Chance seems grounded (and Youtube’s parent company Google needs to sort out the comments section on the site, some people need to be warned that he’s only 13), and as he matures he will do more, yet his gift is clearly present. That said there is a real level of maturity in his voice, respectful, and incredibly strong.
Canadian singer Rufus Wainwright would like to tell the world something he has learned: In an recent interview with the singer says he just “knows” that rapper 50 Cent is gay, “that cute little voice of his.” Wainwright continued to gush about 50, whom he calls “just the sexiest and a brilliant writer.”
Well, not sure what to make of this ‘bombshell’ but you can read the whole interview here, and his new album was released on the 5th April 2010:
Q: You’ve sung in Latin, you’ve referenced Thomas Mann, and your new album pays tribute to Shakespeare. What’s your beef with the 21st century? A: I am a little slower in my percolations. I like examining what’s come before. But that said, I’m addicted to Real Housewives of Orange County and Keeping Up With the Kardashians. I get sideswiped by the boobs, the hair, the butts, the jewels, the cars, the bad boys. And I love, love 50 Cent. I think he’s just the sexiest, and a brilliant writer. And Iknow he’s gay.
Q: What makes you so sure? A: That cute little voice of his. It’s okay, 50 Cent. Feel free to call me anytime. My boyfriend and I are experts. You can come over for dinner. And maybe dessert.
Q: You were born in America but raised in Montreal. What’s the most Canadian thing about you? A: My love of maple syrup. I’ve been known to knock back a can over a couple days: A swig here, a swig there, and next thing you know it’s gone. It’s a habit I have to stave off. I don’t want to lose all my teeth. I stopped doing crystal meth—I don’t want to look like an addict.
Q: What’s the best part of a crystal-meth high? A: There’s nothing enjoyable about it. It gets its hooks in you. I’ve done every kind of drug, and each one has something laudable about it, except meth.
Q: How did your parents—the folk musicians Loudon Wainwright III and (the late) Kate McGarrigle—react when you came out in your teens? A: I love my folks, and they’ve done a good job coming full circle, but they were terrible: terrified, ill-equipped, confused. They threatened to kick me out of the house. They didn’t want to talk about it and just weren’t there for me. I mean, it was the mid-eighties and AIDS was pervasive, so I can’t blame them totally for their insanity. And they changed a lot over the years.
Q: Musician Stephin Merritt recently advised gay aspiring musicians not to come out. Do you agree? A: I find that a bit cynical. I don’t have the energy or the emotional repression to bottle that stuff up. It’s true, it’s tougher careerwise if you come out, but this is a human-rights issue, and it’s important to keep putting dents in it. It’s about two teenagers being beheaded for holding hands in Saudi Arabia. It’s bigger than someone’s music career.
Q: Do women ever try to “convert” you? A: Now that I’m with my boyfriend it’s less of an issue. There was a period when it happened. I have some funny stories. There’s one where a high-end, Fifth Avenue society woman started hitting on me. She was in her thirties, and I was, like, 20. She got really trashed and said, “You know, girls like it up the wazoo, too!”
Q: When you were a baby, your father wrote a song about you breastfeeding called ”Rufus Is a Tit Man.” Do you like that song? A: It’s great! When I was 5 or 6, I’d be standing on the table at a bar where my dad was playing, screaming, “Play ‘Rufus Is a Tit Man’!”
Q: That’s funny, since it’s really about his Freudian envy of you and your mom. A: My dad and I have always been somewhat competitive. But we’ve reached a good place. We’ve managed to carve out areas of interest that don’t intersect. A lot of our reconciliation centered around my mother’s death. It was like a King Arthur story when I was growing up: My father was off looking for the Grail, and my mother was at home making potions and raising her demonic children.
Q: Were you afraid when you began cruising bars in Montreal for sex at 14? A: That was part of the arousal. I kind of sought fear. I was rebelling against parents who were rebellious themselves, which is tough. One could argue it was a bad thing, but on the other hand it’s such an iconic image. A 14-year-old kid at the bar—it’s pretty wild. Talk about the movie rights!
Q: It’s darker than that, though. You were raped. A: It’s a terrible thing I had to deal with for a long time. But it sort of saved my life, too. I needed a smack upside the head, and after the assault I didn’t have sex for about 10 years. It really straightened out my loose behavior.
Q: On a far lighter note, you own lederhosen custom-made by a 25th-generation Austrian artisan. Is that the most indulgent thing you’ve splurged on? A: I bought an $11,000 brooch the other day. It’s gold with Mexican sapphires, from the fifties. It’s very beautiful. I realized after my mother’s death that, in the mourning process, luxury becomes really important. It’s a part of the brain related to loss and eternity and death, wanting fine things that will last.
Q: You wrote an opera—with a French libretto, no less. What’s the biggest misconception people have about opera? A: That it’s boring. Yes, I think there’s a hump you have to get over, but if you stick it out, it’ll get more exciting. There’s murder, intrigue, infanticide, lots of sex, lots of death. It’s great.
Q: The new album is your sparest, most stripped-down release yet. Are you entering a mellower phase? A: After writing the opera and doing my Judy Garland–cover concert—after I’d dazzled and wowed for a few years—I wanted to just hit ‘em with a bullet. Just me and a piano. And it’s in keeping with the times, too. We’re in a recession. Things everywhere are being stripped down. You have to go with that.
Q: You’ve joked about wanting busts of yourself erected around the world. Do you wish you were more famous? A: There is a bust available on my website. It was originally a tongue-in-cheek idea of making little plastic busts people could buy at my shows, but those turned out to be more expensive to produce, so there are these huge sandstone Rufus busts you can put in your garden. I don’t know. I think I’ve done a pretty fantastic job, but of course I want to sell millions of records. I bemoan the fact that all my famous friends have places in St. Bart’s and I have to go to Montauk.
Q: You do have a hard-core fanbase. What’s the craziest thing a fan has ever given you? A: A few years ago, this woman, God bless her, who must have been experiencing a nervous breakdown, abandoned her children and started following our bus. At one point, in order to get backstage, she made us a crate of pumpkin preserves. We didn’t eat any of it. It was probably laced with roofies and Ecstasy.
