Higgs

From The New York Times, 08/2014, re "Wicked": "My return visit also confirmed how significant those young fans remain to the show’s success. The audience at the evening performance I attended teemed with bopping tweens and their families. Many of the girls clearly knew the show’s score already, greeting Mr. Schwartz’s polished Broadway-pop confections and throat-searing ballads with the physical equivalent of a half-dozen smiley-face emoticons. "In retrospect, “Wicked” seems an early sign of the cultural clout — which is to say buying power — of a generation of girls (and now women) whose desire to see, and read, and sing along with stories about female empowerment has become a snowballing trend. “The Hunger Games” came along in 2008, and became one of the biggest media phenomena of the past decade. And, of course, “Frozen,”Disney’s animated blockbuster movie about two royal sisters with a complicated relationship, surely owes a significant debt to “Wicked,” and not just because Ms. Menzel gave voice to the heroine Elsa, with her snow-blowing superpowers and her megahit “Let It Go.” "When “Wicked” at last ceases to defy gravity at the box office — and that still seems a good way off — it’s a safe bet that a Broadway musical of “Frozen” will be primed to take its place. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/22/theater/a-decade-later-wicked-continues-to-be-catnip-for-tweens.html For Matt's sake, I hope the girls want to go see the boys. Maybe he should tear off another button on his shirt. Alec Baldwin on Ben Brantley, after receiving a bad review: "...Brantley is viewed as some odd, shriveled, bitter Dickensian clerk who has sought to assemble a compendium of essays on theatre, the gist of which often have no relationship to the events onstage themselves." from Wolcott on Brantley: http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2013/05/alec-baldwin-gives-ben-brantley-a-noogie

At any time during S4, what did you think would happen? What did you want to happen?

Yes, there's that, but there's more:1. Rachel needs continual stress relief from her "eat-or-be-eaten", "dog-eat-dog" ( @2:05 ) profession.2.Rachel needs applause to live. 3. Rachel requires prospective swains to pass her standardized aptitude tests. Quality counts for 80%, quantity 20%. There's no written essay, but there is an oral section. 4. Mistress Rachel conducts a rigorous fitness training regimen for gentlemen callers. She must be obeyed. There shall be no happy endings without permission. Failure is not an option. There was a report, many years ago, that some kids at a Glee event carried a banner with pictures of Finn, Puck, and Jesse, each stenciled with "Property of Rachel Berry". They should have included Will.

"Always"? Even with Finn and "I'm home."? If so, tell me more. (1) True, but I thought it made for a good joke. So sue me. (In any case, I said only "fitness", without specifying profession.) (2) I have answered the question. The answer is none. What I did say/suggest is that he was as qualified overall as Will, Rachel, or Kurt because he was a better instrumentalist than any of them and his life experiences, compared to those of that relatively privileged trio, gave him insights into certain genres that could prove helpful with regard to the musicality of ND's performances. (cf. VA) I also said McKinley would have other faculty who could help with individual vocal technique and choreography. Team teaching is not uncommon. ("..., from each according to his ability.") Intelligence and susceptibiliy to hypnotism may be positively correlated. http://davidgodot.com/8-myths-about-hypnosis/ If you don't sniff the jock straps, how will you know you've laundered them properly? (Guys, ask your mothers.) At least Sam's conscientious. Are we having fun yet? How much longer until we get there?

Since its inception, Glee has engaged in deliberate farce to show that any character, no matter how noble or intelligent in their best of times, could be idiotic, even outright criminal, in their worst of times. (They are each A Tale of Two Characters.) As a recent egregious example, Rachel's walking out of FG was an act of complete, self-destructive lunacy. Before S4, and throughout S6, Sam was shown to be reasonably normal and level-headed, and respected by all the other characters. My question is not about Sam, who is fictional; it's about why some viewers, who I presume are real, accord his past failings much more wieght than they do those of any other character (except Will, who can't speak a word of Spanish and, against all reason and with possible malice aforethought, denied Kurt a competition solo), notwithstanding Sam's 13 full episodes of successful rehabilitation. What greater proof of his fitness is there than the fact Rachel sang with him? (Oh sure, she fucked him, but she'll do that with any straight duet partner. After all, she's a performing artist.)

Song distributions can't be measured simply by their numbers or lengths. It's impact that matters, and that is determined in large measure by plot resonance, the manner in which the performer is highlighted and, in the case of duets, the partner. By that standard, Max had zero solos. Yes, he emitted sounds, but it was hardly of more importance than the VA acrobats or their band's drummer. Blaine and Kurt may not have had solos in S6, but they had important duets in isolated dramatic scenes with Rachel and with each other. Lea/Rachel stans complained loud and often about her lack of S4 solos, but the framing of her double at the NYADA showcase was worth ten of whatever the hell (the highly underrated) Melissa did. "Teenage Dream" wan't just a song, it was an event. It signaled the onset of the second half of Kurt's story arc: finding love. And for the umpteenth time, DSB was, for all practical purposes. a Lea solo. Cory had four lines, and in the remainder reminded me of a comment someone once made that if Lea and Dianna ever sang a live duet, it would be like watching a doberman eat a chihuahua. (That is what Lea did to Darren in DSB at the recent Family Equality Council event.) As in all subsequent Glee group songs when no castmember's voice can be distinguished, the backing chorus was made up exclusively of the professional session vocalists. There was never even any real pretence at their live performances on Oprah or the tour that anyone else was doing anything but lip-synching, while Lea could be clearly discerned throughout.

I don't label my jokes, sarcasm, or irony.

[so soon they forget.] Last episode. Will strummed. Sam played. Rachel is a beginning piano student and Shelby is ?Will has not only not taken the courses usually demanded for a principal, but such a job would run as totally against his nature as did leading VA. Nevertheless ... American public schools, unlike those in many foreign countries, operate on the basis of local autonomy. The school board can override formal requirements at will, and this would be especially true for a magnet arts program. Just as no degree of any kind is necessary for a high school football coach (Google it), all an arts school need care about is the ability to teach the subject*, credentials be damned. Oh, I almost forgot, sex between faculty and students would need to be very discreet. *There are some programs to get scientists and engineers to teach without requiring any credential or special training.

Great vocalism extends far beyond technique and distinctiveness ("newness") of sound. It's about the ability to communicate meaning, to create a separate world for three minutes which the listener willingly joins. That is what Alex Newll does for me here: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=n4nPYtR2nBo and which Amber doesn't do often enough, if ever. That Amber might have greater range or power is irrelevant to their comparative artistry. Lea places her vocal technique in service to her acting ability to communicate meaning first, emotion second. The latter derives in large part from the former. That is why I commented that her "To Love You More" was performed in a manner that led me to imagine she could just as easily have been speaking the lyrics. She also has the advantage of a very distinctive voice, which has nothing to do with quality, but can have a commercial payoff. (Pavarotti owes a great deal of his enormous advantage in fame over The Two Other Tenors to the fact that his voice was immediately recognizable to the broad public, a rare ability for an opera singer.) In Glee's group songs, I almost never have to wonder which (White-voiced) girl is Lea.

There is an element of snobbism when middle-class people tie ability to formal credentials, which are ultimately related to wealth. Would you disqualify an elementary-school dropout who happened to be a Mississippi blues genius or an Appalachian virtuoso folk fiddler from communicating their knowledge to a high-school music group? Rachel, despite her many years of formal vocal training, a year at NYADA, and 6 months as the performing star in the company of top Broadway musical professionals, is utterly unqualified to teach choral music. So is Will, and so is Shelby. Sam could be as competent at it as any of them, especially as he is a more accomplished instrumentalist than any of them.

Lea has of course sung in a movie, when she reinvented "Auld Lang Syne" in the dreadul "New Year's Eve". Unless it's something like the movie version of her Broadway FG, I would never want her to sing more than once in a movie, as Audrey Hepburn did so memorably with "Moon River" in "Breakfast At Tiffany's". I'm thinking along the lines of a sweet a cappella lullaby to her infant daughter ("Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child" or something new Darren writes?), while the abusive man she has gut-shot lies bleeding out on the porch, the flashing red lights of the police cars garishly illuminate the bedroom, and the bullhorn blares, "Come on out Mae Belle, and please, for godsakes, don't harm your baby". Can you say "Oscar", boys and girls?

I didn't believe "The Layover" movie was real until I just saw this. http://deadline.com/2015/03/lea-michele-kate-upton-william-h-macy-the-layover-road-trip-sex-comedy-1201398781/ Upton is 5'10", but she'd be even taller if her boobs weren't pulling her down. Lea is competing with her for a man?! Who dat man? Since no male co-star has been announced, will the object of common desire even be seen? Now there's a concept!

1. First they showed that Will was fluent in Spanish, later that he was illiterate. Which is true? The most frequent pov? the first? the last? The show included farce and drastic inconsistencies of character and plot. What to believe? Whatever makes you happiest. As a teacher, his team won a national championship and his students loved him. What else is there? He didn't give someone's favorite a competition solo? Boo hoo. Neither would I have.2. Sam an idiot "since season 4'? He's been perfectly normal and intelligent throughout S6. As in the case of Will's Spanish, there have been two Sams, at least, and the first and last were fine. 3. That's more than Chris did on the Glee tour. Like Rachel and Kurt, I'm a cultural snob. But unlike Kurt, I'm not a social one.

I've watched many of Amber's live performances on YT. I agree with the following review of the Glee tour: "Amber Riley, who has done a few diva turns on TV, has a big gospel voice but so do many other church singers the masses have never heard." http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/blogs/123008443.html Sure, Amber can blow someone like Naya out of the water in their duets, but there's a reason her Glee solos sell so relatively poorly.

Original Glee featured Will as fluent in Spanish, suggesting (if I remember correctly) he had traveled in Latin America, and as being capable of teaching IRREGULAR verbs to students, the ploy Rachel used to distract Will while she developed "Push It". If Rachel wants to devote half her Tony acceptance speech to Will, and if his students vote him teacher of the year, then he is a great teacher. By definition. 1. I don't know anything about Chord, and I don't want to.2. Sam is not "teaching music"; he is teaching musicality and teamwork - no degree required. He plays the guitar. Is that not music? He has endured real hardship, of the sort the occasionally slushied, but otherwise drastically over-privileged Rachel couldn't imagine. There are thousands of teachers with education degrees who have no business being in a classroom. (An analogous statement could be made about any other profession.) There are thousands of people who have no degree in anything who should be in a classroom. To repeat, I watched for Lea, only. Yet I hated the snobbism displayed by many Rachel stans toward Finn, and I hate it with respect to Sam.

In the pilot, Emma taught Will how he ought to live his life. When Kurt came to Rachel for help in choosing a song for his Warblers audition, she taught him how to find it and, by extension, how, to find himself. As far as I can recall, and it isn't much these days with regard to Glee, those were the two most important lectures ever given on the show.

My original statement is totally consistent with the above quote, with which I fully agree. Sam spoke out of his established knowledge of the music and its connection to his own life. It was consistent with his character and by far the most completely plausible ending for any of the graduates.

Sam's speech to the students about country music, which resonated with his own life experiences, was the most deeply intellectual musical analysis I ever heard from any choir director on Glee. The show treated him with more respect than any other graduate, as there was no attempt at background humor to undermine the seriousness of the accomplishment. There will be plenty of staff at McKinley to deal with vocal technique and choreography, as necessary, so if all Sam ever does is get the kids to understand and feel the music, he will have put them ahead of VA until the end of time. Being stupid about one thing doesn't make you stupid about everything, and the same goes for intelligent.

Overall CD sales have dropped on the order of 75% since 2005, so conclusions based on direct comparisons of album sales numbers over time can be very misleading. http://blog.thecurrent.org/2014/02/40-years-of-album-sales-data-in-one-handy-chart/ The other ongoing trend affecting Lea is the infantilization of pop music. These days a "too-perfect voice" (Rolling Stone) and "like Celine Dion" (local post) are considered insults. The dystopian endpoint of this is described near the end of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize novel, "A Visit From the Goon Squad" by Jennifer Egan, which uses as its background the pop music industry from the 60s to the +2020s. The near future brings the "Pointers", the term for toddlers whose tastes determine "popularity", as they can easily download music they hear by merely pointing a tiny hand-held device at the source of the sound. When pop stars perform in public, they are ordered to play the toddler-favored songs that gained them their fame. So, yes, it CAN get worse than Katy Perry. Lea is a horizontally-integrated, global micro-conglomerate. Companies place bets on her future synergized earnings. She'll be released on a boutique or indie label as surely as she is now a recurring character on "Scream Queens", in a "supporting" role that Ryan isn't used to writing for her.

I do, in large part because I can imagine her speaking the words to someone. But as with "My Man", I'm put off a little by songs in which the female is overly submissive. "It's All Coming Back To Me Now" is even better.Also, in no particular order: DSB (on Oprah) Make You Feel My Love O Holy Night Argentina Go Your Own Way Total Eclipse of the Heart We've Got Tonight (after filtering out everyone but Cory) Like A Prayer (after filtering out everyone else and imagining she sings all the rest of it) And her greatest DROMP: http://vt.tumblr.com/tumblr_n3hjl7aZiP1rohzgv.mp4#_=_

Her singing and acting careers are synergistic. If I understand her public statements and career choices correctly, these days, If she had an elliptical in her bedroom, the poster on the wall would read "Oscars", not "Grammys" or "Tonys". But to have a chance at the best film roles, it helps to be as widely recognized as possible, and albums can serve that purpose, over and above everything else. And it can work both ways, as can be seen from the sales of Paltrow's songs on Glee. Idina will be doing a TV pilot with Ellen's backing, due undoubtedly to the huge success of "Frozen". (Lea will be the lead in a 2017 animated musical, this time from a major studio.) It's all good, even when it's not.

FLAC format is commonly used for ripping CDs, and the result can't be better than the source. (There are web sites that sell music in much higher res FLAC, but the selection is quite limited.) For just hearing sufficient details in the human voice you don't need "fancy" equipment; decent headphones will do. More important is what you listen for. As an example, here is pre-Glee Lea singing "On My Own" live at the Hollywood Bowl. At 2:33 she emits the ugliest sound I've ever heard from her, yet it's interrupted with cheers. Those folks want different strokes from mine. "New York State of Mind": http://leamichele-news.tumblr.com/post/114247698493/new-york-state-of-mind-lea-solo The anti-"River", virtuosic, overblown, bluesy (a first for her, I think), but now the 15th or so entry on my personal "Lea top ten list". Of the songs mentioned recently in the thread, "Papa" - absolutely (Actors Studio host Lipton said it was better than Streisand's), "What I Did For Love" - mediocre phrasing, overdone arrangement, "Firework" - lousy material, DROMP - greatest dramatic musical scene I've ever witnessed on TV, but she was still in her brief "scooping" phase, so not top ten for just the singing. When I read an opinion about a song in which the scene is described, I know it's "apples & oranges". I think "River", "One", "Uninvited", and "The Rose" were some of her best vocal performances, but none of them would have been of any particular interest to me based on the telecasts.

"River" is among my top ten Lea vocal performances, ever. ("One" is another, and it's also her greatest rock performance and Cory's best of any kind.) This opinion is based on listening to the full digital audio files (NOT the edited versions and severely limited acoustics of the telecasts) on decent equipment (NOT a computer's internal speakers). "River"is the perfect showcase for Lea's tonal beauty, phrasing, vocal coloring, and interpretive nuances, but to fully appreciate them, in the words of Mrs. Willy Loman, "attention must be paid."

A huge deal it was. First, for the surrogacy to have represented a true "full circle" in Rachel's life, she would have to have been the biological mother, just as Shelby was for her. Second, a merely gestational surrogacy could be gotten anywhere, and Rachel would not have taken on the burden, nor would Kurt have ever asked, nor would Kurt have accepted if she had offered, if she didn't contribute something more than a womb. Third, and most important, the Rachel-Kurt relationship was the longest-lasting, most mutually supportive*, selfless**, natural***, and profound bond between peers on the show.Full disclosure: I couldn't stand Kurt for many early years and consider Chris's voice to be not merely bad, but literally painful. *No one praised Rachel's talent more often than did Kurt - not even Finn or Will. The reverse was even more true. **Kurt's mother hen protection of Rachel throughout the FG process was the most selfless act seen on the series, because if Rachel were successful Kurt faced the possibility that she would leave his world forever. In contrast, when Finn put her on the train, it was because he was smart enough (and, yes, he WAS smart enough) to understand that it was necessary if they were ever have any chance of making a successful marriage. ***Shared tastes, knowledge, and the gay. It might be like this: http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/12/those-youve-known-lea-michele-and-jonathan-groff-reunite-on-glee/

Regarding some Glee castmember daring "risky adventures", "challenging avenues", and "voice work for animation", etc., etc., etc., if my deconstruction of some biographical texts is accurate, of which I possess a certain measure of confidence having garnered a 60th percentile ranking in a Mississippi standardized middle-school reading comprehension exam, then an understandably overlooked supporting actress on that late, lamented show has already demonstrated, on more than one occasion, a bold willingness to forsake the safety of "commercially viable ventures" (loves me some alliteration) for the high-reward potential of unexplored artistic terrain. Moreover, as can be discerned from the following clip: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3EmQ5xch0u0 she is not above bribing a soundman to turn off a colleague's mic in order to impress a gullible public. With chutzpah like that, who knows but that we may hear from her again. Soon.