Posts by bronwyn
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I'm fairly biased, I know, but having got a sneak preview of Call Cutta In A Box I really do encourage ALL of you to head along to it. At the very least, the next time you have to call a call centre, you might think about what that call centre actually looks like.
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Oh sorry that last post was meant to be a reply to you Islander, but something went awry in the posting...
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I am sure that I've read somewhere (that I can't find right now) that Mr. Cohen has said that her version of that song is his favourite, even more than his own interpretations.
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I don’t quite understand why they keep sticking her out there in bare-bones live TV settings to perform songs that are bloody difficult to carry off live without a production.
I'd like to respectfully disagree with the fact that they are difficult songs to sing live; yes the recorded versions are layered with, well, layers of sound, but there's nothing about the vocal lines that is particularly difficult; she could have sung them with a guitar or piano accompaniment and they would have been great. It's the Celine Dion/Christina Aguilera/Mariah effect where singers think they have to jump up and down octaves and constantly show off their vocal range.
Half her problem with performing them live is that she just simply isn't enunciating very well. She basically mumbles through quite a lot of her lyrics, (watch her mouth, it's barely open half the time) which is stylistic I know, but doesn't help when it comes to hitting the right notes.
And here my ends my one and only post ever about LDR.
And since someone mentioned kd lang, if you've never seen this, please do watch this lesson in performing live and making sure the lyrics are understandable: her version of Hallelujah
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Hard News: #BDOMemories, in reply to Russell Brown,
Yes, this. I can't begrudge someone who has worked pretty hard for a long time in what is a perilous industry just deciding they've had enough of strangers constantly bagging them. Yes, it comes with the territory but I can see the day when you'd just be sick of it, and if it's not bringing in the dollars, then there's not many compelling reasons to keep going.
(and, on another point, scheduling is never straightforward - you just don't know who's demanded a particular slot because they have to get an early flight the next day, or simply because they only play when it gets dark, or they refuse to play after a particular band or any number of other things that might be going on).
One of my best BDO memories was seeing hundreds of bemused Slipknot fans forced to queue for the signing tent right at the front of the audience for an equally bemused Phoenix Foundation. I hope they picked up some fans that day.
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Muse: Indecision '11: Fighting the Grey, in reply to Tom Beard,
That generation lived through WWII
And if that wasn't a lesson in what happens when intolerance is allowed to reign supreme, I don't know what was.
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I suspect this is one of those ones that would change every week, but here's today's answers!
1) What are you reading at the moment?
The Information by James Gleick. It is now horribly overdue at the library because I can't read more than a few pages without stopping to have a good think.
2) As a child, what did you read under the covers?
Oh, lots and lots. Most often, something from The Bagthorpe Saga by Helen Cresswell, or some 1940's potboiler about an English boarding school.
3) Has a book ever made you cry, and if so which one?
Yes, many. Just recently something devastated me, but, like Jackie, because I tend to read very quickly I can't remember what it was!
4) You are about to be put into solitary confinement for a year and allowed to take three books. What would you choose?
Arggh. Any of the Adrian Mole books, to encourage me to document my own days, and because they are pretty re-readable.
And then a book I've been meaning to read for ever: The Transformation of Ireland, and then perhaps one taken at random from the shelf so I could be surprised.
(I was once stuck on an 8 hour ferry ride with only a copy of Artemis Fowl. I read it really slowly to try and make it last; I'm sure I could eke these out over a year.)
5) Which literary character would you most like to sleep with?
Rob from High Fidelity, if only for the great conversation and list making afterwards.
6) If you could write a self-help book, what would you call it?
7) Which book, which play, and which poem would you make compulsory reading in high school English classes?
Book: Lord of the Flies, if only because I studied this when I was 13 and it really was the perfect time to read it; it's a time of your life when savagery is all around you and often not very well disguised.
Play: The solo works of the much missed Sally Rodwell, published as Gonne/Strange/Charity: perfect encapsulations of the humour, ennui, violence and surreality of life in NZ.
(I'd also say King Lear but only on the proviso that it's taught by someone who really know their stuff).
Poem: Monologue by Hone Tuwhare. Because when you are young you are often conned into thinking poetry is about flowers or love, and this one teaches you, amongst other things, that poetry doesn't have to be nice.
8) Which party from literature would you most like to have attended?
Definitely one belonging to the before mentioned Bagthorpes; in one dinner party alone they have champagne, scotch eggs, a rampaging goat, a "pudding -footed hound", a fire, maggots in chocolate boxes, a dandy uncle who only wears cravats and lots of shouting.
9) What would you title your memoirs?
Cheerio!
10) If you were an actor, which literary character do you dream of playing?
There's lots - but since I'm thinking about Tales of the City I'll say Mona from that.
11) What book would you give to a lover?
Love in the Time of Chlorea
12) Spying Mein Kampf or Dan Brown on someone’s bookshelf can spell havoc for a friendship. What’s your literary deal breaker?
I have some absolute trash on my bookshelves, so I am in no position to be all judgey. Seriously, I own The Ultimate Guide to Mary-Kate and Ashley.
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Muse: Friday Fluff: Shelf Life, in reply to Jackie Clark,
Oh Jackie, I'm so with you on Tales of the City. And Brian. I never quite got why he was so into Maryanne. I guess he wasn't the first person to have their head turned by a pretty blonde.
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Sorry to derail the Twlight discussion, but I encourage you all to go and see, if you can, The Wild Bride, Beautiful Burnout, and White at the Festival. With the caveat that I have seen none of them, but have seen work by all these companies before, and who all produce work that I wish we could see more of here. I'm also confident that Hohepa will be great as well!
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Hard News: Chill out: it's a party, in reply to Russell Brown,
Oh yes agree - I wasn't try to say it was the fault of anyone apart from the people who decided to assault him, just that there were some pretty unpleasant incidents happening on the night- which again is in no dispute. (I think my original point, which I totally ignored, was that it probably felt like a miracle to that guard that there was someone near by who could assist him). (although obviously not miraculous that he was assaulted in the first place).