Sleepless in Midland

a modest tribute to Bob Fosse

I'm currently reading "Fosse" the autobiography of Bob Fosse by Sam Wasson, the book on which the FX TV series "Fosse/Verdon" was based.

Bob Fosse was a brilliant director and choreographer who in 1973 became the only person to win an Oscar -- "Cabaret," a Tony -- "Pippin," and an Emmy --"Liza With a Z," in the same year. By the way, that FX TV series "Fosse/Verdon" was pretty good, too. I'm tempted to watch it again.

Anyway, Fosse was not just a good director and choreographer, he was a very good dancer himself. To get a sampling of that, here are links to three Youtube videos of scenes from movies in which he danced.

Alley Dance from "My Sister Eileen";
Who's Got the Pain -- Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon in "Damn Yankees"; and
Snake in the Grass from "The Little Prince."

He was one smooth mover. Some even suggest that Fosse's performance in "The Little Prince" inspired some of Michael Jackson's dance moves.

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3:12 PM 8/27/2019

Want to be a rock star but can't sing a lick? No problem, use Auto-Tune.

They make it sound so easy. All you have to do is sing the song, and if you know what key it's in, then let Auto-Tune make it sound pitch perfect. Read all about it at TheVerge.com. Excerpt:

Fix a little backing harmony here, bump a flat note up to diva-worthy heights there: smooth everything over so that it’s perfect. You can even use Auto-Tune live, so an artist can sing totally out of tune in concert and be corrected before their flaws ever reach the ears of an audience. ...

Hmm. Then why are they always lip synching at ball games? More:

But between those two extremes, you have the synthetic middle, where Auto-Tune is used to correct nearly every note, as one integral brick in a thick wall of digitally processed sound. From Justin Bieber to One Direction, from The Weeknd to Chris Brown, most pop music produced today has a slick, synth-y tone that’s partly a result of pitch correction.

Via MissCellania.com.

Someone needs to figure out how to put one in a Karaoke machine.

Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree

I woke up this morning with this song swimming around in my head: "Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree." It's a great little love song that some dream must have dredged out of my memory.

In it Tony Orlando sings a story about a guy traveling in a bus on his way to his girlfriend's town. In the song he tells us about a letter he wrote to her asking her to tie a yellow ribbon round the old oak tree is he still meant anything to her. If there was no ribbon, he would "stay on the bus, forget about us, and put the blame on me."

It had been three long years since he had seen her, so the listener might wonder what kept them apart. I either didn't know or had forgotten that the lyrics tell us he had been in prison. That puts a different perspective on it.

The next question is why was he in prison. Given the time the song came out, 1973, one might speculate he had been convicted of possession of a controlled substance. Wikipedia tells us that Orlando was a coke head in the 1970s, so he certainly must have felt the threat of law enforcement at some point during that time.

Anyway, It's a good song. Few people haven't heard it, but if you haven't, listen to at this Youtube link and find out exactly how many ribbons he ultimately saw tied round the old oak tree.

Syncing along with the music

A news show with a piece about the Grammy presentations featured a short shot of Taylor Swift performing. When I see a singer with a microphone covering her mouth, I wonder if the words on her lips are the same ones in the song that's playing.

Apologies to Ms. Swift's fans, but the cynic in me says she's hiding her mouth with an over sized mic for a reason.

50 Cent cutting price

50 Cent (that would be Fiddy Cent if you're hip to the hip-hop scene) is not immune to market pressures. If you've wondered whether a person with a price for a name would be influenced by inflation or deflation, the answer is yes. He's lowered the asking price for the house he's trying to sell. See 50 Cent Shaves $ 4 Million Off Farmington Property. Via NPR Planet Money.

Whether he'll lower the value expressed in his moniker isn't known. But he very loudly declined to raise it for Taco Bell, so the odds are that he won't, at least not for a fast food taco.