Helping Haiti

Last night, the "Hope for Haiti Now" telethon aired. It was amazing to see the list of people who came out to support the efforts put together by George Clooney and the execs at MTV. But some of the musical acts were lackluster and song choices depressing to say the least. I was disappointed. We all know that this tragedy is overwhelmingly sad, but as an audience, we needed to be uplifted. You want our support? Ignite us to give, don't drag us down.

There were a few stand out performances though. (Sadly, I can't embed all the videos because they play automatically. Please follow the links.)

Mary J. Blige was as composed and elegant as she always is. This is what a true diva looks and acts like. Her rendition of "Hard Times Come Again No More" showed her strength both as a singer and performer. Never overstated, but most definitely having the presence needed.

Jennifer Hudson also sang with as much gusto and prowess on the Beatles "Let it Be". It's a shame these two women have yet to perform together. That would be an amazing collaboration.

John Legend's "A Motherless Child" was beautifully scored with a string quartet supporting his haunting voice and delicate piano playing. Its wonderful to see that someone as busy as John (who is currently in the middle of a tour) take time out to do his part.

Christina Aguilera, with her trademark red lipstick and platinum blond hair, was vocally at the top of her game. The girl has vocal chords of steel. Her new ballad "Life Me Up" was a beautiful choice for the evening.

Does Sting ever age? It's kinda creepy. Thankfully, his voice isn't aging either. He sounds just as good as he did thirty years ago. His "Driven to Tears" was one of the few upbeat and musically interesting pieces of the night, that send a very strong message that we all need to heed.

And a few quick notes on what I believed to be some seriously poor choices:

Beyonce? What the hell were you thinking singing "Halo"? Hundreds of thousands of people DIED. We've all heard that song a million times over. You couldn't have found someone else's song to sing for once? That was a huge disappointment. HUGE.

Bruce Springsteen, I love you, really I do. But please don't ever sing that song again. Or any word that has the syllable "er" in it. I had to turn you off it was that bad.

Madonna, what were you wearing? You've always been on the cutting edge of fashion. Tonight? Not so much. And the vocals sounded truly forced. Thank god you had that chorus behind you. They saved it.

And most depressing song of the evening goes to my favorite artist, Dave Matthews. Along with Neil Young, he sang Hank Williams' utterly sad ballad "Alone and Forsaken". Hate the song choice, love the collaboration.

One of the most beautiful performance of the night though, surprisingly came from Justin Timberlake and his protege Matt Morris singing the Leonard Cohen classic "Hallelujah". This is where we see Justin at his best; quiet, subdued, emoting behind the piano. We see the performer that many have forgotten about due to his widely loved sex/pop appeal. The performance is beautiful to watch and listen to. This one deserves to be seen.



And on a personal note:
One of my dear friends from college, Jamie, lives in Port-au-Prince. The school where she was teaching is taking donations online through Paypal. See their website for more details. Her parents also have a mission there and are taking donations by check through the mail. If you'd like to support them, please contact me for information.

GaGa does it again

She is the queen of all that is weirdly talented. You know you can't ignore her. She was the musical guest on SNL this past week and honestly, this is just fun to watch.



The thing that really gets me about her though is that she can sing in tune. It's a sad pop state we live in where everything is so mass produced that it doesn't matter whether you can really carry a tune. And here she is, singing, performing, dancing. Doing it all but always the music comes first.



Best of all though...she knows how to have fun. Even with Madge in the picture.

Video Noir

Last night, I had a most excellent time at Chicago's Movies in the Park, a summer tradition running now for ten years. There is nothing like gathering with a few thousand people in the grass of Butler Field to watch a movie that everyone loves. A few favorites from the last couple of years have included Grease and The Sound of Music (can you imagine singing do, a deer, a female deer with roughly three thousand people? It's pretty awesome.) This is just another small reason that I love living in this city. There's so much to do here and it's all free.

Last night was a film noir classic that I was familiar with (having the soundtrack to the musical of the same name), but I hadn't actually ever seen the original movie of Sunset Boulevard. This is a beautiful example of film noir at its best. Shot entirely in black and white, it is a crime drama that emphasizes "moral ambiguity and sexual motivation" to the very core. What many people also don't realize is that this movie is the origin of that famous line "All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up."

The film noir genre doesn't only pertain to film. There have been plenty of videos shot in this style as well and they range in a broad spectrum of artists and styles. My mind instantly goes to this first classic from a legend in his own right, Mr. Rod Stewart. His video for Infatuation follows the film noir style to a tee.


A more recent entry close to the film noir genre is No Doubt's It's My Life. Though shot in color (and a little too closely following the plot line of Chicago), it has the early 50's crime scene drama written all over it.


Madonna is known for her outrageous and controversial videos that push the boundaries of fans and critics alike. Justify My Love, while having been banned by MTV, could also be considered in the film noir genre for its aggressive sexual nature and ambiguous sensuality.

And of course, a little bonus video for the musical theater dork in me. Here is the amazing Glenn Close in a scene from Sunset Boulevard, With One Look.