Ramiele, Where Art Thou?

Check it out dawg. When Ryan announced Ramiele Malubay would be singing "In My Life" my heart skipped a beat. This is one of my favorite Beatles' songs, one whose lyrics and simple melody is so beautiful that Simon singing it could move me. As soon as Ramiele opened her mouth my imagination speed ahead in anticipation of how she was going to approach the rest of the tune: straightforward skating to get the audience grooving to their memories before wowing the crowd with a series of spectacular triple and quad jumps. But it sounded as though she chickened out at the last minute and finished with a few single salchows. The judges berated her for "playing it safe", which I don't think was disappointment with the performance but with delivering below her potential. Surely Brooke White's rendition of "Let It Be" (upon which the judges heaped excessive praise) was not much better or original, it's just that no one can imagine Brooke doing better. Fortunately, Ramiele made it through to the next round (thank you Manila and Dick's Cabaret) and has the chance to redeem herself next week.

Patawad Po Talaga

Brooke White is your next American Idol. Of course she's gorgeous, but until the last two weeks she seemed like just another fluffy pop singer. If she is really involved with the selection and arrangements of her songs then she deserves to win. But could it all be a manufactured conspiracy crafting the anointed one's image, making the ordinary sound original to stand out from the rest of the field? Ramiele was certainly not up to snuff last week, it jerked her out of the sure thing cafe like Obama losing Texas and Ohio. This week was so much better, yet she keeps appearing in less than flattering outfits. The AI wardrobe department must be in on the conspiracy.

Counting Me Out

The statcounter.com webtracking gizmo seems pretty good in comparison to other free hit counters out there. My sister tried some of the others but none of them had the reliability or credible features that is in the statcounter offering. Looking through their FAQs, I found how to exclude specific PCs from the count, which I did the other day. So now I know that "you" and "we" no longer refers exclusively to "me". You couldn't call my growing readership a following (nor should you call it growing and readership kind of infers that people intentionally come here) but I am getting a couple of strangers per day looking at these words. Probably not these words, most of the views are for an entry that mentions the Filipina American Idol singer Ramiele Malubay. And most of the viewers are coming from - surprise, surprise - the Philippines. It seems a link to this blog turned up on a fansite devoted to the singing wunderkind Charice Pempengco. I didn't know who Charice was either, but after a couple seconds of googling I discovered a page of youtube videos showing performances by an itty bitty teeny tiny 6 year old infant belting out Whitney Houston songs. If you are aroused by any of these videos you should be ashamed of yourself.

Charice Pempengco


Hindi ko alam kung papaano ko po kayo mapapasalamatan sa inyong kabutihan.

2008 American Idol Is...

The promotions for this season's American Idol have Simon proclaiming "the talent is the strongest it has ever been". After watching youtube videos of the top 24 performances, it is obvious the purpose of such statements is to recover from last year's Sanjaya scare rather than any attempt to portray reality. On the men's side, I see no Chris Daughtry-like standouts; they sound exactly alike with only slightly varying levels of proficiency. The same is mostly true for the women, with the exception of Ramiele Malubay. She reminds me of Melinda Doolittle in that she knows how to craft a song and has the confidence to restrain her big voice until the tune calls for it. She is not on the same level as Melinda (Ms. Doolittle had several years experience as a backup singer compared to Ramiele's experience in Philippine karaoke boxes) but Ramiele has the advantage of being so darn cute. She will win not only because she is the most talented, but also because each Filipino in the world will be voting for her several thousand times a week.

Your Next American Idol

B and Tina Horror Review

I couldn't work for most of yesterday, I was just too shaken by those horrific images from this week's tragedy. Of course I'm referring to the Tina Turner / Beyonce duet of "Proud Mary" at this year's Grammys. The pairing must have sounded good in the planning room: the fantasy of Beyonce moving her ample resources like a young Tina Turner (who never had an especially good figure) is more than enticing. The reality, however, is just not there. In a Grammy show from another era, John Denver introduced Tina with the remark "God made Tina Turner to teach women how to dance in high heels." Beyonce obviously skipped class.

Aside from the grisly sight of Grandma Turner hobbling around without her walker, several questions keep gnawing at my brain. Who is the evil plastic surgeon making hideous cat monsters out of the most famous beauties in the world? Tina Turner, Cher, Melanie Griffith, Meg Ryan, Barbara Hershey, Dolly Parton, Farrah Fawcett, Priscilla Presley, Kenny Rogers... And how does he continue enticing new victims to undergo his sick mutilations?

For those who witnessed Sunday night's horrors, I am including links of Tina Turner in earlier times that I hope will help cleanse your mind of that dreadful experience. These are the visions of Tina Turner we are meant to die with.

Classic Ike and Tina's "Proud Mary"


Couple other versions here, here, here and here. On Ed Sullivan without the easy. If you really cannot watch Ike, here's one with Tina replacing the Ikettes with Swedish models.

A very early Tina wearing sensible clothes.

Great Balls of Embarrassment

Anyone wanting an example of ridiculous piano theatrics only had to witness the contrast between Lang Lang's and Herbie Hancock's performances during tonight's grammy awards. For an example of piano theatrics sorely missed you could watch Jerry Lee Lewis' subsequent performance of "Great Balls of Fire". Though to be fair, for Jerry to be jumping around on his piano these days would certainly violate several biogerontological laws.

You Oughta Know

Never date a woman whose favorite singer is Alanis Morissette. How many involuntary penectomies have been performed after listening to one of her albums?

Piano Detours

While looking for something on the theoretical differences between "fair trade" and "direct trade", I came across this article in the New York Times expressing frustration over the physical histrionics that too many young pianist inject into their performances. Which led me to youtube to watch performances of Lang Lang, Glenn Gould, and Arthur Rubinstein. It is not just that Lang Lang's facial tics and spasmodic episodes distracts from the performance, they seem so insincere, disconnected from the music. Less of an involuntary physical reaction to a spiritual surfeit and more of a willful choice to differentiate his act. Like Kiss applying face makeup.

I'm not sure I agree with Mr. Holland's conclusion that such theatrics turns young people away from classical music, however. When I was in my teens I came into possession of Keith Jarrett's Koln Concert album, which I listened over and over again. It wasn't until later in my adult life that his orgasmic groans and cranial gyrations became intolerable.