That outraged Twitter user was correct: This is a competition about singing. And Ada Vox, entertaining performer though she doubtless is, was not the best singer. No, ma’am.A few thoughts:
Most of us were thrilled to see a contestant breaking down another barrier. We were excited to see an out and proud contestant doing well and living their truth on an American institution.... Ada Vox was not eliminated because she didn’t conform to the societal norms of “Idol” viewers; she was eliminated because she didn’t conform to the key of the song.
Remember, contestants don’t get voted off “American Idol.” They failed to get voted on. Ada Vox didn’t have millions of people logging on or calling into ABC and voting to remove her from the show. She simply couldn’t grab enough viewers (or high Bs in “Circle of Life”) to compel them to vote for her.
1. "That's the tea" is defined at Urban Dictionary as: "That's the gossip. The deal. The current news. The latest."
2. I'm not so sure what Vox was doing counts as "living their truth." Vox is a drag character created by Adam Sanders after he tried out for the show 12 times as Adam Sanders and never got too far. The female performance was much more successful than what I would guess Sanders prefers — showing himself as a nonconforming male. Wasn't what he tried 12 times more the truth than the drag performance?
3. I give a lot of credit to Clay Aiken for going on the show in 2003 and presenting himself forthrightly as as a nontraditional male (basically, what Sanders attempted 12 times before turning to drag):
4. Clay Aiken was on Season 5 of "Celebrity Apprentice." He came in second (losing to Arsenio Hall). Here he is expressing his respect for Donald Trump back in 2015:
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63 comments:
a contestant breaking down another barrier
Sanders is several tens of thousands of people behind on breaking down that "barrier."
Girls will be boys and boys will be girls
It's a mixed up muddled up shook up world except for Lola
La-la-la-la Lola
"Lola", the Kinks (1970)
Sure, this is a good take.
But, what about the definitive determination?
Malakar jabber?
Ha ha,
It great fun when Althouse has jabbered re how she can't get away from folks writing things that tie in DJT when he's not really part of the underlying story.
She's awesome.
Cool.
If it's really about singing, then they should perform behind a curtain. The number of women hired as classical musicians greatly increased when they went to blind auditions. Of course, if it's about entertaining, well --
That's entertainment!
Cue strange new Althouse commenter respect for the Gayken.
The entertainment industry has the peculiar distinction that it is not covered by anti-discrimination law. Or is it? You can require your strippers to look good naked. Can you require them to be female?
It was ok to say nice things about Trump during the primaries. That was back when they wanted him to beat up on all the Republicans and be the candidate to come out on top because they knew he would lose the general election.
If Clay Aiken said those thing today? He would be driven out of polite society.
Shiloh, why are you such a dick? Serious question. What do you hope to accomplish? Make Ann post what you want her to post? Or just stop posting? Asking for a friend.
BL,
I needle her re her inconstancies. Like she does to other folks.
For a while here I used a name (though I've never used Shiloh) that identified my status as the Althouse ombudsman.
I still feel a sense of duty re correcting the corrector.
Most here are already sucking up to her. There's no need for more of that. IMHO.
Plus, anyone reading my comments would realize that I gots deep (the deepest?) historical knowledge re the Alt-history. That's deeds (i.e. reading and remembering) being more meaningfully complimentary than praising jabber. Irony is fun!
Au contraire mon ami. Vox got extra votes for being a female impersonator.
Who else here could recall Meade scolding Althouse for using dashes to make mega words?
As I did in her recent post re her self-pride re her new word concoction.
This was referencing the way back (and totally trivial, i.e. not easily recalled), pre Meadehouse.
I wouldn't be surprised if neither of them remember.
Snatch.
The female performance was much more successful than what I would guess Sanders prefers — showing himself as a nonconforming male.
I beg to differ, Sanders is totally conformist.
@anti-de Sitter space said...
Malakar jabber?
Is Malakar Jabber related to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, otherwise known as Lew Alcindor?
Abdul-Jabbar famously said: "You can't win unless you learn how to lose."
There are eight million stories in the naked city; this has been one of them.
gadfly,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05rTAZ7SD0c
Jupiter,
If it's really about singing, then they should perform behind a curtain. The number of women hired as classical musicians greatly increased when they went to blind auditions.
Actually, not true. The number of women hired increased because there were a lot more female musicians, period. You can see it in the orchestras. The old, established ones are still (barely) majority-male. All the younger ones are majority-female, sometimes a large majority. Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra in the Bay Area (full disclosure: I've played with them a couple of times) has at least 75% women in the strings. Winds are more evenly balanced.
You can read in this the demise of the Women's Philharmonic, another Bay Area institution. Right before they shut down, they were still carping about the lack of female low brass players. Right, so you can have most of the string positions, most of the wind positions, but we'll soldier on, because there aren't enough female trombonists.
PBJ, I give you credit for answering the question. So to clarify, your aim is to b-mod (via abuse) Althouse, or Meadehouse (as opposed to the other commenters, or the blog itself, inasmuch as it has an existence outside of La Emerita), into greater consistency?
Well then, I regret to inform you that you are doing it wrong. But I wouldn't obtrude with unwanted advice, so, as you (and shiloh iirc, do you really deny being him?) so often say,
Carry on.
Took a lot of courage to select a song normally sung by black people with a big voice. Takes a lot of courage to jump on a live grenade. Elton John got away with it; Voc got what usually happens when you jump on a live grenade.
Jupiter,
"Actually, not true. The number of women hired increased because there were a lot more female musicians, period."
I have read that factoid in several places, regarding an earlier time, and the implication was that the change was immediate and substantial. Specific musical organizations were named, I have forgotten which ones. But I bow to your superior experience. Female musicians may be a good deal more common now than they once were. These days a lot of them seem to be taking rather direct advantage of the fact that they do not play behind a curtain. Not that there's anything wrong with cleavage. If you've got it, flaunt it.
For Chuck:
Exclusive: Bornstein claims Trump dictated the glowing health letter
Jupiter said...
If it's really about singing, then they should perform behind a curtain.
They don't because it's not. Just as ...
ABX and/or other blind tests show that medium-low priced wine tastes the best, and that just about all stereo components except speakers/headphones sound the same. But that's no fun compared to imagining qualities of "woodiness" or "transparency" that can't be measured objectively.
Thus spake Caldwell Titcomb IV.
Transgender homosexual, bisexual, transvestite... So last decade. So politically congruent ("="), and notably unequal, as in Pro-Choice. As for Aiken, principles before principals, refreshing, positive progress.
"Not that there's anything wrong with cleavage. If you've got it, flaunt it."
Or, not:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_XwdKrbpanzk/TFrM7WuUUgI/AAAAAAAAFsk/ut1YYtTqiOA/s1600/fat-bastard.jpg
@John Henry, if you’re around, PBS “Frontline” will be on in 40 minutes (10:00 EDT) looking into the post-Maria Puerto Rican blackout. You might be interested.
To be fair to Aiken, transgender/homosexuals are known to discriminate against other orientations in the transgender spectrum. Perhaps this is due to a dissonant sound emanating from undecided males, neo-males, visual artifacts, etc.
"@John Henry, if you’re around, PBS “Frontline” will be on in 40 minutes (10:00 EDT) looking into the post-Maria Puerto Rican blackout. You might be interested."
And, don't forget that ya may wanna be like these yutes w/ their intertubes which allows for stuff like:
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/trumps-takeover/
They calls it streemin'
Bonnie Raitt Dimming of the Day
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RXJc199zFk
real music, real genders.
Successive 4th modulations.
Caldwell Titcomb IV said...
all stereo components except speakers/headphones sound the same. But that's no fun compared to imagining qualities of "woodiness" or "transparency" that can't be measured objectively.
Never understood how otherwise smart people could not figure this out, it's actually written in the specs.
Bonnie Raitt "You"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPMF_dyfL4Q
"Caldwell Titcomb IV said...
all stereo components except speakers/headphones sound the same. But that's no fun compared to imagining qualities of "woodiness" or "transparency" that can't be measured objectively.
Never understood how otherwise smart people could not figure this out, it's actually written in the specs.
WTF?
Even if you're confined to digital, the specs for DA converters are different depending on quality.
Of course if you play a shitty, low resolution track, it may not matter. But, the quality of your source would be included in the stuff that is not a speaker. Hence, you've already made a judgement here.
Anywho, a really high end (solid state/digital/vinyl/whatev) stereo (i.e. only two sources of sound) system, in the right room/chair(s) will allow you to experience inexpressible sonic bliss. Expect to drop half a million or more, a hundred grand if yur poor.
IMHO.
Ah nice. A thread where the local leftists can go shout their intolerance at the straw men they build.
Trump has been pro-gay/pro-gay marriage longer than you losers have.
Aiken respects Trump because Trump respected Aiken. Based on individual merits. Content of his character and all of that.
You guys don't even respect gay people. You treat them like a collective and captive population.
How is that Russian collusion coming long? I see ARM found something almost as important as the health of the economy or the Korean Peninsula to pretend to care about.
Different circuits have different response curves. Different AM radio stations used to have patented audio processing to give the station a familiar pleasing sound.
Try playing LPs without an RIAA amplifier. They greatly modify the audio before putting it on an LP, and the amplifier has to undo that.
anti-de Sitter space said...
Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...Never understood how otherwise smart people could not figure this out, it's actually written in the specs."
WTF?
Even if you're confined to digital, the specs for DA converters are different depending on quality.
Here's a nice article on why, other than one's imagination, you can't tell the difference. IOW, all the specs are within human hearing resolution.
Just look at wire. Some folks spend close to a hundred bucks a foot for speaker wire.
The specs are not the same as the "good" stuff at Radio Shack.
Clay Aiken didn't come out until after his season of the show was over. So good for him, and I've bought his records and all, but he's not exactly a profile in courage.
rhhardin said...
Different AM radio stations used to have patented audio processing to give the station a familiar pleasing sound.
There's a lot of difference in the mixing, e.g. one mix for hifi and another for AM radio, esp recently some 24 bit remixes.
Try playing LPs without an RIAA amplifier.
Vinyl LP's were always pretty hokey - dragging needle though a soft plastic groove? Ogg no like.
Cald,
looking at the bits of the data v the bits folks can comprehend is silly.
Computers (digitizing) uniformly whack off (not in the meat beating way) info. So, the parts that really matter in the spectrum are equally truncated, just like the highs and lows that nobody (really) knows.
Analog and tubes give it all to ya. And, it is amazing. But, not cheap.
Even systems w/ studio monitor type speakers (i.e. cheap, i.e. maybe a grand or two) will allow a person to sonically ID the location of the singer v the drummer v the guitarist v etc, and the fidelity will allow you to hear stuff you didn't know existed when listening on other systems. Literally, you will hear things that you didn't know where there, on the same recording.
But, it's all the stuff behind these cheap studio monitors that's making this happen. And, the spec say so too.
"Michelle Dulak Thomson said...
"Actually, not true."
Actually, true:
http://gap.hks.harvard.edu/orchestrating-impartiality-impact-%E2%80%9Cblind%E2%80%9D-auditions-female-musicians
A greater supply of female musicians may have hit at the same time, but correlation is not causation.
So I'm reading this post, and I see Althouse say this:
"The female performance was much more successful than what I would guess Sanders prefers — showing himself as a nonconforming male."
And last night she said this:
"That said, Vox deserved to be in the bottom 3. Virtel ranked her 9th, and she chose to sing "Circle of Life."
So I wrote this: Which sounds reasonable, but I'm not quite sure how you introduce yourself to someone by saying 'should I call you a dude or a chick?', without sounding like you're trying to be a dick.
So, today he's a 'himself,' while yesterday he was a 'her' and a 'she' and shit.
Which kinda goes to the point I wrote in the link: the guidelines for figuring out pronouns and shit now is way fucked up.
So I'm thinking maybe what I wrote influenced Althouse's pronoun decision today, but then I figure that can't be it, I'm not even sure what I said and I wrote it.
But then I read that Althouse says Aiken, the gay dude, is "presenting himself forthrightly as as a nontraditional male" and Althouse's guess on Vox is that Vox would prefer to just be a nontraditional male, but after twelve times failing like that he, like, went with the drag thing and shit.
So I kinda sense that, like, Althouse cooled off on him overnight. And I'm thinking this is because she is seeing him as a bit of a phony: that the drag thing was a gimmick, not a strongly-felt thing in his life. And maybe I see that shit, too, but then it gets into trying to judge the intent of a drag queen's heart and shit, and that's getting pretty complicated for me, I have enough trouble with, like, figuring out straight chicks.
But can someone be a drag queen for the wrong reasons? Like, if they just do it once in a while and are happy and shit then they're not really authentic, but if they are miserable and getting plastic surgery and shit then they're, like, the real thing? Because being miserable about the size of your tits is, like, expected when you're a teenage girl, but a dude who dresses up like women being miserable about his tits seems kinda silly.
Because if someone can be a drag queen for the wrong reasons then can someone be gay for the wrong reasons? Because I'm not sure how that would work, but I understand a lot of the gay dudes don't like the bisexual dudes because they think they're really gay, that they're just not being gay the right way and shit.
And then there are gay dudes who pretend to be straight, then come out after they've, like, been married and had kids and shit, and that seems like a wrong way to have been straight, because the wife chick is, like, what the fuck, dude? Really? You couldn't have figured this out beforehand?
So I'm pretty confused on what pronouns to use and who gets to use them. I think the easiest one for me to remember is that Cher's daughter is a 'he', and if I had a time machine and had to go back to the Seventies to try to explain this to people about little Chastity I think people would figure I was on drugs and shit.
I post my shit here.
I said "records." Cr*p. Now you guys know how old I am.
anti-de Sitter space said...
But, it's all the stuff behind these cheap studio monitors that's making this happen.
The music was originally mixed on studio monitors. It is notable that most musicians and producers are not actually audiophiles.
On an unrelated note, I have some old Magnepans going cheap.
ARM,
It is cool to be able to hear playback at home that is drastically better than it would be if it was played at the studio where the tracks were mixed.
Livin' the dream is cool.
BTW ARM,
Re your speakers, I grew up w/ (and out of) Martin Logan. Sorta that style.
But, I do still use sorta that stuff for my ambient systems. I.e. throughout the houses. Sonance makes speakers that look like drywall. I use them as part of multi-mil home auto thing-ys, but those individual speaker parts are cheap. I'm sure that a handful of them scattered about a normal house w/ normal control systems would not be expensive.
http://www.sonance.com/in-wall-in-ceiling/invisible-series
I just want to say thank you. I'd had never seen American Idol, but the clip you posted of the high school girl singing "Once Upon a Dream" was so sweet I watched the show on demand. It was a fun watch.and I'll probably keep watching to see who wins. At some point in an elimination contest the remaining contestants are all good, and some of them still need to be sent home.
"It is cool to be able to hear playback at home that is drastically better than it would be if it was played at the studio where the tracks were mixed."
I kinda get that, but then you get into what you are adding to the experience that the artist didn't intend and shit.
Like, the artists and producers mixed and EQ'ed and shit to the sound they heard from their studio monitors, and maybe now you can hear that crisp sha-ching of a hi-hat better, but maybe you're now hearing it more than intended and it's driving you nuts, like, why the fuck is that hi-hat like that, it's bugging the shit out of me, but it wasn't that way when it was on the studio monitors, technology is now, like, ear-fucking you and shit.
There was a lot of music back in the day that was mixed for mono, but then they would half-ass a stereo mix because some people were starting to buy stereos then. And the mono mixes usually kicked ass, because that was how they intended them to be heard, they wanted the sound to get all smooshed and shit, and then the stereo mix would have the drummer way over on the left and it would be like, why is the drummer way over there?
Because I could walk through a fancy art museum wearing blue glasses, and maybe I'm thinking this shit looks way better all blue and shit, but that's not, like, the artist's choice, if the artist-dude wanted more blue he woulda used more blue, unless he ran out of blue and couldn't afford to get any more, painters used to be really poor back then.
And sometimes the producer is just an asshole, and everything is too loud because everyone wants shit loud, and he's too coked up to realize it's sounding like a fucking vacuum machine. And it's not even like Acid Trance Garage Electro Clash, where a vacuum cleaner might make sense, but it's maybe Norwegian Gore-grind Death Metal, and now you can't even tell that the drummer is playing three kick-drums, because, like, the maid's right there, vacuuming and shit.
I post my shit here.
FTR,
Recently I've been thinking about getting a wee little truck that has some sorta panel/film speakers in the bed.
This year my goal is to be in a city house for ten percent of the year. So far I've been in these for eight days. Gotta catch up.
But, I've really become a fan of being a truck driver re country livin' [Of course, it's also fun to roll the Fs (not Ford) when sub-suburban.]
Anywho, w/ a couple F450s now, It'd be good to be a trucker in the cities too (when F is too showy). But, duals and even half tons seem big for sniping and weaving. The Honda truck has speakers built into the bed.
But, based on the way it looks, I think they make you handover your balls when you buy one.
It's the Miata policy.
What to do?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=5&v=ZhDYGe4_7a4
Dear Laslo,
You know I love you, and your work is gold, and we don't tell zee artiste wat to do, hein? But yet, I must say to you that in daily use, 4chan dude is wearying me. Too much dudes and shits. Like Reggie Jackson said about Nolan Ryan's fastball, after striking out four times in a game: I love fastballs, every good hitter loves fastballs, just like everybody loves ice cream. But nobody likes 10 gallons of ice cream being shoved down your throat in one serving.
Maybe you could rotate characters in and out as appropriate. Say, bring back ponytail-swish girl for discussion of #metoo, that kind of thing.
Again, sorry, but it needed to be said. However, that's just my opinion, please do as you feel you ought.
anti-de Sitter space said...
ARM,
It is cool to be able to hear playback at home that is drastically better than it would be if it was played at the studio where the tracks were mixed.
Livin' the dream is cool.
5/1/18, 9:33 PM
I love how you care.
openidname,
I can speak only from my own experience, but it's pretty extensive: Eight years at the Juilliard School, pre-college division, then undergraduate and graduate studies at UC/Berkeley. (Undergrad in mechanical engineering, grad in musicology. We do tend to revert to type. But I was concertmaster for most of that time, and afterwards principal viola, when I switched instruments.)
See, the thing is that there generally are not blind auditions. There are for younger folks; at the Junior Bach Festival, where I adjudicated for several years, everyone was behind a screen. But an adult chamber orchestra? Of course not. You need to know what the player's bowing is like, what the player's fingering is like. You need to see the technique.
PBO doesn't audition behind a screen. I don't think Orpheus does either, or St. Paul. And auditions for major positions in symphony orchestras are never behind screens. If you want to hire a concertmaster/mistress, you try him/her out in public. Same for other principal positions. Winds, too. Does anyone think Eugene Izotov (first oboe with the SF Sym, until he left for the Met) was hired from behind a screen?
Brian Wilson used to take acetates of songs he was working on down to the radio station and get his DJ friend to play them while he listened on his car radio out in the parking lot. Because that's how most of the world would hear them..
Beware "In stereo for the first time!" re-issues. I have one such CD which has a formerly great song on it (can't bring it to mind right now) and you can tell that when it was originally recorded, there was a guitar part dubbed in later after the rest of the song had already been mixed in mono. So when they found the masters, the natural thing for "In stereo for the first time!" to do -- put the mixed-down bulk of the song (vocals, all the instruments except the guitar) on the left and put the guitar on the right. From great song to WTF?!
But nobody likes 10 gallons of ice cream being shoved down your throat in one serving.
LOLz
He got it right when he said "No, ma’am."
Not the best voice. Not even close. Some technical ability, tone lacking, and emotion lacking. Had it been a blind audition, he never would have been in the running.
Throw in a pitchy performance and you have a train wreck.
There were people performing that didn’t make it past the first cut that were better. Their problem was that they didn’t carry any political water.
Bad Lieutenant said...
Maybe you could rotate characters in and out as appropriate. Say, bring back ponytail-swish girl for discussion of #metoo, that kind of thing.
Unbelievable.
Unbelievable.
What?
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