Big babe singing

Have been watching Wimbledon -- that's where the post title comes from (big babe tennis being the winning style of play there).

Have found a new favorite Broadway belter, Kerry Ellis, the British Elphaba in Wicked. I don't really like the over-the-top belting, which is odd considering that I do like opera singers who give it 110%. But the overdecoration and the rip-out-the-vocal chords type of singing, it's not for me. Idina Menzel is a prime example (in Wicked, not in Rent). I love her emotion, but I'm always half expecting that she's going to do herself an injury.

I came across Kerry Ellis by YouTubing Brian May performances -- he guests with her a lot, because she sang in We Will Rock You, and I guess he liked her. Like I said, belting itself is not my favorite type of singing, but she's pretty good, and better when she shows some restraint. She does not show said restraint in this Royal Variety performance, but it is Wicked, after all, and Brian May's there, so it's all good.

Rock opera

I love rock opera. I think it works as a genre. Whether or not it works as a film rather than an album is a question not resolved by finally watching The Who's Tommy, which I enjoyed but found occasionally boring. That's a problem with some of the songs, at least for me. The psychedelic look and feel of the film definitely works, especially with my two favorite numbers, Eric Clapton's song and Tina Turner's. Yes, I liked them even better than Elton John's appearance as the Pinball Wizard, because while he's fantastic, there's just so much in Eric Clapton's appearance as a guitar-playing preacher of the cult of Marilyn Monroe that both the music lover and the cultural critic in me were thoroughly satisfied.

It was a lot of fun to see The Who scattered through the film, with Keith Moon having way too much fun playing the perverted uncle. Roger Daltrey was unbelievably convincing, particularly in Tommy's catatonic stage. I can't say I really loved it, but it's an interesting piece of musical and cinematic history.

Stunned

I was shocked to be informed at dinner that Michael Jackson had died. I didn't believe it at first -- I was not reading the news all afternoon. I will always remember him both as a cautionary tale about uncontrolled fame and an unbelievable performer. My brother and I used to breakdance in the basement when I was maybe five or six. Still, I wouldn't say that I was hugely into him until that video for Black or White came out, relatively late. That was just a fantastic, cutting-edge video for that time, and then I retroactively got into his Thriller days, then in college the Jackson Five Motown days, and finally settled on my favorite, "Billie Jean." Jackson was just... I mean, regardless, I think it's all right to feel sad about his death, both for the loss of the music legend and what went wrong in his life.

The green race

Time magazine, which I don't read very often, had a half-decent article on the coming competition in green technology. Of course, they had to slip into old Japan-bashing habits by making it seem like a race between an evil Asian axis and the poor, underfunded U.S., mentioning Europe as a kind of afterthought and completely ignoring the role of transnational corporations. However, anything that raises American awareness of the growing importance of developing better and greener tech is, I suppose, good.

Reinvention

I've started Toni Morrison's new novel/la, A Mercy, set in earlier slavery days than any of her previous works (I think). It's a new departure for her stylistically as well as topically, but I was not wowed by the start. I'll post again when I make my way through.

At least the dog is cute

Are you kidding me? I thought it was bad enough when the media followed Obama to Five Guys -- and I think for PR's sake he'd better quell those outings for a while, as it's distracting people from the work he's doing -- but all these news stories about him killing a fly during some interview have me completely baffled. Why? Has the 24-hour news cycle really gotten that unfillable?

Meh, mistborn, mess

I'm always looking for fun reading for the cardio machines, but Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn trilogy doesn't seem to be doing it. When I make it halfway through a book and have no impulse to finish, it is not good. Aside from the fact that few of the characters are compelling, their interactions are not that interesting, and the magical universe is not terribly fun, the writing is beyond repetitive and clunky. Let me give you an example: one of the primary ways that the magicians, for lack of a better term, work is by burning metals that give them specific powers. They can fly through the air by Pushing or Pulling on metal. (Great terminology.) This is painstakingly explained the first time that the hero does it, balancing himself with a coin dropped here, a window sash there, a guard's armor hither, a thrown coin thither. You get the idea, right? Well, then we go through it yet again when the hero teaches the scrappy gutter girl with amazing powers how to do this, and we have to hear her first-time experience -- which adds next to nothing. I blame the editor as well as the author.