mirages
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Post by mirages on Mar 21, 2011 20:51:16 GMT -5
Okay, I gave it a go -- closest station they list is Edmonton. Anybody got info for Calgary? Kim or Stampsgal, do you know which local stations accept requests even if they haven't added the song?
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mirages
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Post by mirages on Mar 20, 2011 18:19:41 GMT -5
I believe the first openly gay solo artist signed to a major label contract for their debut is Will Young. He came out (forced by a UK Tabloid) in March 2002. He was signed to RCA/BMG. I do not think the album was released in the US -- it certainly did not chart in the US. In fact, can't find him on the US charts at all. So if it is released in the US and distributed to US retail -- I still am with Adam. What about Jobriath in the US?
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mirages
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Post by mirages on Mar 20, 2011 1:38:55 GMT -5
Tonight's discussion had me doing a little searching. Really for myself and not to comment on the discussion going on here. When I came across this I just had to bring it over. It's an excerpt built into the dictionary app that came with my computer. Look at the first name on the list of celebrities: CelebritiesRuPaul regularly capitalizes on his camp appeal through TV and movie cameo appearances. Many celebrities have camp personae, although some tend to possess these traits unintentionally. Some celebrities even capitalize on their camp appeal through commercials and in TV and movie cameo appearances (for example, TV commercials for Old Navy clothing stores). Celebrities with camp personae include: Adam LambertAndy Bell (of the band Erasure) Alan Carr Boy George Elvira Cher Christina Aguilera Chuck Knipp Cyndi Lauper Courtney Love Dame Edna David Bowie Divine (t/n Glen Milstead) Elton John Fabio Frankie Howerd Freddie Mercury (of the band Queen) Gerard Way Graham Norton John Barrowman John Waters Julian Clary Kathy Griffin Kenneth Williams Kylie Minogue Lady Gaga Liberace Lionel Blair Little Richard Madonna Mika Pee-wee Herman RuPaul Richard Simmons Sophie Ellis-Bextor You know who's inexplicably missing from this list? Bette Midler! Who's campier than that?
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mirages
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Post by mirages on Mar 20, 2011 1:05:21 GMT -5
Now, all that said, I love Leonard Cohen. Love Bruce Cockburn, Ferron, Antony and the Johnsons, Indigo Girls, Lou Reed. Love earnest, heartfelt, poetic. Love depth. I'm looking forward to seeing what Adam can do on that level ... Broken Open, I think, bodes well. Hey, I remember you said you serenaded your guests with Yeats, yes? You're my hero and I want to come to your house:) I hope there's a bee-loud glade. More poetry please!!! Are you on twitter? I ask because I follow Leonard Cohen Quotes and it often makes me smile. Indeed, I've never understood the need to box 'relevant music' into one genre. Doesn't art give voice to the range of human experience and vision. Sometimes that's arch and/or theatrical, sometimes it's a guy/girl with a guitar and a mic, or Placido Domingo or Iggy rolling around on broken glass. Do I really have to decide one is more authentic? As a member of the great audience, I think not. Still, for current (new) artists, it is a difficult time because so many trends are played out for the moment. Even the 'vocabulary' has become inadequate, as is regularly demonstrated. David Foster Wallace wrestled greatly with (for lack of better words) finding the heart in the postmodern (or post postmodern) world. He leaned towards some form of sincerity being the new rebellion. The last para of something he said/wrote reminded of the criticisms leveled at Adam - that' he's not a real rock star or (for some) a genuine artist b/c he's too polite, accessible, smooth (both in vocals and personality), sentimental, etc. I think one of the reviews or blogs even said something about his being too nice (or similar adjective) as a criticism. This is the conclusion of one of Foster's musings on this topic: "Real rebels, as far as I can see, risk disapproval. The old postmodern insurgents risked the gasp and squeal: shock, disgust, outrage, censorship, accusations of socialism, anarchism, nihilism. Today’s risks are different. The new rebels might be artists willing to risk the yawn, the rolled eyes, the cool smile, the nudged ribs, the parody of gifted ironists, the “Oh how banal.” To risk accusations of sentimentality, melodrama. Of overcredulity. Of softness. Of willingness to be suckered by a world of lurkers and starers who fear gaze and ridicule above imprisonment without law. Who knows." thisdrivesmostpeoplecrazy.com/2010/09/28/david-foster-wallace-on-irony/www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ft4YT80XgHgAw, you're sweet to remember. Yup, that was me with Yeats -- I don't get invited out much. I'd love to have you over, but the only "bee-loud glade" hereabouts is buzzing between my ears. Saint Leonard's on Twitter? Damn, that could almost make me sign up. I love what you quoted and the essays themselves -- thank you! I love this from the first one: Once everybody knows that equality of opportunity is bunk and Mike Brady’s bunk and Just Say No is bunk, now what do we do? All we seem to want to do is keep ridiculing the stuff. Postmodern irony and cynicism’s become an end in itself, a measure of hip sophistication and literary savvy. Few artists dare to try to talk about ways of working toward redeeming what’s wrong, because they’ll look sentimental and naive to all the weary ironists. I loved the lead, too -- "irony tyrannizes us". Actually, I misread it initially as "irony hypnotizes us". That, too. One of the bravest things I think Adam has done (and they are Legion) was NOT to buckle under when reviewers (and fans) pointed out how Oprah/self-help/sentimental his between-song patter was, especially after Soaked and before Aftermath. As one of the "cool kids" in his artsy group, the hardest thing is to risk that kind of dismissal as banal, soft, un-edgy. But it was what he wanted to say, and dammit, he just went on saying it. Same way he wanted to give a hand-job to a microphone stand and dammit, he did it on American Idol and just smiled when they shot around it.
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mirages
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Post by mirages on Mar 19, 2011 21:33:03 GMT -5
rihannasu: Adam's camp is very sophisticated which is why it is often not even recognized as camp. It sometimes goes over peoples heads. I've been thinking today that he is almost more DaDa than camp. Everything he does challenges preconceived notions. He juxtaposes things that you wouldn't think would go together. The way he both blends and contrasts the masculine and feminine and defies any attempt to box him in. As soon as you describe him he changes yet again. His response after the AMA's poked and challenged society. Rather than backing down he challenged our perceptions of what is acceptable. He hasn't just made us fans he has made us activists, or revitalized our activism. He makes us think and question the status quo. He is political in the way that artist should be political in that his art inspires us to examine and engage the world around us. The opening line of "Strut" is "I want to start a revolution" written at a time when he was saying he didn't want to be a poster child for the gay communtity. And he has started a revolution, a "personal solution" in his fan base. How many of us speak of the way he has reshaped us in the course of our fan experience. Many of us have taken up the challenge to "rewrite the role we play".
Dada was a response to fascism and we have a kind of neo-fascism going on in this country now. Adam's very existence challenges those ideas and just staying true to himself and strutting his stuff is a political statement all it's own. I love that he isn't afraid to be over the top but he also isn't afraid to tone it down and be understated even though many might see it as a cop out. He isn't afraid to take whatever direction the spirit moves him. I think that's one of the differences between him and Gaga. While Gaga is celebrating the freak aspect she almost seems to be rejecting the "normal" side. By always being weird and outlandish and out there she has put herself in a box that I don't think she can step out of. Could she wake up tomorrow and just do shows as plain old Stephanie Germanatta? I don't think she could. Adam has done a very good job all along of showing different aspects of himself and if he decided to do a stripped down coffee house style tour next time I think the fans would be right there with him because natural or normal Adam seems to be just as interesting as OTT Adam. Think about that VH1 acoustic set where he did DTRH. Most of us were scratching our heads trying to figure out how he could do that song acoustic. It just didn't seem possible, but it worked. I was amazed that it was just a psychedelic as the album version.
I also found that red carpet interview from Rupaul's Drag Race with both he and Sutan very interesting. When the drag queen interviewing them asked Adam what his Drag name was or would be he says "Adam Lambert" with a perfectly straight face and waits for them to "get it". That to me was a hint that his stage act for Glam Nation was in many ways a kind of Drag. I have a feeling that if the interviewer had questioned him about it instead of laughing that he would have had a perfectly convincing explanation of what made it drag and I really would love to hear that. I think that there are often deeper meanings to things that he may just never reveal and allows those that get it to revel in that depth without making those that don't get it feel left out or stupid. He did finally acknowledge very late in the tour that the red A on the top hat was in fact a reference to "The Scarlett Letter" but he didn't belabor the point. OMFG, I want to transcribe this post and hang it on my wall. BRILLIANT assessments. Wow!!! Momtomany, I so happy to hear it. I was going to ask how Penelope was, but then I was afraid I might have missed an update post. I'm sure she is getting the best of care and she's fighting every step of the way. Agreed -- rihannasu, you made my night. And momtomany, SO glad to hear about Penelope's improvement ... like Gelly, I was thinking about her classical namesake, Odysseus' wife, who was in every way a match for her thinking-hero husband. So gald you'll be holding her without all the tubes and hospital stuff soon.
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mirages
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Post by mirages on Mar 19, 2011 20:37:22 GMT -5
Adam can perform in a campy style, this is true. But I don't think of the songs as campy, which is what he is saying about the album. Think of Music Agan, when he did it on The CBS Early Show. That was not campy at all. The only songs, that to me, might be slightly campy are FYE and IIHY. But that is only when I think about the videos. Before I had the visuals of these music videos, I never thought of either song as campy. The first time he performed Soaked, he was campy. But I don't think any of us would feel that song is a campy song, now. I adore this performance. But one of the reasons I adore it is the little eyeroll he does at :33 to :35 when he sings, "Oh babe I'm goin' crazy" -- that's an overblown, overused cliche line and he's delivering it consciously as just that. Later in the vid you can see him having the BEST time delivering the polysllabic "betterer" type lines, too -- the fact that he has such FUN with that, and with riffs stolen from old Sweet albums (Desolation Boulevard, anyone?) is part of the fun. Now, all that said, I love Leonard Cohen. Love Bruce Cockburn, Ferron, Antony and the Johnsons, Indigo Girls, Lou Reed. Love earnest, heartfelt, poetic. Love depth. I'm looking forward to seeing what Adam can do on that level ... Broken Open, I think, bodes well.
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Post by mirages on Mar 19, 2011 20:16:02 GMT -5
On Adam's remark, I think he doesn't actually say that camp is not honest -- he says the new album will be more honest and less campy -- two different things. But not totally unrelated. On the honesty -- I believe that is very consistent with when he has talked about writing all of the songs, referring to his journal, and making a more personal statement on this album. FYE was mostly songs written by other people for other singers or themselves -- Soaked, WWFM, FYE, Soaked, IIHY and so all were also old demos. On camp -- I believe if you look up the definition of Campy --- it says: 1. Cover of Adam Lambert's "For Your Entertainment". 2. Adam Lambert's performance of "Strut". Real definitions ---- Webster's New World Dictionary of the American Language, 1976 edition, sense 6, [Slang, orig., homosexual jargon, Americanism] banality, mediocrity, artifice, ostentation, etc. so extreme as to amuse or have a perversely sophisticated appeal The term goes back to early 20th century US. It became a more widely used in the US in the early 1970's and was very closely associated with gay artists, style and designers. Some websites state the term originated in 1955-1960 -- but the earliest known written reference i can find is 1909 and the expression may be older. Undoubtedly this use of the term originated in the US Gay Community in the New York area. JMHO -- when Adam says less campy, I think he means less theatrical, less gay, more mainstream pop-rock. But that is just my impression. ("Strut" live is one of my favs -- so I hope "Campy Adam" never really leaves us.) Finally, check out the celebrity list on the Camp (style) Wiki page: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_%28style%29UNF that list of artists on that Wiki is like...UNF. Ok it's official...I was a gay man in my past life. The end. Yup, and Adam tops (and I do mean TOPS) the list (okay, it's alphabetical by first names, but still ...) I must have been gay in a past life, as well, or in this one and haven't had the sense to realize it yet.
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Post by mirages on Mar 19, 2011 20:05:29 GMT -5
Oh, I think a lot of the songs are campy, personally, especially when you watch Adam perform them, and I mean this as a compliment--they're funny and charming and a little willfully bizarre. Just a couple of examples of the top of my head--Music Again, and Strut. Watch Adam perform either of those songs, with the strutting about and the elaborate eye roles and the put on accents and occasional (for lack of a better word) "broadway" intonation to the singing and I think they are wonderful camp at its finest! (Like a lot of moments in Freddy Mercury's performances). The GN Live Strut is a perfect example, for me, of a camp performance by Adam (and while I agree California Girls is a little campy, I don't find Tik Tok that campy at all, just more straightforward tongue in cheek, perhaps). To be honest, I've had to swallow my protests a few times lately when I've heard Adam talking about Album 2, and saying it will be more honest and less camp, because to me camp and honest aren't mutually exclusive, especially in Adam, who pulls off camp with such natural charm that it feels like he's simply being a wonderfully exaggerated version of his own free self. I love Adam's campiness and that he doesn't deny himself it, and I hope he continues not to. But I understand of course what he means when he says that, and just remind myself of my total faith in him, and in his ability and intention to produce something wonderful and surprising. You want campy? I think this performance gave me the most laughs of the whole tour! Music Again, to me, is the song that expresses "campy" the most and this performance exhibits and demonstrates it to the max! Watch him with the towel. At one point he drops it & picks it up AGAIN! I will LOL forever at this! mariep, thank you, I hadn't seen this performance before -- this is priceless! And you're right -- it's him using that darned terrytowel facecloth like it's a feather boa, and then turning it back into a balck facecloth and STILL draping it over his sequins and glitter ... But tinafea and lynne nailed it, too. He keeps changing it up and that's a huge part of why we stay enthralled. And, as he said himself, his voice is the through-line. And his heart.
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Post by mirages on Mar 19, 2011 19:43:02 GMT -5
I have a question for you all. Adam keeps saying the next album will be "more organic." I get that remark. But he also keeps saying it will be "less campy." This confuses me. The only thing campy, to me, on FYE was the cover. I can't think of a single song, I would consider "campy." If I were to think of some recent songs, in the Pop world, that are "campy" California Gurls and Tik Tok come to mind. But of the songs on FYE, nothing. What does he mean by that? Oh, I think a lot of the songs are campy, personally, especially when you watch Adam perform them, and I mean this as a compliment--they're funny and charming and a little willfully bizarre. Just a couple of examples of the top of my head--Music Again, and Strut. Watch Adam perform either of those songs, with the strutting about and the elaborate eye roles and the put on accents and occasional (for lack of a better word) "broadway" intonation to the singing and I think they are wonderful camp at its finest! (Like a lot of moments in Freddy Mercury's performances). The GN Live Strut is a perfect example, for me, of a camp performance by Adam (and while I agree California Girls is a little campy, I don't find Tik Tok that campy at all, just more straightforward tongue in cheek, perhaps). To be honest, I've had to swallow my protests a few times lately when I've heard Adam talking about Album 2, and saying it will be more honest and less camp, because to me camp and honest aren't mutually exclusive, especially in Adam, who pulls off camp with such natural charm that it feels like he's simply being a wonderfully exaggerated version of his own free self. I love Adam's campiness and that he doesn't deny himself it, and I hope he continues not to. But I understand of course what he means when he says that, and just remind myself of my total faith in him, and in his ability and intention to produce something wonderful and surprising. YES! Yes, yes, yes. and YES! But then, I like my serious message delivered with a smile and a wink. I like Godspell better than Jesus Christ Superstar even though the music in JCS is undeniably better. I like Byron better than Wordsworth because Byron knew how to laugh at himself, how to hold the truth of overblown romanticism in one hand and the irony in the other. And it's something that chimes with me about Adam, too. There's no question that his talent runs very deep. But when he wrote, after his album cover release, "Hey, folks, it's SUPPOSED to be ridiculous," it was over for me. I was hooked. And my immediate response to mys*&@^#r's question about what was camp on FYE, too, was "Strut and Music Again". Not that there isn't good stuff in there, but watch him perform them -- as MWP points out, the very obvious eye rolls and winks, the self-parody. As someone who fears, sometimes, being seen as ridiculous, one of the things I love best about Adam is his ability to OWN it, wear it proudly. I learn something worthwhile from the boy (or from Adamtopia) almost every day. That's just one reason why both are so damn addictive!
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Post by mirages on Mar 19, 2011 14:51:05 GMT -5
Question: does anyone in our community have a paypal account that I could reimburse? I have a PP account and would be happy to -- in fact, way more comfortable with -- reimbursing a gifter.
Out here in far-flung, exotic Canada, we can buy from iTunes but not AO, and my understanding is the iTunes purchase won't benefit the Trevor Project. So I'd like to get three copies of the remix (one for me, one for a friend, one for an aquafit instructor I think might play it at her classes and spread the love further), but I have that weird Prairie Calvinist thing about not accepting charity. I know, I know, I know -- BUT if someone has the means to let me repay them by Paypal, everybody could benefit, right?
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