#28 - The Sound of Hurdles

Ashley Tisdale played Sharpay, the annoying blonde "always stars in the musicals" girl from the first High School Musical. No idea how, if at all, her role changed in the others. She's also been in the Disney-TV show, The Suite Life of Zach and Cody -- tedious there, too. You may not recognize her because I think she pulled a "Jennifer Grey" and got plastic surgery that now makes her look like everyone else instead of herself. Was her nose pronounced? Perhaps, but not in a way that surgery made sense.

There are two reasons why I have her "Lies" single on my Zune. 1) It was a free download. 2) After Jakob's Preview Review of Britney's "Womanizer" I figured even this track from a High School Musical refugee deserved a listen.
No opinion yet.

As far as singing Disney songs in a bar ... I've done that. I've done it at Disney in fact.
A co-worker and I spontaneously broke into a complete version of "Part of Your World" from The Little Mermaid in a duet form at a high-end restaurant in the Dolphin Resort. It was late -- definitely bar-time not dinner time. We got some looks toward the booth our group was in, and didn't care.

A few minutes later, the waitress came over and told us the restaurant was closing and it was last call. We ordered, paid, drank, and left. Passed the bar an hour later, and (drum roll please) they were still open. Closed apparently meant closed to people singing Little Mermaid songs...


Sharing this story is now the nerdiest thing I've done today!

Maybe she'd have had better self-esteem if her character wasn't named after a breed of dog.

Interestingly, that's the Disney song people were singing at the bar I was talking about. The guy on stage was singing it, actually. Apparently he got the words wrong.

I was in a wedding on the weekend, and myself and the 8 other bride's maids spent the morning in a hotel room watching the Disney Channel with the bride. (A favourite past time of hers.) Wouldn't you know that the episode of The Suite Life of Zack and Cody: On Deck (A total Breaker High rip-off.) featuring Sharpei was on. I got a little, "Is that Ashley Tisdale?" confirmation from the bride. You learn something new every day.

-Musicals , 'avoid when I can ' minor kind of hurdle .
-Musical activities are ok to watch but I wouldn't want to join a club or anything .
-90s Hip Hop records with old school samples are fine, but I never know where to look for them. kmd's mr.hood is a good listen.
-Top 40 music from 80s onwards, strong aversion and big hurdle. With a few minor exceptions here and there.

One I didn't hear but of which the force is strong are bands like 'my chemical romance ' and 'Atreyu ' . I don't think it is Goth. More like punk/metal music . The videoclips are usually four of the band members clad in black with wrist bands jumping up and down . Black Mascara in eye area .The singers do this weird thing with their head when they're singing. I hate it how they wave with their guitars. The music can be quite invigorating but ends up sounding repetitive and annoying.

Those are Emo bands. We touched on them in the goth section but I cut that part. Mandi did a pretty good impression of a teenager saying, "MCR maaaaaan." I loathe those bands. I think more than anything top 40. I guess they are top 40 though.

Emo bands, of course ! I imagined that type of music to be a bit softer and whinier but now that you mention it all the pieces fall into place. I can't believe my sister went to one of their concerts. She's out there on youtube in one of the moshing ( how do I spell that ? ) videos.

I'm afraid to generalize or bracket music too much , I have often been too prejudiced and that's not a thing you want to do with people whom's company you cherish . Keeping silent is often the better route. Music is so private.

Fucking awesome episode Bowie's Package FTW

I used to be such a little emo...
Emo bands were like my gateway into the world of good music
I went: Pop punk > Whiny emo psuedo punk > 90's alt rock, which brought with it, Placebo, Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, RADIOHEAD (*strokes radiohead t-shirt she's wearing*) and Radiohead brought indie bands and douchey indie bands for that brief year and a half or so when I gave a shit about listening to "Cool" music.
Now I just listen to whatever takes my fancy (My fancy apparently ranging from Dizzee Rascal to Rufus Wainwright)

But on the subject of musicals! MUSICALS FTW!!! I love them! I wish my life was a musical! Anyone who speaks to me for longer than 10 minutes will hear me sing, it's partially just because it fits, partially to amuse the other person I'm speaking to, but mostly in the hope some one will join in and we can have a nice fully choreographed sing song...
It will happen. Oh yes, it will happen... some day... some where... sooome wheeeeere over the rainbow...

For the none musical fans, I suggest watching Cabaret as a gate way musical. Not at all surreal, plenty of sex and booze and Nazis and politics (regular, gender and sexual) and history.
Or possibly the South Park musical... because not only are the songs hilarious, they're catchy and strangely uplifting...

Ps. I just listened to Birthday Sex... awesome

Radiohead is fine, they get all the props. But the guys in Radiohead in turn give their props to THE CHURCH, my all-time fave band, tragically not well-known at all...musician's musicians. Go get yourself The Church's universally-agreed "best release", 1992 CD "Priest=Aura" (I actually have this CD cover tattooed on my arm)...or for something more "poppy" (a relative term in this case), 1988's "Starfish" (containing one of their rare hits, "Under the Milky Way") or 1986's "Heyday". Get tripped out on 1998's "Hologram of Baal". Be a sub-dude dude (or dudette) with 2002's "After Everthing, Now This". Be amazed at the sheer beauty of the song "June" from 2003's "Forget Yourself" (you'll never spend 99 cents on a better song on Itunes, trust me).

(London) Suede rocks my world.
Jakob/Urbane Decay rocks my world.
Autumn's Grey Solace rocks my world.
Ikon rocks my world.

Don't get me started, I'm a total snot about music...

Blargh... all this music talk is a hurdle for me. Except for the part about the choreographed dance numbers. That part was awesome.

Mandi wrote:Blargh....

Glarbh!

Roundapanda wrote:

But on the subject of musicals! MUSICALS FTW!!! I love them! I wish my life was a musical! Anyone who speaks to me for longer than 10 minutes will hear me sing, it's partially just because it fits, partially to amuse the other person I'm speaking to, but mostly in the hope some one will join in and we can have a nice fully choreographed sing song...

Your rendition of the Pokemon theme was brilliant Where has that toilet seat podcast gone to ? Did you stop recording them?

Tony, I'm listening to the Church now. Haven't made my mind up yet, I'll give them some time.

rob wrote:Tony, I'm listening to the Church now. Haven't made my mind up yet, I'll give them some time.

Rob, The Church put out their first record in 1981, and they are still an active band. I'm sure in their 30-year history they've done something you'll like!

Roundapanda wrote:But on the subject of musicals! MUSICALS FTW!!! I love them! I wish my life was a musical! Anyone who speaks to me for longer than 10 minutes will hear me sing, it's partially just because it fits, partially to amuse the other person I'm speaking to, but mostly in the hope some one will join in and we can have a nice fully choreographed sing song...
It will happen. Oh yes, it will happen... some day... some where... sooome wheeeeere over the rainbow...

Eliza, you need to come over here and get a job at the bakery I work at! We're all very out-going and willing to act crazy at the merest suggestion! We could be singing all day...

rob wrote:

Roundapanda wrote:

But on the subject of musicals! MUSICALS FTW!!! I love them! I wish my life was a musical! Anyone who speaks to me for longer than 10 minutes will hear me sing, it's partially just because it fits, partially to amuse the other person I'm speaking to, but mostly in the hope some one will join in and we can have a nice fully choreographed sing song...

Your rendition of the Pokemon theme was brilliant Where has that toilet seat podcast gone to ? Did you stop recording them?

We're having some techincal issues at the moment, being that, Cullane's computer is dead and my mic is rather shite Taking care of the mic problem soon though

Tony wrote:

Roundapanda wrote:But on the subject of musicals! MUSICALS FTW!!! I love them! I wish my life was a musical! Anyone who speaks to me for longer than 10 minutes will hear me sing, it's partially just because it fits, partially to amuse the other person I'm speaking to, but mostly in the hope some one will join in and we can have a nice fully choreographed sing song...
It will happen. Oh yes, it will happen... some day... some where... sooome wheeeeere over the rainbow...

Eliza, you need to come over here and get a job at the bakery I work at! We're all very out-going and willing to act crazy at the merest suggestion! We could be singing all day...

Sweet

It would be nic to be met with something other than dirty looks and people saying "... Eliza... taking it too far... shut up"

Best musical I ever saw live was Evil Dead The Musical. Cannibal the Musical (DVD) by the South Park guys is pretty good too.

Roundapanda wrote:Or possibly the South Park musical... because not only are the songs hilarious, they're catchy and strangely uplifting...

What I love about the South Park dudes is they're not taking the piss out of musicals ironically, they're actually celebrating them, it just so happens that they write hilarious lyrics instead of melodrama.

One of the many ironies of my career is that in general I loathe musicals, but some of my favorite shows are musicals(have either of you ever seen Assassins?). And you are absolutely correct, Jakob, while people try to call Webber's shows musicals, they are really operettas. And Mandi, I'm with you in that my favorite songs of Weird Al's tend to be his originals. Nature Trail to Hell, off the In 3-D album is, imo, his greatest song. I don't listen to him much anymore only because he parodies pop tunes, and I avoid current music like the plague of suck it is.

I listen to the musics. They make pretty sounds in my ears. I watch the musicals. They make pictures in my eyes also with the pretty sounds.

Rich always said one day Kumar would turn to drink.

I wonder if Igor likes musicals.

I think he does

I broke into spontaneous song tonight after dinner. Not sure why, but Roundapanda can take comfort knowing that it's not just a phase and it won't go away.

The song? Fall Out Boy "Sugar, We're Going Down Swingin'"
Again, not sure why.

My daughter told me I was "not allowed to sing any song that is even remotely current."

Nerdiest thing I've done today as well, I reckon.

I purchased Slade's Run Run Away from Amazon today. God help me it's pure, carbonated cheese, but I love this stupid song! And I blame Allison for saying that Enemy Mine is 'all things to everyone' thus reawakening the zombie memory cells.

See chameleon lying there in the sun
All things to everyone
Run run away!



help me

I mostly have the musical comedy hurdle but it's not a blanket hurdle. Obviously I'm biased and about to shake off even more of whatever respect Jakob might have had for my sensibilities, but I've been spontaneously and unironically busting out Flight Of the Conchords' Business Time for years. I understand that a disturbing number of people (you know, the kind of dude who loves quoting Old School and doing Borat and Austin Powers impressions) sing songs like this as a substitute for having any creativity or personality of their own, and I'm no genius-level anything, but I sing it because I like the music. There. I said it. I like a good amount of the FOTC music from the stage act (what became the first series of the tv show).

I love Something Special for the Ladies, Frodo, The Most Beautiful Girl (In the Room) and Robots, and I can hear them over and over in a criminal (ie non-Jakob approved) manner and still think they're funny. I do get the part of the hurdle relating to the joke wearing thin after one verse and that's how I feel about most musical comedy acts, but somehow FOTC almost always flies over it for me because I feel like they develop the joke over the course of the song rather than just blow it all on the first chorus. I also like their dryness and the underplaying of their delivery, which makes them stand out from so many other acts who seem to deliver as if they're over-ethusiastically hammering the joke at you instead of letting it float to you, which is the whole point of jokes. Then again, I also love the shit out of Lonely Island.

I know this makes no sense to you Jakob, and I know this puts me on the other side of the hurdle from you, but what can I say, I'm really not as perfect as I've always worked so hard at pretending to be. Also, I know you didn't say it but I bet you hate the ukelele. I play the ukelele too.

Marius wrote:I purchased Slade's Run Run Away from Amazon today. God help me it's pure, carbonated cheese, but I love this stupid song! And I blame Allison for saying that Enemy Mine is 'all things to everyone' thus reawakening the zombie memory cells.

See chameleon lying there in the sun
All things to everyone
Run run away!



help me

I'm not going to help you Marius. I'm going to salute you.

(Why's there never a saluting emoticon when you need one?)