Wednesday, August 30, 2006

wake up!

could someone please explain this to me?






when did karaoke night become a national pastime?

i've often wondered where all of these tone-deaf megalomaniacs who show up for american idol auditions come from. don't they know what they sound like? it's almost too painful to watch. (almost.)

it's a great american myth, to tell anyone that if they can believe it, they can achieve it, no matter what it is. that's some horatio alger supposedly well-intentioned pull-yourself-up-by-your-own-bootstraps you-can-do-anything malarkey, the kind of thing old white people like to sit around and say when they talk about how they did it back in their day. what a big hot steaming crock of you know what! nobody goes it alone. anyone that accomplishes anything at all had plenty of help -- definitely from the government and certainly back in the day. sure, we'd all like to believe that this country is fair and equal and good to everyone and just brimming with opportunity, because that's what the brochure says. everyone gets paid the same rate for the same job. there's no institutionalized racism there's actually justice in the courts. but its not. what's in the brochure and what you get when you show up are usually two very different things.

i look at the video above and i just don't get it. why would anyone want to be a singer if they can't sing?

you're supposed to go where your talents lead you -- not your ego. if i were tone-deaf and great at math, i wouldn't be doing this. can a midget really play in the nba, if that's what he wants to do with his life? please. don't get me wrong, we all have our delusions. ella fitzgerald didn't want to sing. she wanted to be a dancer. as a matter of fact, when she showed up to perform for the apollo theater's infamous amateur night, she got scared, changed her mind at the last minute and decided to sing. and the rest, as they say, is history.

i don't know which disney moppet sang that song, a dream is a wish your heart makes in cinderella (probably the fairy godmother) -- but you know what? wishing doesn't make it so. if you want to make your dreams come true, the first thing you have to do is wake up.

2 comments:

garland said...

Queen Esther
You sound like a cranky old Nazi school marm. Or maybe Sister Mary Agatha whacking knuckles for singing dead hymns off key. "Virtuosity" is mostly boring. You should scold these people for being unoriginal, not for singing like frogs.
Love, Garland

Queen Esther said...

a nazi school marm, huh? well, maybe you're right, there, kommandant. you have to admit, though -- it's more than a little weird when someone says, i'm the whole package and then they step up to the mic and sound like a braying farm animal.

i just want someone to sound good and to sing with a little feeling. and evidently, i'm asking for the world.

how can i expect these people to be original? originality is way too much to ask from the grammy totin' divas all over the place -- much less the hoi polloi.