Best Beatles-Video-Lip-Synch-Evah!

I'm still looking for somethin' else. But never mind, today is the best Beatles Video Lip-sinch-You-Tube-Video feature ever! Something else is coming, you just watch out!

For Giancarlo

 

Soap Opera values lurking in the real world

First, Dr. sipmac will give you three true recollections about soap operas that he has witnessed throughout the years:

• When he was a child, Dr. sipmac was watching on TV a very popular and convoluted melodrama, practically on the edge of his seat. Her mother passed by, took a look, and coldly dismissed the production by saying that real life was even more tortuous than a TV show.
• Years later, sip was listening to the radio. It was the prime time in the morning. For sure millions were listening in the whole country. A major Latin American female TV star was being interviewed live and she couldn’t recall in which soap opera did something. “Never mind”, she said coolly without bothering about it anymore at all, “all soap operas are the same”.
• A few years later a renowned Venezuelan script writer, bitterly disappointed by the flop of his latest work, stated on a variety show that there were only two types of soap operas: those based on Cinderella, and those based on the Count of Monte Cristo.

At least all of them were sincere. In the meanwhile, Dr. sipmac still can’t figure out how to blend these facts, neither how to develop them properly, but he’ll give it a try. Has melodrama really something to do with real life? Is it a somewhat idealistic but simplified version of the existence or the true mirror of it?

Everybody knows how TV shapes the trends and the behavior of the population. Particularly, sip knows exactly when a kid (specially a little girl) has been watching too many dramas: the gestures and the language are ridiculously grandiloquent, and they really do not match those of a normal child. Imposture, ersatz language and personality like that is not exclusive of the children: I recall reading Three Trapped Tigers (written by Guillermo Cabrera Infante), a very (apparently) disjointed recollection of the pre-revolutionary Havana nights. To someone familiar with the current trends, the books look on first sight like a compilation of internet jokes. One has to read several times to find the connections between chapters. Dr. sipmac makes the digression because he remembers a female character blending in the middle of an argument two cultures: she was walking away from her mother, and she hears a slur, then she turns back like Bette Davis… and start talking like in a radio drama. Golden Age of Hollywood meets Golden Age of Cuban Radio. Mere fiction? In real life, an old and dear neighbor learned to use the word “infamy” against sip’s granny thanks to “The Indomitable” a 70’s Venezuelan drama.

You could argue successfully it is not only the soap operas the only media artifacts that produce such unnatural behavior in people. Just almost everything, not just visual mediums only, but also printed matter, too. Then Dr. sipmac would have to point a finger to the soap operas, specially the way are made today. In a whole, Dr. sipmac feels the melodrama formula is a straitjacket conspiring to maintain certain mental climate that keeps the Latin American countries locked in the third world. Why? First, it is pure business without social responsibility (Remember, give the people what they want). Second, if there are only two types of soap operas; those based on Cinderella, and those based on the Count of Monte Cristo, which are the messages that are constantly put into the collective mind? Glad you asked. Forget that fairy tale about virtue and goodness triumphing over vice and evil, chapter after chapter people learn that:

• The only way to escape poverty for women is marring a rich fella, by any means necessary (Cinderella).
• There are no reliable institutions. There is no justice. The only way to get it is taking it by own hands (The Count).

Opportunism without law and order. Anarchy. Does not Latin America look like this? And Latin America is the kingdom of soap operas, isn’t it? Ever wonder how values are communicated in a society? Please, Dr. sipmac knows he is discovering nothing knew. But maybe you didn’t thought about this in a while.

But make no mistake: Dr. sipmac sounds pretty much like a leftist when he blames soup operas for brainwashing the people, but he wouldn’t forbid them if it were in his power. He believes it is a personal choice (for adults) to decide what to watch and thanks to the internet, when. For the children, you just have to watch the South Park movie.

Dr. sipmac has ranted.

FULL DISCLOSURE: The last soap opera Dr. sipmac watched willingly, was the original Ugly Betty. He quitted by the time she was celebrating her birthday. It took a whole week to celebrate a lousy birthday that wasn’t vital to the central plot! Puh-leeze!

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Beatles Catalog (Finally) Remastered – A satiric Beatles-wordplay-and-puns-free assessment

On September 9th, 2009, the entire Beatles original catalog was released to an always avid target: three loyal generations of Beatlemaniacs and unsuspecting buyers we could qualify as collateral damage. As we saw with the 2006 released Love, we could appreciate in the documentary how difficult it was to the producers to come up with decent mashups, even with the entire same catalog at disposition (Yeah, sure. Just look out for Beatles’ mashups in Youtube. Start with Paperback Believer). With this in mind we can infer how difficult it was the remastering of every single song released in the 13 official albums with the singles and EP original material without botching it.

Because it doesn’t matter how many times the marketing team ends up not with a bang but with a wimp: the original songs remained the same. Until now. With such a task, the EMI engineering team, supervised by none others than Paul, Yoko, Olivia and Ringo, worked 4 years straight… until they could not hear a Beatle song anymore. First they searched for similar experiences around the world. Finally, in Colombia they bought the 1998-produced 30 Grandes Exitos – Diomedes Díaz and the original albums. After carefully (and for most of them, painfully) listening, they knew then what to do exactly with the Beatles catalog:

* First, suppress all chat and greetings to zero. Otherwise the recordings get too mundane instead of classy. Since Let It Be… Naked was released in November 2003, people would know already what to expect. Oh! Sorry What Goes On Website, your work is not needed anymore.

* Get rid of embarrassing out-of-tune performances! That means you, Hold Me Tight! Ole Paul was literally forced to re-record the With the Beatles’ track entirely with the early technology and sing correctly this time. When he protested, George Martin said: “You saw this coming from 46 years ago!” Mr. Moonlight? Out with the annoying Hammond solo! And another slap in the wrist for Macca!

* As in "30 Grandes Exitos", where the guacharaca was suppressed and replaced for *stylish, refined* cymbals, the entire drums and percussion of the tracks were removed and replaced with a drum box! In an upcoming Rolling Stone interview, Ringo will talk about how he is finally fed up with being the butt of jokes and harsh and unfair criticism for his drumming job in the band, so he gave up all his work for a bigger share in the Beatles’ business. Finally a point for Macca (fair or unfair his drum parts weren’t removed)!

* Revolution 9 was supposed to be enhanced with disparaging remarks of Michael Jackson made by Paul, Yoko, Olivia and Ringo, but self-styled King of Pop’s death recent death made them quit the project.

* As a special gesture, Strawberry Field Forever was intended to be reworked since the late John was never satisfied with the final result, the originally 1967-released version. But it was not possible to contact him, in spite of all the attempts made.

* In the most controversial move, all non-Harrisongs lead and rhythm guitar work was scrapped and replaced for all new Macca and Eric Clapton’s work. In his final days, close to achieve another happier and peaceful plane of existence, George Harrison couldn’t care less about the request and gave his permission to this. If this was the way for Macca to “finally set things straight”…

Well, speaking seriously now I wish the entire work can be heard as I heard Let It Be… Naked for the first time. Thank you, lads!

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Have you ever heard Let It Be... Naked?

Compared to the original album, "Let It Be...  Naked" sounds like a pile of mud has been removed from the original master tapes. This is the album I wish it was released originally, with the full eight minutes version of Dig It.

I will concede that the technology wasn't that advanced then, but in "Naked" you can hear a better band playing! It will feel like I'm kicking someone while lying on the floor, but Phil Spector did not have a clue. Well played, the overdubs were unnecessary (and a lot of stress would have been saved in the band).

An album with direct, live songs was a real possibility. I have to concede that some editing was necessary, too. For anyone that watched the movie, it is clear in "Don't Let Me Down" and "The Long and Winding Road". Still, as I said before, listening to the music feels like something unearthed, cleaned its dirt off,  and restored to its full glory.

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