"Voice of Germany" is a television program which is similar to "American Idol," "Britain's Got Talent," etc. I've seen snippets of such shows previously but they always seemed quite brutal to me with lots of crying and I really, really didn't like it when they brought out people who were obviously not qualified to enter such contests as those ones would be openly ridiculed. "Voice of Germany" is not at all like that as the judges are mentors and the contestants get second chances.
Since Cat and I are multiple time zones apart, we watch the show by synchronising on the clock in the video. That gets us within a few seconds of each other and we can watch it together as she hasn't seen the show either.
You know how it goes with these shows as you pick your favourites and damn the people who send in wrong votes to screw things up. Last night the voters got it wrong several times and then Cat and I could object mightily because of course the voters were wrong and we were right.
A big weakness of these shows and one of the reasons I didn't watch them much in the past is there is no band. There's a studio orchestra to support the singers but that is not at all the same as a band. This crushed Nader last night as he covered "Kashmir" by Led Zeppelin. He did a great job of the cover but he had that crap-ass studio orchestra behind him rather than a band around him so that undermined him and he lost. He sang hard but he had an elevator band behind him and they just didn't get it done.
And that's my biggest problem with these shows. They're looking for singers and I understand that but bands are more than singers. Imagine Robert Plant saying to Jimmy Page, "Hey, mate, how about you lighten up on all that guitar playing so I can carry the band over here."
What I've just described doesn't happen much as the studio orchestra is actually competent for most things, they're just not a rock band. Where you will also die is if you ask them to back you on the wrong song. One of the girls last night started into a song which was quickly recognisable as "Wrecking Ball."
Cat and I were immediately typing back and forth,
NOOOOO, that's Miley Cyrus. What is she thinking!
She's doomed.
Why, why, why did she pick this song.
So, yep, she died. Dumb ideas will kill you too ... but at least she didn't twerk.
(I'm offended by twerking because kids think adults will be shocked by it. Kid, we came from the fucking sixties. Do you seriously think you can shock us with ANYTHING.)
Cat and I have a lot of fun watching these shows even if I don't think it's a good thing to focus so hard on any idea that The Singer Is Everything. That's only true for lounge acts or people heading for Las Vegas and you can see it all through Second Life where singers get some back tracks from Make You a Star commercial cheap-ass back tracks company and use them for their shows. These are the iPod Queens and some have quite good voices ... except they're worthless in such a banal musical setting.
They asked me when I went to see the Guitar Doctor how I got along in Europe when I am so poor on European languages and I said, "Lotta pointing. Lotta pointing, man."
Pointing doesn't work so well for a television show so it drives me harder to learn German but it also shows me I have a LONG way to go. They aren't so prissy as on American television and every so often you'll hear one of the mentors, the singer from Lifesaver, saying, "You fucking rock!"
I don't know how it would go if he said, "Sie ficken rocken!"
Probably about the same ... Germans aren't stupid.
So, for now I point to Google Translate as it's still hugely cool that such a useful resource is free.
I can't emphasise strongly enough to learn a language, any language, before you go to Europe. The way the Euros do it is they will try different languages on each other until they find one that both speak at least enough to understand each other. You don't have to be a walking dictionary, you just need enough words to make yourself understood. I think pidgin English only has about a hundred words in it.
Since Cat and I are multiple time zones apart, we watch the show by synchronising on the clock in the video. That gets us within a few seconds of each other and we can watch it together as she hasn't seen the show either.
You know how it goes with these shows as you pick your favourites and damn the people who send in wrong votes to screw things up. Last night the voters got it wrong several times and then Cat and I could object mightily because of course the voters were wrong and we were right.
A big weakness of these shows and one of the reasons I didn't watch them much in the past is there is no band. There's a studio orchestra to support the singers but that is not at all the same as a band. This crushed Nader last night as he covered "Kashmir" by Led Zeppelin. He did a great job of the cover but he had that crap-ass studio orchestra behind him rather than a band around him so that undermined him and he lost. He sang hard but he had an elevator band behind him and they just didn't get it done.
And that's my biggest problem with these shows. They're looking for singers and I understand that but bands are more than singers. Imagine Robert Plant saying to Jimmy Page, "Hey, mate, how about you lighten up on all that guitar playing so I can carry the band over here."
What I've just described doesn't happen much as the studio orchestra is actually competent for most things, they're just not a rock band. Where you will also die is if you ask them to back you on the wrong song. One of the girls last night started into a song which was quickly recognisable as "Wrecking Ball."
Cat and I were immediately typing back and forth,
NOOOOO, that's Miley Cyrus. What is she thinking!
She's doomed.
Why, why, why did she pick this song.
So, yep, she died. Dumb ideas will kill you too ... but at least she didn't twerk.
(I'm offended by twerking because kids think adults will be shocked by it. Kid, we came from the fucking sixties. Do you seriously think you can shock us with ANYTHING.)
Cat and I have a lot of fun watching these shows even if I don't think it's a good thing to focus so hard on any idea that The Singer Is Everything. That's only true for lounge acts or people heading for Las Vegas and you can see it all through Second Life where singers get some back tracks from Make You a Star commercial cheap-ass back tracks company and use them for their shows. These are the iPod Queens and some have quite good voices ... except they're worthless in such a banal musical setting.
They asked me when I went to see the Guitar Doctor how I got along in Europe when I am so poor on European languages and I said, "Lotta pointing. Lotta pointing, man."
Pointing doesn't work so well for a television show so it drives me harder to learn German but it also shows me I have a LONG way to go. They aren't so prissy as on American television and every so often you'll hear one of the mentors, the singer from Lifesaver, saying, "You fucking rock!"
I don't know how it would go if he said, "Sie ficken rocken!"
Probably about the same ... Germans aren't stupid.
So, for now I point to Google Translate as it's still hugely cool that such a useful resource is free.
I can't emphasise strongly enough to learn a language, any language, before you go to Europe. The way the Euros do it is they will try different languages on each other until they find one that both speak at least enough to understand each other. You don't have to be a walking dictionary, you just need enough words to make yourself understood. I think pidgin English only has about a hundred words in it.
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