Rhapsody in Blue

"I don`t want to be just a concert pianist.

I want to use the piano as a stepping stone !"

***

"It`s only with my music that I can prove my right to live. 

I must write !"

George Gershwin

(c) "Rhapsody in Blue" by George Gershwin

(c) Performance by Herbie Hancock and Lang Lang

(c) Classical Brits 2009

Clair de Lune - Debussy

(c) "Clair de Lune" performed by Grant Johannesen

(c) "Clair de Lune" by Claude Debussy

"Come on Barbie, Let's Go Party !"

"I'm Barbie Girl, 
In a Barbie world.
Life in plastic is fantastic.

You can brush my hair,

And dress me everywhere,

Imagination,

My life is your creation."

Barbie Girl
Aqua (1997)

Today Paris is grey.

It's cold outside.

There has been fog all day long.

Summer is far from us.

Today I want summer to be back.

Today I want to sing.

Today I want to be 15 again (without teenage pbs).

Today I want to dance on the songs I used to hear.

Then I started thinking about summer parties I had when I was a teenager.

"Barbie Girl" is the most emblematic song of the 90's.

So much derision and a well-done satire of our consumption society.

I hope that you will laugh as much as me when you'll watch this video.

Even more than 10 years after, I still know the lyrics by heart...

Have fun !

(c) ''Barbie Girl'' by Aqua (1997)

Lyrics :

Hi Barbie

Hi Ken!

Do you wanna go for a ride?

Sure Ken!

Jump In...

I'm a Barbie Girl, in the Barbie world

Life in plastic, it's fantastic!

You can brush my hair, undress me everywhere

Imagination, life is your creation

Come on Barbie, let's go party!

I'm a Barbie girl, in the Barbie world

Life in plastic, it's fantastic!

You can brush my hair, undress me everywhere

Imagination, life is your creation

I'm a blond bimbo girl, in the fantasy world

Dress me up, make it tight, I'm your dolly

You're my doll, rock'n'roll, feel the glamour in pink,

Kiss me here, touch me there, hanky panky...

You can touch, you can play, if you say: "I'm always yours"

(uu-oooh-u)

I'm a Barbie girl, in the Barbie world

Life in plastic, it's fantastic!

You can brush my hair, undress me everywhere

Imagination, life is your creation

Come on Barbie, let's go party!

(Ah-ah-ah-yeah)

Come on Barbie, let's go party!

(uu-oooh-u)

Come on Barbie, let's go party!

(Ah-ah-ah-yeah)

Come on Barbie, let's go party!

(uu-oooh-u)

Make me walk, make me talk, do whatever you please

I can act like a star, I can beg on my knees

Come jump in, bimbo friend, let us do it again,

Hit the town, fool around, let's go party

You can touch, you can play, if you say: "I'm always yours"

You can touch, you can play, if you say: "I'm always yours"

Come on Barbie, let's go party!

(Ah-ah-ah-yeah)

Come on Barbie, let's go party!

(uu-oooh-u)

Come on Barbie, let's go party!

(Ah-ah-ah-yeah)

Come on Barbie, let's go party!

(uu-oooh-u)

I'm a Barbie girl, in the Barbie world

Life in plastic, it's fantastic!

You can brush my hair, undress me everywhere

Imagination, life is your creation

I'm a Barbie girl, in the Barbie world

Life in plastic, it's fantastic!

You can brush my hair, undress me everywhere

Imagination, life is your creation

Come on Barbie, let's go party!

(Ah-ah-ah-yeah)

Come on Barbie, let's go party!

(uu-oooh-u)

Come on Barbie, let's go party!

(Ah-ah-ah-yeah)

Come on Barbie, let's go party!

(uu-oooh-u)

Oh, I'm having so much fun!

Well Barbie, we're just getting started

Oh, I love you Ken!

"Without music life would be a mistake" - Nietzsche

"Without music life would be a mistake." 

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

***

"Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life."

Berthold Auerbach

When I was young, we had audio tapes in my Mum's car. Every single day, when she was driving us to school, we would listen to the "classical musicians' lives".

Our favourite was Tchaikovsky's. So we almost listened to it every day. We were ''singing'' his concertos and my Mum used to follow the rythm by pushing a little bit her horn.

I still know by heart Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto n°1... It's been an hour that I try to find the most appropriate video.

Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto n°1 always brings me back a flood of happy memories.

(c) Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto n°1

(c) Piano : Serhij Hryhorenko

Lady Gaga protects her privacy

She is such a musical phenomenon.
Everybody has talked about her for months.
Some people criticize her "marketed" music.

But...
In the following video...

Listen to her voice !!
See how talented she is when she plays the piano.

(c) Lady Gaga Songs

(c) TV Show : Taratata (2009)

No Lady Gaga is not only a marketing musical product.

Yes, she is excentric.
Yes, she does all what she wants.
Yes, she is a real artist.

In Taratata, she is close to people : smiling, answering questions, joking, trying to speak French.

I prefer Lady Gaga here, whereas when she wears meat-made dresses. 

She has nothing to prove. 

She deserves media and people interest just for her songs. 

She should not need to be provocative to attrack the attention of the media.

Lady Gaga is famous. 

Lady Gaga is different. 

As an artist, she knows perfectly how to melt the codes of fashion, music, writing, art , photos and video... so that the result  is always innovative and unique. 

Yes, Lady Gaga is unique.

Who could claim to be like her today ?

No one.

She is an artistic model because she dares to do all what she wants, without restrictions.
And by doing this she encourages people to be "themselves".

Nevertheless...

Her songs may be marketed.

Her video clips may be shocking.

She may manipulate the media the way she wants.
She may have many people around her.

She may have millions of fans around the world... 

She recently declared in an interview in the French Glamour (don't judge the magazines I read in the train...) : "I'm perpetually lonely. I'm lonely when I'm in relationships. It's my condition as an artist." 

Being an artist is not easy.
You expose yourself and use your sensibility to create.
Sometimes you don't even decide.
You feel the need to create.
Art or inspiration are inside of you.
They need to get out of you.
You can't control them.
You did not chose to be an artist.
But you ARE.
You build an image of yourself so that you can express what you want to.
The only choice you have is to realese or not what you have just created.

Everybody knows Lady Gaga, her excentricities, her songs, her video clips. But who really knows her as a human being ?

To me, the main question is :

What does she want to hide, by exposing herself as a pop/musical/artistic icone or myth ?

I may be wrong, but exposing herself the way she does every time she goes out is at the same time a way to protect herself as a human being too.

For sure, she chose the good strategy to protect her privacy.

"Someone like you" by Adele

"Nevermind, I'll find someone like you.

I wish nothing but the best for you too.

Don't forget me, I beg, I'll remember you said :

Sometimes it lasts in love 

But sometimes it hurts instead"

Someone like you

Adele

Remember her name. 

Adele.

She's only 21.
And she's THE greatest singer of tomorrow.

(c) "Someone like you" by Adele

(c) MSN Session

Lyrics :

I heard that your settled down.
That you found a girl and your married now.
I heard that your dreams came true.
Guess she gave you things I didn't give to you.

Old friend, why are you so shy?
It ain't like you to hold back or hide from the light

I hate to turn up out of the blue uninvited,
But I couldn't stay away, I couldn't fight it.
I'd hoped you'd see my face & that you'd be reminded,
That for me, it isn't over.

Nevermind, I'll find someone like you.
I wish nothing but the best for you too.
Don't forget me, I beg, I'll remember you said:
"Sometimes it lasts in love but sometimes it hurts instead"
Sometimes it lasts in love but sometimes it hurts instead.

You'd know how the time flies.
Only yesterday was the time of our lives.
We were born and raised in a summery haze.
Bound by the surprise of our glory days.

I hate to turn up out of the blue uninvited,
But I couldn't stay away, I couldn't fight it.
I'd hoped you'd see my face & that you'd be reminded,
That for me, it isn't over yet.

Nevermind, I'll find someone like you.
I wish nothing but the best for you too.
Don't forget me, I beg, I'll remember you said:
"Sometimes it lasts in love but sometimes it hurts instead".

Nothing compares, no worries or cares.
Regret's and mistakes they're memories made.
Who would have known how bittersweet this would taste?

Nevermind, I'll find someone like you.
I wish nothing but the best for you too.
Don't forget me, I beg, I'll remember you said:
"Sometimes it lasts in love but sometimes it hurts instead"

Nevermind, I'll find someone like you.
I wish nothing but the best for you too.
Don't forget me, I beg, I'll remember you said:
"Sometimes it lasts in love but sometimes it hurts instead"
Sometimes it lasts in love but sometimes it hurts instead.