Now that the Tivo is up and running, I’m able to catch all those back episodes of Sessions at West 54th Street that I attended, but never got to see when they were broadcast. Right now I’m watching the Cesaria Evora episode, in which I can periodically see the back of my head bobbing around. (I was always amazed how still people were during the tapings. If you ever see the second David Byrne episode, you can clearly see Mark and I bobbing and smiling uncontrollably throughout the whole performance. It’s music, ya know?)
I was completely charmed by Cesaria Evora, and couldn’t help noticing how Natalie Merchant, seated a few feet away from me, never mustered up too much enthusiasm, even during the standing ovation at the end. (Well, not that a standing ovation is anything other than obligatory these days, but that’s a rant for another time…) I remember thinking that someone could have been a little less jaded and taken a few pointers on performance techniques.
oh oh
talk about standing ovations!!!!!
my childhood voice teacher would RANT about how uncultured people are and how they have no IDEA what a standing ovation is about. It has stuck with me ever since and everytime i see people “ovating” i want to tell them all “FOR GODS SAKE IT WAS A PUPPET SHOW FOR KIDS!!!!”
Natalie *always* looks jaded. But as a very loyal fan I always have written it off as a quirk in her public persona. She is quite a private person, and one perspective to have on your observations is that she is private about her reflections on the world she observes around her. When she does share a part of the inner-world, its usually beautiful stuff.
As far as performance techniques go, I can’t say I have ever gone to a bad Natalie Merchant performance. She is original in her non-audience-centric stage presence. But its far from jaded.
“Non-audience-centric stage performance”?!
Pfft. Yeah right.
I think I met a non-customer-centric waiter at the non-dieter-centric restaurant I went to for lunch today.
Sigh I wish I had TiVo. I wish I had a TV. A job…. Beep!!!!!