Sparks from the Fire

Well, the Oscars are over, the Grammys are over and it’s already started.  We put ‘em up there.  Now it’s time to knock ‘em off.  Just watch.  It happens every year.

What is it with our country this penchant to lift these people up onto the world pedestal, usually because of their good work, and then as soon as they’re up there, we do everything we can to pull ‘em back down?

It’s an American tradition – and not a very pleasant one.  Is it jealousy on our parts?  Is it that once up there most people don’t know how to handle it and so they sabotage themselves?  Is it the press and their ever-growing need for drama whether it’s truthful or not?  Or is it just that once up there, you get your 15 minutes and then it’s time to get off?

Probably all of the above.

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If you’re interested in talent, fascinated by greatness, love Pop music and even if you don’t, run, don’t walk, play hooky from school, skip work and go see Michael Jackson’s movie, “This Is It”.  I did last night and I’m going to go back and see it again tomorrow night.

I’m going to take a night off from my presentation of the Ira Awards because I’m just so filled up with the incredible experience of seeing that movie. I must have broken out in tears and sobs of joy and wonder about 15 times during the movie – no exaggeration. For me, it was a completely overwhelming experience.

You can say what you want about his personal life, but Michael Jackson is the great talent of our time. He wrote tremendous Pop songs, he sang so purely, so sweet, so funky and so incredibly rhythmic that it makes me laugh out loud at the wonder of it, and the man is right up there with Gene and Fred, and Mikhail and Rudolf for that matter, as a dancer. This man’s talent doesn’t ooze out of him, it pours. He is, for me, the consummate performer of our time.

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I’ve had a chance to go out and see two terrific performances this last weekend. The great thing about living in NYC is by far, for me, the talent. This place is just alive with phenomenal talent.

Friday night it was The Accidentals at The Rubin Museum, the Himalayan Museum here in town and last night I caught a first time opening of a new developing piece called “Women of a Certain Age” at the Bitter End in the Village. Both pieces were generated by Watchfire Music’s inspirational music artist, Margaret Dorn.

Both pieces were beautifully done and each in a different stage of development. It was a fascinating contrast of performances, but what jumped out at me most of all this past weekend is really the essence of this post.

For my money, no matter how great the instrument, a singer only works as well as the actor inside. I had the opportunity to watch 12 different performances of professional singers all with wonderful voices. Some were better than others. Why? What it came right down to was that some were better actors than others.

Moms, if you want your kids to grow up and be good singers, besides all that vocal training, get ‘em into a good acting school with a good teacher. It’s just as important as good vocal training.

Occasionally some young person comes along and they just do it naturally, that is, they just have some hooked-in talent that places them right in the middle of the reality of doing so that when they sing, they are really there right smack in the middle of the moment. They may not even know what they are doing, but they just do it naturally.

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As many of you already know, I’m not always a big fan of actors as people. They tend to be pretty high on the charts of ego-centricity and my experience with them off the stage has usually been pretty one-sided as to who does the talking and who does the listening.

I’ve also written a number of times about the ludicrousness of our country’s silly hang-up of thinking of our movie stars as our royalty – as if the fact that they can play a hero in a movie actually makes them a hero in real life. I choose not to watch them act up on the red carpet – except to get a good laugh.

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