I heard about it on the US network news this evening. It was well worth it! Susan Boyle from a small village in Scotland showed-up to audition for the 2009 Britain's Got Talent contest. When she walked out, Simon Cowell smirked. The audience obviously didn't have much hope for her either.
When asked who she wanted to be and she immediately responded that she wanted to be a professional singer, as famous as Elaine Paige (the first lady of British Theatre)at which point Simon actually rolled his eyes heavenward. The music started and the theatre was a-hush.
Then she opened her mouth to sing... I still have goosebumps. She was FANTASTIC! You have got to watch this! If for no other reason to see Simon Cowell have the smug smacked out of him! I swear, he is visibly gobsmacked! The audience stood and cheered!
At the end of her song, she drew standing ovations from everyone but Simon. Then, this sweet, unassuming lady walked off the stage. They had to call her back to judge her! She completely forgot to wait to hear the judges comments. I am so glad that she got on the show... I only wish that I were still over there. I would watch the entire show to hear her sing again.
I can only hope that they will put her other show performances onto you-tube! I want to she her again.
Wherever you are today, don't let anyone tell you that you aren't good enough to follow your dreams!
Don Bergquist - April 15, 2009 - Lakewood, Colorado, USA
I Dreamed A Dream
From Les Miserables
[Fantine is alone, desperate, unemployed and destitute.]
Fantine:
There was a time when men were kind
When their voices were soft
And their words inviting
There was a time when love was blind
And the world was a song
And the song was exciting
There was a time
Then it all went wrong
I dreamed a dream in times gone by
When hope was high
And life worth living
I dreamed that love would never die
I dreamed that God would be forgiving
Then I was young and unafraid
And dreams were made and used and wasted
There was no ransom to be paid
No song unsung
No wine untasted
But the tigers come at night
With their voices soft as thunder
As they tear your hope apart
And they turn your dream to shame
He slept a summer by my side
He filled my days with endless wonder
He took my childhood in his stride
But he was gone when autumn came
And still I dream he'll come to me
That we'll live the years together
But there are dreams that cannot be
And there are storms we cannot weather
I had a dream my life would be
So much different from this hell I'm living
So different now from what it seemed
Now life has killed
The dream I dreamed.
6 comments:
Sniff... That WAS Fantastic. I watched it here on youTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY
Thoughts On Lord Simon
He flies over the ocean sipping Champagne. He lives in expensive homes. He does whatever he wants to do. And he is paid a lot of money for making fun of people who are nervous and insecure. Nice work if you can get it.
AR
Yes, Mike... It was sad. There there! You can stop sniffling now.
djb
Dear Anonymous Reader,
Thank you for reading my blog and taking the time to post a note.
I am not at all certain that it is "nice work if you can get it..." It would seem to me that it is soul-stifling. Making one's living off the torment of others must seriously screw with your karma!
It is bad enough when you are snarky as a hobby. Once you get people to actually pay you to do it... well if you will excuse the biblical reference to the Pharisees you bring them down with you; making them as fit for hell as you are yourself.
So no, AR, it's not nice work. There is nothing about Simon Cowell that I am envious of. Let him have his thirty pieces of silver. (What's with all the biblical references this morning?)
Have a great day and thanks again for reading and commenting on my blog!
djb
I found your comments about Simon Cowell to be interesting because I do not believe that he suffers from bad karma from having tormented people. As Susan Boyles pointed out in an interview recently, everybody in the UK loves him (and over 30 million people in the US evidently still watch American Idol and I imagine that at least some of them love him too).
A great business leader (Warren Buffet) once made the comment that you don’t know who is swimming naked until the tide goes out. Simon Cowell is a product of the society that he lives in, and he lives in a society where millions of people enjoy tormenting people who are nervous and insecure. Whenever he works his “magic” and hurts people who are nervous and insecure, massive amounts of love pour into him from millions of people in the US and the UK who love what he is doing. If the tide that Warren Buffet talked about changes and goes back in towards the shore, Simon Cowell and millions of other people like him will be standing naked. And at that point the people who had sent their love to Simon Cowell will take back the love that they previously gave him. If that happens, he will at that time have a karma problem but at the present he is one of the most beloved people of all time.
One last thing – I downloaded that video that you recommended in your blog. In my opinion that was one of the greatest moments in the history of British theater (and Susan Boyles realized her dream of being like Elaine Page at that moment). The performances of Simon Cowell, Amanda, Piers, Susan Boyles, the two stagehands, and the audience gave me goose bumps. It was dramatic to see the audience and the critics turn from hostile to overwhelmingly positive in a matter of seconds. If it had been choreographed to wait another 10 seconds before Amanda smiled brightly into the camera to show her approval and for the audience to turn from ice cold to blazing warm it would not have been as effective because then we might have wondered if it was really authentic and not theater.
After watching the video I showed it to someone who used to be a big fan of American Idol and explained how everything seemed to be staged. I explained how I thought that the stagehands knew when Susan Boyles was going to shake her hips beforehand because of they way that they played along to make it fun and how the stagehands seemed to know that Simon Cowell was going to say that he knew from the moment she walked on the stage that it would be great (which he did because he choreographed it). The person I showed it to knew for sure that it was staged three seconds after Susan Boyles starting singing and not only that but said that Simon Cowell would have normally rolled his eyes in the middle of a performance like that and then afterward told the audience that the singing was “pitchy” (the person I showed it to did in fact think that it was a little bit “pitchy” in the middle), and Simon Cowell would not have been embarrassed to say that because he would not have couched Amanda, Piers and the audience beforehand to “play nice” and act enthusiastic).
AR
Dear Anonymous Reader:
Thank you for reading my blog and taking time to comment on it.
You are, of course, right. There is no apparent atrophy to Mr. Cowell's Karma… So much sadder commentary on our society that this behavior is considered "entertainment." It is very much the pack mentality to capitalize on the weak and insecure. Anyone who has ever seen pack animals hunt knows this.
The Warren Buffet quote you use is a good one, I had not heard it before. Odd, that! It seems that when the tide goes out, I may be revealed as the one skinny-dipping. I derive no entertainment value from the type of behavior displayed. You may be right that Simon Cowell is extremely popular over there, it is certainly tough to watch the tellie for any length of time over there without seeing a show he is referenced on. None of the people I hung-out with where particular fans, though.
It is interesting that you characterize the emotion viewers have for him as "love." Surely, "infatuation" or "fascination" would be a better choice. Love is a strong and complex emotion which one would assume involves a great deal of first-hand knowledge. To show love for someone you have never met and know practically nothing about would, in my humble and admittedly untutored opinion, be a sign of some sort of mental instability.
I am reminded of the question I was asked once by my Psychology professor in college. The guy had the practice of dismissing the class an hour early on Friday afternoons and reconvening it at the Rathskeller in the student common. There, over pitchers of beer, he would pose psychological and ethical quandaries which we would discuss. It was a fun appendix to the more traditional parts of the class. The question posed to the table was this "How do you tell the difference between love and lust?"
Various technical and biological answers were offered around the table. When my turn came, I gave a much more rhetorical answer. "I don't feel lust." I said. "I can, however, fall in love at the drop of a hat." The table politely snickered.
The rhetoric was there to disguise the deeper truth. I went on to explain that it is an entirely self-involved emotion. The person who feels it always thinks it is love. The baser emotion is only what is diagnosed by the impartial observer.
You are, of course, right. I have seen earlier incarnations of this show touted on the tellie over there and have heard other acts discussed. Brittan's Got Talent is a highly staged and slickly produced show. There is no way a no-talent nobody would have gotten on there. At the very least, the acts that get through to the stage are either very good, or at least tolerable acts by very good looking people. The backstage producers had to have known her talent… she would have auditioned to be on the show.
The reaction of the judges may have been staged, though I think it would be unlikely to completely mask the surprise that I saw on some of the audience faces. Crowds (especially those in a studio audience) are fairly easy to control, individuals are not so much so.
Thank you again for your feedback. Have a great day!
djb
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