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About This Author
I am SoCalScribe. This is my InkSpot.
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Blogocentric Formulations
Logocentric (adj). Regarding words and language as a fundamental expression of an external reality (especially applied as a negative term to traditional Western thought by postmodernist critics).
Sometimes I just write whatever I feel like. Other times I respond to prompts, many taken from the following places:
 "The Soundtrackers Group" 
"Blogging Circle of Friends "
"Blog City ~ Every Blogger's Paradise"
"JAFBG"
"Take up Your Cross"
Thanks for stopping by! 
October 20, 2015 at 10:03pm October 20, 2015 at 10:03pm
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** Image ID #2009874 Unavailable **
Song: "Twist and Shout"
Original: The Isley Brothers
Cover: The Beatles
Having grown up on John Hughes movies, this song holds a special place in my heart thanks to Ferris Bueller's Day Off. It's such a great movie for so many reasons, but the parade at the end set to this song was just the icing on the cake. I'm not a huge fan of the Beatles (at least not by comparison to most of their fans, my wife included), but even I have to admit that this song gets me tapping my feet every time.
Originally written in 1961 by Phil Medley and Bert Berns, the song was first recorded for the Isley Brothers in 1962. It was then covered for the Beatles' debut album Please Please Me in 1963 and covered by a variety of artists over the years since (including The Who, who covered it on two separate occasions). I also wanted to include this song because it's a case where the band covering the song is defunct (and half of them are dead at this point), but the original artist (the Isley Brothers) are still alive and kicking. Although they're a few members short and have undergone some lineup changes over the years, the band still performs on the road and put out a studio album as recently as 2007. Not too shabby for an act that's been performing since the late 1950s!
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October 20, 2015 at 10:15am October 20, 2015 at 10:15am
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** Image ID #2009874 Unavailable **
Song: "Il Dolce Suono"
Original: Gaetano Donizetti (composer, d. 1848)
Cover: Inva Mula (from The Fifth Element OST)
The Soundtrackers opened at the perfect time; I was just reading an article about some of the most difficult operatic pieces to perform (don't judge... I can't help where the Wikipedia click-throughs take me!) and coming across this one reminded me how incredible I thought it was when I first heard it. This will come as little surprise to regular readers of my blog, but I originally discovered it as part of a movie soundtrack. In this case, Donizetti's classic compilation is performed by Albanian opera lyric soprano Inva Mula. Rumor has it director Luc Besson originally wanted to use a recording by Maria Callas ( d. 1977
| Ooh... a hidden dead cover easter egg inside my first entry! {e:fistpump} |
Commonly known as "the mad scene," this aria is about the character Lucia descending into madness and stabbing her new husband on their wedding night. That opera's cheery stuff, huh?  What makes this aria particularly difficult is that Donizetti composed it so that the singer has to essentially use her vocal range to duel with the sounds produced by a glass harmonica (or a flute, more commonly). Can you imagine trying to match the high notes of a flute? Well, Inva Mula can. If classical opera isn't your thing, just listen to this video starting at 3:15 to hear what it sounds like to have one of the toughest arias in the opera world juxtaposed against some badass industrial/techno underscoring. It's a really unique sound; haunting and incredibly beautiful at the same time.
Opera isn't really my thing, but every once in a while I discover a piece that just leaves me breathless. I blogged about "Vide Cor Meum" from the Hannibal OST during a previous Soundtrackers challenge, so I think it's time to throw in another one. I remember sitting in the theater watching The Fifth Element (which is a fun, kind of ridiculous movie) and being totally entranced by this scene. My friends were all paying attention to the action that this song is set against, but I felt more like Bruce Willis listening to it... completely entranced. I'm not sure I'm going to be running out to the opera anytime soon, but I can still appreciate a stunning piece when I come across it.
This first video is the best quality recording I could find, and below it is the scene from the actual movie with the action mixed in while the character performs:
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