~ A Mary Christmas : Mary J Blige ~ (Album Review)

The Album Cover Art : A Mary Christmas

For a diva, a Christmas album not only gives the golden opportunity to stretch her vocals by coming up with her very own renditions of familiar carols but also lets her collect a handsome pay-check, if of course she has a successful seasonal set like Mariah Carey’s that sells like hot cakes every Christmas. 

Mary J Blige has joined the club this year. But you won’t find the Rn’B diva trying to outsing her peers with drowsy jingles like “O Holy Night”. Nor has she delivered a hip-hop flavoured Christmas disc, which by the way, is a frightening thought. Instead, “A Mary Christmas”, conveniently titled, offers subdued, persuasive and respectful interpretations of classic holiday tunes. The maestro David Foster who Blige collaborates with on this set and for the first time in her long career helps provide the album with a timeless, traditional touch. (“My Favourite Things”, “This Christmas” and “Mary Did You Know” are poignant, classy and thankfully not over-done) 

Blige shows off her French on the elegant “Petit Papa Noel” while channeling Ella Fitzgerald on “Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer”, a jubilant update of a beloved tune. More Jazzy moments follow with “The Christmas Song” and “When You Wish Upon A Star”, an odd pairing of Barbra Streisand and Blige, which surprisingly, results in a Disney-sweet moment that will certainly please fans of both. Angelic voice of Marc Anthony almost outshines Blige’s understated singing on ”Noche De Paz (Silent Night). Expect punchy vocals from both Blige and her duet partner, Jessie J, which makes the dullish orchestration of “Do You Hear What I hear” somewhat bearable. 

Blige’s gritty vocals, her usual street cred and swagger are put away on this project. As a matter of fact, she sounds so polished and regal, showcasing a definitely different side. This easy-listening set will ensure commercial success for years to come for its simplicity and timeless feel while effectively finding her new Adult Contemporary fan base.

"When You Wish Upon A Star" ~ Mary J Blige & Barbra Streisand 

"Do You Hear What I Hear" ~ Mary J Blige & Jessie J

"Noche De Paz (Silent Night) ~ Mary J Blige & Marc Anthony

~ Buffalo Race in Bali ~

It’s 8:30 am. Bleary-eyed and heavy-headed, I reluctantly drag myself out of the car. We have driven at least three hours, all of which I slept through, from Seminyak to Jembrana, the least populated and visited region in the west of Bali. 

The driver picked me up in the wee hours of the morning. Not an early riser plus a night-out on the town, this is definitely not my kind of Sunday. However, I am intrigued, even a tad excited about the cultural event I am about to see. The traditional buffalo races, Mekepung in Indonesian, are held at the end of rice harvest during dry season from August to October.  

Armed with my beloved Canon, I drift through what appears to be a small brook, now barren and dry, as the monsoon is long over, and climb onto the road, which is now transformed, into a racecourse. Spectators occupy both sides of the oval shaped racing track that stretches at least 3 to 4  kilometers. Where I am standing now is still a few hundred meters away from the starting point.

It appears that the race has already begun. It doesn't take long. I see the first pair of buffalos pulling a small two-wheeled cart galloping towards me. The jockey is seated in a squatting position on the cart whipping the backsides of the beasts mercilessly to gain speed. I watch in awe as it zooms past, fast and furious. Seconds later, another cart arrives in a manner of a speeding truck leaving behind a giantic cloud of dust. Then another and another. Although they are not racing like the chariots in “Ben-Hur” movie, the energy, pace and grit of each and every contestant send the spectators into frenzy. Many root and cheer for their friends calling out their names or showering them with piercing whistles. 

Now fully awake by the unfolding spectacle, I march towards the tower where a sport announcer with a microphone is narrating the event in full disclosure. From here I could see the other side of the track, a few yards away and the finish line. Mostly locals attend the event with an exception of a few foreigners like me, who have come all the way to gain cultural knowledge and to discover the rural Bali, away from the sophistication of Seminyak and madness of Kuta. The vendors are selling various products, foods, drinks and knickknacks ranging from peanuts, watermelons, toys, whips to colored chicks. Yes, chicks are in fact dyed in several bright hues; hot pink, sunshine yellow, nuclear green and neon purple attracting the attention of young children.

While walking across the field towards the finish line, one of my sandals breaks. I try to fix it to no avail. In the end, I put it in the pocket of my shorts and keep walking with one shoe. A villager who has been observing this offers to help. He grabs the shoe from me, pushes the thong that fell out back into the hole using a stick picked up from the ground and voilà the problem is solved. “Terima Kasiah, banyank”, I thank him. 

In return, he asks me a favor; to take a photo of him and his friend, which I happily oblige of course. Seeing their photo on the LCD screen of my camera simply delights them. I wish I could print it out right away and give it to them. I say goodbye to them afterwards and continue walking till I reach the area where contestants are, in line, prepping their buffalos before the race. The proud jockeys are looking dapper in their brightly coloured fineries. Members of their entourage are feeding water to the animals to keep them from dehydration. Some are putting on ornaments such as colourful flowers, silk banners on the carts and big wooden bells around the necks of buffalos.

I learn later from my Balinese driver that competitors are judged not only based on speed, but on strength and style as well. The wining buffalos are used for stud and can be sold at handsome prices, sometimes even twice the market price. Animal lovers and activists would cringe at the treatment of the buffalos though. Not only do these animals receive cruel lashing with whips with nails in them, from the jockeys, which leaves them with bleeding backsides after the contest, the special chili paste is applied to each animal’s anus for the extra push as well. All of this is done to please the gods of harvest. And I hope they are pleased!

As the sun above me becomes unbearably hot and considering at least a few more hours on the road to return to Seminyak, I hurry down towards my van. The race continues although it seems it’s time for a wrap very soon. Suddenly, I hear loud gasps and yelps from the crowd. I turn around to see a pair of buffalos running at a maddening speed but without the jockey on the cart. Poor chap must have fallen out of it on the way.

"Loved Me Back To Life" ~ Celine Dion (Single Review)

Is the world ready for an auto-tuned Celine Dion? 

Undoubtedly, it’s not because she needs a helping hand in the vocal department (We are talking about the vocal powerhouse Canadian diva here, not Selena Gomez!), simply because seemingly every hit song on the Billboard charts these days features auto-tuned vocals. Just like the way every freakin’ photo people post on Facebook must get Instagrammed first, auto tuning has become a necessity, a hip and cool thing to do in music today. Therefore, it’s both predictable and fathomable that even an artist of Celine Dion’s stature would also consider that route in order to stay current and relevant.

Written by one of today’s most sought after songwriters, Sia Furla (“Titanium”, “Wild Ones”), “Loved Me Back To Life” finds Celine singing in a minor key about a generic topic, “love” but in a somewhat confusing way.

“But you stood by my side,
Night after night, night after night,
You loved me back to life, life
From the darkness the wait is over
You loved me back to life, life
From the darkness, we’re lovers again tonight
Back to life, back to life, back to life, back to life, yeah”

It makes one wonders, “Could she be singing about her husband of gazillion years? They have pretty much lived a scandal-free charmed life. So… what does she mean by “darkness”? Or could she be addressing her return to the international music scene at the urging of her adoring fans? But then again she never really went anywhere. She has had a successful run performing sold out shows in Vegas and she put out a French language album, which went to #1 in several French-speaking countries.

What’s surprising with “Loved Me Back To Life” is that there is no epic vocal moment, so unusual for Celine. Her delivery here is somewhat feeble, in other words (and if we are seeking a positive spin), “restrained”. It’s an easy-listening song with a minimal production by, let’s say, not very well known producers. The opening radio-friendly hook, “I-I-I-I, I-I-I-I” promises a dance pop ambience that sadly never gets materialised. Her signature nasal tone will certainly warm the hearts of her hard-core fans but there are also plenty of wait-what-did-she-just-sing? moments as usual. www.metrolyrics.com, right?

All in all, as the first single of her long-awaited eleventh English language album, this mid-tempo track doesn’t do much to attract new audience in the mainstream dance-pop chart. It also won’t please her core fan base in the adult contemporary chart. Simon Cowell in his very distinctive British accent would say “FORGETTABLE!”

“Behind the Candelabra” (Film Review)

Long before Justin Beiber (or even Michael Jackson) began collecting million dollar paychecks, “The World’s Highest Paid Musician” title was once held by none other than, Liberace. Mr. Showmanship, as he was affectionately known, lived by the motto of “Nothing succeeds like excess”, flaunting his wealth and enviable lifestyle both on stage and in real life. 

Thankfully, “Behind the Candelabra” is not one of those usual Hollywood biopics, which usually falls flat in the process of painting yet another celebrity portrait. It is rather a tale of Liberace’s secret relationship with Scott Thorson, an animal trainer from Wisconsin, who later became Liberace’s personal chauffeur and lover. 

The tight and steadily-paced script, masterfully directed by Steven Soderbergh (“Traffic”, “Ocean’s Elven”), explores the complexities of a common gay relationship; a powerful wealthy gay daddy and his kept boy, while exposing the essential elements such as ego, promiscuity, indulgence, jealousy, power struggle and the drug use, played out in their doomed affair which ended in an ugly court battle.

Douglas as Liberace

Michael Douglas has made a successful decades-long career playing the alpha male roles. But here, he miraculously morphs into the fur-coat-swirling, jewelry-loving, piano-strumming Liberace. Although his piano-playing scenes are pure work of technology, Douglas as the Vegas veteran, is effectively eccentric, egoistic and extravagant with a slight hint of vulnerability and madness of Norma Desmond in “Sunset Boulevard”. A certain Jacuzzi scene may spoil the fantasy of those who are still dwelling on his iconic bathroom scene in “Basic Instinct”. One word: Gravity. Nevertheless, Douglas should be writing his speeches by now for the upcoming award season starting with the Emmys in late September. 

Damon as Thorson 

The same can be said about Matt Damon. Flexing his acting muscles (and a bunch of 'other' muscles for that matter), Damon not only holds his own against the captivating Douglas, his portrayal of Scott Thorson, from a young and naïve small-town boy to a vain and confused drug addict, is pitch-perfect. Debbie Reynolds’s cameo as Liberace’s Polish mother, with accent and all, is just an icing on the cake while unrecognisable Rob Lowe’s supporting role as the creepy plastic surgeon, Dr. Jack Startz, is the true scene-stealer. In addition to a few of Liberace's famous tunes, which will hopefully attract a whole new fan base, the HBO film also features the beautiful poignant score by Marvin Hemlich (“The Way We Were”, “A Chorus Line”), sadly his final work.

Rob Lowe as Dr. Startz

“Behind the Candelabra” offers a glimpse into the fascinating world of celebrity all the while transporting us back to an era where homosexuality and AIDS were very much taboo. It is interesting, in fact quite amusing to see how people including many of Liberace fans were willing to be fooled or help him mask his homosexuality. In one scene, an ardent older female fan asks Scott Thorson “Are you Mr. Liberace’s son?” as though the glitter man’s campy costumes and outrageous persona weren’t the big reveal.

With so many celebrities coming out and issues such as Gay Marriage being a hot topic these days, "Gay" is becoming a lot less taboo but much more mainstream. While it is still not an ideal world that we live in, we certainly have come a long way.

"Applause" ~ Lady Gaga (Single Review)

No one does throwback like Lady Gaga. She does it well and she has her way. Of course, with that I mean, she routinely steals elements from artists of the past, sometimes labelling it as " simply drawing inspiration" or oftentimes, blatantly lying that it's her very own in fact ("Born This Way" Vs. "Express Yourself", anyone?). What matters most here though is that she has guts and she has a huge following. Many of her Twitter-era fans are way too young to know that much of what she sings, writes or performs is nothing but recycled anyway. So it comes as no surprise that she offers what she does best on her much ballyhooed latest single “Applause”, a boring synth-pop dance track that takes us back to the days of Disco era. "Applause" starts out innocently as though a long lost Grace Jones’s track from the 70's has just been unearthed. Only when the chorus kicks in, one realises that it is yet another Lady Gaga track. In other words, predictable and phony. Honestly, "Applause" is rather weak to lead one of the most anticipated albums of the year, "Art Pop",the title which, again, may sound to many as a flipped version of a certain art movement, coincidence or not, that was fronted by a prominent artist named, Andy Warhol. Nevertheless, it does give a glimpse of what we could expect from Gaga's third studio album- the Studio 54-era flavoured pop tunes painstakingly Instagram-ed to meet the needs of this retro-hunting generation. Her vocals on "Applause" are auto-tuned so heavily that even ardent Gaga fans would not recognise their Mother Monster at first listen. Luckily, this mundane song will get the visual oomph that it desperately needs when she performs it for the first time at the upcoming VMAs or once she releases the video. By the time it happens anyway, the song would have grown on many of us, thanks to radios and social media. Written and produced by Gaga herself and DJ White Shadow, whom I give credit for making the song somewhat current, the single sadly does not offer anything fresh or noteworthy musically. In the chorus, Gaga sings, 

"I live for the applause, applause, applause 
I live for the applause-plause, live for the applause-plause
Live for the way that cheer and scream for me
The applause, applause, applause"

mirroring once again the theme she used on her first two discs, "Fame". Well, it seems, in 2013 as well, mindless pop tunes still have their place. What can I say? Let the world dance. Just dance, as Gaga once said.