REVIEW 4

Country Strong

Country Strong (originally titled Love Don’t Let Me Down) is a 2010 drama film starring Gwyneth Paltrow, Tim McGraw, Garrett Hedlund, and Leighton Meester. The film was directed and written by American filmmaker Shana Feste. It premiered in the United States on January 7, 2011.

Pauline Kael complained that Meryl Streep made a career out of seeming to overcome being miscast. What would she have made of Gwyneth Paltrow in Country Strong? Her character, Kelly Canter, is a hard-living, tantrum-throwing, alcoholic country diva let out early from rehab, so that her husband-manager (Tim McGraw, real-life husband of Faith Hill) can orchestrate a comeback tour.

Even a Paltrow fan (I remain one) would have to concede that her willowy frame and perfect skin do not betray a lifetime of vodka-swilling and throwing up in hillbilly bars. Nor is her thin, reedy voice something that could ever realistically fill a stadium with anything other than baffled jeering, but we’ll let that slide. There’s just too much getting in the way of this performance working, charming and game though Paltrow often is.

Garrett Hedlund, who plays Kelly’s sponsor/lover/protégé, has roughly the opposite problem: he can really sing, but his faltering charisma isn’t helped by a straggly, bum-fluff beard that looks applied with Pritt Stick.

It’s telling that the happiest scene in the film is the one where Gwyneth sings to a 10-year-old leukaemia victim – a sure sign that we’re wallowing in whiny solipsism elsewhere.

There’s also a baby quail she keeps in a small wooden box, which occasionally cheeps, “Metaphor! I’m a metaphor for broken femininity!”, or would if it could. The kindest thing that can be said for Shana Feste’s film is that it fails quite endearingly.

As a whole it is quite interesting and good film.

RENDERING 16

Georges Moustaki, Poetic French Singer, Dies at 79

The author of the article is Maïa de la Baume. It was published on 25 May, 2013, in The New York Times. The article provides the information about Franch singer and songwriter Georges Moustaki, who dies at 79 of emphysema.

In the beginning of the article the author tells us about Georges Moustaki. He wrote hit song “Milord” and won wide popularity in France for his lyrics and melancholy ballads. However he died on May 23, 2013.

Maïa de la Baume points out that his death prompted an outpouring of emotional tributes. He was called a hugely talented artist whose popular and committed songs have marked generations of French people. The author adds that Moustaki belonged to the generation of French singers, who composed many of their own songs, writing lyrics with a poetic sensibility.

Further the author gives the reader some information about Moustaki's career. According to the text he began as a songwriter and wrote about 300 songs. His 1st hit “Milord” he wrote for Mrs. Piaf.

What is more Mr. Moustaki first performed as a pianist and singer in Brussels and Paris, but his career took off after he met Mr. Brassens, who became his mentor, and fell in with singers of the Left Bank, including Mr. Brel and Juliette Gréco. Mr. Moustaki’s songwriting career peaked in the 1960s and ’70s with a song “Sarah”. He also pursued a solo career. He recorded his last album in 2008 and announced later that he could no longer sing because of his emphysema.

Well, Georges Moustaki was a great Franch singer and songwriter. He had lots of fans. I'm sure that Franch people are proud that he was their countrymen.

Rendering №15

Mad King Stalks the Stage, Ready to Shock

The author of the article is Steve Smith. It was published on 24 May, 2013, in The New York Times. The article provides the information about a choral work for tenor, baritone, choir and orchestra called Cantata Profana.

In the beginning of the article the author describes a usual situaton for any inquisitive musician, when too much curiosity about disparate pieces and few opportunities to play them all within a single ensemble. The group of students from the Yale University School of Music and its Institute of Sacred Music presented both vocal and instrumental works, early music and modern fare.

Then the author tells about an imposing traversal of Peter Maxwell Davies’s “Eight Songs for a Mad King,” a harrowing 1969 portrayal of King George III’s descent into madness, based on poems by Randolph Stow and melodies from a mechanical organ the king once owned. And also Smith describes John Taylor Ward's performance, who stalked the stage in a robe and pajamas, expertly booming and screeching through the work’s disjointed reminiscences.

Steve Smith points that  the players all made efforts to enhance the nervous mood of the performance through gesture and expression, and the climactic moment, when the king grabs a violinist’s instrument and smashes it onstage, retained its sense of shock.

In the end of the article the author tells that the program opened with Mr. Davies’s “Seven Renaissance Scottish Dances”, and representing Handel, a favorite of King George’s, was a blithe account of the Trio Sonata in B flat, in which Mr. Ashworth, the artistic director of Cantata Profana and another violinist, Holly Piccoli, played with diligent attention to period style. 

In conclusion I would like to say that the music of Cantata Profana is quite unusual and so unique. To my mind it is very difficult project, demand accuracy and coherency of all members. I'm sure it would be interesting to listen for people who are fond of misic.

Rendering №14

Across the Miles and Years, a Gathering of Hip-Hop Beats

The author of the article is Jon Caramanica. It was published on 24 May, 2013, in The New York Times. The article provides the information about the event, which was called United States of Bass.

In the beginning of the article the author tells that part of the Red Bull Music Academy series of performances, which has been flooding the city with dance music for the last few weeks, it offered both a tactile dance-floor experience and a history lesson. There was DJ Magic Mike and his Miami bass, Egyptian Lover and his Los Angeles electro. DJ Assault, from Detroit, played ghettotech; Scottie B, from Baltimore, played Baltimore club. Chicago was represented by two generations: DJ Funk and his classic ghetto house, and DJ Rashad and DJ Spinn playing modern juke.

Caramanica adds that this bill could have served as an opportunity to parse the fine differences among the sounds, though often the bass led with such intensity that to do so in the moment felt meaningless.

The author also says that DJ Rashad and DJ Spinn played a masterly set of juke music, which is fast, clean, precise and neck-snapping. DJ Funk had the most in common with DJ Assault, who’d earlier brought his vulgar, irresistible ghettotech — the sound of Detroit strip clubs in the late 1990s — to the main stage. According to the article DJ Magic Mike is a pioneer of Miami bass music, the low-end-intense hip-hop subgenre that has the advantage of having some national hits, like those by 2 Live Crew. 

Then the author points out that the current norm, most of the D.J.’s used the computer program Serato, meaning they didn’t have to bring a crate of vinyl, except Egyptian Lover, who mixed directly off records handed to him one at a time by an associate.

What is more, the lone straight-ahead rapper on the bill was Big Freedia, from New Orleans. The father of all the scenes and sounds represented at this show, Afrika Bambaataa, was one of the D.J.’s who reached far and wide, bridging funk and electro and soul and Krautrock and plenty more, setting the table for hip-hop’s eclecticism. 

Well, I'm sure that United States of Bass is a real treasure for music experts. There they can see legendary bass producers and DJs. I guess it may be useful for the beginner or amateur in musiс.