Mellow Greetings, Fan Folk!

23 December 2007- Musings on Musics, more stuff

Perhaps I should leave pseudo philosophical musings on music to the people who can explain differences between this, that, and the other (see? I can't even begin to tell you what should replace those words. Chords? Octaves?), but I found this quote, and I thought it was especially fitting for this website, even if it did come from someone other than Kathryn. Jo Stafford, in an interview from 1982, said the following:

When rock came in I wasn’t bitter about it. I was… puzzled. Because with the music I had known, I had never known anything but progress. From [bandleader of the Casa Loma Orchestra] Glen Gray, which I thought was marvelous when I was a kid, then the first time I heard the Goodman five-saxophone section, well that made Glen Gray sound old hat. So all through the years in my career all I heard was progress. Things getting better and more complex. We were adding all this stuff on, and all of a sudden it started falling off. For the first time in my life the music I was hearing was going backwards. We were losing chord changes. We were losing complexity.
When the Presleys and other first, popular, legend-in-their-own-time performers started to come along it was the first time in the U.S. where a ten-year-old had enough money to influence something to the extent that they did. So when you’ve got a ten-year-old picking the music it’s going to be pretty simple. Just above the level of a nursery rhyme.

So, what to think of that? We have many people, in this day and age, talking about how far music has come from Jo's era, from Kathryn's era. But has it gone anywhere? Any song at any given moment will have a deep impact on someone. It might be your friends, it might be a stranger, it might be yourself. But has music gone anywhere? We went from the full sounds of Big Band to the single guitar and a single voice, perhaps a drummer seemingly keeping time, and so few chords that anyone could play.
So what makes people think that music has advanced? There are the deeply passionate Joni Mitchell fans out there who will insist that her music is far more moving than anyone else's, for example. Perhaps it's the raw emotion she puts forth, but didn't the performers before her do that, too? Take a song like "A Case Of You." Simple. To the point. So what is it about that song that makes it speak to people as a passionate song of love, moreso than the full sound of the orchestra backing and Kathryn singing "Were Thine That Special Face?"
In Joni's case, there's one person, as I've said. Is that what does it? One person wrote it, the same person sings it. Can we hear her heart in her voice?
In Kathryn's, though she may not have written the songs, even if there is that full orchestra on so many songs, the emotions are there, too. If it was a dry read of a song, what would be the point?
Then, maybe it has absolutely nothing to do with the the melody, the simplicity or complexity of its composition. Is it the lyrics? Well, "I love you," in any language or stated any way means the same thing, right? But with the songwriters singing their own songs, the storytellers were re-born. They interpret the song the way it was meant to be. Kathryn and Jo and anyone you choose could connect, on a soulful level, with the words before them on the paper, but could they phrase things in the way which the Gershwins, the Kerns, then Verdis and Puccinis heard them in their heads?
Interpretation. It's something I despised doing to poems in school. Why? Because I will never know what exactly a poet meant when he or she phrased a few words in some manner. It's a guessing game that I may never get right. But the simple songs, the single singer on a stage or in a studio with a microphone, that person knows and will show you what they wanted. Their voices will bend and move over words as they were supposed to be. Anyone might imitate, but will it ever be as personal as it was when that singer did it? Again we go back to personal interpretation. Who is singing? Does that person mean something to you? Do you associate that performer with a memory that makes you laugh or cry? An inherently happy song could bring you to tears, if done by a certain person. Others could find it dry. You could find it to be the most brilliant thing in the world.
In the end, is there a "better?" Has music gotten better? No. Has it gotten worse? No, again. Because no matter where music goes, if we have a resurgence of those huge sounds from decades ago, or if we keep moving along with an almost primitive beat, such as is popular today, someone, somewhere will think it's the best. We're lost in a world of impersonal people, impersonal companies, and we're on a constant search for someone to speak to us, to fill our souls with happiness. Whether it's Kathryn Grayson hitting a high note or Eminem, even with his harsh lyrics, saying the things you only wish you were brazen enough to say, it is good to someone.

But I've rambled long enough. I've just received notification that Sharon Rich is fighting with me on YouTube, so I'm going to go have a blast with that. :) Man, those MacEddy people sure do find me threatening! What is it about me? I can't even sell a book she's written without them making up things about it being a conspiracy!
LOL, I suppose we all have to be e-famous for something. I like pretty Kathryn things and am apparently working tirelessly against the Jeanette MacDonald/Nelson Eddy Truth Movement. I'll go man my Lawlluminati captain's chair now. \o/ Don't cry for me, Argentina, and all that rot.

Oh right, and there's a new song on the Fun Stuff page! It's an mp3 of Kathryn singing Someone To Watch Over Me, ripped from her performance on GE Theatre's Shadow On The Heart.

xoxo captain kaylawl

EDIT: I'VE OFFICIALLY BEEN BANNED FROM POSTING COMMENTS ON ANY MACEDDY VIDEOS. Don't dish it if you can't take it, I say.

Now back to your regularly scheduled Kathryn programming! xoxo captain, o my captain

12 December 2007- Fun Stuff!

The Fun Stuff page has been added, with an article from 1969. Give it a read! It's great!

xoxo kayla

11 December 2007- Pages Added!

The biography and films pages are back online. The bio has a few errors corrected, and a couple of additions, though overall, it's the same. The Films page has links to all of Kathryn's films on imdb. For the TV appearances, I hope to get some thoughts posted in the "Fun Stuff" section, for those of you who haven't seen them.
Let me know if you find any problems!

The pictures will be back online as soon as my webhost finds out why I'm unable to use a coppermine gallery. Should be soon!

xoxo kayla

10 December 2007- Holy Crap This Site Got Updated?

It's totally true! After two long years, the site got a much deserved makeover. This makes it far easier for me to update, and hopefully, easier for YOU to navigate.

In the coming days, everything will be back online. I'm coding it all by hand, so please be patient. :)

I'm not sure if there's any spectacular news, at the moment. Since I last updated (for real, with like actual Kathryn stuff), I've been to New York twice, become infamous on youtube in my pajamas, rattled my fool head off about Kathryn in front of Christine Ebersole (it's what I do when I'm nervous. Some people laugh, I laugh AND talk about Kathryn Grayson), and generally done nothing of great merit with my life.

I'm going back to school in the fall (what is this, my personal blog? sure!), so I'm hoping to get the site in pretty awesome condition by then.

Oh, and for those of you e-mailing, thinking I'm Kathryn, I'm still not her. Sorry to disappoint. Don't let the big sunglasses fool you, I am not a celebrity.

Until the next time I update, may I present you with a happy making picture:

PEAS ON EARTH, GOOD WILL TOWARD POTATOES.

xoxo kayla