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Modules in Electronics
Posted by: Engr. Michael L. Zarco
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
Wednesday, May 24, 2006
The trouble with 'Idol'? The singing
May 21, 2006
BY THOMAS CONNER Staff Reporter
"American Idol" is a train wreck, no doubt. It's undeniably soggy with schadenfreude (the enjoyment we get from watching others suffer), which drives much of reality TV. But the moments that cause actual discomfort, for some of us, aren't the wrong notes, the bent keys or even Taylor Hicks' white-man's-overbite dancing. It's when the rare moments of hope and joy are quashed -- not by Simon Cowell's cutting sarcasm but by the contestants' own lack of trust in the songs they sing. There they are, crawling into an abbreviated song, beginning to develop an actual emotion or two and rushing toward a truly dramatic moment ... which they promptly ruin by oversinging the hell out of it.
Oy, the trills, the frills, how raw these kids' throats must be from week after week of belting and barnstorming. No moving sustained notes here -- every syllable of a song held longer than a beat must move up and down the scale like a San Francisco seismograph. Wow 'em with chutzpah, and who cares what the song actually means.
As we approach the fifth finals for the hit Fox talent show -- Tuesday and Wednesday nights on Fox -- these are not new complaints.
'Idol' finale will be good day for Powter
Singer/songwriter Daniel Powter will perform his hit single ''Bad Day'' on Tuesday's final ''American Idol'' performance show.
The pairing is a natural one as the Fox contest has been utilizing the song as the musical theme for exiting contestants throughout this fifth season.
''Bad Day'' held the top post on the Billboard Hot 100 for five weeks, its popularity bolstered by the weekly airings on ''American Idol.''
Released in April, Powter's self-titled Warner Bros. debut bowed at No. 9 on The Billboard 200 and has sold 274,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Powter is scheduling early July dates for a brief U.S. tour.
Billboard
"American Idol" has endured many such slings and arrows for its outrageous fortune. But five years on, it's worth revisiting the criticisms that concentrate on these wearying vocal gymnastics, which seem to be the crutch of almost every contestant. Call it oversinging, or oversoul (a transcendent term used by some vocal coaches), "Idol" often is accused of dumbing down our understanding of good singing. But which came first: the oversinging or the "Idol"?
"These kids didn't invent this. They're all imitating what's already out there," says Los Angeles-based vocal trainer Roger Love. "That's the whole point of the show, despite how they market it."
Love has little love for "Idol." Perhaps that's why he's a regular guest on "Idol Tonight," a live pre-show yak-fest each week on the TV Guide Channel. He's also coached the singing voices of stars too numerous to list, from the Jacksons to the Killers, and his training technique turned Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon into more than just the stars of the film "Walk the Line."
"Simon is always saying a performance is 'so karaoke' or 'loungey.' Well, yeah. That's what the show is. It's about kids imitating other artists."
That includes the reliance on oversinging. It's an unfortunate habit that did not begin on "American Idol," he says. The show simply gave it a forum. An impossibly huge and, unfortunately or not, influential forum.
"When Mariah [Carey], instead of singing the notes as written, started riffing around the notes, making clusters around the melody -- that's when it happened," Love says. "The problem is, she started doing it so much you lost track of where the melody actually was. And she made that really popular. It's a style of singing that's interesting here and there, but a pain in every single song.
"And unless you really practice and slow it down, you can't imitate it. Mariah got up there with her incredible voice and said, 'Hey, look what I can do!' But not everybody can do that -- and a lot of people are trying. 'American Idol' begs them to. But it's like Luther Vandross said: 'A lot of singers think they're being paid by the note.' He could have done all those trills, but he didn't need to."
Becky Menzie, a staple of Chicago cabarets and a musical theater instructor at Northwestern University, looks to singers like Vandross, and even further back to a more complete era, for songcraft. "Let's go back to an old analogy: the '70s success of Barry Manilow. That old key-change thing, having a vocal piece have shape and get more exciting at the end -- some of those trills and high notes entertain, sure, but are they always tasteful and correct for what the song is? No," she says. "Tony Bennett knows how to end on a high note and wail and make you go, 'Wow!' Manilow made it with the key change. Burt Bacharach did it with orchestrations. The gimmicks are there for a reason, but no one's great if all they do is gimmicks. You have to understand what you're singing, what it's about, what it deserves. That's how you entertain."
Cliff Colnot sees "Idol's" brand of entertainment as little more than a dog-and-pony show. "It's just a talent show. It could be dogs or inventors [Cowell produces ABC's 'American Inventors' show]. The fact that they're singers is nearly irrelevant to what the show is about," says Colnot, a conductor with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and a composer who's worked with pop artists ranging from Richard Marx to Hugh Jackman.
He's hearing more of the oversinging in the pop and commercial singers he works with. "It's faux emotion. Mariah, Whitney [Houston], it's all a Pavlovian paradigm. You sing higher, then hold. Then you go higher and hold longer. Then you do a melisma [several notes on one syllable] around a super-high note and hold it longer, while the band goes through changes. And people go crazy. Why not just bring out dogs and do tricks?"
Oversinging used to be a trick singers pulled out only for a powerful punch in concert. Once Mariah -- or Whitney or whichever diva is to blame -- captured it on CD, our ears were retuned.
"Now it's become part of the language," Colnot says. "Once it got recorded, it moved out of the Apollo Theater, and now it's in our DNA."
Indeed, the bombastic "Idol" style of singing is everywhere now -- on radio, in concert, even on Broadway. In a March column for the New York Times, theater critic Ben Brantley blamed the increasing volume and sameness of Broadway singers on the influence of "Idol." "Quivering vibrato, curlicued melisma, notes held past the vanishing point: the favorite technical tricks of 'Idol' contestants are often like screams divorced from the pain or ecstasy that inspired them," Brantley wrote, then cited examples of the same trend showing up in Broadway's most popular musicals.
Jackie Presti has had enough of it. "There's no storytelling on Broadway anymore," says Presti, a New York vocal therapist who works with both Broadway and commercial singers. "That's not because songwriters aren't delivering it as much as it's because the singers aren't getting it. So many of them don't understand, or don't care, about setting up a story with the song or moving you with characters. God, now you sit in the theaters and everyone's just screaming at you right away."
Presti cites technology, not pop singers themselves, as the fountainhead of these trends. "It's actually what's in the studio these days that causes some singers to be lazy. You don't have to sing in tune anymore, with AutoTune [common studio software that corrects a singer's pitch]. So now more is expected of them live because of what technology has granted them in the studio. So they go crazy and belt everything."
It's not a model for a lasting career, she says. "Whitney Houston has her other problems, of course, but when she first started singing, I thought she'd been touched by God. But as the years went on, as everything had to be higher and louder, well now she has nothing left. They all go that way. [First 'Idol' winner] Kelly Clarkson has already been in [vocal] therapy. We ask them to scream their lungs out, and they do.
"And, frankly, it's a bad precedent to show our kids. We tell them to study hard and have integrity about what they choose to do in life, and then reality TV says, nah, you can succeed if you're the loudest and get people to vote for you. Forget the singers. Is that fair to any of us?"
tconner@suntimes.com
So who's the real deal in pop music?
May 21, 2006
BY THOMAS CONNER Staff Reporter
"American Idol" is a train wreck, no doubt. It's undeniably soggy with schadenfreude (the enjoyment we get from watching others suffer), which drives much of reality TV. But the moments that cause actual discomfort, for some of us, aren't the wrong notes, the bent keys or even Taylor Hicks' white-man's-overbite dancing. It's when the rare moments of hope and joy are quashed -- not by Simon Cowell's cutting sarcasm but by the contestants' own lack of trust in the songs they sing. There they are, crawling into an abbreviated song, beginning to develop an actual emotion or two and rushing toward a truly dramatic moment ... which they promptly ruin by oversinging the hell out of it.
Oy, the trills, the frills, how raw these kids' throats must be from week after week of belting and barnstorming. No moving sustained notes here -- every syllable of a song held longer than a beat must move up and down the scale like a San Francisco seismograph. Wow 'em with chutzpah, and who cares what the song actually means.
As we approach the fifth finals for the hit Fox talent show -- Tuesday and Wednesday nights on Fox -- these are not new complaints.
'Idol' finale will be good day for Powter
Singer/songwriter Daniel Powter will perform his hit single ''Bad Day'' on Tuesday's final ''American Idol'' performance show.
The pairing is a natural one as the Fox contest has been utilizing the song as the musical theme for exiting contestants throughout this fifth season.
''Bad Day'' held the top post on the Billboard Hot 100 for five weeks, its popularity bolstered by the weekly airings on ''American Idol.''
Released in April, Powter's self-titled Warner Bros. debut bowed at No. 9 on The Billboard 200 and has sold 274,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Powter is scheduling early July dates for a brief U.S. tour.
Billboard
"American Idol" has endured many such slings and arrows for its outrageous fortune. But five years on, it's worth revisiting the criticisms that concentrate on these wearying vocal gymnastics, which seem to be the crutch of almost every contestant. Call it oversinging, or oversoul (a transcendent term used by some vocal coaches), "Idol" often is accused of dumbing down our understanding of good singing. But which came first: the oversinging or the "Idol"?
"These kids didn't invent this. They're all imitating what's already out there," says Los Angeles-based vocal trainer Roger Love. "That's the whole point of the show, despite how they market it."
Love has little love for "Idol." Perhaps that's why he's a regular guest on "Idol Tonight," a live pre-show yak-fest each week on the TV Guide Channel. He's also coached the singing voices of stars too numerous to list, from the Jacksons to the Killers, and his training technique turned Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon into more than just the stars of the film "Walk the Line."
"Simon is always saying a performance is 'so karaoke' or 'loungey.' Well, yeah. That's what the show is. It's about kids imitating other artists."
That includes the reliance on oversinging. It's an unfortunate habit that did not begin on "American Idol," he says. The show simply gave it a forum. An impossibly huge and, unfortunately or not, influential forum.
"When Mariah [Carey], instead of singing the notes as written, started riffing around the notes, making clusters around the melody -- that's when it happened," Love says. "The problem is, she started doing it so much you lost track of where the melody actually was. And she made that really popular. It's a style of singing that's interesting here and there, but a pain in every single song.
"And unless you really practice and slow it down, you can't imitate it. Mariah got up there with her incredible voice and said, 'Hey, look what I can do!' But not everybody can do that -- and a lot of people are trying. 'American Idol' begs them to. But it's like Luther Vandross said: 'A lot of singers think they're being paid by the note.' He could have done all those trills, but he didn't need to."
Becky Menzie, a staple of Chicago cabarets and a musical theater instructor at Northwestern University, looks to singers like Vandross, and even further back to a more complete era, for songcraft. "Let's go back to an old analogy: the '70s success of Barry Manilow. That old key-change thing, having a vocal piece have shape and get more exciting at the end -- some of those trills and high notes entertain, sure, but are they always tasteful and correct for what the song is? No," she says. "Tony Bennett knows how to end on a high note and wail and make you go, 'Wow!' Manilow made it with the key change. Burt Bacharach did it with orchestrations. The gimmicks are there for a reason, but no one's great if all they do is gimmicks. You have to understand what you're singing, what it's about, what it deserves. That's how you entertain."
Cliff Colnot sees "Idol's" brand of entertainment as little more than a dog-and-pony show. "It's just a talent show. It could be dogs or inventors [Cowell produces ABC's 'American Inventors' show]. The fact that they're singers is nearly irrelevant to what the show is about," says Colnot, a conductor with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and a composer who's worked with pop artists ranging from Richard Marx to Hugh Jackman.
He's hearing more of the oversinging in the pop and commercial singers he works with. "It's faux emotion. Mariah, Whitney [Houston], it's all a Pavlovian paradigm. You sing higher, then hold. Then you go higher and hold longer. Then you do a melisma [several notes on one syllable] around a super-high note and hold it longer, while the band goes through changes. And people go crazy. Why not just bring out dogs and do tricks?"
Oversinging used to be a trick singers pulled out only for a powerful punch in concert. Once Mariah -- or Whitney or whichever diva is to blame -- captured it on CD, our ears were retuned.
"Now it's become part of the language," Colnot says. "Once it got recorded, it moved out of the Apollo Theater, and now it's in our DNA."
Indeed, the bombastic "Idol" style of singing is everywhere now -- on radio, in concert, even on Broadway. In a March column for the New York Times, theater critic Ben Brantley blamed the increasing volume and sameness of Broadway singers on the influence of "Idol." "Quivering vibrato, curlicued melisma, notes held past the vanishing point: the favorite technical tricks of 'Idol' contestants are often like screams divorced from the pain or ecstasy that inspired them," Brantley wrote, then cited examples of the same trend showing up in Broadway's most popular musicals.
Jackie Presti has had enough of it. "There's no storytelling on Broadway anymore," says Presti, a New York vocal therapist who works with both Broadway and commercial singers. "That's not because songwriters aren't delivering it as much as it's because the singers aren't getting it. So many of them don't understand, or don't care, about setting up a story with the song or moving you with characters. God, now you sit in the theaters and everyone's just screaming at you right away."
Presti cites technology, not pop singers themselves, as the fountainhead of these trends. "It's actually what's in the studio these days that causes some singers to be lazy. You don't have to sing in tune anymore, with AutoTune [common studio software that corrects a singer's pitch]. So now more is expected of them live because of what technology has granted them in the studio. So they go crazy and belt everything."
It's not a model for a lasting career, she says. "Whitney Houston has her other problems, of course, but when she first started singing, I thought she'd been touched by God. But as the years went on, as everything had to be higher and louder, well now she has nothing left. They all go that way. [First 'Idol' winner] Kelly Clarkson has already been in [vocal] therapy. We ask them to scream their lungs out, and they do.
"And, frankly, it's a bad precedent to show our kids. We tell them to study hard and have integrity about what they choose to do in life, and then reality TV says, nah, you can succeed if you're the loudest and get people to vote for you. Forget the singers. Is that fair to any of us?"
tconner@suntimes.com
So who's the real deal in pop music?
When we asked this slate of singers and vocal coaches which pop stars possess real vocal talent, they were, so to speak, broken records: Whitney, Mariah, Christina.
Nearly all of them revere Christina Aguilera.
"She's the last new artist that was really incredible," says celebrity voice coach Roger Love. "I teach Natasha Bedingfield, who's got one of the top pop records in the country, but there's still nobody out there who can sing like Christina Aguilera. She has a 3-1/2-octave range, and she sounds totally powerful with it. She co-writes or writes her songs, she sounds better live than she does on record, she's reinvented herself on her albums ..."
Voice therapist Jackie Presti and Chicago cabaret singer Beckie Menzie agree. Both also cite Mariah Carey. "Especially early on, what a good use of her voice," Presti says.
The list goes on, including Nancy Wilson of Heart, Cyndi Lauper (who "can really sing, though you don't hear it much," says Presti), Joss Stone. Great singers, all. And all women.
Who are the good male singers?
Menzie mentions Michael Buble. Presti pauses, uncomfortably, finally seizing on "that Josh Groban guy -- I guess he can sing."
CSO composer and pop arranger Cliff Colnot is the only one to reel off several guys: "Marvin Gaye, Michael Jackson, Michael McDonald. Stevie Wonder would be way at the top of my list."
He grows testy when we mention the Whitmariahtina triumvirate.
"Mariah Carey? Oh, come on," he sneers. "If you asked who was the most famous, then yes -- Celine Dion, Mariah Carey, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera. But I didn't think that was your question. Mariah Carey ... is a little trick pony. She leverages her range like she should, but it's not new or unique. She's borrowing from other people. Stevie Wonder, Elton John -- Aretha Franklin, if you need a woman -- these people, in my view, are the ones who left a unique fingerprint in singing and interpretation."
But is vocal talent purely technical, or is interpretation an inextricable factor?
"Success as a singer is not so much about the voice as the gestalt of performance -- where the voice may not be perfect but the meaning of the song moves us," Colnot says. "The strongest component of longevity for the great jazz and pop singers is the ability to tell a story. That comes across to the lay person, even on 'American Idol.' Little Paris [Bennett, a former fifth-season contestant] reaching out to tell us something -- maybe she's flat on the G or rushing the end of a bar, but she's telling a story.
"That's often all that matters."
Thomas Conner
Oveall Scores of ECE Workshop Examinations
The 12 examinees who garnered the highest places are the following:
Name of Examinee Rating Place
Delos Santos, Alfeus B. 71 1st
Fonte, Gene Q. 70 2nd
Egido, Jemalyn E. 66 3rd
Soriano, Jason S. 66 3rd
Angeles, Julius L. 66 3rd
Lavapiez, Shena G. 65 4th
Albos. Danilo L. Jr. 61 5th
Enolpe, Karen N. 61 6th
Lagaya, Mark Allen 60 7th
Montilla, Teofilo Andhree B. 60 7th
Vergara, Irene Mae A. 60 7th
Nool, Alvin R. 60 7th
The following are list of average of the other examinees:
Name of Examinee Rating
Molina, Jayson P. 58
Postrado, Lemon T. 58
Banga, Rovi Jane L. 56
Masagca, Catherine V. 56
Bautista, Anele S. 52
Banaticla, Chesca P. 51
Lopena, Robie R. 51
Medialdea, Daven 49
Collantes, Kristine Cecilia B. 48
Reyes, Shirlbert P. 47
Carloman, Kristofer L. 46
Abila, Tzaddi Alephia A. 45
Salangad, Jennely N. 42
Soriano, Manilyn A. 40
Macalalad, Richard C. 39
Posted by: Engr. Michael L. Zarco
Results of ECE Workshop Fifth Examination
The 10 examinees who garnered the highest places are the following:
Name of Examinee Rating Place
Delos Santos, Alfeus B. 54 1st
Lavapiez, Shena G. 54 1st
Albos. Danilo L. Jr. 52 2nd
Fonte, Gene Q. 52 2nd
Egido, Jemalyn E. 50 3rd
Angeles, Julius L. 46 4th
Montilla, Teofilo Andhree B. 44 4th
Soriano, Jason S. 44 4th
Bautista, Anele S. 38 5th
Collantes, Kristine Cecilia B. 38 5th
The following are list of scores of the other examinees:
Name of Examinee Rating
Banaticla, Chesca P. 36
Vergara, Irene Mae A. 36
Molina, Jayson P. 34
Nool, Alvin R. 34
Postrado, Lemon T. 32
Lagaya, Mark Allen 28
Lopena, Robie R. 28
Reyes, Shirlbert P. 28
Salangad, Jennely N. 24
Medialdea, Daven 22
Macalalad, Richard C. 16
Soriano, Manilyn A. 16
Posted by: Engr. Michael L. Zarco
Results of ECE Workshop Fourth Examination
The 11 examinees who garnered the highest places are the following:
Name of Examinee Rating Place
Delos Santos, Alfeus B. 72 1st
Fonte, Gene Q. 70 2nd
Angeles, Julius L. 64 3rd
Molina, Jayson P. 64 3rd
Soriano, Jason S. 64 3rd
Albos. Danilo L. Jr. 62 4th
Enolpe, Karen N. 62 4th
Nool, Alvin R. 62 4th
Banga, Rovi Jane L. 58 5th
Lagaya, Mark Allen 58 5th
Masagca, Catherine V. 58 5th
The following are list of scores of the other examinees:
Name of Examinee Rating
Postrado, Lemon T. 56
Abila, Tzaddi Alephia A. 54
Reyes, Shirlbert P. 50
Collantes, Kristine Cecilia B. 48
Bautista, Anele S. 42
Lopena, Robie R. 38
Soriano, Manilyn A. 34
Medialdea, Daven 32
Carloman, Kristofer L. 30
Macalalad, Richard C. 24
Posted by: Engr. Michael L. Zarco
Results of ECE Workshop Third Examination
The 10 examinees who garnered the highest places are the following:
The 10 examinees who garnered the highest places are the following:
Name of Examinee Rating Place
Soriano, Jason S. 84 1st
Fonte, Gene Q. 82 2nd
Lavapiez, Shena G. 80 3rd
Delos Santos, Alfeus B. 78 4th
Montilla, Teofilo Andhree B. 78 4th
Egido, Jemalyn E. 76 5th
Vergara, Irene Mae A. 76 5th
Postrado, Lemon T. 72 6th
Enolpe, Karen N. 70 7th
Lagaya, Mark Allen 70 7th
The following are list of scores of the other examinees:
Name of Examinee Rating
Banga, Rovi Jane L. 68
Molina, Jayson P. 66
Masagca, Catherine V. 62
Carloman, Kristofer L. 56
Banaticla, Chesca P. 52
Bautista, Anele S. 52
Lopena, Robie R. 52
Abila, Tzaddi Alephia A. 50
Medialdea, Daven 48
Salangad, Jennely N. 38
Posted by: Engr. Michael L. Zarco
Saturday, May 06, 2006
Results of ECE Workshop Second Examination
The 11 examinees who garnered the highest places are the following:
Name of Examinee Rating Place
Angeles, Julius L. 70 1st
Nool, Alvin R. 70 1st
Delos Santos, Alfeus B. 52 2nd
Lavapiez, Shena G. 46 3rd
Fonte, Gene Q. 46 3rd
Montilla, Teofilo Andhree B. 42 4th
Vergara, Irene Mae A. 42 4th
Soriano, Jason S. 40 5th
Albos. Danilo L. Jr. 34 6th
Banaticla, Chesca P. 32 7th
Enolpe, Karen N. 32 7th
The following are list of scores of the other examinees:
Name of Examinee Rating
Collantes, Kristine Cecilia B. 28
Masagca, Catherine V. 28
Postrado, Lemon T. 28
Egido, Jemalyn E. 26
Banga, Rovi Jane L. 24
Abila, Tzaddi Alephia A. 22
Macalalad, Richard C. 22
Reyes, Shirlbert P. 18
Salangad, Jennely N. 18
Carloman, Kristofer L. 14
Soriano, Manilyn A. 10
Posted by: Engr. Michael L. Zarco
Results of ECE Workshop First Examination
The 11 examinees who garnered the highest places are the following:
Name of Examinee Rating Place
Albos. Danilo L. Jr. 58 1st
Angeles, Julius L. 50 2nd
Vergara, Irene Mae A. 48 3rd
Lagaya, Mark Allen 46 4th
Lavapiez, Shena G. 44 5th
Enolpe, Karen N. 42 6th
Medialdea, Daven 42 6th
Reyes, Shirlbert P. 40 7th
Lopena, Robie R. 38 8th
Montilla, Teofilo Andhree B. 38 8th
Soriano, Manilyn A. 38 8th
The following are list of scores of the other examinees:
Name of Examinee Rating
Banaticla, Chesca P. 36
Macalalad, Richard C. 34
Nool, Alvin R. 34
Carloman, Kristofer L. 32
Masagca, Catherine V. 32
Banga, Rovi Jane L. 30
Salangad, Jennely N. 28
Bautista, Anele S. 26
Collantes, Kristine Cecilia B. 26
Molina, Jayson P. 26
Abila, Tzaddi Alephia A. 0
Posted by: Engr. Michael L. Zarco
Friday, May 05, 2006
MOI Problem Set 2 and Takehome Final Examination
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Problem Set 2
Takehome Final Examination
Friday, April 21, 2006
MOI Problem Set 1
Due: April 26, 2006
Due: April 26, 2006
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Problem Set 1
Saturday, March 18, 2006
Strength of Materials Takehome Final Examination
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Final Examination
Sunday, March 05, 2006
Contestant Sings 'Hero' on American Idol 5 // 2:08 PM EST Updated by Liron
Heather Cox, one of the 10 female finalists on the 5th season of "American Idol" sang Mariah's "Hero" on last night's show.
The comments made after Heather's performance, both from the show's judges and the media show how respected Mariah is as a vocalist and how difficult it is to try to sing her songs:
Paula Abdul: Here's the one big problem: Sorry, but when you sing songs that the great Mariah Carey sings, you run the hugest risk of being compared to icons. And right now, there's no one hotter than Mariah Carey and we're constantly reminded of how brilliant her voice is. It's a big, big, huge risk to take on a song like that. You did a good job but it wasn't great.
Randy Jackson: They hate when I say this, but it's hard for me because I work with Mariah... Paula's absolutely correct, when you choose stylized songs by these kinds of singers, you're gonna pale in comparison because this was their own soul, own heart, own thing so... song choice, song choice, song choice tonight.
Simon Cowell: This is going to sound odd but Paula and Randy actually spoke some sense. The problem is it was kind of like, you know those ghastly pageants when just before the finalists have arrived, somebody gets up to sing, you know, a Mariah song or something, and it's a horrible moment and it did come over a bit like that, it's sort of pointless really. Pointless if you're not gonna be as good as the original, unless you're gonna do something different with the song.
Foxes on Idol:
Tyler: I've always wanted to hear this song on the show, but I also wanted to hear it done well. If "well" is synonymous with "flat," Heather succeeded.
Curlio.com:
American Idol stalker Heather Cox decided to be brave and perform a song that has never been done on American Idol, "Hero" by Mariah Carey. Doing a Mariah song is risky, but Heather wasn't as bad as she could have been. She was pretty good actually, just not great. Paula said she improved, but picking Mariah is just a bad choice. Randy said that most everyone pales in comparison to Mariah. Simon agreed with Paula and Randy, comparing it to a beauty pageant performance.
The Post Chronicle:
Next up was Heather Cox, who sang Hero by Mariah Carey. After her horrible performance last week, the very idea of her attempting Mariah made me cringe. Unfortunately, her singing did as well. This girl just does not have a voice. How did she even get into the top 12? Granted, she did give a better performance than last week, but the bar was set amazingly low. I was quite surprised that she didn't belt the sections of the songs that were written for belting. Very amateurish.
PhillyBurbs.com:
Heather Cox seems truly lost on the Idol stage. She set herself up for comparisons to Mariah Carey with a ridiculous version of the hit, "Hero" and then looked like she might die after hearing Simon's comment that her performance was "pointless." Heather would have been better off turning in her resignation on the spot than to suffer what is her almost certain fate – getting kicked off the show this week.
TV Fodder:
Heather Cox made a fatal flaw in my book: She performed Mariah Carey. It's a bit overdone and made me feel like I was at a wedding -- without an open bar.
Blogcritics.org:
Heather Cox decided to attempt the impossible and took on a Mariah Carey song, namely "Hero". She held her own I thought, weakly but she held it. The big problem, she is not Mariah Carey, has no where near that kind of voice and so she couldn't possibly live up to the original. Gutsy song selection but it may also be a fatal one for her.
The Watercooler - TVGuide.com:
Heather, there is a reason nobody has performed Mariah Carey's "Hero" on American Idol. The woman's voice goes from gutter growl to dog whistle at the speed of light; nobody can do what Mimi does. Nice gratuitous name-dropping by the way, Randy Jackson. I'd love to see him try to tell Mariah she sounded "pitchy."
Heather Cox, one of the 10 female finalists on the 5th season of "American Idol" sang Mariah's "Hero" on last night's show.
The comments made after Heather's performance, both from the show's judges and the media show how respected Mariah is as a vocalist and how difficult it is to try to sing her songs:
Paula Abdul: Here's the one big problem: Sorry, but when you sing songs that the great Mariah Carey sings, you run the hugest risk of being compared to icons. And right now, there's no one hotter than Mariah Carey and we're constantly reminded of how brilliant her voice is. It's a big, big, huge risk to take on a song like that. You did a good job but it wasn't great.
Randy Jackson: They hate when I say this, but it's hard for me because I work with Mariah... Paula's absolutely correct, when you choose stylized songs by these kinds of singers, you're gonna pale in comparison because this was their own soul, own heart, own thing so... song choice, song choice, song choice tonight.
Simon Cowell: This is going to sound odd but Paula and Randy actually spoke some sense. The problem is it was kind of like, you know those ghastly pageants when just before the finalists have arrived, somebody gets up to sing, you know, a Mariah song or something, and it's a horrible moment and it did come over a bit like that, it's sort of pointless really. Pointless if you're not gonna be as good as the original, unless you're gonna do something different with the song.
Foxes on Idol:
Tyler: I've always wanted to hear this song on the show, but I also wanted to hear it done well. If "well" is synonymous with "flat," Heather succeeded.
Curlio.com:
American Idol stalker Heather Cox decided to be brave and perform a song that has never been done on American Idol, "Hero" by Mariah Carey. Doing a Mariah song is risky, but Heather wasn't as bad as she could have been. She was pretty good actually, just not great. Paula said she improved, but picking Mariah is just a bad choice. Randy said that most everyone pales in comparison to Mariah. Simon agreed with Paula and Randy, comparing it to a beauty pageant performance.
The Post Chronicle:
Next up was Heather Cox, who sang Hero by Mariah Carey. After her horrible performance last week, the very idea of her attempting Mariah made me cringe. Unfortunately, her singing did as well. This girl just does not have a voice. How did she even get into the top 12? Granted, she did give a better performance than last week, but the bar was set amazingly low. I was quite surprised that she didn't belt the sections of the songs that were written for belting. Very amateurish.
PhillyBurbs.com:
Heather Cox seems truly lost on the Idol stage. She set herself up for comparisons to Mariah Carey with a ridiculous version of the hit, "Hero" and then looked like she might die after hearing Simon's comment that her performance was "pointless." Heather would have been better off turning in her resignation on the spot than to suffer what is her almost certain fate – getting kicked off the show this week.
TV Fodder:
Heather Cox made a fatal flaw in my book: She performed Mariah Carey. It's a bit overdone and made me feel like I was at a wedding -- without an open bar.
Blogcritics.org:
Heather Cox decided to attempt the impossible and took on a Mariah Carey song, namely "Hero". She held her own I thought, weakly but she held it. The big problem, she is not Mariah Carey, has no where near that kind of voice and so she couldn't possibly live up to the original. Gutsy song selection but it may also be a fatal one for her.
The Watercooler - TVGuide.com:
Heather, there is a reason nobody has performed Mariah Carey's "Hero" on American Idol. The woman's voice goes from gutter growl to dog whistle at the speed of light; nobody can do what Mimi does. Nice gratuitous name-dropping by the way, Randy Jackson. I'd love to see him try to tell Mariah she sounded "pitchy."
Saturday, March 04, 2006
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Friday, February 24, 2006
Monday, January 30, 2006
MARIAH CAREY: 'The Queen of Pop'
By Christopher Hamilton
By Christopher Hamilton
2005 was the year of Mariah Carey. On December 31, 2004, if anyone had written the previous statement, they would have been ridiculed. Mariah had been placed in the "career over" section of the music industry alongside the likes of Whitney, Bobby and Lauryn Hill. How she got there and how she overcame that stigma is the real story.
The music world is one of young, hot and upcoming artists. It's hard to get on top and it's even harder to stay there. Every year there is a new artist that rises out of the woodwork. Back in 1990, that artist was Mariah Carey.
Through her work as a background vocalist, Mariah's music came in contact with Sony head Tommy Motolla (remember him?), who promptly signed her to Columbia Records. Her very first single, "Vision of Love," shot to the top of the charts and multiple number one songs would follow. Mariah owned the 1990s.
During this time, Motolla married his protege. Is it even ethical for a record head to have a romantic relationship with one of his artists? (Berry Gordy and Diana Ross' relationship ultimately broke up the biggest female group ever, The Supremes). The eventual end of Mariah's marriage to Motolla (which was displayed in her "We Belong Together video) was the beginning of a strange and peculiar downward spiral for Mariah.
Once Mariah left Motolla and Sony for Virgin Records for a record $80 million contract, the attack was on. It's been reported that Motolla took songs intended for Carey's first release on Virgin and gave them to Jennifer "I'm Real" Lopez. Whether it's true or not is the subject of much debate; however, record companies have been known to do whatever it takes to artists they know are leaving their label.
Leading up to the release of her first movie, Mariah began to act irratically. Combined business and personal matters began to take their toll and Mariah took a "break" in the middle of the massive promotion for the debut of her movie and new Virgin CD. With no Mariah to promote them, both projects failed and the doubters began to write Mariah as a lost cause.
Virgin even got in on the act, quickly buying her contract out by giving Mariah $28 million just to leave their label. Although she made out in the deal, it's considered a public relations disaster to be paid to leave your record company to "cut their losses." Critics had a field day with the downfall of Mariah Carey. Was it because she could no longer sing or that she was close to breaking records of the highly acclaimed Elvis and the Beatles?
Now a free agent, Mariah was signed to Def Jam by new head LA Reid (the mastermind behind the chart success of Usher and OutKast). Even though her first release on Def Jam, "Charmbracelet" eventually went platinum, it was widely considered that Mariah's days as a top selling artist were long gone.
To prepare for her second release on Def Jam, Mariah took her time and went to the islands to regroup. After clearing her head of all the pressures of life, she hooked up with her old producer/friend Jermaine Dupri and created "The Emancipation of Mimi." (Mimi is the name Mariah is called by her close friends).
A ultra smash, "Mimi" walked down 50 Cent's "The Massacre" to become the number one selling cd of 2005 by selling over 5 million copies and counting. (At press time, "Mimi" is still firmly lodged in the top ten.) Even more impressively, she scored 2 more number one songs from the CD, giving her a total of 17. Now she is tied with Elvis Presley for the most number one songs of all time behind only the Beatles with 20. Does anyone think Virgin jumped the gun?
In other words, Mariah Carey is walking ground no other woman has ever achieved. She's had more number ones than Whitney, Janet Jackson and Madonna. She has earned the official title of "The Queen of Pop." More importantly, she's approaching the holy grail of the Beatles. Does anyone doubt she won't get there?
Christopher Hamilton is a freelance entertainment reporter. He can be reached for questions or comments at mrcjhamilton@hotmail.com
Saturday, January 28, 2006
Download Eagle Layout Editor v4.16 in Parts
Click the links below to download the software in parts. To unpack files you need to start extraction from the first file. If files are stored on non-removable media like a hard disk, you need to put all files in the same folder before starting extraction.
eagle-win-eng-4.16.sfx.part1
eagle-win-eng-4.16.sfx.part2
eagle-win-eng-4.16.sfx.part3
eagle-win-eng-4.16.sfx.part4
eagle-win-eng-4.16.sfx.part5
eagle-win-eng-4.16.sfx.part6
eagle-win-eng-4.16.sfx.part7
Friday, January 27, 2006
Download Area for EAGLE Layout Editor 4.16
The EAGLE Layout Editor is an easy to use, yet powerful tool for designing printed circuit boards (PCBs). The name EAGLE is an acronym, which stands for Easily Applicable Graphical Layout Editor.
The EAGLE Layout Editor is an easy to use, yet powerful tool for designing printed circuit boards (PCBs). The name EAGLE is an acronym, which stands for Easily Applicable Graphical Layout Editor.
Click here to download the software.
Thursday, January 19, 2006
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