Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Shut up, hissy kitty!

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

The media handbook says “controversial” is the most negative description that can be used for a Republican.

Books are my comfort food!

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

People are weird.

Republican also-rans: four mules fighting over a turnip.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

Nothing says ‘pro-life’ like letting children go hungry.

Relentless negativity is not a sign that you are more realistic.

How any woman could possibly vote for this smug smarmy piece of misogynistic crap is beyond understanding.

Bark louder, little dog.

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

I desperately hope that, yet again, I am wrong.

“When somebody takes the time to draw up a playbook, they’re gonna use it.”

Michigan is a great lesson for Dems everywhere: when you have power…use it!

Jack be nimble, jack be quick, hurry up and indict this prick.

Fight them, without becoming them!

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

Putin dreamed of ending NATO, and now it’s Finnish-ed.

After dobbs, women are no longer free.

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / This Website is Officially Sick of Susan Boyle

Reader Interactions

123Comments

  1. 1.

    Dennis-SGMM

    Another unexpected benefit of curtailing my exposure to television: I have no idea whom you’re talking about.

  6. 6.

    rob

    She’s a Scottish woman who sings like Julie Andrews but looks like Jack Black in drag.

    This observation has completely turned a crappy morning into a good one.

  7. 7.

    Captain Haddock

    I was moved the first time this happened — that guy with an unlikely but amazing voice. This time it smells of a ratings ploy.

  8. 8.

    Dennis-SGMM

    @John Cole:
    Has she been "discovered"? The media goes overboard when they discover someone. Back in the 60’s I would fly into a rage whenever someone played "Dominique," by The Singing Nun. That was only because TV news was wall-to-wall Singing Nun for weeks and the song was played on the radio about every ten seconds.

  10. 10.

    kid bitzer

    heart-warming. bah. i hate heart-warming.

    worse than that–her tone is not all that great. i knew julie andrews, and senator, she’s no julie andrews.

  11. 11.

    R-Jud

    At the very least, can the news networks get a clip of her singing something different?

    As the Britain’s Got Talent machine grinds on, I am sure you’ll get clip after clip of exactly that.

    I watched the clip online. Overkill aside, I’m pleased for her. Just wish she hadn’t picked something from that sappy crapfest that is Les Miserables.

  13. 13.

    jon

    The Stavros Flatley act still makes me smile, however. Though I have a bad feeling that kid is going to be so full of himself in a matter of ten seconds ago.

  14. 14.

    Captain Haddock

    @jibeaux:

    Yes, that was him. Amazing voice indeed. For whatever reason the same act seems a little staged this time. They must be scouring the UK this very moment looking for another rather average looking person with an amazing voice for next season.

  15. 15.

    Krista

    Bah — you’re such a curmudgeon. Considering all the depressing shit that’s usually on the news, is it really so awful to have some coverage of an ordinary Scottish housewife who is getting an unexpected moment of glory?

    Besides, soon enough the novelty will fade, and we can all go back to watching the bobbleheads talk about the economy, Bo the dog, missing children, and whether or not Rhianna and Chris are secretly married. That make you feel better?

  16. 16.

    Lilly von Schtupp

    Cranky morning humor. The reason I come here. Tunch. The second reason I come here.

  17. 17.

    HeartlandLiberal

    Who is Susan Boyle? Seriously. But then, I am culturally deprived, the only show I watch on TV is House, M.D., and occasionally a Law and Order variety on reruns. Although I have to admit with Jeff Goldblum joining the cast, I will have to check in. That is supposed to be coming up very soon.

    Of course Teh Google is everyone’s friend, so I assume you are referring to:

    It appears that "American Idol" isn’t the only launching pad for aspiring singers. Across the pond, "Britain’s Got Talent" scored a huge boost in their ratings when an unassuming 47-year old contestant gave her first televised performance. On April 11, 2009 the Internet went abuzz internationally with a viral video on Youtube that to date has tallied over 2 million views and is climbing exponentially as we speak.

    http://inventorspot.com/articles/top_ten_internet_superstars_2009_26394

    Oh… My… God…. I just watched the YouTube video of her singing from Les Miserables. That was INCREDIBLE!!!

    And that song is wonderful. I have seen professional road show performances of Les Miserables twice. If it comes to town again here in Bloomington, IN, and the IU Auditorium, I will be there again.

  19. 19.

    J.

    I am 100% with you, John Cole, including your description. I had to turn off the Today show when I saw her (which I would have probably done anyway without her). ENOUGH. Also, I have this funny feeling that she IS Jack Black or certainly more attractive than what we’ve seen and that this is a put on.

    So is Hillary Rodham Clinton now going to offer up a trip to see Susan Boyle (on Britain’s Got Talent in addition to a day out with Bill) if you help retire her campaign debt? Might be more of a donation getter than those American Idol tix.

  20. 20.

    Keith G

    Yeah but how long before TMZ shows a drunk, coked up Susan stumbling out of a Hollywood hot club?

    That said, hearing about her, at present, is better (for me) than one more story about: murdered little white girls, teabagging, torture, AIG, Rush, Sara Palin et al., and Pirates.

    You know it could be worse. She might have been singing….Memories.

  21. 21.

    Media Browski

    John "No Heart" Cole?

    Com’on John, this is a triumph! Like you didn’t have youthful dreams crushed by your years wasted as a wingnut that you wouldn’t have been able to get back if it weren’t for your discovery of, well, reason . . .

    Give the nice lady with the incredible vocal cords a break!

  22. 22.

    georgia pig

    Yeah, I’m sick of it now, but it did push the teabaggers out of the limelight. BTW, did you catch Anderson Cooper’s "it’s hard to talk when you’re teabagging" line?

  23. 23.

    Attaturk

    She’s a Scottish woman who sings like Julie Andrews but looks like Jack Black in drag.

    Come to think of it, the moment was a LOT like the ending of "High Fidelity".

  24. 24.

    Bhall35

    John, I suppose you’ll get a kick out of this.

    Seriously, the backlash has been depressingly swift and predictable. I’m with Krista on this one.

    PS: It is good to have Movieline back, though.

  25. 25.

    anonevent

    Come on, John. Get angry at the people who prevented her from doing this earlier because she didn’t look like she could sing. And she may be getting a lot of air time because almost nobody thought she could sing like that, but that’s definitely not her fault. The title of this post should be something like "This Website is Officially Sick of All of Those People Who Were Shocked By Susan Boyle."

    And if you are so pure that you weren’t shocked by the bushy eyebrow-incredible voice combination, then all I can do is put you up on a pedestal so that I can tear you down.

  27. 27.

    cleek

    OT (and probably old news, at this point – but it was new to me):

    This is awesome.

    Back during the debate for HR 1, I was amazed at how easily conservatives were willing to accept and repeat lies about spending in the stimulus package, even after those provisions had been debunked as fabrications. The $30 million for the salt marsh mouse is a perfect example, and Kagro X documented well over a dozen congressmen repeating the lie.

    To test the limits of this phenomenon, I started a parody Twitter account last Thursday, which I called "InTheStimulus", where all the tweets took the format "InTheStimulus is $x million for ______". I went through the followers of Republican Twitter feeds and in turn followed them, all the way up to the limit of 2000. From people following me back, I was able to get 500 followers in less than a day, and 1000 by Sunday morning.

    and then he starts sending out made-up "facts" about the stimulus. and the wingnuts lick ’em up like they’re made out of Reagan’s own tears.

  30. 30.

    Svensker

    She’s better than Tea Parties and ‘Hey, torturing kept us SAFE, you terrorist thumbsucker’ crap. I’m happy for her. Don’t want to watch her vid anymore, but she deserves a kudo.

  32. 32.

    greynoldsct00

    She’s a Scottish woman who sings like Julie Andrews but looks like Jack Black in drag

    ROFLOL!! We love you John

  33. 33.

    Dork

    @John Cole: what’s funny is that I had no idea who this chick is, until you said this. As corny as it sounds, I now know eggsactly of whom you are clowning.

    I didn’t even know she had a "story" behind her.

  34. 34.

    Krista

    I’m not a hater. I thought it was great- the first 32,000 times I heard the story.

    Like I said, this is the peak point right now. Hopefully she’ll have a lot of future success, but as far as the media frenzy goes, my guess is that today is the apex. Don’t forget that the 24-hour news media has the attention span of an ADHD kid on Pixi Stix. By tomorrow, they’ll be on full spaz-out about the fact that Obama has indicated that if Hugo Chavez wants to initiate talks, that the former would be up to meeting with the latter. Or, Angie and Brad will split, which will preempt any and all other news, weather, sports, and reruns of Two and a Half Men.

  35. 35.

    JL

    This was John’s first reaction last Saturday night

    That was great, although she could be John Belushi’s stunt double.

    First John Belushi and now Jack Black. Bah Humbug

  36. 36.

    eastriver

    Her vocal production is small-church good. She has no presence or sense of staging. If a pretty girl sang like that she would be booed off the stage.

    "Oh, look at the homely girl make the nice noises."

    Please. Let her shave the Blagojevich eyebrow so we can raise the performance bar off the ground.

    Get a life.

  37. 37.

    JL

    Don’t forget that the 24-hour news media has the attention span of an ADHD kid on Pixi Stix.

    Once again I have to clean off my keyboard. lol

  38. 38.

    scav

    O, so I’m not the only one whos media-event detector pinged.

    And, given the general context, can I just add that I can simply not think of anything less gay than a karaoke bar in peoria.

  39. 39.

    Billy K

    John, you need to turn off the TV. I’m yet another Juice reader who is TV-deprived (I have no cable, watch little local or network crap), and had never heard of the woman. I heard some rumblings about her on morning drive radio, so I Googled her yesterday.

    It’s amazing how little media saturation affects you when you turn off the media.

    Also, I thought it was the greatest thing I’ve seen since the Inauguration, and I’m a certified Cynic, Curmudgeon, and all-around jerk.

  40. 40.

    norbizness

    I’m so culturally deprived that I have never heard of blogging or the internet, and especially where the two are combined to generate comments on something I didn’t want to think about.

  43. 43.

    mr furious

    If I watched more television, I’d probably be with you, John. It’s a fluke that I even know what you are talking about—it was on TV in a restaurant last night…

    I’m more appalled at the coverage of her, both here and in Britain, that boils down to: "isn’t it amazing that someone so ugly could possibly do ANYTHING? No seriously. Did you get a good look at her?"

    It’s just short of freak show treatment and it’s awful.

  44. 44.

    Genine

    Considering all the depressing shit that’s usually on the news, is it really so awful to have some coverage of an ordinary Scottish housewife who is getting an unexpected moment of glory?

    Actually she’s not a housewife. She says she’e never even been kissed and lives alone with her cat. She also has a slight disability.

    But I am very happy for her. I think her story is very inspirational. I cried to first two times I saw the video of her singing.

  45. 45.

    The Grand Panjandrum

    I think I wrote about not having cable for many years but relenting after moving to NH. Well, I got fed up with all the bullshit and now don’t watch cable news at all. Never. My viewing is now limited to Anthony Bourdain and PBS. I just can’t take watching all the "news" being made these days. Reading news online and watching The News Hour is all I need. With the arrival of spring we are out riding bikes, working in the garden and hiking in the woods on our land. We have the remains of an old stone wall on our property that was built sometime in the 1830’s so it has been an incredible teaching opportunity for my kids. That sure does beat the hell out of spending my days on the verge of shooting my TV.

  46. 46.

    eastriver

    Billy K: I’m a voice director. It’s my very successful living. I admire the inspired amateurs. But I don’t hire them.

  47. 47.

    eastriver

    Billy K: I’m a voice director. It’s my very successful living. I admire the inspired amateurs. But I don’t hire them.

  49. 49.

    Krista

    @eastriver: Jesus H. Christ, dude. What, do you also go and kick puppies for the lulz? If she was standing right in front of you, would it make you feel good to say all those nasty things to her?

    It’s one thing to say that you don’t see what other people are seeing in her, but you’re deliberately being as mean as you possibly can about a woman who AFAIK has done nothing to you, and you ought to be ashamed.

  50. 50.

    Xenos

    The music choice is in terrible taste – it does not even showcase her talent fairly well. Maybe it was the production, as the crowd noise is so high that you can’t even hear her clearly. The whole event is distasteful – first everybody laughs at Boyle, then everybody swoons over some schlocky Andrew Loyd Weber lines and gets to feel superior than the audience members who were openly laughing at Boyle. This facile manipulation is supposed to be uplifting?

    It is just a variation on the standard celebrity culture pollution that saturates TV-land. Andrew Sullivan was tremendously moved by it, which tells you something.

    /puritanical aesthete

  51. 51.

    KRK

    @jibeaux:

    Susan Boyle made me think of Little Voice, too.

    I’ve only seen the online clip and none of the "news" coverage, so I’m not sick of her yet.

    [pedant[It may be small, but “is” should always be capitalized in titles (unless you’re doing that lame only-capitalize-the-first-word title style). It’s a powerhouse word, but it gets no respect. Kind of like Susan Boyle.[/pedant]

  52. 52.

    bhall35

    Here’s an idea:

    Can everyone who either

    A: is a professional voice coach/director

    or

    B: would like to smugly point out how little or no TV they watch.

    get together and publish one collective post? It would make getting through this thread a little more efficient and interesting.

  53. 53.

    gbear

    I agree with the crowd that thinks her story was a nice diversion from all the Obama hating we’ve been so tightly focused on lately.

    Also agree with the gang that says that if you turned off your damned TV now and then you wouldn’t be feeling overexposed. You think you’re going to miss something by not watching those shows?

    Lastly, thanks a lot this morning for the EARWORM FROM HELL. I only watched the original video a couple of times but now the memory of that song is now SO stuck in my head.

  54. 54.

    Zifnab

    I caught her on facebook, but I haven’t been in front of a TV in days, so I’ve been blessedly spared.

    Once again, I’d like to reiterate my amazement at anyone who can stomach more than ten minutes of cable news at a time. It’s so much trash it horrifies me.

    We are allowed one story a day across three cable news channels and three major networks. Horrifying.

  55. 55.

    Punchy

    Good job, eastriver. You’ve managed to make Kris mad, and that’s a REALLY hard thing to do. I think you could walk into her house, slap her kitty, poop on her kitchen table, and she’d still smile and make you lemonade. And yet you’ve found a way to fire her up.

    Scorn has no hell than a woman wrathed, or something.

  56. 56.

    Dennis-SGMM

    @bhall35:
    Nothing smug about not watching television. I get my news from the intertrons without commercials. Other than Top Gear, the only thing I find entertaining on the tube are movies made before even I was born.
    Edit: It’s a matter of preferences. I just prefer to do other things rather than watching tv.

  59. 59.

    vishnu schizt

    Well I’d probably like her voice except for the the fact that about all I can hear of it is the crowd screaming and a couple of gay brits yelling "kin yew beleeve thad" or something (if someone has a better link without all that shit, let me know). Beyond that what I can hear sounds pretty good, though her Scottish accent clearly comes out at the end of her phrases (Annoying! my best gay critic impression). I hate to say it, you’d hear the same level of voice quality if you go see Les Mis in it’s Des Moines, Iowa or St. Petersburg, FL production, which I’m sure is coming soon to a theater near you, if you live near Des Moines or St. Petersburg that is.

    Beyond that, I too got a bit choked up when I saw this woman get up there and against all expectations belt that out. True beauty comes from the inside bitches, and she seems to have a Teri Hatcher in there, not Frieda Pinto though, well maybe not even Teri (Jesus H Chrysler she is hot, Frieda, I’d give my left tea bag for Frieda), um….. I’ll give her Uma Thurman style inside beauty.

    Cheers

  60. 60.

    Comrade Darkness

    @R-Jud: Just wish she hadn’t picked something from that sappy crapfest that is Les Miserables.

    Honestly, I thought that was the capper. Especially the closing line of the song. The whole thing was such a mockery of everything that "talent" *cough*beauty contest*cough* show stands for, excepting of course that her "finally getting a chance" and maximizing it is the underlying pure excuse for the program. Including her frumpy inability to follow stage direction, I thought the whole episode a rather nice performance art package, on a grand scale.

    But I utterly loathe television, so I’m perhaps reading far too much into this, symbolically.

  61. 61.

    Scott Alloway

    And does anyone here remember the singer Mrs. Miller from the mid-sixties?

    My brother bought two of her albums (he was 14 or so at the time) and played them every day.

    Skip ahead 40 years. I work at a weekly newspaper and one day one of the production people has her songs on his iTunes list and has them regularly cycled.

    Today is my last day here. I’m going to another paper (truth).

  62. 62.

    Dennis-SGMM

    @bhall35:
    LOL! Nope, fate put me in a lot of places where there was no television but there was a library so I just never picked up the habit.

  64. 64.

    Xenos

    @jeff: Great. Send me to youtube, so I can lose 1/2 an hour comparing the Ella Fitzgerald, Diana Krall, Julie London, and Steven Tyler (!) versions of ‘Cry Me a River’.

    That has got to biggest time sink yet.

  65. 65.

    Jim

    As someone who has pretty much given up on cable news, I haven’t seen enough of this woman to be sick of her. I’ve watched this clip twice and that’s enough for me. But from what I’ve read, she’s had a hard life, and she’s having some fun and getting some positive attention and praise, and maybe she’ll make a few bucks out of the deal.

    There’s enough goddam misery in the world without harping on this woman. A little bit of good news amid all the death and poverty and squalor. What would you rather see? Jeannie Mose quirky story number 129,876? Contessa Brewer asking if Obama is polarizing? John King saying *You know, Wolf, the tea-baggers speak for a large number of quiet Americans, a silent majority, one might say…"

    This time tomorrow, people who watch TV will be sick of the kidnapped sea-captain talking about his ordeal, especially if he turns out to be a Bible thumper.

  66. 66.

    ErinSiobhan

    It’s the nature of the beast to take a good thing and overhype it until the essential goodness is totally destroyed.

    That being said, I wish her the best of luck and hope she gets the professional career that she wants.

  67. 67.

    Krista

    And yet you’ve found a way to fire her up.

    I have no problem with nasty snark — towards those whose own nastiness or stupidity has warranted it. However, gratuitous cruelty about the singing ability and personal appearance of a harmless woman trying to fulfill a dream? That’s just really, really mean.

    And Punchy, I don’t have a cat, so your comment about someone "slapping my kitty", pooping on my kitchen table, and me "making them lemonade"… well, I had to cease those kinds of shenanigans awhile back. The pay just wasn’t worth the cleaning bills, union or no union.

  69. 69.

    vishnu schizt

    @gbear: Not in this case. Though it is true, a couple of gay brits could make cleaning up after my dog fabulous.

  70. 70.

    D-Chance.

    Ponder… what would Rachel Maddow know about teabagging? Her personal experience in that area is quite limited.

  72. 72.

    jetan

    @eastriver

    I sort of agreed with your assessment based on the video clip, but her version of "Cry Me A River" was really quite good and not "church-production" at all.

  74. 74.

    vishnu schizt

    @D-Chance.: How do you know? How does being a lesbian preclude you from knowing about tea bagging? I’ve watched enough porn to imagine what lesbians do.

  75. 75.

    Comrade Darkness

    @D-Chance.:
    Ponder… what would Rachel Maddow know about teabagging? Her personal experience in that area is quite limited.

    Truck Nutz?

  77. 77.

    Violet

    Aww…I love her. The song was perfect because the lyrics fit her life so well. A caretaker for her sick mother after her dad died. Bullied at school. Never married, never kissed. All her dreams deferred. And she gets up on the stage to eyerolls and snide comments and blows everyone away.

    You can make all the sneering remarks you want about how whole thing being manipulated for TV. It probably was. Maybe those "crowd reaction" shots weren’t even from her appearance. But the basics of the story are real. And there’s no denying she shocked the hell out of everyone there.

    I’m curmudgeonly and grumpy about a lot of things. But for some reason I just can’t get that way about her. I just don’t tire of watching her audition. Never fails to give me chills. If that makes me a sap, so be it. That’s a label I’ll proudly wear in this case.

  78. 78.

    chriskillian

    @Xenos

    I don’t think Andrew Lloyd Webber had anything to do with Les Misérables. The music was Claude-Michel Schönberg, and I’m pretty sure the lyrics were by Herbert Kratzmer. (Checking Wikipedia….) OK his name is Herbert Kretzmer. I was pretty close.

    @eastriver

    As a vocal director, you should not be hiring amateurs. However, she could easily get together with a vocal coach and go pro in short order. I’ve seen Off Broadway stuff with singers who were not on the level of Susan Boyle’s untrained voice.

    The amazing thing about Susan is that she’s a 47 year-old semi-crazy cat lady with a surprising (but admittedly untrained) talent, and she’s showing a lot of people how foolish it is to judge a person by how they look or how they live.

  79. 79.

    joes527

    @vishnu schizt:

    I hate to say it, you’d hear the same level of voice quality if you go see Les Mis in it’s Des Moines, Iowa or St. Petersburg, FL production

    Yeah, that was my response too. I didn’t even make it all the way through the song. She was pretty good, but after a strong start the whole "this voice would be a standout in dinner theater" thing came through pretty clearly. That coupled with the stupid audience made me not care to listen to the whole thing.

    The "My God. She’s WONDERFUL" reaction is really the soft bigotry of low expectations.

    Don’t get me wrong. She is good. If voice was all that they judge by, there is no question that she could get an off-broadway role. (lead?) And I can’t sing worth shit, so I’m no one to criticize.

    But Julie Andrews? C’mon. So this series has found its Sanjaia. (not saying she is a no talent, but merely that she will go farther than an objective evaluation of her talent warrants because she is now the show’s mascot)

  80. 80.

    Mike in NC

    I’d rather watch Susan Boyle sing than watch coverage of the tea-baggers.

    Hannity wants to have her on next week to talk about tax cuts.

  81. 81.

    Cris

    @Dennis-SGMM: Back in the 60’s I would fly into a rage whenever someone played "Dominique," by The Singing Nun. That was only because TV news was wall-to-wall Singing Nun for weeks and the song was played on the radio about every ten seconds.

    I was listening to a Live365 station that played every #1 song of the sixties in chronological order. One of my favorite transitions in that playlist is:

    "Dominique" by the Singing Nun – December 7, 1963 (four weeks)
    "There, I’ve Said It Again" by Bobby VInton – January 4, 1964 (four weeks)
    "I Want To Hold Your Hand" by the Beatles – February 1, 1964 (seven weeks)

    If any of you kids out there don’t appreciate the huge impact the Fab Four had on pop music, consider that progression. After being sedated by the Singing Nun and Bobby Vinton, the opening guitar figure of "I Want To Hold Your Hand" wakes you up like a machine gun.

  83. 83.

    eastrive

    @chriskillian:

    The Susan Boyle phenomenom has EVERYTHING to do with how she looks. If she wasn’t un-pretty (is that kind enough, K?) and intensely awkward she wouldn’t be getting the youtube hits. Period.

    If all you heard was a recording of her you wouldn’t listen to the whole thing. And if you would, you need to get out more.

    Can we move on now? Can we go back to coffee suggestions for JC?

    Boyle on my ass.

  84. 84.

    Punchy

    And Punchy, I don’t have a cat, so your comment about someone "slapping my kitty", pooping on my kitchen table, and me "making them lemonade"… well, I had to cease those kinds of shenanigans awhile back. The pay just wasn’t worth the cleaning bills, union or no union.

    They really need to make Coke-proof computer monitors. Dammit this is comedy gold.

  86. 86.

    Winston Smith

    I think Susan Boyle is a little sick of it, too.

    I saw her being interviewed on CNN this morning. The "reporter" was asking the same retarded questions that Susan has answered over and over and Susan was giving the same answers she’s given over and over.

    "How do you feel?"

    "I’m a overwhelmed and humbled."

    What do they expect this poor woman to say? I hope she has a great career ahead of her. This is a great story and will remain one if the media doesn’t flog it to death… oh what am I saying it’s a done deal. Poor Susan.

  87. 87.

    gbear

    @Cris:

    So very true. I was 10 years old when The Beatles hit the US. It was an immediate lifechanging event. Nothing was the same after their Ed Sullivan Show premier. What a great moment that was. the opening chords of "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" still have that rifle shot effect for me now.

  88. 88.

    gbear

    @Cris:

    So very true. I was 10 years old when The Beatles hit the US. It was an immediate life changing event. Nothing was the same after their Ed Sullivan Show premier. What a great moment that was. the opening chords of "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" still have that rifle shot effect for me now.

  90. 90.

    norbizness

    My response to this thread is the same as my internal monologue when somebody is attempting to talk on their cellphone in the elevator: SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP YOU FUCKING BASTARD SHUT UP

  91. 91.

    pseudonymous in nc

    To be honest, the selling point of [Country]’s Got Talent is the WTF? reaction of the panel to something that isn’t pre-packaged into a media-friendly form, but has entertainment value. Which in itself is kinda manufactured.

    I certainly don’t think it was expected to become a cablenews/morning show pile-on, though I’m also sure the only reason it got left up on YouTube is that the American version starts soon, and there’ll be pressure to bring her over for a "surprise appearance", depending on what happens back over the pond.

    Still, I preferred the teenager with her dancing sheepdog from last year.

  92. 92.

    PurpleGirl

    Haven’t read all the comments yet, but Dennis-SGMM you’ve planted an ear/mind worm and I want to hurt you now. Back to reading comments…

  93. 93.

    Tattoosydney

    I have some sympathy for John Cole here…

    While I have watched the Susan Boyle video a lot, and it chokes me up each time (I think it’s the impression that she is genuinely having a wonderful time, being cheered on by the crowd, smiling her cheeky grin, that does it for me), I am also aware of the emotional manipulation of it all (I’m sure no-one believes that she just wandered out onto that stage and that the judges had no idea she was a good singer – that there was no little note slipped to Simon Cowell before she went on stage saying "This one can actually sing"), and conscious of the fact that the constant discussion of the "Boyle phenomenon" can become wearing.

    Its like (to pick a hypothetical example at random) your favourite web site suddenly became choked with endless threads from John and Doug about teabagging, with the otherwise clever and interesting readers of said web site encouraging them by then responding by constantly going on and on and on and on and on with the same endless circular discussion of fucking teabaggers. Something like that…

    [runs and hides] Thanks for the teabagging free zone today and yesterday, John.

  94. 94.

    Brachiator

    I’m not a hater. I thought it was great- the first 32,000 times I heard the story.

    I still think that it’s fun as people discover the clip on YouTube (up to more than 10 million hits), and are charmed by her personal story. This part of the story stays alive because people who hadn’t been aware of her appearance on "Britain’s Got Talent" are only now finding out what the whole hubub was about.

    And I still get a kick out of seeing how this program is a remnant of the old English Music Hall tradition, and how the audience loves an underdog.

    I also just ignore the attempt by the traditional media to package Susan’s life into an infotainment …. "narrative…" with a pre-determined happy ending. It’s lame and predictable, though at least much more refreshing than the adventures of Octo-mom.

    Meanwhile, there was another act on the program which got wild audience approval, Flawless.

    Enjoy

  97. 97.

    passerby

    @John Cole:

    She’s a Scottish woman who sings like Julie Andrews but looks like Jack Black in drag.

    This is brilliant. Wish I could up with stuff like this.

  98. 98.

    passerby

    @Dennis-SGMM:

    Back in the 60’s I would fly into a rage whenever someone played "Dominique," by The Singing Nun. That was only because TV news was wall-to-wall Singing Nun for weeks and the song was played on the radio about every ten seconds.

    We had to beg and hound our parents to buy us Beatles music. We were lucky if we got The Everly Brothers.

    But being Catholics, my mom didn’t bat an eye when she bought the whole Singing Nun album. It was sung in french to boot so that covered our cajun heritage.

    So at our house, it was "Domini-quer, niquer, niguer" all day, all the time. Dennis, you would have gone postal.

  99. 99.

    Oliver's Neck

    @eastriver

    You’re a tool and probably a liar. If you really were a vocal director* you’d hear and appreciate her surprising natural tone and breathing for an untrained singer. I was shocked at how well she sang the higher notes in her register – she actually approached them with breath support rather than "hitting" them the way most amateur singers do.

    Anyway, get over yourself.

    *I’m assuming that you’re not the vocal director of some shitty pop singing or awful belting ensemble. If so, then, again, your opinion on this topic is not very interesting.

  100. 100.

    Brachiator

    @passerby:

    But being Catholics, my mom didn’t bat an eye when she bought the whole Singing Nun album. It was sung in french to boot so that covered our cajun heritage. So at our house, it was "Domini-quer, niquer, niguer" all day, all the time. Dennis, you would have gone postal.

    The actual refrain was:

    Dominique, nique, nique
    S’en allait tout simplement,
    Routier pauvre et chantant
    En tous chemins, en tous lieux
    Il ne parle que du bon Dieu.
    A l’époque où Jean Sans Terre
    D’Angleterre était roi,

    The song was in heavy rotation in 1963 in part as an antidote to the grief resulting from the John Kennedy assasination. Similarly, Susan Boyle is a beacon in dark times.

    As for the Singing Nun herself, her last years were bleak:

    Her musical career over, [Jeanine] Deckers opened a school for autistic children in Belgium. In the late 1970s (mentioned in the July 22, 1978 broadcast of American Top 40), the Belgian government claimed that she owed around US$63,000 in back taxes. Deckers countered that the money was given to the convent and therefore exempt from taxes. Lacking any receipts to prove her donations to the convent and her religious order, Deckers ran into heavy financial problems. …Citing their financial difficulties in a note, she and her companion of ten years, Anna Pécher, both committed suicide by an overdose of barbiturates and alcohol. In a great irony, the very day of her suicide and unknown to her, the Belgian association that collects royalties for songwriters (SABAM) awarded her approximately $300,000 (571,658 Belgian francs) — more than enough to pay off her $65,000 debt (99,000 Belgian francs) and provide for her.

    Every picture tells a story, don’t it?

  103. 103.

    passerby

    @Brachiator:

    I included the R s in my "niquer"s because when you’re 7 years old, that’s how you sing it.

    Sad her life ended embroiled in a tax fight (fuckin taxes).

    As for beacons, should we be expecting beacons from the mass media when they’re happy to trot out the dark aspects of society for ratings purposes?

  104. 104.

    Bill Oreilly

    She’s a Scottish woman who sings like Julie Andrews but looks like Jack Black in drag.

    I’d hit it.

  105. 105.

    Nicole

    Still, I preferred the teenager with her dancing sheepdog from last year.

    No link? That’s cold, dude.

  106. 106.

    Will

    I can’t be the first to notice that Ms. Boyle, for all her charms, isn’t actually that good a singer. Certainly not as good as any of the thousands of women who have sung "I Dreamed a Dream" professionally in Les Mis. It’s a big sound, but not very pretty.

  107. 107.

    Terri

    Damn to an eternal, suffering hell, the person who first posted that singing nun song. My mother played and sang that song endlessly when I was a kid. I had blocked it form my memory, until I read the lyrics. The song came screaming back from the depths of my subconscious. Now I’ll hear the damned thing playing in my head, until I can drown it with some good cabernet.

    I hope a cat shits in your shoe.

  109. 109.

    Brachiator

    @passerby:

    As for beacons, should we be expecting beacons from the mass media when they’re happy to trot out the dark aspects of society for ratings purposes?

    The people who have been posting their honest responses on YouTube have not been blindly re-acting to the media. They remind me here of the responses to Johnny Cash’s version of "Hurt," posted on YouTube and a couple of other sites. Some folks, before they listened to Cash, started from the stance that Cash could never touch Nine Inch Nails. Most ended up down on their knees, bowing to the majesty of The Man in Black.

    Traditional media has been slow to the mark in reacting to Boyle, and their reaction is a weak imitation of the immediate reaction of the "Britain’s Got Talent" audience and YouTubers.

    Should we be expecting beacons?

    You can’t always get what you want. But if you try sometimes, you might find, you get what you need.

  110. 110.

    JD Rhoades

    @Krista:

    What Krista said. I thought it was great the way everyone was snickering at her, and she took it all with grace. Then she started singing and won the room over from the first line.

    I keep seeing links to it popping up everywhere, too, but I don’t feel the need to click them. I do’t watch the news channels either, which is probably why I’m not sick of it.

  112. 112.

    eastriver

    @Oliver’s Neck:

    I’m a voice director, not a vocal director. I don’t know what the hell a "vocal" director is. A choir director? Perhaps someone else can explain. Someone mis-transcribed my job title earlier. Doesn’t matter.

    What does matter is how non-sensical your comments are.

    Her "surprising natural tone"? What the hell does that mean? The noise that comes out of her mouth is amazingly not-fake? She has a beautiful natural instrument for someone not trained? Is that the contradiction you’re going for?

    And someone singing notes *in* their register shouldn’t ever be shocking. Someone singing notes *out* of their register is shocking.

    You have no idea what you’re talking about. Seriously. Go bag tea.

    Moron.

  113. 113.

    Billy K

    I don’t check in with the comments at BJ as much as I used to. I’m disappointed at how troll-y this place has become. Scepticism is good. Knee-jerk contrarianism is stupid.

    P.S. That’s the way I spell it. I like it that way.

  114. 114.

    Billy K

    @eastriver: You direct voice-overs and you think you’re more qualified than anyone else here to judge this woman’s singing? You’re a dick, plain and simple. And in the words of a dick I recently had the misfortune of encountering, "You have no idea what you’re talking about. Seriously. Go bag tea, Moron."

  115. 115.

    Laertes

    They didn’t do her any favors by invoking Elaine Page just before she starts singing. I got about 20 seconds of "wow, she’s better than I imagined she’d be" and then I couldn’t help measuring her voice against Page.

    Hell, I’m in Los Angeles. There are better singers, right now, waiting tables within a half a mile of where I sit typing this. I know this because I’ve heard some of them sing.

    She’s a charming woman and it’s a heartwarming story. It made me smile. If I’m an evil person for loving the story while at the same time recognizing that she’s better than you’d expect at a talent show but not nearly as good as any number of still-unknown working professional singers, then I guess I’m an evil person.

  116. 116.

    D-Chance.

    This website comment board senior fellow is officially sick of Captain Phillips.

    He’s back on US soil. Good. We don’t need live coverage of him landing.

  117. 117.

    eastriver

    @Billy K:

    Goddamn I love it when people quote me.

    I don’t think I’m "more qualified than anyone else here" to judge the unfortunate noise that comes out of that unfortunate woman’s mouth. I never said I was. But I’m guessing I’m more qualified than you, Billy K. I have absolutely no grounds to say that, because I have no idea who you are or what your talents are. But I’m just going to go ahead and say it anyway. You call me a dick, I call you a no-talent, unqualified cipher.

    And what did I say, Billy-kins, that got your knickers in such a twist? I’m curious. You mention "troll-y" and "knee-jerk contrarianism", and I assume you’re referring to me, but I don’t believe anything I wrote was especially troll-y or knee-jerk contrarian.

    You, however, took the liberty of jumping right up my ass by calling me a "tool and liar." Got all personal and nasty right at the git-go. One might even say you got all knee-jerk-y asswipe. And for what reason? Because I dared to insult an amateur singer? Really, Billy? Or was it because someone else mistakenly called me a vocal director?

    No, wait, you figured out that I’m voice director. Good for you, BK. And you figured out what a voice director does: bonus points, Billy. You have mastered the Art Of The Google. Give yourself a shiny gold star and well-deserved reach around.

    I’ve been doing what I do for about 20 years. I’ve spent thousands and thousands of hours in recording studios all over this great country of ours, working with professional actors and singers. (Some people even you have heard of, Billy Boy.)

    Am I a liar. No. Am I a dick? Gosh, I suppose I am. And maybe even a bit of a tool.

    But at least I’m a dick and a tool who knows what the hell I’m talking about, Billy The Douche-nozzle K.

  118. 118.

    jenniebee

    @Krista: Yay Krista! It was sappy and sentimental and so what? And her voice is far from perfect, and it’s completely untrained, but she took a chance and gave a performance that, while not technically anywhere near perfect, was good enough, and it offered up a little bit of her soul in it. It was sweet. Not everything has to be ironical to be good. We’ve gone too far if we pooh-pooh diamonds in the rough for the crime of not being polished.

  119. 119.

    toujoursdan

    None of really know how good she is. We all listened to it a video/audio recording of it, and most of us listened to a recording uploaded to You Tube, which means that it is compressed.

    When I first heard it I thought that she was great in her upper register, but weak in her lower register, but again, that could be a trick of the mic or the sound system.

    None of us know for sure.

  120. 120.

    pickles

    sure a great bloody lot of you spending time reading through comments about someone you don’t care to hear more about.

  121. 121.

    Griff

    I think what is missed is the connection she made. A gift, a talent lies dead if it does not connect. She did. Whether you think she is the best or not, you cannot deny she touched people. Give her that. It’s a bright spot in an cruel world.

    Cole, I’m saving up my pennies to buy you a nose hair trimmer. .. smile…

  122. 122.

    Blogreeder

    A lot of cranky people on this thread. I was wondering if anything was going to be posted about Boyle. And sure enough, you people have to show your snotty side. Here; this is how you do it:Yes, John I agree with you that it’s been over played. It’s like it’s a competition and poor Susan will get trampled. I really enjoyed it. She’s got a wonderful voice and I’m sure with coaching it will be even better. Here are links to her singing something else: Cry me a river and My heart will go on
    See. I got points for agreeing with John but I didn’t dis Susan.

  123. 123.

    Gmail

    The snarky comments about how she can’t really sing, or that you would hear the same in regional theater are simply wrong. I take the point about an "inspired amateur"–her voice needs training to stand up through the run of a musical production (8 shows a week). But it is an extraordinary natural instrument. I went to Juilliard; I know a little about this.

    Further, the fact that every voice coach, director, and singer on the planet has viewed this clip–and that there are startlingly few detractors–is another index of the quality of her voice. She is actually remarkably good. The fact that she has remained obscure until now points to just how confining the circumstances in a life (and a small Scottish village) can be.

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