Bravo.

If you watch only one Luciano Pavarotti YouTube post today, make it this one, via Lance.

Posted at 10:36 am in Current events, Popculch |
 

34 responses to “Bravo.”

  1. Pam said on September 6, 2007 at 1:41 pm

    I always thought that Liza was as stellar an entertainer as her mother, if not more so. One of my favorite performances was Liza with Joel Grey in “Caberet”.

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  2. LA mary said on September 6, 2007 at 1:46 pm

    I can’t get video here at work, but I KNEW it had to be the Liza clip. I can’t wait until I get home to watch it. Is he singing New York New York with her? Is it horrible?

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  3. LA mary said on September 6, 2007 at 2:09 pm

    I actually had someone who can access video check for me, and yes, that’s the video I remember. It was on PBS in 1999 as during the fund drive.

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  4. nancy said on September 6, 2007 at 2:43 pm

    It’s so horrible it’s charming, one of the world’s great voices (with a helper) taking on one of the world’s most lounge-y pop songs and somehow elevating it to something else. Pavarotti comes across as a great sport. I think it’s the Italian accent and the obvious looks at the lyric cheat sheet. It’s like watching Glenn Gould take apart “Chopsticks.”

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  5. LA mary said on September 6, 2007 at 2:53 pm

    Charming might be a stretch. Certainly memorable. When Liza says, “go Luciano!,” it peaks.

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  6. Danny said on September 6, 2007 at 3:06 pm

    Speaking of peaking, did any of you catch San Diego in national news this week with the drunken beach brawl? A few of my workmates live over there (Pacific Beach) and the unspoken rule is that one must leave when one turns thirty.

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  7. Danny said on September 6, 2007 at 3:11 pm

    And speaking of SD in national headlines, there is this story (with good picture) of a beautiful 23-year old blonde who got temporarily kicked off a Southwest airlines flight for being dressed provocatively.

    Southwest explained its treatment of Ebbert in a letter to her mother, saying it could remove any passenger “whose clothing is lewd, obscene or patently offensive” to ensure the comfort of children and “adults with heightened sensitivities.”

    I bet Brian would selflessly volunteer to sit next to her, if only to help the other adult passengers deal with their “heightened sensibilities.”

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  8. nancy said on September 6, 2007 at 3:23 pm

    No doubt, Brian would have done that noble service.

    Honestly, though, I don’t see what the fuss is about. I’m glad she fought, and I’m glad she was able to stay on the plane. My only comment would be that if you’re going to dress provocatively, which her own mother says she does, you shouldn’t be surprised when you provoke something other than a big tip. And running to your mommy for help is a bit much for a 23-year-old, but what the hell. She can’t help that she’s beautiful and has hooters. I’d rather see her in that outfit than in some approved-by-Brigham-Young-and-the-Taliban “modest” getup.

    She had no luggage except maybe for that sizable tote? I’ll bet a dollar she reached up to put it in the overhead, some middle-aged lady saw her tushie and flipped the hell out.

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  9. Danny said on September 6, 2007 at 3:52 pm

    Yeah, I didn’t see the big deal either. Southwest will be lucky if they are not sued.

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  10. MarkH said on September 6, 2007 at 3:54 pm

    Slightly OT, but, isn’t that Marvin Hamlisch at the piano in the Pavarotti video? Not too long after I left Columbus, I was astonished to see that Terre Blair (finally) did, too…to marry Hamlisch! You Columbusites, how did THAT news register in cowtown at the time?

    Her name came up on a Google search I did not too long ago about Columbus TV (because it was late at night, and because I could, so there), and I saw that, based on the circles she now moves in, she has become quite the society doyenne in NYC. But all I could remember were all the vile stories that went around town about her when she did the weather at WTVN.

    UPDATE: Upon further review, that’s probably not Hamlisch at the piano. At that point in his career, he would have been the conductor.

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  11. brian stouder said on September 6, 2007 at 3:56 pm

    Well, wow! And I thought Southwest Airlines was the button-down, informal, sense-of-humor airline…and in this story they sound like Air al Zawahiri.

    I definitely fit snugly into the category Madame Telling Tales referred to a few days ago – tits and ass are all I ask! (well – not “all” – but they go a long, long way!)

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  12. Danny said on September 6, 2007 at 4:04 pm

    That reminds me of the skit that Gilda Radner and Bill Murray used to do where Gilda played Lisa Lubner. She told her mom (Jane Curtain) that she didn’t like boys like that and that she was saving herself for her one true love, Marvin Hamlisch.

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  13. MarkH said on September 6, 2007 at 4:27 pm

    Danny, I remember that, back when I WAS in Columbus. There’ll never be anything like the original players. God that was great stuff.

    BTW, Happy Birthday to Jane Curtin, 60 (!!!) today.

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  14. MichaelG said on September 6, 2007 at 5:50 pm

    Greatly entertaining clip. La Minelli had a stupendous talent. Too bad she . . . whatever she did with it.

    These days National Anthem performances are either a disgrace or a joke. With each jack leg so called entertainer personalizing it with their own hip hop or country or whatever take I just want to scream when it comes on. If you can’t sing it, don’t try it. The very best rendition I ever heard period was Pavarotti singing it at a Giant’s game. I’ll never hear it done that well again.

    I average a couple of round trips a month on SWA and on any flight one can see more revealing outfits than that worn by Ms. Ebbert. I certainly can’t explain it. Another “What were they thinking?” moment.

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  15. Julie Robinson said on September 6, 2007 at 6:59 pm

    Marvin Hamlisch not gay?!!!!

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  16. LA mary said on September 6, 2007 at 7:04 pm

    He was married to Carol Bayer Sager for a while, I think. She’s a hot mama. She married Burt Bachrach after that. Marvin isn’t gay. He’s like guys I dated in the seventies when I was in my NJB phase.

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  17. MarkH said on September 6, 2007 at 7:41 pm

    Umm…not married to Carole Bayer Sager, mary, but they may have collaborated for a time as composers. He was engaged to Emma Samms for a time, though (imdb.com).

    Blair, always attractive, struck me as a pretty active social climber, so even if Hamlisch was gay, she probably would have agreed to the arrangement as an accessory to support a hetero facade.

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  18. Jeff said on September 7, 2007 at 7:11 am

    Eric Clapton’s married to a Columbus gal, as well.

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  19. brian stouder said on September 7, 2007 at 7:24 am

    Didn’t ol’ Eric take one of the Beatles’ wives, back in the day?

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  20. Jeff said on September 7, 2007 at 7:34 am

    “God has a summer home in Columbus” — http://uweekly.com/cowtown/?p=121

    All blasphemy, or resemblance to gods living or dead, is purely unintentional.

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  21. Kirk said on September 7, 2007 at 7:34 am

    He made off with Patti Boyd Harrison.

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  22. nancy said on September 7, 2007 at 7:46 am

    That must be why they call it God’s Country.

    The best Terre Blair story is the one about the spurned boyfriend who went to extraordinary lengths to humiliate her publicly, post-breakup. As I recall — and I may not have all the details right, admittedly — he set up a sting with several confederates, in which Blair was offered a “network job” in New York City. This involved fake interviews, a trip to the city, etc. The sting came when either Terre or someone else announced her triumph to the media, who of course called the network involved to get their comment, and were told, “Terre? Terre Who?” Even someone not fond of her work — she was the prototypical ditzy-blonde weather gal — could feel a twinge of sympathy. As payback goes, it was a bitch and a half.

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  23. brian stouder said on September 7, 2007 at 7:52 am

    Danny’s Southwest Airline dress-code transgressor got coast-to-coast coverage on NBC’s Today show this morning. I didn’t have time to stay and see, but they lead right off with a tease (so to speak) of her smiling face, as she awaited her live interview with Matt (followed by the troubled visage of another pretty blonde, the British woman who lost her daughter in Portugal, and is now a ‘suspect’)

    I think Ms Ebbert’s payback from Southwest is now in full swing (so to speak)

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  24. Connie said on September 7, 2007 at 8:23 am

    Patty Boyd left husband George Harrison for Eric Clapton. Her book, Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me was just published last week. http://www.amazon.com/Wonderful-Tonight-George-Harrison-Clapton/dp/0307393844/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-9587094-7707044?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1189171311&sr=1-1

    See, knowing a librarian can be useful.

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  25. MarkH said on September 7, 2007 at 9:33 am

    Nancy, that’s the major story I remember as well. At the time, I was working in Columbus radio, and the way we heard it, the guy had not yet been spurned, but was working feverishly to prevent it. So he concocted the story that he could get Terre into the NYC big-time, and in fact, told her it was a done deal. Terre went along, her ego having got her got her sucked in. The C-J and Dispatch radio/TV writers got on to the story and everything blew apart. The big rumor was that he was a major business/advertising guy in Columbus, but I never heard a name.

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  26. LA mary said on September 7, 2007 at 10:21 am

    Patti Boyd’s sister married Mick Fleetwood, and their grandson, Wolf, goes to school with my junior brush with famish son, Pete. Wolf casually mentions things like going to Uncle Ringo’s house.

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  27. nancy said on September 7, 2007 at 10:25 am

    I was waiting for Mary to make the six-degrees connection for all of us. Thanks!

    Mark, your version rings a very faint bell in my memory. That may indeed may be how it happened.

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  28. Bill said on September 7, 2007 at 10:29 am

    And now Ms. Ebbert is on the Today Show with Matt:

    http://allday.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/09/07/348617.aspx

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  29. LA mary said on September 7, 2007 at 10:35 am

    I try to remain consistent.

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  30. Danny said on September 7, 2007 at 11:20 am

    “Do or do not. There is no try.”

    -Yoda

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  31. Danny said on September 7, 2007 at 11:39 am

    Man, speaking of degrees of separation, I was looking at the wikipedia entries for Clapton and Harrison and Jimmy Page. They all traded wives and girlfriends like kids used to trade baseball cards.

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  32. LA mary said on September 7, 2007 at 5:08 pm

    Hence, “Layla.” It’s about Patti Boyd, written by Clapton with Harrison.

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  33. MarkH said on September 7, 2007 at 5:17 pm

    Don’t know about Harrison’s involvement with the song, mary, but here’s most everything you could know about Layla:

    http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=785

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  34. LA mary said on September 7, 2007 at 6:19 pm

    You’re right, Mark. I was thinking of Badge, which had Clapton and Harrison as composers.
    It’s all good.

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