Cultural Notes

[poliphilo]

I quite like Bowie's new song. What an arch-manipulator he is- dropping it on us out of the blue after letting us believe he'd gone into a retirement home! Melancholy old man is a novel mask for a rock star to wear but Bowie has always been novel (if sometimes a bit cheesy). That it is only a mask is suggested by the images towards the end of the video of him looking trim and slim (if a little frail) in a comedy T shirt. But who is that woman? Is it Bjork? Probably not. Probably some random person from an agency.

Richard E Grant gave us a warming programme about artists and the Riviera last night. I din't exactly watch it because I was too busy losing a string of games of spider solitaire but I listened with interest. I didn't know Renoir and Cezanne palled around together; I have them pegged as temperamental opposites, which doesn't, of course, preclude friendship. I was surprised to learn that Monet struggled to come to terms with the Mediterranean light; I wouldn't have expected him to be fazed by anything.

Judy tells me she's teaching the Mendelssohn and Wagner wedding marches in a course on Jewish music. I had to go to YouTube to remind myself which was which. When I was a kid we used to sing a lyric to the Lohengrin that went-

Here comes the bride
All fat and wide.
Had to take the doors down
To get her inside. 

Comments

[huskyteer.livejournal.com]

At my school it was:

Here comes the bride
All fat and wide
Slipped on a banana skin
And went for a ride!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I wonder how many variations there are....

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

Lots, probably. I seem to recall our version went:

Here comes the bride
Forty inches wide
Had to take the doors down
To get her inside.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I reckon yours is the most elegant version yet.

Re: Dog, Dog, Dog.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

You're just saying that. She didn't look a bit like Yoko....

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

Here comes the bride
All fat and wide
She needs a taxi
Twelve feet inside


Wagner and Jewish music?

Oy gevalt!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

That's an excellent version.

Well, she'll be talking about Wagner's anti-semitism I suppose- and how horrible he was about Mendelssohn.

[artkouros.livejournal.com]

I kept thinking she was going to join in on the chorus. Bowie just turned 66, a relative child compared to everyone else I grew up listening to. Can't wait for the new album to come out.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

It's odd she didn't sing. Perhaps that was the point- to tease us.

[algabal.livejournal.com]

I cannot believe people are loving this song. Bowie was my adolescent hero, but I can't really pretend he's done anything interesting for over twenty-five years.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

It may not be a classic, but it's moody and tuneful- and the video was intriguing.

When Bowie first appeared I was doing grown-up stuff like getting married so I didn't pay him that much attention. I've liked some of his work without ever being a fan. I suppose I don't come to him with particularly high expectations.

[halfmoon-mollie.livejournal.com]

I love worship and adore Richard E. Grant.


And, *that woman* is his wife, Iman.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I like Richard E Grant too. He was enjoying himself on the Riviera.

Is she really? I entertained that possibility but dismissed it as too obvious.

[athenais.livejournal.com]

Dear me, it certainly isn't. His wife Iman is from Somalia, a former supermodel with fantastic bone structure and beautiful dark skin. It is also not Björk.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

davesmusictank (further down in this thread)says she's the director's wife.

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

In Connecticut in the 1950s, it went:

Here comes the bride
All dressed in pink
Open the windows
And let out the stink

Nine

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Now that's very different from the British versions.

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

For once the Americans are the pinkos.

There was another version with "Short, fat, and wide," but I can't remember the punch line.

Nine

[ooxc.livejournal.com]

There was also a verse about the groom - can't come up with it -

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

What rhymes with groom?

Bloom, tomb, doom... That last one's promising.

Here comes the groom
Going to his doom...

[sovay]

There was also a verse about the groom - can't come up with it -

I'd heard "Here comes the bride / Fair, fat, and wide / Here comes the groom / Skinny as a broom / Here comes the usher / The old toilet-flusher," but there were several variants.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Those are excellent.

[davesmusictank.livejournal.com]

In the Bowie video of that song, the female is the director's wife

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Ahhhh...