Fame begat Glee
Dateline 1998. A movie where email is a star in the cast. The commercial actually used the sound of a modem, connecting. OK, the movie is a rerun, and the sound effect garners the comment that “Our children won’t even know what that sound was”. And the response “Those of us that do will have it in our nightmares until we die”.
Fast forward, to the advertisement (in a local newspaper) from one of our two major players in the providing of connectivity. Fibre is coming to our market. At a cost… about twice what I currently budget for cable. No more lies about DSL from the contender; now, it’s speed, speed, speed. I’ll wait and see, thank you. Won’t get fooled again (and again, and again).
Meanwhile, I’ve settled in to watch Fame (the 2009 version). Good movie about angst, with a soundtrack. For the younger set, who believe that music in the classroom begins with Glee, I’d like to serve up a plate of warmed over. Fame was a movie, and then a TV series, and then a movie, long before Mr Shu made his mark on the musical aspiration path of a generation. Practice makes perfect.
As someone that had those aspirations, I remember the angst… of harmony exercises, and keyboard class, and choir, and strings and a whole year of history (wherein I snored as a counterpoint). Late night “drop the needle on the record and see if I recognize the composer” drill. Enough. At least I wasn’t drawn by acting or dance.
