Challenge Idea: Burlesque Music
July 26, 2010 8:46 PM
Listening to Ring My Bell: Tango made me wonder: could we have a MeFi Music challenge for songs to burlesque to?
I perform burlesque and every so often when I hear a song I'll come up with a performance idea for it. Songs like the one I linked to lend themselves to burlesque very well - it's recognizable, but a send-up in a different and unexpected form, and much fun can be had with it.
I'd like to suggest a challenge for MeFi Musicians to come up with songs that would made an awesome burlesque number. It doesn't have to sound like "The Stripper" or anything out of the 40s necessarily (then again that's just my taste), but something fun, danceable, unusual.
I'm even willing to add in my own contribution by creating & recording a performance on video for a song of my choice. Or more, if I have the time/inclination.
Anyone up for this? A cross-media challenge maybe?
posted by divabat (30 comments total)
1 user marked this as a favorite
I perform burlesque and every so often when I hear a song I'll come up with a performance idea for it. Songs like the one I linked to lend themselves to burlesque very well - it's recognizable, but a send-up in a different and unexpected form, and much fun can be had with it.
I'd like to suggest a challenge for MeFi Musicians to come up with songs that would made an awesome burlesque number. It doesn't have to sound like "The Stripper" or anything out of the 40s necessarily (then again that's just my taste), but something fun, danceable, unusual.
I'm even willing to add in my own contribution by creating & recording a performance on video for a song of my choice. Or more, if I have the time/inclination.
Anyone up for this? A cross-media challenge maybe?
I should also add that it was the strangest thing I've ever seen, and not necessarily in a good way.
posted by askmeaboutLOOM at 4:53 AM on July 27, 2010
posted by askmeaboutLOOM at 4:53 AM on July 27, 2010
Ha! I was going to suggest 'porn soundtrack' as a challenge -- close enough, I think.
(A few years ago I used to play in a surf band, and one of the bands we gigged with morphed into a porn soundtrack band... they were truly great).
posted by unSane at 5:25 AM on July 27, 2010
(A few years ago I used to play in a surf band, and one of the bands we gigged with morphed into a porn soundtrack band... they were truly great).
posted by unSane at 5:25 AM on July 27, 2010
I wholeheartedly support this idea. My head is already teeming with ideas.
posted by koeselitz at 2:25 PM on July 27, 2010
posted by koeselitz at 2:25 PM on July 27, 2010
divabat, you have broken the centuries-old, revered and honored tradition here at MeFi Music of sending your Challenge ideas to flapjax at midnite. As it happens, this is one I'd have happily chosen for an upcoming month. However, now the cat is out of the bag, as it were, it's up on Music Talk, so, hey, have at it!
Maybe we should just start posting Challenge ideas to Musc Talk, and people can vote on whether they want it or not. Eliminate the middle man*! Course, it won't be quite the same, somehow the "challenge" aspect will have been diluted a bit, but... well, anyway...
*yours truly
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:23 PM on July 27, 2010
Maybe we should just start posting Challenge ideas to Musc Talk, and people can vote on whether they want it or not. Eliminate the middle man*! Course, it won't be quite the same, somehow the "challenge" aspect will have been diluted a bit, but... well, anyway...
*yours truly
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:23 PM on July 27, 2010
The one thing that is missing for me from the challenges is closure at the end of the month.
I suggested to Flapjax a couple of weeks ago that we could try something that has been running for years on my Streetphoto forums -- basically each month there is an adjudicator who chooses the topic. People submit their responses and at the end of the month s/he chooses one, for whatever reason seems valid to them (they are discouraged from choosing the 'best' and encouraged to choose the most 'interesting'). That person then becomes the adjudicator for the next month and gets to choose the topic.
It's worked for years without a hitch for my (very non-competitive) group, but obviously it might not be the right thing for here.
posted by unSane at 6:31 PM on July 27, 2010
I suggested to Flapjax a couple of weeks ago that we could try something that has been running for years on my Streetphoto forums -- basically each month there is an adjudicator who chooses the topic. People submit their responses and at the end of the month s/he chooses one, for whatever reason seems valid to them (they are discouraged from choosing the 'best' and encouraged to choose the most 'interesting'). That person then becomes the adjudicator for the next month and gets to choose the topic.
It's worked for years without a hitch for my (very non-competitive) group, but obviously it might not be the right thing for here.
posted by unSane at 6:31 PM on July 27, 2010
Sorry for not getting back to you on that idea, unSane. I've just been too busy with work and various projects and fatherhood and life in general.
As for your idea, I don't think it's a bad idea, but, fact is, I think it'd run out of steam. I don't think it'd sustain itself, over the long haul. I took on the mantle of an "unofficial mod" (for want of a better term) here at MeFiMu, with regard to the monthly Challenge, and I think the Challenge has thrived, relatively speaking, under my, um, unofficial modism. But, I won' t hold onto it forever. If there's enough folks here who'd like me to let go of this thing, and folks want to set it up in some different way, hey, I ain't gonna hang on like some dictator y'all have to go chase down into a hole and hang at midnight. (midnite?)
So, yeah, opinions welcome. I'll drop this gig if somebody else wants it, or if there's some system put into place that'd be better.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 9:21 AM on July 28, 2010
As for your idea, I don't think it's a bad idea, but, fact is, I think it'd run out of steam. I don't think it'd sustain itself, over the long haul. I took on the mantle of an "unofficial mod" (for want of a better term) here at MeFiMu, with regard to the monthly Challenge, and I think the Challenge has thrived, relatively speaking, under my, um, unofficial modism. But, I won' t hold onto it forever. If there's enough folks here who'd like me to let go of this thing, and folks want to set it up in some different way, hey, I ain't gonna hang on like some dictator y'all have to go chase down into a hole and hang at midnight. (midnite?)
So, yeah, opinions welcome. I'll drop this gig if somebody else wants it, or if there's some system put into place that'd be better.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 9:21 AM on July 28, 2010
Man, where's my good stereo mic? I gotta sample summa these crickets!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:43 PM on July 28, 2010
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:43 PM on July 28, 2010
We love ya, Flapjax, and are stunned into silence by the idea that you might think anyone wanted you to relinquish the reins!
Seriously, I love the way the challenge works right now, just personally miss some kind of wrap up before the next one starts.
posted by unSane at 9:03 PM on July 28, 2010
Seriously, I love the way the challenge works right now, just personally miss some kind of wrap up before the next one starts.
posted by unSane at 9:03 PM on July 28, 2010
Seriously, I love the way the challenge works right now, just personally miss some kind of wrap up before the next one starts.
I agree with unSane's last sentence. Would an end-of-month Music Talk post be sufficient for that sense of closure, you think? For some debriefing, decompression, and discussion? Could the end-of-month post include the cool playlist thing that appears on the challenge page?
I'd also like to see successful (by some measure or another) challenges get a sidebar on the front page more often. MeFiMu could use the publicity.
(The sidebar link coud link to the end-of-month wrap-up Music Talk post so that non-Music-regular MeFites could comment on the challenge as a whole -- especially if there was a way for the wrap-up post to include that playlist thing.)
posted by Karlos the Jackal at 9:36 PM on July 28, 2010 [1 favorite]
I agree with unSane's last sentence. Would an end-of-month Music Talk post be sufficient for that sense of closure, you think? For some debriefing, decompression, and discussion? Could the end-of-month post include the cool playlist thing that appears on the challenge page?
I'd also like to see successful (by some measure or another) challenges get a sidebar on the front page more often. MeFiMu could use the publicity.
(The sidebar link coud link to the end-of-month wrap-up Music Talk post so that non-Music-regular MeFites could comment on the challenge as a whole -- especially if there was a way for the wrap-up post to include that playlist thing.)
posted by Karlos the Jackal at 9:36 PM on July 28, 2010 [1 favorite]
Could the end-of-month post include the cool playlist thing that appears on the challenge page?
Cool idea.
And unSane, thanks for your vote of confidence.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 10:42 PM on July 28, 2010
Cool idea.
And unSane, thanks for your vote of confidence.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 10:42 PM on July 28, 2010
We love ya, Flapjax, and are stunned into silence....
Speak for yourself unSane (oh, that's a pun isn't it...). As some of you know, I am never stunned into silence. No sir. In fact I plan to represent the UK at the 2012 Olympic Games in the Long-Distance Bullshit Steeplechase event.
Seriously - in my view the Monthly Challenge is just fine as it is. Hats off to Flapjax for taking the trouble to mod it. He is, in Madchester parlance, a "top geezer".
posted by MajorDundee at 4:50 PM on July 29, 2010
Speak for yourself unSane (oh, that's a pun isn't it...). As some of you know, I am never stunned into silence. No sir. In fact I plan to represent the UK at the 2012 Olympic Games in the Long-Distance Bullshit Steeplechase event.
Seriously - in my view the Monthly Challenge is just fine as it is. Hats off to Flapjax for taking the trouble to mod it. He is, in Madchester parlance, a "top geezer".
posted by MajorDundee at 4:50 PM on July 29, 2010
aw, shucks, Major...
*puts hands in pocket, looks down, kicks a little rock lying there*
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:42 PM on July 29, 2010
*puts hands in pocket, looks down, kicks a little rock lying there*
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:42 PM on July 29, 2010
*puts hands in pocket, looks down, kicks a little rock lying there*
Yeah. Then you record the rock and write a new song around it.
posted by Karlos the Jackal at 8:01 PM on July 29, 2010
Yeah. Then you record the rock and write a new song around it.
posted by Karlos the Jackal at 8:01 PM on July 29, 2010
.....by the Rolling Stones, of course....
posted by MajorDundee at 6:10 AM on July 30, 2010
posted by MajorDundee at 6:10 AM on July 30, 2010
Seems like a very fun challenge idea, divabat. I've been wanting to think about rhythm stuff that falls outside the garagerock pounding-on-the-backbeat stuff I've been resorting to so far in my budding drumming career, so it'd be a great excuse for me to try something different.
Would an end-of-month Music Talk post be sufficient for that sense of closure, you think? For some debriefing, decompression, and discussion?
I think that'd be cool to semi-formalize, yeah. It could be a near-end-of-the-month wrapup/next-idea-brainstorming thread, even; put it up a couple days before the end of the month, people can chatter about:
- what they did for this month's challenge
- what other people did that they liked or thought was interesting or so forth
- what they were totally gonna do but ran out of time/energy/doritos
- what they're still tooootally gonna do, there's a couple days left, right, right?
- what might be fun for the next month's challenge
- what might be some cool things to do to tackle said challenge ideas, collab ideas, etc
Thread can be home for generic challenge chatter for the bulk of the month, and then the next one comes along as the month is closing up. Eh?
Could the end-of-month post include the cool playlist thing that appears on the challenge page?
In principle, yeah. I don't know if there's any slick automagical way to make that happen, if not it could be done manually I'm sure.
posted by cortex at 4:11 PM on July 30, 2010
Would an end-of-month Music Talk post be sufficient for that sense of closure, you think? For some debriefing, decompression, and discussion?
I think that'd be cool to semi-formalize, yeah. It could be a near-end-of-the-month wrapup/next-idea-brainstorming thread, even; put it up a couple days before the end of the month, people can chatter about:
- what they did for this month's challenge
- what other people did that they liked or thought was interesting or so forth
- what they were totally gonna do but ran out of time/energy/doritos
- what they're still tooootally gonna do, there's a couple days left, right, right?
- what might be fun for the next month's challenge
- what might be some cool things to do to tackle said challenge ideas, collab ideas, etc
Thread can be home for generic challenge chatter for the bulk of the month, and then the next one comes along as the month is closing up. Eh?
Could the end-of-month post include the cool playlist thing that appears on the challenge page?
In principle, yeah. I don't know if there's any slick automagical way to make that happen, if not it could be done manually I'm sure.
posted by cortex at 4:11 PM on July 30, 2010
end-of-month Music Talk post
I've been doing the inverse, that is, a beginning-of-the-month Music Talk post to announce the upcoming Challenge, and to make a place for folks to say whatever they might want to about it. But I think an end-of-month post is a better idea, for the reasons cortex has pointed out above. I'd love to see this end-of-month post become a reality.
cortex, would you like to make the post, monthly?
As far as divabat's idea, (burlesque music) I say let's go with it for August. And, then, friends, yours truly will be bowing out of unofficial modding for the monthly Challenge. It's been a pleasure and an honor to be of service to this wonderful site, and it brings a little tear to my trembling cheek, but I think it's time for someone else to seize the reins of power, and lead our glorious Metafilter Music Challenge into a new era of sharps and flats and dulls and hillys! A glorious new epoch of melody, harmony, rhythm and godawful noise!
Any takers?
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:21 PM on July 30, 2010
I've been doing the inverse, that is, a beginning-of-the-month Music Talk post to announce the upcoming Challenge, and to make a place for folks to say whatever they might want to about it. But I think an end-of-month post is a better idea, for the reasons cortex has pointed out above. I'd love to see this end-of-month post become a reality.
cortex, would you like to make the post, monthly?
As far as divabat's idea, (burlesque music) I say let's go with it for August. And, then, friends, yours truly will be bowing out of unofficial modding for the monthly Challenge. It's been a pleasure and an honor to be of service to this wonderful site, and it brings a little tear to my trembling cheek, but I think it's time for someone else to seize the reins of power, and lead our glorious Metafilter Music Challenge into a new era of sharps and flats and dulls and hillys! A glorious new epoch of melody, harmony, rhythm and godawful noise!
Any takers?
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:21 PM on July 30, 2010
cortex, would you like to make the post, monthly?
Sure! Anyone could, in theory, but I'll try and at least get the habit established if nothing else.
a new era of sharps and flats and dulls and hillys
The jax are dead, long live the jax.
posted by cortex at 5:27 PM on July 30, 2010
Sure! Anyone could, in theory, but I'll try and at least get the habit established if nothing else.
a new era of sharps and flats and dulls and hillys
The jax are dead, long live the jax.
posted by cortex at 5:27 PM on July 30, 2010
The jax is, of course, immortal and, as I said the other day, a "top geezer" of the first water. But......how about we consider sharing the "monthly challenge" duty amongst us? That way it perhaps isn't such a major chore/commitment. I'd maybe volunteer to do, say a 3 or 6 month stint before handing over to someone else. Maybe a kind of rota would work? 3 or 4 volunteers would be all that's required per annum. But I also think we need perhaps to link the challenge up more with podcasting - give it a bit of a sharper focus/spice. Perhaps all the challenge tracks should be released every month as a podcast, rather than a random selection once in a while. I can't see any harm in that. And I think the prospect of a wider airing for their wares would whet the appetite of more of our loverly artistes to participate.....
posted by MajorDundee at 5:57 PM on July 30, 2010
posted by MajorDundee at 5:57 PM on July 30, 2010
But......how about we consider sharing the "monthly challenge" duty amongst us? That way it perhaps isn't such a major chore/commitment. I'd maybe volunteer to do, say a 3 or 6 month stint before handing over to someone else.
This is a good idea, depending on how much of a hassle it is to set up (I'm not sure how much stuff is happening behind the scenes).
I'd be up for 3 months at some point, although jax has awfully big shoes.
But I also think we need perhaps to link the challenge up more with podcasting - give it a bit of a sharper focus/spice. Perhaps all the challenge tracks should be released every month as a podcast, rather than a random selection once in a while.
This could be folded in with the return of the Music Podcast, if that's a possibility -- although the Music Podcast seems to be dead or at least resting. Cortex? Are there plans for the future? (I know when it first came up that there were a couple of other people interested in putting that together -- I'm certainly not, but it was pretty neat while it lasted).
posted by Karlos the Jackal at 6:26 PM on July 30, 2010
This is a good idea, depending on how much of a hassle it is to set up (I'm not sure how much stuff is happening behind the scenes).
I'd be up for 3 months at some point, although jax has awfully big shoes.
But I also think we need perhaps to link the challenge up more with podcasting - give it a bit of a sharper focus/spice. Perhaps all the challenge tracks should be released every month as a podcast, rather than a random selection once in a while.
This could be folded in with the return of the Music Podcast, if that's a possibility -- although the Music Podcast seems to be dead or at least resting. Cortex? Are there plans for the future? (I know when it first came up that there were a couple of other people interested in putting that together -- I'm certainly not, but it was pretty neat while it lasted).
posted by Karlos the Jackal at 6:26 PM on July 30, 2010
This is a good idea, depending on how much of a hassle it is to set up (I'm not sure how much stuff is happening behind the scenes).
It's no hassle. flapjax has historically sent me a mefimail or just posted a challenge-related thread, and I took the content of that and put it on the admin-facing side of things to create the actual challenge stuff. So anybody who wants to take their shot at it can do so easy as pie—just know (as flapjax does well by now) that I sometimes need a gentle poke if a couple days go by and it's not up yet.
This could be folded in with the return of the Music Podcast, if that's a possibility -- although the Music Podcast seems to be dead or at least resting.
It would be great to bring it back. I consider it to be resting very, very soundly basically; I've been just not getting off my duff and making it happen. I'd be open to making it a more collaborative effort if folks have an interest in trying their hand at any or all of putting together the tracklist, recording bumpers, being/organizing interviewer or interviewee, editing the podcast together, etc.
posted by cortex at 6:48 PM on July 30, 2010
It's no hassle. flapjax has historically sent me a mefimail or just posted a challenge-related thread, and I took the content of that and put it on the admin-facing side of things to create the actual challenge stuff. So anybody who wants to take their shot at it can do so easy as pie—just know (as flapjax does well by now) that I sometimes need a gentle poke if a couple days go by and it's not up yet.
This could be folded in with the return of the Music Podcast, if that's a possibility -- although the Music Podcast seems to be dead or at least resting.
It would be great to bring it back. I consider it to be resting very, very soundly basically; I've been just not getting off my duff and making it happen. I'd be open to making it a more collaborative effort if folks have an interest in trying their hand at any or all of putting together the tracklist, recording bumpers, being/organizing interviewer or interviewee, editing the podcast together, etc.
posted by cortex at 6:48 PM on July 30, 2010
I've been doing the inverse, that is, a beginning-of-the-month Music Talk post to announce the upcoming Challenge, and to make a place for folks to say whatever they might want to about it. But I think an end-of-month post is a better idea, for the reasons cortex has pointed out above.
Or both? It's not like MeFiMu Talk is overpopulated.
- what they're still tooootally gonna do, there's a couple days left, right, right?
I have started my Summer Song!
posted by Karlos the Jackal at 1:41 AM on July 31, 2010
Or both? It's not like MeFiMu Talk is overpopulated.
- what they're still tooootally gonna do, there's a couple days left, right, right?
I have started my Summer Song!
posted by Karlos the Jackal at 1:41 AM on July 31, 2010
This thread just reminded me of this by a band I always had a soft spot for because they were so unlike anything else and so wilfully uncommercial: a long gone Brit outfit called Family. They specialised in awkward, angular "fuck off" music topped off with Roger Chapman's unique vocals. I've no idea whether they had any success in the USA - I rather doubt it somehow. I've thought now and then about taking a shot at covering this track - "Burlesque" - but I don't think I could handle the vocal.....any takers? Incidentally, the drum sound on this track - from way back in the early '70's - is just great imho. As is that magnificently farting bass - a Rickie unless I'm mistaken. Suspend your disbelief and enjoy.
posted by MajorDundee at 3:59 PM on July 31, 2010
posted by MajorDundee at 3:59 PM on July 31, 2010
I sometimes need a gentle poke if a couple days go by and it's not up yet.
Should we poke you here? In this thread? Is this where the poking should happen? About the August Challenge? Yes?
posted by Karlos the Jackal at 3:36 AM on August 4, 2010
Should we poke you here? In this thread? Is this where the poking should happen? About the August Challenge? Yes?
posted by Karlos the Jackal at 3:36 AM on August 4, 2010
Heh, yes, that's not a terrible idea. Somehow in all this challenge talk the actual posting of the challenge got lost along the way. Will do so shortly.
posted by cortex at 7:27 AM on August 4, 2010
posted by cortex at 7:27 AM on August 4, 2010
I sometimes need a gentle poke if a couple days go by and it's not up yet.
Viagra. So long as she's still around after that long....
posted by MajorDundee at 1:21 PM on August 4, 2010
Viagra. So long as she's still around after that long....
posted by MajorDundee at 1:21 PM on August 4, 2010
You are not logged in, either login or create an account to post comments
posted by askmeaboutLOOM at 4:52 AM on July 27, 2010