Alizée America Podcast_005
May 30, 2008
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Welcome and bienvenue to the Alizée America Podcast, dedicated to the one and only, Alizée.
You can find us online at alizeeamerica.com/podcast and iTunes.
Hey everyone. I’m your host and resident podcaster Ciara, or ciarac77 on the forums, or you can just call me C if you’re lazy or my track coach from high school. Actually, that’s just my nickname anyway; just don’t call me CC or bad things will happen to you. I’m not joking. Thanks for listening to the 5th episode now, oy, where has my life gone. I can’t believe this thing is still going on, or that I’ve stuck with it, but you guys have been so fabulous, so thanks again for supporting it, I’ll try not to let you guys down anytime soon. Even though I complain about the work and can’t take compliments, I hope you enjoy these as much as I do, but honestly as soon as I’m done with each episode, I can’t even make myself listen to the whole thing because I’m sick of hearing myself talk. As long as you’re not sick of hearing me talk, I guess we’re doing OK. If you’re a newcomer to these podcasts or Alizée America, welcome, nice to have you on board, and I hope you find a reason to keep coming back and listen, besides just my apparently sexy voice…yeah, right. I hope that reason is Alizée because of course she’s the reason we’re all here. As I mentioned in the intro, we’re now on iTunes, or we have been for a few weeks, but I keep forgetting to mention it, so check us out there and subscribe, maybe leave some comments, as long as they’re good ones, and tell your friends about it, even though they think you’re a weirdo to begin with. So thanks to Brad for all his hard work getting us hooked up with that, you’re the man, Brad.
In this episode of the Alizée America Podcast, I’ll talk about my not-so-fun-in-the-sun experience in “Le Mot de Moi,” followed by “LiliNews” with Snatcher42. “Getting to Know You” will feature forum member Fish, and then I’ll talk about my favorite thread topics in “Latest Discussions.” Finally, I’d like to introduce yet another new segment this week in which I’ll play an Alizée sound byte for everyone to enjoy called “That’s What She Said.” That’s right. Stick around for “Le Mot de Moi.”
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“Le Mot de Moi”
Not that you care or anything, but last week I caught a cold, and I was feeling pretty miserable like you do when your throat’s all scratchy and you can’t control the ungodly amounts of ectoplasm or similar streaming from your nostrils. But the weather had finally been consistently warm and not raining here, so, sick of being inside, I thought I’d feel better if I just lie out in the sun and get some fresh air. So I did. I put a beach-towel down on the grass in our yard, and, lying on my back, proceeded to let the warm rays of sunshine do their thing. I guess I dozed off, and when I woke up…an hour later…I was a little sweaty and hardly had to blow my nose. I could tell that I would have some color on my wintery-white skin, which was part of the plan, so I went ahead and switched sides to even it out for another hour. Felt fantastic the rest of the day.
That was the first time I got to lay out this year and it felt so great, that the next day I was ready to do it again…the exact same, stupid way. I just wanted to lay there for as long as I could and get a tan and I just love being in the sun and I would have no problem living somewhere where it’s like 90 degrees all the time. And I live in the Ozarks and imagined myself being on a canoe trip and that it was just like I was outside doing something where I’d be getting some sun anyway, but instead I was just laying in the same exact position for a prolonged period of time without sunscreen, because apparently I want to get skin cancer. And I’m not sure why but the second day there were ants crawling all over my beach towel and also on me, like, I’d feel their tiny little legs crawling on my arm and of course I’d jerk to shake them off way more than necessary, cuz you know, frickin bugs were crawling on me. I’m sure my neighbors thought I was having a seizure or something.
But later that day I was feeling pretty worn out with the cold and all the sun so I took a nap on the couch. When I woke up after that, though, my body felt like it was on fire….or that it had been on fire recently, and I was feeling the aftermath of being on the surface of the sun. I’m not sure what happened in those few hours I was asleep, but two days of that and my skin was not happy with me and did not hesitate to make me feel its wrath. I took a cold shower and tried to sleep it off, but the next day I was bed-ridden and falling in and out of sleep waiting for aloe to be purchased and brought to me. In the mean time, I had to drape myself in wet washcloths to ease the burning (and on a side-note I would drape myself in wet washcloths if it were socially acceptable). Luckily though, only my front was punishing me, so I could stay in bed and listen to all my favorite syndicated shows while my face was covered as well. Actually, my right eye kinda swelled up which I was a little concerned about, so I was wearing a washcloth over both my eyes like LeVar Burton and his visor from Star Trek, but, you know, I couldn’t see anything obviously. This was also one of the moments where I hated not having a bathtub, we just have some lame shower stall….I can’t even take a bubble bath if I want, I mean what the hell, I feel cheated as a woman, it’s like a natural instinct to want to soak with bubbles and candles and cucumbers on our eyes, listening to sad FM, not to mention ponder all the things that we’re fed up with which I haven’t been able to do since discovering “J’en Ai Marre,” what a jip. Anyway, my skin was so hot from that sunburn that I could feel the heat on the washcloths well after removing them. Many aloe applications later, I could still hardly move and felt more miserable than when I had a cold. It was seriously the worst sunburn I’d ever had in my life and I didn’t even do anything fun to get it. Now of course, I’m peeling, not unlike a snake that sheds its skin, except I won’t be leaving a cool natural specimen behind. Actually it’s nothing like a snake, but that’s a pretty neat trick they do. Mine’s just gross and in need of a good loufah scrub, but hey, I’ve got a nice tan started for the summer, so whatev. So kiddies, the moral of the story is, wear sunscreen this summer and don’t fall asleep in the sun two days in a row….especially if you’re really, really white and an idiot.
Next up is “LiliNews” with Snatcher42.
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“LiliNews”
Thank you, Ciara. Wow! The fifth podcast, we’ve been going 10 weeks, I can’t believe that. And this is the fourth installment of “LiliNews.” I’m Ben, aka Snathcher42. And today is Monday, May 26, Memorial Day in the United States. There isn’t a whole lot of upcoming news to go over, but a lot has happened in the past couple weeks so let’s review. Probably the most surprising development was when a newly recorded version of Alizée singing Madonna’s classic “La Isla Bonita” started playing on Alfa Radio in Mexico last week. Now as you all remember, Alizée sang this song in 2003 at a Madonna special for French TV, but this is a completely new mix. It’s also now on her official MySpace and word is it’ll feature on a special edition of Psychédélices to be released in Mexico shortly. There’s sure to be more news about this soon, so keep your eyes on it. If you’ve been listening to these podcasts, you know Alizée was in Moscow this past weekend to begin her international tour. If you don’t want to hear any potential spoilers about upcoming concerts, you may want to skip ahead now. At the Operetta Theatre she sang all of her new album, as well as re-orchestrated versions of classic songs, like “Moi…Lolita,” “Hey! Amigo!” “J'en Ai Marre!,” “Amélie,” L' Alizé, and “J'Ai Pas Vingt Ans!” In addition to that, she sang two brand new covers. One of the German new-wave song “99 Red Balloons,” by Nena, and the other, Simon and Garfunkel’s classic “Sound of Silence,” which Alizée introduced as her favorite song ever since she was a little girl. Alizée was accompanied on stage by two guitarists, a bass, and a drummer, as well as DJ Karve playing the turntables, and a number of aerobatic dancers and clowns punctuating the performance. How much of this will be transferred to her future shows remains to be seen. Alizée was quite busy in Russia and did more than just perform. She held a press conference, took some photos in the famous Red Square, had an autograph session at the Media Market, and gave an interview to Russian MTV before meeting some fans outside their studios. Her attention returns to France now for some domestic promotion before heading off to Mexico in the next leg of her international tour. The first and most significant of these promotions will be her appearance this Saturday, May 31st, on TV5Monde’s music program Acoustic. This will be a full half an hour dedicated to Alizée, where she’ll sing a number of her songs completely live, as well as be interviewed by the program’s host. And best of all, this channel is broadcast worldwide and is available as a subscription service on most cable and satellite providers in the United States. So check your local listings to see when you may be able to watch Alizée on your television this weekend. Other upcoming appearances include the NRJ Music Tour in Genève on June 5th, and La Chanson de L'année on TF1 the following day where “Mademoiselle Juliette” will be competing for French Song of the Year. The Alizée edition of “InstantMag2” which we talked about a few weeks ago is now available in French book shops. This is without a doubt the most comprehensive publication about Alizée to date, and includes a detailed biography and 22-page interview with our favorite artist. It may all be in French, but you can still pick it up from websites such as Amazon.fr or Fnac.com. Last, some mysterious flyers have begun appearing around Paris and other French cities advertising the Psychédéclips website and MySpace page, where any day now we should be seeing those other two “Fifty/Sixty” music videos, so keep your eyes peeled. That’s it for the “LiliNews” this week. Thanks again for your continued support in listening to these podcasts. And now back to Ciara with the rest of the program.
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Awesome Ben, you are also the man, go join Brad and enjoy all the manliness you two exude. I mean, don’t you know, enjoy it too much or anything, I’m not sure his wife would like that, I just meant have a beer or something.
Next up is “Getting to Know You” with forum member Fish. Now let me point out that though having an interview recorded by members themselves every time would be awesome, but not everyone is capable of doing that, so this one I will be reading. But I do want to say that as far as these interviews go, if you have a recording program and a mic, or are thinking about getting them, which is pretty easy to do, I mean, look at how I started this, there is a way to make these interviews more interactive. I won’t go into the details here, but if you want to be interviewed and you don’t just want your answers read, think about downloading Audacity or something similar and give me a shout and that’ll help give these a little more life.
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“Getting to Know You”
What's your name, how old are you, and where are you from?
My name is Fish, I'm 18, from the great state of South Carolina.
What does your nickname mean?
I've been playing the upright bass for about 8 years now, and some of my best friends were in the school orchestra with me. One day, one of them started calling me Fish, because bass is spelled like bass, a type of fish. It stuck, and today more people know me as Fish than my actual name.
When did you first discover Alizée and how?
The second week of August, 07. I was going through a lethargic, almost depressed, period in my life, and was up at some way early hour just looking at World of Warcraft videos on YouTube. I saw the dances video, and the pretty girl captivated me. I looked up a “J'en Ai Marre!” performance, and to my own surprise couldn't get the music out of my head. I spent a lot of time in the next few weeks watching videos and getting albums, and the rest is history.
What has your reaction been to Alizée's return to the music scene?
So far, I've really enjoyed it. I think her music is great and she looks great. All the performances haven't been up to par, and things are certainly not the same as they were, but this doesn't have me distraught.
What does your Alizée collection consist of?
Very little, unfortunately. I'm reluctant to purchase much of anything due to how bad the exchange rate has been the past few months. Though, I did just acquire a turntable and may start a vinyl collection.
What is your favorite Alizée song/performance/interview/photo?
Song: L'Alizé. I've loved this song since the moment I heard it.
Performance: This one is more difficult. Probably “Moi... Lolita” En Concert, but I love that whole DVD.
Interview: FunTV. I think that’s what sealed my adoration for her.
Photo: Don't really have one, but I do love the first Psychédélices photo released, simply because it was the first we'd seen of her in years.
What do you enjoy most about Alizée America?
I spend a lot of time in the chat room, either chatting with my Amigos or doing nothing, and there are often very interesting discussions on the boards, but the chat is where you'll find me most of the time.
What is the most ridiculous thing you've ever read on the forums?
There are plenty, but one that sticks out is Fusoya's friend coming on here saying he needs to be banned because he spends too much time thinking about her.
Alright, thanks for submitting those answers, Fish. And every time I see your name on the forums actually I’m always reminded of “Monty Python’s Meaning of Life” with the, you know, the fish part, not the fish themselves, but you know the poem about the fish….I’m not gonna do it, but I bet you want me to…no I’m not gonna do it, ok, no, ok, ok ready: oh, fishy fishy fishy fish…you know, that part?
Next up is “Latest Discussions.”
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“Latest Discussions”
These are some of the latest discussions since the week of May 18th, 2008. Snatcher42 already talked about two of my topics in “LiliNews”, cuz apparently he’s a snatcher and that’s what he does, he snatches things, like my ideas without even knowing it, but I’ll just be giving my opinions on them anyway so they probably won’t overlap too much.
1. Psychédélices Tour – Moscow: Holy Moscow, Batman. Alizée performed her first concert for her world tour on Sunday May 18th. This thread starts off with some photos of posters and things promoting Alizée around Moscow and became the place to talk about her concert and appearances. Right away someone posted a download link for a Russian radio promo she did speaking English, and if you haven’t heard this yet, download it, because it is sooooooo adorable. I played it to myself a minute ago actually and I’m still smiling from hearing it. Accents are fun. So give that a listen, it’s a nice little audio treat. This thread is also chock-full of videos and photos of the events which people were nice enough to find and post the day OF the concert, so thank youuuuu internet, didn’t have to wait long for those at all. Unfortunately, all the videos we have are really, really bad-quality, we’re talking cell-phones and digital cameras here, but you can find them here or on YouTube of course. And all of the 100+ photos in this thread can also be found in my photo gallery, which I’m going to plug right now. Go to the top of Alizée America’s website, click Gallery, and click the middle album Alizée 2006-2008, and look towards the end for the Moscow album. In the album as a whole, you can find photos of almost all of her appearances since her return last fall, so you’re welcome.
But as soon as the videos of the concert were made available, and even though the quality on all of them is just horrendous, so came the criticisms and suggestions on just about everything from her wardrobe to her energy level to the arrangements of the songs. And all are pretty valid concerns for fans of our level and everything was discussed with her best interests in mind, at least in this thread. For me, it’s not about criticizing the concert or anything, I just felt bad for her after watching some of these. Like, she just didn’t seem that comfortable, and I just wanted her to have a good time and do her thing because I know she can. But I’m sure a number of factors contributed. Maybe nervousness of being the first actual concert in years, maybe being in Russia, playing for a crowd of not necessarily her fan base, she didn’t seem to move around that much as opposed to all the dancing she’s done previously so maybe she’s only allowed to dance in front of Jeremy now…who knows. The thing is, from these videos which I’ll emphasize, are not good evidence, it seems something was amiss. Some songs sounded pretty good and some not as much, but, you know, I wasn’t even there, so don’t take my word for it. Anyway, her tour has started people, and I’m glad she’s out there doing a concert again, but I think they know they have a lot of kinks to work out and that’s ok. That’s showbiz, kids. She’ll work ‘em out, she’ll have kick-ass shows in Mexico pretty soon and all will be well. So, Alizée, whatever happened in Moscow, forget about it, your fans are behind you, we wish you the best, and just go for it, have some fun, and we will too. Which brings me to the next topic which I’m totally excited about…
2. New Song "La Isla Bonita" on Alfa Radio: Ok, if you don’t know, back in 2003, Alizée performed “La Isla Bonita” at a Madonna tribute concert in France and that video itself is kickin’ and is from what I’ve picked up, the second most popular performance that gets people hooked on her. It actually was for me, after “J’en Ai Marre!” because I grew up liking that song anyway and hearing it sung by Alizée, better in my opinion, sealed the deal for me that I liked her as an artist. She sings impeccably in English with just enough cute French accent to be intriguing, she’s simply beautiful, as in simple yet beautiful, I mean, her hair’s in a ponytail for crying out loud and it’s one her best looks from that era, and it’s just a great performance. So what’s this new song then? Glad you asked. Well, within the last week it became known that this new version of “La Isla Bonita” had been recorded and released on Mexican radio, and I frickin’ LOVE this new version. I’m pretty addicted to it, it’s on my regular Alizée song rotation now and I added it to my MySpace profile immediately after hearing it on her profile so you can definitely find it there. It’s fun, the music just rocks, it’s got an upbeat summer dance kinda feel, so whoever composed it, keep doing what you’re doing, she adds a lot of backup vocals for herself that just keep things moving, and I love how she harmonizes in the bridge, which is my favorite part of the song followed by that “la la la laaa” thing she does which I’m not even gonna try to imitate. It’s funny, though, because she seems to have more of French accent in this version than her original but I almost just think she’s embracing it more this time rather than trying to sound American or like Madonna. Cuz if she tried to sound like Madonna now it would be a weird fake British accent singing voice thing, so I’m glad she’s doing her own thing this time for sure. The first version will always be one of my favorites by her, especially since it’s an actual video, but this one just really ups the game for me. Obviously it’s great timing for it to come out now with the Mexican tour coming up, so it’s catered to them, but I really think this song could do well in the U.S. I don’t even listen to regular radio that much, and if I do I’m in my car listening to Oldies or Standards and not modern stuff, but it still would be awesome if this song would play on our stations and I think the general public that likes pop music would embrace it. Even my mom thinks this song kicks Madonna’s ass, and that’s saying something.
3. This one isn’t a discussion in itself, but I just wanted to point out that Brad posted some new videos recently. Thanks Brad. Just go to the top of the website where it says Alizée Videos and there ya go. Each has its own discussion thread that you can go look at if you want, but here’s what we’ve got. The “Love is All” performance, the “Hung Up” performance, the “Adélaïde” performance, and something called “Toutaz”, eh I don’t know, which is a video from the autograph session in Paris back in December, which is my birthday month, and believe it or not, features people from this forum. So we have four new videos up from the past few months and they’re all worth a look or two…or hundred, so enjoy.
Next up is “That’s What She Said.”
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“That’s What She Said”
Ok, like I said earlier, in this segment I’m gonna play an Alizée sound byte. Don’t worry, no innuendo involved here. This is from her concert in Moscow, it’s actually her intro to the show, which again is in English so no translation is necessary...I hope. Like the radio promo I mentioned earlier, this is just too cute, especially because you can tell she’s kind of nervous and she can’t remember exactly what to say, but that just adds to the charm. Without further ado, Alizée:
“I just want to say you, I am very, very happy to begin, um, my first concert of Psychédélices tour in uh, Moscow, and….and uh, I hope…um, I don’t know in English. Have a good concert. Spasibo”
Man, that just makes me sad we can’t play her music on here, that would really bring this whole thing to life, don’t ya think, and I don’t want just some random podcast music playing in the background; that would just not be the same. Well, I guess we’ll just have to make do, with, uh, me. Oh well.
Since Lili spoke English, to even things out, I’m gonna actually throw in a surprise “French Lesson of the Day,” so, get ready for that comin’ up.
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“French Lesson of the Day”
The first French phrase I taught you actually popped up on the forum a few times so that was pretty funny to see, but I’m not sure you’re gonna find much use for this one, and again, sorry if I don’t pronounce it right to begin with. And if there’s a problem with the translation, um, blame Google Translate. The French phrase is:
“Regarde-moi, je suis Chandler. Puis-je porter plus de vêtements?!”
Which translates to: “Look at me, I’m Chandler. Could I be wearing anymore clothes?!”
If you don’t know, that’s from “Friends” which is one of my favorite shows ever, just behind “Seinfeld.” This is from “The One Where No One’s Ready” and Joey says it while wearing all of Chandler’s clothes, and going commando. So now the next time this episode’s on, you can impress your friends by quoting it en français. Other than that, I have no idea where you would say this.
That’s gonna wrap it up for this episode of the Alizée America Podcast. I’d like to welcome our newest member, and it’s all in capital letters so I’m just gonna spell it out cuz Iwouldn’t know how to say this otherwise: SIIHPAPP, I hope that’s not some sort of joke or something, but bienvenue to you and all the other new members since the last podcast. And we now have 1,657 members and I think that’s gone up quite a bit since the first episode, by almost a hundred in just a couple months, so if you’re listening to this and you’re not a member, what are you waiting for. Sign up, we’re fun, I promise. Thanks to Brad for hosting the show at Alizée America, and to Ben for the news. You can find the music used in this podcast by the Sinistrals and The Stephen Davis Project at PodSafeAudio.com. Thanks for listening and have a Youpidou Day!
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