Alizee America Podcast_010
September 22, 2008
Intro Music
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.
Hello! Bonjour! Hola! I'm your host Ciara, and I'm from everywhere. Thanks for listening to the 10th episode of the Alizée America Podcast. We are in double digits now, people. Ow! Thanks for your devoted listening to those who have been with us since the beginning. Sorry for it being a little behind schedule again. I started recorded last week, some things came up and couldn't quite finish, and I've since developed a sore throat, so I shall do my best.
If you're new to these podcasts and this is your first one, let me give you a little background on the project. First and foremost, I'm a huge fan of the French singer, Alizée. I'm also a member of the website Alizée America.com which is a U.S.-based fan community in support of Alizée. During a time of superfandom bordering on obsessiveness, I combined my need for a creative outlet with my new interest in podcasting and decided to create this podcast devoted to her. Through the website and with the help of other Alizée America members, the Alizée America Podcast is here to give fellow fans another channel into the world of Alizée. It features commentary, news, interviews, voicemail, and whatever random segments I happen to think up. You can listen to the show directly on the website, or you can download each episode on iTunes, which is highly encouraged. So if you are a new listener, wherever you're from, I hope you like what you hear and don't forget to listen to past episodes as well as future installments.
In this episode you'll hear about my first-ever meeting with another Alizée America member. Who's the lucky guy? You'll find out in “Le Mot de Moi.” Then Snatcher42 will have all the latest info, and there's a lot of it!, in this week's “LiliNews.” Following that we'll have a musical break featuring an instrumental version of “Lilly Town” recorded by Alizée America member ImRawdg, and then I'll address some of the popular topics online in “Latest Discussions.” Stick around for “Le Mot de Moi.”
Music
Le Mot de Moi
As I mentioned in the last podcast, I was about to make a trip to Denver and asked if any Alizée fans from that area wanted to meet and celebrate her birthday, or go to a wedding with me which is why I was there. I wasn't completely serious about that part, but another member of Alizée America was kind enough to offer to meet me one day on my visit. After a few emails and several awkward phone calls later, all my fault, I was finally able to meet none other than Denver-native, Sir Wood. I traveled with the friends I was visiting to a small town at the base of the mountains one day called Morrison. It was an old biker town, and had a quaint strip of shops along the main road nestled in the foothills of the Rockies. Sir Wood met me at the restaurant we were at and I have to say, I was pretty excited to finally be meeting someone who liked Alizée as much as me or who even knew her for that matter! It was almost surreal, but it could've just been the altitude. Upon greeting, I held out my hand for a handshake which he accepted, and then he proceeded to do a handshake, half-hug combo, which I presume is his thing. Ditching my newly married friends for the afternoon, Sir Wood and I walked amongst the tourists and townsfolk, chit-chatting about Alizée and life and taking pictures of our surroundings which included Red Rocks amphitheatre, some deer, a river, a statue of dog, a pink house, you name it. He insisted on improving his photography skills as he's getting ready to go to Alizee's concert in Paris next month, which I'm sure I expressed my total jealousy for. I think I did most of the talking that day (though I was out of breath most the time walking so much in the thin air), but between the time we were there and the excursion we made to a couple casino towns farther into the mountains, where we kept running into people he not only knew but was related to, I found out some interesting things about our fellow Alizée American. For one, he's a very devoted podcast listener. Two, his code for getting lost while driving is “taking the scenic route,” and he may use it more than once if you ever go with him anywhere. Also, I discovered we're both rats, and he's two-faced...if you don't know what the means I'm not telling you, but it's not as bad as it sounds. He was also very polite and generous to a stranger such as me, having taken the time to meet me, drive me all around Denver, and buy me dinner at a fancy-shmancy casino. I played a dollar machine and walked away with only 4 cents btw...it's safe to say I'm not that great at the gamblin. So, thanks again for that and for coming out of your shell, Sir Wood. If all other members of the community are as nice as you, well, we'd have a great bunch of people to call friends, and I'm now happy to call you one. And don't forget: Laissez les bon temps rouler!
Next up is LiliNews with Snatcher42.
Music
LiliNews
Thank you Ciara. And welcome back! And while I know everyone just listened to Podcast 9 a couple weeks ago, for me it's actually been over a month since I recorded any news. So it's good to be back as well. Now I ended the last segment talking about some Alizée promotional activities in America, and I'll have some updates on that subject in a moment. But first, after over two months of almost no news there actually is some stuff to report this, the week of September 8th.
First, I mentioned a couple of podcasts back that the Autour de la guitare concert will be released on DVD on September 19th. So remember that's coming right up in a couple days, so order your copy from amazon or Fnac. And some new pictures from that show have been posted on Alizée America in the subject about it, so check those out.
Now it's been almost exactly one year since we learned that Alizée was leaving the Polydor label of Universal Music to join RCA at Sony BMG. Now Julien at Lilly-Town.com as well as Nidalizée tell us that RCA is actually closing it's doors, at least in France. This probably has something to do with the recent merger of Sony and BMG Music Entertainment. RCA was a label of BMG, and now that Sony controls that company they probably want to incorporate the artists on that label into labels of their own. So word is that Alizée will be moving to Jive Epic. It's worth noting that she'll remain simply with "Sony BMG", no sub-label, in foreign territories like Mexico, but how will this effect her? Well we're told that Alizée will receive entirely new management, which I supposed is a good thing since her current team has been criticised for it's lack of promotion, especially recently. Julien tells us that the new team definitely plans to resume promoting Fifty Sixty as well as future singles. So she's definitely not out of the running yet, and there will be new stuff from Alizée very soon.
Some of that includes an appearance on the upcoming season of Star Academy, an interview and photo in October's Madam Figaro Magazine's Gainsbourg special, as well as an interview with Jean Fauque on the new television program, Accés privé. However it seems that rumored plans of a Mexican concert DVD will not be happening for the moment, as well as the additional European concerts that had been previously announced after Le Grand Rex. However, Julien informs us that the tickets for that show are selling very well, so be sure to pick those before it's sold out. You can keep up with the latest developments to this story on our forum.
The other big news of this week is that Alizée has been nominated for best new international artist at Los Premios MTV 2008 (I hope I'm pronouncing that right). Essentially this is the Latin American version of the MTV Video Music Awards. It's a really big deal, and it would be great if Alizée could win. So voting is open now through October 1st on the internet at http://mtvla.com/premios/votacion/. There you'll be presented with a number of categories, best new international artist is "mejor artista nuevo internacional". And you can go in there and click on Alizée's name to vote on her. But now this is very important: after you click vote, you'll be taken to other categories, and you have to vote in ALL categories in order for the submission to be counted. And so I know it might be a bit of a pain to go through these artists that you may or may not be familiar with, but it's really important. Because if Alizée wins this award, it's not just a sign that she's popular in Latin America, but it's a sign that her reputation is spreading throughout the world. And it could be a big stepping stone to get her here to the United States.
So on that subject of promoting Alizée here in America, in the last podcast Ciara had mentioned the first official get-together of Operation Lilly Town New York, which occurred on August 16th and 17th in Times Square. Thanks to everyone who participated, over the two days we were able to hand out 40 sample CDs and place over 300 cards and 15 flyers around the area. You can see a video of the event at ltny.hitart.com. There you can also find out about our next upcoming event, which will be promoting Alizée on October 14th at Webster Hall at Yelle's concert. Now Yelle is another French artist who got her start on MySpace, and she's actually having a US tour. So this is a great opportunity to promote Alizée if she's coming to your area. So be sure to check out her MySpace at myspace.com/iloveyelle, that's y-e-l-l-e, to see the dates of her United States tour!
Efforts to promote Alizée in North America are spreading, they're not just confined to New York, and Amigo! has started poster-ing around San Fransisco. But if you're not in a major metropolitan area like us or him, you can check out Operation Disque Drop, that's disquedrop.blogspot.com. The idea here is to leave a disc of Alizée material in a public place for strangers to find, with instructions on how to learn more if they're interested. The originator of this project just completed a massive drop of 100 discs at Toronto's Fan Expo. The initial idea was to create some CD-ROMs, but upon realizing that some people may be concerned about putting strange discs into their computer, we've since switched over to music CDs and the latest iteration is some DVD videos. Which is something that LTNY hopes to have ready for Yelle's concert as well.
I also really must mention the fantastic get-togethers and show of support by the Mexican fans last month for Alizée's birthday. You can find videos and reports from those events on sites like alizee-latino or alizee-mexico. Again the support in that country for Alizée continues to be inspiring. They set the bar quite high, but I'm sure we can match it! That about wraps it up for this podcast installment. Welcome back everyone and welcome back Alizée from our little summer vacation. We're all looking forward to the weeks and months ahead, it's sure to be quite a ride. See ya!
Thank you, Snatcher, and welcome back. That's some excellent news you've got there. Next up is the musical break featuring an instrumental “Lilly Town” by Alizée America member ImRawdg. Take a listen.
“Lilly Town” ImRawdg Version
Well done, and thank you for contributing that. Next up is Latest Discussions
Music
Latest Discussions
Here are a few topics currently being discussed during this, the now fourth week of September, 2008.
1. Alizée in America: America (hick accent) just kidding. As Snatcher42 mentioned in the news segment, more fans have begun taking an active role in promoting Alizée in the U.S. and Canada. Posters are being put up in large cities, CD's are being dropped at major events and even just in people's neighborhoods....that's all I know of at the moment, but still! Great job to all of you who are getting out there and contributing with whatever resources you have. I personally haven't gotten to the stage where I'm handing anything out, but I still try to express my interest in Alizée to just about anyone who will listen. Whether it be having the DJ at the wedding reception play one of her songs so I can make a fool of myself dancing to it but be too belligerent to care, making a couple drunk guys who I just met on the street but who needed a ride home listen to her CD in my car, or drunkenly scribbling Alizée's name and associated websites on a friend's beer pong table with a sharpie, I do what I can. There was other stuff on it already anyway and it was a lot worse.
Also, like Snatcher mentioned, the Yelle concerts would be a really great place to promote Alizée. If the closest venue wasn't at least a good nine/ten hour drive for me, I would totally be there. Of course, if it were actually Alizée performing, I wouldn't mind the distance, so if anyone important's listening, that's not an issue as long as it's in the States...I can't afford a plane ticket to Europe that's for sure, but I will drive all over this country if it means seeing her in concert, and I'm not kidding. I'll just have to get a better car. But anyway, make sure to check out Yelle's MySpace for cities and dates because if you're near any listed, why not go, you might make some friends?
2. Changes to Alizee's Myspace: Speaking of MySpace, there have been some changes to Alizee's page the past couple weeks, and I'll try to discuss it without sounding stalker-ish. I'm just observant. She has a new profile picture up, and it's an adorable photo which first appeared on a Mexican magazine cover earlier in the spring. Her bio has moved over to the “General Info” section on the left, and under the “About” section she's added a screen cap of the page where you can vote for her for the Latin America MTV VMA, which by the way, she is one of two European nominees as well as 3 American nominees. Damn Jonas Brothers. It also looks like all three Fifty Sixty videos are now posted along with Mademoiselle Juliette. Also fans are no longer able to leave comments on her page that contain HTML so that means no more posting pictures or videos, fanmade or otherwise. This could have been a move to cleanup the garbage, or garbAGE if you will, that some people post, like offensive, horribly photoshopped pictures, but it sort of alienates all the actual fans who want to post nice pictures or videos and who have no other way of communicating with her. And unfortunately, MySpace has become the place to contact Alizée, even though the page neglects to give any real information or current news about her and I say that grudgingly. Granted there hasn't been much recently and they did put up the VMA thing, but if it weren't for people like Snatcher42 and his contacts in Mexico and France, and fansites like the ones we're all associated with, I'm not sure I'd even know much about her career.. To be fair, I don't really keep up my own page that much and it's not too personal or anything, and I totally respect she has a life and way more important things to worry about, but I'm also not a French singing sensation with fans all over the world who want to leave messages of undying adoration or find out about latest appearances. I mean, you can leave messages like that for me if you want....but anyway. There's no reason for people to expect any sort of one-on-one communication with her through MySpace, seriously, it's only MySpace, but she or whoever keeps it updated may want to consider utilizing it more to keep us updated on appearances and concerts and whatnot through bulletins or blogs or something, even if it's in French, we can translate it. Just a little sentence here and there to at least give us fans the illusion that she acknowledges us and wants to keep us informed, that's not asking too much is it? Oh, and just to clear it up, my goal was to not sound bitchy during any of that, so hopefully it didn't come across that way, I was just thinking outloud.
3. Alizée America's Official IRC Channel! This is a few months old actually, but I'm not sure it's been mentioned before. If Snatcher42 mentioned it in the news anytime in the recent past, well, I guess I should start listening to his segments. Forum member Espire, I'm guessing that's how you say it because I really suck at those, developed the IRC channel for Alizée America, so thank you for your work on that. I know nothing about IRC except that it's for internet chatting and my geeky ex-roommate was on it all the time. If you want to take part in discussions and chats and stuff with Alizée America members via IRC you can sign on to server irc.dal.net and the channel is #alizeeamerica. Ok, kids, knock yourselves out.
That's gonna wrap it up for this episode of the Alizée America Podcast, and about freakin' time. Happy first day of Autumn to everyone in the Northern Hemisphere, I hope you enjoy your fall. And just a reminder Alizee's Concert in Paris is about a month away, I'm really looking forward to see how that turns out and I really hope it's phenomenal. Quite a few Alizée America members are planning to go, so hopefully all your plans are getting settled and good luck in the coming weeks. I'll definitely mention all this again before it goes down. This was supposed to come out sooner, so as Snatcher mentioned about the VMA's, now there's only about a week left to get those votes in so everyone get to it! Thanks to Brad as always for hosting the show at Alizée America and to Snatcher42 with his wonderful work with the news. You can find the music used in this podcast by the Sinistrals at PodSafeAudio.com, and by Lefty12357 at AlizeeAmerica.com. Thanks for listening and have a Youpidou Day!
Outro Music