Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2010 February 26

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February 26

Lady Antebellum - I Can't Take My Eyes Off of You

I can find the song, the chords for the song, but I can't find the actual tab for the playing at the very beginning of the song. Any help? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.181.202.2 (talk) 02:03, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

Most of the time, the melody line in a solo or vocal line consists of notes in the played chord; usually some combination of the root-third-fifth-seventh-octave or sometimes with a suspended third thrown in (i.e. a perfect second or major fourth interval) as a bridge between chords. If you can't find a tab, but have the basic chord progression, you can often work out the individual notes in the solo by playing around with the scales and arpeggios based on the notes in the chord itself. It can be daunting if you have to try to guess the notes at random, but if you narrow down the possible notes to only those in the chords, you can usually pick out the likely candidates, and play a "passable" version of the melody. There's an entire genre of musical literature based on working in this manner, their usually called "Fake books." --Jayron32 07:14, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

Lyrical explanation

Does anyone know of a good source for either self-explained (by the lyricist) or "professionally"-explained (by a independent "professional") lyrics to well known songs, such as Good Riddance or I'm Yours? Sometimes lyrics are a bit esoteric and I would just love to find out what they are really trying to convey. DRosenbach ^{(Talk | Contribs)} 04:43, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

You will often find that songwriters are usually very oblique when it comes to providing interpretations to their songs; most of the time they remain "mum" on their official meaning, prefering to let the listener make their own stories. When asked what "American Pie" meant, Don McLean famously said "It means I never have to work again." Sometimes, when a songwriter does try to explain what his songs mean, it doesn't necessarily make any more sense than before they tried. VH1 Storytellers is a show which features artists talking about the meanings behind their songs; the Bruce Springsteen episode is pretty interesting, but most of the time Bruce is more philosophical than concrete on the meanings behind his songs, and other than the really obvious stuff that I figured out already (Like the fact that, in his songs, he's "Scooter" and Clarence Clemons is "The Big Man") I didn't really feel like I learned all that much. However, your best bet is probably to watch as many episodes of Storytellers as you can. You may learn some things.--Jayron32 06:29, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

Many times artists will write songs that can express double meanings in a clever ways. I have always interpreted Good Riddance to be a very dark song, in actually wishing the subject of the song has "had the time of" their life and the singer hopes they will never have that much happiness again since they are breaking up. I think many people see it differently, and look at it as a sad but sweet 'goodbye' song. One of the best examples of double or misinterpretation is Every Breath You Take . The article explains it quite well. cheers, 10draftsdeep (talk) 14:41, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

Professional song lyric interpreter? where can I get that job. I'm sure a biography of an artist would have some details of that but two sites that allow people to accumulate interpretations or random facts are here and here where you can pick the interpretation that seems most coherent or if you prefer, submit your own theories. meltBanana 14:44, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

An Online Democratic Musical Influences Project

Is there a site or project that tries to determine the musical influences of various artists and bands in a democratic, balanced and/or wiki-esque way? For example, a wiki-project where users are encouraged to vote on their favourite bands influences, then the results are displayed graphically?

I've always thought that the internet has everything that I've ever thought was plausible before I thought it; does this exist somewhere?NByz (talk) 05:46, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

Beach Volleyball tournament swimming diving 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics full videos

Where can I find full videos of the Beach volleyball tournament at 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics? and also full videos of swimming competitions and diving competition at 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.64.54.188 (talk) 16:15, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

Maybe the official Beijing 2008 website? It's still around even though the event's actually ended. There's videos on there, although I don't know whether they are the full events from start to finish. You could try YouTube although it's even less likely that you'll find full length videos on there. Chevymontecarlo. 08:51, 27 February 2010 (UTC)

Actor in 'Ghost Dog'

Who is the actor that plays the mafia don that constantly watches cartoons on his t.v. in Jim Jarmusch's 'Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai'? Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.111.102.76 (talk) 16:47, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

I haven't seen the film, but the synopsis in our article suggests that you may be referring to Henry Silva. Is the guy on the right in this picture the one you mean? Deor (talk) 18:04, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

Film Reviews

When professional film reviewers watch a movie for the first time, do they prefer to already know what the film is about (at least the general plot), or would they rather know absolutely nothing about it (and have a completely fresh experience)? Hemoroid Agastordoff (talk) 17:18, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

Hard to tell. Some of them might prefer not knowing, some of them might prefer knowing. They're not an homogeneous crowd, after all. Did you have someone particular in mind? TomorrowTime (talk) 03:49, 27 February 2010 (UTC)

Nobody in particular. I guess I'm interested in the movie goer in general, but then it wouldn't be a question appropriate for the Reference Desk. Hemoroid Agastordoff (talk) 04:50, 27 February 2010 (UTC)

As closely as they follow the film industry, it would be difficult for them to not know anything of what a given film is about. In fact, it seems like the typical critic walks into a film with certain expectations, and his review is based in large part on whether it lives up to or exceeds those expectations. Seems to me that Siskel and Ebert talked about this. The typical critic has seen so many films that often he can tell what's coming, so it gets to be about how well the film is executed. That's why they would often rave about something like My Dinner with Andre, because it was "different" from the usual fare. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 04:52, 27 February 2010 (UTC)

I bet a lot of them never watch the movies, or at least have it playing in the background while they are doing something else. I expect the people who compile the brief synopsis of films that you see in tv guides probably put something together by looking them up in film guides rather than watching them. 89.242.47.252 (talk) 17:44, 28 February 2010 (UTC)

Comedy

In the shows,The Carol Burnett Show and Saturday Night Live, they usually have times when the actors laugh during the segments which I think is hilarious. Is there a name for this? --Reticuli88 (talk) 20:23, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

Yes, Breaking character. 10draftsdeep (talk) 20:27, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

(edit conflict)I can't speak for those shows, but actors laughing during performance (normally a bad thing e.g. during Hamlet) is referred to as corpsing. Oh, I read that that's UK-centric. Ah well, didn't know that. - Jarry1250 ^{[Humorous? Discuss.]} 20:28, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

This is nothing new. Check out a youtube of Jack Benny trying to keep a straight face during one of Mel Blanc's little shticks,[1] or maybe Red Skelton or any number of 1950s live shows when something would go wrong. Burnett was on tape, Benny was on film - but if it was good, they might keep it in - or at least save it for retrospectives and "outtake" shows, such as the famous outtake from Burnett (I think only part of it aired) where Tim Conway was going off on some bizarre shtick, and when they were about to resume the scripted part, Vicki Lawrence broke everyone up. [2] The actors falling out of character is part of the charm of a comedy show. Obviously, it's not so good if it's supposed to be a drama. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 04:58, 27 February 2010 (UTC)