{"id":8597,"date":"2011-09-30T14:00:30","date_gmt":"2011-09-30T22:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/teensleuth.com\/blog\/?p=8597"},"modified":"2013-03-24T09:16:16","modified_gmt":"2013-03-24T17:16:16","slug":"my-paly-boudoir-singer-gasser","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/teensleuth.com\/blog\/?p=8597","title":{"rendered":"my paly: boudoir singer, gasser."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/h1>\n

from today’s nytimes<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Creating Some of That New Black Magic<\/h1>\n
By\u00a0STEPHEN HOLDEN<\/a>,\u00a0September 29, 2011<\/h5>\n
\n

In the unlikely event that a modern version of Frank Sinatra\u2019s Rat Pack restores \u201cMad Men\u201d-era lounge singing to the forefront of pop fashion,\u00a0Seth MacFarlane<\/a> shows potential to compete for the title New Chairman of the Board, or at least a latter-day Dean Martin. Known as the creator of \u201cFamily Guy,\u201d Mr. MacFarlane, 37, turns out to be a devotee of the American Songbook.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

In\u00a0\u201cSeth MacFarlane: Swingin\u2019 in Concert,\u201d<\/a> on the Epix Channel on Friday, Mr. MacFarlane sings a dozen traditional pop songs (many of them obscure) with a 39-piece big band, including strings, arranged and conducted by Joel McNeely. Sara Bareilles joins him on two numbers. All the songs are included on Mr. MacFarlane\u2019s just-released album, \u201cMusic Is Better Than Words.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

More than Martin, the crooner whom the suave, self-assured Mr. MacFarlane resembles is Steve Lawrence. Like Mr. Lawrence, he is vocally relaxed, has perfect pitch and plays it cool even when swinging hard.\u00a0Under Mr. MacFarlane\u2019s cherubic facade is a streak of mischief. Because he is a great mimic with a storehouse of cartoon voices developed for animated characters, you\u2019re bound to wonder to what degree his crooning voice is a kind of impersonation. Like Mr. Lawrence, Mr. MacFarlane keeps emotional involvement in lyrics at arm\u2019s length.<\/p>\n

At the same time, his fun-loving geniality is never condescending. He is invested in what he sings. Discussing \u201cIt\u2019s Easy to Remember,\u201d he notes that the lyricist Lorenz Hart could \u201cutterly paralyze you with regret,\u201d then adds respectfully that Hart \u201cwas a depressed alcoholic, but wrote a lot of great songs because of it.\u201d The presence of\u00a0Michael Feinstein<\/a>\u2014 who introduces Mr. MacFarlane, calls himself a \u201cMacFarlane-aholic\u201d and jokes that he is encroaching on his territory \u2014 certifies Mr. MacFarlane\u2019s seriousness.<\/p>\n

His saucy between-song comments are only slightly milder than his jibes as a\u00a0Comedy Central roast master<\/a> (most recently of Charlie Sheen).\u201cDon\u2019t think of this as the music your grandparents listened to,\u201d he says, \u201cbut as the music your grandparents listened to while they were making your parents.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his postscript to \u201cThe Night They Invented Champagne,\u201d he observes that the song, from \u201cGigi,\u201d is \u201cabout a grown man dating a 15-year-old, so basically \u2018Gigi\u2019 is R. Kelly for white people.\u201d\u00a0Except for \u201cIt\u2019s Easy to Remember,\u201d and \u201cSomething Good\u201d (from \u201cThe Sound of Music\u201d), most of the songs are obscure. Some will recognize \u201cTwo Sleepy People\u201d and \u201cYou\u2019re the Cream in My Coffee.\u201d But almost no one will be able to place his album\u2019s affable title song, from the 1955 movie \u201cIt\u2019s Always Fair Weather.\u201d<\/p>\n

If Mr. McFarlane has yet to develop the swaggering body language of a Rat Pack veteran, he has the appropriate bad-boy attitude.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat did Dean say?\u201d he remarks. \u201cYou\u2019re not drunk until you can lie on the floor without holding on?\u201d Suddenly we\u2019re in Las Vegas 50 years ago.<\/p>\n

Seth Macfarlane,\u00a0Swingin\u2019 in Concert. Epix, Friday night at 8, Eastern and Pacific times; 7, Central time.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

from today’s nytimes Creating Some of That New Black Magic By\u00a0STEPHEN HOLDEN,\u00a0September 29, 2011 In the unlikely event that a modern version of Frank Sinatra\u2019s Rat Pack restores \u201cMad Men\u201d-era lounge singing to the forefront of pop fashion,\u00a0Seth MacFarlane shows potential to compete for the title New Chairman of the Board, or at least a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[887,888,890,889],"class_list":["post-8597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-secret-diaries","tag-seth-maacfarlane-crooner","tag-seth-macfarlane-concert","tag-seth-macfarlane-epix-seth-macfarlane-singing","tag-seth-macfarlane-record"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/teensleuth.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/teensleuth.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/teensleuth.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teensleuth.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teensleuth.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8597"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/teensleuth.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8597\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18631,"href":"https:\/\/teensleuth.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8597\/revisions\/18631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/teensleuth.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teensleuth.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teensleuth.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}