In general, aspiring young performers emerging from the bland white middle class in America seem to be having trouble expressing or controlling emotion, with its myriad of subtle gradations. Unless they hail from the gospel-rich South, they lack direct experience of the vocal authority and operatic dynamics that most young African-Americans automatically absorb from church. And then Mariah Carey, who has phenomenal natural range, has unfortunately spawned a girly epidemic of glossy, manufactured faux crescendos.
In contrast, I've been deeply impressed with the visceral intensity and exquisite poetic shadings of Kelly Clarkson's moody "Irvine," which Matt Drudge has been playing on his Sunday night radio show. Clarkson claims to have composed the song in 20 minutes while lying in despair on a bathroom floor after a concert. The spare live production, with its ascending changes and haunting ornamental guitar slides, is gorgeous. As long as music of this quality is being made, the American fine arts will revive.
Believe me, after recently rushing to Blockbuster to rent "Factory Girl" on its first available day, I wasn't so sure. What a godawful film -- which blew a golden opportunity to re-create the scintillating heyday of Andy Warhol's seminal Factory (a mammoth influence on me in college). Sienna Miller has a charming vitality, but she completely misses Edie Sedgwick's waiflike self-destructive subtext. As for the rest of the hangdog cast, whether they were more paralyzed by the inert script or the obtuse direction would be pointless to waste thought over.
At least we have YouTube.com (a triumph of the improvisational Warhol aesthetic) to cop serendipitous doses of image and sound. Check this out (below) for a delicious reveling in classic Hollywood iconography: it's Mazzy Star's dirgelike "Fade Into You" contemplatively set to a celebration of that dancing diva Rita Hayworth. What sensual beauty and glamour!
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Camille Paglia's column appears on the second Wednesday of each month. Every third column is devoted to reader letters. Please send questions for her next letters column to this mailbox. Your name and town will be published unless you request anonymity.
About the writer
Camille Paglia is the University Professor of Humanities and Media Studies at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. Her most recent book is "Break, Blow, Burn: Camille Paglia Reads Forty-Three of the World's Best Poems."
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