Mandy Davis - Diva of Deception

Mandy Davis - Diva of Deception - is a professional close up magician working for banquets, dinners, receptions, weddings, bar/batmitzvahs, private parties etc. A member of The Inner Magic Circle, she serves on their ruling Council and currently holds several posts. . Mandy is also a member of Equity and twice honoured with the Society of American Magicians' Presidential Citation.

Sunday, June 29, 2008

TAGGED - MUSICALLY!

I can do it! Thanks to Rob actually stopping as he passed by my computer (behind him in the office!) and a few wise words from him I can now 'play' and post videos from YouTube on my blogs!

So - back to the tagging...

I think that the original tagger had a different idea to the one which Brian has picked up and run with but I'm following Brian's lead and going for songs I love best because I'm not really a music person particularly.

The added complication is that the ones I've been listening to currently are the ones for the wedding! And I don't want to reveal those until the day; so...

I agree with Brian that 'When you Wish upon a Star' is fantastic and am I the only person who cried when it played at the Disneyland, California, castle even though the edifice was totally under scaffolding at the time? I know people usually cry when they hear it and see the castle - but scaffolding??? The music of Mary Poppins, all of it from the Disney version, is absolutely amazing. However my greatest piece is 'Feed the Birds' but it has to be this version with Julie Andrews singing her heart out - tears every time.



In no particular order I follow this with a double whammy; I was looking for a Danny Kaye piece, a song called Bloop Bleep, and I fell upon this with two of my heroes as Louis Armstrong duets here. I know the song is hackneyed but I love the the mimicry, the word playand the scatting that they do towards the end :



I love the Soweto Gospel Choir, have always loved that type of music, and have found this clip of their rehearsal for the Live Earth Concert. You can still feel the magic, in spite of their 'day clothes' and the conductor is so immersed in his work, it's just electric:



Well - this has been a road of discovery for me! I didn't realise... I have always enjoyed gospel music, voice without instruments rather than instruments without voice. I found the above bits to represent this and thought 'Well, I've got a gospel choir - how about some Jewish prayer music?' And that was when realisation hit me! I was brought up to go to synagogue every week, Hebrew classes three times a week and that's not counting High Holy Days - all the music I heard was there, without instruments and that included the folk songs too. So that is what has formed my tastes, isn't it? And I never knew!

This performance is of particular relevance to me. All my young life I grew up supporting Russian Jews who were totally oppressed and struggled to maintain a Jewish identity and lifestyle whilst facing removal to Siberia and other places with labour camps. It is a pleasure to bring you the enlightenment of that nation with the Moscow Jewish Male Voice Choir singing a song entitled 'An Evening of Roses', not religious, just pretty:



And to continue the religious theme that seems to have started here - one of my favourite 'sing along' songs is the final one from 'Sister Act'. It's just so 'feel-good'!



And what about the religion of Monty Python - and Life of Brian?



But I digress... what am I listening to at the moment? Having read an interesting interview with Ting Tings I have got hooked on their brand of pop with 'That's Not My Name':



So there are my offerings - seven songs to complete my tagging and at two of them will cheer me up rather than make me emotional. Now if there is a psychologist out there maybe he or she can interpret my inner self from the above? It would probably make interesting reading!

I now have to tag people - not sure how to do that - but I'm tagging David Weeks, Mark Lee, Kenny Campbell, John van der Put and Bruce Kalver!

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

IT'S GETTING NEARER!



The time is marching on - and nothing seems to be finalised yet as regards to wedding arrangements apart from the venue,  and the dress (no, I'm not revealing the colour here yet).

Even the shoes are playing up! When tried on in the shop, along with above mentioned attire, they fitted like gloves (or even shoes!) but now, in the comfort of home, they are so tight that the left one doesn't even fit onto my foot at all! What to do? What to do? The shop is near Weston Super Mare which is too far away to take them back - if they would accept them at all. And the shoes are such a perfect match for the dress it's almost a crime to return them... 

The caterer is elusive when it comes to providing us with a tasting so we can find out exactly what we'll be serving our guests. 

We have chosen four readings to accompany the ceremony  but we haven't decided yet who will be performing them. We have chosen just the one piece of music - is the rest of the afternoon to take place in absolute silence? 

Flowers present a huge problem too - what colour is going to go with the outfit? How neutral is neutral? How white is white, how ivory is ivory - you get the picture! Oh, pictures? Photos? Ah, no photographer arranged so have a friend who has offered so that is now settled and everyone else who owns a camera will no doubt be snapping memories too so look forward to seeing all of them after the event.
The video is one certainty and so, I believe, is the live streaming, courtesy of Octopus TV. My son will be able to watch the events as they happen as will all our friends across the world.

It's coming together I suppose albeit in bits and pieces.

Tomorrow I need to buy a padded coat hanger for the dress - such a stupid piece of equipment but one I've never owned. Then it's decision time on the balloons and flowers, hair accessories and favours; a trip to the local registrar to collect the certificates and then an appointment with whoever in Camden is going to officiate on the day.

And it's only five weeks till I go to Louisville, Kentucky, to the great magic convention. Everything must be ready by then as I'll return with just one week to go.....


Labels: