Totally Tracey Online
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
The State of the Union
I recently came upon an interview with Robert Greenblatt, Showtime's President of Entertainment, in which he talked about the network's upcoming series lineup. He had quite a bit to say about Tracey's new project for Showtime:
- The official title is Tracey Ullman's State of the Union
- The sketches are very short, no longer than a minute and a half
- There will be recurring characters
- A typical sequence might involve a visit with two women on an Iowa farm, then an interlude with Arianna Huffington in her boudoir, followed by a look-in on a Washington, DC, anchorperson (we must qualify that, you know)
Labels: Showtime, State of the Union
Sunday, June 17, 2007
Clearing up a misconception
There are some misconceptions floating around on the web, and it's time that they are corrected. Here's one of them
I've seen it mentioned on a few webpages that Tracey's version of "They Don't Know" is actually Kirsty MacColl's version with Kirsty's (lead) vocal replaced with Tracey's. This is not true. The arrangements are similar, but the two recordings are in different keys (Kirsty's is in B, Tracey's in C) and are instrumented differently. Compare for yourself - here's an excerpt from Kirsty's version and here's one from Tracey's version (iTunes needed to hear the extracts).
Now Tracey's version of Kirsty's "Terry" does, in fact, use the same backing tracks as Kirsty's original (same backing vocal tracks, as well). Listen to snippets of Kirsty's version and Tracey's version. This may be the source of the story about "They Don't Know".
I've seen it mentioned on a few webpages that Tracey's version of "They Don't Know" is actually Kirsty MacColl's version with Kirsty's (lead) vocal replaced with Tracey's. This is not true. The arrangements are similar, but the two recordings are in different keys (Kirsty's is in B, Tracey's in C) and are instrumented differently. Compare for yourself - here's an excerpt from Kirsty's version and here's one from Tracey's version (iTunes needed to hear the extracts).
Now Tracey's version of Kirsty's "Terry" does, in fact, use the same backing tracks as Kirsty's original (same backing vocal tracks, as well). Listen to snippets of Kirsty's version and Tracey's version. This may be the source of the story about "They Don't Know".
Saturday, June 09, 2007
A few things
While doing a Google search for websites mentioning Tracey, I came across a couple of pages I hadn't seen before.
One was a review of the R2 Girls On Top DVD set that was released in January in Europe. Now since I have the 2 North American sets that came out a couple of years ago, I wouldn't be interested in this one -- unless it contained something not on the North American ones. And it did: an interview with Tracey from January 1984. The opportunity to acquire what would become the earliest talk show appearance of hers in my collection was one I couldn't pass up. So thanks to Amazon.co.uk and my region-free DVD player, this set is on order and should make its way across the pond in the next few weeks.
The other one has little to do with Tracey, but it's rather poignant because it describes things that did not happen due to other, terrible events. It is a listing from TVTalkShows.com of the scheduled guests on the Today show for the week of September 10-14, 2001. Had those planes not been hijacked and flown into the World Trade Center, we could have seen Derek Jeter and Diane Lane talk about their latest projects that Wednesday. On Friday, Stephen King would have been on to talk about his new book, and Macy Gray would have performed on the plaza. And perhaps, in an alternate reality, they did. And maybe, in that alternate reality, I Could Never Be Your Woman is in American movie theaters, and Tracey's received great reviews for her role as Mother Nature. But not in our reality.
One was a review of the R2 Girls On Top DVD set that was released in January in Europe. Now since I have the 2 North American sets that came out a couple of years ago, I wouldn't be interested in this one -- unless it contained something not on the North American ones. And it did: an interview with Tracey from January 1984. The opportunity to acquire what would become the earliest talk show appearance of hers in my collection was one I couldn't pass up. So thanks to Amazon.co.uk and my region-free DVD player, this set is on order and should make its way across the pond in the next few weeks.
The other one has little to do with Tracey, but it's rather poignant because it describes things that did not happen due to other, terrible events. It is a listing from TVTalkShows.com of the scheduled guests on the Today show for the week of September 10-14, 2001. Had those planes not been hijacked and flown into the World Trade Center, we could have seen Derek Jeter and Diane Lane talk about their latest projects that Wednesday. On Friday, Stephen King would have been on to talk about his new book, and Macy Gray would have performed on the plaza. And perhaps, in an alternate reality, they did. And maybe, in that alternate reality, I Could Never Be Your Woman is in American movie theaters, and Tracey's received great reviews for her role as Mother Nature. But not in our reality.
Friday, June 08, 2007
ICNBYW News for June 2007
Here's the latest news about I Could Never Be Your Woman: perhaps it should be retitled I Could Go Straight To Video. It's been released in Spain, but plans to release it on June 15 in North America have fallen through. The new date is now in October.
I don't know Spanish well enough to read movie reviews from Spain, but there have been some posts on the IMDB message board for the film, and opinion has been mixed. One poster noted heavy use of soft focus during Michelle Pfeiffer's scenes.
I wonder which will come out first, this movie or Tracey's new series for Showtime?
I don't know Spanish well enough to read movie reviews from Spain, but there have been some posts on the IMDB message board for the film, and opinion has been mixed. One poster noted heavy use of soft focus during Michelle Pfeiffer's scenes.
I wonder which will come out first, this movie or Tracey's new series for Showtime?
