Mack the Knife: The Good, The Bad, The Weird

So I've spent the past several hours writing an essay and listening the the excellent Rookie mag playlists, and it's made we want to be able to make mixtapes and so forth (the playlists, not the essay - that is about the relationship between race and gender, and is full of stuff about scientific racism and sexism and not music). That has led to me sitting here with about a bajillion different versions of the Kurt Weill/ Bertolt Brecht song "Mack the Knife" open in a bajillion different tabs - and I'm only scraping the surface, here. 
I was first introduced to the song two years ago, when I was involved in a cabaret/ variety night at my college. A charming Malaysian man did a classic jazzy version of the song just before I was due on stage to do an original beat poem (I get these ideas in my head sometimes, and they are almost always bad). I then did a subject at uni on the history of cabaret (the subject was called Cabaret!, exclamation mark included) and we did an entire lecture on the song. Since then, it's popped up in a bunch of different places and it's always astounded me just how many versions there are. And that is why I have decided to compile this (by no means comprehensive) list of different covers. Bear in mind I'm sorting things totally based on my own biases, so, yeah.
If you don't know the song, here's the basic wikipedia description: ""Mack the Knife" or "The Ballad of Mack the Knife", originally "Die Moritat von Mackie Messer", is a song composed by Kurt Weill with lyrics by Bertolt Brecht for their music drama Die Dreigroschenoper, or, as it is known in English, The Threepenny Opera. It premiered in Berlin in 1928 at the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm. The song has become a popular standard."
The song is interesting in that basically every version has a slightly different interpretation of the lyrics. Sometimes the lyrics included/ removed can make a big difference to the tone of the song, and sometimes it's the way it's played. Anyway, let's kick things off with THE GOOD:

Nick Cave

I have a lot of love for Nick Cave, and I was super excited when our lecturer played this version. It's regular ol' Cave Creepy, and I recommend it if only for Cave's weird dancing around. Plus his hands look really big. For some reason that makes it better.

Marianne Faithful

This is a great version. It's super creepy, and has a lot of the more literal lyrics - a lot of versions focus on sharks and scarlet pillows and so forth.

Ute Lemper

Ute Lemper is pretty famous for this sort of thing. I also think she's kinda weird - she has some odd facial expressions and the 'r'-rolling sounds strange. Still, I'm including it because it's in the original German. And, y'know, she is a pretty talented lady.

Ella Fitzgerald

Before you watch this version, go here and watch Louis Armstrong's performance of the song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgYgl4OodeY
Now, I don't want to spoil the surprise of Fitzgerald's total awesomeness, but if it's the only way to convince you to watch it: she forgets the lyrics halfway through and starts pretending to be Louis Armstrong, and it's amazing. Maybe not the greatest version of the song, but still basically the greatest thing ever.

THE BAD

Michael Buble

I don't mind that Buble song where he's with the girl in the supermarket (I started typing 'in the girl with the supermarket', which means I am tired and should go to bed) who doesn't exist or whatever, but I really wish he'd stop covering cool songs. He sucks out their soul and leaves them dead and empty and it is awful. I get that he does elevator music as a thing, and that's fine, but then people think that he wrote "Moondance" and they don't get the amazingness of the original and I just have a lot of feelings about this, ok. See also:

Westlife

Why is this even a thing.

The Psychedelic Furs

So I love The Psychedelic Furs, but this cover is just kind of lame. It sounds nothing like the original tune, plus it sounds a lot like one of their other songs, and I get confused when it comes on my iTunes. Go listen to their song "Book of Days". Or "Pretty in Pink". I don't even know why they did this.

THE WEIRD

The Young Gods

So this is an industrial version of the song, in German. I don't know if it's really a song which works in this genre - the tune is deceptively upbeat. I dunno, I don't really listen to industrial, so I don't have much to compare it to.

The Muppet Show

This is actually super awesome. I won't say too much about it, just watch.

So, yeah, there is a tiny, tiny fraction of the vast number of versions of "Mack the Knife". Honourable mentions to The Doors and Sting for their excellent versions, and of course Kurt Weill's wife Lotte Lenya (track down her version where she's singing with Louis Armstrong and he keeps interrupting her to tell her how to properly sing the song her own husband wrote).
And now I shall actually go to bed!
That is a lie. I am probably going to browse tumblr and eat Pringles.

A Brief 'Nova Post, With Photos

Myself with Gail Simone, who was very nice and told me I seemed 'fun'.

Post-pancake stack!

 I was working the Liedekijn booth with some friends, which was an enormous amount of fun. I went un-costumed on Sunday and spent the vast majority of the day in the booth, bar the 45 minutes I waited to meet Dave Gibbons (who was incredibly nice and by far the best famous-person-meeting-experience I think I've had) (not pictured: his signature and the little sketch he did of Rorschach in my copy of Watchmen) (so cool). I also did some little $5 sketch commissions, which went down pretty well - I made a few bucks, and got to draw some fun things/ people. Shout-outs to the three super adorable Honey-senpai's and the Crowley and Aziraphale for being super cool, plus beard guy for his enormous patience with my flailing.

Something I did to kill time - this is my most favouritest thing I have drawn, ever, and shall definitely end up being a print.

I definitely want to work a booth again some time, this time with my own prints, plus doing the sketches again. Hopefully I'll be set up to take commissions online soon, too!
I'll post a longer blog maybe tomorrow evening with more photos, and there'll be an article about it on gaygeek.com.au within the next couple of days as well. Yay words!

Preview Images of Supanova Cosplay

So here's a costume concept illustration and a couple of rather terrifying makeup test images for my Joker cosplay which I'm doing for Melbourne Supanova tomorrow. I'll also be helping out at the Liedekijn table, so come past and buy a copy of the book and check out the prettiness! (not just of my face)

Hungry (a Poem)

So this is kind of meant to be a spoken word piece, but just pretend you are sitting in a cramped bookshop hearing me angrily reading while my hands quiver from nerves.

HUNGER

Milky, mocha
Coffee grinds and licorice
Chocolate syrup, chocolate flesh -
Why do we turn people into morning tea?
Exotic, erotic
A closed fist a white palm
Food porn
Monster blow-jobs on bad film
A bagel
A baguette
Strips of skin flayed and laid
Out like smoked salmon
Hunger
Climbing under
A moist shape,
A chest,
A cake
Food/ porn
Saccharine sex
Ejaculating eclair
Oh,
Just bite me

Twenty and Jaded, Or I Just Feel Like Doctor Who is Broken and Can Never Be Fixed

Somewhere along the way something terrible happened to Doctor Who*. I pinpoint its beginnings as being that awful pirate episode. Aside from a few quality episodes, the general quality of writing just hasn't been up to scratch since. I swear if there's one more 'I wear a _ now, _s are cool' joke I will flip a table - so much of the humour lies in being self-referential, and while I still laugh, it's also pretty lazy. I do like Clara, I find her intrigue suitably intriguing, and I got the warm fuzzies in the second episode of the new stuff seeing the Doctor get all excited showing his new companion around, but it felt a lot like the first episode where he took Amy to Space Future - very formulaic. I am feeling all jaded, which I hope is just hormones and the lack of cake near my face, but I really hope the show picks up again. Mostly I just want Neil Gaiman to write the whole show, but then I also want him to keep writing other stuff.

Speaking of which, I'm getting pretty keen for The Ocean at the End of the Lane.

When was the last historical figure episode of Doctor Who? We need another really good one of those.

Even the first episode of season 3 of Game of Thrones felt kind of lackluster. I think I need to eat half my weight in cake and read my new Raymond Chandler novel and try to fight back my hormones.

No, wait, twice my weight in cake. Otherwise there is not a lot of cake.

*Apologies for the really rambling Who post to the four people who occasionally look at this blog - one of whom is Mum. I just needed to write something while I wait for the new Game of Thrones. I'd write about clothes but I can't be bothered getting up to get my camera. WHY IS EVERYTHING SO HARD

Measuring Success By the Things Which Hurt My Ego the Least

suc·cess  

/səkˈses/

Noun The accomplishment of an aim or purpose. The attainment of popularity or profit.

So I have this friend who I've known since we were both tiny, and suddenly when we got to high school she started hanging out with popular kids and then somehow became super hot and she wasn't one of the smart kids any more but she was gorgeous and went to parties and I'm pretty sure could be defined as objectively cool. I think we all have a friend like that, don't we?
Every now and again I see some new photo of hers and I wonder how she got all the luck. Then a little part of me, the petty, childish part, reminds myself that I did much better than her in school, I know what and doing and where I want to go, I'm not liable to self-destruct. It's the same part of myself which dealt with The Perfect Girl at my high school by focusing on her abnormally high forehead.
It happened again today, and I started wondering about Success, how I measure it, whether or not I'm really hypocritical about measuring it in other people. I think I feel like I'm successful when what I'm doing is making me happy, but then I remember the fact that a Creative Writing Major and some illustration skillz don't tend to lead to financial success. So am I measuring it through metaphysical means or real-world, quantitative ones? And how should I be measuring it?
I think - I do - subconsciously assume other people can't really be happy with their lives if they, say, don't go to uni and spend their whole lives in retail. Why? Is it because that's what the movies have told me? I'm going to say yes, because that means not having to acknowledge the fact that, despite my best intentions, I am a total snob.
It seems Google define is in an appeasing mood, because the above definitions fit both of the ones I was trying to reconcile in my head. If my purpose is to be happy and do what I love, then I'm currently pretty successful. If my friend's goal was popularity and profit, then she's got that.
I just hope the two don't have to be mutually exclusive.

Blog's Not Dead, She's Just Gone to Bed (slash been really busy)

Moving house is probably one of the stressful experiences in existence - especially when one of your future housemates is interstate and the other one is in Germany, with the requisite time difference. After the initial stress of just finding a place and getting in all the paperwork and bond and so forth there was the week it took just to get electricity connected, plus the two incredibly bad flus I had, one after the other (if you saw a very fetching young lady throw up in Melbourne Central just a couple of months ago, it was probably me). And then there was the fact that the internet only got connected a week ago. Plus uni's started back. My beau came and stayed with me for three weeks after a desperate facebook message asking him to couple for a couple of days (PMT plus huge amounts of stress plus my housemate having moved out the day before, taking all the furniture with her). He helped me move, nursed me through my flus, and basically bought all of the food. He's pretty cool.

Still, I'm no Debbie Downer; the new place is awesome and the new suburb is now probably my fave suburb in Melbourne: I totally want to live here forever. I am within walking distance to books and cake, and it is amazing - especially the cake part.

I'm doing illustration for my uni's student magazine now, which is fun. I also co-wrote (and illustrated) this article on the Big Day Out for the mag: http://union.unimelb.edu.au/farrago/farrago-articles/bdo-bogans-balls-and-all

BDO was pretty rad. It was my first ever festival, so it was certainly an experience. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs killed it, and I had a life-changing experience seeing the Red Hot Chili Peppers - not because of the music, but because of Dancing On Her Own Girl (on the end of the article illustration).
She was near me in the crowd, totally in her own world while I did my awkward bop thing. She noticed me staring at her and grinning, and we chatted briefly. She was amazing, like a real-life Luna Lovegood. She said something to me, as we danced, and for the first time it really meant something: "The secret is to dance like nobody's watching". From that point the awkward bop turned into flailing limbs and headbanging and an absolutely amazing time. I lost DOHOG in the crowd, but it didn't matter; we didn't need each other. We were just dancing.

So much has happened since I last blogged and I can't remember half of what I wanted to stick in here, but now that the internet is up and running I can keep this all reg'lar-like. Just a couple more points:

My brother has a band called Frost in Space and they are actually really good. I'm doing the art for their first EP, which will be out I think next year, or maybe late this year. https://www.facebook.com/frostinspace.music?ref=ts&fref=ts

I highly recommend going dancing with circus performers - specifically contact jugglers. Being with people who are dancing to 50 Cent while contact juggling is an amazing experience.

I dyed my hair green and it is good. Next time I might write about the bizarre experience that resulted from it, but now I cannot be bothered because I want food.

I am off to food. And tea.