Nothing is so classic in people’s minds as the sound of music both for the stage production and the film. So I like many was excited when I heard there would be a live musical done of this. I however proceeded to cringe some when I heard Carrie Underwood would be playing Maria. Do not get me wrong I enjoy her music in her genre, but I just could not picture her as Maria. I was a little happier with some of the other casting, Stephen Moyer as Captain Von Trapp, Christian Borle as Max and Audra McDonald as Mother Abbess all good choices. So why did that pick Carrie Underwood for Maria? She is just not a Broadway singer her voice has far too much twang to it. Still I thought okay, breath I will give it a try and see if I like it.

Well that was a mistake. In the big opening song for Maria, The hills are alive with the sound of music! It should have been a triumph and set the tone for all of it. Well the song did set the tone alright, lackluster. To me her delivery was just wooden and not as big of an impact as it should have been. The twang in her voice is indeed mostly gone, so that helps but overall it was just flat as were all her other songs. Now let us touch on the part that made me flinch from the get go the acting. I am going to be harsh here but in my opinion Carrie Underwood cannot act her way out of a paper bag. If you are going to take on a role that Julie Andrews did you really need to bring you’re a game and I am not sure she brought any game at all.

Again I enjoyed the rest of the cast for the most part in this. At times Moyer seemed a little to wooden but for the most part I liked his portrayal of the stiff proper Austrian Von Trapp. The moment when he sang with his children and hugged them was perhaps my favorite of the whole piece. Borle plays the perfect Max and you can really tell he has put in his time and chops on the Broadway stage because he delivered it just like you would expect to see in a stage production.

So my overall thought was if you did not see it you weren’t missing anything really. It was a bit mediocre and honestly I have seen better productions on High School stages.

Alright I stopped watching voice talent styled shows after David Cook was on American Idol well I caught one or two shows of the Voice when it was on and I did not really give it much thought. That was until this year. I decided I was curious to see why everyone loved it so much, and I admit it I like Shakira and I like Usher. I love Blake. Adam well I wish he would say the Moves like Pasha instead of Jagger but that is a whole new blog post.

I have to say the first thing I love about the voice is watching Blake and Adam squabble like two married bitties. They are relentless on each other. Case in point what just took place now I am watching on Demand, and Adam turned for a country artist that Blake did not turn for. Odd because he usually does. That said..the first thing Adam does is stand up and say “First off..” he points directly at Blake and proclaims, “Stupid!”. This is just one example of the bickering.

What I find myself truly enjoying about the voice is that it is based truly on the vocal talent. I remember when some of the “larger” or not “standard” looking people on Idol were told by Simon they wouldn’t make it because they did not have the right look. Yet many of them went on to have a really good career. I think it is sad that music talent is so over auto tuned these days to make someone who “looks the part” appear better and the person who truly has the epic vocal talent does not get so far. I mean look at the housewives..yeesh okay a whole nother post there but seriously how many of them have released TERRIBLE auto tuned songs. I love that the judges purely have to decide to turn around on what they think of the voice period.

My favorite example of that from what I am watching this year is a gentleman with a fantastic falsetto. I think the only one who turned around was Shakira and when the boys turned around Blake proclaims “Your a DUDE?!” “Your not supposed to be a dude!” the others concurred that they could have “spoken into the mic” or something before he talked, lol. They all agree that his voice is not something you usually find with a man and they loved it. Did I mention he sung a Whitney Houston song? He killed it in the good way too.

I hope that this show stays like it is and does not end up being one I will stop watching because I think it is rigged like idol. For now the Voice has made a fan out of me. Although after seeing some pictures today I think Adam should take his shirt off when he wants a lovely lady to join his team and he is going toe to toe..Just saying he would win, lol

This is a card I got recently someone who saw I liked unique post cards and thought I might like this one. They were right I love it. The muted vintage colors and just the unique look of the subject.