Bird’s Eye Re-View 0
Background: We are pleased to announce that established media critic Ståphanie (Ståph) Birdman has joined the IUC staff to periodically publish a column reviewing his thought process while reviewing a creative advancement in the realm of media. Ståphanie is a freelance spiritTM who dabbles in aeronautics and brings with him years of experience. Ståph is recognized as the founder of “expression placement®” and comes to us at great personal sacrifice, being the father of three, significant of one other, and a son to the recently deceased Gina and divorced Gespard Birdman.
What is expression placement®? As described in Ståph’s recent selling book, “A Picture Says A Thousand Words, But Only One Emotion”, expression placement® revolutionizes the format and appearance of review articles by incorporating emotional photography©; thereby bringing Ståph’s feelings right to the front line and forcing the reader to form an opinion. “You don’t have to agree with me and…and…and…that’s a good thing. I’ve always been unapologetic for making people think. Sorry.” Ståphanie flippantly remarked while looking back before heading up a flight of brick stairs.
A Whim Whim Situation: Review of My Thoughts While Reviewing Miss Whimsy’s album Confused Travels
When Phil Manilow approached me about reviewing this album I didn’t like that I initially thought, “ok well this is just something else that will take up another 3 hours. I’m so frustrated right now.”
What I did enjoy was when I thought, “dude don’t let this hold you up. Honestly man, you’ve come way to far to not be in control right now. Own it.”
In addition, I laughed out loud with regards to how I thought about telling Phil I would do it but also throw in a passive aggressive comment. The thought process was dead on as I chose a jokingly sort of tone, so that it didn’t seem like I was upset, but rather doing a favor.
I’ve reviewed my thoughts for literally years now and this situation was not any different. Question: Need to not look like a total dickhead, but want to make someone feel like shit? Answer: fuse comedy and frustration. It literally feels like this (see below photograph):
Needless to say I told him I would do it and in hindsight glad I did it.
“Now onto the album, ya big dork!” Wha? Who said that? I’m all like, “Stand up and show your-self. “ in this picture below, lol.
The thoughts I had while contemplating purchasing the album we typical. Very focused 1 objective here, buy this album and be done with thinking about it. I don’t see any reason I would stray from that in the future. Its simple, easy, and delighted with my choice.
The moment of truth. The album. So right before pressing play, I have and had to be honest here…I didn’t like that I was not as confident that I would totally understand and hear everything first time around. I don’t know why I’ve started doing this lately. Well yes I do. It started with my dad divorcing my recently deceased mother.
AGGGGHHHHHH!!! “Talk about the album dickhole!” lol. Look this time I’m like, “Why I Otta” in the photograph that was taken and displayed below. ROTFL!
So when the album ended I was amped to sit back in my chair and review my thought process while listening to the music. Honestly, I did great picking unique elements of the music and categorizing them. For example:
Vocals: Beautiful voice. At times its feels like a hybrid between Fiona Apple and Bjork, which I didn’t know could exist and I am a fan. Also this artist uses her voice as an instrument throughout the album and it not only flows providing backdrop and rounding out a verse/chorus, but in the song West Wind the vocals are layered with short pulsing bursts , a three octive step down, and a row row row your boat theme. It sounds good, the timing is super tight and that is difficult to create using consumer mixing software (like garage band).
Lyrics: My friend Rhodes recently told me that nobody writes good lyrics anymore, but this depends on what your expectations are and other qualitative variables. The lyrics were dope and written well to time with the music.
Instruments: Everybody loves a toy piano, great choice incorporating cello or whatever stringed instrument, xylophone, it all worked good together to generate a unique, listenable, and enjoyable sound.
General Comments: I appreciate this album for two reasons. 1) It’s obvious Miss Whimsy respects creating a musical catalog where each song stands alone and 2) The mastering is super tight.
Finally, I’m not that impressed with the way I am thinking right now, which is uneasiness because I don’t know how this work will be reviewed, but that in itself is a different review for a different time.
HaHaHa. It’s like “TAXI! I’m done with this review”
Listen to Miss Whimsy on iTunes:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/confused-travels/id780070952
This has been another exciting review incorporating expression placement® technology developed at the Medical University of South Carolina.
PDF download version for publicist/press/geopolitical usage:
Bird’s Eye Re-View | Miss Whimsy