Sunday, February 22, 2009

Where's Ysa?


I can’t say I’m too interested in the Oscars this year. Which is the first year in a long time that I have seen none of the best pic nominees.

On the other hand, I am interested in Les Victoires de la Musique. I’m pissed off, in fact. Where is Ysa?

Okay, Camille is cuteness personified. Catherine Ringer does a passable Edith Piaf. Anais does the kind of sad reject me love song that always goes over big. But these singers shrink when compared to Ysa Ferrer. Unfortunately, I think that is why she is not among the elect. A woman who has a tendency to wear pom poms in her hair and loves nothing more than to serpentine around her background dancers might not seem like she has the, well, gravitas of an Alain Bashung. In fact, her whole act is a slap in the face of gravitas. Ysa doesn’t do the traditional love song, a la Anais, but a sort of manga variant. Admitting the corniness of Faire l’amour, when you plunge into an Ysa Ferrer love song, you don’t find a heart on a sleeve, but a cartoon vision of the cosmos. Ysa makes bi manga love, a variant of love that hasn’t yet caught on on this planet. It involves costume changes and ecstatic animation. To bi or not to bi shouldn't be taken in the sense of homo sapien sex - bi here is human or extraterrestrial.

I’m not quite sure why Ysa Ferrer is treated as such an outsider by the French music business –Even The Do is nominated, a French group that sings entirely in English – but it makes me sad. Luckily, Ysa Ferrer seems unpeterturbed. And has made another very silly video of herself in a blonde wig, fighting to the sounds of Sens interdit.
Well, at least they love her in Russia.

ps - I should point out that Ysa does represent France at the International Song Festival in Berlin this year, and seems to be easily winning each round.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ah, that is quite the spirited raising the banner for Ysa in the face of the judges that be, but let's face it man, the Victoires de la Musique are just about as hopeless as the Oscars. I haven't followed either much, but to get back to your earlier post, I have been compelled to cast an eye on fashion week. When in Rome, etc.
You're right, this Cathy Horyn can certainly write, and has a feel for what she is writing about. Clothes and fashion are not just about looking but a sense of touch. Duh! If only more NYT reviewers and op-ed writers had a sense of touch of/for their subjects!
So is Isabel Marant in the NYC show? That would be too bad if not, as her spring/summer 2009 show in Paris had a distinct NYC - and zona - music vibe. "She's got Bette Davis eyes, is as pure as New York snow..."

http://www.jalougallery.com/jalou-tv-defile-isabel-marant-printemps-ete-2009-le-defile-isabel-marant-printemps-ete-tv-565.html

Amie

Roger Gathmann said...

Amie, I looked at the fashion blogs and the NYT, and I think I.M. just wasn't in New York for the show. Howeveer, she did have a spring 2009 show in Paris, and her boots are apparently the biggest fashion sellers in New York at the moment.

Since Horyn is so impressed by Costa's set, I'm curious about it. I'm an anti-house man, mostly - so Calvin Klein? But here's the photo spread in Elle. Some nice threads.
http://www.elle.com/Runway/Ready-to-Wear/Fall-2009-RTW/CALVIN-KLEIN/CALVIN-KLEIN/(view)/0

Anonymous said...

Well, hmm, I don't much care for mega-brand fashion houses, so I will have to defer to Horyn. Oh, ok, the Costa/CK collection is very elegant. I still prefer and am sticking with I.M. though. But what do I know.

Off, off, you lendings!

http://www.bartleby.com/70/4334.html

Which goes to your above post and zona folklore perhaps.

Amie