Random Thoughts from the Wandering Lawyer III

1. I don't get the whole Norah Jones thing. Yesterday, one of her songs came on the radio (and I hate to admit it, but I'm so Norah-apathetic, I can't even remember what song it was), and it had this repeating chorus that brought to mind Keanu Reeves in Speed. Early in Speed, our nemesis Dennis Hopper asks Keanu a repeating question, "What do you do?" after offering him a choice between bleak and bleaker options. Hopper's inflection changed with each utterance of the question, presumably, as would be true of any good actor, because his intention for each changed. Later in the film, after our good guy Reeves turns the tables on Hopper and likewise offers him a choice between bleak and bleaker options, he asks the same question, "What do you do?" Twice. That moment has got to be one of the most mocked line deliveries E.V.E.R. Because Reeves' inflection doesn't change at all between utterances. Proof that he doesn't have any intentions when he acts. Blech. So Norah's repeating this chorus, and that oft mocked Reeves' moment comes to mind, why? Because Norah's singing blues and there is no change in her inflection from one utterance to another. This is the blue's lady! You're supposed to be moved by your soul, which would then inform your delivery. But no. She sang the chorus the same way every time, and, though pretty, I wondered if Norah had any soul. Because this song was as telling of that absence as Reeves' moment in Speed was of his lack of intention. I'm afraid enough of the backlash from crazed Norah Jones fans - have you ever looked them in the eye as they are talking about her? it's like Children of the Corn! - so I won't go so far as to say that she has no soul, or that she is to blues what Keanu Reeves is to acting. But at a minimum, she is what my husband would call "musically rudimentary," and hardly worth all the adoration showered upon her.

2. Go Gore!

3. Hmmmm, I got so impassioned about the Norah Jones thing, I can't remember what else I've been thinking.