Makeover.... or move over??

I have been musing over the intended changes that needed to be done to the kitchen and Edi's room. Both Fook Seng and Derrick had volunteered to help.  I didn't realise that it would indeed involve a bit more work.  But then again, maybe I was so used to the existing "organised disarray"  hahahahaaa....

Anyway, I've more or less settled on the bed and the rack that I need to get from Ikea.  Edi has even consented to whichever ones I would get for him, as long as they don't cost too much (I did tell him the ballpark budget for them).  So now I guess it's setting up the exact day.

I still have not figured out how am I to get rid of the old bed and mattress though.  I can't exactly ask any of those recycling people from charity homes to take them: its not charity material for sure!  Maybe I'll ask Rose (Edi's long time friend and ex-colleague in the renovation / cleaning business now) for some help..

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While on that subject of "makeovers", I was watching again (for the umpteenth time!!) the youtube clip on Susan Boyle's debut singing during last year's Britain's Got Talent show.  I simply can't stop being totally amazed at her performance.  Although now she has an album out, I still think her debut performance's vocals was far more outstanding.  Her voice in the album was too "engineered" by whoever was in charge of the recording.  It makes her sound too youngish.  It even makes her sound uncomfortingly similar to Madonna's voice when she sang "You'll See".  Perhaps they envisioned that since she wants to be like Elaine Page, they try to make her voice attain that same octave / timbre throughout?

Not only that, I think (and Fook Seng will gleefully agree with me on this) her physical looks had been transformed rather over the top to make her supposedly more acceptable to the mass audience.  I think her appeal was really that of her original persona, and with just a little help on her appearance, it would have been more credible and much more empathic..  I had to actually re-equalise the songs in her album to a lower octave for the vocals, and she sounds more like herself on that stage during the competition.  But since my software isn't too professional, the orchestration also changes somewhat: I don't have just the cold vocal track to begin with..

And then when I search for other "makeover" singers, I found Tony Henry...  So I searched for his background, and I found he is also British from a non-descript background but was discovered while singing at a bar. He was signed up and released an album some time back in 2003.  And boy... !! does he have a powerful punch of a voice that to me rivals some of the best operatic tenors...!  I have the songs he sang in the album called Modern Arias, and three songs stuck in my mind : 1) All By Myself, 2) I Want To Know What Love Is, 3) The First Time Ever I saw Your Face. 

In Tony Henry's case, the "makeover" was transforming modern songs into classical style, and he sang those contemporary English songs in Italian, so as to take it another step towards classical opera style.  That he is accompanied by none other than the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra makes it even more lush and engaging. To me, this cross-over is more enticing than the usual cross-over of making classical tunes into modern music: that, to me is more like "cross-dressing".  And only kinky naughty minds love cross-dressing (if you get my drift). I am now trying to find another of his album called Modern Classics.

So... move over rap and hardrock... here comes the classicals !!!!