Fairy tales have special value in times of trouble for both children and adults

Jackie Evancho, discovered and became a sensation on Americas Got Talent

Fairy tales aren't just for children. Adults need them too. That's why folks responded with great joy when they heard Paul Potts, Jackie Evancho or Susan Boyle sing on Britains Got Talent and Americas Got Talent. It's also why people fixate on bad things that have drama.  Here are some of the ways they help us in ways that alleviate our problems.

Rags to riches stories make us feel that we can conquer our fears, work hard and achieve. When an unattractive person finds success with talent we applaud that. When a disabled person rises above the disability to achieve in life and business, we are pleased. These are the human fairy tales that are good, that teach us about the higher qualities of ourselves and others and give us hope for the future.

We look for, and long for, fairy tale folk in our lives for many reasons, much of which has to do with getting out of our problems and our small universes into a bigger world where there is hope and goodness.

During the depression movies were successful, again because people could escape into the fairy tales of existence. They could see Lana Turner making it big from soda fountain to major movie star. They found hope, love and drama out of watching movies where people lived out loud and demonstrated that there could be a happy ending in spite of hard times. It was a way to escape the real hard times and find joy in watching people glamorously enjoy life in ways that people then could not.

It isn't just good stories, however, that are part of the fairy tales we seek or use. Evil in the world is also part of the fairy tales we learn. There is also a beast with beauty, or the evil troll under the bridge that can catch the hero and cause trouble. There are wolves that can enter a home, eat grandma and wait for Little Red Riding Hood to come in to get her too. Movies and stories like that make our own lives look less hard. We tend to demonize real-life characters, like mothers who allegedly kill their children in real-life stories like Casey Anthony who is thought by the State of Florida to have killed her child Caylee. A woman like Michelle Huckaby, accused of raping and killing Sandra Cantu, fascinated us and revolted us because that too is an escape from the problems we have.  It is also why crime stories are popular. And when victims escape and are able to build new lives, as the young women have done in Cleveland, we are able to see the happy ending and recognize that there can be a happy ending in the worst kind of situation, the kind we pay personally face ourselves.  Amanda Berry, Georgina "Gina" DeJesus, and Michelle Knight moved beyond the terrible event of their kidnapping and 10-year horror in captivity to work well on rebuilding their lives.  In some ways they are the real life Sleeping Beauty who was rescued by the trolls and returns to a beautiful life.

There are always people in worse shape, we can see; and so our own lives don't appear to be as difficult. We can project our anger and frustration on figures that are unlikeable for that reason.

Our personal lives are like fairy tales. We use the descriptions found in them to describe the events in our lives. We talk about going down long roads, about the twists and turns and dramas in our journeys in fairy-tale terms because we are able to see our lives apart from ourselves in order to interpret their meanings. We refer to the man we seek for love as a "Prince Charming" and women we think are ugly or mean as witches. Again this allows us to label so others can understand and we have a way to discharge our feelings.

Therapists sometimes use fairy tales in therapy. People learn to act out certain archetypes in learning why they do certain things and how those things either advance them or get them into trouble. They also help us see that we can realize our dreams and get past our fears to move ahead, just as a Susan Boyle or Paul Potts have done with unattractive images yet with resounding success. The ugly duckling becomes a swan before our very eyes, telling us that we can be one too. In fact Potts life has been is the stuff of real movies because of his life story that involves physical and emotional rags to riches details.

We find in fairy tales what is missing in our own lives. That enhances our sense of creativity, one of the principal areas we need to work on to alleviate depression. So fairy tales have a way of lifting sadness and moving our thinking to positive ideas rather than negative ones.

Fairy tales that become real make us remember our childhood, the surprises and joy we felt when we learned that a character lived happily ever after. It is why with just a few notes from a song someone like Susan Boyle, the wonderful woman who sang with such beauty and intensity, thrilled so many people. This was our Sleeping Beauty, our Cinderella our Horatio Alger story in female form. Out of something that looked like defeat, success and happily ever after came through. That tells us that no matter who or where we are perhaps our lives can turn a corner and be better too. That's why we all need fairy tales.
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Traditional ethics mixed with new media recommended to avoid 'America's Got Talent' news

Arriana Huffington, founder of the Huffington Post

Much of our news today is driven by popularity, by votes and comments.  This means someone who spends considerable money, time or both on social media, or has an agenda that supports many followers, may acquire readership for articles whereas news and information the public needs can be abbreviated and sensationalized to attract attention.  Do we want news that is treated like Americas Got Talent so that serious, ongoing education is interrupted? Or is there a different way to offer news that most especially is critical because of the need for collaboration and solid information as new threats to world security occur?


The Huffington Post consists largely of articles written by hundreds of unpaid bloggers, quoted as reliable sources, which many can be; but like many outlets who's picked for the stable and who stays in it is like  America's Got Talent.   Some of the bloggers, for example, have been chosen from those individuals who have outstanding activity from posting comments and obtaining followers and responses.  But it isn't just large blogs that respond to social media vote-getting activities but other news outlets too, which may negatively impact the traditional role of the press in its role of educating, informing and holding power to account.

 The television show America's Got Talent allows people to rise to the top and perhaps win the contest and receive a recording contract and other perks.  It selects people at each level based on the judge's selections and audience response.  This means a balance of popularity and merit, although the judges also consider audience potential in casting their vote.

The outcome of a given contest might offer a serious surprise, as in the case of 10-year-old Jackie Evancho, when many people believed she would ultimately win on America's Got Talent because of her uniquely gifted voice and presentation on the show, that everyone agreed was special.    She lost, however, to Michael Grimm, a talented fellow for sure but didn't have the accolades and YouTube views that Evancho had had all along.  But America seems to likes being contrary too, a form of defiance that sometimes is used just to upset the odds in a fashion that says "you can't control what I do."  Even when the audience favors a contestant, the person actually picked to proceed may simply be a result of this contrariness that often occurs when there is a dispute and people want to voice their independence.  The same thing occurred in the case of Susan Boyle, who lost the top spot on Britains Got Talent, as people began to find the unpopular or the negative in her personality or simply were contrary in not wanting to conform to any predictable outcome.

Popularity picks may not, therefore, foster the best talent but the most popular for a segment of the culture that happens to vote.  But there are many people who enjoy the talent of those who perform who never cast votes in these contests.  So the potential of picking the best talent is lessened by those who don't participate in the voting process.  The cream may not rise to the top.  Do we want the news treated the same way?  What has been the result?  The press is said to be no longer trusted, as observed by Gallup Poll results in 2012, and divisions in social and political areas are often along the lines of the more sensationalized factions.

The same strategy of using what is popular, or anticipated as vote-getting by readers or news observers, is now used for news sites as well, both citizen and traditional, if we could call the Huffington Post either.  The Huffington Post is a mix of both professional journalists and bloggers with specialties in particular areas, making it difficult for the public to sort out what is fact-checked and responsible information and what is not. Guiding the front page by picking the popular, based on a select few who vote, means front page news, and news that lingers, often focuses on the trivial not the headline material that may be most important.

Picking the popular also means those with enough Facebook friends and other contacts on the Internet have great advantage over those who focus on important news and features and have less time to solicit attention on social media sites.  There are those who write well and those who sell well; and sometimes they are both very different. 

News outlets have editors and America's Got Talent has judges who assess the talent and offer feedback.  But the owners of newspapers, and their investors, look for readership numbers as the evidence that a news item is of value, even as major news stories are sometimes cut short in favor of the details of a recent celebrity wedding, such as that of George Clooney, where days were spent in covering every detail.  This occurred in the midst of weather disasters and terrorist threats, with 10 minutes at the top of the hour devoted to the major news and the rest a narrative of entertainment value.

This tendency to vote for the popular, as it dominates all forms of media, means the petty, irrelevant or simply entertaining, offered as it is in large quantities everywhere, simply overwhelms news that has major information and education.  The need to know is answered by shorter and shorter phrases and sentences, so that even the language of the news is abbreviated like so many text messages.  This is explained away by those who say people are simply to busy to read or listen, yet this negates the fact that books like Fifty Shades of Grey are read by millions.

Traditional news sites are driven by popularity also because of the growing number of citizen news sites where people offer their take on the news.  Some of these sites are managed by editors; others are blogs set up by ordinary folks often with political or religious agendas. These continue to proliferate; and as they do, it simply drives the problem deeper that the important, front-line news may not have either the details or the top tier for public notice.  Search engines also favor the flavor of the month.

The concern in using vote-getting to determine the headlines and what is featured first is that it takes away from the premise most pronounced by those who wrote the protections for the press in the Constitution.  The U.S. Constitution, in terms of its guarantee of freedom of the press, is one form of providing the press its own platform, but other free governments have their protections as well.  Those protections relate to the relevance of the material and the primary role of the press.  That primary role is not entertainment but education and information relevant for living one's life.  This, and holding power to account, were the three main goals of journalism, according to Thomas Jefferson.Polls and popularity votes and cliques that gather together to foster a friend's success do not protect democracy but in fact jeopardize the ongoing, universal education democracy needs to succeed. 

Most people want to find an area where they can succeed and be noticed.  If a child is a budding artist, he or she feels good when the teacher puts the drawing on the wall for all to see.  But is this the way media should be managed?  

This is a simplistic explanation for the problems related to using popularity as the measure of what counts in the news, but the tendency for people to use vote-getting to measure their own success, and for others to assess them as well, means information written by well-meaning, motivated, yet agenda-driven people, who may not fact check sources, nor even write well,  will be read more often than others.  The result is that the popular continues to rise to the top, and the very art of writing with skill, detail and fact-checking may be lost.

.America's Got Talent is surely good entertainment, but too often many people wonder why obviously talented people are chosen over someone with a unique following and an absorbing personal story.  The problem is that when the news is treated in the same way, it is a world of us that suffers from lack of knowledge and quality information, at a time when universal education is important for creating and maintaining free communities and preventing or correcting the major problems around the world..

A new direction might be to re-examine some of the old ways used in the new methods of transmitting news via print, online and other forms of mass communication.  Rewarding quality news material that is in-depth, detailed and fact-checked is important, and that reward means to let investors and owners know by active reading and participation.  And perhaps news outlets need to remove the comments per article and return to the Letters to the Editor methods for reader interaction, so that vote-getting for popularity does not drive the news. Universal education through the mass media might then become a reality, as people learn the sciences, history and other details to help them understand why government leaders make certain decisions.  It can also serve to improve holding power to account, that goal of the press established by Thomas Jefferson's words that are likely as good today as they were when written and that allow the past and present best methods to present news in ways that can make a difference in the lives of individuals and nations.

Earning money in the arts threatened by technology

[caption id="attachment_20704" align="alignleft" width="232"] Frank Sinatra. Could he make it now?[/caption]

Carol Forsloff------Elvis Presley finds his fame at Sun records, after walking in the door of a small studio in the South, as did Johnny Cash, both finding some rejections but also a direction and a world where opportunities were not clouded by massive numbers voting and getting friends to vote as well, which prevents many talented people from ever being heard. This is a problem for musicians that spills over into painting and writing and all the arts.

Earning money in art, writing books and articles and performing music is often thwarted by some of the abuses in technology. Add to this a continuing focus on youth with whole towns who concentrate specifically on “their” particular relative or friend who can vote people in or out of competition. The quality of the performances at times becomes reduced, even with the influx of those who claim talent simply to be part of the community of art. Add to this the reality show entertainment aspect where the ridiculous of someone dressed as a tree with a large megaphone is selected to present based upon the unusual disguise, not the talent of voice or instrument.

One woman said, when asked her interest in Jackie Evancho, whom the judges and audience had ruled especially talented, “She's too young to be that good, so I wouldn't vote for her.” So Evancho did not win first place, nor did Susan Boyle, because there were people who voted in opposition simply to thwart the more serious talents from winning.

Step in a room where, if you are a seasoned artist and someone asks what you do, and you answer you are an artist. You will rapidly learn that nearly everyone around also claims to paint, play music, or write. All of that is good, as these creative avenues are useful in building morale and interpersonal skills. But many of these same people find that with certain technology they can sound as professional as anyone, despite the fact their talent does not rise to the level of the professional who has trained for years. New music software can change the vocal key, timbre, quality of almost anyone, including those who have said they can't sing. Digital technology allows for copying and corrections of artistic work in ways that simulate serious painting, again with limited talent.   And programmed outlines and software can turn out a book in a few hours with all the grammar and spelling errors that could make an English teacher fret.

Writing has its own issues, along with those in art and music. Journalists are confronted with hundreds of thousands of bloggers, many untrained in writing, who have strong political opinions and ideas but lack the knowledge to do comprehensive research and don't look on all sides of an issue in order to write in a fair and balanced way. So the typical reader sees an article online in a format that looks just like their local paper (but often with no contact information) and uses the information as if it were the truth, not an opposing notion by the traditional media. Furthermore that traditional media is often so downgraded by the bloggers, that many people now don't trust anyone except a blogging friend.  So reputable and experienced journalists are losing jobs and income as a result.

The answer to these issues is actually quite simple. If you are ready to “buy”, look for a hands-on demonstration someone can sing or play music with a live performance, even if that's in a living room somewhere. Look at original paintings and the artist in a gallery working on a project. And with news and information, check the background of the writer and find the contact information as well, so you don't end up with the wrong information from a 16-year-old who just knows how to create a great-looking website with technology skills.

The abuses in art, music and writing are established by many people to be barriers for artists who have spent years honing their crafts. But it is the citizenry that supports the mundane, the artificial and the popular friend as opposed to the talented that brings the cultural aspect of the arts to levels of ordinary that do not elevate thinking or interest or abilities.

 

 

Duo creating sensation in a world of music

[caption id="attachment_15963" align="alignleft" width="180"] Nancy Burridge, vocalist on Fandalism[/caption]

Carol Forsloff --If you're a musician, you have likely encountered times when you suddenly lose a key member of your group and need that vocalist, drummer, bass player or strong lead and can't find that special person.  Or you are a fan of music, and you hope to find folks from different walks of life performing together a song you particularly enjoy.  Fandalism is a music site that promotes cooperation, not competition; and a recent collaboration between a songwriter and performer from the United Kingdom and a great vocalist from Florida demonstrates how the best can be forged from relationships in social media translated into music.

Nancy Burridge is that Susan Boyle-type singer, the kind that comes from a relatively small US  town, where she sings at various community events, and then suddenly springs forth dramatically with a  voice particularly special.  Fandalism has other musicians who make the site a wonderful place to find good music, and singers like Nancy, rather than being threatened by competition, are instead embracing each other in a world where love is the answer in the threads of musical notes.

Patrick Collard has a dimension reminiscent of John Denver, as both a songwriter and performer.  He plays the guitar eloquently, composes with style and is able to touch hearts with his musical masterpieces.  Add one of his songs to a vocal of Nancy Burridge, and you have the dessert you can savor and dream about for days.

Great artists sometimes spend a lifetime trying to be discovered and realize their dreams.  In a world where anybody can, there are those who go far beyond the ordinary.  Yet they too struggle like others, in spite of great talent.  But Fandalism is a stage where all the world may come, but not a place where everyone can immediately shine.  These two have reached that place, a place of shining in the group.

Have a listen, and like this reporter immerse yourself in something wonderful to begin your day.  And end it on the same note, for it will make your dreams so much sweeter.

http://fandalism.com/patrick7/biC8

http://fandalism.com/nancyburridge

Nancy Burridge talents sadly overlooked by social media

[caption id="attachment_14865" align="alignleft" width="120"] Nancy Burridge[/caption]

Carol Forsloff - Yesterday, after wandering onto You Tube, a woman’s beautiful voice stood out among many others.  What makes this noteworthy is that during the months Nancy Burridge has been singing on the site, relatively few people have listened to her material.   Is this a small part of the Jackie Evancho – Susan Boyle social media phenomenon, just to a lesser degree?

Neither Susan Boyle  nor Jackie Evancho won the top prize of the talent competition called Britains Got Talent or Americas Got Talent, despite the great notoriety both achieved by their spectacular performances.  Boyle had been singing for many years in her Scottish region with a voice as beautiful then as now.  Evancho, a child prodigy, had been demonstrating her amazing singing of classical music for years, despite the fact she was a very young child at the time of her presentation at Americas Got Talent.  But when both of these great talents were eventually “discovered,” they did not win the ultimate prize because of an attitude that appears to pervade our culture coupled with millions of people with a cynicism that says either “I could do better” or the kind of statement made about Jackie Evancho that “she is too young to have that talent and that’s weird.”

In other words, if you are too good, there must be something wrong with either you or the formal judges.  Or there is that other reason, of the democratization of everything driven by social media and popularity polls that does not seek the quality but the number of friends and others available to put someone at the front of the line.

Who has heard regularly about the young man, Michael Grimm, the “white soul singer who won the contest over Jackie Evancho?   Is he frequently in the entertainment news front and center like Evancho, talented though he surely is but less unique than the classical voice of a child?  Fortunately, there are those, who when discovered, sometimes quite accidentally as I found the woman’s talented singing yesterday, get noticed by music executives and get the recognition they deserve.  Still too many languish on the back benches because of those two phenomena of social media popularity and the cynical attitude of a throw-away culture where 15 minutes of fame is driven by impulse.

Erika Van Peldt, who was interviewed on the Today show on March 27, had won accolades from the judges of the national competition.  Yet she was screened out before being among the top few contestants for the first prize.  Again she did not win the social media vote of American Idol.  She was “discovered” after a fashion, and one can always point to a Jennifer Hudson as an example of a winner whose talent continues to charm.  But again who wins may not be the most talented but the one with the most friends or viewers who get in to cast their vote.

It continues to be the vote patterns coupled with the attitudes that drive them that reduces art, and many artists, to the dust bin of entertainment.  What is true of music is also true of visual art and writing, although the television presentations make the problems in music far more pronounced.

Nancy Burridge sings across a spectrum of music that displays her eloquent soprano, phrasing and expression.  She takes the standards of today and expresses them originally.  As a woman of mature years, she retains the youthful sounds that often leave singers bereft of their upper ranges.    Hers is a voice that deserves attention, and her attractive appearance simply adds luster to the performances.

Have a listen.  Discover the magic of that someone new and special, that undiscovered talent, the kind many people yearn for but are unable to find in the wilderness that has become entertainment.  Discover Nancy Burridge.

Susan Boyle is an example of how accommodation helps the disabled sharetheir talents equally

[caption id="attachment_4783" align="alignleft" width="261" caption="Susan Boyle"][/caption]

Carol Forsloff- At the time Susan Boyle first received world attention for her singing on Britain's Got Talent,  she was given accommodation so she could continue to share her talents equal to others because she had handicapping conditions that required it.


While Boyle's vocation is entertainment, the Americans with Disabilities Act expands into all areas of industry.  It is also the kind of legislation that is in Canada and other countries in some forms.  Simply stated, it is an adjustment to any part of a work schedule or environment to make it easier for an individual to perform work.

Accommodation does not mean an individual does not have to perform the work at the same level as a non disabled person, it simply means that it allows that same individual an equal chance to do so.

In the case of Susan Boyle, some folks may not have knowledge of her handicapping conditions, which deserve accommodation so that she can share her singing talents fairly.

This woman, an unemployed church worker who cared for her mother until her mother's death two years ago, has suffered all her life with learning disabilities. These resulted, according to Boyle's account, as a result of oxygen deprivation when she was born.

As a child Boyle was the butt of jokes in school because she was slow and not very attractive. Now when she is presented in any public venue where she performs, the audience responds with great appreciation for her talent.

For most types of contests these days, there are opportunities for individuals with disabilities to excel.

The characteristics exhibited in adulthood for brain injury include attention deficit, impaired planning and problem solving, inflexibility, impulsiveness, irritability, opposition and socially inappropriate behavior. Experts further say, “A person suffering from TBI disinhibition is likely to "speak his mind" and say socially inappropriate things where a normal person might think them but have the sense not to say them.  This happened shortly after Boyle became a media sensation, when she was reported swearing and acting inappropriately.

Boyle's example of accomplishment beyond the ordinary is part of what the public sees when the woman performs, as she makes the rounds this holiday season.  Accommodation helped make that happen and demonstrates how valuable that can be for folks like Boyle to share their talents with the world.