Don't Rain on Streisand's Parade! [Part 1]

Don't Rain on Streisand's Parade!

(Photo from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbra_Streisand)

     In front of the landmark Chinese Theater, on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, a shiny pink star has always been reflecting a glorious history of the powerful Barbra Streisand (par. 1, Iskowitz, 1988). In April of 1942, a rose blossoms under the sunbeam of the Spring Goddess. Like a rose with a passionate smell and sharp thorns, Streisand impacts the male industries and areas like films and political attitudes with her powerful and respectful femininity. Hence, during the 1960s and 1970s, our rose, Barbara Joan Streisand had refined the female stardom with multiple talents and ethnic outspokenness (par. 1, Britannica, 2019). Streisand symbolizes the urban Wonder Woman of her time with the strong independence, admirable career achievements, and powerful impact on liberal politics.

     Starting with the first winning in a Manhattan small local nightclub’s amateur talent contest, Streisand devoted more to music. Her singing engagements in Greenwich Village cabarets had brought her the ticket to the musical industry. She took the chance to be Miss Marmelstein in the Broadway musical I Can Get It for You Wholesale (1962). Although it was a small comic role, Streisand had stolen the stage light. Receiving attention from the public, her image was spreading on television. Thanks to the generous host, Streisand received more audience's approval in the Judy Garland Show. With this trigger, she released a series of The Barbra Streisand Albums (1963 -1964) and People (1964). The Barbra Streisand Album, her first album, has brought her many honorable awards. Two of them are from the Grammy academy for The Best Album of The Year and The Best Female Vocal Performance (par. 2, Britannica, 2019). Also, her fourth album  People (1964) reached the top 1 in the US peak chart positions (Wikipedia, n.d.). However, the success couldn't limit her talents with only the music industry.

     Barbra Streisand had made a breakthrough in the musical Funny Girl (1964), which was turned into a movie in 1968. She received an Oscar for The Best Actress. Streisand was in the role of Fanny Brice (1891 -1951), a young woman from a slumdog neighborhood with great ambitions of being a musical star. From the beginning, Brice stood out from other colleagues with her clumsiness and loose outfits. Although her appearance wasn't special, she had high self-confidence with her talents.
The film reflected the heavy expectation of the Compliant stereotype of women before the 1960s. It was when a female’s appearance decided her whole life. "When people pay good money in the theatre, especially the male elements, they want something extra to look at… If a girl isn't pretty, like a Miss Atlantic City. All she gets in life is pity and a pat",  Brice's aunt made her statement. However, since her first success, she was unstoppable.

     By gratefully appearing as a pregnant lady in a wedding dress and performing "His Love Makes Me Beautiful" (1964), Streisand had created a great impression in the musical industry. Both Brice and Streisand had made an iconic phenomenon since. Nowadays, this highlight scene still gains the audience's amazement and laughter in every Funny Girl musical plays.

     "His Love Makes Me Beautiful" (1964) is a musical song about a woman who gains self-confidence via her lover. A Compliant, "strictly a female female" ("I Enjoy Being a Girl", 1958), who needed a man to feel pretty. After the line "Ziegfeld presents her with justifiable pride" (Appendix A), the audience expected to see a grateful bride with gentle walking and gestures. Fanny Brice (played by Streisand) had turned everything upside down. She stepped out, in the audience's amazement with a huge belly. The audience busted out laughing. With this joke, the film had claimed that a woman was beautiful despite how her appearance changed. "Thank you for putting such a beautiful dress on a pregnant woman", a female audience told Ziegfield. "His Love Makes Me Beautiful" (1964) was portraying an appreciated Compliant.

(Photo from https://www.pinterest.com/pin/434456695275422272/)

     Barbra Streisand, with her great acting, raised her voice whenever she sang the word "beautiful" or the phrase "of my love's affection". At the same time, she looked down her belly with an overwhelming face. She questioned in silly tone "I'm beautiful? Oy" and the expression "Oy" completely stole the show. Streisand's voice was natural. Her funny facial expressions were so real as if she was being herself instead of Brice.   

Eurus Thach

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References:

Greenwald, M. (n. d.). “Don’t Rain On My Parade” [Review of the song “Don’t Rain On My Parade”]. Allmusic. Retrieved from https://www.allmusic.com/song/dont-rain-on-my-parade-mt0028617657.

Iskowitz, M. (1998). Streisand and Brolin on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Barbra Streisand Archives. Retrieved from http://barbra-archives.com/bjs_library/90s/brolin_star_walkoffame.html. 

Lamb, B. (2019). Barbra Streisand Biography: Her Life and Career [Blog Post]. Retrieved from https://www.liveabout.com/barbra-streisand-biography-4586388. 

Sony Music Entertainment. (n. d.). Biography [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://barbrastreisand.com/biography/.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. (2019). Barbra Streisand: American Actress, Singer, Director, Producer. Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/biography/Barbra-Streisand.

Wikipedia. (n. d.). Barbra Streisand discography. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbra_Streisand_discography. 

When Seeking For Others’ Lack Become Such A Fascinating Hobby Of The Human Race

From early ages, we have learned that there are always consequences comes after what we do. The stories like The Three Little Pigs play an important role in the recognition of the unwanting results of misbehaving in our childhood. We don’t want to be the misbehaving characters,  we don’t want to face the punishment, so we work on our incomplete traits. We learn to have voices inside our heads what we do bad things. Our mind then connects to the scenes of consequences and quickly awakes the consciences in us. In other words, we may deduce that bad models are imperative for the development of our characteristics and morality. 

Since we start analyzing the characters in the stories we know, we start judging. Being an essential part of our thinking system, judgment allows us to look at the mistakes, analyze and rate the quality of other individuals. We acknowledge most of the murderers are cold or most of the philanthropists are angles of God. Since then, we believe good models have more the living way to learn.

As the judging sense gets stronger, there are times that we got carried away. It’s when there is no more accommodation for the schemas and perceptions in our thinking systems. In plenty of cases, we might lock our mind in the box of the archetypes we build up for others. For example, some still believe Asians are good at Mathematics and LGBT is either a kind of sickness or an error of creation. Humorously, there are some ironical cases when a person, who lacks a quality, judges a person who also lacks that quality. I’ve seen a big-headed person judges another big-headed one. One said, “you don’t know that until it happens to you”. Hence, the joy of judgment is that how much we realize we’re better than others and that we have something to be proud of ourselves. Plus, Sigmund Freud also said humiliation was a way to release our anger. Therefore, he concluded human beings as “homo homini lupus” (a man is a wolf to a man). A person judges a bad girl by comparing the nights she spends with her boyfriend with the nights she stays at the apartment with her housemates. Since then, he can see himself as a good model and a wise man. However, when he gets a girlfriend for whom he can’t stop falling, he is later sympathetic to the girl. But still, he tries to find many reasons for not blaming himself. Or another case is even worse: a guy makes fun of the victims of sexual abuse. Since when seeking for others’ lack become such a fascinating hobby of the human race? 

We can’t stop ourselves from judging, can we? However, we can choose where is the yellow line to stop and not to turn ourselves into the slaves of judging.

Eurus Thach

Life Is Beautiful Though Sometimes Its Beauty Is A Little Bit Hard To Savour

Human beings have been chasing after the self-satisfaction and good feelings for thousands of decades. It is a natural instinct and it is an undeniable right in the state of nature. Because of this, it turns out difficult for us to face the consequences when things go wrong. Imagine when you got cheated. Imagine when you grow up in a home full of violence. Imagine when the ones you love the most suddenly pass away. There are some of us who are disappointed, some might be depressed, the others might think about suicide and many people might choose to do so.

When things go down to the hole, we might wonder why that the negativities, the pains, the tragedies hit us all at once. Is that our faults or it is meant to be? We are not born to expect the sorrow to come. We are not taught what to do when we’re broken. We choose joy and I strongly believe everyone deserves it.

We, humans, have a remarkable ability to build up hope. Let’s take an example when we are looking at the ones we love lying on the bed of the hospital and hear that they are untreatable, what we will do? After hours and hours drowning ourselves in tears and regret, we build up our hope. Victor Hugo once said, “hope is the word which God has written on the brow of every man”. In the darkest night, we’ll hold on to anything even a spot of light. However, when the ones we love can’t make it, it’s impossible for us to accept the truth. Are we avoiding to believe what is happening around us?

Please open your hands. Please do the hand gesture like you are reaching something. We’ll see our fingers open, keep space from each other, won’t we? Our hands will be in the direction of the object, won’t they? The highest possibility here is our middle fingers will touch the object first. Well, we are all so familiar to the middle finger’ s meaning. Hence, whenever we touch or reach something, the disadvantages, the unexpected negativities are already there, in front of us. However, we choose to ignore them all.

How many people think of the possibilities of the negativities? How many people prepare for them? How many people are ready to face them?

Some people may feel pessimistic thinking about them but I’d rather say how thoughtful and brave of them to do so.

Thinking about the lost, we will appreciate the time we got with the ones we love. Thinking about the pain, we will pick up lessons.

Even life is full of obstacles, it is still full of light.

We can choose to spend our best effort to forget about something or we can choose to remember it, learn from it to turn the pain into something precious.

Hence, life is beautiful though sometimes its beauty is a little bit hard to savour.

Eurus Thach.