Jump to content

Donna Summer - Crayons


Sylph

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 28
  • Created
  • Last Reply
  • Members

I can't listen to the entire album, I get bored halfway through. It seems overproduced and without focus. I loved the single "I Got Your Love" that she released a few years ago. It was a smooth, mature, but modern track that fit her perfectly. Most of the new album seems too young for her. I do enjoy Stamp, but overall it's not standing out for me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I'm nuts for Donna so I'm really biased but it's really grown on me. The theme of showing different facets of her personality (ie a box of crayons) fit, her vocals are still better than many divas half her age... Funny though at first I was way more into Cyndi's new great dance album but Cryaons is wearing better on me as the weeks go by... Donna did co write every song.

my main gripe. The Circuit City Bonus ediiton and international editions end on a killer 8 minute dance track It's Only Love which is a highlight for me. It's criminal that not every version ends with this essential track.

Anyway it looks like it will debut at number 17 this week which isn't bad considering she hasn't reached that high with an album since 1983...

Here's the Electronic Press Kit on the album which, fitting for the small boutique label she's on, is VERY cheap and the "performance/lip synch" footage is ridiculous but it's still worth watching.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZN8_woL6lFA (Embedding is disabled)

And here was a great profile on her done on this past Sunday's CBS Sunday Morning. This Friday on NBC's morning show she'll be performing 4 songs as part of their Summer Concert Series and is on Letterman this Monday.

And finally the great popculture site Popmatters has both an awesome interview with Donna and her producers (there's a great piece on how Gad collaborated with her on 2 of the best songs, Fame and Science of Love) and a killer retrospective of her career going from album to album (it's easy to forget how amazingly groundbreaking her 70s disco albums, sometimes two double LPs a year, were in concept and execution) from successes to flop interspersed with quotes from celebrities on her.

http://www.popmatters.com/pm/features/arti...o-donna-summer/ and http://www.popmatters.com/pm/features/arti...h-donna-summer/

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Nor could I lol... Anyway I had saved it to a file so here it is--it was actually from an Italian fan site:

Pretty good little interview with one of her producers Toby Gad (yes of Fergie fame) on a fansite:

Toby Gad, one of today's most successful and gifted music makers, has produced three tracks for Donna's new album. And though he's busy and constantly in demand, he was kind enough to share his thoughts on CRAYONS with all the friends of Donna Summer Time. Great music doesn't lie: he's a great guy.

Sebastiano: Toby, I understand you were a Donna fan long before you met her. What did you think when you knew you were going to work with her?

Toby: I was thrilled... I always loved her hits like SHE WORKS HARD FOR THE MONEY, LOVE TO LOVE YOU BABY, etc. It was an honor and a great challenge at the same time.

S: Some reviewers are complaining that Donna sounds like a different singer almost on each song of CRAYONS. I just don't get this. The album's incredible variety is a choice, not an accident...

T: She co-wrote each song and I would see the music more as a medium to carry the lyric. The lyric is consistently Donna and thus the diversity of her record feels homogenous to me, considering how much she has to say about life and her experiences.

S: What do you think you've learned from working with such a living legend? And what do you think she may have learned from you?

T: We had a great time together. I was surprised that she is one of the few who can capture the essence of a vocal in the very first take. I guess that's what you had to do to be good 20 years ago. These days there are few artists who can deliver such a dead-on first-take performance. That's a challenge as a producer. You gotta capture every little piece she sings because it may be the best one.

Not sure what she learned from me, but I can definitely say we've made friends and I'm sure I'll see her again. Well perhaps she learned through me how times have changed, since I'm one of the trailblazer producers who travel with a mac book pro and logic and do records in beach houses and hotel rooms rather than conventional studios. You can check out some film clips on my site in the section "behind the scenes" which document how I work on laptops. Also in three of my videoblogs you can see Donna in NYC and in Miami with me.

S: Donna stated that if the album makes the listeners feel better, then she's done a good job. As CRAYONS has such a distinctive "feel good" quality about it, I would say she's done a great job...

T: Absolutely!

Now the songs you worked on: FAME (THE GAME):

S: Listening to this song made me think: "the Superstar of Rock & Roll is back!". The vocals and the arrangement are adventurous, electrifying; the words seem to be coming straight from Donna's soul and maybe from some past wounds too.

T: She told me many details about how Fame affected her life and I helped put that into the lyric of the song. The song went fast. She had started the hook to a different track and I loved the idea, so I wrote the verses in 2 hours and recorded her on it. 2 weeks later the label called me from the mastering room and said, we can't use the track, can you write new music to it. So I had half a day to produce a new track to it and sent it straight to the mastering studio.

S: What about RUN WITH IT? Was that the "other track" Donna had started the hook to, or is it a completely different song?

T: It's a different song, not sure if Donna wants to release it at a later time.

SAND ON MY FEET:

S: Donna sounds so sweet and relaxed on this one...

T: I spent four days at her amazing beach house and one day we were just looking out the window at the ocean, I jammed on the guitar and she sang whatever she saw and felt about the beach and about the love to her wonderful husband. Then she got hungry and went to the kitchen to cook. I followed her with the guitar in the kitchen and said, "Donna, I know you're hungry but we need to finish this song idea...", so we continued writing the song while she was cooking for us. Even when some of her friends came over for dinner, I was still working on the song and interrupting the dinner. A week later I met her at the Hit Factory in Miami and we gave the song a few final touches.

SCIENCE OF LOVE:

T: It's the first song we wrote. I had a track idea and we jammed to it. The verses came first. It's about what love can do to you, how it can also defy gravity and do crazy things that don't make sense at first glance.

S: Will SCIENCE OF LOVE be released as a single? I hope so.

T: Up to the label.

S: Are there any songs on CRAYONS you would have loved to produce?

T: I think the other producers did a great job.

S: The unavoidable question: do you have a favourite color?

T: Blue.

S: Thank you so much, Toby, for your kindness, your time and for making Donna's comeback even more special.

T: My pleasure.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Thanks for all the comments, I'll probably buy it despite what my partner says. Apparently it is not selling well. I'm a little young for it and I believe you are younger than I am, Eric (I was born in 68). She hooked me with "I Feel Love"; possibly the first song I ever really danced to (*home alone in my underpants*)

Hard to believe that "Love to love you baby" was banned in a few European countries back in the day.

My partner, husband, has some real issues with her alleged "God made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve" comments but I'm not sure I believe it ever happened.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

It basically didn't rever happen. I'm just gonna copy what I posted in another forum cuz I get tired of repeatedly trying to stick up for DOnna Summer's "homophobia" (especially when gay icons like Shirley Bassey, Gloria Gaynor and Cher have been directly quoted saying far worse things than Donna's alleged comment that she even sued for slander over--yet gays don't remember that--and don't get me wrong I love Cher, and I know she now regrets what she said but why are some gays still so pissed over rumours abotu Donna Summer but so forgiven elsewise?...)

Ugh I hate how this always eventually comes up STILL when Donna's doing something (though this album DID just come in at number 17 on the Billboard charts, higher than predicted which isn't bad--she has two majro chat shows--Today Show + a mini concert Friday and Letterman Monday--too so maybe it'll do well this week too)

yeah I was born in 1980 but I think Donna has the best voice, still in the bizz and her albums from 1975-1980 are just sunning creative dance records--every dance/pop diva owes those recordings a huge layer of dept--nto just for the hits but for great album tracks too (I actually got into her as a teen cuz I read somewhere how Madonna was inspired by her success and decided to investigate and was hooked).

(Oh and if you liked I Feel Love try to get the bonus edition fo Crayons edning with It's Only Love a killer 7 minute trance dance track that owes a lot to if but is stupidly only on some editions)

Anyway, sorry for this, TC. If your hubby bring sit up again I'd ask where he heard the "gossip' for sure as it's almost become an urban myth and tell him to make up his own mind. Here's what I posted to a music forum when it came up:

"NOTHING homopobic was ever said to the press, recorded, or anywhere else and it's always been hearsay--so much that it's almost an urban legend. It IS true that at her most evangelical (which Donna no longer is--her church is very inclusive and gay friendly) she did say "I will pray for you" and some people thought she meant pray for all gays. What happened was someone with a very sick (with AIDS) boyfriend came to the show and asked Donna to pray for his health so she did. OOOOH how homophobic.

What makes me mad is there have been "gay icons" who have explicitly said homophobic things to the press--direct quotes, and it's been all but forgotten or at leats forgiven. Cher, Shirley Bassey and Gloria Gaynor all are examples. Donna never has, has always denied it and has done tons of gay charity work, played Gay Days and given her profits to AIDS charities, sold out two Carnegie Hall charity shows for Gay Men's Health Crisis, has sued papers that have claimed she's said those things for libel, sang at her close friend Paul Jabara's (who wrote Last Dance, Enough is Enough, Raining Men and invented the AIDS red Ribbon thing) funeral, is close friends with and has worked with many gay writers and producers including on Crayosn who have all said she's a great friend, etc. Even if Donna did have homophobic feelings for a time (around 1980 when her life was filled with depression and prescription drug abuse and she delved deeply into religion to get out of that she was involved with some pretty extreme churches before she snapped out of it) she has done more than Pink Pound divas like Shirley bassey have done to make up for it IMHO--and I still don't think she did say any of that.

On the disco forum there's a remixer who has worked for Donna's husband's record label and he asked him, Bruce, about it, and as Bruce said even if Donna did believe any of that why would she say it ANYWHERE, she'd know it would be career suicide and she's frankly not that stupid.

Anyone who wants to read all the details on both sides of it can read this excellent article. http://www.donna-tribute.com/articles/99/rumor.html

Otherwise I really think the whole topic needs and deserves to be let go--what I love most is the people who still perpetuate the rumour usually have No idea what they're talking about and haven't even looked up the basic facts, pro and con, about it and its basis in reality. The gay press has never boycotted her, her concerts are filled with gay men and Donna doesn't look like she's gonna vomit when she's singing surrounded by them. It's just some gays still being drama queens at this point, frankly (what a waste when there are genuine targets of people filled with hate that they could spend the energy on).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

My friend Tommy who runs the BEST obscure Disco blog, with mp3s each week at http://discodelivery.blogspot.com/ just posted his Donna Summer review and I think it's spot on--both the positives and negatives. I agree 100% so I'll just post it ;) (And I'm meetign him in Vancouver for her concert...)

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Colour it a comeback?

Unsurprisingly, "Crayons" has been one of my frequent listens this past week, and so far reviews have been about as mixed as the genres on the record. Admittedly, even despite my own initial skepticism, I've found a lot to love on this record. It's hard to believe that all of seventeen years have passed since the last time Donna Summer has released an original album (and about eight since her last aborted comeback). In the intervening years, her status as "Queen of Disco" and her classic recordings with Moroder & Bellotte seem to have only gained currency, so understandably expectations have been anything but modest. Despite that, "Crayons" comes across as less of an opportunity to affirm her title as the "Queen of Disco" and capitalize on the appreciation, or at least the spirit of her earlier work than it is an excuse to pick up where she had left off nearly 20 years ago and record what is possibly the most diverse, self consciously current, accessible pop records of her career. Depending on one's perspective, it's either a laudable move or a missed opportunity, and it seems almost every review out there seems to fall in either one category or the other..

In a time when the music industry seems to require veteran artists to release endless streams of standards/cover albums (the first suggestion her label brought to the table, not surprisingly), I'm not sure that there's an album out there now that manages to be so unabashedly trendy, yet so un-trendy at the same time. In my mind, she deserves a good deal of credit for bucking the trend and at nearly 60, putting out an original pop record, however out of place it may seem. While the likes of Madonna and Kylie Minogue, having perfected the impeccably timed pop singer reinvention, may be able to pull off something similar without the same sort of criticism someday; between her seventeen year absence from recording and her still strong association with the disco era, considerable vocal talent notwithstanding, one can hardly say the same for Ms. Summer.. Unlike a near decade ago when the likes of Cher and Tina Turner were putting out hit records with younger producers, in the last four or so years it seems, the thought of an aging diva staging a comeback with a pop record as polished and commercial as this one today, produced by a laundry list of current hitmaking producers feels almost like a critical death wish..

With songs like "Stamp Your Feet," seemingly tailor made for a Nike commercial, it's hook copping the Gwen Stefani/Fergie-inspired (or not so inspired) 'spelling bee' trend, to "Mr. Music", where she opens with a line about 'hooking up her iPod, shaking her body and being 'naughty, naughty', to "Crayons" (featuring Ziggy Marley) which sounds like K-os crossed with Rihanna, or even "The Queen Is Back" with it's Mary J. declarations backed with ABBA chords and hip-hop beats, parts of the album sound, to put it honestly, almost embarassing on paper. Admittedly, given all that, it would be extremely easy to completely dismiss the album altogether, if the results weren't as surprisingly and seriously enjoyable as they actually are.

Despite how they may come across on paper, the aforementioned first four tracks end up being some of the most infectious tracks on the record. The single, the Greg Kurstin produced "Stamp Your Feet" makes the perfect combination of dance-appeal and current pop-radio friendliness and "Crayons" (also produced by Kurstin), despite the surface similiarities to her less-than-stellar 1983 single "Unconditional Love," thankfully comes across infinitely better. Even the J.R. Rotem tracks - "Mr. Music" and "The Queen Is Back" with their slightly awkward combination of Donna and their urban styled production values, end up being some of the most memorably catchy tracks on the record.

Although not without it's low-points - namely the gimmicky, overproduced "Fame (The Game)" and "Slide Over Backwards" on which she adopts a southern alter ego by the name of Hattie Mae Blanche Dubois, other album highlights include the latin styled "Driving Down Brazil," as well as Toby Gad produced "Science of Love" with it's memorable melody and impassioned vocal and lyric, which is, aside from the ones already released, perhaps the most obvious single on the album. As well, the more 'unplugged' tracks on the album, "Sand On My Feet" and the personal "Be Myself Again" and the socially conscious "Bring Down The Reign" are also notable memonts, successfully bringing Donna and her voice into a setting in which she has rarely, if ever been heard. In so doing, they're perhaps the two tracks which most dramatically and clearly confirm the album's ambitions..

The first single and # 1 Billboard Dance hit "I'm A Fire" produced by Sebastian Arocha Morton emerges as another obvious highlight along with the international/US Circuit City bonus (also produced by Morton), "It's Only Love." Out of all the others, they are the only two tracks which seem to perfectly bridge the feeling of Donna Summer's classic disco recordings with today's contemporary dance/electronic aesthetics. It has to have been at least thirty years since a Donna Summer record has captured the sheer sensuality and sexiness in her voice as perfectly as "It's Only Love".

Although it's questionable whether this record will appeal to the same people who would buy a Fergie or Rihanna record, given how influential the work of Giorgio Moroder, particularly her work with him continues to be among newer generations of producers and listeners, there would likely be no shortage of younger, perhaps lesser known, but no less able and ambitious producers willing to return her to the forefront of contemporary electronic/dance music, if she so wishes to in the future. Anyone expecting as such with this album however, would probably be disappointed. Despite that, as a quality pop album and as a showcase of Summer's versatility, it's a roundly successful effort. Although her last original album was released seventeen years back, it's been even longer since Donna herself has sounded this engaged and exciting. So while this album may not singlehandedly untie her legacy from the past, she's at least proved that she's not about to be trapped by it, either. Hopefully the next album won't take another seventeen years.

As a side note, I've got my tickets to see her in Vancouver (well, Richmond actually) this coming August on her summer tour. It'll be my first time seeing her live, so I can't wait! I'll make sure I'll post a review and maybe some pix when I get back..

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 years later...
  • Members

Aww Sylph, did you bump this for my benefit? :lol:

For me it's a mixed bag. I think it stands up, as a whole, better than anything she's done since 1981, which is saying something. It's solid, the Greg Kurstin tracks as well as the two dance epics, I'm a Fire and It's Only Love (annoyingly only on the European pressings!) are awesome, and hold up on iPod shuffle with anything similar coming out at the moment. Some of it, like Be Myself Again, I only love cuz I saw her sing it live. It's typical of some of Summer's more self indulgent lyrics, that she honestly does pull off live. I think fans wanted more of a full on dance album (which it seems we're about to get--she premiered a new track at Vuitton's London opening), and I get that. That said I'm so thankful she worked with talented NEW producers--I adore Moroder but he hasn't done anything worth a fart since 1988, including his reunion tracks with Donna (OK, Carry On, is cute).

I hadn't actually listened to this for a good half year and just pulled it out last week. The fact she makes a Rhiannon-esque track like Crayons, well *work* is merit enough I think.

Us fans waited since 1991's AWFUL Mistaken Identity album, so compared to that this is as awesome as Once Upon a Time or Bad Girls. :lol:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.



  • Recent Posts

    • Download isn't working for me either.  With that said, thank you for all the work you have done!
    • @P.J. Well, it wasn't her first award. I am sure she has written books, and spoken at colleges, and gotten some notoriety from it. Most importantly, she is fulfilled. Something Dani is not.  @Paul Raven Exactly, it does not ring true to me. Dani has that big personality because she is masking pain. And she probably clung to Bill because he made her feel smart and important (at one point). There are ways to add more layers to her.
    • Absolutely. And IIRC Rose Alaio has mentioned production having it out for her.
    • That goes back to Chance/Abby-there was way more to explore with their marriage but the first problem that pops up that's pretty much it-moving on. And Kyle/Lola, years worth of story dropped so he can fall back in love with Summer. Sharon/Rey married off with no plans for their future so they kill him off. And so on...
    • All of that would be interesting. Why would JG ever do that?
    • GH 1976 Pt 2 Medical student Bobby Chandler’s bone-marrow test results are in, and Steve Hardy has the difficult task of telling him he has Malenkov’s Disease, a rare and fatal blood disease. Bobby, newly married Samantha, hears his one-year-maximum prognosis and insists that Steve not tell anyone, as he has to have time to work out his own feelings. To cover up the treatments he’ll be starting immediately, Bobby, with Steve, decides to tell his family he has mononucleosis. His wife and his mother, Caroline, accept this story, but attorney Lee Baldwin senses it’s much more and presses Bobby for the truth, then promising to keep Bobby’s secret. Even though Bobby moves into a state of remission, Lee realizes the gravity of the problem and moves his wedding to Caroline forward, assuring Bobby that he will always be there for both Caroline and Sammi. But Bobby’s remission is short-lived, and his symptoms are now more severe, requiring frequent whole-blood transfusions. And a new experimental drug he is taking holds the threat of serious side effects. Sammi learns that Bobby’s attempt to buy life insurance was turned down and, herself a nurse, realizes that his symptoms are more severe than mono. She tries to press Leslie for the truth, but Leslie can’t violate a patient’s confidence. She does, however, pressure Bobby to let Sammi share is with him. Bobby insists that he can’t; he won’t send her into mourning while he’s still there to watch. But Sammi, angry at being treated like a child, presses the issue and manages to find out the truth. She then asks Lee to convince Bobby that his mother must be told so they can all show him the love they have for him before it’s too late and they have only  regrets for what went unsaid. Lee agrees, and after the wedding he protectively tells Caroline the truth. Sammi then tells Bobby that she is pregnant, news that he receives with very mixed emotions. Steve hits an optimistic note when he tells Bobby that a new breakthrough in leukemia chemotherapy may help him in his fight for life. This new treatment calls for more extensive testing, and Steve is overjoyed to find that there has been a variation in Bobby’s condition which indicates that he -doesn’t have Malenkov’s Disease after all. His condition, while serious, can be successfully treated  extensive drug therapy in New York, and Lee quickly arranges for all of them to move there so they can support Bobby during the extensive treatment and long recovery.  Dr. Jim Hobart and his wife, Audrey, are continuing their therapy sessions, trying to decide if they have a future together. Audrey admits she has stayed with Jim only because he needed her while he was drinking, and he in turn admits that he knows Audrey married him not out of love but out of gratitude for saving her son Tommy’s life in surgery. When Jim finally tells Audrey that he created his own alcoholic abyss and blamed her only because she was conveniently close, she wonders what will happen to: her when he recovers. If he doesn’t need her, can she go on? Does she need so much to be needed? When Jim, improving, starts teaching at the local college, he finds his self-image improving. But Audrey, worn out from therapy, suggests that she take a short vacation alone. Jim sees this as a way of undermining his recent strides and is angry. He relates this situation to his recent impotence, caused by his emotional problems. Jim reacts to his own feelings of inadequacy by withdrawing from Audrey, treating her impersonally and coldly. She takes this as an indication of her own failure. But when Jim reacts enthusiastically to one of his students, lovely young Sally Grimes, Audrey questions her own responsibility for the situation and accepts a dinner invitation with Steve Hardy, her first husband. Steve’s reassurance that she’s been a paragon of tolerance is negated when Jim walks in late and showing signs of drinking. When she asks how he could do it, he bitterly replies, “It’s a way to help me escape from you,” and turns and leaves. He goes to Sally’s, where they make love. When Sally later expresses regret at interfering in his marriage, Jim assures her there was nothing left to spoil—his wife is frigid but has blamed their sexual failure on him; thanks to Sally, he now knows he’s not inadequate. Since Sally won’t have an affair with a married man, Jim decides to make the break with Audrey. He bit- _ terly tells her Sally proved to him that he never had a problem—all he needed was a real woman, not one who was all burned out. He scathingly says that she takes men and castrates them; cases in point, her three husbands: Steve Hardy, Tom Baldwin, and himself. Shocked and horribly hurt by his accusations, Audrey swallows sleeping pills but immediately realizes the folly of her actions and tries to get help. Steve, meanwhile, senses something wrong and on a hunch goes to her apartment, where he finds her unconscious. He rushes her to the hospital for treatment, and after sixteen hours she begins to come around. She tearfully repeats Jim’s accusations while still groggy, and Steve reassures her that nothing Jim said was in any way true. As she dozes in the security of his presence, he whispers to her, “There’s a lot of woman in you, there was and there is, my sweet, lovely Audrey.”  Nurse Beth Maynard, despite her frequent pronouncements that she’s immune to emotional involvement, has fallen in love with resident Kyle Bradley. Beth’s sister, Nurse Diana Taylor, feels that Kyle treats Beth as if she were a casual conquest, however, rather than a woman he loves. Kyle’s life is now complicated by the arrival of Nurse Kate Marshall in town. She is staying with her godmother, Jessie Brewer, R.N., while. she recovers from a painful divorce. She and Kyle had an affair a few years ago, and she knows he’s married but keeps his wife “under wraps.” Kyle, in turn, knows that the discovery of Kate’s affair with Dr. John McAllister drove his wife to suicide. Kyle and Kate resume their affair. Despite the fact that Kyle is now living with Beth, Diana has seen enough to convince her that Kyle is deceiving her sister. But Beth won’t believe this, until she sees them embracing herself. When she confronts Kate, Kate bitterly tells Beth everything past and present about herself and Kyle, including the interesting fact that he’s married. Beth, shocked and hurt, throws Kyle out, and Jessie, who overheard Kate’s vindictive diatribe to Beth, arranges her transfer to another hospital.     
    • This is so true - the instant love is annoying. Adam/Sally/Billy/Chelsea are the best evidence of why this rings hollow. While I can see Adam/Chelsea reuniting based on a long history and Connor, there's no way Sally would instantly declare love. While Billy is just a desperate soul, Sally would be far more cautious after what happened with Adam. The *real* Sally would not only scheme to get Adam back, but make Chelsea's life difficult. She just got over it and gave up. Please. Instead of insta-love why can't some of these characters more casual? I hope Claire flings with Holden after Kyle falls into Audra's trap. Abby turns to Nate when Devon obsesses over Amanda - even if she's not in town. Lauren turns to Jack during this Michael stress, who in turn lands in Diane's web. We need messy triangles/quads and more.
    • Literally looks like a damn VFA or bingo hall. But we’re supposed to believe high rollers go there.
    • More 1976 LOL Carrie is very afraid that Ian’s paying her bills will force Arlene into a relationship with him she doesn’t want. She asks Joe if there’s some way to give Ian  back the money. Joe tells Arlene that her mother’s afraid of the situation, but Arlene assures him that the only thing she fears is that Tom will find out and think she’s more than a friend to Ian. Betsy, understandably resentful of Arlene, can’t see what her brother sees in her and is upset to see Arlene with Ian, as she’s sure Tom will be hurt. Tom is initially quite angry when he happens to learn that Ian paid Carrie’s hospital bills in full but believes Arlene when she assures him Ian’s just a friend. Ian, meanwhile, after Arlene admits she has strong feelings for a young doctor and can therefore regard Ian only as a friend, puts the pieces together and makes an appointment to see Tom for a cardiac examination. Tom realizes why Ian has chosen him and refuses a considerable fee to become Ian’s personal physician. . Betsy has suggested that Tom not ask Arlene to Meg’s formal New Year’s Eve party for the sake of all concerned. Meg, while having Carrie alter her party dress, mentions she’s being escorted by a wealthy man but doesn’t mention Ian by name. Ian had asked  Arlene to fly to Mexico with him for the New Year, but she declined, explaining she had another date. Tom, seeing how left out she feels, tells Arlene they are going to Meg’s party after all, and she begins looking for a dress, unable to afford the type of smashing creation she really wants. Ian, learning that Arlene’s  looking for a dress suitable for Meg’s party, arranges to have a designer creation sent in place of the off the rack dress she selected. When it arrives, Arlene and Carrie immediately plan to return it, but, on second thought, Arlene decides it wouldn’t hurt if she wore it just this once.  Ben Harper is released from prison, and Betsy tries - to show him they have nothing left between them by dating Jamie. However, her feelings for Ben get in the way of her enjoying Jamie’s company. Jamie has decided to accept an out-of-town law firm’s offer and, before leaving, helps Diana arrange the passport requirements for her newly arranged missionary trainee post in Peru. Diana tells Jamie she’s finally found peace except for her sadness at having to leave Johnny  behind. Beaver Ridge has continued to deteriorate since Rick left Meg in control, and Jamie warns Rick that since he owns fifty-one percent of the club, he’ll have to come up with fifty-one percent of the money needed to put the place back on its feet. Cal has mentioned to Rick that she would rather have a smaller, more informal home than his imposing house, and when she learns he’s put the house on the market she assumes he’s considering her desire for an easier home to run. Rick is determined that Cal not know the full extent of his financial problems. Since she wants it so badly, Rick promises Cal he’ll buy the mill house as their home, but he refuses adamantly to accept money from her trust fund toward the purchase, recalling the trouble resulting from the last time he borrowed  money from a woman—her mother, Meg.  Ian informs Ray that he'll get his cut of Beaver Ridge only when he, Ian, has the controlling interest.  When Rick can’t raise his share of the Beaver Ridge capital, he approaches Ray for help. Ray sends him to Ian, who refusés to make a loan, explaining it’s his firm policy, but suggests he pay one hundred thousand ~ dollars for two percent of Rick’s holdings in Beaver Ridge, thus transferring majority ownership to himself. Rick thinks it over and realizes he has no choice but to accept. He hates losing control of Beaver Ridge but  feels his first responsibility is Cal and he must protect her from his financial worries. Ben has moved in with Van and Bruce, explaining to Meg that he wants no help and no coddling, he has to make it on his own. He manages to find a job as a salesman in a sporting-goods shop, despite his parole. Betsy hires Carrie as Suzanne’s baby sitter in order to be absent when Ben visits his daughter. Ben finally tells Betsy he’d hoped there was still a chance for them despite everything but her dating Jamie and avoiding him seems to mean he was mistaken. Betsy admits she’s no longer seeing Jamie and agrees to be home when Ben visits. They then call a truce and decide to attend Meg’s party together.  
    • A few years after my grandfather and great aunt passed away, my grandmother married her widowed brother-in-law. You could have knocked us all over with a feather when they told us. My point is: it happens in RL, a lot more often than people think. In the Jack/Siobhan case, it would have been super messy, which is exactly what you want on a soap. Putting Siobhan with Joe forced them to write her as very naive and gullible, which seemed totally wrong for the character they initially introduced. I liked Rose, too, but that story also got derailed by the stupid mob stuff.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy