JackViolet

Yes, of course, if you get hired then you travel with the tour--sleeping arrangements and stuff are provided as part of the job! :-)

--Jack

I thought his additions to the songs was great. Really gave the songs some ooomph. And the crowd seemed to like it:thumb_yello:

Oh, I don't mean the additions--except maybe a bit on "Love Today"--I mean the musical arrangements. Like, the songs were played at a noticeably different tempo and such today, almost like alternate versions. :-)

he does sound a bit tired.. But he jumps around like crazy!!!!!

Yeah, I was noticing that! Though it's very difficult to both jump and sing like that. I still feel he should rest. I've been noticing that he always sings much better when he performs after a few days' break! Which only makes sense, of course.

--Jack

I loved his little "drum" solo! :-D

Am not so enthusiastic about these new arrangements for the songs though... I mean, I know it gets tiring playing them the same way all the time, but I think I prefer them in their more "traditional" incarnations... Plus Mika sounds a bit tired/worn out... hmm. He should rest more!

--Jack

(Always always love "Lollipop" though!)

Ahhhh, this was great! I love that little video.

Hahah, it does... plus at first I didn't see the thread in the Events forum so I thought people were not talking, period!

Jemma, your outfit was very colorful indeed! I guess those girls in the pink and blue corsets (who aren't Mika's usual dancers) were more people hired by the studio then... too bad, I really liked the idea of them dressing all of you up that way!

Blue Eyes, thanks for the blog! That was really fun to read, and was exactly what we all meant when we asked for a report, I think!

--Jack

Ooooh, now that people are talking more, can I ask some more questions?

I'm all curious about the costumes. We've already seen some in the photos, but you don't have to talk about what they actually looked like--I am just super curious as to whether they were provided for you on the site and how! Like, did they tell you to dress up, or did they dress everyone? And did they ask for measurements, or did they just have a range of sizes? I've always wanted to know how they get costumes to fit when they do a wide casting call like this!

(can I be any more girly?)

--Jack

Well this is why most people aren't so much asking for the "concept" of the video as just your experiences with the filming and meeting Mika, right?

--Jack

Edited to say posted simultaneously with Jack ... great minds!

Hahah, yes, that's exactly what I meant! I mean, I'd appreciate some details on what type of things they were told to do, because I don't think that would give much away anyway, but even if you want to keep that secret, surely you can share other things!

--Jack

This is true, plus it's not like sharing the experiences of the day possibly COULD give away the video, since there's still editing, etc., to go through. It's not like they just point the camera, shoot, and have the final product right there: all anyone could share at this point is the concept behind some scenes that may or may not end up in the video. There will probably be all sorts of other stuff intercut and edited in anyway, and the scenes will not likely look the same way they did on the street.

So unless people were told directly not to talk about it, I don't see what the big deal is. Especially since your personal accounts of it are likely to be along the lines of "we got there early, then had to wait a bit. They put us into costumes and makeup: my costume was really sparkly! Then they got us into a big group and tried to show us what to do. I kept worrying my top was going to ride down on film, that would have been so embarassing! We had to do the same thing again and again and that got rather boring, but Mika was there and so it was great, he was so funny when he was giving directions, blah blah etc etc." Would that type of account really "spoil" anything?

--Jack

I don't think it's a problem to post these--after all, it's just photos of the shoot, not parts of the video itself. Plus it all looks terrific and is just making everyone more excited! And it's not like anyone buys the video--the point of a video is to act as promotion. This is only helping it.

The only issue to consider is whether these photos were posted publically or privately, and whether people want their myspace pictures all over the net.

--Jack

Thanks for the link! Hahah, speaking of musicians and height, something's been in the water around the UK lately, eh? There's our Mika, and then there's Patrick Wolf (also 6'4") and then there's Calvin Harris measuring in at 6'5" even.

Quite the gangly bunch.

--Jack

I'm sad. I think I either missed this episode, or possibly didn't notice the song because I wasn't a fan yet. I hope it will air again.

You can watch it on ABC's site in streaming format! Though it was what, 2 episodes ago for us now?

Oh come onnnn! Ugh!

It's like Fate is teasing me. I want to go to this show and yet I can't make the date and yet there's stuff like this, and people on my friends list on livejournal saying "oh, I have got an extra ticket, does anyone want it?"

MIKA CHANGE THE DATE. Or do a surprise show in Philly earlier that week. Or another one in NY that's not that weekend. Or come back to DC for Sunday. Please?

(yeah, right.)

That's a good reading of it.

Depending on your interpretation, there IS also a bit of a secret in the second part of the lyrics, but there doesn't have to be.

But yes, it's obvioulsy about going a somewhat difficult time with your family, and no one wants to talk about that to the media.

--Jack

*blushes* Er... I am not sure I am comfortable doing that either. :-( I think I should just stop talking about it, I'm only causing people to get more confused and frustrated. If people have similar interpretations to mine, like I know some people here do, I think they'll get what I mean... and if not, maybe they should just try to listen to the song again carefully, because after all, it's all in there...

--Jack

Um... I don't want to share my guesses openly. Because if I'm right, Mika's already said he doesn't want to talk about the song's meaning. And if I'm wrong, I definitely don't want to have that kind of misinformation out there.

Nah, I think it's fair that he doesn't want to talk about it, even if it fuels speculation. I understand him simply not wishing to give the example of making some personal things public (whatever type of personal things they are--and his family relations fall into this). Though I think there's also more to the song than that, and there are at least two, if not three, very good reasons why he would not talk about it. IF all my guesses are right, I definitely wouldn't talk about it either for any ONE of those reasons.

--Jack

I love how we're all going around in circles trying to protect Mika's privacy here, and either we all understand each other perfectly, or else we're talking perfect nonsense.

I find it strange, however, that if he went through all of that saying that he didn't want to talk about the meaning and then blatently said that he felt weird about his mom hearing him sing it...Didn't he sort of give some of it away?

Yeah, he did, but then considering how he doesn't want to talk about the meaning, the song itself gives a fair bit away. I find that musicians often do that though--they'll put really personal information into songs that they'd never reveal otherwise, either because they can't help it, or because they feel you can always say "it's not about me" with a song. Also, I often find some people don't realize how much they give away. (I know someone who knows some celebrities, and when she talks about them she tries to keep their identities secret, but it's often easy to guess anyway, haha. She gets upset when someone points that out because she doesn't mean for it to be so obvious.)

--Jack

Hah, THAT is several things really. But if it is what you think it is, I probably shouldn't say so, should I?

--Jack

I dunno really about stuck in the middle... I think maybe there were issues at home... LOVE TODAY too... there's a line "Papa's Gone"... and its really profound... maybe the two fit... I could understand why its a touchy subject for him. Thats an awesome song though... listen to it every morning.

I think it's about his mother, not his father.

I have this thing that, well, no-one has to believe me, but sometimes I get these flashes of knowledge/certainty about random things, and when I'm convinced I'm really right about them I usually am. And even though Stuck in the Middle had been one of my favorite songs since I heard it, I never really listened to it all that closely until I finally got my own copy of Mika's album. I was just driving around listening to it on repeat when SitM came on, and suddenly I had this very clear thought, "Oh God, he's singing to his mother isn't he? And it's about THAT, isn't it?"

And then I went and read what he said about feeling uncomfortable singing the song with his mom in the audience, so I think it's true.

--Jack

I like how we all say the same thing. I wonder if our interpretations are the same or all different?

Also, I am curious about your signature: I've seen that lyrics written down as "I tried to live alone, but lonely is so lonely alone" before, but to me it's always sounded like "I tried to live alone, but lonely is so lonely, you know," which also seems to make more sense, personally. So which is it?

--Jack

Someone once provided an interpretation here that I agree with, and is how I read the song as well... and if that interpretation is true, I definitely see why Mika wants to keep it private.

There is one other time he talked about this sing, when a reporter asked him a question about it... and he replied in a slightly more straight-forward way than he usually does. Can't find that article now though, and I wouldn't want to misquote him.

If you do a search on this song in the forums, you will see some of the interpretations previously offered... including the ones I am talking about.

--Jack

Hahah, people on the Fratellis forum hate him? The Fratellis are good for a quick listen, but they are such glam wannabes, and the lead singer is just desperately trying to be a hetero version of Marc Bolan. (Which is funny 'cos slight gender/sexual ambiguity was the main point of Marc's appeal.) Anyway, they are fun but they are just your generic pop-punk band without any originality, so for them or their fans to slam Mika is really ironic.

As for people who call him "gay" as an insult (again, if ANY Fratellis fan did that I'd laugh in their face and point them to some T. Rex videos), my response is usually not to even argue but just reply with something like, "yes, gay and fabulous!" Or "Oh, well we can hope!" That works better than trying to "defend" him, imo. Because after all, why shouldn't he be gay?

--Jack

What's the source for him learning Mandarin/Italian/etc?

I've heard/read him say that he's fluent in French and speaks a bit of Arabic, but I haven't seen any interviews mentioning other languages...