SOUNDTRACK: DEMI LOVATO-Tiny Desk (Home) Concert #191 (April 14, 2021).
I’ve never given much thought to Demi Lovato. All I knew about her was that she also sang a version of “Let It Go” on the Frozen soundtrack and that I liked her version a LOT LESS than the one by Idina Menzel.
But aside from that I didn’t even know if she was all that popular.
Recorded on a sunny spring day in her Los Angeles backyard, Lovato begins with a moving rendition of “Tell Me You Love Me” from her 2017 record of the same name, accompanied by subtle, sparse keys.
Given how over the top “Let It Go” is, I did expect a lot more over-the-topness here. But it is quite subtle. Well, musically it’s subtle. Steven “Styles” Rodriguez plays quiet keys throughout the set. But Lovato is anything but subtle.
She continues her set with the title tracks from her recently-released studio album, Dancing With The Devil…The Art Of Starting Over. On both tracks, Lovato’s voice feels stabilizing and grounding; there’s a sense of clarity and purpose in its power.
The blurb suggests she’s gone through some rough times, but I don’t know about them. I do know that she has managed to feed a squirrel from her hand, so that’s something.
Through it all, her voice is something to behold. Wow, can she ever she hits some really amazing notes–long and lasting and powerful. I like the deep keys that “Styles” adds to the chorus of “Dancing With The Devil,” it adds some nice drama.
[READ: May 3, 2021] A Wiser Girl
Different things can attract a person to a book. In this case, it was the author’s name. I’m not sure why the name Moya Roddy appealed to me, but it did. I’d never heard of her and this short book seemed like an interesting way to get to know her work.
This is the story of Jo (Josephine) Nowd, a Dublin girl who had to escape Dublin and flee to Italy in 1975. The reason that she fled Ireland is twofold, although the primary reason is to escape her ex, a man named Eamonn. The other is because she wants to be an artist and feels that an artistic life is more likely in the land of art than in Dublin.
Jo is a mostly engaging narrator. She has a pretty strong personality. Part of it is directed inward–she has some insecurities brought on by growing up as a poor Irish Catholic girl. But she is also very opinionated, especially about art. For her art is all about the supernatural–primarily the divine–but mostly she doesn’t like art that represents reality, she wants art to transcend reality.
She also has a (justifiable) hatred of the rich. She feels that the poor get the shaft while the rich (especially the English rich) are oblivious to all that they have and all they step on while they get it.
And yet, for all of her insecurities, it’s pretty daring to up and leave your country to move to a place where you do not speak the language and have hardly any money.
She arrives in Rome and is overwhelmed by everything–the sights, the sounds, the people–so loud and friendly (an older lady on the train feeds her saying that she is too skinny). She can’t believe that there’s an entire store dedicated to selling only ice cream. [This book makes 1970s Ireland look like a massive backwater].
She manages to get to the hostel and meets an Australian man named Kevin who is bold and brassy and charming and offensive and ultimately very kind. But he has a quest–for Shielas from any country. When Jo From Ireland won’t be sleeping with him, he sets his sights elsewhere. But they are staying in the same place and she enjoys his company, nevertheless.
He introduces her to Gino, a local who rides a Vespa and greets her by grabbing his crotch and saying “You like fucka with me?” Interestingly, on her last night in Roma, she does go out on a “date” with Gino. He zips all over the city, showing her his favorite places, including a bar where transvestites hang out (she’s never seen anything like that before!). She has a surprisingly good time, but when Gino tries to get what he thinks he deserves , she begs off and he is disgusted that she is a Catholic girl.
While in Rome she enjoys going to all of the churches, but the city exhausts her and she doesn’t have enough money to fully enjoy herself.
But that’s okay because she does have a job lined up. She’s going to be an au pair for a rich British family living in Pavia. How bad could it be?
Well, it’s a nightmare from the start.
The two boys are demons, spoiled and demanding. The mother could not be more hands off–she spends al of her time with her horses. And the father seems to have eyes for Jo–he is a professor after all, used to having young woman adore him.
The one thing that I found especially annoying about Jo was her absolute obsession with Eamonn. She keeps going on and on about how much she loves him and she keeps seeing him everywhere–feeling that she’s almost cheating on him when she looks at other men. But he’s the one who dumped her–coldly. And she never says how long they’d been together. And, in fact, it sounds like they had sex once and then he walked out on her
It had all been over in a matter of moments, his desire sated. When he’d walked out the door, she’d felt cheated–realizing she’d given away something without really knowing what it was. … He hadn’t asked to see her again. There’d been no mention of love, no words at all.
So, they dated, he had sex with her, walked out on her and she is pining for him perpetually? It doesn’t really gibe with her otherwise strong personality.
The family she is babysitting for are pretty terrible and she is quickly sick of them. They have a lot of money and she hates them or it–especially since they don’t pay her very much. They also have a cook/maid. She wants to commiserate with the maid, but she doesn’t speak enough Italian. Day in and day out its the same thing–wiping and feeding ungrateful children.
Then one day finds herself involved in a student protest march. She just happened upon a bunch of young people chanting and protesting and she was caught up in the excitement. She is especially taken with the woman who seems to be in charge do the protest–a powerful woman in a red jacket known as Camilla Rossi.
When the protest is over she winds up with Camilla’s close circle at a local bar and J is amazed by this powerful woman. They are fighting for lowering fees to allow the poor to attend school. She can relate.
But she can’t join Camilla or her firmed because she has to babysit. She finds herself drinking too much. Especially when the father seems to try to seduce her after getting her drunk. The second time she drinks, she gets really drunk and makes a fool of herself at the family’s dinner party. That’s the last straw and she is let go.
Which is fine, because she decides she is moving to Firenze where she can be an artist for real. Why Florence? At one of the family’s dinner parties she met a young man named Rupert. He is funny and snarky and she enjoys his company a lot. He also happens to be very very wealthy, which she find’s disgusting. But he is so oblivious to his wealth that he can say things like his parents bought a vacation home in Florence and never go there. Or that he is an artist–even though he only makes posters and his parents are footing the bill for everything he does. And yet, he is charming and willing to dote on her. So when she has no where to turn, she heads to Florence.
She goes to the embassy to look for work–anything has to be better than working for the rich family.
But that proves to be false when she gets a job working at at bed and breakfast. She now finds herself cleaning up after adults who are a lot worse than the two chidden. She has no free time and no freedom. Rupert is appalled at the state of where she is working and vows to do something about it. But until they. She spends every weekend with him–travelling around letting him pay for everything even meeting his mother. Hs mother is hilarious, she skinny dips and gets out of the pool naked to meet her son’s friends. One of the friends is Philip an artist who has actually sold paintings.
Jo is immediately smitten with him even when Rupert tells her that he has slept with everyone. But it’s fine because he is gone before she can even make a serious connection with him.
Rupert’s idea for a new job for her is modelling for art classes. She is shocked that he would think she would pose nude for gawking students.
I was pleasantly surprised that the book jumped right past her first few tries and jumped in when she more comfortable with the work. I can’t imagine how difficult those first few classes were for her. But by now she’s comfortable with it and even comfortable being nude in front of others–its’ quite the novelty.
Then at the end of one class, who should walk in but Phillip. And suddenly he notices her.
Throughout the story Jo tells herself that she is going to stop working for other people, stop letting men prevent her from becoming what she wants to be. But when she gets involved with Philip he seems determined to prevent her from painting (even though he has a huge studio).
Now she has to wonder what’s the most important thing to her.
Moya Roddy’s biography says that she went to art school as a night student and then went on to paint during a two year stay in Italy before moving to London where she trained as a television director. Quiet a career she’s had, but also I guess some of this is autobiographical.
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