User talk:Rossrs

Kylie Minogue

Sorry it took so long to get back to you! I've read through it. I personally think that it talks about the music in some depth, and I think it would be good enough to go on FAC :-) Ta bu shi da yu 13:00, 29 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Re. Washington Post quote: Yeah, I thought it was just too good to ignore; although I love the gal, I think "the worst actress in the English speaking world" is a fairly accurate description of her acting abilities ;-). Bio-Dome was on Dutch TV recently, as part of a "Kylie night", and it was pretty horrific. It was followed by Street Fighter, but I didn't have the stamina to suffer through that as well... I'll make another sweep through the article when you're done editing, to avoid any further conflicts. --Plek 16:52, 6 Feb 2005 (UTC)

One other thing: do you think we can do any better with the image at the top (the one from the "Slow" set)? Maybe it's just me, but I think she looks like an automaton in it. I know I called her a "drone" before, but this might be streching the metaphor a bit too far. :) --Plek 17:17, 6 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Kylie in her sandbox
Re: Kylie in her sandbox: Yup, it's getting better. I like the idea of using screenshots. The "Ophelia" link is great! Not being able to leave someone else's sandbox alone, I've jumped right in and started experimenting a bit. Things I did:

• Increased gamma and saturation of the "Better the Devil You Know" screenshot. It's somewhat better defined now.
• Replaced the Body Language cover with my own handywork: a capture of Body Language Live a.k.a. Money Can't Buy. I think it's quite a powerful image.
• Cropped the Fever Live image a bit to remove clutter. It's still a bit crowded for such a small image, so you might want to try to capture a tighter shot from the show.
• Cropped "Did it Again" capture as well.

Some other, random observations:

• Let's edit the opening paragraph. "She has evolved her musical and visual style to attain longevity in the competitive field of pop music" sounds like it's lifted from a posh art brochure.
• Next paragraph: "Her sister Dannii Minogue is also a pop singer. She first came to attention as a child actor...", is "she" referring to Minogue the bigun or the littleun? (I know, but the reader won't at first).
• "The release of her Greatest Hits album in 1992 coincided with her departure from Stock, Aitken and Waterman.", followed by some text about the album. Wouldn't it be more interesting to say something about her split with SAW here instead (reasons, motivation, some quotes maybe)?
• General comment: I think the article still has too many of the following:
  • "Album/single "X" did so and so in this and that chart"
  • "Magazine "Y" said this and that about so and so Album/single"

Think you could snip some of the less essential ones and leave the juicy/interesting bits? My first choice for deep-six action would be the tired Britney/Christina comparisons and some of The Austrialian's quotes. I really think we need to trim down the size of this beast, although I'm not quite sure how. Snipping nonessential review/charts stuff might be a start.

• Parlophone is Nick Cave's label, isn't it? Did he get Kylie to leave Deconstruction? It might be interesting to explore why she switched labels again (then again, it might not... maybe I'm looking for juice where none is to be found).

Just let me know what you think. I'll try to find some sources for the various suggestions I made (tomorrow, when I'm slightly more coherent). Cheers. --Plek 00:30, 13 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Re: "she looks like a 60s Bond girl or something": Heh, heh, you're a lot closer than you might think. I've transcribed a section of the BLL DVD, which explains where things are coming from. I think some of it could go at the beginning of the Body Language album paragraph or in the "Image" section to shed light on her creative direction in this period. The calender imagery [1] (http://www.kylie.com/gh_site/downloads/kyliecalendarwallpaper_1024_768.jpg) also makes a lot more sense when knowing this.

Q: "Apparently you chose Brigitte Bardot as a source of inspiration?"

Kylie: "Hmm, hmm... I worked very closely with my stylist, who is also my creative director. We were just flipping though books and saw some great images and everything more or less stemmed from there. I mean I just tended to think of BB as, well, she's a sexpot, isn't she? She's one of the greatest pinups. But she was fairly radical in her own way at that time. And we chose to reference the period, which was, I think, a perfect blend of coquette and rock and roll."

From Body Language Live DVD, Money Can't Buy (2003) pre-show press conference --Plek 11:50, 13 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Aloha! I've continued tweaking the article here and there. Just browse through the history and dump anything you don't like. It is coming together, yes. I think the main remaining eyesore are the last two paragraphs of the "Image" section. The "gay icon" paragraph starts with "early in her career", thus breaking the temporal flow (although this is only a minor point, I think). The last paragraph is more troublesome. "Accepted by a wider audience than just fans" is quirky. It looks like an assorted heap of unrelated triviods, with the final statement being unintentionally funny. My thoughts when reading that, after everything that has gone before, were: "Gawd... ALL that trouble just to get your name on a POSTAGE STAMP???". Surely there must be a better way to end the article, methinks... Any ideas on how to turn this whimper into a bang? Cheers. --Plek 23:39, 13 Feb 2005 (UTC)

G'day! Just wondering if you got my e-mail regarding the fact-checking request to Blamey. Wikipedia has seen some rough times recently, so I'm not sure if my message got through. Thanks. --Plek 06:41, 24 Feb 2005 (UTC)

*Kicks Wikipedia again* Forget the mail feature. It seems to be dead. I've added the mail to the talking sandbox: User talk:Rossrs/Sandbox#Blamey email. I'd like to hear your comments before I send it (which I won't do anyway before this snail gains some speed). Thanks. --Plek 16:34, 24 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Greetings! Well, the mail is in the mail, as the saying goes. Fingers crossed. Also, I drafted a FAC proposal in my sandbox. I was thinking it would be a good idea to list the changes made since the last FAC attempt, but on the other hand it might be a bit over the top. Just edit at will and let me know what you think.

In other, unrelated, news today, I have listed Madonna at Wikipedia:Featured article removal candidates. I think the article has become an unwieldy monster that is very much in need of improvement. It certainly (IMHO) isn't worthy of a FA status anymore. So, if you are in need of a new Big Project... ;-)

Finally, I'm sure you're just gonna love the latest category addition to Anne Frank... Cheers. --Plek 21:01, 27 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Here we go! Created: Wikipedia:Featured article candidates#Kylie Minogue. --Plek 22:20, 27 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Not a single objection. Hmmm. Either the article was truly excellent, or people got so fed up being spammed with Kylie FACs, they just swallowed their pride and relented... I'd choose the latter, obviously :). Nice work, sir! I really enjoyed cooperating on it, so feel free to recruit me for any future projects. Thanks, and adios! --Plek 00:07, 3 Mar 2005 (UTC)

DYK

Anne Frank

Excellent job on the edits! Just to let you know that I moved the Peer Review request to the archive at Wikipedia:Peer review/February 2005. Cheers. --Plek 11:19, 5 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Excellent that it's on FAC... about to go vote support! - Ta bu shi da yu 03:54, 6 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Hiya! Well, I managed to find the official press release from the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science about the infamous missing five pages. Turns out that the Ministry paid US$ 300.000 to get them back. I have added a paragraph about this episode in the "Publication" section, with references to the PR and to an annefrank.org article. Could you take a look at it? Feel free to edit at will. Thanks! --Plek 16:09, 10 Feb 2005 (UTC)

*Salutes* Three cheers for a job well done! Now let's hope some good things will happen to The Diary of a Young Girl. --Plek 01:02, 12 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Just to let you know that I've requested Anne Frank to be featured on the main page in March, to commemorate the 60th anniversary of her demise. See: Wikipedia talk:Tomorrow's featured article#Request: Anne Frank. Greetings. --Plek 22:12, 20 Feb 2005 (UTC)

You'd better watch the main page today (7 March)... ;-) --Plek 23:22, 6 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Aloha! Are you on holiday yet? If not: there's a comment from a new user at Talk:Anne Frank#Irving paragraph that you might want to take a look at. I think he's got a point about removing at least some of the Irving material from the article. Yes, the deniers' objections are important because they form the basis for the whole authentication buisiness, but do we really need to quote the man? I'm not sure what to think. I do see that this issue could be a sensitive one to people; it's not as trivial as Bob Gulla making Pia Zadora comparisons, in any case. Could you shine some light on this matter? Cheers. --Plek 10:47, 10 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Kids

Hello, an anon left the following paragraph on the Kids (song) page:

In this song, Robbie Williams and Kylie Minogue represent two people who do not have kids and are :trying to have one. At the end of the video of this song, Robbie Williams and Kylie Minogue are in a :swimming pool and look ready to kiss when the camera switches over to a bottle of bubbly spilling :over, suggesting that Kylie in the video has been inpregnated, hence the title 'Kids'.

I'm not sure if this is vandalism or an appropriate description of the meaning of the video/song. I know the lyircs quite well, and have seen the video, and I do not think it has anything to do with anything. However, I'm not exposed to enough Kylie out here in North America to know the true meaning of this song. I was wondering if you could shed some light on this issue. Thanks -- Earl Andrew - talk 18:53, 24 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Hi EarlAndrew, I don't think this is the correct interpretation and yet at the same time I don't think it's vandalism. I think it's somebody's (the contributor's?) personal interpretation of the lyrics rather than the songwriter's intention, and as such, should be removed. As it's neither complete nonsense, or something offensive, I don't think it's vandalism. From what I've read in a Robbie Williams interview the meaning is more like, the couple are not happy together but are staying together because of the kids "I don't mind doing it for the kids". The lyrics are quite cryptic - Kylie said in another interview she didn't really know what it was all about, she was just given it to sing. I think therefore any interpretation of the lyrics should have a reference to support the inclusion. Rossrs 02:09, 25 Apr 2005 (UTC)

That's what I figured. The lyrics don't really make any sense to me, but I still love the song! -- Earl Andrew - talk 02:17, 25 Apr 2005 (UTC)