What's Going On?

The real title is "What's Up" but most everyone thinks the title is What's Going On because that is a repeated refrain and What's Up is not a repeated refrain.

Love the song, really love it, hate the official video. In the official video, Linda Perry, lead singer for San Francisco band, 4 Non Blonds, wears filthy brogan boots as she steps up to a microphone as if the filthy boots are essential to highlight, a top hat with welder's goggles attached to them. Can you get any more cliché than that? I hate it. It's an insult to our cliché detectors.

The performing artist, Pink, does a very good version in London to a large crowd and with great audience participation. It's breathtaking and fun to watch.

Lady Gaga does an impressively gritty soulful version, she really channels her black person within, while she's wearing an odd military camouflage top with pink underwear and naked legs and she keeps showing her flat sagging butt. Camera right up there BAM! Honestly her bottom looks like Chelsea Manning's at ninety-five years of age. It's embarrassing. And that seriously detracts from her excellent vocal rendition.

There are tons of covers of this song online. I like this one the best. It shows homegrown creative activity, good healthy nurturing fun, and love that shows between father and daughter straight up in action.

Originally I was looking for versions interpreted in ASL, and found them, three videos of students preforming for their class final. Along with another song by this same name. All three are done poorly but acceptably enough for a beginning class. But not good enough for you. One woman moves her head like a swiveling bobblehead, that would never do for interpreting, another has the sound turned down so low it cannot be heard, and another blue-haired young woman sitting on a sofa is too literal, off the beat as if reading a script and not performing music, and she uses the wrong signs throughout with half of them out of frame.

When the guitar is beginning the song they all stand there helplessly, rather stupidly, and sign the English word "music." I always wonder why they don't do an air guitar and really imitate fingering the chords, even fake it, and move in closer down the neck for the high notes and away for the low notes. Nobody imitates the piano either. Nor horns or reeds. They just say "music" leaving a blank space for lyrics to begin. Then miss the beats.

You don't say, "what" and "is" and "going" and "on." Just as you do not say "happy" and "birth" and "day." Doing that shows you really do not know the language. There are signs for "what's going on" and for "happy birthday." Care to see them?

"What's up?' ASL

Is that perfect, or what?

Just by way of another example, "Happy Birthday." ASL. It has nothing to do with birth or with day. Independently the signs mean, "favorite" middle finger touch to the chin, and "feel" same middle finger touch to the chest. So, middle finger to chin then straight down to chest and that means happy birthday. These two girls are cute.