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Great at Being Terrible: The Florence Foster Jenkins Story

2012-11-20 · John · watch on YouTube · Pop culture · reflection essay

Prompted by Hank's video on creation and fear, John tells the story of Florence Foster Jenkins, the awful but fearless singer who played Carnegie Hall in 1944, announces the brothers' own Carnegie Hall show, and draws the lesson that aptitude is not destiny.

What is said

00:00:00 — Greeting; Hank's Friday video sets John thinking about Florence Foster Jenkins; Wikipedia's damning first sentence; John touches his toes to her recording

  • ★★ John calls Hank's Friday video brilliant and says it has had him thinking about Florence Foster Jenkins. — 00:00:00
  • ★★ John reads Wikipedia's first sentence on Jenkins: an American amateur operatic soprano known and ridiculed for her lack of rhythm, pitch and tone and her poor singing. — 00:00:04 · Wikipedia

00:00:40 — Florence Foster Jenkins' story: a late start at 44, belief without ability, wings and Verdi, a sold-out 1944 Carnegie Hall show

  • ★★ John says Jenkins began her singing career at 44, divorced, her parents dead and with inherited money; she had drive, time and money and wasn't afraid to fail. — 00:00:42
  • ★★ She could not sing at all but truly believed she could; she came on stage wearing wings to sing Verdi, a disaster except that she and the audience had fun. — 00:01:00
  • ★★ After a fairly successful career, Jenkins played a sold-out show at Carnegie Hall in 1944, and she was terrible. — 00:01:14
  • ★★ John jokes that Jenkins set the bar for the worst-ever Carnegie Hall performance so low that the brothers can jump over it. (playful) (hedged) — 00:01:24

00:01:24 — Announcement: Penguin rents Carnegie Hall for an evening of awesome for the TFIOS anniversary, with the Mountain Goats

  • ★★★ To celebrate the first anniversary of The Fault in Our Stars, Penguin has rented Carnegie Hall for the brothers to have an evening of awesome of reading, talking and music. — 00:01:33 · The Fault in Our Stars, Penguin Books
  • ★★ The Mountain Goats, whom John jokingly ranks as three of his four favorite bands (Hank is the fourth), will play Carnegie Hall with them; John says he won't sing. — 00:01:42 · The Mountain Goats
  • ★ They will try to put on Carnegie Hall's greatest show, though with Richard Pryor, Andy Kaufman and Billie Holiday as competition they aim only to beat Jenkins. (playful) — 00:01:57

00:02:07 — The lesson: John can't touch his toes or sing but will play Carnegie Hall; aptitude is not destiny; admiring people who do what they love badly; her motto; a Mountain Goats lyric; sign-off

  • ★★ John can't touch his toes, so will probably never be a professional contortionist, but although he can't sing either he will live his dream of playing Carnegie Hall. (playful) — 00:02:07
  • ★★★ You have to find where your talents meet the world's needs, John says, but the great lesson of Jenkins' life is that aptitude is not destiny. — 00:02:20 > «aptitude is not destiny.»
  • ★★ Because Jenkins refused to be self-conscious about something she was bad at, people responded, often by laughing, but they responded. — 00:02:33
  • ★★ Singing was clearly fulfilling for Jenkins, John says: she sang professionally for about 40 years. — 00:02:39
    • number check: 40 — doubtful
  • ★★★ It sucks not to be good at something you love, but John admires people who do it anyway, Jenkins included, though he hopes the brothers don't replace her as Carnegie Hall's worst. — 00:02:44
  • ★★ John quotes Jenkins: people may say she can't sing, but no one can say she didn't sing. — 00:02:56 > «People may say I can't sing but no one can ever say I didn't sing.»
  • ★★ John closes by singing a Mountain Goats lyric: the things you do for love, unlike those done for money or fun, come back to you. — 00:03:01 · The Mountain Goats > «…the things you do for love, are gonna come back to you one by one»

Humor (significant)

  • John plays a Florence Foster Jenkins recording while showing off how well he can touch his toes (he can't). — 00:00:40 > «Ah that was painful in more ways than one.»
  • John lists his four favorite bands, all of whom will be at Carnegie Hall: the Mountain Goats, also the Mountain Goats... — 00:01:43 > «my third favorite band is you, Hank, and my fourth favorite band is the Mountain Goats»
  • Insisting Jenkins really was that bad, John describes her voice. — 00:02:29 > «her voice sounded like the mating and/or death squeals of alley cats.»
  • John says it sucks not to be good at something you love, but he admires people who do it anyway. — 00:02:44 > «like I admire myself when I go to yoga class.»

Threads in this video

  • milestone · An Evening of Awesome at Carnegie Hall (2013) — John reports that, for the first anniversary of The Fault in Our Stars, Penguin has rented Carnegie Hall for the brothers' evening of awesome, with the Mountain Goats playing. (00:01:33)
  • new · Is failure valuable? — John draws from Florence Foster Jenkins that aptitude is not destiny: it sucks to be bad at something you love, but he admires people who do it anyway. (00:02:44)

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