Does Anyone Else Miss Beyonce?

Or is it just me? I haaaaaate this video, but watching it made me feel ... safe.

Beyonce ft Jay Z upgrade u High Quality
by darman40

Mikey wrote a hilarious post about the void in the music industry since B's been busy getting married and lightened up by Loreal. I, too, miss her crazy behind. I'm sure once she's back I'll be annoyed with her inside of a week, but come back soon!!!

Cyd Charisse, 1922-2008

I love musicals. West Side Story, Hello Dolly, Jesus Christ Superstar, White Christmas, Gigi, My Fair Lady, Meet Me in St. Louis, School Daze, the musical episode of Buffy, "Once More With Feeling" ... give me a movie with synchronized singing and dancing and I will watch it. My all-time favorite, one of the last big-budget musicals, is Singin' in the Rain. Part of my appreciation of the film had to do with my indomitable crush on the great Gene Kelly. But most of it was this scene. Cyd Charisse. Kelly is doing his thing, dancing joyfully, and then he slides across the floor and encounters a single, perfect, silk-stockinged, green-high-heeled leg. I used to practice this scene in my room. She's perfect in it. Slinky, unrelentingly sexy, and incredibly proficient. (Note: she spends a lot of this scene with her legs slightly bent, because she's actually taller than Kelly.) Setting aside the fact that her small role in the film is as a fictional character who is motivated by what men can give her, I love it. Charisse died yesterday at the age of 86. Her dancing was a joy to watch. RIP.

How To Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is 101

Spike Lee should teach a class. First, he takes Clint Eastwood to task for whitewashing WWII, twiceover. And then a trailer for 'Miracle At St. Anna' comes out, and it looks awesome.

Clint Eastwood vs. Spike Lee: Is it 1993?

"A guy like him should shut his face," said Clint Eastwood, aging badass, referring to Spike Lee's criticism of the director's lack of black soldiers in Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima. According to Lee, who is beginning promotion for his own WWII outing, Miracle at St. Anna, "Many veterans, African-Americans, who survived that war are upset at Clint Eastwood. In his vision of Iwo Jima, Negro soldiers did not exist. Simple as that. I have a different version." Eastwood dismissed Lee's comment in a recent interview with the Guardian (which misquoted Lee's original statement), saying "The story is Flags of Our Fathers, the famous flag-raising picture, and they didn't do that. If I go ahead and put an African-American actor in there, people'd go, 'This guy's lost his mind.' I mean, it's not accurate." Because putting blacks in a historical film amounts to little more than affirmative action, apparently. Another Eastwood gem: "[Should I] make it look like a commercial for an equal opportunity player? I'm not in that game. I'm playing it the way I read it historically, and that's the way it is." He might as well have said Spike was pulling the race card. Oddly enough, two years ago, the Guardian ran an article detailing the 900 black soldiers who were at Iwo Jima, and made a direct correlation to the lack of blacks in Flags. 900 is a little bit more than the 'small detachment' mentioned in the Eastwood interview. From that article, Yvonne Latty (author of We Were There: Voices of African American Veterans):

"No one's asking for them to be the stars of the movies, but at least show that they were there. This is the way a new generation will think about Iwo Jima. Once again it will be that African-American people did not serve, that we were absent. It's a lie."

While blacks were mostly carrying ammunition in Japan, they were there, and to completely ignore the existence is totally irresponsible. My own grandfather fought in Europe during WWII, and if that weren't common knowledge in my family, I probably would have thought all soldiers ever (except for Bubba in Forrest Gump) were white. Update: A white woman on MSNBC's Morning Joe said Spike Lee was "really uppity." Either the person who wrote her lines hates her and wants her fired, or she's an idiot. Or both. Because, who even uses the word "uppity" anymore?

"I have hair in my eye. Let me get it out, fiercely."

[Photo and Video from the NYT] Tyra Banks has 275 smiles. Included in the short list of the 7 basic smiles, is the 'someone just gave you a diamond ring and you have no idea why, but you're really excited!' smile. I think that is so hilarious, and also, really sweet. The June 1 issue of the New York Times Magazine covers her, with an in-depth story about Banks, her company, and her hopes and fears and dreams. Tyra catches a lot of flack from all sectors. Some call her cheesy. Some call her a wannabe Oprah. Some call her fat. From the article:

Throughout all these acts of abasement and bravado, Banks seemed, as she always does on “Top Model,” analytically and emotionally invested. As her mother was to her, she is to these girls. “I don’t ask them to do anything that I wasn’t asked to do,” Banks said before the auditions began. “But even if they don’t become models, they have to learn how to be strong. When they give up, or they stop trying, I get so mad. I can never believe it. How can you quit? Life is hard sometimes, but how can you quit?”

I call her unsinkable.

Squelched Those Gigolo Tendencies, Eh?

Mariah Carey is married to Nick Cannon? I'm perplexed. I mean, that's about as random as Condoleeza Rice marrying Cory Booker. Or something.

Let the sun shine down on me.

I'm quoting James Taylor today: "Let the rainclouds roll out on the sea, let the sun shine down on me." Today is a great day. So many good things are going on right now (which a stunning turnaround from a week ago when I was thisclose to crying in my beer). 1. I got my iPod replaced. I bought a 5G iPod in late 2006. In April of 2007, it died. I went to the Apple store and bought the two-year warranty so that they could replace my iPod. The next day, the replacement had hard drive failure. A year later, still under warranty, and after many abortive attempts at making it to the Apple store that's forty minutes away (and once showing up on a Monday and discovering that they were all booked, like, WTF?) I finally got a new one. It hasn't failed ... yet ... and I forgot how great it was having access to 6000 songs in my car. 2. Today was the first sunny and warm day of the year. It's 73 degrees out... which is perfect driving-while-listening-to-Belle-and-Sebastian-weather. I even messaged Lauren to tell her how excited I was about the imminence of the left-arm tan. 3. I maybe kinda sorta like someone (that's all you get). 4. Work is keeping me busy and I feel very fulfilled, career-wise. 5. Did I mention my iPod? 6. Jay and Bey STILL haven't confirmed their marriage. I LOVE that. Keeps the mystery alive. And then, this morning, I came across my favoritest blog post of the year, maybe. It's from the Secret Council of American Negroes ("yes, the one your white friends keep asking about") and it's a list of 50 things black people should boycott. My favorite? 28. Clothing designers. (Because these pants don't fit.) Seriously. That post just told my life story.

Do you love it? I love it.

I love the audacity of this ad. Not because of the sentiment expressed... but because Absolut is being so blatantly manipulative. Too bad some in the U.S. aren't too happy about the (im)possibility of Mexico reconquering California and Texas. Viva Absolut!

Bigga

I normally avoid celeb gossip like the plague. But. I love to hate Beyonce and I love to love Jay-Z, so if the rumors are true, then all the best to the happy couple. Remember when...? I respect the way they've conducted their relationship... they're lowkey, and they clearly have fun together.

Tell 'Em Why You're (Not) Mad, Son!

I had a friend instant message me today, asking if I'd seen the Vogue cover with Lebron James and Gisele Bundchen. Of course I have. Stevie Wonder has seen it. Anyway, this friend happens to be a black man who is deeply offended by the cover. I saw the following alternate on Jezebel, and sent it to him. Nope, that's not better, he said. Less blatant, but just as bad. As I told him, I'm the first person to be on the lookout for racism. It's ALWAYS racism. But... this isn't as problematic to me as the fact that Lebron James is the first black man to cover US Vogue (and the first black man to cover French Vogue was a leggy crossdresser - meanwhile Men's Vogue has covered Will Smith, Denzel Washington, and Obama). More problematic is that J.Hud was only the third black woman to cover US Vogue. Vogue is not the most diverse or racially sensitive crayon in the box. But the James-Bundchen cover? It just doesn't scream 'King Kong' to me. They both look like they're having fun. (Oh, and why isn't LeBron in a suit, as my friend and others have asked indignantly? All of the sports figures in the mag are dressed in uniform, while the models, uh, model.) Ta-Nehisi Coates makes a good point about racism debates about magazine covers versus, you know, actual racism. And The Assimilated Negro agrees that this is all a bit much. But what's your take on it?

Well, I'm back.

Oh, you guys are great. Thanks for the well-wishes and cold-curing recommendations. I'm feeling mostly better. Sooooo much has been happening in the last week, but here are a few blogworthy things that have been on my mind. 1. Kofi Annan, kicking ass and taking names in Kenya. He's so no-nonsense. I can just imagine the stern look on his face when it looked like the talks were going nowhere. Annan is one of the few people in this world who is actually doing things, not just talking about them. Say what you will about the U.N., but despite the United States' best efforts, diplomacy still has a place in this world. 2. Hillary Clinton. Just, be quiet. As Jozen rightly pointed out, when she was winning, it was all 'people are hating on me because I'm winning, not because I'm a woman.' Now that she's losing, the media is being unfair. You can't have it both ways, lady! 3. Lindsay Lohan. I think I'm officially out of love with Lindsay. She's not that interesting, she's not smart, and she's done nothing to show she has any talent since... oh, 2004. She does have nice breasts, though. 4. My birthday. My birthday is in 10 days. I'm excited. I have friends in their twenties who get depressed every time a birthday rolls around. Why? I love getting older. Every year you get older means you're still alive, and still able to contribute to making the world a better place. Since we get a limited time to do so, why lament the fact that the time itself is short? The heck with that! 5. Clothes. I haven't been shopping in months. I still read GFY and YBF and The Sartorialist regularly. I check out the fashion week(s) coverage on NewYorkMagazine.com. I've discovered that I like fashion, but I hate the industry. I've also gotten less judgmental as I've gotten older. These days, if I see someone in silver boots, I'm more likely to say 'awesome!' than to say, 'um, silver boots? wtf?' True story. 6. Barack Obama. The man is (hopefully) unstoppable. I'm tired of reading descriptions of his "rock concert-like" rallies, though. And someone at the New York Times compared him to a Barcalounger, of all things. But to be quite honest, if loving him is wrong, I don't wanna be right. By the way, I am one of the over ONE MILLION PEOPLE who own the campaign. Take that, take that! 7. Media Matters. In my quest to become a more critical thinker (possibly as an antidote to my Obamaphilia), I've been checking out Media Matters a lot. I wish more people would visit this site. You'd be amazed at how much "truth" in the press is actually completely inaccurate and way off base. 8. Grad school. But, uh, more on that later. ____ Listening to: Van Hunt's On the Jungle Floor

"It's crazy—Black people really do seem to love them!!"

Hey people! Have any of you been to this site? I came across it a couple of years ago, and was mildly amused by statements like:

Sally's always saying: "You go girl!" while "raising the roof" to mainstream hip-hop tracks at cheesy bars. That's fun! I relate to that.

and

Sally always says things that make me feel special, like: "You're so cool, you're different, you're not like other Black people!"

and

Johnny always says: "I'm not racist; one of my best friends is Black!" I think he might mean me!

Both of these things is a lot like the other: Rob made this pretty hilarious mash up.

Billary, part 3,023,202

Colbert I. King breaks down every single crappy argument Billary has made thus far. Goooooo Blacks! You! And You! Gimme a B! (Does anyone remember that skit from SNL?)

Amy Amy Amy

"Masculine, you spin a spell / I think you'd wear me well / Amy, Amy, Amy / Where's my moral parallel..."

Amy Winehouse is a prophet. She's also deeply screwed up and rocketing quickly toward an untimely demise.

I've probably listened to Frank and Back to Black more than any other albums in the last year-and-half. Her voice, the soulful, jazz-soaked music, and her tough-as-nails-yet-secretly-vulnerable lyrics all combine to create perfection.

I hate to see her the way she is now. Especially when you compare her to the Amy of four years ago: bright-eyed, curvaceous, with a sweet (if mischievous) smile. She's become almost skeletal, washed out, drugged up, covered in ink, and addicted to a man who is obviously no good. And I hate the names. "Amy Wino," "Amy Crackhouse." It's obvious to me why celebs go off the deep end. They're surrounded by people who don't care about them (only what they can provide), and either totally idolized or demonized by the public. Since most people see themselves through the eyes of others, it's no wonder they lose control. There's no balance in that world.

And when you layer that on top of the fact that most brilliant artists are deeply troubled/insecure/eager to please, it becomes this cake of destruction, with money as the frosting.

I saw a shallow piece on Jezebel.com which asked if some of the responsibility of stars' demises (specifically Winehouse) lay upon the shoulders of paparazzi and rabid fans. I think that if a person is already troubled, it certainly doesn't help.

But I'm curious as to why some people, mostly white women - Amy, Britney, Lindsay - succumb to the pressures of fame and the false idolatry of celebrity. If you look at black female stars - Gabby, Beyonce, Halle - the same doesn't hold true. Perhaps the implicit racism of the entertainment industry offers some protection. Despite the advent of black celeb gossip sites - YBF, Media Takeout, Bossip - stars of color are (thankfully?) STILL being ignored by gossip powerhouses People, TMZ, and Us Weekly. Without that pressure, maybe it's easier to live your life.

But this piece is about Amy. To write and perform the songs that have meant so much to so many, well, you'd have to be more than a little screwed up. But the line between being screwed up and utter destruction is... well, it's not thin, but it isn't thick either.

I guess all of this is to say, I just want her to get better. ____

Watching: Veronica Mars, Season One

Heath Ledger, April 4, 1979 – January 22, 2008

Heath Ledger was one of those actors who was slightly older than me and my generation, and so much cooler. He's a member of a group I watched when I was a pre-teen: young, eager, stars of pop-film. He's one of the few who transcended teen movie obscurity, displayed his chops, and won. Career-wise, at least. I'm sad because it's almost like losing one of the cool kids you didn't really know, but always looked up to. RIP.