Happy New Year, folks!!! I hope the next 365 days brings you all of what you need and most of what you want. These are the first questions that popped into my head at the start of 2007...
1- Audrey Hepburn's "simple" black Givenchy dress from "Breakfast at Tiffany's" was auctioned for $807,000- six times the expected sale price!!! As was my question when Andy Warhol's wig sold for $10,800: who is going to WEAR this? Moreover, how much could one get for one of James Brown's polyester suit/cape combinations?
2- Sean Carter may be "better endowed" than Nasir Jones (according to babymama/"superhead" clone Carmen Bryant), but isn't Nas' return CD "Hip Hop is Dead" INFINITELY better than Jay-Z's egomaniacal comeback project "Kingdom Come"? Whats more important, a bigger D&(*K or a better product?
3- Speaking of a better (and not just) hip hop product, why didn't Ladybug Mecca's CD 'Trip the Light Fantastic'- which was released in June 2005- move units like it SHOULD have? Why is it that hip hop soldiers like Ladybug (of Digable Planets fame) don't get recognized, but "Chicken Noodle Soup" pollutes the airwaves on the daily? Is Nas right, IS hip hop dead?
4- Why is it NOT okay for Latino people to come to this country and refuse to learn the English language, but its acceptable for Giorgio Armani- who's biggest export market is America and who lifts millions from American purses annually- to refuse to learn?
5- Haven't seen "Freedom Writers" yet, but... Given the plot points (white and/or educated teacher, full of vision and hope and little else, comes to an inner-city or disadvantaged school to save the forgotten, unruly and ignorant minority student class by exposing them to the wonderful world of literacy and manners, blah blah blah)---Haven't we seen this movie too many times already??? (see: "Dangerous Minds", "Wildcats", "Lean on Me", "Coach Carter", "Take the Lead", "Half Nelson", the Lifetime movie "Fighting the Odds"- etc...)
6- Manhattan buzz: Will (NYC Mayor and self-made billionaire) Michael Bloomberg- with his progressive ideology and non-dependence on lobbyists- pull a "Ross Perot" and make an independent bid for the 2008 U.S. Presidency?
7- M.C. Serch (one-half of early 90's hip hop duo 3rd Bass), in an interview to promote his new show, VH-1's "The (White) Rapper Show", was asked if he felt discriminated against back in the day as a white rapper. His response: "There's always a question of credibility. I had to be twice as good as the next man or woman." So...can he empathize with the plight of being a person of color in corporate America?
8- Isn't the E! Network's new claymation comedy "Starveillance" the funniest thing to happen to pop culture junkies since VH-1's "Best Week Ever"?
9- While we're on hot new shows and pop culture...Isn't FX network's new series "Dirt" (Courteney Cox-Arquette's return to television) the hottest thing to happen to paparazzi culture since Tara Reid's nip slip (or Britney going commando?))? How HOT and subversive was it of the show to have NBA superstar Rick Fox getting dug out ROYALLY by a strap-on weilding blonde bimbo by the hot tub? Isn't that reason enough to watch it? Moreover, shouldn't we give Rick Fox PROPS for being fearless in playing the character?
10- With Rick Fox doing his thing off the court (see above), and Vanessa Williams winning raves as the extraordinarily bitchy and conniving (yet comical) magazine editor Wilhemina Slater on ABC's "Ugly Betty"...
are these two much better off apart than they were when they were married?
FLASHBACK...
While we're on the subject of (ex) lovers...
Who knew that napoleonic musical wunderkind Prince Rogers Nelson would grow to be the musical dynamo that he is? A little shy on stature but definitely not shy in any other way, he burst onto the pop scene with one request- "I Wanna Be Your Lover"!!!
5 comments:
Yes, Starveillance is pretty great. If I didn't read it here, I never would have known about Ladybug Mecca's album! I gave up on hearing from the Digable Planets camp ages ago. As for Armani, he works in a very structured industry and can rely on a staff of multi-lingual people (or even translators) to get his work done. I can't apply that same excuse to the service industry, where it's often infuriating to play pantomime with people at a bodega, the cleaners, the laudromat, etc. Armani doesn't effect me directly, but I have to deal with people who speak foreign languages on a regular basis. So while the corporate world excludes people of color with exemplary education and skills, immigrants open businesses in the U.S. without knowing a word of English. Talk about getting screwed.
I really liked Starvelence too but it seems an odd choice to use stop motion animation to cover pop culture. All the issues that they covered were almost a year old. I hope that they can speed up the process so they can be as timely as south Park often is with its satirical look at pop culture.
Oh and Rick Fox has never looked so natural on screen as he did taking that dildo. I wonder where he got his inspiration?
Great post. I started watching Dirt when it premiered last week and it will certainly be my guilty pleasure for '07. I love that courtney cox goes to bed seemingly every night with her ultimate 'friend'. On another note, haven't they just started airing Ladybug's video on BET? Is that video a song from the release of her 2005 album??
Lisa aka The Ghetto Fashionista...You are RIGHT...BET-J does have Ladybug Mecca's video for the rather ethereal-sounding cut "You Never Get Over It" on semi-heavy rotation. I LOVE BET-J (never thought I'd say that about a BET affiliate!)...chad g.
and yes, that song IS on "Trip the Light Fantastic" which was released in 2005...
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