In My Copious Free Time

when you shake your ass, they notice fast

I could start this post off by ranting about how MTV has forgotten what the "V" actually stands for. I could talk about the warped body ideals typified by today's models. But really, all I have to say is that this video is just a work of art and 18 years later, it still seems modern. And damn, it's just hot.

George Michael - Freedom '90

For the record, I have no idea who the male models are. I'd have to google their names, but the women are Linda Evangelista (when she first hit the modeling scene, I immediately cut my hair short like hers), Naomi Campbell, Christy Turlington, Tatjana Patitz and Cindy Crawford. No googling required. These were the original supermodels, the "I don't wake up for less than $10,000" models who were certainly thin, but not emaciated.

Also, this is a great running song and somehow never feels old to me.

Observation and Rain

If you have 4 minutes left, you are not, in fact, out of time.

That said, "Rain" is one of those easy-to-forget Madonna songs with an utterly striking video. It has a quality that is paradoxically both spare and lush (even if it sometimes dips into cliche and the song itself is lyrically average). What sets it apart for me is the luminosity imparted thanks to the film technique -- it was shot in black and white and then hand colored. Amazing clip from a woman who's made her fair share of videos (70, Wikipedia tells me).

The music has magic

How many pre-teen early evenings did I spend wedged in a blue bean bag in front of the TV watching that spectacle of pop music and elaborately choreographed dance routines known as Solid Gold? At the time, it was...I'm trying to refrain from cursing these days...the shiznit. Dionne Warwick was the first host and always seemed like she actually enjoyed the music, and at the time I wasn't attuned to the fact that she was a fading star. Marilyn McCoo came later, joined by Andy Gibb and then a progression of smooth-talking guys. Nina Blackwood from MTV was even in there somewhere.

The show generally had some good live performances. And by "live" I mean live bodies lip syncing on stage. Rick Springfield, Madonna, Lionel Richie...I still have vivid memories of Prince being on the show.
But when it comes down to it, it was the dancers that set it apart. Most of them are just a blur of lycra and sequins, but one dancer stands out -- Darcel. She was the lead dancer, the head cheerleader of sorts. She seemed to get all the best dances and even got to talk every once in a while. She looked like she was 6 feet tall, all legs, and all that hair, which she often wore her hair in one ponytail. How many girls sat glued to their televisions on Saturday nights, dreaming about going to Hollywood and making it big as a Solid Gold Dancer?

Cheesy? Undeniably so. But if you are of a certain age and have a penchant for pop music, just thinking about Solid Gold gives you a warm, fuzzy feeling, like leg warmers on a cold morning...

 

Revenge of the Laundry: the soundtrack

I decided to take note of the songs iTunes randomly played for me while I folded eleventy-billion t-shirts and matched up a gazillion socks today.

#1 - Nelly
Pop Life - Prince
Always on My Mind - Willie Nelson
Lost in Emotion - Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam
Keep the Customer Satisfied - Simon & Garfunkel
Jessie's Girl - Rick Springfield
Jump Around - House of Pain
Heart of Glass - Blondie
Can't Stop - After 7
Catch Me, I'm Falling - Pretty Poison
Sexual Healing - Marvin Gaye
Word Up - Cameo
Blue Light, Red Light - Harry Connick, jr
Nite and Day - Al B. Sure
Hey Mama - Kanye West
Here You Come Again - Dolly Parton
Numb/Encore - Linkin Park/Jay-Z
Maneater - Hall & Oates
Say You, Say Me - Lionel Richie

Blogrammies

8:10. Which means I missed the damned Police performance. Hello, YouTube.

Dixie Chicks take the stage
I'm still so proud of them for standing their ground. Natalie looks great with brown hair. I've always thought she has beautiful eyes, but something about the hair color makes them look very Linda Evangelista-like. Emily's eye makeup is gorgeous. Gotta love MAC. (A quick check of cnn.com tells me that the Chicks won the Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group in pre-ceremony awards -- take that, country radio.)

Beyonce has one hell of a voice, but she totally oversings that song.  "Listen"? Can we possibly help it? Of course, she's gorgeous, but I'm not commenting on the hair. Just not gonna do it.

The fantastic Mary J. Blige just won for Best R&B album. Michael, you must be happy right now. Mary is sporting a softer look that is the norm for her, and I like it.

Why do people think Justin TImberlake is so sexy? This sounds snotty, but I really do think he's just average. I'm so glad he's doing "What Goes Around" the way he did on SNL.

Oh hell...what is this Blair Witch thing? And here I was all ready to give JT the benefit of the doubt. SMH.

Sexy dress Pink has on. Last time I saw her accept an award (VH1 or MTV, not sure which), I swear she was drunk or high.

I feel sorry for the person sitting behind India.Arie. Yay Mary J!! Girl is gonna cry. "Let me just be brief about this..." Nice touch of humor there given that the orchestra nearly blasted her off the stage.

Is JT at the awards with his mother? And whose kid is that next to Beyonce?

Oooooh...Corinne Bailey Rae and John Legend. Too bad John Mayer is going to mess it up. But Corinne has the most heavenly voice. This is the first time I've heard her perform and wow, she sounds as good as she does on her cd. I love to watch John Legend play the piano.

Who's going to win Best Pop Vocal Album? ...Ick. Mayer. Will he thank Jessica? Amazingly, I think he and Nelly Furtado are sporting the same hairstyle.

YAAAAAAY Chicks!!!!!

Luda....I love Luda. He looks so cute with his hair cut!

Mary J. Blige is great, but is she music royalty? Really? I'm not feeling this dress as much as the first one.

Another Chicks win! They just totally cracked Ellen DeGeneres up.

I could totally do without this Eagles thing. (Yes, I sort of tuned out for a while.) Carrie Underwood isn't tough enough to sing "Life in the Fast Lane" though. Not live, anyway.

Thank god that's over. What the fuck is that in Imogen Heap's hair????? I'd rather sit behind India.Aire. Bah. I don't think Carrie Underwood is as good an artist as Corinne Bailey Rae. I'm sorry, I just don't.

I like Christina Ricci's dress. She was just stunningly featured in Italian Vogue. Raise your hand if you saw Samuel L. Jackson and thought "I'm tired of these motherfucking snakes on this motherfucking plane!"

Smokey Robinson really is musical royalty. But he looks like he lost his way backstage and ended up getting ready in Natalie Cole's dressing room. If you aren't Prince, you probably shouldn't wear black beaded lace.

I love that Lionel Richie is performing "Hello." Lately I've been enjoying this song and "Truly" on my iPod. The only thing that could make this moment greater was if that clay bust of him from the "Hello" video was on the piano.

Chris Brown isn't my favorite, but damn, dude can dance.

I meant to say this earlier but I was on the phone...the gold pants on Shakira and all the dancers brought back some serious Hammer pants flashbacks.

I know it seems superficial to comment so heavily on what people are wearing. But let's face it -- this is pop music. It's mostly superficial. Mostly enjoyable, too.

Christina Ricci and Rihanna were separated at birth, I swear.

American Idol has infected everything and we've had to endure this voting for a "Grammy Moment." I don't have high hopes for this performance.

Okay, color me wrong. That was great. The winner didn't get up there and show the greatest pipes (but not bad), but she had awesome stage presence and seemed right at home, like she and JT had been performing together for ages. She believed she belonged there, and that's great.

Wouldn't it be great if the Dixie Chicks won again? I like every song in the Record of the Year category, though, so it'll be hard to be disappointed. YESSSSSSSSS!!!! Allow me to take this moment to say that Natalie's dress doesn't really do it for me. But I love that she's always out there and willing to take risks. And not just with her dresses.

Scarlett Johannson is recording an album?? Will it be a Chicks sweep? YESSSSSSS!!!!!!! Chicks rule!!! I guess people threaten to kill you for your political opinions and you get a little inspired to greatness. This is awesome. Just awesome.

I've never watched X-Factor

...but I have been following the performances of Leona Lewis via You Tube. Holy shit, that girl can sing. I've watched American Idol once, maybe twice, and I'd never even heard of X-Factor until I came across a Leona video link in Perez Hilton. I do know enough about these competitive performance reality shows to know that taking on a "legend" is usually a recipe for disaster. But Leona, apparently diagnosed this week with tonsilitis, took on "I Will Always Love You" and absolutely nailed it. Mark my words, she is going to be a huge star. Huge.

I hate to say it

But Kanye West has lost his mind. It's one thing to create a little media swirl at the Grammys when you are an up-and-coming, but it's another thing to wild out at the MTV Europe Awards. Kanye, your mama taught you better than that.

It's time to get ill

I'm watching VH1's Hip Hop Honors show and they just honored the Beastie Boys. Well, first there was a kind of funny cover of "Paul Revere" by Diddy, Q-Tip and Fabolous (pre cap-in-his-ass, clearly...well, it was more like his leg and not his ass, but dude got shot, so let's not quibble). Then a kickin' mix segment (no clue who the dj was), followed by the Boys themselves. Aside from the fact that their music is just straight up fun, the audience was so into it. I mean, they were bouncin'. I love it.

Chicks Rule

You don't like the sound of the truth, comin' from my mouth...

In 2003, before singing "Truth No. 2," Natalie Maines said something to the effect of, "Sometimes, we record a song just because we like it, even though we aren't really sure what it means. But now we understand exactly what it means." If there is something louder than a roar, that's the sound the crowd made. Most people know about the firestorm over Chicks' front woman Natalie Maines' comment about the President during a concert in England. The remark, "Just so you know, we're ashamed the President of the United States is from Texas," didn't sit well with some people. And by "some people," I mean much of their country music fan base. Their tour dates frequently sold out within hours, but by the time they kicked off the North American dates, stations were boycotting them and they were receiving hate mail and even death threats. On his own tour, Toby Keith was showing an image of Saddam Hussein with Natalie photoshopped in.

The Chicks could have done a lot of things. They could have demurred. They could have puckered up and kissed red state booty or claimed temporary insanity. If both my livelihood and my life were threatened, I'd be sorely tempted to do some serious backpedaling.

But the not the Chicks. Instead, they sang their songs and had some babies and made a new album that showed no one was ever going to pin them down in one genre, let alone back them into a corner. In the only real moment of "kiss my ass" defiance in their show Friday night, the Chicks took the stage to the swells of "Hail to the Chief." But there was no vitriol in the show, just three exceptionally talented musicians who appear to be just as comfortable in their own skin as in the spotlight.  Their set was wonderful, though I could have done with one more song from Wide Open Spaces beyond the title track...and just how much fun must it be for them to still listen along to entire arenas sing this song along with them?

From Fly they performed "Goodbye Earl," "Cowboy Take Me Away," "Sometimes You Gotta Dance," "Sin Wagon," and an amazingly rocked-out "Ready to Run" in encore. From Home they performed "Long Time Gone," "Landslide," "Top of the World," (I can barely listen to that song, it's so sad), "Truth No. 2," "White Trash Wedding," the blazing instrumental "L'il Jack Slade," and "Travelin' Soldier" in encore. From Taking the Long Way they performed "Everybody Knows," "Lullaby," "Easy Silence," "So Hard" (Maines said, "We're gonna sing a song now about the second most popular topic to write songs about -- infertility."), "I Like It," "The Long Way Around," and of course, "I'm Not Ready to Make Nice." Oh, and in encore they also performed, "Mississippi" by Bob Dylan.

I guess when it comes down to it, I'll have a lot of happy memories and associations that will mean I'll always love the Dixie Chicks. And if they keep recording fabulous albums and pushing themselves to grow, I'll probably continue to enjoy their music. But for the way they've handled the controversy, the threats, and the cold shoulders, I will always respect the hell out of them.

Forgive, sounds good. Forget, I'm not sure I could.
They say time heals everything, but I'm still waiting.

For what it's worth, I don't think I'll forget anytime soon, either. 

Media acquisitions

Everything Bad is Good for You
Critical Mass: How One Thing Leads to Another
Intuition
Between You and I
The Bright Forever
Mindfulness (1)
Emotional Intelligence (2)
The Science of Happiness

(1) Mindfulness is very linked to choice in my way of thinking. This caught my eye when I was looking for The Science of Happiness, so I thought I'd give it a spin. Both made me think of this book that I just added to my wish list yesterday.
(2) Lately it seems that this book has come up a lot during potential client phone calls, so I figured I'd better read it.

After thinking about music recommendations for a friend, I realized that I ought to get the cds for a few artists/bands who I've enjoyed hearing on the radio lately.

How to Save a Life, The Fray
Back to Bedlam, James Blunt
Let Love In, The Goo Goo Dolls
Blue Light, Red Light, Harry Connick, Jr

Rounding it out with a DVD...

The Sound of Music, 40th Anniversary 2-disc DVD

A travel case with several DVDs, including the older version of TSOM was lost recently (likely left at my in-laws' house), so I figured that was a good excuse to get this newer version. The extras are great.