not cute
Life is so confusing!
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
I'm Officially Coming Out
as a Mariah Carey defender and occasional fan of some of her singles. This is a really difficult and hard thing for me to do but the process is mitigated by the fact that it's the internet and no one is reading. You might be thinking duh Michael, you should have posted this in 2007 but I'm a late bloomer. Also there is this!
(its a lot to trudge through so I've put key elements in bold)
(No, I'm not going to cite where I found this because I'm lazy and irresponsible)
Mimi's overriding public image of the past few years has been the cult-kitsch Mariah of 2002's Glitter-- a bad/good amalgam of Flashdance's flimsy script and "Saved By the Bell"'s plaster-faced deliveries-- and that one time she pushed a hot-dog cart onto the set of "TRL" unannounced. Mariah Carey no longer equals CRAZY TIME. But back in '03, she was Ms. Vilification.
Barely anyone defended her but she found camaraderie among feminist punks Erase Errata and Sonic "I believe Anita Hill" Youth, who collaborated on a Mariah Carey-themed split 7" in 2003 for Narnack Records. The idea for the seven-inch evolved from a series of conversations between Erase Errata vocalist Jenny Hoyston and Kim Gordon about how Carey's persona was portrayed and manipulated. (And, I will add, gets less of a break than other talented musicians practicing worse alleged offenses, such as R Kelly-- I would rather listen to a thousand of the chirpy screeches on "Fantasy" with the subtext of mental instability, than the champagne-warmth of "Step in the Name of Love", with the subtext of R.'s "love" translating as "pre-teen.")
Just after the release of the Narnack 7" in '03, Erase Errata singer Jenny Hoyston told me, "When we were touring with Sonic Youth, Kim [Gordon] and I were discussing Mariah-- who she was and how she was mentally and her impact on the world at large. We were also discussing how cleavage was increasingly visible in the rise of emo, and how directly proportional boys being more sensitive was to the amount of cleavage shown. I wrote the lyrics for our side from the perspective of the woman who was Mariah's character's mother in Glitter, and it's about a woman who's a talented singer but has some substance-abuse problems and some behavioral problems, and burns down their house and keeps fucking up but she sees her child and tries to take steps for better."
Erase Errata totally pre-cogged her emancipation!
Sonic Youth's side to that mini-alb was called "Mariah Carey and the Arthur Doyle Hand Cream", which later landed on Sonic Nurse-- it was the noise-anvil one featuring Gordon in her gruff bark-coo, "What's your gut feelin' about the new deal/ How's the label gonna remake you...Is innocence gonna still overtake you?...Ah Mariah, you're endless/ Like the wind, you're feelin' defenseless."
Phew! I feel so validated and less guilty after Kimmy G said it was okay to not hate her since I base my entire being and personality after emulating my favorite celebrity figures. My uncomfortable feelings for Mariah (re)started when Touch My Body came out which I view as a Feminist anthem with no irony. There are many ways in which she has done more for the woman's movement through her songs and healthy body image than say... Madonna has ever done in her entire career. Especially the last ten which has seen Madge disappear into pseudo meta physics with song lyrics embarrisingly trite and anemic record sales, making the same aging queens in LA and NY buy her albums over and over. Not to mention her obsession (hatred?) with her body, distorting it to look like a 13 year old boy's.
People actually buy mariah's music! Young(ish) people! Black people! A broad spectrum of people. Still to this day! If the beauty of pop music is a broad mass democratic appeal she certainly seems to fill that role better than many other pop starlets out there both young and old. Also there is this:
I rest my case
P.S. While we're on the subject of shameful pop crap I have to admit that I "get" Taylor Swift. It makes sense. Just say yes.
(its a lot to trudge through so I've put key elements in bold)
(No, I'm not going to cite where I found this because I'm lazy and irresponsible)
Mimi's overriding public image of the past few years has been the cult-kitsch Mariah of 2002's Glitter-- a bad/good amalgam of Flashdance's flimsy script and "Saved By the Bell"'s plaster-faced deliveries-- and that one time she pushed a hot-dog cart onto the set of "TRL" unannounced. Mariah Carey no longer equals CRAZY TIME. But back in '03, she was Ms. Vilification.
Barely anyone defended her but she found camaraderie among feminist punks Erase Errata and Sonic "I believe Anita Hill" Youth, who collaborated on a Mariah Carey-themed split 7" in 2003 for Narnack Records. The idea for the seven-inch evolved from a series of conversations between Erase Errata vocalist Jenny Hoyston and Kim Gordon about how Carey's persona was portrayed and manipulated. (And, I will add, gets less of a break than other talented musicians practicing worse alleged offenses, such as R Kelly-- I would rather listen to a thousand of the chirpy screeches on "Fantasy" with the subtext of mental instability, than the champagne-warmth of "Step in the Name of Love", with the subtext of R.'s "love" translating as "pre-teen.")
Just after the release of the Narnack 7" in '03, Erase Errata singer Jenny Hoyston told me, "When we were touring with Sonic Youth, Kim [Gordon] and I were discussing Mariah-- who she was and how she was mentally and her impact on the world at large. We were also discussing how cleavage was increasingly visible in the rise of emo, and how directly proportional boys being more sensitive was to the amount of cleavage shown. I wrote the lyrics for our side from the perspective of the woman who was Mariah's character's mother in Glitter, and it's about a woman who's a talented singer but has some substance-abuse problems and some behavioral problems, and burns down their house and keeps fucking up but she sees her child and tries to take steps for better."
Erase Errata totally pre-cogged her emancipation!
Sonic Youth's side to that mini-alb was called "Mariah Carey and the Arthur Doyle Hand Cream", which later landed on Sonic Nurse-- it was the noise-anvil one featuring Gordon in her gruff bark-coo, "What's your gut feelin' about the new deal/ How's the label gonna remake you...Is innocence gonna still overtake you?...Ah Mariah, you're endless/ Like the wind, you're feelin' defenseless."
Phew! I feel so validated and less guilty after Kimmy G said it was okay to not hate her since I base my entire being and personality after emulating my favorite celebrity figures. My uncomfortable feelings for Mariah (re)started when Touch My Body came out which I view as a Feminist anthem with no irony. There are many ways in which she has done more for the woman's movement through her songs and healthy body image than say... Madonna has ever done in her entire career. Especially the last ten which has seen Madge disappear into pseudo meta physics with song lyrics embarrisingly trite and anemic record sales, making the same aging queens in LA and NY buy her albums over and over. Not to mention her obsession (hatred?) with her body, distorting it to look like a 13 year old boy's.
People actually buy mariah's music! Young(ish) people! Black people! A broad spectrum of people. Still to this day! If the beauty of pop music is a broad mass democratic appeal she certainly seems to fill that role better than many other pop starlets out there both young and old. Also there is this:
I rest my case
P.S. While we're on the subject of shameful pop crap I have to admit that I "get" Taylor Swift. It makes sense. Just say yes.
Monday, May 18, 2009
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Friday, May 8, 2009
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
:(
Its cinco de mayo and I work nights so there is no way I can enjoy a 42 ounce margarita from El Conquistador.
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