tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-56290196669707131012024-03-19T04:33:21.627-07:00Living on Guilty PleasuresEveryone needs a place to talk about the things they love. Books, music, pop culture, movies, and TV. This is my place, and I appreciate you stopping by.Jeffrey Davieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10893528274829091844noreply@blogger.comBlogger257125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5629019666970713101.post-47142414455102032412019-11-27T09:26:00.000-08:002019-11-27T09:26:03.611-08:00So Long, Farewell...Lovely blog readers!<br />
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I'm excited to share that, after weeks of frustratingly hard work that may or may not have involved tears shed and tearing out my hair, I've started my very own website for all things pop culture, books, music, and everything in between - <a href="http://jeffreyreads.com/">jeffreyreads.com</a>.<br />
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This also means that, after 6 years, I've decided to say farewell to <i>Living on Guilty Pleasures</i>. In the immortal words of the Von Trapp children... <i>so long, farewell, </i><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>auf Wiedersehen, goodbye</i>...</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In all seriousness, it's been very difficult for me to make the decision to say goodbye to this blog. I've put so much work and love into it over the last 6 years, not to mention that it's been the place where I've grown and found my voice as the writer I want to be. But more importantly, this blog was - for the longest time - the place where I would curl up with books, obsess over pop culture, and throw caution to the wind of what people thought. When I was younger, everyone I knew used to constantly ask me why I cared so much about pop culture and books, and I never really had an answer. I just knew that I was passionate about it and that it mattered to me, and so I started this blog - because on the Internet, nobody found it weird. They understood. So I blogged obsessively about <i>The Young and the Restless</i>, books, and TV for many years, never once thinking it might be something I would want to pursue professionally.<br /><br />Anytime someone in real life would ask me about my blog, I would get so embarrassed and pretend it didn't exist. For so long I was still a fourteen-year-old boy who didn't fit in anywhere except in the worlds of daytime soap operas and sitcoms, and was so used to nobody else understanding. Even after I started writing about more popular subjects that more people were interested in, I was still so apprehensive to draw attention to my blog or my writing. Crippling self-doubt has always been my default setting. But recently I realized that writing and pop culture are two of the only things that set my soul on fire, and so I have to pursue them. It also means that I have to keep on growing, and move on from a writing space that I've outgrown.<br /><br />Over 6 years, <i>Living on Guilty Pleasures </i>has amassed nearly 29,000 views, which is bananas-level crazy. But guess what? Having faith in myself and thinking that people will care about what I write is still hard and overwhelming. I'm truly a writer with imposter syndrome. But I also know that the worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt, so I try my best every day to give the finger to the voices in my head that tell me nobody cares.<br /><br />If you're reading this, and if you've read this blog before, thank you so very much. It means more to me than you could ever know. I also hope you will continue to follow me and my writing on my <a href="http://jeffreyreads.com/">new website</a>, where I will continue sharing the same kind of content. I actually spent way too much time obsessing over details and staring at my computer screen well into the early hours of the morning, so please validate me by checking out my new website!<br /><br />Thank you again for all the love and support over these last 6 years.<br /><br />XOXO,<br />Jeffrey</span></span>Jeffrey Davieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10893528274829091844noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5629019666970713101.post-1667214913771812912019-11-10T15:07:00.000-08:002019-11-10T15:43:38.785-08:008 Books About Judy Garland to Read After Seeing JUDY<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji9bNzhzXmFjKFJE612jSlgKmojnDk0LCR1Em3XVSZSeVEwnCq91B3uh1yel6NO4mBqcCWvG-LD_lJJU-ffqDwmyHLNJuamb-L0h-wZYxdZZYwz4y8eCUw-_NxIde_oH1xOfFdkIwk2DsU/s1600/Renee.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="421" data-original-width="636" height="262" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji9bNzhzXmFjKFJE612jSlgKmojnDk0LCR1Em3XVSZSeVEwnCq91B3uh1yel6NO4mBqcCWvG-LD_lJJU-ffqDwmyHLNJuamb-L0h-wZYxdZZYwz4y8eCUw-_NxIde_oH1xOfFdkIwk2DsU/s400/Renee.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>Originally written and published by me for</i> <a href="https://bookriot.com/2019/10/22/books-about-judy-garland/">Book Riot</a><i>.</i></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Have you seen the new film </span><em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Judy</em><span style="font-family: inherit;">, a Judy Garland biopic starring Renée Zellweger as the iconic entertainer? If you haven’t, I’m not sure what you’re doing with your life. (Did I see it twice in the theatre in the same week? That’s a great question and the answer is yes.) The film will surely bring tears to the eyes of any Garland fan big or small, and it might also provoke interest in learning more about the tragedies, triumphs, and enormous talent that encapsulated Garland’s life and career. In the spirit of gaining more knowledge, here are eight books about Judy Garland to check out after seeing </span><em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Judy</em><span style="font-family: inherit;">.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: 100;"><em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a data-amzn-asin="B002W3BU0M" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002W3BU0M/ref=as_li_tf_il?ie=UTF8&tag=boorio-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399349&creativeASIN=B002W3BU0M" style="border: 0px; box-shadow: rgb(235, 168, 32) 0px -1.5px 0px inset; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: normal !important; margin: 0px 1px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank"><img alt="Get Happy cover" class="alignleft wp-image-281332 lazyloaded" data-pin-description="Now that you've seen JUDY, read about the life of Judy Garland in these books. book lists | Judy Garland books | books about Judy Garland | biographies to read | celebrity biographies" data-pin-id="" data-pin-media="https://s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/judy-garland-books.jpg" data-src="https://s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Get-Happy-197x300.jpg" data-srcset="https://s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Get-Happy-197x300.jpg 197w, https://s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Get-Happy-33x50.jpg 33w, https://s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Get-Happy.jpg 327w" height="305" sizes="(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px" src="https://s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Get-Happy-197x300.jpg" srcset="https://s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Get-Happy-197x300.jpg 197w, https://s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Get-Happy-33x50.jpg 33w, https://s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Get-Happy.jpg 327w" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; float: left; height: auto; margin: 0px 20px 20px 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="200" /></a></em></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a class="butter" data-amzn-asin="B002W3BU0M" data-publisher="Delta" data-releasedate="2009-11-11" data-title="Get Happy: The Life of Judy Garland" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002W3BU0M/ref=as_li_tf_il?ie=UTF8&tag=boorio-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399349&creativeASIN=B002W3BU0M" rel="nofollow" style="border: 0px; box-shadow: rgb(235, 168, 32) 0px -1.5px 0px inset; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 1px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;" title="Buy From Amazon">GET HAPPY: THE LIFE OF JUDY GARLAND</a> </em>BY GERALD CLARKE</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Considered to be the most definitive Garland biography, Gerald Clarke spent years working on this book after believing previous biographies did not paint a complete picture of who Judy was. Reviewing recordings that Garland made in preparation for a memoir that never materialized, Clarke breaks the surface that other biographies do not and gives us a compelling inside look at Judy’s life, career, and struggles. Fun fact: <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Get Happy </em>was optioned for a film by Harvey Weinstein in 2009 starring Anne Hathaway as Garland, but ultimately nothing came together.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: 100;"><em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a data-amzn-asin="B01FOCV32W" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01FOCV32W/ref=as_li_tf_il?ie=UTF8&tag=boorio-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399349&creativeASIN=B01FOCV32W" style="border: 0px; box-shadow: rgb(235, 168, 32) 0px -1.5px 0px inset; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: normal !important; margin: 0px 1px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank"><img alt="Judy Garland on Judy Garland cover" class="alignleft wp-image-281333 lazyloaded" data-pin-description="Now that you've seen JUDY, read about the life of Judy Garland in these books. book lists | Judy Garland books | books about Judy Garland | biographies to read | celebrity biographies" data-pin-id="" data-pin-media="https://s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/judy-garland-books.jpg" data-src="https://s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Judy-Garland-on-Judy-Garland-198x300.jpg" data-srcset="https://s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Judy-Garland-on-Judy-Garland-198x300.jpg 198w, https://s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Judy-Garland-on-Judy-Garland-33x50.jpg 33w, https://s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Judy-Garland-on-Judy-Garland.jpg 314w" height="303" sizes="(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px" src="https://s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Judy-Garland-on-Judy-Garland-198x300.jpg" srcset="https://s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Judy-Garland-on-Judy-Garland-198x300.jpg 198w, https://s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Judy-Garland-on-Judy-Garland-33x50.jpg 33w, https://s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Judy-Garland-on-Judy-Garland.jpg 314w" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; float: left; height: auto; margin: 0px 20px 20px 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="200" /></a></em></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a class="butter" data-amzn-asin="B01FOCV32W" data-publisher="Randy L. Schmidt" data-releasedate="" data-title="Judy Garland on Judy Garland : Interviews and Encounters (Paperback)--by Randy L. Schmidt [2016 Edition]" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01FOCV32W/ref=as_li_tf_il?ie=UTF8&tag=boorio-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399349&creativeASIN=B01FOCV32W" rel="nofollow" style="border: 0px; box-shadow: rgb(235, 168, 32) 0px -1.5px 0px inset; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 1px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;" title="Buy From Amazon">JUDY GARLAND ON JUDY GARLAND: INTERVIEWS AND ENCOUNTERS</a> </em>BY RANDY L. SCHMIDT</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Edited by Randy L. Schmidt, this volume encompasses every single interview Judy Garland ever gave—from before she was signed to MGM to the final months of her life—with some transcribed into print for the first time ever. Schmidt’s goal was to complete the memoir Judy never finished by weaving together everything she ever said, and the end result is heartbreaking as much as it is fascinating.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: 100;"><em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a data-amzn-asin="0671019007" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0671019007/ref=as_li_tf_il?ie=UTF8&tag=boorio-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399349&creativeASIN=0671019007" style="border: 0px; box-shadow: rgb(235, 168, 32) 0px -1.5px 0px inset; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: normal !important; margin: 0px 1px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank"><img alt="Me and My Shadows cover" class="wp-image-281334 size-medium alignleft lazyloaded" data-pin-description="Now that you've seen JUDY, read about the life of Judy Garland in these books. book lists | Judy Garland books | books about Judy Garland | biographies to read | celebrity biographies" data-pin-id="" data-pin-media="https://s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/judy-garland-books.jpg" data-src="https://s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Me-and-My-Shadows-200x300.jpg" data-srcset="https://s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Me-and-My-Shadows-200x300.jpg 200w, https://s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Me-and-My-Shadows-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Me-and-My-Shadows-683x1024.jpg 683w, https://s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Me-and-My-Shadows-33x50.jpg 33w, https://s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Me-and-My-Shadows.jpg 1200w" height="300" sizes="(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px" src="https://s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Me-and-My-Shadows-200x300.jpg" srcset="https://s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Me-and-My-Shadows-200x300.jpg 200w, https://s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Me-and-My-Shadows-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Me-and-My-Shadows-683x1024.jpg 683w, https://s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Me-and-My-Shadows-33x50.jpg 33w, https://s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Me-and-My-Shadows.jpg 1200w" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; float: left; height: auto; margin: 0px 20px 20px 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="200" /></a></em></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a class="butter" data-amzn-asin="0671019007" data-publisher="Gallery Books" data-releasedate="1999-04-01" data-title="Me and My Shadows: A Family Memoir" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0671019007/ref=as_li_tf_il?ie=UTF8&tag=boorio-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399349&creativeASIN=0671019007" rel="nofollow" style="border: 0px; box-shadow: rgb(235, 168, 32) 0px -1.5px 0px inset; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 1px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;" title="Buy From Amazon">ME AND MY SHADOWS: A FAMILY MEMOIR</a> </em>BY LORNA LUFT</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">In this illuminating portrait of family life, Garland’s daughter Lorna Luft tells the story of growing up with her mother as best she can. If there was ever any doubt that Judy did her absolute best to put her kids first, it’s definitely debunked in <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Me and My Shadows</em>. The memoir was later adapted into a television miniseries of the same name in 2001.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: 100;"><em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a data-amzn-asin="1596916664" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596916664/ref=as_li_tf_il?ie=UTF8&tag=boorio-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399349&creativeASIN=1596916664" style="border: 0px; box-shadow: rgb(235, 168, 32) 0px -1.5px 0px inset; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: normal !important; margin: 0px 1px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank"><img alt="My Judy Garland Life cover" class="alignleft wp-image-281335 lazyloaded" data-pin-description="Now that you've seen JUDY, read about the life of Judy Garland in these books. book lists | Judy Garland books | books about Judy Garland | biographies to read | celebrity biographies" data-pin-id="" data-pin-media="https://s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/judy-garland-books.jpg" data-src="https://s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/My-Judy-Garland-Life-232x300.jpg" data-srcset="https://s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/My-Judy-Garland-Life-232x300.jpg 232w, https://s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/My-Judy-Garland-Life-39x50.jpg 39w, https://s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/My-Judy-Garland-Life.jpg 318w" height="258" sizes="(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px" src="https://s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/My-Judy-Garland-Life-232x300.jpg" srcset="https://s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/My-Judy-Garland-Life-232x300.jpg 232w, https://s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/My-Judy-Garland-Life-39x50.jpg 39w, https://s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/My-Judy-Garland-Life.jpg 318w" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; float: left; height: auto; margin: 0px 20px 20px 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="200" /></a></em></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a class="butter" data-amzn-asin="1596916664" data-publisher="Bloomsbury USA" data-releasedate="2009-04-28" data-title="My Judy Garland Life: A Memoir" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596916664/ref=as_li_tf_il?ie=UTF8&tag=boorio-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399349&creativeASIN=1596916664" rel="nofollow" style="border: 0px; box-shadow: rgb(235, 168, 32) 0px -1.5px 0px inset; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 1px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;" title="Buy From Amazon">MY JUDY GARLAND LIFE</a> </em>BY SUSIE BOYT</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">In this quirky and unique memoir, Susie Boyt speaks to anyone who has ever nursed an obsession that ends up informing and influencing much of their life. Boyt recounts her lifelong love of Garland and the specific reasons she came to resonate with her, linking them to the reasons the world at large resonated with Judy.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: 100;"><em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a data-amzn-asin="0883651815" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0883651815/ref=as_li_tf_il?ie=UTF8&tag=boorio-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399349&creativeASIN=0883651815" style="border: 0px; box-shadow: rgb(235, 168, 32) 0px -1.5px 0px inset; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: normal !important; margin: 0px 1px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank"><img alt="The Other Side of the Rainbow cover" class="alignleft wp-image-281336 lazyloaded" data-pin-description="Now that you've seen JUDY, read about the life of Judy Garland in these books. book lists | Judy Garland books | books about Judy Garland | biographies to read | celebrity biographies" data-pin-id="" data-pin-media="https://s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/judy-garland-books.jpg" data-src="https://s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/The-Other-Side-of-the-Rainbow-180x300.jpg" data-srcset="https://s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/The-Other-Side-of-the-Rainbow-180x300.jpg 180w, https://s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/The-Other-Side-of-the-Rainbow-30x50.jpg 30w, https://s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/The-Other-Side-of-the-Rainbow.jpg 474w" height="334" sizes="(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px" src="https://s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/The-Other-Side-of-the-Rainbow-180x300.jpg" srcset="https://s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/The-Other-Side-of-the-Rainbow-180x300.jpg 180w, https://s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/The-Other-Side-of-the-Rainbow-30x50.jpg 30w, https://s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/The-Other-Side-of-the-Rainbow.jpg 474w" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; float: left; height: auto; margin: 0px 20px 20px 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="200" /></a></em></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a class="butter" data-amzn-asin="0883651815" data-publisher="Galahad Books" data-releasedate="" data-title="The other side of the rainbow: With Judy Garland on the dawn patrol" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0883651815/ref=as_li_tf_il?ie=UTF8&tag=boorio-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399349&creativeASIN=0883651815" rel="nofollow" style="border: 0px; box-shadow: rgb(235, 168, 32) 0px -1.5px 0px inset; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 1px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;" title="Buy From Amazon">THE OTHER SIDE OF THE RAINBOW: ON THE DAWN PATROL WITH JUDY GARLAND</a> </em>BY MEL TORMÉ</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">American musical icon Mel Tormé recounts his experiences working with Garland on her short-lived television variety show, <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Judy Garland Show</em>, and explains how even Judy’s undeniably large talents couldn’t save a show that was plagued from the start. As much as Tormé paints a clear picture of Judy’s troubles, he reminds us that there will only ever be one of her.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: 100;"><em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a data-amzn-asin="0525622101" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0525622101/ref=as_li_tf_il?ie=UTF8&tag=boorio-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399349&creativeASIN=0525622101" style="border: 0px; box-shadow: rgb(235, 168, 32) 0px -1.5px 0px inset; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: normal !important; margin: 0px 1px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank"><img alt="Finding Dorothy cover" class="alignleft wp-image-275406 lazyloaded" data-pin-description="Now that you've seen JUDY, read about the life of Judy Garland in these books. book lists | Judy Garland books | books about Judy Garland | biographies to read | celebrity biographies" data-pin-id="" data-pin-media="https://s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/judy-garland-books.jpg" data-src="https://s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Finding-Dorothy-196x300.jpg" data-srcset="https://s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Finding-Dorothy-196x300.jpg 196w, https://s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Finding-Dorothy-33x50.jpg 33w, https://s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Finding-Dorothy.jpg 310w" height="306" sizes="(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px" src="https://s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Finding-Dorothy-196x300.jpg" srcset="https://s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Finding-Dorothy-196x300.jpg 196w, https://s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Finding-Dorothy-33x50.jpg 33w, https://s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Finding-Dorothy.jpg 310w" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; float: left; height: auto; margin: 0px 20px 20px 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="200" /></a></em></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a class="butter" data-amzn-asin="0525622101" data-publisher="Ballantine Books" data-releasedate="2019-02-12" data-title="Finding Dorothy: A Novel" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0525622101/ref=as_li_tf_il?ie=UTF8&tag=boorio-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399349&creativeASIN=0525622101" rel="nofollow" style="border: 0px; box-shadow: rgb(235, 168, 32) 0px -1.5px 0px inset; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 1px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;" title="Buy From Amazon">FINDING DOROTHY</a> </em>BY ELIZABETH LETTS</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Published earlier this year, Elizabeth Letts’s historical novel fictionalizes the true events behind the inspiration for L. Frank Baum’s <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a class="butter" data-amzn-asin="1950435431" data-publisher="SeaWolf Press" data-releasedate="" data-title="The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (Illustrated First Edition): 100th Anniversary OZ Collection" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1950435431/ref=as_li_tf_il?ie=UTF8&tag=boorio-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399349&creativeASIN=1950435431" rel="nofollow" style="border: 0px; box-shadow: rgb(235, 168, 32) 0px -1.5px 0px inset; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;" title="Buy From Amazon">Wonderful Wizard of Oz</a> </em>books, and the making of its MGM film adaption that would become the most celebrated film in history—and launch one Judy Garland’s career. But it’s what’s left unsaid on the set of <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Wizard of Oz </em>that shows the multitudes of Judy’s vulnerability, which followed her into adulthood. Judy found Dorothy so that we could find Dorothy—even if the film studio wanted it the other way around.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: 100;"><em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a data-amzn-asin="B00PF7829O" href="https://www.amazon.com/Judy-Liza-Robert-Freddie-David-ebook/dp/B00PF7829O/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=stevie+phillips&qid=1570673238&sr=8-1" style="border: 0px; box-shadow: rgb(235, 168, 32) 0px -1.5px 0px inset; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: normal !important; margin: 0px 1px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank"><img alt="Judy & Liza & Robert & Freddie & David & Sue & Me cover" class="alignleft wp-image-281337 lazyloaded" data-pin-description="Now that you've seen JUDY, read about the life of Judy Garland in these books. book lists | Judy Garland books | books about Judy Garland | biographies to read | celebrity biographies" data-pin-id="" data-pin-media="https://s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/judy-garland-books.jpg" data-src="https://s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Stevie-Phillips-memoir-197x300.jpg" data-srcset="https://s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Stevie-Phillips-memoir-197x300.jpg 197w, https://s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Stevie-Phillips-memoir-33x50.jpg 33w, https://s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Stevie-Phillips-memoir.jpg 312w" height="304" sizes="(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px" src="https://s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Stevie-Phillips-memoir-197x300.jpg" srcset="https://s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Stevie-Phillips-memoir-197x300.jpg 197w, https://s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Stevie-Phillips-memoir-33x50.jpg 33w, https://s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Stevie-Phillips-memoir.jpg 312w" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; float: left; height: auto; margin: 0px 20px 20px 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="200" /></a></em></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a data-amzn-asin="B00PF7829O" href="https://www.amazon.com/Judy-Liza-Robert-Freddie-David-ebook/dp/B00PF7829O/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=stevie+phillips&qid=1570673238&sr=8-1" style="border: 0px; box-shadow: rgb(235, 168, 32) 0px -1.5px 0px inset; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: normal !important; margin: 0px 1px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">JUDY & LIZA & ROBERT & FREDDIE & DAVID & SUE & ME…A MEMOIR</a></em> BY STEVIE PHILLIPS</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">In this memoir, talent manager Stevie Phillips speaks of her time working with Judy Garland towards the end of her life. It doesn’t read as the most dependable of narratives—that is, its intention screams money rather than purpose—but Phillips does offer some interesting anecdotes about Judy scarcely found elsewhere. But, unlike other memoirs, it seems as though Phillips loves the exposure Judy’s name gave her more than she loved Judy.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: 100;"><em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a data-amzn-asin="076246481X" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/076246481X/ref=as_li_tf_il?ie=UTF8&tag=boorio-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399349&creativeASIN=076246481X" style="border: 0px; box-shadow: rgb(235, 168, 32) 0px -1.5px 0px inset; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: normal !important; margin: 0px 1px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank"><img alt="A Star is Born cover" class="alignleft wp-image-281338 lazyloaded" data-pin-description="Now that you've seen JUDY, read about the life of Judy Garland in these books. book lists | Judy Garland books | books about Judy Garland | biographies to read | celebrity biographies" data-pin-id="" data-pin-media="https://s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/judy-garland-books.jpg" data-src="https://s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Judy-Garland-and-the-Film-That-Got-Away-236x300.jpg" data-srcset="https://s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Judy-Garland-and-the-Film-That-Got-Away-236x300.jpg 236w, https://s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Judy-Garland-and-the-Film-That-Got-Away-39x50.jpg 39w, https://s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Judy-Garland-and-the-Film-That-Got-Away.jpg 343w" height="254" sizes="(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px" src="https://s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Judy-Garland-and-the-Film-That-Got-Away-236x300.jpg" srcset="https://s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Judy-Garland-and-the-Film-That-Got-Away-236x300.jpg 236w, https://s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Judy-Garland-and-the-Film-That-Got-Away-39x50.jpg 39w, https://s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Judy-Garland-and-the-Film-That-Got-Away.jpg 343w" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; float: left; height: auto; margin: 0px 20px 20px 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="200" /></a></em></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a class="butter" data-amzn-asin="076246481X" data-publisher="Running Press Adult" data-releasedate="2018-09-18" data-title="A Star Is Born: Judy Garland and the Film that Got Away (Turner Classic Movies)" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/076246481X/ref=as_li_tf_il?ie=UTF8&tag=boorio-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399349&creativeASIN=076246481X" rel="nofollow" style="border: 0px; box-shadow: rgb(235, 168, 32) 0px -1.5px 0px inset; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 1px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;" title="Buy From Amazon">A STAR IS BORN: JUDY GARLAND AND THE FILM THAT GOT AWAY</a> </em>BY LORNA LUFT & JEFFREY VANCE</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">In 1954, <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">A Star is Born </em>was supposed to be Judy Garland’s monumental film comeback following her tumultuous dismissal from MGM in 1950. But complications during the production as well as a notoriously troubled release led the film to become a cult classic rather than an era-defining musical. Last year, Lorna Luft and Jeffrey Vance took a look back at the history, mishaps and all, of Judy’s <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">A Star is Born</em>—a must-read for all film buffs and Garland fans.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Check out some of my other writing for Book Riot </i><a href="https://bookriot.com/author/jeffrey-davies/">here</a>.</span></div>
Jeffrey Davieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10893528274829091844noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5629019666970713101.post-16599581245641265632019-10-30T11:21:00.000-07:002019-10-31T14:13:58.561-07:00The 10 Best Halloween TV Episodes<div style="padding-bottom: 1em;">
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<span style="font-family: inherit; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The 10 Best Halloween TV Episodes" src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Halloween-10.jpg" height="200" width="400" /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Halloween might be the time of year to decorate your lawn with pumpkins and ghouls, giving out candy to your neighborhood’s costume connoisseurs, or trying to figure out the most clever costume to wear to the office or to a party. But the best way to celebrate Halloween is through a good old Halloween episode of your favorite TV series. Besides, what would pop culture look like without </span><em style="font-family: inherit;">It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown</em><span style="font-family: inherit;">? Or </span><em style="font-family: inherit;">Roseanne</em><span style="font-family: inherit;">’s </span><a href="https://livingonguiltypleasures.blogspot.com/2019/10/tricks-or-treats-celebrating-30-years.html" style="font-family: inherit;">iconic Halloween episodes</a><span style="font-family: inherit;">?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Bundle up and buckle up as we look back at 10 of the best Halloween TV episodes.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong>“Halloween” – <em>Modern Family </em>(2010)<br /><img alt="" class="alignnone wp-image-6378" data-mce-src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Halloween-1.jpg" src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Halloween-1.jpg" height="495" style="height: auto; max-width: 100%;" width="680" /></strong>(Photo: ABC)<strong><br /></strong>“All I ask is that you leave me Halloween. Yeah, Halloween. I realize it is a crazy-ass holiday for a grown woman to care about this much, but it is my crazy-ass holiday. Mine.” And so kicked off the first ever Halloween on <em>Modern Family</em>, way back during season two in 2010. It also introduced us to how passionate Claire Dunphy (Julie Bowen) is about this holiday (by season four, no parents were allowing their children to trick-or-treat at the Dunphys’ house, since the previous year Claire almost caused a man a heart attack with a gruesome prank). She could definitely give Roseanne Conner a run for her money. Elsewhere, Gloria (Sofia Vergara) is made to feel insecure about her Columbian accent for the first time (“maybe she’s never been picked on for bein’ diff-er-ent”), and Claire offers her daughter $10 to go put on more clothes. All in all, a Halloween to remember.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong>“BOO!” – <em>Roseanne </em>(1989)<br /><img alt="" class="alignnone wp-image-6372 size-full" data-mce-src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Halloween-2.jpg" src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Halloween-2.jpg" height="440" style="height: auto; max-width: 100%;" width="680" /></strong>(Photo: ABC)<br />Any list of the best Halloween TV episodes would be incomplete without a mention of <em>Roseanne</em>, who certainly invented the Halloween episode as we know it. “BOO!” started it all back in 1989, during the series’ second season, when the Conners set up their house into the “tunnel of terror” to lead their trick-or-treaters through. Meanwhile, Becky (Lecy Goranson) almost doesn’t participate after she is uninvited to a Halloween party (“I hate Marci Michaelson!”) and we are introduced to Dan (John Goodman) and Roseanne’s (Roseanne Barr) twisted game of who is better at scaring the other. But we all know who the master will always be. Don’t miss my <a href="https://livingonguiltypleasures.blogspot.com/2019/10/tricks-or-treats-celebrating-30-years.html">look back</a> at the legacy of <em>Roseanne</em>’s Halloween episodes as this year marks 30 years since “BOO!” first aired on October 31, 1989.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong>“The One With the Halloween Party” – <em>Friends </em>(2001)<br /><img alt="" class="alignnone wp-image-6379" data-mce-src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Halloween-3-1024x681.jpg" src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Halloween-3-1024x681.jpg" height="452" style="height: auto; max-width: 100%;" width="680" /></strong>(Photo: NBC)<br />“Come on, who are we kidding? I’m Doody.” It took <em>Friends </em>until season eight to have a Halloween episode, which also happens to be one of the series’ strongest and funniest seasons. Sean Penn might be the most notable guest star that comes to mind, but we often forget about a young Emily Osment, who plays a little girl whom Rachel doesn’t have any candy or money left to give to. “Hey, can I write you a cheque?” Her name? Lelani Mayolanofavich.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong>“Now I Know, Don’t Be Scared” – <em>Desperate Housewives </em>(2007)<br /><img alt="" class="alignnone wp-image-6380 " data-mce-src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Halloween-4-1024x683.jpg" src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Halloween-4-1024x683.jpg" height="453" style="height: auto; max-width: 100%;" width="680" /></strong>(Photo: ABC)<strong><br /></strong>The first time Halloween came to Wisteria Lane was the year that Bob and Lee (Tuc Watkins and Kevin Rahm) moved onto the lane and threw a party—right after making an enemy out of the new president of the Homeowners’ Association, Katherine (Dana Delany). Meanwhile, Bree (Marcia Cross) was busy faking a pregnancy to hide her teenage daughter Danielle (Joy Lauren) getting knocked up—but Bree’s ruse is at risk when Danielle suddenly returns home from the convent they had sent her to. But things get even messier when Danielle shows up at the neighborhood Halloween party dressed as Bree…and soon goes into labor. Bree’s son Andrew (Shawn Pyfrom) is also forced to dress up as Cher, and Katherine comes as Marie Antoinette—“you came as a self-important queen who lost all her power! Isn’t that a bit on the nose?”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong>“Tricks and Treats” – <em>Freaks and Geeks </em>(1999)<br /><img alt="" class="alignnone wp-image-6382 size-full" data-mce-src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Halloween-1.png" src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Halloween-1.png" height="372" style="height: auto; max-width: 100%;" width="500" /></strong>(Photo: NBC)<strong><br /></strong><em>Freaks and Geeks </em>might have only had the one Halloween episode, but it’s one of the most memorable in TV history, and it aired 20 years ago tonight on October 30, 1999. Sam (John Francis Daley), Neal (Samm Levine), and Bill (Martin Starr)—the “geeks”—go out trick-or-treating and run into another altercation with their bully, Alan (Chauncey Leopardi). Meanwhile, although Lindsay (Linda Cardellini) had made plans to stay home and pass out candy with her mom (Becky Ann Baker), she decides to go out cruising around town with her new bunch of burnout friends, the “freaks.” But things get a little out of hand when Lindsay unknowingly eggs her brother… a classic example of the show’s groundbreaking attempt at portraying the plight of growing up and finding yourself against the awkward backdrop of high school.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong>“Orange Alert” – <em>Parenthood</em> (2010)<br /><img alt="" class="alignnone wp-image-6383 " data-mce-src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Halloween-2-1.jpg" src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Halloween-2-1.jpg" height="383" style="height: auto; max-width: 100%;" width="681" /></strong>(Photo: NBC)<strong><br /></strong>In this episode of the underrated NBC family drama, the Bravermans celebrate Halloween as Max (Max Burkholder), who has Asperger’s, decides he wants to go out trick-or-treating—despite his fears and aversions to it in the past. As the whole family heads out for a night of costume fun, Max faces his fears and enters a haunted house with his cousins, and Crosby (Dax Shepherd) proposes to Jasmine (Joy Bryant) and everything was good… even if just for a short while. Especially on Halloween, <em>Parenthood </em>did what <em>Parenthood </em>did best: remind us of the comforting warmth and support of your family. Also, can we talk about how cute Adam Braverman is in his baseball player costume?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong>“Boo! Humbug” – <em>Will & Grace </em>(1998)<br /><img alt="" class="alignnone" data-mce-src="https://www.pedestrian.tv/content/uploads/2018/10/GettyImages-141188843-1-1024x1009.jpg" height="670" src="https://www.pedestrian.tv/content/uploads/2018/10/GettyImages-141188843-1-1024x1009.jpg" style="height: auto; max-width: 100%;" width="680" /></strong>(Photo: NBC)<br />Back in 1998, during <em>Will & Grace</em>’s first season, Will (Eric McCormack) and Grace (Debra Messing) thought they were above Halloween. It’s just a holiday for kids. But when their adult night of wine and a movie is interrupted by having to babysit to the kids of Harlan (Gary Grubbs), Will’s boss, they just might find out how to embrace their inner child and figure out that Halloween isn’t just for kids. Meanwhile, Jack (Sean Hayes) convinces Karen (Megan Mullally) to go downtown with him on Halloween in costume, during which an apprehensive Karen is warmly embraced by drag queens—leaving Jack feeling a little left out.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong>“The Middle-Earth Paradigm” – <em>The Big Bang Theory </em>(2007)<br /><img alt="" class="alignnone wp-image-6384 " data-mce-src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Halloween-3-1-1024x682.jpg" src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Halloween-3-1-1024x682.jpg" height="453" style="height: auto; max-width: 100%;" width="680" /></strong>(Photo: CBS)<strong><br /></strong><em>The Big Bang Theory </em>also tried their hand at Halloween during their first season, when Penny (Kaley Cuoco) throws a Halloween party and invites her geeky, awkward new neighbors. They arrive at 7:05, apologizing for being late (the party started at 7:00—they are the first to arrive). Sheldon (Jim Parsons) dresses up as the Doppler Effect, even though nobody gets it, and Leonard (Johnny Galecki) and Penny share their first kiss after her ex-boyfriend crashes her party and creates pandemonium.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong>“Halloween IV” – <em>Roseanne </em>(1992)<br /><img alt="" class="alignnone wp-image-6362 " data-mce-src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Roseanne-4.png" src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Roseanne-4.png" height="508" style="height: auto; max-width: 100%;" width="680" /></strong>(Photo: ABC)<strong><br /></strong>If “BOO!” created the gold standard for Halloween episodes in 1989, “Halloween IV”—from <em>Roseanne</em>’s fifth season—certainly proved they were in fact the Masters of Halloween. In this episode, Roseanne has lost her Halloween spirit after daughter Becky isn’t able to return home for the holiday. The Conners had also had a rough year financially after the foreclosure of Dan’s bike shop, so Rosie just wasn’t feeling it this year and doesn’t attend the Lodge Party. But what’s to happen when the Queen of Halloween doesn’t participate? Roseanne is visited by three ghosts: the Ghosts of Halloween Past, Present, and Future. After remembering how she’s always been good at Halloween, seeing how her friends are making fun of her at the party, and then seeing a future of turning into her mother if she doesn’t go all out on Halloween, Roseanne arrives at the Lodge Party—and gives everyone just the trick they’ve been waiting for. Happy Halloween! *insert Roseanne’s cackle here*</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong>“It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” (1966)<br /><img alt="" class="alignnone wp-image-6389 " data-mce-src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Halloween-5-1024x683.jpg" src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Halloween-5-1024x683.jpg" height="454" style="height: auto; max-width: 100%;" width="681" /></strong>(Photo: ABC)<br />No list of special Halloween episodes would be complete without the one that arguably started it all back in 1966—the first time Linus sat in the pumpkin patch and awaited the arrival of the Great Pumpkin. Everyone said he was crazy and that the Great Pumpkin didn’t exist—which may be true, as Linus is still waiting for him 53 years later—but he never gave up. Every year, he waits for the Great Pumpkin to rise out of that pumpkin patch. And 53 years later, we still tune in to hope this will be the year he finally arrives.</span></div>
Jeffrey Davieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10893528274829091844noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5629019666970713101.post-15801722732384224962019-10-28T19:52:00.000-07:002019-10-28T19:53:01.542-07:00Tricks or Treats: Celebrating 30 Years of 'Roseanne' Halloween Episodes<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />Some families have Christmas, and others have Easter. </span><em style="font-family: inherit;">Friends </em><span style="font-family: inherit;">had Thanksgiving. But no TV family has ever done Halloween like the Conners. This week marks 30 years since the first Halloween episode of </span><em style="font-family: inherit;">Roseanne </em><span style="font-family: inherit;">aired back in 1989. And in the three decades since, nobody else has come close to touching the legacy of Halloween on </span><em style="font-family: inherit;">Roseanne</em><span style="font-family: inherit;">.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Other television series might have featured Halloween in the past, but <em>Roseanne </em>certainly invented the Halloween TV episode as we know it. In the 21st century, almost everyone has done Halloween—from <em>Modern Family</em>, to <em>The Big Bang Theory</em>, and even <em>Desperate Housewives</em>. But arguably none of that would have existed if it weren’t for the Conners’ elaborately planned spectacles at scaring each other on the spookiest day of the year. “For a while, they refused to let us have a Halloween episode, because they said the Bible Belt doesn't like Halloween, that they think it’s satanic, so they didn’t want it on ABC,” Roseanne Barr told <a data-mce-href="https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/blogs/tv-news/roseanne-history-of-first-halloween-episode-224516661.html" href="https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/blogs/tv-news/roseanne-history-of-first-halloween-episode-224516661.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><em>Yahoo TV </em></a>in 2014. “And we’re like, ‘Are you crazy? People trick-or-treat, you know. It’s a big holiday.’ They were very kind of fundamentalist about it, but you know, that was the first dragon we slayed on the <em>Roseanne</em> show.” And it certainly wouldn’t be the last. Barr also shared in the video commentary on the DVD release of the series’ Halloween episodes that the only reason she wanted to get into television was to break all the rules of television—and there’s no doubt she accomplished that and more, in the best and worst ways possible.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><em>Roseanne</em>’s first Halloween episode, “BOO!”, was the seventh episode of the series’ second season and first aired on October 31, 1989. It set the standard for a Halloween celebration like no other that would continue for every year the show was on the air. And while it might not have seemed unordinary for a family sitcom to celebrate Halloween, regardless of religious objections, Halloween on <em>Roseanne </em>became revolutionary because they did it like nobody else ever had—just like the rest of the show. The Conners were just like you, and not ashamed to show it. They were unabashedly unpolished. They were overweight junk food eaters. They belched and bellowed, and fought over the TV remote. They struggled to make ends meet and occasionally had their power shut off (John Goodman often joked that the Conners were poor because they spent all of their money on Halloween). Their kids fought with their parents, and vice versa. Nothing was ever solved into a happily ever after by the final commercial break—but there was always impeccable writing and Roseanne’s signature wit, brash sarcasm, and comedic timing to relieve the tension. It’s no surprise they brought all of that and more to their Halloween episodes, and in fact, it was on Halloween when <em>Roseanne </em>did what <em>Roseanne </em>did best: break the rules, and make us laugh about it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Dan and Roseanne trying to outdo one another by scaring each other would become a staple of the Halloween episodes. John Pasquin, who directed every episode of <em>Roseanne</em>’s second season, remembered the couple’s “one-upsmanship” as his favorite part of the Halloween episodes, particularly from that first one from 1989. “This is the kind of thing that actually does go on in your household when you have a couple who is playful, just trying to get the better of your mate,” he said. “That was such a nice through-line, apart from all of the dressing up, and the makeup and the hair and all that stuff… a couple really just having fun and trumping each other.” In “BOO!”, Dan and Roseanne quip back and forth at who is “the master” at scaring the other. Although they both play a good game, it is Roseanne who emerges victorious—setting a precedent for every other aspect of the series—by faking a phone call with her mother in the episode’s final moments, saying they are coming to stay with them indefinitely. Dan’s immediate panic leads him to bow in gratitude at the prank. Roseanne, despite her faults, will always be the Master of Halloween.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Like any cultural text from decades ago, we might also argue some aspects of <em>Roseanne</em>’s Halloween celebrations have not, what we call, “aged well.” But on the other hand, considering the social context in which they originally aired—the American working-class in the Midwest, late eighties and the nineties—it was <em>Roseanne</em>’s daring social commentary that grew more ambitious as the show went on that propels the Halloween episodes to the forefront of why <em>Roseanne</em>, as a whole, was groundbreaking. A key example is “Trick or Treat,” the show’s second attempt at Halloween in its third season, that remains relevant in the social progression of American popular culture. The episode begins with Dan playing poker with his buddies at the Conners’ kitchen table, a common occurrence throughout the series. These poker games were often portrayals of stereotypical patriarch activity, the act of the male of the household “blowing off steam” or “doing a man thing.” In “Trick or Treat,” the less than classy Arnie (Tom Arnold) tells his friends a story about mail-order brides, and the rest of the men continue a conversation that can only be described, by our modern standards, as “locker room talk.” The talk grinds to a halt when Roseanne and Jackie enter the kitchen, with Dan redirecting the conversation into something about tools. But the icing on the cake comes a mere moments later, when DJ (Michael Fishman) enters the scene in his Halloween costume, as a witch with a broom. Roseanne and Jackie are enthusiastic, but Dan immediately sends him upstairs in a panic before his friends see him. “Two daughters aren’t enough for you?” he asks Roseanne. “Witches are <em>girls</em>.” Roseanne, as only she can, breaks the tension perfectly in the episode’s best line. “This is the nineties, Dan. Witches are <em>women</em>.” The women see no issue with DJ’s costume and when Roseanne questions Dan on why he had no issue with Darlene (Sara Gilbert) dressing up as a pirate three times, Dan dismisses that costume as “cute” and insists that if they let DJ go out as a witch, he will come home with a bloody nose. It’s such an impeccably perfect textbook example of toxic masculinity that the cultural criticism basically writes itself. “DJ, instead of a witch, you wanna dress up like Madonna?”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">This was not the first time that toxic masculinity and heteronormative gender norms were explored on <em>Roseanne</em>, and it certainly wouldn’t be the last. After Dan convinces DJ to ditch his broom in an attempt to rebrand him as a warlock, he can’t shake a sense of guilt from preventing his son from being who he wanted to be. The episode didn’t solve Dan’s masculine panic, and no episode ever does, but this was 1990, and it did at least allow space for some understanding and forgiveness. Dan even pretends that Roseanne is his husband when, in a turn of events, Jackie and Roseanne end up stranded at the Lobo Lounge on Halloween and Roseanne takes her male lumberjack disguise a little too far. It makes me think of the time I dressed up as a witch with a broom as a child, fourteen years after this episode aired, as well as my own doubts and whether I should call myself a warlock instead. But my parents embraced my costume idea without hesitation, as they always did, and reminds me how far we have come with dismantling gender norms and heteronormativity—and how far we still have left to go.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">It might not seem like much today, but <em>Roseanne </em>made social commentary regarding gender roles and toxic masculinity a mainstay in American primetime television, in an era before <em>Ellen </em>was cancelled or <em>Will & Grace </em>premiered. “Trick or Treat” wasn’t even the only Halloween episode to address such topics—“Skeleton in the Closet,” from the seventh season, not only continued to push boundaries but if anything showcased how far <em>Roseanne </em>had also progressed since season three (it also featured Roseanne Barr’s personal favorite costume, when she dressed up as Prince). That year’s Halloween celebration revolved around Leon (Martin Mull)—Roseanne’s former boss and later business partner, and an openly gay character—throwing a Halloween party at the Lunch Box, Roseanne and Jackie’s business in which he had bought a stake. It prompted most of the episode’s subtext to revolve around gay people in an attempt to provide a “they’re just like us” narrative, which ultimately doesn’t hold up against the multitude of homophobic jokes. Roseanne Barr originally added gay characters in the form of Leon and Nancy (Sandra Bernhard) to the series in an effort for representation, since she had gay siblings, but the plight for gays and lesbians to be seen on <em>Roseanne </em>was often lost in the context of the homophobia necessary for them to even be there in the first place. Nonetheless, they were there, and any publicity is in fact good publicity when it comes to sparking a conversation. In other words, Dan’s prank on Roseanne that year in which everyone leaves clues to convince Roseanne that Jackie’s husband Fred (Michael O’Keefe) might be gay might not still be funny in our modern context, and might not have “aged well.” But in 1994—when Ellen still wasn’t out yet and <em>Will & Grace </em>still didn’t exist—it was something. It was something that said gay people exist, even if <em>Roseanne </em>often made a joke out of them.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">It would be difficult to even discuss the possibility that some of <em>Roseanne</em>’s Halloween episodes haven’t “aged well” when the current popular opinion suggests that Roseanne—the sitcom or the person—has certainly not aged well, either. I’m pretty sure merely the word Roseanne is still polarizing, given her current penchant for racism that lost her a lot of fans during the 2016 U.S. election as well as the highly successful <a data-mce-href="http://kellyalexandershow.com/roseanne-revival-real-people-just-like-always/" href="http://kellyalexandershow.com/roseanne-revival-real-people-just-like-always/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">revival of <em>Roseanne</em></a>, which aired for 9 episodes in 2018 before being unceremoniously cancelled after Barr made racist comments about Valerie Jarrett on Twitter. But it would be difficult to argue that Roseanne is only polarizing and one of the most hated people on the planet in the present, when back in the early nineties, she was also polarizing and one of the most hated people on the planet. Back then, she was overweight, rejected femininity, and said what she wanted. It worked in her favor when what she did and said pushed boundaries and allowed room for representation, but when she began turning her unruliness towards racism and bigotry, it was for many—at the very least—jarring and horrifying.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Perhaps the saving grace to ensuring <em>Roseanne</em>’s legacy, and especially that of its Halloween episodes, will be <a data-mce-href="http://kellyalexandershow.com/conners-without-roseanne-kids-going-alright/" href="http://kellyalexandershow.com/conners-without-roseanne-kids-going-alright/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><em>The Conners</em></a>, the spin-off series that ABC rebranded the revival as after its cancellation (the series premiere effectively killed off Roseanne from an opioid overdose). The spin-off will take its second stab at Halloween this year, with an episode that sees Jackie (Laurie Metcalf) learning that a local Chinese restaurant is closing and seeing an opportunity to reopen the Lunch Box without her late sister. <em>The Conners </em>has already amused fans with a blast from the past earlier this season with a guest appearance by Meagan Fay, who played Roseanne’s neighbor Kathy during <em>Roseanne</em>’s fourth season—and who Dan and Roseanne play a particularly gruesome Halloween prank on in “Trick Me Up, Trick Me Down.” Last year, <em>The Conners </em>tried their hand at a Halloween episode that saw Darlene’s son Mark (Ames McNamara) grappling with a costume ban at his school, and the episode also introduced guest star Matthew Broderick as Jackie’s boyfriend Peter. It certainly wasn’t the same without Rosie, but the spin-off will have a second chance this week not only with Jackie’s blast from the past but also when DJ’s daughter Mary (Jayden Ray) gets upset when someone assumes she is adopted based on the color of her skin. The episode will air Tuesday, October 29 on ABC. <em>The Conners </em>might not have Roseanne’s loud-mouthed wit or sarcasm (or, as of late, her racism) to break tension anymore, but the spin-off is still making excellent use of the social commentary, pushing of boundaries, and evidently celebrations of Halloween that <em>Roseanne </em>pioneered 30 years ago.</span></div>
Jeffrey Davieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10893528274829091844noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5629019666970713101.post-52684361667763551272019-09-30T11:57:00.000-07:002019-09-30T12:03:21.100-07:00Tegan and Sara Have Returned to Their Roots in the Most Interesting Way Possible (Album Review: 'Hey, I'm Just Like You')<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-oVbgboIZjt5ipXgZ1UrchjsLwOwsa3sjIKDN1zX4i3z3YNmwzU2h26PDBIs9UeR2zmVKP7O4L59yyaisekruVokU6aGTL2dphV6w2_xEgJ8p5vvJ4G-aYX_zx1TOIoRtCX9MHmprbsv7/s1600/Tegan+and+Sara.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1404" data-original-width="1600" height="350" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-oVbgboIZjt5ipXgZ1UrchjsLwOwsa3sjIKDN1zX4i3z3YNmwzU2h26PDBIs9UeR2zmVKP7O4L59yyaisekruVokU6aGTL2dphV6w2_xEgJ8p5vvJ4G-aYX_zx1TOIoRtCX9MHmprbsv7/s400/Tegan+and+Sara.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I would like to believe that even people who say they enjoyed high school would most probably not want to relive it. Insecurities come alive, friendships come and go, and most importantly, nobody knows who they are yet. Just the thought of going through that again makes me shudder. But Tegan and Sara—Canadian indie pop rock duo, twin sisters, and longtime LGBTQ advocates—are reclaiming that narrative and time in their lives as their own and turning the age-old clichés into unique melodies and poetic lyrics on their new studio album, <em>Hey, I’m Just Like You</em>, a collection of songs they originally wrote and recorded as teenagers that were purposely lost for years until the twins started digging through the past while writing their new memoir, <a data-mce-href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/24/arts/music/tegan-and-sara-high-school.html" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/24/arts/music/tegan-and-sara-high-school.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><em>High School</em></a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">At the time, Tegan and Sara had no confidence in the songs and remained convinced for decades thereafter that they would never see the light of day. That all changed earlier this year. Last spring, they began reworking and rewriting each track, keeping the “essence” of each song, and soon decided that these remastered recordings from their high school days would become their ninth studio album. As the duo put it, “This is the record we never could have made as teenagers, full of songs we never could have written as adults.” And that’s what makes it so wonderful.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">In high school, the twins were not the queer icons we know and love today. Quite the opposite, in fact. According to Sara, they were “dirtbags” who were “stoned on acid, sneaking out, skipping school, lying to our parents,” and still very deep in the closet. It was their experimentation with drugs that led to a newfound understanding amongst the sisters that they had previously lost. As young kids, and as with most siblings, Tegan and Sara were inseparably close: they cried when they weren’t in the same elementary school class and their experiences and memories often felt interchangeable—in other words, there was no Tegan without Sara, and no Sara without Tegan.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" class="wp-image-6320 size-large" data-mce-src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/tegan-sara-819x1024.jpg" src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/tegan-sara-819x1024.jpg" height="1024" style="-webkit-user-drag: none; display: block; height: auto; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 100%;" width="819" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tegan and Sara, 2019 (Photo: Trevor Brady)</td></tr>
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<dd class="wp-caption-dd" style="-webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding-top: 0.5em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">That all changed by the time they were teenagers in high school, when battle lines were drawn in the name of hormones, emotions, and the ever-present conflict of individual identity. But when they were on acid, they found a new type of love and admiration for each other, and it was this love and admiration that led to some of these songs being written—namely the title track “</span><a data-mce-href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ME_X7h912rU" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ME_X7h912rU" style="font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;">Hey, I’m Just Like You</a><span style="font-family: inherit;">,” in which they realized many of their struggles were shared, and that together they could face the fact that they were both a little messed up and blue. It’s been over twenty years since Tegan and Sara were teenagers, but these emotions and feelings appear more poignant, heart wrenching, and relevant than ever on these songs which, in the words of Britney Spears, are remixed, reimagined, and still iconic—even though this is the first time they’ve been released.</span></dd><dd class="wp-caption-dd" style="-webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding-top: 0.5em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></dd></dl>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Tegan and Sara began their career as indie rockers before venturing into synth-pop on their largely celebrated seventh studio album <em>Heartthrob </em>(2013). Their last studio album, 2016’s <em>Love You to Death</em>, was completely pop-focused and was described by <a data-mce-href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/sep/29/tegan-and-sarah-hey-im-just-like-you-review" href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/sep/29/tegan-and-sarah-hey-im-just-like-you-review" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><em>The Guardian </em></a>as a “commercial flop, a box-ticking exercise, with the band’s spirit lost under the sheen.” <a data-mce-href="https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/reviews/tegan-and-sara-review-hey-im-just-like-you-album-high-school-cassette-tapes-a9120181.html" href="https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/reviews/tegan-and-sara-review-hey-im-just-like-you-album-high-school-cassette-tapes-a9120181.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Other critics</a> have also suggested that the duo was selling out during that era, despite the fact that they were merely exploring their penchant for different sounds and production values. Whatever the case, the twins have returned to their roots on <em>Hey, I’m Just Like You </em>in the most interesting way possible. They haven’t abandoned their newfound tendency for pop production, but they’ve also returned to the indie pop rock vibes found on their earlier records such as <em>So Jealous</em>, <em>The Con</em>, or <em>Sainthood</em>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The new album’s lead single, “<a data-mce-href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PRtBDpm6zY" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PRtBDpm6zY" style="text-decoration-line: none;">I’ll Be Back Someday</a>,” contains the production that embodies this throwback while also containing the catchy lyrics and melodies found in any other successful pop single. The duo are also exploring their sexuality in their lyrics in ways they never have before, in the form of the repressed feelings of closeted teenagers. “Hold My Breath Until I Die,” “Hello, I’m Right Here,” and “I Don’t Owe You Anything” all express the choked-down emotions of a teenager who has been knocked down by their desires and are not yet sure how to get back up. <em>Hey, I’m Just Like You</em>’s song titles are just melodramatic enough to work—since they are about high school, after all. “Don’t Believe the Things They Tell You (They Lie)” and “We Don’t Have Fun When We’re Together Anymore” are achingly reminiscent of all the awkwardness required in being a teenager, but also evoke such strong imagery that is scarcely found in other records of the same nature. “I Know I’m Not the Only One” functions as both an ode to knowing you’re not alone in your queer desires but also as an ode to merely being different—to not fitting in, to not wanting to fit in, and knowing deep in the cloud of self-doubt that other people who feel like you exist. Finally, the album’s closing track, “All I Have to Give the World is Me,” functions as the necessary dismissal of these youthful insecurities. It possesses the same relevant message that Judy Garland sang sixty years ago on “<a data-mce-href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MX8BJeNLGp8" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MX8BJeNLGp8" style="text-decoration-line: none;">I Can’t Give You Anything But Love</a>”—that we are all enough as we are, and you’re going to have to take it or leave it.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tegan and Sara in the music video for "<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PRtBDpm6zY">I'll Be Back Someday</a>" (Photo: Rolling Stone) </td></tr>
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<dd class="wp-caption-dd" style="-webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding-top: 0.5em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Perhaps the strength in</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><em style="font-family: inherit;">Hey, I’m Just Like You </em><span style="font-family: inherit;">comes from the fact that the emotions expressed in these songs only come into focus later on in life—once we’ve gained perspective on the fact that we are all just like you: we all tend to struggle, we all tend to have our hearts broken, we all tend to feel too much. But as teenagers, we think we are in fact the only ones and that everything is the end of the world. And only by reworking and reimagining these songs all these years later have Tegan and Sara been able to chip away at the true meaning of the age-old anxieties of youth: that, on one level or another, we are all just like each other. But we will only figure this out later. Indeed, the twins were right to assume that this is an album they never could have made as teenagers, full of songs they never could have written as adults.</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><em style="font-family: inherit;">Hey, I’m Just Like You </em><span style="font-family: inherit;">emphasizes the importance of time capsules—of capturing our feelings during a specific period and locking them away for later. We never think they will become of any value, but we’re wrong. Or at least Tegan and Sara were wrong, because I can only hope these songs will bring strength and understanding to teenagers who aren’t strong enough yet, and to adults who haven’t confronted the past in a while. It’s worth it, and you’re worth it.</span></dd><dd class="wp-caption-dd" style="-webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding-top: 0.5em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></dd></dl>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong>Jeffrey’s favorites from <em>Hey, I’m Just Like You</em></strong>: “Hold My Breath Until I Die,” “Hey, I’m Just Like You,” “I’ll Be Back Someday,” “I Don’t Owe You Anything,” “I Know I’m Not the Only One,” “Please Help Me,” and “All I Have to Give the World is Me”</span></div>
Jeffrey Davieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10893528274829091844noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5629019666970713101.post-89179016514930162072019-09-18T12:42:00.000-07:002019-09-18T17:56:04.211-07:00Natasha Bedingfield Gets Political on Her First Album in 9 Years (Album Review: 'Roll with Me')<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiRIsw62gO9KeJdbDJZV7Tg5GexvQxmh8253Kz50xmZf6CINp4cgviJn9gF8aXmjyRKyXdnxrQ1RnCiGM8qVQrCocLST2jzIIsWMZhXR8GkVu2lp8upH7R6cJuhSn1pvQEghQMhJTliVKc/s1600/Natasha-Bedingfield-august-2019.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="880" data-original-width="1320" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiRIsw62gO9KeJdbDJZV7Tg5GexvQxmh8253Kz50xmZf6CINp4cgviJn9gF8aXmjyRKyXdnxrQ1RnCiGM8qVQrCocLST2jzIIsWMZhXR8GkVu2lp8upH7R6cJuhSn1pvQEghQMhJTliVKc/s400/Natasha-Bedingfield-august-2019.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />The year was 2004. “</span><a data-mce-href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5RuGj0g1tk" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5RuGj0g1tk" style="font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;">These Words</a><span style="font-family: inherit;">” was all over the radio, and you were enamored by the fact that British pop singer Natasha Bedingfield was indeed able to write a classic about writer’s block. “</span><a data-mce-href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7k0a5hYnSI" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7k0a5hYnSI" style="font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;">Unwritten</a><span style="font-family: inherit;">” then followed—the title track from her debut studio album of the same name. The song would make its way into two teen movies in 2005, </span><em style="font-family: inherit;">Ice Princess </em><span style="font-family: inherit;">and </span><em style="font-family: inherit;">The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants</em><span style="font-family: inherit;">, and became the theme song for the MTV reality series </span><em style="font-family: inherit;">The Hills </em><span style="font-family: inherit;">in 2006. Thereafter, the song reached number 5 on the </span><em style="font-family: inherit;">Billboard </em><span style="font-family: inherit;">Hot 100, was the most-played song on U.S. radio that year, received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance (she lost to Christina Aguilera), and became the third highest-selling song by a female artist in 2006, behind only Shakira’s “</span><a data-mce-href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUT5rEU6pqM" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUT5rEU6pqM" style="font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;">Hips Don’t Lie</a><span style="font-family: inherit;">” and Nelly Furtado’s “</span><a data-mce-href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0J3vgcE5i2o" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0J3vgcE5i2o" style="font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;">Promiscuous</a><span style="font-family: inherit;">.” Life was good.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Bedingfield’s follow-up album, </span><em style="font-family: inherit;">Pocketful of Sunshine</em><span style="font-family: inherit;">, was equally popular and saw the continued success of its </span><a data-mce-href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gte3BoXKwP0" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gte3BoXKwP0" style="font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;">title single</a><span style="font-family: inherit;">, which also peaked at number 5 on the </span><em style="font-family: inherit;">Billboard </em><span style="font-family: inherit;">Hot 100 and number 3 on the Canadian Hot 100 in 2008. This song too made its way into several American television series and romantic comedies, including </span><em style="font-family: inherit;">The Ugly Truth </em><span style="font-family: inherit;">and </span><em style="font-family: inherit;">Easy A</em><span style="font-family: inherit;">. At the time, Bedingfield named it her favorite song, commending it for centering on embracing positivity and dancing your troubles away. It would be then that she would be typecast as “</span><a data-mce-href="https://variety.com/2019/music/news/the-hills-unwritten-song-singer-natasha-bedingfield-interview-1203313789/" href="https://variety.com/2019/music/news/the-hills-unwritten-song-singer-natasha-bedingfield-interview-1203313789/" style="font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;">perky, sunshine, and empowerment</a><span style="font-family: inherit;">,” and empowering tracks like “Unwritten” and “Pocketful of Sunshine” would be what would become expected from Bedingfield. This is nothing new—she accepted that long ago, but only now has she started using it to her advantage.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">In 2010, Bedingfield returned with </span><em style="font-family: inherit;">Strip Me</em><span style="font-family: inherit;">, her third studio album. While seeing the moderate popularity of the impeccably underrated “</span><a data-mce-href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOa4axPVHEc" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOa4axPVHEc" style="font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;">Touch</a><span style="font-family: inherit;">,” the album became somewhat of a commercial failure, charting in only three countries worldwide and barely reaching the top 100 of the </span><em style="font-family: inherit;">Billboard </em><span style="font-family: inherit;">200 chart. Underrated is the only suitable word for </span><em style="font-family: inherit;">Strip Me</em><span style="font-family: inherit;">, an album where Bedingfield grew with her songwriting and production and showcased her ability to exist outside of white girl songs from the 2000s. In 2012, she </span><a data-mce-href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120426202534/http://gulfnews.com/arts-entertainment/music/that-s-what-friends-are-for-1.1004139" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120426202534/http://gulfnews.com/arts-entertainment/music/that-s-what-friends-are-for-1.1004139" style="font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;">spoke</a><span style="font-family: inherit;"> about how she had started work on a fourth album, tentatively titled </span><em style="font-family: inherit;">The Next Chapter</em><span style="font-family: inherit;">, working with producers such as RedOne and Dr. Luke and expressing plans to release the album internationally—given that </span><em style="font-family: inherit;">Pocketful of Sunshine </em><span style="font-family: inherit;">and </span><em style="font-family: inherit;">Strip Me </em><span style="font-family: inherit;">were both released in different versions in the U.S. and the U.K., often with different covers and track listings, something she described as jarring and “</span><a data-mce-href="https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/natasha-bedingfield-interview-new-album-roll-with-me-unwritten-lyrics-a9080576.html" href="https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/natasha-bedingfield-interview-new-album-roll-with-me-unwritten-lyrics-a9080576.html" style="font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;">devastating</a><span style="font-family: inherit;">” that she would turn her back on her native country to meet the demands of the American pop market. She said that, in a lot of ways—excluding “Unwritten” and “Pocketful of Sunshine”—most of her music “just didn’t translate” when it came to commercial success in different regions, especially the United States.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">After that, Bedingfield took a break. She did a song with Lifehouse, contributed to Disney and charity soundtracks, and recorded some other under-the-radar collaborations. She toured with Band of Merrymakers, Night of the Proms, and Train. </span><em style="font-family: inherit;">The Next Chapter </em><span style="font-family: inherit;">was never heard from again. She knows most people think she vanished, and honestly, she’s fine with that. “It’s almost worse to be overexposed, or to be in someone’s life too much,” she said. “I don’t think it’s a bad thing for an artist – especially a songwriter – to withdraw for a bit and live a bit of life.” Then, in the summer of 2019—nearly nine years since her last album—Bedingfield released the song “Roller Skate” and later confirmed it was the first single from a new album. The record, </span><em style="font-family: inherit;">Roll with Me</em><span style="font-family: inherit;">, followed in late August, her first release under Universal and the independent label We Are Hear, an empowerment-focused company run by women.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" class="wp-image-6284 size-full" data-mce-src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Natasha-Bedingfield-press-by-Kenneth-Cappello-2019-billboard-1548.jpg" src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Natasha-Bedingfield-press-by-Kenneth-Cappello-2019-billboard-1548.jpg" height="421" style="-webkit-user-drag: none; display: block; height: auto; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 100%;" width="636" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Natasha Bedingfield for <i>Billboard </i>magazine, 2019 (Photo: Kenneth Cappello)</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><em>Roll with Me</em> was produced entirely by Linda Perry, the renowned songwriter and producer behind a number of pop classics by P!nk, Christina Aguilera, and Gwen Stefani. The album marks the arrival of a new grown-up, politically aware Natasha Bedingfield. “It definitely touches on some deeper and more social issues,” Bedingfield told <em>Variety. </em>“As a pop singer, often you’re just entertaining people or singing things that are uplifting, and discouraged from being political. But having done this for so long with a microphone right in my face, I feel like I’ve earned the right to talk about stuff that really matters to the world — or to me. And, how can anyone with a heart write something that’s true without touching on some of those issues right now?”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Social and political climates aren’t the only thing that have informed Bedingfield’s new music. About two years ago, she and her husband of ten years welcomed a son, Solomon, and Bedingfield says motherhood ignited a flame in her to promote positivity and caring about our world. “It made me want to be more socially aware and less willing to ignore that stuff... I just feel like I had a new kind of courage,” she </span><a data-mce-href="https://www.bustle.com/p/natasha-bedingfields-new-album-is-her-most-political-yet-but-still-stays-true-to-her-roots-18704503?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=owned&utm_campaign=bustle" href="https://www.bustle.com/p/natasha-bedingfields-new-album-is-her-most-political-yet-but-still-stays-true-to-her-roots-18704503?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=owned&utm_campaign=bustle" style="font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;">said</a><span style="font-family: inherit;"> of parenthood. Bedingfield had still been working in music and in studios for much of the last decade, working with names like Nick Carter and Bebe Rexha, but it wasn’t until recently that she decided it was time to revive her own recording career. Actually, it wasn’t until Linda Perry called that she realized she wanted to make another album. Struggling with finding her place and her footing as a woman over twenty-five in the male-dominated pop music industry, Bedingfield described herself as feeling “creatively stifled [on a] major label” in the earlier years of her career, and that Perry recognized this struggle for artistic control right away. She invited her to join We Are Hear, an offer which Perry described as a “no-brainer,” since she very much admires Bedingfield as an artist. “Natasha is a deep feeler,” Perry said. “She wants to have purpose — she </span><em style="font-family: inherit;">needs</em><span style="font-family: inherit;"> to have purpose. Singing about rainbows and unicorns is not where she wants to shine. Her intentions are to heal not pacify.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">“Kids and guns, starting out so young” begins </span><em style="font-family: inherit;">Roll with Me</em><span style="font-family: inherit;">’s fourth track, “Hey Papa.” It’s a prime example of the socially and politically aware themes that the album explores. Bedingfield says the song’s title is in reference to the “metaphorical male figures” we’re often told to look for when things go wrong, “like dads or gods,” which brings to mind similar themes explored on the Black Eyed Peas’ “</span><a data-mce-href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpYeekQkAdc" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpYeekQkAdc" style="font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;">Where is the Love?</a><span style="font-family: inherit;">” during the Bush administration. “Obviously the hero is me and you, but we’re looking to all these people outside ourselves during this weird time,” she explained. “[Y]ou turn on your phone and it’s like, ‘What bad thing happened while I was asleep?’” It begs the question, are Bedingfield’s classic earlier tunes—reminiscent of a simpler time—needed now more than ever? “When there’s prosperity and an amazing leader in charge and everyone’s jobs are doing well, people for some reason like to hear sadder songs,” Bedingfield said. “But then when there is bad news every morning and the world feels divided, we need music that takes us out of that place. It’s a reason to get out of bed. But also maybe people are more willing to own what they find pleasurable [now]. And be like, ‘Yeah, this is what I like!’ And celebrate it.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Above all, Bedingfield knows the undying, timeless power of music, especially during difficult times. The album’s lead single, “Roller Skate,” is a unique earworm that indeed makes you want to get outside these concrete ceilings and roller skate all around London. Life might be oppressive, but music reminds us that we can exist outside of that. “So many tragedies happen before you even leave your own bed,” she said. “That’s when you really need music. Music helps you get out of the panic.” It might seem like </span><em style="font-family: inherit;">Roll with Me</em><span style="font-family: inherit;"> is a departure from the earlier empowering, “lighthearted” Natasha Bedingfield, but it’s not. The album might not be game-changing in terms of sound or production, but it’s the lyrics and themes that again stand out the most. “Entertainment can be both — it can be entertaining and it can be about things that matter,” she explained. “There’s been a microphone in front of my face most of my life, and it’d be terrible if I didn’t say some stuff that really mattered.”</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Natasha Bedingfield performing at the 12th Annual Super Girl Surf Pro in July 2019 (Photo: Getty Images)</td></tr>
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<dd class="wp-caption-dd" style="-webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding-top: 0.5em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Another particular highlight of the album is the female empowerment track “No Man I See,” which preaches that women should never let men convince them that they are not strong or that men are superior. It’s something that Bedingfield and multitudes of other female artists in the pop music industry have experienced, namely her former songwriting partner Bebe Rexha, who recently took to Instagram to discuss how a male record executive told her she was getting “too old” to dress provocatively at 29 years old (in response to which she released the empowering single “</span><a data-mce-href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weRTCk-mJyE" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weRTCk-mJyE" style="font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;">Not 20 Anymore</a><span style="font-family: inherit;">”). Bedingfield says she’s experienced the exact same thing working in the music industry, stating that not until working in music did she know that 30 was supposed to be old. “That’s not even half your life,” she said. “When I turned 30, people would say stuff to my face, but I was like, ‘I feel great!’ I enjoy being experienced and I feel young because I’m always trying new things and feel like a beginner.”</span></dd><dd class="wp-caption-dd" style="-webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding-top: 0.5em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /><i>Roll with Me </i></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">also doesn’t shy away from experimenting with different sounds and influences, including reggae on “King of the World” and gospel on “Wishful Thinking.” Things also get melancholy as Bedingfield contemplates the future on “Where We Going Now,” and the lyrics continue to get political on “Can’t Look Away.” Since signing with an independent label, Bedingfield describes herself as “being in a good space,” and loved making an album with only one other person. “I feel like writing an album with one person and letting that person produce it, that’s given me a freedom because it’s let me explore a different side to myself,” she </span><a data-mce-href="https://www.officialcharts.com/chart-news/natasha-bedingfield-on-label-politics-writing-for-cheryl-and-working-with-linda-perry-on-her-new-album-roll-with-me__27177/" href="https://www.officialcharts.com/chart-news/natasha-bedingfield-on-label-politics-writing-for-cheryl-and-working-with-linda-perry-on-her-new-album-roll-with-me__27177/" style="font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;">explained</a><span style="font-family: inherit;">. “A producer is allowed to have a vision. Sometimes if you’ve had some hits, you end up chasing them and writing something that sounds like ‘you.’ Everyone expects it to sound like your other thing... your label does particularly. It’s freeing. Actually having constraints frees you.” Bedingfield also described Linda Perry as being known for “taking people out of their comfort zones and bringing out a new side to them,” saying, “[S]he really took me to a different place and I felt a new kind of freedom having one producer do the whole album. She gets a vision for something and she’s pretty determined! Every musician who works with her ups their game.”</span></dd><dd class="wp-caption-dd" style="-webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding-top: 0.5em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />As if a new album and a new vision weren’t enough, Bedingfield also had the pleasure of re-recording her vocals for “Unwritten” for the theme song of </span><em style="font-family: inherit;">The Hills </em><span style="font-family: inherit;">reboot, with some help from Perry. As for the fact that she will probably be remembered best for “Unwritten” for the rest of her life? It doesn’t bother her. In fact, she sees it as she should see making an era-defining song: as an impeccable achievement. “I love that that song has surpassed me. When people sing that song, they’re not actually thinking about me, they’re thinking about something in their life, and a moment that that song represents for them, and I love that. The goal of every mum is for their kid to leave home, so ‘Unwritten’ is its own full-fledged human being right now! I did my job!”</span></dd><dd class="wp-caption-dd" style="-webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding-top: 0.5em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></dd><dd class="wp-caption-dd" style="-webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding-top: 0.5em;"><strong style="font-family: inherit;">Jeffrey’s favorites from <em>Roll with Me</em></strong><span style="font-family: inherit;">: “Kick It,” “Roller Skate,” “Hey Papa,” “It Could Be Love,” “Where We Going Now,” “Can’t Look Away,” and “No Man I See”</span></dd></dl>
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Jeffrey Davieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10893528274829091844noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5629019666970713101.post-75703886274600696942019-09-03T14:09:00.000-07:002019-09-03T14:17:57.149-07:00Book Review: 'You Asked For Perfect' by Laura Silverman<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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"<i>You know, people do have more difficult problems. But your anxieties are still real. They still count, yeah?</i> "<br />
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This was a very insightful, relatable, and romantic YA novel. It brings about several different themes that are very relevant for youths in this day and age, especially in the American school system, regarding pressure and perfectionism. <i>You Asked For Perfect </i>centers on high school senior Ariel, who has spent the better part of his life perfecting his future college resume: first chair violinist, dedicated volunteer, active synagogue congregant, and expected valedictorian. After he fails one calculus quiz, he enlists Amir as a tutor and discovers that while he doesn't like calculus, he likes Amir. But Ariel is about to learn that there's only so much pressure one person can take. I often think that adults don't realize how much pressure there is for students, especially the AP students seen in <i>You Asked For Perfect</i>, to uphold a certain standard of perfection - perfect grades, perfect test scores, perfect college, perfect life. But as any adult or student can tell you, life rarely works out the way they say it will. So we might as well be messy while we can.<br />
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<i>You Asked For Perfect </i>resonated with me on several different levels, given that I am a lifelong perfectionist and currently what I like to call a detoxing perfectionist. I didn't experience the same kind of pressure that Ariel experienced at the hands of his school system, where everything is a competition and the adults who are supposed to be there to help just shame you for not constantly being perfect, but I have been held hostage by my own impossible standards of perfection for most of my life (you can read more about that over on my mental health blog, <i><a href="http://areyouthereanxiety.blogspot.com/">It's Not That Deep</a></i>). As much as there are many school systems that do set impossibly high standards for students to live up to, mainly in private schools and in AP programs, I like to believe that many children were perfectionists before school got involved. I'm not a fan of entirely blaming society for making kids anxious and pressuring them to be perfect. That certainly exists, but it's the people who feel the compulsion to meet those standards that most probably also have another set of personal standards they have to meet in their head. Perfectionists are at the mercy of the voices in our heads, and the pressure of society only makes that worse - not vice versa.<br />
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I very much related to Ariel's inner struggle to be perfect and appear perfect, especially since a lot of it ties in with other anxieties associated with youth that aren't entirely normalized: for example, comparing yourself to other students. That kid got a good grade, why can't I get a good grade? What's wrong with me? That person seems to manage with the same workload I have, why can't I manage? These thoughts are toxic and repressed, and we don't talk about them enough - especially not as teenagers. We internalize the need to be perfect because we think it will pay off later. But just as I learned, no one in adulthood is going to stop and commend you for the time you've spent trying to make everything perfect. In real life, no one cares. Adults aren't held to the same impossibly high standards that children are held to, and in my opinion most adults don't realize the extent to which perfectionist children internalize these thoughts and urges until it's too late. But despite relating to Ariel's struggle on one hand, on the other I was removed enough from those struggles myself to have a different perspective. Ariel was taking on too much, but he wasn't old enough or wise enough to understand that yet.<br />
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Another thing to commend about <i>You Asked For Perfect </i>is its diversity. Not only are most of the characters Jewish or Muslim, but Ariel is also a proud bisexual boy who has a romance that doesn't end tragically or inevitably. Ariel and Amir are officially one of my all-time favorite LGBT couples in all of YA. Their romance is very well written - their flirting and sexual tension was adorable and I often lost myself while reading their interactions. In other words, Ariel and Amir = SWOON. Their families were also surprisingly open and supportive of their sons dating each other which was also amazing to see? The author was definitely subverting the typical conservative reactions that most Muslims and other religions have in regard to LGBT people, so that was wonderful.<br />
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A few things I took issue with in this book: I expected a better conclusion to Ariel's struggles with being the perfect student. It seems to me that he kind of just started to realize he doesn't have the time or energy to be stressed over everything and decides to drop a class, which would therefore take him out of the running for valedictorian. I was honestly expecting some full-fledged breakdown to happen where the pressure began to compromise his physical and emotional strength (because, y'know, that happens in real-life, I can attest). <i>You Asked For Perfect </i>also felt way too short and therefore didn't explore the relevant issues it brings up as much as I would have liked. I would have liked some between-the-lines acknowledgement of the pressure that is put on AP students in American schools, and perhaps what needs to change going forward to ensure better mental health for teenagers. The last half of the book didn't really seem to focus on much at all besides Ariel and Amir's relationship and the lives of their friends, which felt like a lackluster conclusion to a story with such important themes explored more in the beginning. <i>You Asked For Perfect </i>is not perfect, but it did bring us a new couple for me to ship and gush over. Please don't remind me that they aren't real. 3.5/5 stars.Jeffrey Davieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10893528274829091844noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5629019666970713101.post-7575295720786004312019-08-26T11:29:00.000-07:002019-08-26T11:39:49.509-07:00'Lover' is a Refreshing Return and Re-Introduction to the Taylor Swift We Used to Know (Album Review)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />I long for a time when the words Taylor Swift were not polarizing. I miss when being a fan, whether diehard or casual (or a “Swiftie” if you prefer—which I don’t), wasn’t considered problematic in a myriad of ways. Being a fan, at least by our modern definition, means having to defend everything that person has said or done—and no public figure has been harder to defend in recent memory than Taylor Swift (or perhaps <a data-mce-href="http://kellyalexandershow.com/madonna-redefining-means-age-pop-music-album-review-madame-x/" href="https://livingonguiltypleasures.blogspot.com/2019/06/is-madonna-redefining-what-it-means-to.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Madonna</a>).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Swift’s questionable actions or comments actually fail to transcend the resulting discourse around her; in other words, Taylor Swift might have dug her own grave from time to time, but only because we handed her the shovel. It seems as though our contemporary popular music landscape just could not allow a female musician to seamlessly travel the worlds of both country and pop music without some bumps in the road—even if Swift, at times, allowed them to happen. “I come from <em>country music</em>,” she told <a data-mce-href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/aug/24/taylor-swift-pop-music-hunger-games-gladiators" href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/aug/24/taylor-swift-pop-music-hunger-games-gladiators" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><em>The Guardian </em></a>in a new interview, and one of her most honest ever. “The number one thing they absolutely drill into you as a country artist, and you can ask any other country artist this, is ‘Don’t be like the Dixie Chicks!’ … They were made such an example that basically every country artist that came after that, every label tells you, ‘Just do not get involved, no matter what.’”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">When she left country music behind in favor of the completely pop-focused <em>1989 </em>in 2014, Swift was working her hardest to win the popularity contest that is popular culture—perhaps caused by, in part, her yearning to escape the <a data-mce-href="https://www.vox.com/2016/4/19/11458892/taylor-swift-vogue-interview" href="https://www.vox.com/2016/4/19/11458892/taylor-swift-vogue-interview" style="text-decoration-line: none;">misogynistic slut-shaming</a> she experienced at the hands of mainstream culture critics during her last official country album, <em>Red</em>, in 2012. But no list of celebrity friends or feuds would help her win that contest, especially when she discovered that it’s in fact a battle. Even if she brought it on herself, as the public opinion at large has come to preach, I don’t think anyone considered the extent to which the bullying and criticism began to affect her, warranted or not. “[W]hen people are in a hate frenzy and they find something to mutually hate together, it bonds them,” she said. “And anything you say is in an echo chamber of mockery.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">In 2017, when she re-emerged with <em>Reputation </em>following a dramatic series of public feuds and Internet bashings, Swift proved to us her practical ability to wear the shoe on the other foot—even when that campy breed of “become everything they say you are” doesn’t necessarily target her strengths as a performer. But she was still allowing herself to be honest and vulnerable in ways we had never seen before, which says a lot from an artist who has made her name on narrative ballads and love songs. And now, on <em>Lover</em>, Swift’s seventh studio album, Swift is looking at the drama in the rear view mirror—in fact, it’s so far away that we kind of <a data-mce-href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1cEvNn88jM" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1cEvNn88jM" style="text-decoration-line: none;">forgot it existed</a>—and returning to her roots in the closest she has ever been to honestly embracing her unapologetic self.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">If anything, <em>Lover </em>will surely benefit from being the first Taylor Swift album that is unburdened by expectations, as <a data-mce-href="https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/pop/8528090/taylor-swift-lover-album-expectations" href="https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/pop/8528090/taylor-swift-lover-album-expectations" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><em>Billboard </em></a>puts it. Considering both <em>1989 </em>and <em>Reputation </em>had a lot to live up to, so to speak, Swift finally feels secure in her standing as a pop artist on <em>Lover</em>. If we had to endure the childish albeit catchy call-outs on “<a data-mce-href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcIy9NiNbmo" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcIy9NiNbmo" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Bad Blood</a>” and the old Taylor Swift dying on “<a data-mce-href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tmd-ClpJxA" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tmd-ClpJxA" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Look What You Made Me Do</a>,” <em>Lover</em>’s singles “<a data-mce-href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuXNumBwDOM" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuXNumBwDOM" style="text-decoration-line: none;">ME!</a>” and “<a data-mce-href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dkk9gvTmCXY" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dkk9gvTmCXY" style="text-decoration-line: none;">You Need to Calm Down</a>” feels like the rainbow after the storm. The entire album, in fact, feels like a rainbow—one that celebrates love, happiness, and liberating oneself from past worries. Maybe the old Taylor isn’t actually dead after all? Swift was also particularly eager to begin a new era, since not only did she <a data-mce-href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/taylor-swift-record-deal-republic-records-umg-757711/" href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/taylor-swift-record-deal-republic-records-umg-757711/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">sign a new record deal</a> with Republic Records and Universal late last year, but it would also mark the first album that she <a data-mce-href="https://www.bustle.com/p/why-doesnt-taylor-swift-own-the-rights-to-her-music-its-actually-more-common-than-you-think-18159717" href="https://www.bustle.com/p/why-doesnt-taylor-swift-own-the-rights-to-her-music-its-actually-more-common-than-you-think-18159717" style="text-decoration-line: none;">legally owns</a>. But none of that seems important now—despite the continuing controversy surrounding her former label head <a data-mce-href="https://pitchfork.com/news/taylor-swifts-music-ownership-controversy-with-scooter-braun-what-it-means-and-why-it-matters/" href="https://pitchfork.com/news/taylor-swifts-music-ownership-controversy-with-scooter-braun-what-it-means-and-why-it-matters/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">selling Swift’s old master recordings to Scooter Braun</a>—as <em>Lover </em>remains delightfully untainted by any of the drama this time around. (She <a data-mce-href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfnCAmr569k" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfnCAmr569k" style="text-decoration-line: none;">swears she doesn’t love the drama; it loves her</a>, remember?)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><em>Lover </em>sounds like a sequel in part to <em>Reputation </em>while also being a smile and a nod to the future. Since Swift has long since been accused of “playing the victim” and becoming a symbol of “<a data-mce-href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/aug/24/taylor-swift-pop-music-hunger-games-gladiators" href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/aug/24/taylor-swift-pop-music-hunger-games-gladiators" style="text-decoration-line: none;">white victimhood</a>,” she continues to subtly address those labels with her signature tongue-in-cheek, achingly poetic lyrics. On “The Archer,” she says she’s been the archer and she’s been the prey. “Who could leave me, darling? / But who could say?” It yet again begs the question, who really knows the truth? Better yet, who deserves to know the truth? She also addresses, between the lines, her failure at being more publicly outspoken, politically and otherwise: “I never grew up / It’s getting so old.” She returns to her roots on tracks like “Cruel Summer,” “Paper Rings,” “Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince,” “Death By a Thousand Cuts,” and “Afterglow.” (Swift also continues to make copious use of time spent recording with Jack Antonoff—who also produced large portions of <em>1989 </em>and <em>Reputation</em>—but interestingly enough, <em>Lover </em>contains no contributions from Max Martin). She asks us to consider if her publicist would have to work as hard if she were a man on “The Man”—a song which feels particularly relevant in the Me Too and Time’s Up era. She sings about a particular English love on “London Boy,” returns to her country roots and songwriting on “Soon You’ll Get Better” (a collaboration with the Dixie Chicks), and delivers quite possibly one of the best love songs of her career on the title track, “<a data-mce-href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BjZmE2gtdo" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BjZmE2gtdo" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Lover</a>.” (Dare I say it even compares to the <em>Speak Now </em>days when she wrote entire albums by herself?)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Much of the recent disdain surrounding Swift, in addition to her aforementioned celebrity feuds with Kanye West and Katy Perry, has been her lack of political activism—her failure to publicly endorse a candidate for the 2016 U.S. election led to the Internet furiously declaring her a Republican and Trump’s darling, despite having virtually zero evidence to support those claims. If there is one thing our mainstream popular culture holds dear, especially in these trying political times, it’s a public figure using their voice to hopefully denounce what P!nk refers to as “<a data-mce-href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1OsKJW51HY" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1OsKJW51HY" style="text-decoration-line: none;">so much wrong going on outside</a>.” And late last year (ironically, exactly around the time Swift left her country label in favor of Republic and Universal), she finally tried her hand at becoming political by endorsing two Democratic candidates for the 2018 midterm election, putting an end to the Trump supporting rumors once and for all. And, after encouraging her followers to register to vote in a post on Instagram, Vote.org <a data-mce-href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/09/entertainment/taylor-swift-voter-registration/index.html" href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/09/entertainment/taylor-swift-voter-registration/index.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">reported that 65,000 people registered to vote</a> in the hours following—an unprecedented surge so close to a deadline.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" class="wp-image-6271 size-full" data-mce-src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Lover-3.jpg" src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Lover-3.jpg" height="426" style="-webkit-user-drag: none; display: block; height: auto; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 100%;" width="640" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small; text-align: start;">Taylor Swift during a Pride Month performance in Los Angeles on June 1, 2019 (Photo: Michael Buckner/Hollywood Life/Shutterstock)</span></td></tr>
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<dd class="wp-caption-dd" style="-webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding-top: 0.5em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And yet, even as Swift is finally using her voice for good and using less of it to incite drama, it seems as though people are still not happy. In June, Swift </span><a data-mce-href="https://www.instyle.com/news/taylor-swift-equality-act-instagram" href="https://www.instyle.com/news/taylor-swift-equality-act-instagram" style="font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;">shared a letter</a><span style="font-family: inherit;"> written to Senator Lamar Alexander asking him to support the LGBTQ community via the Equality Act, and the music video for </span><em style="font-family: inherit;">Lover</em><span style="font-family: inherit;">’s second single “You Need to Calm Down”—whose lyrics address homophobia and Internet trolls—urges fans to do the same by linking to a Change.org petition. But for many it’s still not enough—and it seems as though nothing she ever does will be enough. Perhaps Taylor Swift has committed too many public gaffes in recent memory for a woman to ever reach an accepted narrative of forgiveness in mainstream media. </span><a data-mce-href="https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/qv7nw7/taylor-swifts-lgbtq-anthem-you-need-to-calm-down-is-pretty-clueless?utm_source=vicetwitterus" href="https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/qv7nw7/taylor-swifts-lgbtq-anthem-you-need-to-calm-down-is-pretty-clueless?utm_source=vicetwitterus" style="font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;">One review</a><span style="font-family: inherit;"> referred to “You Need to Calm Down” as feeling “insincere, forced, [and] unnatural,” implying that Swift was just another white female celebrity looking to profit from supposed activism during Pride month. But the history of Swift’s tendency for acts of kindness and generosity tell a different story—one that is largely lost in the sea of her mistakes. In 2011, she donated $70,000 worth of books to her hometown library, she donated $50,000 worth of the proceeds from her single “</span><a data-mce-href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12N51iByDno" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12N51iByDno" style="font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;">Welcome to New York</a><span style="font-family: inherit;">” to the New York Department of Education in 2014, and she has a long history of </span><a data-mce-href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/eleanorbate/taylor-swift-paid-fan-tuition-lover" href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/eleanorbate/taylor-swift-paid-fan-tuition-lover" style="font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;">donating money to fans in need</a><span style="font-family: inherit;">. But these facts are ignored or forgotten in comparison to what Swift has done wrong—making it almost systematically impossible for her to ever make it right in all of the eyes of the public.</span></dd><dd class="wp-caption-dd" style="-webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding-top: 0.5em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></dd></dl>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Above all, even considering any polarizing controversy, <em>Lover </em>feels like a warm hug from a girl we used to know and love, before pop music politics and a lot of other stuff got in the way. The album also feels like a reminder: despite it all, Taylor Swift is very good at what she does. No matter which way she turns, she is clearly an extremely versatile musician—just watch her Reputation Stadium Tour <a data-mce-href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIb_TlK2HAI" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIb_TlK2HAI" style="text-decoration-line: none;">concert film</a> on Netflix if you don’t believe me—and continues to prove, time and time again, her outstanding knack for hooks, melodies, and poetic lyrics; you know, the ones that make you long for a love that never existed? She might not be for everyone, but her talent is undeniable. Much like Madonna, all the time spent discussing why she’s polarizing takes away from time we could be spending talking about how great she can be.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">“It isn’t love, it isn’t hate, it’s just indifference,” Swift sings on <em>Lover</em>’s opening track, “I Forgot That You Existed.” If the album were to have one central theme, I believe this to be it. Swift <a data-mce-href="https://twitter.com/taylorswift13/status/1164750451209900032" href="https://twitter.com/taylorswift13/status/1164750451209900032" style="text-decoration-line: none;">referred</a> to the album being about “a celebration of love, in all its complexity, coziness, and chaos,” and the closing track “Daylight” ends with a voiceover that says she wants to be defined by the things that she loves. But to me, <em>Lover </em>is in fact about indifference—a place Swift has finally reached as an artist where she can exist as whoever she wants to be, with whoever wants to be along with her for the ride. Taylor Swift’s transition and growth over the last five years brings to mind that of Cady Heron in <em>Mean Girls</em>. She’s gone from a homeschooled jungle freak, to a shiny Plastic, to most hated person in the world, and now she’s an actual human being. Of course, the haters are still gonna <a data-mce-href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfWlot6h_JM" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfWlot6h_JM" style="text-decoration-line: none;">hate, hate, hate</a>, and always will. But you know what? It’s about time that they calm down.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong>Jeffrey’s favorites from <em>Lover</em></strong>: “I Forgot That You Existed,” “Cruel Summer,” “Lover,” “The Man,” “The Archer,” “Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince,” “Paper Rings,” “Cornelia Street,” “Soon You’ll Get Better,” “Afterglow,” “You Need to Calm Down,” and “ME!”</span></div>
Jeffrey Davieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10893528274829091844noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5629019666970713101.post-82936603567166208692019-08-20T13:29:00.001-07:002019-08-20T13:33:27.664-07:00Book Review: 'Bad Feminist' by Roxane Gay<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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"<i>When you can't find someone to follow, you have to find a way to lead by example.</i>"<br />
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Roxane Gay's <i>Bad Feminist </i>had been on my TBR list on Goodreads for over three years, and a physical copy of the book sat on my TBR pile for nearly two. As a self-described feminist who has enjoyed a wide variety of other feminist essay collections that have cited <i>Bad Feminist </i>as inspiration, I was very interested - I just never made the time to get to it; something else would always get in the way. And all I have to say about it now that I've finally read it is: what a problematic, convoluted mess.<br />
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I think a large majority of self-described feminists identify at least in some part with the definition of "bad feminist" that Gay describes in the book's introduction. Feminism isn't easy, especially when we still live in a very male-dominated and misogynistic society and culture where misogyny is very much ingrained into our psyches. In other words, I feel like even the most diehard of feminists have experienced some sort of internalized misogyny in everyday life. That being said, I'm still not entirely sure what Gay's goal was with <i>Bad Feminist </i>- was it to point out how problematic our society and culture still is when it comes to feminism, was it about how she herself is indeed a bad feminist, or was it a book of contradicted rants about how everyone else is a bad feminist and she wants some sort of medal for pointing it out? For me, I believe, it is the latter. I really did not enjoy Gay's prose. She strikes me as someone who thinks hating popular things makes her a more interesting person. And I get it, the vast majority of popular things are misogynistic and anti-feminist. I GET IT. But, for the most part, that doesn't seem to be what Gay is pointing out. <i>Bad Feminist </i>is full of contradictions to the point that it made my head spin.<br />
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The thing that bothered me the most was that Gay constantly points out that she is not the target audience for the pieces of fiction or media that she has chosen to pick on. She rants relentlessly about the HBO television series <i>Girls </i>and how it's a very non-intersectional view on women in their twenties (in other words, it doesn't consider the perspectives of people in that age category outside of privileged white women). And that is more than completely fair. <i>Girls </i>was at times a very problematic series for those reasons and more. But she just continues to go on and on about things that clearly weren't made for her. I get it, these things are problematic regardless of who they're made for. Believe me, <i>I get it</i>. But she nitpicks at the smallest things and even does additional research to back up why these things bother her.<br />
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To top it off, she rants about her issues with the films <i>The Help </i>and <i>Django Unchained </i>and doesn't even really describe what she thinks is wrong with those films, except for stating her opinion that she thinks white people who loved <i>The Help </i>were "longing for a better time." I know that recent period drama films like <i>The Help </i>have come to be viewed as though they were made from liberal white guilt of how black people were treated back then, and I get that it's frustrating for black people to often have their struggles exploited and watered down by big budget Hollywood films. But you know what? It's better than nothing. Filmmakers who put the time and money into making films like those are at least trying to understand and sympathize with the struggles that minorities like African Americans have gone through, often at the hands of white people. The end results may not be perfect, but it's something. At least they're trying. It's better than nothing. I would like to know what exactly Gay does enjoy watching, because she seems to find fault with everything - even things that we could say were in fact "made for her," like Tyler Perry films or series on BET. And, again, <i>I get it</i>. Even things that are made for you are not perfect. Nothing is perfect. But I know for a fact that people are trying, and we have to put our faith in that as "bad feminists," something Roxane Gay clearly does not do.<br />
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As much as I believe <i>Bad Feminist </i>was fairly well written, I don't think it knows whether it wants to be an essay collection or a memoir. The first few chapters read as though they have nothing to do with what Gay just so eloquently described in her introduction. They are interesting and well written, sure, but what do they have to do with being a bad feminist? This is something I've come to dislike in a majority of recent essay collections that are published and sold under a certain premise - being a bad feminist, for example - and then include way too many personal anecdotes that have nothing to do with what you promised us in your introduction. This was my main problem with Heather Havrilesky's <i><a href="https://livingonguiltypleasures.blogspot.com/2019/03/book-review-what-if-this-were-enough-by.html">What If This Were Enough?</a> </i>and I got similar vibes while reading <i>Bad Feminist</i>. If you are going to include personal anecdotes in an essay collection, you have to at least make sure they tie in with what you are writing about. Otherwise, save it for your autobiography. And based on how special Roxane Gay feels she is for pointing out everyone else's flaws in <i>Bad Feminist</i>, I can only assume a similar autobiography is forthcoming. 2/5 stars.Jeffrey Davieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10893528274829091844noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5629019666970713101.post-65019551614986106152019-08-19T19:45:00.000-07:002019-08-19T19:46:12.543-07:00Book Review: 'Like a Love Story' by Abdi Nazemian <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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"<i>I am somewhere else now. I exist only inside my own anxiety, imagining what my mother will say if she finds out who I am. But the violence around me pulls me back to this moment.</i>"<br />
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For about a year now, I've been met with the growing suspicion that I'm starting to outgrow most of the YA genre. For some reason, I once believed that I would never outgrow YA because most of the titles I picked to read always resonated so profoundly with me (but then again, I also once believed that I would never outgrow anything, which just isn't realistic). I also know there's a stigma around adults reading YA books since they are not the targeted age category, and I do not intend to imply that only YA is only suitable for sixteen-year-olds. Read whatever you want, no matter how old you are. But for me, I can no longer shake the feeling that YA isn't really the genre for me anymore. Even when a new title comes out that sounds different or groundbreaking, I can barely get through any of them without silently saying to myself, "Okay, calm down, you're sixteen. Wait until you get <i>real </i>problems." I guess I'm just in a different space now that I'm in my twenties and now that I've been able to let go of a lot of the different anxieties associated with youth. That being said, I still can't help myself when I come across a new YA title on Goodreads that sounds like something I will love. I'm just more inclined to request it from the library now rather than spending money on it (read my essay for <a href="https://bookriot.com/author/jeffrey-davies/">Book Riot</a> about <a href="https://bookriot.com/2019/08/02/why-you-owe-it-to-yourself-to-abandon-books-youre-not-enjoying/">why you owe it to yourself to abandon books you're not enjoying</a> for more on that!)<br />
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<span style="background: white; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In New York City in 1989, the world is complicated
place for three teenagers. Iranian immigrant Reza knows he's gay, but is deeply
conflicted by his cultural values and images in the media of gay men dying from
AIDS. Judy is an aspiring fashion designer who doesn't fit in anywhere except
with her Uncle Stephen, who is sick. And Art, Judy's best friend, is their
school's only out and proud teen who rebels against his conservative parents
and attempts to capture the AIDS crisis through his photographs. <i>Like a Love Story </i>brings these three
lost souls together in a story that celebrates activism, loving who you are,
and dancing to Madonna.</span></span><br />
<span style="background: white; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span>
I really loved how <i>Like a Love Story </i>focuses on the AIDS crisis and I appreciate how a number of reviews have called it a groundbreaking and masterful portrayal of something we still struggle to find the language to talk about over thirty years later. It doesn't personally rank as my favorite YA book to tackle AIDS (that would certainly be Carol Rifka Brunt's <i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12875258-tell-the-wolves-i-m-home?ac=1&from_search=true">Tell the Wolves I'm Home</a></i>), but I'm still happy to have found another open and honest portrayal of the realities of the crisis in the YA genre. Above all I appreciate how personal this story feels for the author, as you can tell in a number of queer YA novels written by men (such as Angelo Surmelis' <i><a href="https://livingonguiltypleasures.blogspot.com/2018/05/book-review-dangerous-art-of-blending.html">The Dangerous Art of Blending In</a></i>). I especially appreciated how such a personal and honest narrative was written by a queer man of color, considering that right before reading <i>Like a Love Story </i>I read Sarah Henstra's <i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41716953-we-contain-multitudes?ac=1&from_search=true">We Contain Multitudes</a></i>, another queer YA novel that was problematic in its attempts to tackle homophobia, which was written by a straight, cis white woman. It was definitely refreshing to have topics such as AIDS, homophobia, racism, and cultural values written about by someone who has most likely experienced such things in real life. The author <span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">writes in such a palatable, straightforward way that still gives space for all the feelings that come with loss and love.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span>
What I loved most about <i>Like a Love Story </i>was how it's exactly that - a love story, and a queer love story. The romance between Reza and Art didn't feel too forced or rushed like the majority of queer romances between boys in YA, and their love was ignited by a passion for activism, a love of art, and a love of love. It was also wonderful to read the perspective of a queer boy of color attempting to come to terms with his sexuality, based on his cultural values and the homophobic beliefs instilled in him by nature, as well as his coming out process. Another thing I loved about <i>Like a Love Story </i>was how it really reminded me of my love for Madonna? I say that as if it were something that is easily forgotten, but I often forget the impact that Madonna had in the '80s, especially in the LGBTQ community. Everything about her, her music, and her image was so inspiring and empowering for queer people then and now, and it made me grateful for the fact that I got to grow up to a lot of her music and that I got to start the process of finding myself and loving myself through her music. I actually went and listened to <i>The Immaculate Collection </i>after finishing this book, and danced my little heart out.<br />
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The only thing I didn't really like about <i>Like a Love Story </i>- and I can't really tell if this was a legitimate flaw or just me being snobby because I've outgrown most of YA - was Judy. I just found her to be really annoying and unlikable. I appreciated the perspective and representation of an unapologetically fat girl in a queer love story, but the chapters told from her perspective really pissed me off and brought down the party. I loved her Uncle Stephen and the short anecdotes told from his perspective, but I hated Judy. Maybe it's just me. But I probably would have enjoyed the book more as a whole if she wasn't in it. Then again, would it really have been a love story set in the '80s if a boy coming out as gay to his fake girlfriend didn't cause the girlfriend to become a melodramatic bitch who makes someone's coming out process all about them? I'm doubtful, honestly. Overall, definitely a new LGBTQ entry to the YA genre that is not to be missed. It's titles like these that make me not want to leave the genre behind forever. 4/5 stars.Jeffrey Davieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10893528274829091844noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5629019666970713101.post-70839048134459204242019-08-05T14:08:00.000-07:002019-08-05T14:08:01.701-07:00Mabel Goes Low on 'High Expectations' (Album Review)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />When English singer/songwriter Mabel—who has been described by many as the next Dua Lipa—released her single “<a data-mce-href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TQKyDD9Yig" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TQKyDD9Yig" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Don’t Call Me Up</a>” earlier this year, I was totally prepared to jump on the bandwagon. On that track in particular, her vocals soar, the glossy production makes you want to dance, and the lyrics that celebrate dismissing negativity makes you want to shout them at the top of your lungs. Her sassy lyrics and attitude left me eagerly waiting for more, since the world needs more sassy but bold bops like that. I often forget that highly anticipating something often leads to the opposite of what you want. Prior to the release of her full-length debut album <em>High Expectations</em>, Mabel had given us that and more. But what she ended up doing was reminding us that sometimes the end result will be better when we in fact lower our expectations.<br /><br /><em>High Expectations </em>arrives just as Mabel’s latest single “<a data-mce-href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hY1tULEr4-4" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hY1tULEr4-4" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Mad Love</a>” has been reaching the Top 10, and “Don’t Call Me Up” continues to climb the charts nearly eight months after its release (and rightfully so). The Dua Lipa comparisons should be taken as nothing but a compliment, since—if we discount Ed Sheeran—Lipa has been one of the only British pop singers to generate an international following in the last few years. “Don’t Call Me Up” could easily be the sassy and bold cousin to the equally fun-loving “<a data-mce-href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2qgadSvNyU" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2qgadSvNyU" style="text-decoration-line: none;">New Rules</a>.” <em>High Expectations </em>was clearly crafted to follow the success of the former, since it is flooded with overly glitzy production and auto-tuned hooks. And everyone knows <a data-mce-href="https://livingonguiltypleasures.blogspot.com/2019/07/heres-why-i-still-cant-fully-support.html" href="https://livingonguiltypleasures.blogspot.com/2019/07/heres-why-i-still-cant-fully-support.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">I have nothing against auto-tuned hooks</a>, but in this case, most of the songs sound incredibly overproduced and impersonal. The album also definitely falls more on the R&B side, but it’s also not unique enough to not be considered a pop album—in a strange way that makes <em>High Expectations </em>hard to classify.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="height: auto; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" class="aligncenter wp-image-6259 size-full" data-mce-src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Mabel-2.jpg" height="1270" src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Mabel-2.jpg" style="display: block; height: auto; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 100%;" width="2000" /></span><br /><br />Nothing on <em>High Expectations </em>jumps out quite in the way “Don’t Call Me Up” still does whenever you hear it on the radio, which is most definitely the album’s biggest disappointment. But that’s also not to say the album contains pleasurable filler, either: if the inability to come up with another hit single that resonates the same way “Don’t Call Me Up” does is the album’s biggest disappointment, its biggest failure is its inability to establish Mabel with any sort of personality. There’s a lot of catchy overproduction on songs like “Bad Behaviour” and “We Don’t Say…” that makes tracks like those stand out, merely because they’re earworms, but other songs like “FML,” “Selfish Love,” “Trouble,” and “Put Your Name on It” don’t offer anything fresh or original in any sense of the word.<br /><br />Been there, done that doesn’t even feel like the appropriate phrase, since it feels like most of the lyrics and production on <em>High Expectations </em>are so unoriginal that there isn’t any adjective or phrase to accurately describe it. Even “OK (Anxiety Anthem),” the album’s most personal offering whose lyrics contain the mantra that it’s OK to not be OK, also comes across as unoriginal and impersonal when a multitude of current pop singers are also crafting poignant ballads and bops about the ups and downs of mental health in our modern times—and Mabel’s attempt feels rather glib. In the Spotify age of music where it is simultaneously very easy and very difficult to make an impact in pop music, a sense of personality and originality are the base requirements. And Mabel delivers none of that on her debut studio album. Alexis Petridis from <a data-mce-href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/aug/01/mabel-high-expectations-review" href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/aug/01/mabel-high-expectations-review" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><em>The Guardian </em></a>put it best: “There’s a weird disjunction between [Mabel’s] lyrics, which are big on telling you what a caution-to-the-winds handful she is, and the music that supports them, which sticks pretty fast to the well-made pop-R&B playbook: ‘I’m not a people pleaser,’ she sings on ‘Bad Behaviour,’ over a backing that’s clearly intent on pleasing as many people as possible.”<br /><br />Even though Mabel received songwriting credit on every song on <em>High Expectations</em>, it still feels as though she may have another shot at establishing herself with a more unique personality and a sense of originality in the future. As much as there are many artists who deliver critically acclaimed and era-defining debut studio albums, there are also many others who need an album or two before they find their footing. <a data-mce-href="http://kellyalexandershow.com/shania-twains-comeback-makes-ultimate-symbol-strength/" href="http://kellyalexandershow.com/shania-twains-comeback-makes-ultimate-symbol-strength/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Shania Twain</a>’s debut studio album from 1993 flopped horrendously and is largely forgotten in comparison to her second album, the indeed era-defining <em>The Woman in Me</em>. There may still be space and time for Mabel to mimic a similar transition, where she can rise above the overproduction and unoriginality of her debut album that feels as though it was crafted for the purpose of “selling out” (as many debut albums by women are made to do). The near future may seem secure for Mabel, as any number of tracks from <em>High Expectations </em>could be released as singles. But only time will tell if she has the ability to transcend selling out and playing the game, since it is those artists who come to be remembered in the long term.<br /><br /><strong>Jeffrey’s favorites from <em>High Expectations</em></strong>: “Bad Behaviour,” “Don’t Call Me Up,” “We Don’t Say…,” and “Mad Love”</span></div>
Jeffrey Davieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10893528274829091844noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5629019666970713101.post-46324427729195999062019-07-27T07:48:00.000-07:002019-07-27T07:48:24.388-07:00Book Review: 'Daisy Jones & The Six' by Taylor Jenkins Reid<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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"<i>Women will crush you, you know? I suppose everybody hurts everybody, but women always seem to get back up, you ever notice that? Women are always still standing.</i>"<br />
<br />
No one is more surprised than me that I loved <i>Daisy Jones & The Six</i>. But in order to understand why I was surprised that I loved it, I must first explain some of the beef that I've had with Taylor Jenkins Reid in the past. So, about three years ago, I decided I was going to buy a copy of Reid's novel <i>Maybe in Another Life </i>after reading the premise and thinking that it sounded like a really good idea for a cute contemporary fiction novel. Right? Wrong. I hated it. It was awful. The writing was terrible and the characters were even worse. It had no depth and felt like a Danielle Steel-type book that you find in a pharmacy (no shade if you like that sort of thing - it's just definitely not my thing). This was also back in the days when I couldn't allow myself to abandon a book even if I hated it, so I forced myself to read the entirety of a book I could not stand (which, looking back, is completely my own fault). But still! I was upset. I spent money on a book I thought I was going to love and I hated it so much. I ended up giving away my copy in a bag of books I gave to a friend. It's nothing personal against Taylor Jenkins Reid herself but I spent money on her and her book was bad! It's a bookworm's prerogative to hold a grudge when that happens! Anyway, so a few months after that whole incident, Reid's next novel <i>The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo </i>came out and it felt like everyone I knew who read books was over the moon for it. I became vehemently against reading it despite the praise and recommendations because I was still pissed over <i>Maybe in Another Life</i>, but ultimately, I gave into the peer pressure and ended up checking it out from the library a few months after the craze died down. As much as everyone on my Goodreads feed was in love with it, I was not. It was definitely better than the last book of hers I read, but I didn't find it to be the original and compelling novel that everyone made it out to be. Reid's writing style definitely left something to be desired for me. It again felt too much like a Danielle Steel-type book with little depth and originality. Especially since <i>Evelyn Hugo </i>was supposed to be this insightful look into the career of a fictional star, I really didn't find it all that special.<br />
<br />
So then, this year, when Reid's latest novel <i>Daisy Jones & The Six </i>hit shelves and, again, it felt like everyone and their mother was rushing out to buy a copy (it also helped that Reese Witherspoon both picked it for her book club and had also optioned the screen rights for it before it had even come out). I, again, watched the craze from afar and figured I would do the same thing I did with <i>Evelyn Hugo</i>: wait until the craze dies down and find it at the library, since <i>Daisy Jones </i>actually did interest me more than <i>Evelyn Hugo </i>and I actually hadn't received as many bombarding recommendations. <i>Daisy Jones </i>follows in the footsteps of <i>Evelyn Hugo </i>in that it's also the story of the life and career of a fictional star, or in this case the story of the lives and career of a legendary seventies rock band. <i>Daisy Jones </i>is told in interview format for a new biography about the band, wherein it almost reads like a script for a documentary. But what struck me most about the narrative style was that it grabbed me almost instantly and didn't let go until the last page. As much as <i>Evelyn Hugo </i>was reminiscent of the real-life stories of Marilyn Monroe or Elizabeth Taylor and that was also an interesting premise for me given I enjoy the stories of tragic female figures, <i>Daisy Jones </i>ended up being even more interesting for me given that I am even more consumed with the lives of recording artists and their legacies. If I may quote a blurb from another author on the back cover, "Filled with passion, complexity, and fascinating detail, <i>Daisy Jones & The Six </i>felt so real, I had to remind myself that it was fiction." And that's exactly how it felt reading it. Sometimes the details about this band that doesn't even exist were so consuming and gripping that I often forgot it wasn't real. I definitely enjoyed that aspect of it since that's very much my cup of tea; analyzing and reading about the lives of others whose careers interest or inspire me.<br />
<br />
What also strikes me about <i>Daisy Jones </i>in comparison to <i>Evelyn Hugo </i>is that the majority of the same people who gave high ratings and rave reviews to the latter were more likely to give mixed and negative reviews to the former. Reviews of <i>Evelyn Hugo </i>praised the writing style, its originality, and feminist themes, but those same reviewers tended to criticize <i>Daisy Jones</i>' interview format, called it predictable and not all that insightful, and said they very quickly grew bored with it in comparison to <i>Evelyn Hugo</i>. As far as writing style goes, I think it's safe to assume that I am not Taylor Jenkins Reid's biggest fan. However, since she was writing entirely in the voices of her characters in <i>Daisy Jones</i>, leaving no room for a narrator or anyone outside of the characters giving testimonies, I think I enjoyed Reid's writing style in this book over her others that I've read since it allowed less room for the shallow writing I've found in her other books. I also find it interesting how all of the reviews that commended <i>Evelyn Hugo </i>for being a groundbreaking feminist story were not as quick to claim the same thing with <i>Daisy Jones</i>, which in comparison was a much more original story and offered more feminist insight into an era rarely fictionalized by other authors. Old Hollywood and the studio system, as portrayed in <i>Evelyn Hugo</i>, has been fictionalized by countless other authors and Taylor Jenkins Reid didn't even do a good job at it. But she did do a really good job at the gender expectations of the seventies music industry in <i>Daisy Jones</i>. I especially enjoyed the contrast that the men of The Six faced virtually no struggles or limitations when they started their band, having complete creative freedom and control since they were men, but Daisy Jones was immediately typecast by her record label and forced to record things they knew would sell without looking at her own songwriting. Gender power dynamics like this still exist today in most of Hollywood and beyond, but it was much more prevalent in the seventies and I enjoyed the subtle ways in which Reid acknowledges that throughout. "<i>That's how it was back then. I was just supposed to be the inspiration for some man's great idea. Well, fuck that.</i>"<br />
<br />
Despite the fact that the ending of the story was a bit predictable, I was still excited to read until the end and learn all of the sorted details to the demise of this legendary, iconic (and fictional) band. I also understand why some readers grew tired and bored with the interview style, since it does almost read like a neverending script and I will admit my eyes got tired after awhile. Some also criticized how <i>Daisy Jones </i>attempted to tackle numerous different issues without really centering on any of them, but to me it read as if all of the things that took place (coming of age in a male-dominated industry, sexism, drugs and rock 'n' roll, and the band's relational dynamics) were being tackled simultaneously because all that and more actually took place. Except they didn't. I keep forgetting this is fictional! I also understand why others said they got bored with it since, in the second half of the book, it does feel like not that much happens. But it still felt eventful and interesting to me since all of the action was taking place retroactively through the stories of those who were there. Like I said, <i>Daisy Jones & The Six </i>grabbed me from the first page and didn't let go until the last. I still have to remind myself that these people don't exist, because they felt so real. I'm excited to see what Reese Witherspoon and Taylor Jenkins Reid concoct for the screen adaption of <i>Daisy Jones</i>, since I think it could translate very well into a television series. 5/5 stars.Jeffrey Davieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10893528274829091844noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5629019666970713101.post-11705844654049483892019-07-25T18:29:00.001-07:002019-07-25T18:35:05.031-07:0012 Underrated Movies to Watch This Summer<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeOeBAu5IiJuoCvnszEvebaHpUJtFgYj_GM2nruYJL9T7ZFf3UvSTB6zaYAogM5eEJ_JYlma7fayTQ5GFJrcUU2qzyyZii42mq5e-SQyH2xNmjDNULNNEqJkOr-dflJ5trEfKqwRyhyphenhyphenemy/s1600/12+Movies.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1007" data-original-width="1600" height="251" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeOeBAu5IiJuoCvnszEvebaHpUJtFgYj_GM2nruYJL9T7ZFf3UvSTB6zaYAogM5eEJ_JYlma7fayTQ5GFJrcUU2qzyyZii42mq5e-SQyH2xNmjDNULNNEqJkOr-dflJ5trEfKqwRyhyphenhyphenemy/s400/12+Movies.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />In the mood to crank up the AC, ignore civilization, and watch a good
movie during your time off this summer? Never fear! As much as it’s fun to go
see movies in the theatre, sometimes nothing beats staying home, microwaving
popcorn, and watching a movie from your couch—whether it’s old or new. If
that’s what you’re looking for, here are 12 underrated movies you should watch
this summer.<br />
<br />
<b><i>He’s
Just Not That Into You</i></b></span></span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Quite possibly the most underrated romantic comedy ever made, <i>He’s Just Not That Into You </i>follows a
large ensemble cast including Ginnifer Goodwin, Jennifer Aniston, Ben Affleck,
Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Connelly, Scarlett Johansson, and Drew Barrymore in a
poignant look into the life of modern dating: are you the exception, or the
rule?<br />
<br />
<b><i>Uptown
Girls</i></b></span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijaMNfkViiUZssukSk7ap4fub6AXBMnG_eY0-vzUzZHP92rKtHD-Qd5mvZ8y7LAVQW5dSXxNJxBWeT4gsTdCuH6jINXRPvev3QEWc9tLWT9aq4y2a1VilHYCLrHaKgcPVezgMF3JyGmcql/s1600/Uptown+Girls.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="665" data-original-width="1000" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijaMNfkViiUZssukSk7ap4fub6AXBMnG_eY0-vzUzZHP92rKtHD-Qd5mvZ8y7LAVQW5dSXxNJxBWeT4gsTdCuH6jINXRPvev3QEWc9tLWT9aq4y2a1VilHYCLrHaKgcPVezgMF3JyGmcql/s320/Uptown+Girls.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Starring Brittany Murphy and Dakota Fanning as an unlikely pair of rich
girl out of money forced to take a job as a nanny for a spoiled, uptight young
girl, <i>Uptown Girls </i>asks all two very
important questions: what does it mean to grow up, and what does it mean to be
family?<br />
<br />
<b><i>Can
You Ever Forgive Me?</i></b></span></span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Isolation, bitterness, and literary humor. What’s not to love? In an Academy
Award-nominated performance as biographer-turned-literary forger Lee Israel,
Melissa McCarthy delivers some of the most intense and best work of her career
in <i>Can You Ever Forgive Me?</i>, a dark
but heartwarming look into what it means to lose and what it means to be
fulfilled.<br />
<br />
<b><i>The
Edge of Seventeen</i></b></span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi5B0GO4-YR4V85Pt3oZj7YtM1hAatO6Amm_uh2lrYUVfMcfujzYoXM_xO0oA12FQIHx7pYfq2pux2bzJvHVs6_Phxaf2ABzM9trPeeWxH6reM-W1j5FPW_r9QbuJjAqjQg_BiESq-M9WM/s1600/Edge+of+Seventeen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="431" data-original-width="646" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi5B0GO4-YR4V85Pt3oZj7YtM1hAatO6Amm_uh2lrYUVfMcfujzYoXM_xO0oA12FQIHx7pYfq2pux2bzJvHVs6_Phxaf2ABzM9trPeeWxH6reM-W1j5FPW_r9QbuJjAqjQg_BiESq-M9WM/s320/Edge+of+Seventeen.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">All hail future EGOT winner, her majesty Hailee Steinfeld, in a charming
and relevant teen comedy film like no other. Co-starring Kyra Sedgwick, Woody
Harrelson, and Haley Lu Richardson, <i>The
Edge of Seventeen </i>reminds us all that we’re only young once—is it over yet?
Now available to stream on Netflix Canada.<br />
<br />
<b><i>Hello,
My Name is Doris</i></b></span></span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Who are you when you’ve spent most of your life being ignored and catering to
others? In what can only be described as Sally Field’s most underrated and
loveable role to date, <i>Hello, My Name is
Doris </i>teaches us that we’re never too old to try something new, and we’re
never too old to go after what we want—because we’re worth it. Currently
streaming on Netflix Canada.<br />
<br />
<b><i>Goodbye
Christopher Robin</i></b></span></span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Ever wondered how <i>Winnie-the-Pooh
</i>really came to be? In the vein of <i>Finding
Neverland </i>or <i>Saving Mr. Banks</i>, <i>Goodbye Christopher Robins </i>offers an
insightful look into the lives of A.A. Milne and his son—the world they created
together, and how everything fell apart when they shared it with the rest of
the world. The amount of sadness and dysfunction that ended up creating one of
the happiest and most beloved children’s stories of all-time is remarkable, but
<i>Goodbye Christopher Robin </i>nonetheless
delivers a compelling and powerful narrative behind probably the most famous
children’s books of our time.<br />
<br />
<b><i>How
to Make an American Quilt</i></b></span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4dX4uU05Sz2gK7AXTc5dgUDEcgbCJc5gUi9CJLUPxAaXIU0lqH9u5riL320-VI2HzyXxfxuHaNXPUFRgImX6tN7N6UD47OHfVXKpDs6zt0tydcACFsM6N38TvvdeSeRzS8FD0uAabU24l/s1600/How+to+Make+an+American+Quilt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="322" data-original-width="475" height="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4dX4uU05Sz2gK7AXTc5dgUDEcgbCJc5gUi9CJLUPxAaXIU0lqH9u5riL320-VI2HzyXxfxuHaNXPUFRgImX6tN7N6UD47OHfVXKpDs6zt0tydcACFsM6N38TvvdeSeRzS8FD0uAabU24l/s320/How+to+Make+an+American+Quilt.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In one of the most celebrated women’s narratives of the ‘90s, based on the
bestselling novel of the same name by Whitney Otto, <i>How to Make an American Quilt </i>weaves together its own quilt of what
it meant to be a woman in the twentieth century—the dreams that were put
together by imagination, stomped on by expectation, and suffocated by
limitation. But no matter how old you get, you never forget what it’s like to
be young and indecisive with the whole rest of your life laid out in front of
you—and stories like those never go out of style. Featuring an ensemble cast
with Winona Ryder, Anne Bancroft, Dermot Mulroney, and Maya Angelou, <i>How to Make an American Quilt </i>teaches us
how to make a narrative that binds us all: there are no rules you can follow,
you have to go by instinct, and you have to be brave.<br />
<br />
<b><i>A
Star is Born </i>(1954)</b></span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQL9Eayh-omJNrkAxkmOf3CT7yM5xxC8jkiUfw35gAAqVphg0jEodsyWuOM4LywFcxmZg34jZnW84d6kTUiCjjrHwyHQIU3dYA9Y9fRqcTZI1FdpvLcj3tDqwr5YhwXx_-FbwOqroomZOP/s1600/Judy+Garland+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="709" data-original-width="1260" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQL9Eayh-omJNrkAxkmOf3CT7yM5xxC8jkiUfw35gAAqVphg0jEodsyWuOM4LywFcxmZg34jZnW84d6kTUiCjjrHwyHQIU3dYA9Y9fRqcTZI1FdpvLcj3tDqwr5YhwXx_-FbwOqroomZOP/s320/Judy+Garland+1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As much as we’ve rightfully celebrated the subsequent remakes of this film
classic starring Barbra Streisand and Lady Gaga, it feels as though the
original remake of <i>A Star is Born</i>—and
the most significant—has been somewhat lost to history. The <a href="https://livingonguiltypleasures.blogspot.com/2018/10/judy-garland-and-film-that-got-away.html">1954 version</a>,
starring Judy Garland and James Mason, offers a colorful journey to the past to
the Golden Age of Hollywood and what it took to be a star—sometimes sacrificing
who we are and who we love in the process. All versions of <i>A Star is Born </i>have their merits, but Judy’s version will always be
my favorite.<br />
<br />
<b><i>Revolutionary
Road</i></b></span></span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I recently saw this movie for the first time and I’m mad at myself for not
watching it sooner. Starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet in their second
onscreen pairing since <i>Titanic</i> (they
also reunite with Kathy Bates, who co-stars), <i>Revolutionary Road </i>is a powerful look into the world of 1950s
conformity: the desire to conform, the anxiety of complacence, and the yearning
to—and the cost of—breaking free. “If being crazy means living life as if it
matters, then I don’t care if we’re completely insane.”<br />
<br />
<b><i>Unfaithful</i></b></span></span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Director Adrian Lyne (<i>Fatal
Attraction</i>) delivers a steamy erotic thriller like only he can. Starring
Richard Gere and Diane Lane, <i>Unfaithful </i>asks
us to question the root of lust and desire: can we be in love with one person
forever, but still come to crave the touch of someone else? One of my all-time
favorite movies.<br />
<br />
<b><i>Mona
Lisa Smile</i></b></span></span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It might not be Julia Roberts’ best role, but <i>Mona Lisa Smile </i>still offers an insightful look into the
traditional but restrictive values of ‘50s womanhood, and how one teacher can
always make a world of difference. Co-starring Kirsten Dunst, Julia Stiles, and
Maggie Gyllenhaal, <i>Mona Lisa Smile </i>asks
us to remember that there is always more out there for us, if only we have the
courage to look. Now streaming on Netflix Canada.<br />
<br />
<b><i>Won’t
You Be My Neighbor?</i></b></span></span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In this simultaneously heartwarming and heartbreaking documentary, <i>Won’t You Be My Neighbor? </i>looks into the
life and work of Fred Rogers: his passion for children, his enthusiasm with
emotions, and his love of television—and how he managed to bring them all
together to create a legacy that no other public figure has come close to
matching. In preparation for the Mister Rogers biopic hitting theatres later
this year (<i>A Beautiful Day in the
Neighborhood </i>starring Tom Hanks), <i>Won’t
You Be My Neighbor? </i>is a required watch. PSA: don’t watch unless you are in
the mood to sob until your eyes swell shut. </span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Available to stream on Netflix Canada.</span><br />
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
<br />
Which underrated movies do you have to recommend?</span><br />
<!--[endif]--></span>Jeffrey Davieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10893528274829091844noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5629019666970713101.post-57213619446280077102019-07-18T11:47:00.000-07:002019-07-18T11:48:12.516-07:007 Albums That Have Saved Me From Myself<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<div style="text-align: left;">
<i>Originally posted on my other blog </i><a href="https://areyouthereanxiety.blogspot.com/2019/06/7-albums-that-have-saved-me-from-myself.html">It's Not That Deep</a><i>, where I discuss mental health, navigating adulthood, and growing up.</i></div>
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<span style="line-height: 17.12px;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 17.12px;">“<i>Songs can be incredibly prophetic, like subconscious warnings or messages to myself, but I often don't know what I'm trying to say till years later. Or a prediction comes true and I couldn't do anything to stop it, so it seems like a kind of useless magic. As if the song is somehow speaking through me in its own language. And I am a conduit but totally oblivious to its wisdom.</i>”<br />—Florence Welch<br /><br />Music and I share a very complicated relationship. I’ve always loved listening to music just as much as the next person, and the music I listened to growing up definitely helped shape me as a person. But a part of me has also always been afraid of music and what it does to me. With me and music—and with me and a lot of other things—it’s all or nothing. Blast the song as loud as you can or don’t play it at all. Sing along to every word at the top of your lungs or don’t sing it at all—it’s always been the way I’ve enjoyed music the most. But at the same time, music has had a tendency to overstimulate me to the point of me becoming scared of listening to music. Scared of listening to upbeat, catchy songs during the week when it might stick in my head to the point of not being able to sleep at night. Scared of the feeling I get from listening to a song that’s just so good that I immediately begin to wonder how long the feeling will last. I’ve often listened to the same songs on repeat in hopes that it will solve all my problems and make everything okay, to the point where I’ve heard the songs so many times I never want to hear them again. It’s like I hear a song I like and my brain’s immediate reaction is, “Let’s cling to the happy feeling this song gives us because it rids us of uncertainty and listen to nothing but this until we literally hate it.”<br /><br />It’s only been within the last few years that I’ve really discovered the upsides and downsides to the power that music has over me. In the past, when I was just a student with no other real-life responsibilities, I didn’t listen to music as much because I thought that it was often toxic for me since it had a history of overstimulating me to the point of not being able to sleep at night. Once I tried to let go of those rituals in order to simply allow myself to listen to music whenever I wanted, it was then that I truly discovered the miracle (and sometimes, the curse) of music. When I was younger I would generally only listen to the same few artists and whatever new catchy pop song that I liked on the radio. It was only once I removed the previous limits I had set for myself when listening to music did I really realize that, if you look hard enough, there is a song, album, or an even entire artist for every emotion. Sometimes that forms a connection so strong that you can feel as though the artist is singing about you directly, especially when you are feeling down and that song or album helped you feel better or better understand your emotions.<br /><br />As a result, throughout my lengthy journey with depression and anxiety over the last few years, a variety of music that was often new to me at the time, since I hadn’t bothered to look into it in the past, became the soundtrack to my struggles. As much as it helped me, it doesn’t mean that it didn’t also have a tendency to plague me, since music does still tend to overstimulate me. I do still tend to cling to certain songs that make me feel a certain way in hopes that I can maintain that feeling forever, to the point of it being unhealthy. But I know my new limits with music much better now, and they are much healthier than they were during a time when I was convinced listening to music was a pleasure I didn’t deserve and my indulgence in listening to music that Tuesday was what made the train late. I know and understand the power that music holds over me much better now, and with that knowledge I can now both know where to draw the line, and also use it to my advantage. That’s where the idea for my <a href="https://open.spotify.com/user/y2fyoymyuumkl6emc5bvrccnu/playlist/59ESXmCWCw2Y4vOx7vlkfR?si=zQnvTROZQLm6oA2rb9zDeg">playlist of mental health songs</a> came from. Over the course of about two years of forming overly emotional connections and dependencies on certain songs, I decided to turn that into something positive and create almost a scrapbook of feelings, both past and present, in hopes that those feelings through songs may also help somebody else. Looking back, there have been a few albums in particular that I believe have saved me from myself, and I’m sure going forward there will be many more. I also believe that certain things like books, movies, and music have a habit of coming into our lives when we need them most and when we are least expecting them to, so I thought I would share some of those albums in hopes that, again, those feelings through songs may resonate with and help somebody else in need.<br /><br /><b>Taylor Swift, <i>Red</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 17.12px;"><b><i><br /></i></b>During the days where I could only allow myself to listen to music that I knew wouldn’t overstimulate me too much, I would turn to slow, mellow, and calming songs—the complete opposite of upbeat earworms. Listening to this kind of music would also often make me feel sad when I thought I wasn’t sad; a warning sign I missed back then. During a period of deep depression, I felt that there was very little music that matched the noise inside my head. When I was feeling down, I didn’t want to hear happy songs because it felt like I was forcing myself to feel something that I was not. Similarly, I didn’t always want to hear sad songs because sometimes it only made me feel worse and I wasn’t ready to confront my feelings. I needed something in the middle. One day I turned to Taylor Swift’s <i>Red </i>album, since I knew it was mostly mellow and calm songs that wouldn’t overstimulate me, and it ended up being everything I needed and more. I didn’t necessarily relate to the lyrics of heartache and breakups, but the level of emotion and confession in the songs—in the vein of confronting how you feel—was exactly what I needed to hear. I listened to the album start to finish, over and over again. It didn’t solve my problems, but it made me feel so much better even if for just a short while.<br /><br /><b>Shania Twain, <i>Now</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 17.12px;"><b><i><br /></i></b>I grew up listening to Shania Twain. She was the first artist I ever loved. Listening to her old albums, even with the catchy and upbeat songs, is always calming and therapeutic for me since it brings back such fond memories of being young and singing from the backseat or listening to her Greatest Hits CD on my Discman player. I never would have guessed that I would have been well above legal drinking age by the time I got to hear new Shania Twain music again, when she released her latest album <i>Now </i>in 2017. At first, I wasn’t a huge fan of it. Sure, her vocals have changed and sure, it was never going to be the same as her old stuff. But I didn’t comprehend the number of sad ballads about the breakdown of her marriage, losing her voice, and the ensuing depression she battled. I didn’t understand those emotions because I believed I’d never felt them myself. Flashforward a few months later when I was really going through it with my mental health, and I again needed something else to quiet the voices in my head. After making my way through all of her old albums and the feeling of nostalgia failing to make me feel whole again, I decided to listen to <i>Now </i>another time and it was as if I was hearing it for the first time, since I understood it so much better now. Twain said that she had told the producers of the album to forget and ignore all of her old material, saying she wanted a more “organic approach” and that she was “reflecting on the darkness.” I think it took me going through my own darkness to understand and appreciate the approach she was going for. It made me love and admire Shania Twain so much more than I already did for going through hell and back and still managing to stand up again, keep breathing, and keep going. <i>Now </i>will always have a special place in my heart.<br /><br /><b>Kesha, <i>Rainbow</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 17.12px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></span><span style="line-height: 17.12px;"><i></i>Not to sound too dramatic or anything but I think <i>Rainbow </i>has singlehandedly saved my life on more than one occasion. I wasn’t a huge fan of Kesha back in the days of Ke$ha. I liked the catchy singles, but her music didn’t give me enough to form a long-lasting connection with her as an artist. Of course, we would soon learn there was a reason for that when Kesha filed a still ongoing lawsuit against her former producer, Dr. Luke, in 2014 alleging physical, emotional, and sexual abuse. While a judge denied her motion to be released from her recording contract that obliged her to work with the man she accused of abuse, Kesha was able to finish work on the album she had been working on for several years and managed to release it through her label in 2017. <i>Rainbow </i>chronicles everything from her battles with depression, to not letting the bastards get you down, to learning how to let go. It has been the soundtrack to way too many of my breakdowns and reminds me that if Kesha can get through all that, then I can get through this.<br /> <i><br /></i><b>Britney Spears, <i>Glory</i></b></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />During a particular period of high anxiety (and probably my first experience with high anxiety) and depressive episodes, listening to Britney Spears was one of the only things that sparked joy for me, in anything. Her album </span><i>Glory </i><span style="font-family: inherit;">had just come out a few months before, and a few months before that I had just gotten my driver’s license and it opened up a whole new world of adult responsibilities that I wasn’t emotionally mature enough to handle yet. Listening to </span><i>Glory </i><span style="font-family: inherit;">whenever I drove made everything seem easier and distracted me from whatever else was going on in my head at that time, too. Nothing about the songs or lyrics on the album have to do with anxiety or mental health necessarily, but listening to the same album over and over again felt familiar and made me feel comforted and rid me of feelings of uncertainty, at least for a little while.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 17.12px;"><br /><b>Alessia Cara, <i>The Pains of Growing</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 17.12px;"><b><i><br /></i></b>This album has also definitely saved my life on a number of occasions. Or not even that it saved my life, just the fact that it came into existence at the very moment I needed it the most always feels so special. I became a big fan of Alessia Cara about a year before <i>The Pains of Growing </i>came out, listening to her first album <i>Know-It-All </i>backwards and forwards. I felt such an instant connection with her music and her as an artist, since her lyrics and her personality just make me feel understood and appreciated, especially in terms of being an anxious introvert. So many times in my life I’ve been told I just have to get over parts of my introverted personality for the sake of living in this world and listening to Alessia Cara reminds me that the world is hard for other people, too. That’s what <i>The Pains of Growing </i>is all about for me. It puts such particular feelings into words that are so often invalidated or not even discussed at all. Growing up is hard! Getting over yourself is hard! Being an adult human being is hard! Being a <i>human </i>is hard! These are all realities everyone seems to know, but it still helps when we say it out loud and treat it like something that can be embraced and celebrated.<br /><br /><b>Olivia O’Brien, <i>Was It Even Real?</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 17.12px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><br /></i></span></span><span style="line-height: 17.12px;"><i>Was It Even Real? </i>might have only come out just over a month ago, but it’s already helped me in profound ways. I discovered Olivia O’Brien last year by chance when one of her music videos popped up in my recommended videos section on YouTube. I was instantly taken aback by the dark but honest tone of her lyrics—another artist who puts particular feelings into words that we often don’t want to say out loud. I listened to her first EP, <i>It’s Not That Deep </i>(which may or may not have ended up being the inspiration for the name of this blog…don’t call any copyright lawyers on me), which led me to form a connection with her as an artist. She’s said in interviews that she has suffered from depression since she was seven years old, and has used songwriting as an outlet for her feelings for as long as she can remember. <i>Was It Even Real?</i>, O’Brien’s full-length debut album, deals with themes of heartbreak, depression, anxiety, bad habits, self-destructive habits, and learning to love yourself—with some catchy bops about boy problems, too. It also just feels real, despite what the title suggests: the truth is, as much as we’re told we need to love ourselves first and let go of all negativity and bad habits and whatever else, we still find ourselves unable to let go because those things are hard. It also celebrates the reality of accepting our bad habits and our depression or anxiety because fighting the feeling often gets you nowhere. From where I stand now with my own mental health, the album has reminded me that all of these things are important, even if they’re hard.<br /><i><br /></i><b>Kacey Musgraves, <i>Golden Hour</i></b></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 17.12px;"><b><i><br /></i></b>For me, <i>Golden Hour </i>was one of those albums that took several listens and some time to grow on me before it took its full effect. I listened to it when it came out last year since it came highly recommended, even though I’m not a huge country person, and I only liked a few songs. This year, after it won Album of the Year at the Grammys, I decided to give it another listen and it took awhile for it to grow on me. Like I said, a lot of the time, certain things come into our lives when we need it most and when we are least expecting it—books, movies, music, and others. I think that sometimes it takes going through a certain experience or suddenly being at the mercy of a certain emotion to appreciate a particular book, movie, or album the way in which it may have been intended. Earlier this year, while working through some things and making some realizations for myself, mental health-wise, I think I finally heard <i>Golden Hour </i>the way in which it was intended. You can tell a wide range of emotions went into this album, and it probably takes feeling a wide range of emotions to understand it the most. In the time since, when I have found myself feeling too much (a.k.a. pretty much all the time), <i>Golden Hour </i>helps bring me back down to earth. It reminds me that I’m holding too tight to my umbrella again, because there’s always been a rainbow hanging over my head.<br /><br />“<i>If you could see what I see, you’d be blinded by the colors<br />Yellow, red, and orange and green, and at least a million others<br />So tie up your bow, take off your coat, and take a look around<br />‘Cause the sky is finally open, the rain and wind stopped blowin’<br />But you’re stuck out in the same old storm again<br />You hold tight to your umbrella, darlin’ I’m just tryin’ to tell ya<br />That there’s always been a rainbow hangin’ over your head </i>”<br />—Kacey Musgraves, “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OFv566mj7s">Rainbow</a>”</span>Jeffrey Davieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10893528274829091844noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5629019666970713101.post-46737119869444178402019-07-16T10:26:00.000-07:002019-07-16T10:26:50.090-07:00Book Review: 'Celebrity Detox' by Rosie O'Donnell<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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"<i>That's the thing about fame. It's a dangerous game, because fame, the drug, can sneak up on you in increments. You don't notice the increments, that you're increasing the dosage until you're so far away from ever making eye contact with another human being and being 'real,' that you don't even know you're not 'real' anymore.</i>"<br />
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I decided to check out Rosie O'Donnell's memoir <i>Celebrity Detox</i>, first published in 2007, from the library after reading and thoroughly enjoying <i><a href="https://livingonguiltypleasures.blogspot.com/2019/06/summer-reading-guide-2019-edition_19.html">Ladies Who Punch</a></i>, a book looking at the history and inside stories from the set of the long-running daytime talk show <i>The View</i>. I decided I wanted to read Rosie's memoir that came out a few months after the end of her infamously controversial one-season run as the moderator on <i>The View </i>not only because <i>Celebrity Detox </i>was mentioned and quoted several times in <i>Ladies Who Punch</i>, but it led me to realize that I actually didn't know all that much about Rosie O'Donnell, other than what everybody knows about Rosie O'Donnell. And I have to say, I enjoyed reading <i>Celebrity Detox </i>much more than I expected to.<br />
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The ratings for <i>Celebrity Detox </i>are fairly low on Goodreads, with most reviews only coming in around 3 stars. Celebrity memoirs like these tend to have low ratings for one of two reasons: a) It's actually just plain bad because not all celebrities have a flair for writing, no matter how popular they are, or b) It's actually not that bad of a book at all, but people are snobs and only rate it 2 or 3 stars because they saw reading it as a "guilty pleasure" and "just cannot bring themselves to rate it any higher than that." <i>Celebrity Detox </i>is most definitely a case of the latter. It might be very stylistically messy and jump all over the place in terms of narrative and how exactly the stories she tells pertain to the overall theme of fame being a drug she was addicted to, but it was still an insightful and eye-opening reading experience. I never really watched <i>The Rosie O'Donnell Show </i>when it was on TV, and I didn't really watch <i>The View </i>when she was on it either (other than the episode everybody has seen, where <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8JRTb4j8EM">she and Elisabeth Hasselbeck</a> aired out all of the dirty laundry in their friendship from behind the scenes in front of a national television audience in May 2007). But I do remember Rosie being a bankable household name in the late '90s and early '00s, and then she suddenly disappeared from the limelight. I was recently watching an episode of <i>Will & Grace </i>from 2002 with my parents where Rosie guest stars and my dad looked up and said, "Whatever happened to her?" Clearly a lot happened to Rosie O'Donnell, and we just weren't paying attention.<br />
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In <i>Celebrity Detox</i>, O'Donnell writes of how she grew up thinking that becoming famous one day would automatically solve all of her problems: a perception and a dream that a lot of different celebrities have admitted to having. But Rosie soon found that being famous was not only incredibly overwhelming, but she was losing herself and who she was by continuing to be the Rose O'Donnell that the world came to love. She was losing contact with her family and her children, and from what she writes, this was the primary factor in her decision to say enough and end her syndicated daytime talk show after six seasons in 2002. But she also paints a picture of fame as a drug, one that she became heavily addicted to without even realizing it. She had initially written a different version of <i>Celebrity Detox </i>that she had intended to publish sometime after ending her talk show, but decided against it because she felt the time wasn't right. As a result, she includes passages from the original draft of the book as well as different blog posts, all of which read as incomplete fragments, from her time out of the spotlight between 2002 and 2006. She also writes about how, when Barbara Walters asked her to join <i>The View </i>as the new moderator for their tenth season, she was willing to do anything Walters asked her to do because she viewed her as a mother figure whom she wanted to please, bringing up unresolved issues from her relationship with her own mother who died when she was a child. She agreed to join <i>The View </i>despite not knowing if she would be able to return to the spotlight and fame after "detoxing" from it for four years prior. What she ended up realizing what she couldn't handle was merely being a part of something without being in the driver's seat or in control. When she did <i>The Rosie O'Donnell Show</i>, it was syndicated and she thus did not have to meet the demands of any specific network. On <i>The View</i>, however, she had to fit the mold of what ABC wanted, and Rosie is very unapologetic when it comes to not fitting in to a specific mold. <br />
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It's fascinating to think that, looking back, Rosie O'Donnell was not the right fit for <i>The View </i>at all, especially regarding the numerous controversies that ensued while she was there the first time. But at the same time, <i>The View </i>would not be what it is today if it weren't for Rosie. She is frequently credited with making the show more news-oriented and less strictly centered on "women's topics," as well as making political debates a mainstay in the Hot Topics segment. As difficult as it was for her to last in the environment that was <i>The View</i>, and as difficult as I'm sure she was to work with, she helped breathe new life into a show that has now been on the air for nearly 22 years. Not to mention the fact that, despite how much she was demonized in the media for what she said about Donald Trump on <i>The View </i>back in 2006, everything she said about the future president was true; she was just the only one with the balls to say it. Similarly, when Rosie returned to <i>The View </i>for a brief five-month run between 2014 and 2015, everything <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSr1D_whnyI">she said about Bill Cosby</a> was true. But in the pre-Me Too and Time's Up era of 2014, all of her fellow co-hosts wanted to see more "proof" before they could conclude Cosby was a predator and that his accusers were telling the truth. Is Rosie O'Donnell actually a fortune teller? I'd believe it.<br />
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Overall, I enjoyed reading <i>Celebrity Detox </i>and it helped me relate to a celebrity and pop culture figure who I hadn't previously taken much time to get to know. I related to Rosie's plight of being a control freak by nature and trying her hardest to just go with the flow on <i>The View</i>, but that's so damn hard when you know something can be better and how will you let yourself sleep at night if you don't put your version of your all into something? Sometimes, it's not worth it. But how else will you know if you don't try? If you're a fan of <i>The View </i>who has also checked out <i>Ladies Who Punch</i>, I would definitely recommend reading <i>Celebrity Detox </i>if you already haven't. 4/5 stars.Jeffrey Davieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10893528274829091844noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5629019666970713101.post-2548666238579494922019-07-15T15:49:00.000-07:002019-07-15T17:43:05.307-07:00Here’s Why I Still Can’t Fully Support Kim Petras<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />I know you think I’m going to say that I can’t support Kim Petras
because she continues to choose to work with Dr. Luke, the infamous pop music
producer whom Kesha accused of assault. That’s definitely a part of it. But
there’s so much more beneath the surface concerning Kim Petras—the 26-year-old
German-born pop singer who has risen to fame through music streaming services
and social media. She’s very popular among the LGBTQ community, predominantly
given that Petras is a transgender woman; this being the reason she has been
credited as groundbreaking, since her trans identity is not the most
interesting thing about her. But the fact that Petras is trans, and thus
normalizes the notion of trans visibility, has led the majority of the pop
music fandom—which consists largely of gay men—to give her more credit than she
actually deserves. Many have referred to her as “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqqfemK6ENI&t=347s">saving pop music</a>,” or being the
future of pop. But in reality, she’s the past of pop.<br />
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I’m not going to pretend that I’m a fan of “real music” and that I’m above
listening to the fun-loving bubblegum pop that Kim Petras makes. In fact,
Petras’ brand of pop is my favorite kind of music to listen to. Whether it’s
the eighties vibes on “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6SEnGsQcXM">Hillside Boys</a>,” the auto-tuned but catchy nonetheless
vocals on “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YMjKCGow5M&list=OLAK5uy_lEefqAKc2b2tuIWrQtkljWRbQ6n5kMwaY&index=17&t=0s">All the Time</a>,” the Paris Hilton dress-up fun on “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JC9FA8lZRy8">I Don’t Want It At All</a>,” or her best song to date “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CPeHQHAQyo">Heart to Break</a>” (which I named <a href="https://livingonguiltypleasures.blogspot.com/2018/12/the-50-best-songs-of-2018.html">one of the best songs of 2018</a>), I love a cheesy pop song that just makes you want to sing and
dance more than anyone. But I’m not about to claim that female singers who make
this exact brand of pop—and who, historically, aren’t taken very seriously on a
mainstream level because all they want to do is sing and dance—are necessarily
pushing boundaries and are the future of pop. In order to fulfill the
achievement of being the future of pop, pushing boundaries is a necessity,
especially if you’re a woman. That’s just the world we live in. We wouldn’t
have hailed Madonna the Queen of Pop if she hadn’t pushed the boundaries she’s
pushed over the last thirty years. The same goes for Janet Jackson, Britney
Spears, Rihanna, and any other era-defining pop star ever since the Beatles.
But that also doesn’t mean that we have to devalue the female pop singers who
are only interested in singing and dancing. They just tend to attract smaller
followings—of mostly gays—and rarely make any significant mainstream impact.
And if they do, it’s short-lived. (See also: <a href="https://livingonguiltypleasures.blogspot.com/2018/06/paula-abdul-was-almost-pop-princess-of.html">Paula Abdul</a>). <br />
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When we start calling someone like Kim Petras—who is one of many young female
pop singers looking to ironically mimic the styles of their elders such as Madonna,
Britney, and Kylie Minogue, without pushing any new boundaries—the “future of
pop,” merely because she’s trans and she makes good dance-pop, it feels naïve
and immature. Especially considering that Petras isn’t signed to a mainstream
label, has yet to score a mainstream hit, and that most of the press that
claims Petras as groundbreaking or the future of pop is written by gay men who,
as I can attest, are a little too biased in this area to be making sweeping
predictions that Kim Petras is the future of pop music without taking into
account some clear, undeniable facts.</span></span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Even Petras comes across as rather unprepared to fit into the shoes of someone
who many claim will change the music industry. As <a href="https://www.nme.com/reviews/album/kim-petras-clarity-review">one review</a> of her full-length
debut <i>Clarity </i>puts, her <a href="https://livingonguiltypleasures.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-conundrum-of-supporting-kim-petras.html">decision to work with Dr. Luke</a> should not be excused but also shouldn’t take away from her
own contributions to her music. At the same time, she has also not handled the
controversy in the best of ways. Last year, she <a href="https://www.nme.com/music-interviews/kim-petras-interview-2300441-2300441">initially stated</a> that she has
had nothing but positive experiences working with Dr. Luke, and that she wanted
her fans to know that she would never work with someone who she believes to be
an abuser of women. (So, Kesha is a liar then? That’s what we want to go with
in this groundbreaking era of Me Too and Time’s Up? Alright then.) Then, a few
months later, she <a href="https://www.them.us/story/kim-petras-dr-luke">sort of apologized</a> on Twitter for invalidating Kesha’s
claims, writing, “<span style="background: white;">While I’ve been open and
honest about my positive experience with Dr. Luke, that does not negate or
dismiss the experience of others or suggest that multiple experiences cannot
exist at once.” Whatever the case, a new female pop singer’s choice to work
with someone who multiple different artists have given testimonies against, in
our current era of political correctness and believing victims, feels
uninformed and ignorant. The fact that the pop music fandom continues to praise
Petras for being openly and authentically trans feels like it’s being cancelled
out by her choice to work with someone accused of abusing women, another
minority. Many Petras fans are quick to point out that her decision to work
with Dr. Luke shouldn’t matter, since he is still making money off of many of
our favorite pop tunes from the 2000s and early 2010s, and even Kesha’s
post-lawsuit album <i>Rainbow</i>. I also
don’t think boycotting Petras’ music is the solution either. The solution would
be to ask more of Petras as an artist and a public figure, to remind her that
her choices have often detrimental consequences and implications, and that
while being trans might not define who she is, it might work in her favor to
support all minorities, including women accusing powerful men of abuse.<br />
<br />
</span>Again, I’m not about to act like I don’t enjoy a number of auto-tuned
pop songs that celebrate dancing your troubles away. But I’m also not about to
pretend like I think these songs are going to change the music industry merely
because I think some of the songs are awesome, and the artist is trans. A lot
of other gay fans like to pretend that singers like Petras and Charli XCX have
<a href="https://twitter.com/itsluisnotloui1/status/1149786755824082949">amazing, flawless vocals</a>, when these two singers in particular enjoy making
copious use of auto-tune in their songs. Once again, there is not a single
ounce of judgment on pop singers like Petras for using auto-tune to create a
certain desired effect for a certain song, since listeners like me almost
always enjoy the results. But when you are using things auto-tune in your work
to channel the energy of an eighties song, or something by Madonna, Britney, or
Kylie, it leaves very little room to believe that you are interested in pushing
boundaries. Petras doesn’t have to push boundaries to be interesting, but in
order to “save pop music” in the way that most gay fans suggest, pushing
boundaries and creating your own sound that is not overly reminiscent of past
eras is, again, a necessity. <br />
<br />
Songs like “I Don’t Want It At All” or “Heart to Break” might have seen massive
success in terms of number of streams on Spotify, but they didn’t break the
barriers of other mainstream music charts outside of the streaming world. I
would be quicker to name someone like Ava Max as an artist who could
potentially “save pop music” in the way that these fans suggest, since she has already
achieved a worldwide number one hit with her song “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXBHCQYxwr0">Sweet But Psycho</a>”—something
with clear influences from the past, but with an open nod to the future. At
this moment in time, it feels as though Kim Petras isn’t equipped to become the
era-defining star her LGBTQ fanbase desperately craves. I don’t want to
undermine her role as a trans artist who has managed to be her authentic self
on record and in concert. But, in the context of our contemporary pop music
guidelines, she needs to give us more than some fun-loving, auto-tuned pop
songs, produced by a man who has been given a bad name by many of the same
2000s pop artists that Petras is trying to mimic. Mimicry is fun when you want
to sing and dance, but if you want to fulfill the title of future of pop,
you’re going to need a little more depth. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"> </span></span>Jeffrey Davieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10893528274829091844noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5629019666970713101.post-76830513369807551462019-06-26T19:34:00.000-07:002019-06-30T19:40:11.541-07:00Is Madonna Redefining What It Means to Age in Pop Music? (Album Review: 'Madame X')<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7rZ2xnWv7yxHHxVYmmqas5IYAeelFIYLDLterfpNscqrNVU5NoFqmKuf9tNMLf5jA6ZeArVH-1N5gR0S0W3DHzjsGSHGjKn0aZyoe275euzj_tTGpDXh7WgQ0epBbiNZfozbbdrSmIcwP/s1600/Madonna+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="421" data-original-width="636" height="262" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7rZ2xnWv7yxHHxVYmmqas5IYAeelFIYLDLterfpNscqrNVU5NoFqmKuf9tNMLf5jA6ZeArVH-1N5gR0S0W3DHzjsGSHGjKn0aZyoe275euzj_tTGpDXh7WgQ0epBbiNZfozbbdrSmIcwP/s400/Madonna+1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />A few weeks back, when Madonna released her latest studio effort, the sonically eclectic but highly experimental <em>Madame X</em>, diehard fans were of course along for the ride. The album is “<a data-mce-href="https://muumuse.com/2019/06/madonna-madame-x-album-review.html/" href="https://muumuse.com/2019/06/madonna-madame-x-album-review.html/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">a wild, political, romantic ride through world music</a>” wrote at least one critic and longtime diehard. <a data-mce-href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/jun/08/madonna-madame-x-review-splendidly-bizarre-return-to-form" href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/jun/08/madonna-madame-x-review-splendidly-bizarre-return-to-form" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><em>The Guardian </em></a>commended Madonna’s “solid confidence in her own aesthetic decisions,” among other generally <a data-mce-href="https://www.musicomh.com/reviews/albums/madonna-madame-x" href="https://www.musicomh.com/reviews/albums/madonna-madame-x" style="text-decoration-line: none;">positive reviews</a>. But a new Madonna album also meant the same age-old commentary surrounding just that—her age. Criticisms over Madonna still attempting to push boundaries into her sixties is nothing new. It’s been around since she was in <a data-mce-href="https://www.nytimes.com/1991/01/13/arts/pop-view-the-incredible-shrinking-career-of-a-pop-star.html" href="https://www.nytimes.com/1991/01/13/arts/pop-view-the-incredible-shrinking-career-of-a-pop-star.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">her thirties</a>, if not longer. But if we take a closer look at the current commentary surrounding Madonna—pretty much the only person worthy of the title Queen of Pop—it seems we’ve somehow let her down by allowing an era-defining, groundbreaking star who has contributed more to popular culture than anyone else in recent memory to become perceived as a has-been and even a desperate wannabe. Where did everything go wrong?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">As far as the current discourse goes, I suppose the recent perceptions of Madonna is not entirely surprising, given that the age of social media and staunch political correctness has ushered in another age of un-forgiveness, especially surrounding celebrities. Whether we like it or not, age defines a majority of the politics around pop music, and whether Madonna likes it or not, her age has come to define most of her current image—much to her disdain, and to that of her fans. She’s “</span><a data-mce-href="https://consent.yahoo.com/collectConsent?sessionId=1_cc-session_9739c26d-eb44-4fe3-8f03-d870e233455b&lang=en-gb&inline=false" href="https://consent.yahoo.com/collectConsent?sessionId=1_cc-session_9739c26d-eb44-4fe3-8f03-d870e233455b&lang=en-gb&inline=false" style="font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;">being punished</a><span style="font-family: inherit;">” for continuing to work, in her own words—something that other stars that once would have been considered her peers do not have to worry about. Elton John, Paul McCartney, Tina Turner, Cher, and even Shania Twain have since continued being successful past their so-called heydays as “nostalgia” acts, something that Madonna continues to be hell bent on avoiding. On one hand, it’s admirable of her to continue refusing to fit into one set format, one set genre, or one set image, no matter how old she is. But on the other, it’s not surprising that Madonna’s efforts at continuing to play what is called a “young person’s game” has managed to alienate her from both her original demographic, and the current youth-oriented audience that new and fresh pop music is largely marketed to. In a way, Madonna has gotten so good at not fitting into the format that she almost doesn’t fit in anywhere anymore—which, for a pop culture icon and the Queen of Pop, means we must have failed her somewhere along the way.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span style="text-align: start;">Madonna in the music video for "</span><a data-mce-href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAxNaLAR2to" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAxNaLAR2to" style="-webkit-user-drag: none; text-align: start; text-decoration-line: none;">Medellín</a><span style="text-align: start;">,"</span><span style="text-align: start;"> </span><em style="-webkit-user-drag: none; text-align: start;">Madame X</em><span style="text-align: start;">'s lead single (Photo: Vevo)</span></span></td></tr>
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<dd class="wp-caption-dd" style="-webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding-top: 0.5em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As much as we all wish we could justify our supposed inability in investing in Madonna anymore on things like she’s not interesting anymore, she’s boring, or she’s not doing anything we haven’t already seen before—all those things are untrue. It’s undeniable that anyone else, either on the current pop scene or a past one, has made an album as uniquely bizarre as <em>Madame X</em>. We can all say what we want, but there’s no denying that there are few other artists in history who have continued to create stunningly provocative visuals—just watch the music video for “<a data-mce-href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Uagw4zser8" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Uagw4zser8" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Dark Ballet</a>” if you don’t believe me—consistently throughout their career without ever faltering. But some listeners just can’t seem to invest in Madonna the same way anymore, no matter what she does—and Madonna has taken notice. Unlike other era-defining icons who all came to accept that they didn’t have anything to prove anymore, the Queen of Pop now thinks of herself as an underdog again—a narrative and image that only alienates her further. Maybe Madonna could have managed to usurp ageist expectations and commentary by her talent and ability to push boundaries and someday achieve a new hit single on the <em>Billboard </em>Hot 100, but she has instead decided not only to play the underdog card, but to <a data-mce-href="https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/lady-gaga-madonna-end-feud_n_5c740089e4b03cfdaa5847a1" href="https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/lady-gaga-madonna-end-feud_n_5c740089e4b03cfdaa5847a1" style="text-decoration-line: none;">pointlessly feud with Lady Gaga</a> and chase new trends that don’t always fit her. As if ageism wasn’t enough, Madonna has managed to make her instincts come across as not as “on point” as they once were—which can only be expected when you’re trying your damnedest, no matter how old you are, to play a “young person’s game,” a.k.a. pop music, when you’re not young anymore.</span></dd><dd class="wp-caption-dd" style="-webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding-top: 0.5em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></dd><dd class="wp-caption-dd" style="-webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding-top: 0.5em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The trouble regarding Madonna’s role in youth culture really only began within the last decade, given that her final two studio albums with Warner Bros.,</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><em style="font-family: inherit;">Confessions on a Dancefloor </em><span style="font-family: inherit;">(2005) and</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><em style="font-family: inherit;">Hard Candy </em><span style="font-family: inherit;">(2008), still generated genuine commercial success with singles that received mainstream airplay and attention. It was only once she returned with</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><em style="font-family: inherit;">MDNA </em><span style="font-family: inherit;">in 2012, an EDM-focused album and her first release under a three-album deal with Interscope Records, did she begin receiving polarizing reviews that said she was “</span><a data-mce-href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/cdreviews/9161041/Madonna-MDNA-CD-review.html" href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/cdreviews/9161041/Madonna-MDNA-CD-review.html" style="font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;">horribly clichéd</a><span style="font-family: inherit;">” and trying too hard to sound like a teenager—and her newfound collaborations with Nicki Minaj did not help her case.</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><em style="font-family: inherit;">Rebel Heart </em><span style="font-family: inherit;">(2015), while lyrically and vocally stronger than</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><em style="font-family: inherit;">MDNA</em><span style="font-family: inherit;">, also spent an outrageous amount of time trying to establish her in the new era of 2010s pop—one where Madonna assumed that kids listening to music on their iPhones wouldn’t have heard of her. The end result was tracks like “</span><a data-mce-href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hPMmzKs62w" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hPMmzKs62w" style="font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;">Bitch I’m Madonna</a><span style="font-family: inherit;">,” another collaboration with Minaj that made Madonna sound like she cared more about her ego than trying to relate to a new generation of youth-oriented music. She came across as leeching off the influence of people like Nicki Minaj or Ariana Grande in order to brag about herself, and suddenly Madonna appeared to become more self-referential and more self-obsessed than ever before—in a way that came across more as narcissism than empowerment. On</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><em style="font-family: inherit;">Madame X</em><span style="font-family: inherit;">, she wants us to believe she is a victim and a survivor who has overcome torture, and despite her still-provocative visuals, their religious imagery appears to be an ode to the “</span><a data-mce-href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79fzeNUqQbQ" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79fzeNUqQbQ" style="font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;">Like a Prayer</a><span style="font-family: inherit;">” days. Madonna wants to project stamina and resilience—which she does—but her</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><a data-mce-href="https://www.spin.com/2015/01/madonna-instagram-martin-luther-king-jr-nelson-mandela-rebel-heart/" href="https://www.spin.com/2015/01/madonna-instagram-martin-luther-king-jr-nelson-mandela-rebel-heart/" style="font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;">white privilege and occasional cultural appropriation</a><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">leads to ego-driven vulnerability emerging between the lines.</span></dd><dd class="wp-caption-dd" style="-webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding-top: 0.5em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></dd></dl>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" class="wp-image-6213 size-full" data-mce-src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Madonna-4.jpg" src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Madonna-4.jpg" height="750" style="-webkit-user-drag: none; display: block; height: auto; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 100%;" width="1000" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span style="text-align: start;">From the music video for "</span><a data-mce-href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpBEtsrwng4" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpBEtsrwng4" style="-webkit-user-drag: none; text-align: start; text-decoration-line: none;">Crave</a><span style="text-align: start;">," featuring Swae Lee (Photo: Interscope)</span></span></td></tr>
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<dd class="wp-caption-dd" style="-webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding-top: 0.5em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I can only imagine how difficult it must be for a global icon who, even now, has managed to generate cross-generational popularity and success, especially in the ever-changing confines of popular culture, to accept that she no longer holds the proverbial keys to the castle. Especially in the digital age, trendsetters come and go remarkably fast. What’s cool today might no longer be cool by tomorrow morning. But still, there’s no one as ruthless as Madonna to have lasted this long, continuing to push boundaries that nobody even knew were there. If anything, Madonna has come to prove that her biggest strengths are in fact persistence and resilience. She became our punching bag because no one else had the persistence or resilience to be. Most of her original peers eventually decided to grow up (Cyndi Lauper, Duran Duran, or Pat Benatar), faded away altogether (Belinda Carlisle or Sheena Easton), or have since died (Michael Jackson, George Michael, Prince, or Whitney Houston). Even Cher, who has managed to retain relevancy in a new era of <em>RuPaul’s Drag Race </em>fanatics, appears to have made peace with her diminished role in youth culture, given her nostalgically campy album of ABBA covers from last year. “There are no living role models for me,” Madonna told <a data-mce-href="https://www.vogue.co.uk/article/madonna-on-ageing-and-motherhood" href="https://www.vogue.co.uk/article/madonna-on-ageing-and-motherhood" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><em>British Vogue </em></a>earlier this year. “Because nobody does what I do. And that’s kind of scary.” Her only living equal would probably be that of Janet Jackson, whose own career suffered a decline for the better part of the 2000s following the infamous <a data-mce-href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uef3cBCNpKw" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uef3cBCNpKw" style="text-decoration-line: none;">nip-slip</a>, and the puritanical reactions and banishments that followed. But even she managed to get a single on the Hot 100 last year, and both Mariah Carey and Jennifer Lopez—both nearing fifty and who both don’t take nearly as much heat as Madonna does—are still viewed as hard-working and successful. Could Madonna be redefining what it means to age in pop music? Maybe, but that remains to be seen. And even if she was, Madonna probably wouldn’t get the credit for that, either.</span></dd><dd class="wp-caption-dd" style="-webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding-top: 0.5em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></dd><dd class="wp-caption-dd" style="-webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding-top: 0.5em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In the last decade, Madonna has, on more than one occasion, made it difficult to be a fan of hers. Being a fan also means having to defend her</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><a data-mce-href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/madonna-apologizes-for-racial-slur-on-instagram-66602/" href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/madonna-apologizes-for-racial-slur-on-instagram-66602/" style="font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;">questionable decisions or comments</a><span style="font-family: inherit;">, and sometimes those things are merely beyond defense. But as hard as she makes it, the fact that she’s still around and still managing to push whatever boundaries she can find by producing an album as experimental and strange as</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><em style="font-family: inherit;">Madame X </em><span style="font-family: inherit;">just goes to show that she clearly does possess stamina, persistence, and resilience. Where she continues to fall short is wanting to have it both ways: she wants to be the Queen of Pop and hailed as such, but she also wants to be the scrappy underdog whom youth culture will embrace, and that is only pushing her further away from a narrative of relatability. If anything, all the time spent talking about how Madonna is still going at sixty means we haven’t stopped long enough to realize how interesting she still is. Personally,</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><em style="font-family: inherit;">Madame X </em><span style="font-family: inherit;">doesn’t work for me. It’s a bit too bizarre and sonically messy for me to invest in it, but even with the ego-driven, self-referential lyrics and imagery, I can appreciate that Madonna is still going the extra mile all these years later. I believe that she would still be going the extra mile even if she wasn’t working overtime to keep herself relevant. Where we have truly failed Madonna is that we continue to spend too much time doubting her talent and abilities as she’s gotten older, because if we were to remove the ageism and pop music politics, I think we would all have a bit more of a window into the interesting and groundbreaking artist she still is.</span></dd></dl>
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Jeffrey Davieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10893528274829091844noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5629019666970713101.post-9575881941422005382019-06-19T11:54:00.000-07:002019-06-28T18:41:20.615-07:00Summer Reading Guide: 2019 Edition<div style="padding-bottom: 1em;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB7WTNxj-Glxu887ItPDp08LoXRpSkn8A1d0DSIwDGd49QOzHXIgxhAyhyphenhyphen1cyGAv7oY2SzJD2Kmlu1jQCXRMTdMGKQCEVIAmVbXPwnxOWI15A0YT2qOeMdI2QaxEx5Yv5xpdHlqTX_FDm-/s1600/Summer+Reading+Guide+2019.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1461" data-original-width="1600" height="365" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB7WTNxj-Glxu887ItPDp08LoXRpSkn8A1d0DSIwDGd49QOzHXIgxhAyhyphenhyphen1cyGAv7oY2SzJD2Kmlu1jQCXRMTdMGKQCEVIAmVbXPwnxOWI15A0YT2qOeMdI2QaxEx5Yv5xpdHlqTX_FDm-/s400/Summer+Reading+Guide+2019.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />When the warm weather of summer arrives, it often brings vacation time, and vacation time often brings extra time to catch up on your reading! But it can be unnecessarily difficult to decide what you are in the mood to read, especially when you don’t want to waste your lovely extra reading time trying to decide, or forcing yourself to read something that you are not enjoying. In hopes of remedying the difficult decision of choosing the right books to read this summer, this is my guide to picking the right titles for the right mood.</span></div>
<h3 style="font-weight: 500; line-height: 1em; padding-bottom: 10px;">
<strong><span style="font-family: inherit;">If you are in the mood for something funny and relatable...</span></strong></h3>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong><em>I Miss You When I Blink </em>by Mary Laura Philpott<br /><img alt="" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-6172" data-mce-src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/I-Miss-You-When-I-Blink-196x300.jpg" src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/I-Miss-You-When-I-Blink-196x300.jpg" height="300" style="height: auto; max-width: 100%;" width="196" /></strong><br />Published earlier this spring, Mary Laura Philpott’s heartwarming book of essays covers everything from anxiety, becoming an adult, existential angst, the ups and downs of married life, and the realization that sometimes following all of the rules laid out in your head gets you to the exact opposite of where you want to be.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong><a href="https://livingonguiltypleasures.blogspot.com/2019/03/book-review-nobody-cares-by-anne-t.html"><em>Nobody Cares </em>by Anne T. Donahue</a><br /><img alt="" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-6173" data-mce-src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Nobody-Cares-194x300.jpg" src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Nobody-Cares-194x300.jpg" height="300" style="height: auto; max-width: 100%;" width="194" /></strong><br />A candid, funny, real, and relevant collection of essays about the messiness of being alive in your twenties and thirties: school, jobs, mental health, productivity, and failure, to name only a few topics. These essays are a salute to the “beautiful disasters” we can all be at times. Anne T. Donahue is the voice inside your head, if that voice was incredibly witty, funny, and profound (a.k.a. the inner voice we should all aspire to have). The title of the book is a great reminder of something that we all often forget: nobody really cares what we are doing, whether we look good or bad, whether we go to this party or that, which can be a really freeing realization—especially when you’ve spent most of your life trying to convince people that you are a capable and functioning human being. Above all, <em>Nobody Cares </em>feels like a warm hug from someone who’s been there and is here to tell you it’s going to be fine.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong><a href="https://livingonguiltypleasures.blogspot.com/2018/03/book-review-we-are-never-meeting-in.html"><em>We Are Never Meeting in Real Life </em>by Samantha Irby</a><br /><img alt="" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-6174" data-mce-src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/We-Are-Never-Meeting-in-Real-Life-195x300.jpg" src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/We-Are-Never-Meeting-in-Real-Life-195x300.jpg" height="300" style="height: auto; max-width: 100%;" width="195" /></strong><br />The perfect read for introverts who are just so damn tired of defending themselves from being called anti-social, Samantha Irby’s <em>We Are Never Meeting in Real Life </em>is an expression of thoughts and feelings most of us introverts have said in our heads from time to time, but rarely out loud. Irby covers everything from her rough upbringing, to dating and relationships, to her general dislike of the general population (relatable) and, to quote the back cover, “sometimes you just have to laugh, even when your life is a dumpster fire” (agreed).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong><em>I Know What I’m Doing, and Other Lies I Tell Myself </em>by Jen Kirkman<br /><img alt="" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-6177" data-mce-src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Jen-Kirkman-300x300.jpg" src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Jen-Kirkman-300x300.jpg" height="300" style="height: auto; max-width: 100%;" width="300" /></strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">A hilarious, gratifying, and relevant reading experience for anyone who ever feels like they’re the biggest mess on the planet and have to pretend they have anything figured out (so, basically, everyone). Kirkman tackles, through her own stories, the ridiculousness that society forces upon us sometimes, and how sometimes we have to learn how to flip the bird to those things and try to figure out our own lives as best we can.</span></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: inherit;">If you are in the mood for historical fiction...</span></strong></h3>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong><a href="https://livingonguiltypleasures.blogspot.com/2019/05/book-review-finding-dorothy-by.html"><em>Finding Dorothy </em>by Elizabeth Letts</a><br /><img alt="" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-6178" data-mce-src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Finding-Dorothy-196x300.jpg" src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Finding-Dorothy-196x300.jpg" height="300" style="height: auto; max-width: 100%;" width="196" /></strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><em>Finding Dorothy </em>is a historical novel that fictionalizes the true history behind the inspiration for <em>The Wonderful Wizard of Oz </em>books, as told by the author’s wife, Maud Baum. The story follows Maud throughout two different time periods; her youth and young adulthood when she meets and marries L. Frank Baum in the mid to late 1800s, and the production of <em>The Wizard of Oz </em>film adaption by MGM over the course of 1938 to 1939. After hearing about the film adaption of her late husband’s beloved story, Maud decides to work her way into MGM in hopes that she will be able to see the script and recommend any necessary changes, especially surrounding the character of Dorothy. Her eye is also soon caught by a young Judy Garland, whose safety she fears for on the MGM lot given her outstanding talent but very young age. Maud’s instinct to protect young Judy is driven by another young girl she knew who also didn’t get a happy ending; a young girl we learn about throughout the novel. <em>Finding Dorothy </em>is very entertaining for anyone who has grown up either watching <em>The Wizard of Oz </em>(one of the most seen films in history), or also reading the books on which the film was based.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong><em>The Broken Girls </em>by Simone St. James<br /><img alt="" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-6179" data-mce-src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Broken-Girls-198x300.jpg" src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Broken-Girls-198x300.jpg" height="300" style="height: auto; max-width: 100%;" width="198" /></strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><em>The Broken Girls </em>is a historical mystery, and it’s very well done. The book takes place within the past and the present: Vermont, 1950 and Vermont, 2014. In the small town of Barrons, Vermont in 1950, there is an infamous boarding school for the girls that no one wants; the troublemakers, the illegitimate, the too smart for their own good. It’s called Idlewild Hall. And there are rumors that the boarding school is haunted. Four roommates bond over their whispered fears, their budding friendship blossoming—until one of them mysteriously disappears. In Barrons in 2014, journalist Fiona Sheridan cannot stop revisiting the events surrounding her older sister’s death. Twenty years ago, her body was found lying in the overgrown fields near the ruins of Idlewild Hall. And though her sister’s boyfriend was tried and convicted of murder, Fiona can’t shake the suspicion that something was never right about the case. When Fiona discovers that Idlewild Hall is being restored by an anonymous benefactor, she decides to write a story about it. But a shocking discovery during the renovations will link the loss of her sister to secrets that were meant to stay hidden in the past—and a voice that won’t be silenced.</span></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: inherit;">If you are in the mood for reading about pop culture...</span></strong></h3>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong><a href="https://livingonguiltypleasures.blogspot.com/2018/08/book-review-trainwreck-women-we-love-to.html"><em>Trainwreck: The Women We Love to Hate, Mock, and Fear…and Why </em>by Sady Doyle</a><br /><img alt="" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-6180" data-mce-src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Trainwreck-200x300.jpg" src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Trainwreck-200x300.jpg" height="300" style="height: auto; max-width: 100%;" width="200" /></strong><br /><em>Trainwreck </em>takes a look at how our society and culture spends an outrageous amount of time calling women “crazy” or “unhinged” just for expressing human emotions, even at the expense of their own popularity or, worse, their careers. The author creates a compelling feminist argument throughout the entire book that stands up no matter where she draws your attention: famous men can be violent alcoholics, abuse their loved ones, or suffer from multitudes of mental illness and the impact of their work can still draws more focus than their personal life, but women who experience even the slightest of personal struggles are publicly remembered better for being a trainwreck than for being a gifted singer, actress, artist, etc. Thus, the double standard. Sady Doyle also does an excellent job of literally proving that the trainwreck phenomenon has been around for as long as women have existed, and traces and relates historical female figures like Mary Wollstonecraft, Charlotte Bronte, and Billie Holiday to “problematic” female stars better known in our contemporary conscious, such as Britney Spears, Amy Winehouse, Whitney Houston, Paris Hilton, and Miley Cyrus. Doyle also shows that, for as long as women have existed, they have been pushing the boundaries of what it means to behave, and it’s amusing that quite literally nothing has changed in our current popular culture.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong><em>I’ll Be There For You: The One About Friends </em>by Kelsey Miller<br /><img alt="" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-6181" data-mce-src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Kelsey-Miller-199x300.jpg" src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Kelsey-Miller-199x300.jpg" height="300" style="height: auto; max-width: 100%;" width="199" /></strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">For anyone who has seen <em>Friends </em>backwards and forwards six thousand times, can recite every episode, and has come to wonder why the beloved series is still so popular 25 years later, Kelsey Miller’s <em>I’ll Be There For You </em>takes a look at how <em>Friends </em><a href="https://livingonguiltypleasures.blogspot.com/2019/02/always-there-for-you-why-friends-is_14.html">has managed to transcend age, nationality, cultural barriers, and even its own dated flaws</a>. It’s an insightful and entertaining look back at one of the most successful television shows in history that is sure to delight any and all pop culture enthusiasts.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong><em>90s Bitch: Media, Culture, and the Failed Promise of Gender Equality </em>by Allison Yarrow<br /><img alt="" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-6182" data-mce-src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/90s-Bitch-199x300.jpg" src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/90s-Bitch-199x300.jpg" height="300" style="height: auto; max-width: 100%;" width="199" /></strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Allison Yarrow’s <em>90s Bitch </em>ponders the question of how we got to where we are today in our media and culture, and in order to answer that question, she says we have to rewind the VHS tape. <em>90s Bitch </em>takes a look back at the 1990s in all its glory: the rise of third-wave feminism and what that seemed to mean for girls and women, the mixed messages sent about female empowerment by media and culture in the ‘90s, as well as insightful recounts of infamous American political scandals that marked the decade (Monica Lewinsky, she says, was demonized mostly because she was an adult woman who had sex and liked it). Yarrow also looks back at the stories of the decade’s unruly female trainwrecks, such as Tonya Harding, Roseanne Barr, and Princess Diana, and traces the media’s treatment of them to where we ended up today in media and culture. That and so much more are explored in <em>90s Bitch</em>, an eye-opening read to anyone who grew up in the ‘90s and lived to tell the tale.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong><em>Ladies Who Punch: The Explosive Inside Story of The View </em>by Ramin Setoodeh<br /><img alt="" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-6183" data-mce-src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Ladies-Who-Punch-198x300.jpg" src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Ladies-Who-Punch-198x300.jpg" height="300" style="height: auto; max-width: 100%;" width="198" /></strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Ramin Setoodeh, journalist and a senior editor at <em>Vulture</em>, decided to take an insightful and juicy look back at the history and impact of the daytime talk show that singlehandedly redefined how media and culture came to view both the talk show and daytime TV: <em>The View</em>. Spending 3 years conducting interviews with former and current co-hosts, producers, directors, and everyone in between, Setoodeh shines a spotlight on an important history of an important television show with details scarcely found elsewhere, making it a must-read for all pop culture enthusiasts and anyone who has ever found themselves enchanted by a heated discussion on <em>The View </em>over the years. But don’t be fooled—<em>Ladies Who Punch </em>might be marketed as and sound like a juicy tell-all, and on some level it is, but it’s also a very well written and very well researched account of a pop cultural touchstone.</span></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: inherit;">If you are in the mood for an insightful, heartwarming memoir...</span></strong></h3>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong><a href="https://livingonguiltypleasures.blogspot.com/2018/10/book-review-in-pieces-by-sally-field.html"><em>In Pieces </em>by Sally Field</a><br /><img alt="" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-6184" data-mce-src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Sally-Field-197x300.jpg" src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Sally-Field-197x300.jpg" height="300" style="height: auto; max-width: 100%;" width="197" /></strong><br /><em>In Pieces </em>is the powerful new memoir by the one and only Sally Field, who chronicles her life from her tumultuous upbringing, to the early days of her acting career, to the breakthroughs that would define her as the icon and powerhouse we know and love today. I loved Sally Field before I read her book, but now my love has turned to admiration, as she is a true inspiration in every sense of the word. <em>In Pieces </em>is also an emotional journey of healing wounds from long ago, especially in regard to Field’s relationship with her mother and her sister. The book doesn’t ever lose sight of the fact that it’s not only about Field’s career or her life as an actress; it’s about her life and all that has encompassed it. The end result is incredibly moving and powerful, and I recommend to any fan large or small of the beloved actress and icon.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong><em>Wildflower </em>by Drew Barrymore<br /><img alt="" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-6185" data-mce-src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Wildflower-199x300.jpg" src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Wildflower-199x300.jpg" height="300" style="height: auto; max-width: 100%;" width="199" /></strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><em>Wildflower </em>is one of my favorite celebrity memoirs. I’ve read it twice because I love it so much. It contains several stories written by actress Drew Barrymore, with topics ranging from her rough upbringing, to being on her own after being emancipated at 14, to skydiving with Cameron Diaz. It was one of those memoirs where you just want to keep reading and reading because the stories are so interesting, so enveloping, and yet written so casually that you’d think Barrymore is an old friend she’s catching you up over a cup of coffee on a breezy summer afternoon. I also really admire the mature stance that Barrymore takes in <em>Wildflower </em>regarding her unconventional upbringing and infamous personal struggles as a teenager and young adult, merely explaining that she didn’t have a normal family nor normal role models and had to figure out who she was on her own with no clear image of how to do that.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong><em>Sorry Not Sorry: Dreams, Mistakes, and Growing Up </em>by Naya Rivera<br /><img alt="" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-6186" data-mce-src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Naya-Rivera-203x300.jpg" src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Naya-Rivera-203x300.jpg" height="300" style="height: auto; max-width: 100%;" width="203" /></strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">An honest and fun-loving memoir by Naya Rivera, best known for her role as Santana Lopez on <em>Glee</em>. She takes us through her youth as a struggling child actress, insecure teenager, misadventures as a young woman, and some intriguing behind-the-scenes stories from her <em>Glee </em>days. It’s also a coming-of-age story about a young woman being honest with herself and her readers on some of the mistakes she’s made, because growing up is messy. It’s a great read for anyone who loved <em>Glee</em>, but also for anyone who has struggled to find their footing as an adult.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong><em>Where Am I Now?: True Stories of Girlhood and Accidental Fame </em>by Mara Wilson<br /><img alt="" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-6187" data-mce-src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Mara-Wilson-199x300.jpg" src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Mara-Wilson-199x300.jpg" height="300" style="height: auto; max-width: 100%;" width="199" /></strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">A memoir in essays written by the former child actress whom ‘90s kids will best remember from <em>Mrs. Doubtfire</em>, <em>Miracle on 34th Street</em>, and <em>Matilda</em>, Mara Wilson takes readers on a journey into her life while she was in the spotlight, and what she’s been up to since her decision to retire from acting as a preteen. But <em>Where Am I Now? </em>is more than that; it’s a story of a young girl who always felt out of place as a child on a movie set full of adults, the realities faced by most child stars when they aren’t cute anymore, and a lifetime spent not feeling worthy of being compared to everyone’s favorite fictional genius girl. It’s a raw and eye-opening look at not only life beyond Hollywood, but a human being trying to finally feel like enough.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong><em>A Lotus Grows in the Mud </em>by Goldie Hawn<br /><img alt="" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-6188" data-mce-src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Goldie-Hawn-200x300.jpg" src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Goldie-Hawn-200x300.jpg" height="300" style="height: auto; max-width: 100%;" width="200" /></strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Whenever I go through iffy periods with anxiety I look to memoirs because I find it’s like someone telling you a series of stories, which I find helpfully distracting. In <em>A Lotus Grows in the Mud</em>, Goldie Hawn tells all different kinds of stories from all the different times in her career, from landing <em>Private Benjamin </em>to getting lost on a road trip to Las Vegas in the mid ‘60s with only her dog until a solider on leave helped her and she never saw him again. Hawn also brings up how, in the ‘70s, some called her a star who gave liberated women a bad name, because she was blonde and bubbly and, of course, got typecast as such. She sets the record straight and says even if all she ever wanted to be was a wife and mother growing up, all she ever wanted was to be happy, regardless of what became of her life, and I really enjoy that message. Hawn also interlaces her chapters with these cute little musings of stories or other writings she calls “Postcards,” which is refreshing.</span></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: inherit;">If you are in the mood to read the book and then see the movie...</span></strong></h3>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong><a href="https://livingonguiltypleasures.blogspot.com/2018/06/book-review-room-by-emma-donoghue.html"><em>Room </em>by Emma Donoghue</a><br /><img alt="" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-6189" data-mce-src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Room-195x300.jpg" src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Room-195x300.jpg" height="300" style="height: auto; max-width: 100%;" width="195" /></strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I avoided <em>Room </em>for so long because I just didn’t think I could handle reading something fictional that has been in the news several times over the last decade, but it ended up turning into one of my all-time favorites. <em>Room </em>is told through the perspective of 5-year-old Jack, whose entire world is a space called Room, where he lives with Ma. Ma, unwilling to disappoint Jack with a life she cannot give him, allows Jack to believe that the rest of the world exists only on television. The only other person Jack has ever seen is “Old Nick,” who visits Room at night while Jack sleeps hidden in a wardrobe. Old Nick brings them food and necessities. Jack is unaware that Old Nick kidnapped Ma when she was 19 years old and has kept her imprisoned for the past seven years. Old Nick regularly rapes Ma; Jack is the product of one such sexual assault. At the beginning of the book, Jack has turned five, and Ma soon learns that Old Nick has become unemployed and is danger of losing his home to foreclosure. Fearing for their lives, Ma decides that Jack is old enough to learn the truth, and explains that everything on television is in fact real and exists outside Room, as well as the fact that Old Nick kidnapped her and he now needs to help them escape. The film adaption, starring Brie Larson and Jacob Tremblay, is not one of those movies where you won’t understand its full effect if you haven’t read the book (but you should obviously still read the book). The story was built for the screen in a really illuminating way, and is actually a rare case of the movie filling in some blanks and question marks from the book: after all, the book is narrated entirely from the perspective of a 5-year-old boy who has never left a space called Room. While it does offer a new and unique perspective that serves the story better than if Ma had narrated, I was still intrigued to know how an adult would perceive Room as opposed to a child who has only ever known this space as his entire world. It only reminds how absolutely heartbreaking the story is, but somehow heartbreaking in a good way. Love is truly all we need.<br /><em><br /><strong>Riding in Cars With Boys: Confessions of a Bad Girl Who Makes Good </strong></em><strong>by Beverly Donofrio<br /><img alt="" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-6190" data-mce-src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Riding-in-Cars-With-Boys-198x300.jpg" src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Riding-in-Cars-With-Boys-198x300.jpg" height="300" style="height: auto; max-width: 100%;" width="198" /></strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><em>Riding in Cars with Boys </em>is the 1992 memoir by Beverly Donofrio, chronicling her life after she became pregnant as a teenager in the early ‘60s—she married the father out of social obligation, experienced a messy marriage, and refused to let anything get in the way of her dreams of becoming a writer. The book was adapted into a film in 2001, starring Drew Barrymore and Steve Zahn. Both the movie and the book are good, but the book offers much more insight and a much more realistic account of the events. It just goes to show that not all problems are solved by getting married and playing house, that sometimes children do better with only one parent, and that you are never too old to become who you want to be.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong><a href="https://livingonguiltypleasures.blogspot.com/2018/08/book-review-boy-erased-by-garrard-conley.html"><em>Boy Erased </em>by Garrard Conley</a><br /><img alt="" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-6191" data-mce-src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Boy-Erased-200x300.jpg" src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Boy-Erased-200x300.jpg" height="300" style="height: auto; max-width: 100%;" width="200" /></strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><em>Boy Erased </em>is Garrard Conley’s deeply compassionate yet deeply disturbing memoir of dealing with his homosexuality in an ultra-religious and Christian fundamentalist town and family in Arkansas, right in the middle of the Bible Belt. He writes about how, after he was outed to his parents in college, he was given the choice of either attending mandatory ex-gay conversion therapy, or lose emotional and financial support from his family. He also writes about and examines his father, a Baptist pastor, and disappointing his family and church as a whole. Though he tells his story in a consistent personal narrative style, Conley also indirectly addresses the intolerant and repressive environments that countless LGBTQ youth have had to endure, specifically those raised in the deeply religious and socially conservative American South. A film adaption, starring Lucas Hedges, Nicole Kidman, Russell Crowe, and Troye Sivan, came out in 2018 and captures the disturbing but important essence of the story—shining a light on these extremely harmful programs that too many young people have been put through, all in the name of homophobia masked by religion and called love.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong><em>Where’d You Go, Bernadette </em>by Maria Semple<br /><img alt="" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-6192" data-mce-src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Bernadette-194x300.jpg" src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Bernadette-194x300.jpg" height="300" style="height: auto; max-width: 100%;" width="194" /></strong><br />Bernadette Fox has vanished. When her daughter Bee claims a family trip to Antarctica as a reward for perfect grades, Bernadette, a fiercely intelligent shut-in, throws herself into preparations for the trip. But worn down by years of trying to live the Seattle life she never wanted, Bernadette is on the brink of a meltdown. And after a school fundraiser goes disastrously awry at her hands, she disappears, leaving her family to pick up the pieces—which is exactly what Bee does, weaving together an elaborate web of emails, invoices, and school memos that reveals a secret past Bernadette has been hiding for decades. <em>Where’d You Go Bernadette</em> is an ingenious and unabashedly entertaining novel about a family coming to terms with who they are and the power of a daughter’s love for her mother. A film adaption starring Cate Blanchett is due out in theatres this summer, so now would be the time to check out the book!</span></div>
Jeffrey Davieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10893528274829091844noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5629019666970713101.post-85608628624994391742019-06-12T11:34:00.002-07:002019-10-08T13:47:34.138-07:0050 Years Later, Why Judy Garland and the Stonewall Riots Still Matter<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />This June marks 50 years, an entire half-century, since the death of beloved performer and icon Judy Garland. It also marks 50 years since the Stonewall riots—an uprising that occurred at the Stonewall Inn in Lower Manhattan, then an infamous underground gay bar, where a seemingly normal police raid occurred in the early hours of June 28, 1969. Since homosexuality was still illegal as well as considered deviant social behavior and a recognized mental illness at that time, police raids of known gay bars were routine and brutal. But this time was different; the patrons didn’t go quietly. In fact, they fought back, and they fought back hard—so hard that the night in question is now considered to have singlehandedly jumpstarted the modern gay rights movement that have brought us our contemporary battles for LGBTQ equality. The link between Judy Garland and the Stonewall riots may not seem clear to all readers, but it’s an important and controversial one—and a link that remains relevant and still matters today.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Although Judy Garland is best remembered for roles in a variety of MGM musicals throughout the 1930s and 1940s, most of her lifelong personal struggles began with the film studio. Even though Judy was always of a healthy weight, MGM always insisted she was too fat to be a star and her appearance and image was constantly manipulated by film executives, which significantly impacted her self-esteem (studio boss Louis B. Mayer infamously referred to her as his “little hunchback”). Diet pills, combined with amphetamines that the studio forced many of their young actors to take to fulfill nearly impossible work demands, is believed to have severely contributed to Garland’s lifelong struggle with drug addiction. In addition to being completely reliant on prescription medication, Garland was plagued by self-doubt into her adulthood, and despite groundbreaking professional success, she needed constant reassurance that she was talented and attractive—all of which is generally thought to have been caused by her early days at MGM.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Although Garland saw further professional success in her later years, including an Academy Award-nominated performance in the Warner Bros. remake of</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><em style="font-family: inherit;">A Star is Born </em><span style="font-family: inherit;">in 1954, record-breaking concert appearances, a successful run as a recording artist with Capitol Records, her own Emmy-nominated television variety show, and sporadic film appearances for the remainder of her career—it’s arguable that her dismissal from MGM in 1950 left her career tainted for the remainder of her life. Patriarchal interpretations of her unreliability and erratic behavior combined with her own lack of control with alcohol and substance abuse made it practically impossible for her to replicate the success she saw with MGM as a child and young adult, despite the fact that she always had numerous celebrity friends and supporters to come to her defense. Her struggles with drugs and alcohol let alone a list of failed marriages became legendary, paving the road for her multiple momentous comebacks. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">From the time she was a bankable star in countless MGM musicals, Garland had resonated with gay men. Her campy performances and musical numbers laid the groundwork, but it would be her personal and professional struggles that knocked her down more times than anyone could count that would make her a bonafide gay icon—and the fact that she kept standing back up after being knocked down resonated profoundly with an LGBT community which had no fundamental rights, were considered mentally ill, and driven underground. In the years before being openly gay was even remotely available, Judy Garland was already an icon and a symbol of strength and resilience for the gay community. She even inspired the term “Friend of Dorothy”—gay slang that dates back to World War II as a way for closeted homosexual men to identify each other without openly discussing sexual orientation. The term refers to Judy’s most iconic performance as Dorothy in</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><em style="font-family: inherit;">The Wizard of Oz </em><span style="font-family: inherit;">(1939), a character who has been critically and socially interpreted as being warmly accepting of those who are different.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Judy Garland as Dorothy in <i>The Wizard of Oz </i>(1939). The character became the inspiration for the gay slang "Friend of Dorothy," a term dating back to World War II as a way for gay men to secretly identify themselves. (Photo: MGM)<span style="font-size: small; text-align: start;"> </span></td></tr>
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<dd class="wp-caption-dd" style="-webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding-top: 0.5em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Judy Garland was hardly the first ever gay icon—Marlene Dietrich had already summoned her own queer icon status in the 1930s for her androgynous costumes—but her popularity and appeal to alternative communities managed to impact mainstream popular culture in a way that Judy’s predecessors had not. The first time Garland was referred to as a gay icon in mainstream media was in</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><a data-mce-href="http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,840977,00.html" href="http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,840977,00.html" style="font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;"><em>Time </em></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">magazine in 1967, which reviewed her concert series at the Palace Theatre in New York City that year. They noted that a “disproportionate part of her nightly claque seems to be homosexual” and that “[t]he boys in the tight trousers” would “roll their eyes, tear at their hair and practically levitate from their seats” during Garland’s performances. In a nutshell, Judy’s appeal with gay audiences boils down to her being a tragic figure, which not only resonates with gay men but they identify with it, too. </span></dd><dd class="wp-caption-dd" style="-webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding-top: 0.5em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></dd><dd class="wp-caption-dd" style="-webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding-top: 0.5em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Homosexuals tend to identify with suffering,” wrote novelist William Goldman in an</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><em style="font-family: inherit;">Esquire </em><span style="font-family: inherit;">article also from 1967. “They are a persecuted group and they understand suffering. And so does Garland. She’s been through the fire and lived – all the drinking and divorcing, all the pills and all the men, all the poundage come and gone – brothers and sisters, </span><em style="font-family: inherit;">she knows</em><span style="font-family: inherit;">.” He also suggests that if gay men have one enemy, it’s growing older, and Judy Garland represents “youth, perennially, over the rainbow.” Garland enthusiast and superfan Scott Brogan, who has run the popular fan site</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><a data-mce-href="http://thejudyroom.com" href="http://thejudyroom.com/" style="font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;"><em>The Judy Room </em></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">since 1999, maintains that it was not only her value as a tragic figure whom gay fans could relate to but many are also captured by her enormous talent and performance ability. “Her highs were really high, and her lows were really low, and yes, she did have a tragic life in certain respects, but it comes back to her voice and her performances,” he</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><a data-mce-href="https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/judy-garland-gay-fans_n_5b30edb3e4b0321a01d3a9d7" href="https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/judy-garland-gay-fans_n_5b30edb3e4b0321a01d3a9d7" style="font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;">said</a><span style="font-family: inherit;">. </span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background: white; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“To call Judy Garland an
icon of the gay community is a massive understatement,” says Tina Gianoulis in <i>The
Queer Encyclopedia of Music, Dance & Musical Theater. </i>“Garland’s
fragile but indomitable persona and emotion-packed singing voice are undeniably
linked to modern American gay culture and identity. This is especially true for
gay men, but lesbians are also drawn to identify with Garland’s plucky
toughness and vulnerability.”</span></span><span style="background: white; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> </span></span></dd><dd class="wp-caption-dd" style="-webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding-top: 0.5em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></dd><dd class="wp-caption-dd" style="-webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding-top: 0.5em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">By 1969, Garland had reached a point of financial despondence—having been sufficiently incapable of managing her own finances, she kept a gruelling worldwide concert schedule as a result, which did not bode well with her decreasing health caused by her never-ending reliance on alcohol and prescription medication. That June, she was found dead of a barbiturate overdose at a rented home in London at age 47, and her funeral was held in New York City on June 27. Meanwhile, later that evening at the Stonewall Inn in Lower Manhattan, a series of LGBTQ individuals bravely resisted arrest, badgering, and torture at the hands of homophobic society, and the modern gay rights movement was born. It has long been suggested that Judy Garland’s death and funeral the day before had caused such a state of despair that the gay community finally found the strength to fight back—but whether this theory has any factual basis has long been called into question and become rather controversial among many LGBTQ historians. </span></dd><dd class="wp-caption-dd" style="-webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding-top: 0.5em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></dd><dd class="wp-caption-dd" style="-webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding-top: 0.5em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The “Judy myth,” as Perry Brass from</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><a data-mce-href="http://www.epgn.com/special-editions/219-lgbt-history-month-2017/12580-stonewall-rebellion-it-wasn-t-judy" href="http://www.epgn.com/special-editions/219-lgbt-history-month-2017/12580-stonewall-rebellion-it-wasn-t-judy" style="font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;"><em>Philadelphia Gay News</em></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">puts it, is just that—a myth. “The Judy Garland myth, I’ve always felt, was the most pernicious of them all. Basically, it said that it took Garland’s death to make LGBT people angry enough to fight back. That was not true,” he wrote. “We had been fighting back all along; there were numerous instances of us doing so against huge odds … Power did not come from the streets then as we later felt, when gay groups joined other identity groups and seriously organized. What the Judy myth did was make many older, ‘bourgeois’ gay men, lesbians and their allies feel comfortable. If what happened at Stonewall was outside their comfort zone — and for many it was — they could feel all gooey and happy knowing the ‘girls’ were driven to this by some of the feelings they had: sadness over the death of Mickey Rooney’s girlfriend in those sweet 1930s musicals from their youth.” Gay Liberation Front founder Bob Kohler, who died in 2007, knew many of those who took part in the now-legendary riots that weekend, and he too angrily dismissed the Garland hypothesis, saying, “The street kids faced death every day. They had nothing to lose. And they couldn’t have cared less about Judy. We’re talking about kids who were fourteen, fifteen, sixteen. Judy Garland was the middle-aged darling of the middle-class gays. I get upset about this because it trivializes the whole thing.” Scholar and historian Mark Segal echoes that the myth trivializes the oppression their community was fighting against, calling it a “disturbing historical liberty” that is “downright insulting to the [LGBTQ] community.” Thomas Lanigan-Schmidt, one of the few remaining Stonewall riot participators who is still alive, agrees that Garland’s death inspiring the riots is likely untrue, but laments that the theory has become so powerful and widely spread that it seems useless to continue trying debunking it. “There are people who connect [Garland’s funeral] to the narrative of Stonewall, and you’re not going to tell them it doesn’t connect, so let them have it,” he told</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><a data-mce-href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/was-stonewall-sparked-by-judy-garlands-death-inside-the-riots-hotly-contested-history/2016/06/24/36f01d80-396a-11e6-8f7c-d4c723a2becb_story.html?utm_term=.92f0fa4c117b" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/was-stonewall-sparked-by-judy-garlands-death-inside-the-riots-hotly-contested-history/2016/06/24/36f01d80-396a-11e6-8f7c-d4c723a2becb_story.html?utm_term=.92f0fa4c117b" style="font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;"><em>The Washington Post </em></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">in 2016. “It didn’t start the riot off, believe me.” He also suggests that the rioters would have most likely been apart of R&B and rock music scenes and would not have listened to the easy-listening showtunes of Judy Garland.</span></dd><dd class="wp-caption-dd" style="-webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding-top: 0.5em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></dd></dl>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Stonewall Inn, in Lower Manhattan's Greenwich Village, was the site of the legendary riots in the early hours of June 28, 1969 that would begin the modern gay rights movement. (Photo: CNN)</td></tr>
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<dd class="wp-caption-dd" style="-webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding-top: 0.5em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Although the overwhelming consensus is that Garland’s death itself most likely had very little to do with the riots that inspired the modern gay rights movement, many other historians and critics are not so quick to devalue the involvement of the icon’s death in the famous uprising. “I think that there were people there who were upset [by Garland’s death], but it was more than just one thing,” says Scott Brogan. “Sure, a lot of the street kids probably didn’t really care that much. But I think we shouldn’t count out the fact that Judy’s death did play a part. It wasn’t the only reason, of course, but there still were a lot of people there who were just … their nerves were shot.” </span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Tina Gianoulis also acknowledges the ambiguity
surrounding the “Judy myth,” but laments that the story has “such poetry that
one feels it ought to be true.”</span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">In a now-deleted article commemorating the 40th anniversary of both the Stonewall riots and Garland’s death in 2009, culture critic Jeff Weinstein said that some of the imagination surrounding Judy’s death being the inspiration for the riots “seems credible,” since Garland’s life was also a battle cry for being free to love. “Yes, Judy was responsible for Stonewall, the way flowers are responsible for spring,” he wrote. “Of course, her life was a mess. Like opera counterpart Maria Callas, young Garland was an ugly-duckling diva left in the lurch by family and men. Employer MGM (and before that, maybe her mom) hooked her on drugs. Later, she was a time-bomb on the set – when she managed to show up.” He also states that he believed Judy possessed a rare quality that other performers lack, where she was able to perform in film or on stage as “Judy herself” and it is this authenticity that has allowed her to continue resonating. “I never could say exactly what that something is, but I’m convinced it’s close kin to the spirit of the brave and furious queens who taunted New York’s boys in blue with a kicking chorus line, to the tune of ‘It’s Howdy Doody Time’ … They also wore their hearts on their sleeves, whatever those sleeves were attached to. Just like Judy. Forty long years later, I remain grateful to them all. There’s still plenty of singing, and kicking, left for us to do.”</span></dd><dd class="wp-caption-dd" style="-webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding-top: 0.5em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />An overarching question that remains surrounding Judy Garland and the gay rights movement is not whether she still resonates, but whether her cultural impact and vast talent will be forgotten by future generations of gay men. When Jeff Weinstein compared Judy in</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><em style="font-family: inherit;">The Wizard of Oz </em><span style="font-family: inherit;">to</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><em style="font-family: inherit;">American Idol </em><span style="font-family: inherit;">runner-up Adam Lambert to a young gay friend, he had no idea who Garland or even Liza Minnelli were. In a</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><a data-mce-href="https://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/06/arts/judy-garland-gay-idol-then-and-over-the-rainbow-now.html" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/06/arts/judy-garland-gay-idol-then-and-over-the-rainbow-now.html" style="font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;"><em>New York Times </em></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">article from 2012 questioning whether or not Judy’s raw talent and appeal will live on amongst gay men, Robert Leleux wrote that he “weeps for his people” when his thirty-something gay male friend says that he doesn’t consider himself a Garland fan and merely remarks that “she was good in</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><em style="font-family: inherit;">The Wizard of Oz</em><span style="font-family: inherit;">” (one of the most seen films in history). Leleux himself had been enchanted by Judy for his entire life. “</span><em style="font-family: inherit;">Judy at Carnegie Hall </em><span style="font-family: inherit;">was the soundtrack of my childhood,” he wrote. “As any fan can tell you, it’s Garland at her swaggering best: glamorous, triumphant and almost superhumanly resilient. It goes without saying that such resilience held enormous appeal for gay men.” When he asked his friend if Judy is still considered a gay idol, he commented that he doesn’t see what Judy Garland has to do with being gay anymore, but does describe the gay following surrounding contemporary female trainwrecks like Whitney Houston, Lindsay Lohan, or Britney Spears. “Some gay guys do seem to like that kind of thing,” he said. In response to questions about Rufus Wainwright’s 2006 recreation of Judy Garland’s Carnegie Hall album, his friend remarked, “If that’s what he wants to do, great. It’s just not my idea of being gay. Today gay can be anything.” Judy Garland might not resonate with all gay men, but it’s the fact that she was claimed as a gay icon during a tumultuous time in history when the gay community was beginning the fight for equality that has led to her status as not only a gay icon, but a pop culture icon. Today gay can be anything, but 50 years ago, it could not. For many, Judy felt like one of the only outlets where gay men could truly be and feel like themselves. She might not have had a single thing to do with the actions or the politics of the gay rights movement, but her omniscient presence was always there as a source of inspiration. Her impact is undeniable, and she will live on regardless—a biographical film starring Renée Zellweger as Garland,</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><a data-mce-href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCfGxxLXJYc" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCfGxxLXJYc" style="font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;"><em>Judy</em></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">, is set for release this fall.</span></dd></dl>
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Jeffrey Davieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10893528274829091844noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5629019666970713101.post-85855772985474559032019-06-10T15:21:00.001-07:002019-06-28T18:40:59.622-07:00The Best Songs and Albums of 2019 So Far<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />If you’re reading this, that means that 2019 is already half finished—I know, I</span>’m <span style="font-family: inherit;">just as shocked as you are. Since half of the year has already pasted, that means we’ve already experienced half a year of new music, and since summer has arrived, new music is always a good thing to have in your pocket. So, in the vein of P!nk’s 2010 compilation album </span><em style="font-family: inherit;">Greatest Hits…So Far!!!</em><span style="font-family: inherit;">, here are my picks for some of the year’s best songs and albums…so far.</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong>Avril Lavigne, <em>Head Above Water<br /><img alt="" class="alignnone wp-image-6136 size-medium" data-mce-src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Avril-Head-Above-Water-300x300.png" height="400" src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Avril-Head-Above-Water-300x300.png" style="height: auto; max-width: 100%;" width="400" /></em></strong><strong><em><br /></em></strong>In what can only be described as one of her most emotionally intense offerings to date, Avril Lavigne returned earlier this year with her first album in nearly six years. <em>Head Above Water </em>deals with a lot of emotions lyrically—most of which were inspired by her battle with Lyme disease, which contributed to her absence from the limelight in recent years—as well as themes of heartbreak, overcoming emotional difficulties, and growing up. For those who have indeed grown up listening to Avril Lavigne, <em>Head Above Water </em>is a breath of fresh air. Full review <a data-mce-href="http://kellyalexandershow.com/album-review-avril-lavigne-head-water/" href="http://kellyalexandershow.com/album-review-avril-lavigne-head-water/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">here</a>.<br /><em><br /></em><strong>Betty Who, <em>Betty<br /><img alt="" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-6137" data-mce-src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Betty-300x300.png" height="400" src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Betty-300x300.png" style="height: auto; max-width: 100%;" width="400" /></em></strong><strong><em><br /></em></strong>After parting ways with her previous label RCA last year (with whom she released her first two albums), Betty Who took the pop music world by storm with her third studio album and first record released independently, <em>Betty</em>. Reminiscent of Robyn and Carly Rae Jepsen, the album throws everyone’s expectations of her out the window in favor of a carefree, unapologetic approach that certainly resulted in one of this year’s most standout pop efforts.<br /><em><br /></em><strong>LÉON, <em>LÉON<br /><img alt="" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-6138" data-mce-src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Leon-300x300.jpg" height="400" src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Leon-300x300.jpg" style="height: auto; max-width: 100%;" width="400" /></em></strong><em><br /></em>In one of the most impressive debut albums in recent memory, Swedish singer/songwriter LÉON released her first full-length record after years of impeccably underrated EPs released under Columbia Records. Emotional but not melancholy, catchy and upbeat but free of gimmicky sounds, <em>LÉON </em>celebrates dancing your tears away with an indie pop meets soul sound reminiscent of Adele, Amy Winehouse, and Lana Del Rey, but still incredibly unique equipped with LÉON’s songwriting ability to punch you in the heart.<br /> <em><br /></em><strong>Ben Platt, <em>Sing to Me Instead<br /><img alt="" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-6139" data-mce-src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Ben-Platt-300x300.png" height="400" src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Ben-Platt-300x300.png" style="height: auto; max-width: 100%;" width="400" /></em></strong><em><br /></em>Remember Benji from <em>Pitch Perfect </em>who won a Tony Award for his critically acclaimed run as the title character in the Broadway play <em>Dear Evan Hansen</em>? Well, since more than proving his vocal ability on the stage, Platt signed with Atlantic Records and released his debut studio album, <em>Sing to Me Instead</em>, an easy-listening ode to quieting the voices in our heads, finding love, fighting the fear of growing older, and learning to love life. Think Michael Bublé, but with a bit more of an emotional edge that packs a punch you don’t see coming.<br /><em><br /></em><strong>Marina, <em>Love + Fear<br /><img alt="" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-6140" data-mce-src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Marina-300x300.png" height="400" src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Marina-300x300.png" style="height: auto; max-width: 100%;" width="400" /></em></strong><br />Marina, now without the Diamonds, returned with her fourth studio album whose general theme revolves around a psychological theory that love and fear are the only two human emotions, and we cannot feel them at the same time since they are opposites. Marina, however, proves very quickly that these emotions overlap almost constantly: love, fear, happiness, sadness, anxiety, depression, and so many others are explored throughout <em>Love + Fear</em>, two 8-track collections that form a set. Throughout a journey to feel like a real human being again after being in the spotlight for too long, Marina offers her own take on the experience of living life and what it truly means to be human. Full review <a data-mce-href="http://kellyalexandershow.com/marina-better-ever-without-diamonds-album-review-love-fear/" href="http://kellyalexandershow.com/marina-better-ever-without-diamonds-album-review-love-fear/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">here</a>.<br /><br /><strong>Olivia O’Brien, <em>Was It Even Real?<br /><img alt="" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-6096" data-mce-src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Olivia-O-Brien-300x300.jpg" height="400" src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Olivia-O-Brien-300x300.jpg" style="height: auto; max-width: 100%;" width="400" /></em></strong><br />I discovered Olivia O’Brien last year by chance when one of her music videos popped up in my recommended videos section on YouTube. I was instantly taken aback by the dark but honest tone of her lyrics—an artist who puts particular feelings into words that we often don’t want to say out loud. She’s said in interviews that she has suffered from depression since she was seven years old, and has used songwriting as an outlet for her feelings for as long as she can remember. <em>Was It Even Real?</em>, O’Brien’s full-length debut album, deals with themes of heartbreak, depression, anxiety, bad habits, self-destructive habits, and learning to love yourself—with some catchy bops about boy problems, too. It also just feels real, despite what the title suggests: the truth is, as much as we’re told we need to love ourselves first and let go of all negativity and bad habits and whatever else, we still find ourselves unable to let go because those things are hard. It also celebrates the reality of accepting our bad habits and our depression or anxiety, because fighting the feeling often gets you nowhere. Full review <a data-mce-href="http://kellyalexandershow.com/album-review-olivia-obrien-even-real/" href="http://kellyalexandershow.com/album-review-olivia-obrien-even-real/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">here</a>.</span><strong><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></strong></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: inherit;">Songs</span></strong></h3>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5x93pXSmRM">“Don’t Feel Like Crying” – Sigrid</a><br /><img alt="" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-6142" data-mce-src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Sigrid-1-300x200.jpg" height="266" src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Sigrid-1-300x200.jpg" style="height: auto; max-width: 100%;" width="400" /></strong><br />Sometimes you just don’t feel like crying, and sometimes you just have to dance! Sigrid puts this feeling into words in the last single released ahead of her debut studio album, <em>Sucker Punch</em>.<br /><br /><strong><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SThQxVLGWs0">“Thief” – Alice Chater</a><br /><img alt="" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-6143" data-mce-src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Alice-Chater-300x300.jpg" height="400" src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Alice-Chater-300x300.jpg" style="height: auto; max-width: 100%;" width="400" /></strong><br />In the vein of “Sweet But Psycho” by Ava Max, British pop singer Alice Chater provides her own attempt to break into the Top 40 with a new pop song whose sound and lyrics offers throwback vibes to the 2000s.<br /><br /><strong><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TQKyDD9Yig">“Don’t Call Me Up” – Mabel</a><br /><img alt="" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-6144" data-mce-src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Mabel-300x170.jpg" height="226" src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Mabel-300x170.jpg" style="height: auto; max-width: 100%;" width="400" /></strong><br />In what can only be described as the year’s biggest breakout pop song so far, Mabel is set to release her full-length debut album this summer and hopefully it will contain more contagious, sassy bops like this one.<br /><br /><strong><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boUl0jPZMdg">“I’m So Tired…” – Lauv & Troye Sivan</a><br /><img alt="" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-6145" data-mce-src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/lauv-troye-sivan-im-so-tired-300x300.jpg" height="400" src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/lauv-troye-sivan-im-so-tired-300x300.jpg" style="height: auto; max-width: 100%;" width="400" /></strong><br />A love song about hating love songs? With a music video released on Valentine’s Day? We are here for it.<br /><br /><strong><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wj6gVn2WBfM">“Love Me & Let Me Go” – Ashley Tisdale</a><br /><img alt="" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-6146" data-mce-src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Ashley-Tisdale-1-300x169.jpg" height="225" src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Ashley-Tisdale-1-300x169.jpg" style="height: auto; max-width: 100%;" width="400" /></strong><strong><br /></strong>A poignant love song about breaking up with your anxiety and separating yourself from it, released as the second single from Ashley Tisdale’s first album in ten years, <em>Symptoms</em>.<br /><br /><strong><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNlHLoiB6GA">“Low Key” – Ally Brooke feat. Tyga</a><br /><img alt="" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-6147" data-mce-src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Ally-Brooke-300x232.jpg" height="309" src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Ally-Brooke-300x232.jpg" style="height: auto; max-width: 100%;" width="400" /></strong><br />Fifth Harmony’s Ally Brooke proved with her debut single that we should low-key, low-key get to know her as a solo artist. We are hooked and listening intently for whatever comes next!<br /><br /><strong><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyBIidyRB-Q">“Love Myself” – Olivia O’Brien</a><br /><img alt="" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-6148" data-mce-src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Love-Myself-300x169.jpg" height="225" src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Love-Myself-300x169.jpg" style="height: auto; max-width: 100%;" width="400" /></strong><br />A power anthem about loving yourself and everything you see in the mirror wholeheartedly, even when that’s hard.<br /><br /><strong><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSrP6cF1gf8">“Bad Habit” – Ben Platt</a><br /><img alt="" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-6149" data-mce-src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Ben-Platt-1-300x169.jpg" height="225" src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Ben-Platt-1-300x169.jpg" style="height: auto; max-width: 100%;" width="400" /></strong><br />Sometimes we just have one of those days when we don’t want to come out, and we turn back to that bad habit. But Ben Platt is here to remind us that it’s okay, because he does that, too.<br /><br /><strong><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKqRAC-JNOM">“Bloodline” – Ariana Grande</a><br /><img alt="" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-6150" data-mce-src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Ariana-300x300.png" height="400" src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Ariana-300x300.png" style="height: auto; max-width: 100%;" width="400" /></strong><br />On the best song from her latest studio effort <a data-mce-href="http://kellyalexandershow.com/album-review-ariana-grande-thank-u-next/" href="http://kellyalexandershow.com/album-review-ariana-grande-thank-u-next/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><em>Thank U, Next</em></a>, Ariana Grande sings about dismissing other people’s negativity and expectations, and loving who you are, as you are.<br /><br /><strong><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0G9DEOlo1FI">“The Feeling” – Victoria Duffield</a><br /><img alt="" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-6151" data-mce-src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Victoria-Duffield-2.jpg" height="400" src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Victoria-Duffield-2.jpg" style="height: auto; max-width: 100%;" width="400" /></strong><br />In what is probably already the year’s most underrated jam from her new album <a data-mce-href="http://kellyalexandershow.com/celebrate-believing-winning-every-day-victoria-duffield-day-won/" href="http://kellyalexandershow.com/celebrate-believing-winning-every-day-victoria-duffield-day-won/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><em>Day Won</em></a>, Victoria Duffield sings about when the feeling is just so strong and so happy, all you want to do is sing along.<br /><br /><strong><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wC022MwPHKI">“Dumb Blonde” – Avril Lavigne</a><br /><img alt="" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-6152" data-mce-src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Avril-Dumb-Blonde-300x169.jpg" height="225" src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Avril-Dumb-Blonde-300x169.jpg" style="height: auto; max-width: 100%;" width="400" /></strong><br />If I may borrow a comment from YouTube… “this sounds like the song from the credits of a 2006 movie.” If we disregard the glib version featuring Nicki Minaj, which unfortunately is the only version available on streaming services, “Dumb Blonde” is Avril Lavigne’s most memorable single to date, sassily dismissing other people’s interpretations of her as well as anyone who has ever felt stereotyped.<br /><br /><strong><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTNnwzXrVdg">“Last Hurrah” – Bebe Rexha</a><br /><img alt="" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-6153" data-mce-src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Bebe-Last-Hurrah-300x160.jpg" height="213" src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Bebe-Last-Hurrah-300x160.jpg" style="height: auto; max-width: 100%;" width="400" /></strong><strong><br /></strong>A short but sweet celebration of attempting to let go of bad habits, but then realizing that you’ll still be the same tomorrow if you don’t.<br /><br /><strong><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrlMaRdM4wI">“You and I” – LÉON</a><br /><img alt="" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-6154" data-mce-src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/You-and-I-1-281x300.png" height="400" src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/You-and-I-1-281x300.png" style="height: auto; max-width: 100%;" width="374" /></strong><strong><br /></strong>An ode to both love and heartbreak, LÉON delivers a contagious lead single from her debut album, making clear why she’s definitely one to watch on this year’s indie pop scene.<br /><br />Listen to <a href="https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4bethsOcm6vnuilXaVcVtU?si=rNB35XNzR2m3d5ptqqG8gA">my playlist on Spotify</a> to hear some more of my picks for the best songs of 2019 so far! Be sure to give the playlist a follow as well, since I will be updating it regularly with more picks for the year’s best as they come at us!</span></div>
Jeffrey Davieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10893528274829091844noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5629019666970713101.post-24465745855904400702019-05-24T11:37:00.002-07:002019-06-28T18:40:53.191-07:00With 'The Big Bang Theory' Over, What Does the Future Hold for the Television Sitcom?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbWS-SJDHOf3_GgOprpcr1ivlN5aeYJA4pGaEfWflM0AT-CuFx0UvWgjO-gXMakS7Rm8Db33zkLkKjO9lwom1pAaulh_u1XF2_faD_OzeCMwj73z9G8iKh00oJVmOlNJVWnRYfJUmJXuEu/s1600/Big+Bang.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="682" data-original-width="1024" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbWS-SJDHOf3_GgOprpcr1ivlN5aeYJA4pGaEfWflM0AT-CuFx0UvWgjO-gXMakS7Rm8Db33zkLkKjO9lwom1pAaulh_u1XF2_faD_OzeCMwj73z9G8iKh00oJVmOlNJVWnRYfJUmJXuEu/s400/Big+Bang.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />Last week, <em>The Big Bang Theory</em>—the highly-rated sitcom that first debuted on CBS in 2007—bid farewell after 12 long seasons. When the series first started, traditional half-hour sitcoms with laugh tracks, a multi-camera setup, and live studio audiences were starting to be considered a thing of the past. With the conclusion of <em>Will & Grace </em>and the debut of <em>30 Rock </em>in 2006, a new breed of television comedy was introduced that dared to fly without a laugh track and with quirkier, oddly-tempered jokes that were almost always geared towards a particular sense of humor. Gone were the days, it seemed, when television sitcoms were produced to please all audiences with family friendly premises and characters—<em>The Office</em>, <em>Everybody Hates Chris</em>, and later <em>Parks & Recreation </em>appeared to usher in a new era for the television comedy in the mid to late 2000s that let the audience come to the show, and not the other way around. But in September 2007, CBS premiered <em>The Big Bang Theory </em>and let it become a shining star for what was now apparently a form of television comedy from a bygone time.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">In all seriousness, <em>The Big Bang Theory </em>was not the only remaining multi-camera sitcom with a laugh track and audience-pleasing jokes in this postmodern era of television. If anything, while the other networks became committed to following and setting new trends, CBS remained more conservative and continued to put their faith in male-dominated, patriarchal procedurals and comedies. While NBC moved onto <em>30 Rock </em>and <em>Parks & Rec</em> and ABC moved onto <em>Modern Family </em>and <em>The Middle</em>, CBS continued to give big budgets to traditional (and often male-dominated) television sitcoms—<em>Two and a Half Men</em>,<em> How I Met Your Mother</em>, <em>Rules of Engagement</em>, <em>Mike & Molly</em>, and <em>The Big Bang Theory</em>—to name only a few. In an era where the tastes and production of American television comedy was shifting, CBS stuck to what everybody already knew: a good, old-fashioned sitcom with a laugh track, zany but loveable characters, and an affinity for happy endings. And for awhile there, it worked—CBS was practically the only network that managed to continue to bring ratings to new, traditional sitcoms, and while other networks continued attempts to replicate multi-camera sitcoms with laugh tracks, not many stuck. <em>The Big Bang Theory</em>, however, managed to become either the most-watched or the second most-watched program on American television by its seventh season—an accomplishment difficult to achieve in a world that was already converting to streaming.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The series was not initially a huge success, commercially or critically. <em>The Big Bang Theory </em>had a modest debut in 2007, with mixed reactions from television critics and somewhat below average ratings. It was enough for them to survive the infamous writer’s strike of 2007–2008, and they returned in their Monday night timeslot either preceding or following <em>Two and a Half Men</em> for an additional two seasons. By season four, the series had grown enough in both ratings and popularity that CBS moved it to Thursdays at 8:00—which was once broadcast primetime television’s most coveted timeslot. For the next few years, it was television’s second highest-rated comedy, behind only ABC’s <em>Modern Family</em>. While that series might have been single-camera without a laugh track, both functioned as the past and present of the television sitcom molded together as one—a family comedy for modern times presented in mockumentary style, and an unapologetically geeky take on the <em>Friends </em>formula. <em>The Big Bang Theory</em>’s sixth season brought not only some of the highest-rated episodes of the series but some of the highest ratings by any primetime program in the 2010s—a 2013 episode, which brought over 20 million American viewers, was one of television’s highest-rated broadcasts since 2007. In 2014, CBS renewed the series for three additional years—an ambitious investment practically unheard of by our postmodern standards of television. By season seven, it was the second most-watched program in the United States, and took hold of the number one spot by season eleven. <em>The Big Bang Theory </em>came on and people watched—which became more and more extraordinary in an era where network television had become hopelessly usurped by Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime Video. Since 2010, it has been the single most-watched television program in Canada (aided by nightly reruns on CTV). Ratings continued to boom, and so the series continued—despite the fact that <em>The Big Bang Theory </em>died creatively multiple seasons before its ultimate conclusion.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">It is undeniable that <em>The Big Bang Theory</em>’s success was made possible by the success of <em>Friends </em>in the ‘90s, and its continued popularity in reruns and on streaming services (one publication even claims that <em>The Big Bang </em><a data-mce-href="https://metro.co.uk/2019/05/23/big-bang-theory-leaves-behind-much-greater-legacy-friends-ever-9663045/" href="https://metro.co.uk/2019/05/23/big-bang-theory-leaves-behind-much-greater-legacy-friends-ever-9663045/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">will leave behind a much greater legacy than <em>Friends</em></a>). Sheldon Cooper is basically Chandler Bing with a PhD and an inability to relate to others. And while a series about a group of science fiction-loving, Klingon-speaking geeks and their hot, blonde neighbor might not have immediately resonated back in 2007, <em>The Big Bang Theory </em>would eventually come to be embraced by the same audiences as a new and different version of the <em>Friends </em>premise—only with slightly more diversity and the same staunch heteronormativity. It didn’t matter if every audience member didn’t comprehend the scientific references to figures such as Richard Feynman or Marie Curie laced in a majority of the series’ episodes, because we understood the characters as social beings and related to them on that level. We understood everyone’s frustration and ultimate compromises with those relentlessly devoted to rules, routine, and insistence on imposing them on everyone else, and we cheered for Leonard (Johnny Galecki) and Penny (Kaley Cuoco) just as we cheered for Ross (David Schwimmer) and Rachel (Jennifer Aniston) in 1996. But where <em>Friends </em>excelled and <em>The Big Bang Theory </em>ultimately failed was that <em>Friends </em>knew where to draw the line and knew when there were no more stories to tell. Similarly, while <em>Modern Family </em>is scheduled to conclude after its eleventh season next year, there are still a few stories left to tell and loose ends to wrap up. <em>The Big Bang Theory </em>ran out of stories to tell after season eight. Maybe season nine, if I’m feeling generous. It definitely could have concluded after season ten. But then CBS renewed it for two more years, and we finally said goodbye after season twelve—the network and producers were allegedly interested in an additional two years, since Jim Parsons <a data-mce-href="https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/the-big-bang-theory-season-12-final-ending-jim-parsons-quit-sheldon-cooper-a8504401.html" href="https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/the-big-bang-theory-season-12-final-ending-jim-parsons-quit-sheldon-cooper-a8504401.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">turned down a new $50 million deal</a> in favor of ending the series.</span></div>
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<dt class="wp-caption-dt" style="-webkit-user-drag: none; font-weight: bold;"><img alt="" class="wp-image-6124 size-full" data-mce-src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Big-Bang-2.jpg" height="563" src="http://kellyalexandershow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Big-Bang-2.jpg" style="-webkit-user-drag: none; display: block; height: auto; max-width: 100%;" width="1000" /></dt>
<dd class="wp-caption-dd" style="-webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding-top: 0.5em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The original cast of <em style="-webkit-user-drag: none;">The Big Bang Theory</em>, 2007 (Photo: Monty Brinton/CBS)<br /><br /></span></dd></dl>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Rather than living in the shadow of <em>Friends</em>, <em>The Big Bang Theory </em>almost feels like a contemporary version of <em>Happy Days</em> (which ran for eleven seasons on ABC between 1974 and 1984). Much like that series, <em>The Big Bang Theory </em>went through several different incarnations before finally landing on a formula that was concrete and didn’t need to change again—but by that point, it again felt like all of the stories were already told. Seasons eight through twelve of <em>The Big Bang Theory </em>feel as if <em>Friends </em>were to have continued on after everyone was married and had children. Perhaps if they had attempted to portray a unique and refreshing take on married life with all of the central characters now married (with the exception of Raj), it wouldn’t have felt like the series was stunted creatively and died a slow, agonizing death. Of course, it could have been much worse—once it achieved its status as an untouchable ratings monster, <em>The Big Bang Theory </em>could have become an outrageous fantasy with the characters winning the lottery and fighting terrorists on trains, in the vein of <em>Roseanne</em>. But just like CBS, the series stuck to what they knew, and it got boring. Fast. The writing for most episodes after season ten felt hopelessly uninspired, and honestly, can you blame them? Aside from <em>Two and a Half Men</em>—another CBS cash cow which also ran for twelve seasons under wildly different circumstances—can you name me another American television sitcom that ran for <em>twelve </em>seasons? Even <em>Happy Days</em>, and soon <em>Modern Family</em>, will have ran for eleven. And maybe if there was still life left in <em>The Big Bang Theory </em>with stories left to tell, twelve seasons wouldn’t have felt so long. But after Leonard and Penny were finally married, Sheldon reached sexual maturity with Amy, and Howard and Bernadette started a family, was there anything left that was worth telling? Not really. The series did conclude with Sheldon and Amy winning the Nobel Prize, something Sheldon had aspired to from the very first season, but even that felt like sugar on top of an already over-sweetened sundae. It was as if the series had become the sitcom equivalent of a police procedural that can easily run for close to twenty seasons, since the lives of the characters are not the central focus (not so coincidentally, those procedurals also tend to be CBS’s speciality). <em>The Big Bang Theory </em>ran for twelve seasons not because there were stories still left to tell, but because until the very last episode it was an unstoppable force of ratings for CBS in a world that had long since declared network TV dead in favor of streaming. And in the world of entertainment and certainly television, a cash cow trumps endless creativity every time.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Amid a series of <a data-mce-href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/big-bang-theory-final-shoot-1.5118014" href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/big-bang-theory-final-shoot-1.5118014" style="text-decoration-line: none;">nostalgic goodbyes</a>, the end of <em>The Big Bang Theory </em>has also called the future of the multi-camera television sitcom into question. Apart from several new comedy pilots every year and short-lived sitcoms that quickly get thrown out, CBS still has <em>Mom</em>—another sitcom created by Chuck Lorre (who is also the man behind <em>The Big Bang Theory</em>, <em>Two and a Half Men</em>, and several others)—presented in the traditional style of laugh track and studio audience, which has been renewed through its eighth season. They also have <em>Man with a Plan</em>—an uninspired modern retelling of <em>The King of Queens </em>or <em>Everybody Loves Raymond </em>starring Matt LeBlanc—entering its fourth season, and <em>The Neighborhood</em>, a somewhat socially conscious tale of an overly friendly white couple moving into a black neighborhood, which has been picked up for a second year. The other networks have their own fair shares of attempts at the television sitcom for the modern age, including successful revivals of <em>Will & Grace </em>and <em>Roseanne </em>(but not <em>Murphy Brown</em>, whose own revival received <a data-mce-href="https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/murphy_brown/s11/" href="https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/murphy_brown/s11/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">mixed to negative reviews</a> and <a data-mce-href="https://tvline.com/2019/05/10/murphy-brown-cancelled-cbs-revival-candice-bergen/" href="https://tvline.com/2019/05/10/murphy-brown-cancelled-cbs-revival-candice-bergen/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">was cancelled by CBS</a> after a single season). But the end of <em>The Big Bang Theory </em>has left many questioning if there will soon be another series to take its place, especially given that <em>The Big Bang </em>was a placeholder from a time when network television meant more than it does now. Does the traditional, multi-camera sitcom still have a place in a world captivated by creatively bold series like <em>Veep </em>or <em>Schitt’s Creek</em>?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Sitcoms, let alone drama series, produced by network television have also come to be all but ignored by the Primetime Emmy Awards, which are now dominated by programs produced by streaming services and HBO (while the single-camera <em>Modern Family </em>did well at the Emmys for its first few years, the last multi-camera sitcom to win Outstanding Comedy Series was <em>Everybody Loves Raymond </em>in 2005). But with classic twentieth century sitcoms like <em>The Golden Girls</em>, <em>Seinfeld</em>, and of course <em>Friends </em>still popular in reruns decades after their heydays, some remain optimistic that the classic, multi-camera sitcom that generations have grown up to could always make a comeback, as it’s done countless times before. “I still believe that shooting a show in front of an audience is a wonderful way to a tell a story,” <a data-mce-href="https://www.apnews.com/f922044cab5a46298dc998b432a26163" href="https://www.apnews.com/f922044cab5a46298dc998b432a26163" style="text-decoration-line: none;">says</a> Chuck Lorre. “I don’t think the audience watches and counts cameras. They watch the show because they love the characters and it delivers on the comedy … If you have something worthwhile, I don’t think it matters whether it’s single-camera, four-camera, eighteen cameras, or a flip book. If it’s really good, it’s going to find an audience. Maybe that’s naive or overly optimistic. But I have to proceed on that basis.”</span></div>
Jeffrey Davieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10893528274829091844noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5629019666970713101.post-64357887342264076932019-05-21T09:35:00.000-07:002019-07-15T17:47:00.111-07:00Book Review: 'Finding Dorothy' by Elizabeth Letts<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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"<i>Magic isn't things materializing out of nowhere. Magic is when a lot of people all believe in the same thing at the same time, and somehow we all escape ourselves a little bit and we meet up somewhere, and just for a moment, we taste the sublime.</i>"<br />
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I really enjoyed reading this. <i>Finding Dorothy </i>is a historical novel that fictionalizes the true history behind the inspiration for <i>The Wonderful Wizard of Oz </i>books, as told by the author's wife, Maud Baum. The story follows Maud throughout two different time periods; her youth and young adulthood when she meets and marries L. Frank Baum in the mid to late 1800s, and the production of <i>The Wizard of Oz </i>film adaption by MGM over the course of 1938 to 1939. After hearing about the film adaption of her late husband's beloved story, Maud decides to work her way into MGM in hopes that she will be able to see the script and recommend any necessary changes, especially surrounding the character of Dorothy. Her eye is also soon caught by a young Judy Garland, whose safety she fears for on the MGM lot given her outstanding talent but very young age. Maud's instinct to protect young Judy is driven by another young girl she knew who also didn't get a happy ending; a young girl we learn about throughout the novel.<br />
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<i>Finding Dorothy </i>is very entertaining for anyone who has grown up either watching <i>The Wizard of Oz </i>(one of the most seen films in history), or also reading the books on which the film was based. Maud's inclination to protect a character like Dorothy despite everyone's insistence that she's not real is very touching and heartwarming, given that a multitude of famous fictional characters are often based off of real people. The novel is also very well written and easy to get through; the kind of book you could sit down to only read a chapter or two and then end up reading a hundred pages. The chapters taking place in the present, 1938 and 1939, were the most interesting to me given that <i>The Wizard of Oz </i>film is very near and dear to my heart not only because I grew up watching it like everyone else, but because since growing up I have found new insight and comfort in what the story and the character of Dorothy represent<span style="font-family: inherit;">—</span>innocence, a longing to belong somewhere, and a yearning to exist in someplace where there isn't any trouble and where people understand her. For me, and I'm sure for countless others, this is why the story of <i>The Wizard of Oz </i>continues to resonate, since these are themes that never go out of style. Elizabeth Letts does a very good job of capitalizing on these themes, especially surrounding the people on the movie set who grew up reading Baum's books.<br />
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The author also does an exceptional job at chipping away at the age-old link between Judy Garland and Dorothy; a link that scholars, critics, experts, and the actress herself have long since suggested that Garland and the character were impeccably similar in heart and spirit when the film was made. In a story about the origin story of one of fiction's most famous characters, Dorothy Gale—the girl who wanted to fly over the rainbow—the author wastes no time in pointing out that a young and vulnerable Judy Garland, who was hopelessly susceptible to the ruthless Hollywood studio system in place at that time, was just another Dorothy character looking for her rainbow and yearning for her happy ending (a happy ending which Garland claimed she herself never received). "<i>What must the weight of so much expectation—of men, and their ambitions and desires—feel like on the shoulders of a lonely teenage girl? </i>"<br />
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For me, the novel began to drag about halfway through, when it appeared as though the author was losing interest in fleshing out the details of the chapters taking place in the past: she quickly glosses over crucial events, does a lot of telling instead of showing, and it feels as though she definitely wanted to get back to the much more interesting storyline taking place in the present. The author explains her writing process and inspiration for <i>Finding Dorothy </i>in an afterword at the end, explaining that the entire novel is a fictional story based closely on the truth and that she poured over the diaries, journals, and letters of the real Baum family in order to properly construct a fiction that very well might have been close to the truth. She also explains that she did leave some things up to the imagination regarding Maud's youth and the origin story of Dorothy, writing that she didn't feel completely comfortable fictionalizing every aspect of the plot. I understand that, but after awhile the chapters taking place in the past were just a bore to get through. I believe she could have ended the story in the past once she started to not feel comfortable fictionalizing it further, and then focused solely on the production of the MGM film adaption since that was clearly a much more interesting storyline for both the author and the reader.<br />
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In any event, I really enjoyed <i>Finding Dorothy</i>. I think it would make a great movie, and could join the ranks of other films about the real-life origin stories of American literature classics, in the vein of <i>Finding Neverland </i>or <i>Saving Mr. Banks</i>. I think this story could even resonate more than those films, given that <i>The Wizard of Oz </i>movie is such a classic story beloved by countless generations whose popularity has even transcended that of the books on which the film was based. I wouldn't be surprised to hear that the film rights for <i>Finding Dorothy </i>get snapped up sometime soon, but until then, I'd recommend reading the book. 4/5 stars.Jeffrey Davieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10893528274829091844noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5629019666970713101.post-22217648707348736152019-05-20T11:58:00.000-07:002019-06-28T18:40:40.872-07:00Carly Rae Jepsen Reminds Us That Pop Music Should Be Unapologetic on 'Dedicated' (Album Review)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjO8rL4srE_r50xl-TQZKIWvZg26xrWNgTI5WY5U291P1VCeRdupZD7TMzckSh8IuCbts5LH534SX-N2vW4IzClXBiJOSdaggSeieKX4c6SYg3oGrpGHc8OoTK3t1Pq5glUSNZHuod2BXTQ/s1600/Dedicated.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1202" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjO8rL4srE_r50xl-TQZKIWvZg26xrWNgTI5WY5U291P1VCeRdupZD7TMzckSh8IuCbts5LH534SX-N2vW4IzClXBiJOSdaggSeieKX4c6SYg3oGrpGHc8OoTK3t1Pq5glUSNZHuod2BXTQ/s400/Dedicated.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br />Could anybody have ever predicted that Carly Rae Jepsen—the Canadian singer who initially appeared on </span><em style="background-color: white;">Canadian Idol </em><span style="background-color: white;">in 2007—would have become pop music’s biggest cult favorite? Three albums and dozens of singles later, Jepsen has returned with her fourth studio effort, </span><em style="background-color: white;">Dedicated</em><span style="background-color: white;">, an album in which she says she has finally learned how to “</span><a data-mce-href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/may/12/carly-rae-jepsen-dedicated-interview-more-confident-in-my-weirdness-now-olive-oyl" href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/may/12/carly-rae-jepsen-dedicated-interview-more-confident-in-my-weirdness-now-olive-oyl" style="background-color: white; text-decoration-line: none;">embrace her weirdness</a><span style="background-color: white;">.”</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">After finishing in third place on </span><em style="background-color: white;">Idol </em><span style="background-color: white;">over a decade ago, Jepsen signed with Chad Kroeger’s 604 Records in Canada and recorded her folk-inspired debut album, </span><em style="background-color: white;">Tug of War</em><span style="background-color: white;">, released domestically in her native country in 2008. Her real breakthrough would arrive four years later in 2012, when she left her folksy side behind and went for straight up bubblegum pop on her single “</span><a data-mce-href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWNaR-rxAic" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWNaR-rxAic" style="background-color: white; text-decoration-line: none;">Call Me Maybe</a><span style="background-color: white;">”—which, with the help of Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez, was boosted to significant mainstream popularity and later became the highest-selling song of that year. Meanwhile, Jepsen was signed to a new joint record deal with Interscope and Scooter Braun’s label, Schoolboy Records, and released her second studio album and international debut, </span><em style="background-color: white;">Kiss</em><span style="background-color: white;">. After the significant mainstream success she enjoyed with “Call Me Maybe” and its accompanying bubblegum pop album, Jepsen returned with her third studio album in 2015, </span><em style="background-color: white;">Emotion</em><span style="background-color: white;">, whose dance and synthpop sound drew heavy inspiration from ‘80s music. Although the album was the subject of critical acclaim, it underperformed commercially worldwide, only seeing the moderate success of its lead single “</span><a data-mce-href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qV5lzRHrGeg&list=OLAK5uy_kCtpWTehTYGGch2Uwbt5G8wuzjDCpfkKM&index=3&t=0s" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qV5lzRHrGeg&list=OLAK5uy_kCtpWTehTYGGch2Uwbt5G8wuzjDCpfkKM&index=3&t=0s" style="background-color: white; text-decoration-line: none;">I Really Like You</a><span style="background-color: white;">,” another bubblegum offering. But in lieu of commercial success, </span><em style="background-color: white;">Emotion </em><span style="background-color: white;">reinvigorated Jepsen’s career as the pop singer we know her as today—instead of being at the top of charts or trying to create another “Call Me Maybe,” she is making her own style of pop still heavily influenced from bygone eras, which has undoubtedly given her a </span><a data-mce-href="https://psmag.com/social-justice/carly-rae-jepsens-brilliantly-queer-art" href="https://psmag.com/social-justice/carly-rae-jepsens-brilliantly-queer-art" style="background-color: white; text-decoration-line: none;">large gay following</a><span style="background-color: white;">—which has been referred to as a “</span><a data-mce-href="https://www.cbc.ca/arts/the-queer-cult-of-carly-rae-jepsen-why-we-really-really-really-really-really-really-like-you-1.4913162" href="https://www.cbc.ca/arts/the-queer-cult-of-carly-rae-jepsen-why-we-really-really-really-really-really-really-like-you-1.4913162" style="background-color: white; text-decoration-line: none;">queer cult</a><span style="background-color: white;">.” </span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">On her new studio album </span><em style="background-color: white;">Dedicated</em><span style="background-color: white;">—for which Jepsen says she wrote </span><a data-mce-href="https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/pop/8511969/carly-rae-jepsen-dedicated-interview-200-songs" href="https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/pop/8511969/carly-rae-jepsen-dedicated-interview-200-songs" style="background-color: white; text-decoration-line: none;">over 200 songs</a><span style="background-color: white;"> over the last two years and ended up narrowing it down to a final track listing of 15—she continues paving her own road. She’s stated that her goal was to make “</span><a data-mce-href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/carly-rae-jepsen-new-album-dedicated-827482/" href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/carly-rae-jepsen-new-album-dedicated-827482/" style="background-color: white; text-decoration-line: none;">chill disco</a><span style="background-color: white;">,” and despite the EDM single “</span><a data-mce-href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnGjfxJqf6I&list=OLAK5uy_kCtpWTehTYGGch2Uwbt5G8wuzjDCpfkKM&index=15&t=0s" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnGjfxJqf6I&list=OLAK5uy_kCtpWTehTYGGch2Uwbt5G8wuzjDCpfkKM&index=15&t=0s" style="background-color: white; text-decoration-line: none;">Now That I Found You</a><span style="background-color: white;">” not appearing incredibly original at first, Jepsen manages to find new ways to create poignant sounds that sound both old and new with sometimes poetic lyrics offering new insights into typical romantic clichés often found in pop music. But this is what Carly Rae Jepsen represents in the current pop music landscape: that the genre’s purpose is no longer solely to sell records and top charts. Sometimes pop music is just about dancing, having fun, and accepting that the human spirit is something that never goes out of style.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">If Jepsen crafted an album about the unpredictability of human emotions on </span><em style="background-color: white;">Emotion</em><span style="background-color: white;">, she proves that she is dedicated to that theme on </span><em style="background-color: white;">Dedicated</em><span style="background-color: white;">. I wouldn’t necessarily describe the album as disco, but it definitely accomplishes the “chill” vibe that she said she was going for. I feel as though only Carly Rae Jepsen could somehow make campiness chill, and create an album that screams camp while still being consistently mellow and without the hysterics found on </span><em style="background-color: white;">Emotion</em><span style="background-color: white;"> (also, I must point out that Jepsen could have made any kind of album she wanted and I still would have been grateful to finally hear her voice with refreshing new production without the ‘80s synth vibes that infested both </span><em style="background-color: white;">Emotion </em><span style="background-color: white;">and its sequel, </span><em style="background-color: white;">Emotion: Side B</em><span style="background-color: white;">, from start to finish). </span><em style="background-color: white;">Dedicated</em><span style="background-color: white;">’s highlights appear hidden between the lines—she maintains her dreamy and lovestruck stance on “Julien” and “No Drug Like Me” before coming through on the disco influences on “Want You in My Room.” On “Too Much,” she sings about what it’s like to always go too far and feel too much—which feels as though it could be a sequel to any number of dance numbers from </span><em style="background-color: white;">Emotion</em><span style="background-color: white;">. “The Sound” functions as an excellent predecessor to quite possibly the album’s biggest highlight, “Automatically in Love,” which combines sounds reminiscent of Mariah Carey and Donna Summer to form an escapist pop sound that is undoubtedly, unapologetically Carly Rae Jepsen. “Feels Right,” a collaboration with Electric Guest, is an upbeat and catchy track reminiscent of Motown funk that indeed feels right on an album like </span><em style="background-color: white;">Dedicated</em><span style="background-color: white;">. The album nears a close with “Real Love,” a standout ballad combining new wave synths with EDM about following your heart. “</span><a data-mce-href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0ih3FriG1k&list=OLAK5uy_kCtpWTehTYGGch2Uwbt5G8wuzjDCpfkKM&index=9&t=0s" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0ih3FriG1k&list=OLAK5uy_kCtpWTehTYGGch2Uwbt5G8wuzjDCpfkKM&index=9&t=0s" style="background-color: white; text-decoration-line: none;">Party For One</a><span style="background-color: white;">” serves as </span><em style="background-color: white;">Dedicated</em><span style="background-color: white;">’s closing track, which was initially released as the album’s lead single last November but now only serves as a bonus track on the digital deluxe edition.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Some listeners who have failed to look between the lines still only know Jepsen as the “Call Me Maybe” girl, but Jepsen has spent the better part of almost a decade since then forging her own path as someone who subverts expectations—she might not represent what current popular music is today, but on a deeper level she represents what the genre has always been about: dancing your troubles away, accepting the inevitability of a broken heart, and the ever-changing nature of human emotions. </span><span style="background-color: white;">In a world where pop culture craves pop songs that will resonate with everyone, Jepsen’s music focuses on a predictable theme we all can relate to, no matter what: feelings. Her songs also celebrate the intimacy and primacy of those intense emotions of forbidden desires and secret crushes, which has certainly contributed to her </span><a data-mce-href="https://www.cbc.ca/arts/the-queer-cult-of-carly-rae-jepsen-why-we-really-really-really-really-really-really-like-you-1.4913162" href="https://www.cbc.ca/arts/the-queer-cult-of-carly-rae-jepsen-why-we-really-really-really-really-really-really-like-you-1.4913162" style="background-color: white; text-decoration-line: none;">appeal and resonance among gay men</a><span style="background-color: white;">. If anything, </span><em style="background-color: white;">Dedicated </em><span style="background-color: white;">proves that working with old sounds with an artist’s own twist does not speak to a lack of ambition on Jepsen’s part, but rather a passion for unique, unapologetic pop music. And it may not be the last we hear from the </span><em style="background-color: white;">Dedicated </em><span style="background-color: white;">era, since Jepsen says she may or may not release a compilation of B-sides and tracks that didn’t make the final cut, in the same vein as </span><em style="background-color: white;">Emotion: Side B</em><span style="background-color: white;"> (which may include the title track “Dedicated,” which did not happen to make the final cut). Jepsen knows and embodies the fickle, feel-good pop music we know and love, whether we know it or not. “Sometimes you live with songs too much,” she </span><a data-mce-href="https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/pop/8511969/carly-rae-jepsen-dedicated-interview-200-songs" href="https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/pop/8511969/carly-rae-jepsen-dedicated-interview-200-songs" style="background-color: white; text-decoration-line: none;">says</a><span style="background-color: white;">. “I just warn my manager, if we’re going to go with something, we should probably go with it soon, because God knows this girl changes her mind.”</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><strong style="background-color: white;">Jeffrey’s favorites from <em>Dedicated</em></strong><span style="background-color: white;">: “Julien,” “No Drug Like Me,” “Now That I Found You,” “Want You in My Room,” “Too Much,” “The Sound,” “Automatically in Love,” “Feels Right,” “Real Love,” and “Party For One”</span></span>Jeffrey Davieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10893528274829091844noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5629019666970713101.post-82470803141779362612019-05-06T18:21:00.000-07:002019-06-28T18:40:37.228-07:00Book Review: 'At Home in the World' by Joyce Maynard<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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"<i>It is unfathomable to me, at eighteen, that some people actually grow up feeling reasonably content with themselves. It will be years before I understand some people go to bed every night with a sense of well-being that has nothing to do with winning prizes or publishing their stories.</i>"<br /><br /><i>At Home in the World </i>is a memoir by writer and author Joyce Maynard, first published in 1998. My interest in reading it was peaked several years ago, after I had read and enjoyed two of Maynard's novels of fiction, <i>Labor Day </i>and <i>After Her</i>. And despite knowing Maynard as an author in the context of having read two of her books, I actually had no idea of her rich history as a writer, author, daughter, mother, and a woman trying to finally feel at home in the world.<br /><br />The memoir mainly focuses on Maynard's eleven-month relationship with infamously reclusive author J.D. Salinger between 1972 and 1973, which began after <i>New York Magazine</i> published an essay she wrote about growing up as a young person in the socially and politically turbulent 1960s. But <i>At Home in the World </i>is more than that: it's a story of a young girl who, for the majority of her life, struggled to find a place where she felt at home. She details her upbringing with her mother, a writer, and her father, a university professor who was an unstable alcoholic. Essentially, Maynard describes how she seemed to follow every rule that she was supposed to and still ended up feeling dissatisfied once she grew up; something that is still relevant and resonates today. She describes how she met Salinger at such a formative time in her existence and had still yet to process her own writing career that began to bloom at such a young age. She wrote her first memoir following the success of her published essay, <i>Looking Back: A Chronicle of Growing Up Old in the Sixties</i>, despite still being too young to truly know or find her place in the world. Maynard also struggled with anxiety and an eating disorder as she tried to maintain different expectations and standards of perfection, all while becoming infatuated with a famous author who attempts to mold her into the woman and writer he wants to see.<br /><br />Reading how Maynard describes the era in which she grew up, especially since she was an adult when she wrote this memoir and finds strength in her perceptions merely from the distance of time, was fascinating. It was interesting to see how past generations, especially ones who came of age in an era of shifting social norms, struggled just as much with feelings of anxiety as current generations do. Growing up is hard and being alive is hard, and Maynard always reminds us of that. For me, <i>At Home in the World </i>was less about her relationship and/or affair with J.D. Salinger and more a coming-of-age tale from a now-grown woman who refuses to lie to herself anymore. She admits that she was too young to have been given such a platform as a writer and journalist for multiple magazines and newspapers, including <i>Seventeen </i>and <i>The New York Times</i>. She admits she was infatuated with Salinger merely because he was such a highly respected author and, from the time she was a child, she craved approval anywhere she could get it. She admits that reading many of the pieces she published as a teenager and young adult make her uncomfortable now, because no eighteen-year-old should ever sound that sure of themselves. But she uses her affair with Salinger as a focal point for her own becoming, and how despite the fact that he was the one who grew bored with her and abandoned her, she was able to finally find her footing as a person in the world once he was out of her life. Years later, as an adult, Maynard visits him in person and demands an answer to one question: what was her purpose in his life? He doesn't really give her one, but what he does say is enough to confirm what she and the reader already know: maybe the whole world is full of liars and fakes and phonies, but it's better to be in it, than down here with you.<br /><br />I find <i>At Home in the World </i>did drag in places where Maynard chose to focus a little too much about her immediate family by building up characters who don't really play hugely pivotal roles in the overall story she is telling, but I feel as though she had to establish who she is by telling us about her upbringing and her family as they were. But the memoir itself was crafted very strongly and will surely resonate if you have either read Maynard's books of fiction before, or you've ever struggled to feel at home in the world: I'm willing to bet every single human being will satisfy at least one of those. Maynard's storytelling is very raw, honest, and real; she writes of her own failings and shortcomings with such vulnerability and realism that you can't help but keep reading until the last page. 4/5 stars.Jeffrey Davieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10893528274829091844noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5629019666970713101.post-40357528410185234512019-04-30T19:54:00.000-07:002019-06-28T18:40:33.159-07:00Album Review: Olivia O'Brien - 'Was It Even Real?'<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />Since she released her first solo singles in 2016, singer/songwriter Olivia O’Brien has sung about depression, failed and messy relationships, and drowning her sorrows in bad habits. She’s written songs about trust issues, feeling invisible, and learning to love herself as she is—all extremely important and valid life lessons that are essential to being human. It’s hard to believe she’s only 19 years old.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">O’Brien first rose to fame after she was selected by rapper Gnash to record a song she had written, “<a data-mce-href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiQIc7fG9pA" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiQIc7fG9pA" style="text-decoration-line: none;">I Hate U, I Love U</a>,” as a duet. The song received significant popularity and reached number 10 on the <em>Billboard </em>Hot 100 chart—so it didn’t take long for talented songwriter O’Brien to sign a deal with Island Records. After a few other collaborations and a series of standalone singles, she released her debut EP in 2017, <em>It’s Not That Deep</em>, featuring five tracks including “<a data-mce-href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Mu-GhLFyTs" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Mu-GhLFyTs" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Empty</a>,” “<a data-mce-href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkgTGqxYkDk" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkgTGqxYkDk" style="text-decoration-line: none;">No Love</a>,” “<a data-mce-href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Th0btDcWHqQ" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Th0btDcWHqQ" style="text-decoration-line: none;">RIP</a>,” and “<a data-mce-href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3u6aUfZvjI" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3u6aUfZvjI" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Tequilawine</a>”—the latter about mixing the two drinks to distract from a disgruntled crush. I remember a time when lyrics about drinking and alcohol were taboo for singers under legal drinking age in the United States, but clearly O’Brien has proved she has the songwriting ability and depth as an artist to not play by anyone’s pop music rules.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Over the last few years, a new generation of pop stars have been creating their own rules and trends (as most pop stars tend to do), but something unique about the likes of Camila Cabello, Bebe Rexha, and even Charlie Puth is that they’ve found great inspiration in writing and recording songs about the shallowness of Hollywood and Los Angeles and the empty, surface-level relationships they’ve found with the people there. Olivia O’Brien is most definitely a pioneer of this trend, who has not shied away from channeling such frustrations into her work. O’Brien, who has <a data-mce-href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvS928vXG5A" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvS928vXG5A" style="text-decoration-line: none;">struggled with depression</a> since she was a child, has no issue with including those relevant struggles in her music, either. “<a data-mce-href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXSJVK1cNFo" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXSJVK1cNFo" style="text-decoration-line: none;">I Don’t Exist</a>,” the second single from her full-length debut studio album <em>Was It Even Real?</em>, is partly inspired by the uptight people she’s encountered at Hollywood parties and clubs as well as articulating what it’s like to feel invisible in general—something that will surely resonate with misfits from all social standings. Another single from the album, “<a data-mce-href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyBIidyRB-Q" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyBIidyRB-Q" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Love Myself</a>”—released earlier this winter—is an ode and reminder to any and all that loving yourself has to come before anything else. The song, which serves as the album’s closing track, is reflective of O’Brien’s hope that people will start listening to the album when they’re feeling down and then feel uplifted by the time they reach the end. “It doesn’t have the same unattainable note that a lot of happier, confident songs have,” <a data-mce-href="https://www.broadwayworld.com/bwwmusic/article/Multi-Platinum-Olivia-OBrien-Releases-Track-JUST-A-BOY-Ahead-Of-Debut-Album-20190419" href="https://www.broadwayworld.com/bwwmusic/article/Multi-Platinum-Olivia-OBrien-Releases-Track-JUST-A-BOY-Ahead-Of-Debut-Album-20190419" style="text-decoration-line: none;">says</a> O’Brien of the song. “I should love myself, but I don’t. I should treat myself better, but I don’t … So much other shit is like, ‘I already love myself. I’m confident. I’m great.’ This is more attainable. It starts with being easier on yourself. So many kids are depressed. I wanted to end on a high note.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><em>Was It Even Real? </em>is an impressive debut that surely places O’Brien in a league of her own. She rants about relationships, feeling like she doesn’t exist, learning the same lessons over and over again, as well as some ballads, anthems, and bops about meaningless encounters and expecting too much from people, such as “<a data-mce-href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wr1zZMzZTSc" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wr1zZMzZTSc" style="text-decoration-line: none;">We Lied to Each Other</a>,” “<a data-mce-href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88qTDp5m2u0" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88qTDp5m2u0" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Care Less More</a>,” and “<a data-mce-href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fk3epscjMqA" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fk3epscjMqA" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Just A Boy</a>.” It also succeeds with acoustic guitars and heartfelt sounds rather than overproduction. Not one song on the album feels like it could be sung by another artist, which is already an achievement in itself. And unlike other pop stars of the moment who may capitalize on the emptiness of living in L.A. for one song here or there, O’Brien has managed to capture that feeling of both emptiness and depression on several different songs—and not one sounds the same as the last. Overall, she just hopes that her music will resonate and help others who’ve felt the same way. “I wrote this in a really dark place, and I hope I can help other people who may be in that same spot,” she says. “My idea was for you to listen to listen to the album when you’re feeling sad and by the end, you’ll feel better without even realizing it.” While her album’s title may have been inspired from questioning whether any of her relationships were real, O’Brien has proven that she definitely is.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong>Jeffrey’s favorites from <em>Was It Even Real?</em></strong>: “I Don’t Exist,” “Inhibition (omw),” “Just Friends,” “We Lied to Each Other,” “Care Less More,” “Just A Boy,” “Call Me!!!,” and “Love Myself”</span></div>
Jeffrey Davieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10893528274829091844noreply@blogger.com0