Open Thread Thursday

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[Teresa]

I'm trying to work up the courage to go see "The Stoning of Soraya M" this weekend. It's an important film and a story that needs to be told. I want to support it with my film dollars. But I'm afraid it will be too difficult to watch. I read the amazing book upon which it is based and it has haunted me ever since; I don't know if I want to see that horror recreated on film.

At the same time, as a woman living freely in the West I feel like I have an obligation not to turn away - to at least acknowledge that such horror exist.

Sorry, this is kinda of a downer for the happy Open Thread Thursday!

[BATMAN]

Way to bring us down, Teresa! sheesh....

But hey, I'll do you one better. So, when I was in the grocery store the other day, I saw that the Star says something like "Life on Earth as We Know It Will End on July 4." Not sure if they're writing re: worries about Kim Jung Il, or from a more libertarian perspective about Obama nationalizing more stuff, or if this is the Indepedence Day we all were warned about (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116629/combined). In any case, it seems like a good weekend to break out your R.E.M. records.

[BRS]

For the last week, everyone I know has been posting Michael Jackson videos on their Facebook profiles. I have to nominate the video for “Liberian Girl” as the most entertaining. Remember in the early 90s when people used to buy posters that portrayed various celebrities, living or dead, at Rick’s Café American? The video is pretty much that poster (only the set is a little less “Casablanca” and a little more Graham Greene). Aside from Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall, everyone who was big in Hollywood in 1988/ 89 is in this video. Check it out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgO8FnHo_jo

[Adam]

Hey BATMAN, you gonna finish this post?:

"So I have been thinking about Michael Jackson. Have you?

"The more interesting things about Michael are, of course, the ones that pique our voyeuristic curiosity: the scandals, the eccentric lifestyle, and his physical and emotional deterioration in the wake of it all.

"But then there's the music, which some have been lauding as timeless and important for giving America its first black mega-superstar, paving the way for the Michael Jordan's and Barack Obama's. (An aside: wasn't O.J. the first black superstar that everyone agreed on... before events led to him being the one that no one agreed on?) Others have offered contrarian takes,..."

[LarryK]

I don't want to steal BATMAN's thunder, but I've been wanting to weigh in on MJ for a while now but have just been too busy (and in lots of hotels with bad WiFi)...

My brief take on Michael: great dancer, above average singer, below average songwriter. Overall superstar grade: B-, very, very far from being an alltime great.

Why so critical? Think about the late 60s/early 70s era that Michael came of age in, which was a GREAT time for R&B/funk/soul music. Al Green, Curtis Mayfield, Sly Stone, Stevie Wonder, Chaka Khan, and many others all put out timeless stuff during these years, while Michael and the Jacksons were playing bubblegum. OK, he was just a kid, but he never really grew into a mature artist equal to anyone I just listed. For example, he doesn't hold a candle to Stevie Wonder, who was also a child star but a few years later was putting out groundbreaking albums, filled with (sometimes) smart lyrics and rhythmic innovations. And while Thriller was a phenom in 83, it hasn't stood the test of time. Admit it, before last week you hadn't heard "Billie Jean" or "Beat It" on the radio in at least a decade, because they're just not that interesting unless you're also watching Michael move.

Which was the obvious secret to his success - Michael was a performer, with big stage shows and big stage moves. I'm not trying to take that away from him, and if you're into that sort of thing, I'm sure he was a great entertainer. But Michael was part of a machine that hyped him to the moon, and you take the machine and big stage show budgets away and he starts to look like a much more modest talent - which, IMO, he was.

I also don't really buy the bit about MJ as a racial trailblazer. There have been a lot of big stars (although not mega-superstar big) who were black before and after Michael. And as for the absurd claim (by Jamie Foxx, among others) that he was a proud black man...please. Whatever demons were driving him, he was running as fast as he could from an explicitly 'black' identity - maybe even from a male identity. He was obviously a deeply troubled and lonely soul, and the political ambulance chasers and others who are trying to turn him into some kind of civil rights hero should leave him in peace.

[BRS]

In memory of Billy Mays, "Talk of the Nation" did a bit on TV pitchmen yesterday, similar to a discussion we had here a few months ago.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106215513