Author: jeffreychrist

Music Box: Dolly Parton – Legendary Sparrow

Dolly Parton People Cover

Too often, early in her career, too much emphasis was focused on Dolly Parton’s facade, rather than her music. That always irked me. Remove the glitz, de-glimmer the glamour, abandon the wigs, and disregard the tits (and forget the plastic surgery) and what you get in Dolly is one of the singular greatest forces of nature in the history of Pop or Country – not only a singer for the ages, but a songwriter nonpareil.

Of course the world recognizes Parton’s unabashedly proud garishness. As Stephen Sondheim once wrote, “You Gotta Get A Gimmick”. But unlike the siren strippers in GYPSY, Parton was never dependent on gimmickry as a pathway to mega-stardom – she merely sprinkled it on a little something extra. And, too, no one cannot depend on such stratagem on the path toward iconic status. It takes a helluva lot of genius and talent to back up such hosannas.

And for nearly 5 decades and going strong, Parton has made a comfortable home upon the mountaintop of Country Music and sustained where few have – living immortality.

Country music is one of the purest of American art forms and Parton its Norman Rockwell, for few have been able to paint such archetypal songscapes that would require an elongated scroll utilizing the most revered superlatives.

Already established as a Country Music icon, even in 1977, she was slowly penetrating Pop culturism (to the extent that “Pop Culture” existed in 1977) – countless TV appearances, film, and even adding Pop and Disco to her musical oeuvre (“Here You Come Again” and “Baby I’m Burning” respectively, as examples). The force still hasn’t stopped – happy for us.

Parton’s popularity has never waned across the world. In 1977, she appeared on the popular West German music show Der Musikladen (which was the continuation of the defunct Beat Club). The extraordinary thing about watching these clips – over three decades past – is how astonishing Parton’s voice has remained almost exact. Her vocals have aged in knowledge only – but that timbre, that soul, that range and that innate lovability, even in the face of adversary – remain astonishingly clarion-like.

Enjoy this rare and enchanting concert~

Parton covers Jackie Wilson’s 1967 soul classic, which was recorded for her #1 Country album, 1977s NEW HARVEST…FIRST GATHERING~

Dolly sings the title song of her 1976 album ALL I CAN DO; both the album and the single reached #3 on the Billboard Country Album charts and Singles charts respectively~

Dolly performs the classic title song from her 1974 album JOLENE; the song reached #1 in 1973 before the album was released. It is ranked #217 on the Rolling Stone magazine’s list of “the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time“.

“My Tennessee Mountain Home” was a #15 Country Hit and the title track from her 1973 album of the same name, which hit #19 on the Billboard Country Album charts.

“Do I Ever Cross Your Mind” was a song that Parton wrote and performed in the 70s but never recorded until the early 80s (on her HEARTBREAK EXPRESS album) and reached #1 on the Country charts in 1982 as a double-A side companion to her re-recording of “I Will Always Love You” for the soundtrack of THE BEST LITTLE WHOREHOUSE IN TEXAS.  Here, Dolly performs the song in it’s regular “45RPM” speed, then at “78RPM”. Delightful.

“Coat Of Many Colors” was a #4 Country hit, released from her #7 Country album of the same name. Released in 1971, it remains a staple in her live shows and displays, early on, in depth and in detail, what an astounding songwriter Parton is.

“Apple Jack” is a cut from Parton’s #1 Country album, 1977s NEW HARVEST…FIRST GATHERING~

“Light Of A Clear Blue Morning”, in the original incarnation of her #1 Country album NEW HARVEST…FIRST GATHERING, is my favorite Parton song. Her vocals soar, the melodies morph from bittersweet contemplation to eventual exaltation. Oddly, it only reached #11 on the Country charts. Parton re-recorded the song twice, to lesser degrees; first for the soundtrack of her 1992 film STRAIGHT TALK, then again for her 2004 ‘spiritual’ CD FOR GOD AND COUNTRY.

“I Will Always Love You” is Parton’s signature masterpiece. Nothing needs to be said of it.

“Getting In My Way” is a track from Dolly’s #1 1977 NEW HARVEST…FIRST GATHERING LP.

“Me and Little Andy” is a track from Dolly’s mega-successful pop-crossover LP, 1977s HERE YOU COME AGAIN.

“How Does It Feel” is a track from Parton’s #1 1977 NEW HARVEST…FIRST GATHERING LP.

Dolly closes the show with “Holdin’ On To You”/”The Seeker”,  a medley of two tracks from two Parton albums. “Holdin’” is taken from Parton’s 1977 NEW HARVEST…FIRST GATHERING and “The Seeker” is a track from her 1975 DOLLY: THE SEEKER/WE USED TO.

Veterans Day: Ask, Tell

As the pungent odor of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’s stank still permeates the air of our great nation, I dedicate this blog post to the often forgotten or discarded – our gay brothers and sisters in arms.

But I  didn’t want Veterans Day to pass without the acknowledgment of ALL our service members – I wish and hope for ALL our veterans – our straight ones and gay ones, the men and the women, the fallen and the living – a content life of peace and harmony. You define bravery…intestinal fortitude…and, most of all, hero.

*****

(Photos link to original)

When I was in the military, they gave me a medal for killing two men and a discharge for loving one… ~ Leonard Matlovich

Soldiers who are not afraid of guns, bombs, capture, torture or death say they are afraid of homosexuals.  Clearly we should not be used as soldiers; we should be used as weapons.  ~ Letter to the editor, The Advocate

 

We often take for granted the very things that most deserve our gratitude… ~ Cynthia Ozick

Brave rifles, veterans, you have been baptized in fire and blood and have come out steel! ~ Winfield Scott

 

This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave… ~ Elmer Davis


Older men declare war. But it’s the youth who must fight and die… ~ Herbert Hoover

I dream of giving birth to a child who will ask, “Mother, what was war?” ~ Eve Merriam


In the beginning of a change, the patriot is a scarce man, and brave, and hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot ~ Mark Twain

You can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake ~ Jeannette Rankin

The more we sweat in peace the less we bleed in war ~ Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit


In war, there are no unwounded soldiers ~ José Narosky

Idiot Box: Bully

photo courtesy AfterElton.com

(update: photo added 11.10.10)

*****

I love GLEE, of course, but I don’t often write about it here on my blog. Usually, I save it for the character-limited posting on Facebook, but tonight’s episode was worth pondering. This week’s episode finally addressed bullying, so prevalent in the modern consciousness due to the recent tragic suicides due to gay bullying.

As one would surmise, GLEE, which probably has the gayest audience of any show not on Bravo, would be the perfect forum to address such a potent and timely (and important) topic.

But, I don’t know.

As a bona fide and proud GLEEK, I’m not attempting to take a higher road here, or bash one of my weekly treasures. Even its worst episodes (e.g. the Madonna debacle) are sprinkled with moments of pure exhilaration and joy. But no one turns to GLEE – as magical as it can be at times – for realism.

But lack of reality isn’t even the issue here (sorry I went off on that tangent). No, my main objection, if you will, is the dispassion in its otherwise passionate response to bullying: bullying was – and still is – a major punch line of the show. Its usage as comic relief was always a misstep and miscalculation (one of a few, but not many) and frequently lent a cruel undertone that negated its effectiveness of inclusivity.

The writers can’t expect us to accept two tiers of bullying – on one hand, it’s okay for the dumpster dumping or the slushy in the face or Puck insinuating that he had thrown Artie down a flight of stairs.  Hahaha, hilarious. On the other, it’s treated as cruel, vicious and devastating when the only gay kid repeatedly gets pushed into the locker by the (closet case) football thug (and cruel, vicious and devastating it is).

There should not be – and can’t be – any lines of acceptance. It would be foolish to prejudge the future, I know, but the writers will have to prove their sincerity by not treating the subject as comic fodder moving forward.  They can no longer afford to.

One thing is indisputable, though. No one – sane, anyway – could argue Chris Colfer. As a novice, Colfer easily could morph into campy overload, but he rarely does. Often, his character is an unlikeable, snarky, persnickety curmudgeon – who can easily be a bully in his own right, but with words, not fists. Yet, Colfer is such a tremendous talent that even at his most unlikeable, you can’t help but love him. And, in this season especially, this ‘novice’, this ‘newbie’, continues to out-act and outshine everyone else on the show. When Colfer was nominated for an Emmy this year, I wrote:

“…rarely has the angst, fear, confusion, terror and finally, unmitigated joy of a gay teen coming out to himself, his friends, and a parent been so splendidly and perfectly portrayed…”

His extraordinary performances this year will surely garner him another Emmy nod – if not a win.

A few more random notes on the episode:

  • Even though you saw the ‘shocker’ kiss coming, it didn’t lessen the impact..
  • Also, I was reading how Dave “stole Kurt’s kiss!!!” How ridiculous – and insulting. A real kiss has to be mutual – Kurt didn’t reciprocate, he recoiled.
  • Sadly, tonight’s musical numbers were arguably the show’s worst yet (the sweetness of “Teenage Dream” notwithstanding).
  • Most irking, though, is the almost weekly incessant exploitation of having Janice the Muppet’s human doppelganger, Sam, shirtless AGAIN, this time with a near slow-mo gaze at his washboard torso. It’s not necessary, GLEE, to use this boy’s body to satisfy the gaggle of gay men surely salivating at their screen.

  • Many might complain about the kiss between Will and Bieste but I thought it was a beautiful gesture, handled elegantly and gallantly. There was no confusing emotions there – Bieste understood the innate response of Will’s action. “Now you’ve had your first kiss” was reminiscent of when Joey kissed Phoebe in FRIENDS because she’s never had the “perfect kiss” before she hit 30.
  • It’s starting on the blogosphere already – not a few hours after the show ended – that over-saturation of name morphing that might have started with the dreaded “Bennifer” all those years ago. Yep, now we’re getting “Blurt” – the combination of “Blaine” and “Kurt”. And it’s not the 13 year old girls starting this moniker – it’s grown men. And it’s overtly annoying. But, what’s not annoying (so far) is adorable GLEE newcomer Darren Criss, who played Blaine, Kurt’s new confidant/possible love interest. His “Teenage Dream” was inspired and sweet and was the musical highlight of the night.

Music Box: Stevie Nicks – Lady In Red

MIRAGE

Released in 1982, after a short hiatus following the successful TUSK tour, Fleetwood Mac’s MIRAGE brought them back to the #1 spot on Billboard’s Top 200 chart, something that eluded them since 1977s mega successful RUMOURS LP, which remains one of the Top 5 selling albums in history.

The first single was the Christine McVie/Robbie Patton-penned “Hold Me”, which reached #4 on Billboard’s Hot 100, and remained there for almost 2 months (it was the 31st biggest single of that year).  With McVie’s husky, smoky delivery and her impeccable gift of writing great pop melodious gems, “Hold Me” remains one of Fleetwood Mac’s most indelible classics.

In the summer of 1982, with temperatures reaching more than 100 degrees, director Steve Barron (who had recently directed the classic video “Don’t You Want Me Video” for the Human League) took Fleetwood Mac to the Mojave desert to shoot the video for “Hold Me”;  the video, like so many other videos from that era, makes little-to-no sense, especially when married to the song.  John McVie and Mick Fleetwood goofily “play” archaeologists unearthing ancient guitars. As Christine spies through a telescope,  Lindsay paints Stevie in the blistering heat, then Stevie paints Stevie in the blistering heat, who then in turn, traipses across the desert in her red platform boots carrying her canvas.  It was/is all quite ridiculous, but the video was a huge hit for MTV at the time and remains a fan favorite.

Barron directed other classics of the early days of music videos, such as a-ha’s “Take On Me” and Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean”, but “Hold Me” is inexplicably left off of his Wikiepedia page.

In this rare behind the scenes dailies, Barron directs a breathtakingly beautiful Stevie Nicks for some of her scenes in the video.  Stevie’s was the only footage I was able to unearth. The clapper board dates this as June 24, 1982.

Feast your eyes~

Music Box: John Lennon – Still Watching The Wheels

JohnYoko-canvas-print2-500x663

I cannot remember a time in my life where I could sleep in silence. To drift into timelessness, there must be the delicate sounds of human language…music never helped either, and still doesn’t…it has to be conversations in the dark, like angels converging in my timespace. Now, and since the genesis of my adulthood, I sleep with the television playing old reruns through the night (until Rob comes to bed and shuts everything down), but as a teen, with no TV in my room, I would drift into dreamland by listening to talk radio or, in many cases, the local all news station.

And I heard it in the middle of the night, awoken while listening to New York’s all-news 1010 WINS…and I was paralyzed. Was this a nightmare? I tended to drift between reality and dreamscape, sometimes unable to momentarily grasp the difference between the corporeal and the intangible dreams…

No, this had to be merely the night terrors, brought on by the incessant tick-tick-ticking of WINS’s archaic background sound effects. I jettisoned out of bed, ran to the bathroom, splashed my face with water and sighed, lumbering back into the sanctuary that was my bed on the floor. But I had to be sure. So, I listened again.

And I wept in the silent hollow of the night. How can John Lennon be dead?

The next school day was a day of mourning, as students and fans sat around the piano in the auditorium singing the songs the world knew.  No one could believe that he was gone…murdered…why a man who lived his life for peace and love would be so mercilessly executed. In hindsight, and to anyone not born of that time, this might all seem a bit idealistic, but it served the youth of the world back in the prehistoric, pre-Internet era of 1980.

It’s unfathomable that almost three decades have passed since madman Marc David Chapman put a bullet through the very fabric of an era.

The world lost not only a philanthropist, but those who loved his music, his philosophy and his inherent goodness also lost a fabric of their innate being.

And, more tragically, a woman lost a husband and a little boy lost a father.

The abundance of tracks that were recorded during the sessions that begat the John Lennon/Yoko Ono classic DOUBLE FANTASY were supposed to be released  successively as sort of companion pieces, and in January of 1984 – four years after Lennon’s slaughter – Ono finally released MILK AND HONEY, accumulating John’s songs from those sessions with her (mostly) new songs.  Musically it was a strange dichotomy – Lennon’s sonically unfinished tracks were hardly masterpieces, though there were some gorgeous moments. Ono’s newer tracks hinted at a more contemporary feel while subsiding (though not totally) her usual avantgardism for a more Pop sheen (though hardly Pop).  Juxtaposed as the same call and response schematic as DOUBLE FANTASY, MILK AND HONEY, at times, loses a coherency.  And I admired the collection for these exact reasons. Reviews were mixed, and many pondered the motives around Ono releasing this material (she talks about such in the interviews below).

For over four decades, Ono’s unfairly been a pariah to psychotic Beatles fanatics, Lennon-ologists and journalists, and still, to this day, by muttonheads who stupidly continue to espouse the “SHE BROKE UP THE BEATLES!!!” mantra like the 33 of “Revolution #9” played on 78 (forget that some of Lennon’s finest musical seeds were nourished after the dissipation of the Fab 5, thanks to Ono as inspiration).

What was – and is – almost always overlooked was their happily-ever-after. If anything at all, it was indubitable that John & Yoko were passionately in love with each other and  their son, until sadly, what transpired was their Till death do us part.

Certainly, Ono was (and is) not unaware of the conspicuous disdain the majority of the public feels at the mention of her name or the mockery at the suggestion of her musicality – though I’m apt to believe most negative connotations, especially these days, come from a force of habit, as if it were merely common knowledge to loathe her – but she rarely, if ever (and certainly not during this interview) lets her guard down or lets the toxic forces imbibe her tightly sealed bubble (at the time of this interview, she’d had almost two decades of such barrages to have already built up massive invisible force shields).

Some also scoffed because this was a paid interview – Robert Christgau, the Dean of American Rock Critics, was commissioned to interview Ono by Ono herself, for this promotional film for MILK AND HONEY.  In his weekly Village Voice Consumer Guide, dated March 24, 1984, Christgau wrote:

“* * * Attention * * * Disclosure * * * Attention * * * Before the goddamn Times finds out, I’ll do the apparently honest thing and note that I was paid by Yoko Ono to interview her for a promotional film she’s making about Milk and Honey. I took the job well after (and only because) I’d fallen for the album, though the interview clarified my ideas about it. For a while I considered not reviewing Milk and Honey, or keeping my opinion off in some discreet corner, but in the end it seemed stupid, not to mention ethically dubious…”

Christgau gave MILK AND HONEY an “A” grade in his Village Voice Consumer Guide.

Besides Yoko, Christgau also interviews Sean, who at the time was a precocious 9-year old, wise beyond his youth. But these interview segments are fairly brief, and woven with home movies of Lennon and Ono and Sean (some of the footage I’ve never seen) that are both wondrous and heartbreaking. They exist as aural and visual paintings – from “Nobody Told Me” to “Borrowed Time,” to “Grow Old With Me” to “I’m Steppin’ Out.” Presented almost as music videos, these are rare glimpses of a sojourner’s happy past and present that numbs in the realization that he – and we, and Yoko, and Sean – were robbed of a spirited, almost assuredly monumental, enchanted future.

Happy 70th Birthday John~

Part 1 of MILK AND HONEY:

Part 2 of MILK AND HONEY:

Music Box: Stevie Nicks Rocks A Little

*****

Interviewed in Los Angeles, on May 11 1985, a few months before the release of her 3rd solo LP ROCK A LITTLE, Stevie Nicks – the Rolling Stone-anointed “Queen Of Rock & Roll” – takes on a myriad of subjects.

In part 1, Stevie discusses the hopefully-imminent release of ROCK A LITTLE and what that means, working with her band and the recording of a few of the tracks in a Dallas church, with Jimmy Iovine, music videos (at this point, the first single wasn’t even chosen – eventually it was “Talk To Me”, which hit #4 on Billboard’s Hot 100) and touring, the surge of women in Rock N Roll that year and how Fleetwood Mac helped her become the rock star she is and how they protected her as “the little sister.”

In part 2, Stevie discusses her influence on other artists and how she hopes that, through her energy – if not her singing – those artists could learn something; her fashion influences (Madonna gets out of such comparative influences easily, Prince does not!), the admiration she has for up-and-coming newbie Cyndi Lauper’s strength and Tina Turner’s tenacity and fortitude. She also happily discusses her back-up singers Lori Perry and Sharon Celani (and “Minnie” – you have to watch) and how having them as friends and support make her life so much easier, and the relations and alleged competition between women in general, in music and in life.

She also discusses where her passion for her love of painting comes from, how it sedates her and grounds her and how it’s never been an innate ability or desire until only a few years prior.  She opens up about how this passion started due to the sickness of her friend Robin (whom she doesn’t mention by name) and how she started drawing so, when Stevie could not be with her, the image of her drawings kept them connected.  She “summons” Sister Honey for the interviewer (which can be seen in the next part of the video), a painting that has become a favorite over the years for Nicks’ fans.

The video is damaged around the 7 minute mark in part 2, but it’s only briefly – and you can still hear the audio.

In the final part, her painting Sister Honey is brought into the room and Nicks explains her origins and again states that this is all (painting, that is) still very new to her. Stevie is then asked about her “book that is coming out”, called “The Wild Heart” and its contents:

“A lot of poetry, it’s some journalistic stuff; it’s a lot of the actual nights of recording of THE WILD HEART and the experiences that happened during that 2-3 year period. There are some things from my Fleetwood Mac stash of 10 years of writing….the real essence of that isn’t in this book because that’s a book in itself…it’s my life, and it’s very honest.”

The book has a lot of “advice” and “philosophy” and a way to “give a little bit more of me”.  She’s “very excited about them (her fans) receiving it” more than actually putting it out. (We fans have been wishing for years for any book from Stevie – but sadly, “The Wild Heart” was never published.)

She talks about what she does in her down time – which is a foreign concept to her. She’s been working non-stop for over a year and a half, and hopes to take a vacation when it’s over. She talks a little about love, and the possible resurrection of Fleetwood Mac and the bond they share…and how she liked Christine McVie’s solo album and loved the video for McVie’s “Got A Hold On Me” video.

Before the interview is over, Stevie wants to add an an addendum to her earlier philosophy of love, and how she doesn’t want anyone to misinterpret that it’s an  impossible ideal – she does believe one can find it…one just has to look hard.

Idiot Box: MTV VMyAwn…

*****

I watch music videos for a living. While that’s generalizing and simplifying the exact context of my work, it’s the bottom line. So while I can dispute the winners of last night’s MTV Video Music Awards with a flair of knowledge, it’s best to understand that to argue is a moot point. The “best” videos are rarely the winners, and even rarer, ever nominated.  So, we take what it is at face value (as with most awards shows) and pretend we’re content with what has become the ‘norm’.

The show itself was a promise of a better-than-usual affair. I haven’t watched a full VMA in years – precisely because I’m often loath to succumb to its pop-culturism.  Chelsea Handler as hostess (the first female host since Roseanne Barr helmed the 1994 cheese-apalooza) was a sign that perhaps MTV has finally stopped taking itself seriously. Handler is part of the pop culture machine, but more as an agitator…skewering the very machination she’s a part of with an undeniable fervor and abandon. While comediennes like Kathy Griffin relish dishing on the D-List society we dumb-downed Americans have sadly embraced wholeheartedly (e.g. the Kate Gosselin’s of the world, the Khardasian’s, the Britney’s, the Lohan’s, etc…), her innate adoration of those targets is palpable.  Handler seemingly genuinely and deliciously disdains. So, when she risked her very health by dipping into the Jacuzzi with the sub-humanoid denizens of the Jersey Shore cast at one point mid-way through the show, it was simultaneously to partake in the absurdity of their pop culture ascension and to obliterate it with an intelligent irony those morons could never understand.

The aforementioned better show promise barely materialized. While Eminem’s opening medley of “Not Afraid”/”Love The Way You Lied” was a stunner (even with “surprise guest” Rihanna’s atonal droning on the latter), he skipped the rest of the ceremony to fly back to the East Coast for his concert with Jay-Z, hence unable to accept the few awards he won.  And why saddle Lady Gaga as the most nominated performer in VMA history only to have her sit out the performances?  She’s an attention whore, we get it, but her outrageous shock-frock’s are a tired cliché and it’s been played out ad nauseum for nearly two years running already, so her nightmare runway sashays with every Moon Man she collected doesn’t really count (I should add that, while no fan of Gaga’s retro-90’s Club MTV musical leanings, her steadfast stance and intestinal fortitude on basic equal rights is incontestable. By showing up with 4 American soldiers – heroes – recently discharged under our governments heinous Don’t Ask Don’t Tell as her ‘dates’, she’s not only educating the youth masses of the injustices within our flawed system, but the hypocrisy of President Obama’s confounded positions on said rights).

The performers of the night were hit or miss (mostly miss). We all learned back in 1992 that WHITE MEN CAN’T JUMP, but who knew that white boys also couldn’t sing!? Or dance? Or best/worst of all, even lip-synch? So, salutations, Justin Bieber, and thanks – your poorly mimed “Baby”/“Somebody To Love” was unintentionally comical enough, but losing your drumstick during that solo was the cherry on top! Meanwhile, Bieber’s sensei Usher’s proclivity toward a Michael Jackson hierarchy is taxing – he’s too far into his own career for the incessant terpsichorean mimicry.  His (also, frustratingly, lip-synched) medley of his “DJ Got Us Falling In Love”/“OMG”, while visually all razzle, was far from a dazzle, despite it’s TRON-meets-KILL BILL milieux.

While I’m betting that hipsters the blogosphere over were rejoicing after Florence + the Machine’s FELLINI SATYRICON-like performance of her Vid Of The Year nominee “Dog Days Are Over”, it was dynamic and ethereal – the evening’s most vivid recital.  The Drake/Mary J Blige/Swizz Beatz Rat Pack-inspired take on Drake’s “Fancy” was fanciful in ideal, not necessarily in execution – though Mary’s perfect imperfections are always a joy to behold…even though she (finally) learned how to sing a few years ago, it’s that rampant almost-punk aesthetic that always trickles in which takes the non-believers like me to church.

Instantaneously, I was impressed that MTV and TLC agreed on a cross-channel agreement until I realized that, no, it was not the lost member of LITTLE PEOPLE, BIG WORLDs Roloff family in Little Richard drag tinkling at the ivories, but R&B sensation Bruno Mars, which begat Atlanta’s latest superstar B.O.B.’s “Nothin’ On You”, before segueing into “Airplanes” with Haley Williams of Paramore. We learned earlier that Williams and B.O.B. never met before the VMA rehearsal (technology allowed their recorded duet to happen), and it couldn’t have been more apparent. Williams was Paramore-less during their “Only Exception”. Linkin Park headache-inducing attempt to stop their spiraling descent into irrelevancy with “Catalyst” was, well, loud and, let’s face it, ludicrous – there’s never a cliche these nimrod’s don’t like to hold tightly.

But lest anyone foolishly believe otherwise, the 2010 VMAs leant no creed to anything as inconsequential as, say, the winners (it never is, though Gaga took home 8 Moon Men), nor even about the fashion which, due to the frivolous insignificance of the award itself, is usually this show’s main metier.

Nope – nothing else meant anything – not on this day – the 1st anniversary of Taylorgate!!! A year ago, West morphed from pompous talented blowhard to pompous talented douchebag blowhard in an instant swoop – by bum-rushing the stage (inebriated, no less) as Swift accepted her Best Female Video Moon Man and proclaiming (correctly, I might add, at least historically) that Beyoncé was robbed of the statue.

West’s only ‘crime’ was classless, sure, but in the realm of MTV, his statement was hardly erroneous. Perhaps “Single Ladies” wasn’t “…one of the greatest videos of all time, of all TIME!”, as he stupidly clamored, but it certainly is one of the medium’s all-time greatest hits – it remains its own zeitgeist even almost two years later – probably unarguably the most parodied – mimicked, homaged, revered – in this YouTube age. And MTV, as noted earlier, is almost always about the “most popular”, so its loss to Swift’s teenage ramblings was a head-scratcher at the very least.

Meanwhile, West’s actions jettisoned Swift into stratospheric new heights. Already a crossover country superstar, she became the poor rich little white girl attacked by the drunk, scary black man – America went bonkers and suddenly Swift became the most famous victim in the country and became a megastar, a household name.

Flash-forward a year – and incalculable West apologies – later, and the controversy’s come full circle. All eyes, ears and even the noses of the gossip hounds, the blogosphere, the press and viewers, were simultaneously glued to MTV – the world seemingly waited with an inflated inhalation.

Swift’s public statement wasn’t nearly as provocative as it could have been; in lieu of an incendiary verbal scolding, “Innocent” approached the topic more with a condescending finger-pointing of a mother reprimanding her child with lessons-to-be-learned affirmations:

It’s alright, just wait and see, your string of lights are still bright to me
Oh, who you are is not what you’ve been
You’re still an innocent
It’s okay, life is a tough crowd
32 and still growing up now
Who you are is not what you did
You’re still an innocent

Solipsism was always West’s best friend so “Runaway” seeped of his favorite subject of course, but despite the heralded chorus, independent of the controversy you’d never know that there was a controversy to begin with:

Let’s have a toast for the douchebags, let’s have a toast for the assholes
Let’s have a toast for the scumbags, every one of them that I know
Let’s have a toast for the jerk-offs, that never take work off
Baby I got a plan, runaway as fast as you can…

But delving further, he, uh, “sings”:

Used to find pictures in my e-mail
I sent this bitch a picture of my dick (he censored himself and sang “HEY”)
I don’t know what it is with females
But I’m not too good at that shit (see above)
See I could have me a good girl
And still be addicted to hood rats
And I just blame everything on you
At least you know that’s what I’m good at…

You couldn’t find an insinuation to Kanye/Taylorgate with a fine-toothed comb, but that won’t stop the masses from trying.  Remember, again, West didn’t hobble on stage and pull a Chris Brown on Swift last year – merely stated his belief in an ugly manner. He offered no musical apologies, nor did he owe one (to anyone other than Swift).  What MTV did was build the controversy to a fever pitch (they announced his “comeback” throughout the program) and, hoping West would sequel Swift’s earlier part 1, he instead displays an action that is perfectly aligned with his history – he makes it all about him  Such is the genius of Kanye.

That the much-anticipated water cooler redemption was as arid as dry ice (spoken in brief, almost passing tones this day after) it was a lost moment for a possible pop culture landmark.

So, instead of elongating the already prolonged feud, it ended with last night’s anti-climax.

Besides, who would’ve thought that the topic of conversation today would be this:

Let it suffice to say that Lady Gaga is not the new white meat.

Idiot Box: It’s Brittany, Bitch!

On the NY Times home page today, photographer Todd Heisler gives us a behind-the-scenes slideshow of the upcoming season of GLEE with 21 stunning photos of the cast and crew on the set.

Here’s one of Heather Morris on a break, cycling around the studio lot:

photo by Todd Heisler/The New York Times

For the rest of the photos, click HERE.

The season premiere of GLEE is Tuesday September 21 on FOX.