Michael Jackson Open Thread
Michael Jackson died today at the age of fifty. Over the course of his lifetime he sold a reputed 750 million albums and had an immeasurable impact on popular music. He was also accused of molesting children. Discuss.
Question of the Day
What is your favorite anthropomorphized inanimate object from the big (or little) screen?
I have a soft spot in my heart for Mr. Window from Pee-Wee's Playhouse. Sure, Pee-Wee's place was full of talking furniture and things, but I can't help but love a grinning, cheerful window. "Hey, Pee-Wee! Here comes the King of Cartoons!"
He's closely followed by Jo Anne Worley's wardrobe from Beauty & the Beast.
For All the Little Birdies on J-Bird Street
Despite being a kid in the '80s when Michael Jackson was reaching stratospheric levels of success in his solo adult career and every other kid I knew was obsessed with him, I was never much of a fan. Never owned a Michael Jackson album, not even Thriller. But I must have listened to my 7-inch single of the Jackson 5's "Rockin' Robin" like nine million times on my Scoobie-Doo record player:
Maude, how I loved that song.
And I found it indescribably cool that it was sung by a kid who grew up just down the street from me.
Quote of the Day
"Obama wants you to—he—the best way to put it—and it's working—he's trying to kill spirit. All this 'hope' and 'change'—he's trying to kill it. ... So [Sanford] up and leaves for five days, doesn't leave anyone in charge of the state in case there's an emergency. This is, this is almost like, 'I don't give a damn—country's going to hell in a handbasket; I just want out of here.' He had just tried to fight the stimulus money coming to South Carolina; he didn't want any part of it; he lost the battle. He said, 'What the hell. I mean, I'm—the federal government's taking over—what the hell, I want to enjoy life.' ... Before Obama takes away their money, before Obama takes away their house, or the economy takes away their house, there are people who are simply saying, 'Hell with this.' They've tuned out."—Rush Limbaugh, putting forth his theory that Governor Mark Sandford went crazy and it's President Barack Obama's fault.
I strongly encourage you to watch the video or read the transcript of the whole thing, because it is some amazing full-tilt fuckery, even by Limbaugh's usual standards. (Keep your eyes peeled for a Clenis shout-out!)
[Full transcript below.]
Obama wants you to—he—the best way to put it—and it's working—he's trying to kill spirit. All this 'hope' and 'change'—he's trying to kill it. You know how many frustrated Americans there are out there at what's happening?
This Sanford business: I've got to tell you, one of the first thoughts that crossed my mind with Mark Sanford, just, this was the first thought: What he did defies logic. This was, this, this is, this is, this is more than being hundred and eighty degrees out of phase because of lust, love.
To split the scene for five days—and we know he's been separated. And he knows, by the way, that the newspaper in his state has the emails between him and his, uh, and his concubine down there in Argentina—he knows this. He knows that somebody knows what's going on. He knows his wife knows.
So he up and leaves for five days, doesn't leave anyone in charge of the state in case there's an emergency. This is, this is almost like, "I don't give a damn—country's going to hell in a handbasket; I just want out of here." He had just tried to fight the stimulus money coming to South Carolina; he didn't want any part of it; he lost the battle. He said, "What the hell. I mean, I'm—the federal government's taking over—what the hell, I want to enjoy life." First, one of the first things, I thought.
Now today he's saying he doesn't want to give up office; he wants to stay in office, but— [long sigh] Even Charles Krauthammer said this is, this is like self-inflicted political suicide. And it, it certainly appeared to be.
The point is, there are a lot of people whose spirit is just—they're fed up, saying, "The hell with it. I don't even want to fight this anymore; I just want to get away from it."
Time to check in on email: "Rush, are you, are you kidding at this, this theory of yours about Sanford?" No! I'm not—my first thought was: He said, "The hell with this. The Democrats are destroying the country, we can't do anything to stop it, I gave everything I had to stop it here in South Carolina, my wife's left me—the hell with it! I'm gonna enjoy life, what little time I've got left!"
Folks, I'm—there are a lot of people that are looking at life, they're saying, "Screw it." They're saying, "Screw it." And before the governm—before Obama takes away their money, before Obama takes away their house, or the economy takes away their house, there are people who are simply saying, "Hell with this." They've tuned out. "The hell with it—I'm just gonna try to enjoy this as much as I can."
And they're thinking about—well, of course, he—have you—do you know how many people—Clinton was in Argentina the other night, from what I'm told. I frankly think that this is what's wrong with the, uh, with the economy today. I frankly think a whole lotta people just lost their spirit!
Michael Jackson Hospitalized
Celebrity gossip site TMZ is reporting that pop singer Michael Jackson has been rushed to an L.A.-area hospital. "[W]e're told it was cardiac arrest." The site also says they've have spoken with Jackson's father who says "he is not doing well."
You know, the other day I heard the Jackson 5's "I'll Be There" in some TV commercial. All I could think at the time was "Damn, that kid really could sing."
Here's to wishing him a safe and speedy recovery.
UPDATE: As I was leaving work, NPR was reporting Jackson in a coma. By the time I pulled into the driveway, they'd reported him dead. Most sources are reporting he passed away this afternoon, though, as I understand it, there's been no official word from the family, the hospital, or the police.
I hope he's found the peace that seemed to allude him in this world.
EDITED: I've always loved this video and song. Hard to believe it's over twenty years old.
Michael Jackson: Dirty Diana
[H/T to InfamousQBert]
One Woman Is Bad, But Women Are Awful
My head is being done in at the moment by the juxtaposition of these two posts at Jezebel: Are All Female Friends Really Frenemies? and Woman Confronts Husband's Mistresses: Modern Closure, or Old-School Drama?
The first is a book review of novelist Lucinda Rosenfeld's I'm So Happy for You, which is about a woman whose best friendship, such as it is, is centered around her obsessive jealousy of the friend. Anna, who reviews the book, says it "makes female friendships seem like a supremely unpleasant, never-ending status game" and notes: "Rosenfeld paints the relationship between Wendy and Daphne—and indeed, between Wendy and all of her girlfriends—as so negative and competitive that you wonder why any of these people spend time together." She's left wondering if "Rosenfeld's point is that female friendship is inherently toxic."
The second is a piece about writer Julie Metz, who discovered after her husband's death that he had had affairs with five other women, and decided to track them down and confront them, then wrote a book about it: Perfection: A Memoir of Betrayal and Renewal. Notes Sadie at Jezebel:
Now, normally, we wonder, what about the husband? He's the one who had five known affairs, did so with your best friend, and seems to have been an asshole to boot? Of course, because he's dead, she "couldn't ask him." But what's interesting is, even when the husband is very much on the scene, this is how the thinking often goes: the Other Woman gets blamed. It becomes about an act of betrayal of female solidarity, a far worse crime than a man's peccadilloes. Ms. Metz's book, Perfection: A Memoir of Betrayal and Renewal, has become a bestseller. I wonder if part of what appeals to people is the removal of the ambiguity: here's a case where it's appropriate to totally blame the other woman—because there's no alternative!Except, of course, for how it's not appropriate to totally blame the other woman, because Metz's husband having died doesn't retroactively expunge his culpability in the affairs. It does, however, leave him unavailable to yell at, so Metz instead yelled at the women: "What did you think you were doing, getting involved with a married man with a kid? You weren't really thinking about me, were you? How would you feel if some woman did this to you?" One of them had been a close friend.
I don't really have anything brilliant to say about wither piece individually; I was just struck by how the ubiquitous narrative that female friendships are always compromised by competition plays out in both of these pieces. Constantly, we are offered examples of female relationships gone awry, until the overarching message about women in our culture is: One woman is bad, but women are awful.
Mostly to each other.
That's so not my experience with women. I love my girlfriends; I love working with women; I've loved working for women. I love so, so many of the female Shakers, who are overwhelmingly generous and supportive and not remotely reminiscent of the catty, competitive, sniping stereotype of any woman within 12 feet of another.
There are women like that. I find far fewer of them in feminist communities. That's not a coincidence: Women who don't hate women, don't hate women. Imagine that.
What The Hell?
Deeky, aged 20 (or so.)
What the hell was I wearing? What the hell is up with my hair?? What the hell was I thinking??? What the hell????
(If you've a ridiculous and/or embarrassing photo of yourself from your youth, please send it to shakerwhatthehell_at_yahoo_dot_com. I'll post them up as a new series called What The Hell? so everyone can laugh
Wow.
Hal Turner is behind bars.
Today, FBI agents went to the New Jersey home of white supremacist blogger/radio host Hal Turner and arrested him “on a federal complaint filed in Chicago alleging that he made internet postings threatening to assault and murder three federal appeals court judges in Chicago in retaliation for their recent ruling upholding handgun bans in Chicago and a suburb,” according to a statement released by the Justice Department. A summary of Turner’s dangerous tirade against the judges:Honestly, I have to say I'm shocked that someone is finally being held responsible for threats and calls to violence. I was kind of expecting a lot of wingnut shrieking about the First Amendment and that evil boogeyman The Fairness Doctrine, but they're probably too busy distancing themselves from him.Internet postings on June 2 and 3 proclaimed “outrage” over the June 2, 2009, handgun decision by Chief Judge Frank Easterbrook and Judges Richard Posner and William Bauer, of the Chicago-based 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, further stating, among other things: “Let me be the first to say this plainly: These Judges deserve to be killed.” The postings included photographs, phone numbers, work address and room numbers of these judges, along with a photo of the building in which they work and a map of its location.
As the Nation has pointed out, Turner has ties to Fox News’ Sean Hannity. In fact, Hannity has “offered his top-rated radio show as a regular forum for Turner’s occasionally racist, always over-the-top rants.” Hannity would also reportedly offer Turner “encouragement” to overcome his cocaine habit and “homosexual leanings.”Perhaps we can start holding others responsible when they incite violence, hmm?
[...]
UPDATE: In 2008, Hannity tried to claim that he had never heard of Turner, but eventually said that he had "banned" him from his show 10 years ago.
I realize it's much more media-friendly to arrest a white supremacist than it is a prominent pundit, but what's it going to take?
A Tale of Two Stories
One Republican who came to prominence in the '90s grows up a little:
South Carolina Rep. Bob Inglis made a name for himself in the late 1990s as one of Bill Clinton's most zealous pursuers, an impeachment "manager" who attacked the moral failings of the president with a gusto that earned him a devoted following in the staunchly conservative "Upstate" of conservative South Carolina. But with his governor now felled by similar temptations, Inglis sees an opening for the Republican Party, a chance to "lose the stinking rot of self-righteousness and "to understand we are all in need of some grace."And another Republican who came to prominence in the '90s is still the same old buttfor:
This is not "Bob Inglis 1.0," the one that was a "self-righteous" expletive, he said in an interview with Washington Wire today. It is a Bob Inglis that is, if anything, more Christian, more attuned to the Gospels, he said.
…Unfortunately for him, the attitudes of "Bob Inglis 2.0" are not all that popular among many of the voters who once adored him. He now has five primary candidates fighting his re-election, and another conservative independent, should he clear the primaries. "They want me to walk around saying I am the paragon of virtue," Inglis said. "But that is unrecognizable to the Gospels."
Ralph Reed, the Republican operative who built the Christian Coalition into a potent political force in the 1990s by mobilizing evangelicals and other religious conservatives and who did similar work to help George W. Bush win two presidential elections, is quietly launching a group aimed at using the Web to mobilize a new generation of values voters. In addition to targeting the GOP's traditional faith-based allies—white evangelicals and observant Catholics—the group, called the Faith and Freedom Coalition, will reach out to Democratic-leaning constituencies, including Hispanics, blacks, young people, and women.Welcome to line his pockets—because he sure isn't in it for the actual ideology, as his deep involvement with the Abramoff scandal made plain.
"This is not your daddy's Christian Coalition," Reed said in an interview Monday. "It's got to be more brown, more black, more female, and younger. It's critical that we open the door wide and let them know if they share our values and believe in the principles of faith and marriage and family, they're welcome."
But there are conservatives who will fund Reed from here to Kingdom Come and back again just because he says the right stuff—Faith, Freedom—and claims to be a paragon of virtue despite mountainous evidence to the contrary. Meanwhile, a conservative who can now say publicly at long last that he's not perfect and maybe a little tolerance is in order is being challenged for his seat by five other candidates.
GOP: Your problems, nutshelled.
RIP Farrah Fawcett
Actress and icon Farrah Fawcett has died at age 62 after a long battle with cancer.
Fawcett died at 9:28 a.m. PST on Thursday at St. John's Heath Center in Santa Monica, Calif. She was with longtime partner Ryan O'Neal, friend Alana Stewart, friend and hairdresser Mela Murphy and her doctor Lawrence Piro. She had recently returned to St. John's for treatment of complications from anal cancer, first diagnosed three years ago.In 1984, Fawcett starred in the made-for-TV movie The Burning Bed, a landmark in raising awareness about domestic violence.
"She's gone. She now belongs to the ages," O'Neal tells PEOPLE.
...[Fawcett's career began when she set off for Hollywood from Texas.] Quickly noticed by casting agents, she began landing small parts in forgettable movies, such as 1970's Myra Breckinridge, based on a gender-bending novel by Gore Vidal. Her role: an ingenuous blonde.
In 1973, Fawcett married actor Lee Majors, forever known as Col. Steve Austin on TV's The Six Million Dollar Man. Three years later, she appeared in the cult sci-fi film Logan's Run and began her stint with costars Jackson and Jaclyn Smith on Charlie's Angels. Well-coiffed and scantily-clad, the threesome created an instant sensation, with a weekly following of 23 million fans.
Rest in peace, Farrah.
Good News
Supreme Court Says Child's Rights Violated by Strip Search:
In a ruling of interest to educators, parents and students across the country, the Supreme Court ruled, 8 to 1, on Thursday that the strip search of a 13-year-old Arizona girl by school officials who were looking for prescription-strength drugs violated her constitutional rights.Justice Clarence Thomas was the lone dissenter (again), and contends that majority's finding "second-guesses the measures that educators take to maintain discipline 'and ensure the health and safety of the students in their charge'." Except for the health and safety of the 13-year-olds getting strip-searched, I guess.
The officials in Safford, Ariz., would have been justified in 2003 had they limited their search to the backpack and outer clothing of Savana Redding, who was in the eighth grade at the time, the court ruled. But in searching her undergarments, they went too far and violated her Fourth Amendment privacy rights, the justices said.
See Scott and Amanda for more on the ruling.
In Which I Fall for Antonio Banderas. Again.
In 1991, I was making my way through the foreign section of my local video store, which was the closest thing I had to actual culture as a 17-year-old in a small exurban town, which is how I came to see a film called ¡Átame!, with the English title of Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!, by a filmmaker I'd then never heard of, Pedro Almodóvar.
This was before I had the ability to seriously critique the film, but after I was raped, and I had decidedly mixed and confused feelings toward a love story about a stalker who is released from a mental hospital and the drug-addled porn star he holds hostage. I came away from the film certain of quite possibly only one thing: My huge crush on Antonio Banderas.
It wasn't so much that I found him attractive, although I did, but that I found him deeply compelling. He interested me, and, when next I saw him two years later, in Philadelphia, he interested me still.
In the interceding years, I haven't seen everything he's been in (I'm sorry, Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever, but just no), though I've seen a lot of them. He's been in some great films and some real dogs—and frequently I find him the best thing about a film in either case. He hasn't lost his capacity to captivate me.
All this time, I've never learned much about him. I've seen his promotional spots for UNICEF and St. Jude's, which is cool, but I've never seen or read many interviews with him or articles about him. So I was interested when Shaker SapphireCate sent me the link to this interview with the note: "I don't know much about Banderas, but if this interview is any insight, he seems like a class act."
And so he does. I honestly can't recall the last time I read an A-list male actor say he was attracted to a project because it gave him the opportunity to work with a female director: "Plus, working with [director] Mimi Leder. She is someone I admire very much and it just reconfirmed that I love to work with women." I've maybe never read that at all.
It was also refreshing to see a male lead speak admiringly about his co-star, the wonderful Radha Mitchell, as a complicated person, rather than engaging in the typical faux-flattery of pretending an actress is perfect, which ultimately reduces her to a cardboard cutout.
And it's always nice to see someone say something like: "The last eight years of Bush were very hard. I don't want to get into a deep analysis of what everybody already knows, but the situation deteriorated our world."
But this is really great:PW: Was [potentially being typecast as gay for playing gay roles early in your career] ever a big concern for you?
I almost can't imagine a more disparate response from the "menz are gross and prickly!" bullshit that is the typical response of any straight actor who kisses another man on film. It's interesting to see how people can pardon you for murdering a man, but they can't pardon you for kissing one. Well, that about sums it up, dunnit?
Antonio: I felt very early on in my professional life that where there were limits, there shouldn't have been limits. I remember in "Law of Desire," where I played a homosexual, that people were more upset that I kissed a man on the mouth than I killed a man. It's interesting to see how people can pardon you for murdering a man, but they can't pardon you for kissing one. It's a very interesting approach to morality in our days, so you see there is an incredible amount of hypocritical judgment over those things.
Movies You Can't Netflix: Max Headroom: 20 Minutes Into the Future
Max Headroom. You remember him, don't you? He was everywhere in the eighties. He had a couple TV shows, he was in commercials for New Coke (Ha!), appeared at the Superbowl, at Reagan's 1984 inauguration and even sang a new wave tune. Well, he didn't sing, he just stuttered his way across an old Art of Noise track, but it was a big hit anyway.
Max began his career as a VJ on the BBC introducing Duran Duran videos and cracking wise in his synthesized staccato, making him a lot like Martha Quinn, but with a personality. But you can't just throw a computer-generated host (albeit a fake one) on Britain's TV screens and not expect people to ask questions. You might be able to get away with that in America (According to Jim has been on the air here for eight years and no one's so much as batted an eye) but across the pond, they're a curious lot.
In the UK, people wanted to know where this guy came from. So this film was produced to give him some back story. The result is an odd cross between Blade Runner and Network.
Edison Carter is the world's most famous reporter, working for Network 23. When he stumbles onto a story the network wants buried, Carter nearly ends up dead. It seems the Network's new advertising scheme, blipverts, are causing viewers to spontaneously combust. Need less to say, they can't allow this story to get out.
An overzealous computer engineer tries to put an end to Carter's snooping by bonking him on the head and selling his body to the local organ resale outfit. The sudden disappearance of Network 23's star reporter might arouse suspicions, so Carter's face and memory are dumped into a computer. The idea here being this simulacrum will take Carter's place and no one will be the wiser.
Unfortunately, the new Carter is a hyperactive, glib chatterbox who bares little resemblance to his progenitor, or any actual person. Things go from bad to worse when the computer containing the new Carter falls into the wrong hands and the real Carter wakes up and escapes from the body bank.
The computer falls into the hands of Blank Reg, a grizzled sixty-something punk with a pirate TV station broadcasting from an old Winnebago. Reg hooks up the computer and releases the creation onto the airwaves, and thus Max Headroom is born. "Max headroom" was the last thing Carter saw before blacking out, as he got his head smashed into a sign in a parking garage, and it's the first thing he utters when booted up. (Later in the TV series, the same thing happens to another character who takes on the name Ped Xing.)
So Network 23 has a whole mess of problems: Their advertisements are killing people. Carter is back from the dead and even more determined to find out what they're hiding. Max Headroom is loose and mouthing off, and pulling in excellent ratings.
20 Minutes into the Future is an interesting example of the early cyberpunk genre, a group of films that remains relatively small. This is probably the only cyberpunk film that is a comedy. There is some tension and drama, but most of the action is played for laughs. Max himself is essentially a wisecracker, and little is done to mold him into anything with more depth.
Clearly the film owes plenty to Blade Runner and its dystopian landscape of urban decay. Max Headroom's London is a rotting, crumbling metropolis, overrun with homeless, and rife with Scottish organ thieves. It's certainly ahead of its time. Cyberpunk film really didn't come into its own until the mid-Nineties, with Johnny Mnemonic driving the proverbial nail in the coffin before the genre really got off the ground. It wasn't until The Matrix trilogy that cyberpunk gained any respect, and by then no one really cared, and certainly no one was calling it cyberpunk any longer.
You know, it's hard to get too enthusiastic about a soulless world built on shallow simulation and instant gratification when you're actually living in one. But in 1985 a world of invasive technology, corrupt multinationals, and computer hackers seemed fun. Twenty-five years on, the novelty has worn off.
Despite being a bit ahead of the curve, this film is still a product of the times: The score is by Midge Ure of Ultravox. The computer graphics are decidedly Commodore 64. And Max, well, he's not even computer generated. He's actually Matt Frewer in prosthetic makeup. Technology in 1985 wasn't advanced enough to actually create a computer-generated person, so the filmmakers had to fake one.
There are none of the Eighties' hallmark Day-Glo headbands or parachute pants, but that's not dystopian. No, that's the stuff of utopia.
Still?
I can't believe the anti-choicers are still on the "abortion causes breast cancer" kick.
"Susan G. Komen for the Cure is no friend of women," said Karen Malec, president of the Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer. "Komen perpetuates the breast cancer epidemic by withholding the truth that abortion increases breast cancer risk. We have three challenges for Komen.Leaving aside that there are legitimate criticisms to be made of SGK4Cure (and let's genuinely leave that aside in this thread, please), among them is not that SGK4Cure "perpetuates the breast cancer epidemic." And possibly the reason SGK4Cure will "duck the debate" is because there is no debate.
"First, we challenge Komen to debate the abortion-breast cancer (ABC) link with us at the next Catholic Health Association (CHA) meeting or another venue. Since science is on our side, we expect Komen will duck the debate, as others have.
The largest, and probably the most reliable, single study of this topic was done during the 1990s in Denmark, a country with very detailed medical records on all its citizens. In that study, all Danish women born between 1935 and 1978 (a total of 1.5 million women) were linked with the National Registry of Induced Abortions and with the Danish Cancer Registry. So all information about their abortions and their breast cancer came from registries, was very complete, and was not influenced by recall bias.Such things are much easier to ignore when one doesn't believe in science, I guess. Unless, of course, science (or one of its alleged ambassadors) can be used to support anti-choicers' continued assertion that there is a link between abortion and breast cancer:
After adjusting for known breast cancer risk factors, the researchers found that induced abortion(s) had no overall effect on the risk of breast cancer. The size of this study and the manner in which it was done provides good evidence that induced abortion does not affect a woman's risk of developing breast cancer.
Another large, prospective study was reported on by Harvard researchers in 2007. This study included more than 100,000 women who were between the ages of 29 and 46 at the start of the study in 1993. These women were followed until 2003. Again, because they were asked about their reproductive history at the start of the study, recall bias was unlikely to be a problem. After adjusting for known breast cancer risk factors, the researchers found no link between either spontaneous or induced abortions and breast cancer.
The California Teachers Study also reported on more than 100,000 women in 2008. Researchers asked the women in 1995 about past induced and spontaneous abortions. While the women were being followed, more than 3,300 developed invasive breast cancer. There was no difference in breast cancer risk between the group who had either spontaneous or induced abortions and those who had not had an abortion.
Joel Brind, endocrinology professor at Baruch College, City University of New York, argued that donations to Komen may be doing more harm than good because childbearing is known to offer significant protection against breast cancer and Planned Parenthood deprives women of that protective effect.Interesting fact: Childbearing is considered to offer some long-term protection against breast cancer, but in the short-term: "Breast cancer risk is increased for a short time after a full-term pregnancy (that is, a pregnancy that results in the birth of a living child)."
Suffice it to say you won't find that in any anti-choicer press releases.
[H/T to Mr. Petulant.]
I Write Letters
To Whom It May Concern:
I am not interested in reading emails exchanged between Governor Mark Sanford from his private account and the woman with whom he was having an affair. I am also not interested in seeing anyone doing dramatic readings of them (*cough* Keith Olbermann *cough*).
Unless they contain state secrets or criminal plots against American citizens, they are none of my business. And they're none of yours, either. They have nothing to do with policy, fitness for office, intellectual consistency, or misappropriation of taxpayer funds, all of which are legitimate issues warranting and demanding serious discussion, from which gawking at exposed intimacies is a damnable distraction.
This would be my position if the politician in question were Democrat, and it is my position given that the politician in question is Republican.
I am, however, curious how someone got access to the governor's personal email account to leak the emails to a newspaper, and why that newspaper held onto them for more than six months if they were planning to publish them at all.
Sincerely,
Liss
Question of the Day
Who's your favorite movie robot?
Riding into my favorite spot on a tandem bicycle are R2-D2 and Optimus Prime, who I love despite Michael Bay's Transformers adaptations. I mostly love him from the animated Transformers: The Movie, which is superior in every way to Bay's live-action two-hour GM commercials.
