Read Whatever You Want!

I'm certainly guilty of letting someone else decide what I like. It's a puzzle to me how much we let popular culture dictate what our own personal taste is. It regularly happens with music, I will hear something on the radio and dislike it intensely, but after the thousandth play on the radio waves it begins to worm it's way into my heart. I actively seek it out and belt it out on my way to work, inside the car of course, with my poor sister and niece as my captive audience. Another instance might be a new popular television show that airs teasers on radio, tv, and other social media outlets that I dislike instantly based on superficial examination, but later will try to watch and will add to my list of favorite shows. Books though are an area of my life that usually refuse to let other dictate my taste in. I've always avoided book clubs with an unholy passion, I tend to politely nod when a friend suggests a book but never actually read them. When I began an online book club with a friend where I help pick books to read, imagine my surprise when I couldn't seem to finish the book. My own principles went against me. It took me a long time to read it, well over a month; it usually takes me a day or two at most. Maybe I just don't have the book club mentality?

To Be Scared Sh*&less or Not? **update

I don't usually actively seek out being scared out of my mind but when I added American Horror Story to my queue, I had an inkling of what was coming my way. I've always had an active imagination and paired with horrible sleep patterns, things that go bump in the night equals night terrors, i.e. me waking up screaming. So, last night I began watching AHS with my sister. We only got about a half an hour in to the first episode before she wimped out and headed to bed. I gladly shut it off and returned to watching something else. I would be damned if I would continue the episode on my own despite my curiosity of what happens next. After a night of tossing and turning, replaying certain scenes in my head... I wonder whether I should continue or not? ***update So, I took a break from watching and skipped most of the episodes. Then my sister was watching the last few, in a dark room no less, and I got hooked back in and finished the first season. Was I scared sh*&tless, ultimately no. Now, do I watch the second season?

"Mommy Porn"

Why did you read Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L James? I read it to see what the hype was about. This goes against what I stand for in the most basic sense. I am an advocate for reading what you love, whether it is a cereal box, comic books, or the latest bestseller from Dan Brown. Reading is reading! I have a hard time when I am being told what to read. Just between you and me I've read some erotica in my time and Fifty Shades... doesn't classify as that in my opinion. It is so poorly written. Here are some excerpts: "He’s my very own Christian Grey flavor Popsicle." "My inner goddess is doing the merengue with some salsa moves." "My inner goddess jumps up and down with cheer-leading pom-poms shouting yes at me." "He then starts on my right foot, repeating the whole, seductive, mind-blowing process. He’s going to kiss me there! I know it. And part of me is glowing in the anticipation." "I don’t remember reading about nipple clamps in the Bible." Seriously, yes these are for real. Here is an excerpt from a spoof version of the book entitled: Fifty Sheds of Grey by C.T. Grey. "'Mr Grey?' 'I keep telling you, Olivia, call me Colin. Mr Grey sounds so formal. Now, what is it?' 'There's someone down here in the lobby, Mr Grey. She says she needs to see you. She says it's urgent.' I bite my lip, pensively. She? It must be a woman. 'What's her name? Does she have an appointment?' 'No, Mr Grey, and she won't tell me her name, but she's very insistent. She says she knows you.' I gaze out of the twentieth-floor window at the vast, sprawling metropolis from behind my vast, sprawling desk and frown. Who could it be? 'Very well,' I reply eventually, 'Send her up.' 'Yes, Mr Grey.' I lay the receiver back on its cradle. As I await my mysterious visitor, my steel grey eyes roll around my vast, sprawling office, entirely white from floor to ceiling apart from a mosaic of small monochrome photographs hanging on the opposite wall - my Fifty Sheds of Grey. One of the pictures catches my attention and my manly lips curve upwards into a wistful smile..." "WARNING: Fifty Sheds of Grey contains fifty graphic shed-based images. Please do not look if you are easily offended." It's sad how much more I want to read this and how much better the writing is.

Go Boom!

Really, what is the fuss about Transformers about? Some movies are to be valued only for their pure entertainment worth and the franchise that is Transformers is such a film. It's about freakin' robots for goodness sake! Why do the actors feel the need to diminish the film they are in, in an attempt to defend their artistic integrity. The latest is the actor Hugo Weaving who voiced one of the robots in the film: http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/oct/19/michael-bay-hugo-weaving-transformers. Sometimes I want to watch something blow-up and not have to wonder what lies in the subtext, it's nice to sit-back and tune-out for an hour or so. Who goes to see a movie based off a children's cartoon and expects to see a Scorcese film...

Ted (2012) Can you say Mediocre with a Boston accent?

Was anybody else not impressed with this film? I wasn't...not disappointed just "meh" - shoulder shrugging as I say this - about Ted. I laughed in the appropriate places but it was more like a been there done that kinda laugh. If you are a fan of Seth McFarlane who wrote and directed the film then you might just feel like me.

Fifty Shades of Grey...

"the little-tapped female smut market" This snippet is taken from a review of said book...does it strike anyone else as fabulously hilarious.

New show title that sounds like a Gay Pornographic film

'Inside Men' Premieres on BBCA

Seriously... John Stewart?? I expected better of you!

How can talking about women's orgasms, fluster two comedians: John Stewart and Jimmy Fallon? I am so disappointed. http://www.vulture.com/2012/06/jon-stewart-got-really-uncomfortable.html

Overheard....

"...I'm going to weigh this based on hand measurements..." Totally non-sexual but I gotta go there :)

Wee!!!!

"What if you need a wee though?" tweeted @Benjohncock, to which @isabelwriter replied "Haven't you seen The Secretary? Some things are more important than weeing."

Screwy Ain't It!: B*&%$

Screwy Ain't It!: B*&%$: Does anyone else struggle with the word B*&CH? I do. One of my favorite characters: Lafayette on True Blood throws it around like it's...

B*&%$

Does anyone else struggle with the word B*&CH? I do. One of my favorite characters: Lafayette on True Blood throws it around like it's about to go out of style and I still love him, but I can't bring myself to let that word slip past my lips. Sadly, there aren't any alternatives that get the point across quite as well as that word. B*&ch is a very versatile word, it can be an insult or an affirmation of female power as in "Queen B*&ch." "She is such a *Diva!" or "What a *Shrew!" lack a certain forcefulness that if you replace the * with B&*ch it can propel it into another linguistic category. There can be an almost grudging sense of respect attached to that word. An episode of one of my favorite show centered around a group of four African-American females (now off the air): Girlfriends, devoted an entire episode to that word. The basic premise was that an outsider called one of them a *b*&ch and it made them re-examine their own usage of the word amongst themselves. I think, ultimately they decided to stop using it but it was an unsatisfactory sort of lesson. There wasn't a good alternative that they could find. Does the dual uses of the word b*&ch, both as an insult or suggestion of female power detract from it's usage in pop culture? It does for me...words have a lot of power and I think that this word is a destructive force that takes away from women more than it gives.

Hungover from Hangovers

I just read that they will be making a third Hangover film, this time maybe set in Tijuana, Mexico. So, I’ve decided to re-visit the first film again. I’ve seen it twice before. Once for the novelty and the second time for a special studies class. I haven’t seen the second one yet but will soon. So stay tuned for a review of both films...

Screwy Ain't It!: Review: Snow White and the Huntsman (2012)

Screwy Ain't It!: Review: Snow White and the Huntsman (2012): Review: Snow White and the Huntsman (2012) Dir. Rupert Sanders Stars: Kristen Stewart, Chris Hemsworth and Charlize Theron PG_13 127 min E...

Review: Snow White and the Huntsman (2012)

Review: Snow White and the Huntsman (2012) Dir. Rupert Sanders Stars: Kristen Stewart, Chris Hemsworth and Charlize Theron PG_13 127 min Everyone knows the basic plot of Snow White so I won't get into it. I was not sure what to expect from a re-telling of a fairytale. They are either hit or miss. This was a fairly good film. I enjoyed the look of the film a lot as well as the little bits of humor. The humorous parts are mostly courtesy of the dwarves, including one of my favorite comedic actors: Nick Frost(Paul, Hot Fuzz, and Shaun of the Dead.) There are only two things that I disliked: 1. Charlize Theron's accent (What the F*&% is it supposed to be?) Her pronunciation of "girl" as "gullll" is majorly cringe worthy. 2. The anti-climactic ending Kristin Stewart's barely there smile left me thinking is that all there is...? It's worth a watch for sure, and they are already talking about a sequel.

Stephen Colbert's names for Little Stephen...

"...listing euphemisms for his penis: “Turgid man-root … sway-backed blue-veined throbber … rock-hard loin plough … purple-helmeted groin warrior.”

Slightly Uncomfortable

"We are all absolutely anal here..." -Overheard comment

Provocative Much

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You Sure Can Talk a Good Game

Barbershop (2002)
Dir. Tim Story
Written by Marc Brown
Starring: Ice Cube, Cedric the Entertainer, Eve

Eddie: See, in my day, a barber was more than just somebody who sit around in a FUBU shirt with his drawers hanging all out. In my day, a barber was a counselor. He was a fashion expert. A style coach. Pimp. Just general all-around hustler. But the problem with y'all cats today, is that you got no skill. No sense of history. And then, with a straight face, got the nerve to want to be somebody. Want somebody to respect you. But it takes respect to get respect. Understand? See, I'm old. But, Lord willing, I'd be spared the sight of seeing everything that we worked for flushed down the drain by someone who don't know no better or care.


I have to begin by prefacing this piece with the fact that I am biracial. Or maybe multi-racial is a more appropriate term. Why do I have to express this right off the bat? Because the complicated mystory/herstory that descends from my background gifts me with slightly different view than those who don’t have my background. I struggle with my ethnic identity much as I imagine most people do and even though I identify as both “black” and “white” I know intellectually that I don’t fully understand what these terms mean and probably never will. Whewww…glad to get that out of the way, basically I have a love and hate relationship with films that could be termed African-American films; especially comedies where I literally laugh and cringe simultaneously. Al Sharpton had a few things to say about this film because Cedric the Entertainer makes several jokes that denigrate Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks.

Eddie(Cedric): There are three things that Black people need to tell the truth about. Number one: Rodney King should've gotten his ass beat for being drunk in a Honda a white part of Los Angeles. Number two: O.J. did it! And number three: Rosa Parks didn't do nuthin' but sit her Black ass down!

and then the film does question itself as well:

Jimmy: Eddie, not only is what you're saying not true, it is wrong and disrespectful for you to discuss Rosa Parks in that way.
Eddie: Wait, hold on here. Is this a barbershop? Is this a barbershop? If we can't talk straight in a barbershop, then where can we talk straight? We can't talk straight nowhere else. You know, this ain't nothin' but healthy conversation, that's all.

I think the question of “going to far” concerning comedy will be one that forever exists. When does it stop being funny and hint at deeper social issues or does the fact that it has entered the arena of comedy mean that there has been some progress? I don’t know—and I think that these issues are way too big for little old me.

I found an article that wrote about an interview done on CNN with Ice Cube, the main protagonist in the film, he was there to be interviewed as a rapper but what he says speaks to what I’ve written above. He said:

* “In response to a question as to whether or not rap bears any “social message,” Ice Cube was careful to make a distinction between the occasions when rappers were “just having fun” and the times when they were performing a more serious “social message.” His distinction between informal “play” and more formal “message,” he argued, was apparent to the kids who could “tell the difference” even when their parents couldn’t. He defended rap music’s accountability for what is often seen as violent lyrics by comparing the violence of rap to the violence of film representation “[i]n movies like Terminator and Heat,” for example, “where the violence is visually represented.” Ice Cube’s defense implies that, similar to the violence in films, the linguistic violence in rap music should be taken as representation—performance, play, and perhaps even social message all at the same time; a “theatrical” rather than a supposedly objective or mimetic CNN—and that the performance should not be confused with the performer.”

is that they key? Putting “the performance” in it’s place and not confusing it with the performer?

Barbershops are the property of men; they provide a service to men usually performed by men. It is complicated space, essentially no girls aloud so I’ve never actually been inside one. I remember my brothers used to go to one and come back after a relatively short time (from my perspective—sometimes I would literally be at the hairdresser for five to seven hours, many times they broke combs on my curly/frizzy hair) not looking much different than when they went, having the “edges” done and other mysterious things done that I thought was a waste of time and money. My young self didn’t yet understand that it was more a rite or ritual of African-American manhood or boyhood than anything else.


I was trying to think of what kind of Screwball Comedy or even what genre this could be compared to and nothing was coming to mind until I saw the end of the film. It reminded of a Frank Capra movie, actually, it has the comedy along with some melodrama. Although Barbershop has a few PG-13 rated moments it still is about family, doing what is right, and having the right values. The ending of the movie is schmaltzy and reinforces the qualities listed above. Capra was known for these kind of patriotic, about the “common man,” and generally corny and sentimental films. Capra directed two movies that had definite screwball tendencies; the most famous is It Happened One Night, and Arsenic and Old Lace. Barbershop can be compared to Capra’s film because it is a comedy with heart or soul rather, it idealizes nostalgia and the credo that if you work hard you can attain the American Dream, while also saying that if you go the other route you will be unsuccessful.

I don’t have much to say about language in this film. It is mostly composed of insults exchanged back and forth between the barbershop crew. I will end with a quote because I feel ill equipped to write about the complicated issues that arise when talking about African-American Language. Dr. Geneva Smitherman, a linguist and educator, known for her advocacy of African-American English; she has written several books on the history and significance of African-American English.

**“Let’s rap/wrap it up. Docta G has shown that Black folk have always already been pushin the language envelope. Black folk have been fightin on all fronts, the physical, geopolitical, metaphysical, philosophical, aesthetic, religious, political, ideological, psychological, spiritual, symbolic, economic, hermeneutic, academic, linguistic, iconic, and more. Through all of these wars, we have managed to maintain a sense of ethics, humanity, dignity, and sanity. Damn! We talkin bout folk who simply refuse to die. Don’t even talk about givin up! What manner of people DO WE BE? Protean. Always already in struggle, al- ways already beginning some new shit, conceptualizing some new order of things, some other/alternative/unheard of/unimagined/ unexplored reality and mode of being. We bees doin da unthinkable. Must be magical and real. We always pushin. Whether its remaking and reconfiguring some superimposed language, creating musical instruments from some old found object, doctoring up a traditional in- strument, because you know we gotta hear that twang and chromatic sound, or pushin the bounds of what it means to be human and democratic, we up on it, way out in front. Blusing. Bopping. Moving. Rapping. Hip Hopping. Historicizing. Morphing. Always in the process of red-shifting, even when we be down. And, yes, LANGUAGING. We are still in process. What next? Can’t be sho. But I’ll C U when WE get there. As Docta G says, stay tuned”

*Rap's Unruly Body The Postmodern Performance of Black Male Identity on the American Stage by Saddik, Annette J.
TDR: The Drama Review, Volume 47, Number 4 (T 180), Winter 2003, pp. 110-127

** Geneva Smitherman: The Social Ontology of African-American Language, the Power of Nommo, and the Dynamics of Resistance and Identity Through Language by Yancy, George.
The Journal of Speculative Philosophy, New Series, Volume 18, Number 4, 2004, pp. 273-299

Pillows Singin’?

Pillow Talk (1959)
Dir. Michael Gordon
Written by Stanley Shapiro and Maurice Richlin
Starring: Doris Day, Rock Hudson, Tony Randall, Thelma Ritter

Brad Allen: Look, I don't know what's bothering you, but don't take your bedroom problems out on me.
Jan: I have no bedroom problems. There's nothing in my bedroom that bothers me.
Brad Allen: Oh-h-h-h. That's too bad.

Pillow Talk is the quintessential late 50s and 1960s sex comedy. My parents were very strict about what they let us watch when we were youngsters; but this film slid by because even though it is a sex comedy the sex is absent. The motion picture production code was still being enforced but it was losing power and would soon end in 1968. This film was a definite departure from Doris Day’s former movie persona. She was the blond blue-eyed girl next-door and in this film she was the blond blue-eyed career girl next-door.

It is difficult for me the modern-day movie-viewer, desensitized as I am, to look at this film and find it risqué but I did find a bit of trivia that said Rock Hudson turned down the film a few times because it was too risqué for his image. Sex comedies are definitely connected to SC they deal with many of the same elements in similar ways. Marriage, and the pursuit of it is still a major theme and is the goal of those of the female persuasion. I am surprised that this is still the goal in all romantic comedies whether it is explicit or implicit.

Alma: If there's anything worse than a woman living alone, it's a woman saying she likes it.

“Talk” or dialogue is the mainstay of Pillow Talk; this is definitely a battle of the sexes theme and a lot of the film’s dialogue is a back and forth between the main protagonists Jan (Day) and Brad (Hudson). I noticed that Doris Day’s dialogue about sex is only sung. She sings the title song “Pillow Talk”:

Pillow talk, pillow talk
Another night of hearin' myself talk, talk, talk, talk
Wonder how it would be to have someone to pillow talk with me
I wonder how
I wonder who

Pillow talk, pillow talk
Another night of bein' alone with pillow talk
When it's all said and done, two heads together can be better than one
That's what they say
They always say

All I do is talk to my pillow
Talk to my pillow, talk to my pillow
All I do is talk to my pillow
Talk about the boy I'm gonna marry someday
Somehow, some way, sometime

Pillow talk, pillow talk
Another night of gettin' my fill of pillow talk
You and I both agree there must be a boy, must be a pillow
Must be a pillow-talkin' boy for me
I hope I'm right
I'd better be right…


and then on the road-when Brad and Jan are escaping to the country for a weekend she sings to herself a song titled:

“Possess Me”
Hold me tight, and kiss me right, I’m yours tonight.
My darling, possess me.
Tenderly, and breathlessly, make love to me, my darling, possess me."…

Much scholarship has been done on the image and idea of Doris Day as a virginal figure and thinking back myself on the films I’ve seen of her this is not true. In fact in another pairing of Rock Hudson and Doris Day she has a baby out of wedlock. So, why does this idea still permeate popular culture, it might be because she never explicitly deals with sex. Either she is made a sex object by her potential partner or she modestly sings the songs above and renders them neutral by context or vicinity? Singing these lines instead of saying them turns them into submissive and passive statements. This is one way that Day doesn’t fully fit the bill of a true SC female protagonist. Can you imagine Hildy Johnson singing to Walter Burns in His Girl Friday? It definitely would have changed the flow and dynamics of the screwball genre if they added singing to them.