Are The Bushes Irony-Deficient?

Billy Bush takes Entertainment Tonight to task on integrity.

People in glass houses...

Catlike Closet Queen Claims Impartiality

How else can you describe this quote from Shepard Smith?

"There's a perception out there that we have a horse in the race, that we're the right-wing channel...You know, man, (what is this, 1978?--Hikaru) I work here. Hannity's right-wing and he's proud of it, and we have some conservative viewers, but our news is just the news . . . or I wouldn't be able to sleep at night."

Fortunately, I'll be missing all this crossover coverage, because I will be trying to remember where on Sunset Boulevard, Ralph's is so I can get a bottle of plum wine.

Notes from Milwaukee

Firstly, who would buy exercise equipment from a man who is overweight?

Secondly, what does it say about the state of the area's economy that the majority of the adverts on local television are for the following:

• Injury lawyers
• Deep discount stores and programs
• Weight-loss schemes

Friday Jukebox Says Pagent Hair Is International

(Case in point: Monrose--the Popstars band who tried to represent Germany last year.

Great staging. Everything else is a bit too...well, OTT.




And apparently the tacky whore look is popular worldwide as well.

Strictly Physical
Uploaded by waytoblue

Seemed oddly appropriate to select a style over substance theme for today's jukebox.

Can't imagine why.

Oh Fuddle Duddle

Fine, I'm voting Clinton and hoping Edwards gets a major position in her administration.

It's Not Like We Didn't Know (New York Edition)

Pharmacist who helped supply NYPD officers with steroids found dead in an apparent suicide.

Let's break this down:

A pharmacist who supplied NYPD officers--who most likely know about staging--with steroids just happens to wind up dead.

Dick Wolf, once the strike is over, you have your season finale.

The Last Sunday in January

And I decide to try my hand at podcasting.

Inspired by a conversation I had recently with a friend of mine in respect to modern life and the political process. You might notice that all of a sudden I flip into a Southern accent. It's a quirk.

Download it here.

Either it's still 1975 or 1995 in Estonia

Judging by their selection for this year's Eurolaul. (Listen to the songs on the left, "Kuula eurolaule")

Not necessarily complaining, because 9 of these songs are quite good, and genres run the gamut from ska to easy listening, but it does sound like ETV's criteria this year was pastiche.

It also helps that Mr. Sexpot of the Baltics himself, Kristjan Kasearu is back with his band Paradise Crew.

I Don't Know What To Say

Namie Amuro has two new videos out, and from a technical standpoint they're good.

but...

Well, they're tied to this Vidal Sassoon campaign about 1960s/70s style (maybe 80s as well), and she's sampling Motown.

Not only that, she's sampling The Supremes and Aretha Franklin. BIG HITS (Baby Love and Rock Steady) too...in Patricia Field costuming no less.

Now, I am happy that more people will be exposed to these songs (well Rock Steady at least, I think there might be a few people out in the Amazon who have never heard Baby Love), I just...I don't know...it seems a little too calculated and shallow. You be the judge. Admittedly, I'm a curmudgeon.

Bonus: The February* Video Blog featuring my reaction to Ms. Amuro's homage.




* I'm trying to do these on the first of the month, but this particular February 1, I'll be traveling, so it's best to get it in early.

Thursday Jukebox Loves Jason Walker

(As an anecdote to the "celebrity death reminds me that the world is mean" coverage...I liked Brokeback Mountain but Ledger was not Harry Hay, he wasn't even Alfred Kinsey)

I stumbled across Jason Walker on the late lamented Q Television Network, and have enjoyed his work since.

Here he is on QTN's Flesh & Threads (a cute, but very LA concept of a show)



And here's his latest (and possibly first ever) music video: I Can't Get You Off My Mind




My name is Hikaru, and I love house music, especially as performed by men with falsettos.

Food for Thought: Mark Steel

From the Conclusion to Vive La Revolution:


For today's establishment, the French Revolution provides proof of the mayhem that reigns when those who talk of equality get their way. Which is why I get the impression we're not supposed to like it very much...every reference to the revolution as nothing but carnage is a warning--leave things as they are, these people who ask you to
protest about things might seem well-intentioned, but if they get their way it will be
heads on pikes around the fountain at the shopping mall.

For the establishment relies on passivity, the very opposite of revolution. For a kaleidoscope of reasons, most people most of the time choose not to confront the injustices on the planet. Even when they do, their suggestion is invariably that a different president, or chairman of the World Bank, would possibly be fairer. The last group that anyone considers should run society is themselves.

Beware people who talk about uniting as a way to absolve others of their sense of guilt.

Saturday Jukebox Salutes The Nevada Caucuses

With a Mika Nakashima tribute... (Can you guess the connection?)

Without question, she has a great voice, but her performing style seems to be from the Juliette Lewis school of training.

Mika Nakashima - One Survive Live
Uploaded by loluly

Nonetheless, she does come up with the most visually striking music videos...

Mika Nakashima - Crescent Moon
Uploaded by bunnylike

Mika Nakashima - Legend
Uploaded by JMFvideo

...Even if she still acts like Goldie Hawn circa 1969 in some of them

Mika Nakashima - Love Addict
Uploaded by AntiFlag607

And Mika can rock...sort of

Mika Nakashima - Glamorous Sky
Uploaded by chupa0chups

Thursday Jukebox SMAPs You Upside The Head

I'm going to go ahead and admit this potentially embarassing aspect of myself: I like SMAP. I own several of their albums, and I always liked the fact that they (or at least Johnny's) always made musical choices which seemed to be funkier and a little bit more mature than the standard boyband/idol genre would suggest--especially in Japan. I even used to have (and still have a soft spot for) crushes on Tsuyoshi & Shingo.

That being said, I wonder if the guys (you certainly can't call them "boys" these days--I'm younger than Shingo and "boyhood" left me in 2000) are beginning to show the strain of being tied together for so long. Now, I'm only stating this based on reading body language, since I'm not privy to the gossip rags and blogs that somebody living in Japan would be.

Nonetheless, here's Exhibit A, a retrospective from Music Station of SMAP's hits from 1991 to 2003. I don't know if the SMAPers are either tired, embarassed, or just over it, but they don't necessarily seemed all that enthused by glancing back at their past.




And now, here's Exhibit B: The group's recent appearance at last year's Kouhaku (think the Japanese answer to Eurovision). My kingdom to find out what they were thinking while performing. (Tsuyoshi: Stop blocking me! I'm popular now! Shingo: Move it, Inagaki! I'm trying to sing my bit. Goro: I'm still pretty, right? Takuya: I'm not the one singing flat. Nakai: Money!)



Exhibit C: The video for Dear WOMAN. Now, while there's no question that this song is more about praising the women of Japan as opposed to praising the SMAPers themselves, I can't help but wonder as to why the video is shot with each of the guys singing their bits solo. I know they're busy doing tons of things on their own, but is it that tricky to get them all in a studio together? Or at least shots of them doing something together.

SMAP - Dear WOMAN [PV]
Uploaded by NaitomeaGazetto

Exhibit D: A live performance of Dear WOMAN, which--for me--seems to have that energy in it that was around Take That right before they announced that they were knackered and bored with each other. The fact that the SMAPers are eerily wearing the same 1970s inspired haircuts as Take That did around 1995-6, might be a reason. It also isn't the most cohesive performance beyond dancing. (I don't remember a SMAP song being this heavy on Tsuyoshi & Shingo, not that I'm complaining.)

dear woman 2
Uploaded by lannalis

Exhibit E: (And I swear I am going to be well and truly SMAPed out after this) The video for Dynamite, a 1997 single which seems to show the lads at least appearing to have fun together.

SMAP - Dynamite [PV]
Uploaded by skanel

Exhibit F: (I guess, one can never SMAP too much) The presentation of their latest single on their TV show SMAP x SMAP. The ending conversation is quite funny and passive-agressive, like a group of old men (not that I'm saying they're old!) who love bickering with each other.

Exhibit G: (I swear on Nakai's receding hairline this is the last one) The unintentional hilarity that is Five Respect, which features the SMAPers rapping and praising each other while doing their utmost to actually avoid each other onstage.

Despite all the previous, I still like the SMAPers, and hope they're around for quite sometime. (Supposedly, they have another single coming out in this Spring.)

Lift Every Voice And Sing

For those unfamiliar with Lift Every Voice & Sing, the black national anthem:





Performed by Kim Weston at the 1973 Wattstax Festival in Los Angeles.

The United Belgian States of America

Today is the actual birthdate of Martin Luther King, Junior (as opposed to the "holiday" on next Monday--which to be honest, I have problems with, since like Memorial Day, most view it as a day off, not a day to reflect upon Dr. King's work and how we have progressed/failed), and once again, I find myself convinced that as a nation, we are continuing to step further and further away from equality.

But wait, don't we have a white woman and a black man vying to become president?

Yes, we do.

Isn't that a sign of progress?

Not if they (and their attack dogs) spend time sniping about semantics surrounding the work of Dr. King. And by the way, in 1972, Shirley Chisholm tried to run for president, I think that was inherently more gutsy and revolutionary than anything either Hillary or Barack have done.

As I see it, the United States is a country where the residents of many different ethnic backgrounds continue to live in relatively separate communities and viewpoints that occasionally intersect, but for the most part are isolated. The only thing that seems to unify us is mere geography. Much like Belgium, I'd reckon.

Three years ago, I went to Palm Springs for my birthday and the flights there and back were quite memorable: At the risk of losing crediblity, I flew first class. (A frivolous expense, to be true, but it was my birthday and I'm a believer in that the flight that one takes sets the tone for the trip itself.) The flights from Chicago to Palm Springs and back were completely full in both cabins. As everyone knows, there is that infamous march that everyone has to do past the first class cabin. Never before in my life have I ever been shot so many dirty looks, which I interpreted as having a racial undertone to them (even if those who threw them did not have that intention).

The fact that I did, speaks volumes for the society and country in which I grew up: How many people out there know that there is a Black National Anthem? How many know about the black upper classes and their organisations and communities? They came about because there was and continues to be a schism between the experiences of white and black America, and there is little effort to address it, lo these centuries later.

As Americans, we like to believe that everybody is equal, and everybody is, but the hardest thing to do is to actually practice that belief. We carry the ideological baggage of our ancestors, whether we accept that baggage or reject it altogether, it is a part of us, and we have to deal with it.

That baggage is everywhere we look in this country: from the demographics of Detroit to those of Ellis Island. It is evident in the fact that there are hundreds of communities with Native American names in this country where the actual Native American population is zero and few people would be hard pressed to actually name the tribe who gave the community its name.

I mention this not because of guilt, but because it is important to actually look at our country, what it is, and how to steer it towards an all-inclusive future cognizant of its past. (I find the term "all-inclusive" a bit strange, personally, as it makes it sound like the US should be some sort of continental Club Med.)

Nonetheless, I hope this actually means that by my deathbed (2101, if I'm lucky), there might actually be a truly United States of America. Sadly, at this point in time, I would not surprise if the status quo persists.

Before I sign off on this, I'd like to leave with this very interesting incident from a post on December 20th by Expat Jane over at Where The Hell Am I? , which I think underlines the fact that there is more than meets the eye when it comes to the reality of American history (read the whole post as well, and the blog, too--it's excellent):

I remember being on the bus when a Korean man was talking to my white female coworker and was simply ignoring me. That was fine as he was drunk, but when he asked her if she was an "American". She said yes and pointed out that I was American too. Do you know this man had the nerve to say "no, I mean an original American." I thought that was funny because 1) the original people living on what is now American soil weren't white people and 2) when you look at the black American population, the majority of black American families have been in the US longer than most white families. There are only a select few white Americans who can claim ancestry from that first wave of British colonists. I can't remember where I read or heard it but basically to make this point a teacher in the US told everyone in her class to stand up. She told them if they had a parent who had immigrated to the US to sit down. She then asked students who had grandparents who'd immigrated to the States to sit down. She continued and the last students standing were the black students. Black Americans come from multi-generational American families, so that "original American" comment made me laugh 'cause that man was simply ignorant, but it shows how much the world at large has bought into the pop culture images that flow out of the States.

I Think We're Supposed To Care

But it's such a manufactured spat, exploiting our nation's still unresolved racial disharmony for personal gain.

Can I Get A Side of Humbled Peacock?

The once-mighty NBC is beginning to get a littl less bombastic these days: what with their ratings being the toilet and now their OTT coverage of the Golden Globes has become a press conference which can be aired by any network who so desires to.

I'm A Touch Horrified

Inside Edition is 20 years old today, according this article in The New York Daily News.

I'm a bit shocked in that:

1. It lasted so long.
2. It still claims newsmagazine status (but then again Entertainment Tonight and TMZ are technically newsmagazines as well).
3. How anyone takes Bill O'Reilly seriously knowing he was the first host of Inside Edition.

Iowa & Mitsuhiro Oikawa

Today is the Iowa Caucus, an event that quite honestly has too much weight given to it--solely because it's the first electoral event of the US primary season. Therefore, Iowans (who aren't really that representative of the whole nation, although in a nation of 300 million plus spread out over a continent, no state is, and is proof positive of the need for the interregional primary system) get to essentially do the first vetting of candidates, and the rest of us (especially those of us who won't be able to vote until after the absurd Super Tuesday) have to do our pickings based on the opinions of Iowa & New Hampshire.

Or to put it in an even more absurd perspective: residents of 2 barely urban states choose the candidates for a majority urbanised nation who will go to the polls in November to participate in an election which is not decided by the popular vote.

In all fairness, I like the quaint notion of the caucus, and for a state like Iowa, it makes sense to have that format. That said, it's no bellwether.

So what does Mitsuhiro Oikawa have to do with this? Nothing really. Much like how Iowa & New Hampshire's status during primary season is out of proportion with the rest of the nation, so is Oikawa's status in relation to this post.

But he is a cute little aging pretty boy, isn't he? (That's him swaying on the left in the video.)

????????????
Uploaded by rosa1987

Fearless Leader's Video Message for 2008

By the way, Anderson Cooper & Kathy Griffin are a brillant pairing.