Seeing the video for Alanis Morrissette’s “Thank U,” above, released ten years ago today, is probably the closest I’ve ever gotten to a religious experience while considering a piece of popular art.
Entries Tagged 'Gender' ↓
Baring All.
October 6th, 2008 — Gender, Music, Music Video, Pop Culture, Religion, Sex, TV
Can’t Truss It.
September 16th, 2008 — Culture, Entertainment, Gender, Music, Race, Youth
O.K., friends: The world got just a little bit bigger today. Thanks to my high school friend, Angela Renee Simpson—no singing slouch in her own right—I now know the name of countertenor Matthew Truss, an ’06 Boston Conservatory grad, and apparently one of the hottest new talents out.
If, like me, you get to the opera about once a kalpa, or you confuse the word “countertenor” with “counterterrorist,” prepare to be stunned by Mr. Truss’s rendition of “Addio, addio miei sosprir,” from 18th century Bavarian composer Christoph Willibald Gluck’s opera, Orfeo ed Euridice.
The video is from the Intermezzo Foundation’s Elardo International Opera Competition this past summer in Brussels, at which Truss won the $5,000 Jerry Hadley Award. While you listen, remember: Your eyes do not deceive you.
Hit the Dance Floor Before the Books
July 30th, 2008 — Advertising, Black Music, Dance, Gender, Race, TV
It takes a lot for me to watch white people dance with Black people and forget that I’m watching white people dance with Black people. Target’s “Happy Together” spot, agencied by Wieden + Kennedy Portland (of NIKE fame) and directed by Mike Maguire, doesn’t come close, but may be pointed in the right direction. (YouTube has it linked to the screenshot, above. However, I’d suggest you check out the QuickTime on the Coloribus.com web site, which is, as well as being clearer, downloadable.)
And since you’ve been wondering, the sexy track and video is “Calabria 2007” by Enur feat. Natasja.
Also, did you notice the line we just crossed?
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Wife Beaters.
July 3rd, 2008 — Gender, Politics, Race
Keeping an eye on the Michelle Obama-haters as they wind up their catapults, slings, and arrows? Michelle Obama Watch collects the links so you don’t have to do so.
For example, did you catch this piece, above, from late last week, depicting the Divine Mrs. O as a cantankerous, neck-wagging waitress? Or, what’s up with this photo of the candidate’s wife, below, showing mad thigh?
Michelle Obama Watch looks for the dolts, critiques them, and keeps track of the naysayers. Should be worth staying tuned.
Hillary Clinton and Feminism: Nothing from Nothing Leaves Nothing.
June 17th, 2008 — Controversy, Gender, Government, Politics, Race
While most mainstream media size up Hillary Clinton’s historic presidential campaign as a boost for feminism, University of Maryland School of Law professor and civil rights attorney Sherrilyn A. Ifill takes an opposing position: That New York State Senator’s rise to power has been, in fact, “very traditional.”
“In some ways,” says Ifill, “Mrs. Clinton, contrary to her public image, is a kind of throwback to the 1950s.”
Coming Next in the Series: Harry Potter & the Order for a Bigger Rack
June 16th, 2008 — Advertising, Children, Controversy, Entertainment, Film, Gender, Sex, Youth
Now you don’t, now you see ’em: The Potter posters
Marketing is an immensely subtle practice today, exerting its influence over narrower and narrower realms of sensory focus, but this is absurd: Apparently, Warner Bros. marketing execs for 2007’s Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix decided that, for the movie’s IMAX version poster, Emma Watson needed something witchcraft couldn’t give her 14-year-old character, Hermione Granger: Bigger boobs. Continue reading →
