George Michael Is Going to Jail, and Other News

- Stemming from his DUI arrest this past July, George Michael has been sentenced to 60 days in jail (though he'll more likely only serve half that time).

- A "stripped down" version of John Lennon's 1980 album "Double Fantasy" will be reissued in October to coincide with what would've been Lennon's 70th birthday. Yoko Ono is overseeing the project. (This is sort of old news, but I hadn't heard about it until today so I'm posting it anyway.)

- For all you Michael Jackson fans out there: If you decide to make the trip to the Glendale, CA cemetery where The King of Pop is buried and want to leave a gift, you will now have to fork over $3 for the privilege. 

I Want My MTV

All last week, I was looking forward to the MTV Video Music Awards (which aired last night, 9/12). Yeah, I know...it's for 12-year-olds, so shoot me. But at 10:30 p.m., as I started getting ready for bed, I suddenly remembered: The goddamn, motherf*@#ing awards are on!! I had totally spaced. I rushed downstairs, thinking I'd catch the last half-hour, but because we were already taping both "Mad Men" and "Entourage," I couldn't watch without un-recording one of those shows. I sacrificed the first five minutes of "Entourage" to watch Chelsea Handler get in a hot tub with "The Jersey Shore" idiots (and emerge fake-pregnant--ha-ha, good one), but then turned the TV off, and went to bed. Forget it, I was too late.

What's the big deal, you ask? It's just a stupid awards show on a stupid channel with stupid shows and no videos, you say? Okay, you have a point...but I happen to love videos. Always have, always will.

"I want my MTV!" was music television's slogan in its early days, but it was also my most desperate wish. My grandmother, who lived in the next town over from us, got cable in the early 80's and therefore had MTV. Our more-upscale town, however, thought cable would rot our brains so they held out for years. No MTV for us.

As a result, when holidays came around and my family went to Grandma's house to celebrate, my brother and I (13 and 12 years old respectively) would park ourselves in front of the TV/MTV for six hours straight. I'm surprised my parents allowed this, but I guess they figured the silence was better than non-stop whining: "PLEEEEEEASE, can we watch MTV? PLEEEEEEASE?"

By age 12, I finally had outgrown the little-girl music I was previously obsessed with (Shaun Cassidy, Leif Garrett), and the videos on MTV--the first I'd ever seen--hit me like a ton of bricks. I was mesmerized by them: trying to figure out how exactly something could "Hurt So Good," examining Billy Idol's sexy lip curl as he rasped "Hot in the City," and watching a delicious Michael Hutchence circle that banquet table in "The One Thing." I'm sure there were some chick videos on, too, but I don't remember those.

Thus began my addiction to videos. It was hard to get my fix without cable or MTV, but luckily, the Boston area had a crummy local VHF channel, V66, that aired videos during certain time slots. They played some of the same videos as MTV but also gave local bands air time. I saw 'Til Tuesday's "Voices Carry" on V66 way before the song was a massive hit. Other Boston bands didn't hit it as big, but it doesn't mean they weren't good. Check out the video for Face to Face's "10-9-8," which I only ever saw on V66. (How hot are her red boots, by the way?)

I still watch videos whenever I can. At the gym, I often forgo my IPod to watch NYSC's video channel. If I have to suffer through Christinia DeBarge (could she really be the evil spawn of the DeBarge of the 80's?) to see the new Ting Tings vid, it's worth it. I even occasionally watch videos On Demand. (I mean, really, who does that?)

George Michael's "Faith" Is Being Reissued (the bathroom jokes may now commence)

On September 27th, Sony Music is reissuing a remastered version of George Michael's 1987 album, Faith, in the U.K. Various formats will be offered, including a Limited Edition Collectors box set.

Are you rejoicing over this news or laughing your butt off? George Michael tends to provoke extreme reactions in people. The man has sold millions of records--he obviously has his followers--but there are few artists out there who provoke as much ridicule as Andrew Ridgeley's former bandmate.

George Michael gets a bad rap. Sure, in some ways he deserves it. How many times was he caught propositioning men in public bathrooms, again? Then there were a couple of DUIs and drug arrests, I think. (I didn't look up his record so I'm not sure about the actual charges...but it's not the point of this post anyway.)

The bad rap I'm talking about is regarding his musicianship. People have always made fun of George Michael. Yes, Wham! was lame; yes, he sported that awful five o'clock shadow 24/7; and yes, he was often decked out head-to-toe in black leather. But let's give credit where credit is due: the man has one of the best voices out there. Ever. 

I've never bought or owned anything by George Michael but despite that, his music made up a significant part of the soundtrack to my adolescence. "I Want Your Sex," "Faith," and "Father Figure" are the three best-known singles from Faith. I remember riding in my friend's convertible in the summer of '87 with the top down, singing along to "I Want Your Sex," (not that either of us had had any yet). It was our last hurrah before starting college. A few months later, I was sweating along to "Faith" in an aerobics class offered through my college. The following winter, "Father Figure" was released, and to this day, whenever I hear that song, those dark, dreary, and depressing days come back to me. 

Despite not really caring for pop/R&B music in general, and not thinking much about George Michael specifically, I find myself always defending him to the haters--his voice, his songs, and even his character. His music is just too much a part of the girl I used to be. How could I not love it? 

Photographer Responsible for "Heroin Chic" Dies

K. Moss by C. Day, 1990

Corinne Day, the photographer responsible for putting Kate Moss on the map, passed away a couple of weeks ago at age 48, from a cancerous brain tumor. In 1990, Ms. Day photographed a very young and innocent-looking teenage Kate Moss for British magazine, The Face. Clearly, Ms. Day was a talented photographer, and it's always sad to lose an artist before his or her time; but that said, Ms. Day started something that, while innocent at the time, ended up becoming very dark and destructive.

Ms. Day's naturalistic (not airbrushed) photos were labelled "gritty" and "grunge," and they were refreshing after the big hair, padded shoulders, and caked-on makeup that characterized fashion photography of the late 1980's.  But over the next few years, this gritty style got more and more extreme. Relatively healthy-looking models like Cindy Crawford and Naomi Campbell were replaced by gals like Moss who looked anorexic and/or addicted. "Heroin Chic" was born.

by Mario Sorrenti, 1993

In 1993, Ms. Day took another batch of photos of Ms. Moss for British Vogue. The photos came under fire because of how skinny Ms. Moss's appeared in them. People suspected an eating disorder or drug addiction. Adding fuel to the fire were photos taken of Kate Moss by Mario Sorrenti for Calvin Klein's Obsession for Men campaign. The images of an emaciated, wasted-looking Moss were EVERYWHERE: billboards, the sides of buses, every magazine you opened.

At the same time, grunge was taking over the music charts, heroin usage was on the rise, the economy sucked, and the crime rate was skyrocketing. It was a dark time, and though photos of some skinny British model seem insignificant in comparison, if you were a young woman at the time, you couldn't help but be negatively affected by them.

Thin was obviously in, and for me--a highly-impressionable young woman, recently out of college, just moved to Manhattan, trying to find a career (and a life)--it was powerful stuff. Girls in the city actually WERE that skinny, and they pouted and slouched and smoked their way around the Lower East Side looking gorgeous. My body shape naturally being closer to Kate Moss than Anna Nicole Smith, I fell for it hook, line, and sinker. Many fewer calories and lots of miles on the treadmill later, my body actually (scarily) resembled Ms. Moss's.

No, I'm not blaming Corinne Day for my journey to the dark side, but if she'd not taken those photos of Kate Moss back in 1990 that catapulted her to fame, who knows what the alternative would've been? All I'm saying is that in the early 90's, when conditions in the world were so dark and depressing, did we really need art and advertising to echo the times?

Lilith Fair 4.0

Throughout this summer, I vaguely followed the progress of Lilith Fair 2010: After a more than ten year hiatus, Sarah McLachlan had organized another all-female festival, with lots of old and new artists scheduled to perform, such as Sheryl Crow, Mary J. Blige, Kelly Clarkson, Indigo Girls, and Emmylou Harris. It was big news in the summer music-festival circuit. I wasn't paying much attention at first (I don't go to many festivals these days), but shortly after the line-up was announced, things started going terribly wrong. That's when I got interested.

Due to lackluster sales, a bunch of tour dates were cancelled. Then various headliners began dropping out: first Carly Simon, then Norah Jones, Kelly Clarkson, The Go-Go's, and Queen Latifah. Media outlets were calling it a huge failure.

The latest news, however, isn't quite that grim. Despite the cancelled shows and poor ticket sales, Lilith Fair ended up raising $500,000 for North American charities. So that's pretty good...but I'm sure Sarah M. originally intended the amount to be much higher (the first three concerts in '97, '98', and '99 raised over $10 million).

To be honest, singer/songwriters were never my thing (I've always been more of a rock-band kinda girl) and sitting through an entire Lilith Fair experience actually sounds painful to me, but that doesn't mean I don't love the idea of it: a concert by and for women (and their ridiculously sensitive boyfriends). If you're a woman, what's not to like?

So, what happened this time around? Obviously, not enough young women bought tickets. Because by now, a large portion of Lilith's original audience from the late 90's is probably saddled with young kids, making attending a festival out of the question. Did the young 20-somethings not realize the baton was being passed to them or did they just not want to grab it? I'd argue for the latter. After all, female artists have come a long way since the mid to late 90's; back then, most of the women in the biz were making dance music (Mariah, Janet, Madonna). So when the singer/songwriter variety took the world by storm it was like, "WOW, these chicks are TALENTED! I feel empowered! Let's check them out!" Now it's almost the norm for women artists to write the lyrics, arrange the music, play an instrument (or two), AND sing the song. So what's the big deal about a bunch of women performing at a festival? It kinda seems quaint.

So I'm not surprised Lilith Fair didn't take off this year. However, Sarah M. says she's going to put together another one next summer. I think she would be smart to do some rebranding: Make it hipper and sexier. More tattoos, less granola. Then perhaps the young ladies will come out in force and raise more money for charity. Hey, it could happen.

What to Wear?

I'm in a rut. For a while now, I've been having trouble figuring out what to wear. I'm not a kid anymore so I can't exactly go around dressed like Avril Lavigne. (Wish I could, though!) It would be easier if I was a prep by nature--then I could just live in Ann Taylor and be happy--but that's not my style.

Part of my problem is that I'm not a big clothes shopper anymore so I don't even know what's out there that's both cool yet appropriate for a mom my age. It used to be way more fun to shop when I lived in the city and had a social life--there were places to go where I could wear the fabulous things I bought. Then came the baby/spit-up years when all I wore was old stuff I didn't care about. But now that my kids keep their food down and I'm back to my fighting weight, it's time to get some style back into my life.

The summer is easy because all you have to do is toss on a cute, comfortable skirt and funky sandals to look good. But when it gets colder, I mostly turn to jeans and boring, long-sleeved shirts. Pair that with comfortable (dull) black shoes and you see where I'm coming from. All I really want to do when it's cold is hibernate, so it's hard to get excited about fashion. But I want to spice things up a bit this year. Last winter, I tried black leggings and long sweaters but when you're dragging two little kids around with you everywhere, it can easily look like maybe you're pregnant with #3. No thanks.

Many of the brands marketed to the slightly more mature woman look to me like old lady clothes. Eileen Fisher, anyone? The Gap and Banana Republic are okay but often so boring. Shopping at places like that is what got me into this rut in the first place.

Part of my problem is that the clothes I really want to wear aren't exactly appropriate for an almost-middle-aged mom like me. I'll show you what I mean. Here is my favorite T-shirt (which I haven't worn since 2004 due to mom-hood):

Clearly inappropriate for small children's eyes. And even if the tykes can't read, their moms can and wouldn't appreciate it, I'm sure. Hey, I don't want to make any enemies, I just want to be unique.

                                                   So, while I want to dress like this:                              

  

                                                  I feel pressure to dress more like this:

What's a suburban mom to do?

Hollywood Goes Overboard

Footloose, Overboard, Ghostbusters, Tron, Arthur...no, this isn't a list of movies you cut school to see back in high school. It's the flicks you can look forward to seeing displayed at your local marquee over the next couple of years. (True Fact: I saw Footloose on my first date ever, freshman year.)

I get it. Hollywood has always tried to make a buck however it can. And it's not like I didn't see my share of remakes when I was a youngster. Three Men and a Baby, Dangerous Liaisons, Little Shop of Horrors, and The Fly were all successful 80's remakes of earlier films.

Not all these remakes sound horrendous. Arthur, with Russell Brand and Helen Mirren replacing Dudley Moore and John Gielgud actually looks promising (but then again, Dudley Moore always freaked me out). But Overboard?! With J.Lo instead of Goldie Hawn?! I'd rather watch Charlie St. Cloud ten times in a row.

The thing that scares me most is that you know the Hollywood bigwigs are tossing around ideas for an E.T remake. I'm sure it would be a grand spectacle with tremendous special effects but, oh, gee, that's not something I want to see. The beauty of the original was it's complete low-techiness. Hopefully, even greedy movie honchos know when to leave well enough alone. Because, seriously, what would "Phone home" in the remake be, "Skype home"?