Between 1980 and 1990, I aged from ten to twenty years old. The ’80s were the years I was most keenly tuned into radio and MTV, which was all we had back then. (I didn’t get into the alternative scene until I got to college.)
Much of what I loved in my teens was the R&B dance/pop music coming out then. I was a closet disco queen, which was unusual for a white boy in a very white suburb. And much of the music I was attracted to came from black artists, with some of the music appearing on Top-40 charts while some of it was slightly more esoteric, only to be heard on Cleveland’s “black” station WZAK, which was my favorite at the time. And I was a freak for the stuff coming out of Minneapolis from Prince’s little purple/paisley universe.
Without any attention-desperate splash of color, pattern or off-season white, Justin Timberlake asserted his place as one of the best dressed men in show business at the 89th Academy Awards last night.
Timberlake with wife Jessica Biel. Photo by Scott Feinberg from The Hollywood Reporter.
My apologies for the late arrival of this month’s playlist, but it’s here at long last. While it’s the usual genre/decade mess, there are some choice love-themed Valentine’s Day selections, like Dorothy Ashby’s gorgeous 1968 arrangement of “Come Live With Me” from Valley of the Dolls, the beautiful “Simple Song #3” from Paolo Sorrentino’s exquisite film Youth, and “Sometimes I Wish I Had a Gun” by Mink Stole. Enjoy.
Peppered among my usual lot of new and old discoveries is an appreciation of the brilliant George Michael.
I was never a huge Wham! fan, though I did have my favorites from their brief bright time. (“Everything She Wants,” “Careless Whisper” or “Last Christmas,” anyone?) But when George emerged on his own, he demonstrated a masterful talent for pop song craftsmanship, writing, performing and producing his own material. His post ’80s output wasn’t necessarily prolific or platinum in its appreciation or sales, particularly compared to the massive success of his debut smash Faith, but it was a meaningful and often poignant catalog to the more “talented listener.”
His personal and professional challenges are stuff for other articles. (Read Aja Romano’s cutting piece in Vox on George and the cultural shaming that plagued him.) I will say that “Freedom ’90” from his underappreciated 1990 album Listen Without Prejudice, Vol. 1 was a liberation anthem that gave many closeted gay folk – myself included – the occasion and permission to say “fuck it.” I was so looking forward to more from him, but his path turned a different corner.
For now, let’s apppreciate the music. It was fantastic.
When fans and writers discuss Carrie Fisher‘s film career, Princess Leia gets all of the attention – and for good reason. Leia was a damsel in distress who held her own and kicked considerable ass in the company of men. Fisher herself said, “I like Princess Leia… I like how she handles things; I like how she treats people.” I grew up with Star Wars. It’s an undeniable cultural phenomenon, and Leia is major for me, too.
But people either forget or are unaware that Fisher made her film debut two years before Star Wars in a little movie with Warren Beatty called Shampoo (1975). Directed by Hal Ashby, Shampoo revolves around a promiscuous Beverly Hills hairdresser (Beatty) who sleeps with virtually every woman who sits in his salon chair. It also stars Julie Christie, Goldie Hawn and Lee Grant, who play women he’s sleeping with who all think they’re the only women he’s sleeping with.
Carrie Fisher in “Shampoo” (1975)
In a small but unforgettable role, a then 17 year old Carrie Fisher displayed a precocious razor-sharp wit that was beyond her years at the time – a foreshadow of the disarming and inimitable sass that would become her trademark, a savvy that saw so clearly and hilariously through the hoax of show business and of life itself. In her brief performance as Lee Grant’s daughter and another one of Beatty’s conquests (or was he her conquest?), she beautifully outmaneuvered two of the most lecherous, manipulative and selfish grown-ups (one being her mother) that any adolescent in safe, rich, white suburbia might ever encounter.
The Christmas 2016 Spotify playlist is here! I’ve been maintaining this playlist for many years now. It has favorites from Christmases of my childhood as well as more recent discoveries both new and old. I’ll probably add even more between now and New Year’s Eve. So enjoy some fun, frivolous and fabulous music for what I hope is a joyous and safe holiday season for all of you!
I have a friend named Kelly who works as a wardrobe supervisor and dresser for Broadway shows. Over the years, she has invited me to be her plus-one date for several opening nights on the Great White Way, including the parties that immediately follow. Because of Kelly, I’ve had the privilege of attending the opening nights of The Seagull with Kristin Scott Thomas, A View from the Bridge with Liev Schreiber and Scarlett Johannson, Death of a Salesman with Philip Seymour Hoffman and An American in Paris.
Kelly’s current gig is the wardrobe supervisor for the new production of Les Liaisons Dangereuses with Liev Schreiber and Janet McTeer, and she invited me to attend what would be my last opening night as a New Yorker. As is our way, Kelly and I like to bring a sense of occasion to the affair, since we’re talking about an opening night in American theatre’s most prestigious form.
