Buy it now for your favorite Yankee fans.
(Our friends at Vintage Blue.)
Nothing’s Worse Than A New York Boo-Hoo
October 28th, 2009MJ Flick Opens At Last; Adoration and Hysteria Begin Right On Cue
October 28th, 2009
MJ wannabes at LA premiere of “This Is It.”
“When Jackson announced his ‘This Is It’ concerts earlier this year, many wondered whether Jackson had any magic left at all. Besides his tattered reputation, he was rumored to be in frail health and hadn’t performed a major concert in almost a decade. There were well-deserved skepticism about whether Jackson had the vocal and physical agility to stage the kind of concerts that wowed fans in his prime two decades earlier.
”’This is It”’ gives both answers an emphatic yes. Even though Jackson’s looks—with his weirdly delicate face and his stick-thin frame—still makes one squirm with discomfort, once he starts to perform, that discomfort gives way to amazement. At 50, Jackson was still an amazingly gifted dancer with moves that leave your mouth agape. Though we only see him do the moonwalk once, and just fleetingly, his stop-on-a-dime spins, deft footwork and body jerks recall the Jackson the world fell in love with 25 years earlier with ”Thriller.” And Jackson’s voice still dazzles—even when he’s trying to play it down.”
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“He’s more of an influence than all the greats—Gene Kelly, James Brown. He is it. He wasn’t so much a brilliant dancer, but a brilliant mover. It’s sad that it takes tragic circumstances to create a legend… but he was always a legend in my eyes.” —Nigel Lythgoe, executive producer of “American Idol”
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“A group of disgruntled fans have organized under the name This Is Not It to protest the film, saying that it exploits Jackson’s death and presents a distorted image of his last days.”
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“Dancer Timor Steffens smiled fondly when remembering that lingering, slightly flowery scent. ‘His smell was so present, when I hugged him and let go of him and he walked away, I still had his smell on my hand,’ he said. ‘I was smelling my hand like, ‘That’s Michael! That’s Michael!’”
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“LaToya Jackson tells the Mirror that Michael Jackson’s children—Paris, 11, Prince 12, and Blanket, 7—have sought help from therapists to cope with their dad’s death on June 25.”
Photo (top): Barbara Davidson/Los Angeles Times
Mighty Quote of the Day
October 28th, 2009
“I don’t like American football. I think it’s
boring and ridiculous and predictable. But
baseball is very beautiful. It’s played on
a diamond.”
Coming Soon: The Last Laugh
October 27th, 2009
You Might Want To Stay Put in the Bronx When the Series Comes to Philly
October 27th, 2009
Yesterday came the news that Jay-Z, music impresario and committed Yankees fan, will be performing his hit song from “The Blueprint 3″ prior to Game 1 of the World Series.
“As a die-hard Yankee fan,” Jay-Z said in a press release, “I’m honored to perform a song that celebrates the greatness of New York in one of our city’s most important landmarks, Yankee Stadium.”
Heard that.
Which is why we feel pretty confident that the many Phillies fans making the trip to the Bronx tomorrow for the start of the Series will give the New York music mogul a Mighty Philadelphia welcome when he strolls to the mike.
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Many TV fans and critics feel “Mad Men,” the AMC Sunday night drama set in the early ’60s about the advertising business, is the best written show on television these days. Matthew Weiner, the show’s creator, gives few interviews, believing—like “The Sopranos”‘ David Chase before him—it’s best to cloak what’s coming in secrecy.
Recently, though, Weiner gave this interview to USA Today pop culture writer Whitney Matheson, telling her why little Sally Draper is getting so much face time and how he goes about picking the cool songs that run with the closing credits.
Also: An NPR take on the “underappreciated” January Jones (Betty Draper).
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Huluween—a feast of scary videos for ticksters and treaters of all ages—here.
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Also, here, just in case you didn’t catch Sunday’s piece in the NYT Magazine about our own Lee Daniels.
Happy Birthday, Ruby Dee!
October 27th, 2009
“The kind of beauty I want most is the hard-
to-get kind that comes from within—strength,
courage, dignity.”
George Miller Makes Ninja Face!
October 26th, 2009
Yesterday morning we concluded our debut “Write Like A Ninja” workshop, which focused on Japanese culture and was conducted by writer and Temple professor George Miller (who writes under the byline G.W. Miller III).
George is the mature guy making the face.
Mighty Quote of the Day
October 26th, 2009
“Real education should consist of drawing
the goodness and the best out of our own
students. What better books can there be
than the book of humanity?”
