Alexis Cohen, an American Idol contestant from seasons 7 and 8, has died. She was known for her expletive-filled rants after being rejected by the judges in both seasons, her videos becoming YouTube sensations. She was declared dead yesterday after being hit by a car in New Jersey. Here’s her video from season 7…
Karma is a bitch.
I found out today that controversial photographer and artist, Dash Snow, died in New York on Monday. Apparently, he overdosed on heroin during a relapse (he had gone to rehab in March and seemingly kicked his addiction).
Dash’s work had always appealed to me — I’d actually say that he is in the top 10 on my “favourite artists” list. I was fascinated by his work, his life. To me, he was a dream interview. I spent the better part of the last year trying to schedule an interview with him, but he was notoriously difficult to get a hold of and nothing came together. We had scheduled a time back in November but he cancelled and we weren’t able to line up another time.
Dash’s fame will only grow from here. I can’t help but draw comparisions to Basquiat. Check out http://www.tinyvices.com/dash_snow.html to see some of his work.
I haven’t really wrote about my feelings on Michael Jackson yet, so here goes. Hopefully this will be the last post about MJ — this blog’s getting a bit repetitive.
I was born the year that ‘We Are the World’ came out, so I never got to experience Michael at his peak. I was too young to remember when Bad came out, so my first memory of him is when ‘Black and White’ was released in 1991. I was a huge fan of The Simpsons at the time and I remember the episode that Michael guest-starred. I wasn’t sure if it was really him or not. I think the ‘Black and White’ video debuted the same night. I remember the first time I saw the video — I thought it was the coolest thing ever. Especially the morphing at the end and Macauley’s rapping (Home Alone was my favourite movie at the time. Hey, I was six). After seeing the video, Michael to me was officially the coolest performer ever. After that, I tried to watch any performance of his I could. I wasn’t a crazy huge fan of his, but he was definitely somebody that I loved and looked up to at the time. My mom bought me the Dangerous cd when it came out and I played it constantly. She hated it. Which is strange because she, too, had grown up with Michael (not too many performers out there I can say that about). I remember looking through her old record collection and she had Thriller and Off the Wall and a lot of the old Jacksons records. Unfortunately, by the time I found them she no longer had a record player, so I never got to listen to them.
My interest in Michael started to fade after 1993. I guess I was pretty sheltered as a kid, so I never really read the tabloids or anything. I remember watching Michael’s interview with Oprah, I guess that was in 1993. I didn’t really know anything about the child molestation accusations, so he still seemed pretty normal to me. I watched him do the half-time show at the Superbowl the same year — it was incredible. Then he married Lisa Marie Presley, and I don’t think it was a big deal to me. It was just kind of like “Oh, she’s Elvis’s daughter. That’s nice.” I remember seeing them kiss on MTV — that was kind of weird. Then HIStory came out and my interest in Michael was revived for a while. I read about him floating his statue down the river in London and thought it was the coolest thing ever. I wished I could float a statue of myself down a river. I must have watched the ‘Scream’ video 500 times and played the song constantly. It combined my two favourite performers — Michael and Janet. Though, I don’t think I actually realized that they were related until ‘Scream’ came out. Janet was my first concert in 1994. She was awesome. So good that I saw her again in 2002. I think I loved Janet more than I loved Michael. I loved the ‘Ghosts’ video that came out a couple of years later — it was required viewing at Halloween. But after that, Michael never did anything so I lost interest pretty quickly.
The next time I got interested in Michael wasn’t because of his music, it was more because of the newspaper headlines. I wasn’t really impressed by his Invincible album, so all I saw of Michael were the outrageous stories I’d see on TV. The baby dangling, the ‘Tommy Mottola is the devil’ tyrade, the raid of Neverland in 2003. It was at this point that I really paid attention to the stories, I think. I mean, Michael was a hero to me when I was a kid and the allegations just seemed so ridiculous. Every day there were new headlines, from his nose falling off to showing up in court in his pajamas. I think it was at this point that my feelings about Michael switched from ‘greatest performer of all time’ to ‘Wacko Jacko’.
I really wanted Michael to make a comeback, but it never seemed like he was up to it. There were rumours of a residency in Las Vegas, new recordings with Akon and Will.I.Am, but nothing really came to fruition. I was disappointed with the song leaks that I had heard — ‘One More Chance’ sucked, ‘Hold My Hand’ sucked even more. But then came this grandiose annoouncement of the London dates. 10 dates. 30 dates. 50 dates. It just kept getting more and more absurd. Though he looked to be pretty fit and healthy at the press conference, to me the idea of Michael Jackson being well enough to do 50 dates was beyond ludicrous.
And now, here we are. Like I said before, I’m not necessarily surprised that Michael died. But it’s weird. Michael, the performer that I remember from when I was a kid, is a completely different person from the Michael of the last ten years. I guess I should say that I’m not surprised that the Michael of the last ten years is dead. But I’m absolutely shocked that Michael, the performer I remember, is dead. This is a story we’ll be hearing about for at least the next year. This is a guy with plenty of skeletons in his closet and the media won’t rest until all of them are exposed. Plus, there’s the custody of his kids that will be battled over and his financial situation that will have to be sorted out.
It was a memorial fit for a king. Touching, funny. I think Michael would have loved it. It was surreal to me to see the casket — somehow it finally dawned on me that it was real. Michael Jackson really was gone. I think the most emotional and surprising moment for me was when Paris took the stage and made a statement saying that her daddy was the best father you could ever imagine. It was the first time Paris (and the other kids) has really been seen in public. It was interesting to hear her voice, to see her emotion. I loved that she immediately clung to Janet — they seem to have gotten really close. Janet would make such a great mother.
Aside from that, Usher’s performance of ‘Gone Too Soon’ was really incredible. It was beautiful seeing him walk down to touch the casket and sing to Michael. Brooke Shields eulogy was beautiful — she gave a great insight to what their relationship was like when they were kids, something neither of them had really talked about before. Though she had said that she hadn’t spoken to Michael since 1991 — where’s she been for the last 18 years? I think that can be said for most of the people that have been honouring Michael since his death. It didn’t seem like very many of them were around or supporting him when he was going through everything that happened the last 15 years or so. Jermaine’s performance of ‘Smile’ was amazing — I don’t think he’s really performed in about twenty years.
Finally, the last two highlights for me were Stevie Wonder’s and Lionel Ritchie’s performances. They both chose perfect songs (‘Never Dreamed You’d Leave in Summer’ and ‘Jesus Is Love’) and gave beautiful performances. ‘Jesus Is Love’ has always been my favourite Commodores song — I don’t think I’ve ever seen Lionel sing it live before (though I’m sure he has at some point). The low points for me were number one, the ‘We Are the World/Heal the World’ performance. It was nice seeing the family and everyone up onstage, but they should have had different performers sing the song, rather than the backup singers. There were a ton of singers in the audience — they could have gotten them to sing and had more of an all-star performance. Jennifer Hudson’s performance was hard to watch, just because of the dancing — I’ve always hated liturgical dance. I wasn’t crazy about the kid that sang ‘Who’s Loving You’ — it’s Smokey’s song, why didn’t he sing it? And I was underwhelmed by Mariah Carey’s performance. I had originally thought that this would be a highlight for me, since I’ve always loved Mariah’s rendition of the song. But she just didn’t seem to have the voice for it anymore.
But all and all, the service was incredible and I’m glad I got to see it.
Michael Jackson’s funeral tomorrow will be huge. Gigantic. I can’t even imagine how the city of Los Angeles is going to deal with the crowds. The only funeral that could possibly be comparable is Princess Diana’s, which drew 250,000 spectators. People are flying in from all over the United States and the world to be there — it should be spectacular. The celebrity guestlist will be staggering. Elizabeth Taylor, Beyonce & Jay-Z, Madonna, Mariah Carey, Janet Jackson, Liza Minnelli, Diana Ross, Jane Fonda, Justin Timberlake, Usher, Britney Spears, Steven Speilberg, Whitney Houston, Stevie Wonder, the list goes on and on.
I hope it will be a real celebration of Michael’s incredible life and career.
I’m not quite sure what I can even say…I’m just shocked. Shocked but not necessarily surprised. I never expected Michael to live to be an old man or anything. In fact, the last few years have seemed like somewhat if a death watch. He had always seemed so frail and sickly, he looked like he was dying. I guess what I’m most surprised about is the way Michael Jackson died. He could have died of cancer or lung disease or a drug overdose and I would have been like “Oh well, I guess the rumours were true”. Cardiac arrest was something that I never expected. To be honest, he had been looking better these last few months than I had seen him look in years and years. I really did think that he would be able to pull off the concert series and I was excited to see him come back. It’s just absolutely tragic that he died less than three weeks before the first show was scheduled. I wish he could have done one last show, say one last goodbye.
I can’t think of a death that rocked the world the way that this has. Diana comes to mind. Elvis comes to mind. John Lennon comes to mind. But this is huge. Michael Jackson was one of, if not THE greatest entertainers of the 20th century. But in the end, I think he’ll always be seen as a tragic figure. I wasn’t one of those mega Jackson fans, but I truly did admire him, and I’ve got most of his albums (I think all but Invincible). It just seems so surreal to know that he’s gone.
The next few weeks should be interesting as we see the Michael Jackson story unfold. I think a lot of people will start talking now that he’s gone. There was an interesting interview with Brian Oxman, the Jackson family’s lawyer, where Oxman claims that Jackson was heavily addicted to painkillers and likened his death to Anna Nicole Smith. I just hope that he had a will and that his kids will be well taken care of.
I’m just stunned.
I’ve been listening to Jeff Buckley a lot lately. I don’t think I’ve ever really appreaciated his work and his voice as much as I do now. He has one of the most elastic, expressive voices I have ever heard — kind of like his father (Tim Buckley). I think Adam Lambert has the same sort of voice (though that didn’t even dawn on me until a couple of days ago). I don’t think I’ve ever heard a rock vocalist with as wide of a range as Jeff had. Maybe Steven Tyler and Robert Plant came close. I get more out of listening to his album Grace each time I hear it — it’s like slowly unfolding new layers of each song. Even his earlier recordings from ’92/’93 are pretty incredible, and especially notable for his cover choices. I can’t think of many rock acts that have covered Judy Garland, Nina Simone and Johnny Cash, all the while being able to put their own signature on the songs.
I also heard yesterday that they are making a biopic on his life. Would be interesting to see, though apart from his death, I’m not sure that his life was all that interesting. The two main contenders for the role are James Franco and Robert Pattison. Franco seems to be the obvious choice — he looks pretty similar to Buckley and I think he could probably nail the performance. Pattison really isn’t that great of an actor and I’d hate to see Buckley’s story drowned out in all that Twilight hype.
I wrote a couple of days ago of my thoughts on Susan Boyle. I thought I’d come back to that subject after hearing the news that she’s been hospitalized in London after having a breakdown. I’d say what we have her is a victim of celebrity, somebody who’s been prodded and manipulated in order to sell papers. I’m sure that Boyle never expected the attention that the media lavished on her, or the criticisms that were brought upon her. But at the same time, she had to have been looking for attention and praise — after all, it was her choice to tryout for the show. But when you take somebody who is somewhat unstable to begin with and throw them into the media spotlight, it’s only a matter of time before something bad happens.
At this point, she’s taking part in a minimum of a 21-day program at the Priory. This means that she won’t be participating in the Britain’s Got Talent tour and has had to delay her recording sessions. Will this hurt her career? No. That is, if she recovers and is able to withstand a career in the spotlight. Yes, she’s talented. But maybe she’s just not cut out to be famous. In any case, I do wish her well and wish her a speedy recovery. I’m sure there are plenty of people that are dying to see her in concert and are waiting to buy her first cd.
I don’t usually watch or have much interest in reality television, but this year’s seasons of American Idol and Britain’s Got Talent stood out for me. I have to admit I only say two episodes of American Idol this year — the last two — and before that, I hadn’t watched the show since 2002. But for whatever reason, Adam Lambert drew me in. I even ended up watching most of his previous perfomances on Youtube, just to see what all the fuss was about. I didn’t like everything I saw — a lot of the performances were overly schmaltzy and theatrical. But there were two standout performances that I feel made him the best contestant in Idol history (neither of these was ‘Mad World’, which I actually thought was a little too sappy) — ‘Whole Lotta Love’ and ‘If I Can’t Have You’. Especially with ‘Whole Lotta Love’, Lambert proved that he could be and is one of rock music’s most talented vocalists.
But really the whole point of this post is to examine why he lost American Idol and why Susan Boyle, another stunning vocalist, today lost her bid on Britain’s Got Talent. The voting patterns evident on Idol seemed to be a classic division between red states and blue states in America, a pattern that has been evident in the country since the Civil War. One thing that’s been noted is that the majority of Idol‘s voters are located in the south, and have a tendency to vote for contestants from the same area (five out of the last eight winners have been from the south). Of course, there’s also the Danny Gokey factor. Gokey’s voters were more likely to be conservatives that would be more drawn Kris Allen’s modest singer-songwriter vibe rather than Lambert’s flambouyant, sexually ambiguous rock act. I think more than anything, Kris Allen’s win shows the continued power of the Christian right in America, the same force that won the 2004 election. Regardless, both Lambert and Allen were deserving of the title and both will hopefully have successful careers.
Susan Boyle’s loss on Britain’s Got Talent, however, is a different story. Here was somebody sprung into the spotlight from a poor rural town in Scotland, forced to face the scrutiny of the British press (which is far more fierce than the American press). She became a global phenomenon, appearing on Oprah and Larry King Live. But then the pressure started to get to her, resulting in an altercation with the press last week — I have to wonder how that may have affected her outcome on the show. But then, the show itself if an odd creature. It’s impossible to compare the talent of a dance troupe to that of a singer and try to declare a ‘winner’. So again, much like Adam Lambert, Susan Boyle will continue to have a career, regardless of the outcome on the show. Did she deserve to win? Maybe. I don’t think she was as good as all the hype and publicity she received, but she had a strong voice. More than anything, hearing her voice was a silver lining for millions of people dealing with a global recession. It was something that people instantly connected with as something uplifting and positive. I think she’ll hold a place in music histroy for that feat alone.
ION is having their 6th anniversary party this Saturday. It should be pretty incredible — their parties are always awesome. It’s cool to see how much the magazine has grown and evolved over the years. It’s one of the few truly fashionable street magazines in Vancouver, and just seems to be getting better every year. This year promises to be their best ever after undergoing a redesign and expanding their staff to include some of the best creative talent Vancouver has to offer (Kris Krug, Toyo Tsuchiya, Tyler Quarles, etc.).
Anyways, the party’s on Saturday at 180 East 2nd. You can buy tickets online at http://ionsix.eventbrite.com/for $12. Check out ION’s website at www.ionmagazine.ca(you can view PDF’s of their past issue’s online).
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