Nicki Minaj, with a lollipop that is not at all suggestive; image courtesy of hothiphopdetroit.com
I finally got around to talking about Nicki Minaj after putting it off for far too long. Check out my thoughts in today’s “Tuning In” entry.
Archive for May, 2010
The L Word cast, in one of many incarnations; image courtesy of fanpop.com
Hey everyone. Let’s reminisce about Los Angeles’s dykes to watch out for in today’s “Tuning In.”
Gaga officially iconic enough for her own comic book; image courtesy of nydailynews.com
Earlier this year, it was announced that Bluewater Productions would release a comic on Lady Gaga as part of their Fame series. Grammy winner Taylor Swift, who beat out Gaga for Album of the Year, is also a part of the collection. Teasers for each edition were given out during Free Comic Book Day this past Saturday. My friend Cassandra, herself quite the comic book nerd, was good enough to loan me her copy.
I’ll confess that I’m not too well-versed in comics. I basically read the most popular titles years after friends extolled their worth. That said, I’m certainly aware of celebrity comics. I’m more interested in celebrities who have created comic books. Courtney Love’s co-created the manga series Princess Ai. My Chemical Romance’s Gerard Way penned The Umbrella Academy. A comic was released as a supplement for Melissa Auf Der Maur’s new album, Out of Our Minds. I’m also looking forward to reading Comic Book Tattoo, an anthology inspired by the work of Tori Amos.
Cover for "Comic Book Tattoo"; image courtesy of flickr.com
I’m also interested in actors who author comics that have to do with characters they play on television, as several cast members from Buffy: The Vampire Slayer and Heroes have done in order to expand the universe of their show (and increase its profit margins). Of course, I also champion actors who create comic book series that have nothing to do with characters they play. Thus I strongly encourage you to pick up Brea and Zane Grant’s We Will Bury You, which is about a zombie insurgence set during Prohibition. The second volume has just been released, and dig the cover for volume three.
Cover to Volume Three of "We Will Bury You"; image courtesy of zanegrant.org
But the content for these two pop stars’ comics isn’t particularly interesting. Gaga’s issue focuses on a slovenly male music geek harboring a secret obsession with her that potentially threatens his credibility. Swift’s rise to stardom is rendered in an unimaginative fashion. There’s also too much emphasis on her normalcy and an unchallenged assertion of her role model status for my taste. More will have to be revealed in order to peak my interest.
Sheryl Crow on Cougar Town; image courtesy of tvfanatic.com
Week five of “Tuning In” begins with an entry on Sheryl Crow’s involvement with ABC’s Cougar Town.
Florence Marr, played by Greta Gerwig, another woman who should not be dating Roger Greenberg; image courtesy of collider.com (click on the image for Gerwig's interview)
This weekend was unexpectedly packed. Two friends came in from out of town, another turned 29, two more went on a 100-mile bike tour to Shiner, and Karaoke Underground continued to give folks something to do in Austin on the first Saturday of each month. On Friday, Kristen at Act Your Age and I accompanied Caitlin from Dark Room to a screening of Noah Baumbach’s Greenberg.
I had many reservations going in. Despite being a fan of Kicking and Screaming, The Squid and the Whale, and Margot at the Wedding, I wasn’t sure how game I’d be for a movie about Roger Greenberg (Ben Stiller), a once-promising musician who now does little beyond carpentry and a stint at a mental hospital. He turns 41 while house-sitting in Los Angeles for his more successful brother, who is on vacation with his family in Vietnam. He also meets his brother’s 25-year-old assistant, Florence Marr (Greta Gerwig), a driftless young woman with whom he shares a regrettable dalliance.
The Science of Sleep came to mind as I read about the movie around this manipulative narcissist who is too blind to realize that his supposed honesty toward others prevents him from any acknowledgement of his considerable flaws and attaining actual intimacy with anyone. In short, Roger Greenberg’s fixation on his own neuroses keep him from actually getting to know who he or anyone else is. He’s a terrible human being. To make matters worse for this feminist music geek, he uses mixes and obscure pop songs like Albert Hammond’s “It Never Rains in Southern California” as tools of seduction. He also probably wears his Steve Winwood “Back In the High Life” t-shirt with a sense of unironic irony, which further pisses me off. I wasn’t sure if I could watch a movie about him (Jessica Grose’s assessment didn’t help matters). What’s more, I don’t know if I could forgive a movie that made him likeable or redeemable.
Which is to say that I’m not sure I can forgive this movie. I did like James Murphy’s score, which sounds more like the now-fashionable hypnagogic pop of LA acts like Ariel Pink and Nite Jewel (whose members made a cameo in the climactic party scene) than anything LCD Sounsystem has done and is assuredly a way to orient the distinctly East Coast Baumbach within a West Coast context. On the one hand, the movie takes great pains to make Greenberg appear to be a monster (it is a Baumbach movie, after all). Friends (usually erstwhile) constantly voice how despicable and impossible he is.
Yet the movie centers around Greenberg’s actions and ridiculous, hateful monologues. It also suggests that comely young women, including his neice, find his misanthropy somehow attractive even as he continues to dismiss them. Furthering concern, I was disheartened that some dudes in the audience were charmed by Greenberg, especially the stocky hipster seated the row in front of us who habitually twirled his moustache.
What do you see in this guy?; image courtesy of eastbayexpress.com
In addition, the movie does suggest in its final shot that he’s capable of change — in this case, the ability to love. Kristen made an interesting comparison to Punch-Drunk Love, a movie about an angry and depressed man unexpectedly finding love with a shy woman who pursues him, which she felt Greenberg was something of an inversion. For me, I had a hard time understanding why anyone would feel this way about the protagonist, though mumblecore Gerwig does an exceptional job rendering Marr as a sad young woman with no direction, few financial prospects, and little self-confidence.
As Natasha Vargas-Cooper and Julie Klausner discussed in their conversation about the movie, Marr seems like a woman many of us know. She’s sweet and funny, but places no value in herself. She constantly apologizes for everything, starting every sentence with “I’m sorry.” Like the protagonist in Liz Phair’s “Fuck and Run,” she sleeps with guys simply because they ask her to and she’s too weak to decline. She discredits every personal project and refuses to voice an opinion on anything. She always says “okay” and “you’re right,” even when people (re: Greenberg) are clearly being mean or taking advantage. She’s the kind of girl you have to drive to get an abortion after she lets the wrong guy knock her up. Actually, the movie reveals (spoiler alert) that she’s the kind of girl who gets talked into having a different wrong guy and his college buddy escort her to the clinic. Like her friend Gina (Merritt Wever), Marr frustrates me but also gets my sympathy. Like so many women, she needs feminism.
Marr comes close to asserting herself a few times in the movie, suggesting that she could find the strength to be more than just a doormat. She also suggests, however timidly, that she has talent worth sharing with others. One such instance is her musical performance at a local bar. While she shrugs off the event to Greenberg after their first failed sexual encounter, she sings on stage to her friends, accompanied by another male friend on guitar (who Greenberg assumes she’s fucking). Her music recalls the plaintiveness of Judee Sill, and suggests briefly that perhaps — through music — she might find her voice. Just don’t accept the opportunity to get your boss’s creep brother back in the music business.
Sing it, Florence; image courtesy of jake-weird.blogspot.com
