Generally when I am penning my blogs, I don’t really go to the trouble of mentioning celebrities who aren’t members of the Jackson family. (Or in someway associated with them.) I don’t generally mention them because I don’t really pay them any mind.
I glance up when they hit the skids, have a good laugh and call it a day. And go back to my glitter.
But one celebrity I see kind of spiraling down and bottoming out and that’s actually, really and truly bothering me, is Lindsay Lohan.
I think part of the reason I guess I feel so much for the girl is that we’re the same age. We’re both 26 years old.
It’s just I was there when Lindsay’s career in film started. I mean I was eleven years old, just like her when she starred in the ‘98 remake of “The Parent Trap” and played a set of long lost twins who attempt to rekindle the romance between their divorced parents. I saw all the hubbub and hoopla and everything that went behind the movie. And it remains one of my favorite movies to this day.
I just really liked Lindsay and thought she was pretty and made good films. She was one of the first living actresses that every time a new film of hers came out, I actually went to see it. I had to see it.
I saw ALL her films. Even Get A Clue and it was a TV-movie!
Freaky Friday, Georgia Rule, I Know Who Killed Me, Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, Mean Girls…I saw them all. And it was almost like how I was with Michael Jackson. If Lindsay was on, shut up or go away.
And it really has been awful watching Lindsay go down, the substance abuse, scrapes with the law. That odd relationship with that Ronson chick. The whole while, I kept kind of wishing she’d get her shit together, straighten up and go back to films. I mean, she was my favorite actress. Favorite living one anyway.
It was just so much stuff going on. With MJ I kind of got used to seeing him dragged into court, but not over little bullshit like Lindsay was being pulled for. Drunk driving, drug abuse….
Being publicly shamed and put on blast by her film studio and called a liability to a production because she became notorious for not showing or appearing late or out of it or something.
Sickening is what it really is. Just to see someone that out of control. And I noticed as we both aged, Lindsay was just miles from where she started.
I had always wanted to look like her, if I was a White woman anyway. That’s a want far gone.
Lindsay is 26 and really, looked OLDER than her own mother, Dina, who is 50 years old! That’s just tragic.
For a glimmer of a moment, I thought Lindsay was back on track, performing as the late Dame Elizabeth Taylor, as in a much-touted film called “Liz and Dick”. I waited for weeks to see this movie.
In my mind, Lindsay was making a comeback.
The film left much to be desired. Aside from being dressed impeccably, I didn’t see anything Liz Taylor on that screen.
I saw Lindsay, pretending to be Liz.
I didn’t get lost. I was aware the entire time I was watching Lindsay. She didn’t sound like Liz at all, as both have very different and very distinctive voices. Liz’s was light with a touch of a British accent. Lindsay’s is heavy like she’s been a chain smoker since birth.
It was just a rip-roaring disaster, start to finish and where ever Liz Taylor is, she IS hitting the bourbon bottle again!
I could have portrayed Elizabeth Taylor better than Lindsay! And aside from beauty pageants and a few church passion plays, I have no acting experience. That says a lot.
And it lowered the boom, because everywhere I turned, critics were panning the film, and Twitter was ablaze with backlash.
I reckon I’m one of the few peopled that tweeted Lindsay with a KIND word.
Four days after the fact, I see on the news, big surprise, Lindsay has been hauled into jail on charges of fighting and now something else, but 2 charges in 2 different cities.
I am kind of frightened for her, and wonder, you know just how and where this will end. I know her father has publicly been in rehab, so perhaps that’s a factor in what’s happening to her is genetic and hereditary. I don’t know.
I just wonder how some people can be given so much and seem to just throw it away and fritter it away. I guess, because I don’t have things like that--I’m not rich, I’m not famous, and I’m just trying to publish a novel--I would be more appreciative of things like that.
I wish Lindsay was more like me…just more appreciative and get the wake up call. I want to see her do well. I’m tired of carelessness wrecking some of my favorite celebrities.
It's that time again! Time for me to reach into my mind and bring forth an MJ memory from way back when. Today, I wanted to talk about Michael Jackson at the World Music Awards in 2000. The show aired in May and I had just turned 14 years old at the time, and had been in love with Michael for just about 5 years. It was just sheer luck, as it always was before I got a computer and could ride around on Michael's back at all times. I had seen the advertisement for it on ABC family channel for the world music award and when I heard that Michael Jackson was going to be there, wild horses couldn't have torn me from the room.
I'll be honest. I was kind of ignorant about music shows and stuff. I literally thought the only award handed out in the world was the Grammy. I didn;t know there were other awards in other countries. Or that Michael Jackson could win them. And at the time, I didn't know what Michael was up for or anything. I just had my snob hat on and said he would get whatever any way because he WAS Michael Jackson. ( I am a snob about Michael. It's just natural to me) Anyway, I heard they were handing out "Artist of the Milleneum" for Male and Female. and if I'm right, Mariah Carey--pre-TRL breakdown--recieved hers before Michael. But when Prince Albert of monaco jumped up and started talking about Michael and showing clips of him, I was rooted to the spot, holding my MJ doll and looking on as if I was in the room with the fans. I was just so excited, I probably would have gone up in confetti. And then there he was. Michael Jackson. I couldn't move. I couldn't speak. I was just frozen. DID I MENTION THE SO-AND-SO WAS ON TELEVISON? I was just like in a state of shock and often now I wonder how I would have reacted at that age seeing him in person. I saw him in person ONCE, but I was older and kept my shit together. It was liek a concert. Time suspended and Michael was there, being still, looking and the crowd was losing its mind...it was just one of my favorite looks and appearances I've ever seen on Michael. so clean, and simple and precise. The sleek black outfit. His pale, milky, bioluminscent skin...the hair, the eyes...it was all a work of art to me. He hadn't evne spoke yet for crying out loud. The prince handed him a little award, and Michael rattled off a good and shy speech, then at the end he did a little move and I almsot lost it. I thought he was gonna perform and I was mildly burned that he didn't. But he looked so good, all was forgiven anyway. It just made me proud, so proud that someone I looked up to and maybe idolized to an extent was named Artist of the Millenium--an award he got at several more shows too in the following 2 years. Just that he was so talented and blessed and brilliant and that I was around to see it and talk about it and even if people bothered me about it, I could literally be like "Fuck you, Michael's the man of the millenium" and they shot up and let me be. (And I have said that, trust me. Trust me.) It was just another little notch on my MJ fan belt. And I'll remember it!
I know I don't typically talk about food or drinks on my blog, but there is one part of my life and dialy routine that I simply cannot do without and that is a nice, steaming cup of coffee!
Alot of people don't really beleieve me when I say this, but I have been drinking coffee since I was 8 years old--though its not as regular as it is now. I had always heard about coffee when I was child, but never really knew what it was. My daddy drank it every so often when he'd take me to McDonalds for breakfast and my mom spoke of drinking as she worked as a chef downtown at the country club (and later as a janitor in a welding supply company) And in school my teachers were always guzzling it by the cupful. But I didn't get to try any until I was eight years old. I'd always ask daddy to taste his coffee and he's say no causeit'd stunt my growth. I'm five-foot-four now, the average height for the American woman, though I add three inches when in a pageant. Anyway, I finally got my hands on cofee as a kid when Starbucks first came out with thier take home iced coffees. I saw one in the store for like 2 dollars and asked my mom for it. That was at 3 in the afternoon. I drank the whole thing, 8 ounces as we walked around the store. At 4 am the next morning, i was STILL awake and best friends with brown elixir. Over the years, I've tried plenty of big chain brands and at home brands and I have a favorite for each.
My favorite big chain brand has to be Dunkin Donuts coffee. I started out with the medium coffee, which I think is like 16-20 ounces but I eventually graduated to the large coffee, which I usually get with a bagel on the way to dialysis. I prefer an exceptionally sweet coffee since DDs is very strong. So--gasp--I add 15 sugar packets. That's not a misprint, I really do. I put in one creamer, stir and I'm good to go. If I had a particularly sleepless night, I get an extra shot of expresso in it. The most espressos I ever got in one cup was five, and had the shakes and heart palpiltations for a while. LOL.
My favorite at home brand is Folgers Instant. I'm lazy, I'm not gonna buy a coffee pot or a Kurig thing just to make a cup of coffee for a single person. My father can no longer digest coffee so I am the only drinker of it in my house. My mother has gone to heaven and doesn't need it as an angel. I always get classic roast, as it has the nice, robust, slightly chocolaty flavor I prefer in a coffee. And it's always the regular kind. I don't understand the purpose of decaffinated coffee. It's like an oxymorom, like a tall midget. It makes no sense. And chew on this, in the so-called decaffinated coffee, it still has a 5 percent caffiene content, damn it. I prepare my home coffee the same way. I take a red dixie cup, and pour about 8 ounces of bottled water into it. I cannot drink tap water, it makes me sick. Then I put it in the microwave for 90 seconds and put one heaping sponful of crystals in and stir it. I had another heaping spoon of non-dairy creamer, I use the original coffeemate creamer, as the flavored ones just don't taste right to me. I add only 4 spoonfuls of sugar and a dah of Torani flavored syrup.
I prefer the Hazelnut or the Vanilla syrups. They're only 5 bucks a bottle, and make such a difference in the taste. I love it. You can also use them to flavor milk and hot chocolates.
Well, that's just a little bit about the coffee I enjoy so much. I know some people don't like it, but I absolutely LOVE it! Especually on a cold morning!
One of my passions in life, other than spreading the word of how great MJ is, is my love of classic films. And once again, I'd like to talk about one of my favorite film series that I've ever seen:
THE THIN MAN SERIES!
The Thin Man Series, starring William Powell and Myrna Loy as Nick and Nora Charles is based on a series of detective books by the same name written by author Dashielle Hammett. The film series spawned six films between 1934 and 1947. Although I have seen all six of the films, I prefer the first four and actually own the TCM set pictured above. It was kind of a mistake really, how I found this particular series. One of the things I like to do is go on Wikipedia and look up different actors and actresses I like to learn about them and one day I was looking up Jean Harlow.
She always fascinated me, because she died in 1937, at the age of 26, from renal failure. (And I'm 26 with renal failure.) As I was reading about her, I saw that at the time of her death, she had been engaged to William Powell--Nick Charles--and he had paid for her funeral. She's actually buried in the same hall as Michael Jackson. I had heard his name before because I beleive the next day TCM was doing a birthday tribute to him and showing all the Thin Man films. So, with Jean in my head and wanting to see the man she was supposed to marry, I sat in to watch The Thin Man. It is one of the best cinematic moves I ever made. I watched perhaps the first three movies, before I realized, that this was a good series and that the rapport between William and Myrna was special. They traded all kinds of witty comments and the mysteries were always entertaining. And I had never been that deep into mysteries. I only had a few Agatha Christie novels under my belt.
I do remember though, when I first saw William Powell, I didn't like him. He had a large nose and was so silly.And in the earlier films, he's drinking like a fish. His character is actually mixing a cocktail in the first film when he's introduced. I have since grown to like him, and have seen many of his other films outside the series. Myrna Loy on the other hand, I knew from another film she had done a few years prior to this called "The Thirteen Women" a thriller based on the book by Tiffany Thayers (who is actually a man, and NO, I'm not named after him.) in which Myrna, because before these films she was marked as a vamp played a eurasian femme fatale killing off other women who snubbed her. (The film also featured Peg Entwistle, the woman famous for leaping ot her death from the Hollywood sign) Don't even look like the same chick, right? I liked Myrna in the Thin Man though because she made me think of how I'd like to be with my own husband, sparring buddies who always zing one another. In the first film, Nick reffered to Nora as a "lanky brunette with a wicked jaw." (even though Myrna was a redhead) And we all know I'm a smart-ass, smart-mouth. Myrna is one of my favorite actresses right up there with the likes of Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. I just favor how she always dressed so well and was so classy. I remember seeing her once, when she was in her 80s, and she was just as pretty as an elder as she was in her 20s.
My favorite film from the series is the second installment, After the Thin Man, where Nick and Nora try to figure out who killed Nora's cousin Selma's philandering husband Robert. I especially like this movie because my fave actor, Jimmy Stewart plays a supporting role. He was absolutely bad ass and played a brilliant role--he was only 28 years old here. And YES, that is a gun in his hand.
If you haven't seen these films, give them a try. They are awesome and I watch them all the time time. You won't be disappointed!
When I first came up with this topic to cover for my 80s Friday post, a part of me wondered if it would have been better suited as an MJ Flashback post and I figured it would have been better in this cotext because that show really did set the stage for Michael Jackson to dominate the rest of the decade, and really, no one can mention "1980s" or "MJ" without someone speaking about ir. It's just that signifigant.
Now we all know the story about my running around after Michael. Became a fanatic overnight at nien years old. But to be honest, I didn't actually see the footage that made Michael so famous until I was 12. I had read about it and even seen tiny fragements of it whenever Michael would grant an interview here and there, but largely, I had never seen the actual program. It was another blessed day in the video rental store when I noticed the Motown 25 tape just sitting there. And it was the VHS. I had intially wanted to fast forward through the program, but something made me say no, watch the entire show. Which I did, and it was kind of murder for me because I was eager to see Michael Jackson. I really am glad I did slow down because as I listened to the other people singing, I realized I liked ALOT of the Motown acts--Lionel Richie, Diana Ross, Debarge (before the most of the memebers found the wonders of drugs), Hi-Intergy...so many others. And I really loved that Richard Pryor was the master of ceremonies. He was hialrious and it was ncie to see him tak that long without saying the word "fuck". So you know I'm sitting exactly where I'm sitting writing this blog, on the foor of my bed, all saucer-eyed and bopping along to the music and everything. I was really enjoying myself. (Now you see why I don't like music of today, I was brought up on THE GOOD STUFF THAT MEANT SOMETHING!) The Jacksons were smack dab in the center of the program. When Richard mentioned them and it went to the grainy, black and white video of the Jacksons in thier audtion tape for Motown, from way in 1969, my heart leapt, because I recognized them all immediately. That blur is Michael at 9-10 years old. There was a little montage of the Jacksons when they were the Jackson Five, and then, the annoucer was screaming to welcome the Original Jackson Five: Jackie, Marlon, Tito, Jermaine and Michael!!!
At some point during the J5 medley, Randy joined his brothers onstage, and all six boogied. (l-r: Tito, Marlon, Jackie--behind Michael--Randy and Jermaine.) It was great, the whole place was bouncing and it made me happy to see the entire room coming together. Cant you feel the love in the room y'all? I'll Be There...
Finally the rest of the Jacksons exited the stage and left Michael to mumble a little speech and thank the crowd before tearing the roof off the damn place:
BILLIE JEAN! (Michael was the only performer on the show to sing a non-Motown song, as BJ was recorded for Epic records.)
When the music kicked up and Michael started moving on the stage by himself, I was up and clowning and making noise like I was there. It was like a bolt of lightning within me to see Michael doing that song and just doing his thing onstage alone. I had never really seen Michael perform outside of a music video at the point and see that...was just phenomenal to me. Nothing could be as riveting or excellent or completely astounding as what I saw. Like this sent my ass into maximum overdrive with Michael Jackson, and literally kicked off my three month obsession with all things Thriller.
And who could forget THIS: The MOONWALK! It took me two years, because I have absolutely no rhythm, to learn to do it, but I can do the moonwalk, as every good MJ fan should do. It really did help cement me as a fan and see what a big deal Michael IS--IS, not WAS, IS, damn it!--and I really am proud to be into someone like him. Just sheer genius and talent and blessing from God above.
For your viewing pleasure: Michael Jackson and the Jacksons!
