I Am A TV Junkie

Beyonce, Mariah, Others Played for Gaddafi's Son: Finally, Some Backlash

This has been going on for a very long time now. You hear about it every New Year's Eve and when any rich person with ties to evil has a birthday party or their kids have massive Bar Mitzvah's or Sweet Sixteens.

And it's not just singers. In 2008 a bunch of actors and others showed up in Dubai for some event and they were all paid handsomely for ... well nothing, really.

Finally, though, someone is speaking out (Rolling Stone):

"When I saw Beyoncé and Usher and whoever else was out partying with these Libyan criminals … these are people who have stolen tens of billions of dollars from their nation," says Howie Klein, former president of Reprise Records who is now a prominent leftist blogger. "What they all have in common is they're all kleptocracies – they've got a family stealing all the money. And for very, very wealthy American and British pop stars to take part in this kind of thing makes me want to puke."

"People put a big paycheck on the table, and people don't consider where the money is coming from, or what they're at least passively endorsing," adds David T. Viecelli, agent for Arcade Fire and many other acts. "I don't want to specifically say Beyoncé or Mariah Carey behaved unethically, because I don't know all the details. But if it's true that Muammar Qaddafi's son says, 'I've got $50 million, come and play for my buddies,' I really think you have to say no to that. Given what we know about Qaddafi and what his rule has been about, you have to willfully turn a blind eye in order to accept that money, and I don't think it's ethical."

Read Klein's blog at this link.

If I were a concertgoer or a consumer of music from any of these people I would stop, now. I haven't listened seriously to Beyonce since the whole "to the left, to the left" thing. Mariah ... she still records? Really?

Video on this from CNN, also featuring my social media friend Steve Clemons from The Washington Note and the New America Foundation discussing the wildlife at the Gaddafi compound (actual wildlife, he had a tiger there).

Mr. Usher Raymond Jr., you should be ashamed of yourself. And you too, Lionel Ritchie. And all y'all who have scads of cash in reserve and still say yes to these gigs.

Video -- Andy and Opie Meet Beyonce

Watch it by clicking this link.

The Women of Grammy Night -- Beyonce, Gaga, Taylor: See Vids of Nominated Songs Here

They're calling them Grammy's Big Three, they being the press. And it's warranted, they are the biggest selling artists of the year, Gaga's currently the biggest tour on the road, Beyonce made bank all over the world last year and Taylor Swift is the fair-haired girl of crossover country pop.

And I enjoy all of them. But lets be frank about their talents ... Taylor's the prodigy, Beyonce is the performer and Gaga is the visionary.

Visionaries don't often get the praise they truly deserve until after their prime, which makes the Lady Gaga explosion even more remarkable. But I don't think she take home a lot of hardware tonight nor do I think she cares to be competing for awards. But it IS a business and Grammys mean sales and sales mean opportunities to affect the zeitgeist and that's what I really think Gaga is after.

This isn't the first major music award show since the MTV Awards (we've had the American Music Awards since), but Taylor still has plenty of shine, ironically from the attempt to tarnish her (fucking Kanye, who btw is very close with both of the young Ms. Swift's rivals here).

Beyonce is, for better or worse, an industry. That, frankly, harshes my enjoyment of her. Where Taylor feels like a Cinderella story and Gaga feels like a political movement, Beyonce feels like a multinational corporation hellbent on domination.

Dan DeLuca, Music Critic for the Philly Inquirer, has his own take on the three:

Whichever of the Big Three women takes home the most golden gramophones will be deserving and will have achieved a sort of ubiquity, making personalized pop music that sold in the millions. In picking Swift, Beyoncé, and Gaga as their three faces of music, the Recording Academy has ensured that while two of the women might end up disappointed at the end of the evening, the Grammys can't lose.

Indeed. Should be a great show. Still thinking about what Gaga might do.

See their Record of the Year nominees from these women, Poker Face, You Belong With Me and Halo, by clicking the respective song titles in this sentence.

Oh, there are other nominees in that category, too. Kings of Leon and The Black Eyed Peas, but I couldn't pick that Kings of Leon song out of a lineup and ... I'm sorry, but I'm just as tired of The Black Eyed Peas as I am Republican obstructionism in the House and Senate.

Nothing personal, but can't they go away for a little while and then come back when I've recovered from the overkill? You're all very nice people, Black Eyed Peas, but don't we all need just a little break from all the Boom Boom Pow?

ABC Airs Beyonce Informercial Thanksgiving Night; Teases the Bejeebees Out of Me, Fans

Seriously, ABC, what's the deal with this? Beyonce: I Am ... Yours was just like those informercials for the Dean Martin Roasts; quick musical clips interspersed with "interview footage" with Mrs. Jay-Z that seemed crafted to sell the CD or DVD of the full concert from Wynne Las Vegas recorded last Summer.

Margaret Lyons at Entertainment Weekly's PopWatch Blog:

Look, this special was totally enjoyable, and the concert footage demonstrated for the jillionth time that Beyonce is one hell of a performer — she can command an entire stadium’s attention with the arch of an eyebrow. (Being in a leotard helps.) She has an awesome all-female band, and everyone in it respects and admires her. Beyonce is a very hard worker, and when we’re extremely lucky, we get to see her interact with her husband for a second or two.

But she’s also elusive, and even telling her own origin story glosses over details that everyone in the audience already knows. If you’re going to bring up the old days of Destiny’s Child, do you want to utter the words “Michelle” or “Kelly”? If you show footage from the then-tween group’s debut on Star Search, might you mention that yes, there were six people in the group at the time? No on all counts.

Totally enjoyable? I can't really agree with that. It was passable entertainment for a Saturday night for me after watched the penultimate episode of White Collar for the season on my DVR, but at the end, when they let loose with the "buy this" section of the show it made me feel ripped off. I certainly would have enjoyed less Beyonce talking, more Beyonce singing and dancing.

And, when you listen to the hits of her solo career, there are really only a couple that stand out. Single Ladies, for all it's pop culture appeal and the viralness of it's video and the copycats, is just an okay pop song. Naughty Girl and Irreplaceable are great songs and Crazy In Love is a powerhouse cut, but I would have rather heard some of the Destiny's Child catalogue than some of her other solo "hits."

Most of all, I would have liked to have heard the songs in full, not just a verse and a chorus.

I didn't record the McCartney special after, does anyone know if it was the same deal with that?

Honestly, the only reason I recorded Beyonce was because Wendy Williams mentioned it on her Wednesday show. I thought it would be something else. I guess it was, just not the something else I was expecting.

It was something I would expect from Guthy-Renker.

Clip Bonanza -- Lady Gaga Returns to Logo to Host NewNowNext PopLab Monday Night

News I (and in turn you) can use from Logo, and even more news this weekend about the new season of RuPaul's Drag Race, but first ...

The high priestess of the club scene at this moment, our one and only Lady Gaga is having a big week. First there was the appearance in the new Beyonce video (it's after the jump, kids) and now Logo announces that Gaga is back where it all began for her on their air, her first TV performance having happened during the 2008 NewNowNext Awards.

On Monday (the 23rd) you can tune in to Logo (check your cable system, I don't know what their penetration is outside major cities -- hehehe I said penetration) and check her out hosting NewNowNext PopLab, the place to hear club music first -- because we gays and our friends rule those charts.

(It's always been that way, it always will. We start all the great trends ... most of us have the disposable income and the time while you're carting Billy and Suzy off to Scouts and ballet. If you're carting Billy off to ballet and Suzy off to Scouts, btw, good for you for breaking those stereotypes.)

Don't have Logo because, for example, you live in Idaho and your cable operator attends neo-Nazi rallies on the weekends? Watch online, at this link. And no, I don't really know any cable operators who attend neo-Nazi rallies in Idaho on the weekends.

Click over the jumperoo for her appearance in the new Beyonce clip for the song Video Phone which includes B as Bettie Page (very hot, except for some reason she's holding what looks like a grenade launcher -- why?) and some girl-on-girl choreography you don't wanna miss.

Beyonce, now with added Gaga (because she knows to latch onto something hot, reminds me of Madonna making out with Britney and Christina at the VMAs).

Gaga released The Fame Monster, an eight-song EP, yesterday. It will also be available in a pack with her first release, The Fame, starting December 15, just in time for your Christmas shopping needs.

The first release from the EP is Bad Romance, which is the second clip after the jump. Finally, the third clip is from Gaga's appearance on Gossip Girl this week.

2 Clips -- Hours Later and I Still Can't Get Over What a Dick Kanye West Is

If you need to see what he did, I have a clip from the UK Telegraph that documents the event after the jump, but along with the Dick Move of the Year there was other stuff that I just couldn't get out of my head from last night's show.

Madonna's speech about her friend Michael Jackson seemed to want me to believe that it was me that was to blame for Michael Jackson's death. Well, not just me but all of you, too, that we turned our backs on Michael and that's why he died.

Let's make this very clear. Michael Jackson died because he asked a doctor to administer a powerful anesthesia drug to him intravenously at home after he ingested a bunch of oral medications in the hours before the request.

Period.

Michael Jackson did not die because I stopped being interested in his music. And he didn't die because he was prosecuted for allegations of child sexual abuse.

Then after a group of dancers in lockstep perform some of his most famous dance moves, Janet Jackson comes out stonefaced cold and mimics her brother's dancing in their single Scream in front of a video image of him.

Some lyrics from the song:

Peek in the shadow
Come into the light
You tell me I'm wrong
Then you better prove you're right
You're sellin' out souls but
I care about mine
I've got to get stronger
And I won't give up the fight

With such confusions don't it make you wanna scream
Your bash abusin' victimize within the scheme
You try to cope with every lie they scrutinize
Somebody please have mercy
Cause I just can't take it
Stop pressurin' me
Just stop pressurin' me
Stop pressurin' me
Make me wanna scream

And I'm thinking to myself about the moment where Michael says to Martin Bashir that sharing your bed with a child is the most wonderful thing you can do, and how he, ironically, was so incredibly tone deaf about some things that came out of his mouth.

If Madonna feels somehow at fault for the death years later of a guy that she barely knew that's fine with me. If she thinks her falling out of touch with Michael was a starting point for a trajectory that ends in a man dying at 50 I say we let her.

(Because, ahem,  isn't everything all about Madonna?)

At the same time I'm not letting her tell me that it's somehow my fault that he's dead.

Janet and her family can find fault with the investigation into the allegations of sexual abuse of the various children who have alleged such, but I'm not sure that dancing to the lyrics inspired by those events and then staring down the crowd like the theatre is filled with clones of Santa Barbara D.A. Thomas Sneddon is an appropriate tribute.

Promised recap clip after the jump. At least Lady Gaga was incredible. She'll be the second clip after the jump. I'm now looking forward to someone deciding to do a pop music version of Sunset Boulevard with Gaga in the lead.

Great idea, huh?

You know who really sucked, though, was Russell Brand. And I was expected great things. Or at least, better than we got.

And behind the scenes reporter Jim Cantiello (formerly of Project Runway in 60 Seconds fame) was either jacked up on coffee or trying to come off much more energetic than he should have.

Email From Beyonce for VH1 Save the Music, Does Sasha Fierce Know She's Writing?

So, I get this email from VH1 Save the Music (which is a cause I've always supported and I've added their site to my links list to the left), and my first thought was, "Beyonce is great to be supporting this, but what's Sasha Fierce doing for charity?"

So, I've made this list of possible philanthropic causes to which Sasha Fierce might want to consider investing her considerable time and energy:

Help the Hot -- An organization whose mission statement reads as follows: "If your weave broke your bank and your checkbook just sank, we have money to lend, first click your picture and send! 'Cause if you're fugly this will get ugly."

MAC Aids Fund -- I'm actually serious about this one. Sasha (and only Sasha) should be the face of Viva Glam. Okay, we can wait till Fergie's finished with her year of service. And she should always be announced in association with this as Sasha and she should refer to herself as Sasha and all the materials should say Sasha.

NASUL -- The acronym for the National Association of Single, uh ... Ladies?, which of course is the clearinghouse for information and videos like this.

LINK

Because there really needs to be a clearinghouse.

Why? Watch the other clip after the jump.

You can add your suggestion for Sasha in the comments section.

And there's a Beyonce widget to play with after the jump as well, just in case you're at work bored.

Sasha Fierce Releases an Album, Will Soon Duet With Chris Gaines

What is the effin' deal with these music megastars, huh? Beyonce now plans to pull a Chris Gaines on the world and release an album as her alter ego Sasha Fierce.

NY Mag:

Amid shocking charges that Beyoncé pilfered dance moves in her new video comes more bad news today: She's releasing an album by her alter ego! Her upcoming I Am will be a two-disc set, with one CD, I Am Beyoncé, featuring ballads and the other, I Am Sasha, containing upbeat tracks. Sasha is apparently short for Sasha Fierce, a persona Mrs. Jay-Z's been working on for at least the past three years (in a 2005 Vanity Fair interview, she blamed Fierce for her performance at the Grammys that year).

And yes, they made a Chris Gaines reference, too, but upped the ante with a mention of T.I.P., who frankly, isn't in my musical alphabet.

Chris Gaines music video after the jump.

I may have to start a Just Stop, Sasha Facebook group.

Video -- Beyonce & Tina At the Grammys

And introduced by Cher, who apparently started singing when Abraham Lincoln was in office.

Pics of the duet are at the Daily Mail website, but they are particularly not kind to Cher, which is just not a nice thing to do. And they're Getty Images pics, which I don't steal (because I think of them as a reasonably reputable company).

Speaking of which, I will indeed by making my pilgrimage to Vegas in the near future to see Cher at Caesar's Palace. I didn't see any of the final tour performances, but I will go to CherMecca and see Cher, I will head the call of the beacon and bow before her.

This is notable because I HATE Vegas. Love Cher, hate Vegas.

Funny, I just saw Cher two days ago being interviewed in the blonde version of the wig you see in the clip. I betcha she has it in every color. Well, ever natural hair color, she's not Britney after all.

I know, shut up and show us the clip, right? Well, you gotta click over beyond the jump.

What the Buck?!? is a Must See Today

There's so much here I can't even begin to summarize.

Most important, details on Internet Superstar Michael Buckley's sitcom that he wrote as a child called My Farm.

LINK

Katharine McPhee's New (?) Video, and What I Wouldn't Be Surprised to Hear About It

I would not be surprised to hear that this song and arrangement were written for Beyonce, and she turned it down.

Check it out, there's a certain vibe to it that will remind you of Beyonce. It's called Love Story.

The McPheever doesn't seem to be holding up, and I'm thinking that everyone from that year short of Chris Daughtry was just filler.

LINK

Powered by AOL Video

She even moves like Beyonce in this clip.

What the Buck?!? -- VMA Edition

Internet Superstar Michael Buckley.

Britney Spears.

(And that's exactly how they should be billed. )

Right here, right now.

LINK

Michael uses my line from last night, but I told him he could.

Thank you, honey. You're not rusty at all. Welcome back from vacation.

Breaking! -- Beyonce, Bullets, Brouhaha! With Video!

But that video is from the Onion News Network, so it's all in fun.

LINK

What the Buck?!? -- Field Trip Edition

After her big fall a couple weeks ago, Internet Superstar Michael Buckley ran to the box office to get tix for The Beyonce Experience. And here's his report, plus news on Usher's postponed marriage, that pile of crap that travels beneath Donald Trump's hair (which he calls his brain) and all the rest of the crazy people that you hear about every day like they were actually worth something (like Star Jones).

LINK

What the Buck?!? -- Singers Edition

This clip from Internet Superstar Michael Buckley gives me the opportunity to say this about this movie Jessica Simpson is doing. Only a father would let a daughter he manages make a movie where she plays the titular character, Major Movie Star, when she isn't at all.

When it flops, the critics will be brutal. But a Dad will just watch it in wonderment.

LINK

What the Buck?!? on Pop Stars Clarkson and Duff

And the young women who want to be them.

LINK

Please, Jessica Biel, don't sing just because you're dating JT. And leave li'l Hayden alone, Michael, she's supposed to be a pretty good singer.

Also Michael, the man who wrote the national anthem was Francis Scott Key. You are not smarter than a fifth grader, luv ya, bitch (luv ya more if you tell all your YouTube viewers to come here to my blog)!

What the Buck?!? -- WTF is Up With the BET Awards Edition?

Internet Superstar Michael Buckley can't understand how the BET Awards voters could have second guessed the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

LINK

"What the Buck?" on Liz Hurley, Imus, Beyonce, More

And this will be the approximate time I'll post each evening. Or whenever Buck whips it out ... and onto YouTube:

Finally, the Oscars Gets Interesting

I would imagine that to keep the champagne chilled at the Governor's Ball they could just stack the bottles between Beyonce and Jennifer Hudson.

This has been a pretty dull show. I keep switching over to other channels.

No Presidential announcement, Jessica Biel wears a high neckline ... and what is J.Lo doing there? Does she still make movies?

Why aren't Travolta and Latifah allowed to talk about "Hairspray?"

"An Inconvenient Truth" wins two awards. Has there ever been a best song that came from a doc?

This conceit of having the announcers in tuxes and dresses at a desk off to the side is ridonkulous.

Best moment was Tom Hanks sneaking up behind Chris Connelly. What does Chris Connelly do for money the rest of the year? He's not still working for MTV, is he? A little long in the tooth, dontcha think? Wikipedia sez he doesn't work at Premiere Magazine anymore.

I would love to see what the one-hour edited version that runs in other countries looks like. If anyone out there would like to burn me a DVD of that and send it along, send me an email.

UPDATE: Strike that, the show has faded back into a snoozer. Must -- Stay -- Awake -- Till ... oh, it's only 8:50. That's right, I'm in California.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.