I will leave discussion of the zoo of Michael Jackson’s memorial to pretty much everybody else on the planet, but I wanted to mention how cringeworthy Mariah Carey’s performance was. She just didn’t sound good at all. To add insult to injury, Trey Lorenz, the backup singer who appeared with her on her original cover of “I’ll Be There,” still sounded pretty impressive and actually propped her up a few times.
As usual, the commenters on Youtube have shown no mercy for poor Mimi, and are being quite mean about the whole thing. Showing more self-awareness than is her wont, She of the Butterflies wrote on her Twitter accountabout her performance. She explained that she was choked up with grief, and that her performance suffered for it. Yeah, right.
For comparison’s sake I offer three videos. The first is the performance on Tuesday at Michael Jackson’s memorial. The second is her performing this song with Trey Lorenez at last year’s Save the Music concert. The third is the original from the 90s when she was still really good. Still, I think it could still be said that, even at 50% of her original awesomeness, Mimi can outsing a good 70% of the pop music industry.
The gym and my yoga studio were closed over the weekend for the fourth of July holiday, but I got plenty of exercise walking all over northern Manhattan looking at rooms for rent. I met several cool people, and some strange ones, but ultimately decided that I can’t really contemplate living with another person right now. I’ve made appointments with a bunch of Realtors (must! capitalize! the! R!!!) to see if they can show me anything that I might want to live in.
My mother, who actually leaves me alone most of the time, has decided that she wants to help me find an apartment – in New Jersey. Suddenly she’s giving phone numbers and having me call people. I’ll do it, but if the price is the same for an apartment in New Jersey as one in Manhattan, why would I stay in NJ? What does the Garden State have to offer me anymore? Most of my local friends live in NY, and I do want to live in the city at least one time before my eventual untimely demise.
I have had friends who searched for months before finding what they want, so I know that I may need to exercise patience and caution. I have been looking all over (craigslist, real estate agencies, yahoo real estate), and think I stumbled across my first scam! Whoopee! There’s no way that a one-bedroom apartment in The Magellan costs only $1,000. Here’s the real web site for that property. One-bedroom apartments in that builiding are more likely to cost $2,000+. I wrote back the contact person saying as much, and also forwarded his initial response to me to The Magellan. Wouldn’t it be great if their gratitude extended to renting me a 1b for $1,000? Great, but not likely. I won’t hold my breath!
I’m at the point where my real estate search is still fun and interesting, as opposed to tedious and annoying. Plus, all this walking has got to be good for my legs!
“Today was a Good Day” by Ice Cube is one of my favorite old skool rap songs. I can hear it any time and be transported to the days when I watched Video Music Box after school. Here is a really cute flow chart that maps the whole song.
I hadn’t heard anybody gossiping like fishwives lately, so I turned on Sunday Night Baseball. I enjoy the broadcasts because Joe Morgan and Jon Miller are totally in love with one another, and there’s nothing more satisfying than watching a couple’s love deepen. The addition of Steve Phillips ups the hotness factor by infinity, and the more he talks, the less we have to hear Joe. Their tangents are usually irrelevant and not interesting besides, but every now and then they reveal something so intensely personal about a player, coach, or other baseball staffer that you wonder why anybody still talks to them.
Ann Coulter likes to say that liberals have no sense of humor and can’t take a joke, but I love how she is so thick that she didn’t realize that this Car and Driver article about President Obama ordering Chevy and Dodge to stop supplying vehicles for NASCAR was a joke? Is this more ammunition for the theory that Ann Coulter is secretly a liberal who is mocking conservatives?
In other WTF news, what was going on in the president’s head when he decided that giving the Queen of England an iPod that contained, amongst other things, his own speeches and photos of himself. Arrogant much?
I like to read the Food section of the New York Times when I have a few minutes and find myself in front of the computer. I bake and cook when I get the mood, and I’m always looking for good recipes. This week’s Frank Bruni column focused on a challenge given to two food writers: feed a party of 8 for less than $50. I thought the article was interesting, and liked the ideas that I got from it, even though I know that it’s not at all difficult to serve 6 people a complete meal for $50 or less.
Still, I got a kick out of the way that the Jezebel community reacted to the story. In addition to being up in arms and making fun of stupid food reporters, chefs, the New York Times, and printed media in general, the Jezzies added something of even more value than humor: recipes. Most of them were in the vein of “tostitos, dip, coffee, etc” but a few (including Sadie’s recipe that she posted along with her reaction to the article) looked like something I’d in all seriousness make and eat. Thank you, Jezebel! I shall be eating cheaply for ages, now!
Remember those beer commercials? Yeah, neither do I. But I did got see the Paul Rudd and Jason Segal movie this weekend, and definitely enjoyed it. My love for these actors is only slightly more fervent than my desire not to witness anything really embarrassing ever, but that edge was all it took to make me want to see this movie. I’m not sorry that I went; when I wasn’t covering my eyes with my scarf so that yet another deeply shameful moment went unseen by me, I was laughing pretty damn hard. I really will watch Paul Rudd in anything (this is true: I watched all of I Could Never Be Your Woman a few weeks ago).
As is my habit, here is an excerpt from a review that kind of matched up with my experience in watching this film.
Is the premise of “I Love You, Man” thinner than the paper Maxim is printed on? No doubt. (It’s never clear why, if Peter is close enough to his brother to ask him to set him up on a series of “man dates,” he can’t just ask his brother to be his best man.) Does the movie feature a by-now yawn-inducing quota of jokes involving masturbation, projectile vomiting and flatulence? Positutely. Does Paul Rudd make the whole thing worth it? Totes magotes. — Ann Hornady, Washington Post
I would like to pretend that I don’t understand why a movie like this placed a distant second to that thing that Nicolas Cage crapped all over the box office this weekend, but I do: people are morons. Speaking of Nicolas Cage, I will now share with you the best thing that you have ever seen. Behold:
I’m not surprised that Nicolas Cage’s new movie, Knowing, scored a fresh rating of 19% on Rotten Tomatoes. No, I’m shocked that such a high percentage of people were able to come out of that movie believing that it wasn’t a waste of effort, money, and minutes of their lives. No Nicolas Cage movie in years has been worth watching (yes, this includes the first National Treasure), and this seems like more of the same hokey crap. Usually I go see a movie and then post a pertinent snippet of a review, but this time I’m going to skip the trip to the theater and go straight to the bashing.
Enjoy.
As Knowing gets increasingly preposterous, and Cage’s stony deadpan acting seems even sillier in context, a kind of slack-jawed joy may overtake you. How on earth did this movie get made? How did anyone involved think they had a story worth telling? And, as always, what is Nicolas Cage thinking? — Leanne Cari, Cinema Blend
This article from The Onion is so full of win, not in the least because the sentiments its characters espouse are true to the Catholic Church, even if the events depicted are fabricated.
This web site that sells Ex-Masturbator shirts has been around for a while, but the MetaFilter thread on it is hilarious and kind of makes the ridiculousness fun all over again.
Amusing, Music | Nicole | 
July 9, 2009 6:54 pm | 
Comments Off on For the love of Mimi 
Subscribe