Etta versus Beyonce: the Broader Context

I posited this on JackandPolitics (click in the sidebar blogroll; I think Rikyrah started the evening's thread) regarding Etta James' unhappy licks on Beyonce singing her song to the First Couple. It likely goes back to the flick Cadillac Records. For details check Bossip and The Black Snob, also on the blogroll. Apparently Jennifer Holiday was supposed to deliver the song, and it would have been an instant classic rather than the gimmicky/typical marketing event it was (though a patina of hype...yes down deep it was magical, visceral for all including Mrs Jay-Z; it was history). Still...I side with Etta and there's some allegory here:

I think the American public has been infantilized beyond repair. However,
like children, if they have little choice, they'll eat what you give them. If
the quality can be turned up even just a notch (w/Barack at the bully
pulpit--and don't poo poo that, b/c due who invented the bully pulpit, Teddy
Roosevelt,along with JFK for three years, actually did influence public tastes
for the better) it wll happen. As for Etta I think there's definitely a
disconnect which lends back to this infantile, manufactured/overpoduced/hype
marketing machine that's permeated our culture. Etta should have sung it in the
first place, but the producers of the ball wanted to appeal to the infantile
element. If that means Nick Cannon and Beyonce then that's the deal. I
understand that in this era of music moguls and lame creativity. But that
doesn't really do much to laud our classics and our pioneers. Etta's been
rediscovered as a marketing gimmick, which bugs me.

Look at Faye Dunaway commenting on Hillary Duff being cast in her classic
role in the iconic Bonnie & Clyde. So who plays Clyde--dude from The O.C. or
Gossip Girl? What's next--Lil Wayne (because of his marketing pull with the
young folks) playing Nat Turner? ;-) Back to the silly shit, that's cool. But as
I've said in the past, that stuff, from madea to dumbass Kevin james or sandler,
should be the treat, the dessert, not dinner. We have the script flipped.
Serious engaging stuff as the exception, brain candy as the norm. Frankly isn't
that what Barack said had to end on a political policy level if we're going to
survive this mess? Maybe stimulus $ should go to cultural rehab/repair, as they do in
Europe.

Hanna-Barbera, Bush-Obama

Sorry for lack of posts--been busy, and of course our neighborhood appears to the tour bus and car dumping point for incursion into the District of Columbia for the Inauguration.
And speaking of that, I decided to meld it with some themes from my childhood. And why not? A black president. A BLACK PRESIDENT. Something I dreamed a lot--even when I watched these shows. You know I love my allegory. This is more about transition to power, rather than Inaugural hoopla, I suppose. Here it goes:

from this--



to this--



Having fun? Full of wistfulness, fellow oldheads? Now here's the irony (perhaps more allegory, to come)--in reality, the networks took off shows like the Herculoids, Jonny Quest, etc. because they were too "violent" and expensive (despite the serious writing, characters, etc.), instead replacing them with crap like The Banana Splits. Hmmm...

Yeah, he nailed it...

I could nit-pick, but that would imply there are crawly nits to pick. Sure, it would be nice to address the usual "tax and spend" crap and combine it with the "he loves our enemies and the folk at home who blame America" by saying what about "borrow and spend?" and indeed mortgaging the nation to folks who hate us, just so bigwigs can make a buck. But hey, this was one for the ages. Amusing to see the Fox News and blogger punditry and gargling. But hey, they must clear their throats for the usual flag and cross snowjob bread and circus to mezmerize Joe and Josephine Sixpack next week. Lord, can't let the trance be broken on Joe and Josephine. Lest they absord what Barack said...

I was relieved. I am happy. And as for the "beyond the campaign" significance, this speech is history--especially given that this is the party of Jefferson and Jackson, and of the traitors who decided to leave the Union in 1861 and condemn thousands of men and women war and misery rather than admit that we were human. But that will make words he speaks on Inauguration Day even more paramount.