Directed By: Guy Ritchie Starring: Robert Downey Jr, Jude Law, Rachel McAdams
What it’s all about:
Sherlock Holmes and his sidekick Dr. Watson stop a human sacrifice ritual being conducted by one Lord Blackwood just in time. Blackwood is incarcerated and hung for his crimes. Three days after he is pronounced dead his tomb is found open, and a witness claims he saw Lord Blackwood arise from the tomb. Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson must delve into the world of the occult to stop Lord Blackwood.
The Verdict:
Guy Ritchie’s re-imagining of the classic detective is sensational and over the top, yet matched with amazing set pieces, great performances from a solid cast and some genuinely funny moments, Sherlock Holmes will have enough to keep casual movie goers happy, yet enough substance to make the film enjoyable to existing fans. The chemistry between Jude Law and Robert Downey Jnr. is paramount to the films success, and while the story can seem to get a little lost along the way, all in all it’s an enjoyable holiday blockbuster.
My life right now consists of watching independent movies in bed,
smoking pot with my boyfriend in bed,
and constantly listening to Liza With A ‘Z’ album.
I feel a bit defeated lately.
Me and a couple good friends have recently grown apart
but I’ve decided to stop mourning our friendship and just keep going with my life.
Me and my boyfriend got a sweet apartment on the Upper East Side,
we are moving in next week. It is pretty small but for starters is perfect.
I am kind of sad that I have to spend my 800 dollar savings on paying my share of the rent,
and security deposit.
I wish I could just go shopping with them instead.
I need new boots, jeans, shirts, and jackets. Is getting quite cold in NYC.
Wish I could look like a mix between Liza Minnelli, Madonna, and Lady Gaga.
Never realized how much I love this movie until today as I watched it for the first time…how have I lived this long and never seen it? Good Question. Anywho, there are soo many things Madonna has in this movie that I have – for one, that cross earring…and there are so many things she has that I want. Anywho, I clearly get my inspiration from this eventhough I’ve never seen it. It’s like having a long lost twin.
Here’s the first part enjoy. (I’ll add more as I finish them)
I really want her suitcase/bag. I saw one about a year ago in a vintage shop but it was so broken that my friends talked me out of it. This begins my search for one. Later on I’ll upload photos of my vintage suitcase collection – its pretty out of control.
So this is the point at which I should probably report on the Pre-Fall RTW collections that were shown in the various fashion capitols over the past few weeks.
Well – whatever.
They were so boring I couldn’t even be bothered to sigh about them.
Instead, I’m going to tell you about the most exciting thing going on right now in our little known universe.
No; it’s not the Hadron Collider, 570 ft beneath the Franco-Swiss border, going about the tricky business of figuring out how we all got here in the first place, and it’s not the delicate negotiations taking place at the Climate Change summit in Copenhagen; nor is it the start of the new season of ‘Keeping up with the Kardashians’ that just aired on US TV on Sunday night.
It’s not any of those inconsequential creations or events (Pre-Fall collections included.) It’s a little Lady called Gaga.
Whatever you think about Lady Gaga, you can’t deny that she has had the biggest impact on the worlds of art, fashion, music and entertainment in the last 365 days. Whether you love her, hate her, don’t get her, don’t have an opinion either way, don’t even know what the hell I’m going on about – however you feel and whatever your opinions are, energy, persistence, and undeniable presence in 2009.
Obviously, not everyone’s a fan: Antonio Berardi recently refused to work with her on a collection of clothing– because he cited her music as being ‘meaningless’ and couldn’t see ‘what impact [it would] have in 20 years to come.’ I like Antonio – I think he is one of the most talented, exciting and sophisticated designers working today, but it disappointed me no end to read that this was his opinion of someone who I consider to be a true fashion phenomenon.
YES! IT'S HER! Before she was Gaga: Stefani Germanotta performing at Sacred Heart School, NYC
3 years ago, Lady Gaga was Stefani Joanna Germanotta – singing and playing piano in dive bars like ‘The Bitter End’ with her own 3-piece soft rock band. Watching a YouTube clip of her and the rest of the guys doing a cover of Led Zeppelin’s ‘D’yer Maker’ and – (after getting over the initial shock of her general appearance: no leotard, no crazy sunglasses, no crystals, no lace, no paper mache-based head gear or sparkler-shooting brassiere; just black leggings, top, and long dark brown hair falling over her face,) I listened and enjoyed a really heart-felt, energized rendition of a much-loved rock classic.
She has a strong, melodic, catchy voice, and is clearly a very talented and accomplished song writer. That’s a given. But you have to admit – even if you’re an absolutely head-over-heels-in-love-starstruck-breathless-at-the-thought-of-her fan – this girl with a big voice and a meagre back-up band is just One of Many. You could be watching anyone play the piano and pour their heart out to a Led Zep track – hundreds of girls doing exactly the same thing right now.
Gaga performs 'Paparazzi' at the MTV VMA's; The Lady meets HRH The Queen; Gaga performing on her 'Dali Elephant Leg' piano at the Royal Variety Show
Well, this particular girl Made It.
But how? How on earth did someone like her, with her fantastic yet somewhat controversial product slip through the net, against all the obstacles? I guess you could put it down to sheer determination and hard work, but it was also a combination of luck, fate, faith – whatever you want to call it. Because, assuming the ‘Gaga’ business model did not yet exist, if Stefani G went up to the boss of Interscope records today she would be laughed out of the office after proposing her plans for Pop-World Domination: An aggressive plan of attack that included faking a bloody death on stage at the MTV VMA’s, songs about dangerous and deeply disturbed love affairs with accompanying music videos set in futuristic russian bathhouses, and a performance on Ellen DeGeneres in a Frankenstein-style shoulder-padded jacket and crystal encrusted eye sockets. Not to mention meeting the Queen of England whilst wearing a red latex dress with a 20ft train. Forget about it! First of all, she would have been stopped at reception and told to put some clothes on before she even announced who she was and what her business was turning up there without an appointment.
From Lollapalooza DIY; to Restaurant cabaret; to wearing full-on McQueen in her new 'Bad Romance' video
So how did she persuade people that someone like her should exist and be given the chance to entertain and become the Lady that she is today? Well, it sure as hell didn’t happen over night. She crawled on her belly through crummy bars filled with bored NYU students and private parties in L.A. restaurants; she slithered into and out of DIY bejeweled underwear and ripped stockings; never turned down a gig; never stopped working, writing, singing, dancing…And then finally someone heard her sing in the right place, at the right time because she’d made damn sure that she was there when they were. Then she harnessed the power of the Internet and social networking sites, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, the lot, and made appearances EVERYWHERE in the most eye-catching and sometimes unbelievable outfits; making sure that both her and her music got maximum exposure. Literally, I don’t think this girl said ‘no’ to anyone or anything. If speaking to a particular person or performing at a particular event provided another opportunity for people to hear the music, see the fashion, here the story, it was worth doing. Her rise has not been accidental – it was calculated, carefully created, thrown out there and attacked through every communicative medium in existence, until you couldn’t ignore her even if you wanted to. Now she’s wearing head-to-toe Alexander McQueen in her new music video; gracing the cover of every magazine that’s still worth printing; appearing on Saturdaynightlive in skits with Madonna, and performing on a sell-out Monster Ball Tour.
Lady Gaga on the cover of Elle Magazine, January 2010 issue
If you are disagreeing with everything that I’m saying you’re probably about to stop reading and fob this off as another fanatical ‘dear Gaga from afar’ love letter. But before you do, just understand this:
The very fact that Lady Gaga has got to where she is today should put the faith of all the gods combined back into you that we’re not living in a society where the whole of pop culture is being PG-rated and spoonfed to us via X-factor, American idol, The Hills, The City, and all of that other teen-idol-perfectly-pink-botox-filled-vomit-inducing bull-Ish.
Lady Gaga describes herself as being a ‘liberator’; and that she most certainly is. She couldn’t put it more perfectly. Her music tells you it’s ok to dance in the dark; to do your hair, gloss your eyes, touch yourself till you’re alright, and to be obsessively opposed to the typical.
She liberates all of us – fans or haters – from all of the humdrum, run of the mill, ordinary, mass-market forms of ‘entertainment’ that we are supposed to buy, consume, and then enjoy.
And on that note – when Gaga performed on The X-factor in the UK, in front of the mastermind of tacktastic popculture – Mr Simon Cowell, it only demonstrated further what a dramatic contrast she is to all of the aforementioned entertainment options, of which Mr Cowell is responsible for some of the very worst. Lady Gaga went on that show well aware of what it was and what it represents, and she stuck two gloriously glamorous fingers up to the whole thing. Has there ever been a more perfect, grotesque, yet contradictory union in pop culture history?The top contestants and winners from the X-Factor will achieve fame – but begrudgingly. It’s almost as if they are ‘celebrated’ for none other reason than that the general public doesn’t have a better choice. Well now they do. Instead of choosing the grey, dreary, auto-tuned teenagers that come rolling off the SyCo production line every 6 months or so, they can choose Gaga.
I really hope that the Psycho-Syco era is coming to an end, and the King of light entertainment will be overthrown by the Queen of all things Magic, Monstrous and Magnificent.
Gaga in all her many Guises
“My goal is to use music as a way to bring all sorts of communities of people together; to blur the lines and say music has NO POLITICS, music has NO RELIGION, music has NO COLOUR PREFERENCE, music has NO SEXUAL PREFERENCE, MUSIC IS FREE.”
Oh, Madonna. I see that the face you bought yourself, as a early holiday gift, is easing in nicely. You were a little Puff Diddy last week but it’s all baby’s ass smooth now. I bet you look at Lourdes, who’s now officially the coolest celeb teen, and think I don’t look like her mom, I look like her sister. Sure you do, baby.
Madonna knows how to keep her fans happy even when she’s not touring/producing a record, so get ready because “Revolver” is coming near you! The news from madonna.com :
We are happy to confirm that Madonna’s ‘Revolver’ will be released as a digital maxi single on December 29 worldwide and will feature fantastic remixes by David Guetta, Paul Van Dyk and Tracy Young! In related news, ‘Revolver’ will also be released as a CD maxi single and 12” vinyl single in early 2010. Please check below for the different release dates and tracks-listings!
New Madonna Single: Revolver
Digital Maxi Single
Europe: December 29th
USA: December 29th
Revolver (Madonna vs. David Guetta One Love Remix)
Revolver (Madonna vs. David Guetta One Love Remix) (Feat. Lil Wayne)
Revolver (Madonna vs. David Guetta One Love Club Remix)
Revolver (Paul van Dyk Remix)
Revolver (Paul van Dyk Dub)
Revolver (Tracy Young’s Shoot To Kill Remix)
Celebration (Featuring Akon)
Celebration (Felguk Love Remix)
CD Maxi Single
Europe: January 22th
USA: January 26th
Revolver (Madonna vs. David Guetta One Love Remix (Feat. Lil Wayne)
Revolver (Madonna vs. David Guetta One Love Remix)
Revolver (Madonna vs. David Guetta One Love Club Remix)
Revolver (Paul van Dyk Remix)
Revolver (Paul van Dyk Dub)
Revolver (Tracy Young’s Shoot To Kill Remix)
Celebration (Feat. Akon)
Celebration (Felguk Love Remix)
12″ Vinyl Single
Europe: February 5th
USA: February 9th
Revolver (Madonna vs. David Guetta One Love Club Remix)
Revolver (Paul van Dyk Remix)
Revolver (Tracy Young’s Shoot To Kill Remix)
Revolver (Paul van Dyk Dub)
Revolver (Madonna vs. David Guetta One Love Remix) (Feat. Lil Wayne)
Celebration (Feat. Akon)
Celebration (Felguk Love Remix)
Get Together
Madonna Confessions on a Dancefloor (2005)
“Confessions on a Dancefloor” is the kind of album that seemed to be firmly in Madonna’s past — 12 straight songs of unapologetic dance pop, with barely a hint of the Kabbalah-tastic, yoga-centric self-exploration that characterized her past few efforts. But damn if this wasn’t a surprising return to form for the old broad, and “Get Together” epitomized the album’s success perfectly. It is borderline impossible not to love this tune, its dreamy synths propping up an easygoing and ultra-catchy vocal that drifts along effortlessly. The chorus charmingly boils down the basic premise of millions of pop songs: “Can we get together? I really wanna be with you.”
Also check out: Madonna’s “Future Lovers,” from the same album, a weirder but still undeniably disco track
Charlotte Gainsbourg; image courtesy of loudersoft.com
A little while ago, my friend Alex forwarded me a press release from a rep at Atlantic Records for Charlotte Gainsbourg’s new album IRM. As a fan, he had wondered if I had considered writing about her, an interest apparently motivated by reading an earlier post I did on Scarlett Johansson. When we saw each other at a mutual friend’s dissertation proposal party, we talked a bit more about it, wherein he basically outlined an entry’s worth of critical inquiry.
1. Like Johansson, Gainsbourg works almost exclusively with men, whether they be film directors like Michel Gondry and Todd Haynes or music producers like Nigel Godrich. Thus, they often occupy something of a muse position for male creative types, perhaps further enforcing masculinist notions of auteurism. Gainsbourg’s previous work with Air and Jarvis Cocker from Pulp and her recent collaborations with Beck on her new album perhaps serves as but one more example.
1A. Gainsbourg has occupied this role for some time, as her father is beloved French ye-ye chanteur Serge Gainsbourg, with whom she sang the controversial “Lemon Incest” in 1984, when she was about 13.
1B. Before casting Charlotte as an artistic man’s (or father’s) plaything, I’d point out that her mother British actress-model-artist Jane Birkin, who was pretty liberated in her views on gender, sexuality, and monogamy. However, she may also be cast in something of a muse position. Like her daughter, she’s also worked with Serge and Beck. And like her daughter, who will be representing bestie Nicolas Ghesquière as the spokeswoman for Balenciaga’s new fragrance next February, Birkin inspired numerous fashion trends and clothiers (why yes, she is the namesake for the famous and expensive over-sized Hermès tote.)
Unlike her daughter, she also had a predilection for posing nude on camera, sometimes while in the act of coitus, perhaps with multiple partners. I’ll leave you to Google. I’ll also leave you to speculate if her daughter is relatively modest about her sexuality as a result of having such . . . “open” parents.
2. Thinking about our friend Annie’s post on Rachel McAdams, Gainsbourg is something of a thinking man’s pin-up, a cultural figure already saddled with normative ideals around race, class, gender, and sexuality. Given that she was recently featured with her half-sister Lou Doillon as the archtype for ”thin” in Vogue’s size issue, I’d add body type to the list of norms she represents.
3. Gainsbourg doesn’t sing so much as talk in her songs. She intimates her way through songs in a breathy, sensual monotone, perhaps made more exotic by her British lilt or her occasional dalliances with French.
So, I’ll bring myself into the discussion. I like Gainsbourg but am probably too casual about her work be considered a fan. I’ve listened to 5:55 and IRM a bit, and have seen some of her more recent movies, in which she is often my favorite aspect. While I haven’t seen Antichrist (or any other Lars Von Trier movies) and am nervous about just how wanting it seems to be of a psychoanalytic or auteurist read, her turn as a mother rendered destructive by the death of her son has peaked my curiosity.
In addition, I thought her emotionally mature performance as Clair, Robbie Clark’s long-suffering ex-wife in I’m Not There deserved an Oscar nomination. I also liked her cover of “Just Like a Woman.”
I also liked her quiet, discreet turn as Stéphanie, the protagonist’s disinterested object of affection in Science of Sleep, a movie I otherwise hated. This is perhaps in part because the majority of filmgoers at my screening found Gael García Bernal’s Stéphane to be charming, whereas I found him infuriatingly petulant and wanted to smack him with his own disaterology calendar. But I quite liked her. The only parts of her performance that felt disingenuous were when she wears an uncharacteristically skimpy sweater dress to Stéphane’s calendar launch party (which I’m pretty sure was a figment of the protagonist’s puerile imagination) and at the end, when she’s cries about how Stéphane won’t leave her alone. He’s not worth your tears, girl.
Oh, and I enjoy her vocal cameo in Madonna’s “What It Feels Like For a Girl.” Her confrontational monologue about male gender-bending comes from The Cement Garden, a 1993 film adaptation of Ian McEwen’s 1978 novel that was directed by her uncle Andrew Birkin.
But let’s go back to her voice and problematize the idea of whether or not it’s okay for Gainsbourg to talk through her songs. Pitchfork’s Marc Hogan was really critical of 5:55 particularly for this reason, arguing that her vocal style suggests that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. I’d counter with two things. For one, is making such a display of singing really necessary, especially when phrasing and expressiveness are just as important as vocal range, if not more so to those with more limited registers? Isn’t talking through songs how Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, and Patti Smith developed mythic rock poet status? For another, um, you could easily make this argument for any of Gainsbourg’s male collaborators’ work. Something tells me that Jarvis Cocker, Beck, and Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoît Dunckel of Air were probably all influenced by her father’s barely-sung approach to documenting his own erotic misadventures. I only hope they were just as interested working with Charlotte Gainsbourg as they were working with Serge Gainsbourg’s daughter.
That said, it might be easy to overemphasize or project notions of what French sensuality might be onto Gainsbourg and her songs (something her character in I’m Not There bristles at during her first date with her future ex-husband, as well as something Air have gotten a lot of critical mileage on from certain online publications with hipster cache until recently). While her second album was adorned with breathy vocals, acoustic instrumentation, and sumptuous production that may have lent itself well to such an essentialist reading, the lyrics to songs like “The Operation” and “Little Monsters” document both the wonder and terror of childhood and womanhood, suggesting what might have drawn Von Trier to cast her in Antichrist. Her new album, which was inspired by working on her latest movie, gives way to more lyrical abstraction, while at the same time emphasizing a harder sound.
In short, Gainsbourg may make male-appointed bedroom music. But that isn’t all it is, if you give it a closer listen.
Whatever you think about Lady Gaga, you can’t deny that she has had the biggest impact on the worlds of art, fashion, music and entertainment in the last 365 days. Whether you love her, hate her, don’t get her, don’t have an opinion either way, don’t even know what the hell I’m going on about – however you feel and whatever your opinions are, energy, persistence, and undeniable presence in 2009.
Obviously, not everyone’s a fan:
Oh, Madonna. I see that the face you bought yourself, as a early holiday gift, is easing in nicely. You were a little Puff Diddy last week but it’s all baby’s ass smooth now. I bet you look at Lourdes, who’s now officially the coolest celeb teen, and think I don’t look like her mom, I look like her sister. Sure you do, baby.
We are happy to confirm that Madonna’s ‘Revolver’ will be released as a digital maxi single on December 29 worldwide and will feature fantastic remixes by David Guetta, Paul Van Dyk and Tracy Young! In related news, ‘Revolver’ will also be released as a CD maxi single and 12” vinyl single in early 2010. Please check below for the different release dates and tracks-listings!
