Throwback Thursday - RIP Loleatta Holloway 1946-2011

Damn, lot of deaths lately! I CANNOT believe this hasn't been more widely reported! Soul diva/gay icon Loleatta Holloway passed away last week and the ONLY report of it I saw was in Entertainment Weekly!
This powerhouse vocalist had a string of hits including "Vertigo/Relight My Fire" with Dan Hartman, but will forever be best remembered for her disco anthem "Love Sensation!"


That fro is off the hook! "Love Sensation" was a number one dance hit in 1980 as disco waned. But that shizz was so good, it came right back! In 1989, Black Box sampled STOLE it and re-released it as "Ride On Time" lipsynched in the video and onstage by Katrin Quinole. Oh PS, Loleatta is singing "Right on time," those silly Itallians just didn't understand her, which is why their version is entitled "Ride On Time!"


"Ride On Time" bad spelling, lipsynching and all, was the #1 selling single in the UK in 1989! In the US, it was released as "Black Box featuring Loleatta Holloway" which is better than poor Martha Wash got, when she provided the vocals to ALL of their other songs!
But wait! There's more! "Love Sensation" was sampled a second time in 1991 as the hook to gay pin up Marky Mark's "Good Vibrations!"



Unlike Black Box, Marky Mark had the decency to showcase Mz. Holloway in both the music video and in live performances! (I thought Marky Mark was THE. HOTTEST. GUY. EVER. Now I can't stand him. Weird.) The song was a #1 smash and Holloway's only pop #1 in the US.

And finally, the original track, "Love Sensation" was remixed by The Freemasons in 2006 and this new club version became a hit all over again!


Strangely, although the track is credited to Loleatta, the video shows some skinny tramp lipsynching her lines. Shades of Black Box!

She also redid her former hit "Relight My Fire" first with Take That and then with Ricky Martin.

Rest in peace, DIVA!!!

2am Blog Y'all! (AKA I'ma Be Worthless At Work Tomorrow... Whenever I Show Up!)

This has me giddy! FX is developing a live-action show based on the ground-breaking comic Powers about cops that work in a world filled with super heroes. I love me some Powers! It's excellent, even though on occasion, I find myself struggling with "Wait am I supposed to read both pages across or read one page, then the other?" Aaaaaaand... it kinda jumps the shark later on, but I LOVE the first several years worth! So anyway, they're developing a series based on it and they are wooing Kyle Chandler to (I'm guessing) play Christian Walker. I mean he isn't quite as built as Christian... no non-illustration is! But Kyle Chandler holds a special place in my heart. I guess he was one of my first celebrity crushes, back when I was in high school and he was on a show that no one remembers but me, called Homefront.
He went on to star in Early Edition and Friday Night Lights and I watched neither. Sue me. Yeah, I KNOW FNL was great and all and at some point before I die, I may check it out.

Thing is, Kyle is like my first love. Not my real first love, not the guy I was first attracted to, but like my celebrity first love. So if he stars as Christian Walker, it's like him coming back to me 20 years later and telling me he loves me after all. That 20-mumble-something years ago, we shoulda been together! So CMON Kyle! Say yes! Be Christian Walker! I need you back in my life (and being on football shows was not the way to go)!

Extra!

http://perezhilton.com/2011-03-29-nyc-bachelor-builds-a-slide-between-his-two-apartments

Genius!!! I want to redesign my entire house now based on this!!!

Wonder Wednesday (Also Late Tune In Tuesday)

I think I'ma just retire Tune In Tuesday, because as you may or may not know, Tuesday is my Friday, ie the end of my work week. I'm just too damn tired to muster the energy to do this on a Tuesday afternoon. (I'm more concerned with getting to the bottom of a Jim Beam bottle. I think I've decided I'm just going to rock my alcoholism as a Badge of Honor at this point. It worked for the Rat Pack!) Anyhoo... Britney Spears put out a new album and I bought it... it was like a weird reflex action! It was like Britney?! BUY!!! "Hold It Against Me," was a universally panned and her second single "Till The World Ends" is EXCRUCIATINGLY mediocre... I mean didn't Jay Sean JUST put out an almost identical song, "2011 (The End Of The World)?" The whole deal is mediocre. I saw her on Jimmy Kimmel and I think she even stopped wearing a microphone when she performs! (I think. I was pretty drunk at the time.) It's like, "I'm Britney, bitch! I don't really sing!" She's just rubbing our faces in it now! WHY CAN'T I QUIT YOU?!?!
I fully intend on seeing Super this Friday. Anyone else want in?
RED BOOTS MUTHAFUCKA!!! Look what a bunch of angry, miserable, anonymous bloggers can accomplish! Not only did they swap out those ridiculous plastic pants, but they switched off to the classic red boots! I'm still not in love with this look... I still think she needs some kind of straps for the bodice, but it looks a gajillion times better than that first image! The bracelets alone look MUCH better in actual metallic silver, although the gold still looks a tad muddled.

Yeah, her forehead mole is evident, but god dammit, LEAVE WONDER WOMAN ALONE!!! I refuse to jump on the misogynist bandwagon of people judging her physical appearance. She's a lovely girl! If I must find fault, it is that she's a lovely girl. She still looks a tad young to be Wonder Woman, but I once again, do not think this show will make or break based on her.


In this pic, she kinda looks like Julia Stiles and I DARE you to find fault with Julia Stiles!

I'm getting more and more on-board! Wurq it, WW!

MANic Monday Two-Fer

I gave up on Hawaii 5-0 getting good a looooooooong time ago, but Alex O'Laughlin is still nice to look at:


And check it out! Hunky Tom Hardy has a new movie called Warrior coming out. I'll probably wait until it goes to DVD so I can pause and slow-mo it as necessary. TMI? My bad!


Beef-a-licious!

I'd Have Prefered Getting Donkey Punched

Every single frame of Sucker Punch is gorgeous! The sets, costumes, makeup, art direction, everything are amazingly executed! It's sooooo well-done... yet it's without a doubt, the worst movie I have ever seen in my life. And this is ME we're talking about. I built a whole week around Mega-Python Vs. Gateroid! There are plenty of movies that are poorly made, have atrocious scripts, bad acting... this isn't one of those. Everything about it was great and yet... FAIL!!! Just FAIL!!! Utterly! I wish it were alive so I could kill it, it was that bad! I'm considering bodily harm to Zack Snyder, it was that bad!

I think what kills it, is the level of pretension here. It would be one thing if this were a Transformers movie or something, where clearly it's being crapped out to be commercial and in cases you think "God, did they sit around and brainstorm ways to make this stupider?" No. There's clear evidence that they sat around trying to think up how smart they could be and, uh failed. Like they'd do a dream sequence set to a techofied version of "White Rabbit" and you expected Mr. Snyder to pop up onscreen, wink and go "GET IT?!" and shoot you a thumbs up!

I could even have dealt with it a little better if maybe it was clearly JUST supposed to be pretty, which it is. Most of the time, pretty movies (ahem Avatar, Tron...)... well, that's all they are. No one bothers writing a coherent script. I've bitched about that before, but there's something to be said for "Fuck it, let's just make this pretty!" But Sucker Punch isn't that, you can tell. It's trying to be all like deep and philosophical and symbolic and stuff. But it's so inept in its execution, it became a chore to watch. I think we were all writhing in our seats the last hour, because it just KEPT getting WORSE! And it didn't even end with the movie! The end title sequence is the WORST, MOST RIDICULOUS, MOST INSULTING PART!

I feel raped in the eye sockets. I wish I could get some brain cleaner to scrub the memory from my mind. Fuckin' terrible.

WONDERful News Wednesday

Christy Marx, the head writer and story editor and all-around champion of Jem has announced that Shout! Factory will be releasing new DVDs of the beloved hit cartoon series this year! No additional word, other than confirmation on Shout! Factory's end. Shout! Factory has LONG been a champion of fan-favorite/cult properties, not only giving series like Freaks & Geeks and MTV's The State DVD releases, but lavish, deluxe sets with beautiful packaging and TONS of extras! While it's common knowledge that cartoon boxed sets aren't huge sellers, here's hoping that there's enough love for Jem (apparently, now and forevermore known as Jem & The Holograms... to differentiate from the real singer, perhaps?) that we'll finally see the release of the second half of the second season and the entire third season! How about a soundtrack CD as a bonus?!

(The first season and a half were released probably a decade ago by Rhino and while they DID include some nice extras, the packaging was pretty terrible and of course they let their license expire without completing the series!)

The announcement from TVShowsOnDVD.com:
http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Jem-early-word/15159

Wonder Wednesday - PROPS! Amanda Conner

There isn't much news in the world of comics today... other than Cartoon Network is launching a DC Universe block of programing, but the only thing they specifically mentioned was the upcoming Green Lantern cartoon, so I'm guessing this is just going to be reruns of old shows. Which isn't bad, it's just not that exciting, either.

So, I'm just going to do another tribute to a creator I really love. Today's pick a fairly recent arrival in the world of comics, but she does a kick-ass job and I always love seeing her work, Amanda Conner! She officially began working in the late 80s as a comic illustrator, working for Archie and Marvel, but in recent years, she's catapulted to success on a number of projects, many of them involving DC's female heroes. She illustrated the Black Canary/Green Arrow Wedding Special, which... wasn't great. I mean her artwork looked stellar, but whose idea was it to make Black Canary's "wedding gown" into a variation on her super leotard? Silly.


Plus, the wedding pretty much officially fucked up one of the most famous couples in comics. Black Canary was removed from her headlining role in Birds of Prey, the book that MADE her the superstar she is today, to co-star with GA in a tepid series (that nevertheless boasted some lovely artwork by Cliff Chiang). The book tanked, and took Birds of Prey out along with it, since it tanked with its lead character gone. That's okay, Black Canary/Green Arrow didn't last long. BC is back with the Birds and GA has his own book out now.
Amanda illustrated the weekly Supergirl strip in the newspaper-sized Wednesday Comics anthology.

She illustrated the Terra miniseries written by her frequent collaborators Justin Grey and (her husband) Jimmy Palmiotti.She's best known for revitalizing Power Girl, a well-liked character who'd drifted aimlessly since the mid-80s Crisis on Infinite Earths. Along with Grey and Palmiotti, the group restored her original powers and origin (she is the parallel universe version of Supergirl, Superman's cousin). After refining her in a miniseries, the creators were given the chance to continue developing her in an ongoing series. The series was fantastic, exciting, funny, light and featuring a likable and easy-to-relate-to lead female character! Unfortunately the entire team left the book and it went straight into the toilet. (Someone really needs to ban Judd Winnick from ever writing comics again!)Amanda's artwork is clean and has a cartoon-y feel to it. She's known for her lovely females, who have a definite Pin Up Girl look.But her fellas aren't hard to look at either. Hell, she made Jimmy Olsen cute! Jimmy Olsen!For serious!Super cute Robin on Batgirl sketch!

Perhaps the coolest thing to happen, is her being tapped to design a line of DC heroine minibusts. The first was this Batgirl to the left, doing the Batusi! HOW cute!!! Amanda's work always has a humorous element to it and these busts certainly maintain that!

Classic Star Sapphire, somehow having acquired Green Lantern's ring!
A powerful Queen Hippolyta as the Golden Age Wonder Woman!
Simply stunning Power Girl, showing off her second most famous assets!
Looking forward to whatever projects she has coming down the pipeline to come!

RIP Elizabeth Taylor 1932-2011

RIP Elizabeth Taylor, a true Hollywood icon and legend. Probably one of the first true movie STARS, she was a fixture in the tabloids decades before Angelina, Jen or Lindsay. She starred in COUNTLESS films, but my favorites will always be opposite Rock Hudson and James Dean in Giant and with the equally-beautiful Paul Newman in Cat On A Hot Tin Roof. She won her first Oscar for Butterfield 8 and another for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?.

In more recent years, she was known mostly for being kinda crazy and being Michael Jackson's best friend. Her last movie role was as Wilma's mother in The Flintstones. Seriously! But she will live forever thanks to her brilliant performances in dozens and dozens are great films!

Tune In Tuesday - Belated Edition

I actually had an idea for Tune In yesterday, but I must have slept VERY poorly Monday night, because I was exhausted all day yesterday. I came home from work and went to bed and there went Tuesday!But anyway, I am delighted to report that Syfy has renewed Being Human for a second series. I LOVE this show! It's so well done and you just get wrapped up in the characters! I didn't quite buy the events of this last episode with the werewolf "dog fight," but the stories are developing nicely and I thoroughly look forward to each new episode, which is rare.
Also renewed is the Little Cop Show That Could, Southland. I have NO idea how I got wrapped up in this show. I never watch cop shows. I think I just started watching because Ben McKenzie was on it. (Yum!... then again, the whole cast is attractive. It's like a CW teen drama for grown-ups!) Once again, the stories are very engaging. Things really came to a head in this past season finale. I was really thrown when probably the most sympathetic and likable character was shockingly killed off this past season, which just goes to show that the producers are willing to keep you on your toes and to take risks. This show started off on NBC but was cancelled. TNT picked it up and I'm glad it's working out, because it's a really good show.
So yeah, just a couple of plugs for shows I like!

MANic Monday - Chord Overstreet

I might have to give this boy his own tag. So beautiful! Bigger pic below:

Aw Crap

Welp. There it is. What we've all been speculating about. The official Wonder Woman costume from the TV show.

Sigh. I will freely admit that there is a certain impracticality to Wonder Woman traditonal costume, which is why I was semi-defensive of the switch to the current look.But the new costume doesn't address ANY of the impracticalities of the classic comic book costume at all! They just traded out some impracticalities for others or left the impracticalities in and made random changes just to make changes! It's still silly!

#1. The number one complaint people had about WW's costume: How do her boobs keep from popping out? At least the new comic suit has straps. (Lots and lots of straps.) With this one... she's one twist away from her getting lots and lots of beads. (Mardi Gras reference. Like that? Topical!) No more or less practical than the drawings of her!

#2. Pants. Really why? AT LEAST, these appear to have some gold stars down the sides of the legs which makes them immediately better than the comic book leggings.

#3. What the fuck is that made of? Plastic? It seriously looks like plastic! It looks like if this were a Halloween costume (which it DOES look like), it wouldn't survive the night... a night of standing, walking, sitting and maybe wiggling to Ke$ha. It looks like it would rip apart at the seams if you turned too far to one direction. At least Lynda Carter's costume looked like fabric! It looked like it could move in any direction and they designed her bodice to accommodate her movements as well. I'd have been WAY cool with high-tech looking fabric like Superman's from Superman Returns or Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man costumes. This just looks cheap cheap CHEAP!
#4. Heels? Seriously? I've said it once and I'll say it a million times, most women can't even stand or walk in heels! Yet, Wonder Woman is supposed to run after bad guys, climb buildings, leap great distances, and overall kick ass in them?! How many twisted ankles to you think Adrienne Palicki will have before the end of season one?

#5. And why blue? Is that somehow less silly than red? Because considering they went with a straight up, primary-colored super suit, why not go with a boot that contrasts her leggings rather than go monochromatic on her lower half. (Another major gripe people have with the new comic suit.)

#6. The rest. The tiara is the new one. It's okay. I'd have preferred the original but at this point, who cares? The belt is too busy. The good: I like the repeated red star motif. I like the chest logo. At least she has her magic lasso and bracelets! I don't mind the gold touches on the boots either and as I said before I like the addition of gold stars to the leggings. I should be glad they kept her looking like a super hero, but... like I said, the traditional costume had its faults and this new suit doesn't address ANY of them! It's just another silly impractical suit! The changes are pointless!