a division of the Chersonian Institute
Another thing I got from the late Christmas exchange was a Mermaids Cher notebook not unlike this Moonstruck one! Both were made from recycled VHS boxes.
Getting it make me take stock of other Cher recycled products that have gone functional out there.
Including record album cover notebooks:
And record album tote bags:
People are so crafty!
While I was looking for these I came across this awesome bit of fan art for Stars:
Music
Lots of people are talking about Cher’s 50th anniversary mark in the music industry this week. The lead article was this interview done for Billboard Magazine as her appearance on their chart (with Sonny) marks her entrée into the biz.
A few weeks ago I caught upon the cool blog Stargayzing when my Cher-friend Rick Hough sent me a link to the article he wrote on S&C first comeback, "The Sonny Bono Reinvention Act of 1971." It's well-written and has some great photos. In fact, Stargazing can keep you occupied for quite a few hours. There, I also found this amazingly awesome photo outtake of the Half Breed album cover by Gene Trindl. Read the post.
Speaking of Sonny…
Last week I found this story, "How DC Ended Up With a Park Dedicated to Sonny Bono." Apparently the park is controversial due to some people thinking anyone with money can buy and dedicate a park to someone. Hello! That's pretty much what anyone can do with private property. Am I missing something here?
I also found out yesterday that Chaz Bono is promoting his own production company and a play this weekend in LA. I miss LA for things like this!
Sweet Tweets
Cher expressed dismay at John Stewart leave-taking from The Daily Show. Stephen Colbert, David Letterman, Jon Stewart: I can’t take this much media change!!!
Cher Art, My Favorite Category!
I found another piece of "What would cher do" art on Stargazer last week and our good Cher friend, Cher scholar Cherokee99, posted some Cher art here.
Cher Scholar Michael also sent me this hilarious bit of funny.
Been tied up doing the National Poetry Writing Month challenge this month (I have to write a poem a day) and obsessively watching episodes of Schitt's Creek, the new Canadian sitcom on Pop TV staring SCTV's Catharine O'Hara and Eugene Levy. Thankfully it's Canadian and may not get cancelled just because it's on Pop TV and no one knows where that is. It's very funny.
A few weeks ago I received a few missives from the Cher store that items were 50% off if you spent over $30. As it turned out only three items were 50% (of which I only wanted one) and to get over the $30 hurdle without buying a $75 sweatshirt you didn't want, you had to buy one of the other sucky three items. So I went over to ebay and bought a Mark Twain magazine to abate my shopping frustration.
Nick Vanoff’s house for sale: ‘Sonny and Cher’ Producer’s Beverly Hills Estate Listing for $25 Million
(Wall Street Journal) (Realty Today)
I love it when poetry and Cher collide. This month is full of that sort of thing. Remember David Essex on Cher's solo show? He now has a book of poems!
Take a look at him now and then watch him with Cher singing "The Long and Winding Road."
AIDS Activism
Cher was recently honored at the ‘Inspiration Gala’ in Brazil.
Articles announcing the award:
Articles about Cher's visit to an art gallery before the ceremony:
Cher's tweet Saturday: "Brazil is lovely. Went to art show last nite & fell in love with MAGIC GOLDEN Art piece by 85 year old woman…IT WAS SOLD. HAD FUN ANYWAY."
Coverage of the event:
amfAR CEO Kevin Frost spoke passionately about amfAR’s Countdown to a Cure for AIDS initiative, with the goal of developing the scientific basis of a cure by 2020. Announcing a $100 million cure research investment strategy, Frost stressed that “amfAR has the will, the commitment, and the know-how to get this done, and to truly make AIDS history.” Frost then presented the amfAR Award of Inspiration to Cher. Speaking of her willingness and ability to use her fame for the greater good, Frost described her as one of the great champions in the fight against AIDS. Cher received a standing ovation and encouraged the audience to “help bring an end to this terrible disease” before bringing fellow honoree Jean Paul Gaultier on stage for a kiss.
Cher World has great coverage with lots of pics: http://www.cherworld.com/cher-news/cher-honoured-at-amfar-2015-brazil/ (Cher World covering the art gallery event: http://www.cherworld.com/cher-news/cher-visits-brazil-for-charity-event/)
My favorite pics (click to enlarge):
Fashon
InStyle Magazine is inspired by Cher's timeless jeans.
Recognized for blunt tweeting
Good resource for research on Cher singles and international album covers.
The National Enquirer on stands now claims that Cher is dying. Cher refutes this.
My co-worker sent me this amazing story about a guy whose iPhone was stolen and he became suddenly famous in China. Lots of good commentary on the perils of fame and why the famous need "teams."
A follow up on the Edith Hill and Eddie Harrison story:
http://entertainment.inquirer.net/167192/cher-paves-way-for-elderly-womans-homecoming-after-a-court-dispute
Review of the Scottish S&C Musical (The Guardian)
The April month of Poetry was dedicated to hip hop poetry and it was interesting to see so many kudos thrown to The Wu-Tang Clan. Kenneth Goldsmith is a conceptual poet who's conceptual manifesto is published in the same issue. Since Cher is often accused of being artificial (by rock and roll standards), I have long been collecting commentary about artifice in art. Goldsmith had three things to say about this:
"Authenticity is another form of artifice."
"At this point in time, it's hard to verify authenticity, singularity, or proper sources for anything. Instead, in our digital world all forms of culture have assumed the characteristics of dance music and versioning, where so many hands have touched and refined these products that we no longer know, nor care, who the author is — or was."
"Auto-tune your next book of poems."
Traveling through my other obsession I found another Armenian poet, Gregory Djanikian. Don't ask me how I knew he was Armenian! He was born in 1949 in Egypt and now lives near Philadelphia directing the creative writing program at the University of Pennsylvania. That's not chump change.
Find out more about him:
– Bio on The Poetry Foundation (poem samples at bottom)
I've just published a recent interview with the author of a new novel, Sister Golden Hair, about a pre-teen girl named Jesse growing up in the early-to-mid 1970s. I talk to author Darcey Steinke, the daughter of a minister and a beauty queen, about how a celebrity-obsession with Cher works in the narrative and what Cher's "text" means vis-à-vis our struggles with ideals of beauty, role models and holiness. We also talk about the construction of her novel and depicting the trials of a teenager navigating issues of identity.
Great, fun interview!
For my novel I’ve been researching New Mexico history, artists and writers. You keep coming across D.H. Lawrence (who wrote Lady Chatterly’s Lover in 1928) as an icon of Taos, New Mexico — this even though he only lived in Taos a brief time and made disparaging comments about his time there.
In any case, this below is a picture of D. H. Lawrence and his wife, Frieda, (who did go back to Taos after her husband’s death), and was taken in Mexico. It's a very famous and often used photo of D. H. Lawrence.
This is all to say this famous picture reminds me of another, quite obscure, Sonny & Cher photo below which was part of a Billboard ad for "The Beat Goes On."
Concert Delays
I almost made a renegade trip to Lubbock, Texas, last weekend to see Cher's concert there. But then I found out it has been cancelled anyway, along with a slew of other November dates due to Cher's recent viral illness.
This has been the most dates postponed on a Cher concert tour that I can think of, a fact that is alarming some fans. Then Daily Mail broke a story about Cher having to wear a heart-monitor and it all sounds pretty scary so I asked Mr. Cher Scholar (who rates claims for Veterans Affairs and has a head full of medical knowledge) to tell me how alarmed we all should be and he said there's a danger of virus infections spreading to the heart. Cher-camp says it's all a normal part of recovery.
I first read about the postponed tour from an Allentown paper that called her tour "ill-fated." Besides the delay to the second leg, what the hell is so ill-fated about it?
Memoirs
But it all gets you thinking about mortality. So does the fact that Angelica Houston's two-volumes of memoirs are now out. Yes, Angelica Houston has unveiled her saga already.
I came across two blurbs about celebrity biographies that seem pertinent to Cher's possible look-back at her life. Young actress Lena Dunham of the HBO show Girls has a memoir already called Not That Kind of Girl. Referencing it in The Atlantic, James Parker says:
"So there's the id, the ego, the superego, and then there's the part of the psyche that writes the memoir. The latter function, in most humans, is inadequately developed until late middle age, which is why memoirs by young people are usually terrible. It's a syndrome, rather embarrassing: premature autobiography."
In an Entertainment Weekly interview, Angelica Huston also weighs in on memoir. Keith Staskiewicz says,
Many celebrity memoris are like bags of potato chips–mostly air and a little bit of salty stuff–but Huston wanted to avoid the anodyne politesse or, worse, self-delusion that can make for boring reading. "It doesn't necessarily have to be a confessional, but it does require a certain amount of looking inward," she says. "If you're gonna write a memoir, you have to talk about yourself. You have to talk about your feelings and you have to talk about who you are. Otherwise don't do it; it's a waste of paper. The trees could have lived."
NPR on Believe
On the bright side, last week I did find something I've been looking for for years. When the song "Believe" started to hit in the United States, I was living and working in Yonkers, New York. I'd hear the song on the radio when I drove home. It was both exciting and unusual to hear Cher's song with the other hits of the day, like Madonna's "Ray of Light," Whitney Houton's "It's Not Right, But It's Okay;" at least those hits were by somewhat older women, too. But then you had Monica, Britney Spears, and TLC. (See a review of 1999 number one hits). One day I was driving home and NPR was talking about the Cher/Believe phenomenon! Like in that breathy-really-serious-NPR way. I missed half of the conversation and for years I've been waiting for it to show up online in NPR archives. Here it is. It's worth a listen.
Halloween Q & A
Cher did a fan Q&A on Facebook on Halloween. There were almost 5,000 comments made and so many pages of questions I couldn't read them all. Cher answered maybe the first 30 of them. Highlights include the following:
Mary Pat Blockel O'Donnell: Hi beautiful Cher:-) Happy Halloween! Love u tons&what is your favorite memory of Chaz&Elijah as babies/and or little children at Halloween?or even teenagers?
Cher: My favorite – I have a couple of favorites. My first was Chaz's first Halloween and I sewed a cat suit, a little kitten suit and painted whiskers and it was so hard making the tail. And the other was when we all went out and Elijah wasn't old enough to walk and we had him in a devil costume and Chaz was the Fonz and we walked around the neighborhood. It was really fun. Halloween is for kids and it's fun when you have kids.
Kaylee Rudnik: Do you think there is any place that you can go without being recognized anymore???
Cher: Hell, and I'm not so sure about that. I'm pretty positive I will be recognized.
John Nicholas Ward: What is the secret behind ur eternal youth??
Cher: Makeup and childishness
Amanda Darby: If you could change one thing forever what would you choose and why?
Cher: I would change how people get along. I would make people get along.
Dean Menc: What is the best thing about being Cher?
Cher: I don't know. You don't have to wait in line.
Goran Srdija: Why u love Gaga and what's ur favourite Gaga's song? Xoxo
Cher:I appreciate her whimsy. And re-creativity.
Doug Wemple: Didn't David Bowie crash one of your house parties? Did hilarity ensue?
Cher: I don't think so. Andy Warhol did, crashed Chaz's birthday party with Keith Haring and hilarity ensued. I loved him, he was so much fun.
Leonardo Esteban Lizama Órdenes: Did you ever met Frank Sinatra? And if so, What was your fist impression?
Cher: I did meet him. I actually saw him on stage. I was following him into Caesars. I thought "HMM, he's old but he can really sing. It's amazing." He was cool.
Mike Scott Uetrecht: How has Rolling Stone never put you on their cover? Not even a review for CTTT. Disrespectful.
Cher: Well, you know, obviously I'm not their cup of tea. Never thought I was cool enough, certainly missed the boat on that.
Christopher Fox Tyler: Whats the fastest way for a man to win your heart/affection?
Cher: Oh – I guess being funny and cute doesn't hurt
Sara Oldani: Hi Cher have you ever thought of doing a concert in Italy? What's your favourite song inyour discography (either original or cover, whatever ) LOVE from Italy!!!!!!
Cher: I guess Song for the Lonely, if I had to be buried with something that would be it
Chad Eric: Happy Halloween Cher! What was your favorite memory of Halloween as a child & adult?
Cher: My favorite memory when I was a kid was when I was 9 and it was the first time I wore makeup. I was totally decked. My mom dressed me in this peasant skirt and she tied the belt so it didn't fall off, and she put on lipstick and curled my hair. That was the BEGINNING of the BEGINNING. I didn't want it to be over, I wanted to go to school the next day in my Halloween costume.
Bob Radmore: What is it like to be famous?
Cher: It's hard for me to say it. I've been famous since I was 18, so I don't know what it's like not to be.
Brooke Bryant: What is your biggest pet peeve?
Cher: iPhones
Nick LeBlanc: Hi Cher, what is your favorite city/place that you've been at in the world whether on tour or vacation?
Cher: Bora Bora
Guillermo Issac Trevino: Do you have a favorite Stevie Nicks song?
Cher: Landslide
Mark Carder: Hey @Cher What is your favorite HORROR FILM
Cher: I'm such a gigantic chicken. I was watching Hell House last night and I was afraid to look at it. I don't do well with horror films they make me terrified. One of my closest friends made a blockbuster movie and it was the Exorcist.
(It was mildly exciting to think Mr. Cher Scholar and I were watching The Legend of Hell House on TCM at the same time Cher was. I even decided to use some of the character names for a novel I'm working on. Mr. Cher Scholar and I also watched The Excorcist again — Cher is referencing director William Friedkin there who, as we know, also directed Good Times – and Mr. Cher Scholar and I decided we were kind of burned out on the gory parts — although the special effects still hold up — but we really got into the quieter, character development of the movie this year. In fact, I don't think the movie would be quite as frightening without the quiet, ominous soundtrack.)
Annette Eland: Do you meditate?
Cher: Yes
Raymond Donahue: Is it true that you & Sonny were neighbors with Farrah Fawcett ?
Cher: I don't think so
Michele McLey: A couple of question's first what to you like to do when your not touring? And will you do a tour DVD? Oh and please say you are doing another movie, soon!
Cher: Be grubby and go to the movies. Swimming and hang out with my friends. Just nothing, the same thing everyone else likes to do. It's hard to be grubby nowadays though, it's hard to be yourself.
Jennifer Fontana: Hi Cher! What is your favorite moment from your legendary career?
Cher: Ppppssshhhh. I guess winning the Oscar was pretty hard to beat.
Jason Andrew: Dear Cher, Once you are canonized as a saint, what will you be the patron of?
Cher: Lost causes
Sam Durbin: If you could be any item in a walmart, what would you be and why?
Cher: I would be in Target
Sam Durbin: What CD is in your car right now?
Cher: MY CD. Because I'm singing tracks to the show, I rehearse. The CD that is in my car is boring.
Christopher Eklund: What is your favorite memory of filming Burlesque?
Cher: HMm. The song, Welcome to Burlesque. I was kind of nervous. No, it's not really my favorite. One scene I had with Stanley, and the makeup scene with Christina. I don't have any favorite ones. Maybe You Haven't Seen the Last of Me.
Lorenzo Morrison: Hi Cher. No Lady Gaga. No Madonna. I would like to know what do you you think about Annie Lennox! Is there a song by her you particularly appreciate?
Cher: She's a genius. Everyday we play "Take me to the River" and do our ab exercises to it.
Amanda Jean Bedwell: Is there anything you haven't done yet but you would love to do next
Cher: A million things I want to do. So many things. I can't believe I got this OLD and there are still so many things I want to do.
Dawn Decker: Will you ever do a meet n greet? The only thing on my bucket list is to meet you!!!
Cher: Oh gosh. Elvis, James Dean. There weren't many women icons when I was young with my mom watching old movies – there was Katherine Hepburn. But I identified more with Elvis and James Dean and I identified more with that. The women were more cute and I couldn't identify with them at all
Caricatures
Finally, when we were talking about caricatures a few weeks ago, I forgot about a very famous Cher caricature done by Al Hirschfeld in 1974!
Okay, I think the height thing is a little exaggerated there.
The caricature to your left is by Kerry Waghorn. I think it captures Cher's very specific attitude.
I was thinking about Cher caricatures today because I discovered the Georgia O'Keeffe museum is starting an exhibit of works by Miguel Covarrubias this month. Many of us already know of Covarrubias' famous caricatures from Vanity Fair such as 
Georgia O’Keeffe and Greta Garbo.
I always wish I could find more (good) caricatures of Cher.
View the Cher caricatures on Google.
View the Cher cartoons on Google.
While I was looking for caricatures of Cher, I found this amazing site by a Quebec artist designing Cher on Playing Cards inspired by her songs. I wish they were for sale.
Correction: They are on sale! (Thanks for the link Cher scholar Dishy)
Here is a new cartoon by the same artist named inkjava.
And of course, the most famous caricature of Cher of all… 
I'll have to refer back to Josiah Howard's Strong Enough book to learn who designed it.
Cher scholar Michael recently informed me that Cher did an interview for the new magazine FLATT. FLATT is a philanthropic arts organization that “celebrates creative entrepreneurs and contemporary philanthropic ideas.” I found my copy on eBay because I am two states away from a decent newsstand.
The cover is gorg and the interview was done by Christina Lessa. It was an exceptionally good one, too, and not just remarking on clichés about how Cher is an iconic diva. Lessa effused instead about Cher’s humanness and her status as an underdog and as a pioneer, how she always tends to steal the show (even still), and how she never looks like she’s trying. Yes, thank you! Cher herself talks a bit about singing with her mom, grandfather and uncle, her grandfather playing the guitar (love those stories!). Cher also talks about the dichotomy in her personality of being both loving and mean. She admits she has “a list” of at least one item she requires in a mate: he must be a good artist. She talks about doing a PSA for suicidal servicemen (so heartbreaking!) She also talks about discussing reality shows with Elijah and how she hates them. It even seems unlikely that she would like one with Elijah in it.
This is a big beautiful magazine with lots of amazing art and photographs. Surprisingly the magazine had two sections of poetry! “Poetic Narrative” by Marc Straus (with artwork by Bruce Robbins) was my favorite of the two represented. His were lyrics with a lot of juxtapositions of random lines. But there was an undercurrent of a story about a father. These poems reminded me of William Carlos Williams as they were written from a doctor’s point of view. His poems also contained a large amount of scene-setting, some interesting lines like “Rivers drowned in each others’ mouths,” class issues touched upon in “He went to the suburb where/they judge your lawn,” and American critique: “He said that 90 inch drapes were 89 inches long./That one inch made America rich.” The other poet Jason Armstrong Beck was included with a poem called “Dust Storm” mostly a visual study.
Quite an impressive magazine but the typos drove me nuts.
I love it when my obsessions collide. Poetry and Sonny & Cher. It rarely happens but when it does…happy day!
So I'm reading this great book of poems last week by the poet David Trinidad called The Late Show. It's a book of poems Cher would probably like because it's full of references to watching old late-show movies. The first poem, "The Late Show," is about Trinidad's memories of scenes from his favorite old movies. One poem is entirely about the film Penelope and ends with a reference to Turner Classic Movies. Another poem is just a creative listing of old movie titles. Yet another poem does the same thing with only Bette Davis movies.
One of my favorite pieces in the book is called "Hack, Hack, Sweet Has Been" and goes into depth about the making of What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? and Hush, Hush…Sweet Caroline as well as briefly cataloguing all the horror movies Joan Crawford and Bette Davis did after Baby Jane.
And of course the poem "Watching the Late Movie with My Mother" reminded me specifically of Cher.
Trinidad's poems remind me of Frank O'Hara (think "The Day Lady Died") and he's also a Barbie collector. The final poem is about how the worlds of poetry and Barbie-collecting intersect. It's called "A Poem Under the Influence" and surprisingly it referenced Sonny. Unfortunately the poem is too long for me to quote in its entirety (it's over 30 pages!) but here is the pertinent excerpt:
"I remember that What a Way to Go! was on a double bill with That Man From Rio,
but don't remember how (or if) I responded to Jean-Paul Belmondo's homely good looks.
The Beatles (already a sensation: "I Want to Hold Your Hand" topped the Billboard charts in
February '64) would soon clue me in: contrary to popular sentiment, I thought Ringo was
the sexy one. Later: Sonny Bono and Bekim Febmiu (of The Adventurers) turned me on.
I believe I saw a photograph of the latter wearing a skimpy black bathing suit in a magazine.
Cher gets all the credit for being a Gay Icon but maybe Sonny had a gay following, too. It explains the Truman Capote come-on as described in the new Cher biography.
Anyway, Trinidad is strummin my life with his fingers when he talks about the cut-throat world of poetry and how this can in any way coincide with collecting Cher dolls.
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