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Category: What This Really Says About Me (Page 11 of 15)

Holiday 2008

Franz-flagstaffThings have been a bit hectic lately and I’ve had trouble getting back into the swing of the day-to-day. My bf, the furkid and I went to Flagstaff for Christmas to kind of hole up…with some snow. It was much fun – our furkids first snow. We lavished him with Christmas gifts, which included a bounty of rawhides shaped like Christmas items. Soon, he was throwing up on the hotel carpet.

From Christmas to New Years I spent organizing my office. Not pleasant but it had to be done. And now I’ve got a long list of to-dos and touch-bases for the New Year which is keeping me quite busy. Plus the wedding stuff. We’ve organized a website and done drafts of the invitation and found a photographer. Personally, I’m a mess. My skin and hair and nails (and figure). So I’m implementing a beauty and exercise regime for the year. I’m annoyed at how much time it takes to maintain these things. I’d rather be reading.

But enough about me. There are oodles of Cher stuff to catch up on. Here we go – we have LOTS to cover so let’s get 2009 started!

Merry Christmas Cherkids!

S&cxmasThis will probably be my last posting before Christmas. And here I wanted to get to the latest Cherity news and some neato blog posts out there. Oh well, maybe in a few weeks we can get to those.

In the meantime, it’s a bit gloomy this year as holidays go: what with nobody having any money, all the financial scams being exposed (in both the private and government sectors), pitiful economy news day after day, shopping homicides (!), less sunlight, post-election withdraw, too many parties and obligations between Thanksgiving and the big day, right-wingers still insisting we all say the word Christmas, Christmas, Christmas 40 times a day because they’re inherently intolerant of sharing their holiday with other belief systems (where is the love, y’all?), a barrage of slashed-priced store sales reminding us how desperate the retail industry is, and my favorite holiday grievance–poorly strewn holiday lights on front lawns. I really hate that. I can’t stress this enough. I think subliminally it makes us all very grouchy. (for an example of bad Christmas decorating, see the Sonny & Cher Show set below; who hung that red garland so sloppily?) And people who can’t manage to string up their lights properly are always too lazy to take said atrocities down in a timely manner–which is January 1st people; it’s why you get the day off.

Day off/Lights off: just remember that.

Here are some Cher-related Christmas activities for you to do this week:

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Happy Dead Turkey Day 2008

Jokers2
Happy Thanksgiving all. My bf and I had dinner with two friends at The Sportsmen's Lodge this year. Which was bittersweet as rumor has it they're tearing it down next year. It was quite a celeb hot spot in the day. However, the only Cher reference I can find now is from the wikipedia page on the place: "Brad St. James and Susi Q (aka the "New" Sonny and Cher) have been the in-house musical entertainment every Friday and Sunday night since 2005."

Anyway, to quickly cap Cher references last week Air America made two Cher that I happened upon. While talking about cheap toys we loved as kids on The Stephanie Miller Show (in honor of this Christmas in a bad economy), someone called in complaining about having the Cher doll and how the hair would always get caught in the quagmire of the eye lashes.

Later in the week on the Rachel Madow show, Andy Borowitz was a guest to talk about Sarah Palin's Thanksgiving thankfullnesses and he commented that Sarah Palin's political career is like Cher's Farewell tour. You can see this joke coming from the horizon line can't you? 

Also of note last week, my bf and I took some time recently to play a game of poker with the Cher deck that Cher scholar Eileen was very nice enough to pick up for me at the Cher Caesars store a few months back. Here is the photo essay of our inaugural game.

When I saw the Bette Midler playing cards in the Cher/Midler Caesars store I thought, Cher should have those! And now she does. Quality control comment: the box came unglued immediately. These seem like they were rushed through production. And only the jokes and queens (of course) have Cher photos…but that aside — I LOVE THEM! And no Cher junk trunk would be complete without them.

Firstpoker

My bf studies his Cher cards….

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 

Franzpoker

Franz watches intently. The tension is high!

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 

 

 

Myhand
I throw down my hand…it looks pretty good, those aces and all.

 
 
 

 
 

 

Poker1
Oh no…he looks pretty confident. What's he got?

 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 

Poker2Five Queens?
What the?
God dammit! 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Odd Cher Links and Wedding Dresses

Chershw1_jpg_jpg Okay, this was mostly a great week in some ways but also a God-awful week for two people I care a great deal about. A shout out to my de-facto sister Maureen and my friend Sherry in upstate New York.

Family drama threatened to be a gurgling zombie this week regarding the wedding (my friend Ann warned about that), but I had such a good shopping week – and my mom has offered to help in said potential dramas. 

My bf and I have decided our theme is a library in the Fall. This is because the wedding will take place in a library next Fall.

Last week I happened upon, to my great joy, a JoAnns fake-fall-foliage sale; and this week I snared a library card catalog drawer for $56 on eBay when most have been going for over $100 (I have come to understand people put them in their kitchens as quaint little recipe and spice drawers – an idea which I intend to steal). I also found a library wholesale supplier and ordered some overdue slips to put in our programs and library stamps to stamp our wedding date as the due date (yes…this is very nerdy stuff; it’s what I do).

Also in wedding sales this week: table number holders and name change kits! And I found a most perfect guest gift: bookmarks shaped like leaves! You can pinch me!

I’m still not all that enthused about the wedding dress search, however. I’ve found one that will do. Foxylady But I’m hoping the styles update somewhat in the spring collections. This sleeveless halter look is just getting old. When we were forced to plan our weddings back in high school Home Economics class, that was the day of obnoxious satin and big puffy sleeves. Not that I want those times back. I'm just saying I'm feeling a hostage to fashion.

You can tell what I really care about because I’ve spent hours looking at library curios and only a fraction of the time grumpily perusing wedding dresses. Do you think Bob Mackie would design me an off-white replica of the 1975 Cher Show Foxy Lady outfit?

I looked everywhere for the picture of Cher wearing the dress above. Thank you Cher Extravaganza! The got piles of pics of Cher Show dresses that could be turned into wedding dresses.

Not much Cher news this week but I have collected quite an assortment of odd Cher links to share:

What the hell is this one all about? http://foo.secondlifeherald.com/slh/2008/11/deans-vegas-clu.html

I guess Cher’s the new Peter Frampton for all the crap we hear about her the vocoder effect: http://yepyep.gibbs12.com/2008/10/blame-cher-timeline-of-the-robot-effect-thats-ruining-music/

I hate to even tamper with this headline: "Aerosmith Singer Gets Cher's Pants" http://www.bravewords.com/news/97300

    

Twilight Zone in the US

Cher Last week was a bit of a drag in many ways. My bf and I have been really wrapped up in the US presidential elections, my bf writing passioned debates via email while I furiously forward jokes and pundit pieces out in dizzying amounts. We've been watching Keith Olbermann, Rachel Maddow, and The Daily Show non-stop the last week which was filled with insane poltical stunts and antics. We even watched the infamous Walter Cronkite-esque David Letterman show last week where Letterman went political on John McCain's ass. To end the week, we watched the Obama/McCain debate at an Al Franken fundraiser where I spotted The White Stripes' Jack White lumbering sheepishly about.

It's all historic, distressful and exciting at the same time. Which I supposed is typical for all country-altering events. But we're exhausted with ever turn, allegation, and poll cycle. I almost feel held hostage by the US news industrial complex.

And it leaves no time for bloggin. Then you throw in the historic stock market crash today and the congress dramas of bailouts and much hand wringing ensues.

For instance, my own bank was "seized" last week. Seized! I went out an purchased Naomi Wolfe's essay "The End of America." Scary stuff about the slow-motion coop of the Bush Administration.

I made an unsuccessful attempt to cheer myself up by been reading Joan Didion books. First I finishes "Where I'm From" about her ambivalence about growing up Californian and the disjointed self-image of all Californians (new or long-timers). Then last weekend I finished "The Year of Magical Thinking," an absolutely depressing but astute account of the grief she experienced losing her husband and daughter in a short period of time. What was I thinking? I ended the weekend in sadder shape than I started.

And then we hear Cher has been sick with a mystery illness. Any celebrity illness not disclosed automatically assumes itself as a mystery, doesn't it? One report estimated Caesars Palace loses $2 million per week when Cher calls in sick. More dire rumors quickly take off from there: another article speculating she may not continue her run into the next year. Well, that doesn't sound good.

What a vortex of bummerdom we're in! I hope Cher's not freaked out about her stock portfolio. In all things, get well soon!

 

Crash Week

David-foster-wallace Wow…what a week we’ve had: the markets, the election, David Foster Wallace.

I just spent my lunch hour experiencing the closest I’ve ever imagined to seeing a run on a bank. It’s like Mary Poppins but in reverse: the lobby of Bank of America filled with WaMu customers trying to transfer their monies. And it’s sad because I liked WaMu. I really did. They had pleasant lobbies and were always situated in very cool buildings of retro architecture.  Okay, not a good reason to love your bank, but…

And then the suicide of David Foster Wallace really shook me up. I was a bonofide fan of this writer. Although I only had three books of his (two personally signed) and although I had only been to three of his readings, I took his style and thoughts to great heart. He wrote funny and touching short stories and hilarious yet philosophical essays on pop culture, politics, pretty much anything with the best, most interesting footnotes you’ve ever seen. (So much better than someone trying to explicate a T.S. Eliot poem but don’t get me started.)

He wrote wonderfully packed sentences, was handsome in a frazzled sort of way, and came across as a genuinely nice dude. The last reading I attended was years ago at UCLA’s Hammer Museum in Westwood. He read us an unbelievably tragic story about a baby and then described how it was part of his effort to give up a tone of irony for one of sincerity.

Irony is the “it” attitude of my generation. People my age only like things ironically, with a wink wink. Which is why everyone always thinks I like Cher ironically. Which I don’t and that annoys me. But I really love irony in its naked form. But DFW got me to see how overdone it’s become and how spiritually empty it leaves us. I yearned to see the kind of sincerity back in writing that he said he was going to be attempting. I looked forward to that and decided to try to move in that direction myself.

I even thought about his idea weeks ago as I was converting my two Olivia Newton John albums to Mp3 and came across one of the few songs I know of that Olivia wrote herself, “The Promise” about how wonderful dolphins are. The song lyrics are easy to snicker at because they’re so sincere but I just took a minute to love them for just that reason. It’s so much safer to be ironic. So much braver to be sincere. And you end up feeling more moved by it. His mission was a noble one.

Read my brief review of his book of essays, A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again, from the site Ape Culture. That's the book where DFW urged us to consider the TV and the fact that we spend a lot of time staring at a piece of furniture. Absurd, true yet somehow acceptable. David Foster Wallace, I believe you did what you had to do…but I wish you were still here.

   

Rags, Stars, 80s Videos, Rosetta Stone, Black Rose, Les Dudek, Elton John, Kathy Griffin and Whatever Else I Can Throw Into One Blog Post

BlackRoseIP-2 80s Videos

I’m not even gonna go near The Enquirerthis week or this year for that matter (between all the John Edwards, Sarah Palin and Cher stories I’ll lose my mind). 

I started a new ceramics class last Saturday and then came home and threw a small dinner party that evening. On Sunday I was so exhausted I crashed and spent 12 straight hours watching “80 Hours of 80s” on VH1-Classic. It was like a flashback to my teen years where I spent the days and night watching 80s videos. All day Sunday I kept saying I should at least read my mail during the commercials and videos I hated (like U2s "With or Without You" or anything by The Romantics) but I found myself just as mesmerized as I was 20 years ago through every single ridiculous yet charming video.

It makes no sense. I feel like I have severe attention deficit watching modern videos with all their jump cuts and poses. But 80s videos, were nothing but mindless shenanigans in front of a camera happen, those suckers hypnotize me for hours. I wasted the entire day laying on the couch. I didn’t even eat much. I even saw a few video’s I’d never seen before and decided to seriously re-evaluate Sinead OConnor (due to "I Want Your Hands on Me") and reconfirmed my yen for P.I.L. (with "Rise"). Then one video practically got me to giddy as I hit the record button on my Crap-o (my Comcast DVR) – it was like 1986 and I was hitting Play on my prehistoric VCR that would groan for two seconds before actually recording anything so that now I have tapes and tapes of videos with the beginnings missing. But this song I saw only once or twice in the 80s but loved it, LOVED IT (and could never find on 45, CD or even now on iTunes!) The Producers singing “What’s He Got That I Aint Got” – perfect 80s-ness.

Blog Questions

To answer a few recent questions posted on the blog:

  1. How is Rosetta Stone going? I love it so far and am still trying to find time to work on it more often. It's designed to teach you how to learn a language as you first did as a toddler. I got 98% on my first lesson; and I am so not a left-brained/memorize-it sort person. So that’s a good sign. 
  2. Do I think the unavailability of Starshas contributed to its current cult status among fans? Most probably so, but I still think that fact is more of a detriment to Cher’s long-term respect as a talented musical artist than it is a kewl underground gem we can all bond over. Why? Because it’s not like Neil Young who maybe has a rare great album that’s become a cult find but he also has plenty of other critically acclaimed albums to rest his laurels on. Cher has lots of pop albums that are easy to find and a few awesome ones that are hard to find. It’s only a cool thing among fans. The rest of the world is still in the dark about it. I will concede that I’m not sure Cher’s respect among critics will even yet treat Stars fairly, but I think she’s definitely getting there, each year more and more respect.

Kathy Griffin Meets Cher
Kathy Griffin’s implored Rosie O'Donnell to introduce her to Cher in exchange for getting Rosie into some braniac conference. This all happened on a recent episode of Griffin’s reality show. Here’s a story about her meeting with Cher.

Black Rose
I was doing research on the spelling of Les Dudek’s name for a Cher Glossary I’m putting together for the revamp of CherScholar.com and I came across this interesting Wikipedia entry that claims there are enough spare tracks for a Black Rose (see kewl pic above) album #2 and that "Don’t Trust that Woman" was written by Les Dudek and Cher. But I thought the co-writer was Elton John (as Lady Choc Ice) and that the song ended up on John’s album Leather Jackets (see the lyrics and credits here on an Elton John discography site) and as explained by Elton John and Cher on The Joan Rivers Show.

However, lesdudek.com list the same song same lyrics for his Gypsy Ride album and claims it was written by Cher and himself: http://www.lesdudek.com/disco/gypsy.htm. Here's the sound clip: http://www.lesdudek.com/disco/byte/gr/gypsy09.mp3.

Yahoo Music clears it up and says it was written by all three of them.

Three things I conclude from this lesson:

  1. Cher can co-write some catchy sh*t.
  2. This song can be contorted into vastly different pop and rock genres.
  3. I like Les Dudek’s voice. I really do.

Do you think there was a jam session with all three of them on this little piece? Nah.

  

Cher Hearts Hillary

Scsunsetstripriot I’m a Cher fan; I’m a dog fan; I love Mexican food; I dig pottery and poetry; I adore the southwest and I’m a political junkie. Two of these things have come to clash this week – Cher and politics. Don’t get me wrong: I love me some Cher stuff; but I actually get really fired up about the politics. 

And yet I really debated even covering this issue in 'I Found Some Blog,' even bothering to discuss Cher’s comments to Liz Smith about both of their feelings on US presidential democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama. I debated discussing it for two days and for two big reasons.

First, my parents told me never to bring up politics in a mixed crowd. So you can probably guess by that rule my parents are democrats. This blog is definitely a mixed crowd. So in warning: if you’re not someone of liberal leanings, go get yourself some coffee or take a walk around the block.

Secondly, is this blog really the place to hash out this sort of thing? And this is really a stickler. On the one hand the purpose of this blog originally was more about me and my learning to journal on a regular basis about semi-personal things, all under the guise of a celebrity blog; so political discussions sorta fit within that framework. And sometimes personal anecdotes bring readers and writers together—but sometimes personal subjects are just too derisive, you know? Sometimes it just doesn’t help to share.
But does that make soap-boxing permanently off limits? We can’t go that far.

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My Whereabouts

JurydutyThe Cher Fanclub is back up (sort of) after a few years of going dark. A week or so the site said it was only open to past members for the time being and I must admit, I feel a little shut out, like a second-class Cher-citizen, as it were.

Now the Join page says “sign up today” but there’s no link, only a button that says “instant enrollment coming soon.” But to clarify: soon is not today. In other words, join today, but not today… soon. Capiche? The site's frames are very complicated and heavy to load. But still…I’m ready to plunk down my $25 smacks a year as soon as someone…returns.. to the register. http://www.officialcherfanclub.com/

This week the 5th Cher Convention happened in Las Vegas this week at Caesars Palace to coincide with the current block of Cher concerts. I haven’t seen any Cher group posts about it yet but initial newspaper reports say there was a low turnout and Cher didn’t show. You can lead a Cher Convention to Cher…

2737211608_40ab0a4fab It’s hard to be a super-Cher fan sometimes. It really is. But as Cher has proved recently, her show is selling out amongst American hoards. She don’t need no stinkin’ superfans. Sigh.

Lots of links happened last week. More later as I settle back in to my life! Not to be melodramatic about it but I’ve had a rough two weeks. Where the hell have I been? I was on jury duty (with loud court-disturbing coughing bronchitis no less) and when I got home was too exhausted to even type out a distress message to y’all about where I been.

Imagine Cher Scholar driving to a criminal courtroom in the Compton area of Los Angeles for a gang trial with intent to sell cocaine allegated, a defense attorney who looks and talks like Yeardley Smith and a prosecutor who looked like Tyra Banks. A petite and pretty Japanese-American judge who proceeded at the speed of frozen molasses. Imagine a deliberation scene somewhat like 12 Angry Men. An acquittal struggling to happen: 4 to 8, then 9 to 3, then 11 to 1, then 11 to 1, then 11 to 1. Almost a hung jury until the white Redondo Beach juror releases a angry fist of his racial-profiling-prejudices against the face of a melting pot of peer pressure.

It was stressful but I learned a lot. Did you know the Bloods wear St. Louis Cardinal and Boston Red Sox gear cos it’s red?

In the Cher-meanwhile, my bfs co-worker gave him an article to give to me with some fabulous pictures of Cher’s live show in full-spread-out color. The article is about how her stage and effects were built. The magazine is Live Design and the issue is August 2008. I have no idea where one would get a copy of one’s own. Start with http://www.livedesignonline.com/ and have a good, healthy, stress-free, jury-duty-free weekend.

Rosetta Stone and Cher on Sirius Radio

ROSETTA-STONE-INC-3 Well, it seriously was my birthday this week. 39! The countdown begins today! 364 more days!


And although I’ve had the death of a cold, I did have a nice birthday and got some sweet stuff: a stereo for my iPod so I can share my entire Cher collection with my bf now. He himself bought me something I’ve been whining for all year: Rosetta Stone software so I can teach myself Spanish. At work they were teaching us Spanish earlier in the year and I really loved working the other side of my brain trying to learn it. But then the budget killed the program. Rosetta Stone commercials really spoke to me, all the total immersion stuff. I can’t wait to try it.


This also reminds me of the gift my bf got me last year, Sirius radio. For the first 9 months I couldn’t get it to work – bad reception. Finally I called to cancel the dern thing and God bless em, they offered me a professional installation if I’d stay in the Sirius family. Well, after the first installation, the equipment died. So they sent me replacement equipment and I’m happy to say it’s working great now. Sirius is really good on long car drives, I must say. When we drove to New Mexico I was able to set all my favorite artist alerts. Let me tell you, Sirius radio LOVES Billy Joel, much to my bf’s dismay. For my Cher alerts, I’ve been tentatively disappointed. For the first month I heard ONLY “Turn Back Time” and “The Way of Love” every few days. From her whole catalogue, that was it! But just this week they did play “Dark Lady” once on the 70s station and “Take Me Home” on the dance station. Stay tuned for more on that.


   

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