Page 61 of 113

Cher TV Performances in Iconic Mackie Outfits

April 13, 2012 / Cher Scholar / 0 Comments

Perusing the new TV videos online, it's been great fun catching some iconic Cher outfits.

Remember the black and white jig-jag doll dress with a white feather headdress?

This is the adult version with black feathers.

Cher sings "Just for a Thrill" on The Sonny & Show Comedy Hour.

I call this look macrame-head.

Cher sings "Working Together."

Remember this dress from the back cover of the All I Ever Need is You album?

Cher wears a fringed white halter top and long slit skirt?

Stared at that picture for many hours while listening to that album as a kid in the 70s.

I wished this outfit had been made into a doll dress. She sings "Aint Misbehavin’"

Strike a pose!

My favorite Cher dress of all-time, from The Cher Show in the mid-70s, Cher singing "Aint Nobody's Business."

Loved the fringe and lace overlay over the satin purple, the neckline showcasing some shapely armpits (hey, if you got em).

The dress really moves.

70s Heaven: More Video and David Geffen

April 4, 2012 / Cher Scholar / 4 Comments

Cher sings the Bread song "If"–a most unfortunate choice to play in your wedding if your wedding happened in the 1970s and 80s.

This is the most hilarious hair style on a Cher TV solo spot…even she looks pissed off about it.

The lyrics of this song really make me nuts, even when I was a preteen and particularly disposed to the sappy effects the song conveys:

If a picture paints a thousand words than why cant I paint you
(who says you can’t?)
The words will never show the you I’ve come to know
(sounds like a You problem)
If a face could launch a thousand ships than why can’t I launch you (No!)…than where am I to go?
There’s no one home but you; you're all that’s left me to.
(You’re all what’s left me to what? You shouldn’t end on a preposition for all this vagueness: that's all you've left me to)
And when my love for life is running dry, you’ll come and pour yourself on me
(Like in a nagging way?)
If a man could be two places at one time, I’d be with you
Tomorrow and today, beside you all the way (tell it to the judge, rock star)
If the world should stop revolving spinning slowly down to die (WTF!)
I’d spend it all with you and when the end was through
Then one by one the stars would all go out (this is NOT romantic)
Then you and I would simply fly away. (you think so if-boy?)

The song is mercifully only 2 and a half minutes long.

In this clip of "I Got it Bad and That Aint Good" you see a promo cover of the Bittersweet White Light album (can I say–this was a particularly poetic title for a Sonny-produced Cher album, or any Cher album for that matter). The clip also contains the I-got-it-bad wig.

This is a clip I remember seeing in the 1970s, Sonny & Cher singing "Delta Dawn." For days I circled the house singing the chorus over and over again. My lucky mom. Sonny is really rockin it here….but it sounds like they turned his mic off before the end. And that….is quite a shocking bit of yellow.

Romancing the Cher

Good Hollywood Reporter story that appeared back in February about David Geffen: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/grammys-cher-david-geffen-289539

Drew Barrymore is on Team Cher

March 23, 2012 / Cher Scholar / 0 Comments

Cher scholar JeffRey posted the following on the Cher Yahoo list from the 23 March issue of Entertainment Weekly where it was announced that Drew Barrymore would be co-hosting Turner Classic Movies with Robert Osborne soon.

She was asked who are her favorite screen sirens of all time. She chose Julie Christie, Faye Dunaway, Jane Fonda, Annette Bening and Cher. This is what she has to say about Cher:

"She's strong and comedic and incredibly brave, but shows vulnerability. I think she's the epitome of rock & roll," says Barrymore, citing Silkwood, Moonstruck, Mask, and The Witches of Eastwick as some of her favorite Cher performances.

Hell to the yeah!

New Old Video

March 23, 2012 / Cher Scholar / 0 Comments

There’s been a surge of cool stuff showing up on the YouTubes. I have a whole list of things to discuss but we can start with these three items:

Here is one of my two favorite Sonny & Cher show duets, "Stagger Lee/Rip it Up" from the early 70s Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour. I love that song "Stagger Lee" and they really do a swell Sonny & Cher version of it. The bright lights, the big stage. It's all good.

Sonny & Cher singing "Two of Us/We Can Work it Out" from their 1976-77 The Sonny & Cher Show. I loved this one so much after I saw it again on VH1 or Nick at Nite back in the 1990s, I wrote a poem about it. They look so glamorous and happy.

I love the part where Cher’s earring dives for the deck and Sonny gives her a teasing smile.

So the following bits are a bit timely of late, seeing as the comedian Gallagher just got out of the hospital. Remember his silly watermelon bashing bit? Well, Cher did that act five years earlier with the Jack-o-matic, the Wonderbat, the Brick-o-matic, the Mug-o-matic. On the Cher Show in 1975, Cher did a recurringly unfunny skit called Donna Jean Brodine showcasing tools for the new housewife which were basically many forms of sledgehammers for any task. Since this event predates Gallagher’s Sledge-o-matic debut on television by at least five years, why doesn’t anybody mention this? I guess it’s not the kind of comedic bit you want to take credit for. They’re both southern characters doing fake infomercials and even both borrow the “o-matic” trope.

Her outfit for the skit recently sold at Julien's for a whopping $4,500.

Chaz’s Birthday Cake Looks Fattening

March 23, 2012 / Cher Scholar / 0 Comments

Cher made some tweet mentions I guess about some recent tabloid un-truths. I know I've seen The Enquirer issue on the stands with an article about how Chaz has gained the weight he lost on both on Celebrity Fit Club and Dancing with the Stars. I don’t know what’s worse, the rumor that Chaz is on the verge of a heart attack or Billy Sammeth’s rumor that Cher hates fat people.

Not to be negative (too late!) but I think it’s hard to change your lifestyle after 40. Chaz has been heavy since young adulthood and like Lindsey Buckingham sings, "you either do or you don’t" or to quote Yoda, "Do or do not…there is no try." It’s endemic of most of America. You can’t single Chaz out.

I was watching the Cooking Channel last week and I saw a commercial aimed at kids for Cuties oranges, followed by a weight loss bar add (with the tag What do you gain when you lose? which I thought was pretty good), followed by an ad equating Lindt’s Chocolates with female sexual pleasure, followed by Jennifer Hudson’s ad for Weight Watchers, followed by another Cuties oranges ad. Now back to the Cooking Channel show that gives us the irresistible urge to cook something fattening. No wonder we’re a food-consuming-confused society.

Full disclosure: I’m 5’7” and I weigh about 157 pounds. So I'm around 15 to 20 pounds overweight in my mind. Not great but not horrible. It’s heredity; my family can eat a ton and not gain too much. And I never put on this extra 20 until I hit 38 years old and my body went all Benedict Arnold on me. But I will say this: food is my addiction. No doubt about it. I think about it all the time. If I let myself, I could be huge.

Cher Tour News and Beaches

March 8, 2012 / Cher Scholar / 7 Comments

Cher News and Cher World have posted pics of Cher's recent appearance at Los Angeles International airport (left).

Cher News also posted some tour news:

http://chernews.blogspot.com/2012/03/news-round-up-chers-new-tour.html
http://chernews.blogspot.com/2012/02/cher-must-have-found-what-she-was.html
http://chernews.blogspot.com/2012/02/chers-concert-coming-to-kansas.html

No album news yet, but since the tour is officially starting in September, the album will probably be delayed until near then. Sad face. Cher says most likely the tour will start in Kansas (Cher Scholar Tyler must be very happy!)

I don't know what to feel about this tour business. Of course I love buying tour memorabilia. But my non-Cher-friends are more than mildly irritated about the KISS-like renegation of the plenitude of said farewells. My long-suffering husband will probably go again with me (even if it means traveling to Denver or Phoenix because Albuquerque only hosts has-beens and tribute bands) but I will hear plenty of shame-speech when all my peeps find out about this.

And I can't say it's undeserved. This is one of the hardships of being a Cher fan.

But who can shake a stick at another tour book? Not obsessed me!

I'm glad the opening song will change from "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" (hire a detective already) to "You Haven't Seen the Last of Me." That's somewhat of a bright spot. I hope the song list changes in other ways, too.

I never thought I'd be saying this, but a set of covers would be refreshing about now. I never thought I'd live to see the day of Cher doing one Greatest Hits tour, let alone three (Believe, Farewell, Caesars Palace). I used to pine for that.

But it would be swell if Cher sang some old catalogue tunes, as a nod to the events going on in this primary election (something like "It’s a Man’s World" or "Do Right Woman").

When I was 8, I adored Cher’s version of Aretha Franklin's "Do Right Woman, Do Right Man" (if you want a do-right woman, you gotta be a do-right man). I found the song on the first S&C album I ever bought with my own money, The Beat Goes On (a compilation unbeknownst to me). It was 1978 and I was at Record Bar with my defacto bff Krissy and her older brother. I had five dollars and the album was $7.35. Krissy’s brother spotted me the extra dough to get the record. I made my parents listen to it. I remember the night well. It was in St. Louis, the piece of furniture that was our record player taking up a whole wall of our “nice” room, my parents sitting in our “nice chairs.” Mom and Dad were not completely won over but they begrudgingly said they liked "Do Right Woman."

I say defacto bff, because Krissy had another “official” bff, albeit a bff she never played with. I was the constant day-after-day dependable stand-in, a theatrical part I’ve played over and over again in my life with bffs in high school and college. No matter what frustrations my friends have with their “official” bffs, I always feel that someday they will return to them and I will be bff-less.

I’ve tried to believe over the years that this doesn’t bother me. But when I heard about how former Cher-Show-writer Iris Rainer Dart wrote the movie Beaches with Cher in mind, I had to face a painful truth. It did bother me that I was always a stand-in-bff which is why I never wanted to see the movie Beaches. I was jealous of bffs. My bffness made me sad and I avoided the movie and its insipid popularity for decades. In fact, my high school defacto bff, Lisa, even said the movie reminded her of her "official" bff Nellie (Nellie is also my good friend and a very talented showgirl). Nellie couldn’t come to Lisa’s wedding so I was the Maid of Stand-in Honor. Which I was happy to do because I loved my friend Lisa. I wasn’t bitter about it. Just jealous.

I finally forced myself to watch the movie last weekend. And it was awful. Honestly. The performances were awful. The dialogue was awful. My husband left the room it was so awful. I didn’t even find the bff relationship plausible and Bette Midler and Barbara Hershey had no chemistry. It was sort of a relief. Now I can move on. But yeah…Barbara Hershey’s lips plump up half way through the movie. Remember all the brouhaha about that? Those were the days of lip-plumping innocence.

And which part was supposed to be for Cher? I didn’t get Cher playing C.C. Bloom at all.

Bric a Brac News

March 8, 2012 / Cher Scholar / 0 Comments

Cher News reported recently that Gilbert LaPiere, Cher and her sister's one-time stepdad has just passed away in Oklahoma: http://chernews.blogspot.com/2012/02/chers-stepfather-lapiere-dies.html

Rest in peace, Gilbert LaPiere. Now we know how to spell it everyone. Big P. One r.

Cher World also posted some new pics and an article on Cher's apartment condo in Los Angeles: http://www.cherworld.com/news/?p=1804

I've never had a bathtub in the middle of a room…or one with a writing desk no less. Must papers be signed in the tub? No rest for the wicked, my mother always says.

I hope, on a midnight pee break, nobody hits their head on those hanging lights.

I don't know what the heck this is, a meditation nook?

Very tasteful. But I'd hate to be the guest who spills coffee on it.

Ahh….what celebrity livin' is all about: the view!

An Armenian Poet

March 8, 2012 / Cher Scholar / 1 Comment

I'm reading an anthology of Middle-Eastern and Asian poets and I came across a poem by this fellow here, Barouyr Sevag, whose last name does not rhyme with Armenian as I am accustomed to.

But anyway, not only was he an Armenian poet but his deciphering of a type of unending yearning reminded me for some reason of Cher…

The Analysis of Yearning (Garod)

I know the dark need, the yearning, the want,
in the same way the blind man knows
the inside of his old home.

I don't see my own movements
and the objects hide.
But without error or stumbling
I maneuver among them,
live among them,
move like the self-winding clock
which even after losing its hands
keeps ticking and turning
but shows neither minute nor hour.

And dangling between darkness and loneliness
I want to analyze this want
like a chemist
to understand its nature and profound mystery.
And as I try
there is laughter
from some mysterious tunnel,
laughter from an indescribable distance,
from an unhearable distance.

A city sparrow with a liquid song
changes its ungreen life
into music from an unechoing distance,
an unhuntable distance.

And words start hurting me
as they mock, echo from the unhuntable distance,
this merciless distance.

I walk from wall to wall
and the sound of my steps
seems to come from far away
from that merciless distance,
that impossible distance.

I am not blind
but I see nothing
around me, because
vision has detached itself
and reached that distance
that is impossibly far,
excessively far.

I run after myself,
incapable of ever reaching or
catching what I seek.

And this is what is called
want and longing or "garod."

Translated from the Armenian by Diana Der-Hovanessian
(whose last name does rhyme with Armenian)

Is This Cher?

February 28, 2012 / Cher Scholar / 5 Comments

How tragic it is to be a Cher-collectible-completist. You have to buy crap like this.

The only interesting aspect of this CD release of This Is Cher is the timing of it; coincidentally this is the flagship compilation for Cher Zine 3.

And it has to be one of the cheapest re-issues of a re-issue I've ever seen. Not even a liner note or so much as an album-credit inside. Don't even expect a picture of Cher.

I should have known by the cover art which looks more like a karaoke release than a real Cher CD.

These crap-compilation/re-issues just junk up the Cher Universe.

Billy Sammeth Talks Smack about Joan and Cher

February 28, 2012 / Cher Scholar / 3 Comments

Girls gangin' up!

So Cher's former manager, Bill Sammeth, dishes some dirt in his defense of being fired by both Cher and Joan Rivers. And it's very scandalous stuff.

However, I don't completely buy his story. And honestly, I don't know nuthin' upon nuthin' about Joan and Melissa Rivers so I can almost go there with that drama; but when you compare his story to the events of the Joan Rivers documentary, Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work…the timelines just don't jive at all. Plus, he never explains the complaints Joan and other characters had about his prolonged absences that occurred in the documentary. He doesn't address this issue regarding Cher's complaints either.

He says Cher fired him simply because she didn't want to pay him for his share of "Believe" royalties. Did she fire the rest of her staff around that time too? Surely, other employees benefited from all the "Believe" cash.

He also claims she faked Sonny's funeral speech.

Well, Cher is a good actress, I will give her that; but to be blunt, I don't think she's that good…to pull off that tour de force, or be willing to bear being seen doing that unattractive funeral-speech sobbing. Her issues with Sonny were complicated to be sure. But I always go back to the fact that she was calling a truce with him of sorts in her last Rosie Show appearance before Sonny died. The show where Rosie hilariously told Sonny to "sit and spin."

Read Sammeth's story for yourself: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/02/12/billy-sammeth-the-manager-fired-by-cher-and-joan-rivers-tells-his-side-of-the-story.html

And you can't get around the fact that two of his former clients had the same complaint. Never good evidence on you.

When my husband's mother Donna coins a wise saying, we call that a Donnology. When my mother Estelene coins one, we call that an Esteligism. This is one of my mother's favorite Esteligisms: if everyone disagrees with you…maybe it's you. Maybe.

I Found Some Blog

Page 61 of 113

Cher TV Performances in Iconic Mackie Outfits

70s Heaven: More Video and David Geffen

Drew Barrymore is on Team Cher

New Old Video

Chaz’s Birthday Cake Looks Fattening

Cher Tour News and Beaches

Bric a Brac News

An Armenian Poet

Is This Cher?

Billy Sammeth Talks Smack about Joan and Cher

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