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Cherity News

January 9, 2009 / Cher Scholar / 0 Comments

Is this the second stroke of The Cher Cheritable Foundation? Where’s the website? How do I send benjamins?

Cher is working for orphans in Nepal. Here’s the first notice in Las Vegas Weekly: http://www.lasvegasweekly.com/blogs/luxe-life/2008/dec/11/strip-scribbles-chers-mission-mercy-nepals-orphans/

According to Contact Music, Cher decided to fly to Nepal and launch a charity mission for South Asian orphans. This is the second time she has donated time and money for a children’s orphanage in a foreign country. Earlier this year, Luxe Life reported that her last-minute donations saved an African orphanage run by a British couple from going under when funds dried up. Cher also works hard behind-the-scenes on a U.S. charity dedicated to the medical care of brain-damaged children born with facial deformities anywhere in the world.

Cher World also had the scoop: http://www.cherworld.com/news/?p=669

Merry Christmas Cherkids!

December 18, 2008 / Cher Scholar / 10 Comments

This 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:

The Mustangs

December 5, 2008 / Cher Scholar / 5 Comments

The Sonny & Cher Ford Mustangs are up for sale again next February, 2009. I’m so glad they never split up these two cars into separate foster homes. But I could swear I’ve seen them come up for sale before, maybe twice – hmmm – maybe it’s the toy model versions I’m thinking of.

Anyway, if during this depression you find yourself with disposable cash for Cher stuff, please give it to Detroit car companies instead or save it to substitute for the next car loan you probably won’t get. Then again, these cars are symbols of The Great American-Made Car. Okay, go ahead and buy them if you must. But only as a political statement.

The car stats:
These cars were customized by George Barris in 1966 and “are rolling tributes to the over-the-top style of the 1960s.” Groovy! You supposedly see them in Good Times but I can’t recall where.

From http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/News/articleId=136629:

“The Sonny car has an eye-opening Murano Gold Pearl exterior color, dark brown side panel and orange-and-gold "fadeaway" color treatment on the wheelwells and grille. The Cher car is a Hot Pink Pearl and Candy Red blend with deep red side panels. Should that combination seem too staid, a look at the interior should seal the impression of rococo '60s splendor. Sonny's Mustang has bobcat fur, buffed leather and "rustic suede" trim inside. Cher's is dripping with white ermine, hot pink suede and "Scottish leather" upholstery. Did we mention the 3-inch-long Mouton carpet — gold in the Sonny mobile and pink for Cher's car?”

How to get them:
The cars will go on the block at the Greater Fort Lauderdale/Broward County Convention Center over the weekend of February 6-8.

More on the mustangs: http://www.themustangnews.com/people_08/1208-sonny-cher-mustangs-chambers-133.htm (aww look! They got snowed on!)

More on the model kit: http://www.hieroglyph.net/chermodelkit.html

New Cher Album Blurb

December 5, 2008 / Cher Scholar / 8 Comments

Cher drops another blurb about a possible 60s cover album expected sometime in 2009.

According to a quote in the New York Post:

"I’m planning an album of all these great songs from the ’60s that I’ve never covered before. It was such a magical time for music – groups like The Beatles, the Hollies, the Zombies, the Kinks, the (Rolling) Stones and singers like (Bob) Dylan and Otis Redding… I want to pay tribute to a time when I used to listen to music on my little transistor radio or on my AM radio in my Ford Mustang."

Cher mentions the mustang! What a coincidence! It's going back on sale! She can re-buy it and stick it on the album cover – like Usher did above. Please, can we see an album cover picture of Cher in the great American outdoors?

I like this edition of this news story because they call her an “Armenian Superestrella.”

It may be hard to find a Dylan hit she hasn’t done. She’s already done 10 covers on Imperial alone. Let’s see if I can name them all without looking them up:

All I Really Want to Do
Blowin in the Wind
The Times They are A Changin
Like a Rolling Stone
I Want You
Masters of War
Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here With You
Lay Lady Lay (changed to Baby)
D’oh! I had to look up these two – which I always forget:
Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright
I Threw it All Away

Cher's covered The Beatles ("Gotta Get You Into My Life," "Hey Jude," "Something"- all on her first live album plus other various medleys on her 70s TV shows), Ray Davies of The Kinks ("I Go To Sleep" – there's also a great cover of this song on Sia's new album), The Stones ("Satisfaction" on her TV show), Otis Redding ("Sittin on the Dock of the Bay"), I don’t know if she did a Hollies song but John Sebastian was in the Hollies and he was also in Lovin Spoonful and she did their "Do You Believe in Magic" (Sebastian also did the great Welcome Back Kotter theme).

What would be a good Zombies cover? Hmm. Anyone have any thoughts?

Happy Dead Turkey Day 2008

November 29, 2008 / Cher Scholar / 0 Comments

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.

My bf studies his Cher cards….

Franz watches intently. The tension is high!

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

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

Five Queens?
What the?
God dammit!

Rejected Blog Title #5: My Bloggie Shot Me Down

November 20, 2008 / Cher Scholar / 0 Comments

I’ve been a bit down this week. Oh, I definitely have PEW: post election withdrawal. I learned about that condition on the radio this morning. Glad there’s a diagnosis for that. I’m definitely there. I now have now two friends with elderly parents in critical conditions and I’ve been working on a care package for my D.F. sis who lost her bf last week under tragic circumstances. Add to that I found out today I’ve been under-paid by a significant amount all year long.

Okay…we could dwell on those things until I start to hyperventilate or I could just review a Cher website instead. How’s about a Cher site review kids?

A few months ago a Cher scholar brought to my attention Cher Style (http://www.cherstyle.com/). And I’m glad they did. Cher Style is an awesome site and I love the soothing, balmy blue theme. Every time I visit I have a pleasurable experience and I think it’s this very agreeable blue business.

For the viewer the site is clean and well designed. Some tend to be a tad over-designed and often “less is more.” I’m not talking about code here. Is it designed with tables instead of divs? My boss would not like that so much. But the site takes you where you want to go without pesky seconds of delay and the top nav links are clear.

There’s special real estate for audio/visual which includes some radio clips and rarities and a good hodgepodge of video from the 70s to recent. That content is displayed with a lovely and proper use of tables.

There’s some action in the forum but I didn’t join in. I do like the forum-themed Cher pic posted there – a great play on words. The site also has chat. I’ve never done live chatting with Cher fans. I'll save that for a special occasion.

The biography page (courtesy of Warner Bros.) is outdated…woefully back to "Believe" news which kids, do we realize, is about ten years old? Ten years! I can't fault Cher Style too much because Cher’s own fan site has the same issue. There’s a decade of Cher-livin missing! No information about the farewell tour records that were broken, no info about the Caesars project. This lacks 10 years or about 1/6 of Cher’s life, granted not the most drama-packed 1/6 but a decade nonetheless.

The music section is simply a list of her albums, however many of the year dates are incorrect and studio albums are mixed in with re-issues and compilations and this is one of the nerdy things this Cher scholar likes to fuss about.

Likewise the Movie section is really a DVD list and includes exercise videos, tv shows and music DVDs.

What the site excels at: aforementioned slick design (which includes creative Cher-media-mashups), good selection of photos, up-to-date news feed (which takes diligence), and some good items in the Multimedia section including lush wallpapers, fun icons and wicked cool avatars. My favorite sections include the Photos (I love the way the decades are displayed), a fabu selection of quotes by and about Cher, and style corner (some critical Cher scholarship here of her contributions of fashion).

Almost hidden on the home page, you also have:

a good farewell tour retrospective with radio audio, tour pics and a smattering of tour ads
a section on the Sotheby’s auction with photos
a section on Cher at the Caesars with pictures of the store and an adorable bulletin board graphic
a super fine section I almost missed: eCards. This site’s eCards are actually outstanding, very well matched to some unique and handy occasions.

Cher Style’s strengths are more presentation and media than informational. I’d come back to find photos, eCards or a visual review of Cher’s career. You wont find detailed statistics on record singles or such here but this is the best lookin Cher site I’ve seen. Check it out.

Odd Cher Links and Wedding Dresses

November 14, 2008 / Cher Scholar / 1 Comment

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. 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

John Updike Talks about Witches of Eastwick

November 7, 2008 / Cher Scholar / 0 Comments

The week before Halloween I went to Lucha Vavoom downtown at the awesome Mayan Theater.

By the way, I love Halloween in LA, so many awesome things to do from the fabulously scary mazes on Queen Mary or at Knotts Scary Farm, to the West Hollywood Parade to the Hollywood Forever Cemetery's Day of the Dead: so many creative LA-types (from Hollywood on one side and the Latino art community on the other) creating really inspired altars, costumes and mazes.

Anyway, on my way to Lucha Vavoom, I was listening to NPR and John Updike was on talking about his sequel to his book Witches of Eastwick. The new book is called The Widows of Eastwick, which confused me because I thought the gals were already widows in the first book, having killed their first husbands. In the movie, they were simply divorced, a lot less dangerous – their witchery was almost accidental.

Updike talked about being asked to be a consultant on the movie and deciding not to be, not even attending any premiers. He saw the movie only once, alone with his wife in Danbury, Massachusetts, after it was released. His wife whispered to him during the movie that he should get his name taken off of the credits. He laughed and said he didn't think it was that bad. But he was embarrassed about the rewrites, that the actors were wonderful (Cher was "lovely as always") but that Jack Nicholson didn't really have enough to do, especially at the end of the movie.

The show's host asked Updike about the new novel and Updike said that the little town of Eastwick becomes more of a character unto itself in the next book, and Updike explains his love for New England, its "brininess and antiquity" which was different from his Pennsylvania landscape growing up.

Updike admitted that Witches of Eastwick was his attempt to appease the feminist criticism of his earlier books but that this effort failed. Feminists didn't like WOE. Making his female protagonists witches does seem misguided if you want to appease feminists, but I think Updike was heartfelt in his attempt. Just clueless about why depicting women as tricksters and borderline malevolent in fact ties in to negative female stereotypes instead of being sympathetic to modern women.

Updike humorously depicts the "half-baked suburban witchcraft" of his witches with the materials of boxes of Cascade to make magic circles.

A caller asked about the short story "Pigeon Feathers." Updike said this was "a heartfelt" personal story about growing up and coming to terms with religion. I read this story in a reading group once and loved it. It is an example of some amazing and skilled American writing.

Another caller asks about his story "The Christian Roommates" a true account of Updike's experiences with his roommates at Harvard I'd like to read.

Cher's big WOE speech: http://www.blinkbox.com/Movies/1241/Witches-of-Eastwick?Scene=12474

The Week That Was Supercalifragalistic

November 7, 2008 / Cher Scholar / 0 Comments

So it was an emotionally busy and exhausting week in the United States in general and in California in particular. My office was off in Cairo Egypt working on tweaking-the-Internet-meetings and our web team did a record amount of work on the website. That left me with little free time or energy. Between that and Election Day, which not only included the incredibly awesome election of Barak Obama for U.S. President (and I must say I supported Obama as a potential president back when I saw him speak at the DNC back in 2004. Not to brag but…) but the surprising passage of proposition 2 in California which ensures larger cages for farm animals and the heartbreaking constitutional challenge to gay unions.

The ironic combination of those three election results has not been lost on us here in California with the bitter commentary that we expanded the rights of chickens while stomping on the rights of our gay community. In defense of the chickens, I must say I know of no animal rights activist who did not support gay marriage. The problems for proposition 8 were, to my mind, as such:

Misleading proposition language on the ballot: many folk believed a Yes vote meant they supported gay marriage, not that they supported a ban on gay marriage. This confusing language is usually intentional on the part of the proposition’s proponents. They try to trick you into voting for stuff: get educated before you vote, people.
Allegedly large amounts of money spent from the Mormon Church in support of the ban on gay unions. If this is true, it's a bit ironic considering other Christian challengers to gay marriage always claim a slippery slope which would lead to a Mormon-style bigamy. Gay haters (or Gayters as I like to call them) make strange bedfellows.
Other homophobia in various communities.

And although this sucks royally, we have to keep supporting our community with each next step. This is no time to give up. This morning on the Stephanie Miller Show, the commentary-duo Frangela was on the air discussing the alleged lack of support in this proposition from the African-American community, calling on African-American civil rights leaders such as Al Sharpton to speak out against the proposition. Angela V. Shelton (one half of Franglea) has long been an advocate for gay rights and stated unequivocally that “No one is free until we’re all free.”

In other news this week:

Cher went on Access Hollywood…

Tony Curtis: American Prince?

October 30, 2008 / Cher Scholar / 0 Comments

While I was waiting for someone at the bookstore to come out and help me find a book on the city of Redondo Beach, I picked up a copy of the new Tony Curtis autobiography American Prince. I leafed through the index to find Cher references.

I never really liked Tony Curtis, ever since I saw him on The Tonight Show years ago when he stated he thought his current hot, young girlfriend was even prettier than his daughter, Jamie Lee Curtis.

On many levels — a dipwad, I thought.

But anyway, Curtis talks about Sonny & Cher on one page of his new opus. He talks about Sonny wanting to buy his house (but which one? Didn’t they end up buying two of his houses? One on St. Cloud and one on Carrolwood — see pic above, both in Bel Air?). Curtis also talked about being a guest on The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour when S&C were in the process of splitting up (remember his “Detective Fat”?). Curtis casually sympathizes with Sonny and says the breakup was basically over Cher’s ambition and her not wanting be part of the act anymore, 'cos it was holding her back. And if I remember correctly, this was Sonny’s version of events as well. But not the version many Cher biographers put forth.

Curtis taking this side is not surprising since I recall him appearing occasionally in Sonny’s post-Cher social circle lists. And it’s somewhat disappointing that Curtis plays that down in this book, like he was some disinterested bystander an all.

And dude, you title your book American Prince? Could the book be that credible? Okay, I admit my tastes veer more toward Tony Manero than Tony Curtis. But in any case, this all reminds me of that old James Taylor/J.D. Souther song, “Her Town Too”:

She gets the house and the garden
He gets the boys in the band
Some of them his friends
Some of them her friends
Some of them understand
Lord knows that this is just a small town city
Yes, and everyone can see you fall
It's got nothing to do with pity
I just wanted to give you a call
It used to be your town
It used to be my town, too

I Found Some Blog

Page 86 of 109

Cherity News

Merry Christmas Cherkids!

The Mustangs

New Cher Album Blurb

Happy Dead Turkey Day 2008

Rejected Blog Title #5: My Bloggie Shot Me Down

Odd Cher Links and Wedding Dresses

John Updike Talks about Witches of Eastwick

The Week That Was Supercalifragalistic

Tony Curtis: American Prince?

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