ultranow

i love me some erica gimpel

here she is in season 1 of fame blowing it up with take me.  p.s. can you spot jasmine guy? because i can.

linkage, because it's not always about me

• it's always time for a gene anthony ray tribute video.
• cooper's adventures with tgwtbm, my favorite new acronym which i pronounce tugwetbum.
• manhattan offender boldly and smarmily takes on the search for the next pussycat doll, dubbed buttaface dogs.  i admittedly watched part of this cw crapfest yesterday and was terrified by the lack of talent.  how full circle for nicole scherzinger, lead pcd, to go from competing to land a spot in eden's crush, the now defunct girl group formed by the pre-american idol reality show popstars, to serving as a judge on this talent/crotch search.

sheets of death

despite the calms forté (homeopathic sleep helper) and herbal tea (herbal tea) and cosby rerun (vanessa loses a history paper and it turns up in the freezer), i could barely get to sleep last night.  and when i did i experienced one of those waking nightmares that goes on and on until i was finally able to fully get up and put a mental stop to it.  i was trapped in bed with an evil person from my past.  not evil just in this dream.  evil in real life and with a starring role in my dream.  it was morning.  the sheets were white and i was bunched up in them, struggling to get them below my chin so i could breath.  the evil person kept pushing the sheets over my head and pinning my arms.  there were layers and layers of sheets.  it was so hot i knew i would pass out any second.

this person should have helped me survive but instead kept trying to smother me with gentle movements bunching the sheets around my head.  i could see the sunlight through the white sheets.  i was so sleepy but had to fight to stay awake so i wouldn't die.  i was struggling to stay conscious.  which probably explains why it was difficult to fully fall asleep.  i bet if i had let myself get smothered in the dream i would have slept soundly.  but then there's the whole die in your dream die in real life thing and i didn't want to risk it.  i'm not ready to die.  at least not until season 2 of fame comes out on dvd.  and even after that, i've got things to do.

fame fame fame dammit

"fame costs and right here's where you start paying.  in sweat [and however much for the fame season 1 dvd that she knows who is buying me for my b-day]".  loved this show and the movie, but the show was in my house every week.  coco, doris, leroy, bruno, danny, julie, miss grant, mr. shorofsky.  did i mention doris?  cause i loved doris...and coco...and leroy...and...well you get it. obsessed. because i didn't dance or sing when others could see or hear.  but i did both all the time because so often no one could see or hear me because it was safer to live that way.

fame meant 20somethings playing teen kids so talented they were bursting with life and dreams but also the kid next to them was maybe a little more talented so the role might go to them instead of you so even with big talent there are big disappointments.  and still fun.  still spontaneous numbers in the cafeteria and on the street.  still everyday life at the high school of the performing arts.  and drama that worked.  actors playing characters that were a million times more real than anything american idol spits out weekly.

this show was must see tv on thursdays before cosby.  nbc gave up on it, but it thrived in syndication because it was so popular in europe the demand for new shows was intense.  fans here wouldn't let it go either.  personally i'm all about the first 2 seasons, maybe up through season 3 because doris left after that and coco was already long gone and if you don't know what i'm talking about that's okay because just pretend you know that in 1982 variety shows were kinda dead on tv, unlike the '70s where they had thrived ("sonny & cher", "sonny", "cher", "sonny & sonny", "cher & cher", "cher & a talking chimp").  variety was dead and fame the tv show came along and was a natural musical where songs and dancing happened because these were kids learning to sing and dance.  where acting happened because these were kids learning to feel and breathe and move and push.

that's enough from me on this, though i bet i blog on it again because it's fame and i've shut up about it for years and now i don't ever want to because it mattered so damn much. fameforever.com is the technical authority.  i hope they don't hate me but i took 3 of their streaming .rams and mystically converted them to .ra so you can download them from me vs having to stream.  if some powergeek out there wants to e-mail me how to convert .ra to .mp3 free on a mac, i'll do it, but until then dust off realplayer and love these up.

life is a celebration
desdemona
hi-fidelity