I don’t know about you guys, but I’m already tired.
It’s only the third week of school and the consensus among my friends is that summer vacation’s long stretch of doing nothing doesn’t seem so bad anymore. Projects and presentations have already been assigned, papers are due soon and editorials grow increasingly harder to write.
I need a good way to de-stress. It’s difficult to find time to pleasure read, and low funds (plus, lots of homework) make club-hopping a struggle.
So I rely on camp to get me through, that wonderful mix of genius and insanity, highbrow and lowbrow culture, hysterics and heart, absurdism and honest reality.
Camp has largely been the provenance of women and gay men, but frankly pop culture is nothing but camp.
So I say let’s pitch a tent, ditch the work for a bit and enjoy the crazy.
Here’s a list of the campiest things that get me through the rough days.
1. “The Wendy Williams Show” (BET, Everyday at 11 PM)
I miss old Oprah from the 90s, before Dr. Phil and Dr. Oz and Dr…is Suze Orman a doctor? You know when she actually interviewed people?
So I tune in to “The Wendy Williams Show.”
When you watch her gabfest you’ll notice one of two things: either the show is run by a drag queen (no, Williams is just a giant with a penchant for heels), or the audience is comprised largely of gay men and women, particularly black women.
From those two facts alone you can surmise the “Wendy Show” dynamic: instead of trying to save the world, Williams would much rather talk about the benefits of wigs, then dish on and diss celebrities with her audience, while dispensing down to earth, common-sense advice.
Instead of handing out cars, she unleashes her “diva fan” and the audience hoots and hollers. Williams’s show is the type of self-conscious silliness that’s all fun and heart.
2. Kate Bush on Youtube
If Tori Amos had a crazy older sister that was locked in an attic and escaped to become one the most individual pop vocalists of our time, she would be Kate Bush. Thanks to Youtube, a friend introduced Kate Bush to me a few weeks ago with her video “Wuthering Heights.”
The song came out in 1978 and Bush became the first woman in England to have a number one self-written single.
While the song is unique in its own right with Bush’s emotive wailing, the video has earned a special place in my heart.
I can’t possibly describe it.
There are two terrific versions of the video, but the red dress version will amaze you. In the middle of a field, Bush emerges like a red-dressed flower child and performs what can only be described as the Geico gecko doing interpretive dance.
3. “So You Think You Can Dance” (Fox, Wednesdays at 8 PM)
This show isn’t so much campy as brilliant.
Unlike “American Idol,” to which this show is often compared, you don’t get rehashes of old dances; unlike “Dancing with the Stars” these are already talented dancers who’ve dedicated their lives to dance; and unlike “America’s Best Dance Crew” you don’t have to suffer through Lil Mama’s blather.
This show brings tango, ballet, jazz and other styles of dance to American living rooms, dances that most can’t see in person, spotlighting an art form that deserves more attention. So, what is the camp factor?
Two words: Mary Murphy. Essentially, the show’s answer to Paula Abdul, but instead of slurring her words when she loves a performance Murphy screams like a madwoman!
“Pulp Fiction,” “Twilight,” “Super Bad,” “Brokeback Mountain” and other movies reenacted in thirty seconds…by bunnies. Enough said.
5. “Glee” (Fox, Wednesdays at 9 PM)
If you have a Facebook page, you’ll probably have read a lot of updates about this little show that could.
In a nutshell, it’s every high school show that ever existed…with songs!
Where else can you hear show tune versions of “Gold Digger,” “Push It,” “Take a Bow,” and “Don’t Stop Believin’?”
This week Beyonce’s “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)” and Jazmine Sullivan’s “Bust Your Windows” will join that list. After taking one peek at the show, you’ll wish your high school were a musical (no pun intended).
Derrick Austin can be reached at daustin@ut.edu.