I can’t help but joyously reflect on the year, despite the tragedies and hardships of another rough economic year; there’s been so much fun.
Barack Obama is nearly done with his first year in office and without a major scandal! There was the birth certificate hoopla, the uproar over his bowing to Saudi Arabian King Abdullah, and, most recently, the Emperor of Japan, and the Beer Summit—all red herrings, when people should be discussing his policies, and not in “town hells.” I’m thankful for his good year; sometimes I double take when I see him, the first black president, makes me misty eyed. I have three more years to look forward to!
We can’t reminisce on 2009 without discussing the musical piñata known as Lady Gaga. Love her (as I do) or hate her, she’s had a ubiquitous presence in pop culture; quite a feat for someone whose only album has barely been out for a year!
At first I didn’t really like her. Just Dance was a cute little song, but I judged her a one-hit wonder. Then came Poker Face, LoveGame, and Paparazzi. I didn’t like any of them. Then I watched the videos for those three singles and had my mind blown.
Nowadays, a music video constitutes essentially one of two archetypes; male musicians need only have a bevy of hot, scantily clad women gyrating around them. Female musicians produce “look at me” videos; they may or may not be scantily clad and provocatively dancing, but the point is they are the star—look at her! Yeah, Lady Gaga makes “look at me” videos, but she makes “look at everything else too” videos. They’re eye candy, a decadent display of fashion and strange dance moves. They don’t have plots; they’re fashion shows in the club.
She’s returned spectacle to the music video with the same cartoonish exuberance she brings to red carpet events. Have you seen the “Bird’s Nest” Hat at the VMAs? The Kermit the Frog get-up? Did you watch Bad Romance? It doesn’t hurt that she sings too.
I haven’t seen many movies and can’t remember half of them. I think there was another Harry Potter movie and one with robots and a sexy girl who can’t act. But I won’t forget “Up” another Pixar masterpiece—the first fifteen minutes nearly made me cry. It wasn’t as great as “Wall-E,” but that’s like saying diamonds aren’t as good as gold.
But my favorite movie—or half of it rather—was the Julia portion of “Julie & Julia.” Nothing against Amy Adams, who did a fine job, but she’s just not Meryl Streep; she inhabited the role. She was animated with a robust zest for life, as passionate in the kitchen as she was in the world. Streep’s been on a roll for the entire decade: “The Hours,” “The Devil Wears Prada,” “Mamma Mia!,” Doubt” and “Julie & Julia.”
You forget you’re watching an actress when you see her perform, and in her happier roles, she seems authentically in love with her craft. She invites us in the film; her joy is the audience’s joy.
While I’m writing about film, I feel obligated to address “New Moon.” I haven’t seen it or “Twilight” or read the books. I don’t ever intend on doing it. I only have two good words about “New Moon”: Taylor Lautner.
If we want to talk about real vampires, allow me to rave about “True Blood.” It was inevitable this show would be compared to “Twilight”—cultural pundits debated over which show was better (“True Blood”), or had the better female role model (Sookie Stackhouse). But what it really comes down to is the fact the “True Blood” actors are more attractive. Vapid reasoning sure, but these vampires actually have sex.
I don’t pay attention to any sports except tennis so my favorite sports moment was Serena Williams’s U.S. Open outburst. You can take the girl out of Compton…but in all seriousness, it’s probably not the smartest idea to threaten the lineswoman’s life and it doesn’t exhibit sportsmanship—but it was a sight to behold.
To round out what I loved about 2009: Shakira’s “She-Wolf,” Tareq and Michaele Salahi, the White House party crashers, Sonia Sotomayor and UT’s fall Dance Happening.
This is the year of escapism, fantasy and nonsense: Lady Gaga, the sexual exuberance of vampires and the endless “news” filling us in on the contents of celebrities’ trash bins. Here’s hoping 2010 is the year everyone reads poetry! A poet can dream, right?
Derrick Austin can be reached at daustin@ut.edu.
I am right there with you on Obama’s swearing in, I too still get misty eyed and grandma proud whenever I see him! And these people need to calm down with the “he hasn’t done enough” discussion. The man has only been in office a year! Geez!
THANK YOU on the Trueblood shout out! I will never understand how people will flock to a crapfest like the Twilight series when something exists in the same genre that is exponentially superior. Oh well…
How was that your favorite movie? Are you gay
Sally is so right. The only scandal bigger than Obama’s pseudo presidency is the stupidity of the misty eyed Liberal Loonies who put him there.
The birth certificate hoopla is just getting started baby! But your’re right about all the other issues being red herrings. He’s killing himself trying to distract us from his ineligibility for office and his treasonous presidency.
Get the man off TV! Even the libs are getting sick of him.
If you think Obama has successfully completed his first year without scandal or incident, you need to take off those rose colored glasses, dry those misty eyes, and take another hard and objective look back at these last 11 months.
The man has fallen from grace and much faster than any of us thought for.
Exactly what topic do you feel the BC, bowing to the king and emperor, and the beer summit were used to divert attention from? A red herring is diverting attention from your primary issue by introducing other issues that may or may not be true.
Perhaps they diverted attention away from the fact that he is spending us into oblivion and introducing some of the most radically leftist policies this nation has ever known?
You may do a double take and get all misty eyed when you see him. When I see him (which is almost daily – he likes to be on TV!), I turn off the television and the mist in my eyes is from sadness, not joy!