Friday, July 27, 2007

Lisa Fischer

The 1990s were a blur to me. I was climbing the ladder, careerwise; got married, had four kids--so I was a little distracted. So clue me in because I missed it: How did singer Lisa Fischer NOT become a big star, given her considerable talents? I was listening to tracks from her 1991 album (the slow-burn she does on "Chain of Broken Hearts" is among the best recorded performances of the decade), which drove me to Google to find out what happened to her. She's still alive--one has to ask, these days--and tours with Tina Turner. And she does studio work. All of that is beautiful, but I do wish that face and that voice had the exposure it deserves.
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Sunday, July 22, 2007

Bill Cosby is Right

I've been really into Bill Cosby as of late , particularly the stuff he did during the height of his first phase of fame--those years after the 1960s tv show "I Spy" ended. His 1969-1971 "Bill Cosby Show," in which he played coach Chet Kincaid, is on DVD now and is a revelation: a black male character who is a funny, three-dimensional man, rather than a childish buffoon. The show's wit, humor and sophistication makes it more akin to the old "Mary Tyler Moore Show" than the broadly-played black sitcoms that would premiere later in the decade. Cos' didn't cheap out his fame by doing the quick, the easy and stereotypical, but used his popularity to create TV that made us laugh and think....which brings us to the subject of today's post, a clip from a Cosby television special, "A Boy Like Me."
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Friday, July 6, 2007

Hard to believe now: For three or four years between Michael Jackson's Off the Wall album and Thriller, Jermaine Jackson was as famous as his brother. Jermaine was a pretty serious pop star until, well, Thriller turned all the Jacksons (included the talented Reebie) into also-rans. Anyway, on this album, dig "Let's Get Serious" written by Stevie Wonder, who absolutely steals the record away from Jermaine when he breaks in about 1/2 way though the song (S-e-r-i-o-u-s; Baby let's get ser-i-ous...yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeaaahhh.....)
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You Just Know He's Bald Now...

But the pillows on his mother's couch are still greasy. A Duke ad from 1993.
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Tuesday, July 3, 2007

Wig

When you see a woman with 4ft extensions and obviously fake nails and you think to yourself, "Didn't her mother teach her better?" No. This was her mother.
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Monday, July 2, 2007

Cigarette, Baby?

This ad says it all. The really "together" brother is a photographer assigned to shoot this Queen. It's been a long day and they're only half done, so he offers her from his pack of Viceroys. She's accepts. Because what woman can resist an offer of tobaccofied death?
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