Tweets o' the Week Like Buttah
Wednesday, February 11, 2015 at 12:11AM 
I've been struggling for inspiration today which is a good reason to clear my head via the dispensing of a whole lot of randomness. And by randomness I mean, compilation lists.
We have so many Oscar races to discuss and a few more interviews and I don't know what's keeping me but until the next post, please to enjoy these marvelous tweets from the week that was, divided into helpful subcategories for your skimming pleasure. These are the only posts you are allowed to skim. Otherwise you should read. Reading is fundamental.
RANDOMNESS
Jupiter Ascending: I found 90% of it incomprehensible but the other 10% seemed to be a sci-fi remake of Maid In Manhattan.
— James King (@jameskingmovies) February 3, 2015
Still think someone should make a narrative film from @MarkHarrisNYC's Pictures at a Revolution. Whoever plays Rex Harrison wins the Oscar.
— Kristopher Tapley (@kristapley) February 10, 2015
Streisand! Kidman! Beyoncé! Grammys!
and more after the jump
This photo of Streisand and Gould is pretty much the most perfect thing I've ever seen. pic.twitter.com/Kfuq8kiAoQ
— Alex Heller-Nicholas (@suspirialex) February 8, 2015
I still can't believe that Sam Taylor-Johnson had the option of being "Sam Johnson-Wood" and rejected it.
— Guy Lodge (@GuyLodge) February 2, 2015
when franchise reboot news breaks: "leftovers!? did mom say she might make leftovers!? OMG reheat that shit. REHEAT IT INTO MY MooOUTHHhh!"
— david ehrlich (@davidehrlich) February 10, 2015
If people just halved their superhero talk and replaced it with indie fervor, both industries could be successful. #SaylesNotSpiderman
— M Bartyzel (@MBartyzel) February 10, 2015
Big big fan of Patricia Arquette's upcoming 1-2 punch of winning an Oscar and then starring in a new CSI spinoff.
— bobby finger (@bobbyfinger) February 9, 2015
I think this next one is SO TRUE. I've long wondered what that's about. I knew so much about showbiz and pop culture from before my time when I was a kid? Was it just that there was less pop culture (3 channels, less film releases, bigger stars but fewer of them?) and you weren't constantly bombarded with the new? Maybe younger readers can speak up about this weird modern problem.
Can someone explain this thing where young people don't know pop culture from yrs ago? I was 20 in '85 & I knew who The Andrews Sisters were
— Bob Sassone (@sassone) February 9, 2015
CELEBRITY
When you get a bad review...
It's not easy being Dean. pic.twitter.com/cETDEMCXxI
— Dane DeHaan (@danedehaan) March 7, 2014
When you are a super lame villain and know it...
I'm not sure how adding Spider-Man prevents me from obtaining less than the zero Infinity Stones I already don't have.
— Thanos (@LonelyThanos) February 10, 2015
When your movie (A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night) is awesome but underseen...
I hope people watch my film on Valentine's Day and then touch each other's privates.
— Ana Lily Amirpour (@Lilyinapad) February 10, 2015
When you're tasked with directing a pop culture mainstay...
Just wookieepedia'd whether "lightsaber" is one or two words, so don't worry your childhoods are in very safe hands.
— Rian Johnson (@rianjohnson) February 3, 2015
When you need to remind everyone that you're actually talented when you've had a rough year -- throw their attention back on an early success!
Who wore it best? pic.twitter.com/6FAPADjZ1w
— Jason Reitman (@JasonReitman) February 9, 2015
TEAM EXPERIENCE
Petition to require mandatory dance breaks in all future Channing Tatum movies.
— Nathaniel Rogers (@nathanielr) February 4, 2015
Most fun bonus of watching either season of The Comeback is that your cadences and mannerisms can't help becoming more Kudrovian afterwards.
— Nick Davis (@NicksFlickPicks) February 6, 2015
There's actually an actress named Meryl Hathaway. That woman is playing with fire with a name like that.
— Glenn Dunks (@glenndunks) February 5, 2015
Just remembered Morten Tyldum is a Best Director nominee.
— Glenn Dunks (@glenndunks) February 9, 2015
Grammy's Last Call
So I heard that guy from Sam's...that Sam guy took all the oscars." - My Mom #GRAMMYs @samsmithworld
— Detox (@TheOnlyDetox) February 10, 2015
I can't help but feel Lady Gaga now controls how much and when Tony gets fed.
— Josh Horowitz (@joshuahorowitz) February 9, 2015
People do realize that Beyoncé wasn’t the first artist to do a visual album, don’t they?
— Nathaniel Rogers (@nathanielr) February 9, 2015
It's sad that Beyonce is so marginalized by the music industry and the public at large.
— desi (@DesiJed) February 9, 2015
Kanye West told a nigga who plays like 14 instruments that he needs to respect the artistry of a woman who needs 4 writers for one song
— 6ynth God (@DrewsThatDude) February 9, 2015
Taylor Swift is the Jack Nicholson of the #GRAMMYs
— Mike Hogan (@mike_hogan) February 9, 2015
Why God still lets the Grammys happen. #neverforget pic.twitter.com/1pc6dinR2U
— Jose Solís (@josekicksass) February 9, 2015
Nicole Kidman when she realized she bothered showing up to the Grammys & Katy Perry wouldn't do "Teenage Dream"again: pic.twitter.com/JeQFAcLalL
— Jose Solís (@josekicksass) February 9, 2015
Reader Comments (39)
Drewthatdude pretty much said everything that needed to be said about art.
I can only speak for my (22-year-old) self, but when I was a kid my favorite show was The Munsters, which was considered weird on a few different levels. For whatever reason I was raised with classic TV and was drawn to classic film in my teenage years. I can't say what makes some of us one way and some of us another. But it also can't be denied that attention to modern pop culture drops off as some age. My mom doesn't understand Showgirls references because she was "too busy raising me" in the 90s and that is, quite frankly, inexcusable.
Smh Nathaniel, how you gonna slam Beyoncé fans when you don't listen to Beyoncé?
Re: that tweet from 6ynth God, um Nathaniel...aren't you a fan of MADONNA?
The "visual" aspect of Beyonce's album is literally the least of anyone's concerns, lol. It was just the best album of the nominees. Cultural, critical, and commercial success.
Re: Olivia - My mum uses this same excuse too! I'm a 90s baby and she also says she barely remembers a thing of the 90s in regards to pop culture.
Re: Nathaniel - I'm not sure what it is about my generation. I am considered quite odd in that I have a large amount of general knowledge surrounding the 20th Century, whereas most people my age will take interest in only the pop culture of their time. I think its totally dependent on surroundings. And again, like you said, also the fact that there is so much access to current information that a year ago would probably be considered 'old' or 'a throwback' most people my age.
lol Meryl Hathaway plays that dancer/director in the second season of The Comeback, and she eerily looks exactly like Minnie Driver.
and those tweets about Kidman make me love her even more.
Jase -- what does Madonna have to do with it? Seriously? I'm confused buy the leap in your logic. (but since you brought it up regarding Beck's musicality?) I do admire that Madonna consciously learns more about music all the time, has always co-written, takes voice lessons and in addition to lots of dance training can also play drums and guitar. I think that's cool.
Philip H -- Hmmm. i hear people bring that up all the time and the surprise release and "paradigm-shifting" (which i assumed were about those two things but maybe i'm wrong).
TB -- I'm not rslamming Beyonce's fans, but Kanye West who is embarrassing. The only issue i have with some Beyonce fans and fans of other artists is when they assume their favorite invented something. The most obvious case of this recently was Lady Gaga's little monsters who were terrible about thinking that. One of the things i've always loved about Madonna is the ways and combinations in which she appropriates. But I always knew it was appropriation. but maybe that's a generational thing -- like that other tweet -- being conscious of past cultural things? I mean I didn't watch EXPRESS YOURSELF which I was obsessed with as a kid and think OMG MADONNA'S VISION I thought -- this video is so cool and Madonna must like Metropolis!
Everyone -- Re: Beyonce. Some of her songs are fun (though I think Drunk in Love is obnoxious) but she's just not remotely thematically interesting to me and I've always thought people liked her because she wasn't challenging (and thus not divisive) but maybe her music / themes have gotten more interesting when i wasn't paying attention or it's possible I just don't "get" her. we all have blind spots.
@Nathaniel -- I can definitely get not being a fan. Beyoncé is one of the most complex artists working today in any medium, but the sum of her work is cumulative, not immediate. You can't watch one video and totally see everything she's about like you could with Madonna. No shame in not wanting to put the time in that it might take to get something that doesn't immediately appeal to you. But as with any artist, it's silly to criticize what you don't pay attention to, and more than a bit ungenerous to assume that those who do see something you don't aren't challenging themselves. It's not unlike reading a review from a critic who admits he hasn't seen the movie.
TB -- now who's being ungenerous!!!! (assuming you can see the entirety of Madonna in one video)
Beck > Beyonce
Nathaniel, did you read Shirley Manson's open letter to Kanye Douchebag West? She's spot on. I love her so much.
And I don't know why everyone cares that Beyonce lost at the Grammys. That awards show is such a joke. I can't take any awards show seriously that considers Anaconda and Bound 2 good songs and nominates them.
Beck > Beyonce
Nathaniel, did you read Shirley Manson's open letter to Kanye Douchebag West? She's spot on. I love her so much.
And I don't know why everyone cares that Beyonce lost at the Grammys. That awards show is such a joke. I can't take any awards show seriously that considers Anaconda and Bound 2 good songs and nominates them.
@Nathaniel -- What do you need to know about Madonna that you can't get from watching the video for Like A Prayer? I don't think it's a bad thing at all to be clear, and I love Madonna. You can watch Citizen Kane and know a lot about Orson Welles too. But not all artists present their themes in the same way. Beyoncé's themes emerge through accretion, not direct statement.
O
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DrewThatDude is my hero! Like, that was the greatest tweet ever. Those Grammy's tweets were pretty amazing as a whole though...poor Sam Smith and all his Oscars...and poor Tony needs to eat.
Also, I just want to say that your assessment of Beyonce is 100% correct!
I'm right there with you :-D
Kanye is just being Kanye at this point. Awkward and weird and hella embarrassing, but he was right about the fuckery of Beyonce losing to Taylor Swift way back then at the VMAs, and he's right today that Beck shouldn't have won the Grammy over Beyonce for AOTY. He knew it, and so did the audience at hand.
And honestly, if you're not a fan of Beyonce and are ignorant of her catalog, then why do you feel the need to slam her? SMH.
RE: Pop culture - I think it's because it's grown more fractured/specialized. When I was a kid in the early 90s, Nickelodeon (aka THE channel for children to watch), aired reruns of I Dream of Jeannie, Bewitched, The Munsters, I Love Lucy, etc. in primetime, which accounted for me watching and loving them. Then "Nick At Nite" became its own channel, TV Land, which then started producing its own original programming. The older stuff just isn't as readily available as it once was - you have to seek it out. And people don't do that when there are tons of ways for them to access the current stuff they love and obsess over (as kids are prone to do).
I'm finding I have hard time weighing in on Beyoncé/Beck, partly because I like both artists a lot, and partly because who the hell cares about an Album of the Year Grammy. But I think it should be pretty clear that the Beyoncé album is far more interesting than Morning Phase. "Interesting" isn't always better, but come on, only one of those albums could be accused of "creating a new musical language." Nothing made me feel older than realizing that where Beck once made music that was way too new and interesting for Grammy voters and lost that award (famously) to Steely Dan, now Beck IS Steely Dan.
I would never condescend to tell someone what they need to listen to, but, Nathaniel, if you haven't been paying attention to Beyoncé for a while, you may be happily surprised. Her music is popular in spite of being incredibly weird and challenging, and I think it's the goodwill that she's built up as a pop artist that allows her to take these risks with very little backlash.
Oh, and I really, really love that Barbra photo.
Yeah I agree with Denny. I grew up watching things like Seinfeld and the Simpsons, but I also really looked forward to the Nick at Nite lineup in the 90s that included I Love Lucy, The Jeffersons, Three's Company, All in the Family, The Brady Bunch, Mary Tyler Moore, Taxi, things like that. Nick at Nite airs How I Met Your Mother for godsakes. That hasn't even been off the air for a year yet. It's not surprising that newer generations have little knowledge of older stuff outside of classics since there is basically too much going on. It's information and sensory overload.
Black pop music icons that happen to be Virgos are not Nathaniel's thing---see his complete indifference to Michael Jackson as evidence to support this theory.
These Bey and Kardashian's hubby stans are delusional.
Beck >>>>>> Bey
The even funnier part of DrewsThat Dude's tweet is that he's actually underestimating how many writers are credited on Beyonce's songs.
(...pointed out by a guy who actually has no real part in the Beck/Beyonce wars - I think both of their albums are fine in their respective ways but neither one grabs me aside from a few moments here and there)
Personally, I was born in 1985 so I wasn't old enough to absorb the heyday of the MTV era of music, but even as early as 1989 I was watching music video television shows and back then they used to all old stuff all the time. There'd just be a Sinead O'Connor video several years after the fact or an old Elvis tune or so on. Nowadays people don't watch music on TV and so they only get to listen to whatever they're listening to on Spotify, which is not old stuff for the most part. And with the internet and so many TV networks playing so much stuff, you're less likely to find kids at home one day watching a marathon of old movies on HBO. Rather they watch TV shows or they torrent new movies since that's what they're being bombarded with day in day out.
That's some of my theory anyway.
I don't care about who should win Grammys-- like someone else said, what a quack organization.
However, just from a personal relationships standpoint, isn't it odd that one high-profile man seems so interested in another high profile man's high profile wife's success? It's creepy, frankly.
It makes me dream of the same thing happening in other awards shows. Can you imagine what Warren Beatty would think if Jack Nicholson went around talking up how Annette Bening shoulda won those Oscars? "Hilary, Imma let you finish but..." #Awkward.
As for pop culture history, I always just figured certain people (like the folks that come to blogs like this) are more attuned with it than others. I'm in med school with tons of 25-35yos and am generally shocked at how few of my (or older doctors') references people of all ages in that span can get. I think with time, pop culture becomes reduced to the biggest hits. Everybody knows about the Beatles, the Stones, or Seinfeld, but it takes someone with real interest to have sought out, say, The Shirelles, Jim Croce, or Alf.
But there's also an element, with TV especially, that people do not care for styles that seem "old." Try to get some modern 20-something to watch a black-and-white or technicolor TV show. It's not happening. That probably applies to The Andrews Sisters as well.
What upsets me is that people are saying because less people worked on Beck's album it is a better album. Collaboration in no way lessens arts or entertainment. The result of it may, but you can't judge a finished project based on how few people worked on it. And contrary to popular belief, LOTS of people worked on Beck's album. Anyway, I actually quite loved Beck's album and am happy for him for finally getting recognition. But Beyonce's album was such a culturally iconic moment that I probably would have voted for that. Blow, Rocket, and Yonce were some of my favorite songs of last year. But I think Ed Sheeran's album is also pop masterpiece. Good year for music!
But anyway how good were Rhianna, Paul, and Kanye? Loved that song.
A few years ago at a family dinner I found out that my cousins (who are about 4-9 years younger than me and were in their early 20s) had no clue that Will Smith was a rapper before he was a movie star. This shocked me because at the time Will Smith seemed like the most popular, ubiquitous celebrity in the world. And they were totally ignorant of all of Will Smith's rap career, while it was inescapable for me in my youth.
Empire even touched on this in one of the first episodes when one of the sons didn't know who Diana Ross was when Lucius referenced her.
Re pop culture and youth,
When I asked my kids why they didn't like the Sound of Music, they said "'cuz it's boring. But we like Wicked. When are they gonna make a movie of that?"
Also the other day one of them seriously asked "Who is Barbra Streisand?"
<rant>OMFG, I can't believe anyone is seriously ascribing complexity to Beyoncé as an artist, which is a word I can barely type with a straight finger. You could probably write dissertations on the complexity in the Construction of Beyoncé or the Business of Beyoncé, but that's another story. She is Whitney without the voice, Michael without the tragic genius, Diana without the magic, and Madonna without the real perversity. I can often enjoy Bey as a disposable pop product, but there is something so soulless (pun intended) about it all.
And I didn't care about the Grammys when I actually "cared about the Grammys." It just gets tackier and tackier.</rant>
Thanks for being the voices of reason, TB & Mike! It's easier to hate.
"However, just from a personal relationships standpoint, isn't it odd that one high-profile man seems so interested in another high profile man's high profile wife's success? It's creepy, frankly."
I highly doubt it's like that what you're implying, Evan. Beyonce considers Kanye like a brother, and that makes sense considering how close Kayne is to Jay-Z. It's like a big brother going to bat for his little sister. That's how I've always seen it. Not that I think Queen Bey needs Kanye to fight her battles (like, seriously?), but that's the perspective I think he's coming from, and in an odd way, I find that to be endearing.
@Nathaniel, don't get me wrong, I think Madonna is BRILLIANT too. My point is just that Madonna was once faced with the same kind of criticism implicit in that tweet about Beck and Beyonce i.e. that some artists (read: white male rockers) are more authentic because they play instruments, and that pop/dance stars are not doing something that is also artistic.
I honestly can't take anyone seriously who like Justin Timberlake but dislikes Beyoncé. Sorry but Beyoncé I the BEST performer of her generation and a hard worker. I'm normally not a big fan, but I prefer her over the likes of JT, Lady Gaga,Britney Spears etc. She doesn't need to B like Madonna because she can actually sing. No offense.
Beyonce has definitely gotten more interesting. I mean, I always enjoyed her simply because she's an amazing dancer and singer. But with her last album she really finally became so much more an artist rather than just an entertainer. She finally really embraced her sexuality, and was very open and honest on songs -- "Blue" about her daughter, "Heaven" about her miscarriage, "Mine" about postpartum depression, "Drunk in Love" about marital sexuality/love, and "***Flawless" being a feminist jam for the ages. She suddenly became this black feminist icon that this era was missing.
It has nothing to do with being the "first" to do anything for me, her album was simply the best. I mean, don't even get me started on most of the other nominees. But the Grammys routinely make poor choices, so meh.
Either way, all I'm getting at, is her recent album turned me from someone who admired Beyonce's talents as a performer and into a true fan. If you didn't notice the turn into more interesting and complex ideas/music...well did you listen to the album? Just curious. I thought it was pretty apparent. I get not really being a fan but you can't really say it's just about the hype if you didn't actually listen to the album. *shrugs*
I find it fascinating that so many people have projected feelings about Beyonce on to me merely by me sharing a few tweets.
* I never said that i thought she was "just about hype"...
* I never held Madonna up as someone Beyonce should be nor directly compared them except to defend Madonna when Teo called her simplistic.
• I never mentioned JT
• I never said she shouldn't have won the Grammy for Album of the Year
• I never "slammed" her but merely shared a few tweets that I thought were interesting (and mostly about Kanye's stupidity) though I did and do think it was weird/disingenuous/awful/delusional that fans feel she's been 'disrespected' by The Grammys when in fact she has 20 of them. Which is a helluva lot more than most musical artists. It's like people saying the Oscars hate Meryl. LOL.
I think this is what we call fan distortion. I do not have strong feelings about Beyonce at all other than that she just doesn't excite me and i dislike and like about an equal number of her songs... and i always had the impression that she was retrograde gender politics wise (i remember a vast wave of articles about that a few years back which have now been replaced by "feminist icon!" mania though I guess i can't claim to really understand either polar opposite assessment or how the tide shifted so suddenly since I am not that well versed in her discography nor have i ever claimed to be.
Didn't call Madonna simple. She's just upfront, and that rules. Beyonce isn't upfront. That rules too.
The New Yorker's Sasha Frere Jones had an immediate response to the album when it was released, and I think he manages to perfectly and succinctly cover why, as he puts it, "Beyonce matters."
http://www.newyorker.com/culture/sasha-frere-jones/the-death-drive