again with the celebrities already?
Okay, I'm sure I've said so before, but just to recap:
Yes. Sadly. I. Like. No Doubt.
This has become embarrassing. Their last real album, "Rock Steady," which pretty much universally hated by, like, everyone I know...and loved by tons of people who like hip hop and probably don't care about No Doubt up to then being a ska band. I thought it was okay. Okay enough that I bought Gwen Stefani's first solo album...which I hated. But not at first. I tried oh-so-very hard to like it. But I couldn't. Even now, I'm trying to think of any and all redeeming factors--so much do I not want to hate anything my once-beloved Gwen could create. But, you see. Spelling out the word "bananas" is just annoying.
But it's true that at one point in my life (when I was a senior in high school, to be exact) I thought Gwen Stefani was the most beautiful woman alive. That was back when she had the pink hair I coveted way too much and looked like this:
I never did dye my hair pink. The closest I got was a brassy red that made my mom half-smile and say things like, "Maybe you should go back to the strawberry blonde. That looked nice." I even had to work up to the brassy red by going to strawberry blonde first! I have no courage. It's not surprising, really, that I went to a couple of parties in college with my hair all sticky with pink pomade:
A lot has changed since then. I finished college, got married, moved to California, and slowly began to broaden my musical horizon. Gwen got married, had a baby, stopped whining about not being married or having a baby, and started spelling "bananas" on stage.
So when I was Christmas shopping in the Burbank mall last month and saw Gwen's face the size of a spin wheel on a Hummer, plastered onto the window of the Sam Goody... I guess it was a bit like seeing an old friend that you haven't spoken to since high school...only it was on purpose. Oh, yeah, and she doesn't care and has a lot more friends now.
I stopped walking and just stared at her. I said, "I used to think she was so beautiful." And then John said, "Until everyone else thought she was." It isn't that she's more famous. It's that I liked the way she was before.
Today I ran across a link to her new video (for "Sweet Escape") and I thought it was cute. Poppy. Fun. Not obnoxious. But those pictures... They're awful! She looks like one of the Bee Gees! And then, the more I looked at them, the more familiar they looked. And then I made the connection and this realization:
Jill Greenberg creeps me out.
Over Christmas, the store where I work sold tons of her book, Monkey Portraits, which I thought was cute. Then today it was drawn to my attention that she's the same photographer that made the news over her exhibit made up entirely of photos of tear-soaked children.
What's really disturbing (you know, aside from wondering why all those babies were screaming) is that all the pictures, although incredibly dynamic, all look the same...which was why I started to think Gwen looked like a monkey.
I kinda always knew I'd end up your ex-girlfriend /
I hope I hold a special place with the rest of them / And you know it makes me sick to be on that list / But I should have thought of that before we kissed
You are "Return of Saturn" Gwen!
Take this quiz!
Yes. Sadly. I. Like. No Doubt.
This has become embarrassing. Their last real album, "Rock Steady," which pretty much universally hated by, like, everyone I know...and loved by tons of people who like hip hop and probably don't care about No Doubt up to then being a ska band. I thought it was okay. Okay enough that I bought Gwen Stefani's first solo album...which I hated. But not at first. I tried oh-so-very hard to like it. But I couldn't. Even now, I'm trying to think of any and all redeeming factors--so much do I not want to hate anything my once-beloved Gwen could create. But, you see. Spelling out the word "bananas" is just annoying.
But it's true that at one point in my life (when I was a senior in high school, to be exact) I thought Gwen Stefani was the most beautiful woman alive. That was back when she had the pink hair I coveted way too much and looked like this:
I never did dye my hair pink. The closest I got was a brassy red that made my mom half-smile and say things like, "Maybe you should go back to the strawberry blonde. That looked nice." I even had to work up to the brassy red by going to strawberry blonde first! I have no courage. It's not surprising, really, that I went to a couple of parties in college with my hair all sticky with pink pomade:
A lot has changed since then. I finished college, got married, moved to California, and slowly began to broaden my musical horizon. Gwen got married, had a baby, stopped whining about not being married or having a baby, and started spelling "bananas" on stage.
So when I was Christmas shopping in the Burbank mall last month and saw Gwen's face the size of a spin wheel on a Hummer, plastered onto the window of the Sam Goody... I guess it was a bit like seeing an old friend that you haven't spoken to since high school...only it was on purpose. Oh, yeah, and she doesn't care and has a lot more friends now.
I stopped walking and just stared at her. I said, "I used to think she was so beautiful." And then John said, "Until everyone else thought she was." It isn't that she's more famous. It's that I liked the way she was before.
Today I ran across a link to her new video (for "Sweet Escape") and I thought it was cute. Poppy. Fun. Not obnoxious. But those pictures... They're awful! She looks like one of the Bee Gees! And then, the more I looked at them, the more familiar they looked. And then I made the connection and this realization:
Jill Greenberg creeps me out.
Over Christmas, the store where I work sold tons of her book, Monkey Portraits, which I thought was cute. Then today it was drawn to my attention that she's the same photographer that made the news over her exhibit made up entirely of photos of tear-soaked children.
What's really disturbing (you know, aside from wondering why all those babies were screaming) is that all the pictures, although incredibly dynamic, all look the same...which was why I started to think Gwen looked like a monkey.
I kinda always knew I'd end up your ex-girlfriend /
I hope I hold a special place with the rest of them / And you know it makes me sick to be on that list / But I should have thought of that before we kissed
You are "Return of Saturn" Gwen!
Take this quiz!
Labels: music.
Happy Birthday to me. This is my friend, the beluga whale who swam right to me. My childlike love of marine mammals brings me joy on a level that's almost too embarrassing to discuss.
