Donny Osmond, Adam Lambert And Zombie Pilgrims
My random observations on pop culture this week aren’t that pithy or clever, but I did randomly observe them so there is that.
1. Donny Osmond will remain in your tubes with ebbs and flows forever. The man constantly reinvents himself. (And, yes, I did like his song in Mulan. Shut Up. Yes, I did watch him when I was 10-years-old because I had three damned channels and I was 10.) I don’t watch Dancing With The Stars but I do read Entertainment Weekly and dude won.
2. I’ve seen all the controversy on Adam Lambert’s appearance on the AMA awards this week. I have two mindsets on this. Once again, I don’t watch American Idol either, so what I’ve seen of Lambert is peripheral. First of all, I don’t have children but I can see this upsetting parents. My Facebook account has shown that it wasn’t by any means appreciated from the people there and I understand that. As a matter of fact, I think that’s completely appropriate. Letters have been sent to ABC complaining about his performance and the last I heard was roughly about 1,500. On the other hand, for three solid days from a social media perspective, we’ve seen him trend on Twitter with a huge blast of support from his fans there as well which people haven’t been talking about, he’s been interviewed a kajillion times and that’s the kind of publicity you can’t buy. He reminds me of David Bowie (I know, call me Captain Obvious) and because I’m an old codger without kids, my first reaction was that his vocal performance was very pitchy (my mother was a singer, so I play critic sometimes on vocal live performances which, however bad, are always better than lip synch crap.)
Was the simulated sexual act over the top, yes it was way over the top in a live performance and was nothing more than shock value and gratuitous but I’ve seen other stuff too that sort of shocked me on the tubes. Was Lambert kissing a dude over the top? No. Been done a million times by other performers not just between two guys. He pushed open a door where people are talking about freedom of expression/gay rights and that’s not bad. So I see this from two perspectives. Do folks have the right to be upset about simulated oral sex? Yeah, their feelings are valid. Everyone’s feeling are valid. Did Lambert kick down a door? Yeah, but people have been kicking this door for years and it needs to be kicked. It was a reminder more or less. Remember when they wouldn’t show Elvis’ hips on the Ed Sullivan show because he was too sexual. Back then, that was scandalous as well so I have been keeping that in mind.
I remind you I’m a codger butt.
So I see both sides where this issue is and it’s intriguing to me, especially in the day and age of the Internet.
3. Zhu Zhu pets are apparently the toy of the year. I am constantly perplexed on the world of robotic pets.
4. Thanksgiving Horror stories are over at Gawker. There pretty dang good if you are into that sort of thing as I am. The Huffington Post also has Thanksgiving quotes that might tickle your spleen.
5. Also in the Thanksgiving vein, I offer you the impossibly optimistic website called “Gives Me Hope” which is smaltzy and did, indeed, make my eyes well up because I’m a silly nostalgic woman. (Pssst … don’t tell anybody.)
Though not as teary as Gives Me Hope, My Life is Average is a lot of fun too. Glad people have created alternatives to FML. http://mylifeisaverage.com/index.html
I’ve been up for what seems like days…so I’m sorry if this makes no sense.
I have never heard Adam Lambert sing one note in my life. Not that I have anything against him or AI or the whole shebang. It’s just that I’m too sucked into other avenues of pop culture to be able to get much into that one. After Clay Aiken lost I never could get into it again.
So I don’t have even the hair of a dog in this fight.
But what I do know of Adam Lambert is from my subscription to EW and my reading of blogs in general. And I know that for every one word I read about his singing I read two hundred and fifty about his sexuality. In fact, half the words about his singing were also in some twisty way hinting about his sexuality.
And he’s a young man. So I can see how in his mind he feels as famous for sexuality as for music. They are all part of Performance to him.
And since his sexuality was such a big deal to so many people for all the wrong reasons–I read some bloggers and twitterers who were going on about how they wanted him to lose to prove to society that homosexuals are bad–I think he views it as his duty to put it in the faces of all those folks.
He doesn’t understand that his fans may not want it either. And why would he? Many of his fans are still so caught up in The Sex Storm That Is Adam Glambert that he thinks every fan must dig it.
basically he is what he was made to be.
And on another note, I still listen to Donny Osmond’s Soldier of Love song. He has his moments.
Good point about Lambert. I’m in the same boat as you are in my thinking. You are so right about “he feels as famous for sexuality as for music.”
I think that hits it on the nail perfectly. And you are right, many fans don’t care because they just like his voice.
I find the whole thing to be very strange from an Internet perspective as well. There are such polarizing views on him right now and it will be interesting to see where the path this heads down.