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spotlightsaga · 7 years

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Kevin Cage of @spotlightsaga reviews... I Love Dick (S01E05) A Short History of Weird Girls Airdate: May 17, 2017 @amazonvideo Ratings: Privatized Ratings @amazon Score: 9.75/10 TVTime/FB/Twitter/Tumblr/Path/Pin: @SpotlightSaga **********SPOILERS BELOW********** The more I watch television... The more I write, review, observe, soak in, and immerse myself into what I'm watching the more I drop certain series, and cling to ones that stir up a thunderous rumble of emotions inside of me. Like Dick's art, sometimes those emotions don't have a name. Maybe they're new, maybe their not, but I feel those emotions with such a surging intensity that I know what I'm watching is beyond just a tv series and literally a piece of moving art, cinematic wonders that maybe aren't for everyone, but sure as hell should be. Amazon Studios' 'I Love Dick' is a special series, one of those rare entries that match and sometimes even surpasses its original source material. This series is literally the equivalent of females embracing their very fiber, their sexual being, and shouting out loud on the top of a mountain, echoing through a massive valley, stirring up birds and wildlife... As if to say, 'I'm here and this is who I am. I will not be shamed.' Although I'm a male, and my sexuality is of a different multi-colored variety, I connect with these women and somehow understand them on an enormously supreme level. 'A Short History of Weird Girls' is 'I Love Dick's masterpiece. As you may have noticed, and as I mentioned earlier, Ive changed the way I watch television. I've been holding onto this series, as I have with others... I actually have watched, documented, and written nearly a hundred unreleased articles. I review them, tweak them, add to them, sculpt them... Because much like this show, my writing has evolved, the way I watch tv has evolved, and the way I release these pieces I've written on these shows have evolved. This episode is somewhat in the vein of last years 'B.A.N' from Donald Glover's FX masterpiece 'Atlanta', in the sense that the core narrative takes a back seat and we are given a whole new point of view from the female characters within the series. Not everyone will see this for what this is, and some may even ridicule my interpretation & impressions, but 'A Short History of Weird Girls' is high art and should be viewed, handled, and studied as such. The more I watch 'I Love Dick' the more I see it's many different layers... It's hyper-feminine POV is Jill Soloway & Chris Kraus' alternative to HBO's hyper-masculine lens we see the show 'Ballers' through. Both shows are under appreciated, and besides that fact, the only thing that they have in common is their extreme opposite handling of how we see their worlds. Maybe 'I Love Dick' is actually less of a feminist masterpiece and more of a honest, existential, tribute to an open, bold, unchained and aggressive look at female sexuality... Sexuality in general, and where embracing it can take us. It makes me long for a truly honest look at the male take on sexuality, but 'Ballers' and it's earnest admissions that masculinity can so easily drive towards toxic levels with a snap of a finger, I know my wish is probably losing its way in the wind... At least for now. What if everyone wrote Dick letters? Chris Kraus (Kathryn Hahn) poses an interesting question at the very beginning of the episode and then suddenly that reality comes to life in one of the most vibrant, sexually charged and sensual episodes of television not only in 2017, but ever. Yes, people are throwing around the word 'Revolutionary' when it comes to 'I Love Dick' because that's exactly what it is. People as a whole never quite grasp 'revolutionary' at first do they? Chris starts off her letter at the beginning, as all characters do, and we join them on their individual journeys of sexual awakening & personal drive. She talks about her time in high school, her willingness to literally give herself to anyone, male or female, but never having any takers. Finally during her College Years, she's taken, fucked. That first encounter intoxicates her... What is it that made this man want her so badly? What was it that he found beautiful? Her mind wonders to all the things he doesn't mention, after all, we are insecure beings... Even the most confident person in the room has something in the back of their mind that they compensate for. We are imperfect... But for me, that's exactly what I find so perfect about the human form.... Imperfections, Sadness, a little bit of crazy, 'cuz, aren't we all? Chris, Devon (Roberta Colindrez), Paula (Lily Mojekwu), and Toby (India Menuez) all share their letters to Dick, chronicling his particular effects on their lives... Sexually and otherwise. They recall past lovers, current ones that they feel strong disconnect with, and that disconnect is chronicled with images of both positive and negative experiences. As the experiences head into more heartbreaking territory, or difficult memories to interpret, their sexual escapades are shown and the women are erased leaving a fading, cartoonish like presence of each woman as they are entangled with their lovers or the confusion with their burgeoning sexuality... Much like the short film 'Removed' that this very episode opens with where Tribeca Film Festival 'Jury Award' Nominee & experimental filmmaker, Naomi Uman, creates a series of clips of vintage porn and erases the women's images using fingernail polish remover. Each women's entry is captivating for separate reasons and encapsulates the Bright Eye's brainchild and this generations' Bob Dylan, Connor Oberst, idea that 'every heads a different world'. Sexuality is unique to every one person, male and female, and it's so goddamn refreshing to see, hear, and feel the lusty, powerful force of honesty in approach when it comes to sexual identity. Chris strikes up the dialogue as straight forward as it gets, "Dear Dick, I've been horny since I was six. I used to press my crotch into the belly of my stuffed rhino in the family room of our duplex in Cleveland, Ohio. I loved to hump him in front of our sitter Karen Harris. I used to say that Rhino was hungry and that I needed to feed him... And then Karen went away to college and I didn't feel like doing it anymore." As humans, we ARE sexual beings... Aren't you tired of feeling ashamed of certain impulses that occur naturally within your body? Even before I was six I had these feelings. My situation may have been unique and incredibly polarizing to the majority, and most likely this isn't the show, or should I say segment, to discuss every detail as to how I got to that point so early. It wouldn't exactly be considered a natural occurrence... But even my situation is more common than most people would like to admit, or flat out refuse to admit. All I know is that children should not be punished for acting on these impulses in an innocent manner. We should be asking more questions as to how they got there, but unfortunately people don't want to hear that answer. We are not disgusting or wrong for thinking about sex. Creating a taboo around certain subjects just catapults those very subjects into a high number of internet searches and 'behind-closed-doors' fetishes. Relationships are not as easy as everyone wants them to be. Monogamy might not exactly be obtainable the way most will it to be. Our desires for inclusiveness may just stem from a melodramatic inherited human trait of selfishness, an unwillingness to let those grow around us, because we want to own something. Whether its a relationship or a person within that relationship, the idea that it's "yours" is actually absurd. We can devote ourselves to someone, but in the end we are human. There are certain voids that exist in this life that we need to fill, as animals, as human beings. That's not to say someone can't sustain a healthy relationship with another for 50+ years, its just to say that we all have our own paths. Even if as people our paths are destined to intertwine... Like Devon and Chris... We still must continue to grow and move forward at our own rates, careful to not become codependent. Devon talks about Dick's strong masculine energy as something she embraces and emulates (unlike Chris who wants to take it in any which way she can), turning bits and pieces of it into her own. She uses that 'Dick Swag' to woo other women for sport, but when she falls in love away at college and her heart is broken she drops out of school and tosses her dreams out behind her on her way back to Texas. But it's there where Devon meets Chris and suddenly becomes inspired, tho briefly distracted by the free spirited, India. It's India who sees Dick as or through yet another color of light, Chris' is glowing red, Devon's an iridescent indigo, India's color is much more difficult... A damaged, slightly cracked, creamy shade of yellow... She had an intellectually and creatively stimulating home in New Mexico but her father, John Willis (played by People of Earth's Luka Jones) is a writer of children's books, so therefore felt like he could touch her. India doesn't seem too affected by this as she rattles it off like a cold, but natural fact of life. And here is where I once again am inspired to tell you, the reader, who may or may not know what that feels like... Suddenly the place where I talk about 'my situation' and deem Chris' experience close to mine, but an insufficient place to explore even a second of my experience becomes much more real... And much more appropriate. You see, like India, some of us are taught how to act on sexual behaviors at a young age. We all don't just experiment naturally like Paula, who talks about how seeing her mother's tampon string suddenly pushes her away from her youthful obsession of her mother or how masturbating at a young age became uninteresting once she learned there was a name for it... Hence Paula's infatuation for Dick's massive protruding, structural masculine art that has no name, no specific identity, no title... Some of us have a bit of a push, or an inappropriate 'class', if you will. India seems to be a 'victim' of non-violent sexual abuse as a young child. This is where things get very fucking confusing, because you see... As I mentioned before, India quickly rattles off this fact and sweeps on to the next. Why is that? In my own personal experience, it's extremely difficult to decipher just what sexual abuse is, especially when one isn't physically hurt or 'traditionally forced' into anything. I've written on the subject before and was met with polarizing responses. One young woman asked if she could take me home recently and drove me through the busy intersecting freeways, highways, backroad byways, and long winding ramps & roundabouts from the west end of Miami all the way to the tip of coastal Miami Beach, all the while with tears in her eyes relating to my written experiences, giving me a vivid account of her own. No one wants to see themselves as a victim, not REAL victims anyway. This idea of 'victim culture' is scoffed at by those who have been through it. Some of us may be victims, but we refuse to let that define us, or use it to try and gain sympathy or attention, applying it to causes or whatever it may be, because then suddenly we are admitting defeat or are forever trapped in those moments. The same moments we rarely tell anyone, or ever express. So when my words were recently met with disdain and accusations that I was trying to define sexual abuse in any way, I simply had to laugh. Once again, 'Every head is a different world'. The spectrum is huge, but I personally will not allow myself to be a victim, just like India it's a passing fact, it happened, it's part of my story... But you can't have it, it can't be more than what I'm giving it now... And my experience is simply one example, as is any other. Although slightly damaged, and beautiful in that fact, India captivates all in her presence... Unfortunately she leaves them a bit broken, just as she is. Trudging on, she turns porn into art at Columbia University, even centering her final undergrad thesis around the shapes of a woman's face as she sucks two cocks. For her PHD, she presented a written & visual presentation of what's known as 'gaping' in pornography. If you don't know what that is and you haven't watched the show, I'll let you explore that one at your own discretion. Her professors are a bit horrified and one even suggests she moves towards Gender Studies, much like India I would have laughed that off. I've always found such subjects to be pretentious and divisive, but hey, that's me. As a male, and according to one troll on the #BoilerRoom's comment section who took offense (and hammered down my context) to comments I made during an Oakland, CA show where one of the worst DJ Sets I've ever seen took place on a grand platform (that most people would kill to have) by some wealthy, frankly bored looking hopeful (whose passion and talents self-admittedly lie elsewhere), "I'm a 'washed up raver cis-male' who can't accept females in positions of power" (boy, he got that one comically incorrect, welcome to the 2017, age of the Internet). My comments were light and I was even trying to be supportive, saying that maybe that DJ could get better in time, my point was that she had gained that opportunity through either knowing someone or good looks. Men have created that opportunity for women to use, and I'm not saying that it isn't a legitimate way in... But my comments were taken out of context. You should be able to perform however you want, looking however you wan... But without passion, you are simply taking up an opportunity for the next person in line. A bit of research indicated she has had the opposite road of some of my strong, female musician acquaintances and friends of whom I list as fierce inspirations of my own work (however I do not and would never take away the common denominator of the grand, all-relatable human struggle). I have called upon & channeled the inspirations of women like long time Indianapolis & Midwest treasure, Techno Powerhouse, DJ Shiva, or now worldwide success and frankly G.O.A.T. House Music Legend, The Black Madonna. These women worked so hard & sacrificed so much & never rested on their laurels. I am inspired by strong females, but I don't necessarily see them as just females, I see them as human beings, who like me, have had to work a little harder to get where they're at. No one has handed me anything, and many times when I had something, I blew it. We are all working against something, someone, ourselves, time... My inspirations in life are a direct product of my environment, just like the different presentations of myself over the years. And no one will take away my freedom of speech, right to an opinion (whether it's agreed with or not), or use a term like 'cis-male' to insinuate that I don't understand what it's like to be discriminated against, to be confused about who and what I am, the complexities of human sexuality, and so on and so forth. I often tell people about my first experience in Chicago at the age of 12. I went to the Art Institute of Chicago with a large group of my fellow schoolmates, but i broke free from the pack and wondered into rooms unaccompanied. I found myself suddenly surrounded by 'Impressionist & Post-Impressionist' Paintings, peppered with Medieval & Renaissance Art. My eyes centered on this massive painting that literally popped out of the wall, surrounded by a low lying rope, to keep people away from its magnificence, but their view unobstructed... It was Georges Seurat's 1884 pointillist painting 'A Sunday Afternoon on La Grande Jatte. I felt small and insignificant, like one of the pinpoint dots that made up what seemed like a million little dots that made up the painting. I've always had trouble describing that memorable moment, but Paula knocked it out in one line while describing how Dick's art made her feel, "It evoked in me a feeling of boundlessness... It was fucking terrifying." Yes, that's exactly it. 'Dear Great Man, Genius, Loner, Cowboy', India lists off Dick's accomplishments in the most condescending tone she can possibly channel. India had previously known of Dick through the Art History books her parents had lying around the house. Dick's was her favorite, not in the normal sense. She is young. She has known pain. She has worked hard to get where she is at. India is beautiful, but she doesn't use that to her advantage to succeed. She takes the hardest route possible, because she simply doesn't want what everyone else wants and she knows that anything worth having in this life doesn't come free... And that's something I can connect to. 'Dear Dick, We are not far from your doorstep.' Yasss, Queen! Jill Soloway just directed a fn' knockout... And the all female writing staff, this one headed by Annie Baker and Heidi Schreck deserve a Spotlight Saga nomination for Achievement in Writing... And Soloway for Directing. India's final words to Dick sent a surge of electricity through my body. This is exactly how I look at the AV Club. Knock Knock.

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themadameditor · 7 years

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Jimmy Fallon is a terrible host, he should never be allowed to host anything, I am pretty sure he would be just as bad at hosting guests in his own house. But as the Golden Globes progressed, the night became much less about the unfunny klutz and more about the atmosphere in Hollywood, America, and the world at large. It became about giving a voice to that simmering feeling, to what people have to say, how they felt waking up on November 9th after that shit show, and how they have felt in the days after especially with the coming inauguration. Hollywood. I’m not a huge fan of Hollywood, I find it duplicitous at best, hypocritical and ignorant of a lot of things; race, abuse, sexism, take your pick, it has its closets full of sins. But I am all for giving kudos where its due. Who knew we’d come to need a place like Hollywood in the way we did on one of its biggest nights of self congratulatory awards, with all the glitz and glamour and red carpet madness. That said, I do like awards shows, self congratulatory as they are, (Thanks Hiddleston) there is something unifying about staying up until the wee hours (I watched online until 4am after telling myself to go to bed every hour on the hour), and live tweeting with fellow crazy awesome people you’ll likely never meet, but it’s such a fun party everyone wants to go here and you cannot help the laughs (the most fun is had on the live tweet seriously). Awards shows pretty much map out my watch list until the summer,-Nope I am NOT seeing La La Freaking Land- and introduces us to new talent and some we slept on. Mandy -where has she been- Moore with her cape (not my fave) made a stellar come back and now I have to go binge watch This is Us. Donald Glover showed the world what following your dreams can really look like if you keep at it. Issa Rae proved that your instinct will often always be your best guide, and Tracee Ellis Ross, I mean, what a boss. What I actually like more than the awards themselves, and the nerve biting moment of waiting to find out if your favourite movie or sitcom wins, is the acceptance speech- cheesy, glorious, self deprecating and utterly inspiring, an acceptance speech sets the class acts and the Hiddlestons apart, and this year’s Globes had more class acts.

I LOVED Tracee Ellis Ross’s speech, genuine and heartfelt without being saccharine, her shout out to Women of Colour who are still trying to make it, whose stories are fighting to come through, “… women of colour and colourful people whose stories, ideas, thoughts are not always considered worthy and valid and important… I want you to know that I see you. We see you. To her age, “44 I like it here” in an industry where most often shy away from revealing their real age, where youth is often the only way to thrive and survive, that was a pretty powerful moment. Ryan Gosling did a good job of acknowledging the sacrifices made by his “lady” whilst he was able to shoot the movie and have the “best experiences” he’s ever had, she “was raising (their) daughter, pregnant with (their) second and helping her brother fight his battle with cancer.” Viola Davis, always moves me with her speeches, always and my favourite part of her speech was when she acknowledged her dad, “Dan Davis, born in 1936, groomed horses, had a fifth grade education, didn’t know how to read until he was fifteen. But you know what? He had a story and it deserved to be told and August Wilson told it.” Donald Glover, who shouted out Black folks in Atlanta for “being alive, doing amazing and being amazing people.” Barry Jenkins, “Mom you gave me my life and I hope being on the stage right now is a fulfilment of the life you gave me…”

A good acceptance gives you a sense of the person, an allusion to the history of the people giving them, the many threads that weave in and out of their lives, connecting their pasts to the present, the roots of their being and the family we don’t get to see but whose sacrifices meant they could be where they are today.

Hugh Laurie made a joke which spawned Meryl Streep’s words, he teased that this might be the last Golden Globes because of its diverse association: the Foreign Press. Foreigners and the Press. Two groups Trump vehemently opposes, funny as it was, it also rang true. Especially when power is placed in the hands of a man who has a specific idea of what a perfect nation should be, one void of tones, colours or accents.

In what will go down as one of the most powerful speeches in the history of Hollywood, if not the most powerful after she accepted the Cecil B Demille Lifetime Achievement Award Meryl Streep made a moving case for what it means to have a world filled with those colours, and tones and accents. About how these qualities contribute to our stories and enrich this world we inhabit, this space we all have in common. When you have a platform, either as a celebrity or some other public figure, you do have an onus to do good with it. It is expected that with your platform you speak up and make your voice heard, and use your power for the greater good. Meryl Streep used her platform to inform the world, not just America, that this moment, these past few months, we have witnessed must not define us. That in the years to come, we simply mustn’t shrug with nonchalance and be idle by standers. We must do more.

The world has no idea what lies in her future come the 21st of January when she will have at her helm a racist demagogue in power. We cannot project but we have an idea, if the activity on social media is anything to go by, we have an insight, and that is why Meryl Streep reminded us yesterday that none of what the world has witnessed, will witness in the coming years, will be normal. Nothing about having someone elected to the highest office of power in the world, one who makes fun of disabled people, incites violence against minorities, lauds rape culture, is normal and as a society with morals, even at the most basic, accepting this will be tantamount to endorsing the very worst of human nature. This isn’t just Hollywood’s fight, or ours, we are simply the little people that will get tramped on, this is a fight whose victory will largely depend on the press because they made Donald Trump. In protecting their rights and freedom they must now show they are worthy of such protection by doing the work entrusted to them. Upholding the ethics of the profession and undoing the damage they have mostly done.

Accountability.

When Donald Trump embarks on a this press tour of normalisation, when NBC and FOX News and CNN give him a pass for being an abject nuisance, a racist, a sexist, we should call them out. When people give him a pass because he has no political acumen, and no business for that matter being in politics, we should slap them down with facts, when the press make light of his erratic behaviour, when he baits nations with 140 characters, we should call them out on their complacency, which makes them complicit. This is not normal. Having the most qualified candidate lose to the least qualified because of outside influence, having a president who is blatantly rewarding favours with political positions of power that only furthers the wealth of his already wealthy friends, having someone sideline ethics because the rule of law does not apply to him, and the press won’t make noise about it, is not normal. Much as the press want their freedom protected they must also stand for ethics and what is right, not cower for hope of favours. They cannot sit in silence or look the other way when Trump lays out falsehoods as facts or refuse to report on the lies, here’s looking at you WSJ. The press cannot afford to be complacent because the world is not.

Our diversity is what makes us unique as a global society, that we can learn from each other’s differences and respect them is one of the more unique bonds of humanity. Traditions, cultures, religions and so on are what make this world. Tolerance of one another, of people who are not like us, living together in peace- that is what makes the World and it is worth putting up a hell of a fight to preserve those principles.

So fight. Speak up. Resist and, for the love of all this sane, do not normalise any of this because nothing, none of this, is normal or acceptable.

The Acceptance Speech Jimmy Fallon is a terrible host, he should never be allowed to host anything, I am pretty sure he would be just as bad at hosting guests in his own house.

#Awards Season #Featured #Golden Globes 2017 #Hollywood #Meryl Streep

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