Saturday, July 10, 2004

I can't help wonder if Jade's maid was Spanish or Hispanic. There is a difference, you know. The fact that Jade said "Vodka con heilo" when she should have said "hielo" leads me to wonder about Jade's relationship with her maid and the Spanish language, or maybe it was Andy's pronunciation when he called Pat Hackett the morning after to tell her about the previous day for his diary; so it might be Hackett's spelling mistake when she was editing the Warhol Diaries. In any case, "ice" in Spanish is mispelled. And this is pure carelessness on someone's part. To be more abstract about it: it's a slip of the text (not the tongue).

"Satisfaction" has been recorded and performed by other music performers besides the Rolling Stones. Most recently Britney Spears recorded a new version of it, and none other than the "I want to have some fun girl", Samantha Fox also covered it during her pop-singer stint in the nineties.

Both, Samantha and Britney have adjusted the lyrics to fit a woman's perspective, mainly emphasizing their independence and freedom. Although Samantha Fox's lyrics are a bit more supportive of the male gaze.

Here are the lyrics for all three:

The Stones sing:
I can't get no satisfaction,
I can't get no satisfaction.
'cause I try and I try and I try and I try.
I can't get no, I can't get no.

When I'm drivin' in my car
And that man comes on the radio
And he's tellin' me more and more
About some useless information
Supposed to fire my imagination.
I can't get no, oh no no no.
Hey hey hey, that's what I say.

I can't get no satisfaction,
I can't get no satisfaction.
'cause I try and I try and I try and I try.
I can't get no, I can't get no.

When I'm watchin' my tv
And that man comes on to tell me
How white my shirts can be.
Well he can't be a man 'cause he doesn't smoke
The same cigarrettes as me.
I can't get no, oh no no no.
Hey hey hey, that's what I say.

I can't get no satisfaction,
I can't get no girl with action.
'cause I try and I try and I try and I try.
I can't get no, I can't get no.

When I'm ridin' round the world
And I'm doin' this and I'm signing that
And I'm tryin' to make some girl
Who tells me baby better come back later next week
'cause you see I'm on losing streak.
I can't get no, oh no no no.
Hey hey hey, that's what I say.

I can't get no, I can't get no,
I can't get no satisfaction,
No satisfaction, no satisfaction, no satisfaction

--------
Samantha Fox Sings:
Satisfaction
Satisfaction, uh!

I can't get no - satisfaction
I can't get no - satisfaction
'Cause I try, and I try, and I try, and I try
I can't get no - satisfaction
I can't get no - satisfaction

When I'm driving in my car
And that man comes on the radio
And he's tellin' me more and more about some useless
information
Supposed to fire my imagination
I can't get no (satisfaction)
No, no, no (no, no, no)
Hey, hey, hey (hey, hey, hey)

I can't get no - satisfaction
I can't get no - satisfaction
'Cause I try, and I try, and I try, and I try
I can't get no - satisfaction
I can't get no - satisfaction

When I'm watching my TV
And that man comes on and tells me
About how white my shirts should be
Well, he can't be a man
'Cause he doesn't smoke the same cigarettes as me
I can't get no (satisfaction)
No, no, no (No, no, no)
Hey, hey, hey (hey, hey, hey)

Ooh, satisfaction!

I try (I try), I try (I try)
I try (I try), baby I try! (baby I try)

When I'm drivin' 'round the world
And I'm doin' this and I'm signin' that
And I'm tryin' to meet some boy
Who tells me baby, better come back maybe next week
Can't you see I'm on a losing streak
I can't get no (satisfaction)
No, no, no (no, no, no)
Hey, hey, hey (hey, hey, hey)
That's what I say (that's what I say)
Come on baby...

And Britney sings:
I can't get no satisfaction
I can't get no satisfaction
And I try, and I try, and I try, and I try
I can't get no
Satisfaction


When I'm drivin' in my car
And that man comes on the radio
he's tellin' me more and more
About some useless information
Supposed to fire my imagination
I can't get no, oh no no no
Hey Hey Hey Hey, This is what I say


I can't get no satisfaction
I can't get no, good reaction
And I try, and I try, and I try, and I try
I can't get no
I can't get no
Satisfaction


When I'm watchin' my TV
And that girl comes and tells me
How tight my skirt should be
But she can't tell me who to be
I've got my own identity
I can't get no, oh no no no


I can't get no satisfaction,
I can't get no uh, satisfaction
I can't get no uh, satisfaction
I can't get no satisfaction


And I try, and I try, and I try, and I try
I just can't get no
I can't get no, Satisfaction
I can't get no, Satisfaction

"_______ was there" is the classic Andy statement. Why they were there is a given. It's in their nature to be there, wherever "there" happens to be is incidental.

Dennis Hopper is a trip. I recently saw a sixty minutes segment on his career and his last attempt to make film history as a director. The theme was that he always ruined whatever triumphs he had had, and that he was not really successful... whatever. He was presented with the usual myth of a struggling actor, and the segment worked indirectly as a long commercial to his upcoming film. Hopper votes republican and fully supports everything president Bush has done while in office.

Now Friedkin, the man who brought us the French Connection and the Exorcist, also brought us Rules of Engagement and the Hunted. I don't get how directors can make great movies followed by horrible ones. The last two suck, just the stories themselves are banal. Some friends say that it's all about the money, that directors and actors at one point, once they are critically aclaimed, make intellectually deprived blockbusters just to keep their names outthere while making a lot of money. Nicholas Cage is one of the examples I've gotten. After he made Leaving in Las Vegas, he's done "shit." That's the criticism, verbatim. Not even Adaptation works for some people; it's seen as a shallow piece of visual indulgences. I kind of like the film, though. I think the problem lies in that culture has shifted to developing visual forms more than ever, especially true today with CGI tricks. I mean films like Spiderman were simply impossible in the past. I remember seeing the Spiderman from the seventies (or was it the eighties?), it was crap! stupid. I wanted to like it so much, but the visuals didn't live up to the amazing comicbook drawings. Some directors like Friedkin might say, "this is an okay story, but I could make it a film masterpiece if I can work my magic on the set and in the cutting room." And then the director ends up making shit. Very few directors can make an overtold story great. The only two in my book are Kubrick and Kurosawa: Minimal material, kicking visuals.

I can imagine John Travolta crying and, like Andy, I would wonder if he was acting. I remember the first time I saw Travolta, it was actually in Welcome Back Kotter. I did not speak a word of English at the time, and I kept repeating the TV tune in my head, "welcome back... tata ta ta..." I eventually figured out what "welcome" and "back" meant, but Kotter did not quite click in my head. It took me a while to figure out it was the teacher's last-name.

Travolta acted really stupid in that show. I did not get it, so I just thought he was really, really stupid. And then I saw him in Saturday Night Fever, Grease, then he got lost for a while and returned in Staying Alive, then he got lost for a while again, and finally hit a steady career with his role in Pulp Fiction. I mean, getting blasted while in the John has to put anyone on the map as a great actor. Travolta's look when the door opens is really something else, a classic example of deer caught in the head lights. Besides his hair-cut was cool.

Now Pulp Fiction's dialogue simply hits the spot on many levels. Anyone who cares about story telling must read the script. Hell, Capt. Koon's story of Butch's grandfather's watch up his ass is a classic example of the oral tradition, that is, of myth making as a key to keeping culture alive. The watch stands for time, for tradition that needs to be passed on, and Butch was willing to risk his life for his Great-grandfather's watch. The whole movie is about time on all levels of discourse.

I recently saw the third Ali vs. Frasier fight on the Classic Sports channel. It was a great fight, exciting even when knowing that Ali won. Before the rebroacast of the actual fight, they showed clips of the first and second fights. It was amazing to see the power of Frazier. Frazier knocked Ali down in the second fight, and it looked just like a movie. These are, obviously, some of the fights Stallone must have studied carefully to make his Rocky movies.

I'm still not sure about the Ali film by Michael Mann. Will Smith did a decent job, but somehow the film is missing something. The problem with movies like Ali is that they don't have a chance at being "bad," like Andy's Bad. Films like Ali have to be "good" because they present themselves as serious films, dealing with big issues. Ali's movie does deal with the African American struggle during the latter half of the twentieth century. From this point of view the movie is interesting. The film emphasizes Ali's relationship to Malcom X--now he's a heavy cat. I remember reading Malcom X's bio along with Fanon's the Wretched of the Earth: part of the foundation of Post-colonial studies.

I have to admit this post got a bit heavy. So let's look at "difference" a la Andy. Let's then look at this, this, this, this, this, this, and this. Oops! almost forgot this one too.

Who would have guessed that reality TV was actually tested in the 70s by Metromedia? Andy claims that Larry Freeberg, a Metromedia executive, stole his idea consisting of a set of people hanging over a dinner table as a way to bring real life into the TV screen. Funny that Andy states "The only real-life thing missing at the table was coke, and no runs to the bathroom." What is most compelling about Andy's account is the fact that the "celebrities" who starred in Dinner with Halston were real celebrities in the elite New York scene, but not quite as famous as, say, a movie star. Indeed, the most renowned people that were part of the TV show at that time may have been the two models, Bianca Jagger and Jane Holzer. Jane is mostly known for her activities with Andy.

Today Reality TV has grown to create its own breed of celebrities. A very odd genre at times, I remember when I viewed the first episodes of the Real World on MTV. Shortly thereafter, Big Brother was launched. Now we have Big Brother 5. There is a Big Brother version produced in Mexico and distributed to the rest of Latin America as well. To be more accurate, there is a big brother pretty much in every developed country around the world.

It becomes obvious that Andy's reality TV concept, like many of his other ideas, was also ahead of its time, although he missed the mark when he tried to put NYC's elite on reality TV; this may have been because of his obsession with the rich and famous--he could not see where the real potential was. But in reality (pun intended) we cannot blame Andy, because his idea was stolen. Maybe if he had been part of the show, then the series could have taken off. But as he said, even Mick Jagger hated it. Andy's quote that in the future everyone will be famous is becoming a reality today more than ever, just like the paranoid theories of surveilance by George Orwell seem to be coming about as well. The media is quite pedantic on its transparency, however, as it quickly decided to appropriate Orwell's paranoia and make money with it. And there are others who take the paranoia quite seriously.

Bianca Jagger hung out with Andy quite a bit. Lots of coke around their gatherings that's for sure, and it's quite amazing to see a woman who was known as a decadent party animal in the 70s turning into an international humanitarian. Well, human activist is the official title, I guess. So much for stereotypes. But she still lives under the shadow of her ex-husband, Mick Jagger; she is often introduced as "the first wife off Rolling Stones Star Mick Jagger." She obviously condones this as she has kept his last name, which would make more sense considering the type of life she leads. Nevertheless, the echo of the Rock & Roll years are part of her last name... The Brazilians might say she cannibalized his last-name. It could be seen as a smart move by some, but surely a topic for feminist to debate over. Actually Bianca's life is a perfect subject for post-colonial critics, although I am not aware of any writings about her life or activities on this terms. She definitely is a big advocate of diversity, the discourse that helped Post-colonial theory to develop.

I love to read a sentence where Divine and Tad Hunter are together. If for nothing else, I just love the juxtaposition of their public personas. Both hanging out, yeah! Divine was surreal. I love him in Hairspray. If there is a definition of cool beyond the cliche, it is Divine.

Two other celebrities I would not usually consider hanging out together are Ringo Starr and Alice Cooper. Nice to know they were at one point hanging out at a John where lots of people where doing "the real thing"--coke that is. One thing about Alice is that his on-stage character only gets better as he gets older.

Even today Alice is still so much better than his copy-cat, Marilyn Manson. Marylin's got cool outfits, one must admit. If he grows as ugly as Alice he is sure to be just as successful. His music ain't bad either.