My Guilty Pleasures...

Yes, it’s true, I do  not  watch much television… Part of the reason for this is because under my mother’s watchful eye, I practically had to beg for my TV ration tickets… I’m sure you remember those… Huh? What do you mean no one but  my  mother did that? You just hold up, now! Nobody (but me) talks about  my  mama! Anyhow… Mom was under the impression that I had better things to do: like read, read, or perhaps, read some more. I also took ballet lessons, piano lessons, flute lessons, and studied martial arts, that is, after I finished my school homework assignments, which I worked on while I babysat for the FBI agent across the street, or during my lunch breaks on my job (at Daddy’s office) emptying trash, restocking tongue depressors, and filing patient charts for his medical practice. I was employed by Daddy for several years between the ages of 11 and 17. In my “free” time, I read some more…

Yes, I do love “classical” music (with the ‘Baroque period’ being my favorite). And as you know, if you’ve visited my blog in the past, I love Shakespeare. And in happier days, when I was employed, and had money to “burn,” I regularly took the train to NYC to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art, as well as enjoyed many a Saturday afternoon at the Metropolitan Opera. My favorite TV show is  Sunday Morning with Charles Osgood. I’ve watched that show for so long, I still call Mr. Osgood ‘Charles Kuralt’… But then, there are my guilty pleasures…

I love the TV show My Name Is Earl… Never has ‘stupid’ been portrayed so brilliantly… One of my favorite “flashback” scenes is when we learn about Joy’s “racist” father. For those who’ve never seen the show, Joy is White, used to be married to Earl (also White), but is now married to ‘Crab man,’ who is Black. At a family gathering, Joy learns that her father didn’t hate her former Black boyfriend because he was Black, but rather because he was her half-brother… And her father simply didn’t have the heart to tell her… Joy’s Black husband, ‘Crab Man,’ played by Eddie Steeples, is the former Office Max commercial character known as “Rubberband Man.” Frankly, Eddie’s no bigger than Justin Timberlake, but just like Justin, Eddie’s got it goin’ on! And the man can SANG! There are better sounding recordings of this song online, but I linked to this one because it shows him as he performed it on the show. Ooooh, his hair, his beautiful little face , his tiny, exquisitely formed, muscles beautifully displayed in a tank top… What was I talking about?

My next guilty pleasure: The song, “No Church In The Wild.” The lyrics have been banned as subversive, anti-law, anti-God, and even “hate speech.” I’ll leave it to you to study the lyrics and decide what they mean to you. So, think of me what you will. This song is one of my guilty pleasures, and I admit it. And here are three versions:

1. No Church In The Wild: Kanye West/Jay-Z/Frank Ocean
2. No Church In The Wild: Rita Ora (Rock me, Baby…)
3. No Church In The Wild: in “American Sign Language” (ASL) — but only, kinda’… There’s been some controversy regarding the ‘expertise’ of the signers in this video in that they’ve only been signing for a couple years, most likely aren’t deaf, and according to some, have got the words, but not the ‘music’” of signing… As someone who does not know the first thing about ASL, I originally thought it was a “good thing,” but this man does not, so I’ll stand corrected…

My next guilty pleasure is a song sung by Maynard James Keenan, lead singer of  the multi-platinum rock bands, Tool, and now,  A Perfect Circle. Being a little over the half-century mark, I have to admit that after “listening to it ‘right’” (this is a ‘metal’ band), I still sometimes get a headache… But it’s a cool song. Keenan’s a renaissance man from Michigan, my home state, and the song, “Aenema,” is nothing short of brilliant commentary on California’s impending date with submersion, as well as our own sorry state, as human beings, as we sink beneath the weight of our various diversions and delusions. The link I’ve provided includes the lyrics. And Don’t listen to this if you have a problem with the ‘F’-word… Nonetheless, here’s proof that profanity can, sometimes, be quite eloquent… And at least I have the good grace to be “guilty” about liking loving this song…

I’d tell you more, but “moderation in all things” is a good rule of thumb. It’s not like I need to offend everyone all in one day…

I’d love to hear about some of your “guilty pleasures”…

My Guilty Pleasures… by Vivien E. Zazzau is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at http://darkactsbible.wordpress.com.

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