True Life Seek

Archive for October, 2008

Beyoncé - If I Were A Boy

Beyoncé has a new album coming out in a month, the hilariously titled I Am… Sasha Fierce. Here is the video to “If I Were A Boy” off of that album. Watch it!

I never tried used a Yahoo video; so if it doesn’t work, watch it on youtube.

In this video, Beyoncé plays role reversal. I think it is well done as it isn’t over-the-top. If you saw this video under “normal” circumstances – which, for Beyoncé, would mean the guy being the guy and Beyoncé being the girl – you probably wouldn’t blink twice. That’s good for a song like this. The single difference is that Beyoncé is playing “the guy” and the guy is playing “the girl.”

And yes, this release does imply that there are gender-specific roles that we are all following, but it’s not annoying in the way that Katy Perry does it.

I read about Beyoncé describing the video as a Freaky Friday situation. I don’t think that that is the best way to describe it. It’s more a dream sequence. There is no indication that either side is aware of the roles being reversed. After the roles are brought back to “normal,” the guy is unaware of the previous events. It’s for the best. By the end of the video, the guy is exactly the prototype that is described in the lyrics of the song.

It’s not a strict role reversal. In body, Beyoncé is still a woman in this video. There are no stereotypical changes to indicate otherwise; we even get a bra shot of Beyoncé to drive this point home. In personality, she is the “man” of the relationship. I like that this is the route that was taken. I just feel that Beyoncé dressing up like a man and acting out some of the lyrics (”Drink beer with the guys/And chase after girls”) would carry less weight and come off as a joke. That’s not to say that a woman pretending to be a man and behaving like one can’t present the double standard. In this video and under the circumstance of it being a Beyoncé video, it makes more sense for the situation to be a woman being a woman and behaving like a man. Who would ever be able to suspend their disbelief and pretend Beyoncé is a man? I saw Dreamgirls, she ain’t that good of an actress!

The video is not really that adventurous. It may be out of the ordinary for Beyoncé, but it’s still pretty tame. In fact, Ciara had “Like A Boy” last year and that was a lot more in-your-face than this. Both condemn the double standard and aren’t really condoning the role reversal. For me, the video for Beyoncé’s single stands out a lot more as it establishes a tragic relationship between two people.

It’s nice to see Beyoncé try something new. But I hope she doesn’t go crazy and start trying this type of video/music exclusively. She’s not going to make another “Crazy In Love” because there just can’t be another “Crazy In Love,” but another “Irreplaceable” is doable.

There is another direction that I hope Beyoncé doesn’t take. “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)” was released alongside of “If I Were A Boy” and it is rubbish without its video. The video for that isn’t that great either. Dance shots are pretty boring to me; that said, the dance is crazy. But without the video, “Single Ladies” is entirely forgettable.

Posted on October 23rd, 2008 by broomhead. Filed under Article.
Tags: Beyoncé Knowles

Out Of Work Yasuda Kei Gets Fired

What do H!P’s Elder Club and the dodo have in common?? lol

Anyways, let’s play “Make A Statement!”

Mutou Mika is a genius.

True! Think about it. Remember when Mutou graduated and people actually cared. They wrote entries about it! Do you think her individual graduation would have mattered as much if she was lumped in with big names like Ishikawa Rika and Tsuji Nozomi?

I’m so happy that there are still opportunities to talk about Mutou.

Everything else is gonna be a lie. Cause I feel like lying tonight.

There isn’t a day that goes by where I don’t think about all the girls that are graduating from Hello! Project.

Ok, that’s a lie.

Before today, I can’t tell you the last time that the name “Iida Kaori” popped into my head. I haven’t given thought to Miyosh Erikai and Okada Yui since v-u-den broke up. I didn’t know Yasuda Kei was still working. I can’t even do an entry contemplating on the future for all of these girls; I don’t even know what the hell they are doing in the present.

It’s not that I don’t care about them. Or is it…

I’m as big of a fan of all of those idols as I ever was.

Ok, that’s a lie.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying The Peace sucks. I still listen to the old music - although Miley Cyrus gets more play these days…

I’m devastated by the news.

My nose is growing.

I don’t give a damn about them graduating.

Even if TLS can venture into “omgz non-stop insulting of H!P,” this is a lie.

I love attempting analogies or anecdotes. I really do suck at them. So I need to keep making shitty analogies in the hopes that, one day, I’ll make a good one.

When I was growing up, one of my friends was Chuck. Chuck and I spent a lot of time together. We’d always look for each other when we had free time. But kids drift away from each other and that is what me and Chuck did.

Every now and then, I like to know what Chuck is up to. It’s not like it is a daily ritual for me to sit around and think, “I wonder what Chuck is doing right now…” But you still like to know what your old friends are doing, and hope that they are doing well.

I spent a lot of time watching Abe Natsumi, Ishikawa Rika, Yoshizawa Hitomi and the rest of them. I don’t now though. And I’d be lying if I said their departure from Hello! Project is breaking my heart. I am indifferent to it. I really don’t know what’s different today that from a few days ago, when they were all employed under the H!P umbrella. A few concerts a year that I didn’t watch get canceled? How many Elder Club concerts were there?

Chuck and I shared a past; we don’t share a present or a future.

And that’s just how it is with me and most of the former Elder Club girls.

Posted on October 21st, 2008 by broomhead. Filed under Article.
Tags: Abe Natsumi, CHUCK, Elder Club, Hello! Project, Iida Kaori, Ishikawa Rika, Miley Cyrus, Miyoshi Erika, Mutou Mika, Okada Yui, Ongaku Gatas, Tsuji Nozomi, v-u-den, Yasuda Kei, Yoshizawa Hitomi

Koda Kumi Is Everything But Pretty

Excuse me whilst I crawl out from underneath the rock but …

These are the covers to Koda Kumi’s TABOO and I LOVE the middle one.

I mean it is awful. It is rotten. It is an acceptable black dress thrown off by frills that just don’t quite fit. It is fabric hanging off of bling and not the other way around. It is an unflattering and sexual facial expression that is anything - and everything - but pretty. It’s got elbows bending all sorts of ways but correctly. It’s just generally uncomfortable to look at.

And those are exactly the reasons why I’m loving Koda.

Posted on October 16th, 2008 by broomhead. Filed under Article.
Tags: Koda Kumi

Leah Dizon Gets Laid

Leah Dizon followed Koda Kumi’s advice and is pregnant and getting married. Of course this has to be a big shock and scandal.

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Posted on October 14th, 2008 by broomhead. Filed under Article.
Tags: Leah Dizon

Do I like or dislike the things that Raid dislikes about jpop?

Raid’s Things I dislike about jpop is a really great post. In fact, if you had a brain, you’d go read that post and stay at Raid My Minibar. The only gripe I have with it is that the title of the entry is somewhat misleading; some of his gripes (oversensitive fans, vanilla celebrities) certainly aren’t confined to jpop.

Anyways, I wanna see where I stand next to Raid. So let’s see whether or not I like or dislike the things that Raid dislikes about jpop.

Convoluted, isn’t it?

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Posted on October 14th, 2008 by broomhead. Filed under Article.
Tags: Berryz Koubou, Hamasaki Ayumi, Johnny's, Music Station, Nakashima Mika, Raid My Minibar, The Office, The Shield