So, what have you been listening to lately?

[Dave W]

^^^

No George Baker Selection? No Tee Set? No Mouth & MacNeal? No Outsiders (Wally Tax)?

[Basvarken]

Haha, no Focus, no Flavium, no 2Unlimited, no Martin Garrix, no Armin van Buuren either.

[uwe]

I missed Ekseption and him (that was a huge hit in the early 80ies) too



lots of others actually, but did I at least get my point across, ja?

And Dave: Of course I had Mouth & MacNeal in there, it was the one vid you had to watch directly on YouTube!!!

That I received no acclaim for mentioning Jopi Heesters bugs me. He made music for us Germans in difficult times (here: 1944) when any cheering-up was welcome! Who said we couldn't do escapism?  And all the tasteful allegories, a ship at the shore, no German defense around, but at least the showgirls are marching and swinging their legs.

[uwe]

Admittedly, not mentioning 2 Unlimited was criminal, but I couldn't recall their name. I do herewith make amends ...




So much better than the horrific Scooter, a most shameful German product ...



Essentially, it is a bit like heavy metal without guitars and real singing, isn't it? 

[Basvarken]

Floor has a new band:
Stapled.

They are a tribute to Mavis Staples and the Staple Singers.
Not a look-a-like band obviously and not a carbon copy either. They just respectfully pay homage to the music of Mavis.

[uwe]

That performance is classy, give her my regards! Edith loves that stuff too.

Floor btw does look Dutch. Isn't it consoling that despite your non-ethnic looks you did find a local girl to put up with you after all, Rob? 

PS: "Not a lookalike-band obviously.". I think Floor was well-advised not to attempt any blackface for a more authentic look! That kinda tends to stir people up these days. 

[Basvarken]

There are people out there who think a white girl cannot do a tribute to a black artist.

[uwe]

That is madness. A white girl pretending to be black and darkening her complexion is silly (a black girl lightening hers is tragic), but Floor can of course honor Mavis (and does it excellently), Arielle can be a black girl and Denzel Washington can be Macbeth.





Cultural appropriation - imitation is the sincerest form of flattery - is just a sign of cultures mingling and influencing each other, since when is that supposed to be bad?  When my son was 13 or 14, he decided that he wanted dreadlocks. Leon was a beautiful boy, but he had and has thin/fine and absolutely straight blondish hair. Still, if he wanted something ... So we did find an African hairdresser for him in one of the not so good parts in town and the hairdresser girls (all of them black) were over the moon that a little white guy would want to have an ethnic hair style. They took ages to get it right on him (probably rightfully wondering why white people have such weird flaccid hair  ) and he sat through it with earnest patience. The results were great, looked good on him, started a trend at his school and after a few months ... all the dreadlocks fell off.  Which is what they inevitably do with white people with straight hair as my son then learned.  He was unperturbed, got a crew cut instead and looks back fondly on his dreadlock experiment. Some things you just have to do to get them off your chest.

[Ken]

How do we explain Michael Jackson?

[uwe]

He was in many ways a tragic figure. He didn't want to be black, he didn't want to be an adult, he didn't want to be a male, yet not gay either .... I think he never found out what he really wanted to be except adored by everyone and somehow ethereal.

[Ken]

A poor black boy who grew up to be a rich white man?

[uwe]

His astounding wealth must have sure isolated him, but I don't think it was his core issue. Lack of a real childhood due to his Jackson 5 career must have played a role too. And that oppressive Jehovah's Witnesses crap + an abusive father.

[Basvarken]

Saw this AI image last week

[uwe]

George Baker again?



Ironically, that is what Michael always wanted, to become the AI image of himself, long before the term existed. He was this really cute young black man





and then he started messing with his facial features and skin tone and turned himself into this artificial Peter Pan monstrosity.



He'd have looked real good if he had aged like in that AI pic you posted, but with all the messing around he did, this is probably a more realistic depiction ...



PS: I really like Cher, but compared to the natural animal grace of the Jackson 5 she couldn't dance or move about shit.  And, more seriously, she looks disturbingly anorectic in that vid too.

[Basvarken]

I don't think he would have aged that well.
His nose looks too normal in that AI image. It was completely butchered.