JUSIPER

 
1985 would be the last year she mattered

Posted by Sini

But just four years earlier Nile Rodgers, Ashford and Simpson, a spectacular entrance and an album font on a roof carried Diana Ross to one of her peaks.

5:46 PM | Post or Read Comments (0)

 
The Jackson Six

Posted by Sini

Amazing bits (start with the first of three all too brief excerpts) from 1977's short-lived Jacksons Show.

5:12 PM | Post or Read Comments (0)

 
Philippé Wynne 1941-1984

Posted by Sini

As big a loss as any the music world sustained in the last quarter century. This performance, with an appreciative Stevie Wonder in the audience, comes from the 1975 Grammy Awards. It's one of the only live bits available on YouTube by Wynne, who was so unique that other singers could only speak of "that thing in his voice."

The only Spinners song from the Kinshasa concert in Zaire documented in Soul Power is "One of A Kind (Love Affair)."

Today we pray to the great Rubberband Man in the sky for the DVD release of the full concert. Future generations deserve to witness Philippé Wynne's mad vocal genius.

4:54 PM | Post or Read Comments (0)

 
The high tech kowtow

Posted by Sini

We condemn the suppression of free speech in Iran. But we're awful quiet about China.

3:21 PM | Post or Read Comments (1)

 
Opportunity, opportunity

Posted by Sini

How the Chinese just don't get Islam. Or the Uighurs.

1:31 PM | Post or Read Comments (0)

 
The biggest story in the world right now

Posted by Sini

It isn't Iran. It isn't South Korea. It might not be the financial meltdown, although it's not unrelated when it comes to shifts in global power.

No, it's Xinjiang and the Uighur uprising against the Chinese.

Islam isn't the most important threat to American hegemony. First of all it's a religion, not a country. And the countries that subscribe to the religion are themselves greatly divided. Suppose Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran fell and acquired nuclear weapons. The weapons would not be directed at the United States but at their neighbors. And the neighbors most immediately threatened are not necessarily Israel but India and Saudi Arabia.

Though not China.

Why? Because there has, for long, been a tacit agreement between China and the most extreme terrorist groups and Islamic governments. China won't mess with them, and, in turn, they won't mess with China.

The biggest beneficiary of 9/11 was China. Not just because it provided the opportunity to cement and lock the U.S. out of trade and energy relationships in Latin America and elsewhere. Not just because it meant genocide in Tibet could continue completely unchecked by the United States so long as China didn't block our self-defeating actions in Iraq. No, the Bush Administration's actions also focused Islamic extremists' anger on the United States. Which meant China had a decade to strengthen its internal "stability" and "unity."

China in the meantime has played a brilliant game, telling Americans that the Uighurs are Al Qaeda, and telling the rest of the Muslim world that the Uighurs are Westernized Muslims, unworthy of any potential jihad to save them.

Neither Tibet nor Xinjiang are historical parts of China. As recently as the Ming Dynasty, China controlled neither (a better map here).

It is certainly in the United States' interest to see a China shorn of oil rich Xinjiang, even more than the resource consuming buffer state that is Tibet.

Today comes news of large Muslim protests (including the burning of a Chinese flag!) in Turkey, which has ethnic and linguistic ties to the Uighurs. But as Yigal Schleifer of the Christian Science Monitor notes in his blog, it is hard to take on a superpower alone.

For a religion in which fatwas can be issued against Salman Rushdie (or not issued against phone sex), the lack of Muslim outrage outside of Turkey is telling and pathetic. Power trumps Islamic manhood, after all.

The Bush Administration destroyed most of our relationships in the Muslim world for the sake of a war that represented a major setback for our national security. Maybe the best the United States can do is to have a second country (hmm... how about Turkey?) secretly funnel a lot of cash to Muslim groups in Arab nations that are willing to foment outrage about China's oppression of the Uighurs.

Anyone who has read this blog over the last few years knows that China is the biggest long term theat to American hegemony. In terms of global power, best thing for the United States would be to see China involved in a long, costly civil war. In terms of regional power, it would also be the best thing for India, Russia, and Japan.

In short, we have a religious cause, and we have the wealth, power and intelligence of three regional rivals plus Turkey. But do we have the brains and the will? I rather doubt it.

6:10 PM | Post or Read Comments (1)

 
Please, please, please

Posted by Sini

Release this as a DVD box set. While the Celia Cruz material was previously released as Celia Cruz and the Fania All Stars in Africaa, the rest has not. The Spinners set alone would be worth the price: it may be the only available video from the classic Philippé Wynne years. The movie's setlist, heavy on the James Brown, is here.

5:48 PM | Post or Read Comments (0)

 
California is broke

Posted by Sini

And that's why Michael Jackson's body just might end up in Neverland. And it's also why, neighbors be damned, Neverland might just become the next Graceland. Jackson neighbors, don't blame it on the boogie. Alan Greenspan would be a better target for your ire.

5:15 PM | Post or Read Comments (0)

 
Jesse Jackson

Posted by Sini

Some taste after all? He was a no-show at the memorial service, Roger Friedman says, because he hates Joe "My son just died but check out my latest project" Jackson. Amen to that!

5:10 PM | Post or Read Comments (0)

 
2012 Presidential sweepstakes

Posted by Sini

Iowa: 1st: Palin, 2nd: Huckabee, 3rd: Romney
New Hampshire: Romney, Palin, Huckabee
South Carolina: Huckabee, Palin, Romney

4:34 PM | Post or Read Comments (0)

 
(Ghost) writing a tell-all

Posted by Sini

JUSIPER favorite Levi Johnston is fixin' to write a book about Bristol, Sarah and the rest of the Palin family. This according to his bodyguard and publicist, whose name is Tank.

UPDATE: Here's an interview.

UPDATE #2: Tank is black! And Bristol's baby daddy is half Mexican! What would the Republican base have thought if that had come out during the campaign?!

UPDATE #3: Apparently Levi is also interested in modeling.

UPDATE #4: Tank Jones Investigations has a My Space page. Appropriately enough, he's an R. Kelly fan. More on Mr. Kelly here. And Dave Chappelle's rather profound reflections here: "How old is fifteen, really?"

UPDATE #5: Tank's real name is Sherman.

4:08 PM | Post or Read Comments (1)

 
Alas

Posted by Sini

Looks like Brüno is not as good as it looks.

3:12 PM | Post or Read Comments (0)

 
Fox

Posted by Sini

Showing that good old Nazi-style eugenics still have a home in the GOP.

11:35 AM | Post or Read Comments (0)

 
Finally, some good celebrity news

Posted by Sini

Betty White is very much alive! So today let us remember a national treasure.

4:51 PM | Post or Read Comments (0)

 
And the #1 album in the country is...

Posted by Sini

Thriller.

Michael Jackson albums have maintained their sales in the 4 days of the new week of the charts.

According to Nielsen SoundScan 233,000 Jackson albums were purchased over June 29 and 30 and July 1 and 2 from the sample taken from Anderson, iTunes, Best Buy, Borders, Starbucks, Target and Trans World.

Out the 7 outlets surveyed, Jackson album accounted for 70% of sales of their Top 200 albums.

‘Thriller’ was the biggest seller this week, moving 85,000 units. ‘The Essential Michael Jackson’ sold 65,000 units.

10:46 PM | Post or Read Comments (0)

 
"For one long, glorious moment he made the world dance"

Posted by Sini

Bill Werde in Billboard.

10:39 PM | Post or Read Comments (0)

 
It was a nice service

Posted by Sini

Not even Louis Farrakhan, Don King and Omarosa's presence soiled it.

6:29 PM | Post or Read Comments (0)

 
Heed thy own advice

Posted by Sini

Benedict's new encyclical:

In the sweeping document, Benedict denounced the private sector and blamed "badly managed and largely speculative financial dealing" for causing the current economic meltdown. He said that the primary capital to be safeguarded is people, and cautioned that economic systems need to be guided by charity and truth.

Perhaps we could start with the Roman Catholic Church's own economic system. How about full financial transparency?

Meanwhile, the Pope has also called on world leaders not to forget the poor. But not to worry, lip service transient by definition. He'll soon return to the topics his predecessor made paramount: abortion and sex.

Meanwhile, still more lip service:

Benedict lays out his view of the promise and problems of globalization, saying that it needs an ethic that puts people above profits. Systems of protection and welfare are having trouble pursuing social justice and helping people in need, Benedict writes. In the past people turned to states, but today globalization limits state sovereignty and power, social safety nets have been cut, and trade unions also face more obstacles.

Therefore, Benedict said, the world's population must engage in new ways -- through civil society, creative government collaboration and new international institutions.

Benedict also urged more respect for the environment, saying that more advanced countries must lower their domestic energy consumption, either through technology or great ecological sensitivity among citizens. He also advocated more research into alternative energy consumption and pushed for a worldwide distribution of energy resources.

We'll know whether there is any significance to the encyclical when we see American cardinals backing President Obama's health and energy bills the way they backed George W. Bush's presidential campaigns in 2000 and 2004.

11:45 AM | Post or Read Comments (0)

 
A circus till the end

Posted by Sini

Literally.

11:37 AM | Post or Read Comments (1)

 
Tour t-shirts

Posted by Sini

Goodness. And they'll sell, even at those prices.

11:21 AM | Post or Read Comments (0)

 
Elizabeth and Michael

Posted by Sini

Very sweet... and very, very weird (starts at 4:30)

10:41 PM | Post or Read Comments (0)

 
Vultures at the memorial service

Posted by Sini

Via Showbiz411, the best source of news during this entire saga.

The good news:Appearances by Lionel Richie, Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson and Diana Ross. They are deserving by virtue of friendship and appropriate by level of artistry. And Jennifer Hudson, by virtue of tragedy.

The bad news: the race between Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton for the funeral oration seems to have resulted in a draw. Both will be speaking. And Jermaine will close the service:

Sources say that Jermaine will represent the Jackson family, singing Charlie Chaplin’s “Smile.” If this comes off as planned and hoped, Jermaine will steal the spotlight from many superstars....

Were you thinking that the only thing worse would be to have Tito perform? Well, you would be wrong. Tito's sons will.

It's only appropriate. The family used him from the beginning, so there's no reason not to use him at the end.

7:41 PM | Post or Read Comments (0)

 
Wimbledon

Posted by Sini

The Times' Simon Barnes, as always, with the last word.

2:15 AM | Post or Read Comments (0)

 
Tied in the 5th?

Posted by Sini

Entertaining as it would be to see Roger cry again, it would also be good to see the smile wiped off Sampras' face.

12:20 PM | Post or Read Comments (0)

 
FBI isn't investigating Palin

Posted by Sini

Which hardly precludes other agencies from doing so.

1:49 AM | Post or Read Comments (0)

 
"What? I don't open this?"

Posted by Sini

Let us also remember Elizabeth Taylo. Friend of gay people everywhere and the woman responsible for the best drunk appearance ever on a major awards show. God bless her.

And good night you all! Ya all, ya all, ya all!

UPDATE: Given the events of the last week, this video becomes terribly sad.

4:38 PM | Post or Read Comments (0)

 
Jason Hare is absolutely right

Posted by Sini

Every moment of this video is dated.

1:21 PM | Post or Read Comments (0)

 
Mentors

Posted by Sini

Michael Jackson and James Brown.

This was Michael on the verge of Thriller, his voice and magnetism such that next to Diana Ross, singing her last huge hit, he utterly, and effortlessly, commanded the stage. And in a ten second vocal, redefined the song.

12:56 PM | Post or Read Comments (0)

 
"The Love You Save"

Posted by Sini

It was the followup to the followup, but the first fifteen seconds of this video (h/t Jason Hare) embody Michael Jackson's explosion onto national consciousness better than any video I've seen for "I Want You Back." Even a decade later, it would still be their best choreographed early hit.

Meanwhile, very bad news for us peddlers of the "no good music after 1995" meme: the emerging meme is that Invincible (2001) was underrated. Even Dean Robert Christgau thought so--and at the time, no less.

12:43 PM | Post or Read Comments (0)

 
Apologies

Posted by Sini

The preview link to the Joseph Jackson piece seems to be broken. Here is another one.

11:52 AM | Post or Read Comments (0)

 
Cynthia McKinney is in jail!

Posted by Sini

In Israel! Moral of the story: you might get away with hitting a Capitol Hill a police officer. But don't mess with the Zohan.

11:14 AM | Post or Read Comments (0)

 
You don't have to like Mickey Kaus

Posted by Sini

To admit he has a good line on the John Edwards sex tape: "So disappointing. Just him and a mirror again."

But this book is sure to be a doozy.

10:46 AM | Post or Read Comments (0)

 
Wasilla Sports Complex=Sarah's house

Posted by Sini

Naughty!

5:01 AM | Post or Read Comments (0)

 
J. Randy Taraborrelli

Posted by Sini

Is the author of two extraordinary biographies: Michael Jackson: The Magic and the Madness and the devastating Call her Miss Ross. Here are excerpts from the second edition of his Jackson book. Start, however, with the first post: his reaction to Michael Jackson's death.

4:23 AM | Post or Read Comments (0)

 
Twisting the knife

Posted by Sini

Palin nemesis Lisa Murkowski: "I am deeply disappointed the Governor has decided to abandon the State and her constituents before her term has concluded."

4:09 AM | Post or Read Comments (0)

 
"The bull goose looney of the GOP"

Posted by Sini

Paul Begala on Sarah Palin.

4:05 AM | Post or Read Comments (0)

 
Shannyn Moore

Posted by Sini

Is a liberal talk radio host from Alaska. Her tweet tonight:

Prediction: Palin corruption story is true. She got a free house in exchange for $13M contract award. she is D-O-N-E.

From Edward Teller, posting at firedoglake:

This just in my inbox, from a source connected sometimes to CNN:

"Here's a quote I got from law enforcement here in Alaska yesterday afternoon regarding Palin "a criminal indictment is pending authorization."

A reader at the site asks a question about the possibility that she might have been involved in her church's arson: "Were they making meth in the church?"

4:01 AM | Post or Read Comments (0)

 
Palin

Posted by Sini

A pretty good rundown. Note the bizarre rapid speech, the repeated reference to probes and the media, and word that the governor won't run for president in 2012. Put them together, and you have to think that Palin has either a) lost her mind or is b) about to be indicted. My suspicion: b may be causing a.

2:20 AM | Post or Read Comments (0)

 
Sarah Palin

Posted by Sini

I am watching excerpts from her speech today on CNN. She may need medical help.

10:06 PM | Post or Read Comments (0)

 
Krugman

Posted by Sini

A master's class.

8:49 PM | Post or Read Comments (0)