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Author: ‘Nsync (esp. Justin Timberlake and J.C. Chasez) |
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Title: Popodyssey show; Film “On the Line” |
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Where seen: Concert at Minneapolis Metrodome,
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Distributors: Jive Records, Nsync Productions., Miramax (“On the Line”): |
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Performance time: 83 minutes for “On the Line”; 65 minutes for “I Hate Babysitting” |
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Cast: Lance Bass and Joey Fatone (for “On the Line”); Justin Timberlake, J.C. Chasez, Lance Bass, Joey Fatone, Chris Kirkpatrick (for concert) |
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Recording available: Jive Records 0-1241-41758-2 for “Celebrity” CD |
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Relevance to doaskdotell: “unit cohesion” |
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OKAY, IT’S TIME TO or http://www.realgreetingcard.com/showcards.asp?CategoryID=107 Sorry, guys, my word processor doesn’t
point the apostrophe in the right direction. But I think you find this in the
search engines. I’m no Barton Fink (1991) laboriously typing my tomes
defining “pop” and odyssey, Okay, I get around to reviewing a boy band (that is, male
“pop stars” singing and dancing in quintets), maybe the “largest” one in
terms of visibility. It stormed into the Metrodome
while the Twins (very much on probation) were breaking a road losing streak,
as the heavy hitting “visiting team.” I had seen a few of the Sonically, the enclosed Metrodome
blurred the lyrics, and although the music itself was not constantly
excessively loud, the crowd (the teenage girls screaming in soprano)
sometimes was unbearable, leaving me with tinnitus all next day. A boy band like this is indeed more like an athletic team
than anything else. It must have the
cohesion of an Army cohort, and it demands the physical fitness of a Green
Beret or Navy Seal. Boy band
performers are professional athletes every bit as much as pro football
players (but so are ballet dancers).
What happens of one of them gets hurt.
I wonder how well the cochlea of these performers survives the years,
a sacrifice they make to entertain us. While the content sounds superficial, it is laced with
social and literary meanings—songs like “The Game is Over”, “Celebrity,” and
even “Selfish.” The earlier hit “Bye,
Bye, Bye”, where they boys fly from puppet strings, seems inspired by a
Robert Henlein sci-fi story. The show had a long prequel, with Meredith
Edwards, and a girl band, a quintet making a grand entrance in military dress
and disrobing to show female bodybuilders, presumably to entertain the
heterosexual men, or maybe to make a bit of a statement about my pet
issue. One of the Nsync
video songs, “I want to be me,” takes off on the Disney “Toy Story” movies to
show “the boys” as presents, coming to life at checkout in a store (Target??)
and escaping toy soldiers, only to see stacks of dominoes marked “Nsync” topple over; perhaps there is some deep satire of
the military and a domino theory built on deception. (OK, "don't ask
don't tell" and gay in the military.)
Once Nsync makes its grand entrance in a
live show, it seems as though “the men” are taking over the world and the
earlier female entertainment is cast as fluff. Rather chauvinistic. The men of Nsync stand on
pedestals, as in their first song (literally, a la Dreamworks)
and love to fly through the air on trapeze wires. Draped in colorful
costumes, they rather resembled colorful male birds singing to stake out
their territories and scare away the predators! Young America (as in the town
and company in Lance Bass and Joey Fatone will
play soon in a romantic comedy from Miramax, On the Line, with the gag
line, “Have you ever met the perfect girl (and let her get away)?” Well, all
of the Nsync members talk about wanting to act, and
I hope that more challenging dramatic opportunities would interest them. But, how would a controversial role by one
of the members affect the popularity of the group with its current teen
audience? Maybe Okay, because kids
want somebody like them that they can look up to (even the imaginary Harry
Potter). Remember, Matt and Ben
wrote their way to stardom with their own pens (or wordprocessors). On The July 2001 CD “Celebrity” is named after the second song, by Justin Timberlake, and the concept is hammered home effectively. At one point the poem equates a person to a “name” (brand) —and questions the “love” of another for the “name,” or shall we say, fantasy (and looks). We could turn this around and wonder how important celebrity is to self-concept, in an age where it is easier and also testier to become a celebrity. The “chorus” resonates as in a Greek tragedy. Also—why does Justin have to disfigure his legs with those silly tattoos and body art? (in Alpha Dog (2007, Universal, Nick Cassavetes), it looks as though his arms are shaved and his formerly role model body riddled with tattoos; such is the life of an actor.) I thought that he was supposed to present himself as the paradigm of bodily perfection. Heavens, we could have a draft again. (Then, to compound things, he appears "softened" on the cover of a September 2002 issue of Entertainment with his forearms pre-shaved for rolled up sleeves--oh, well, what they can do with computer-generated art, they can fool anybody. Guiliani, after all, has appeared in drag. Oh! Oh! (Fun with Dick and Jane) – look at Justin as revealed on the cover of Details (that silly hetero magazine), or is that Leonardo Di Caprio? If it really is Justin, he’s melted away completely. I don’t believe it. Write a C# class with delegates to model these events. (Oh, no, now check the buff photo on Rolling Stone; Justin really “got it.” On the other hand, the Christmas Eve issue of The Advocate with the cover story “Coolest Straight People of 2002” makes him still look “all man”—remember how The Advocate had torn up tennis pro Andre Agassi?) With all of these salons offering supposedly painless and quick “painless” epilation, I wonder if most male icons will decide that women find body hair uncouth, or at least making one look “too old.” David Skinner already weighed in on this in the Weekly Standard; see http://www.doaskdotell.com/content/wchap1.htm note 18A) As for the press stories about Lance Bass in July 2006, here are a couple links: http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/story?id=2189570&page=1&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312 People Magazine, (Reuters Here’s a spot to comment about the Minnesota-produced
comedy, I Hate Babysitting,
produced and directed by Tara Spartz. Indeed, it seems like a spoof of teenage
heterosexuality—specifically of upper middle class teen-age girls
(specifically, those living in Coon Rapids, Mn. in
Anoka County along Highway 10), the kind that supposedly go to Nsync concerts and scream. Well, these girls outsmart the grownups and
throw wild parties while baby-sitting, even to the point of letting pooches
put pooh on the carpet and of letting a little boy get his head stuck in the
railing. Landlords will hate them when
they’re on their own. A local Another note. Justin Timberlake stars in “Alpha Dog” (2006, New Line, dir.
Nick Cassavettes) and in previews he is covered
with tattoos and looks absolutely ruined. At one time he was one of the best
looking…. But actors have to ruin themselves, sometimes. Related film: Alpha
Dog (Justin Timberlake); Lance
Bass at 2006 HRC dinner |
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