A review of "X-Special Edition"

Oh please, we all know this isn’t going to be an objective review. A lot would have had to go wrong with this CD for me to dislike it and honey, nothing did. It’s perfect new Kylie. It’s harder-edged than Fever, the lush, dreamy dance disc that re-ignited our dormant passion for Kylie, but hey, she’s been through some stuff alright? It took her a long time to convince me to come back, that's for sure. Wearing out my tape single of "Locomotion" on the annual family ski trip in 1988 to my grudging first listen to Fever in 2004 is a long freaking time to be out in the cold.

On X, the standouts for me are “Like A Drug” and "Heart Beat Rock" but I have a feeling with further listenings, I will find other faves. I only listened to the album 4 times all the way through today, so… Apparently it’s been out in America for a while and hasn’t done well at all. I get that. Sometimes we Americans are too cool for school. That’s ok. All I know is I have no more excuses not to go back to the gym now. I’ve got the trainer sessions, the engraved shuffle, and the 2nd best (behind Fever) workout CD EVER!

Honestly with that cover art, how was I not going to love it? It reminds me of the mural in Jules' (Demi Moore) room in St. Elmo's Fire. And the black tulle masque? It's the one accessory, above even the poncho and hotpants, that has such a high degree of difficulty for wearing it well, that only a select few, really a handfull, can pull it off with élan. The rest of us can just dream. MVLC watch your back! Just kidding Madge, but you know you've got to step up your game with this year's release. I have yet to watch the DVD included, and don't really know if I can, as it's an import and I'm pretty sure doesn't have Region-1 encoding, but if I work that out, I will update this review.

Would it interest you to know...

That I've only ever sung 5 karaoke songs in my life? For those of you that know me, I'm sure that's pretty hard to believe, but it's true. They are:

1. I Will Survive by Gloria Gaynor at Club Omni, Provo UT, 2001
2. Amanda by Boston at Coyote Bar and Grill, Carlsbad, CA, 2004
3. In Your Room by The Bangles at Palos Verdes Bowl, Torrance, CA, 2007
4. Ready To Take A Chance Again by Barry Manilow (same)
5. Diamonds Are Forever by Dame Shirley Bassey (same)

Are you talking?

So I pretty much think that Julie Christie is a goddess, OK? I loved her in Darling, Far From The Madding Crowd, Petulia and Dr. Zhivago (which I just saw for the first time like a week or two ago.) I also thought she was the best thing about McCabe and Mrs. Miller and Afterglow (shut up, I saw it back when I was in my crush on Jonny Lee Miller phase). She even brought some class to Troy, a flick I enjoyed for more prurient reasons having to do with biceps and the like.

I am even really stoked to see her new movie, Away From Her, which I just saw the trailer for. It looked particularly good, which is not something I ever thought I would say about a Canadian romance about Alzheimer's. That's why I was sadly brought back to earth by a short piece in the recent New Yorker in which she made a statement that shocked me:

Told that she should see “The Lives of Others,” the award-winning movie about East Germany, Christie paused, then re-plied, “I’m not sure I can bear to see a film they gave the Oscar to, that tells you what awful people Communists are.” And with that she laughed, unlocked her bike, and pedalled off into the sunshine.

I was just flabbergasted. As with most actors, from her generation especially, I naturally assume that they're left-wing, until proven otherwise. You don't get to be Warren Beatty's paramour for 7 years in the 60s and 70s if you're OK with the likes of Margaret Thatcher, one would assume. But I am astonished that she so ardently still admires Communism, after all we know know of all the millions murdered and and such rampant abuses of power, and the total failure of it as a political system.

If Ms. Christie could be bothered to watch The Lives of Others as I have, she would have seen a frightening portrayal of what it is to live in a Communist state where lover is pitted against lover for political gain, where neighbor spies upon neighbor and reports to the Stasi, where there is no freedom of press, and where you literally cannot tell a joke amongst friends at lunch without losing your job. That is the life that she apparently wants for all of us; that's her ideal.

Also I think it's telling that she tacitly implies that in the Julie Christieverse, Oscars would be given to films based primarily on their political message, with "artistic" achievement apparently a distant consideration. As an aside, this just makes one wonder who the Oscars are really for? If Middle America doesn't go see the five Best Picture nominees, as has been reported, and the Hollywood gliterati are disappointed in who gets the awards, then who IS, outside of the winners, pleased with the films that get honored?

When I watched Dr. Zhivago recently, I was most struck at the end, when Komarovski and Lara leave on the sleigh for China, leaving Zhivago behind, and Komarovski comments that Zhivago is foolish for not leaving with them, to which Lara replies something to the extent of, "Yuri will never leave Russia." I had to laugh. Surely, the thought life as an emigré in Paris with Lara and their child was more torture than could be borne by Dr. Zhivago. Why leave Russia when you could starve AND freeze to death or be killed for asserting the right to live in your own property?

I mention this experience because I am amazed that after filming that movie, in which the ravishes of Communism were put into such relief, that Julie Christie would continue to see Communism as an ideal worth pursuing. Of course movies are not life, but if I was confronted day in, day out over months of filming with the realities of that era and had to participate in the re-tellings of such horrors, they certainly would have made impressions on me that were obviously lost on Ms. Christie. I guess in that sense, she 's never going to leave Russia either.

Betcha can't eat just one...

I love you Pocky, oh yes I do.
I love you Pocky, and I'll be true.
When you're not near me, I'm blue.
Oh, Pocky I love you.

CHICK-A-POW!

After all the egg nog was drunk and the stockings were emptied, and everyone had a piece of wrapping paper stuck to the bottom of their shoe, what did you do on Christmas? I bet you didn't watch A Smoky Mountain Christmas. I bet you don't STILL have it on the DVR. I bet you couldn't go pull out a taped-from TV circa 1988 VHS copy of it out of the closet, if you could be bothered. I bet you weren't on the verge of tears when you saw this GENIUS album cover of hers from your favorite decade. And I bet you didn't do a spit take when Sherpa listed Dolly's autobiography on her 2006 list of books read, cause it's on YOUR wish list.