THE OPERATOR

Ask the Operator: Whycome Your Blog Sucks Lately?

noreply@blogger.com (OperatorNYC) — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 03:26:00 +0000

**from time to time, we here at the offices of THE OPERATOR receive some letters asking us our advice. Always one to lend a helping hand, THE OPERATOR will answer these questions in an effort to make the world a better place.**

Dear The Operator:

Hi. Longtime reader, first time caller. So, I love The Operator, but all pleasantries aside, what gives lately? You barely post anything new, and when you do, it's just crap you regurgitated from some other site. And don't even get me started on all the YouTube clips. I feel like I went to bed with my wife, and when I woke up she was still there, but it wasn't really my wife--it was a pod person. Ya know what I'm saying? I'm just reaching out cause I miss the old Operator. Don't let your readers down.

Signed,

Tuff Luv.

Well, TL, thanks for your letter and your astute observations. Rest assured, we're not pod people. Not yet, anyway. Yes, it's true that we've been lax in putting up new content (though we did reach our 1,000th post). I guess now's as good a time as any to break it to you, Tuff Luv, and to all our readers: The Operator is going a a semipermanent hiatus. We're not going to delete any of the past entries, but this will probably be the last new one you'll read for awhile. In fact, we're shuttering the east coast branch of The Operator's, uh, operation. Fear not, you can always read Culturebot, where OperatorNYC occasionally contributes content. He may even infrequently dip back into the Operator pool if there's something germane to this blog's mission.

As for OperatorLA, due to a perfect storm of pills, booze and boys, he's been lost in a bloggy Bermuda Triangle of late. Fear not, phoenix-like he will rise to resuscitate this blog and take it to new heights, but we can't give you a time frame as to when that'll happen.

So, thanks for reading, commenting, or otherwise completely ignoring us. It's been a long almost-year since we opened the office of The Operator, and we need a break. If we were more eloquent, we'd sum this whole thing up with a passage so stirring, so poignant, so gut-wrenchingly visceral it would blow your mind. In lieu of that, we've posted a Boyz II Men video. It says everything we'd try to, but with better harmonies. (Sorry Tuff Luv, it's a YouTube clip.)

Curtain Call: Joan Didion

noreply@blogger.com (OperatorNYC) — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 02:56:00 +0000

We know, we know, another post about Joan "J.Diddy" Didion. Sue us. We love the petite lady of letters, and besides, she's just published an essay in the Times describing her experience transforming her elegant tome of grief--The Year of Magical Thinking--into a Broadway play.

Not only does Didion wax incisive on her debut as a playwright, she offers a charming remembrance to her girlhood, when she had the desire to be an actress. It's a bit of biography she'd acknowledged in her essays, but here we get a deeper glimpse into Didion the stagestruck girl whose acting career begins and ends with one audition.

I had spent uncounted hours pretending to do homework while I listened to the plays the Theatre Guild did on the radio. I had torn “Death of a Salesman” out of Theatre Arts and memorized Mildred Dunnock’s graveside words to Willy. I could reliably reduce myself to blubber by doing Julie Harris's “we of me” lines from “The Member of the Wedding.” For less current repertory, I could go to the library and check out, say, Eugene O’Neill’s “Strange Interlude,” just one example that may suggest the determination with which I was improvising my own education. “Strange Interlude” in hand, I could retreat to a shed behind the house and do it, an all-day project, by and for myself.
It was now time, as I saw it, to move on. Skip high school, go straight to professional training.
In fact I wanted to go to New York, the American National Theater Academy, but since I could not visualize the scene in which my mother and father agree to send me alone to New York, I cannily substituted the less inflammatory Pasadena.
So heavily freighted was the day’s secret mission that I managed to convince myself that the recruiter would ask me to read Blanche DuBois in “A Streetcar Named Desire.” Sotto voce, I summoned up a few lines, the showier ones. I have always depended on the kindness of strangers. I don’t tell truths. I tell what ought to be truth.
The recruiter did not ask me to read Blanche DuBois.
The recruiter asked me how tall I was.
I said I was 5 foot 2, cheating by the same quarter-inch that I would eventually cheat on my driver’s license.
“Absolutely too short for the stage,” the recruiter said. “Although possibly you could aim for the cinema.”
Lacking even the presence of mind to mention the five-foot-nothing Helen Hayes, at the time widely described as “First Lady of the American Stage,” I could still see that something in this did not quite add up. I thanked the recruiter. I left the Pasadena Playhouse brochures she gave me (as if I did not have them, as if they were not hidden in a drawer with the playbill for “O Mistress Mine”!) in the lobby of the Senator. Once on the street I tried the plummy accent the recruiter had lent to “the cinema,” then stopped. I walked over to K Street in my good suit and went home, my life in the theater over.

Read the rest of the essay here.

The Year of Hoping for Stage Magic [NYT]
The Year of Magical Thinking [show site]

Person to Person: The Operator

noreply@blogger.com (OperatorNYC) — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 02:54:00 +0000

1,000th post, bitches. Just sayin'.

Call Sheet: Absolutely Pastoral

noreply@blogger.com (OperatorNYC) — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 02:32:00 +0000

Fans of Jennifer Saunders have cause for celebration; the comic legend that brought us "Absolutely Fabulous" is back with a new series, "Clatterford," premiering on BBC America this week.

The ensemble comedy, featuring Saunders's longtime collaborator Dawn French and stalwart Joanna Lumley, is set in rural southwest England. According to an interview in the Times:

While at first glance “Clatterford” appears to be a showcase for well-known British comic actresses in full character tilt, the overall portrait is one of pastoral inclusiveness. “The countryside is always made out to seem like it’s a little bit evil,” Ms. Saunders said. “Then I looked around and thought, ‘No, it’s actually very interesting.’ ”
With its charmingly bucolic settings, funny-sad story lines and the Kinks’ “Village Green Preservation Society” as its lilting theme song, it is easy to imagine “Clatterford” being embraced in the United States as a “Gilmore Girls” without the Gilmores and just the eccentric residents of that show’s sleepy hamlet, Stars Hollow. In November, when “Clatterford” was shown on BBC 1 under the title “Jam & Jerusalem” — a reference to the common perception that Women’s Institute branches are little more than excuses to share preserves recipes and warble hymns — it attracted roughly 6.7 million viewers, a hit by British standards. The BBC quickly commissioned a second season, even though reviews were generally negative.
“I think it was split half and half,” Ms. Saunders said, adding that The Independent and The Guardian “absolutely just loved it.” (She’s obviously not referring to The Guardian’s year-end wrap-up, which filed it under “Turkey.”)
Nevertheless Ms. Saunders has been around long enough to know that perceptions change. “It was like that when ‘Ab Fab’ came out: most people thought it was a disaster,” she said. “I think it takes people time.

We did a little digging around YouTube and found the series, under its original Brit appellation "Jam & Jersualem." Watch it here. It's not AbFab in the country, but it does have its charms. Particularly Dawn French's dotty character.

Jennifer Saunders Goes Absolutely Bucolic [NYT]

Call Sheet: The State Update

noreply@blogger.com (OperatorNYC) — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 02:21:00 +0000

If you're a regular reader of The Operator, you know we try to keep you up to date on all State-related news. Well, we've been derelict in our duties. In our defense: a) we're on a less-than-frequent posting schedule. b) there's a 40 oz of Miller High Life (The Champagne of beers!) on our desk that ain't gonna drink itself.

Luckily for you, over at Brooklyn Vegan their regular comedy columnist has all the news you ball dippin', porcupine racetrack bettin', monkey torturing, fans of Doug need. Read all about Michael Ian Black's new movie, David Wain's The Ten, and Mikey Showalter's trip to Aspen here.

As for us, well, next time we'll try to do better.

411: Girrelevant?

noreply@blogger.com (OperatorNYC) — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 03:58:00 +0000

Again we don our writer's cap and quaff a glass of wine to bring forth another installment of our patented blog innovation, Spam Poetry, where we compose a stirring ode solely from the subject lines of our junk emails.

On fantasy
Or death
Or week be madcap
Cynicism
In connecticut
No variation where to deliver class drugs.

I'm sorry
Irreconcilable turkey
I as mexican
Do by live
Girrelevant.

Call Sheet: The Underminer Film

noreply@blogger.com (OperatorNYC) — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 22:10:00 +0000

So, we totally love Mike Albo and his chortle-inducing book The Underminer, which is why we were geeked to find he made a short film with the character for Logo, which we've handily embedded for your viewing pleasure. The best part, it's two Albos for the price of one (it's like a cunty, New York version of The Parent Trap or something). Is it wrong that we want to be in the middle of an Albo sandwich?

ReCall: Chloe Webb

noreply@blogger.com (OperatorNYC) — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 04:51:00 +0000

Where the hell is Chloe Webb lately? Besides a spate of TV guest shots, she's been all but absent from the pop culture landscape.

We were first introduced to Ms. Webb when she played the quaalude-poppin' fag hag Mona Ramsey in "Tales of the City." Of course, she also played the tragic Nancy Spungen to Gary Oldman's Sid Vicious in the classic rock 'n' roll biopic Sid and Nancy. Hell, we even loved her tiny cameo in the you-probably-didn't-see-it 90's indie film Twenty Bucks.

After such landmark roles, we're sad Webb's just a footnote in film history, given the lackluster, hackneyed "actresses" working today. We thought the gal really had somethin'. At the very least, she knew how to play "high," a skill we greatly admire.

Oh well, we'll alway have our "Tales" DVD.

HOTline: Johathan Tucker

noreply@blogger.com (OperatorNYC) — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 04:33:00 +0000

Speaking of TV, we totally have a hot nut for actor Jonathan Tucker from the new show The Black Donnellys. We may never watch the show, but it doesn't mean we don't like casting our TV eye on its young star. According to TV.com, the former ballet dancer is a vegetarian history buff who enjoys Rene Russo movies. But we'll let that pass. If you're wondering where you might recognize Tucker from, he was the one who got it on with Josh Lucas in the film The Deep End.

For more pics of Tucker, click here.

Wiretap: Muffin Top

noreply@blogger.com (OperatorNYC) — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 04:12:00 +0000

We've probably mentioned we don't watch a lot of TV, it cuts into our drinking time, but we've been catching up on NBC's 30 Rock and well, we like it. It's not a great show by any means, but occasionally Fey and co. hit on something so sublime or sublimely stupid it makes us tinkle in our pants a little. Case in point: the song "Muffin Top." Jane Krakowski's dumb blond actress cliche has released it as a single, which is the "number 1 hit in Israel and number 5 in Berlin!" It's an almost dead-on Britney impersonation (pre-head shave/rehab/career freefall) and we likey.

For the uninitiated, a muffin top, as defined by Urban Dictionary, is "when a woman wears a pair of tight jeans that makes her flab spill out over the waistband, just like the top of a muffin sits over the edge of the paper case."

It's so good it makes us wonder if Andy Samberg wrote it.

And because we're wired wrong, this song kinda sorta reminds us of Mike Albo's brilliant spoof single "Pink Pudding" just a tiny bit.

Below we've reprinted the lyrics, should you want to add "Muffin Top" to your repertoire.

Everyone knows
that the most delicious part of the muffin
is the top...
My muffin top is all that
Whole grain, low fat
I know you wanna piece of that
But I just wanna dance
You're checkin' out my sweet hips
My sugar coated berry lips
I know you wanna get with this
But I'm just here to dance
So back up off of me
You're weirding me out
I'm an independent lady (oh!)
So do not try to play me (oh!)
I run a tidy bakery (oh!)
All the boys (oh!) want (oh!) my (oh!) cake (oh!) for free (oh!)

Book Chat: Shameless Shilling

noreply@blogger.com (OperatorNYC) — Sat, 24 Feb 2007 06:26:00 +0000

Well, here we go, shilling for a book called I Am Not Myself These Days. Why? Um, cause Josh Kilmer-Purcell asked us to (we're tots Myspace friends, doncha know).

Also, we truly enjoyed this book, and we want his publishers to be happy so they'll ensure his follow-up tomes reach the masses in a timely fashion. So, you know the drill--click on the image. You know you want to. It's all hypnotic and swirly.

Call Sheet: Baby, Baby, Oh Baby...We Love Superstar

noreply@blogger.com (OperatorNYC) — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 05:38:00 +0000

Omg! Omg! A hat tip and a big fat kiss to ModFab for unearthing one of our favorite underground, heretofore unseen by the masses, cult fav movies. Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story is Todd (Velvet Goldmine) Haynes' 43 minute epic retelling of the rise and fall of Karen Carpenter...with Barbie dolls. It's up on Google video (until it's snatched down) and must be seen.

Watching it again brings back memories...oh, we were young, malleable, unschooled in the ways of the world. We had just arrived on Martha's Vineyard for an internship. We were crashing on the couch of the theatre's box office manager. After plying us with some extremely potent weed, he popped a bootleg of said movie into the VCR (this was back in the old days, kids) and it blew our minds. The fact that it's extremely sympathetic to Carpenter and still evokes a visceral response from us is a testament to Haynes' skill as a filmmaker.

Also, Richard Carpenter--total fag.

Watch it here.

Supertar: The Karen Carpenter Story [wikipedia]

ReCall: The League of Gentlemen

noreply@blogger.com (OperatorNYC) — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 08:05:00 +0000

As confirmed anglophiles, we're fans of the grand guignol sketch comedy of The League of Gentlemen(not to be confused with the shit-awful graphic novel-turned-film The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen). We just finished re-watching the first season of their show, and again we're struck by the complexity of the characters. The Gents are more interested in character development, narrative and mood than the cheap one-liner or repetitive gag, making their fictional town of Royston Vasey a fully-realized vision, akin to a waking nightmare.

Best to start off with a little bit of Tubbs and Edward, the proprietors of the town's shop. "Are you local?"

Photo Call: Interpreting Annie Leibovitz

noreply@blogger.com (OperatorNYC) — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 05:09:00 +0000

We just lugged home Vanity Fair's annual Hollywood issue and the thing was so large it nearly gave us a hernia. For this year's pre-Oscar celeb blowjob, the theme is noir. Ooh, color us black and white. In the introductory essay, famous Lesbo photog Annie Leibovitz was coy about the process of creating the spread with fashion and style director Michael Roberts. We thought we should interpret the subtext of her comments for readers. To wit:

"You can light a scene and be prepared, and then the subjects come in and things have to be altered for them. This happened time and time again. I hadn't realized in the beginning, although I should have, what an enormous effect the actors have on the situation."

Translation: I hate actors!

"On the very first shoot we did, with Anjelica Huston and Diane Lane in the powder room of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, it was obvious it wasn't about each person's being a star. It was about their profession, the craft of acting. It was about a community of actors."

Translation: Those bitches hated each other. We had to set out saucers of milk to avoid a catfight.

"The only problem I had with Michael is that he wanted to put a hat on everyone. It was a battle. I would shoot the pictures with the hats, and then I'd take them off and shoot them again. In the powder-room scene they all had hats originally."

Translation: That hat-loving fag ruined my set-ups time and time again.

"These people are the best at what they do, and they brought out the best in one another. It was beautiful to see the relationships between them, how they needed each other."

Translation: Ben Afleck diddled someone in the make-up trailer.

"I didn't want to shoot in black and white, although we did de-saturate the color. I wanted a modern feel, with references to the earlier period through body language and story line. Michael and I argued about this. For instance, in the picture of the body in the street in the rain, Michael wanted a car from the 40s and I wanted the car that we used (a 1964 Chrysler Imperial)."

Translation: Waaah. I want what I want. Why are you even here? I'm Annie Leibovitz, goddamit.

Basically, it seems like ol' Annie collected another paycheck under duress from her VF overlords, while Michael Roberts crimped her style the whole way. Gawd. What a travesty.

The Big Shoot [Vanity Fair]

Person to Person: The Operator

noreply@blogger.com (OperatorNYC) — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 06:23:00 +0000

Hello dear readers, real and imaginary. We've been extra-super busy at work this week (have no fear, we're still drunk and in our underwear-yay freelancing from home!) and haven't kept up our normal volume of warped, nonsensical posts. In lieu of our usual sparkling content, we offer Dolly Parton's "9 to 5". It resonates with how busy we are, and as an added bonus, there's subtitles and Disney characters. The WTF-ness of the whole thing should keep you scratching your head until we return to our regularly scheduled inanity.

DisConnected: There's Something About Mary...Bulljism

noreply@blogger.com (OperatorNYC) — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 17:51:00 +0000

We don't know from haircare, especially the way some of you ladies obsess over your tresses, but this news story totally skeeved us. Apparently, a posh London salon is using bull semen to give hair that much sought after shine. Via Yahoo! News:

Owner Hari Salem told media that he tried hundreds of products -- including wild avocados and truffle oil -- before hitting on bull semen as the elusive element in a formula for making hair look gorgeous.

You might wonder, as we do, how one makes the leap from seemingly normal household items, like the avocado, to something like bull semen? And who's going to let this guy test it on their hair, just to see if his hunch that it'll give your hair a healthy sheen will pay off? Luckily, there are no adverse affects.

"The semen is refrigerated before use and doesn't smell," Salem told the Metro newspaper. "It leaves your hair looking wonderfully soft and thick."

He said the treatment will remain on offer providing the bulls can keep up the supply.

Well, better keep the heifer porn in stock. If we can take one thing away from this, it's that we have a new favorite word: Bulljism. Go ahead, use it in a sentence. We think it has a lovely ring to it.

411: Harry Potter and the Happy Trail of Distraction

noreply@blogger.com (OperatorNYC) — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 04:34:00 +0000

Sure you've seen the promo shots for Daniel ("Harry Potter") Radcliffe in Equus, all shirtless and porny, having traded his magic wand for a spike. But have you seen them as a slideshow? Set to the dulcet sounds of George Michael? Aha. Anyhoo, enjoy. You'll only feel dirty for about thirty seconds. They grow up so fast, don't they?

Wands at the ready...[Londonist]

Wiretap: Antony Sings Leonard, We Swoon

noreply@blogger.com (OperatorNYC) — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 04:19:00 +0000

We were surfing the YouTube for a Leonard Cohen clip, and when we came across Antony (of Antony and the Johnsons) performing "If It Be Your Will" from the concert doc Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man, well, done deal.

Cohen, one of our favorite songwriters, always blends the sacred and the secular into a wholly unique musical experience. Antony elevates Cohen's sentiments to the level of a gospel concert, dredging the depths for something arcane, beautiful and almost otherworldly. Or, so we think.

411: Get Crafty for Amy Sedaris

noreply@blogger.com (OperatorNYC) — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 04:05:00 +0000

Amy Sedaris, the freaky man's Martha Stewart, wants you, yes you, to participate in her Craft Challenge. Here's the deal, Amy is going to be on the Leonard Lopate Show on February 9th to talk about her new (and genius, we might add) book I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence.
Alls you gots to do is, add googly eyes to any item of food, then submit a photo of your creation. Amy will pick the winner on-air. You can find out more info here.

So get on it. Those googly eyes ain't gonna end up on the braised short ribs themselves.

The Leonard Lopate Show Amy Sedaris Craft Challenge [WNYC]

DisConnected: Xenu Is Coming, Look Busy

noreply@blogger.com (OperatorNYC) — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 06:27:00 +0000

Holy crap, we've been so busy trying not to have our lives co-opted by pseudo-religious cults we forgot to mark our calendar for Xenu Day International. According to the organizers:

Are you a Xenu sympathizer? A drunk? An irate ex-scientologist? A freezoner? An ElRon apologist? A cacophonist? A Santarchist? A trouble maker?
Then XENU DAY Is just the even YOU'VE BEEN LOOKING FOR!
On Saturday March 10th 2007, all 5000 scientologists across the planet will be celebrating their own version of Christmas. Drunk aliens , stopping traffic, handing out propaganda, preaching the gospel of Xenu the Galactic Overload, will be there to greet them.

The event coincides with L. Ron Hubbard's Birthday.

We're not much for "activism," but if this will keep those poorly dressed minions of Hubbard from trying to give us a stress test in the subway at rush hour, sign us up.

Xenu Day International [Laughing Squid]

411: Here's Poop In Your Eye

noreply@blogger.com (OperatorNYC) — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 06:14:00 +0000

When we're hassled by the cops (which isn't often) we typically go into honor roll student mode, all yes sir, no sir, whatever you say, sir. Not the case for this young whippersnapper, who, when stopped by police at the Grand Avenue Mall in Milwaukee, assaulted the officer with his colostomy bag. According to the Journal Sentinel:

The officer was responding to a truancy complaint at the downtown mall Monday at 1:17 p.m. and stopped the youth, who refused to tell the officer his name or age, she said. The suspect then became disruptive and threw his colostomy bag containing bodily waste at the officer.

Dude, that shit ain't right.

Officer Assaulted with Colostomy Bag [JS Online via News of the Weird Daily]

Wiretap: Feeling Feisty-y

noreply@blogger.com (OperatorNYC) — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 06:03:00 +0000

We have a special place in our atrophied, coal-black hearts for Canadian songstress Leslie Feist. The girl's worked with Peaches, Broken Social Scene, and Kings of Convenience, and also put out a solo album, Let It Die, which is always a favorite on The Operator's iPod. It's jazzy, indie vibe is the perfect mood-enhancer. Here's the artist in question in her video for "One Evening."

We do have a bone to pick though, as Feist totally stole her dance moves from us. We want compensation.

Curtain Call: Springtime For Hasselhoff and Las Vegas

noreply@blogger.com (OperatorNYC) — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 22:54:00 +0000

David Hasselhoff, the ~~star~~ personality beloved of Germans and of red swim trunk aficionados, is featured in the Las Vegas production of the musical hit The Producers. Though unlike fellow television alum Tony Danza (currently in the Broadway production), the Hoff won't be playing no goodnik Max Bialystock, nay, he's wearing the light loafers of Roger DeBris.

The show has been trimmed down to a mere 90 minutes in order for anxious gamblers and drunken brides to fit the production in between bouts of binge drinking, poker and whoring. Other musicals playing Vegas, including Avenue Q and Hairspray, haven't been a draw for tourists, but never underestimate the power of 'The Hoff'.

Lean, Mean Producers Begins Las Vegas Run Jan. 31, With Oscar and Hasselhoff [Playbill]

411: VH1's 'I Love the Bloggers'?

noreply@blogger.com (OperatorNYC) — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 03:05:00 +0000

Well, guess this whole blogging phenomenon has really jumped the shark. VH1, the network for has-been celebrities, redemptive rags-to-riches-to-rags music reunion shows, and we suppose the occasional video countdown, is trying to put together a show with bloggers called HushHush (why, was Drunk in our Underpants taken?).

According to Jossip:

Last month, VH1 fired off invitations to audition to what seemed like anyone who had put their fingers on a keyboard and launched a blog mildly related to entertainment.

Try-outs were held in New York and Los Angeles over the past couple weeks, with VH1 flying in potential on-camera talent for group auditions where bloggers – many of whom had never met before – were encouraged, according to one insider, to "act like they were friends" on camera and joke around with each other like old pals. (Or, as one hopeful put it, "Act like idiots in front of a bunch of producers who [themselves] didn't know what the fuck they wanted from us.")

But while the auditions allowed the bloggers to build new social networks (we hear they're called "blogrolls"), they also gave the potential talking heads time to muse that "this type of show shouldn't be on television," says one insider.

What type of show? Essentially, a blogger roundtable that discusses the current pop culture topics — with the usual doses of forced snark and humor.

Says another put-off blogger : "It's obvious that these show producers want to capitalize on the large traffic our sites have, while getting bloggers on the cheap. I think they still see bloggers as celebrity wannabes (like Perez) but they don't understand that we're smarter than they think we are, and the lure of a 15 minute spotlight isn't quite enough anymore."

Totally. Like, fuck you, VH1. We don't need you. We're totally above crass, mainstream exposure. We want real cred, like being on a conference call with Nancy Pelosi.

That said, call us. Seriously. We guess you misplaced our number and we'd like give you a chance to make amends. We're kinda desperate for something, anything to do right now. And you have craft services, right?

Wiretap: United Kingdom of Scissor Sisters (United States of Scissorhood, Not So Much)

noreply@blogger.com (OperatorNYC) — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 02:26:00 +0000

This week, the Village Voice's Tricia Romano tackles one of the more curious questions in pop music: Why does the UK love the Scissor Sisters more than the good ol' US of A? Being Scissor Sisters fans and shameless anglophiles, it's a question we don't reserve much headspace for, but in the current dark, divisive times of the American experiment, we can see its validity. To wit:

The "Can they break America?" question won't go away. They might be too dance-y to get radio play, or maybe they're too campy. But these are just code words for "too gay." Homophobia is the last refuge of accepted blatant prejudice in a country that has laws banning gay marriages. It probably didn't help that the Scissor Sisters' initial volley, "Comfortably Numb," takes a deified classic-rock band and turns them into a flamboyant punchline.

At least Jake Shears is keeping a proper head about his shoulders regarding his raging UK success, which includes playing to kids, hooligans, and old age pensioners.

"I never want to be a celebrity," Shears says. "I want to be an artist. Celebrity-ness is like herpes, and once you have it, it never goes away."

Indeed. Wait, does that mean we're stuck with Paris Hilton forever?

Read the full article here.