mirages
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Post by mirages on Mar 19, 2011 21:33:03 GMT -5
rihannasu: Adam's camp is very sophisticated which is why it is often not even recognized as camp. It sometimes goes over peoples heads. I've been thinking today that he is almost more DaDa than camp. Everything he does challenges preconceived notions. He juxtaposes things that you wouldn't think would go together. The way he both blends and contrasts the masculine and feminine and defies any attempt to box him in. As soon as you describe him he changes yet again. His response after the AMA's poked and challenged society. Rather than backing down he challenged our perceptions of what is acceptable. He hasn't just made us fans he has made us activists, or revitalized our activism. He makes us think and question the status quo. He is political in the way that artist should be political in that his art inspires us to examine and engage the world around us. The opening line of "Strut" is "I want to start a revolution" written at a time when he was saying he didn't want to be a poster child for the gay communtity. And he has started a revolution, a "personal solution" in his fan base. How many of us speak of the way he has reshaped us in the course of our fan experience. Many of us have taken up the challenge to "rewrite the role we play".
Dada was a response to fascism and we have a kind of neo-fascism going on in this country now. Adam's very existence challenges those ideas and just staying true to himself and strutting his stuff is a political statement all it's own. I love that he isn't afraid to be over the top but he also isn't afraid to tone it down and be understated even though many might see it as a cop out. He isn't afraid to take whatever direction the spirit moves him. I think that's one of the differences between him and Gaga. While Gaga is celebrating the freak aspect she almost seems to be rejecting the "normal" side. By always being weird and outlandish and out there she has put herself in a box that I don't think she can step out of. Could she wake up tomorrow and just do shows as plain old Stephanie Germanatta? I don't think she could. Adam has done a very good job all along of showing different aspects of himself and if he decided to do a stripped down coffee house style tour next time I think the fans would be right there with him because natural or normal Adam seems to be just as interesting as OTT Adam. Think about that VH1 acoustic set where he did DTRH. Most of us were scratching our heads trying to figure out how he could do that song acoustic. It just didn't seem possible, but it worked. I was amazed that it was just a psychedelic as the album version.
I also found that red carpet interview from Rupaul's Drag Race with both he and Sutan very interesting. When the drag queen interviewing them asked Adam what his Drag name was or would be he says "Adam Lambert" with a perfectly straight face and waits for them to "get it". That to me was a hint that his stage act for Glam Nation was in many ways a kind of Drag. I have a feeling that if the interviewer had questioned him about it instead of laughing that he would have had a perfectly convincing explanation of what made it drag and I really would love to hear that. I think that there are often deeper meanings to things that he may just never reveal and allows those that get it to revel in that depth without making those that don't get it feel left out or stupid. He did finally acknowledge very late in the tour that the red A on the top hat was in fact a reference to "The Scarlett Letter" but he didn't belabor the point. OMFG, I want to transcribe this post and hang it on my wall. BRILLIANT assessments. Wow!!! Momtomany, I so happy to hear it. I was going to ask how Penelope was, but then I was afraid I might have missed an update post. I'm sure she is getting the best of care and she's fighting every step of the way. Agreed -- rihannasu, you made my night. And momtomany, SO glad to hear about Penelope's improvement ... like Gelly, I was thinking about her classical namesake, Odysseus' wife, who was in every way a match for her thinking-hero husband. So gald you'll be holding her without all the tubes and hospital stuff soon. |
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mariep
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I prepare. I create. I love.
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Post by mariep on Mar 19, 2011 21:34:40 GMT -5
I can't seem to close the tab with this gif on my computer. I have to keep going back to it! The eye fluttering, the shake of his head, the smile.....  |
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Post by smokeyvera on Mar 19, 2011 21:34:44 GMT -5
I have never been more sure about a follow up album, by an artist I like, than I am about Adam #2. It is going to blow us all away! I second this! Me third it. Many of you are so articulate and are able to express your words and thoughts in such a well written manner. I sit here and agree so often, but damn it would take me days to write it. |
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Post by midwifespal on Mar 19, 2011 21:35:16 GMT -5
Oh my god I had to leave for a little while and I come back and this whole interesting discussion on "camp" has taken place and I've missed it! ALthough it still seems to be going on so I hope I can glom onto the back without being too annoying! I've been wanting to talk "camp" here for ages ever since Adam talked about less camp on Adam2, but I didn't want to start it as a negative (oh no's what's he doing) kind of thing (which I don't mean at all) so I refrained, but now you guys are having such an interesting chat about it and I have to jump in! Q3, I totally agree with you with your assessment of Adam's comments, and I think there-in lies a hint of my sadness: JMHO -- when Adam says less campy, I think he means less theatrical, less gay, more mainstream pop-rock. But that is just my impression. ("Strut" live is one of my favs -- so I hope "Campy Adam" never really leaves us.) I think he does mean what you suggested he means, and I've always liked that part of Adam's appeal is his open, happy gayness. We don't want him to be "openly gay" Adam Lambert--that's definitely the wrong qualifier for him--but that doesn't mean that it's irrelevant. For me, Adam's gayness has always been a powerful part of his performance and his sexuality on stage, and by "gayness" I mean his campiness, and so in that sense it rubs me uncomfortably when he combines "less camp" with "more honest" because for me the camp was always a part of the honesty, the wonderful, surprising, groundbreaking honesty. The fact that a guy that campy is still a powerful, addictive sex symbol for middle-america's women--I think that's fantastic, and part of what's truly revolutionary about Adam. (Needless to say, but I'll say it anyway, I'm not suggesting of course that he's in anyway denying his sexuality on Adam 2.) I get what you all are saying about "honest" meaning "personal," and I like it, but I think it does also come with his leaning a little more mainstream and a little less gay. It's true, as you point out, Q3, that one major element of "camp" has always been "artifice," and perhaps that's why he juxtaposes it with "honest." But to me that doesn't make camp fake, it just makes it a self-aware mode very much of our time, and therefore honest. I also never thought Adam's costumes and make up were disguises, or hiding. I loved what Rihannasu's post had to say about this--your comments, Rihannasu, about dada meshed with my line of thinking. I don't mean to get too pretentious, but camp is very much a postmodern artistic mode--Adam has mentioned this before himself. He's talked about living in the postmodern age, and when he excuses pastiche-art like Gaga's mimicry of Madonna he's also talking about his, and I think camp is a big part of that, and a big part of the gay cultural movements comment on the absurd world they've had to deal with, and a big part of pop-music and pop-art's response to commercialism. TO me, andy warhol is also very camp. I think Adam's participating in all of this with his campiness, and is therefore particularly honest and modern in his "artifice." Similarly, I love it when Adam says he's playing dress-up or "playing" at being a "rock-star." Frankly, I think this is both camp and a particularly current and honest way of evaluating/talking about pop-culture/stardom. He gets it, in a very sophisticated way. DUnno if that makes any sense (I don't think I'm being very articulate about it but I'm rushing before the discussion has moved on entirely. Rihannasu, I loved what you said about Adam's "drag name" response at the Rupaul thing. I hadn't thought about it carefully before but I think you're entirely right. Adam Lambert can be Adam and the ACT Adam Lambert all at the same time, while still remaining honest. And perhaps Music Again--campy and absurd as it is (and yes, MyS*&@^#r, I do think it is campy even on its own)--is the most honest kind of love song you can write in the postmodern age. (My masters thesis was, in part, on the limits of "sincerity" in poetry after modernism--how the meaning of "authenticity" had changed--the very quotation marks required in this sentence explain some of those limits, and camp (along with other forms of absurdity, like Dadaism) provides a brilliant escape from them..I may have mentioned this before, sorry if I'm repeating myself.) Adam will hopefully write a few love songs on Adam2, and I'm confident they will be wonderful, but I'm curious to see how he will do it without the help of camp, and yet avoid sounding too trite. It's a difficult task, to write a good love song in this day and age. Also, mirages, I so completely empathize with the path of your love affair with Adam! Thanks so much for describing it so well. Oh my god, I am going on. I'll stop, but i did just want to thank Mareip for posting this: You want campy? I think this performance gave me the most laughs of the whole tour! Music Again, to me, is the song that expresses "campy" the most and this performance exhibits and demonstrates it to the max! Watch him with the towel. At one point he drops it & picks it up AGAIN! I will LOL forever at this! www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbgOnGlcxDIBecause I HAD NEVER SEEN IT! I watched and was like, WTF?? why haven't I seen this, and then I realized it was because I was on my honeymoon at the time and there are limits, so THANKYOOOUU, I love it, Music Again is, in certain moods, my very very favorite FYE song because of how much fun Adam has performing it. Plus, you've given me an excuse (a small one, but I'm clutching at it) to post my very favorite (VERY CAMPY) Music Again performance: LULZZZZ for ever and ever!!! Edited for spelling and clarity, cause I suck. |
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readon
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Post by readon on Mar 19, 2011 21:35:58 GMT -5
Funny yesterday, I actually went to Target/Walmart to check and see if it was put out early, and nope it wasn't, :( but was really surprised at how much they downgraded their music inventory, especially Walmart. Only had one little, maybe 5 foot rack, with 5 rows, and I don't think that they even had a tag for Adam's name, (but then again Walmart is notoriously unorganized in my area so might have missed it) Only saw Miranda Lambert and his cds were behind hers, so I placed his in front. My WalMart was the same, very small area for Pop CDs. There was no Adam Lambert label, zero of his CDs. They did have a very large section of Latin music though. All the Targets, in my area, have Adam though. They have the bastard CD too. No Kris Allen, no Allison Iraheta. They had Lee, Crystal, Kelly and Daughtry. I suppose they had Carrie too but I didn't look in the Country section. I also checked to see if WalMart might have put the GNT DVD out early. No such luck. I ordered from Amazon because my previous orders from AO have never been delivered on or before the release date. Amazon is pretty consistent, I will receive the DVD on Tuesday. At my Walmart, there was Adam, Daughtry and Carrie. They haven't had Lee or Crystal for weeks. There was only one lonely copy of FYE right in front of all of the Miranda Lamberts. I guess an Adam fan must have gotten there before me and re-arranged the cds  I almost bought that one lonely FYE, but decided against that. I left it for discovery of a new Adam fan. ETA: I know my avi is not showing up, but Imageshack has been problematic for me for the last few weeks. I never know when it's going to hit me with a virus. I will have to find another site for online image storage. |
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Post by marie23 on Mar 19, 2011 21:36:53 GMT -5
Hmm think I'm getting a bit cray cray, went and looked at the online stores of Walmart and Target, and no DVD when I search for Adam, but they had it for Barnes & Nobles, as well as Best Buy, maybe I should have went there instead...hmm...only thing is, wondering if I can actually wait 3 days till it get here, or do I really have to have it now?....hmm decisions...
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Post by smokeyvera on Mar 19, 2011 21:38:07 GMT -5
Darn it! They don't have that green thing on there yet! I know it was green for St. Patrick's Day, right????, but, YES....what the heck was that????????? (Kevin called, he has earthquake survival kits for his car & apartment  . He was early to SLS and had a few minutes to check in, still worried about his damn TV :-/. I will not be surprised to hear him say he wraps it in bubble wrap everyday when he leaves the apartment!) Gotta chuckle on the bubble wrap. Unfortuantely that won't save his flat screen if the jolts from the earthquake are swift. |
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Post by SusieFierce on Mar 19, 2011 21:38:14 GMT -5
SuperCool@nasa It's the Supermoon! Look what @nasahqphoto captured: The perigee super moon of 2011 rises behind the Lincoln Memorial t.co/P57vlsR very SuperCool! (did not look like that out my window!)  ****SIGH**** Thank you for sharing that. I LOVE D.C. those monuments just get to me. It's just now getting dark here, but it's cloudy. :( I did a front- and backyard-search, but didn't see any glimmer of a SuperMoon. |
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Post by lynneville on Mar 19, 2011 21:39:06 GMT -5
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Post by midwifespal on Mar 19, 2011 21:43:26 GMT -5
Oh my god all that long blathering and I forgot to say: MOMTOMANY Hooray to Penelope's imminent homecoming!!!! SO happy for you. Here, have a spinny happy bad ass campy Adam!!!  ETA: :( what happened to my spinny Adam? He was here a minute ago? (*Looks under bed*). Too bad, I would have loved to have found a spinny adam under my bed. Oh well, you guys will just have to imagine him--I'm sure you have it in you! ETA2: Oooh, he's back! Oh well, I give up. I guess he'll just come and go as he pleases. |
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I almost bought that one lonely FYE, but decided against that. I left it for discovery of a new Adam fan.
. He was early to SLS and had a few minutes to check in, still worried about his damn TV :-/. I will not be surprised to hear him say he wraps it in bubble wrap everyday when he leaves the apartment!)
