I Found Some Blog...by Cher Scholar

Chaz Commentary

My friend Christoper told me during our reading group session Monday night how surprised he was that the story of Chaz came and went in the media.

It certainly hasn't been cover-story news on shows or magazines, getting mostly a kind of "what do you think of it" gossiping embedded in other stories and interviews....such as this one where Kathy Griffin appears on Larry King and one question deals with her being bbfs with Cher and Griffin's support of Chaz:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTPMvF7ibFo&feature=related

And here is actually some touching analysis by blogger Kenneth of Cher’s comments to People Magazine:

http://www.kennethinthe212.com/2009/06/lions-cher.html

Truthfully, I find Cher's acting "like a mother" to be kind of an endearing …She said she will "strive to be understanding" and reaffirmed her "abiding love" for her child. That's all I would hope for from my parents if I announced I was a woman 20 years into being a gay son. When someone's lack of understanding DENIES someone else the right to do something, that's unacceptable. When someone's lack of understanding causes that person uncertainty -- even a gay icon! -- that's just called being human.

Update on The Chaz Chronicles...

Cher has apparently released a statement through People Magazine:

Cher is speaking out for the first time about daughter Chastity Bono's decision to become her son Chaz.The 63-year-old entertainer tells People magazine exclusively,

"Chaz is embarking on a difficult journey, but one that I will support. I respect the courage it takes to go through this transition in the glare of public scrutiny, and although I may not understand, I will strive to be understanding. The one thing that will never change is my abiding love for my child."

That's a good and touching statement.

The Chronicles of Chaz

Introduction

The only tragedy I can see in the amazing-but-not-completely-unforeseen news that came out last week, my cher peoples, is that it is forcing me to put off some really, really awesome posts.

First of all, I found an amazing poem about Moonstruck to share with you, written by a fabulous new poet whose first book primarily explores gay and coming-out themes, as well as family relationships in that vein (a really well-written book in all aspects)...but that has to be put off. Another item: I was at a Culver City birthday party two weekends ago and met someone there who works as an accounting consultant for Universal (but the publishing side) and I intended to  post my longer exchange with him. The jist of it: while I was interviewing the accountant regarding Cher’s recent lawsuit for royalties, the birthday-party host, (who once playyed in Johnny Thunders’ band but now is in the music-marketing biz), waltzed by and declared loudly. “People are suing Universal all the time, Mary. You only care because it’s Cher.”

Okay, fair enough. Turns out there’s a spreadsheet for all ongoing lawsuits, how much cash they have in the kitty to deal with it, and what they’re going to counter-offer. Imagine some Cher line-items in that .xls. Also at the same party, I learned that Preston Sturges’ son Soloman lives in the accountant’s garage apartment...which has become somewhat of a Collier’s Mansion.  The accountant defined Collier’s Mansion for us all a few times so we’d know what that meant.

But all that LA gossip is tidily-winks now! Although you could draw out a larger discussion about celebrity kids trying to survive in LA and how many of them spontaneously combust in various sorts of ways...that’s for another day.  Because I was ALSO contacted a few weeks ago by Sonny & Cher’s 70s-era album engineer Lenny Roberts who found some errors in my comments about him (since corrected) in my "All I Ever Need is You" review (long form). I was able to interview him. But that awesomeness will also have to wait, because I have been completely upstaged by the formerly-Chastity-Bono’s announcement that she is becoming officially Chaz Bono, a he.

This news is a real bombshell all over, although Cher fans probably remember rumors stating Chastity has been thinking about this. I actually had friends call, email and facebook-poke me about it. My first question is will he keeping his middle name? Because Chazsun really runs together quite nicely.

Overview:

So in a nutshell, Chaz is getting what is technically called a gender reassignment (and I have never understood the assignment word in that phrase which sounds more like a school project than a physical reality). He will be doing this through hormone treatments and/or surgery which could possibly involve a legal gender switch as well as a biological one.

Reports are that Chas has the support of his family, including Cher and Mary Bono, her father’s widow. He has also received support publically from Neil G. Giuliano, the president of GLAAD; Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese; and Casey Schwarts, a trans youth specialist -- and probably others by now. All are emphasizing Chaz’s courage and honesty in his decision. It’s hard to say Chaz has gone public with his decision, since going private with the decision was simply never an option for someone so famous.

A Chaz Bio Review

One thing that fascinates me about this story is how news outlets perceive both Chaz and Cher. Chaz seems best known as a political and social activist. But he has had a checkered career as media advisor for GLADD (which led to a public feud with Ellen DeGeneres over her sitcom Ellen and its possible “gayness”), memoir author (of sorts—both books under the Chastity name were co-written), a musician in the band Ceremony, and a journalist for The Advocate, among other vocations.

Likewise, Cher in one report was described as an LGBT icon. This is new.  I have never seen her identified as an icon for lesbians, not to mention bisexuals and transgenders. For years I’ve been meeting many lesbian Cher fans at shows and conventions, but no one in the media seems to fully recognize this fan base.

To review, Chastity came out to her family in 1987 while a freshmen at NYU. She was outed forcibly in  1990 by a tabloid. Chastity came out herself in a 1995 cover article of The Advocate. She chronicled her relationships in her book “The End of Innocence.”  She has said her coming-out helped her mother see her as a full person –- which is interesting because this seems to be a common Mother/Daughter struggle for many women, as opposed to men. Which seemingly has more to do with how mothers perceive their daughters vs. how they perceive their sons. And I wonder if Chaz's gender reassignment will alter this aspect of the mother/child relationship.

That Hate-Take

You know there’s always a freakin’ hate-take. So skip over this section if you have a low tolerance for hate...or if you’re so over it.

Cher Link Zoo

For quite some time there has been a ton of links clogging up my blog to-do list. I’m just gonna throw them all up here now just so I can move on with my life. You can link wherever strikes your fancy. My take for must see items have a star (or two) next to them.

• Cher’s last words on her farewell tour: 
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxoKm81YzeQ&NR=1

• **S&C Bible ad revisited:
  http://www.bay-of-fundie.com/archives/1207/lol-sonny-and-cher (This is actually hilarious. Remember this bible ad from posts back? In this version, people have written in funny comments in S&C's  thought bubbles – don’t skip the comments below either.)

Phil Spector Found Guilty

Sad Cher-related story as Phil Spector loomed so large in early S&C history and Cher's first recordings as a backup singer and emerging solo artist in the early to mid-60s.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/eonline/20090414/en_music_eo/118428

Chastity Turns 40

My parents are visiting for the first time in three years, first time since I've been living in sin with my bf--to help with wedding stuff. We're going to visit the place who may be selling us our program paper, visit the wedding site and getting the house fixed up a bit. So I'll be MIA here for the next two weeks. After that we have a store-load of links to catchup on.

It went virtually un-remarked on but Chastity celebrated her 40th birthday this past March 4. (I had to look that date up – for some reason I thought she was a April baby.) Like me, Chastity was born in 1969. I still recall how put-out I was the she was, in fact, older than me. I have no idea why that mattered to my 8-year old self. I must have felt she was America's little sister--since obviously Sonny & Cher were our fantasy hipper alt-parents.

Turning 40 is an awesome milestone--but even moreso if you were born in 1969. Myself, I always felt a bit charmed to have been born that magical year.Editor Kit Rachlis of LA Magazine in a recent "letter from the editor" spoke about what a historic year 1969 really was. She says

“2009 is the 40th anniversary of something significant...By any measure, 1969 was momentous. With Woodstock, the counterculture—a small bohemian movement scattered around the country—reached critical mass and found its emblem. The Tate-LaBianca murders  confirmed what everyone should have known: Violence and manipulation swam alongside all that peace and love.”

Kit catalogues the fury that was 1969: Woodstock, The Tate-LaBianca murders, first manned mission to land on the moon, the November march against the Vietnam War (more than 500,000—then the largest demonstration in U.S. capital history), and she even lists one of the most momentus but completely unreported events of that year – the invention of the Internet and the first message sent from a UCLA computer.

The company the coordinates the technical aspects of the Internet is my major employer right now; and the publishing revolution enables me to research news articles and encyclopedic entries on Armenia yesterday without going to a library, meet Cher fans for the last 10 years without having to wait for conventions, buy a new Cher CD release while sitting on my couch with my pajamas and slippers on, and blog about what I think of it to youse guys.

As Kit says “everyone on the planet has been affected by the Internet.”

And yet Kit tells the story of how disinterested the Smithsonian was in collecting that very first computer that sent that very first Internet communication-–for years the Smithsonian didn’t see its value!

Kit states: “In our mania to make predictions and sweeping pronouncements and top-ten lists...to come up with instant analysis, whether on TV or in blogs, we invariably reflect our blinkered view. We adhere to a conformity we’re not alert to.”

And then she quotes film critic Steve Erickson who says in the same LA Magazine issue

“…the most radical notion of all is that a great movie…is still great even if it has no audience.” 

We didn’t notice how great the invention of the Internet was and to some degree I don’t think we still fully grasp it even now. But in many ways, it is not our task to fully grasp it -- it’s just our task to play it out. 

My 40th birthday will arrive this summer. I am looking forward to it. I'm proud of my battle scars and I do feel wiser and stronger and happier and more appreciative of moments and less willing to put up with bullshit. I’m even more convinced today than I was when I was a little girl watching The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour and thinking that Chastity was younger than me that Cher records are great, even though they don’t have a full-fledged audience yet and even though institutions and critics like the Smithsonian don't get it yet. ;-)

I’m 40 now. I know some things.

  

Flashbacks: Cermony, Alfie, MWARARS

Ceremony

Chastity's band of the early 90s, here's their video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ucugm3L-X-A

 

 

Alfie

Cher's version of the title song in Alfie trailer:
http://www.jaman.com/movie/Alfie-1966/0utguYlm0LHg/

 

 

 

 

MWARARS

The 45 download of Sonny & Cher's "Mama Was a Rock and Roll Singer"
http://brackattack75.blogspot.com/2009/04/sonny-and-cher-mama-was-rock-and-roll.html

I really don't see why the bother of listening to the "radio edit" of this song. I mean, if you get tired of the opus half way through, just turn it off.

What Cher was thinking when she recorded this rock opera is one of the Cher scholar mysteries of all times.

  

Cher mentions around the Net

Headline: Nicolas Cage grateful to Cher for his Hollywood stardom

Thank you.

My bf was flipping channels and came across Moonstruck the other day and he asked me how the hell Nicholas Cage was miscast in it. I blamed Cher. Bf suggested someone older and more road-weary would have been better. I replied that I agreed but that Moonstruck gave him his break into the "big leagues."

And it’s like Nicholas Cage was listening in!

Nicolas Cage says that he is indebted to Cher for helping him become a Hollywood star. The ‘City Of Angels’ star has said that he is thankful to the singer-cum-actress because she fought to land him a role alongside her in the Oscar-winning movie ‘Moonstruck’.

Studio bosses were not very keen on casting the then-23-year-old Cage as Cher’s love interest in the film.  But it was the ‘Believe’ singer who dug her heels in, and landed him the part of New York baker Ronny Cammareri.

The movie won Cher a Best Actress Oscar, and made Cage an overnight sensation in Hollywood and the actor is eternally grateful. “She really was a champion for me. At a time when people didn’t see me as a romantic actor, she fought for me,” Contactmusic quoted Cage as saying. (ANI)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Headline: Wear or Die: Cher's Oscar Fashion Edition

Neither are outfits for the faint-hearted, but what if you HAD to wear one of them - or die? Which one would you choose?

The outfit on the left may look initially more frightening, but the one on the right reveals much more skin. Just to level out the playing field a little, we're going to allow you to ditch the hat/wig/whatever the hell that thing is shown in picture one. Don't say we're not good to you.
What's it going to be, then, readers: which outfit will you wear - or die!

Celine Dion visits Cher

 

 

Celine met with Caesars Palace and AEG/Concerts West executives, watched Cher’s show and then went back to her own former dressing room to meet her successor on Feb. 25. Celine’s team wouldn’t confirm or deny my questions about the reported pregnancy but did send the Cher photo for us to run on Vegas DeLuxe.

I’ll Meet You Anytime You Want…In Our Italian Restaurant

A friend sent me a link to one of Christy Bono’s restaurant profiles on Restaurant.com.

Christy, Sonny’s daughter by his first wife Donna, has actually two restaurants in Long Beach.

 

1. Christy’s  (I’ve been to Christy’s and loved it) - here's the menu - http://www.christysristorante.com/files/19721615.pdf

2. Then there’s Bonos - a better designed website but one that plays IGUB annoyingly in the background - here's their menu -  http://bonoslongbeach.com/lunch2.html

I’ll be by soon to try Bono’s Gourmet Mac n Cheese. You betcha.

The photo above is not an actual depiction of Bono family recipes.

  

Sonny Hit Men Rumors Resurface

To begin with I must say I feel a tad creepy discussing this subject. And not just for that fact that I have no idea what I’m talking about. Usually I’m fine with talking out my ass. But this rumor ranks high on the sad and creepy meter all on its own and I would rather not go there.

Unfortunately, everyone is asking me about it this week. So here goes.

This is actually a relatively old story – the version I just read appeared in April of last year in a very mainstream Australian newspaper:

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23483093-12377,00.html

Why has it taken so long to get on the radar of Americans...if it’s such a credible story (argument 1).

This is the jist of it:

SONNY Bono, former husband and singing partner of superstar Cher, was clubbed to death by hit men on the orders of drug and weapons dealers who feared he was going to expose them, a former FBI agent claims.

Private investigatorand former FBI agent Ted Gunderson (why can’t I get Fargo out of my head now?) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Gunderson) is the one who put forth this theory ... to the Globe tabloid. So that should tell you something right there (2). It's still just a tabloid story at this point. Brief searches on Ted Gunderson brought up battles he’s had with late-night paranormal-themed radio show host Art Bell. We're still in tabloid zone here.

The article has Gunderson using terms like “ruthless assassins.” Which is a bit dramatic for credibility (3).

But all that aside, let's think through what could have happened? It’s said Sonny was an experienced skier; but he was also allegedly addicted to pain killers. It’s possible he was impaired by painkillers and had a skiing accident, although online reports of autopsy deny there were any substances in his system.

What’s true and what’s not? I’m not a criminologist. I’m not even a Sonny scholar. More just a plain old Sonny student. But still...

Although I didn’t follow his congressional career closely, I didn't think his big issues were drugs and weapons dealing (4).  My understanding was his personal issues were trying to save Palm Springs' Salton Sea and the extension of copyright lengths, a bill that passed and became known as the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act.

He was on the national security and judiciary committees, where he dealt with immigration, trade and crime legislation. But larger perspective people: he served under two full terms  and so it's hard to believe he would have earned enough power and influence to be a target, especially in comparison to more senior Republican congressmen who were more outspoken on those issues...or any other celebrity congressmen who might have been targets for their positions on drugs and weapons. So it’s hard to see Sonny Bono as a big target for assassination (5).

And we’re also talking about a huge cover-up of an assassination in a public space. It would be hard to clean up so much possible evidence (6)...hit men ski tracks everywhere, witnesses seeing hit men skim Sonny off the trail. I’m no criminologist as I said, but I have watched plenty of episodes of First 48 (Go Memphis!). Drug dealers are assassinating  people in Miami all the time on that show and they leave tracks in park grass.

So there are my 6 reasons to doubt the story. Not that I’m saying I know for a fact it isn't true. Far be it from me to understand the darkest corners of my governmental dramas with drug and weapon’s lords. Maybe Traffic the movie part 2 can connect the sordid dots I find to be missing with the story so far.

Maybe Sonny's voting record tells another story:
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/members/b000622/