Might As Well Face It ....

How the hell did James Franco manage to look like a buff version of a girl from a Robert Palmer video? I've had "Addicted to Love" running through my head since I saw this picture. I can't get it out!

Why God, oh why do we have reinvent ourselves? Act as if this is something to prove ourselves fearless?

Maybe I'm jealous that JF looks better in drag than I do as a real woman? Nah, in the looks department, as a woman, I'd run circles around him with a runny nose, in ratty joggers, and no make-up.

 Look hats off for going there JF, maybe now I can take you seriously as an actor. I mean you are following in the steps of Patrick Swayze (RIP),Wesley Snipes, and John Leguizamo. Actually maybe the latter two aren't such good examples of the Hollywood Drag Game. I mean the only thing I think of now with them is tax evasion and Ice Age 3.

The image is artsy ...sort of but it tries to be more provocative to me than anything. When you are actually trying for a controversial reaction, that's where you lose me. The best controversy is unexpected. Intentional controversy is the equivalent of that bad kid on Super Nanny acting out because his daddy is too busy at the job to spend time with them -- it's all about attention.

But we are a society that thrives on controversy and shock value. When someone takes it all the way there, then you can't "throw salt in a playa's game." You might not agree with it, but you have got to tip the proverbial hat.

I guess I don't have problem with what JF did at all maybe just all the possible secret reasons about why it could have been done.

This actually brings to mind a brilliant poem written by a once great troubadour of the previous century...

The lights are on
But you're not home
Your mind is not your own

Damn it! That's not the poem I had in mind. Curse you Robert Palmer!

A Rosebud by Any Other Name ...

So my friend is watching the movie "Social Network" this weekend and said one critic quoted this movie as being -- and I'm paraphrasing here -- "the Citizen Kane of our generation." Ummm, no. Citizen Kane was Citizen Kane. Social Network has the kid from Zombieland in it.

It might be a movie to define our generation, but don't people say that about every film that has even slight social implications?

When Boyz n the Hood or Menace to Society premiered, it was to be a "wake up call for the black community."

Did African Americans come together on some kind of shared consciousness? Did we attempt to infiltrate the very cancers eating away at our communities with the intent to heal them? Become self-reliant and not tear down those willing to make sacrifices?

No. We pretty much stayed the same. Nothing has changed and we will wail and weep at our plight, but have done nothing to add balm to long ago open wounds.

So will Social Network allow us to see a generation become totally dependent on the internet as a form of conscious expression and conduit for financial wealth and social power? Yes, but I don't think we'll really do anything about this.

We won't stop using Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn. We won't throw away our iPods, iPads, or iPhones. People cannot, we will not unplug.

I mean Citizen Kane forewarned, through looking at a man's life, how ideology can turn the most innocent into the most ruthless. Will Social Network detail the cyber perils of socializing and living our lives online? I hope so, but let's be honest: We don't look at movies for messages, to change our lives, we look at movies to be entertained -- nothing more and nothing less.