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It could be getting to the point where I feel like telling Melissa Etheridge to stick to singing. But, this is America and everyone is entitled to their opinion even when they don't square with the activist person we thought she was - the woman who coined the "throw us under the bus" line and threatened post-Prop 8 to not pay her taxes since she could no longer get married in California.
So Etheridge went on NPR again today and again defended Barack Obama's choice of homophobic pastor Rick Warren to say the innvocation at the inauguration. Towleroad.com has a nice transcript and audio link but the part where Melissa loses me is when interviewer Guy Raz played her the clip of Warren comparing homosexuality to polygamy and incest and in response Etheridge lamely says:
"Just because he [likens gay marriage to polygamy and incest] does not mean I have to not speak to him, or I don't want to ever be in his company. [...] We had a crazy experience at the Muslim Public Affairs Council Conference. They invited him, and me, not knowing that it would be such a dichotomy at the time. So we met. We spoke. [...] He said he was trying to make the definition of marriage not change -- not necessarily saying that gays are pedophiles or any of that stuff. One can draw whatever they want from that."
Egads. I've had enough.
See more: Melissa Ethridge
It could be getting to the point where I feel like telling Melissa Etheridge to stick to singing. But, this is America and everyone is entitled to their opinion even when they don't square with the activist person we thought she was - the woman who coined the "throw us under the bus" line and threatened post-Prop 8 to not pay her taxes since she could no longer get married in California.
So Etheridge went on NPR again today and again defended Barack Obama's choice of homophobic pastor Rick Warren to say the innvocation at the inauguration. Towleroad.com has a nice transcript and audio link but the part where Melissa loses me is when interviewer Guy Raz played her the clip of Warren comparing homosexuality to polygamy and incest and in response Etheridge lamely says:
"Just because he [likens gay marriage to polygamy and incest] does not mean I have to not speak to him, or I don't want to ever be in his company. [...] We had a crazy experience at the Muslim Public Affairs Council Conference. They invited him, and me, not knowing that it would be such a dichotomy at the time. So we met. We spoke. [...] He said he was trying to make the definition of marriage not change -- not necessarily saying that gays are pedophiles or any of that stuff. One can draw whatever they want from that."
Egads. I've had enough.
More info about Melissa Ethridge
Ever since Melissa Etheridge published her slobbering Rick Warren suck up on Huffington Post I've felt that the Obama people and anyone else who cared -- if they cared -- breathed a sign of relief. Basically, Ehtheridge was completely bamboozled by Warren, who played to her ego -- he wanted her autograph -- and then there was her wife -- idiotic and insulting post on her blog that portrayed Warren as the victim in all of this.
I think Etheridge's heart was in the right place, in wanting to engage -- I have less insight on what motivates her partner, however -- but this wasn't time to do it, and I feel like she just usurped the movement. Shouldn't she have consulted with gay activists first? Then again, she's been vocal on Prop 8, and certainly has a right to be. We always want celebrities to speak up and use their voices for the cause. But when they go off the reservation, do we just suck it up or do we have a responsibility to take them head on and let everyone know they only speak for themselves? In other words, do Etheridge and her wife get the communal shoe? We'll get into it on the show today. Let me know your thoughts.
More info about Melissa Ethridge
Ever since Melissa Etheridge published her slobbering Rick Warren suck up on Huffington Post I've felt that the Obama people and anyone else who cared -- if they cared -- breathed a sign of relief. Basically, Ehtheridge was completely bamboozled by Warren, who played to her ego -- he wanted her autograph -- and then there was her wife -- idiotic and insulting post on her blog that portrayed Warren as the victim in all of this.
I think Etheridge's heart was in the right place, in wanting to engage -- I have less insight on what motivates her partner, however -- but this wasn't time to do it, and I feel like she just usurped the movement. Shouldn't she have consulted with gay activists first? Then again, she's been vocal on Prop 8, and certainly has a right to be. We always want celebrities to speak up and use their voices for the cause. But when they go off the reservation, do we just suck it up or do we have a responsibility to take them head on and let everyone know they only speak for themselves? In other words, do Etheridge and her wife get the communal shoe? We'll get into it on the show today. Let me know your thoughts.
More info about Melissa Ethridge
Every once in a while there comes along a song that takes music as an art form to a new level, to a place the unsuspecting masses might not have guessed existed. Melissa Etheridge's "Christmas in America" is that song. The measure of the level that this new direction in music has taken you to, however, is the level of bile now reaching your esophagus. "Christmas in America" is rubbish, plain and simple. Free is too much to pay for this drivel. I count the three (!) listens I endured for this review as my greatest sacrifice to the music community in recent years. So underneath the faux-empathetic lyrical content that is, you guessed it, political (even if it is a humanist take on what Christmas means), is the lame crappy-movie soundtrack guitar-driven music. It's run-of-the-mill pop/folk/rock that isn't even good, nor is representative of this country's great musical history in those three, well, two if you find pop as unnecessary as I, of the three, areas. I mean, honestly, just give me some George Thorogood. Even the chord progression is predictable and disposable and you have a hard time not imagining Etheridge's band's bassist with his eyes closed swaying to the feel-good vibes and swanky guitar rifts. It just sucks... and then while enduring her "come on, come on, come on" before she swings into the chorus, you realize that the end of the song will end with a somehow-apt "send my baby home" repeated thirteen times. Oh Christmas, you used to have value and meaning, and then Christmas left Israel and came to America. Please, send this baby home... I recommend a window-meter rating of 0% down, unless of course you want someone stuffing egg cartons and duct tape in any gaps in your windows in the event you leave them down while playing this pitiful excuse for Christmas music. Bring back Sinatra. Please.
More info about Melissa Ethridge
