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JulyDiaz

Episode 94 — Glitter: LIVE!

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As for the anachronistic feel of this movie, I have a few thoughts.

 

First, I really feel that this movie was intended to take place in the late eighties/early nineties. According to IMDB, Mariah Carey was shopping this story for a few years and was writing songs for it prior to it getting the green light. If that's the case, and she was trying to sell a fictionalized account of her own rise to fame, why would she set it at a time when she was only about 12 or 13 years old? If you bump the timeline 6 or 7 years, the movie makes (a little) more sense.

 

Instead, and I think correctly, the movie should have begun in 1983. The clothes the characters wear (except her mother, but I think she may have been high on cigarettes) fit more in line. This way when the "action" of the movie takes place, it would have been around 1990, the year Mariah Carey released her first album. To set it in '83 is just bizarre.

 

What I truly believe happened is the studio said, "Hey, sit down guys, we got Mariah. We're doing her life story. Not only that, she is doing all the music! This. Is. Going. To. Be. Huge! We'll make money on the movie, we'll make money on the soundtrack. Guys, we are going to be sleeping on mattresses made of golden hookers stuffed with cocaine." When the music came in, and they realized it was garbage and it wouldn't be tearing up the charts, they decided to retroactively set the movie in 1983 to save face. This way they could say, "Well, the music isn't supposed to appeal to current musical tastes. It's a period piece."

 

If it was set in 1983, it actually makes the movie more depressing because it leaves the viewer saying, "Well, I guess that's it for Glitter. No other hits, huh?" But, if it is set in 1990, then you could assume Glitter's career trajectory followed Mariah's own. You would think doing a piece like this you would want to showcase how cutting edge an artist is/was, and not say that her music is better suited for a previous decade.

 

Then again, I think it just as plausible that the editor messed up and put the year up on the wrong scene of the movie, everyone shrugged, and said, "Fuck it, I guess it's an eighties movie now."

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Okay, so, I am stopping this podcast right now and I am going to re-watch Glitter first.

 

I got clean and sober in early 2003, and I vaguely remembered the night I watched this movie, but apparently I missed EVERYTHING. (Thanks, drugs and alcohol!)

 

They started talking about the mom wanting to be a singer and leaving her kid, and I started to have this really hazy flashback to me drunkenly yelling at my friends "IT'S MY STORY IT'S MY STORY" before blacking out. (Obviously, I turned out okay, as I'm now sober, and I'm also not writing one of those 5-star reviews from Amazon on Christmas day, talking about how you will relate to this movie if your mom also aspired to be a singer and left your family to pursue her dreams.)

 

ETA: WILL THIS MOVIE NEVER END?

Edited by Annie GS
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How about the song choices? Most of the songs that she was singing were just songs from the Soundtrack, which most of them used samples from songs from back in the 80's. And they made it seem like Dice was the one who made the beats/instrumentals to the songs.

 

For instance Loverboy sampled Cameo's song "Candy".

 

So it's as if these songs never existed, or it was a somewhat unintentionally/intentionally racist "Back to the Future"/Marty McFly creating Rock 'n' Roll thing!

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How about the song choices? Most of the songs that she was singing were just songs from the Soundtrack, which most of them used samples from songs from back in the 80's. And they made it seem like Dice was the one who made the beats/instrumentals to the songs.

 

For instance Loverboy sampled Cameo's song "Candy".

 

So it's as if these songs never existed, or it was a somewhat unintentionally/intentionally racist "Back to the Future"/Marty McFly creating Rock 'n' Roll thing!

 

Didn't really get what was up with Cameo's candy song. they made it seem like it was a Mariah Carey song but yet it wasn't. I had Shazam on the full time of the movie, didn't pickup it up.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sn8KYD1Vco0

BTW this has to be the worst music video of all time. Love that jock strap.

 

award for best pick up line ever goes to "i had no idea you could blow like that! "

 

Best part of movie was the bar scene and the what I like to call, the bring your child to work day.. it's a win win, as long as you don't work in a bar. then she does a call out to her child at the bar to point out her bad parenting skills.

 

I am missing June and Jason with this podcast but I don't feel so bad it being this movie. I am beginning to think June and Jason both called in sick with a case of emergency hair washing.

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People... the whole point of having a microphone is so that you don't have to scream itno it. I'm looking at you, Casey and Dan.

 

Otherwise, great episode.

 

Soooo much screaming. I really prefer the studio shows to the live shows.

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Soooo much screaming. I really prefer the studio shows to the live shows.

 

 

I don't know, I like the "in studio" episodes, but I also like the energy and audience participation of the live shows. I am not trying to be intentionally contrary, but the way I see it, they are offering us free entertainment every week. Live shows are a way for them to make some money and keep us with the laughs. So if that means once in a while the sound isn't perfect, so be it.

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People... the whole point of having a microphone is so that you don't have to scream itno it. I'm looking at you, Casey and Dan.

 

conversely, it seems like whenever an audience member was handed a mic I had to turn it up to full volume to hear them.... EAT THE MIC, PEOPLE!

 

(please don't file this under complaining about the live shows, because this one was great)

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GREAT SHOW

Corrections and OMISSIONS

I know you mentioned it briefly, but the only thing Dice said in his note with the flower was that her mom was in a small town in Maryland. Yet immediately after the show she takes the limo to her moms exact address. Also how far away is Maryland? Not more than 5 or 6 hours, she doesn't make it to her moms till sometime in the afternoon it feels like ha.

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C&O:

 

So we're to assuming that Terrance Howard got away with murder? Shouldn't Billie be with the cops instead of singing? She should be the first person they talk to so she can say "THIS GUY THREATENED TO HURT ME!"

 

The timeframe of Dice's last moments are off. So he went to MSG, left the note, then came back to his apartment then was headed back to MSG?

 

Also, I thought the song with the mother from the beginning would play a bigger role. Like she would record a verison of it or at least sing it again with her mom at the end? Guess not.

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My level of hatred towards this movie slowly rose to a fever pitch by the end...and then I heard the director's commentary and wanted to punch his quaaluded face! Maybe he dipped into Mariah's stash also... "Magical realism"? I guess that could be used to explain every ridiculous point in the the film. I'm glad they brought up how there was not even any mention of contracts...Also, Padma's voice was absolutely horrible. Sure, Terence Howard's character realized Mariah was a better singer but how could he have even thought that Padma was a good singer in the first place? Oh yeah, he's a psychopath...

The use of Grandmaster Flash's "The Message" was particularly grating although maybe there is a point of relevance with:

"Rats in the front room, roaches in the back"

Roachbags? Maybe it was supposed to be douchebag but the censor dinked it?

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I'm not sure that I buy this Magical Realism nonsense. I mean, this film is so firmly rooted in reality that it's practically a documentary, right?

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Why yes, of course multiple people signed up for forum accounts to complain about the slightly-less-than-optimal sound quality.

 

Great episode.

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In the film which was set in 1983, Mariah Carey performed "I Didn't Mean to Turn You On". That song didn't exist until the next year which was first done by dance singer Cherrelle, where it was most famously covered by Robert Palmer in 1986.

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Didn't really get what was up with Cameo's candy song. they made it seem like it was a Mariah Carey song but yet it wasn't. I had Shazam on the full time of the movie, didn't pickup it up.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sn8KYD1Vco0

BTW this has to be the worst music video of all time. Love that jock strap.

 

If you had told me this video was a very early attempt at a viral video by Robert Townsend, I'd have totally believed you.

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Paul said on the intro that June and Jason will be back next week, but wasn't LOL discussed on the same night??

 

Also, if Jason needs some help "getting better", I'm available. I'll make him chicken soup, wash his white shirts and watch out for clowns while he sleeps.

That may be the other Stallone music movie.

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Paul said on the intro that June and Jason will be back next week, but wasn't LOL discussed on the same night??

 

They generally don't play the live shows from the same night back to back. Case in point - the large gap between airings of No Holds Barred and Mr. Nanny, and that Rhinestone hasn't aired yet that was paired with Staying Alive.

 

LOL will probably air in a few months, but like you said, without Jason and June. :/

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I love June and Jason to pieces, but Adam and Casey were great stand-ins.

 

I can only assume they got sick after watching the monstrosity that is LOL.

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With Adam Scott mentioning Torque in this episode, now more than ever I think we need an Earwolf special called How Did U Torqueing U2 To Me Get Made?

 

Where Scott and Scott and June and Jason and Paul all discuss the critically acclaimed* multi-award winning** masterpiece that is Torque plus special guest Joseph Kahn, who directed the film and has also worked with U2.

 

*This is inaccurate

 

**This is also inaccurate, although it received multiple nominations at the World Stunt Awards

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In the film which was set in 1983, Mariah Carey performed "I Didn't Mean to Turn You On". That song didn't exist until the next year which was first done by dance singer Cherrelle, where it was most famously covered by Robert Palmer in 1986.

I looked that up right away, because the only version I was aware of was the Robert Palmer one, which I didn't know was a cover, that came along a little later. There was quite a bit of music that was out of place in this film by a couple of years, which goes along with the theory that they retroactively made it it take place earlier than they had intended. Even saying 1985 would have made more sense. For instance, Lionel Richie, who had an amazing decade, totally killed it in 1984, which would support the fact that that he'd clean up at the 1985 Generic Music Awards in the film. The album that most of those songs came off of was released in 1983, but music awards have always been pretty fucked when it comes to what can be nominated and when.

 

Speaking of that, anyone notice after the "It's the 80s, people want to dance!" conversation that we got a lot of hit non-dance music from the period?

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