Boy George Talks 1984 Pop Music

Via Rolling Stone:

While we were working on our list of the 100 best singles of 1984, Boy George popped by the Rolling Stone offices and offered his thoughts on a few of our selections. Watch the "Karma Chameleon" (Number 22!) singer remember hits like Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the U.S.A." – "It was so American and so rousing!" – and U2's "Pride (In the Name of Love)" – "They were just amazing, amazing." He also tells us of the time he went to Radio City Music Hall to check out Madonna's first major tour and ends by explaining why the success of some of these records could never be repeated. Later, he discussed why 1984 was "the year of more" and how Culture Club was also in competition with bands like Wham! and Duran Duran. "I think all artists have a nemesis," George said. "When George Michael came along I was like, 'He's called George? That's not allowed!"

(Tipped by JMG reader Mike)

NPH: Naked For Rolling Stone

From the story teaser:

Neil Patrick Harris is wearing nothing but a bowtie and a discretely placed top hat on the cover of the next issue of Rolling Stone, which hits newsstands Friday. The biggest openly gay male star in Hollywood history is starring as the titular transsexual German glam rocker in Broadway's Hedwig and the Angry Inch, a role for which he lost enough weight to give him an eight-pack and a few light-headed afternoons. "He's so skinny, and I think that really gives him power," his fiancé David Burtka tells Rolling Stone. "His body is crazy right now."

Did Rolling Stone Flub Cover Art?

Wingnut sites like Breitbart are screaming bloody murder, but the magazine says "mistake" was on purpose.

A source at Rolling Stone, however, said the John Hancock signature was deliberate and was meant to be "in the spirit" of Veep's farcical tone. "The Declaration of Independence is on the other side, but we couldn't fit all the signatures on there," the source said.

Breitbart ignores this, of course, and throws in a dig at gay marriage.

If anyone in the "Rolling Stone" editorial machine had bothered to crack open an American history book, they would know that John Hancock signed the Declaration of Independence, not the Constitution. It's what you might call an anti-science "Rolling Stone" cover and probably explains why the Left in general sees things in the Bill of Rights that aren't there -- abortion and same-sex marriage -- but can't seem to see the 2nd Amendment.

FRANCE: Bob Dylan Investigated For Inciting Racial Hatred In Interview

Paris prosecutors are considering charging Bob Dylan with inciting racial hatred for comments he made in a 2012 interview with Rolling Stone.

In the interview, published in the magazine's September 27, 2012 edition, the singer said racism was holding America back. "If you got a slave master or (Ku Klux) Klan in your blood, blacks can sense that," he was quoted as saying. "That stuff lingers to this day. Just like Jews can sense Nazi blood and the Serbs can sense Croatian blood." The formal investigation followed a legal complaint from the organization, CRICCF, which is based in France, alleging that the comments as carried in the French version of the magazine violated French racial hatred laws. In France, racism complaints automatically trigger formal investigations, irrespective of the merits of the case.

Rolling Stone and Dylan have declined to comment.

Rolling Stone Defends Cover

"Our hearts go out to the victims of the Boston Marathon bombing, and our thoughts are always with them and their families. The cover story we are publishing this week falls within the traditions of journalism and Rolling Stone’s long-standing commitment to serious and thoughtful coverage of the most important political and cultural issues of our day. The fact that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is young, and in the same age group as many of our readers, makes it all the more important for us to examine the complexities of this issue and gain a more complete understanding of how a tragedy like this happens." - Rolling Stone editors, in a preface to their story.

Quote Of The Day - Cyndi Lauper

"In most cities across the country, resources to help LGBT youth are already scarce, and every night, thousands of young people are left to sleep on the street and find their own way through the dark. Cuts in federal funding for the programs that already stretch every dollar to help these kids would make this bad situation even worse. To think that these youth, who have already suffered rejection from their families, could be turned away from programs meant to give them a safe place to stay is an absolute outrage.

"And those cuts are just the beginning. If the fiscal showdown isn't resolved by the end of the year, funding will be slashed for federal agencies working to combat bullying and school violence against LGBT students, and will reduce financial aid and job placement programs that are critical bridges for LGBT youth who want to start a career or go to college. This is unacceptable." - Cyndi Lauper, writing about the fiscal cliff for Rolling Stone, where wingnuts have just found the post. Go read her full essay show her some love.

Christianist Bullies Attack Rolling Stone

The Christianists who want it to be legal for their children to assault and harass LGBT kids have now focused their ire on Rolling Stone, who last week published a lengthy expose of a Minnesota school system.

According to Laurie Higgins of the Illinois Family Institute, teachers should not be allowed to intervene when gay children are being beaten:

Teachers are employees of the government. In that role, they have no right to affirm controversial moral beliefs, even if they believe that doing so will reduce the incidence of bullying. There are ways to curb bullying without affirming controversial, non-factual moral (or political assumptions). Schools must ensure that teachers not exploit their government-subsidized employment to engage in moral or political philosophizing. To prevent the kind of ideological propagandizing in which homosexual activists and their allies seek to engage in the classroom, policy must explicitly prohibit teachers from expressing their personal views on controversial issues.

NOTE: The Illinois Family Institute is an SPLC-certified hate group and the former employer of Peter LaBarbera.

Rolling Stone On Anti-Gay Bullying

I'm just going to give you one paragraph from Rolling Stone's excellent long-form piece on bullying and suicide in Michele Bachhmann's home district.

"This isn't something you kid about, Brittany," her mom scolded, snatching the kitchen cordless and taking it down the hall to call the Johnsons. A minute later she returned, her face a mask of shock and terror. "Honey, I'm so sorry. We're too late," she said tonelessly as Brittany's knees buckled; 13-year-old Sam had climbed into the bathtub after school and shot herself in the mouth with her own hunting rifle. No one at school had seen her suicide coming. No one saw the rest of them coming, either.

Go read the rest.

Rolling Stone's Top Singles For 2011

Eight of which I've never heard. Top albums.

Ten Worst Songs Of The 1990s

According to Rolling Stone readers.

Rolling Stone On Crazy Eyes

From an extensive Rolling Stone profile by Matt Taibbi:

Bachmann's entire political career has followed this exact same pattern of God-speaks-directly-to-me fundamentalism mixed with pathological, relentless, conscienceless lying. She's not a liar in the traditional way of politicians, who tend to lie dully, usefully and (they hope) believably, often with the aim of courting competing demographics at the same time. That's not what Bachmann's thing is. Bachmann lies because she can't help it, because it's a built-in component of both her genetics and her ideology. She is at once the most entertaining and the most dangerous kind of liar, a turbocharged cross between a born bullshit artist and a religious fanatic, for whom lying to the infidel is a kind of holy duty.

Definitely read the full article.

(Tipped by JMG reader Justin)

Barack Obama: Fox News Is Destructive And Bad For the United States

Quote Of The Day - Barack Obama

"I've been here two years, guys. And one of the things that I just try to remember is that if we have accomplished 70 percent of what we committed to in the campaign, historic legislation, and we've got 30 percent of it undone — well, that's what the next two years is for, or maybe the next six. Understandably, everybody has a great sense of urgency about these issues. But one of the things that I constantly want to counsel my friends is to keep the long view in mind. On social issues, something like 'don't ask, don't tell.' Here, I've got the Secretary of Defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff both committed to changing the policy. That's a big deal.

"Now, I am also the commander in chief of an armed forces that is in the midst of one war and wrapping up another one. So I don't think it's too much to ask, to say 'Let's do this in an orderly way' — to ensure, by the way, that gays and lesbians who are serving honorably in our armed forces aren't subject to harassment and bullying and a whole bunch of other stuff once we implement the policy. I use that as an example because on each of these areas, even those where we did not get some grand legislative victory, we have made progress. We have moved in the right direction." - President Obama, discussing DADT in a lengthy interview with Rolling Stone.

Photo Of The Day - Chris Colfer

Glee's Chris Colfer made Rolling Stone's photo essay of this season's "best characters and most memorable scene-stealers." HELLO.

(Tipped by JMG reader Stacey)

Giggity Giggity

Fun with photoshop via Buzzfeed.

This Month's Rolling Stone

Media Reacts To Adam Lambert's American Music Awards Performance

Yesterday the ladies of The View discussed Adam Lambert's controversial performance on the American Music Awards. Unsurprisingly, it was Elisa Hasselbeck who went off of Lambert. (Transcription via Towleroad.)

"It seemed to be a sexual aggression that came across in the performance. Now, does anyone know what song he sang? Does anyone remember what he sounded like? Because, let me tell you this. This is the mistake Adam Lambert will make time and time again. We will not remember him as a performer or someone with a voice if he continues to do things like this. So smarten up, and sing."

ABC reports receiving over 1500 complaints so far.

Complaints poured in Monday about Adam Lambert's sexually charged performance at the American Music Awards, including criticism of his kiss with a male keyboard player that was left out of rehearsals for the show. ABC did not expect one of Lambert's dancers to stick his face in the singer's crotch during the S&M-themed performance of "For Your Entertainment," a moment that was cut out when the awards show was broadcast on a tape-delayed basis on the West Coast on Sunday.

During a rehearsal last week that an AP reporter attended, Lambert thrust a male dancer's face toward his crotch, though the dancer did not get as close to Lambert in the rehearsal as he did on Sunday night. At one point during rehearsals, Lambert also caressed a male dancer's upside-down face, but he kept his hands off the dancer's cheeks Sunday night. "A lot of what I do is kind of freestyle," the singer told The Associated Press last week about the routine's choreography. "That's how it was on 'Idol.' That's how I perform. I like to have a framework, and just do stuff. So that kind of came about because of the connection that I had with that dancer."

Rolling Stone loved it.

Adam Lambert aimed for the kind of controversy Britney Spears and Madonna are known for generating, completely stunning the audience at Los Angeles’ Nokia Theatre and the millions watching the American Music Awards live on ABC with a risqué rendition of “For Your Entertainment.” Rolling Stone didn’t label Lambert the Wild Idol for nothing, and Glambert definitely delivered on his promise of a “sexy” performance as he closed the live show with simulated oral sex from a male backup dancer, a brief make-out session with his male keyboardist and a giant mirrored prop so the audience could see the looks on their own shocked faces. Rolling Stone has learned that producers weren’t informed about the guy-on-guy kiss in advance, and after the show, Lambert told RS the musician he kissed is a straight man.

Adam Lambert thinks the controversy reflects a double-standard.

“It’s a shame because I think that there’s a double standard going on in the entertainment community right now,” Lambert tells RS backstage after the show at Los Angeles’ Nokia Theatre. “Female performers have been doing this for years — pushing the envelope about sexuality — and the minute a man does it, everybody freaks out. We’re in 2009; it’s time to take risks, be a little more brave, time to open people’s eyes and if it offends them, then maybe I’m not for them. My goal was not to piss people off, it was to promote freedom of expression and artistic freedom.” If ABC opts not to broadcast several of the more risqué moments of “For Your Entertainment” in a few moments, “In a roundabout way it’s a form of discrimination because it is a double standard,” Lambert says. “They didn’t censor Britney and Madonna macking onstage did they? But yet two men kissing they’ll censor?” The famous 2003 Video Music Awards moment Lambert is referring to went down on cable television — on MTV, of course — rather than network television.

Rolling Stone Rips No On 8

Rolling Stone has published a lengthy piece by Tim Dickinson about the campaign to fight Prop 8. A small excerpt:

"This was political malpractice," says a Democratic consultant who operates at the highest level of California politics. "They fucked this up, and it was painful to watch. They shouldn't be allowed to pawn this off on the Mormons or anyone else. They snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, and now hundreds of thousands of gay couples are going to pay the price."

And more:

The No on Prop 8 campaign, meanwhile, was oblivious to the formidable field operation that the other side was mounting. Worse, its executive committee refused to include leaders of top gay and lesbian grass-roots organizations, which deprived them of an army of willing foot soldiers. "We didn't have people going door to door," admits Yvette Martinez, the campaign's political director. The field operation consisted of volunteers phone-banking from 135 call centers across the state, an effort that didn't begin ramping up until mid-October. "They had no ground game," says a leading Democratic consultant. "They thought they could win this thing by slapping some ads together. It was the height of naiveté."

National Center For Lesbian Rights head Kate Kendall responds in the story's comments:

"When Dickinson called to interview me about the No on Prop 8 campaign it became obvious he wasn't interested in the facts about the campaign, he wanted only information that supported this hit piece. When he didn't like my answers, he just asked more leading questions. We lost. Yes, as in any campaign, mistakes were made, but to quote from unnamed sources and anonymous gay leaders running for cover in the wake of this devastating loss while ignoring all facts that don't support your assasination attempt against those who worked tirelessly for months is not jouralism, it's just trash. Dickinson should ply his "blaming the victim" tactics with the National Enquirer."