Natalie, Martie, Emily and John

I'm no kinda music critic. No way. Upon reading that admission, some might be prompted to question wherefrom I went and gots all my movie critic street cred. And to that, I'd say, well, I went to the street cred store and picked out all the vocabulary that I noticed applied to both books and movies, paid my bill (yep, at the bursar's office) and went my merry way. As a special gift with purchase, I noticed that I seemed to have acquired some political lingo, too... but while at the street cred store, I'd gotten all intimidated by the musical people and decided they were way too cool for me to talk to... and didn't ever feel comfortable learning their language. But now, a bunch of documentaries about the politics of celebrities-- or the politics celebrities espouse, more precisely-- have recently emerged and I can't just NOT talk about them.

Last weekend, I watched The U.S. vs. John Lennon. As far as documentaries go, it's not exactly stylistically adventurous. It's a bunch of talking heads reminiscing about dear departed John and not-so-dear departed Richard Nixon. Among the highlights was Gore Vidal snarling, "Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel!" Indeed. I was moved. OK, not really.

There were a couple of strange notes hit within the course of this movie, however. One was the who's-in-charge? note. Parts of the film talked about how John grabbed hold of the great media machine and slung it about by its tail, sculpting his own image as artistic genius/left-wing loony to suit his every predilection. And then, like, 15 minutes later, the same folks are talking about how some of the big name 70s activist-politicos, like Abbie Hoffman and so on, saw John as the cash cow he could be for the anti-war movement and milked him for all he was worth. And the end, I wasn't entirely sure which depiction was more accurate. This probably has more to do with how little I know about John Lennon than how well the movie explained it, though.

Also of note is the way the Yoko-John relationship was described over the course of this movie. It's very careful to dodge any of the more... controversial, let's say, aspects of their relationship and instead, presents them as artistic and political kindred spirits. And dammit, they were just so cute! Sittin' around in their PJs with all their hair in their faces for weeks on end...

So, anyway, I know this movie was conceived and released in this day and age because infotainment shows like The Today Show like to pose supposedly non-leading questions like "should celebrities use their public platforms to speak about politics?" as though they take it for granted that celebrities somehow have more alienable free speech rights than the rest of us just because they have a larger podium from which they speak. And in this way, all of Lennon's run-ins with the Nixon administration are now providing backdrop for all the crap that's come to be expected when any living celebrity has an opinion and expresses that opinion aloud.

And due to clever structuring of my online video rental queue, I watched the Dixie Chick documentary Shut Up and Sing this weekend. It just followed so logically! Though, I must say, the format of this documentary was really ingeniously conceived. I'm not sure who had the foresight to start filming every conversation those girls had with lawyers, managers, publicists and other assorted consultants... but the publicity machine is a fascinating thing to watch. And watching those women weather the tug-of-war between their desire to remain a financially viable brand and remain steadfast in their refusal to capitulate to an audience that appeared to disrespect their human right to hold political beliefs is truly riveting. But the film flips back and forth between behind-the-scenes and concert footage of from 2003 and recording studio footage from 2005 and then more concert footage (under death threats) in 2006. And this kinda problem-solution/ what-happened;what-happened-next formal aspect of this documentary makes it really rather unusual. I mean, we all already knew the whole story... but there's so much we didn't know! And now, I guess, I'm glad I know more.

Admittedly, there were a couple of moments during which I winced at Natalie's glibness. She's caught on camera, after all, calling our dumb fuck of a president, well, a dumb fuck. It's a response to his saying they shouldn't get their feeling hurt if people don't want to play their music anymore (himself notably glib regarding the obvious financial hit they and Sony and all the rest of their backers took). But she looked right at the camera to say it! But then I suppose that makes me a bigger chickenshit than she is... I can't say that I wouldn't have been a little cowed by the outcry that followed those 12 fateful words ("we're ashamed that the president of the United States is from Texas").

But then, there was an undeniably sexy-comic moment in which the three girls were talking about having to get up in the middle of the night to deal with babies. Natalie confesses she offered her husband $1000 to tend to their noisy child. An then Martie said something to the effect that blowjobs are more effective currency in her house... No doubt! Still, there's no denying they're hot girls!

Now, my tiny musical commentary, for the record: It was the screeching vocals of "Twist and Shout", not "Give Peace a Chance," that cemented John's position Marjorie's Favorite Beatle long ago. And the first time I heard "Lullaby" off the Chicks' rebuttal album, Taking the Long Way, I'm pretty sure my heart stopped a little bit. In fact, I've been listening to that song obsessively all day as I've been conjuring this blogpost in my head. It's really just such a lovely, tender foil to the fury that rages forth out of most of the rest of the album.