Mariah sings "Hero" to Pres. Obama

Obama Cult of Personality 3: Happy, Determined?

I have seen so many new Obama-related tchochtkes that I cannot begin to enumerate them all, soap on a rope, rings, watches, dildos (You can exclaim as you climax: yes he can, change has come!), you name it.





But the Chia Pet, that icon of 1970s sold on TV novelty gifts, never entered even my imagination as a possibility. Available on Amazon (see link below) for only $20, it comes in HAPPY and DETERMINED versions. 

I am not sure how I feel about the hair, however. The retro natural short Afro evoked by the freely-growing sprouts recalls the bigger hair of his youth, in contrast to the closely cropped style he rocks today. But somehow this makes me uneasy, because of the racialized characteristics of hair and its representations. Yet the hair lends itself to this type of growing sculpture more than the face, so it makes sense. Am I over-analyzing this? That is what I get paid to do! 

And anyway, I have spent years of my life obsessing on my own hair, first thanks to my female family members' fixation with its texture and how to "tame" it, what to "do" with it, then later years of arguing with people at beauty salons that did not "get" it. Thank goodness my current hairdresser does, she compares it to "a cross between Chinese hair and Black hair." Exactly. 
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001PKU2OI?ie=UTF8&tag=buzz0f-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B001PKU2OI

Let Freedom Ring

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Aretha Franklin, looking FIERCE in her lovely hat and coat, singing at PRESIDENT Obama's swearing in. A JOYFUL day!

Let freedom ring

Rocio Jurado-Estaba para comersela

Rocio Jurado, La Mas Grande, one of the best (along with Lola Flores) in Spain's pantheon of Andalusian folcloricas, has been immortalized by a Cordoba based chocolate producer called Gallo (cock). They are renowned for their Belen (Christmas Manger) made from chocolate but this year they kicked it up a notch by creating an edible sculpture of this most scrumptious and fabulous performer. According to the video (above) and news articles, the sweet surrogate was placed in a simulated tablao flamenco (place where you perform this musical genre). Had I known about this sooner, I would have booked the first flight to Cordoba. Viva Rocio! 

Obama Cult of Personality Part 3

Now, if you REALLY want to fuse yourself with our new Leader, you can go here -http://obamiconme.pastemagazine.com/ to transform one of your photos of yourself into one similar to Shepard Fairey's iconic portrait of President Obama.

Foucault and you posts restored

I somehow deleted a whole string of posts labeled FOUCAULT AND YOU, REALITY TV and had to Google the cached versions to copy and thus restore them. So now a bunch of old posts are on the blog and I'm sorry for those of you who read them months, years ago!

If you want to see the REALLY NEW posts go to "Obama Cult of Personality 2" and the others posted JANUARY 15, and then to the earlier dates in January and so on.