HBO’s Bill Maher is known for being outrageous. And usually, his outrageousness is directed at things most Americans would place under the heading of “Traditional Values.” For this reason, a large swath of our population long ago chalked Maher up as a liberal ideologue and went on about their business.

However, it now seems that at times Maher wants to be taken seriously as a sane, social critic, and sometimes he actually has something interesting  to say, as when he recently spoke out against Islam’s continued encroachment into the Western world. Maher worries about Islam’s spread because he believes Western values are “better” than Islamic ones. And when given every chance to retract or recant such statements, Maher instead insists that the correctness of his statement is proven by the fact that Christians and Jews laugh off criticism of their religions, while Muslims make “death threats to cartoonists.”

But there’s an inconsistency in Maher’s social criticism, and it lies in the fact that he appears too ideological to allow himself to fully follow his own maxims or embrace his own truisms. For instance, after fighting off accusations of racism (for his comments about Islam), Maher told his detractors: “It’s not because of [their] race, it’s because of [their] religion.” Is this not something Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin, and dare I say Juan Williams, have all said as well?

This is a well reasoned, succinct, and demonstrable point of view.

But after saying it, Maher was so bothered by the impact the Tea Party had on the 2010 midterm elections that he turned around and compared Americans to dogs: arguing that they “cannot understand actual words,” but instead only understand “fear.” (Here Maher makes the same mistake that Sheryl Crow made when she lashed out at Tea Partiers by saying: “These people…really don’t even know what the issues are, they’re just swept up in the fear of it and the anger of it.”)

First of all, I would argue that the Tea Party was not driven by fear as much as by principles (although the argument could be made that they did fear further damage to this country by Democrats if Republicans didn’t win in 2010). (more…)

When I found out that Muzak was going bankrupt on February 11th, 2009, I cried myself to sleep at least four times that day.  Who, besides satellite and terrestrial radio, would provide soft background music in public places for me?  Who would calm my soul when faced with the incompetence and laziness of DMV workers?  Who would pay for my health insurance so I wouldn’t have to pay for it myself?

These questions and more troubled my soul until August 7, 2010 AD, when Sheryl Crow released her long-awaited 13th album 100 Miles to Memphis.  After over a decade of records peaking at #2 and #3 on the Billboard 200, Crow decided to completely revolutionize her sound by taking on the styles of R&B, funk, and even reggae.  Without their tawdry expressiveness, and without the divisive spirituality so inherent to the southern gospel style injected into a few tracks, Memphis is a Muzak masterpiece. It is so perfectly pleasant and unobtrusive, it seemed highly inappropriate to give it a critical listen and analyze its minutiae.  But, in my duty to Big Hollywood readers, I’ve taken on the Sisyphean task of codifying the greatness of these songs, even though their value is so obviously apparent.

1. Economy is for suckers.  Not one of the twelve tracks on the album is under four minutes, and for good reason.  Ms. Crow understands the helpfulness of extending the fast-paced opener “Our Love is Fading” from what could be a comfortable 2 ½ minutes to nearly 6 ½.  When I’m sitting in the urologist’s office waiting for my name to be called, I don’t want to grasp just how slowly the quack is getting to me.  As long as the same song is playing from when I last took notice, I don’t feel like I’ve been waiting as long.  It’s as skillful a utilization of the medium as I’ve ever heard. (more…)

—–

Sounds as though Crow did nothing more than to add fascist, left-wing talking points to every other flat, tuneless song Ms. One-Square-of-Toilet-Paper’s ever written.

Is the title, “Say What You Want,” meant to be ironic? Because in it she calls for Sarah Palin’s microphone to be unplugged. A so-called artist advocating for the silencing someone is … well, refreshingly honest!

According to this site, here are the full lyrics to Crow’s “Say What You Want”:

You used two squares today
You’re supposed to wipe your bum this way
That’s why I smell like ass every day
And can’t hold on to a man no way

(more…)

One of the core beliefs this nation was founded on, was equality under the law.  The laws that apply to ordinary citizens, also apply to the ruling class; because if the laws are too strict for them, then perhaps they’re too strict for us. That’s why we get really upset when we learn of a politician caught speeding, or cheating on his taxes. Because if the people who write the laws are finding it difficult to cough up the cash, or keep their foot off the accelerator, perhaps taxes are too high, and the speed limit is too low.

For many, The Global Warming debate has been a similar exercise in hypocrisy. Al Gore has been a big violator. The man who wants to limit our ability to fly coach, needs a private plane when he travels to Hollywood to pick up a trophy he didn’t even win (and a masseuse he couldn’t seduce).

I recently pointed out a similar flaw in the character of Sheryl Crow. While she went around preaching the merits of CFL light bulbs, she prefers the warm glow of incandescents and halogens in her own home. I thought perhaps that Sheryl had grown up a little; the same way a college vegan gets out into the real world, admits that she’s been sneaking meat when nobody was looking, and switches to a less fastidious diet. (more…)

On July 1, 2010, I wrote a post for Big Hollywood that demonstrated how Sheryl Crow was both reaching out to Country Music fans and insulting them at the same time.  She was reaching out to them through her work with Kid Rock, her cameo appearance at the Country Music Awards, and the home she purchased in Nashville. She was insulting them by railing against “giant cars” (like the 4×4 pickups and Hummers country artists love to drive), and calling Tea Partiers “ignorant” and “angry.”

Suffice it to say, Crow couldn’t have insulted Country Music fans more without calling them by name.  She apparently doesn’t know (or doesn’t care to know) that Country Music fans put the heart in heartland America: that they are loyal to those whom they see as being loyal to American ideals but couldn’t care less about those who go against them.

These things not withstanding, as Crow undertakes the American leg of her latest tour, her backstage rider for venue owners reads more like the musings of a speech writer for Al Gore than a would-be country artist. For instance, the rider contains an “environmental portion” which clearly states that Crow wishes to “minimize the overall environmental impact of the tour.” And while there’s nothing wrong with this on the surface, the problems arise when her to-do list for achieving this lowered environmental impact is fleshed out. (more…)

YouTube

(more…)

Many Country Music fans first real exposure to Sheryl Crow came with the release of “Picture,” a duet she sang with Kid Rock, in 2002. That was a strange pairing to say the least, because it put a self-proclaimed “Cowboy” who supported the then pending invasion of Iraq with an overt leftist who was anti-war and anti-Bush. But heartland America loved the song, thus Crow seemingly had an “in” with a crowd she probably lacked connections otherwise.

More recently, Crow purchased a home in Nashville, and has popped up at different events there, including last month’s Country Music Awards. To the curious onlooker, it appeared she was courting the Country Music audience, which is understandable because it’s a great group of people to have on your side.

But right in the middle of this apparent outreach to Country Music fans, Crow gave Katie Couric an interview for Glamour magazine, in which she lashed out at Tea Parties and other aspects of the Country Music crowd. As I read the interview, I could only imagine the Dixie Chicks’ former tour manager picking up a copy of Glamour and screaming – “Sheryl, didn’t you learn anything from Natalie Maines’ big mouth?!” (more…)

In a recent interview with Katie Couric for Glamour Magazine, Sheryl  Crow claimed tea partiers are uneducated and dangerous. In my opinion, using one square of toilet paper at a time is dangerous; but I’m more concerned with personal hygiene than melting ice caps. Sheryl now claims that she was joking when she made the suggestion; but I’ve heard that the roadies who handle her guitars, routinely wear rubber gloves.

In the summer of 2007, Sheryl and alleged home-wrecker, Laurie David put together their Stop Global Warming Tour, consisting of a bus, several semi trucks and a private jet; caravanning across the nation, to tell college students to stop wasting energy. Of course, Crow and David weren’t hypocrites because the bus was fueled with leftover french-fry grease.

In the official press release they promised to encourage college students to “Simply Switch” to CFL light-bulbs. But what kind of bulbs does Sheryl use?  Well this was a mystery, until she recently opened her apartment to Elle Magazine. Apparently Sheryy likes her apartment brighter than she is, and CFLs just don’t seem to do the trick. (more…)

The June edition of Glamour magazine features a Katie Couric interview of singer Sheryl Crow. When asked about the Tea Party movement, here’s what Sheryl had to say:

KATIE COURIC: What do you think of the Tea Party movement? Because that is the specific sort of group of people who would say we’re out there, we’re getting involved in the process and—

SHERYL CROW: I think our system is broken in ways that can’t be fixed at this moment until we get some kind of campaign finance reform and we get people in office who—I think perhaps everybody starts off in office being altruistic and thinking they’re going to make big changes, and then they see the big dollars coming in. I don’t know what it is at the most fundamental level that…you know, what’s first, the chicken or the egg? But I appreciate the fact that those people are out there and that they are fired up.

My main concern is that it’s really fear-based. What’s coming out of the Tea Party most often, especially if you go onto YouTube, and you see some of the interviews with these people who really don’t even know what the issues are, they’re just swept up in the fear of it and the anger of it. They’re not sure what they’re angry at; they don’t understand what’s happening on Wall Street. They haven’t educated themselves, but they’re just pissed off. And I understand that, I’m pissed off too. But knowledge is power, and anything less than that when it comes to anger can be dangerous.

So that’s why we cling to guns and religion! (more…)

The cable channel History’s latest historical venture, America; the Story of Us – a twelve-part, cheap-looking, know-nothing celebrity driven monstrosity that insults the most basic of historically informed Americans intelligence, ended it’s broadcast run last week. The opening episode was the highest rated program in the history of the network attracting 5.7 million viewers, with subsequent episodes in the 2.0 to 2.5 million viewers range.

Abraham Lincoln and P.T. Barnum (you know, “You can fool some of the people some of the time…” and “There a sucker born every minute.”) had it right. It was the huge amount of money spent on advertising that bought those ratings. Ratings of course bring in advertising dollars but to put it bluntly, dog feces still smells bad and is hard to shake off of your foot. This series was the historical documentary equivalent a big steaming pile. In fact numerous Los Angeles-based cable documentary producers have quietly expressed their disdain to me at the poor execution, production values and content of The Story of Us.

The Story of Us was produced by Jane Root an English producer and former Discovery Channel President and BBC executive. So a foreign producer not only got the considerable money for this show but also tells us about us from a decidedly British, ill-informed and surface, slop politically correct point of view. At a time when American cable producers are starving for work, History shows their true colors by enriching an English company with a major series on our history. Most of the terribly produced reenactments were actually shot in Great Britain and South Africa, standing in for the good old USA! (more…)

There`s nothing I love more than female celebrities helping out troubled beasts or endangered species. You`ve got Pam Anderson worrying about the polar bears, Doris Day fretting over abandoned cats and dogs – and of course, Sheryl Crow passionately fighting for wild horses currently roaming our country. Apparently, Crow`s mad at the government for trying to remove 25,000 mustangs from the range, in an effort to send them to greener pastures.

I feel her mane.

But as much as I admire all their work protecting those who can`t protect themselves, it makes me wonder: would they do the same thing if they were the ones who became endangered?

I`m talking about women. (more…)

As found on the website Think Peace Media:

I feel we are so blessed to live in a country where we enjoy so many rights that other countries cannot even begin to imagine. However, it terrifies me that we seem to have lost touch with our connection to the earth. I am concerned that we have risen to such heights of arrogance in our refusal to acknowledge that our earth is rapidly changing in ways that might affect us catastrophically but instead, we hold steadfast to our belief that nothing can happen to us as a people. -Sheryl Crow

(more…)

News broke last week that Laurie David, former wife of Larry David (of Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm fame), was fined for wetlands violations at her Martha’s Vineyard home – and it wasn’t the first time, either:

The property owned by Ms. David off North Road was the subject of a series of wetlands violations in 2005, when construction of a stone fire pit, barbecue grill area and wooden stage for a children’s theatre with seating was begun in a wetland without a permit.

Ms. David, as you may recall, produced the Goracle’s epic documentary, An Inconvenient Truth.  She also wrote The Down-to-Earth Guide to Global Warming for children (doing her part to convince one in three frightened children that the earth will implode before they grow up), and went on a much ballyhooed bus tour with fellow greenie Sheryl “One Sheet” Crow in order to help Save The Earth™ a couple of years back. How riding around the country in an exhaust-spewing bus and using up oodles of electricity for Sheryl’s musical stylings was supposed to “help” is beyond me. But wait, the bus was powered by vegetable oil instead of that dastardly fossil fuel, and pal Sheryl is committed to being green by driving a hybrid and using cold water to wash her clothes. Forgive my cynicism; I’m convinced. (more…)

Recently, when babysitting my 8-year-old niece, she had trouble with her homework and came to me for help. The assignment was based on Time for Kids, a weekly publication for elementary school children about the news of the day (much like Weekly Reader when I was growing up – does that still exist?). She had to explain in her own words what Earth Hour, coming up on March 28, was all about. Unfortunately, I couldn’t tell her to write “it’s a load of hogwash” – she would have failed the assignment. Such is the brainwashing and social engineering that goes on in our school system today.

But it’s too bad my niece didn’t have actor Edward Norton to look to for advice. Not only is he the official U.S. ambassador for Earth Hour 2009, but he was on CNN’s Larry King Live this week, along with Alanis Morissette, to explain just how this symbolic act of the entire world turning out their lights for one hour will encourage world leaders to cap or tax carbon emissions through legislation. Global unity and all that. (more…)

The Left told us all the change we needed would come when Sen. Barack Obama got our vote Nov. 4. Now, a new change is coming our way – courtesy of Obama supporter Sheryl Crow and some of her famous friends.

On April 4, Sir Paul McCartney will headline the “Change Begins Within” benefit concert at Radio City Music Hall, with proceeds going to the David Lynch Foundation. Among those filling out the roster include Ringo Starr, Donovan, Eddie Vedder, Ben Harper, Moby, Paul Horn, Bettye LaVette and Crow. (more…)