Album Review: Endless Summer Vacation by Miley Cyrus

I grew up with Miley Cyrus. She’s the Madonna of my micro-generation, that batch of kids born between 1995 and 2000. We’re old enough to have owned and operated a VCR but young enough to remember having the Internet at least on the periphery of our entire lives, if not always the forefront. I am a child of Hannah Montana. When I went shopping with my dad at Walmart for new school clothes before my 6th grade year started, I bought the Hannah Montana 2 / Meet Miley Cyrus double album. That album provided the soundtrack to much of my pre-middle school life, that weird in-between time when you’re not really a teenager but also not a little kid anymore. You feel everything and nothing. Gravity doesn’t really know which way to pull you so you’re in a stasis between what you were before and what you will inevitably become. So yeah, I’ll fight someone over Miley. Anyone at any time.

She’s [Miley Cyrus] the Madonna of my micro-generation, that batch of kids born between 1995 and 2000.

I became an adult right around the time when Bangerz released. Actually, that CD was one of my 18th birthday presents from my parents, who paled at the theatrics and the unapologetic sexuality of that record and decided to buy it for me anyway. There’s a photo of me floating around on the Internet where I’m dressed as Miley for Halloween, tongue out and peace sign flashed.

There’s a photo of me floating around on the Internet where I’m dressed as Miley for Halloween, tongue out and peace sign flashed.

All of that said, I think Endless Summer Vacation is her best album yet. She’s a woman who’s been through a lot and that is evident not only in her autobiographical lyrics but the lived-in feel of the music itself. The entire record, from beginning to end, is a pop masterpiece. Although to be honest, I hesitate to put that label on it, slapping it in a pop box. Cyrus has, for the entirety of her career, defied all genre expectations and instead exists as a mashup of everything all at once. Any box you put her in will inevitably be smashed and there she’ll be, dancing madly in and around the detritus. We should all just be happy to be along for the ride.

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Quote for the Day: November 25th, 2022

I curated my life to be an expression of my pain. By creating somebody that I felt was stronger than me.
Lady Gaga

I love this quote by Lady Gaga. A lot of people look at her art and life and see only the glamor and artifice they associate with this persona she’s created over her career. What they don’t realize is that many people who lead creative lives, who create art as a means of survival, who depend on it for their living, channel everything they have into their art. So you’re not just getting the joy and the wonder that all of us who are blessed enough to spend time on this planet enjoy, but you’re also getting the trauma and the deeply-held secrets and the pain — so much pain — that we mask and subsume otherwise we’d never leave our rooms again.

I think art forces us to be braver. It forces us to become the best versions of ourselves that we can be. And in the times we can’t be that best version, when we can’t take the high road, when we have to forego that dream of something better, it forces us to look that in the eye — and that in itself is a gift.

Film Review: Elvis (2022); Directed by Baz Luhrmann

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Review

I don’t know what I really expected going into Elvis, the recent biopic about the world-famous and best-selling solo musician of all time, Elvis Presley. Knowing that Baz Luhrmann was the director was certainly a big draw. If nothing else, his films are stylistic dreamscapes: lush, ostentatious, and to be quite frank, extremely pretty. The Australian auteur is no stranger to the telling of epic stories, and I don’t think any other director could have tackled the story of Elvis Presley with more grace, grit, passion, or panache. His respect for his subject is evident in every frame, as is his love for glitter and bombast. The man loves his pyrotechnics, and any film about the King of Rock and Roll would be remiss without them.

If nothing else, his [Luhrmann’s] films are stylistic dreamscapes: lush, ostentatious, and to be quite frank, extremely pretty.

Austin Butler’s Elvis is no caricature. It would have been extremely easy to allow a performance such as this one to veer into mockumentary territory, but Butler has the acting chops to steer the ship in a much more honest and human direction. His Elvis is wholly real. His dreams and ambitions, choked and stymied by the pressures of fame and the realities of being the biggest star in the world, take a back burner to maintaining the image of Elvis, the moneymaker and icon as opposed to the man himself. He’s not only playing Elvis; for 2 hours and 39 minutes, he is Elvis.

His dreams and ambitions, choked and stymied by the pressures of fame and the realities of being the biggest star in the world, take a back burner to maintaining the image of Elvis, the moneymaker and icon as opposed to the man himself.

Butler’s universally-acclaimed performance already has many talking about him as the front-runner for next year’s Oscar for the Best Actor in a Leading Role. I agree. It goes without saying that he will be nominated, and unless I see another performance that is so riveting it takes my breath away, I will safely assume he’ll be walking away with a golden statue that night. The film also benefits from strong supporting performances from everyman Tom Hanks, who plays Presley’s slimy manager/promoter Colonel Tom Parker; and Olivia DeJonge, in her mainstream debut as Priscilla Presley. According to DeJonge in an interview she did with British Vogue, she found out she had landed the role some four months after her audition in a text message from Luhrmann’s team. Needless to say, I think we’ll be seeing much more from her.

Finally, I want to talk about the costumes in this film. With a style icon like Elvis Presley as the subject matter, any costume designer would have more than a full plate’s worth of work ahead of them in recreating the entertainer’s iconic looks. Catherine Martin, a four-time Oscar winner and the wife of Baz Luhrmann, has worked on a slew of his previous films: Romeo + Juliet (1996), Moulin Rouge! (2001), Australia (2008), and The Great Gatsby (2013). Her work in Elvis is nothing short of spectacular, somehow managing to take the familiar and making it fresh, vivacious, and exciting. I think she’ll be adding another Oscar to her shelf come next year.

Her [Martin’s] work in Elvis is nothing short of spectacular, somehow managing to take the familiar and making it fresh, vivacious, and exciting.

All in all, I really enjoyed Elvis. Was it a perfect film? No, but I don’t think there is such a thing as a perfect film, at least not when you’re recreating the lives of real people, some of whom are still living. I think it captured the spirit of Elvis and what he’s meant to American culture. I also think it managed to illuminate who he was as a person apart from the bright lights and big stages he graced while on Earth. The pain is there, sure, but so is the passion. The love and devotion, the heartache, the beauty and the fame. The flame snuffed out far too soon. That’s more than anyone could ask.

The pain is there, sure, but so is the passion. The love and devotion, the heartache, the beauty and the fame. The flame snuffed out far too soon. That’s more than anyone could ask.

Elvis was released in the United States on June 24th, 2022 by Warner Bros. Pictures and is now available to stream on HBO Max as well as other streaming and video on demand platforms.

Quote for the Day: August 11th, 2022

The unfed mind devours itself.
Gore Vidal

Quote for the Day: August 10th, 2022

There are two ways of exerting one’s strength: one is pushing down, the other is pulling up.
Booker T. Washington

Quote for the Day: August 9th, 2022

Every man is working out his destiny in his own way and nobody can be of help except by being kind, generous, and patient.
Henry Miller

Quote for the Day: August 8th, 2022

Many of life’s failures are experienced by people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.
Thomas Edison

Quote for the Day: August 7th, 2022

I don’t know that there are any shortcuts to doing a good job.
Sandra Day O’Connor

Quote for the Day: August 6th, 2022

Be slow in choosing a friend, slower in changing.
Benjamin Franklin

Quote for the Day: August 5th, 2022

In recognizing the humanity of our fellow beings, we pay ourselves the highest tribute.
Thurgood Marshall