Stans of the World (and other interested parties),
We gather here today and everyday to rejoice in the word of the Church of Pop. It is my honor to have been chosen by The Pop Gods to spread the righteous word and while much of my experience has been positive since I began preaching the Pop Gospel last November, I have to say that the amount of bullshit (for lack of a better term) that is thrown between fanbases is completely ridiculous and quite frankly off-putting. For branding purposes and as an excuse to spend countless hours making some digital art, I will call this phenomenon:
Well hello again Gleeks, is it that time again!? It feels like I just finished last week’s recap and it’s already time for another. True; that may be because I literally just finished last week’s recap mere hours before this week’s episode aired, but no matter.
This week Glee paid tribute to the late legend, Whitney Houston. I’m all loaded up with tissues, popcorn and a chocolate bar so I can eat my feelings before they come pouring out! I think I am ready for this. How about you?
Welcome back Gleeks! Some of you may have noticed that I missed out on recapping the last episode of Glee: “The Spanish Teacher. Forgive me Pop Gods for I have sinned. I didn’t get a post up for that episode for the following reasons:
An unfortunate head cold had me incapacitated and heavily medicated throughout most of the week, which contributed to a lack of energy and drive. Add to that a local transit strike and a 45 minute to an hour walk both to and from work each day. No fun!
The tragic death of legendary diva Whitney Houston on 2/11/2012 truly affected and upset me. (See Post)
The episode (outside of the immaculate beauty of Ricky Martin) was pretty CRAPPY and uninspiring. The only thing that happened of significance is that Will Schuster is no longer McKinley High’s spanish teacher and he’s now going to be teaching History class. (P.S. I will probably go back and write a recap during an upcoming, devastatingly long hiatus but we’ll get to that in about 3400 words. I don’t play around.)
Luckily this week we have LOTS to talk about! So let’s get to it!
Last night, as I refreshed my Twitter feed for the umpteenth time to see what was up in Social Media land, I saw words that quite literally took the breath out of me. “Whitney Houston has died at 48“.
In that moment, I audibly gasped and immediately searched for proof that this wasn’t just another sick trending topic (i.e. last month’s “RIP Cher”) created by some joke gone awry. Within mere seconds, tweets from TMZ and The Associated Press confirmed the tragic news that the legendary Whitney Houston, had in fact died at 3:55pm in the Beverly Hilton Hotel.
I don’t remember how long it took for the tears to begin. I do feel as though I spent several minutes staring blankly at the words on my screen. Upon processing the news I sent a friend a text message to ask if they had heard the news and mentioned that I had been crying. While he too was a big fan of Whitney, he didn’t understand why I would be ever crying over a celebrity death.
While I would wager that most people consider themselves music lovers, I think it’s safe to say that for some it goes deeper than that. Music has always touched me in ways I can’t entirely translate. It’s made me feel things I haven’t have yet to experience in life, both good & bad. It’s expressed things I couldn’t say out loud and it’s comforted and helped me through my own pain. Music is my greatest passion; an extension of myself and as we all go through life – songs that mean a lot to us, and the artists that consistently perform them, become intertwined with that life, like a soundtrack.
As a child of the 80’s, Whitney Houston was responsible for a good portion of my life’s soundtrack, from the hopeful crush of “How Will I Know” to the bitterness of betrayal with “I Learned From The Best”. For so many moments in my life, I can name a Whitney Houston song that helped me. While doing so in detail would make this article officially more about me than about the tremendous body of work this legend has left us, I’ve decided that simply posting some of the songs that have been the most important to me over the years will be my tribute to her. Please join me in remembering how incredibly talented and amazing she was…
“Greatest Love of All”
“How Will I Know”
“I Wanna Dance (With Somebody)”
“Where Do Broken Hearts Go?”
“I Will Always Love You”
“All The Man That I Need”
“I Learned From The Best”
I leave you with the title track from what was expected to be Whitney’s big comeback album: “I Look To You”. This song never got the praise it deserves but will remain Whitney’s last-ever single from a studio album. Watching this video now brings tears to my eyes; simple, angelic, heartbreaking. I watch and listen and the lyrics bring more tears to my eyes than ever in the wake of her untimely death.
“I Look To You”
Goodbye Whitney. May you always shine down on us from Pop Heaven.
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PREACH. 