Right now, aside from the obvious which is the way he looks, there is basically no difference between Chris Brown and Brittany Spears. I'm not sure if that is the official rule of the household, but I'll check with BD to see what her opinion is, because quite frankly I wouldn't know the first song he did. Not all of the dreck on teen pop is indistinguishable, but in the end as they go down the path from fame to douchbaggery aren't they all finally?
Now if I remember correctly, BD liked Rihanna as well. So she may have a pitched opinion. On the other hand, she's doing her own bit of show business, plus she has a very good eye and ear for American Idol. So she might already be completely blase about the entire blowup. She's got her own bit of talent and hangs around folks with performing talent. It's likely to make her less susceptible. Or see more tragedy in it. I'd ask now, but she's still backstage at the theatre around the way - this being her second weekend in Little Shop of Horrors.
The theatre company she belongs to, Belasco, does Little Shop, Pajama Game, The Wiz, How To Succeed in Business, Annie, Damn Yankees and a couple other productions whose names escape me. With middle schoolers and high school teens, there's really good quality productions and a great showcase for talent. It's an entire dimension of growing up that guys like me missed back in the day. We had our radios, we had our favorite DJs, we had our mixtapes. That was about it. Showmanship had to be expressed in different fora, which is why basketball became so theatrical. Well, that's my theory anyway. So I have an interestingly odd sense of pride watching her and her little sister on stage. There isn't much echo back to the 70s Broadway. We had Ren Woods and Stephanie Mills do Dorothy. We had Alphonso Ribeiro as the Tap Dance Kid, and Jennifer Holiday doing Dreamgirls. That's about it, except for the cast of Fame, in my generation. With apologies to Hansberry, Baraka and Wilson there was nothing else entertaining on the stage. Don't ask me about Pippin and Purlie and Porgy. I don't know.
So I expect that as another wave of pop stars get flushed that at least there are some kids with some understanding that all of show business isn't corrupt and that there's more out there than just what's new.
Now as I write this, it occurs to me the Jimi Izrael was being timely and riffing when he asked if it's alright to hit a woman. Big question. The basic answer is no. The extended answer is 'it depends', and what it depends on is your chances in court. I am inclined to believe that the average dame who smacks a man is not doing a face slap against his rogueish advance. But I cannot think of any occasion when such a move is not proper - slap him then walk. It works in the old movies that everybody has seen and we all know what it means. That shouldn't be too difficult to parse. I think the average dame is thinking she might knock homey out or at least do some real damage. It works in the new movies that everybody has seen, but we should all know that's fake. But some of us fools don't.
My advice to the average dame is this. If you don't play football, don't ball up your fist and expect something to happen when you hit a man, unless what you expect is to get decked. My advice to the average dude is this, grab her wrist and take it behind her back. Apply pressure but do not strike. Frogmarch her out the door and lock it. Then stay away from the windows.
Nine times out of ten it's the man's fault. Which is why nine times out of ten a slap in the face will suffice.
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