I don’t know the first thing about Erykah Badu. Our worlds, to my knowledge, have never overlapped in the past. I am, however, intrigued by this news story:
Neosoul singer Erykah Badu faces a disorderly conduct charge for her nude music video shoot in downtown Dallas’ Dealey Plaza, officials announced Friday.
Badu, a Dallas native, performed a walking striptease in front of tourists and pedestrians during the March 13 shoot for Badu’s “Window Seat” music video. The performance ended with a nude Badu acting out receiving a fatal gunshot to the head at the spot where President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963…
I’m fine with the public nudity. The thing that has me bewildered is the part about the “fatal gunshot to the head.” I wouldn’t have thought that the worlds of neosoul and assassination studies would ever have reason to intersect. Are there other instances of this happening? If I search the internet, will I find, for instance, footage of Alicia Keys being shot in the balcony of the Ford Theater?
And, if I slow down this footage of Badu being shot, am I likely to find any troubling irregularities? I don’t know if Oliver Stone has a sense of humor about such things, but, if he did, it would be great if he responded with a video of his own, breaking the Badu footage down frame by frame, and making the case for CIA involvement.
This is also interesting to me for another reason. Back in college, I wrote a screenplay about a man intent on killing himself at the spot of Kennedy’s assassination, under similar circumstances. The script was absolutely excerable, and it pains me to be reminded of it, but I thought that I should mention it, as I’ll likely never have the opportunity again.
12 Comments
Thanks for reminding me of how much I like Erykah Badu.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFkHylBiPyQ
Thanks for reminding me how much I like the Kennedy assassination.
Thank you for including the Badge Man link. I’d forgotten all about him.
Wanda Sykes did a version with a different ending. This comes from the coverage of it.
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/05/wanda-sykes-nabs-erykah-badus-window-seat/
Growing up in Dallas, I assume that the assassination stuff is pretty pervasive. I still find it weird to be brought up in this context, though.
Just happened across a right wing article on this incident. I wouldn’t link to it under normal circumstances, but they had a fantastic headline… They called it the Assy Knoll… I wish I’d thought of that…. Here’s a clip:
Some people, however, actually liked it. Here’s a clip from the Dallas News:
What I like about Badyu is that she’s a pop artist working on very contemporary themes and with contemporary material, yet she utterly rejects every formula, and creates original work. I don’t always like or get her political or cultural message, but she has a unique voice and is a great artist.
E. Howard Hunt put her up to it. I’ll bet you anything.
This piece really opened my eyes and made me think. Her pop art is probably good too, but I’m not much interested in seeing him naked.
After she was naked and after they filmed it and now that’s is released, now they want to arrest her. Isn’t it too late? They had their chance when she was naked on the plaza.
It’s hard to investigate who might have fired that fatal shot. Anybody with any taste or sense would have motive.
I’ve seen her in concert and I think she’s occasionally to frequently quite high. So maybe this carried over.