Basketball at Midnight

I was chatting on-line with Andrea, with whom I have been friends for over 10 years (10 years and 2 months, I believe).  You may remember her from such great clips as “Conversation with a Turk who was using my AIM account.”  Well, she just discovered that her mini flourescent light was going out, sent me an email asking if I could provide some manly assistance and whether I had seen anything like it before, decided not to wait for my reply, took it apart, found the bulb was soldered in, and has developed a plan to get a new one.

I responded “You don’t need a man,” partly in reference to a song I  knew in the nineties.  I’m not really up on my Hip Hop and r&b flavor; I thought it was Salt n Pepper doubling with En Vogue, but that was “Whatta man.”  Dealing with her own 99 problems, she didn’t know what I was talking about, so I googled, and the first hit was a youtube video for a song, “I don’t need a man” by the Pussycat Dolls.  For those who, as myself, am still entrenched in the last decade, the Pussycat Dolls are the latest and greatest in cultured, classy, modern R&B.  I sent the youtube link to Andrea, which provided this (somewhat edited) train of thought:

andrea: I know it’s hot with all those lights on,
andrea: but really put some clothes on
andrea: and keep them on for the whole video.

andrea: if you’re going to say you don’t need a man…..
andrea: The pussycat dolls are wearing like nothing.
andrea: Why don’t men wear nothing like that and dance in videos??
andrea: it’s not fair
andrea: I want chair dances!
me: Sometimes men don’t wear their shirts…
andrea: yeah, it’s not enough.  i want my softcore porn videos like this.

andrea: why do they keep sticking their legs up in the air?
andrea: like a split but balanced on one leg
me: it shows how much they don’t need a man.
me: I think its a ballet move gone sour.
andrea: ooooooh.
andrea: this is another reason i don’t have children.
andrea: just b/c you can do it doesn’t mean you should in a video.

andrea: omg i’m finishing the PC dolls video. they’re putting on clothes
andrea: really looks like they need a man to sell their videos to
andrea: or they wouldn’t be dressed like that

Afterwards, Andrea did some background work and discovered this:

“On August 8, 2006, after a Dolls concert in Kuala Lumpur, their concert promoter, Absolute Entertainment, was charged with flouting Malaysian decency laws. The Malay Mail quoted Culture Arts and Heritage Minister Datuk Mohamad Arif Abdul Rahman as saying: “I believe the way the Pussycat Dolls behaved onstage amounted to gross indecency”. The charge was settled by paying a fine of RM5000.