‘Scandal’ Season 4 Episode 9 Recap: “Where the Sun Don’t Shine”
November 22, 2014 by admin
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Whatever Scandal‘s problem is, from week to week and on the whole, as one of TV’s fastest-paced and most consistently bonkers dramas, it’s never that the show has gotten too silly. This is not to say that Scandal is not, very often, a remarkably silly show; the thing is, silliness is more often than not a good look for Scandal. Think about Mellie’s fire-and-brimstone monologues, which we haven’t heard nearly enough of this season. The show works as a high-stakes political thriller and a romance built around a love triangle and even, in the past two seasons, a family drama. Scandal sacrifices tonal consistency in these moments of Twitter-friendly, in-your-face wackiness — but if it didn’t have a screwy, campy, self-aware sense of humor, it would be a slog to watch.
Last night’s winter finale, “Where the Sun Don’t Shine,” was a messy, silly, thoroughly enjoyable case in point. Let us count the groaners: Photos of Cyrus and Michael leak, and — like a father whose teenage daughter tells him she’s pregnant by her boyfriend — Olivia concludes that the only way to save Cy’s reputation is for the two of them to get married. Michael, who remains too sweet for his own good (not to mention the RNC’s), is down. But Cy won’t marry “this person.” He’s still bitter about being taken in by Michael, and he gives a semi-crazy speech revealing that the prostitute and the late, lamented James are the only two men he’s ever slept with, after 40 years in the closet.
Later, Cy coaxes Fitz into accepting his teary resignation, in a scene that tested the limits of this viewer’s almost limitless Shonda Rhimes Repetition Tolerance. Of course, Cy doesn’t actually end up resigning. Liv gives him the tough-love pep talk of a lifetime, another repetition-packed monologue. (I mean, has a man ever been called a “bitch baby” so many times outside of a dominatrix’s dungeon?) And then Cy decides to be brave by going forth and marrying that rent boy, taking him on a whirlwind tour of TV talk shows. There’s no part of this storyline that isn’t ridiculous… but was it fun to watch? Oh, yes.
Meanwhile, we’ve got Charlie and Quinn playing spy vs. spy again. When Jake foils an attempt on his life and figures out that Rowan is dealing with B613′s crisis by “cleaning house” — killing off his agents, one by one, in what appears to be a real-life game of Mafia — Quinn is compelled to warn Charlie. But guess what? After they sleep together (yes, of course they sleep together), Quinn finds that Charlie’s got a playing-card-murder-assignment with her name on it. They tussle, she knocks him out cold, and in the aftermath, he insists that he was never really going to kill her. Sure, Charlie. And then he offers to help her out by handing over the B613 files that he’s been keeping as insurance since Rowan instructed him to replace them with blank paper before handing over the boxes to David Rosen. Now, the idea that Rowan would leave that kind of a loose end — that he wouldn’t be as fixated on the location of the B613 files as he is on, oh, every other detail of his life — is straight-up unthinkable. But was it fun to watch Quinn go HAM on Charlie, while still in her lingerie? Oh, yes.
The silliest and most sublime moment of “Where the Sun Don’t Shine” (an episode whose title, of course, both belabors Liv and Jake’s “standing in the sun” fantasy and makes a crude joke), though, belongs to Olivia Pope. It comes at the end of an episode in which she’s condemned her mother — who’s just been rescued from below Papa Pope’s floorboards — to prosecution as a killer and traitor. Then, when Rowan materializes in her apartment like the superhuman being that he is, in his friendliest purple sweater and a bottle of wine and Stevie Wonder’s Songs in the Key of Life on vinyl, she finally counters his imperious rant with one of her own. “You can never leave me alone, because you have nowhere to go,” she says. “Dad, you are not normal. You are a sick, lonely man.” He tells her she’s deluding herself, about who’s responsible for her success and about the fact that the two of them are just the saw. “You are simply looking in the mirror,” says Rowan. And that’s when she tries to shoot him. She picks up the gun, hesitates, and then pulls the trigger… but, of course, it’s empty. This was a test. Rowan disappears in a poof of disappointment. But for how long?
Hey, let’s not ask questions like that for just a minute. Let’s give Olivia her epically silly moment in the devil-may-care spotlight. In the episode’s final minutes, Jake comes over. He wants to talk about Rowan, but Liv very understandably does not want to talk about Rowan. She has heard again, this time from her mom, that she and Papa Pope are two of a kind. She’s looked on wistfully as Fitz and Cy and Abby celebrated, in the Oval Office, a media victory that she engineered. Liberated from her dad, at least for now, Olivia Pope just wants to put on some music and dance. What she really wants, of course, is to be her own person — finally!
In a moment of utterly transcendent silliness, the kind that will make a Scandal fan — yes, even this one — scream “YAAAAASSSS” at the TV, Liv tells her “standing in the sun” boyfriend, “I’m not choosing Jake. I’m not choosing Fitz. I choose me. I’m choosing Olivia. And right now, Olivia is dancing.” Jake joins her, of course, but only after she makes it clear that she’s “fine dancing alone.” (At this point, I started wishing Shonda would make one tiny exception to her ’70s funk and soul soundtrack rule to play a few seconds of Robyn’s “Dancing On My Own.”)
Obviously, a scene like this can’t end well on a show like Scandal. But it did fool me: I thought Jake was the one who’d get taken out, as the camera snaked through Liv’s apartment behind him. I mean, wouldn’t it be the easiest thing in the world for Rowan to let himself in again, this time with a gun full of bullets, and just wait for Jake to stop by for a sleepover? In fact, it’s Olivia who’s missing — her fancy wine spilled all over the off-white couch! — by the time he returns to the living room.
We’ll undoubtedly have to get a bit more serious next week: We’ve found out that Kubiak and Winslow and Lizzie Bear and VP Andrew are all connected to “West Angola,” and I guess we’re going to have to pay enough attention to the foreign affairs mumbo-jumbo on this show to follow what this all has to do with Olivia Pope. As it all heats up, though, let’s remember that what we’re really here for is the dancing.
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Sukki Singapora ~ Desi Burlesque Performer
November 21, 2014 by admin
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“I do incorporate elements of striptease, but it doesn’t define my performances.”
Articulate, charming and extremely unique, Sukki Singapora is the world’s first ever Desi Burlesque dancer.
Half-white British and half-Indian Singaporean, Sukki has reached the very top of her field in the world of performing arts.
With electric blue hair, and exquisitely designed lingerie outfits, Sukki very much represents a minority within British Asian community.
Admitting that it was an unusual career choice to take, in an exclusive Gupshup with DESIblitz, Sukki tells us the decision grew out of a love for vintage fashion and dressing up:
“Growing up as a mixed race child I always felt a little out of place in the two cultures. So I discovered vintage fashion as a way of expressing myself.
“And when you get into vintage fashion, you hear about the vintage advocates, the American stars and a lot of them practice burlesque, it tends to go hand in hand.”
“I was immediately drawn to it and hooked, and now as they say, the rest is history,” Sukki says.
Burlesque emerged from Italian theatre in the 17th century and then again in Victorian theatre. It essentially means to ‘poke fun of’ and was used as a form of comedy on stage. It was later adopted by American stars in the 1990s. As Sukki explains:
“It would be a light-hearted, artistic, dance performance with elements of striptease incorporated.”
Sukki says it is this neo-burlesque which has gone onto infiltrate both Asian culture and Western culture.
Stockings and corsetry are the main elements of the burlesque uniform. Tight lacing is also encouraged and refers to the cinching of the waist with a steel boned corset for ‘extreme waist reduction’.
As Sukki explains, this creates the popular ‘hourglass, Jessica rabbit silhouette’. Sukki admits however that her interpretation of burlesque in her performances is less erotic, calling it ‘unoffensive’:
“What I do is slightly different though. I do incorporate elements of striptease, but it doesn’t define my performances.”
For many, burlesque is seen as a controversial art form, one that encourages sexual enjoyment and eroticism, definite taboos in many Asian societies, but as Sukki explains these are simply misconceptions of what is a very refined and complex performing art.
As Sukki explains: “The difference between the adult industry and burlesque is a hotly contested debate, but I think that really stems from the lack of knowledge around what burlesque really is. Yes there are elements of striptease.
“However the elements of striptease are not to placate any male sexual agenda. It merely is to embody what it means to be feminine and the body of the female form.”
Interestingly, Sukki also adds that the majority of her performances see a high percentage of female attendees, as opposed to males:
“Over 80 per cent in most circumstance of my audience are female. And they attend the events and they like to dress up and like to do their hair and it’s all about the aesthetics of it and feeling confident and sexy as a woman.”
Sukki sees her profession as a celebration of the female form. Enjoying the beauty and allure of women in a way that encourages confidence rather than submissive behaviour, which is common in Asian society.
Sukki admits however that her career path has derived backlash from the community, although her family remain supportive of her decision:
“When my parents found out that I was to become a professional burlesque performer, there wasn’t a congratulations party. Of course, it has caused some controversy, but I think once you explain what burlesque is, the taboo around it very quickly dissipates.”
But being the world’s first desi burlesque performer is not without its perks. Having become widely established internationally, Sukki recalls that she was even smuggled into Lebanon and Beirut to perform at a private party.
She has also been congratulated by Queen Elizabeth after being invited for tea at Buckingham Palace. Sukki says these are great honours and cement her passion for burlesque.
Sukki is now an inspiring role model for young women and girls like her everywhere, supporting various charities and NGOs for female empowerment:
“I am choosing my career path. Now that doesn’t mean to say that I could not have chosen something else, but what I advocate is the fact that I did have that choice, and I chose to do a very complex and difficult art form of which I take pride in.
“It is difficult as an Asian woman to choose the arts, to flourish in the arts and to express yourself to the extent you want to express yourself. So I hope that by working really hard at it, I can become an inspiration, and inspire a generation of young Asian women, and young women across the world to just be free to express themselves.”
Sukki defines what it means to live against cultural norms. But at the same time she is proud of both her choices and her heritage. Even her outfits are custom made to indulge her cultural background:
“Every single outfit I wear, there is an element of a sari woven into it. I try to wear my heritage in my performances, literally wear my heart on my sleeve. So I guess I’m unique in that respect perhaps.”
Quirky and gifted, Sukki Singapora represents a new breed of British Asian in society, one that we are keen to see much more of.
Aisha Farooq
Follow @desiblitz
Follow @desiblitz
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