We have watched her slide from glory to gloom. And this last incident just feels so… reality tv. So beneath her and who she was. Who we believed she should have been. It just isn't becoming of a woman who always had a certain amount of dignity. She did cocaine not crack! She told the reporter. Crack is wack! Crack is too cheap! Hilarious! …and so sad at the same damn time.
Unlike a lot of folks I'm not ashamed to say I don't particularly like 'The Bodyguard' movie. I've never been a Kevin Costner fan and Whitney's acting left me shaking my head. So no great memories there. I am a fan of what I think of as her most grown-up album, 'My Love Is Your Love'. When people congratulate Adele's Grammy wins for her breakup album 21, I think they should remember Whitney did a far better job, and more than a decade before. Adele's references are all there; only Whitney made her point clear—I'm never taking you back!
I think being Whitney Houston was not easy, especially after the public fiasco that was 'being Bobby Brown', and now it's not going to get any easier as she is demonized, or deified for her glorious 'most Grammys ever'; or as America does it, both in a matter of weeks. But, it sure was great knowing her remarkable talent. She will be missed, but unlike most of us, she has left a bit of it behind for us to, at our own time and place memorialize, over and over again; like my neighbour and their 'Bodyguard' soundtrack (!)
My memories go from the jeri curled model Whitney, to the blond curly wig in the 'I Wanna Dance With Somebody' video, to the puffy rehabbed Whitney, to the photo above. A wide range of imagery for one person to embody. And that may be a good thing. We can pick and choose which Whitney we want to remember regardless of who the media tells us she was.
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