15 ways to celebrate Prince this weekend
1. Watch "Purple Rain." It may not be on Netflix, but you can rent it on Amazon, buy it on iTunes, and catch one of the many screenings scheduled on MTV. AMC is also teaming up with Warner Bros. to bring the movie that made Prince a household name back to the big screen this week. So, you can even get a group of friends together and watch it at the movies.
2. Find a B-side you love. We recommend "Erotic City" and "17 Days."
3. Watch the 1989 Michael Keaton-Jack Nicholson "Batman" movie, playing particular attention to the scene in which the Joker and his cronies smash things and defile famous paintings inside a museum. That's Prince's song "Partyman" playing in the background.
4. Walk around in high heels. Prince never left home without them.
5. Watch the "Chapelle's Show" skit about Prince challenging Eddie Murphy and his brother Charlie to a game of basketball. It's a classic and it's actually based on a true story, which only adds to the humor. So, yes, Prince really did school Eddie and Charlie Murphy at basketball. And yes, he reportedly served them pancakes after the loss. If that's not enough incentive to watch, think about the fact that Prince loved the skit so much he put the image of Dave Chapelle dressed up like him on his next single, "Breakfast Can Wait."
6. Watch Sinead O'Connor's music video for "Nothing Compares 2 U." Prince may not be the bald performer crying in it, but he's the genius responsible for writing it.
7. Learn an instrument. Prince could play dozens of them. In fact, on his debut album, For You, which he recorded at the age of 20, he's credited with playing 28 of them: Electric guitar, acoustic guitar, bass, bass synth, singing bass, Fuzz bass, electric piano, acoustic piano, mini-Moog, poly-Moog, Arp string ensemble, Arp Pro Soloist, Oberheim four-voice, clavinet, drums, syndrums, water drums, slapsticks, bongos, congas, finger cymbals, wind chimes, orchestral bells, woodblocks, brush trap, tree bell, hand claps and finger snaps.
8. Have a phone conversation in a high-pitched voice and call yourself Camille. In 1985, Prince recorded an entire unreleased eight-track album with sped up vocals that he coined "Camille." You can also hear his "Camille" vocals on the "Batman" track, "Partyman."
9. Wear something purple. Prince constantly surrounded himself with the color. Paisley Park, the Minnesota compound where his body was found on April 21, 2016, is reportedly dripping in it. And the color pops up frequently in his lyrics as well. The hit "1999," for example, is a musical vision of the apocalypse in which "the sky was all purple."
10. Write slave on your face to make a statement. That's what Prince did during his 1990s spat with Warner Bros. to show his disdain for big record labels and the music industry.
11. Design a symbol and consider replacing your name with it. Prince unveiled his in 1993. And though it was famously unpronounceable, fans dubbed it the "Love Symbol."
12. Listen to a handful of the beautiful tributes celebrities have been doing since his passing. Stevie Wonder's "CBS This Morning" performance and the Broadway cast of "The Color Purple" are two good places to start.
13. Watch "Graffiti Bridge." It's far less well known than "Purple Rain," but it contains the song, "Thieves in the Temple." So, that alone makes it worth your while.
14. Wear something gender neutral. Prince delighted in bending the rules of gender. The lyrics to his song "I Would Die 4 U" delve into that androgynous ambiguity. And his "Love Symbol" is, of course, a fusion of the traditional male and female signs.
15. Lastly, as Sunday night draws to a close, dance around to "Manic Monday" by The Bangles. You guessed it. Prince wrote that one too.
