Hannah "Not-So-Disney" Cyrus

Miley Cyrus, daughter of Billie Ray Cyrus, was the star of a recent photo shoot which caused quite a bit of controversy. I'll be the first one to say that I don't like the "split personality" thing going on between her singing career and her 'Hannah Montana' schpeal, however, it's more of the fact that she's a person which makes this entire "scandle" worth getting into.

We all know her from Hannah Montana, which is a show run on the Disney network. This is the precise reason as to why fans and their parents are so upset. Anne Leibowitz is a well-known photgrapher and from the sites that I've read, she is a respectable woman, at that. The photos of her were a bit less than Disney-esque and at the same time, they were very atristic. To be completely honest, I believe that this is just another bump in the road for Disney viewers (parents) to see what life is like at their children's age and how this world is coming. Maybe they'll decide not to leave the parenting up to Disney for once and actually guard their television!

Let's Give "Black Hollywood" a Try. (Video)

Let's Give "Black Hollywood" a Try.

I'm paraphrasing, so, take my exact words lightly: "He played the race card. Yeah? As if the race card isn't automatically being played in every situation?" My professor said something along those lines when our class discussed the annoyance of racial boundaries and how white people claim that black people use the "race card" all too often.

I bring this up based on the movie that we watched in class on Thursday, April 3rd. Classified X was the name and bringing out the ineffectiveness of "white Hollywood" was the game. Not to bash the entire movie because for the brutal amount of bitterness coming from Melvin Van Peebles, he did get his point across and he was very productive at doing it. As my new moto is, "is it not what you say, but how you say it."

Van Peebles takes a stab at "white Hollywood" and basically says that the white man has the power and whatever he says, goes. Therefore, whatever the white man decides to be aired on television is what everyone, including the black man, sees. I am almost sure that that was the main problem on his mind. It was not the fact that blacks were slaves or any race card like that, it was a rational argument. Since the beginning of Hollywood, film-making and so forth, the white man has been the "go-to" for what is accepted and what is not in media. This brings forth the question that Van Peebles touches on: What if the black man was in charge for a time? What would change and if he was in charge? Would America change its prejudices towards him and believe, even if for a brief moment, that there are more than just the "white sides to life."

Don't take everything you hear and see for face value and before you make an assumption of what the message is, think first of who is sending the message. They might have less credentials on the topic than you think.

You want Anastasia?

:) *If you're easily offended by laughing at reality...don't watch this!* :)

As I was watching the end of the movie Nine Months (1995) many stereotypes came to my attention- not just gender, but racial and well, stereotypes concerning foreigners. The doctor is a clueless foreigner, who does not even know the correct medical terms for child birth. Heck, he calls the epidural an enema! The nurse was an aggressive, black woman who did not take crap from anyone. I am always amazed with the fact that you can get away with anything offensive (given the correct audience) as long as you're funny and tactful about the delivery, which Robin Williams and Hugh Grant are certainly known for.

1:21 to Go.

During the Superbowl XVII, I noticed something ironic about the timing of the game and the song selection. Maybe someone will agree with me and then it will be proven the opposite of irony. At any rate, here's what I found. At around 1:21 down to the end of the game, Bush's song "Machine Head" started to play. Before I get to my point, let me just say that the first few seconds of the song would be used as motivation to start working out or something of the sort. The sound just gets you going. Furthering my point, the introduction of the song sans the lyrics lasts for 37 seconds. Here's where my psychological mind-set kicked in and I realized what the lyrics were saying and oddly enough, how much time was on the clock. "Breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out, breathe in" are the first words of the song, and then slowly, the song fades out while the game starts up again. The timing of the game and the obvious lyrics that were played leaves me in awe. I could not be more proud of the person who chose to play the song at that time during the game than I am of a prodigy child. There are times in my life and I'm sure in yours, when the lyrics that you hear speak to you. Yes, this was one of those times. It was all too perfect because at that point, there was 1:21 left on the clock everyone watching is freaking out. The Patriots, if champions, would become the second team in NFL history to have a perfect season on top of winning the superbowl and the Giants hadn't won since 1991. Needless to say, this game was full of intensity concerning who wins and who loses. Oh, and I love the song, "Machine Head."

Superbowl XVII Advertisements.

"Here's a guy living the dream. He didn't HAVE a dream until I told him to dream it." This funny line comes from the NFL advertisement co-starring Chester Pitts and Ephraim Salaam in this year's Superbowl (XVII). This was one of the funnier advertisements which aired this year. Kia, Tide, Bud Light, PLANTER'S Nuts, CareerBuilder.com, ETrade.com were a few other creative advertisements. Of course, there were the advertisements for Fox and and (pre-back to the game snap shot commercials) that were necessary to pay for the game to be on, but even they were more interesting than most of the ads this year. The Hybrid car advertisement reminds me of a joke that comedian Lewis Black does a bit on. "Three rabbits were sitting on a log and one goes home and hangs himself...buy a bike." Oddly enough, he was just as annoyed with the lack of clarity that Superbowl ads have as I am. They just don't seem to make sense! Is it about depression? No! It's about a car. A car that nobody thought would ever be created.

I am only 21 and have not watched more than about three Superbowls because I was never interested until recently, but I can tell that since the first season that I actually took the time to view the multi-billion dollar-made advertisements, they seem to lack talent and overall thought, which, in come cases can be misconstrued for cleverness. Bud Light and its dull-witted attempt at copying the Wendy's commercial with the fire coming out of his mouth was one of the more creative ads. Then again, I don't think it's technically called "creative" if you didn't actually create the idea. PLANTER'S had a very cute message: if you eat PLANTER'S nuts, no matter how unattractive you are, guys will break their necks to look at you; unibrow and all.

The one aspect of the advertisements this year that truly bothered me was that they weren't all new! I was shocked. Maybe I missed the concept that the Superbowl advertisements are not always new, but I thought that was the whole idea of telling everyone to "Shhhh!" as soon as the advertisements came on was because they were all created in order to grab your attention!

Kia and Tide take the cake for innovative and creative work for this year's Superbowl advertisement. With gas prices reaching the equivalent to the fare of a round trip ticket from New York to Italy these days, KIA got their point across in a very subtle and humorous way. Gas station attendants were running after this car with the nossel in hand and yet, the car was still running. I think the most intelligent part about it was that it took place in the desert. Tide had a very clever approach at catching the viewer's attention: "Don't do this!" It was humorous and something everyone has to go through at least once in their lives- a job interview with clean, UNdistracting clothes.

[Click "Watch the TV ad" and press "Play"]

http://mytalkingstain.com/

I found the "cheese and wine" advertisement for Bud Light to be clever and almost familiar to me. It was what any guy attending a cheese and wine party would fantasize about. He walked into the kitchen to drop off the "cheese" and ironically isn't the only guy who had the idea. Every guy there has a secret compartment for guy's night in their "gift." It was cute. Oh yeah, and manly.

As someone at the party I was at commented on, the singled out Victoria's Secret commercial was just a reminder "to not forget to have sex after the superbowl game is over." It was bad ad placement. At that point, I was more in favor for the poorly porn-shot GoDaddy.com advertisement. Yes, I would have rather seen skanky girls in their skin-tight tank tops than a semi-classy woman posing in her sexy panties in the middle of the superbowl. Once again, bad ad placement.

Oddly enough, I believe only ten advertisements used celebrity status to boost their memorabilia. ONLY ten out of 62. To be honest, I was quite impressed and also, a bit disappointed- if that even makes sense.

At either a fast or slow rate, that's my opinion of the Superbowl XVII ads. Thanks for checking it out. Feel free to comment!

For your entertainment (and to cover myself for copyright laws and such)
*First referred advertisement: http://sports.aol.com/nfl/superbowlads
*Wine and Cheese: http://superbowl.devlib.org/ads/2008-superbowl/budweiser/budlight-2008-wine-and-cheese/details/

Evolution of Dance

Most of you have probably seen this movie before, and you either think that the dancer is talented/funny or you've seen it once and you think it's a waste of time.



Whatever the case may be, Judson Laipply is basically an "inspirational comedian". He's a motivational speaker and a comedian, which brought his dancing talent and his comedy act together to create what is known as "The Evolution of Dance." He worked on it for a year as he explains in this:



How do I feel about this whole dance session? I love it. It's quirky, it's fun and the guy has talent. He's an entertaining guy, and it just goes to show that even if you look funny doing something you love to do (inspire others via pop culture) you will most assuredly have a following. I love comedy and I am inspired by comedians who use pop culture/current events to relate with the audience. Why do I feel this way? If you want to reach someone, you have to know who they are: what they like and dislike, what makes them tick. Judson Laipply did research on the dance moves from the time of Elvis Presley to N'Sync. In my opinion, he met my "needs" when speaking about pop culture dance and he made me laugh.

What did you think?