Rachel Maddow is a Lesbian Vampire?

...this clip says it all. Have I mentioned that I adore her?

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Nikita Reboot: One Step Forward for Asian-Americans, Two Steps Back for Women

Thanks to the CW's fairly aggressive marketing campaign, its pretty hard to not be aware of new Nikita reboot airing this fall. While I will admit that the television network is to be applauded for casting Maggie Q., an Asian-American woman, as the title character, this show looks to be yet another edition of the objectification of women under the guise of empowerment. (I also would not get too excited about the racial casting of the show - of the seven other actors listed on wikipedia for the series, six are white).

The show is essentially about a thin, attractive woman that kicks butt while wearing tiny and/or tight clothing. I know there is an actual plot buried somewhere in the explosions and gratuitoous clevage shots, but as far as you can tell from the promo clips, it is clearly not that important for you to understand in order to enjoy the show.

I honestly should not critique this show so harshly; after all, I did enjoy watching such shows as Dollhouse and Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles, both of which sexually objectified the "strong female characters" in some manner or another (though I would argue that for the Sarah Connor Chronicles, the objectification landed solely on the character of Cameron, leaving Sarah Connor to portray a more realisticly strong and gritty woman, who wasn't going to wear tight leather pants to a shootout). That being said, the poster for this show is what really makes my blood boil:

Beyond simply being dressed in a sexually provocative manner, (and in an outfit that is certainly not the most practical for fighting, or the most comfortable), Maggie Q. is shown with a large tattoo of a phoenix on her hip. Admittedly, the tattoo is real and not just a photoshop job, however combined with the revealing leotard outfit and loose, fan blown hair, the tattoo leaves me with the impression that the CW is showing off a prized wild horse that has been branded, but not entirely tamed. If the CW had chosen to portray the actress in, say, loose cargo pants, and a tank (even if it showed significant cleavage), I might believe that this show was about an empowered woman. Instead, I cannot help but feel that I'm watch yet another version of the Fighting Fuck-Toy - a woman there to be aggressive, only so far as it is sexually pleasing to men and the male gaze of the camera.

Second City Translates the Life Lessons Disney Provides for Young Girls

I am not always a fan of the renowned comedy/improve troupe based out of Chicago, but I fully in love with their new series "Advice for Young Girls from a Cartoon Princess." While jumping onto the already very full "Disney is the Devil" bandwagon, this series provides a fresh, cute way to point out the issues with the messages that popular children's movies are teaching to young girls.

So far there are only segments for Belle (my favorite) and Ariel, but supposedly a Cinderella segment will be coming soon.

...Aaaand We're Back!

Hey folks!

Sorry for the month long hiatus - I was traveling around a bit, and then I got pretty sick. Who knew that you could get the flu in the summer. Anyhow, I'm back, and your regularly scheduled programming will now resume

Sorry Pretzel Crisps, at least one New Yorker Begs to Differ

In the last week or so, this advertisement has start to pop up around NYC, a classic case of a marketing department not -quite- thinking through the implications of theirs message. Maybe a cracker-type snack can never be too thin, (though I would beg to differ there), but human beings certainly can be; as one commenter over on Jezebel notes, this ad copy also is the slogan of many pro-anorexia groups.

One NYC resident decided this negative message needed a dose of reality. So, instead of just whining or blogging about the ad, (like I am doing), the man added some extra copy to the bus advertisement, pointing out to anyone waiting for the bus that actually, you can indeed be too thin, and that advertisements such as this one have a negative impact on how we view our bodies.

Ryan Star @ Irving Plaza

Almost 24 hours later, and I'm still in happy obsessive land, though I will admit, my calves and lower back are a bit sore from standing still for 5 hours in flip flops. Ryan Star's cd release party was awesome! To be fair, I don't really go to concerts all that often, so I don't have much to compare it to...actually? I have been to a total of three other concerts - Billy Joel, INXS, and The Allman Brothers. None of these really compare to the small venue of the Filmore at Irving Plaza, so I guess this was a totally new experience. But I digress. Please bear with my slight fan girl giddiness.

I got to the venue around 5:30pm, and after signing a giant banner that was being presented to Ryan, I hopped in line to wait for the doors to open. My friend Andrea joined me around 6pm (after traveling all the way from Boston for less than 24 hours just to go to the concert, such dedication!), and we continued waiting for at least another half hour. The concert was supposed to start at 6:30pm, but the doors only just opened around then.

The venue is pretty cool - it's a small space that is mostly standing room only, with a small balcony around the three outer walls. As we were standing waiting for the show to start, Andrea and I tried to figure out the dynamic of the crowd - as happens often with the pair of us for some reason, we were among the youngest people in the room. There were a bunch of other twenty-somthings...but there were also people that were clearly in their forties and up. We were pretty confused by this, as we figure that his appeal is probably aimed at people in their twenties and thirties. By the end of the show though, we managed to figure it out; when he was fifteen, Ryan was in the band Stage, and many of the fans there had been following him since that time (Back of Your Car is actually a Stage track originally). Ryan is now thirty-two...which means he's been performing since I was around four years old. Yikes.

The first opening act of the night (getting started around 7pm-ish) was Lion of Ido. While they weren't bad, their set felt...somewhat thrown together. We also couldn't figure out if the band was made up of two people or five people, as three of the members disappeared for a while. Still, they were halfway decent, and certainly listenable. My guess is that they just need a bit more experience and polish. Fun fact: one of the members, Ido Zmishlany, co-wrote the song Start a Fire with Ryan, which was added to 11:59 at the very last minute (quite appropriate, no?). The best part of their set though was Ryan's thirty second cameo on stage in the middle of one of their songs.

The second act was Thriving Ivory, who I was actually fairly impressed with. I think that it helped that I had listened to a few of their songs when Ryan announced that they would be opening for him. Their set had a much better flow that Lion of Ido's, which I appreciated. Andrea wasn't the biggest fan of the lead singer's vocal tone, but it did grow on me. I may check them out more in the future - having one of their songs stuck in my head for a while after their set is usually a pretty decent indication that they are either half-way decent, or really annoying (aka, Ke$ha, Katy Perry).

Finally around 9pm, Ryan came on stage. Being short, I wasn't able to fully see him during his opening rendition of We Might Fall (possibly my favorite song of his) sitting at the keyboard, but once he stood up and started pacing around I had few problems. He really does have a great energy and stage presence - his seventeen-plus years of performance experience really show through here. His set started out with a great energy, which was only slightly dulled when there were technical issues with his guitar about five songs in. He handled it very well though, grabbing an acoustic and winging it until the tech crew (who I was not super impressed with for various reasons) could figure out what was wrong. The energy eventually picked right back up again, and the standard set was over far too soon. Luckily, we were treated to an encore, which was possibly the best part of the whole night. Ryan even started climbing around on what I -think- was a random platform the jutted out over the crowd.

The most touching thing throughout the whole night was just how genuinely humble and thankful Ryan appeared for his fans, and his experience. This was clearly an emotional event for the singer, with him constantly thanking his fans, and praising the atmosphere of love in the room. In that, he was not talking out of his ass - possibly because much of his music has such a positive "carpe diem" feel, everyone in the venue just seemed so happy and supportive.

So what was the best moment of the night? I can pick two. The first was singing along to most of the songs, but especially watching Ryan's grin when everyone in the room was able to keep singing Breathe when he dropped out of a few lines of the chorus. The other moment would be when Ryan called his former Stage band mates up to the stage, and made them play along for the final song of the encore, Back of Your Car. It was such a high energy note for the show to end on, and had me grinning despite the ache in my legs from basically standing in one place for hours.

The only negative of the show? Because the show started late and the break between each set was so long, Andrea and I had to book it to Penn Station to catch our trains as soon as the show ended (oh how I love sprinting through Penn Station). As such, we missed Ryan signing cds and taking pictures, but there is always another time....my L.A. friends should be warned, I -will- bug you to go with me next time he is in the area.

Congratulations Ryan!

Sons of Anarchy Teaser Trailer

I watch way too much television.

One of my guilty pleasures is the FX show Sons of Anarchy. Part of it is that I've always had a slight fascination with motorcycles, (and I find the lead actor Charlie Hunnan (Jax) rather fun to look at). More than that though, is the presence of strong female characters. Sure, the bikers in Sons of Anarchy objectify women in very crass ways at times, but the regular female characters of Gemma (Jax's mother) and Tara (Jax's girlfriend) great examples of complicated, strong women that feel like real people, and not simply eye candy for the screen.

The fact that the show as a whole is loosely based on Hamlet, my all time favorite Shakespeare tragedy, doesn't hurt either. Check out the teaser trailer for the third season! It looks like it will be great!