Rachel Maddow is a Lesbian Vampire?

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

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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!

11:59 Is Almost Here!

Are you tired of me babbling about Ryan Star yet?

His major label debut album drops on August 3rd, but if you are curious to listen in, you can check out this site, which has the whole album streaming for free. If you've been listening to Ryan in the past, there aren't a heck of a lot of new songs - Start A Fire is really the only one that I had not heard before, but there are some interesting rearrangements of a few classics, especially Losing Your Memory.

Go listen! I'll be sure to update everyone on the album release concert!

Transgendered Model Poses Nude for French Vogue

So here is a heartwarming story for those of us who acknowledge the problems with the gender binary.

Think this is just your standard gender bending high fashion ad? Think again. The woman standing second from the left is Lea T., the former assistant to Givenchy designer Riccardo Tisci. She is a also a transgendered woman. Tisci made waves recently casting Lea T. for the shoot, as she does not neatly fit into a gendered box. Tisci did not see anything strange with his casting decision, as he argues that including Lea T. "exemplifies the masculine-feminine dichotomy that has become one of [his] design signatures...[Lea T.'s] always been very feminine: superfragile, very aristocratic."

This may have been a small victory for those that recognize that beauty does not necessarily fit a specific gendered model, but the story gets better yet. French Vogue (admittedly much more daring that its American counter part), has done a feature on Lea T., which includes a nude portrait, with only a hand covering her genitals. If you want to see the photo you should check it out here- be warned, it is obviously not safe for work. Congratulations to French Vogue for highlighting an example of beauty that functions outside of the gender binary; now if only American fashion magazines could follow suit instead of spending all their time telling women how to lose weight and please their men in bed.

Rachel Maddow is the BOSS

So this has been posted all over the blogosphere already, but it is just so exorbitantly awesome that I just HAD to repost it here. Rachel Maddow, one of the smartest political commentators on cable, wipes the floor with Bill O'Reilly and his insinuations that she is irrelevant due to her show getting lower ratings than his

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Lego House

This is basically a childhood dream come true - an entire house built of Lego. I wasn't the most girly of girls as a kid - yes, I did have Barbies and American Girl dolls, but Legos were what I-really- played with. I can actually still remember the first time I realized that you could build houses with multiple stories out of Lego; I was six years old, and a babysitter helped me build a second level for the home of the queen of my Lego table kingdom. That second story traveled with me INTACT all the way to England a few months later and remained part of my Lego kingdom for years, as I never had the heart to destroy the proof of that all important discovery.

Anyhow, here is my perfect dream home if I was still six years old.

Glenn Beck Going Blind...is it Karma, or Proof That He Is a Prophet??

During a talk in Salt Lake City, Fox News pundit Glenn Beck revealed that he has macular dystrophy, and was recently told he could go blind within the next year. While I might strongly dislike Glenn Beck, (I would say hate, but he does provide me with so much entertainment), I am loathe to mock him -too- much for his grim news. After all, future blindness is something I worry about, considering I am technically already legally blind in my right eye (inset monocle jokes here). However Beck is a public figure, and his ridiculous critiques of other people does leave him open to some ridicule of his own.

So, in the words of my friend who texted me about this tragic news; "Glenn Beck's going blind. Not sure if this means God's striking him down or he's some sort of prophet."

I do not believe in fate, or an invisible puppeteer pulling strings. I do hope that Glenn Beck, who already thinks that he does God's work, does not take such a message to heart and start styling himself after the blind prophet Tiresias from ancient Greek literature...

Then again, anyone who writes this cannot possible imagine themselves as comparable to a literary device. Come to think of it, do you think Antigone, the Odyssey, and other literary works in which the blind prophet of Thebes makes an appearance even make it on Beck's reading list?

Sara Bareilles - King of Anything

So this is a pretty mainstream singer, but this video and song are my obsession of the day. In a way, it sort of sums up my feelings about my life in general as of late. I will say I think Sara looks cuter at the start of the video - to me, ultra femme attire with garish lipstick looks strange, almost as if a little girl was playing dress up in mommy's closet. I do appreciate the concept of the video though, and think that style of it is pretty awesome.

The Newest Secret Military Weapon...

...is Sharktopus!



...I don't think I really need to say anything more on that subject.

Porn for Bibliophiles

I hate Kindle. I loathe the Nook. I wish e-readers had never been invented. Why? Because I am a bibliophile, and need to hold what I am reading in my hands. Books have a smell, they have a certain heft and weight when you carry them in your purse, (all of mine must be big enough to fit a small paperback), and they just have so much character about them. I understand the practicality of an e-reader...but I worry that there will be a day when I will no longer be able to walk out of my local bookstore with a giant armload of books, that I have painstakingly selected after browsing the shelves for at least an hour.

In that spirit, I present to you Bookshelf Porn - a collection of photos of really awesome bookshelves stuffed with good old fashioned books. Some of the pictures are from libraries and bookstores, others are sure interesting interior decorating pieces. All the same, I've been salivating over some of these pictures - having a library with floor-to-ceiling shelves and those rolling ladders is a long standing dream of mine since I was very, very young.

Christina Perri - Jar of Hearts

I am such a sucker for a good ballad. Especially when that ballad is in my vocal range, so I can sing along when no one else is around. Christina Perri has been propelled out of nowhere within the last couple weeks, after her song "Jar of Hearts" was used on So You Think You Can Dance, thanks to a friend giving her demo of the song to choreographer Stacey Tookey. Her song is now on itunes and has already sold over 100,000 copies - and that can't be all SYTYCD fans.

Enjoy my new obsession for the day

Mr. Walken, Are You Bluffin' With Your Muffin?

This is a bit of an old clip, taken from the show Friday Night with Jonathan Ross on the British channel BBC One...possibly one of the most entertaining "covers" of Lady Gaga's Poker Face that I have seen yet.

The Disappointment of So You Think You Can Dance

After watching six seasons of So You Think You Can Dance (I missed the first one), I think it is time that I came to terms with the fact that the show is, at its core, sexist, a rigid enforcer of gender binaries, and sometimes just out and out creepy (thanks executive producer Nigel Lythgoe a.k.a Creepy Uncle Nigel, I think I'll dedicate an entire post to you at a later date).

Part of the problem is that I want so badly for the show to live up to my expectations. That isn't to say that the show does not have moments of beauty and magic, from time to time it does. Some of that comes from the dancers, some of that comes from the choreographers, sometimes its a combination of things. More often that not however, I am finding myself wanting to throw something at the tv in disgust at something a judge said, horribly sexist choreography, or even just the horrific costumes. Are those occasional moments of beauty worth sitting through the rest of the show? Possibly, but I am getting closer and closer to getting fed up and saying no.

Let's break down some of the recurring themes that drive me so crazy

1) The "sexy seductress" storyline

There is some variation on this story, but generally speaking at least one (if not more) routines a performance night will be based around the idea of this bombshell sexual woman somehow seducing her clueless/ignorant/dorky partner. Sometimes, this is ok, and there have been routines that I thought were fun that did follow this theme...but it gets old. It also puts a strain on the female contestants to -be- that crazy sexual, beautiful woman, a strain not placed on the male contestants. But speaking of the men...

2) Men Must Dance Like Men

This has been a common theme over the various seasons, as a critique thrown at men on the show who either dance too "femininely" (whatever that means), or without enough maturity. I can understand comments about maturity, though that tends to be an issue when you compare 18 year olds with twenty-somethings, but the comments on dancing "femininely" drive me crazy. There are times when a male partner must have strength, and act the macho man (ie, the paso doble, which I hate), however this is not always necessary. Why can't the male dancers display more delicacy, if that is the expression of their dancing and their bodies' capabilities? The reverse of this is also thrown at women who get into trouble for being "too strong," but that happens less frequently and not as vehemently as with men.

3) Women Must Wear Revealing Costumes, Especially for Ballroom.

This one is pretty self-explanatory. It is also a requirement that Creepy Uncle Nigel comment on how sexy a woman looks as part of his critique on her dancing. For ballroom I can quiet down the inner feminist (I feel like she needs a name, any suggestions?), but when female dancers are made to wear sparky bras during hip hops routines while their partner is normal street clothing, I get more than a little cranky. (See the picture posted a few days ago).

4) America Loves Your Butt

Whether it's a dance entirely focused on a woman's behind (thanks Mia Michaels, season 5), girls shaking/popping their rump as a significant part of a hip hop routine (all seasons, especially when Shane Sparks choreographs), a male contestant being forced to show off his backside, and his father doing the same, SYTYCD has an obsession with their contestants' backsides. I'm never a fan of diminishing people to a body part, and this is a reoccuring theme for both male and female contestants.

5) Add a Little Violence to your Samba

"even the spank was with the music" ~ Creepy Uncle Nigel

Violence against women is a tricky subject for SYTYCD. On one hand, it can be used tastefully, and for the purpose of telling a bigger story. Mia Michael's Addiction dance from season five is indicative of that - yes, it implied abuse, but it treated the subject with dignity and proper solemnity. Yet for every respectful treatment of the subject, there is a hip hop dance that shows a woman getting strangled (season five), or spanked (multiple seasons, most recently last week with Kent and Comfort), or any other variation. Even the respectful treatment sometimes borders on being uncomfortable for me, in that it is a theme that comes up too often - what is is about abuse that makes it such a great story? And lets be clear, its pretty much all male against female - the only reversal of this I can think of would possibly be the alien dance between Jason and Caitlin...but that also falls into the "seductress" category mentioned earlier.

6) Where Are the Female Hip-Hop Dancers?

The last time a female hip hop dancer made the show was Comfort in season four. Now in season seven, it doesn't seem too much to ask that there would be another female popper or bgirl? I cannot imagine that there are none that audition that are capable of making the show. I'm always nostalgic for Sara from season 3...surely she can't be the only bgirl out there that is capable of doing other things? It's not like the standards are that high - bboy Jose from the current season is certainly not very good at anything outside of his style.

I always watch SYTYCD looking for artistry and beauty...and fairly often just feel nauseous, or upset. There is a new web series, LXD (The League of Extraordinary Dancers0, that may fill the void left by SYTYCD. Dance is an artform that can fufill many roles...why does it have to uphold patriarchy?

Just Because It's My Birthday...

...I feel entirely justified in posting another Ryan Star video to this blog. This is "Last Train Home," from off the P.S., I Love You soundtrack. Enjoy!

Betty White Says Boo

I actually have never seen the show Hot in Cleveland, nor am I really all that interested (most sitcoms bore me), but this blooper from a live taping (they use a studio audience) is AWESOME.

Hot in Cleveland
Tags: Videos,Cast