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THE POLITICS OF POP CULTUREShear Genius - “We’re so pretty!”
Posted July 31st, 2008 in All, Beauty Wars, Celebrities, Entertainment and TV Moment of the WeakI’m not gonna lie. I haven’t laughed this hard since the first time I shut my eyes and listened to that Rene guy try to spit out a whole sentence at once. Bravo’s Shear Genius has unequivocally the best unintentional comedy on television, bar none. Maybe you have to either be a girl or or a gay stylist to appreciate it, but it’s definitely there. And this week’s episode was the best of the worst as far as I’m concerned.
If you’ve missed all the hair love, here’s more than you need to know. Shear Genius is one of the multiple Bravo shows spawned by the success of Project Runway, which also rarely disappoints…or perhaps that should be regularly disappoints. Point being, they take a bunch of designers/stylists/hairdressers/whatever, throw them into a bunch of silly challenges and have the whole thing hosted by some icon in the industry. Shear Genius, the hair version, is hosted by ex-Charlie’s Angel Jaclyn Smith, presumably because they couldn’t get Farrah Fawcett.
On this week’s episode, they brought in former Angel Kate Jackson to guest judge (again presumably because they couldn’t get Farrah Fawcett). After the world’s most heinous hair color challenge (proof - the chick on the left was the winner), they gave all the stylists the “challenge” of re-creating and updating the classic Charlie’s Angels hairstyles. Hilarity ensued. Kate Jackson (the smart Angel) lived up to her moniker by telling stories on the other two Angels with the cameras rolling! (My favorite moment - when Kate recalled telling the stage crew to calm down and “let the money brush its hair” when the whole set had to stop so Farrah and Jaclyn could throw their heads upside down and brush their wavy wave waves out. Jaclyn was predictably unthrilled).
But better by far was the judging. You can imagine how the self-impressed ex-angels felt about the new “updated” styles. Pretty much it boiled down to: None of you are as pretty as we were. We were so hot. I mean, we were the hottest hotties on the block and you don’t have a chance at ever being as hot as we were. Hot hot hot. Did we mention that we were ABSOLUTELY fabulous? I mean we were fantastic. Really.
My kudos to Bravo. Escapism at its best. Really.
Why Aren’t Talk Shows Talking About: Global Poverty
Posted July 30th, 2008 in Activism, All, Commentary, Entertainment and FinancesMap of the world showing poverty as a percentage of population
(red = highest poverty ratio, blue = lowest poverty ratio)
Let’s face it America - we’re addicts. What else could we be? We are a nation with the world’s largest disposable income, at the mercy of mega-corporations whose sole purpose is to convince us to dispose of that income on their products. Despite the fact that tobacco companies aren’t even pretending anymore that cigarettes won’t kill you, we smoke them. Even though beer is the cause of many a coyote morning, we drink it. We try to be conscious of empty calories, but we still devour sugar like it’s going out of style. And like most addicts, we’re getting worse rather than better. We have been on the top of the economic food chain for so long that the very threat of losing our place sends us into a tailspin of self-destructive behavior, aimed solely at distracting us from the long hard economic fall we fear.
Take talk shows, for example. Talk about getting worse rather than better. The days when talk show hosts were educated people with social agendas are long past…if they ever really existed at all. Today, Jerry Springer rules the roost - when his bouncer Steve isn’t stealing the show. Tyra spills her wig and her crazy all over the stage on her own talk show. Oprah tells us what to read, while Dr. Phil is busy dodging copious lawsuits due to the fact that he IS NOT LICENSED to practice psychiatry, which clearly doesn’t hold him back.
All of this leads us to wonder, with so many opportunities to bring attention to actual issues, why are talk shows so full of tripe? Sure, the lazy answer is that ad revenue is the real driving force behind talk shows, not audience interest or education. A show’s success really only depends on whether or not it can sell diapers or new cars to its target audience, and target audiences are in a better buying mood when they’re distracted from their problems by outrageous behavior. But lazy is for Dr. Phil. With hundreds of opportunities each year to create news, why not devote one or two episodes to issues that actually matter to someone besides advertising executives?
So this week, we’re devoting our own little post to an issue that matters to us: Global Poverty. Take a look at these statistics. They’re not sexy, they won’t put a shine on your shoes or whiten your teeth, but if you’re really looking for distraction from your own problems, you may find that they work better than a smoke and drive in fast car. A little perspective might help our mortgage-obsessed society to see that having to sell our house and move into a three bedroom apartment isn’t really as near to the end of the world as it sounds.
- Half the world — nearly three billion people — live on less than two dollars a day.Source 1
- More than 80 percent of the world’s population lives in countries where income differentials are widening.Source 2
- The poorest 40 percent of the world’s population accounts for 5 percent of global income. The richest 20 percent accounts for three-quarters of world income.Source 3
- According to UNICEF, 26,500-30,000 children die each day due to poverty. And they “die quietly in some of the poorest villages on earth, far removed from the scrutiny and the conscience of the world. Being meek and weak in life makes these dying multitudes even more invisible in death.”Source 4
- Around 27-28 percent of all children in developing countries are estimated to be underweight or stunted. The two regions that account for the bulk of the deficit are South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.
If current trends continue, the Millennium Development Goals target of halving the proportion of underweight children will be missed by 30 million children, largely because of slow progress in Southern Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.Source 5
- Based on enrolment data, about 72 million children of primary school age in the developing world were not in school in 2005; 57 per cent of them were girls. And these are regarded as optimisitic numbers.Source 6
- Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names.Source 7
- Less than one per cent of what the world spent every year on weapons was needed to put every child into school by the year 2000 and yet it didn’t happen.Source 8
- Infectious diseases continue to blight the lives of the poor across the world. An estimated 40 million people are living with HIV/AIDS, with 3 million deaths in 2004. Every year there are 350–500 million cases of malaria, with 1 million fatalities: Africa accounts for 90 percent of malarial deaths and African children account for over 80 percent of malaria victims worldwide.Source 9
Dr. Phil - Smugaholic Times Two
Posted July 29th, 2008 in All, Celebrities, Commentary, Dr. Phil Chronicles and EntertainmentOOPS! Ah did it again!
If you missed our original diatribe against Dr. Phil (aka The Anti-Christ), here’s your second chance. Arguably the most bungled episode of Dr. Phil’s show is replaying today. Check your DVR to see how badly the good (unlicensed) doctor can muck up the lives of a young married couple in one little television hour.
Photo of the Day - Angkor Ruins
Posted July 28th, 2008 in All and PhotographyRuins in Angkor, Cambodia
Kenneth Parker Photography - Temple ruins are overgrown with the roots of giant trees.
Photo of the Day - Peruvian Guinea Pig Festival
Posted July 27th, 2008 in All, Photography, Take a look... and Weekend FluffFashion Pig at Peruvian Guinea Pig Festival
From National Geographic - An Andean woman shows off a costumed guinea pig, or cuy, during the fashion contest at the guinea pig festival in Peru.
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