Just discovered a fun, new interactive website created by The Grammys to promote the upcoming award show that’s only a month away on February 13th.
Music Is Life Is Music invites visitors to tag their location with one of their favourite songs, with the option to add commentary, a few lyrics, and/or a photo of the artist. Only 3 people in London, ON have participated so far! Perhaps more buzz about it will spread closer to the event.
The series premiere of ‘I Used To Be Fat’ overlapped with the end of the holiday season, during which millions of people indulged in delectable home-cooked meals and family dinners. Now that it’s time to shed those extra pounds, MTV is stepping in by making a weekly hour-long weight loss infomercial targeted at youth. Each week, viewers can tune in to watch the transformations of college-bound high school seniors like Gabriella and Marci, who are tired of feeling embarrassed because of their weight.
In the first episode, Gabriella proclaims that she wants to become “fit, fabulous, and fierce” and expresses her determination to revamp her image by snapping her fingers. After showing close-ups of her holding her tummy and upper arm fat, the producers turn to her social drama, wherein she argues with her mother, Arleen, who wants Gabriella to be “perfect”. “I want her to be happy, but thinner”, Arleen says.
While chatting at the kitchen table, Arleen reveals she has treated Gabriella like some sort of science experiment, by leaving out a tray of cookies and tracking how long it takes Gabriella to start snacking on them.
Cue the peppy theme song with the lyrics, “this is a new year, a new beginning”, thus signalling that MTV aspires to inspire viewers to fulfill their resolutions, which are typically abandoned shortly after New Year’s Eve. As per the confessional style common amongst reality shows, Gabriella explains that she told herself in previous years that she’ll finally make big changes in her life, yet failed to follow through on her ambitions. I think her trainer’s best piece of advice was telling Gabriella to stop using the phrase “I messed everything up”.
In the end, when Gabriella steps on the scale for her final weigh-in, she looks much cheerier and satisfied with her now slender figure. Despite its inspirational potential however, it is questionable how the show will make a dramatic difference for the average American teenager. What about viewers who can’t afford their own silly band wearing personal trainer? What if kids with similar snacking habits lose hope because they think Gabriella’s success is mainly attributable to her new motivational sidekick, courtesy of MTV?
Should people know how awful a first grader feels after being called “fatso”? Absolutely, but that doesn’t mean there needs to be an entire TV series about it. The concept of encouraging youth to lead healthier lifestyles is great in theory, but kids are humiliated enough as it is and there’s no need for people to watch them struggle with weight lifting or rock climbing.
If MTV wants youth to bear closer resemblance to pop stars with strict workout regimes than those who frequently supersize their order, they should offer fitness DVDs as giveaways at their shows.
As the World Health Organization revises its guidelines for exercise, with an emphasis on fitness rather than fatness, fat politics remains a culturally significant issue and one that MTV should carefully address in their latest series.
There are several amusing quotes in this Academy Award winning film, but the scene in which Annie tells Alvy to come over so he can kill the spider in her bathroom remains memorable. First, Alvy says that he hasn’t killed one since he was thirty and then once he sees it, he adds that it’s the size of a Buick.
As Alvy and Annie stand in line at the movie theatre, Alvy is irritated by the cultural commentary of the man behind him, who evidently misinterprets the teachings of Marshall McLuhan. Then lo and behold, Alvy decides to teach him a lesson and introduces the man to McLuhan himself who tells the man that he is wrong. A scene like this could only be made in the seventies, so it’s something to appreciate. What a great cameo.
Speaking of cultural criticism, when Alvy arrives in LA, he remarks that people in California “don’t throw their garbage away, they turn it into television shows”. Unfortunately this rings true today to a certain extent, considering the lack of quality in entertainment produced on the west coast.
After her first session with her “analyst” i.e. therapist, Annie recaps how much progress she made during their visit. She tells Alvy about the therapist’s remark that Annie’s feelings about relationships can be attributed to penis envy. I remember when a media studies professor mentioned Freud’s theory about it and those who weren’t BBMing during the lecture rolled their eyes, or scrunched their eyebrows at the thought. Meanwhile, Woody Allen referenced it over thirty years ago in film, so why should the topic come as such a surprise?
While at a party with his friend, Rob, Rob refers to a female guest as the one with the VPL, which he then explains to Alvy stands for visible panty line. With so many girls wearing leggings as pants today, it may not be the best distinguishing characteristic anymore.
Here’s to reminiscing about the classic teenage love triangle and genre-defining drama, Dawson’s Creek…
Every day more and more people join the blogosphere and the most notable new blogger is actor James Van Der Beek, of Dawson’s Creek fame. Ten years after he infamously cried in the season three finale, James has launched his own Tumblr blog in which he posts videos of himself making comical melodramatic facial expressions. In the video introducing the blog, James explains that he was inspired by reading comments about the Dawson’s Creek clip and wanted to offer his fans more entertaining close-ups.
When he emphasizes that the original clip has been “digitally restored and re-mastered”, it reminded me of Disney’s commercials for their DVDs and Blu-Rays, in which they encourage parents to buy a brand new copy of a video they may already own because surely their children deserve to watch animated characters in the best possible quality. You may also enjoy his latest ‘Asshole for Hire’ video, which you can check out on his blog here.
The following is inspired by a Microsoft commercial (see post below) and recaps some lessons learned in MIT.
Hey there, you may know me as Prince. I loved this past New Years Eve because who doesn’t like partying like it’s 20Ten and playing with meaning? That’s what Derrida promoted back in his day and I can see why. It’s exactly why I released some songs through a newspaper this past summer, as I like to do things differently.
People in this world need to be courageous and creative. Being a follower won’t get you anywhere but being called a copycat and I don’t want a CC of anyone else’s ideas. I prefer to spread my own ideas and I love how Web 2.0 lets me do just that.
That’s why I turn to the blogosphere to rant about whatever I feel like. Democratic communication is a beautiful thing and I think more people should recognize how they can use it for progressive social change. So many opportunities, yet so little time, but we got to stop procrastinating already and put an end to all this marginalization. There are simply way too many stereotypes circulating the WWW and it’s time that somebody does something about it!
It’s great that Kylie has the tools to capture, edit and share her photos, but let’s not forget that her distant relatives aren’t all as lucky. There’s some major social injustice in this world; someone’s got to fix that digital divide. When there are journalists who think a university campus could be ‘too Asian’, it seems impossible for everyone to be like one happy family in a global village. Kylie seems optimistic though. Hopefully her online habits won’t make her become the sad caricature of the computer enthusiast (you’re the man, Vincent Mosco).
The keyboard is like a sword sometimes; Kylie should be careful what she does with those little fingers. As Alan Turing says, communication is war continued by other means. So whether it’s for employment purposes, personal branding, or just an attempt to get a date on Saturday night, people should be careful what they say.
By creating a whole campaign based on binaries, Apple makes it seem like every day is national suit up day in uptight Seattle. You know what Microsoft should really do? Develop an app or add a feature to MS Word that helps people develop their craft in spoken word. It’s such a cool art form, yet many people don’t recognize that. It must be because they’re spending too much time fooling around with their shiny iTouch screens.
I’m thinking about booking a trip to Mexico so I can strengthen my muscles in one of Madonna’s new gyms. What a material girl, trying to put her name on everything. She’s always touring the world to reinvent herself. Well, wish me luck on my upcoming globe-trotting adventures (and come see the show if you can).
That white kid Bieber thinks he can take my place? He can try, but he can’t replace me or the king of pop, may he RIP. Michael was a fabulous performer. Plus, he practically named his son after me. Everything’s so pre-digested these days. We need more originality. Come on, you indie musicians, let’s hear it. Put your cultural capital to good use. You’ve got your freedom and I don’t see anyone handing you death threats, so get to it! I’m curious to see what bricolage budding musicians will mash-up next.
Here’s to making great cultural texts,
Cheers!