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The VMAs -- My Take

I admire MTV's attempt to do something different each year for the Video Music Awards.  Award shows can be stale and MTV will not rest on their laurels.  This year MTV moved the show to Las Vegas.  There was one main space that a few higher profile performers sang on (Britney Spears, Alicia Keys, Chris Brown) and smaller parties where people sang pieces of songs and got completely wasted!  I enjoy celebrities wasted at awards shows.  The Golden Globes is great for that.  But when people are wasted and incoherent when they are performing, that's a little tough to take. 

A few random thoughts:

*I am the only person on the face of the earth who hates Rihanna's song, Umbrella.  It's lonely. 
*I do like Rihanna though.  Her dress was cute.
*Britney Spears ... there are no words for how lame that performance was.  She used to be such a good dancer.  What happened?  She was so awkward.
*When Sarah Silverman started making fun of Britney, it was just too harsh.  I had to turn away.
*Chris Brown impressed me.   People keep saying that he's back.  He just came on the scene two years ago and he's 18.  Was he ever gone? 
*Foo Fighters' party was one of the better ones with Cee-Lo doing a great guest appearance.  Still, I hate hearing pieces of songs.  I want to hear the whole thing.  They better stream some of these performances online.
*If Kanye West is going to have his own party and be performing throughout the night, can you properly light him!  And is Kanye West on MTV's payroll?  How many times did he perform, geez?!
*Kanye's "beef" with 50 Cent is for publicity.  I am sure you guys know that but it had to be said.
*Justin Timberlake said it best when he challenged MTV to start playing videos again.  I agree.  Enough with all of the bad reality shows.  You can keep The Hills though.  I love The Hills.
*He and Timberland's Southern Hospitality suite was the party I most wanted to be at
*Fall Out Boy's party was just chaos.  Too many people were on the stage.  People were trashed. 
*It was strange watching Maroon 5 and other pretty big performers play pieces of their songs as the show went to its commercial breaks ala Paul Schaffer's band on The Letterman Show.   
*If I hear Mark Ronson's Stop Me one more time, I am shooting myself.  You heard it here first.
*I get it.  You all are going to go to Diddy's after party.  How many times did I have to hear about it?
*After years of hating on her -- because I am so strangely fickle -- I finally like Alicia Keys.  She has just grown on me.  Her performance was great, the best one of the night.  Plus, she was a class act in a pretty random show.
*Justin Timberlake and Nelly Furtado have played their CDs out.  I have heard these same songs so many times!  They need to take a break or make new CDs.  Pick one.
*I'm just hoping that Jamie Foxx was drunk because if he is actually that annoying, I might not be able to see his movies anymore.
*The one thing I wanted to see, Kid Rock punching out Tommy Lee, was off-camera! 

Tonight, I realized that I will never love award shows the way I did when I was a teenager.  They are not created for me anymore but I guess there were some decent moments.  I guess.  They say they are not rebroadcasting this show after today.  Can that be true?!  If it is, then this was the best award show MTV has ever done!

The Times did a good piece on the VMAs.  I understand MTV's thinking on this new structure but, as the time of the piece reflects, the best part of the show was off-camera.

I Am Old!

Check out Lenny Kravitz and Lisa Bonet's daughter! Geez! She's 19. She really does look like both of them.

Media Consumption

I saw Once a while back and loved it. I love movies about how fleeting and precious love is. Such a great movie.

I saw2 Days in Paris. Beebs and I discussed this at length. I liked it but it sort of annoyed me at the same time. I felt like I was watching people argue a lot. Still, it was pretty funny.

I saw Dans Paris. For some reason, I’ve been on a France kick. Honestly, I saw this film because Romain Duris is one of my fave French actors. He is brilliant in this but it is sort of dark. I am not quite sure what the ending meant. The trailer is sort of misleading because it makes you think this film is lighter than it is. All that said, I can not stop thinking about parts of it.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. I love The Biggest Loser. I can not wait for the new season though I miss Carolina Rhea as host. I have gone onto various and am fascinated by the backlash that came up around the fact that some contestants from past shows have gained weight. Come on folks. Give them a break. People say really hateful things. What is up with prejudice against people who are overweight? I just can not understand it.

Tim Gunn’s Guide to Style is just weird. He and Veronica Webb have no chemistry and What Not To Wear is the same show but better. Just bring back Project Runway! What’s taking so long?!

I am working on a longer entry about why I love Mad Men so much. I must praise it some more.

Read A Book

I wrote an entry about the controversy that swirled around BET's PSA of sorts, Read A Book for our blog at work, Engine Feed. I'd repost it but we could use the traffic. Please comment there!

Oh and I think I have another cold. What is wrong with me?

I just had to whine.

A Must See

Ms. South Carolina answering a question at the Miss Teen USA pageant.  This made me day.

Actresses Can't Get A Break

In her review for Dedication, Jeanette Catsoulis wrote a great line that inspired this post:

That weird exhalation you hear at the multiplex these days is the sound of female characters settling for less than they deserve.

I saw a trailer for We Own The Night, the new Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Wahlberg flick.  Eva Mendes has third billing right above Robert Duvall and the only words she mutters, while is a boustiere no less, were, "You might get hurt.  You can't do this.  You might get hurt."  Maybe she has a bigger part, a juicy scene or two but I'm doubtful.  This is a boy flick through and through.

This trailer was right before I saw Julia Stiles do the sidekick thing in The Bourne Ultimatum.  (Though it can be argued that everyone has a cameo in these films other than Bourne himself.)  Stiles confesses her feelings in a pretty cryptic way and Jason, though tempted, pushes her on a bus to go into hiding, simply saying "It gets easier."  Bye bye Julia.

As I watch these films, all I can think to myself is, "Damn, actresses just can't get a break!"  Parts for women, really, really suck.

I know. This is not news but sometimes you just have to mention it.  Though I am doing my part to change that, Hollywood has to do their part too.

My Summer Obsession: Scott Baio is 45 and Single

There is something about Scott Baio that brings out the teenager in me. I was a big Charles and Charge watcher. I had a little inkling that Charles was a freaky (and I don’t mean strange) guy. No one could wear that many sweater vests and not be a little dirty. Apparently I was right.

My friend (who wants to remain nameless because, well, this is a piece about Scott Baio) and I gleefully watch bad television. The night after this show, she called me up and said, “I know you watched Scott Baio is 45 and Single!”

“Yeah!” I exclaimed. “It was so good!!”

We both squealed like fifteen-year-old girls. We both knew this was our guilty pleasure of the summer.

The premise of this show is simple. Scott “Don’t Call Me Chachi” Baio is in a relationship with Renee, a nice, hot blonde girl who fits his extremely specific specifications (as he puts it, “5’6”, blonde, a nice rack”). They have been together for a year and a half and Baio is afraid he is going to his “wall”. This “wall” is the point where Baio stops caring and wants out. (I have felt this wall in past relationships with men so to hear a man describe it felt truly reassuring. At least I knew it was not me.) Baio, or his friend, Jason Harvey who is a producer on this show, decides to go to a life coach to figure out why a nice, philandering, party guy like him is still single at 45.

Whether you think Scott Baio is attractive or not, the fact is, he looks damn good for 45. Take a brief diversion with me if you will. Black folk age well. Hate us all you want but we do. Whenever my older relatives are asked why they look so good, they all say, “Black don’t crack!” Well, let’s induct Scott Baio as an honorary member of this club. Oh, and John Stamos too. They both actually have a lot in common when you think about it.

It comes as no surprise that Baio is popular with the ladies. I just had no idea how popular. I knew about Pam Anderson from her E True Hollywood Story. (Yeah, I watched it.) Well, apparently that is only the tip of the iceberg. Baio has dated a lot of women! Sadly, he has also cheated on a lot of women. This man was a big time dog. Big time! And he is the first to admit it.

Baio’s life coach, Dr. Ali (a hot brunette so therefore not a threat) tells him that he must be celibate for eight weeks; he can not see Renee, his current true love and finally he must talk to each of his old girlfriends and find out what he did wrong. Can Baio restrain himself from the groupies and the playmates? Will Baio lose his true love?

I am remiss not to mention that Baio has a few “boys” that he hangs with. There is Jason, the brother from The Wonder Years and Johnny V, that friend everyone one has who is just too old to still be whoring around but can not let go. Johnny V, Baio’s oldest friend, is bit of a hanger on who appears to be Baio’s biggest obstacle to middle aged bliss. He wants to party all the time and is worried that Dr. Ali will “take his Scott Baio away”.

At this point, you are probably asking yourself how a nice, intelligent, progressive girl like me can like a show that appears as misogynist as this. Well, because it is not. What makes this show work is the fact that Baio does love women … a LOT. It’s himself that he has a problem with and watching him grapple with this is fascinating and well … endearing.

So check it out tonight or the several hundred times that VH1 will rebroadcast the episodes.

Celebrity Weddings

With all of this coverage of Eva Longoria and Tony Parker's wedding, I can not help but wonder if they really know all of these celebrities. I know famous people hang out with famous people but come on! I am supposed to believe that none of this is about publicity.

It happened

I had a completely new experience. On the long train ride home from the Upper East Side, I was reading this section:

I believe this - I believe that we are in the most fantastic pliable medium time, and yet I sometimes find myself unable to convince myself that it is possible for anything new and different to happen in a human life. It's all same old, same old.

And then I came home and had a new experience. It is silly but here it goes.

I watch Sex and the City every night at 11pm. It has taken over from Charlie Rose as my last show of the night. I thought I had seen every single episode. Then I saw one I never had. I kept waiting for the familiar section but it never came. It was entirely new. The episode was entitled "The Freak Show" from Season 2. I googled it. So there it is. A new experience happened when I was least expecting it.

By the way, I could not be more excited about the Sex And The City movie. I knew it wouldn't end.

Who Do I Believe?

The Isaiah Washington drama continues. I don't want to care about this but I just can't help myself.