I Hate Rihanna

I don’t think I’ve ever said anything on here but I reallydon’t like Rihanna. Part of it is her music. Part of it is her infamous diva ingratitude. Mostly, she is one of the worst role models I’ve seen since Fantasia Barrino (another rant for another time).

Starting with the music, most of her songs are complete and utter crap. Her primary medium is trash pop so my bar is not high. I like a good shallow but bouncy pop song but for this I turn to Britney, Katy, or almost anyone else.

Occasionally she’ll release something I’ll find mildly listenable like S&M. I don’t despise We Found Love. However I cannot stand Rude Boy and You Da One. I will change my radio to a commercial before listening to nonsensical twaddle. They are lyrically simplistic, musically uninteresting, and just an insult to me as a consumer. If this is your best effort, you can keep it.

Then you have the infamous attitude. My morning radio station is running a contest to meet her in London and get VIP seats for her concert. I would only do that if I was paid. This is assuming she’ll be on time for her concert in the first place. Expecting her to say more than 3 words to the contest winners is also a stretch.

When she was a guest on SNL, she was in a skit with a bunch of kids. She was perpetually late and when she wasn’t filming or rehearsing, she didn’t acknowledge them and most of the SNL cast.

SNL doesn’t need you rude bitch. This is a much needed PR opportunity for you since acting like you can’t stand you fans isn’t working out too well. You are not above being congenial to the common folk who keep you in designer duds by buying your records.

Her PR leads me to reason the main reason why I cannot stand this girl. A quick Google search will refresh everyone’s memory about the time Chris Brown assaulted her. She readily took him back. The only reason she left was because her team of people knew it would be a nightmare for her image. I’ll repeat that just for emphasis. She was happy to take back her abusive boyfriend.

If you’re in this industry, you are a role model for your fans whether you like it or not. Once you have the fame and the fan base, there are young people who look up to you. Rihanna essentially told all of her fans that it’s OK if your significant other hits you. After that I declared her a waste of oxygen.

If rude bitch can’t be bothered to show up to her own sold out concerts on time, I truly doubt she cares that her decisions affect anyone else.  She has also learned nothing in the intervening years because she was recently seen out with Chris Brown. She couldn’t see him until recently because of the restraining order.

I know you don’t care about your fans. I know you don’t care that your example will probably lead to your younger fans staying in bad relationships because ‘they can change like Chris Brown.’ I know you must not care about your own safety if you are willing to take back someone who needed to be kept a certain distance away. I know that Chris Brown was not properly treated for his anger issues and will do it again. I know this time I won’t feel bad for you because to many people tried to stop it and teach you better including your fans. I can't stand people who blame the victim but if this is just round 2, this victim had no excuse to not know better.

I am truly sorry that she’s famous and has the power to influence young women. At least 2 out of 3 Kardashian sister didn’t stay in abusive or dangerous relationships. They may not be ideal but I think they are better role models to young women than Rihanna. If that doesn’t drive my point home, I don’t know what will.

Current Music: Breaking the Habit - Linkin Park

Alphabet Challenge Round 2

I just finished the letter R with Reality Bites Back by Jennifer Pozner. It's a feminist dissection of a decade's worth of reality TV and bless her heart, Pozner actually assumes the reader is smart. She doesn't talk down to you or pander. She treats you like an intelligent person who is capable of critical viewing and changing the rubbish that is out there.

The more I saw what modern television had to offer, the less I believed in it. Pozner spent 10 years watching the best and worst of reality (and surreality) television in order to write this book. I’m amazed she still has any faith in television as a medium let alone ‘unscripted’ television.

Pozner took her task very seriously and provides incredibly detailed dissections of several different television shows. She sees overarching patterns and cites specific incidents and backs up her findings with a great deal of extensive outside research. Her biggest repeat offenders? Joe Millionaire, The Bachelor, and America’s Next Top Model. I knew something was wrong with ANTM when a professor showed me the models posing as murder victims for a photo shoot and the judges fantastically creepy comments. Pozner goes much deeper than the surface to reveal how dysfunctional that show is at its core.

She focuses primarily on the depiciton of women and the message sent to and about us  but that isn’t the only issue. Pozner also takes on the way reality TV handles age, race, consumerism, embedded advertising. She showcases things most TV execs hide like the criminal past of many male reality contestants or frankenbiting or producers manipulating the cast to get certain reactions.

Pozner smartly isn’t one to just talk about the problem. She has her own chapter on how to watch critically including reality bingo and a drinking game which I may have to try out. She also has several other media critics and activists include their brief take on changing the media.

While I wouldn't call this an easy read, I wouldn't say it's difficult. It's dense and doesn't go by quickly but it is absolutely worth reading. I'm definitely busting out some cranberry juice and doing shots for my own 'Find the Fairytale' or 'Spot the Product Placement' drinking games. I think if actual booze was used, someone would have alcohol poisoning by the second commercial break.

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G - The Great Fables Crossover by Bill Willingham
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M - Mennonite in a Little Black Dress by Rhoda Janzen
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R - Reality Bites Back by Jennifer L. Pozner
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Current Music: Kiss Them for Me - Anna Nalick

Alphabet Challenge Round 1

I have completed the first two letters of my alphabet challenge: G & M.

G is The Great Fables Crossover. The Fables series is a comic/graphic novel where the Fables have been kicked out of the homeland by the Adversary and are living in either modern Manhattan or upstate New York. Prince Charming is a thrice married and divorced womanizer, the Big Bad Wolf is reformed and serving as Sheriff, the Billy Goats Gruff troll is building security, the Frog Prince is the janitor, Pinocchio is still a real boy and can’t mature past that, etc.

Jack of the tales has misbehaved one too many times and was finally kicked out of Fabletown only to star in his own spin-off. When the events of the Jack series threaten Fabletown and the rest of the world, the two must reunite to try and stop the world from being rewritten. It’s pretty far into the series so I can’t give away too much but it has the same humor, wit, and human drama that I’ve come to love about this series. It has the human drama of the Fables and the same wit and humor of a Jack novel.

M was Mennonite in a Little Black Dress by Rhoda Janzen. A woman with a Mennonite upbringing lives in the modern world only to be dumped by her bipolar husband for another man. While she convalesces through this and a major accident, she returns to her family.

While she reconnected more with her Mennonite heritage, she never totally left it. Throughout the book, we see evidence that Rhoda never totally forgets where she came from. The title made me feel like SATC came home to roost which wasn’t the case at all. I also didn’t get the Mennonite background until the very end of the book, about a couple hundred pages after I needed it. Without it, you can’t be properly impressed by Rhoda’s journey into the typical. I’m still not.

This memoir also rambled. It felt very directionless. Julie and Julia had a central theme tying the memoir together. This didn’t seem to have that unity. That feeling was exacerbated by the constant flip-flops between past and present. We would be on a road trip with Rhoda and her parents and suddenly we’re in the early years of her marriage. This memoir wasn’t sure where or when it was going. Mennonite in a LBD wasn’t bad, it was just meh.

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G - The Great Fables Crossover by Bill Willingham
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I
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M - Mennonite in a Little Black Dress by Rhoda Janzen
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Current Music: Misguided Ghosts - Paramore

Blue Ivy: Plant, Paint Sample, or Stripper?

As all of you have heard by now, Beyonce and Jay-Z have had their baby girl and have named her Blue Ivy. I believe I speak for most of the western world when I say: What the fuck?

That name doesn’t sound like the daughter of two music industry powerhouses. It sounds like a teal paint sample, a hound dog, or a plant nobody likes. It also fails the name test I have for people who are having daughters. The test involves testing the name in the following scenarios:

1) Now announcing Supreme Court Justice nominee...

2) Now coming up on stage number 3...

Congrats Beyonce and Jay-Z! Your daughter is less than a week old and she already sounds more like a stripper than anyone of political importance.

Most of my office though it was Ivy Blue which has a nice ring to it. I have always liked the name Ivy so I’m biased but switch the names around and go back to the test above. Ivy Blue sounds a little silly for number one but doesn’t work nearly as well in scenario number two which is really what you should be going for here.

Ivy also works better because naming little girls after plants is fairly common: Rose, Lily, Daisy, Willow, Violet, Bluebell (I wish I was kidding on that one). While Violet works both ways, I really don’t see Yellow, Green, or Chartreuse getting hollered at preschools.

From what I’ve heard, Ivy was based on the roman numeral for four which has played a big part in the lives of Jay-Z and Beyonce. If the middle name is the one with big significance, why isn’t it front and center? If I’m not mistaken, Blue is after one of their albums. If I was a kid, I’d be pissed I was named after something as fleeting as an album.

I believe that names should have some strength and meaning behind them. Give the kid a name they have to live up to and fill out. Our names are one of the first things the world knows about us. Blue is a color and an album. It has no depth or history. I would expect so much less from a Blue than I would from an Ivy.

I know celebrities want to give their kids names that are unique and different but sometimes they seriously end up with a unique name that means less than a common name (Apple anyone?). My name is very common but I think I’ve become more memorable because of that. Better to be a memorable Sarah than the only Purple Haven. (None are my real name BTW.)

Current Music: Dark Blue - Jack's Mannequin

New Year, New Book Challenge

New year, new book challenge. I have enough going on that I don't want the obligation of the SweetBlckCherry challenge of 42 books but I want more freedom from the shorter genre challenge I did last year. I think reading a book for each letter of the alphabet this year will be perfect.


Each letter will correspond to a book title like the Eyre Affair for E or Brave New World for B. 'The' and 'A' will not be counted when alphabetizing. While not all book have to be things I haven't read, I will try to make as many new reads as possible. All books must be finished by December 31, 2012 (or December 21 if you believe the Maya). 


Graphic novels will be permitted. I think they have as much literary capabilities as a regular book but I can go through them rather quickly. Young adult/teen books will be allowed as well but again, in moderation. I think teen fiction can have some of the most new and original ideas you'll find for dystopian or paranormal fiction but I can go through them fairly quickly.


Library books will also be permitted since it will make some of the more difficult letters possible. With the ground rules laid out, let the reading begin!

WWCS

I was talking to a friend of mine and she found my advice so helpful that she said "I need a WWCS bracelet: What Would Cherry Say?" Yeah, I'm just that awesome. If only the rest of the world got that memo.

Switching Venues

I've had an LiveJournal for a few years now. I think I'll give this site a shot to try something different.