I haven't done a completely random blog post in a while, so here goes ...
Tonight, Peter asked me to play him the "real song" version of a song he was playing an instrumental version of on the Wii Music game. The song turned out to be "Material Girl". I found him the video online ( see below ) and watched along with him. It's probably been about 25 years since I last watched this video, and I just noticed something about it that I had never noticed before.
Watch Madonna - Material Girl in Music | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com
To put it bluntly - the dude in the beard is really creepy.
Now, he's not creepy because of the beard ( though I must admit, it does look a little bit creepy on him ). He's creepy because of his actions.
Perhaps it's because I'm getting old and my memory of the 80's is getting a little bit hazy, but the "Material Girl" video isn't exactly what I remembered. Sure, the "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" homage/ripoff was just as I remembered, but I always remembered this video as being a bit of counterpoint to the lyrics of the song. In other words, while the speaker in the "Material Girl" song is an unapologetic materialistic gold-digger, Madonna's character in the video is a girl unimpressed by money who ends the video making out with a poor bearded schlep in a crappy pick-up truck.
There's just one problem with that description, however ...
The bearded dude wasn't poor!
In fact he was the opposite of poor. He was apparently a rich and powerful Hollywood executive, as is evident by the way Arliss is kissing up to him in the opening scene ( BTW. I don't care what Robert Wuhl is in. Every role he plays is Arliss, even if it's something that was filmed a decade before Arliss premiered ( just like Danny McBride will now be Kenny Powers for the rest of his life ) ).
There nothing wrong with being rich, but there something creepy about a guy who misrepresents himself in order to get into a woman's pants. Sure, he was pretending to be poor when he was really rich, which some might consider to be noble. However, he was only pretending to be poor because heard Madonna character say she didn't like rich guys while he was eavesdropping on her ( The eavesdropping was only a small part of the bearded dude's constant stalking during the video. It's also clear from the scene with Arliss, that this guy views Madonna's character as a possession rather than a woman. Specifically, we see the following in the opening scene:
00:22 seconds: Creepy Bearded Dude ( CBD ) : I wanna meet her.
00:24 : Arliss: You got it. Anytime. Name the place - name anwhere - any street - you got it!
00:27: CBD: Now!
00:27 - 00:31 ( Creepy pause )
00:31 - 00:32 ( Really creepy look from CBD. He looks at Madonna's character ( on the movie screen ) the way a starving lion might look at an injured antelope. )
)
If you still doubt that CBD is a creep, watch the scene starting at 4:16, specifically what happens at 4:21. CBD gives a poor farmer a wad of cash to buy/borrow his crappy pickup truck, and then dismissively waves him away. He practically shoos the farmer away, the way somebody might shoo away a fly. He's basically saying, "Get out my sight you poor piece of crap, so I can use your truck to get me some Madonna pussy!". So, this guy is not only creepy, he's a world-class douchebag!
So now I don't know what the hell the message of this video is, other than perhaps "Madonna likes to get it on with douchebags" ( paging Mr. Canseco ).
In any case, it's time for bed. Hope this post was random enough for you.
Rich
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Sunday, March 25, 2012
How do you solve a problem like Mitt Romney?
( My sincerest apologies to Rodgers and Hammerstein )
( Sing to the tune of "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria". )
How do you solve a problem like Mitt Romney?
He's got positions so hard to pin down.
How do you find a way to beat Mitt Romney?
He's got chameleon skills
that never fail to ...
astound.
Many a politician tried to beat him.
Many tried to get him to take a stand.
But what can you make him say
to give himself away?
How do you get him to tip his hand?
Oh, how do you solve a problem like Mitt Romney?
He's made an asset out of being bland.
Hear that sound?
It's the sound of Mitt Romney moving to the left.
The closer he gets to the nomination, the more of a Moderate he'll become.
Those of you who remember John Kerry's 2004 campaign might not agree with the premise of the little ditty above. You might think that Mitt Romney's flip-flopping tendencies would be a liability in the 2012 presidential campaign. However, while his flip-flopping was certainly a liability in the race for the GOP nomination ( which he's pretty much has wrapped up ), I think it's actually going to help him in the general election.
I know that a lot of my fellow Liberals watch Romney struggle in the GOP primaries and think "Obama's gonna beat this guy easily". However, the polls tell another story, as does common sense.
I think we're all aware that the election is going to be decided by a bunch of conviction-less dolts that the media charitably calls "Moderates". These folks have been hearing Romney say a lot of scary Right-wing stuff lately, as Romney futilely tries tries to attract conservative GOP voters. Considering that these Moderate voters would generally be scared off by such Right-wing positions, do you think it hurts or helps Romney that these Moderate voters can't sure if Romney really means what he's saying?
Furthermore, everyone knows by now that the Right-wing of the Republican party HATES Romney. They hate him with a passion and they are not afraid to say so. When lots of Moderate voters see the Right-wing attack Romney I'm sure they say to themselves "Gee, if the Tea Party and the Christian Right hate Romney so much, I guess he can't be that bad.".
And that in a nutshell, is Obama's problem with Mitt Romney. Far-Right Conservatives in the GOP, despite their best efforts to shoot themselves in the foot and nominate an unelectable Conservative, are actually helping Romney by making him look like a Moderate.
Now, don't get me wrong. I still think Obama is slightly more likely to win than not, but Democrats had better not get complacent, and Obama had better not try to run as a Moderate. Obama's got to do everything he can to make clear distinctions between his positions and whatever positions Romney is adopting that week.
Let's face it - while American has made a lot of progress in race relations over the years, we still live in a nation were stuff like this happens. We shouldn't forget that McCain was leading Obama in the polls in 2008 before the economy collapsed and McCain made the bone-headed remark "the fundamentals of our economy are strong". America may not know exactly what to make of Mitt Romney, but if nothing else, they know that he's extremely white. Obama had better make sure that enough people in the country understand that there is more that separates him from Mitt Romney than skin color.
I'll tell you this much - if Obama campaigns the same way he's governed, he'll lose for sure. I'm going to be really worried if I don't hear the sound of Obama moving to the left real soon.
Rich
( Sing to the tune of "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria". )
How do you solve a problem like Mitt Romney?
He's got positions so hard to pin down.
How do you find a way to beat Mitt Romney?
He's got chameleon skills
that never fail to ...
astound.
Many a politician tried to beat him.
Many tried to get him to take a stand.
But what can you make him say
to give himself away?
How do you get him to tip his hand?
Oh, how do you solve a problem like Mitt Romney?
He's made an asset out of being bland.
Hear that sound?
It's the sound of Mitt Romney moving to the left.
The closer he gets to the nomination, the more of a Moderate he'll become.
Those of you who remember John Kerry's 2004 campaign might not agree with the premise of the little ditty above. You might think that Mitt Romney's flip-flopping tendencies would be a liability in the 2012 presidential campaign. However, while his flip-flopping was certainly a liability in the race for the GOP nomination ( which he's pretty much has wrapped up ), I think it's actually going to help him in the general election.
I know that a lot of my fellow Liberals watch Romney struggle in the GOP primaries and think "Obama's gonna beat this guy easily". However, the polls tell another story, as does common sense.
I think we're all aware that the election is going to be decided by a bunch of conviction-less dolts that the media charitably calls "Moderates". These folks have been hearing Romney say a lot of scary Right-wing stuff lately, as Romney futilely tries tries to attract conservative GOP voters. Considering that these Moderate voters would generally be scared off by such Right-wing positions, do you think it hurts or helps Romney that these Moderate voters can't sure if Romney really means what he's saying?
Furthermore, everyone knows by now that the Right-wing of the Republican party HATES Romney. They hate him with a passion and they are not afraid to say so. When lots of Moderate voters see the Right-wing attack Romney I'm sure they say to themselves "Gee, if the Tea Party and the Christian Right hate Romney so much, I guess he can't be that bad.".
And that in a nutshell, is Obama's problem with Mitt Romney. Far-Right Conservatives in the GOP, despite their best efforts to shoot themselves in the foot and nominate an unelectable Conservative, are actually helping Romney by making him look like a Moderate.
Now, don't get me wrong. I still think Obama is slightly more likely to win than not, but Democrats had better not get complacent, and Obama had better not try to run as a Moderate. Obama's got to do everything he can to make clear distinctions between his positions and whatever positions Romney is adopting that week.
Let's face it - while American has made a lot of progress in race relations over the years, we still live in a nation were stuff like this happens. We shouldn't forget that McCain was leading Obama in the polls in 2008 before the economy collapsed and McCain made the bone-headed remark "the fundamentals of our economy are strong". America may not know exactly what to make of Mitt Romney, but if nothing else, they know that he's extremely white. Obama had better make sure that enough people in the country understand that there is more that separates him from Mitt Romney than skin color.
I'll tell you this much - if Obama campaigns the same way he's governed, he'll lose for sure. I'm going to be really worried if I don't hear the sound of Obama moving to the left real soon.
Rich
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