This summer is going to be riveting in a @rickperlstein book someday.
— Marc Lynch (@abuaardvark) August 19, 2014
And for something a little cheerful, here’s a genius example of popcult repurposing, as reported by the NYTimes:
LOS ANGELES — For a second year in a row, Miley Cyrus hijacked MTV’s Video Music Awards on Sunday night, and this time she did it without debauched dance moves or wild tongue gyrations. In fact, she did not even take the stage…
Near the end of Sunday’s live show, at the Forum in Inglewood, CA, when Jimmy Fallon announced that Ms. Cyrus’s “Wrecking Ball” had won video of the year, a longhaired man who said he was from Oregon and had recently been living on the streets of Hollywood appeared at the microphone. “My name is Jesse,” the young man said, reading from notes without mentioning his surname. “I am accepting this award on behalf of the 1.6 million runaways and homeless youth in the United States who are starving and lost and scared for their lives. I know, because I am one of those people.”
“I have survived in shelters all over this city,” he continued, before attempting to shame the music industry with a speech. “The music industry will make over $7 billion this year, and outside these doors are 54,000 human beings who have no place to call home.” (Los Angeles County estimates that it has a homeless population of roughly 54,000.)…
Ms. Cyrus, according to a representative, modeled Jesse’s appearance after Marlon Brando’s decision to have a woman named Sacheen Littlefeather accept his Best Actor Oscar for “The Godfather” in 1973 as a protest against the movie industry’s treatment of Native Americans.
As Jesse spoke, Ms. Cyrus’s representatives introduced via her social media channels a Prizeo.com fund-raising campaign for My Friend’s Place, an organization based in Los Angeles that helps homeless people from the ages of 12 to 25 find housing, jobs, health care and schooling. Those who make donations before Sept. 21 will be entered in a lottery. The prize: a chance to hang out with Ms. Cyrus when her Bangerz tour reaches Rio de Janeiro on Sept. 28….
Bless the child, at least she’s making an effort.
Get More:
2014 VMA, Artists.MTV, Music
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What’s on the agenda as we start another week?
Amir Khalid
The New York Times is wrong to say that Marlon Brando sent Ms Littlefeather to the Academy Awards ceremony to accept his Oscar. Per Wikipedia, he sent her to decline it on his behalf.
That said, there may be more depth to young Miss Cyrus than we suspected.
Tommy
Adults without a roof over their heads is bad enough, but there is NO way it should be in a nation with all our wealth and resources that children are living on the street (and yes, I know some choose to do exactly this). So good for Miley. It would just be a “rounding” error on the balance sheet of most of those that performed last night or won an award to help put a roof over the head of hundreds if not tens of thousands of people.
I mean I watched the Palin “ice bucket challenge” video yesterday. At the start she said she was going to write a check right there, heck she’d double it. So what isn’t that $200? Look I am a middle class dude. I make a pretty good living. But a few months out of the year I might wonder how I will cover all my bills until the next paycheck. And since I work for myself, those paychecks are not always every two weeks.
With that said I could easily afford $200. So when somebody that makes millions seems to think doubling a donation to a whooping $200 is something of note makes me realize how FUBAR this nation is.
OK, need more coffee ….
OzarkHillbilly
For the week or the day? Today, cooking, canning, and freezing. Oh, and feeding the solar dryer too. For the week, get the wife off to Spain. Might be a job too, she hasn’t been…. very energetic of late. Bother’s her more than me, but I can’t pack for her.
RosiesDad
Good for her.
Reinforces my opinion that her “outrageous behavior” is a calculated move to sell product but behind it, she is a thoughtful, intelligent and maybe even decent human being.
raven
Back to work after MOHS surgery. I can’t get the damn bandage to stick over the stitches with the vaseline over the incision!
Four days till football!!!!!
Tommy
@RosiesDad:
I’ve always felt that was the case. And anything else can be explained by the fact she is very, very young and has more money then she can spend in a lifetime. When I was her age I hate to think of the things I would have done if I had all her money and popularity. If I am honest with myself I would have either ended up in jail or maybe dead in a hotel room. You know, just saying.
Schlemizel
@raven: Super high rate of success with that so best of luck.
I am bummed. After building up a pretty good case of ‘pop-artist as douchebag’ disgust with Ms. C to have her show that sort of external awareness is unsettling. I do wonder how much of her billions are going to help though.
Its back to work after a week off. I don’t remember the last year I had 2 separate weeks off in one summer – I should have left the consulting business much earlier.
Tommy
How about a happy video for an early AM Monday morning. It is short, and will bring a big smile to your face:
http://io9.com/this-little-girls-reaction-to-a-rocket-launch-will-make-1626050715
I won’t say anymore then that, other then to note one of the last comments on the post is just flat out wonderful. It reads:
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: So it went well? Pathology report yet?
Chris
@Tommy:
This always remidns me of Jesus in re people who give from their needs and not from their riches…
BillinGlendaleCA
Joe Scar’s making sense, somebody must have put acid in my diet coke.
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: In MOHS surgery they cut, analyze and cut again until they get a clean “margin” so I should be good to go.
raven
@BillinGlendaleCA: Nuts isn’t it?
Tommy
@Chris: I am not saying I am anything close to perfect. I give some money. However, I tend to give more of my time. I do web sites for a living and like to think I am darn good at my job. I usually do around half a dozen sites a year for non-profits or a charity for free. No charge, no questions asked. Heck they always say I should plaster my name all over the site and I refuse to even do that, self promotion isn’t why I do it.
I just feel like my expertise, giving them a professional looking site and an easy way to collect donations online, goes a lot further to helping them achieve their goals and objectives then writing them a check once or twice.
Schlemizel
saw this & was creeped out by it. stay till the end, it’ll be OK.
http://sploid.gizmodo.com/this-short-with-alan-rickman-just-destroyed-one-of-my-c-1624425825
Baud
@BillinGlendaleCA: @raven:
What’s he talking about?
Chris
@Tommy:
Oh, I wasn’t accusing you. I was just remembering that line because the context had Jesus fairly unimpressed with all the rich people giving things that to them were nothing but pocket change… and imagining (easily) what he’d have to say about Sarah Palin.
(In your case, I’d say the fact that you actually sat down and thought about what you could do that would do the most good is a hell of a point in your favor – as opposed to her “fling a coin to a beggar because all the kool kids are doing it right now” thing).
BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: The cops in Ferguson being way off base, racial bias in policing and the militarization of the police.
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: cool.
Baud
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Good.
Tommy
@Chris: Of course I know you were not. I usually won’t touch a site for under $1,500. I could write a check for $1,500, but it would “hurt” my bank account. I just feel like, or I at least think/hope, that a site for a charity is worth way, way more then $1,500 both in the short term and long term.
Last year I did a site for a group that sends tens of thousands of “care” packages to the troops. A few months after doing it I go get the mail and there is a check from them. I called the guy and told him there was no charge. He said that donations had increase almost 275% since the new site went up, and his Board of Directors wanted to “give back to me.”
Brought a tear to my eyes …..
Tommy
@BillinGlendaleCA: I knew racial profiling was bad, or a common thing. But as a “white” dude so foreign to me. Now after Ferguson, there are so many AA authors/journalist I read almost daily and respect that have penned articles (I think most for the first time outside of like Ta-Nehisi Coates) talking about their experience with profiling or just with police in general ….. and as hard as it is to believe, the situation is even worse (way worse) then I assumed. That is a freaking terrifying thought!
JPL
@Baud: I streamed for a few minutes. The NY Times did an article about the timeline between Michael Browns murder and the time he was brought to the morgue. The police force should be investigated for that alone. Even when Joe is making sense, I can only listen for a few minutes. He drives me nuts.
Baud
@JPL:
The Ferguson police make Bull Connor proud.
Botsplainer
I haven’t watched him in months, so I switched in. I’m surprised – he’s usually tone deaf.
A Humble Lurker
She’s either a decent person or cynically using homeless children to promote herself. Either way, does this move have a hope of doing anything? Things like this sometimes give me warm fuzzies, but I also wonder when I see them if they’re basically the equivalent of Dan Choi chaining himself to the White House fence.
Baud
@A Humble Lurker:
One raindrop does not make the ground wet.
JGabriel
Damn, I’m seriously beginning to respect that girl. Actually, I suppose I started developing some respect for Cyrus about a year ago, after seeing the common sense and humor she displayed in her interviews after last year’s VMA pseudo-scandal. But this effort to help homeless kids is impressive.
Betty Cracker
I’m prepping my personal voting guide for tomorrow’s primary. It’s unnerving to see some of my former knucklehead classmates poised to run the local government. Oh well. I’m not sure the aging punk rockers will do any worse than the hippies that came before them.
JGabriel
A Humble Lurker:
If Cyrus is just being cynical, which I doubt, then at least she’s doing it in a way that will help some people.
As for whether it will do anything, not every effort to help people has to change the system. Would it be nice if Cyrus’s stunt helped bring about lasting change in how we treat our homeless? Of course it would. But even if it only helps a few dozen homeless kids, then that’s a few dozen kids in need who might not have gotten any help otherwise.
SiubhanDuinne
@Tommy:
I loved her huge round eyes and the way she kept saying “Oh my GOO’ness! Oh my GOO’ness!!”
Betty Cracker
@JGabriel: I held a low-level grudge against Ms. Cyrus for years because my daughter used to watch her stupid Disney show and her father produced one of the most obnoxious ear-worm songs of all time and contributed to the heinous mullet hairstyle trend. But Ms. Cyrus did a decent version of “Jolene” (which I believe AL posted here once), and any silliness she’s engaged in over the past few years could credibly be chalked up to youthful excess. She sounds like a kid who’s just trying to find her way in the world. Can’t fault her for that.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
And one of those people could be taking the first step to the presidency!
Big R
This morning I am getting ready to try my first solo case. I don’t count the time last year I metaphorically beat up on an unrepresented methhead in a custody case as a trial.
Anybody who wants to invoke the ineffable and the insubstantial on my behalf (pray, meditate, cast a good-luck charm, whatever), you are more than welcome to do so.
OzarkHillbilly
@Betty Cracker:
Au contraire, I can and do. I also blame her for ISIS, the Ebola epidemic, the NRA, and the corn on my left big toe.
pamelabrown53
@Big R:
Congratulations!! And best wishes. What an exciting milestone. Hope you let us know how it went.
satby
@Big R: Good luck!
Baud
@Big R:
I’ll summon the ghost of Clarence Darrow to be by your side.
Another Holocene Human (now with new computer)
@Amir Khalid:
Shit, who’s we? I saw it last year, when other people were calling her “out of control”. She’s no dummy, and she was definitely no newcomer to the entertainment industry when she very deliberately repositioned herself. I could see her guts when I found out she had literally had a message tattooed on her knuckles to remind her to ignore the flack she knew was coming and stick to her guns.
Young, idealistic, and in a position to agitate for change? That’s my girl.
JPL
@Big R: Good luck and please let us know how it is going.
Elizabelle
@Big R:
Good luck there! Do the right thing!
PurpleGirl
@Big R: You got it, and lots of luck with the case.
Another Holocene Human (now with new computer)
What I’ve never understood about Miley Cyrus is that, history with Disney aside, the media overreaction to her actions stood in stark contrast with media attitudes towards Rihanna, even though she too had been the scantily clad teen pop star singing Brittney-esque I-have-a-sex-drive lyrics. I wonder why that might be ….
Another Holocene Human (now with new computer)
@Big R: How about buying you the metaphorical drink when it’s over? What’s your favorite pour?
Seriously, this is a big effing deal. Congratulations.
A Humble Lurker
@Another Holocene Human (now with new computer): I think Cyrus is kind of a sleaze, but wouldn’t it have been nice for there to have been just as much outrage about setting a bad example focused on Rhianna for going back to the man who beat her? Or even for making fun of her fans? Yeesh. Cyrus is definitely the lesser of two evils there.
JGabriel
@Betty Cracker:
Oh, I hated her dad and that song, and I still think he’s a jackass. But Miley seems relatively okay. I don’t have much use for her music, but I don’t hate it either. And she does seem to do a fair amount of charity work.
Another Holocene Human (now with new computer)
@Betty Cracker: I must say I can relate–for years I tried to tune out both her and her dad.
I don’t think she’s a babe in the woods, though. I think she’s been very deliberate about repositioning herself, something basically most female performance artists (actors, musicians) are forced to do in this culture as they come of age. She had a plan and she stuck to it. At the same time, it’s kind of ridiculous to hand-wave the more problematic stuff that she’s done in order to serve this goal, appropriating African-American culture (poorly) and black bodies. I give her more leeway on her confused attitude towards feminism and female sexuality because she’s right there on the horns of a patriarchy-created dilemma. She has no choice but to exploit her sexuality whether she likes it or not (in interviews, she explained that the exposed tongue was a sign of embarrassment, and she has exposed that tongue a lot in the last year) or be de-sexed.
Advocating for the homeless in LA, to be honest, is a sort of safe and easy choice. It’s by no means as risky as what Brando did (of course, a lot of his career was behind him at that point, but it was still pretty outrageous at the time).
I don’t really expect pop stars to change the world but the desire to be well thought of while laying so little on the line raises such questions. But then again, maybe that is what is right under her nose. When I was a teenager I knew quite a few teenagers who were really passionate about the plight of the homeless. I am no longer a teenager and feel cynical about these efforts because in 20 years there are even more people homeless and the institutions (like police) of our lives care even less. Wages must go up and rents must go down or the suffering will continue to compound. But instead we have Austerians in the US Capitol cutting food stamps.
raven
Miley don’t give one flying fuck what people think. It’s only rock and roll.
raven
dupe
JGabriel
@OzarkHillbilly:
I blame Ayn Rand.
For everything.
Always.
Another Holocene Human (now with new computer)
@A Humble Lurker: There was plenty of concern trolling about Riri re: Chris Brown AND there were pretty sick things being said about her by Chris Brown fans online, so no worries there. She’s been wished rape, death, etc, etc.
I mean the “oh the poor baby” kind of handwringing which as far as I know, even when Rihanna was a minor I never heard that sort of stuff. Which is fine, it was just jarring when I heard it about Cyrus, who, what, has been in the public eye since she was 13? And had a scandalous, public relationship as a minor? She was 18, not a baby, and not doing anything image-wise Rihanna hadn’t done but nobody was talking about innocence abused in her case. That was my point.
Another Holocene Human (now with new computer)
@A Humble Lurker: As long as the charity she’s shilling for actually spends money on program services, unlike say the scam charities that Hannity shills for, there’s a lot less passion misdirected that with Dan Choi.
Another Holocene Human (now with new computer)
@Tommy: Probably. I’ve seen web designers charge a lot more than that for a totally shitty product.
JPL
@Big R: Is it too soon for you to sue ATT because my uverse keeps going out.
Ten times in the last half hour.
BobS
@Another Holocene Human (now with new computer): You answered your own question i.e., “history with Disney” — she was widely known as a character on a kid’s show before she made the controversial music videos. But I’m guessing you meant something else.
Stacy
Everyday we’re seeing who the true are “animals”
divF
@Big R:
Niel Simon, “Barefoot in the Park.”
CaseyL
@Big R: That’s a big milestone, all right. Best of luck to you!
WaterGirl
@Big R: Go get em!
I was so excited/nervous the night before the first day I had to teach at the university that I was up all night. I put headphones on and plugged into the stereo in the living room (this was not in the time of the iPod!) and listened to music all night.
At some point during my overnight music vigil, I decided that I would just pretend to be the teacher. I pretended for 3 days and then, damn, I was the teacher!
But even for those 3 days, no one had any idea that i was pretending, and even my pretend teacher was pretty darn good. Wishing you the same good fortune!
Edit: Joe Biden just passed me a note in class. It said “this is a big fucking deal”.
Paul in KY
Miley is a proud Democrat & should be supported on this blog.
Paul in KY
@Tommy: It’s Palin, nuff said…
Paul in KY
@Tommy: She wants/wanted to kill off Hannah Montana. Think she wants to do it so throuroughly that Disney can’t even run reruns of the show.