Rihanna Doesn’t Speak For Me. At Least Not With Her Butt Hanging Out.

English: Rihanna Live at Target Center on her LOUD Tour. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A Dutch glossy magazine, whatever that means,  recently published an article in which it referred to Barbadian singer Rihanna as a Nig**r b**ch.  The female writer who penned the piece has since not only apologized but also resigned from her 8-year post.

Rihanna was understandably not flattered and like all bonafide celebrity, took to Twitter to voice her displeasure.  She accused the paper of being racist and nonsensical in its usage of the English language.  (Even though in her tirade, she forgot that it was not proper to use ‘u’ instead of ‘you’).   She accused the magazine of ‘intent of abasement’.  Rihanna also took the liberty to speak on my behalf, ending her tweet with,  ”On behalf of my race, f*** off!”

I am embarrassed right now.  No, no.  Not because of the nig*** comment.  Such things don’t bother me too much.  That doesn’t mean I condone such racist and derogatory remarks.  I don’t.  I am embarrassed that RiRi elected herself my spokesperson.   Having her speak on one’s behalf is belittling to the person.

Rihanna is not exactly doing too much to uplift her proud black race.  Pardon me but she puts the ‘basement’ in ‘abasement’.  With her increasing erratic and ‘girls gone wild’ behavior,  tweeting topless pics and just recently, tipping $8000 at a strip joint. I am not sure she makes such a great ambassador to any race.  Sorry RiRi!

I am curious about how much Rihanna really hates being called the ‘N’ word since she recently tweeted a photo of her holding a toddler she lovingly refered to as her ‘lil nig**r’.  No word yet on if the kid was offended.  Some of her songs also use the N word liberally.  Maybe it’s just a example of ‘good for the goose’?

So on behalf of all decent women, I would like to say to Rihanna, Gr*w up!

Just my take.

Related:

http://www.rnw.nl/english/article/rihanna-furious-being-called-a-nigga-bitch

http://jezebel.com/5869751/rihanna-does-not-appreciate-being-called-a-niggabitch

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/460508/20130423/rihanna-race-row-calling-toddler-lil-nigga.htm

• Rihanna Shows Off Her Flawless Butt In The Pool – See New Pics (hollywoodlife.com)
• Friday Folly: Who Are You Calling A Ni**er b**ch? Bitch! (funnysideupandscrambled.wordpress.com)

Gangnam Style Can Cause Death!

Gangnam_Style_PSY_31logo (Photo credit: KOREA.NET – Official page of the Republic of Korea)

 

Told you there was something I didn’t like about this song.  Turns out that it is a killer!   You can read my blog about it here.

 

A man in England died Saturday after an office party performance of “Gangnam Style” led to chest pains and an eventual failure of the heart.

Eamonn Kilbride, 46, had just finished dancing to Korean pop star Psy’s wildly popular “Gangnam Style” at his company’s office party when he noticed chest pains around his heart and passed out onto the floor of Lancashire’s Whitehall Country Club.

Paramedics tried to revive the man, but their efforts proved unsuccessful. He was pronounced dead at the Royal Blackburn Hospital a few minutes after 11:30pm.

A spokesman for Blackburn coroner’s office told Britain’s Daily Telegraph that Kilbride died from acute heart failure caused by coronary artery atheroma, which can often derive from vigorous exercise.

According to Kilbride’s wife Julie, the former IT manager was a “loving husband” and avid golfer who “was always the life of the party and loved dancing.”

“We were having a fantastic time at the Christmas party and Eamonn had just finished dancing to ‘Gangnam Style,’” she told the Telegraph.

“He was up on stage and entertaining everybody. He said he had a bit of a pain and just collapsed.”

 

 

 

 

 

Related articles

• Gangnam Style Dance Ends in Man’s Death (mashable.com)
• Man dies of heart attack after dancing to ‘Gangnam Style’ (foxnews.com)
• A Man Dies Doing the “Gangnam Style” Dance at His Office Christmas Party (ksfm.cbslocal.com)
• dad of three dies gangnam (thesun.co.uk)

 

Gangnam Style Not My Style

William Hung?

I need help! Fast.  What’s the issue now?  I am glad you asked, thanks for the concern.  Well it seems as though I’ve lost my taste in music! Yes, music!  I love all genre of music.  You name it, I love it.  Now that doesn’t mean I love all songs, I said genre.  Saying this, there’s this song that I am supposed to love. (Yes, supposed to love.   It’s in the script.  Society dictates.) that I really can’t get excited over.  Do you know what song it is?  You guessed it, Gangnam style by Korean singer, Psy.  What the heck is a Gangnam anyways?  I always mispronounce it as ‘Gangman’, which actually makes more sense.  Gangman Style.

When my wife first introduced me to this song, I watched the video thinking at first that it was William Hung, (Remember him?).   “That guy is still around?”  I asked.  I didn’t see it as more than just a joke or a parody  of some sort.  Then I saw him on Ellen and other talk shows.   I thought,  ”Why are they making fun of this poor dude?  Enough already.”  Little did I know that he was for real and that Gangnam style was here to stay, at least for a while, and would become the most watched YouTube video and would also catapult Psy to international fame.  While I sit here blogging about being anti-Gangnam, Gangnam Style is sweeping the globe.  It’s viral.   People are eating this thing up like hot bread.  Mmm…hot bread with butter dripping down your arm... Did I mention that I love bread?  Do they have Gangnam Style bread?

Psy?

Pardon my digression there.   Do you think that maybe if I can understand what Psy is saying, I might be a bit more inclined to overcome my first impression I had of just a weird looking korean guy doing some crazy dance moves?   (Not crazy as in ‘good’).  It might work.   I mean I do like to sing along to my favorite songs.

 Oppan Gangnam Style
Gangnam Style

Na je nun ta sa ro un in gan jo gin yo ja
Ko pi han ja ne yo yu rul a neun pum gyo gi nun yo ja
Ba mi o myon shim ja ngi tu go wo ji nun yo ja
Gu ron ban jon i nun yo ja

(I still don’t like it!)

Now I don’t mean to trash Gangnam Style or Psy himself.  In this mad mad world, if you are looking for some comic relief and to enjoy a song with lyrics you cannot decipher, then this is your cup of tea.  After all, the beat is, the beat is, the beat is technotronic.  (remember that one?).  But it does kinda have a nice-ish beat, doesn’t it?  Hello, even a washed-up MC Hammer is doing the Gangnam!  So if it brings you happiness, then great!  Unfortunately for poor me, it doesn’t.  Well maybe for the first couple seconds when I first saw it.

But what the heck do I know about music anyways eh?  Gangnam Style hovers somewhere outside my realm of musical awareness.   Just not my cup of tea but this blog is JUST MY TAKE.  You can ignore my cry for help.  I am fine being uncool, listening to real music.  Now where is my Elton John cd?

Related articles

• Oppa, Christmas Style! Watch This Incredible ‘Gangnam Style’ Light Show (mashable.com)
• Gangnam Style And Ghostbusters Mashup “Gangnam Busters” [Video] (wild941.cbslocal.com)
• Gangnam Style USB Drive are truly viral (techconference.in)
• Los Angeles, The Capital of “Gangnam Style” Food, Whatever That Is (franklinavenue.blogspot.com)
• VIDEO: Gangnam Style nears 1bn views (news.bbc.co.uk)
• Gangnam Style (strongthinking.com)
• All PSYched for Gangnam Style Dance Fever! (tlcbabe.com)

The Food Of Love – Soca

 

Soca Queen (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

Chances are, you have never heard the word Soca before.  You may have heard Soca songs but just thought it was called Caribbean or Island music.   Soca is an acronym for SOul and CAlypso.   It could also very well mean SOul and Caribbean as it is the soul of the Islands.  Our ‘feel good’ music, our party music, our come together music.

 

Soca is my favorite music.  With an uptempo beat like no other, lots of brass and bass, I cannot sit still while the beat of a sweet Soca music is in the air.   I jump and wave, wave something, wine my waist, whatever the song urge me to do.  Or I try the newest soca dance move.  There’s always a new dance.

 

Soca is one of those types of music that could pick you up when you are down.  It lifts your spirits and get you in a party mood, whether you are into partying or not.  Soca is the ultimate dancing music and an opportunity for dancers to grab a girl, any girl and ‘wine up’ behind her.  (Wining is the gyrating of your hips).   Dancing soca music is quite simple.  You basically do whatever you feel like. Move an arm there and a leg there,  it’s all good, as long as you try to maintain a rhythm.  There’s nothing quite like seeing a ‘whitey’ keeping up with the islanders dancing Soca.  A couple of months ago, I was at an after party and I noticed a white guy wining on a black girl.  He was giving such a good account of himself that I went over and fist bumped him.

There are some notable Soca artistes known for producing songs that are specifically aimed at getting you to get off your chair.  Allison Hinds, known as the Soca Queen, Machel Montano, Skinny Fabulous, to name a few.  The old stuff with guys like Mighty Duke, Crazy, Gypsy and Blue Boy is still untouchable though.

 

It does not exactly make you want to fall in love, except maybe with the music, but it does a fine job in elevating your heart rate and putting a smile on your face.  Soca could very well be the best therapeutic genre of music out there.  It is not however, the food of love.

For a sample of Soca music, go to YouTube and type ‘Soca Music’.

 

Related articles

• Queen of Soca Alison Hinds to Perform at “Girl Power” Concert in Florida (repeatingislands.com)
• The food of love – Rap
• The food of love - Country

 

The Food Of Love – Country?

Keith Urban crooning for the ladies

I grew up listening to old country music blasting throughout our house on Sunday mornings.  (Yes, we listen country in the islands.  Bet you never thought that).  From Hank Williams Sr. to Jim Reeves to Kenny Rogers, we had the lovesick blues.

I still love country music.  I prefer the old stuff as the line that separates the new stuff from pop or rock genre is blurred and for nostalgic reasons.  Sundays were the days we relaxed and even though I am not sure how relaxing listening to a song about losing ones lover could be, we found solace in the country songs that could be heard emanating from just about every house that had a radio.

Country is often labeled as redneck music and sappy.  The dog left and the wife left with the truck of course.  There’s a joke that goes like this, ‘What do you get when you play a country song backwards?’  ’You get your house back, your wife back, your dog back…’ With a young, bright and good-looking stable of singers like Carrie Underwood, Keith Urban and Taylor Swift to name a few, Country is hipper than it has ever been.  It is no longer the music your parents listen to.

So is Country music the food of love? Well it could be the food for D.I.V.O.R.C.E and picking up girls in the bars.  There are some good country love songs that bring out that loving feeling but there are more that makes you want to take a baseball bat to your ex’s pimped out ride or make you believe that Earl really had to die.  So maybe it really isn’t the food of love.

The search continues…stay tuned.

Related articles

• From The Editor’s Desk: Why Taylor Swift Is Good For Country Music (roughstock.com)
• Friday Mix Tape: 10 Country Songs That Capture Lovelorn Pain And Hardship (howaboutwe.com)
• My Journey Through Music: Country (mishie1.wordpress.com)
• The Food Of Love – Rap?

The Food Of Love – Rap Music?

English: Eminem performing at the DJ hero party on June 1, 2009 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“If music be the food of love, play on…” Said Duke Orsino in one of my favorite quotes and one of my favorite Shakespeare novel, Twelfth Night.

Music could indeed be the food of love and much more.  It has the capability to transcends barriers, whether racial or otherwise.  It is one of the most powerful tool available to man but can also be a dangerous weapon if in the wrong hands.  Music can be the food for other things that are not so loving.

In a series of blogs, I will set out to look at some of the more popular genres that I regularly listen to and how they affect me and maybe even you.  Are they the food of love? Or the food of anger, hate and other anti-social behavior?  I enjoy all music and each affects me differently.  Now let’s unwrap rap music.

Forgive me if I step on toes or go against the grain with my take.

As a bar-hopping twenty and thirty-something, rap was my get-me-pumped music of choice.  If I wanted to get attitudal, rap was the pill.   At the bars, I would chill and listen to the likes of Easy E and NWA.  Under the influence of rap, straight or mixed with alcohol, I walked around feeling like I should be packing heat and wasting all haters who dissed me or got all up in my grill.  When the music stopped, I was unfortunately, still just skinny old me, who wouldn’t hurt a fly.  Some of my friends were more influenced and succumbed to the music.  Fights after the bar were all too common.  ”Step to me, punk! How you gonna play me, bi@@h!” were the common phrases tossed around.  (Now where have you heard them before?).

I  drove around with rap music pulsating through my windows and dared the drivers beside me to do something about it.  Rap made me feel tough. I wanted to have that ‘who cares’ attitude just like the rappers did. They looked at me menacingly from my tv screen and beckoned me to join some sort of rap brotherhood.   Even the way I drove was influenced by the music and videos I watched.   Leaning way too far back in my seat with one arm outstretched on the wheel and my head tilted.  Total gangsta.  If I was listening to rap, I had to look the part.  I wasn’t packing heat but I felt like I was.  I was ready to throw down.

Rap music preys on our young children’s mind.  With lyrics that promote bullying, drug use and criminal lifestyle, it appeals to their longing to fit in and be a part of the scene.  White teeny girls feel tough as they talk gangsta and hang with the rapper crowd.  Boys wear their pants around their knees as their idols do and use disrespectful language and signs.  Love is definitely not in the air.

This is not saying that rap music on a whole is bad and should not be listened to.  It would be hypocritical of me as I know that there are some very good rappers out there who deserve a listen.  Eminem is a master at his craft.  A few questionable lyrics in some of his songs but one of my favorite lyricist.  There’s also Rap Gospel for those who like rap but want something with a positive message.  Rapping is an art form.   I envy the way my fledgling-rapper nephew could put lyrics together effortlessly and spit like a quick-firing machine gun without biting his tongue.

In my opinion, no music genre right now packs a powerful but negative punch as rap does. From clothing, to speech, to video games, rap has the market cornered.  As for being food of love, I say nay.

Check back for my take on Country.

Related articles

• Who’s Too Old For a Rap Concert? Part 1 (joneekhoff.wordpress.com)
• Women Rappers Empowered (hiphop3180.wordpress.com)
• Rap (gcmpacaquaticindustries.wordpress.com)
• Rap Music’s Blatant Satanism (henrymakow.com)
• What I Learned About the Seattle Rap Scene (joneekhoff.wordpress.com)
• Rap Music’s Blatant Satanism (thetruthseeker.co.uk)

The day the music died

I cannot pinpoint the day or even the year.  Maybe it was so gradual that I didn’t even notice until it was too late. Until I started to miss it and yearn for it.  Maybe when I realized that all my YouTube music searches were mostly for songs that were not on the ‘hotlist’.  Yes, I must face it.  Music as I know it, has died.

With its demise,  pretenders promoted solely on youthful looks or their flair for the extremes and not their talents, crawled out the woodwork.  Their songs are pushed into mainstream by their rabid and deaf fans who have no idea what real music is.  Sadly, no genre is safe from this manufactured bubble gum garbage. Reggae music is now music with a hint of reggae.  Says so right on the CD, ‘May contain trace of reggae’.  In a few years, music will be of a single genre. Take it from me even though it is just my take.

Michael Jackson

I grew up on the Jackson 5.   Michael was the first and probably only, singer that I wanted to be like.  I bought his outlandish clothes, posters, stickers and anything else that even vaguely referred to him.   Did I mention that I also collected his cassettes, records, cds and dvd?  Heck, I love the guy!

Even during his darkest times and his eccentricities, I still respected and loved MJ.  In my eyes, he was always this playful, funny little kid who wanted to stay that way and enjoy the many things only kids can enjoy.  In a way, I related.

When Michael Jackson died, a little piece of me died that day.   I chose to omit and not process the circumstances surrounding his demise.   It didn’t really matter that he had paid the ultimate price in his attempt to make the whole world happy even while sacrificing his own unhappiness.  No one but MJ is responsible for creating the man and the myth.  No one but him should be blamed for his premature death.  He was already down the road to self-destruction where no doctor  and no medication could have  saved him from.  End the circus. Llet him rest in the peace that eluded him in life.

Just my take.

Put your clothes back on, woman!

Irish Farmer Tells Rihanna to Put Her Clothes Back On

  Email 14 Smaller Font Text Larger Text | Print

Photo Press Belfast/Splash News

Rihanna may be perfectly good at being bad, but when a Northern Ireland farmer tells her to cover up, she listens.

The R&B singer caused a bit of controversy in the corn fields of Ireland Tuesday while filming a video for her new single, “We Found Love” with Scottish DJ Calvin Harris.

The 23-year-old pop star undressed from a flannel checked shirt into a stars-and-stripes bikini, a red bra, a mesh black top before, finally, going topless while shooting in the fields, located just east of Bangor.

At that point, Alan Graham, the 61-year-old farmer who lent Rihanna his land for the video, had enough and drove his tractor over to the shoot to tell the barely-dressed star to cover up.

“The state of undress was becoming inappropriate,” Graham told the UK’s The Telegraph. “I requested that they stop filming and they did.”

“I had a conversation with Rihanna,” said the father of four.  “She understood where I was coming from. We shook hands and parted company on good terms.”

Admitting he had “never heard of Rihanna” until her team asked permission to use his fields, Graham explained, “If someone wants to borrow my field and things become inappropriate, then I say, ‘Enough is enough. You are not entitled to do that.’”

Rihanna’s wardrobe malfunction didn’t end with Graham’s ‘enough is enough,’ however.

The issue went as far as Ireland’s political stage when, during a debate in the Northern Ireland Assembly, one politician asked the country’s first minister Peter Robinson whether potential investors in entertainment industry projects might be deterred after seeing the pop star banned for nothing more than “wearing red, white and blue.”

Rihanna is in Ireland for a series of sold-out shows in Belfast this weekend.  Filming for her video is reported to have resumed at a secret location there.

My take? See previous blog.

Grin and ‘bare’ it?

Ladies: Rocco Grimaldi requests you cover up for God

By Greg Wyshynski

I respect Rocco Grimaldi, the California kid that the Florida Panthers selected in the second round of the 2011 draft and is going to play for North Dakota this season. (Where he could be rookie of the year in the WCHA.)

I respect that he’s a role model for young players, who see a 5-foot-6 forward on a path to the NHL. I respect that he’s a devout Christian who uses social media to preach what he believes, even if his candor may have scared off some teams at the draft.

I respect that, in the end, Grimaldi views faith as a way to affect positive change in someone’s life and in society, which is a view I imagine places him in the majority in the United States.

What I don’t respect, however, are Twitter rants that espouse Puritanical nonsense about how women need to cover themselves lest their feminine curves tempt men.

Rocco wants to know, ladies: Are you honoring God with those jeans that make your butt look great?

Here are Rocco’s observations about the female form from his Twitter feed (@RGrimaldi23):

There’s a thin line between “ladies are too scantily clad these days” and “God wants you in a potato sack because your brothers can’t help themselves,” and Rocco ran through it. I mean, to each his own, but in my eyes this entire request veers uncomfortably close to the asinine “she was asking for it/look how she was dressed” denouncement women have had to battle for decades.

Rocco moved on to the fellas after that:

“Guys, when did sleeping with every girl u can make u a man? Anyone can lay with a woman. And don’t blame the women for how they dress. Don’t say it’s because they want attention. Don’t blame ur “curiosity” or that u just wanted a little taste of what it would be like. Women are not an object for playing with. Sex is a gift from God. We have made it idolatry by how we use it. We blame the women for what they’re wearing, we blame the media for what they’re producing, but we never blame OURSELVES for how WE’VE twisted God’s gift to only glorify ourselves. WE are the men and WE are to blame. God put US in charge of this earth so WE are the ones who need to man up and lay down our lust. Don’t fall into that temptation. If you don’t do this, you may be a boy for the rest of ur life #ManUp“

So, in summary: Women should cover their boobs and ask if God approves of their outfit in case it unfairly tempts men, but men only have themselves to blame if they’re tempted sexually.

Huh, weird … you usually never see contradictions in religious dogma …

Like I said: I respect Grimaldi, immensely, for having this level of candor and using his modicum of fame for what he believes is his mission on this rock. I follow him on Twitter, and 98 percent of what he writes reads like an inspiration poster in a Christian greeting card store. Please don’t misconstrue this as some attempt to silence him.

But his comments about women are the kind of sexist, archaic thoughts that cloud the positive impact of faith. As a (lapsed) Roman Catholic myself, it’s a constant struggle: You believe there are aspects of religion that are undoubtedly beneficial, but they’re constantly overshadowed by clunky views on sex and gender that repel people and open up the entire community to ridicule.

I hate to make this into Dan Ellis Part Deux, but it’s the same principle: The messages Rocco Grimaldi shares have value, if not to me or you than to someone else. His heart’s in the right place with the comments about men; his comments about women drown them out.

His best argument against the objectification of women was to objectify them. We can’t give an “amen” to that.

s/t to Minnesota Slim for the tip.

Related: Florida Panthers, Hockey Fans

Let’s cut straight to the chase.  Do I think women objectify themselves? A resounding YES!  Women are, for some reason,  seeing an increasing need to bare skin in order to get noticed.  I am not saying that all women who wear a nice mini dress/skirt are begging for attention but do you really have to let it all hang out to look good?  If you are out at a function and spend every minute trying to pull your dress down to cover your undies, then it is too short.  If your breasts are falling out of your bra and posing a risk of eye injury to the person you are talking to, then your bra is too small.  Come on, it’s common sense. When you go to a restaurant, you don’t know what the food looks like until it is served.  There are no hints or displays in the window, so why do you feel the need to preview your body to the world?

Women, I agree wholeheartedly with Rocco’s sentiments.  Cover up, it leaves more to the imagination and gets you the respect you deserve.  No woman should be objectified or taken advantage of due to their clothing or lack of clothing but women, for the sick preys out there, why give them that fuel?  Just my take.