What's That Spining Sound?

Miley as Hannah Montana

Despite the persistent rumors that he had himself crygonically frozen, I can assure you that Walt Disney was interred at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale, California., along with dozens of other Hollywood legends.

And even though I said on Facebook that I wouldn't watch Miley Cyrus' performance at last night's VMA's, the great cry and hue about said performance pretty much left me feeling like I had to watch it and comment further. And so I did. Now comes the further commenting.

All day I've been wondering why I heard spinning sounds from the west. Having watched Cyrus' performance, it has become apparent that whatever remains of Mr. Disney is spinning fast and hard enough to be heard nearly 3000 miles away. The man who once asked Annette Funicello to keep her navel covered in her Beach Blanket movies must be vomiting ectoplasm all over the place.

As I am sure you must know by now, I am hardly a prude.I like sex as much as any other red-blooded American male. And it honestly takes a lot to offend me. Still... when America's Sweetheart turns herself into America's Slut, even Uncle P has to take notice. 

It's not that I am opposed to a young woman growing up and reinventing herself. Nor am I opposed to any young person's sexual awakening. Far from it. Go for it! I certainly wish that at 20 I had had the balls to be myself (though 20 for Uncle P was well into the last century - a very different time). Still, I don't think I would have been nearly as overtly sexual as the former Disney star was last night. If you haven't seen it (and I may be the last American to actually subject myself to it), here's the clip:

WTF?!?!

I don't blame parents who are upset that their children's idol gave such an exploitative performance. I don't even blame Robin Thicke (though he was obviously complicit) for his part in Cyrus' lascivious performance. Cyrus is legally an adult and can do whatever she likes, as long as it's legal and doesn't harm anyone else. Still, I have to wonder how all those tweens and teens who watched Cyrus' wholesome Disney show and expected an equally wholesome performance from their idol (not to mention their parents' reactions) reacted to her rather lascivious performance. Were I a parent of a 12 to 15 year old girl, I imagine I'd be rather incensed, myself.

Here's the thing: Your television's remote (or when I was a kid, dial) has a button that allows you to change the channel if you see something you don't like or don't want your children to see. If you didn't change the channel last night, you have no right to complain about what was aired. If you let your children watch that mess, you have no right to complain about its overtly sexual images. If you let your children play violent video games, you have no right to complain when they act violently in their social play. And if you take your 8 year old to see an "R" rated horror movie, you have no right to complain when said 8 year old wakes you up because he or she had a nightmare.

Change the channel. Hire a sitter. Don't buy 'Street Murdering Pimps' for X-Box. Don't complain when you allow your children to be exposed to things which you find offensive.

Get over it, already.

More, anon.

Prospero

You have read this article Bad Parents / Crap / Disney / Disney Kids / Miley Cyrus / MTV / Nonsense / Parental Responsibility / Robin Thicke / Sexuality / TV / Video / VMAs with the title MTV. You can bookmark this page URL https://tammycross.blogspot.com/2013/08/what-that-spining-sound.html. Thanks!

A New Obsession

"Wonder Showzen"

It comes as no surprise to me that I missed "Wonder Shozen" when it aired on MTV2 in 2005 & 2006. The only thing I've watched on MTV since 1995 is "Teen Wolf," and I'm ready to give up on that if this season isn't a vast improvement over last.

Today, a link on CNN led me to an EW story about cult TV shows. And while I might have ranked more than a few differently, I can't really find fault with anything that introduces me to something so smart; sick; biting; satirical; anarchistic; subversive and downright genius. Essentially an adult parody of PBS's educational programming from the 70's (think Avenue Q but weirder, sicker and yes, dirtier). Annoying, foul-mouthed puppets; children singing and saying totally inappropriate things; cartoons that make Fritz the Cat look like Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm and an obvious disdain for the media all add up to the most insanely hilarious stuff I've seen in ages.

Creators Vernon Chatman and John Lee are very sick (but very funny) men and the clips I've seen just today have me salivating for more. Both seasons are available on Amazon to download or purchase a DVD copy and I have added them to my 'Wish List,' if you care about such things and know that my birthday is just 4 short months away...

Just take a look at what I'm talking about (videos probably NSFW):





"Just like my nightmares!... Delicious Murder!"

And here's a completely inappropriately racist (but effing hilarious) little ditty:



And possibly the most horrific of all; "Aunt Flo:"

Of course, my favorite "Slaves" has had all embedding disabled, but you can watch it in all it's horror-inducing hilarity, here.

I always like to think of myself as ahead of the pack when it comes to outre and/or subversive entertainment, so I have no idea how this gem passed under my radar.. Perhaps a different venue (IFC or even SHOWTIME) might have nurtured "Wonder Showzen" beyond two seasons. But MTV2? 

Regardless, I now feel compelled to seek out the entire show. A new obsession is born!

More, anon.
Prospero

You have read this article Anarchy / Comedy / Dark / Funny / MTV / Nonsense / Not for Children / Outre / Perverse / Puppets / Sick / Subversive / TV / Wonder Showzen with the title MTV. You can bookmark this page URL https://tammycross.blogspot.com/2013/03/a-new-obsession.html. Thanks!

Awesome 80's Flashback

Do You Know This Man?

I spent my childhood in the 60's, my youth in the 70's and came of age in the 80's. The child of an Elvis fan mother and a Beethoven fan father, my musical taste as a kid tended toward pop-music, movie scores and musical theatre. Of course, I went to Saturday Night Fever High, where disco reigned but I not-so-secretly got sidetracked by Yes and early Genesis and experimental music. I remember bringing "Rock Lobster" to my friends, who all thought I was insane. 

In the 80's it was about electronica and dance and New Wave/Neo-Punk beats; outrageous hair and clothes; often pointed political lyrics and electronic interpretations of classics. Anything went. There were New Romantics, like Adam and the Ants; electric R&B from Herbie Hancock and Eurythmics;  electric Jazz from Thomas Dolby; feel-good synth pop from Howard Jones and sexy gay songs about orgasm from Frankie Goes to Hollywood and masturbation from Cyndi Lauper. It was mad and we thought it couldn't get better than it was right there, right then. It was the last great period of musical innovation. Almost everything today sounds the same.  And very little of it is any good.

Tonight, Tracy posted this on Facebook: "S-A-F-E-T-Y-D-A-N-C-E!" to which I immediately replied: "You can dance if you want to..." I hope you know that it goes without saying that we had to take turns finishing the damned thing. Which got me all nostalgic again. So I thought I'd just have fun and share some beloved "oldies." (Ugh! I so HATE that word). So, you can blame Tracy for the whole thing.

FYI - Thompson Twins was one of most fun concerts I've ever attended. It was their very first U.S. show in Philadelphia and they were genuinely surprised and pleased by the crowd reaction. They did two encores and my friend Deb caught some of the flowers they threw into the audience at the end.

That was good. I needed that.

By the way, do you recognize the Emo-before-it-was-called-"Emo" guy in the picture? I've already talked about him and posted one of his videos. First correct answer gets an extra wish next time they blow out their birthday candles (and no, it's not my father). Good heavens, Miss Yakimoto!

We'll talk about my re-discovery of the Beatles (which was around the same time as all of this), some other time.

More, anon.
Prospero

You have read this article Aggravation; Nonsense / MTV / Music / Music Video / Nostalgia / Ramblings / The 1980's with the title MTV. You can bookmark this page URL https://tammycross.blogspot.com/2012/08/awesome-80-flashback.html. Thanks!

TV Review : "Teen Wolf"

I'm not sure when MTV changed from being all about music videos to being all about really bad "reality" shows. I had pretty much stopped watching the cable channel long before "The Real World" premiered in 1992. In 1999, the network gave us their first scripted show, the 'naughty' soap "Undressed." It lasted 6 seasons, but barely made a blip on my radar. I knew it existed, but never saw a single episode. Most recently, their version of the UK hit "Skins" caused a flap for its depictions of young people having sex, with many claiming it went beyond exploitation and flirted with actual child pornography. It was recently announced that MTV has canceled "Skins." Again, I never saw a single episode. And don't even get me started about "The Jersey Shore," which managed to ruin my childhood memories of Seaside Heights forever...

When MTV announced last year that they were re-booting the rather silly 1985 Michael J. Fox comedy Teen Wolf as a series, I laughed and thought "Yeah, right. That will be good..." Then I heard they were giving the property a 'serious' treatment and I have to admit, I was intrigued. So I found MTV on my provider's guide, set my DVR and hoped for the best. Now that I've seen three full episodes, I'm glad to report that the re-booted "Teen Wolf" is actually kind of fun and not bad at all.

Scott McCall (cutie-pie Tyler Posey) is a typical nobody in his small, northern California  town's high school. He spent the last season on the lacrosse team's bench and wants nothing more than to actually play this year. His BFF Stiles (Dylan O'Brien), is the Sheriff's son. When Stiles learns that half of a body has been found in the local woods, he convinces Scott to join him on a night-time search for the corpse's other half. Big mistake.

After getting separated form his buddy, Scott not only loses his inhaler in a deer stampede and stumbles upon the upper torso of a savaged woman's body, but is bitten by what appears to be a wolf. The next day, Scott can suddenly hear conversations from afar, no longer needs his inhaler and can apparently heal with miraculous speed. Stiles does some online research (we don't know if he used Google or Bing) and promptly pronounces Scott to be a lycanthrope. Of course, Scott scoffs until he's angered during lacrosse tryouts and finds his athletic acumen has also been boosted. Scott has also fallen for new girl Allison (Crystal Reed) and run afoul of the team's douchey captain, Jackson (Colton Haynes).

Produced by Russell Mulcahey ("Queer as Folk"), "Teen Wolf" is a smart and suspenseful take on the sub-genre, featuring some excellent performances from a young and attractive cast; smart writing that utilizes the idea of a werewolf as a metaphor for pubescent change without hitting the audience of the head with it (much like the Canadian Ginger Snaps films) and has a genuine reverence for the all the werewolf movies that have come before. Most refreshingly, the transformations don't involve tons of CGI or makeup - Scott's wolf persona is lupine without going full-on wolf; using fangs, claws and elongated facial features to create a beast that's much more human than canine. And in the most recent episode, a transformation is hidden behind a corrugated glass screen, allowing for some rather clever effects.

The adorable young Posey ("Brothers and Sisters;" "Lincoln Heights") is perfectly cast as a young man who has to hide a terrible secret while dealing with girls, high school and a part-time job at a veterinary clinic and O'Brien is adorkabley funny as the second-banana. Reed evokes Legend's Mia Sara as Scott's love interest (and daughter of werewolf hunter), while Tyler Hoechlin (The Road to Perdition) practically seethes as Derek; the hot, mysterious and experienced werewolf with a seedy past who wants to take Scott under his wing and teach him how to control his lycanthropic urges.

There are certainly better summer shows on cable ("The Closer;" "Psych;" and "Royal Pains," among others), but genre fans won't be disappointed by the clever and well-produced "Teen Wolf." **3/4 (Two and Three-Quarter Stars Out of Four).

More, anon.
Prospero

You have read this article "Teen Wolf" / Horror / Hot / MTV / Reviews / TV / Werewolves with the title MTV. You can bookmark this page URL https://tammycross.blogspot.com/2011/06/tv-review-wolf.html. Thanks!