Operation Misery: Week 3, Day 4.

There is still no official word on how Rihanna's concert in Winnipeg, Canada went last night. However because everybody else is making the effort I am able to tell you that the whole show did go ahead delayed by 1 hour due to problems at the border. A$AP Rocky did return following his bout of illness. Rihanna performed her standard set with standard costumes. However it is still not clear in which order the "Rudeboy" and "Jump" acts were performed (Acts 2 &3 in the original schedule). As Rihanna's voice has clearly not yet fully recovered her backing track and backing singers did most of the work. Again the overwhelming review is that the performance seemed subdued and mechanical however Rihanna appear to be more fired up on this occasion no doubt in response to the problems at customs.

As for those problems at customs everybody is remaining tight-lipped over whether US border officials or Canadian border officials stopped Rihanna's tour caravan. The overwhelming consensus of rumour though is that it was the Canadians. This was their attempt to get their answer in ahead of a US test flight of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner that took place later on in the day.

The message the Canadians seem to be sending is that the UK Commonwealth nations on the tour schedule (so Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the UK) will be striking back against Rihanna in this way and trying to enquire as to who will be following their lead. Of course this means Rihanna's tour team will need to take counter-measures such as making sure all the tour vehicles are cleaner then clean and adding extra-time to the schedule in order to absorb any problems. There is though an outside possibility that the Commonwealth through Canada trying to re-assure the US that their Rihanna operation is still viable. After all while on a personal level I think this must stop now on a professional level there is nothing we'd like to see more then the US trying to press ahead with a blown operation. That said the Brits are rarely that sophisticated and certainly have the most to lose by the Rihanna operation being terminated.

There is though a third possibility that I'm choosing to believe because it's much less scary and frankly it massages my ego. That is Canada was acting independently of the Commonwealth and were simply giving Rihanna and her tour team a little nudge to remind them that it is under my protection rather then the US' that this tour is going ahead. Therefore they had better start making an effort to ensure that I get the information I require to do my job.

Oh and today the Supreme Court Of the United States (SCOTUS) will be ruling on two cases relating to gay marriage. I hope the US wasn't hoping that we'll all be staring intently at those in order to look for clues as to whether Chris Brown and Rihanna's relationship (the ultimate gay marriage) will continue because we won't.

14:20 on 26/3/13.

Edited at around 17:10 on 26/3/13 to add;

Yesterday (25/3/13) someone posted on Twitter a photograph of Rihanna in a bikini that purports to show her naked vagina. If you're really that interested the picture can be viewed here; https://twitter.com/SA1LORGOON/status/316227380429606912

However having studied it at great length it is most likely fake and is hardly that revealing. Along with the controversy over the Luluemon yoga pants that were withdrawn from stores in Canada for being too see-through at the time Rihanna was performing her Toronto concerts the photograph has clearly been distributed to promote discussion about Rihanna's Act 3/Man Down stage costume. The question obviously being; How sheer is too sheer?

As Islamic societies are not overly keen on women exposing their hair on their heads this debate is primarily focused on the Morocco concert and to a lesser extent the Turkey concert. The dialogue between the US and Morocco is already active and ongoing. A delegation of officials from Morocco attended the memorial service of assassinated Colorado prison boss Tom Clements. The areas for discussion there were Morocco's attitude towards Saudi Arabia (a Saudi national has been discussed as a possible suspect), the Chris Brown/Rihanna reunion and whether Morocco will be willing to allow Chris Brown into the nation and if so will they be able to guarantee his safety.

As in political terms the Morocco concert is now active I will need to get around to writing up a full preview of the issues in play. I will try and do this when there is a gap in concerts so Thursday (28/3/13) or Friday (29/3/13). However as Morocco is politically the biggest concert of the entire tour I'm honestly trying to work out where to start.

As for Rihanna's costume I would strongly suggests she moves to boy shorts. After all we don't want people speculating what she's thinking when she's wearing that outfit on stage.

(Originally Posted on 26/3/13)