I've decided that if I leave this post title here long enough eventually it will consume us all - much like a collapsing star.
On Friday (14/2/14) Miley Cyrus did indeed begin her tour in the 2010
Winter Olympic host city of Vancouver, Canada. As I said in a previous
post on the subject; http://100badones.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/operation-misery-month-12-week-2-day-4.html
while I won't be covering it if a video of the show became available I
would watch it really just to satisfy my own casual curiosity.
Last night I had a quick look on YouTube but no such video exists. From
the tiny bit of the show that I did see - the opening song I think - it
seems heavily influenced by the video for the Robin Thicke song "Give It
2 U." This of course brings back memories of Miley Cyrus' eye-popping
duet at the 2013 Video Music Awards (VMA). Coming just days before the
50th anniversary of Martin Luther King's famous "I Have a Dream" speech
the VMA performance was supposed to promote discussion about race
relations in the US.
I think it goes without saying that the Cyrus family are pretty much
country music royalty in the US. Country music is traditional listened
to by white American rednecks who can have a reputation for being a bit
racist. However through her current career direction Miley Cyrus is also
taking on influences of Hip Hop/RnB music which is more traditionally
associated with black people. The fact that Miley Cyrus is clearly a lot
more talented then many of her peers means that this mimicking could
easily be perceived by the public as a type of mockery. As such Live
Nation appear to be trying to pique our interest in Miley Cyrus' tour by
making it appear that it is provoking some big discussion about race in
the US.
To help this along Miley Cyrus' tour was accompanied by the trial of
Micheal Dunn. Occurring in not only the same state (Florida) but pretty
much the same local district as the Trayvon Martin/George Zimmerman case
this centred around a white man - Dunn - who was filling his car up at a
gas station when a car load of young black men drove up playing really
loud music. Dunn told them to turn the music down prompting the young
men to become highly aggressive. Dunn then opened fire on the car
killing one and injuring others. At trial he claimed he'd seen what he
though was a gun and was acting in self-defence. The Jury disagreed
convicting him of two counts of second degree murder. As with the
Zimmerman case I think this was just genuine crime in the sense that it
is normal in criminal cases to look at all parties and conclude that
none of them were in the right.
Making it appear that Miley Cyrus' tour is prompting discussion about
race is a particularly neat hook to use at the Winter Olympics. Along
with gay rights racism - particularly towards people of African descent -
is something the Russian hosts need to and are working on. The hope
seems to be that everyone will look at Miley Cyrus and the US debate for
pointers. That said the way the US has spectacularly screwed up the gay
rights debate I doubt many will be looking towards them for leadership
on the race issue.
Also Rihanna has been seen out and about and posted Instagram pictures
of herself wearing what is essentially a bathing suit/underwear
underneath flowing coat that makes lots of reference to Arab culture. I
suppose in a way we should be happy that Rihanna is finally starting to
communicate again but by neatly encompassing excessive nudity with Arab
culture I can only conclude that either her CIA handlers have got her so
full of fear that she is incapable of making good decisions or that
I've p*ssed her off so much in the last week she's now doing things just
to spite me. I suppose though we should be open to the possibility that
Rihanna has decided that she hates her life and career so is now doing
everything in her power to destroy both.
(Originally Posted) 12:35 on 17/2/14 (UK date).
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