Radosh.net

...there is a flattering hairstyle for Tim Daggett.

12:34 AM :: Comments (0)

Hot chicks are kissing each other everywhere you turn, and naturally The Sun is there. That gratuitous photo-compilation, part of the time-honored journalistic tradition of simultaneously fretting about pop cultural depravity and reveling in it, is hooked to the popularity of Katy Perry's "I Kissed a Girl."

What's interesting about Perry's overplayed bisexual anthem is how unabashedly skanky it is. Jill Sobule scored a hit back in the 90s with a song also called "I Kissed a Girl," which also features a protagonist with a boyfriend expanding her sexual horizons.

I think Sobule's song is superior, but that's a subjective judgment (hey, some people like their pop songs over-produced and screamy). But it's also a lot different in tone: It's about close friends spending an evening in, discussing their unsatisfying relationships, and then crossing a physical boundary. Perry's song is about a couple of drunken sluts anonymously hooking up at a bar. Hasn't David Brooks phoned in a column about this yet?

08:58 PM :: Comments (0)

...I for one celebrate their continued absence if this is the result:

His top contenders are said to include Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Less traditional choices mentioned include former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, an abortion-rights supporter, and Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, the Democratic vice presidential prick in 2000 who now is an independent.

(via Atrios)

12:04 PM :: Comments (1)

Dear Radosh.net readers and guest bloggers,

This site's RSS feed now indicates, for entries by anyone other than DLR, the name of the author. We had the technology.

Also, is anyone reading the New York Times's Olympics coverage? It appears to be copyedited by: nobody. It's a treasure trove of Media Moments. Case in point:

...and the vocal fans let loose a chorus of chants and screams as the Lenny Kravitz song “American Women” played over the loudspeaker.

Somewhere, [insert name of good writer who used to write for the NYT] is turning over in his [insert burial destination preferred by same].

05:35 AM :: Comments (1)

Just Like Sarah Miller I , too blame myself for the whole John Edwards/Rielle Hunter love child scandal. I also have an extremely tenuous, flimsy and almost unbelievable connection to Rielle Hunter - my brother's best friend's cousin once saw her in a bar in New York. Get It * a bar in New York* , as in * she met Edwards in a bar in New York* - could that be any spookier?

And just like Sarah Miller , I, too am desperate for material during these dog days of summer and I will milk this connection and blog endlessly about the scandal while speculating wildly on Rielle Hunter's crazy-assness.

Bonus crazy-ass Rielle video below (dancing Rielle courtesy of 23/6.com)

04:17 PM :: Comments (2)

Wooooo yeah! Hello. Normal blog is here. While some of you people are thinking about the Democratic National Convention, I will continue to think about pop music marketed largely to pre-teens. It’s not just because there are fewer old people (in front of the curtain anyway)—there’s a lot of good music out there, and despite a scattershot year in the world of teenpop, teen-pop, tween-pop, and teenipop, I’ve still been able to scrap enough tracks together to make a decent muxtape, which you can listen to here. Though to be honest I've been stretching the generic category more than ever this year. Ah well...copious commentary after the jump.

[EDIT 8/19: About 24 hrs after posting this, of course, Muxtape has gone down due to RIAA action. You can download the mix in full from my website here.]

Continue reading "2008 in Teenpop So Far (Because What This Site Needs Is More Pictures of Attractive Young Women)" »

01:24 PM :: Comments (0)

Submit the worst possible caption for this New Yorker cartoon. Click here for details. Click here to see last week's results.

01:13 PM :: Comments (126)

Jenny McCarthy, who became famous by posing naked for pictures so that men could masturbate to them, made a guest appearance on Sesame Street Friday and the event hardly raised an eyebrow. Of course it's been years since McCarthy posed nude for anything and she is now an author of bestselling parenting books and an advocate for children with autism. Nevertheless, she wasn't asked on Sesame Street because she is an author. She was asked on Sesame Street because she is famous, and the reason she is famous is porn.

PBS should probably be commended for not simply blackballing McCarthy because of decisions she made in the past, especially decisions toddlers would have no way of knowing and couldn't care less about.

Except that wasn't their stated policy two years ago when they fired Melanie Martinez.

Melanie Martinez was the host of the Good Night Show, a joint production of PBS and Sesame Workshop that appears on the PBS Sprout channel. She was fired in 2006 when the network discovered that, years before she was hired by PBS, Martinez had appeared in two :30 parodies of abstinence PSA's. In one, she promotes the virtues of anal sex. In the other she decides to put off sex with boys when her mother gives her a vibrator. She is fully clothed and the dialogue includes no profanity (unless you consider the phrase "anal sex" profane).

At the time PBS president (now PBS CEO) Paula Kerger backed the decision claiming that Martinez was not "representative of PBS and Sesame and kids entertainment."

It is a strange world in which Melanie Martinez lives, one where she is publicly fired and shamed for appearing in two obscure low budget films with a total sixty seconds of running time, and then has to watch while one of the superstars of soft-core pornography, a person who has appeared in studio features with far more offensive material (and viewed by many more millions of people) than anything ever done by Martinez, is welcomed on PBS's flagship kids show with a fanfare of press releases and publicity stills.

It's so absurd, in fact that it raises the question once again that perhaps Martinez was fired not because of the sexual content of those videos, but rather the political content. Her public humiliation might have been collateral damage caused by PBS and Sprout executives trying to curry favor with conservative lawmakers who keep pulling the purse strings at public television tighter and tighter.

Perhaps the a-word that did in Melanie Martinez really wasn't "anal," but "anti-abstinence."

03:00 PM :: Comments (18)

First, thanks to Daniel for handing over the keys to we inmates, and an obligatory plug for where I regularly blog.

Moving to more substantive matters, John McCain's been having problems with getting cease and desist letters from various musical artists, who demand he stop using their music, including John Mellencamp, Orleans, and ABBA. The article does note that Billy Ray Cyrus apparently was among the hipper musical artists to back Bush in 2004, but has apparently been silent this time. I'm just wondering where Miley stands on this critical issue, and whether Hannah Montana has a different stance. In fact, I think I've just written an episode of Hannah Montana! Miley objects to the use of Hannah's music in a commercial, but can't speak her mind because it would reveal her secret identity! Hilarity ensues, followed by a rousing performance from Hannah Montana. Please remit checks to me directly.

01:54 PM :: Comments (5)

The question on CNN.com's "Quick Vote" poll today is: "Do you believe creatures like Bigfoot exist?" I, of course, answered no, but then was linked to an article proving me and 58 percent of other Quick Voters wrong.

Bigfoot!!

I guess we'll all have to hold our breaths until they reveal more details.

For reals?

01:02 PM :: Comments (3)

Guest Bloggers: David F / Deborah

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09:44 AM :: Comments (4)

Adam Cadre’s 2009 Lyttle Lytton Contest is already underway! This is a shorter version of the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest, which challenges entrants to write the worst possible introductory sentence to a novel. The Lyttle Lytton contest offers the same challenge, but the sentence must be 30 words or less (see rules). Here are some examples of past winners:

“Because they had not repented, the angel stabbed the unrepentant couple thirteen times, with its sword.” - Graham Swanson, 2008 winner

“It clawed its way out of Katie, bit through the cord and started clearing.” – Gunther Schmidl, 2007 winner

“Crime,” declared the police captain, “is everywhere, crime, crime!” – Carl Muckenhoupt, 2007 runner-up

The real contest deadline is April 15, 2009 at noon. But if you wish, post your worst introductory sentence here at Radosh.net. I’ll post a few to get us started:

“BRRRRRRRRRRRIIIIIIIIING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” rang the alarm clock, awakening me from my Gamma Hydroxy Butyrate-induced slumber.

Amber choked back her grief as her mother’s coffin was lowered into the ground, and she wished, momentarily, that she had not killed her mother.

Thanks, and good luck!

08:57 AM :: Comments (24)

I'm leaving tomorrow for two weeks and will only be able to post intermittently. But this blog is going to be more exciting than ever, as I turn the reins over to the Radosh.net All Stars, a dream team of some of our top commenters. It's not so much the inmates running the asylum as different inmates running the asylum. (By the way, I'm aware that a lot of very deserving commenters were left off the team. Blame my haphazard selection process, not any actual judgment. If you want to nominate yourself -- or someone else -- for a future run, just let me know in the comments.)

Since I don't actually know most of these people and have no idea what they look like, I will introduce them using the first picture that comes up under their names on Google Images. Please welcome...

al in la Dave David F dean @ t.a.m.s.y. Deborah Ernest Francis Frank Harry J.D. Jesse Jim Treacher John Tabin Kevin Guilfoile Kevin Shay Matt mypalmike Pat Broderick simsburybear TG Gibbon Vance Walt

12:40 PM :: Comments (2)

Slate's Dana Stevens holds a Q&A on the Tropic Thunder controversy. The very first reader gets that the targets of Stiller's satire are "overweening, ambitious actors who take roles as physically and mentally challenged characters because they're proven Oscar-bait" (pretty hacky) and "moviemakers who exploit disabilities for sentimentality while pretending to promote awareness about them" (somewhat sharper). Which raises the question: "Do the protesters not understand that they are not Stiller's target? Do they understand the satire, but worry that moviegoers will not? ... Or are the protesters simply reacting emotionally to the words used regardless of the context?"

Stevens points out that the idea of judging anything "regardless of context" is pretty meaningless. But my hunch is that there's another explanation altogether. The protesters, who have put together a sophisticated talking points memo regarding the film and the use of "the R-word," are cynically taking advantage of the movie's buzz to gain a spotlight for their cause.

Special Olympics chairman Timothy Shriver all but said as much:

[The filmmakers'] response, he said, convinced him that the time had come for his group and others to strike a far more aggressive public posture on behalf of the disabled. “The movement needs to enter the public eye and not just be talking among ourselves,” he said.

I haven't seen the film, so I guess there's a chance that it's genuinely offensive, though I highly doubt it. The Farrelly brothers have created some of the least condescending mentally disabled characters ever seen on film, and have gotten more shit for it than all the Rain Men-I Am Sams-and Riding the Bus with My Sisters combined. Comedy is always an easier target for protests like this.

What the protesters clearly don't realize is that by overreaching, they're setting their own cause back. It took Christians decades to get beyond their reputation as "those uptight freaks who boycotted The Last Temptation of Christ and Disney World," if indeed they have.

Want to really make a statement? Make your own movie.

06:19 PM :: Comments (10)

[Yahoo News screen grab]

08:00 PM :: Comments (5)

Kevin Guilfoile pointed out what seemed to be a particularly confusing bit of self-censorship in yesterday's Chicago Tribune, from a guide to Chinese txt abbreviations.

"TMD: A swear word, short for Ta Ma De, which is the Chinese equivalent of something-something-mama."

As Kevin noted, it would be easy enough to assume that one of those somethings is "fuck," but what would the other be?

But a little Google work turned up a shock: Ta ma de actually can be translated as "something-something-mama," where the "somethings" are not placeholders for other words.

The Profane Chinese site offers the alternate translation, "his mother's," and explains,

Ta ma de is actually an exclamation, the sort of Chinese swear word that's used in exasperation, or frustration, or occasionally surprise. Although the phrase implies the existence of a third party (his mother's), there doesn't actually have to be a "he" involved - you could say ta ma de to your television set if you cable shuts out, or you could mutter "ta ma de" after just missing the bus.

In short, then, ta ma de, used as a Chinese swear, really means something more like "Shit!" or "Fuck!" or "Dammit!" to use some English usage examples. [Although] the component words do not, on their own, imply vulgarity, the phrase itself is considered a vulgar Chinese curse.

I believe what that writer means is that while the component words are not on their own vulgar, they do imply vulgarity. And that implication is what Trib writer Kevin Pang was trying to convey with his translation, as he explained to me in an e-mail (after gently suggesting that I was taking his light-hearted piece way to seriously). He acknowledged that a literal rendering would be more along the lines of something-mama-something, and that while it doesn't mean "fuck your mother," it at is that level of offensiveness.

Given that, Pang probably should have used a word other than "equivalent" in his definition, but what I found interesting is that newspaper readers are now so conditioned to writers and editors protecting them from vulgarity, that we now fill in the blanks on our own even when we shouldn't. Thus does the practice of self-censorship obscure journalistic facts even at a remove.

What, too serious again?

11:56 AM :: Comments (8)

There's a bit of misinformation out there about the John Edwards scandal that should be nipped in the bud. I've seen it a number of times now, most recently in David Carr's NYT column:

When The National Enquirer wrote that the former presidential candidate John Edwards had had an affair and had recently met with the woman and a child she recently bore, the mainstream media mostly passed on the story. But the public would not let go. Armed with different standards and megaphones of their own, nontraditional sources pushed on the story all over the Web until it broke...

Let's give credit where it's due. The Enquirer had the details, but the story was being pushed on the Web before the tabloid published anything. As you'll well recall, HuffPo's Sam Stein had the first scoop, which was picked up by (among others) Ted Frank and Mickey Kaus. DKos's Ben Bang pushed back immediately too, which only helped give the story life.

Wikipedia credits Page Six with the very first mention of the affair, in an August 07 blind item.

11:06 AM :: Comments (0)

Cheron, the Brazilian lady pictured here, recently uploaded her photo to a web site called Top Heavy Amateurs [NSFW, duh]. But she blurred her face so no one will recognize her. Playboy's Chip Rowe questions the efficacy of this measure.

Say, Lois, have you ever noticed how Cheron from Top Heavy Amateurs and Barb from marketing are never in the room at the same time?

03:07 PM :: Comments (7)

06:08 PM :: Comments (0)