The MTV Video Music Awards will never be the Oscars or the Grammys in terms of importance to the entertainment industry. But they make up for it in the outrageous, buzzworthy performances that have been a staple of the show ever since the channel played music videos, instead of "Jackass" or "Jersey Shore".
This year, at Brooklyn's Barclays Center, the prize for outrageousness went to Miley Cyrus. She shocked America by performing her hit single "We Can't Stop" with giant teddy bears, followed by her duet with Robin Thicke on "Blurred Lines" (which has been topping every music chart this summer). Uh, make that she performed an onstage simulated sex act with Thicke that wasn't exactly family-friendly. If nothing else, Cyrus introduced a new word to our vocabulary: "Twerking".
This history-making performance puts Cyrus in the same league with other women who have previously made their mark on the VMA's: Madonna sings "Like a Virgin" in a wedding dress. Britney Spears performs "I'm a Slave 4 U" with a giant snake. Madonna and Britney lock lips. Lady Gaga wears a meat dress.
Anyone who was shocked by Cyrus' performance at the VMAs, which some have knocked as either racist or further evidence of the downfall of American civilization, hasn't been paying attention. Desperate to break free of the role that made her a star as a teenager, the Disney Channel's "Hannah Montana" (which ran from 2006-11), Cyrus started taking on more adult acting roles and more mature content in her music. If you believe the tabloids, some of her reported antics depict her as a wild child.
Apparently, Cyrus wants to emulate Madonna, Britney and Gaga, who sell out concerts and downloads of their music because they push the sexual envelope in their acts. She should know that there are many female artists who found success by NOT wagging their tongues and suggestively taking a penis to the rear onstage. But that's not what sells today, is it?
We don't know what kind of long-term impact Miley Cyrus' new good-girl-gone-bad image will have on her fans and her record sales. She has clearly left Hannah Montana behind as she moves into the adult part of her life, turning 21 in November and is engaged to be married. But fame is fleeting. As long as MTV still has its Video Music Awards, there will always be someone who makes a name for his/herself with a performance that blurs the line. A line Elvis Presley stepped up to more than a half century ago.
Thursday, August 29, 2013
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
Red Flags Thrown on Vikings Stadium.
Ever since the Minnesota Legislature approved a bill that would provide financing for a new Minnesota Vikings football stadium in Minneapolis, we've heard plenty of talk about the plans that have been drawn up to surround it with plazas, office space, commerce and parking lots. That is, everything the Metrodome never had.
The Glass Palace, as we like to call it, is going to cost an estimated $975 million (barring construction delays, of course). The state of Minnesota and the city of Minneapolis is footing the bill for half the amount, with the Vikings contributing the other half.
Into this forecast comes a few storm clouds. The state had been hoping to fund the stadium partly through electronic pulltabs and bingo games. But that hasn't worked out very well, so they've fallen back on the old standbys of taxing smokers by the cigarette pack and charging more by the drink in Minneapolis.
The Vikings? Despite assurances by owner Zygi Wilf and the National Football League that they're able to hold up their end of the bargain, a red flag has been thrown at the real estate mogul by a New Jersey judge. In a case involving a partnership deal gone wrong that's lasted two decades, justice Deanna Wilson laid into the Wilfs for (among other things) committing fraud, breaching their contract, and violating her state's racketeering laws.
The Wilfs? Shakedown artists? Who knew? Certainly not Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton, who professed shock at the judge's ruling and vowed to keep a close eye on the Wilfs' business dealings from now on, though the stadium has nothing to do with the real estate deal. Other legislators, most of whom opposed the stadium in the first place, are calling for the state to walk away from the deal, or at least postpone it until all the facts are in. So how come it took them until now to figure this out, weeks before construction is set to begin?
Minnesotans are naturally suspicious of business people who come in from somewhere else, promising big things and delivering little, as if they're hayseeds to be taken advantage of (though to be fair, there have been some native-born moguls who've done the same thing). We don't know if the New Jersey-based Wilfs are anything like that, or what's going to happen if this proves to be the monkey wrench that scuttles the stadium and clouds the future of pro football in Minnesota. But we do know this, and it's the one thing every legal expert reminds you to do upon entering into an agreement:
Always read the fine print.
The Glass Palace, as we like to call it, is going to cost an estimated $975 million (barring construction delays, of course). The state of Minnesota and the city of Minneapolis is footing the bill for half the amount, with the Vikings contributing the other half.
Into this forecast comes a few storm clouds. The state had been hoping to fund the stadium partly through electronic pulltabs and bingo games. But that hasn't worked out very well, so they've fallen back on the old standbys of taxing smokers by the cigarette pack and charging more by the drink in Minneapolis.
The Vikings? Despite assurances by owner Zygi Wilf and the National Football League that they're able to hold up their end of the bargain, a red flag has been thrown at the real estate mogul by a New Jersey judge. In a case involving a partnership deal gone wrong that's lasted two decades, justice Deanna Wilson laid into the Wilfs for (among other things) committing fraud, breaching their contract, and violating her state's racketeering laws.
The Wilfs? Shakedown artists? Who knew? Certainly not Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton, who professed shock at the judge's ruling and vowed to keep a close eye on the Wilfs' business dealings from now on, though the stadium has nothing to do with the real estate deal. Other legislators, most of whom opposed the stadium in the first place, are calling for the state to walk away from the deal, or at least postpone it until all the facts are in. So how come it took them until now to figure this out, weeks before construction is set to begin?
Minnesotans are naturally suspicious of business people who come in from somewhere else, promising big things and delivering little, as if they're hayseeds to be taken advantage of (though to be fair, there have been some native-born moguls who've done the same thing). We don't know if the New Jersey-based Wilfs are anything like that, or what's going to happen if this proves to be the monkey wrench that scuttles the stadium and clouds the future of pro football in Minnesota. But we do know this, and it's the one thing every legal expert reminds you to do upon entering into an agreement:
Always read the fine print.
Tuesday, August 6, 2013
A-Rod, the Damned Yankee
The New York Yankees are baseball royalty. They've won many a World Series with great players such as Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Reggie Jackson and Derek Jeter.
Alex Rodriguez was going to be the next Yankee to join that list. But his career has been riddled by injuries and rumors that he had been injecting himself with performance enhancing drugs to help him play better. His nickname is "A-Rod", but he's heard worse ones such as "A-Roid" or "A-Fraud" because fans have refused to believe how clean he claims to be. He has now become the Damned Yankee.
Monday, Major League Baseball announced that Rodriguez is among 14 players who have been suspended for at least 50 games in its ongoing battle to rid the sport of those who believe in better baseball through chemistry. These players were allegedly involved with a South Florida-based clinic named Biogenesis, for whom MLB chose to believe an informant who supposedly worked there and saw what was going on.
MLB commissioner Bud Selig could have given Rodriguez a lifetime suspension from the game, as some people have wanted--an extreme measure previously given to the likes of Pete Rose and "Shoeless" Joe Jackson. Here, Selig blinked. Instead, Rodriguez got a 211-game suspension, lasting the rest of this season and all of 2014. He has been accused not only of 'using' by MLB, but also of interfering with their investigation of him. Unlike the other players who accepted their punishment, Rodriguez has chosen to appeal, maintaining his innocence.
So while the appeals process is going on (a decision likely won't come until after the season), Rodriguez is determined to play baseball for as long as he can, whether anyone likes it or not. On the day his suspension was announced, Rodriguez was in the Yankees' lineup for the first time this season, having recovered from his injury. They were in Chicago to play the White Sox, where Rodriguez went 1 for 4 in a losing Yankee cause while getting booed unmercifully by the U.S. Cellular Field faithful.
Rodriguez will get that kind of reception everywhere he goes, even at Yankee Stadium. Not only have the fans turned on him, but so has Yankee management. They've made no secret that the massive 10-year, $275 million contract they signed with Rodriguez, which runs through 2017, is like an albatross they're stuck with. They can't trade him because no other team could afford him. So any amount the Yankees don't have to pay Rodriguez would be welcome for them, which means more money to splurge on the next big-name free agent to add to their collection. And that's what worries their rivals, who have enough problems (financially and otherwise) just trying to compete with them.
Should Alex Rodriguez lose his appeal and has to start serving his suspension, his career will be all but over by the time he turns 40. He had his chance to join Ruth, DiMaggio, Mantle, Jackson and Jeter in the pantheon of great New York Yankees, and he blew it. Now he's likely to join a list that includes Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa and Barry Bonds--players whose careers and legacies became suspect because of their alleged use of steroids. Once we found out the truth, they were never looked at the same way again.
Alex Rodriguez was going to be the next Yankee to join that list. But his career has been riddled by injuries and rumors that he had been injecting himself with performance enhancing drugs to help him play better. His nickname is "A-Rod", but he's heard worse ones such as "A-Roid" or "A-Fraud" because fans have refused to believe how clean he claims to be. He has now become the Damned Yankee.
Monday, Major League Baseball announced that Rodriguez is among 14 players who have been suspended for at least 50 games in its ongoing battle to rid the sport of those who believe in better baseball through chemistry. These players were allegedly involved with a South Florida-based clinic named Biogenesis, for whom MLB chose to believe an informant who supposedly worked there and saw what was going on.
MLB commissioner Bud Selig could have given Rodriguez a lifetime suspension from the game, as some people have wanted--an extreme measure previously given to the likes of Pete Rose and "Shoeless" Joe Jackson. Here, Selig blinked. Instead, Rodriguez got a 211-game suspension, lasting the rest of this season and all of 2014. He has been accused not only of 'using' by MLB, but also of interfering with their investigation of him. Unlike the other players who accepted their punishment, Rodriguez has chosen to appeal, maintaining his innocence.
So while the appeals process is going on (a decision likely won't come until after the season), Rodriguez is determined to play baseball for as long as he can, whether anyone likes it or not. On the day his suspension was announced, Rodriguez was in the Yankees' lineup for the first time this season, having recovered from his injury. They were in Chicago to play the White Sox, where Rodriguez went 1 for 4 in a losing Yankee cause while getting booed unmercifully by the U.S. Cellular Field faithful.
Rodriguez will get that kind of reception everywhere he goes, even at Yankee Stadium. Not only have the fans turned on him, but so has Yankee management. They've made no secret that the massive 10-year, $275 million contract they signed with Rodriguez, which runs through 2017, is like an albatross they're stuck with. They can't trade him because no other team could afford him. So any amount the Yankees don't have to pay Rodriguez would be welcome for them, which means more money to splurge on the next big-name free agent to add to their collection. And that's what worries their rivals, who have enough problems (financially and otherwise) just trying to compete with them.
Should Alex Rodriguez lose his appeal and has to start serving his suspension, his career will be all but over by the time he turns 40. He had his chance to join Ruth, DiMaggio, Mantle, Jackson and Jeter in the pantheon of great New York Yankees, and he blew it. Now he's likely to join a list that includes Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa and Barry Bonds--players whose careers and legacies became suspect because of their alleged use of steroids. Once we found out the truth, they were never looked at the same way again.
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