I’m a fan of Miley Cyrus, but she has a problem — she’s so wrapped up in belting out songs at the top of her lungs that it takes away from her overall performance. As such, I think she should embrace this tendency by picking songs to cover that allow her to lean into her natural need to scream at the top of her lungs — Meatloaf songs.
Meatloaf is very theatrical and screams his songs in a very over-the-top manner. So, instead of having to tamp down her desire to scream any song she sings, Cyrus could use that to the benefit of songs that were built for just that type of performance.
But I do have to say that, in general, Cyrus has really become one of the most interesting figures in modern music. I still struggle to figure out how much of bonkers behavior is real and how much is an act.
If you take what she says at face value, apparently, being Hanna Montana really did a number on her mentally. She acts so nuts because she’s still suffering the lingering effects of paying the Montana character at such a young age. But I will note that her public persona has been toned down just a little bit now that she’s reached the ripe old age of 30.
I think of sex work the same way I do pot — I think it should be legalized, regulated and taxed. And, yet, I know OTHER people think about sex work and…oh boy…I think Tik-Tok has a prostitution problem on its hands. I am getting a growing amount of conspicuous videos from call girls who provide their “clients” the “girlfriend experience.”
Shit like that is only going to add to the growing chorus of people in the government who want to ban the service altogether for various national security reasons.
I continue to find Tik-Tok very addictive. I love it and I feel a bit sheepish how many videos of hot chicks doing hot chick shit I get pushed. I’m flooded with videos full of T&A and am very pleased that I do. I may be old, but I’m not dead.
Anyway, having said all that, I do agree that the service is too close to the CCP and should either be banned or sold to a Western company. The fact that Tik-Tok not only has a back door for the CCP but also has been known to track specific journalists in the West is just too much. But our politics are so broken — and Tik-Tok is so popular that it’s either going to be years before we address the situation or ultimately nothing happens.
Sometimes, even I wonder why I even bother. For some reason, I have the trans movement on the brain and, as such, I did a Tik-Tok trying to give an equatable, nuanced explanation of my struggle to figure out how to deal with the whole thing.
I knew going into it that it would be controversial and, soon enough, a trans person flipped out on me in their own video. I watched the whole video and was impressed with how passionate and cogent the argument was.
And, yet, the freak out kind of proved my point — I fucking hate orthodoxy of any sort and if you stake out an extreme political orthodox you’re only setting yourself up for an eventual downfall. It all goes back to John Lennon saying in Revolution, “if you talk about distruction, you can count me out (in.)
Or, to put it another way, I have a vested interest in hating orthodoxy because if you have one, I’m probably going to violate it eventually, whatever it is. That’s just my nature.
Anyway, the only reason why I even continue to talk about something as controversial as the trans movement is if the trans orthodoxy becomes so taboo to even address then, well, we are lurching ever closer to a fascist state. If we had a functioning democracy, there would be some give-and-take and, ultimately, the exact place of trans people in society would be sorted out and we could move on to cursing the meat.
But because we DON’T have a functioning democracy, we find ourselves with a Gay Scare and the whole issue of trans people even existing at all becoming a hot political potato that is used by both sides (I hate that term) to juice the base whenever an election is coming up.
I’m extremely self-conscious about writing a novel that repeatedly has me writing from a female POV using third person intimate. There are even some “woke” Youngs who would say that, by definition, I shouldn’t even do such a thing. Slay the patriarchy and all that.
But if Stieg Larsson can sell millions of copies of his novels doing just that, I don’t see why I can’t. I suppose the case could be made that with the rise of the “woke” movement that audience expectations have changed since he did all that, but fuck it, I have my vision and I’m going to stick to it.
And, yet, I validate how often female readers complain about how bad male authors can be at depicting their female creations. I think a lot of this comes from over-excited authors who see writing from a female POV as their opportunity either be a woman or to design a character they want to fuck. This is very sloppy and lazy writing and only causes you to make a fool out of yourself.
So.
It’s one of those things were you just try to do the best you can and see what happens. No matter what you do as a creative, if you put yourself out there, someone, somewhere is going to complain that you’re not doing it right. All you can do is expect the absolute best of yourself and see what happens.
Wrong Tree lyrics by @sheltgarner please give credit if you produce or perform
walking down the street see a lovely lady next thing I know she’s holding hands with a gal it was then I realized that I was barking up the barking up the barking up the wrong tree
what you do with your body is cool with me but what’s a boy to do when he leers as a chyck only to find out she’s wading in the lady pond the world these days is so confusing when you’re barking up the barking up the barking up the barking up the wrong tree
(bridge) things once were simple boys were boys and girls were girls now we fend for ourselves not knowing west from west the twain no longer meet so you’re left to beat your meat
the world these days is so confusing when you’re barking up the barking up the barking up the barking up the wrong tree
I continue to grow more and more alarmed at how Red and Blue America are receding from each other. The United States continues to fracture in this post-Trumplandia era. And, what’s more, there is a real risk that fucking malignant ding-dong Trump will come back.
The thing is, the United States is careening towards a legalistic form of autocracy ilke what is found in modern Russia. We’ll be a “managed democracy”….or we have a National Divorce, and as such, a Second American Civil War.
I’m not suggesting I have any particular unique insight, but the United States definitely has a weird vibe at the moment. A lot of it, I think, comes from a combination of late-Republic malaise and massive income disparity. Throw in the browning of America and the rise of economically liberated women and you have a pretty volaille situation on your hands on a maro scale.
Something bad is going to happen soon, probably as part of the passions of the 2024 presidential cycle. It could be everything from the United States slipping to autocracy to an actual fighting civil war when Blues refuse to “bend a knee” to fucking Red State fascists.
If I had the money, I would just leave the country NOW and never come back. But, alas, that is just not going to happen, unless, like I win the Mega Millions jackpot or maybe manage to sell a breakout first novel before everything goes to hell in late 2024, early 2025.
The more I look over this, it definitely seems like I’ve written a lesbian pop rock song. It’s comical how impossible it would be for any lyrics I come up with to become an actual song, given I don’t know anything about music. But, lulz, it is very relaxing to write a story in really quick in a short burst of creativity.
Sweetspot lyrics by @sheltgarner please give credit if you produce or perform
looking at your sweetspot lying in the wetspot wondering how it came to be that you give time to someone such as me
(chorus) checking my clock wondering why I’m not in your sweetspot giving it all I got
lovers come and go but with you I’m on a roll even if I’m on the doll the toll of my desire only take the two us higher
(bridge) dry as can be when you’re far away from me my lips are cracking from all the smacking longing for you by my side so I can be in your sweetspot
(chorus) checking my clock wondering why I’m not in your sweetspot giving it all I got
I have no skin in the game when it comes to how the Twitter hivemind has decided to make Mindy Kaling the service’s Main Character for this Friday the 13th. Whatever. So what. Meh.
“Velma”
And, yet, there is a certain meta political element to it all that I find alarming. There is a good Scooby-Doo-Without-The Talking-Dog cartoon to be made that would appeal to the adult sensibilities of the people who loved the original Scooby Doo as kids…but I’m not so sure Kaling’s effort is it, from what I have seen.
I’ve often thought about how Olds struggle with the legacy of Scooby Doo because, in a sense, we remember the show as being a lot more serious than it actually was. So, what Olds want from an updated Scooby Doo is something like The Simpsons meets Arrested Development, only with a talking dog. And, yet, because it’s a cartoon…you also have to placate little tykes, too.
But the issue at the moment is — the fact that Twitter is freaking out over Kaling’s show “Velma” is yet another thing that Right wing people with a huge fucking cultural chip on their shoulder can point to and say, “the woke cancel culture mob is at it YET AGAIN.”
And this is happening in the context of the “woke cancel culture mob” absolutely INSISTING that the Velma character is a lesbian. What the what? That certainly isn’t going to help my Traditionalist relatives who think being gay is a “sin” stop having a chip on their shoulder. I really don’t care if Velma is a lesbian or not — more power to her if she is — but, yet again, the fact that it’s the orthodoxy of the “woke cancel culture mob” that a children’s cartoon character is a lesbian is alarming to Traditionalists…which forces them into the arms of fucking fascists.
Yet I must point out that Kaling must be doing something right if both political extremes are angry at her. Lulz, nothing matters. The Right things she’s woke and the Left thinks she a tone-deaf stooge for the anti-Trans movement.
I have fallen into a horrible rut as I reach my 50th birthday. I love to produce media but I loath to consume it. But, as they say, if you have time to write you have time to read (or watch.) I have a new Netflix account and there are all these really good movies and TV shows to watch….and I just can’t get into them.
Meh. I don’t care. *I* want to be the person creating content for other people, not having to slog through some other person’s vision. It’s all very curious and frustrating. I need to get outside my comfort zone, expose myself to new ideas so when I do write content I have those new ideas rolling around in my mind.
It’s all very much a pain in the ass, especially as I yet again start from scratch on a new iteration of the second draft of my first novel. It should not be so difficult. All I have to do is plop myself in front of my laptop and watch something, anything, for longer than a few moments.
The last few TV shows I actually got into were 30 Rock, Mad Men and the first season of Stranger Things — otherwise, nada. This is so embarrassing. Some of it is I have a very specific taste in content to the point that if it doesn’t hit me just right…I can’t bear to watch it.
Anyway. It’s time for me to come to grips with the fact that I’m not some sort of man in a high castle. If I’m going to be a successful content creator, I have to CONSUME content as well. It’s very difficult because as I’ve grown older, I’ve all out of the habit of consuming ANY media outside of the occasional movie.
One of the most frustrating things going on these days is how Right Wing “thought leaders” love to conflate the (annoying) soft power of the smug liberal elite media with the power of the Federal government.
This conflation is serves the purposes of the Right because it reduces everything down to an Us vs. Them situation.
I bring this up because I’m listening to the “All-In” podcast and David Sacks loves to do this very thing. He — and a lot of other Right wing thought leaders bitch and moan about the “bias” of the mainstream media and use that anger as a cudge to demand hard power.
Say what you will about the media and their power, Mr. Sacks, but they can’t put you in jail. Even the people that get “canceled” by the “woke cancel culture mob” are free to do the same damn thing they’ve always done — sometimes to great success.
The issue is that this conflation is parter a broader problem of the United States cleaving into two nations, Red and Blue. Right wing people are alarmed at the hyper societal change going on in the United States and the “bias” of the mainstream media is a shiny object that they point to when they want hard power.
As an aside, I really fucking hate people who are hyper partisan. And people like David Sacks have a huge and I mean HUGE chip on their shoulders and so they lash out. The whole whining about the power of the media is more a symptom of how popular fascism is in the United States than anything else. Sacks makes a point of saying that the evil libtards of the media have such absolute influence that they control the government via their reporting.
This is serious bullshit. Ron DeSantis — but for Trump — is probably going to be the next president of the United States, no matter how much he, and the Republican Party, are hated by the smug Twitter liberals. You can’t have it both ways — you can’t say the only reason why Trump became president was all the free publicity from the press and yet also refuse to acknowledge that the press doesn’t really have much power given that DeSantis now the frontrunner to become president in 2024.
The key issue is — if people like David Sacks get their way, will there be an equal and opposite reaction on the part of Blues? During the transition to a legalistic autocracy, will Blues refuse to “bend a knee” to fascism and demand a National Divorce?
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