How Could You Be So Heartless. LOL.

For the last 36 hours the internet has been abuzz and at the top of the trending topics and google searches is one man, Kanye West. During Sunday’s MTV Video Music Awards, Mr. West went on stage after they announced Taylor Swift’s name for the Female Video of the year. Now I will be the first to admit that when they announced Taylor’s name as opposed to Beyonce, Pink, or even Lady Gaga, I was twittering away about my surprise at the choice but none of us could have prepared for Kanye’s stunt. He climbed on stage during her speech and snatched the microphone away from her. He then proclaimed that Beyonce should have won. (please see the video clip below). While he was doing it I kicked out about five tweets, and about 20 minutes later, he was a trending topic.

Kanye’s Beyonce outburst mimicked everyone’s thoughts when they read Taylor swift’s name, fortunately or unfortunately, he was in the position and obviously inebriated enough to jump on stage and say it. I read some of the public tweets and there was talk of racism, with the n word being tossed around, lots of douche bags (The AntiPopBlog called him the Doucher of the Day), and a slew of other negative things that I thought were a bit over the top, but were all a reflection of how people felt nonetheless. While I thought what Kanye did was mean, I never felt like he was the devil or evil, or stealing candy from a baby as some tweets pointed out. Maybe I am heartless or maybe I just didn’t see it as a big deal. West later took to his website to issue an apology and did the same today as well.

http://www.kanyeuniversecity.com/blog/

Today proved to be one of Kanye’s worst days as a celebrity, sure but lucky for him he had a chance to redeem himself, in the form of Jay Leno’s premiere on which he was slated to perform with Jay-Z and Rhianna. Prior to the performance, Jay Leno brought out Kanye who requested a chance to speak. He was apologetic and based on his appearance, it was clear that he was sincere. Jay asked him how his mother would feel about it and his 20 second pause and struggle to hold back tears showed his sincerity.

I must say that I am kinda on Kanye’s side. As far as what he did to Taylor, it was rude, but in his defense, we were all thinking the same thing, he just had the balls to voice his opinion. And while its not an excuse, he had been sipping on Hennessey the whole night, starting from the red carpet.

I think when he sobered up and realized it didn’t go over as well as his drunk mind may have thought it would’ve, he sincerely apologized. So I suppose now the question becomes do we forgive this man who continues to act out? A man who lost his mother, who was one of his closest friends, and never took time to mourn. A man who is fed up with not being able to lead a private life when he wants to, as he is constantly hounded by paparazzi. A man who is egotistical and also emotionally unstable. How do we deal with him when he acts out? I honestly think we expect too much of celebrities. They are still people. They can be mean, they can be rude, they can be nice, then can be anything that someone in your everyday life is. We expect them to be perfect, but why? If we look at all of the deaths that have happened as of late, we can see what happens when celebrities are pushed to the limits, while they don’t deal with financial issues, such as job loss, and healthcare, they deal with things that most regular people cannot imagine. They end up addicted to drugs, they party too hard, and they act out in egotistical ways. Imagine not being able to do something as simple as going to Target. That is something Kanye can’t do and something Michael Jackson couldn’t do. Imagine how that could effect someone. When my ex put me on a pedestal I couldn’t stand it, imagine the whole world putting you on a pedestal. So while I feel bad for what happened to Taylor Swift during her special moment, nothing in me wanted to jump on the I Hate Kanye band wagon.

Movie Review: 2 Days in Paris

2 Days in Paris, is a movie that came highly recommended by many different friends. The movie is set in Paris and Adam Goldberg stars as Jack, the American boyfriend to Julie Delpy, who plays Marion, a French photographer, who was transplanted in NYC. After spending time in Venice, the couple head to Paris for two days on their way back to New York City.

Throughout the movie, there were various awkward moments and so much sarcasm it would make any cynic puke. While the infighting was charming at times, I couldn’t comb through it enough to find the love story. Jack is obsessed with the idea that Marion is a whore and Marion is obviously emotionally unstable and acts out at various random moments in the film. Her family, mom, dad, and younger sister are also a bit awkward. The four argue a bit too much and her father is a quirky artist who is a bit too obsessed with sex.

I usually can look at a movie objectively enough to see why someone would love and hate it, but this movie really just doesn’t do it for me. Perhaps its because the cynical love story taints Paris’ romantic backdrop. In fact, somehow the movie actually makes Paris less desirable. It makes it a drab city. One more akin to its gloomy neighbor, London as oppose to its romantic twin, Barcelona.

The most interesting part to me was their fight at the end, during which Marion’s monologue over their visual fighting, she proclaims, “And here it is, one more one less. Another wasted love story.” In this moment, I related to the movie and while I didn’t enjoy it, that line made the 96 minutes less of a waste of time.

No Place in the Race

Last month, South Africa’s Caster Semenya, who won the World Championship in Berlin, became the center of controversy when her gender came into question. The IAAF required her to undergo gender testing, after winning the race by a huge margin. I’m sure her deep voice and strong features didn’t help either. When I heard about the controversy I was very taken aback, because i never knew that athletic organizations did gender testing. How embarrassing. A number of specialists were called in and following testing, she returned to her native South Africa where she was well received as “our girl”.

Today reports show that Semenya is biologically a hermaphrodite. She has no womb or ovaries and has internal testes. So now the question becomes, does her win still stand? The IAAF is forwarding the results to experts for further testing, but I wonder if that is even necessary. Being a hermaphrodite is a medical condition that automatically sets you apart from the rest of society and I’m sure it comes with loads of psychological and emotional baggage and a lifelong feeling to fit in. When you find something you enjoy, such as track and field and you excel at that, who are we, as a society and the IAAF as an organization to take away from her happiness? She should be considered what she identifies as. If she does not identify as a man, surely you cannot expect her to run against men, and to disqualify her because of a medical condition that she cannot change seems illogical. So in a world that caters to a sort of normalcy, where does Ms. Semenya fit in?

Check this link for the full article. http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2009/sep/10/caster-semenya-hermaphrodite-iaaf-test