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September 21, 2009
Kanye Interruptus
It’s official, Kanye West is a jackass. That’s not just me talking, it’s the President of the United States. Oh, no he di'n't!
I honestly haven’t watched MTV much, at least not since they stopped playing “M” on their channel, so I didn’t see the infamous incident where Kanye West jumped on stage during the MTV Video Award show and took the microphone from winner Taylor Swift and announced that singer Beyonce had “one of the greatest videos of all time.”
Ah, if only Kanye had run onto the field to take the ball out of the N.Y. Jets quarterback’s hands and declared that Tom Brady was one of the greatest QB’s of all time, but I digress.
Not having seen it live, I was puzzled by all of the buzz on Facebook not long after the incident took place.
“Kanye’s an ass,” seemed to be the consensus.
Well, yeah, we knew that (and the president later confirmed it). Still, with the amount of discussion on FB, I knew something was up and soon learned of the classless man’s classless act.
It’s not the first time he’s done these publicity-seeking hijinks, but it backfired wildly and West was forced to humble himself on Jay Leno’s new show, apologizing profusely. It could’ve been worse; he could’ve been torn to shreds by the ladies of The View.
That’s the entertainment world, however and there are worse places he could’ve been a jackass, historically speaking. It’s a good thing he wasn’t at Gettysburg while President Lincoln was saying, “Four score and seven years ago…” to step in front of Lincoln to announce, “Great speech, Mr. President but Frederick Douglass had one of the greatest speeches of all time!”
Going further back it would’ve been rough to see him interrupt Thomas Jefferson as he read the Declaration of Independence.
“We the people…”
Although, I suppose Jefferson would’ve asked Kanye if he had any good looking sisters he could “date.”
Worse, Kanye could’ve been at the Last Supper, saying “Great speech, Jesus, but Aristotle had one of the greatest speeches of all time!”
The fact that Kanye West has declared himself the voice of his generation should’ve given us an idea that that his MTV antics shouldn’t have come as a big surprise. To paraphrase the old saying about “class,” if you have to announce that you’re the voice of a generation, you’re probably not. That’s for others to decide and declare and most people, like Bob Dylan, tend to reject that notion and the burden it carries.
Rudeness by a spotlight-hogging celebrity is one thing, but when it comes from a member of congress, it’s another matter.
This brings us to South Carolina representative Joe Wilson, who now famously yelled, “You lie!” at President Obama during his speech to a joint session of congress recently.
Before getting to the substance of it, I have to note that before this, if you mentioned the name Joe Wilson, I would’ve thought you were either talking about Valerie Plame’s husband, or Dennis the Menace’s grouchy neighbor.
Considering that H.R. 3200, Section 246 is titled “No Federal payment for undocumented aliens,” it would seem to disprove Wilson’s claim. Of course if Wilson had been watching Fox News, he might honestly believe it. Fox is not known for their accuracy in reporting, especially when a Republican politician gets involved a sex scandal. A number of times they’ve identified GOP pols with a “D” next to their names, with regard to Gov. Mark Sanford and Rep. Mark Foley.
In no one’s recollection has a member of congress yelled out or called the president a liar during a speech. Normally, even when members of congress criticize each other, it is done with at least an appearance of civility, and in the third person.
“If my liberal friend would kindly remove his head from his rectum…”
How can we expect celebrities to be polite if we can’t even get our elected leaders to be polite?
Anyway, I’d better end this before Kanye comes in and interrupts me. I just hope he's not nearby if and when I have a honeymoon.
Posted by dmargarita at 5:49 PM
September 10, 2009
You're a Jerk
"You're a Jerk"...no, I'm not insulting anyone, but inspired by some A-hole I was behind in line @ Dunkin Donuts, I wrote this song, "You're a Jerk." We've all known people who are mean, nasty and u just wanna ask, "Why are you such a jerk?" It's the last song when you scroll down.
Enjoy...(or not)
http://www.myspace.com/danmargaritamusic
Posted by dmargarita at 12:08 AM
September 9, 2009
About Facebook
I have a confession to make…lately, I’ve been getting “faced” a lot. No, not drunk, but spending a lot of time on the social networking site Facebook.
I was well behind everyone, first on getting a computer and then well behind on joining the networking site Myspace (and as popular as these sites now are, they are apparently new enough that my old Microsoft Word program highlights them as non-existent words). Just when I finally got on Myspace, it seemed like that was no longer the “hip” thing and by now everybody had moved to a new site called “Facebook.” Please don’t tell me that my bell-bottom pants and Nehru jacket will go out of style.
Not that I have ever had any aspirations of being hip (that boat has long ago sailed), but as a writer/singer/comedian and whatever, it seems like these sites would be good for me to get my work out there to be seen/read/heard, or whatever. As you can see, these sites have clearly vaulted me to national prominence.
So who determines exactly what is hip and what must be purchased or seen? Teenagers….
Yup, adolescents with acne, burgeoning facial hair or blossoming breasts, whose most frequently used word is “like,” (and not in comparing things, but as a filler word) are in many ways, the ones running this country. The sad thing is that they don’t even know it.
Movies, music, TV shows and especially fashion, is increasingly geared to these citizens who have the disposable income to buy these things that their parents would rather spend on items like food, electricity or health insurance.
Have you tried to buy a pair of shorts lately? Teenage boys walk around with trousers that fall somewhere between the knee and the ankle. They’re not exactly shorts, but they’re not quite pants, either. They’re ports or…shants (okay, I understand why Word highlighted “shants”). Out of these teenage boys that wear the ports…or shants, half of them wear them low enough to let the public know if they’re also wearing Calvin Klein, Fruit of the Loom or Underoos.
Alas, the newest technological wonder seems to be Twitter. Yes, I finally broke down and joined Twitter, although it went against every instinct in my body. Members of congress have been known to “tweet” from the middle of presidential speeches. A “tweet” of course, is what a message posted on Tweeter is called. You can actually do it from your phone. Well, maybe you can do it but I can’t. I have enough trouble Tweeting on my computer, much less my cell phone. I hear about Twitter not working sometimes, so I don’t know if, when I have trouble posting, it’s not working or I just screwed up trying to post something. If Tweeter is always screwing up, that could be it but I have so little faith in my tech ability that I’m just going to assume it’s me.
Twitter only allows 140 characters to be posted (if you can post them!), so it becomes necessary to abbreviate and use symbols. In other words, everything you learned about spelling and grammar in school you can just toss out the window.
In fact, when people started sending email slang, it confused the hell out of me. When I got my first email emoticon, (huh…Word accepted that) I didn’t recognize the sideways smiley face as a smiley face. I assumed they leaned on the keyboard and didn’t realize it, or had a seizure. And yet, as I try to types the emoticon smiley face here, Word prints it out as an actual smiley face!
Some tweets (not to be confused with “twits”) are simply too hard to read.
“0I8B4U” is “Oh, I ate before you.”
Shakespeare must be rolling in his grave.
“2b or not 2b.”
It’s not like people seem to write important stuff on Twitter or sometimes on Facebook, but they feel the need to let us know about every mundane thing they do.
“Going to have a tuna sandwich for lunch.”
Even Hemingway couldn’t have gotten that published.
Okay, it’s time to go to bed now.
I’m sorry, “OK its time 2 go 2 zzzz now.”
LOL!!
Posted by dmargarita at 1:13 PM