In a world of in-your-face porn, Lit has become the Miley Cyrus...

[4est_4est_Gump]

Laurel's achy-breaky heart...



Miley Cyrus and Ugly Sex
Was the MTV performance meant to be repellent rather than enticing?
Victor Davis Hanson, NRO
SEPTEMBER 3, 2013

An older generation used to call the boredom of bad habits “reaching rock bottom”; the present variant perhaps is “jumping the shark” — that moment when the tiresome gimmicks no longer work, and the show is over.

In a moral sense, Miley Cyrus reached that tipping point for America, slapping us into admitting that most of our popular icons are crass, talentless bores, and that our own tastes, which created them, lead nowhere but to oblivion.

After all, what does an affluent and leisured culture do when it has nothing much to rebel against?

That was poor Ms. Cyrus’s recent dilemma at the MTV awards ceremony. There are no real rules about popular dance anymore: no set steps, no moves borrowed from ballet, not even a few adaptations from scripted square dancing. It is all free-form wiggling and gyrating — twerking — as if to shout out, “Who are you to say that fake screwing in a vinyl bikini is not dance?”

The same is true of music and lyrics. You can talk to a drumbeat and call it music. You can hit the same chord ad infinitum and call it music. You can scream almost anything and call it music. Doggerel becomes lyrics. Half notes, full rests, rhyme, meter — all that is irrelevant, to the degree it is even still remembered. That is why we often see our performers just stop singing for a few moments in a daze; the dead beat goes on without their constant mindless input.

Pause for thoughts about the posts in the threads, for you will soon see a lot of that...

In shock-jock Miley’s defense, she did win our attention and get top ratings. How so?

Ostensibly, she brilliantly pawned her former Disney image as sweet, wholesome Hannah Montana for a grotesque postmodern Grendel’s mother — yet still replete with a whiff of teenage tennies and stuffed teddy bears. Madonna tried that disconnect with her anti-Christian shtick, which supposedly bounced off her Italian Catholic roots. But by the time the public had seen her genitalia, they had no idea of and did not care about what she had once been.

But Miley? Imagine Shirley Temple doing a pre–Deep Throat or Hayley Mills stripped down to vinyl underwear.

Miley rightly sensed that rivals Madonna and Lady Gaga had no constructed innocence to deconstruct. And neither of the two had a celebrity dad to bounce off as a pouty teenager gone wild. Ms. Ciccone and Ms. Germanotta needed silly made-up shock names; Billy Ray had taken care of that for Miley. (And thank God for Billy Ray, or we might have gotten Miley a.k.a. something like Mommy Superior or Sister Nothing.)

She also accomplished in live performance a grotesqueness that once required animation and, later, computer simulation — constructing a spooky female villain behaving as repugnantly as she appeared. Out jumped onto the MTV stage a rare female orc, or a weird androgynous concoction from Frank Miller’s Sin City. For us old guys, Miley Cyrus almost seemed like one of the 1960s Dynamation villain serpents conjured up by Ray Harryhausen in his Sinbad or Jason movies. She even had the Harryhausen slithering tongue, wooden movements, and hissing down pat. In other words, she tried her best to appear ugly and unappealing.

Pause again to think about how, stylistically, so many actually post...
Anger, hate, snark, simple one-liners that say,
"What I believe is so patently the truth, that I can just dismiss you with a cleverness faux."

But less remarked upon was her inspired art of inversion. In all candor, Ms. Cyrus is hardly a natural beauty or talent. There is absolutely nothing about her 20-year-old figure that is sensual, and she has what we used to call in polite terms a “different” face. Hence the previous wise move of adding lots of hair and loose-fitting clothes.

In truth, the old cute look was a big seller, not just because a few million American parents still wished their teenaged daughters to have upright-appearing role models, but also because it hid rather than accentuated Miley’s otherwise plain sort of looks.

But at the MTV awards, her vinyl bikini reminded us that she has essentially no curves. Shoulders, hips, and waistline meet the same plumb line. Apparently not being fat and middle aged is somehow supposed to be sexy. Again, the exposure of her Twiggy-like anti-sex persona was precisely her intent — to repel rather than entice.

The reptilian tongue was supposed to suggest past and current mastery of some oral sexual act, but it only added to the repugnance. Her goatish permed horns reminded us why she wisely used to drape her hair over as much of her physiognomy as possible. And yet all that deliberate unattractiveness was as if to throw down the gauntlet: “Your old concocted Miley was actually no beauty — now see me full bore and deal with the old con.”

Take away the embarrassing bear sets, the foam finger, her pats on a nearby big rear end, and her randy thruster in the prison stripes, and the show’s effect was of some desperate frontier tomboy, coming of age in her under-bloomers and rutting around the hayloft in search of the hired hand — all set to some sort of mooing and grunting background barnyard noise.

Ugly sex is all that is left after revolutionary cool.

I miss the 60s

:sniff: :sniff:

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

The Democrat Moral Superiority Complex
Karin McQuillan, American Thinker
September 3, 2013

I recently met a man who cycled from his home in California to Maryland. When I exclaimed how interesting it must have been to talk with Americans across the country, he looked at me as if I had two heads. "Are you crazy? I didn't talk to anyone," he told me. "They're all red-necks."

A liberal friend solemnly warned me not to tell anyone I support the Tea Party. They're all racists, wacko survivalists and birthers, she told me, impervious to anything I said about my pride in the Tea Party, and our mainstream issues: fiscal responsibility and constitutional, limited government. She knew we were racist because there were only white people at our rallies. No matter there's not a black face at the anti-global warming groups she goes to, or in her neighborhood or church. It's only conservatives who are judged guilty of racism before proven innocent.

Democrats believe that good and evil in this country is divided along party lines, with all the caring people in their party, and all the greedy, mean people in the other. They also believe that intelligence is doled out along party lines. Conservatives are morons while liberals are the most brilliant people ever seen.

I hear these comments every time I talk to Democrat friends, relatives and acquaintances. They are core to Democrat identity, keeping people loyal voters even as the economy tanks and poor communities flounder under Democrat policies.

It gets worse. Enclosed in their liberal bubble of superiority, Democrats can't picture an intelligent person sincerely and rationally disagreeing. So they jump to the conclusion that conservatives don't believe in their own ideas!

It's true: Democrats can't imagine anyone taking conservative ideas seriously, not even conservatives. They logically infer that Republicans are malevolent liars. We are just pretending to have our own ideas for how to set the country on the right track. When Republicans say they hate socialized medicine, they really mean they hate blacks. When Republicans say they want to respect and strengthen families, it means they hate gays. When they say people should pay for their own birth control, it means they hate women. When they say the right to bear arms is in our Constitution, it means they want school massacres. When they say we need to make Social Security solvent, it means they hate old people.

Republicans can't really believe that individual responsibility is the only path to a free, good and prosperous life. We don't mean it when we say a fiscally responsible government is necessary for a functioning economy and social safety net. The Democrats can see through all ridiculous ideas. It's obvious that Republicans want the old to die, the poor to starve, the young to have no sex, homosexuals to be humiliated and women to have no rights. Above all, we are racist.

The author volunteered in Project Headstart as a teenager, inspected tenements in Harlem for housing violations, served in the Peace Corps in Africa, became a clinical social worker and later a mystery author, writing books set in Kenya. She is regular contributor to AT.

 

[cjh]

Stravinsky debuted the The Rite of Spring Ballet at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris on May 29, 1913, to an audience accustomed to the grace, elegance, and traditional music of "conventional" ballets, i.e. Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake. Opposition to Stravinsky's work literally happened within the first few minutes of the piece as members of the audience booed loudly in response to the inharmonic notes accompanying the unrecognizable bassoon's opening solo. What's more, the work's unconventional music, sharp and unnatural choreography (dancers danced with bent arms and legs and would land on the floor so hard their internal organs would shake), and Russian pagan setting, failed to win over the majority of the audience.

As the ballet progressed, so did the audience's discomfort. Those in favor of Stravinksy's work argued with those in opposition. The arguments eventually turned to brawls and police had to be notified. They arrived at intermission and successfully calmed the angry crowd (yes, the show wasn't even half way over before people were throwing punches). As the second half commenced, police were unable to keep the audience under control and rioting resumed. Stravinsky was so taken aback by the audience's reaction, he fled the scene before the show was over.

http://classicalmusic.about.com/od/20thcenturymusic/qt/rite-of-spring.htm

http://www.youtube.com/embed/oatJL7Trmys?autoplay=1

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

What was going on in 1913 that the audience needed the comfort of something more familiar and reaching back to a less troubled time?

 

[Busybody]

http://classicalmusic.about.com/od/20thcenturymusic/qt/rite-of-spring.htm

http://www.youtube.com/embed/oatJL7Trmys?autoplay=1

yup

same shit

different year

 

[Busybody]

Oooooooooooo, Pablo came into a OH!Fendy thread, I gotta take a SHOWER

 

[cjh]

What was going on in 1913 that the audience needed the comfort of something more familiar and reaching back to a less troubled time?

It's the same as it ever was.

http://www.youtube.com/embed/VR_BV37BU1s?autoplay=1

 

[Busybody]

wake me up when MC does a hard core porn vid

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

I am on a limited bandwidth plan.

I don't watch videos.

Can you say it?

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

Oooooooooooo, Pablo came into a OH!Fendy thread, I gotta take a SHOWER

wake me up when MC does a hard core porn vid

She is beyond that point...


Ugly

 

[cjh]

I am on a limited bandwidth plan.

I don't watch videos.

Can you say it?

Ah.

That was a Presley tv shot from 56 or 57.

I'm not saying Miley Cyrus will have the same influence as either Stravinsky or Presley. (Lady Gaga might.)

I am saying, though, that I know my tastes are set enough that I do not see her in context. Or, that the context I see her in is set.

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

Ah.

That was a Presley tv shot from 56 or 57.

I'm not saying Miley Cyrus will have the same influence as either Stravinsky or Presley. (Lady Gaga might.)

I am saying, though, that I know my tastes are set enough that I do not see her in context. Or, that the context I see her in is set.

She is not setting a trend.

She is the absurd, logical outcome of deconstruction.

The point being that beauty in art is now undergoing the same transformation as the society.

Now, if you wish to say, this has been said before, then yes it has, but always on the cusp of the death of what was before.

How many people, do you see in the course of each day who have transformed themselves by piercing, tattoo and slovenly, evil-appearing dress? When wart becomes feature...

 

[Busybody]

I must be so old

That I think

These PEEPS are NUTS

Crooked hats, droopy pants, tongue sticking out, huge sunglasses, PEACE SIGNS. crazy costumes, (Lady Loon Gaga)

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

I must be so old

That I think

These PEEPS are NUTS

Crooked hats, droopy pants, tongue sticking out, huge sunglasses, PEACE SIGNS. crazy costumes, (Lady Loon Gaga)

As the 60s sounded the death knell of Liberalism for Progressivism.

 

[cjh]

She is not setting a trend.

She is the absurd, logical outcome of deconstruction.

The point being that beauty in art is now undergoing the same transformation as the society.

Now, if you wish to say, this has been said before, then yes it has, but always on the cusp of the death of what was before.

How many people, do you see in the course of each day who have transformed themselves by piercing, tattoo and slovenly, evil-appearing dress? When wart becomes feature...

I think we have the ability to self right. We seem to do it in spite of ourselves.

I live in a trendy town that has much of what you've described, fashionwise. My teenage son has soaked it up and rejected it. He looks like he stepped out of a Ralph Lauren ad, to my chagrin and amusement.

And how many boomers do you know who still look like Tiny Tim?

 

[Busybody]

I think we have the ability to self right. We seem to do it in spite of ourselves.

I live in a trendy town that has much of what you've described, fashionwise. My teenage son has soaked it up and rejected it. He looks like he stepped out of a Ralph Lauren ad, to my chagrin and amusement.

And how many boomers do you know who still look like Tiny Tim?

a future DUMOH voter no doubt

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

I think we have the ability to self right. We seem to do it in spite of ourselves.

I live in a trendy town that has much of what you've described, fashionwise. My teenage son has soaked it up and rejected it. He looks like he stepped out of a Ralph Lauren ad, to my chagrin and amusement.

And how many boomers do you know who still look like Tiny Tim?

As to the last question...

HAVE YOU NEVER BEEN TO A WALMART???



No, I do not think it self-corrects, I think it cycles. You see pullback, yes, at times, but the pull is always towards deconstruction until you get collapse and total rebirth.

 

[cjh]

a future DUMOH voter no doubt

Dunno about the future.

He would be today.

 

[cjh]

As to the last question...

HAVE YOU NEVER BEEN TO A WALMART???



No, I do not think it self-corrects, I think it cycles. You see pullback, yes, at times, but the pull is always towards deconstruction until you get collapse and total rebirth.

Maybe we destruct some of the time. Other times, I think, we just list uncomfortably close to the sea.

 

[Busybody]

Dunno about the future.

He would be today.

He will be

Till he becomes a TAX PAYER

 

[Tryharder62]

We're still talking about her. That is why things get more outragious and more outragious. I don't know where else there is to go? It's too bad because she at least has some talent.

 

[RobDownSouth]

We're still talking about her. That is why things get more outragious and more outragious. I don't know where else there is to go? It's too bad because she at least has some talent.

Let's see....

1. Brittney french kissing Madonna
2. Kayne West interrupting Taylor Swift
3. Lady Gaga's meat dress
4. Miley Cyrus twerking

It's almost like the VMAs are an exercise in attention whoring one-upmanship!!

 

[Tryharder62]

Let's see....

1. Brittney french kissing Madonna
2. Kayne West interrupting Taylor Swift
3. Lady Gaga's meat dress
4. Miley Cyrus twerking

It's almost like the VMAs are an exercise in attention whoring one-upmanship!!

Like I said, I don't want to know what could possibly happen next. I missed the meat dress. Hmmm. Was it bacon?

 

[phrodeau]

Now you realize that pop culture is oversexualized tripe, and it took Miley Cyrus and National Review to show that to you.

It took you long enough.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

We're still talking about her. That is why things get more outragious and more outragious. I don't know where else there is to go? It's too bad because she at least has some talent.

The way these things go is, a calamity comes along that focuses minds on economic ruin or political destruction or plagues, and the clowns & whores fade away. When the TITANIC was going down few were showing their asses.