Newscoma

My random observations on pop culture this week aren’t that pithy or clever, but I did randomly observe them so there is that.

1. Donny Osmond will remain in your tubes with ebbs and flows forever. The man constantly reinvents himself. (And, yes, I did like his song in Mulan. Shut Up. Yes, I did watch him when I was 10-years-old because I had three damned channels and I was 10.) I don’t watch Dancing With The Stars but I do read Entertainment Weekly and dude won.

2. I’ve seen all the controversy on Adam Lambert’s appearance on the AMA awards this week. I have two mindsets on this. Once again, I don’t watch American Idol either, so what I’ve seen of Lambert is peripheral. First of all, I don’t have children but I can see this upsetting parents. My Facebook account has shown that it wasn’t by any means appreciated from the people there and I understand that. As a matter of fact, I think that’s completely appropriate. Letters have been sent to ABC complaining about his performance and the last I heard was roughly about 1,500. On the other hand, for three solid days from a social media perspective, we’ve seen him trend on Twitter with a huge blast of support from his fans there as well which people haven’t been talking about, he’s been interviewed a kajillion times and that’s the kind of publicity you can’t buy. He reminds me of David Bowie (I know, call me Captain Obvious) and because I’m an old codger without kids, my first reaction was that his vocal performance was very pitchy (my mother was a singer, so I play critic sometimes on vocal live performances which, however bad, are always better than lip synch crap.)

Was the simulated sexual act over the top, yes it was way over the top in a live performance and was nothing more than shock value and gratuitous but I’ve seen other stuff too that sort of shocked me on the tubes. Was Lambert kissing a dude over the top? No. Been done a million times by other performers not just between two guys. He pushed open a door where people are talking about freedom of expression/gay rights and that’s not bad. So I see this from two perspectives.  Do folks have the right to be upset about simulated oral sex? Yeah, their feelings are valid. Everyone’s feeling are valid. Did Lambert kick down a door? Yeah, but people have been kicking this door for years and it needs to be kicked. It was a reminder more or less. Remember when they wouldn’t show Elvis’ hips on the Ed Sullivan show because he was too sexual. Back then, that was scandalous as well so I have been keeping that in mind.

I remind you I’m a codger butt.

So I see both sides where this issue is and it’s intriguing to me, especially in the day and age of the Internet.

3.  Zhu Zhu pets are apparently the toy of the year. I am constantly perplexed on the world of robotic pets.

4. Thanksgiving Horror stories are over at Gawker. There pretty dang good if you are into that sort of thing as I am. The Huffington Post also has Thanksgiving quotes that might tickle your spleen.

5. Also in the Thanksgiving vein, I offer you the impossibly optimistic website called “Gives Me Hope” which is smaltzy and did, indeed, make my eyes well up because I’m a silly nostalgic woman. (Pssst … don’t tell anybody.)