It wasn't just the headlines and the disappointed fans and sports reporters that caught my attention. It was a photograph. A troubled, distraught Tiger Woods, shoulders slumped, head down, frowning, clearly upset with himself for not even being able to stay in the game. What is wrong with this picture?
The man appears to have lost his touch. All the glamour, all the flash and furor that has followed Tiger Woods through his amazing career and success seems to have, pardon the expression, petered out.
Someone should take the man aside and explain the concept of KARMA. You reap what you sow, garbage in garbage out, any way you want to say it. The point is....this is what you deserve right now.
Today is National Dance Day. How wonderful! It has been nothing short of thrilling to see the way dance has found its audience in the last few years, thanks in part to the television shows that feature dance, "So You Think You Can Dance" and "Dancing With The Stars". This newfound interest in music and dance has also spawned the successful tv show "Glee". Feature films highlighting dance are starting to show up in your local theaters. This is a good thing.
I think it's probably safe to say that girls love to dance. Traditionally, it has been a bit more difficult to interest men in the joy of dancing. If they only knew how much women love men who dance. Rather unfortunately, it has been the belief of some men that only "sissies" dance. Thank the gods, that theory has now come into question, as we have all witnessed some of the most masculine of men dancing their hearts out on these shows. Strength, we have come to realize, does not only live in the bodies of weightlifters.
In celebration of the new interest in dancing, I am suggesting that we collectively demand some continuity in the way television directors and producers present dance for their audiences. This has been a concern of mine from the beginning broadcasts of these dance shows. One need only to do a little research to learn how the old masters shot dance in its movie heyday. They understood what it is that the audience wants and needs to see. There should be rules. For instance, when two people are dancing together, the camera should never be focused on only one of those people. The camera should never be focused on the face of someone dancing, but on the fully body. Dancers are dancing with their whole bodies, including the feet.
If only those technicians understood that the camera's job is to capture the full body of the dancer. All of the excitement lives in the dancer. The camera doesn't create more excitement by making short fast frames all over the place so that one can hardly follow the dance. The producers and directors don't trust that the audience finds its own pleasure in being able to see and appreciate what the dancer is doing. It does not need tricky camera shots to enhance the pleasure of the experience. As I have already suggested in this blog, a little homework couldn't hurt. The Fred Astaire movies can serve as textbook perfection for how to shoot dance. Just park the camera and let the dancers do the rest.
I call on all of you who love watching dance on television to write the networks, your local newspaper and even the directors themselves, and beg them to stop trying to make it more exciting or interesting by using the camera inappropriately and just let us see what the dancers are saying through their movements. After you do that, do yourself a great big favor and GET OUT THERE AND DANCE!!!
Women have had to fight tooth and nail for equal rights, going all the way back to Susan B. Anthony, who led the masses of women who wanted to vote. Even then, our heroine demanded equal pay for equal work, something we still struggle for. It's no secret that women have had to struggle for all things that men seem to be entitled to with no qualifications beyond their gender.
Last year this struggle appeared to come to a logical conclusion when it seemed almost possible that we would have a woman for president. What a glorious moment in history that was! Close, but no cigar.
Last week that feeling was renewed in me as we were teased and prepped for the possibility that older women could also qualify for equal sexual pleasure. There was talk of a pill. A "pink viagra", so to speak. It turned out to be just that....all talk. When it was time for the "Panel" to decide if women could benefit significantly from this little pink wonder, well......again, close but no cigar.
Ladies, when we get past the rage of the pure discrimination of this decision by the committee, one can't help but imagine the conversation that took place behind this particular closed door. It wouldn't surprise me to know that the panel is composed solely of men caught in their own middle aged sexual crisis who are terrified of the thought that sexually crazed older women will be rioting in the streets, demanding sexual gratification if they were to get their hands on that precious pink pill. Well, we can't have that, we?
What we already know is that the blue viagra causes deafness and blindness, creating a whole generation of dottering, deaf and blind old men with raging erections who wander aimlessly through our neighborhoods. Once again, the inmates are running the asylum. It's time for women to organize, mobilize and DEMAND the ULTIMATE EQUALITY!
I'm here only to pat myself on the back, having suggested after their very first outing, that Derek and Nicole, a real-life Pussycat Doll, would ultimately win the whole deal at DWTS. And so they did. I personally think she should be hired as one of the pros. She's that good. Her lines were perfection, she's strong and so very artistic, not to mention quite beautiful. One of their dances on the last night of the competition brought me to my feet, screaming and gasping, flailing my arms, speechless and positively breathless from their performance. I was truly blown away to the point that I could not stop babbling. That is dance at its most exciting. It's not even that good on Broadway, my friends. Derek's choreography is first rate in any arena. He is gifted as a dancer as well as a choreographer. I could live a hundred years and never forget that dance.
While we're talking, I must add my two cents to the Jesse James-Sandra Bullock tragedy. I'm so sick of hearing despicable people (like Jesse James, for instance) whine and cry about how they were abused, as if it gives them the right to be an abuser. Having been abused myself as a child, I made it my business never to inflict those terrible feelings on anyone, most especially anyone I love. We are all capable of becoming what we choose and it should be remembered that every act performed in life is a choice. No one ever put a gun to Jesse James's head and said he must betray the woman who loved him. Clearly, he doesn't deserve that woman's love. A humiliation on that scale does not deserve forgiveness. Just my opinion......
Well, my favorite dance circus has come to town again. Dancing With The Stars opened its tenth season last week and unveiled the celebrity (and I use the word with my tongue in my cheek) cast. It can only be described as a stretch of the imagination. Here is the first reality that must be faced: no matter how cute, charming or famous, some people just don't have that dancing gene. No amount of choreography or rehearsal can make the difference, even when the routine is constructed to accommodate a lack of dance talent. My gripe is why those people are chosen to compete. Why invite Buzz Aldren, who is at least a thousand years old, when rigor mortis has already set in? What is the fun there?
I wonder if there has ever been an investigation about how Pamela Anderson's teeth got that color of white? Or why she can't stop posing even when the camera isn't on her?
Tony Davolini proved that the celebrities aren't the only prima donnas in the group. He walked out of rehearsal when the going got a little tough. Kate Gosslein's lack of dance ability was just too much for him to bear. After her dance, it was easy to see why he was so upset. He shouldn't take it out on her, but address this issue with the producers. I'm sure she was invited because she's the media darling of the moment. Did anyone bother to ask her if she knows her left foot from the right?? Just wondering.
There's no doubt that the show is tired. Maybe it's time to give it a rest. Clearly, it has been milked dry. In any case, my money is on the Pussycat Doll to win. Nicey Nash has style, but in the end "Doing Big" is not going to cut it.
Like a lot of other citizens, I'm a bit frustrated that our leaders in Congress cannot seem to get anything accomplished at a time, unlike any other time in my life, when the country is so in need of progress and change. Those congressional seats have become more about selling influence, it seems, than doing what's right and expedient. One cannot help but wonder if we've poisoned our own pot with representatives who have just lost their focus. I am beginning to think that I could do this better myself.
These men get themselves elected, and then they seem to flounder when it comes to doing the job. They get distracted by women sometimes. Maybe it's hookers, maybe he has a lover stashed away in another country, maybe some hot babe wants to shoot a documentary about him and ends up having his baby. In any case, not only are these men not doing their jobs, but they are behaving so badly. Yesterday there was a news report that one representative from New York will be resigning in disgrace sometime within the next week or so. His distraction is also sexual, but he prefers men. The whole point is that we can no longer trust that the man you elect will really be there to represent you. Has anyone besides me noticed that the women in Congress are never involved in sex scandals?
Therefore, I am preparing myself to become a candidate. My platform will be BETTER HUSBANDS. Who wouldn't vote for that???
When I first heard that Susan Sarandon and her younger lover, Tim Robbins, had split up, I could hardly suppress the gloat that immediately came over me like a warm blanket. How long I've waited for my little bit of revenge!
Having had the benefit of reading my ex-husband's version of their sexual encounter in his autobiography, my first impulse was to contact his current wife and give her fair warning that the cat/woman is back on the street. But wait! Isn't my ex-husband way out of age range for the predator, Ms. Sarandon? He was young and cute when she brazenly seduced the man right under my nose. We were married, of course. She doesn't mind that at all. It was her pleasure to pick and choose the man of the moment, his marital status notwithstanding. Now she has a reputation to fulfill. The new man must be young.
When one reviews the list of her male co-stars over the years, it isn't difficult to make the assumption that every one of them had the experience of being the target of her seduction routine. I have seen the mistress at work. It begins with casual, but deliberate touching, which accompanies every conversation. Then, there's always a reason why she pops out of her dressing room in her underwear, as if she hadn't noticed that she isn't wearing her clothes. It's just part of the slow build-up to love scenes that require endless hours of rehearsal. Does she do any movies that don't have love scenes? How clever! It makes the rest of it all so easy.
As an audience, we've accepted the woman as a talented actress with a political conscience. I believe her moral compass is hopelessly skewed. As an actress...? That's for others to decide.
