Weekly Writing Challenge: Mind the Gap, Miley Cyrus – who?

Posted in Challenges by angloswiss

Miley Cyrus, the 20-year-old singer who began her career as squeaky-clean star of the Hannah Montana television series, seems to have ditched that goody two-shoes image for good with her recent Video Music Awards (VMAs) performance. Cyrus performed with Robin Thicke wearing a nude bikini, made suggestive overtures to a foam finger, and caused legions to break down and Googletwerking. Did Miley’s performance cross the line, are we making too much of it, or are we missing a chance to have a more important conversation about race and sex? You be the judge.

Being an AngloSwiss and living in Europe all my life I really do not know what this is all about. Had there not been so much publicity and had I not been a blogger that sees things happening all over the world, I would not have even heard of Miley Cyrus. Just because she is a “big name” in the States, it does not mean that she had worldwide fame. Now she has more fame due to the publicity given to her performance.
Perhaps this is proof that today you only get somewhere, become famous, become a word in everyone’s mouth, if you do something that no-one else in their right mind would do. Stand on the stage as a performer (I still do not actually know what Miley Cyrus exactly does for her living), stick your tongue out, make a few strange movements with a foam finger to shock everyone, and you are talked about, noticed. This is a symbol of modern life. The media jump on a performance like this, it is their bread and butter of life and the people behind this Miley Cyrus were fully aware of this. Miley is only too glad to be a name, to be something completely different, so she does it all, silly girl.

I feel sorry for Miley Cyrus, some say she has been misunderstood and she was a victim of her managers or whatever. Miley Cyrus has a brain probably, but it seems she just thinks dollars and fame and is told the rest takes care of itself. What Madonna can do, does not mean that everyone else can do the same. Madonna did it at the peak of her career and could get away with anything, she had nothing to lose. Her fans were a fixed group. As far as I can see Miley whatever is on the way, but it is not quite clear to where. One thing is certain her performance will remain as a milestone on the journey. She might be forgotten one day if she does not make it, but somewhere sometime a person will say to another “Do you remember that performance that Miley Cyrus made at the Video Music Awards?”. The answer might be “that wasn’t something you could forget” or perhaps the answer is “Who?” Whether in ten years she will still be remembered is doubtful.

Being a golden oldie, I have seen it all over the years. Sticking the tongue out is nothing new, the Stones have been doing it as a trade mark on t-shirts and records since they existed and at every football championship match foam fingers are distributed amongst the fans, but as a symbol of encouragement. I am not sure what Miley wanted to symbolise with her foam finger and I wonder she knew what it was all about: a typical example of how to let the media use you for their own intention.

Miley Cyrus, go back to Disneyland, and forget the rest. That way you might be remembered – something like Doris Day, but certainly not a second Madonna.

Weekly Writing Challenge: Mind the Gap Miley Cyrus – Who?

Miley Cyrus Pingbacks

3Sep2013

Daily Prompt: Blogger With a Cause

Posted in Challenges by angloswiss

If your day to day responsibilities were taken care of and you could throw yourself completely behind a cause, what would it be?

Photographers, artists, poets: show us HELP.

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A photo of me in the dark ages when I was causing, being a member of the local first aid group and offering my services at the local football tournament. Admittedly there was something in it for me: helping all those nice manly figures of footballers with their injuries, applying plaster, soothing ointment and bandages to their injured limbs.

Which cause you may ask, there are too many.

Causes are not my thing these days. I myself am a cause. I nearly chopped my finger pad off last week (I Had an Accident). My finger pad has decided to grow again, after I managed to remove the part of the nail that was severed from the rest. It is no longer a gory mess and an interesting scar will definitely remain. I am still not sure whether the removed part of the nail will regrow, but I was never one for nail polish: too lazy to wait for it to dry.

Getting old is not always fun, there are all sorts of problems that can arise. I remember when I was working a few years ago, the doctor decided it was his cause to give me a week free from work with doctor’s certificate and all the trimmings and I was not allowed to touch a computer for this time due to rheumatic/arthritic pains in my right arm That was a doctor’s cause? More like a crime for me – no computer? Luckily it was summer and I had my new camera so I could fill in the boredom with a photographic journey around the garden. This problem has now reoccurred, but this time I avoided a visit to the doc, I am now a do-it-yourself person. I have purchased an ergo metric mouse mat for resting my wrist on the special gel filled pad and take a tablet in the evening to ease the pain. The pain is gradually disappearing, but my mouse mat remains.

I no longer do causes, it is not worth it: there are too many causes that need a pilot figure to battle for their rights, so which one do I choose? With age comes a sort of self-protection, looking out for I, me and myself. Not everyone is a Dr. Barnado, Mother Theresa or Henry Dunant (the Swiss bloke that found the Red Cross). I remember one of the main rules in my life as a first aid helper was ensure you yourself are not in danger before you help others. Sounds selfish, but what is the point in me rescuing someone from drowning if I am at a risk to drown myself. I could perhaps enter a burning building to rescue a victim, being burnt myself at the same time. That is not helping a cause, but more a burden to those injured.

A good cause might be to rid a few countries of their despotic leaders. Sounds good, but it seems to me that when they are gone, the people in those troubled countries begin to fight with each other about who is now going to take over, so eventually it might have been better to leave things as they were Meddling in matters that are none of your business and for which you have no understanding was never a help, more like stirring in the soup that had already burnt at the bottom of the pan, redistributing the unwanted burnt bits all over the soup. Understand what I mean? Things might have been better just as it was. Tell it to the politicians that think they are good interfering where no-one wanted them in the first place.

As you progress with age, you do not actually become wiser, you see things at a different angle. Over the past month Mr. Swiss has not been so active due to a back problem. He can walk, drive a car, best of all sit, but standing in a queue at the supermarket waiting to pay at the cash desk is torture. That is my cause at the moment, caring for Mr. Swiss, going shopping and assisting on relieving the pain where I can. Life is not fun as the bones no longer work, are worn down, or other parts of the human body. Things arrive in daily life that you just never thought would arrive.

Of course there is much worse. A terminal illness, a cancer threat, I could make a list. Up to now I manage, but one day I might not be able to manage. A cause might be to revise the derelict British National Health Service, to enable my dad to get the tablets that would help better with his leg pains than the cheap rubbish he is now getting, but it all costs money and the best treatment in England is only there if you can afford it.

So let us leave those causes to people that think they know how to handle them.

Daily Prompt: Blogger with a Cause

Causes for a Pingback

Being honest the title is based on a remark made on one of my blogs by a supporter.
"You always turn a topic inside out and on its head" were words also applied by a visitor to one of my blogs. I think she hit the nail on the head.

Prompts are there to act on, not just tell everyone what you had for lunch or your likes and dislikes. I trust that on my blog you find something spiced with humour. Mr. Swiss, my other half, has been known to say that not everyone always understands my humour (I do not always understand his).

Blogging is for me coupled with having fun. I do what I want to and not what I have to.

Disclaimer: Not reponsible for any spelling or grammatical mistakes. I do my best, but having two langugages revolving in my brain (yes, I have one), sometimes the result is more bi- than unilingual.