VMAs: The Good, The Bad and The Downright Disgusting

On Sunday night, I said to a good friend, "I haven't said this in 10 years, but I am really excited for the VMAs tonight". That's no exaggeration, as I feel like the MTV Video Music Awards haven't been good since about 2003 or '04. What once seemed to be an alternative awards ceremony celebrating the best in the business and those who couldn't get close to a Grammy later turned into a seemingly overreaching spectacle to win viewership ratings. 

This year saw the awards return back to form. Although it wouldn't be the VMAs without a lil' controversy, it was nice to see a strong selection of nominees while also witnessing some incredible live performances. 

Ten of the show's moments have been spread (unevenly) into three categories; The Good, The Bad and the troll-under-a-bridge ugly. I don't think it takes a genius to guess which moments were the ugliest.

5. Lady Gaga's opener - 'Applause'

Yes, Lady Gaga opened the show with 'Applause', the first single off her third album 'Artpop'. While I'm sure some of you found time to cheer her, others were more likely to moan and groan, as after only four years, a lot of people seem to be sick of her already. My expectations for this performance were at a comfortable average to reasonably high, only to be exceeded entirely. 

Why Gaga found it necessary to wear four different costumes and three different wigs is unbeknownst to me at this moment in time, but for now I'll just take it as it was. An incredibly entertaining show opener.


4. The Surprise presenters




Something I didn't see coming were the appearances of Jason Collins, TLC and Lil' Kim this year. Even though Kim herself is a native Brooklynite (where the event was held this year), I never would've guessed that she'd actually turn up, especially since she left me hanging at Lovebox this year. Taking turns to introduce performances by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Drake, and the nominees for Best Rap Video respectively, the three were a pleasant add to the mix among the stars of the new generation, including Iggy Azalea, Selena Gomez and Bruno Mars.

3. Danity Kane's reformation

While a collective 'WHO?!' sweeps this post/nation/the internet, lemme say one thing. Danity Kane are my jam. Those who know me know this. Shannon, Aundrea, Aubrey and Dawn stepped out together as a group for the first time five years, acting like no time had passed at all. The band made famous on MTV's Making The Band released two albums in '06 and '08 before being disbanded by the groups creator, the Ciroc splashing Diddy in '09. Becoming the only girl group in history to have their first two albums début atop the Billboard chart, the new foursome (the fifth member, 'D. Woods' decided not to return for whatever reason), announced that they're currently readying a new single, titled 'Rage' from their upcoming third album. Sure they've been gone longer than they were together, and most people don't know who they are, but I remain excited.

2. Kanye West's 'Blood on the Leaves'

The most shocking thing that Kanye West can do at the point is act like a normal human being. Which is pretty much what he did the entire time he was on stage performing 'Blood on the Leaves' this year. West made a rare appearance at this years awards to perform a track from his dark, twisted but not so beautiful LP, Yeezus on Sunday night. While performing in front of the backdrop to Steve McQueen's "Lynching Tree", West flailed and wailed to the track which samples Nina Simone's 'Strange Fruit'. So maybe it wasn't exactly normal, but pretty normal for him at least. 

1. Justin Timberlake & NSync's Medley 

How could this not be #1? The recipient of this year's Video Vanguard Award blessed us with a 15 minute medley of almost every song he's ever released.  About half way through Timberlake headed towards the stage to reunite with the best boyband of all time, NSync for 'Gone', 'Bye Bye Bye' and 'Girlfriend'.

The choreography and vocals were air fucking TIGHT. 

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

and most importantly, Exhibit C:

And let's not forget about this:

I need a slo-mo of that:

Everyone, their mother, and Lady Gaga lost their minds:

The Bad

3. Katy Perry's closer, 'Roar'

To be fair, this show had the fewest poor moments since I started watching the show in 1998, so it was quite hard to pick these. So I'm sorry Katy Perry but this one goes to you. Also performing the lead single from her third album, Perry opted for a 'Rocky' themed stage set under the Brooklyn Bridge. The performance wasn't necessarily 'bad' exactly, just a tad slow and dull for a show closer. It probably doesn't help that I also don't like the song at all.

2. Taylor Swift's potty mouth

It's hard to know who she was referring to exactly or whether it was just clever editing, but there's a member of One Direction she clearly can't stand the sound of. Bad in the best possible way.


1. That weird voice Joseph Gordon Levitt was speaking in.

JGL took the stage to present the award for Video of the Year, only to grace us with a really weird 19th Century circus ringleader persona. Although he recognised his own ridiculousness, he was met on stage by the awards recipient, Justin Timberlake also using the same voice...which made it slightly less cringe-inducing. Slightly.

The Ugly

2. Miley Cyrus and Robin Thicke's 'We Can't Stop/Blurred Lines/Give It 2 Me'

As this feature is already a lot more image and gif heavy than expected, I'm gonna keep this one clean and short. What the hell was I even watching when Miley Cyrus performed 'We Can't Stop'? From the sad teddy bears, to the backoff slapping, to Cyrus's 'twerking', I don't even know where to begin. At least for the final song we had 2 Chainz and Kendrick Lamar attempt to save this desperate and unnecessary attempt for Cyrus to shed her child star skin. Call me an old codger but I was kinda disgusted. 

I'm gonna let this image speak for itself and be done with it...

...urgh...



1. Everyone's reaction to it

...Except I can't be cause the reactions are some of the best things to come out of this years ceremony. Of course, the Parents Television Council complained as it's pretty much what they do, but the Twittersphere exploded. In fact, this performance alone produced a gargantuan 306,000 tweets per minute, breaking a record previously held by Beyonce's Superbowl performance in February. Low and behold my favourite tweet o' them all:

Heh.


So there you have it. With 10.6 million live viewers it was also the most watched VMA telecast in recent years. More importantly there was something for everyone this year.
Unless you're a Chris Brown fan.

Credit to, fuckenamyy, tammygu3, Mashable, @flashinlightsU and MTV, and anyone elses .gifs I used from Tumblr.

The [Celebrity] Apprentice- Season 5/12 (TV Series)

Just over a week ago, real-estate mogul Donald Trump found his fifth Celebrity Apprentice in former talk show host and comedian Arsenio Hall, with season 2 American Idol runner up Clay Aiken forced to take second place once again. Having been the first season of Celebrity Apprentice, as well as the first American version of the show I have ever watched, the 15-episode series has been entertaining, and melodramatic to say the least.

This season featured 18 participants, featuring the likes of magician Penn Juilette, Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider, and former Miss Universe Dayana Mendoza, among others. For those who don’t know, the format is as follows: the celebrities are split up into two teams and given a task (often tying in with an existing brand) to help raise money for charity. A project leader is appointed amongst the teams, who takes control and has the final say as to how their groups approach the various tasks. The winning team is either the team that raises the most money, or the team that client likes the most and sometimes both. The losing team however is sent to the boardroom with Trump, where one is fired. Simple.

Well actually…not really. With so many celebrities and therefore so many egos at play, The Celebrity Apprentice has been one of my favourite shows to watch this season. Donald and co. put these 18 faces through their paces, and then forced them to speak their mind on their various teammates in the boardroom, often creating fireworks in the process. It would even be safe to say some of the best moments all season have taken place within the boardroom, with comedienne Lisa Lampenelli losing her temper as well as her mind a number of times, as well as various heated showdowns between Arsenio Hall and former Danity Kane member Aubrey O’Day, culminating in the latter to temporarily walk off the show.

It’ll be a long wait until the next season of The Celebrity Apprentice, but after being gripped to my TV screen from February to May watching the show unfold, it’ll definitely be worth it.

A

Key Episodes: Hero Worship, Failure To Launch, Walking Papers

It's On Like Aubrey-Kong: Aubrey O'Day vs. Arsenio Hall in 'The Celebrity Apprentice'

Normally I only do reviews for music and films but I wanted to take the time to write about something I feel quite passionate about, and I think I will continue to do this every time I get the inspiration to.

For anyone who watched the latest episode of The Celebrity Apprentice from across the pond was sure to have seen some incredible fireworks in its 3 hour drama piece. After the first elimination the teams were switched up, leaving the female team ‘Forte’ forced to interact with the male team ‘Unanimous’.

Now let’s cut to the chase: a bitter argument erupted between contestants Aubrey O’Day and Arsenio Hall, after Hall stated that O’Day tried to take credit for something in the task she didn’t do. It resulted in Hall, as well as other team members labelling Aubrey as “not a team player”, and agreeing that if the team lose the challenge, Aubrey should be fired.  By some miracle Hall’s team, to which he was the project manager for, actually won the task. But as the winning group went back to the lounge to watch the rest of the show unfold, visibly emotional Aubrey decided not to follow her team, opting to take the lift out of Trump Towers, seemingly eliminating herself from the show in the process.

Arsenio Hall

I have a number of problems with both contestants, although I must say, Aubrey is- or was my favourite out of the remaining cast members. Hall has had it out for O’Day for a while, as he previously described her as “so self-righteous” and that it was no surprise that Diddy ended up firing her from her former girl group Danity Kane. But what’s funny is that a number of things O’Day was called out on during this episode were very reminiscent of her final days within Danity Kane itself. There are two main reasons as to why she got the boot. One: because of her “raunchy” image, and two: the seemingly disrespectful way in which she spoke to Diddy. Furthermore, Diddy’s last words before she was ousted from the quintet were “I didn’t work these amount of years to have you disrespect me” to which you can faintly hear Aubrey say “I’m not meaning to disrespect you”, which may show that Aubrey herself, hasn’t found the tactful way of being the opinionated woman she proclaims to be, without causing offense or disrespect to others.

Meanwhile on The Celebrity Apprentice, it should be noted that a number of contestants have had their personal feelings get in the way of what should be about business. Aubrey herself has been named a bully by some, in reference to treatment of her team mate and former Miss Universe Dayana Mendoza, whose accent she frequently imitates, while also referring to the car the group has to ride around in the “cool van”. Although O’Day later cleared up her "cool van" comments, as well as the way she sees Dayana, some are sceptical about whether she should be representing the charity she does, which is GLSEN- The Gay Lesbian and Straight Education Network, which is hoping to eradicate bullying others solely on their sexual orientation. However, Hall is also guilty of making personal comments to his now team member O’Day, by hinting that she shouldn’t even be on the show, as he "googled her and a naked picture of her with a gut popped up", while allegedly referring to her as a w**** and a c*** to other cast members.

Aubrey O'Day

I’ve come to realise that a large part as to why Aubrey is treated the way she is, (as well as every person in the limelight to an extent), comes down to the fact that people define her by her image. If she didn't possess such a buxom figure and a heavily-made up face she would not receive the treatment she does, and people would actually take notice of the fact that she is a talented singer, songwriter and dancer. What I’m trying to say is that it is difficult for a lot of people to take O’Day seriously as an intelligent, creative and opinionated woman when she looks the way that she does. It is a fact that Aubrey, along with former team members comedian Lisa Lampanelli and 80s singer Debbie Gibson were often the three members of the team who did the heavy lifting so to speak, as far as creating and developing various tasks, to which everyone can vouch for.

Although The Celebrity Apprentice is a reality show, which by nature must include a certain amount of entertainment and drama, it is also a place were great celebrity minds are supposed to come together as a team to raise money for charity. Trump must have seen something in all 18 original members of the current 12^th season good enough to represent themselves articulately and professionally, as well as representing their respective charities.

Maybe it is just clever editing but who knows? The reality of reality television is that scenarios are chopped, changed, and edited to make things look one way or another. Close former team member Lampanelli called out the NBC network for its clever editing of the scenario, stating that “the stuff they cut out of the boardroom was disgusting,” and that it will “all come out.”

As for anyone that thinks that I am taking sides, I am not. Both Hall and O’Day neither 100% in the right or wrong for their actions, but IF Aubrey does decide to come back, there is no reason why she can’t be humble along with being the opinionated, creative, and intelligent woman she is.