The Flip Flop Girl

WHEN IN DOUBT, JUST GO BAREFOOT
Some recent, and not so recent, pics of celeb barefoot sightings. Celebs like to go barefoot too, just like us mere mortals.
Kate Hudson, Britney, Kimberly Stewart, and Nicole Richie. Out of these girls, maybe Nicole Richie is the barefoot queen--or it's a tie between her and Brit.

Labels: a really bad foot fetish in a good way, barefeet, celebrity, celebs, feet, flip flops, pop culture

Random Nation Part Two

So what do we call ourselves this time? "The YouTube Generation" sounds about right. WIRED, in it's current cover story, comes close to saying, "The Bite-Sized Generation." I am still holding onto calling these times, "The Random Generation" or use the term, "Random Nation."

From the mailbag, I got this recent post that I'll go ahead and quote from. It's in response to my post, "Open Toes, The Beauty of it All!":

Talk about overcomplicating. Indeed, it is a pop song of the Nelly type, who has a similar poppy song devoted to open toeds, targeted at the -just wanna have fun- teen to 30 something female, and anyone who likes feet really. It should be known by now after countless mentioning of feet surrounding Mcphee, she loves them. I saw her on Tyra Bank's show and Trya (Chingy's foot girl) took off her shoes for some reason and showed them to Mcphee, then she said "you have pretty feet". Right then I noticed her eyes alone immediately turned to the crowd as her head followed in the same way when someone says something and they are unsure how or if they will be judged or also when ego is checking if relation is apparent, kind of like when someone lies but thats just because the crowd was directly to her right side. Well her expression was cheekier than usual and to me thats enough proof. I hear Tyra is pregnant and due, also think its Chingy's, also think they only hooked up because of her feet, now isnt that a stupid reason to bring a kid into this world

Well, this won't be the first time we have a child born from excess.

We live in an ultra-narcissistic age.

Reality and fantasy collide at more rapid intervals.

Here is where I think a discussion of Hyperreality would prove useful. And, if you're going to go to Baudrillard, then you must go to McLuhan as well. I haven't gotten any takers on views regarding Marshall McLuhan yet. I'm just wondering if people are familiar with him at all given that he once was truly a household name.

Here is where I think the foot becomes a far more interesting symbol. It can represent excess. But it can also represent a coming back to reality in a spiritual and grounded sense. If you think of the '60s, for instance, you can clearly see the foot back then as a symbol of the age: excess commingling with spirituality.

Labels: Baudrillard, blogs, celebrity, feet, foot fetish, hyperreality, images, Marshall McLuhan, philosophy, pop culture, social studies, society, television, text, video, Writing

Flip Flop Girl Warming up to Anna Nicole Smith

I hope everyone is enjoying my current Anna Nicole jag. She really does fit right in with my musings on how we consume sex. I find myself warming up to her too. I can't say that there's any spin doctor who can possibly turn Anna Nicole into Marilyn Monroe, who she identified with, but I do believe now that, under the right circumstances, Anna Nicole comes off looking like a star as in her exquisite cover photo in the above Playboy. She cant' be elevated to the status of Marilyn Monroe for a number of reasons which should be obvious. But, at the same time, I do see her as an undisputed sex symbol. She was a "supermodel" in her own right replacing Claudia Schiffer as the model for Guess Jeans. And she was Playmate of the Year, 1993. These are not meager accomplishments.

No doubt, the spotlight became extremely harsh for poor Anna Nicole.

If Anna Nicole had fallen in with the right people, perhaps she could have attained more. I think of Dorothy Stratten, a very beautiful girl, another Playboy Playmate of the Year (1980), who became the lover of famed director Peter Bogdanovich and appears in his film, They All Laughed, 1981. Nothing more was asked of Dorothy but that she just be herself in all her radiant beauty. She gets to charm the camera with her presence. And when she is the victim of a tragic death, it is Bogdanovich who tells her story. There was no Peter Bogdanovich in Anna Nicole's life.

Labels: Anna Nicole Smith, blogs, buzz, celebrity, fame, Marilyn Monroe, Playboy, press, sex, Writing

Just a few words on Anna Nicole Smith

Unfortunately, I see this story growing, much in the same lame way that the O. J. Simpson saga played itself out: a tragedy involving a person of very little if no charisma. Anna Nicole Smith is hotter than ever and I do find it sad and possibly fascinating but I won't hold my breath. I haven't really kept up with Anna Nicole Smith before her death but now, that she's dead, I'm sort of interested. No one can say this person was a talent, or a radiant personality. What does she leave behind? Nothing. Nothing except all this drama between a lot of creepy little minor characters. Well, that alone could be fun. Maybe Dominick Dunne needs to sort through this mess and whip something up that is truly engaging.

At least the story about the lunatic astronaut has been knocked off the front burner.

And I can't say I find Anna Nicole Smith much of a sex symbol. She certainly was sexual but I don't know about sensual. She just didn't radiate real heat.

Okay, that's probably all I have to say about this. I do think this is one of those stories that's going to linger until we finally get tired of the stench. We would need somebody like Truman Capote to find the poetry within this heap of junk.

Let me know if I'm missing something. I do feel sorry for what happened to her but, as a pop culture figure, I am still left cold. I'm sure Andy Warhol would have loved her train wreck persona. Was her reality TV show any good? I do want to keep an open mind about there being a worthwhile story here somewhere. I guess we'll have to stay tuned.

Labels: Anna Nicole Smith, blogs, celebrity, communication, mass communication, media, news, pop culture, sex, tabloids