By now you’ve heard me mention a mysterious podcast about a dozen times over. And while I’ve shown you behind-the-scenes footage (here and here) I’ve yet to give you anything real. That all changes now. Today I can — finally! — reveal something substantial from our video podcast, The Ecstatic Truth.
Da7e, a proud member of "The Ecstatic Truth" and the star of this podcast quickie.
I’m not big on using this blog for personal updates but this is one of the times where I just have to let you know what I’m up to. In early April I joined the very lovely Latino Review crew, where you’ll find me giving updates on movie/TV/geek news – everything from Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds to the eternal debate on whether or not Kirsten Dunst is coming back for Spider-Man 4.*
I don’t know why and I’m not here to judge, but Japan is obsessed with Speedo-clad body builders and placing them in homoerotic situations. Fortunately, unlike Japan’s fascination with panty-showing preteen schoolgirls, this trend allows the rest of us to laugh without feeling the least bit creepy. It still makes me feel vaguely uncomfortable though, but that’s possibly more the fault of the Speedos than anything.
Welcome to Corporate America! Where everything is branded and brand loyalty is bred into your every fiber. Don’t like it? Then why don’t you sit down and have a soda (Coke or Pepsi?) as you check out this latest bit of branding bull.
The Ford Motor Company, apparently not content with appealing to older men and making me drool over their various models, has decided to appeal to a younger, more XX-chromosome-inclined demographic: namely little girls — in particular, those between the ages of eight and 16.
You’re probably having a serious case of “WTF” right now, but I assure you that Ford — or rather The Beanstalk Group, their licensing agency — has a plan. The plan involves luring little girls into loving Ford and all its products through the use of accessories, jewelry, cosmetics, and back-to-school trinkets emblazoned with pink and the silhouette of a galloping horse. The new product line shall be dubbed “Pony Girl” and Barbie shall weep.
I had no intention of blogging today, and I can’t even guarantee this will be funny, but I came across a link on Neatorama that just boggled my mind enough to warrant a post. It leads to an article on the Woman’s Day site called “Simple Tricks that Make You Look Smart.”
Emphasis on the “look” of course, because when Woman’s Day says “smart” they just mean “not as retarded” and retarded you kind of have to be to rely on Woman’s Day for the following advice:
When word first leaked about The Princess and the Frog the working title was The Frog Princess, which would have been fine if the movie wasn’t starring Disney’s first black princess. Racial overtones were immediately and rightly spotted but it all might have been curtailed if Disney had pointed out that the movie was an adaptation of the book series by the same name, and it definitely could have been avoided if they had simply not made the main character black after deciding on a title like that. That’s like making a movie called Spic and Span about the adventurers of a magical cleaning woman and then deciding at the last minute to make her Hispanic and give her a best friend named “Span.” You have to see this coming.
In case you haven’t heard, Dora the Explorer has been tarted up – or at least that’s what people are assuming based on the silhouette (below) that Nickelodeon has released as a teaser. And by people, I mean parents who we all know don’t count as real people because they’re always five steps removed from reality.*
Not exactly the Mudflap Girl, you know.
It’s clear that the only reason there’s been a redesign is to lure in older girls who may have outgrown Dora and to capitalize on more merchandising opportunities. (Sexy Dora the Explorer lip gloss anyone?) Looking at the silhouette, I fail to see what the problem is. She’s wearing a tunic dress and grew out her hair. Gasp. Someone call the pedo police.
