Lady Gaga will save Haiti!

Lately, it seems that all has been covered on the media spectrum has been coverage of natural disasters.  With weeks of news about Haiti, there was never a moment in which we didn’t hear about it from either the internet, television, newspapers, or even radio. Thousands of pictures flooded in of the disaster, stories about agencies going to help those who have been effected by it, millions of dollars sent in by American civilians, and even governmental money for aid.

Just this past week, a massive earthquake struck in Chile, leaving hundreds (that are known) dead and millions without homes. Already, there has been a call out for aid. And who better than to help out than celebrities.

I was catching up on my Daily Beast, when I came across this article. I think celebrities helping out is magnificent – it’s a high-traffic name that brings in revenue. People listen to celebrities.

However, I have some mixed feelings. Auctions are a great way to bring in money – but why aren’t the celebrities really giving anything? We hear about them auctioning off their clothes, pianos, shoes, autographs, etc. But we don’t see big articles saying “_______________ donates $500,000 to Haiti Relief.” Instead, they donate a piano so people can buy it and then they give a portion to charity.

I just think it’s a tad bit selfish and even confusing. But I’m sure we’ll see an influx of auctions and celebrity debacles for both Haiti and Chile coming soon. Let’s see what we can buy this time.

Let the sun shine in.

I swear this has some political undertones in a minute, but please bear with me for just a little bit.

I am a theatre nerd. The majority of my iTunes is show tunes – this I confess. I have seen more shows than I can count, I have BEEN in more shows than I can count I follow Broadway news religiously, I can break into any random song for a multitude from shows (even if I haven’t seen them), and I can argue with you if you decide to fight with me.

The latter situation recently happened. While discussing Hair the Musical, I was told that “it’s not relevant to today’s society – so it shouldn’t be on Broadway today.” I was completely taken aback by this.  Hair is not relevant to today’s society? What are these people thinking? I know that a lot of people don’t give two thoughts to Broadway shows, so here is a brief synopsis of Hair:

It takes place in Greenwich Village – 1968. It focuses around Claude Bukowski – a young boy from Oklahoma who comes to NYC to live with a tribe of Hippies (run by Berger). Berger falls in love with Sheila, a political activist from NYU. Claude is all happy go lucky for 70% of the musical until he is drafted to go to Vietnam.

I’m not going to go much further into that, but that’s the general story line. It may not seem like it is relevant to today’s society from that little plot summary – but if you dive into the show, it is so much more than that.

The entire time, these young people are protesting and displaying their political activism – that’s what the entire show is based around. Burning your draft card, picketing the induction center for the Army, trying to convince Claude to not go to Vietnam, telling others about the horrors of Vietnam.

How is this not relevant to today’s society, when we’re currently occupying a nation that wasn’t even the original target? Didn’t W. say that we were going to Afghanistan to find Osama Bin Laden in response to September 11th? And then he turned around and said “btw guys… Iraq has WMD!” So we go look for them and – GASP! – there weren’t any to even begin with! Now we’re in the middle east, trying to push Democracy onto a country that doesn’t even really want it, while our soldiers are being hurt (and killed) for this pointless war? /end soapbox

Going back to my original point- Hair is incredibly relevant to today’s society. That’s why they brought it back onto Broadway for a revival – they need to show it to a new generation. Look at any of the songs from the show… the message is incredibly clear – the lyrics just scream opposition and political activism.

The song Three-Five-Zero-Zero shows the horror of war, Don’t Put It Down shows how some people are literally fanatical and crazy about the American flag, Hare Krishna is an homage to the peace movement and protesting, and Let The Sun Shine In is a call to make the world a better place.

If that’s not relevant to today, I don’t know what is.

Really, Sarah Palin?

So, I religiously read the Huffington Post, when I stumbled upon quite an interesting article…

Lately, there has been a lot of hype about the world ending in 2012. I’m one of those people that shoot down the accusations – we are not going to have an apocalypse in 2012. The Mayans had to die at some point – they couldn’t continue writing a calendar to go on forever.

But… I may be a bit more hesitant to shoot those theories down now that Sarah Palin is considering running for the presidency in 2012. The world may very well end if she follows through. I’d actually rather burn up from a large meteor than see her as President. But I digress…

We know that Sarah Palin says some things that are questionable. There is no dispute over this from both sides. The woman has a brain – she knows what is right and wrong. But I think she may have lost it…

If you’re going to be upset with someone using the ‘r’ word, then you should be angry with everyone using it. You can’t make an exception just for Rush Limbaugh. Also, I think the reasoning that he “was using it for satire” is completely asinine. There is no difference between how Rush Limbaugh used that word and Rahm Emanuel – they’re both referring to the exact same thing.

I think this may be an all time low for her. Just sayin’.

You betcha!