Showing posts with label Oprah Winfrey. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Oprah Winfrey. Show all posts

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Winf

This little gem will only set you back $9.95.  The boy counted the pages for me.  There were 45.  Needless to say, I didn't buy it. -> 

Saturday, January 1, 2011

Freakout


 Unless you've been living under a rock, you know that on New Year's Eve Oklahoma City is the place to be.  


That's right.  Not New York City with their lame lighted ball and 1million-strong crowd, or Sydney, Australia with their Oprah opera house and being first to see the new year on the globe, but Oklahoma City.  Because we have the Flaming Lips giving us live action and you don't. And their show's been rated one of the best New Year's Eve shows to see.  


I was going to link to that last proclamation, but I can't find a story backing me up, so you're going to just have to trust me on this one.  Anyway, why would Rolling Stone stream it live if it wasn't true?


Huge hamster ball over the crowd, a phenomenon that's so cool it's referenced by geeks? 2011 balloons?  The best cover in the world?  How can you not love that?   


And yes, those stupid green blocks were everywhere, telling us to go to wimgo.com. Which, for the life of me, I'm still unclear on what its purpose is other than dolling out goofy green swag at Flaming Lips concerts for two consecutive years.  


BTW, those "pillows" get tossed through the crowd like beach balls.  Except they're not.  They're potentially lethal. -> 


One of my favorite Lips songs: 




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Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Oprah, Take Two

     
Let me just start off by saying I think this woman should be forced to travel coach (without her Coach)  AND be forced to buy her entire wardrobe at Target for the rest of her days for putting Dr. Phil on the airways.  


Say you: You are so not going to slam on Oprah.  


Say me: Oh, you watch me.  


Say you: She's the classic rags to riches story!  She grew up with an outhouse, for crying out loud. 


Say me: Yeah, come to find out her "extreme poverty" has always been embellished to make a better story.  


Say you: She's an inspiration to women around the world! 


Say me:  By telling people to bath every day for 15 minutes, hawking nauseating self help platitudes (If you dream it, you can achieve it!) and "The Secret", which is essentially new age, psychological snake oil->


Say you: She's given away millions of dollars! 


Say me: And every time has done a show (or two), and/or a prime-time special, and/or print interviews, and/or magazine articles in her magazine about it.  Which kinda makes it all about her.  Oh, and the Angel Network?  Viewers donate to the organization all the time.  And then Oprah makes donations from that organization in her own name to charities of her choosing.  Slick.    


Say you: What about all those cars she gave away?  Those were cool.  


Say me: The car company donated all those cars and the recipients of said cars got hit with a tax bill to the tune of 7K because the cars were considered prizes and not gifts.  Do YOU have that kind of cash lying around? Oprah?  She just got the publicity for "giving away" the rides. 


Say you: Well, what does your "consumer project" have to do with Oprah anyway?  


Say me: Are you kidding?  The woman has a $50 million, 23,000 square foot mansion.  She calls it...wait for it.... "The Promised Land".  No. Not kidding.  Plus she had the nerve to get the president of Hermes on her  season opening show a few years back so she could take him to task  because she was kicked out of a Paris store when it was closed.  Do you know how much Hermes bags cost? Roughly the cost of a year's college tuition at a state school.  You should need no more than these two tidbits to let you know she is the personification of "consumption".  


Say you:  But...
 
Say me: Not to mention the fact that Oprah IS a brand: talk show, radio shows, production studio, magazine, and God knows what else. She's trademarked her name, for crying out loud.  


Say you: But...


Say me: Plus she's a control freak.  Which doesn't surprise me. What I was shocked to learn is that anyone who ever works for her, from her executive producer down to the woman who washes her sheets, has to sign a gag order saying they will NEVER talk about Oprah.  EVER.  Like, until-they-die kind of "never".  Which is the very definition of "paranoia", suitable for a DSM-IV-R code and everything. 


Say you: Let me talk!  


Say me: OK


Say you: She's obviously a savvy business woman.  


Say me: No doubt.  One doesn't get to be a billionaire without being savvy.  She's also a bit, dare I say, narcissistic.  


Say you: Narcissistic? That seems harsh.   


Say me: Who else has ever graced the cover of her magazine? 


Say you: Ummm....


Say me:  I rest my case.   -> 



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