The Way I Feel About Whitney

What do I say about Whitney? Twitter bullies might suggest that none of us thought twice about her until it was announced that she passed away. How unfair and positively untrue! I often find myself trying to imagine what it must be like to be rich, famous and incredibly talented. Being that I am only one of those things, it's a fantasy I play out in my head (mostly when I'm watching MTV Cribs or an episode of Behind the Music.) Believe it or not, I sometimes add in one more element to the dream; what if I were rich, famous, incredibly talented and an addict? Because if at this income level I can afford to buy a bottle of wine at least once a week and a couple shots at the bar to celebrate anything and everything (Superbowl Sunday, Happy Hump Day, I woke up this morning, etc.), would I become an alcoholic if I had millions at my fingertips and my minions at my feet to supply all that I demand? I would imagine that someone who dabbles in recreational drug use might upgrade their status based on their financial ability. Whitney told Oprah she'd been experimenting since before "The Bodyguard", and her habit grew stronger right after the film's release. One has to wonder if the wild success of "I Will Always Love You" had anything to do with that. So we have the riches, the infamy, the talent, the addiction and let's add one more ingredient to this recipe for self-destruction: pressure to out-do perfection. Some people might drop everything and hop a plane to Africa to meditate, others might start smoking cocaine-laced marijuana.

Whitney Houston was America's sweetheart, the ultimate diva, the brightest star of her day, the tragic stereotype, and the tabloids' mistress. See, around here we dispose of you when we're done with you or in some cases, when you run around acting like you're done with yourself. And around here, we then hoist your corpse on the pedestal that you fell off of in the end. No, I can't tell you the first time I heard Whitney Houston sing, or what my favourite song of hers is. And the reason for that is simple. In my life, Whitney Houston always was and always will be. Every song she recorded was her best song. I can't tell you much about 1991, but I remember the Star Spangled Banner. Let me tell you something, Whitney Houston's talent is a reason to believe in God, otherwise we all would be able to sing effortlessly and reign over our crafts supremely. And Whitney Houston's talent proves further that God is real, because without Him there would be no devil to recognize her weaknesses, tempt her and twist her, and take her away. May she rest in peace.

End Scene!

Teen Mom is one of many shows on television that should have been a one season experiment, a documentary-style look into the lives of young mothers and their triumphs and struggles as they raise their babies over the first year of their life. And then the people at MTV should have moved on and explored another subject, (similar to their True Life series). Watching some of these girls self destruct for the whole world to see is starting to feel disturbing and just plain wrong. I know it's been a bevvy of controversy since the day it first aired, but back then I saw the vision and understood there could be a need for this type of content to air; a young girl out there might learn from it, another might make a choice to never be in these girls' positions, it could have even acted as a guide to parents bringing up an often ignored and uncomfortable topic. But what started off as 16 and Pregnant and has now blossomed into Teen Mom has become a misrepresentation of what the real world is all about. The focus has become less on pregnancy prevention and the importance of finishing school and more about the dysfunction and what I think are unrealistic examples of what the life of a teen mother may become. It seems every time these girls snap their fingers, they're driving a new car, renting a new house, and starting a new job. God knows life just ain't that easy. While it may have been a good idea to use this show to deter young impressionable women from having sex and making poor choices, it's becoming apparent that the folks at MTV have gone down the same path that leads to the Real World and Jersey Shore (without the red cups and distasteful sex scenes). But as with any series that may make you shake your head and pray for our future, there will be a lot more where it came from as long as we the people keep watching. Carry on, MTV...

We Just Mobbin' Like That

The Mob Wives are back for a second season and they've promised more fights and more drama than the season before and the premiere episode delivered just that. If you've been following Renee on Twitter, than you know she's has been tweeting over the off-season about getting her face peeled, her body lifted, and all kinds of other various plastic surgeries. So there was no surprise when she was laying in a hospital bed after getting fat taken from here and putting it where? Back there. After sitting up too swiftly, she tore the stitches in her back and lost so much blood, she needed a transfusion. As a result, Renee ended up laying on her ass instead of getting a bigger one. Drita is taking boxing lessons to deal with her aggression and ward off any temptation to put someone in the hospital. Karen is still harboring feelings about the fight on the rooftop with Drita and last but not least, we have Carla. Carla's storyline at this point, is so low key and non-existent, I don't really have much more to say besides, she's still being filmed for the show.

The current trend with a few of our favourite reality shows is adding new characters either at the beginning of the season or somewhere in the middle. You blink your eyes and there's a new drama queen swooping down upon the city like a well-scripted, intentionally planted natural disaster. Mob Wives' latest addition is Ramona Rizzo, aka Karen's play cousin. This girl is nothing but trouble as she helps to cultivate the hatred and animosity Karen is feeling toward Drita. And when Renee has a "Celebration of Life" party after healing from her surgical scare, Ramona is the one who turns up the heat when Drita and Karen decide to try to talk things over outside (on the balcony of all places). It was Ramona who spoke up in opposition to the impromptu meeting on the balcony, before Karen could even accept or reject it. It was Ramona who jumped in between the two women and starting waving her hands around, bringing up her personal problems with Drita which had nothing to do with the conversation Karen and Drita were having. I'm not condoning violence, but I can see why Drita felt backed into a corner and ultimately decided to throw the first blow.

In any event, although I'm still a fan of the show and what it could possibly bring to the world of reality television, the way all of these women acted at Renee's party was shocking and immature and probably just a preview of what we should expect throughout the rest of the season.

See No More Evil

Jaycee Duggard, kidnapped, raped, abused and held captive for 18 years, only to return to her family who never lost hope. A full grown woman, a mother, a child who never grew up but was subject to such grown up things. Stephanie Mack, wife to Bernie Madoff's son, Mark, who after all the press and pressure of being the prodigy of the most hated man in America, committed suicide while his young son slept in the next room, leaving his wife to forever live in the menacing shadows of hatred and the inability to forgive. Diena Thompson, mother of Somer Thompson, the Florida girl who at age 7 was snatched while walking home from school, then sexually assaulted and dumped in a landfill like trash. These are the women Americas needs to hear from and should give a voice to. These are true victims who have a story to tell, who may change the world one person at a time, who can possibly prevent children from being kidnapped or murdered. They deserve a platform, an opportunity to say whatever is on their minds. They are the ones who should be given laptops and cameras to record their thoughts and then publish them to the masses.

And then there's Casey Anthony. It's been six months since the young Florida mother has been acquitted of killing her daughter, Caylee, a case and trial we have all come to know in one way or another. After being virtually unseen and unheard since her infamous exoneration, videos and photos are beginning to surface and circulate showing Casey Anthony with a new look and uplifted spirits. She is beaming about acquiring new electronics and elated to finally have something of her own. She talks of her future and the prospect of better days to come. And the media goes insane. They have a field day with the footage. They want to analyze where she was broadcasting from, her lawyers are back on TV, and the trial of the decade has come back to the forefront. According to Ms. Anthony's lawyers, they have no idea how the "video diary" became available and are speculating that her brand new laptop was somehow hacked and the footage leaked to the public against her will. Whether she was hacked, and her personal diaries leaked, whether she posted the video herself, it could all be a conspiracy to get her in line for an interview, a book deal, or a movie even. I don't like it and I wonder when the rest of the world is going to open their eyes and realize that her time should be up. A woman who, although she is free and under the law can never again be prosecuted for killing her child, obviously had something to do with it. She hid Caylee from her parents, she partied and got tattooed, she dodged everyone's questions about where her little girl was, and the common theme throughout it all: she lied! And she never stopped lying. She lied even when there was no reason to and then she lied some more. Why would anyone want to hear anything this mythomaniac has to say?

Let her release a million videos, we should all turn our heads and cork our ears. Even those who are the least bit interested in what she has to say should know that they will never get the truth, therefore, listening in on her "private" thoughts would be for naught! She fabricated the events surrounding the death of her 2 year old daughter, that's where my arousal rests. The networks should run as fast as they possibly can in the other direction and focus on women who have positive, constructive stories to tell, triumphant women who fight for freedom and for the truth. That way, Miss Casey Anthony will no longer be able to lie to the world, the only one left to listen and be amused then, would be no one but herself.

No Black and Blue? We Don't Believe You!

The current theme of the last couple of weeks of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills has been Taylor and Russell Armstrong's marriage and Camille's outburst regarding the now deceased Russell's abuse of his wife. During an intense confrontation at what was supposed to be a dainty get together for a spot of tea, the women decided they didn't believe Taylor's off-camera confessions to them that she was in an abusive marriage. They were confused by the fact that Taylor still made appearances with her husband and continued to stay with him while accusing him of doing her bodily harm. These women, who are all grown and, I would like to think, educated should know better than that. There are plenty of women who are in disastrous relationships who dote on their spouses and still smile at every event, entering the scene hand-in-hand and blowing kisses for public view. These are the same women who when asked, "Why did you stay with him?" are quick to answer as the tears stream from their blackened eyes, "Because I loved him!" For Kyle to say she doesn't know what to believe because she's never seen bruises is such an ignorant statement. It may be that Kyle has no experience with such an extreme and dire situation, but she must know that if a woman is being beaten by her husband, when it's time to hit the streets, she's not going to rock her black and blue contusions along with her Louboutins and Louis Vuitton handbag. She's going to hide the signs of abuse and try her best to cope by smiling through the pain. Or maybe she may not leave the house at all, until she's healed and doesn't have to make excuses about any clues to the domestic violence. So to say, "Until I see it, I don't know what to believe" is such an unsympathetic statement. What kind of friend would second guess or question such an admittance? And what friend actually wants to see the smoke before they believe there is a fire? The other recurring theme has been the Housewives saying over and over that Camille was just repeating what Taylor secretly told all the women over time when she blurted out that Russell was hitting Taylor. The only difference here is, Taylor made her confession off camera, outside of the viewers' sight. Until Russell committed suicide over the summer, we would have never known he broke her jaw or that he slammed her around. Camille was wrong to say such things out in the open and in front of the Bravo cameras. It was off-topic at the time anyway and it did indeed put Taylor in a dangerous situation with Russell. Some may say that by Camille opening that door, Taylor was able to see her husband for what he was and gain the strength to leave him, but the filming of this show and the secrets it was going to reveal could have also led a man to take his own life.

New Year, New You?

Happy new year, Readers! I would like to extend a heartfelt thanks and much appreciation for logging in and reading along. It's 2012, and some people think we only have 11 months left to live, so we better get cracking. And for those of you who are pressuring yourselves with New Year's resolutions; stop it. If something about you needs to be fixed on January 1, it probably needed some fixing long before this holiday. Spend all 365 days of the year self-analyzing and critiquing your motives and actions. Negativity can be changed and bad habits can be dropped any day of the year, so be good to yourselves and don't rush into anything you may not be able to handle because failure could potentially bring you down more so than the problem that you were resolving to fix. Now let's get back to reality!

xoxo,
UGoddess

No Love And No Apologies

The producers of Love and Hip Hop better find newer and more worthwhile subject matter for our ladies because 'Mob Wives' is coming back to us on New Year's Day, and I think I've pretty much got Chrissy and her crew all summed up for the rest of the season. Jim Jones' mother, Nancy, is rocking her "Psychotic B!#@h" t-shirts every where she goes. I'm not going to knock her drive to turn a vulgar insult into a money-making marketing gimmick. (If Evelyn can do it on the back of Tami Roman's pain, then hey -- why not?) Meanwhile Olivia's storyline remains the same, the only thing that changes is her atmosphere. She's cried in the car, she's cried in a restaurant, she's cried in the opening segment, she's cried as the credits rolled at the end of the show. This week, we can find both Olivia and her "super-producer", Rich, crying on a foot bridge. It's ironic to me that she is on a reality television show, and yet has no sense of reality. The state of the music industry has changed so much, even since the days of her limited stardom. No one wants to be told to let go of their dream, but her trying to be an A-List singer is like Kimbella trying to get an apology from Chrissy for smashing her in the face with her fist... it's not going to happen! Meanwhile, everyone wants an apology from Chrissy this week, it seems. Kimbella tries and fails (hey Chrissy, whining never gets anyone very far with me either). Then you have Yandi, who I must say is turning out to be one the more annoying characters on the show, pressing Chrissy for an apology for her sour attitude towards her and the work she does for Chrissy's husb--, I mean, baby dadd--, I mean boyfriend, Jimmie. Yandi is shot down also, but Chrissy agrees to treat her a little more nicely. Emily beams proudly as she dishes to the girls that ever since she moved out, her ex-man, Fab, has been a knight in shining armour, the man of her dreams. She's thirty years old and acts like a teenager getting attention from a boy for the first time: "he likes me, he really likes me!" Note to Emily: he's keeping you at bay for his personal benefit, my dear, and you are doing nothing but settling for less. Somaya was a no-show for this episode, but Tierra Marie seems to be a mainstay. Next week, we're being introduced to yet another model (and her breasts). I'm starting to ask myself, in which direction is this show really trying to go? Where is the love, where is the hip hop? Then I realized, with the introduction of all these new characters (wild, so-called models whose only storyline consists of who they slept with or who they fought with), VH1 must obviously asking itself the exact the same thing.