It’s All About Love (Part 2)

And now for my favorite literary pairings and romantic songs.

Five Favorite Literary Pairings

1. Peeta and Katniss (The Hunger Games) – I’ve read the comments from this pairing’s detractors. Let me sum it up for you – Katniss saves Peeta all the time, he’s weak and therefore not right for her like Gale who has all this fiery passion and fire. Yeah, no. First of all, I liked the fact that The Hunger Games gave myself and other women a heroine that didn’t need to be saved by a man. But more than that, in my opinion, Peeta and Katniss saved each other. They just did it in different ways. And I loved that in the end, theirs wasn’t a sappy, happily ever after love story ending. They were bruised and battered and both riddled with emotional and physical scars from all they’d been through in the Games and the revolution. But the beauty of their love story is that despite all that destruction and pain and loss, they came out on the other side with each other – loving, growing, and living.

2. Emma and Mr. Knightley (Emma) – Yes, the book that inspired Clueless. And while I’m always up for a Clueless re-watch, little suggestion to anyone who hasn’t, go read the book. It’ll be worth it, I promise you. Emma and Mr. Knightley was the classic, “not seeing what’s right in front of you”. Emma was so busy meddling in other people’s lives that she almost missed that the love of her life was right there the whole time. What I loved most about the relationship is that there was a lightness and joy about it. Quite unlike so many of the other literary love stories of its time where there was often, at times, almost a cruelty in the treatment of women by their intended love interest – think Jane Eyre (ugh), Pride and Prejudice, etc.

3. Theodore Finch and Violet Markey (All the Bright Places) – So remember how I said that I was a sucker for a tragic love story? Yup, still stands. The greatest lesson of this novel is that no matter how much and how hard you love someone, you can’t save them if they aren’t willing or can’t save themselves. But underneath that dreary and heartbreaking lesson lay a really beautiful and tender love story. Violet meets Finch at the perfect time in her life when she needed someone to help her get past her grief and guilt over her sister’s death. And that is the most heartbreakingly beautiful tragedy of this love story – that Finch’s love did in some ways save Violet. Hers just wasn’t enough to save him.

4. Macy and Wes (The Truth About Forever) – Full disclosure, I love Young Adult fiction and for many years, one of my favorite authors was Sarah Dessen. I’ve read all her books and while I’ve liked them all well enough, The Truth About Forever will always hold a very special place in my heart because of the tender relationship between Macy and Wes. Dessen’s care and slow pace in developing the relationship, first from a tentative friendship to more made you feel like you were the one experiencing that magic of first love.

5. Harry and Hermione (Harry Potter) – Oh I can already hear the outraged gasps. Yes, I know they weren’t a romantic pairing in the series, but I never said this list was solely based on romantic pairings. In my opinion, Harry and Hermione had one of the most amazing friendships and relationships in literary history. And it likely was so special because J.K. Rowling never intended to make it romantic. Because it has since come to my attention after hating all the actual romantic Harry Potter pairings and reading her post Harry Potter books and hating the pairings in those as well, that J.K. Rowling, for all her amazing talent as a writer, sort of sucks at writing romance. So in a sense, it was for the best that she didn’t tar Harry and Hermione’s relationship with romantic feelings because that meant we were thankfully spared clichéd constant bickering disguised as passion and attraction and superficial feelings of girl become hot so guy now suddenly realizes she’s the love of his life. Instead, what we got was a beautiful relationship forged on trust, mutual respect, loyalty, and tenderness and yes, love. It doesn’t matter to me who Harry canonically ended up married to. In my opinion; his greatest and deepest connection with any girl was with Hermione Granger.

Five Favorite Romantic Songs

1. Wonderful Tonight by Eric Clapton – One of the most passionately beautiful love songs of all time, with such a simple but heartfelt message. There isn’t a woman who’s heard this song and not imagined having those words said to her. I mean this sums it up – “I feel wonderful because I see/The love light in your eyes/And the wonder of it all/Is that you just don’t realize how much I love you…”

2. Please Forgive Me by David Gray – One of the greatest and most romantic albums of all time was released in 1998 and chances are you might not even remember it. That was the year British singer/songwriter David Gray released White Ladder, a collection of some of the most tender, touching, and heartbreaking love songs. If you have never heard of the album or just forgot about it, go listen right now. Trust me, you’ll thank me. And while most of the songs on the album could make this list, the standout is Please Forgive Me, with such unforgettable lines like these, “Please forgive me/If I act a little strange/For I know not what I do/Feels like lightning running through my veins/Every time I look at you…”

3. Cannonball by Damien Rice – Another standout early 2000’s album, Damien Rice’s O delivered amazing song after song – The Blower’s Daughter, Delicate, I Remember, etc. Cannonball, however, was the true breakout hit and why not, when it gave us such intensely passionate and beautiful lines like these, “Still a little bit of your taste in my mouth/Still a little bit of you laced with my doubt/Still a little hard to say what’s going on/Still a little bit of your ghost, your witness/Still a little bit of your face I haven’t kissed…”

4. Perfect/Thinking Out Loud by Ed Sheeran – Okay Ed Sheeran, we get it. You know how to write an amazing love song that has us all swooning. We knew that when you gave us Thinking Out Loud but did you have to destroy us with Perfect too? I mean really, from this, “When my hair’s all but gone and my memory fades/And the crowds don’t remember my name/When my hands don’t play the strings the same way/I know you will still love me the same” to “Well, I found a woman, stronger than anyone I know/She shares my dream, I hope that someday I’ll share her home/I found a love to carry more than just my secrets/To carry love, to carry children of our own…” Fine, you win Ed Sheeran.

5. Your Song by Elton John – As the lyrics say, “it may be quite simple”, but there is power in simplicity. Especially when it’s told so tenderly and poignantly. Sometimes you don’t need all the frills and dramatic, just an honest and quiet expression of love is enough.

Pop Culture Rewind

2015 MTV Video Music Awards Nominations

The nominations for the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards (VMA’s) were announced earlier today and not surprisingly, Taylor Swift led the pack with nine nominations, including one for the biggie, Video of the Year, for her song Bad Blood featuring Kendrick Lamar. Some of her other nominations included Best Female Video and Best Pop Video for the song Blank Space.

It’s always amusing to me that the VMA’s even still exist, seeing as music videos virtually don’t exist anymore on MTV. Yes I know, if you get the whole cable package including MTV Hits, MTV 2 and who knows what else, they show videos but it’s still ridiculous that a channel that was created on the basis of music videos have all but eradicated it from said channel. And yet every year it has an award show that celebrates achievement in music videos.

But back to the nominations. I was very pleasantly surprised to see Kendrick Lamar’s Alright nominated for Video of the Year. Not only is the video amazing but that song is without question one of the best songs in any genre, of the year. Check it out if you haven’t heard it or seen the video.

Meanwhile, because MTV clearly believes it is mandatory to nominate Beyonce every year, the very mediocre 7/11 and equally mediocre video for it, somehow gained a Video of the Year nomination, as well as Best Pop Video and Best Female Video nominations. Other big nominees this year was Ed Sheeran who earned Video of the Year, Best Male Video and Best Pop Video nominations for his stunning song, as well as video, Thinking Out Loud. See the full list of nominees here.

However, let’s talk about what’s really important here – the twitter drama between Nicki Minaj and Taylor Swift that erupted a few hours after the nominations were announced. It all started when Nicki sent out a few tweets expressing her unhappiness that her song and video Anaconda, did not get more nominations particularly one for Video of the Year (it was nominated for Best Female Video and Best Hip Hop Video)

If I was a different “kind” of artist, Anaconda would be nominated for best choreo and vid of the year as well. 😊😊😊

— NICKI MINAJ (@NICKIMINAJ) July 21, 2015

When the “other” girls drop a video that breaks records and impacts culture they get that nomination. 😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊

— NICKI MINAJ (@NICKIMINAJ) July 21, 2015

If your video celebrates women with very slim bodies, you will be nominated for vid of the year 😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊

— NICKI MINAJ (@NICKIMINAJ) July 21, 2015

Apparently, likely due to Nicki’s tweet about videos celebrating women with slim bodies getting rewarded, Taylor Swift decided Nicki was throwing shade at her and responded with the following (incidentally the tweet has since been deleted as well as the folllow up):

 ✔ @taylorswift13

@NICKIMINAJ I’ve done nothing but love & support you. It’s unlike you to pit women against each other. Maybe one of the men took your slot. 

And it was on. Nicki basically responded by saying she said nothing about Taylor, who then quickly tried to backtrack, by inviting Minaj on stage with her if she wins (how magnanimous of her). Of course the media had already picked this up and ran with it, only inciting Minaj even more with some of their coverage.

I have to say, I’ve been waiting for a situation like this to occur with Taylor Swift. Let me be very clear that I’m no huge fan of Nicki Minaj and frankly I found the constant tweeting about nominations she didn’t get a bit whiny – like it’s a VMA for crying out loud. That said, I’ve already mentioned before my love/hate relationship with Taylor Swift and it’s exactly for stuff like this. I think Taylor Swift is an amazing songwriter, a great producer and probably one of the most intelligent women in the music industry (note I did not say good singer because um, well…no).

However, I have never seen someone that successful who is so overly defensive and quick to play the victim like her. Something is only a feminist issue and women fighting women down when she feels like her precious feelings are attacked. So she jumped on this without even properly reading Nicki’s tweets because I’m sure her blind stans rushed to tweet her with the assumption that Nicki was throwing shade. And god forbid one person in the industry not completely love and kiss her ass. And so a completely unnecessary drama occurred over something that wasn’t even directed at her. And of course some in the media ran to make it like Nicki was the angry black woman attacking poor innocent and delicate Taylor. Good times – I so look forward to the show. Although not really since Miley Cyrus is hosting and I can’t think of anyone I’d rather see less.

 

2015 ESPY Awards

American sports’ biggest night was held this past week. To be perfectly frank, I am by no means the biggest sports fan. Unless it’s tennis, I’m not really that knowledgeable about sports. That said, I did watch an hour or so of the show and did enjoy it for the most part. I also followed the results and discussion on social media.

My favorite moment of the night was probably Ben Affleck, true blue Boston boy and by that token a life-long Red Sox fan, showing up to pay tribute to New York Yankees legend Derek Jeter. I thought that was a very sweet and classy gesture. And on a very shallow note, Derek Jeter looked gorgeous. I may not be a baseball expert, but I do know Derek Jeter and I thought the tribute, as well as his speech were both perfect.

Obviously though, the most buzzed about moment of the night, was Caitlyn Jenner being awarded the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage. Okay, let me preface what I’m about to say with a few things. One, I am in no way a fan of the Kardashian/Jenner “brand”. I don’t hate them because I don’t care enough about them to hate them but I’m simply completely and utterly uninterested in their entire “brand”.

This is why I have avoided speaking on the whole Caitlyn Jenner media blitz on this blog and frankly anything Kardashian related. It is also why you will NOT see posts about anything to do with that show, their relationships, magazines, etc. As I said, I don’t care about them and have little interest in the whole sideshow. So if you’re looking for gossip or posts about them here, then sorry, this is not the pop culture blog for you.

Two, I am not going to argue whether or not Jenner deserved the Arthur Ashe Award. As I’ve stated, I am no expert in sports and sports related events and so I do not think I know enough to speak on who may have been more deserving. I will say, the cynical side of me does think there may have been some element of going with something current and hot in pop culture right now, which would ensure big television ratings, on the part of the ESPY committee when they picked Jenner for the award. So that said, I see both sides of the argument and understand where both sides, whether you felt she deserved it or not, were coming from.

However, what I have an issue with, are the individuals who reduced their argument against Jenner receiving the award to hateful, transphobic, violent and angry rhetoric. There are many ways, many calm and intelligent ways to argue and state one’s feelings on why they disagree with something that does not include dehumanizing and debasing another person. Once you’ve done that, for me personally, any legitimate point or argument you may have had becomes null and void because I’ve stopped paying attention. Anger and hate is never the answer to dealing with and addressing anything. And this is the last I am going to speak on that. Coming off my soap box now.

2015 Primetime Emmy Awards

Nominations for the annual Primetime Emmy Awards were announced this past Thursday. As usual, my favorite shows, specifically Hannibal and Bates Motel, were completely shut out. You would think by now I would give up the dream but hey, what can I say, I’m a glutton for punishment. Well that and I fervently believe that both Hugh Dancy and Freddie Highmore consistently deliver amazing performances every week on their respective shows and it is almost criminal that they keep being ignored in favor of the same tired, repetitive nominees.

Which speaking of, this has often been the biggest complaint about the Primetime Emmy Awards for years. That is, they rarely reward anything new. You tend to see the same shows and same familiar faces for years, often either until the show ends or it is on so long and the writing level drops so much that even the Emmy voters can no longer justify nominating them. But for the most part, watching the Emmys tend to create a strong feeling of déjà vu, as in “didn’t we see this last year?” A few more quick observations about this year’s nominees:

Big Bang Theory Almost Shut Out – I guess in an attempt to prove they’re not always so repetitive, Big Bang Theory, a perennial favorite in the Best Comedy category was left off the list this year. More shocking, was the exclusion of Jim Parsons, a constant favorite and last year’s winner, in the Best Actor – Comedy, category. The show’s only major acting nomination came via Mayim Bialik, who was nominated once again in the Best Supporting Actress – Comedy category.

Downton Abbey Again…Seriously – Lest we all get too excited about Big Bang Theory’s snub and start thinking the Emmys were really going to take chances this year, the inexplicable continued nomination for Downton Abbey in the Best Drama category eliminated that. I don’t get it – albeit I haven’t watched the last two seasons of this show but the first few seasons were enough to convince me that it’s nothing more than a glorified soap opera with characters in period pieces. There is no way that this show is one of the best dramas on television. I got the nomination love a few years ago – there was a lot of hype around the show and everyone was Downton Abbey obsessed and so the Emmy voters jumped on the bandwagon. But for crying out loud, most have moved on. You would think the voters would get a clue and do the same. What makes this nomination more frustrating is the following.

The Americans Snubbed Once Again – I don’t get it. You would think this show would be right up the Emmy voters’ alley, but for some reason they clearly are just not feeling this FX drama about two Soviet spies posing as a suburban American couple. Despite huge critical praise, this show continues to be criminally ignored both in the Drama category and lead acting categories for its stars Matthew Rys and Keri Russell. It’s so bad that even the mainstream media is taking notice and writing about it. See this brilliant piece from the New York Post about the snub. All I can say is the same thing I say every year about Hannibal and Bates Motel’s continued snubs – *sigh* maybe next year.

Tatiana Maslany Finally Gets Some Love – Proving that very vocal support and outrage can eventually force Emmy voters to do the right thing, Maslany, who had inexplicably been ignored in the Best Actress – Drama category the last few years, finally got a nod for her brilliantly complex and riveting performance in BBC America’s Orphan Black. So maybe the cast and producers of The Americans shouldn’t give up hope. Maslany was quick to thank the fans on twitter, for all their continued vocal support, in response to the nomination.

No Love for Empire – Without question, the biggest and most talked about show this year was FOX’s surprise mega hit Empire. Set in the world of hip hop music, the Taraji P. Henson/Terrance Howard driven drama was all the talk for its brilliant music, soap opera like drama and very high ratings. And a lot of that talk centered on its deserving award recognition. So going into last Thursday’s nomination announcement, many predicted at least a Best Drama nod, along with nods for Henson and Howard and possibly one for writing, for the show. In the end, the show’s sole nomination was for Taraji P. Henson in the Best Actress – Drama category.  Naturally there was some outrage among fans. However, I hold the possibly very unpopular opinion that I see nothing Emmy worthy about this show. Is it a fun, soapy hot mess in all the right ways with great music to boot – without question. However, award worthy, no, not in my opinion. And frankly, I’m equally baffled by the Taraji P. Henson love as well but something tells me comes September, she’ll win.

See here for all the nominees.