Ted Talks and DWTS

[shadowkat]

1. Found the Ted Talk by Nigerian novelist Chimanda Ngozi Adichieb, entitled The Danger of a Single Story to be very moving.

I discovered it via a sign on the chapel wall at the Unitarian church, where I'd attended a workshop today on "compassionate conversations". And being into stories, and the workshop being about telling and listening to stories with compassion, I felt drawn to it.

You have to watch all of it though -- it's not what it appears to be at first glance.

What hit me about it, and everyone takes different things from what they hear and see...is how similar we all are, regardless of where we come from. We are all curious about the world and each other, but tend to make judgements and assumptions based on limited information and perception. We yearn towards stories, telling, sharing, reading, watching them. The more varied the better.
When the availability and variety of stories are limited, our perception of the world is narrowed.
And the curousity diminished.

Anyhow it moved me and made me think. I half to admit I couldn't finish her novel Americanha, mainly because the characters irritated me. I liked her Ted Talk better, so may try something else that she's written.

2. Dancing with the Stars

I'm beginning to think I need to start voting for this. Because I've strongly disagreed with the eliminations or who is up for elimination. As the announcer stated to the lead dancer, "You said once that sometimes the best dancers go home."

OR give up on it again. At any rate, I was reminded of why I haven't watched this series and can't take it seriously.



I mean how can anyone take it seriously when someone with zero dance ability stays on, and people who can actually dance are booted off? You can't. It's a joke. I think the judges know it is a joke. How can they not? When they give fives and sixes to one pairing, and 8's/9's and 8's and 9's to another, and the two they gave 8's and 9's too...were up for elimination?

Granted Tinasha is not the most interesting dancer on the planet, but Evanna is amazing in how far she's come -- and so quickly. Neither are well-known. But they can dance. And Evanna struggled to begin with. Also her Harry Potter dance was magical and beautiful.

While Grocery Store Joe's numbers were bad. Just laughably bad. So too was John Schneider's second number. And the football player is not as interesting as Tinasha.

It's almost laughable how skewed the show is to online/phone voting -- and it appears to be all about sex appeal. I also think most of the people voting are straight horny women and gay men, or Tinasha would still be on it. And I can't help but wonder if these people contact everyone they know to get them to vote for them? It 's not a dance competition, it's an exercise in narcissism or a popularity contest.

Grocery Store Joe is the worst dancer on the show, possibly the worst dancer I've seen on a reality show in my life. This week the judges kindly gave him 5's, I think they were being kind to his partner. Yet, he remains high in the rankings. Really?

I don't understand. I'm wondering if the folks voting for him -- are doing it just to see how bad he can get?

ETA: I googled. They are voting for him because they want to see his pretty face on their tv set. Because they like seeing someone pretty struggle to figure out how to dance. It turns them on.

I reminded of why I don't tend to watch this show. I think I may give up.



I may need to stop watching. I don't know why I'm watching -- oh wait, yes I do. I'm charmed by Evanna, John Schneider, Pablo, and Bobby Bones.