OPEN THREAD – What are you doing for New Year’s Eve?

Must I go out on New Year’s Eve?  What will be waiting for me if I venture to some bar that was free last night  but will be demanding cash  if I want to walk in the door tonight?  I remember when I loved to go out on New Year’s Eve.  Usually it meant being in a foreign country with a healthy exchange rate.  Or drinking punch at a brownstone in Chelsea.

But tonight?  It’s a little difficult to muster up the joy brigade.  Even though I am looking forward to the beginning of the Obama Presidency, I don’t feel like singing at the top of my lungs about happy days.

• People are still being laid off.
• We still don’t know where all the bailout money is going.
• Madoff is not in jail for stealing money from Ren McCormack and Deputy Chief Brenda Johnson.
• The Republican Party still wants to believe it’s 1954 in Mississippi and wants the rest of us to believe it too!
• And the Republican Party thinks teen pregancy is okay when white girls whose mothers are picked to run for VP do it. (Now, that’s a Tripp!)
• MTV continues to make TV  featuring dullards who should have their reproductive rights terminated.
• The wait for season three of  Mad Men will be unbearable.
• Personally, I don’t have a job or health insurance (please leave any tips, leads and donations in comments)
• Florent is no more.
• That fatuous bigot  Rick Warren is going to ruin my Inauguration.
• The Mid East is reminding the world that peace takes more than wishing and hoping.

Going out to pretend that things aren’t as wobbly as they are seems like a waste of time and effort as of 1:57 a.m., EST.  But if you’re reading and you have some good plans to share, I may be inspired to change my mind and put on my party clothes to kick ‘08 to the curb and ask the new year to show some TLC to the world and me.

New Year’s Eve parties  for people who have money. [Vanity Fair]

For Brooklynites who don’t need to cross no bridge for a good time. [NeverLeaveBrooklyn]

Mr. Egotastic strikes again!

Kanye is visiting Iraq vets for an MTV special. The visits will consist of Kanye and MTV employee Sway interviewing various vets about their lives post Iraq. There is also chatter that Kanye will provide monetary gifts to the vets. (Take that Lil Wayne!)

To me, anything with MTV attached to it screams exploitative, maudlin, manipulative and superficial but I may have to watch this as Kanye steps into the role of God, Jesus, the Holy Ghost and the US government.

Kanye West visits Iraq vets for documentary [NME]

Well, no one is forcing anyone to watch BET.

Reginald Hudlin and Debra Lee don’t care how if BET’s programming sucks; they have their paper already.

Seriously. I’ve been reading about how BET has lost Proctor and Gamble, Pepsi, General Motors (like they can afford advertising!) and CNN as advertisers from Rap City and 106 & Park after Industry Ears released The Rap on Rap, a report on BET and MTV programming.

Of course BET Chairman and CEO Debra Lee dismissed the study. I wonder if this woman allows anyone in her family under the age of 18 to actually watch BET?

Paul Porter of Industry Ears (and a former BET employee!) explains why the report caused companies to rethink their marketing plans:

“It’s geared for kids but the content is for adults,” Porter told HipHopDX. “That’s what the study shows.”

Now Porter isn’t a scold — he listens to hip hop that’s clearly geared for his adult ears. He is asking for corporations to make the distinction, as well. So far, only BET seems to have lost advertising. I wonder if MTV will feel the financial burn, as well? Also, you do know that BET will be replacing their lost advertisers promptly.

With that thought in mind, why not just turn the ish off?

Yeah, don’t watch it.

No one is forcing anyone to watch BET, MTV or VH1. Granted, if you have to watch for your livelihood, then do what you must but if you know that these channels add zero value to your life and actually detract, don’t watch.

It’s not a boycott, it’s making a choice.

BET Loses Sponsorship over Content [Hip Hop DX]

You Can Stop The Vile Media [Jenice Armstrong, Philadelphia Daily News]

Linkarrhea…

Hi I’m Alicia and I misspoke.

Akon revealed to be the James Frey of R&B flavored Hip Hop – Tallulah not surprised at all! (The Smoking Gun)

Tallulah is kinda aghast that Rob Lowe’s traumatized former nanny did a People photo shoot (People)

Alicia Keys must have been yelled at by Clive Davis for those kooky gangsta rap comments because wow, she is backtracking BIG TIME. (CNN)

I am not ashamed to say I will be watching Real World XX: Hollywood TONIGHT! (MTV)

This is the understatement of the century! (Yahoo)

Guitars were destroyed by The Roots last night on The Colbert Report (Okayplayer)

I have a major girl crush on artist Kara Walker. (The Root)

UPDATE: Aretha Franklin should put some hot sauce on Lara Johnston and …

eat her for butchering ‘Respect’ on MTV’s Rock The Cradle. And then, Franklin should eat the judges (with chipotle sauce) for trying to convince this girl that she deserves to be paid to perform.

Rock The Cradle is a competition show showcasing the talents of famous musicians. I don’t know who Lara’s famous parent is, but I do know that she’s been accepted at several colleges.

She should go.

And Al B. Sure’s son Lil B is committing numerous felonies to Kate Bush’s This Woman’s Work. For some strange sick reason though, I can’t stop watching.

From one pimp to another …

The Donald Wants Eliot’s Ho for his new reality show.

Are Donald Trump and MTV the proper teachers in the art of being a lady?

Come, my little pretty, Father Donald will help you.

Or why focus on unpolished women? There are a lot of uncouth men who need help on that path of adulthood, too. But back to my original point, why should Donald Trump and MTV pretend to care about taking…
young women who are in an interesting state in their lives, meaning, in some cases, they’re not so elegant, but they may have great beauty or they may have great potential, and we transform them into something far different from where they started,” Trump told the Daily News yesterday.

“Think of what took place in the great ‘My Fair Lady’ as an example: Eliza Doolittle,” Trump said. “We transform these women into something that is going to be very, very interesting.”

MTV has ordered eight episodes of the hourlong series.

Very, very interesting? So Donald Trump and the gargoyles at MTV will usher various girls into D-list reality show ’stardom’ making lots of money in the process because the girls are not like his daughter Ivanka Trump?

Something is very wrong about this and yet, there will tons of guinea pigs clamoring to audition.

Ick.