Operation Misery: Month 12, Week 3, Day 1.

I've decided that if I leave this post title here long enough eventually it will consume us all - much like a collapsing star.

On Friday (14/2/14) Miley Cyrus did indeed begin her tour in the 2010 Winter Olympic host city of Vancouver, Canada. As I said in a previous post on the subject; http://watchitdie.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/operation-misery-month-12-week-2-day-4.html while I won't be covering it if a video of the show became available I would watch it really just to satisfy my own casual curiosity.

Last night I had a quick look on YouTube but no such video exists. From the tiny bit of the show that I did see - the opening song I think - it seems heavily influenced by the video for the Robin Thicke song "Give It 2 U." This of course brings back memories of Miley Cyrus' eye-popping duet at the 2013 Video Music Awards (VMA). Coming just days before the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King's famous "I Have a Dream" speech the VMA performance was supposed to promote discussion about race relations in the US.

I think it goes without saying that the Cyrus family are pretty much country music royalty in the US. Country music is traditional listened to by white American rednecks who can have a reputation for being a bit racist. However through her current career direction Miley Cyrus is also taking on influences of Hip Hop/RnB music which is more traditionally associated with black people. The fact that Miley Cyrus is clearly a lot more talented then many of her peers means that this mimicking could easily be perceived by the public as a type of mockery. As such Live Nation appear to be trying to pique our interest in Miley Cyrus' tour by making it appear that it is provoking some big discussion about race in the US.

To help this along Miley Cyrus' tour was accompanied by the trial of Micheal Dunn. Occurring in not only the same state (Florida) but pretty much the same local district as the Trayvon Martin/George Zimmerman case this centred around a white man - Dunn - who was filling his car up at a gas station when a car load of young black men drove up playing really loud music. Dunn told them to turn the music down prompting the young men to become highly aggressive. Dunn then opened fire on the car killing one and injuring others. At trial he claimed he'd seen what he though was a gun and was acting in self-defence. The Jury disagreed convicting him of two counts of second degree murder. As with the Zimmerman case I think this was just genuine crime in the sense that it is normal in criminal cases to look at all parties and conclude that none of them were in the right.

Making it appear that Miley Cyrus' tour is prompting discussion about race is a particularly neat hook to use at the Winter Olympics. Along with gay rights racism - particularly towards people of African descent - is something the Russian hosts need to and are working on. The hope seems to be that everyone will look at Miley Cyrus and the US debate for pointers. That said the way the US has spectacularly screwed up the gay rights debate I doubt many will be looking towards them for leadership on the race issue.

Also Rihanna has been seen out and about and posted Instagram pictures of herself wearing what is essentially a bathing suit/underwear underneath flowing coat that makes lots of reference to Arab culture. I suppose in a way we should be happy that Rihanna is finally starting to communicate again but by neatly encompassing excessive nudity with Arab culture I can only conclude that either her CIA handlers have got her so full of fear that she is incapable of making good decisions or that I've p*ssed her off so much in the last week she's now doing things just to spite me. I suppose though we should be open to the possibility that Rihanna hasdecided that she hates her life and career so is now doing everything in her power to destroy both.


12:35 on 17/2/14 (UK date).