Saturday we packed up the car and drove to Mountain View for the Bridge School Benefit. After a debacle with tickets loading on the phone, and setting up our picnic space on the lawn, Kiki peed her pants. I learned a lesson on packing a change of clothes, but bought a souvenir t-shirt she wore as a dress. Two birds, one stone!
I spent a good portion of the time walking around with a restless kid. TVs were set up all over the place, so I found I had a better view of the stage while watching on a TV and chasing George around the biergarten.
I was able to watch Ryan Adams's set from our spot on the lawn. Ryan Adams played old timey favorites, Sweet Carolina and Damn Sam. That might be a Bridge School thing, but the artists performing didn't seem to shy away from their big hits. Often that can be a source of anxiety throughout a show, the end is nearing, and I'm consumed with trying to send them ESP messages, "PLEASE PLAY THE SONG, BLAH BLAH!!" I don't have the balls to shout, "Play me this song, now!!" because I'd be mortified if they said, "Shut your pie hole, missy! I'm not playing that song because I've played it ten thousand times, and that's my limit!"
During Adams set someone shouted, "Take off your shirt!" He started laughing, and jokingly made up a song about removing clothes. The person from the audience was being broadcast on the big screen. As Adams sang, the man removed his shirt, and did the helicopter with it while running up and down stairs. It was hilarious. A tits out moment, if ever, at the family concert. The most I could muster was lifting George's jammy shirt and beating on his bloated toddler belly like he was a super fan at a football game.
On the drive home, with the kids sleeping in the back, I gushed over how awesome it is to watch successful artists doing a charity benefit. The performers don't collect a fee for the show, and all the money goes to The Bridge School. I brought up the Kardashians for some fucking reason, and how their unabashed worship of money is another film people need to see through when interpreting media. Then, in a don't get me started, but I was just getting started, moment, I moved on to Caitlyn Jenner, bringing up an article I read the day before on Germaine Greer, and how her opinions on Trans Women will likely result in withdrawing from speaking at Cardiff University. Greer said she believed Caitlyn Jenner's motives were to take the limelight from the Kardashians.
Regardless of Greer's opinion, I am befuddled by the whirlwind Jenner was able to embroil herself in, and how I found myself more annoyed by her than anything. The reason why Jenner pissed me off is because Trans people did not emerge on the scene in 2015, but because a rich, white, middle aged man, who used to be an olympic athlete, and is better known as the father figure in America's harem, comes out as trans, all of a sudden we're given a Vanity Fair cover story complete with boudoir photos of Jenner. Should RuPaul have been on Vanity Fair before Jenner? Ummm Yes. (That Umm was under 1 second long.) The coverage on Caitlyn seems indirectly superficial, where the apex of Jenner's transformation is achieving a Cindy Crawford look. From the pictures, it seems the definition of a woman is skirts, high heels, long hair and lip gloss, and thats about all of it.
I watched a John Waters interview where he laughed saying, "We should be able to make fun of Caitlyn Jenner, for starters, she's a Kardashian." It's so true. In a sense, what Water's is saying is, Jenner being hands-off in the realm of comedy, and social critique, is political correctness gone mad, so get your heads out of your butt, and treat her just as you would treat any person in the limelight, with microscopic scrutiny.
After Jenner came out, I read a tweet from Lena Dunham that said something like, "Damn girl, I wish I could drive a stick shift in heels." Dunham was referencing a picture of Jenner stepping out of a sports car wearing stilettos and a pencil skirt. The tweet seemed demeaning to women because it implied a male superiority. I realize this Greer approved analysis of Dunham's tweet was not Dunham's intention. Dunham is an active feminist and supporter of LGBT rights, so I'm reading into her tweet much deeper than was intended. Thats the problem with fucking political correctness gone mad, it's a double edge sword.
There doesn't need to be a stone wall constructed in front of someone who decides to engage in debate, having thoughts counter to activist agendas. The lack of discussion, or allowance of free thought only stunts development. Perhaps its the hard party lines that have led Americans to feel disenfranchised by politics, and political information is being passed on to the masses through the voices of a handful of insightful comedians. Were allowed to talk about things, question the norm, even examine a liberal agenda, without it meaning your pro gun, anti abortionist who wants to take away welfare and social security, lock all criminals away till they catch a form of illness in a middle ages prison facility, and no one should pay taxes.
Needless to say, the coverage of Caitlyn Jenner's transformation gets under my skin, and by voicing this opinion, it doesn't mean I am against Trans, or non-liberal. We'll see how Cardiff receives Germaine Greer. I think the most important thing to do when considering someone and their belief system is to think, "Are they a good person, doing good things, making the world a better place?" Even if you have to bring the Kardashians into it.
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