VH1’s "Rock of Love With Bret Michaels" is carnival sludge: a nauseating paste of fried dough, cigarette ash, salt and grain alcohol. The rococo pageantry and high spirits of "Flavor of Love," the channel’s seminal reality dating competition, starring the hype man Flavor Flav, have gone missing from this, the rock version.

Read more in the New York Times

And Like Dat has been nominated for an award at the Black Press All-Star Awards (more on that later)

Virginia Heffernan wrote an article in the New York Times that's titled, 'Charm School Teaching a lot more than Manners'.

In it, Ms. Heffernan makes a case that Charm School presents an unfiltered presentation of America's continuing debate on class and race. But, in a format where African-Americans are the majority and Caucasians and Asians are the minority.

In Mrs Hefferman's mind, "the white and Asian girls here — notably Becky (whom Flav used to call Buckwild), Brooke (Pumpkin) and Leilene (Smiley) — are singled out for their race."

And they are preyed upon by the "the most warlike of the women", Larissa, whom she says "constantly suggests that Leilene is a prostitute".

She's entitled to her opinion of course but why are the black women perceived as aggressive and overly possessed by race; whilst the white and Asian women are victims and stereotyped?

Anyways, you can read the article for yourself and draw your own conclusion.

New York Times article on Charm School...

There is no Episode 5 of I Love New York today. I told VH1 not to air it because I can't do recaps for three consecutive weeks. I just can't.
Look for it next week when my mind is rested.

The respite however, has not stopped The New York Times from discussing the show; again.
This time they revert to the norm and reiterate how harmful are shows like Flavor of Love and I love New York.
Apparently these shows reinforce negative stereotypes of African-Americans, and particularly, African-American women (yawn)

You may need to be a registered member to access the New York Times article...but I am sure you wouldn't want to do that; so here are excerpts that may interest you

Brian Garden (President of Entertainment MTV) on 'Flavor of Love'

"That show just did it for us. What it did was convince the channel’s management that it could build a new identity on a simple formula: Take a pop cultural idol from the past 20 years or so... and place him or her in some reality television context."

The executive also explained that they decided to add another celeb-reality night on Monday because they were so confident that 'I Love New York' would be a success (now you know why it's not on Sunday)

Garden on Tiffany 'New York' Pollard

"She was not previously a celebrity (said with a smile) We made her a celebrity."

Of course the article gave equal time to the cunts critics and one cunt in particular; Mark Anthony Neal, Professor of African American studies at Duke University

"For many black audiences 'Flavor of Love' is too much of a reminder of the racist and stereotypical depictions that blacks were forced to endure on television and in film for much of the 20th century."
(this is what happens with too much education)

Interestingly, the article spoke of an African-American woman named Theresa Tracy who has nothing better to do but start a petition against Flavor of Love because

"I want black women to see this kind of thing for what it is: an attack on our image."

We learn why Monique has a show

'...the actress best known for shows like "Moesha" and "The Parkers," let staffers know that she hated the "Flavor of Love" contestants' undignified behavior, the network responded by giving her her own show, called "Charm School."
(if I didn't hate the show before I absolutely hate it now)

And finally, the New York Times article descends into plugging every show aired and to be aired on VH1. The shows you will soon waste hours watching and enjoy are:
1) Bridging the Gap - a match between a current music star and a past singing idol: the first pairs Eve with Queen Latifah

2) Band of Men - former members of boy bands come together to totally embarrass themselves and create a new "man band."

3) The Springer Hustle - a behind-the-scenes look at the Jerry Springer Show
(don't they do that already when they run backstage?)

4) Dice Undisputed - featuring the leather-clad comic Andrew Dice Clay and a crew of hanger-ons.
(I would rather be violated with hangers than watch that nonsense)

And they don't end there. There will be shows featuring Irv Gotti, Jack Black and Scott Baio.
Scott Baio? Who da heck is that?

Off to Google....(puff of smoke)

I owe mortgage money to: KP