THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2002
LIFESTYLE
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN =13
2
Lavigne presents false idol
"Uh-huh, life's like this," are the words of that 17-year-old pin-up sex kitten who disguises herself as a punk.
POPVULTURE
I'm talking about your friend and mine, Avril Lavigne. Some may see her as a musical force to be reckoned with, a fashion icon without an equal and a hero and savior of the rock'n'roll lifestyle. But if you ask me, she's the best reason to ban Canadian music in the United States since Nickelback.
Marc Ingber mingber@kansan.com
Now I'm sure by this point I've angered all you Avril-heads to the point of no return — where all you can do is put on your ties, grab your skateboards and crash the mall screaming "Life's like this!" in honor of Miss Lavigne.
Now that I mention her name, I must talk about it. It seems that the record industry probably went searching for the next punk at tryouts for the Mickey Mouse Club and found a sweet little girl named April Levine. They must have felt the name wasn't "edgy" enough, so they made everything complicated and switched it to Avril Lavigne. Because of her success, most people now know that Lavigne is pronounced La-veen, but if you had asked me what Lavigne was six months ago, I probably would have told you it was a type of pasta.
In addition to the name change, her record company probably also made her change her fashion a bit. She might have walked into her tryout looking like Britney circa 1999 and came out with Blink-182 shorts and a tie that screams '80s puck rock. However, once again they made her contain her "edge" by not tying it very well.
Then they busted out the hair straightener, gave her a skateboard and told her to conquer the world. And amazingly enough, she's actually doing it. I suppose the fact that she has the catchiest song this side of No Doubt's "Hey Baby" doesn't hurt.
Of course I'm referring to her hit "Complicated." The song annoys me like no one since Nickelback themselves, but little Miss Lavigne definitely wins the award for the most interesting way to say the word "frustrated." For her next single, she is going the way of the artist formerly known as Prince, and giving it the name "Sk8ter Boi." Luckily she doesn't keep telling us that "life's like this" in this one, but the spelling of the song alone is enough to make you cringe. Not to mention that the verses bear a strong resemblance to Duran Duran's "Hungry Like the Wolf."
The funniest thing about this Canadian wonder, however, is that her image and her music go about as well together as orange juice and toothpaste. Her image is skater punk, but "Complicated" is just a straight-up pop song. Now all you Avril backers are
Avril Lavigne is a Canadian singer whose skater image conflicts with her pop music sound.
probably saying things like, "Man, it's not about the image; it's about the music!" And that is precisely the message that I have for Avril: you should concentrate more on your music than your image. If it's really that important that you're seen as "hardcore," then take a chainsaw to your hotel room or get busted with drugs on an international flight. If you do things like that, you can wear whatever you want, and your image will be protected. Just look at Whitney Houston. She attempts to have a squeaky clean image, and she seems to find everything but that. My main message is stop posing. Leave that to Jennifer Love Hewitt.
Las Vegas welcomes MTV's 'Real World'
By C. Spencer Beggs
The Observer via U-Wire
University of Notre Dame
SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Las Vegas, the city built on hedonistic fantasies, welcomes the real world in for the first time.The end of Vegas as we know? No, The Real World blends right in to Sin City.
The Real World is MTV's premiere reality television show where a group of seven twenty-somethings are selected to live together and be recorded for broadcast. MTV has chosen The Palms Hotel for the location of its 12th season.
The cast of Real World: Las Vegas made its debut with a one-hour premiere Tuesday. The show airs from 10 p.m.to 10:30 p.m. Tuesdays for the remainder of the season.
The Real World is the grandfather of
today's reality TV programming, debuting in 1992. The show has spawned a host of imitators that add various twists to the premise, such as the voting off of Survinor, but all have stuck with MTV's original formula: beautiful people, free association confessionals and 24-hour monitoring.
The Real World has even made minor celebrities out of cast members (i.e. Puck from season three). And from the way the season is set up after the Las Vegas cast's initial episode, it appears this group is destined for fame, be it short-lived or not. The group certainly will not shortchange viewers on drama, either.
As soon as cast members meet in their "home," there seems to be the kind of chemistry both friendly and sexual that best fuels reality-based TV.
For example, it isn't long before there is an
To accommodate the cast and crew, six Palms hotel rooms were combined into one massive suite featuring three bedrooms, a communal shower with separate stalls, a bathroom and wash area, a kitchen and dining area, living area and game area.
unexpected hook-up between roommates complicated by hurt feelings by two other roommates who feel slighted by the randy couple.
The Las Vegas cast seems as dynamic as ever, which of course causes the conflict and hence the interest in the show.
But, if Tuesday's premiere episode is an indication, viewers are in for sex, partying and drama as only The Real World can provide it. Welcome to Sin City, USA.
Staff writer Jason McFarley contributed to this article.
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