Tuesday, September 02, 2008

Miley Cyrus, You Put A Helmet On, Right Now!

Okay, people, I am no Tim Gunn. I have no real sense of what others should or should not be wearing, although I do really like what seems to be his mantra, "Make it work." These are truly words for all of us to live by. However, I don't know about his recent appraisal of Katie Holmes (sad, sad story) or Miley Cyrus.

One thing I do know: one should always try to be as safe as possible when riding a bike. Monkey will tell you that I don't always practice that "safety first" mantra when driving a car. I've been known to clock a few miles with no bandolier to keep my melon off the windshield--stupid me! But, with a few unavoidable exceptions, since I was old enough to know better, I've biked exclusively helmeted. Too many cars and drivers who think they are better drivers than they are make for the always present possibility of having your body thrown from your bike and your cabasa making high-speed contact with the asphalt. No thank you.

So, while I find it admirable that Miley and the Cyrus clan seem to enjoy a pedal around the sunny streets of whatever entertainment paradise they live in, I think she ought to set a better example by wearing a helmet.

I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, "What the hell has happened to ol' ATR? What's with this obsession with Miley Cyrus?" Well, calm down. It's no obsession. It's just a coincidence that two unrelated news items made it into my Google reader on the same day. Or, at least, I read them on the same day.

But, enough with Hannah Montana. The NY Times says James and Kirk and Lars (and Robert) are coming back from the artistically dead to kick all of our asses...80s style.

4 comments:

AMVB said...

Way to give some blog space to the topics of fashion and celebrities - even if it is as a segue to a more Reda-esque discussion about safety.

Hm, I kind of like Katie Holmes' look - cute, comfy, kind of casual French, and (very relatively) nonconformist. I prefer that look to whatever the Olsen twins are wearing, although they are a poor metric for fashion aesthetics.

I heard about that Traffic book on Car Talk this weekend. I'm intrigued. As a recovering math major, I've often wondered about the mathematics behind the flow of traffic (apparently one of the topics covered in the book and also covered cursorily in a class I recall having barely passed once). My musings have resulted in an unsubstantiated and self-serving theory that I have argued with P (who is brilliant in math, but still I argue because even if he did prove me wrong I wouldn't understand the proof). That is, I posit that by minimizing the time traveling on the road, one minimizes the likelihood of encountering as many red lights as if one were to drive at a slower rate. Or, conversely, the longer you're on the road, the greater the odds of catching a red light, all things being equal (and the lights not being timed according to the speed limit along a specific stretch of road). I suspect that this process would manifest nonlinearly, with there being some relatively ideal speed given the particular traffic light context. This is yet another reason I like to zip around when I drive.

Which ties together the points of fashion and commuting: How does one maximize one's style while also being reasonably safe? Miley recognizes, accurately, that the bike helmet covers her pretty hair and doesn't work with every ensemble. I think she needs to try a little harder to coordinate her ensemble so that she can wear a helmet. It's like, if I know I need to wear that purse today, let me find a creative and fashionable way to work my ensemble to be fabulous with it.

This is the least our celebs can do for us!

Can a sister get a what what?

Oh, and ever since having seen Some Kind of Monster like six times, I have to admit I'm interested in the new Metllica album.

fmrlmpi

Anon AMVB

AMVB said...

PS - Two posts in as many days and you fail to write about Palin's daughter's pregnancy??? How can you be so utterly remiss?

Anon AMVB

ATR said...

I like to cover the topics nobody wants to write about. Besides, I don't really think the woman's daughter's pregnancy has any bearing on his fitness as an office holder, so, to me, it's a non-issue.

What what.

wlmzxzno

AMVB said...

(I was being sarcastic about the whole Palin's daughter's pregnancy issue. I think it's irrelevant and hyped.)

Anon AMVB