Mixed Feelings Leave Me Feeling Mixed Up

Lately I’ve been having mixed feelings and I don’t know how to reconcile them.

Last night, on “America’s Got Talent” I watched an 11-year old boy perform a rap routine and get accepted into the next round.  He was a cute little kid and I admired the fact that he could go on stage and do this stuff… so I was happy that he “won”.  However, I’m not happy about the message this sends.  The kid was portraying a horrible image that he learned and was perpetuating.  He was rapping about all his “bling” and “ladies” as if any of that actually matters.  And as if any of us actually cared.

I have no problem with rap as a technique, but I do have a problem with vapid subject matter.  QED, mixed feelings about this kid.

Also, as revealed by my previous post, I am very excited that I will be attending the NYC Red Bull Air Race.  I hate the fact that I have to use the product name in order to describe the event, but there is no other way to properly identify it.  Which brings me to my second bought of mixed feelings… Red Bull.

The Red Bull drink does not, in fact, give you wings.  It doesn’t do anything.  It is flavored sugar water.  I am seriously pissed when everybody just accepts that a product does something that it doesn’t really do.  People cite all over the place that “energy drinks” give you an “energy boost”.  Define “energy boost”.  That is a pseudo-scientific phrase that carries no measurable meaning.

People will claim that the Taurine or Inositol in Red Bull does this or that, but just because a chemical has an effect on some part of the human body in a lab doesn’t mean that ingesting the Red Bull dosage orally will generate the same effect.

Anyway, I love all of the cool sport things that the Red Bull company endorses, like the air races and other flying events.  But I hate supporting a company for which I have no love.