#SNLSeason39Recap

Hey everybody!!! I deeply apologize for leaving you guys so long without a post.  I am in the midst of moving so things have been crazy for the last month. This past Saturday was the season premiere of  Saturday Night Live and even with all the craziness going on in my life,  I wanted to do a recap.  About a month ago, I wrote about my disappointment with the show's lack of diversity.  Unfortunately, SNL has kept up their track record.  For season 39 they added six new cast members (five males and one female) and they were all white.  In 2013, it is unthinkable that a legendary show like SNL is the least diverse program on television and has been for most of its almost 40 year run. So I guess Keenan Thompson will have to continue to put on a dress to play every black woman in pop culture.  But, I digress. 



Source: en.wikipedia.org

Let's start with the opening sketch.  It was about Obamacare and how complicated it is.  This sketch was dead on because I, like most Americans, am very confused about the Affordable Care Act and  clueless about what is going to happen on October 1.  I have to add that Jay Pharaoh does an excellent Obama impersonation.  Even though SNL takes a lot shots at conservatives, it was nice to see them poke fun at President Obama and his policies. 

Tina Fey hosted the show and she gets two snaps and a twirl from me.  During her opening monologue she introduced the new vanilla cast members and had them do a crazy dance number since they are newbies.  I was not a regular watcher of SNL during the Fey years but I can see why she is a beloved alum of SNL.  She didn't have any well known characters but her comedy timing is perfect.  She always says the right line at the right time which leads me to some of my fav sketches of the season premiere:

GIRLS Parody Somewhere between early September and now, I fell in love with GIRLS.  I know there is a lot of criticism about the show but I am still a fan of it and SNL's parody had tears in my eyes from laughing.  Tina played the new "Girl" Alberta and had me cracking up.  She basically made all the Girls' problems seem petty to her third world problems.  And new cast member Noel Wells did an awesome Lena Dunham impersonation.  Can't wait to see future parodies!

New Cast Member or Arcade Fire?  Not only do I notice that SNL has no color but Lorne Michaels (creator and executive producer) does too.  During this sketch Tina had to guess who were new cast members and who were members of the band Arcade Fire.  Out of nowhere Lorne Michaels comes out and tries to help Tina guess who's who.  In the sketch, he refers to Keenan as the "black guy".  As funny as it was it just reiterated how vanilla the show really is.

 1st Used Car Commercial This sketch had me laughing out loud... literally.  Mike O'Brien (new cast member) and Tina stole the show with this piece. Mike's character is filming the first used car commercial and his wife (Tina) keeps saying all this weird, creepy stuff ("I fed my kids to a well").  As I said before, her timing is perfect.   

Former Adult Stars Selling Shoes As stupid as this sketch is, it cracks me up every time.  These two former adult stars (Cecily Strong and Vanessa Bayer) make these absurd commercials because they are trying to get free merchandise.  Basically, their brains are fried from years of drug use and it shows from their inability to put together a simple sentence.  Tina shines in this piece also by playing this crazy aggressive former adult star.  Like I had to pull out my loud obnoxious laugh for this one.

The season started on a good note and I look forward to the rest of the season to see who is going to be the new Bill Haders and Kristen Wiigs. 

Did you catch the new season?  What was your fav sketch?

#GIRLSGetsMe

Hey everybody!!! With my lack cable television, I have had to resort to other forms of entertainment.  This has lead to more reading, writing projects, and buying TV shows on DVD.  The latest series I'm watching is GIRLS.  This was the first time I bought a series on DVD and had never seen an episode. What initially fascinated me with the series was Lena Dunham.  She is the director, writer, and creator of Girls (and she is just 27). With all the hype around the show, I wanted to see for myself was it really deserving of it.

Honestly, ten minutes into the first episode I thought I was going to be selling the DVD on Amazon. In the first episode, Hannah (Lena Dunham's character) is having dinner with her parents and they drop a bomb on her: they will no longer be supporting her.   At this point, I thought that I would not be able to relate to the rest of the series.  Personally, after I started working for the housing department at my university, I was basically living on my own at 21 years old and have ever since.  So the whole "parents cutting you off" thing was foreign to me. So I had made up my mind that this show was about rich girls who complain about  their "hard" lives.  But as I kept watching I realized that I could relate to this show more than I thought.



You have more in common with these "girls" than you think
Source: sabotagetimes.com

Here are some things that made me say "Been there, done that":

Every woman has dated an Adam Does not matter if you are black, white, green, or purple, all women can relate to man problems.  Specifically, many women can relate to dating an Adam.  Adam was Hannah's friends with benefits turned boyfriend. Adam is the guy you should've never gave your number to.  Adam is the guy that texts you in the middle of the night and you immediately reply.  Adam fools you into thinking he is your true love  but in reality, he just going to break your heart.  It is something about him that keeps you coming back even though he is simply just not relationship material. 

Graduated, now what? When you are in college, your dreams are limitless.  Your eyes are wide open about your future.  Then you graduate and real life slaps you in the face and nags you about paying back your student loans.  All the plans you had for post college are now distant dreams.  More than likely you have a job you  had to take and you feel like you never have enough money.  And did I mention those pesky student loans?  Martie discusses in one episode that she feels she has done everything right, yet nothing is working out for her.  I share her feelings. You feel jaded. You work hard but no return on your investment.  Life after college is not so great, which leads me to my next point...

Some of your darkest days will be in your 20s As the last point brought out, you live your early 20s through rose colored glasses.  Then you learn adulthood is not all that fun.  You get a taste of adversity and it is bitter.  When I graduated I had the worst luck finding employment.  My first 3 post-graduate jobs  all paid minimum wage.  I very rarely ate out with friends or did any other recreational activity (because of my lack of funds).  My life sucked.  I felt myself becoming depressed and ashamed.  My self-esteem was shot because of my  inability to find a good paying job.  I felt like walls were closing in on me.  And at one point, all I wanted to do was lay in bed.  Towards the end of season 2 of Girls, Hannah has a nervous breakdown.  Her OCD returns and she lets a junkie give her a hideous hair cut.  Yep, she definitely has a breakdown.  As I watched her slowly fall into a deep dark hole I had a flashback to that time I was unemployed and depressed and could understand every emotion she was feeling.  I, fortunately, never let a junkie give me a hair cut but I can certainly understand being ready to throw in the towel and say "forget it."

Girls gets me.  As a writer, I share Hannah's aspirations for wanting to be this generation's next big thing in writing.  No, I don't live in a big city nor do I stay in a cute studio apartment but I can relate to the not-so-awesome early years of adulthood.  With that said, I am so amped for season 3!

Have you watched Girls? If so, what did you think of it?

Why are you not watching this show??
Source: www.pitchfork.com

#CurvyAndHealthy

Hey everybody!!! First off, I want to thank you for tuning in this past August as I did my #31WriteNow Challenge.  I did not write for everyday in August but it is the most writing I have done in a long time.  It really pushed me to be creative with posts and just WRITE, even when I was not in the mood.  I know that I gained new readers and I welcome you.

While having a conversation with a friend about being proud to be a curvy woman, an issue came up.  He questioned rather being proud of being curvy also meant being proud of an unhealthy lifestyle.  I could not get offended right off the bat because this is commonly misunderstood.  So I have decided to try to break down what it means to be a proud full-figured woman.

Let's get something straight, not every woman that is curvy is lazy.  Not all curvy women sit around and eat Twinkies all day.  Most thicker women I know are quite active.  There is this thing called genetics.  If the majority of the women in your family have wide hips and thick thighs, it is more than likely that you will have it too.  If you see the women on my dad's side of the family you will see that I never had a chance of being a size 2 (not throwing shade because I believe that I come from a beautiful family, regardless of size).  Other physical problems can play a factor like having a not-so-great thyroid gland.  The thyroid gland controls a lot of your body.  If this gland is not working properly it could cause you to gain weight.  There are many factors why a woman might be carry a few pounds so it is best not to judge in the first place.

 

Hating my body? Ain't nobody got time for that!



When curvy women embrace their bodies this does not equate to embracing an unhealthy lifestyle.  Embracing your body means that you have love for your self at that current stage.  Even if you are in transition you should still have love for yourself.  Why should a bigger girl hate her body? Heck, there are skinny girls who hate their body.  Also, us thicker girls have overcame some serious hurdles in the last decade that has caused for celebration.  When you walked in a department store it was difficult to find fashionable clothes for the thicker girls.  We do not want to only wear big moo-moos or baby-doll blouses.  We also do not like to only wear floral prints.  Thicker have started to break the "big girl" attire rules.  At one point in time, voluptuous women were encourage to wear black, baggy clothes and stay away from horizontal stripes.  Thick girls are now wearing all patterns and colors and even embracing crop tops and bikinis.  Our style options have become limitless. 

Curvy women are making breakthroughs on the runway, too.  Modeling use to be a skinny girl's game.  Now we are seeing size 14s, 16s, and 22s on the catwalk.  I made a post back a few months ago about my first experience being a model.  It was so empowering to be around women who had mad confidence.  The public was receptive too.  Every time a model stepped on the runway the audience went wild.  They LOVED our confidence.  Even on BET's Rip the Runway the curvy girl segment is the most anticipated part of the show.  People love the fierceness the full-figured models exuberate. 

So, do not get it confused.  Loving your body does not mean not exercising.  Loving your body does not mean eating Doritos by the pound.  Loving your body does not mean advocating hypertension.  Loving your body means embracing yourself throughout your transformation.  The journey to a healthy body (physical, emotional, and mental) is not easy but there is no room for self-hate on that journey. 

#MileyCyrusTwerks

Hey everybody!!! It's the night after the VMAs so you already know what this post is going to be about.  Lately, the last few music awards have not been that great but there has been that one moment that leaves a conversation piece for the next day. The 2013 VMAs did not disappoint us for a conversation piece.

Miley Cyrus wanted us all to know that she is no longer Hannah Montana.  If you thought that for one second, Ms. Cyrus killed that thought with her performance.  I have no idea what I was suppose to get out of it.  There were huge teddy bears, girls twerking, a really big booty girl twerking, a foam finger, and a plastic bikini.  I wish I could have been in on the creative team's meeting when they discussed this "idea".  I actually wish I was on the creative team so I could have backhanded everyone that came up with this concept and then came up with a better one.  But unfortunately, for Miley Cyrus. I was not on the creative team and her performance was a hot mess. 

I agree, Drake, I agree
Source: blog.zap2it.com 



You knew from the get-go it was going to be a disaster.  The moment she stepped out of that fuzzy teddy bear with her tongue sticking out for the world to see, you just knew it was going downhill.  Then for the rest of the performance she felt impelled to continue to show us her reptile-like tongue. She was also doing this weird crump dance and groping herself.  She officially ended the popular dance formerly known as "twerking."  She twerked towards the audience, she twerked on the teddy bears, she put her face on someone else's booty while they twerked; there was just too much twerking for one performance.  What made her twerking  worse was that she was terrible at it.  Like, she wasn't even that white girl that surprises everyone with her dancing moves.  Her dance moves were horrific.  There was nothing graceful about her performance.  Dancing is most definitely not one of her strengths, twerking or not.

Some have said that this was her moving into womanhood moment.  Well, it was not a smooth transition.  Madonna, Brittney Spears, and Christina Aguilera all had their coming of age moment, but I don't remember it being uncomfortable for those watching.  At one point, Miley was bent over in front of Robin Thicke.  He is old enough to be her cool uncle.  I get that she wants to shake her Disney image but this was the worst way to have done that.  It felt like she had watched a marathon of videos on BET and thought she was a bonafide video dancer.  And apparently, she thought hanging with black girls would automatically make her "down".  Were these the black girls she was speaking of in "Party in the USA" song? Probably not.

Miley, this performance was not lady-like.  You will now be the butt of every comedians jokes.  I can only imagine the SNL sketch that is going to be done in your behalf.  If your goal was to have people talking about you then you succeeded.  But honey, I do not think you got the attention you wanted. 

#RacisimIsEveryWhereApparently

Hey everybody!!! Yes, I fell off with doing the #31WriteNow challenge and I am sorry for that but I am going to try to finish out the month strong. 

One of my fav past times is watching HuffPost Live.  It is Huffington Post in live news segments.  Along with their segments, they have panels where anybody can join.  They recently had a panel about the new Netflix series, Orange is the New Black.  They discussed the fact that a white woman had to be at the center of the show for the show to even get past the producer's desk.  In the show, not only do we get the main character's story but we get subplots from the other prisoners.  Some folks (black woman that writes for the Daily Beast) were mad that the black prisoners were just subplots and the fact that minorities have to be a part of the series for a prison show to be believable. 

As I was watching this segment, it was apparent that homegirl was reaching for racism.  And this seems to be a recurring theme: find the racism.  Now if you have ever seen Orange is the New Black you will know that it has a more diverse cast than most shows and all characters are treated with respect.  So if you find racism in this show then that is because you are looking for it.  But why have we become the type of society that is always looking for racism?  To be honest, it is exhausting.  Racism is bad and takes you through a lot of emotions.  Who has the time and energy to look for racism everyday?

 By always looking for racism in every situation that does something dangerous: desensitize others to race issues.  I was reading an article called "Is Food A Race Issue?".  In the article, the author tries to make a correlation between the Trayvon Martin case and a lack of healthy foods in minority neighborhoods (side notes: there are a lack of grocery stores in poorer neighborhoods regardless of race.  They are called food deserts.).  Two problems with that: 1.We do not know if there were not grocery stores nearby Trayvon's neighborhood. 2. He was just wanting snacks to watch the game, not needing to go on a full grocery store trip.  The author was really reaching to make this connection.  In the comment section, a lot of people were fixated on the poor connection between Trayvon and lack of grocery stores instead of the issue of the article and thus started to mock the article.  The readers of this articles just see this as another case of "the boy (or girl) that cried racism". 

Yep, I have coined the term, "the boy (or girl) that cried racism".  This is the direction we are going if we do not start picking our race battles.  There is no reason for a March on Washington every time a show has a black character we do not like.  There is no reason for a public apology every time we do not like a Youtube video.  Racially insensitive people are amongst us.  We can't change all of them.  I don't know about you but the world is depressing enough.  Some battles aren't even worth the time.

#SlaveryAintFunny

Hey everybody!!! If you have not heard, Russell Simmons had to issue an apology for a video that was uploaded to his new Youtube channel, All Def Digital.  Considering the vast variety of videos that are on Youtube, you are probably wondering what is the problem with this video.  The title alone might cause outrage: Harriet Tubman Sex Tape.  This is a sketch where Harriet plans to blackmail her master by making a sex tape with him. 

In a society where we can make a scene where a baby is punched in the face (The Campaign), a comedy sketch about Harriet Tubman is crossing the line.  Tweeters made the argument that Harriet Tubman is too sacred to make her into a spoof.  When making a video like this, we are making ourselves desensitize to this horrible time in history.  But my question is, should we be that offended by a Youtube video that was made to be funny?

Comedy is just that, comedy.  Comedy is used to make fun of the real world.  Comedy is used to show the absurdity of a bad situation.  Comedy is used to help people get through difficult times.  I am not saying that certain comedies cannot offend but I believe we are becoming too sensitive when we start asking people to take videos down and give public apologies.  There has been times I have been watching something that was consider "funny" but I found it offensive.  Let's take multiple episodes of Family Guy, for example.  For awhile, I stopped watching the show.  There was a joke about child molestation and that was just too much.  So I stopped watching it.  As simple as that, I turn the channel and watched something else.  I did not need Seth MacFarlane to write me an apology for the episode nor am I going to change.org to start a petition to get the episode banned from television. 

At some point, we became a hyper-sensitive society, especially when it came to race.  To a degree I can understand.  The entertainment industry has a history of taking cheap shots at minorities.  Even in 2013, black actresses have to fight to get roles besideds stereotypical roles in movies and TV shows.  In the 21st century, black women are still cast as the sassy sidekick and every couple of decades, Viola Davis and Halle Berry will get a shot to play something other wise.  So yea, I get it,  this video most definitely is not helping the movement for good roles for black actresses.  But do we have the right to demand apologies every time we are collectively offended?

That brings me to another issue.  I have a huge problem with public apologies.  I have just never seen one done right and they never come off genuine.  It is understood that the accused celebrity is only apologizing because their publicist advised them to do so. When Rick Ross apologized for his infamous rape lyrics, I think I was more offended by his apology than by the lyric.  I gave better apologies before I was about to get a whooping than this correctional officer turned gangsta rapper.  Russell Simmons' apology was definitely forced by a publicist. 

Was the video funny? Not at all.  Not only because of the subject matter but the video was just not funny, like how The Other Guys was not funny.   Do I feel it should have been taken down? No.  We as a people need to learn to do what I do when I don't like something: Turn the channel. 

#ChangeTheName

Hey everybody!!! Today I am singing "Change the name, change the name" to the tune of Destiny's Child, Say My Name. I am singing this because apparently the government can make you change your child's name.  When in a Tennessee court parents were going back and forth about their child's last name, the judge decided that she had a problem with the child's first name, Messiah. She said that that name only belonged to one human being and that is Jesus. She ruled that the mother had to change the name. The mother is appealing the decision.

I do not completely agree with the judge on her decision, but I wonder should the government at times step in when parents insist on giving their child a crazy name.  Some might say that when the government gets involved with child naming that they are imposing on our freedoms.  But it made me wonder should the government get involved when a parent really does give their child an off-the-wall name.  I remember some time ago reading about a woman whose name is Marijuana Pepsi.  That was her first and middle name.  She has to go throughout her life named Marijuana Pepsi.  Can you imagine the look on the teacher's face on the first day of school?  Can you imagine the look on the employer's face when they see her application?  If a judge had ordered her parents to change her name, would her life been any different?  Well, she is a college counselor so I guess she is doing okay. 

Every parent thinks their child is unique and trys to portray that in their name.  And I do not have a problem with that.  But, parents, do not get crazy.  Remember that this child has to be around other children.  True enough kids are cruel and will find a reason to tease, but do not make your child an easy target.  Don't name your child something absurd to make yourself feel edgy.  And it really irks my nerves when celebrities do it.  Kanye and Kim are the recent culprits of this by naming their child North West.  I'm not feeling it. one. bit.  I feel celebrities just do it for the headlines. 

I'm not sure if I have a problem with Messiah, but I do have a problem with Devious (yes, some parent named their child this).  These kids have to get jobs one day.  Don't mess up their ability to take care of themselves in the future.

What do you guys think about the judge interfering with the naming of the child?