#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.