All posts tagged HBO

• April 16, 2012

  Lena Dunham’s Girls, Isn’t For This Black Girl

  

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  In Lena Dunham’s Girls, you’re thrown into the lives of 20-something angst ridden female characters, suffering from a horrible case of white privilege.  Girls is pretty much a spin off of Dunham’s Tiny Furniture movie from a few years back, which she wrote as well.  Girls is also written, directed and produced by Dunham, and she’s the main character, Hannah.  In the opening scene, to her dismay and astonishment Hannah is being “cut off” financially by her professor parents. She’s flabbergasted and doesn’t know how they could do such a thing, since she’s only working an internship, even though she’s been out of college for 2 years.

  Insert sympathy.

  The episode goes on to introduce you to Hannah’s even more angst ridden-hipster-clique. The roommate, Marnie, who’s contemplating breaking up with her boyfriend that loves her too much. The free-spirited accented friend, Jessa, who ends up being pregnant. Then there’s Hannah’s unemployed actor-wood carver-jump-off, who looks like he smells like old cheese, and attempts to have butt sex with her  and apparently doesn’t think condoms are always necessary.

  After watching the 30 minute episode online (I refuse to pay HBO’s outrageous fees) I wished there was a way to reclaim those 30 minutes that I lost. Unfortunately, there hasn’t been a “reclaim the time you’ve spent watching a shitty show” time machine invented yet.

  I think somewhere in this episode we’re supposed to feel sorry for Dunham’s character. Woe is her, for being a 24 year old, living in NYC on her ‘own’, wearing American Apparel skirts while suffering at an unpaid internship, then becoming cut off by her parents. The only thing I feel sorry for is the contrived “ironic” dialogue that has seemed to become a prerequisite in shows recently, (i.e, The New Girl on Fox).  As one writer from Gawker noted, “Everyone’s sentences begin with “OK” or “Yeah, so” or “Yo, hey. Yeah, no.””

   Where Sex & The City at least had fashionably dressed white women, who were upwardly mobile and career oriented, Girls gives us a main character with low self-esteem, her “ironic” hipster friends and a glimpse into Opium drug use.  The one silver lining was Hannah’s father, played by one of my favorite actors, Peter Scolari from Bosom Buddies.  I think I may be better off watching reruns of Sex & The City, then feeling like I’m watching a poor attempt at trying to garner pity for 20-somethings that look like they haven’t bathed in days with crappy dialogue.

  19 Comments / entertainment / Yesha Callahan

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• March 9, 2012

  Walking While Black- Trayvon Martin Killed By Neighborhood Watch Guard

  

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  I would go into a rave about how utopian our present day ‘post racial’ society has been, but unfortunately, that would be chock full of lies.  Just take a look at the life of Trayvon Martin that was ended at the hands of George Zimmerman, a Jewish/Latino neighborhood watch guard,  on February 26.  Trayvon Martin was on his way home from a 7-11 with skittles in his hand and $20 in his pocket, when his life was ended with a single bullet to his chest from the gun of George Zimmerman. Zimmerman was the neighborhood watch guard in the  Sanford, Florida gated community Trayvon was visiting.

  

  By Fred Makubuya

  According to reports, Zimmerman  followed the teen in his patrol car while he was walking down the street an cited it as ‘suspicious activity’ when he placed a call to 911.  Zimmerman then stated he acted in self-defense against the 140lb 17 year old. I can see how a bottle of Arizona Ice Tea and a bag of Skittles could be considered dangerous.

  No. I really can’t.

  It is now March 9th and Zimmerman still hasn’t been arrested for the murder. Authorities have offered very little information to the public and Trayvon’s family is outraged and rightfully so. Their answers about their son’s murder have not been answered by the authorities. Zimmerman has not been charged or arrested.

  An incident like this can happen anywhere. What’s even more astounding is that Zimmerman was not a police officer.  He was just a person working with the neighborhood crime watch.  It’s bad enough police brutality exists, but when trigger happy vigilantes take the law into their own hands, the only people left without answers are the victim’s family members.

  In the age of internet rallying for justice, a petition has been set up on Change.org to encourage Florida’s 18th District State’s Attorney Norman Wolfinger and Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi to formally file murder charges against Zimmerman. To sign the petition visit: http://www.change.org/petitions/prosecute-the-murderer-of-17-year-old-trayvon-martin

  Update as of 3/22: HLN has posted a copy of the police report filed by the Sanford Police Department:

  Trayvon Martin police report

   

  *Comment moderation is used on MY site. Before you start typing out any ignorant or racist comments, don’t waste your time because they will not get approved*

   

   

  48 Comments / Uncategorized / Yesha Callahan

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• November 29, 2011

  Parents Of Morbidly Obese Children

  

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  My neighbor is morbidly obese.  When I say morbid, if I had to make an estimate about her weight I would put her at about 5’6 & 350 lbs. She is also the mother of 3 children.  Her son 12 year old son, who is friends with my son, probably tips the scale at 250lbs and is only about 5’4. Her daughter is 8 and is probably about 140 and about 4′ tall.  I have yet to see her youngest son, who should be almost a year old.  I’ll be the first to say that I could spare to lose about 10-15 lbs and my son could probably benefit from losing 10  pounds.  I hate to qualify our weight with the fact that we’re both taller than average, but it does factor in.

  During my morning commute, I was on the phone with a friend of mine and he was listening to a local morning show and the heated debate around an 8 year old boy who was placed in foster care because his mother was not doing enough to control his weight. At 8 years old, he was already more than 200lbs. The State of Ohio considers this a medical neglect case and was involved with the family for 10 months before they decided to remove the child from the home. They gave the parent time to change the eating habits of the child, but apparently she failed to do so. To make matters worse, the child also suffers from sleep apnea which is exacerbated by his obesity.

  Before I was able to research the details surrounding the case, I told my friend that I didn’t feel that it was right to remove the child without providing resources to the mother before hand. In learning that there were resources provided, for the health of the child, it was probably a good idea to have the child removed from the home and placed in a home where his eating habits could be monitored.  With that said, I’m hoping that this child isn’t placed into just any type of home or care facility. As my friend said, sometimes the home a child is placed into isn’t better than the one they were removed from.

  There have been many times when I’ve wondered if anyone at my son’s school has ever questioned his friend’s weight and thought of it as being child neglect.  When I look at the family struggling to do simple things like get in & out of the car  or walk up the stairs to their house, I couldn’t help but to feel sorry for them. I remember a few summers ago, when the little girl was around 6 years old, I thought to myself, “Thank god she’s not fat”. Last week there was a knock on my door and I answered it, I looked down and there she was, looking for her brother and bigger than I remembered her.

  Since obesity is an issue that now seems to warrant the removal of children from their parents. I wonder if the reverse will happen as well.  Will anorexia and other eating disorders in children/teens warrant the removal of children as well? Share your opinions in the comment section!

  4 Comments / family, parenting, Recent / Yesha Callahan

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