The Good, The Bad, and The Seth Rogen

Okay, where to start. I usually try to concentrate on the positive but today its gonna be a jumble of stuff.

First of all, does anyone have good recommendations for a daily news blog because The Huffington Post is really getting on my nerves. For instance this little tid bit:

What next? Is she sexting with Putin?
In case you haven't noticed Hillary has been laying the smack down lately. She can eat as much chocolate as she wants... she deserves it.


Also word on the street has it that Kate Moss is "fat" now. These type of articles always undo the good they apparently think they're doing. They lump everything from Kate Moss to a "size 28 model" into the same category and then claim it has to do with the recession, since people are buying more economical fatty foods in bulk. I saw the photos of Kate Moss in New York magazine a month or so ago and I was actually really excited about how she looks. I think it was mostly because, since models are unbelievably in control of their bodies this is obviously a deliberate choice of hers. She isn't "cheating on her diet", she's just looking more appropriate for her age. With her lack of botox and softer look she seems to be bucking many of the trends for high profile women. I had the New York Magazine when my parents were visiting a couple weeks ago and I showed them the pictures exclaiming how beautiful she looked. My parents could give half a shit about this kind of pop culture blabbering. My dad just looked at the pictures and said "I don't see what the big deal is,,, your mom looks just like that". Love you dad!


Bea Arthur passed away this week. She will be missed but her influence lives on.

Roast of Pamela Anderson
Bea Arthur Uncensored
comedycentral.com
Joke of the Day Stand-Up Comedy Free Online Games

On the side of good news an anonymous donor has given over seventy million dollars to colleges run by women. They have also sent in special funds for female and minority students. I love hearing news like this especially since the recent articles and news casts about how many graduating high school students won't be able to afford college due to the recession. Yay, anonymous donor!

In other entertaining news... this is a really funny video about a woman named Andrea Wachner who hired a stripper to go in her place to her 10th year high school reunion.

High school stripper en Yahoo! Video

And finally. The troubling issue of Observe and Report. If someone had told me four years ago that Seth Rogen and Anna Farris were making a movie about mall life I would have jumped for joy. Unfortunately, this is not the carefree and fair handed mall life of Kevin Smith movies. Observe and Report has people who haven't even watched it yet freaking out due to the date rape scene that takes place between Rogen and Farris. I wasn't sure I wanted to see it after watching the trailer....

But basically I'll watch all sorts of crap. And Sam and I were doing one of our stints where we end up at the movie theater and try to see all the movies in an effort to get our $12.50 worth. So we saw Crank 2 which is just totally insane -but it is what it is it and doesn't pretend other wise. However Observe and Report draws people who are expecting another bromance from Judd Apatow. Yet, Judd is off making a movie where I'm sure everyone gets married in the end. This movie is a freak show all on its own. So to start off - yes, it is date rape. To all of you who are deliberating if it is or isn't and you haven't seen the movie.... if you have to drag the girl into your house after she pukes up shots and pills, then yea, its rape. However, in all honestly by the time that scene rolled around I wasn't surprised. Rogen's character has taken all the lies of "the great American male", the hero, and gone down a dark path of mental illness and feverish questing for purpose. I don't think anything is really off limits for a good joke, I'm always surprised at what Wanda Sykes can do with off limits material. Yet, when Rogen's character explains that he is bi-polar and was feeling so good he didn't need his medicine anymore, my heart sank. A few minutes later he's raping Anna Farris and then beating the shit out of 15 year old skaters, and eventually shooting people. I immediately starting feeling uncomfortable knowing how this was both a disgusting portrayal of bipolar disorder and also thinking about the actual difficulties that this disease can have for families worldwide. Yet, it was the police (and security guard) violence that really pushed me into a freaked out stage. I thought about the subway shooting in Oakland, the Sean Bell case, and the zillions of other cases each year that are spawned from this same predicament of the male hero fantasy or mental illness or both. The movie is so dark that it could almost be viewed as commentary on the cultural expectations and idealized images that torture modern men. In one of the better moments Rogen's mom tries to tell him he can be whatever he wants because "he still has his dreams". Then they realize how untrue that is. Yet, this Observe and Report decided it needed a movie ending, so our hero shoots the bad guy and shames the slut and gets the virgin and unrealistically gets to keep his job. The final scene was reminiscent of last winter when a New York cop tasered a naked mentally retarded man sending him falling from his window to his death. The cop who gave the order was so distressed he committed suicide a week later. Don't worry I didn't ruin the movie for you, its totally predictable.