The Wry Side of Life

       I first started watching Vanderpump Rules during Season 3. I started watching, because I was a huge fan of Lisa Vanderpump. She was my favorite housewife on the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. I wanted to try the show to see what the restaurant looked like. 7 seasons later and I'm still watching. The season that I started with was when Tom Sandoval and Kristen Doute broke up due to her sleeping with his best friend. It was hinted at that time that Tom S. was not that faithful himself. There was talk of an affair with a girl in Miami. Tom had befriended Ariana and began dating her shortly thereafter. Kristen believed that they had hooked up prior to being official. Ariana denied it, but something makes me think something did happen. She has been very coy recently, and seemed to throw a bit of shade at Tom at the reunion.      Flash forward to Season 10 and we have Tom S. cheating on Ariana with Raquel. In prior seasons, it seemed that the passi...

Season 2 came and went as I streamed it. One thing I am missing is hearing Natasha Beningfeld's Unwritten. I wonder why it was removed? We have come to the season where Heidi chooses Spencer over Lauren. We also get the aftermath of Lauren choosing Jason over going to Paris. The introduction of Brody Jenner as a potential love interest. So how did this season shake out for me. In a nutshell, it's about making bad choices and the consequences of those decisions. My opinion of Heidi hasn't changed. She is one of those girls that doesn't have many female friends and is all about her man. She continues to do so little on the job; yet, gets a whole bunch of praise. I read that Heidi has said the job was fake. That she was pretending to work there, not actually work there. I did not like Spencer pressuring Heidi to move in with him. How long had they dated at this point? I wouldn't move in with a guy I didn't know better, let alone a guy threatening to break up with m...

 I realized that I missed watching Season 2 of The Hills: New Beginnings. After finishing it, I went back to watch the OG series. Several things stood out rewatching the series again. I'm going to focus my thoughts on Season 1, because I just completed it.  First off, you can tell off the bat that Heidi is very immature. She's enrolled in college; yet, she can't bother to go to class or finish school. Then she complains when she gets a f/t job, and considers quitting because it's too much work. Was she expecting her parents to pick up the tab for her whole life? But I guess that's how life is for you when you come from a privileged life.  Second, Whitney and Lauren are the true BFF's of the series. The way they look out for each other on the job. They are both serious about the internships and their careers. I loved when Whitney got opportunity to walk the runway, when a model didn't show up for the show. It does seem like some of the things that happen on t...

One of my routines every morning is to psych myself up by listing to music that makes me want to dance or sing along. Lately, I have been in the mood for Rage Against the Machine. I've been struck by the song "Bulls on Parade" and it triggered a memory. The Jimmy Kimmel show would have concerts on the street off of Hollywood & Highland. I was lucky enough to attend one of these concerts that featured Audioslave. Audioslave is made up of members of other bands that have broken up, Chris Cornell of Soundgarden and Tom Morello, Tim Commerford and Brad Wilk of Rage Against the Machine. At the time, they were performing songs from Soundgarden and Rage Against the Machine in their sets. So I was so excited to find out they would be performing a concert for the Jimmy Kimmel Show. I went to Hollywood & Highland a little bit early to have dinner and to stake out a good location to watch the show. I found a spot on the second level that would be looking down on the stage....

I've read several commentaries about the suit brought against the Bachelor TV show for discriminating against African American contestants. Some try to argue why should there have to be people of color as contestants when you have individual niche networks like BET? What if the Bachelor has a preference for white people only? The real elephant in the room and what no one will be brave enough to acknowledge is that it is the advertisers pulling the strings. The problem with having an African American bachelor is some would think this means they would need to cast African American women as suitors. An advertiser may assume that since the show is all black no white people will tune in. Likewise, if they were to open the casting and have a diverse range of races represented it would mean we would have an interracial couple. That's another thing that worries advertisers, because there is a segment of the population that can't handle interracial couples and may tune out. ...

About a month ago I had the opportunity to crew on a documentary shoot about the Occupy movement in Los Angeles. It happened to be on the two month anniversary of Occupy Wall Street. An impromptu protest was launched at 7am that day, and protesters were arrested. Another protest was schedule for noon. As I was waiting I saw cops on bikes go back and forth along the street. Several helicopters were in the sky. Next thing I hear is cop sirens and six cars flew by and turned on Spring. The filmmaker and I made our way to Broadway where the protest was under way. As we were getting the equipment together I hear sirens again. In come six cop cars, but out pops the riot police. They flick out there batons and load themselves onto these trucks prepared for transport. I got the chance to walk with the protesters and witness this exchange. Young Asian man yells "Go Get a Job". A protester responds with there are no jobs. They go on and on with this topic and I felt like interrupting. ...

I watched Sucker Punch for 99 cents and I'm glad that's all I spent. While I think Zack Snyder is a step up from Michael Bay; he too shares the same flaws. He's good with visuals, but has issues with story beats and is clueless when it comes to weaving a cohesive story. The story is about a girl named Baby Doll, who accidentally kills her sister while defending herself from her evil stepfather's attacks. She is sent to an insane asylum, where in 5 days a doctor will come and give her a lobotomy. She develops a plan to escape after going into her dream world, where a Raydenesque character tells her she needs to retrieve four items and the fifth one will be revealed at the appropriate time. She teams up with other patients, Amber, Blondie, Rocket and Sweet Pea to bust out of there. Don't these sound like names of the Pussycat Dolls? This movie was a point of contention for some critics over whether it was exploitative of women or empowering. I stand on the side tha...