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Monday, May 20, 2013
TV Shows About Women Shouldn't Just be About Being a Woman
Posted by Chelo Grubb on Mon, May 20, 2013 at 12:31 PM
About a year ago, a YouTube channel started up, promising to tell women’s stories.
Since then the channel, WIGS, has accumulated nearly 40 million video views and 180,000 subscribers. It’s the #1 channel on YouTube for scripted drama.
WIGS uploads short films and inspiring documentaries, but it focuses on producing fictional web series. So far, there have been 13 series, each with a strong female lead.
Other than the main characters' gender, the shows don’t have much in common.
“Blue” was one of the first series to premiere on the channel. It stars Julia Stiles as a single mother with a 9 to 5 job that doesn’t quite make ends meet. To help cover expenses, she starts working as a prostitute. She’s well into her career when the series begins.
Another series, “Kendra” focuses on a post-op nurse who struggles to deal with the secrets her patients spill while under anesthesia.
WIGS even makes a run for being topical and empowering in “Lauren,” a series examining sexual harassment within the military.
I love the idea. The world needs more diverse, estrogen-fueled entertainment. I just wish it seemed a little less gimmicky.
Everything WIGS airs shares its same name with the female lead—Lauren, Serena, Rochelle, the list goes on. WIGS has 13 series and it's getting hard to keep the characters straight.
It's like they’re saying, “Here you go! Another webseries starring a woman. That’s enough to make you want watch it, right?”
Talk about poor marketing. When a new series pops up in my subscription box, all I see is a name and a face. I have no idea what the series is about. It’s easy to skip over.
Yes, these are women’s stories. But they’re not just great because they star women. WIGS needs to focus on the stories of the women they’re talking about, not just their gender.
Tech/Games Yahoo Buys Tumblr; Tumblr Users Flee Like Rats From a Sinking Ship
Posted by David Mendez on Mon, May 20, 2013 at 11:42 AM
Ah, Tumblr: the source of our hopes, dreams and nightmares.
Yet Tumblr's soon-to-be-parent company, Yahoo, invites only one thing: abject horror.
Apparently, Tumblr users are fleeing in droves upon hearing that the search giant is buying their haven for soap opera obsessions and anorexic horse pornography. From cnet.com:
Wordpress founder Matt Mullenweg said his company saw a major uptick in Tumblr defections after news of the $1.1 billion acquisition by Yahoo came to light.Writing on his personal blog Sunday evening, Mullenweg said that Wordpress usually imports 400 to 600 blog posts per hour from Tumblr. After news of the deal surfaced, the number of imported posts jumped to more than 72,000 blog posts in an hour.
Mullenweg updated his own blog post on Monday morning. "Some people are reading too much into the import numbers — I don't think there will be an exodus from Tumblr," he said, adding: "For most folks habits overcome internet-outrage. Even if a million people left, that's just about a week's worth of signups."
Tumblr should be fine — maybe. The deal, announced today, is just the latest of acquisitions made by Yahoo, which tend to result in terrible, horrible, no-good, very-bad things happening to the things they purchase.
Gardening Resolve this Summer - No Empty Pots
Posted by Marylee M. Pangman on Mon, May 20, 2013 at 10:07 AM
- Marylee, Potted Desert Gardener
- Summer Shade Desert Potted Garden
Don’t let your pots go empty all summer. There is still plenty of time to plant everything!! You deserve it so put it at the top of your list — NOW!!
This pot will be happy in the shade. It includes coleus, geranium, impatiens and a wire vine (available in house plants.)
Be sure not to over water it!
From a previous post:
- Marylee, Potted Desert Gardener
- Potted Purples in the Desert
Science 'Space Oddity' Video Proves Chris Hadfield Is Worthy of 'King of Space' Crown
Posted by Alison Dorf on Mon, May 20, 2013 at 9:19 AM
I've always wondered why modern day astronauts don't have the celebrity status like they did just a few decades ago. But today, it finally dawned on me. Social Media.
Everyone knows that you're not officially in a relationship if it's not official on Facebook. And you're not officially a celeb unless you've got a social media rep to prove it.
Meet Chris Hadfield, the singing sensation who has recently conquered social media. And, he's an astronaut.
Hadfield spent five months on the International Space Station during which he created a series of videos from how to wring out a washcloth in space, to getting sick and preparing food — his popularity has exploded to the point that people from across the Internet are calling Hadfield the "King of Space," though a well-timed photo in Kazakhstan didn't hurt.
Most recently to gain mass interest is his music video, "Space Oddity," adapted for space from the original song by David Bowie.
I really like this guy. Not only because he makes awesome videos about space, not because these videos are so authentic and mind-boggling when you see a distant Earth spinning in the background window, but because he is exciting people about space again.
Space exploration is so exciting; just because it's not longer about the Space Race like it was for the United States in 1969, doesn't mean it's not crucial to continue to explore.
Seriously, if you need a new video to watch while getting your daily YouTube fix, Hadfield is the guy to search.
Sunday, May 19, 2013
News Today: 50th Anniversary of the First Publication of MLK's “Letter from Birmingham Jail"
Posted by Mari Herreras on Sun, May 19, 2013 at 6:30 PM
Martin Luther King Jr. in jail in Birmingham, Alabama for campaigning against segregation. He wrote this letter on April 16, 1963 in response to a statement by eight Alabama clergymen who felt his actions were unwise and untimely:
MY DEAR FELLOW CLERGYMEN …We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. Frankly, I have yet to engage in a direct-action campaign that was “well timed” in the view of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. For years now I have heard the word “Wait!” It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This “Wait” has almost always meant “Never.” We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that “justice too long delayed is justice denied.”
We have waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God-given rights. The nations of Asia and Africa are moving with jetlike speed toward gaining political independence, but we stiff creep at horse-and-buggy pace toward gaining a cup of coffee at a lunch counter. Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging dark of segregation to say, “Wait.” But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six-year-old daughter why she can’t go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people; when you have to concoct an answer for a five-year-old son who is asking: “Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?”; when you take a cross-country drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you; when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading “white” and “colored”; when your first name becomes “nigger,” your middle name becomes “boy” (however old you are) and your last name becomes “John,” and your wife and mother are never given the respected title “Mrs.”; when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what to expect next, and are plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you go forever fighting a degenerating sense of “nobodiness” then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait. There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of despair. I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience.
Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever. The yearning for freedom eventually manifests itself, and that is what has happened to the American Negro. Something within has reminded him of his birthright of freedom, and something without has reminded him that it can be gained. Consciously or unconsciously, he has been caught up by the Zeitgeist, and with his black brothers of Africa and his brown and yellow brothers of Asia, South America and the Caribbean, the United States Negro is moving with a sense of great urgency toward the promised land of racial justice. If one recognizes this vital urge that has engulfed the Negro community, one should readily understand why public demonstrations are taking place. The Negro has many pent-up resentments and latent frustrations, and he must release them. So let him march; let him make prayer pilgrimages to the city hall; let him go on freedom rides—and try to understand why he must do so. If his repressed emotions are not released in nonviolent ways, they will seek expression through violence; this is not a threat but a fact of history. So I have not said to my people: “Get rid of your discontent.” Rather, I have tried to say that this normal and healthy discontent can be channeled into the creative outlet of nonviolent direct action. And now this approach is being termed extremist.
I hope the church as a whole will meet the challenge of this decisive hour. But even if the church does not come to the aid of justice, I have no despair about the future. I have no fear about the outcome of our struggle in Birmingham, even if our motives are at present misunderstood. We will reach the goal of freedom in Birmingham, ham and all over the nation, because the goal of America k freedom. Abused and scorned though we may be, our destiny is tied up with America’s destiny. Before the pilgrims landed at Plymouth, we were here. Before the pen of Jefferson etched the majestic words of the Declaration of Independence across the pages of history, we were here. For more than two centuries our forebears labored in this country without wages; they made cotton king; they built the homes of their masters while suffering gross injustice and shameful humiliation-and yet out of a bottomless vitality they continued to thrive and develop. If the inexpressible cruelties of slavery could not stop us, the opposition we now face will surely fail. We will win our freedom because the sacred heritage of our nation and the eternal will of God are embodied in our echoing demands.
I hope this letter finds you strong in the faith. I also hope that circumstances will soon make it possible for me to meet each of you, not as an integrationist or a civil rights leader but as a fellow clergyman and a Christian brother. Let us all hope that the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away and the deep fog of misunderstanding will be lifted from our fear-drenched communities, and in some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty.
Yours for the cause of Peace and Brotherhood,
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Sports Wildcat Pride: Arizona Tops ASU For Brag-Worthy But Otherwise Irrelevant Territorial Cup
Posted by Brian J. Pedersen on Sun, May 19, 2013 at 5:17 PM
How, truly, does one measure which is better between Arizona and Arizona State?
Mascots? School colors? Graduation rates? Poorly spelled billboards? So many of those topics can be decided subjectively or skewed to lean one way or the other.
But athletically, the folks at the UA and ASU have found a way to decide this over the past five years: the Territorial Cup Series.
Awarding a point to the winner between the schools each season in 18 commonly played sports, the 2013 cup was actually on the line heading into the final head-to-head competition between the Wildcats and Sun Devils: Sunday's Pac-12 baseball game in Tempe.
When the dust settled, a 1-2-3 game-ending, game-winning double play with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth inning gave Arizona a 7-6 win over ASU. The victory gave the UA a 3-2 edge in the season baseball series, and more importantly — to those that care — the deciding point in the Territorial Cup Series to win it 9.5-8.5.
In case you were wondering, here's the sport-by-sport breakdown:
Wins for Arizona (9) - Baseball, men's basketball, women's cross country, women's golf, women's gymnastics, women's outdoor track and field, softball, men's swimming, women's swimming
Wins for ASU (8) - Women's basketball, men's cross country, football, men's golf, women's indoor track and field, men's outdoor track and field, women's soccer, women's tennis
Series ties (1) - Women's volleyball
So, what does winning this cup get Arizona? Besides an actual cup-like trophy? Well, nothing else tangible. Just another piece of ammunition to fire in the ongoing ASU SUCKS war.
Politics / News AZ Illustrated Politics: Medicaid Expansion, Election Bills, Rosemont Mine & More
Posted by Jim Nintzel on Sun, May 19, 2013 at 4:16 PM
On this week's AZ Illustrated Politics: Host Jim Nintzel, Tucson Hispanic Chamber of Commerce President Lea Marquez-Peterson, former Pima County Democratic Party chairman Jeff Rogers and Tucson Tea Party founder Trent Humphies talk about the chances that Gov. Jan Brewer's Medicaid expansion can get through the Arizona House of Representatives; the pros and cons of election overhaul bills that are still alive at the Legislature; the IRS scrutiny of Tea Party groups; the question of whether the proposed Rosemont mine should get CAP water; the uproar over a proposal to lease El Rio golf course to Grand Canyon University; and more!
Friday, May 17, 2013
Weird Stuff 'Pooping In Reverse': Another One of the Terrible Things People Hope to Put on Cable Access TV [NSFW]
Posted by David Mendez on Fri, May 17, 2013 at 4:31 PM
So here's one of the absolute worst things I've ever seen: 'Pooping in Reverse,' a Vimeo-hosted video uploaded by a user called "Ringo Boomschlicka" and supposedly coming to Access Tucson at some point in the future...though in checking the Access Tucson alphabetical schedule, it appears that (thankfully) this show isn't on the air. I mean, it might be in the future, but this is awful.
Now, there's a lot of awkward nudity and bad language throughout this NSFW video, so in the interest of your eyes and your employment, I'm not embedding it...but I'll post a quick, live-blogging of my thoughts as I watch the video. Watch along at the link above, if you must.
God help me.
0:00: - Screen is black. This is the high point of the video.
0:02 - Aaaaand that's a man — though thankfully, he's tucking like Buffalo Bill in Silence of the Lambs, so we're spared seeing what assumedly would've looked like a baby bird in a pitch-black nest of horrors.
Weird Stuff The Chernobyl-Like Fallout of Amy's Baking Company Is Comedy Gold
Posted by David Mendez on Fri, May 17, 2013 at 3:36 PM
Let's recap: In 2010, Amy's Baking Company, a Scottsdale bistro, became "famous" for going after a reviewer on Yelp. Late last year, during the taping of Fox's Kitchen Nightmares, Scottsdale PD were called to the scene to defuse a shouting match between owner Samy Bouzaglo and a patron who waited more than an hour for his food.
Last Friday, that episode of Kitchen Nightmares aired, resulting in magic like this:
From there, things only escalated for: The Facebook, Twitter and Yelp pages for Amy's Baking Company flooded with general Internet haters — and, as they have done in the past, Amy and Samy defended their company. Viciously.
Now, they're the most recognizable name in publicity stunts gone horribly wrong — which is saying something in a world where LED boards with cartoon characters were considered bombs, and a movie theater brought in dudes in body armor with AR-15s to promote Iron Man 3.
As we've already noted, Amy's Baking Company is going ahead with a Grand Re-Opening, in which they hope to ignite all sorts of love and goodwill (and also stick it to Ramsey, apparently).
But the fact that everything melted down for Amy's means that the rest of us have had the chance to enjoy comedy gold.
Take this parody commercial, for instance, which just doesn't feature enough meowing for my taste:
Or this, from an Amy's Baking Company Twitter parody:
WHO THE HELL IS SUPERTROOPERS AND WHY IS EVERYONE MEOWING AT ME?
— Amy's Baking Co (@AmysBakingCo) May 14, 2013
But the best (worst?) part is the newfound Internet fame that has befallen Katy Cipriano, the young waitress that was dropped like a bad habit for giving Amy an "attitude" during the show. Her Reddit AskMeAnything Q&A session was, for two days, one of the top posts on the site...and it looks like it's resulted in a nice, creepy following:
@cipppa I think I might be in love with you. Just thought you should know.
— Gilbert Redman-Ernst (@Gilbee_) May 16, 2013
Which, of course, she retweeted, because SOMEONE has to be into her obsession with Phoenix Suns player Channing Frye.
We'll see how long the interest in Crazy Amy's Baking Company lasts — though I will say, we're waiting with bated breath for next week's Grand Re-Opening and all of the crazed publicity that's sure to follow.
Just Plain Dumb Gutzy Wear: What You Wear to Clubs to Confuse and Confound Potential Mates
Posted by David Mendez on Fri, May 17, 2013 at 1:14 PM
In another case of a Scottsdale-idea-gone-terrible, we present Gutzy Wear, a clothing line made especially for singles who are ready to mingle — and desperate enough to do so that they're wearing specifically branded clothing saying that they want a date now, please-and-thank-you.
The idea behind Gutzy Wear, according to creator and Kickstarter creator Kari Holt, is that married people wear wedding rings to show that they're unavailable — single people can wear Gutzy Wear to say "hey, you should approach me!"
Which is a great idea. In theory.
You know, like communism.
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