Readers, today marks the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall. At it’s greatest strength, the barrier separating East and West Berlin stretched 96 miles. 96 miles of concrete and barbed wire. 96 miles of trenches and kill-zones.
And that- all of that- is nothing.
Nothing in comparison to the wall Israel has built in, around, and through the West Bank territory.
Posted in America, history, morality, news, politics, race
Tagged apartheid, Barrier Wall, Berlin, Berlin Wall, bigotry, border, Check Point, Childbirth, Chuck Schumer, death, Demolish, fall of the Berlin wall, Ghetto, Hilary Clinton, israel, israeli, JDL, palestine, Palestinian women, racism, reagan, Separation Wall, Size, Tear Down This Wall, terrorism, West Bank, West Berlin
INT. YOUR STEREOTYPICAL AMERICANA-STYLE DINER – DAY
Two young men sit at a booth, the same one they sit at each and every single day. On the left is EVAN, a Filipino-Chinese blogger extraordinaire. Facing him is someone we’re going to call CODY, a white acquaintance/peer/friend. Both enjoy sharing a meal in the diner together and each other’s company.
A WAITRESS approaches their booth to take their orders.
CODY
I’ll have the hamburger.
EVAN
The roast chicken for me, please.
Pan up to the clock on the wall. Fifteen minutes rapidly elapse and the WAITRESS returns and places their food in front of them.
Both EVAN and CODY
Thank you.
Sitting in front of CORY is a hamburger. EVAN stares down at his plate, which holds the exact same thing.
EVAN
(not angrily but wearily)
Every time, man. Every single time.
CODY
(with forced sympathy, as he’s heard this more than once before)
Aw, really, again?
EVAN
You were sitting right there when I ordered. I very, very clearly asked for roast chicken. I always order roast chicken.
CODY
Well, at least it’s good though, right?
EVAN picks up his hamburger and takes a bite. He chews it slowly.
EVAN
(sighing)
Yeah, it’s pretty good. I mean, it always is.
CODY
(brightly)
So let’s just enjoy this meal together, huh? Continue reading
Posted in Asia, cartoons, comics, film, media, race, writing
Tagged Ainu, asian, audience, Aunt Cass, Big Hero 6, Disney, diversity, Exodus: Gods and Kings, GoGo Tomago, half-White, Hiro Hamada, Hollywood, Japan, Japanese, Lilo & Stitch, Marvel, minority, Mulan, not what I wanted, race, racism, relatable, representation, roles, San Fransokyo, Wasabi, whitewashing
It’s been a little over a week since the news about Ghomeshi went viral. Since the news first hit, nine women have come forward anonymously to the media and three have already reported their case to the police.
Courtesy of Canadian Film Centre
The increasing number of testimonies has pretty well solidified his guilt in the public eye, and everyone from the PR firm he hired to the musician he managed have withdrawn their support from him.
Since Ghomeshi was a familiar presence in most Canadian homes, many Canadians felt personally betrayed by his actions. When my husband, John, tried to identify his own interest in the case, he explained it like this,
“When you hear someone’s voice so often, you start to feel like you know who they are. So when you discover the truth about terrible things they have done, it’s shocking to realize that you never really knew them at all.”
This isn’t the first time we’ve have heard about the terrible things familiar faces (or in this case, voices) have done. The difference is, in the past, we have tried to forget the monsters hidden in the public men and women we admire. Continue reading
Posted in celebrity, morality, relationships, sex
Tagged #beenrapedneverreported, #JianGhomeshi, abusers, admit there is a problem, assault, big ears teddy, blame, Canada, Canadians, child, contradiction, Culture, demonized, dialogue, Dr nina Burrows, Dylan Farrow, evil, famous men, finding help, forgiveness, human, innocent, Investigation, Jian Ghomeshi, Jian Ghomeshi beats women, Jian Ghomeshi is my friend, justice, justify, manipulation, molestation, Monsters, Owen Pallet, pedophilia, problem, Q, rape, reporting assault, root issues, sex offenders, Sexual Assault, spousal abuse, survivors, underreporting assault, victims, Violence, Woody Allen
Look, internet, I get it, you want to know the answer to life’s tough questions. “Why did Max and Deke break up?” you cry, both to yourselves at night and to Google. They were a snarky, unstable relationship just waiting to fall apart, which was likely why we grew so attached to them and which made it all the worse when Eric Andre disappeared from the show without so much as a good-bye. The 2 Broke Girls writers know they have a lot to live up to with Deke still so fresh in our minds, and given that it’s high time [no pun intended] Max developed a new love interest we are presented with Sebastian.
Sebastian, previously known as “…”, because he and Max were doing the dirty on Tuesdays completely anonymously. This episode features probably the speediest turnaround I’ve ever seen between someone wanting to know absolutely nothing about the person they’re bumping uglies with and them thinking eh, why not, let’s just give in to their invitation to come out and watch them DJ. The swerve here is not a secret if you saw any of the ads [one of which I glimpsed while tuning into Survivor] for this week’s episode: Sebastian DJs at a Whole Foods. Continue reading
Posted in Comedy, review, television
Tagged 2 Broke Girls, And the DJ Face, Beth Behrs, Cheesecake Menu, Deke, DJ, Earl, Father Is the Bride, For The Shippers, Han, Hilary, Kat Dennings, love interest, Max, Oleg, Ouija board, puns, review, S4E2, Sebastian, sex, Sophie, Whole Foods
Well folks, October has come and gone, and gone with it is the movie industry’s litter of trope-y, recycled Halloween cash-ins.
Yes, I’m talking about you. Now get out of here. Scram.
This means we can get back to the horror movies being made as movies first, rather than cynical money-grabs.
Excluding the Paranormal Activity franchise, but obviously that goes without saying…
See, say what you like about horror flicks (and there’s no shortage of criticism to be leveled), I do truly believe this is a genre just as important as any other- heck, possibly even more. At the end of the day, I don’t think there’s a better gauge for contemporary culture than the things we fear most as a society. Continue reading
First off, I would like to apologize to all of you for not getting more into the spirit of things this All Hallow’s Eve. For some CWR content that fits in with the general theme of spookiness and scariness I’d like to direct you to this Fame Day I wrote about a fun little webcomic and this Writers’ Roundtable where we discussed costumes [both features from last year, and returning eventually, I promise]. Enjoy ’em and come on back, because I’m going to be talking a little about Canada and our neighbour south of the 49th Parallel.
Specifically, I’m going to be covering the tragic and truly frightening [that’s all you get, and it wasn’t even on purpose; this is serious] event that occurred last Wednesday. As every Canadian likely knows by now a gunman shot and killed a soldier on ceremonial guard duty before proceeding into one of the parliament buildings to continue his attack. It was a sobering reminder that such events can happen on our soil and are not relegated to countries across the ocean.
What concerned me most about what happened has nothing to do with whether or not this was an act of large-scale terrorism [which I don’t think it is] or an indication that we have so much to learn when it comes to discussing mental illness [it can be, and we do]. The reason this has been on my mind over a week after the incident took place is the following illustration:
Clicking the image itself will take you to its place in the imgur gallery where you can read the comments posted.
Posted in America, art, Canada, internet, language
Tagged America, America's hat, art, big brother, Canada, carrying wounded soldier, comforting, Dearest Canada, drawing, help, little brother, Ottawa, our brother and friend, Parliament, protection, Shooting, sympathy, USA, Why I Hate Canadians, Will Ferguson
 | Evan on What is the Meaning of “… |
| How to Write and Pub… on Why Does the Billionaire Roman… | |
 | superevilmrevil on What is the Meaning of “… |
| Evan on The “One Size Fits All… |
 | Phi on The “One Size Fits All… |
Culture War Reporters 