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Monday, July 25, 2005

Book Rant

If you don't want to hear the ending don't read!!!!!
Last night I finished Citizen Girl by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus (the authors of The Nanny Diaries) and never before have I HATED a book like this one. I very much enjoyed The Nanny Diaries so it's disappointed the authors dropped the ball like that. Taking a cue from Stewie in Family Guy I will now give Citizen Girl a compliment sandwich.
Slice of bread: The writing is funny.
Baloney: The story follows Girl who is a couple years out of college and is recently fired from her job. Her career is working with women's issues in some capacity. She ultimately lands this apparently awesome job where she helps this women's search engine move from info on beauty and health to info on women's issues (ie domestic violence shelters). Lo and behold the job is not as good as it seems her boss is an ass and does not give her much guidance. Eventually, it becomes clear that the company really just wants lots of money so they nix the original idea and instead focus on lingerie. Girl is sent to LA to woo the lingerie company's lesbian CEO. She is made to wear this skimpy bikini to an orgy business pool party and the boss guy even makes her get a bikini wax so she can look perfect a) he does not know lesbians and body hair go hand in hand b) that is sooooo sexual harrassment! (he even threatens firing her) c) there's not even a lesbian love scene to make it worth it. So Girl in order to spread feminism stays at a job where she is harrassed and it goes against her ethics. There is also a lot of social commentary that the 60s idea of feminism (equal rights) is retro and now women's main concern is sex and being able to have it with whoever they want. Women today don't want to hear abot victims of this or that because being a women means you "can do". Also as a side-plot Girl is hooking up with/dating this ass of a guy, but yet she puts up him too! Eventually, at the end (cause really it can't get worse) the company becomes a porno site where "business women get beat and raped (really screw your boss!) and one of the porno stars (from a subplot in the book) is a foreigner who in exchange for a Green Card was forced to join a prositution ring and escapes and finds work as a maid for this company however she "promoted" to porn star where once again she is being raped and abused. Girl accepts $1 million dollars for a woman's charity in exchange for her silence. Fucked up! To quote the book this book should be taught in a "'how the media is fucking up women' class".
Slice of bread: I like how the characters are every man/women with the names Girl, Guy etc.

Sunday, July 24, 2005

Copycat list :)

On the brink of my 24th birthday here is a list of the 23 best things that happened during my 23rd year(in random order):
1. Our farewell party-saying good-bye to the wonderful family that is Loaves and Fishes followed by the after party where JVs +wine=wrestling
2. Lake Tahoe
3. Coming home-even though I lost my nalgene Jamba Juice bottle and came home to the news my Pushy cat died (you really can't ever go home again) I was still glad to be home.
4. Getting a job and as a bonus, it's an awesome one that I love.
5. My mom quitting smoking
6. Halloween Party-dancing into the wee hours of the morning and going to the diner the next day still in costume
7. Jen and Jonathon's wedding-drunk Brian LOVES to dance :)
8. Getting into Fordham
9. Guido party
10. Lola
11. Re-discovering everything I love about the Garden State
12. visit to Bawlmore
13. Beating Brian 1/1/05 at Trivial Pursuit Book Edition
14. Seeing Matt on his break from the Airforce
15. OLPH Antioch-2 words: Katie Foley
16. Tara's engagement and her visit
17. Visit to Boston
18. April Fool's Day prank on KB
19. The Beer-BQ-best all weekend party ever!
20. Pasta a la Brian
21. New friends (Joe, Jay etc.)
22. Summer 2005 (aka 1998) one of the best summers ever!
23. TMBG vs. McSweeny's-best date ever! I need to have my reception at Linclon Center!

Monday, July 18, 2005

Relevant Quote

"In the days ahead we must not consider it unpatriotic to raise certain basic questions about our national character. We must begin to ask, 'Why are there forty million poor people in a nation overflowing with such unbelievable affluence? Why has our nation placed itself in the position of being God's military agent on earth? Why have we substituted the arrogant undertaking of policing the whole world for the high task of putting our own house in order?"-Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
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The highlight of my day: finding my favorite pen (a ballpoint from Goya) that I had misplaced at work months and months ago.

Tuesday, July 12, 2005

Random

Guido party...AWESOME!

How come whenever I drive past construction on the highway no one is ever doing anything? They are all standing around talking. Occasionally you'll see someone walking to another part of the site, or sometimes one person will be doing something while everyone else watches. That's a pretty sweet job (minus the getting hit by cars part)

So will 7/7 become a phrase in England like 9/11? It's not quite as catchy, but I guess it could be worse-like 3/27. And I see possible confusion over the drink 7&7. And will people put images of a double-decker bus and the subway (aka Tube) on the back of their minicooper? And is it official now to call this whole conflict WWIII yet? I just got done reading a fictional story about a girl growing up during WWII and it's so sad and depressing because people really felt at the end of the war there would be no need/or desire to ever fight another one. I guess we never learn. "In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart"-Anne Frank


Note this was accidently "drafted" instead of posted on 7/12..apologies