Monday, March 28, 2022

One Hot Mess

I didn't watch the Oscars last night (because I don't normally watch awards shows) so I didn't find out about the whole Chris Rock/Will Smith fiasco until I saw it on the news this morning. I thought it was a joke, at first. Oy vey! What a hot mess. Once again, this is a situation where there are no winners. 

Chris's joke about Jada's hair was awful and low-class especially considering the fact that she suffers from alopecia and has been very vocal about her hair loss. (I also have alopecia flareups, so I understand.) Maybe Rock didn't realize this or maybe he just didn't care. Whatever the case may be, he should have left the whole hair topic alone. But did his terrible joke warrant assault? No, it didn't. Even Jada rolled her eyes at it, but Will Smith had to show his ass by walking on stage and smacking the guy...over a joke. I know Smith felt Rock disrespected his wife, but did that need to be addressed with violence? No, it didn't. He could have pulled Rock's coattails back stage and told him off privately like an adult. Are people unable to control their emotions anymore? These folks have more money than they know what to do with. They're not exactly struggling. So why are they behaving like they have no sense and nothing to lose? Because they can get away with it? Because they've been coddled for so long by people in the industry who tell them their shit doesn't stink? The whole situation is ridiculous and disappointing to all of the people who were at the Oscars to celebrate their achievements. These Hollywood actors need to grow up.

Saturday, March 19, 2022

Bad Vegan

I've got to stop watching these Netflix train wrecks like the Tinder Swindler and Worst Roommate Ever. They're entertaining, but they make me angry and sad at the same time. After binge watching Bad Vegan last night, I, once again, feel like weeping for humanity.

Are people really this stupid? Did this woman really believe that this out-of-shape guy was Black Ops? Did she really believe he had supernatural powers and needed huge amounts of money from her in order for her to pass some test and make her dog immortal, or was she just full of shit? I'm leaning towards the full of shit excuse. There were a lot of things about Bad Vegan that I found totally ridiculous, but I kept getting stuck on the fact that the restaurant owner was a Wharton grad who had previously worked for Bear Stearns. A Wharton grad who, apparently, couldn't manage her own business. Wharton should be ashamed of the grads they've been pumping out. Donny T and his offspring, this Bad Vegan woman, and I'm sure countless others who have failed in their business ventures. What the hell kind of skills are they teaching over there?

When I lived in Philly (the first time) and was in graduate school (not at Penn), I worked with a woman I'll call Cathy who was in the same lowly assistant position that I worked in. She was a Penn graduate and the word around the office was that her boss only hired Penn graduates because she felt they gave her some cache. Cathy was a very nice young woman, but she wasn't particularly bright. She certainly wasn't what I'd think of as Ivy League smart. She just seemed very...regular. I remember wondering how she ever got into Penn. Maybe she was secretly a genius who hid her talents from those of us in the office, although I doubt it. I always gave the side eye to Penn graduates after that. But back to the Bad Vegan/Wharton grad.

My theory is that this woman may have been conned initially by her lying husband, but eventually she was in on the grift. I saw her as a Patty Hearst type who wanted to do something different and become a different person and, after the gig was up and she was in too deep, she cried and lied about being brainwashed. I was amazed at how this chick was able to still get tons of money from people (investments and personal loans) when she was deep in the hole. Her husband referred to her as TBH: tiny blonde human. I guess that's all you need to be to get dudes to give you money! See the Theranos woman also.


Saturday, March 12, 2022

De-Escalation

 I'm trying to enjoy my remaining weeks of staying inside and indoors while Covid still lingers and the weather is cold before things start opening up and I'm forced back outdoors. (Thankfully, my day job is allowing folks to continue working from home for the time being even though offices are reopening later this month.) While I'm indoors, I've been watching way too much TV, mainly stuff about people climbing or attempting to climb Mt. Everest. Crazy! The danger! The altitude sickness! The oxygen deprivation! 

I also have some free premium cable channels so I've been watching documentaries on HBO and other services. I watched one earlier today about the guy who shot and killed the teen in Florida because he didn't like the rap music the teen and his friends were blasting from their truck that was parked next to the guy's vehicle. When I finished watching the documentary, something the judge said stuck with me. He talked about deescalating the situation and, had that simply been done, things probably wouldn't have gone south the way they did. Why do so many people find it so hard to mind their own business or just turn away from conflict rather than running straight towards it? I know conflict can't always be avoided, but in so many situations that get out of hand, the chaos comes because someone just can't let it go. A teenager is dead and a guy is in jail because one complained about another one's music. One guy popped off on the other one for complaining, then the gun comes out. How did the situation escalate so quickly over music? I also read recently about a case where one guy shot another one in a movie theater because one guy complained about another one using his cell phone during the movie previews. Then when the guy with the phone got angry with the complainer and went after him, the complainer took out a gun and killed the guy. He felt his life was in danger. Again, did it have to come to this? Could no one de-escalate the situation? Have people lost control of their faculties? 

In totally unrelated news, I watched Nightmare Alley recently on HBO a few days ago. Bradley Cooper looked awful in it even after he got some money and cleaned up. He really hit the wall hard. I've always thought Bradley had a limited shelf life in terms of his looks. I think he hit his peak with the first Hangover movie and that movie where he took the drugs to make himself smarter (that I can't remember the title of). Speaking of that movie that I can't remember the title of, I actually saw him filming a scene for it on 5th Avenue in New York. In the scene, he looked like a bum because he hadn't taken the drugs yet, but he still looked pretty good. What happened, Coop? 

Saturday, March 5, 2022

Worst Roommate Ever...WTF???

Why did I just binge watch Worst Roommate Ever on Netflix? Oy, what a mess. The last two episodes were especially disturbing. I'm actually glad Netflix has actually come through with some good programming lately. Between this and the Tinder Swindler, I'm feeling better about keeping the streaming service because every month or so I contemplate dropping it all together. But for every Tinder Swindler, you get four Emilys in Paris or some other crap I don't want to watch. But back to Worst Roommate Ever. When I see stuff like this, it makes me glad I'm able to live alone. I'd rather live in a one-room studio apartment than have to share space with a random person. Seriously. But people (women in particular) really need to start being smarter about who they welcome into their lives and their homes. The women in the Netflix roommate stories and the women in Tinder Swindler often didn't trust their gut. Many sensed something wasn't right with the dudes they were dealing with, but they ignored their instincts. Sometimes you have to go with your gut and stop aiming to please. You can't be all things to all people. I've learned that the hard way. You also can't let greed or desperation override common sense. Maybe you have to take two steps back to take one step forward. I'm sure if some of the women in the roommate stories had just taken the time to look into their sketchy roommate applicants, they would have saved themselves from a world of hurt. Maybe that extra time meant an extra month where they had to carry the full rent or borrow from friends and family to make ends meet, but better to be in the hole with Mom and Dad than fighting with some psycho who's living under your roof, not paying rent, and threatening to kill you. 

When I watch stuff like Worst Roommate Ever and Tinder Swindler, I start to wonder, Can you trust anyone anymore? Yes, but I think it's getting harder and harder to do that.