Sex, Scandal and Photoshop

Sex, Lies and Photoshop: China's Racy-Photo Scandals

So! This Times Magazine article is about how activists are blackmailing Chinese government officials with Photoshoped pornographic photos of the officials.

"In mid-March, police arrested eight suspects from four gangs that were accused of trying to raise $7.35 million through doctored pornography. Since last year, 37 suspects have been arrested in connection with 127 such extortion cases, according to local media."

By that quote, I can only say these guys have a lot of time on their hands. But here's the snag. Some photos of officials shown on online shows and "shame campaigns" are apparently real. There is even a video of Lei Zhengfu, a district-level official having sex with an 18-year-old woman. The video was uploaded by a journalist, can you say someone is going to get sued for libel.

So what should we, the public, believe? Do we believe the activist who is trying to expose the government officials ditry side or the government official who can easily say "I've been framed!"? (Pun intended)

This brings me back to my fellow alumni and former congressman, Anthony Weiner who had a sexting scandal back in 2011.

Via Twitter, Weiner accidentally posted a sexually suggestive photo of himself meaning to send it privately to a female follower of his. In a panic, he took it down and told the media he had been hacked. But instead of calling on an investigation, he hired a lawyer. This is when everyone groaned and said, "It's Elliot Spitzer all over again," minus the prostitution.

Before Weiner's scandal, I really liked his attitude. He wasn't afraid to yell at a reporter or two who was trying to flip a situation and many officials try to stay calm with the media to show they were collected, but Weiner was passionate. Although he didn't handle his sex scandal well at all, but sex in politics is always scandalous. It's even worse when government officials have wives.

In these types of situatutions, people panic and they start the blame game. Their careers and their families happiness are on the line, but maybe they should have thought of those before they gave someone a reason to blackmail them.

Wed or Not to Wed

The Non-Starter Marriage

Obviously, this blog post is about marriage. Elle Magazine published an article on why newlyweds cannot make it through their first year of marriage. I found this article cute. It touched on a subject I've always thought about when I see people divorce soon after they wed. Although, I feel the writer Mickey Rapkin took  too long to answer why newly weds suddenly cannot make it to their first anniversary. 

The example was a man who left his wife six months after they married, but prior to the marriage they had been dating for three years. In these kind of situations, I don't get what the problem is. The relationship was good for three years, how did marriage change it? And I feel Rapkin failed to answer why the groom left his wife. All I know it was the best decision the groom ever made, but this unanswered question is killing me. There is always a reason! 

Some people acknowledge one day maybe it was a mistake and realize it wasn't what they wanted. It was only what was expected. Some people just jump the gun, like my mother and my ex-step father, thinking they have it right. Granted September 11 occurred a few days after they married in Dominican Republic, so you can imagine my ex-step dad's skepticism about moving to New York City. From what I understand, moving was the only problem. My mother didn't want to force my brother and I to uproot our lives and start a new one in Dominican Republic, and my step dad was too shaken up. The divorce was settled two years after their marriage, but I still feel there was more to the story. My first marriage cliff hanger. If only they could have smelled the coffee sooner. 

Back to present day.

The writer uses celebrities to exemplify short lived marriages. He speaks in narrative tone through most of the article and he gets two experts. For one of the sources, Rapkin used a very vague quote: "But people get married for certain reasons and they want to move on with their life. I don't want to judge that either way." I believe he included it just to add more to the word count.  Rapkin adds a little fluff, information and quotes here and there.

This was definitely a short feature article. It could have been so much better if he had gotten to the point faster. I wanted to know why marriages end so quickly right after the second paragraph, but I was not blessed with the answer until the LAST paragraph.

In college were are taught to entice and get to the point! Well Rapkin, get to the point and stop teasing your readers.

Boston Tragedy Brings Hope

A Boston Reunion: Victoria and Tyler

This article by Fred Milgrim from Esquire Magazine is touching, heartfelt, and captivating. It's summary made me want to read more immediately.

"BOSTON -- Victoria McGrath had just been brought to Tufts Medical Center from the medical tent in Copley Square, and there were only two words coming out of her mouth: 'Where’s Tyler? Where’s Tyler?'She couldn't stop asking for the mysterious man who had calmed her nerves following the Boston Marathon explosion that riddled her left leg with shrapnel.It was the most unlikely of human connections, and it was formed in the midst of blood, missing limbs and the chaos of screaming victims."

How can you not want to continue reading? It entices the reader. Well, it enticed me anyway.

The way rescuer, Dodd explained their reunion made me think of an intimate scene out of a romantic novel. Although, they are not lovers. They're strangers.

"They walked me in. We just looked at each other, and then we probably spent a good eight minutes hugging." 

The story went from "Aw!" to "I'm beginning to tear up" all because Dodd gave Milgrim the most beautiful quotes.

"I'm nervous. Not because of the media, but to meet her," he said. "If I close my eyes, I can remember her eyes, I can see every detail of her face. But her voice is what really what sticks with me."

You can't make this stuff up. I feel as if I'm watching a very sappy, romantic movie. I only wish the writer showed me their encounter. I wish he had set the scene.

Tyler may be the hero in Victoria's life, but he has been drug addict, an alcoholic, and a criminal. His life consists of major ups and downs, but he has been redeeming himself and is currently six months sober.

All the things I have been hearing about the Boston bombing has been about tragedy, blood, and loss. This article brings a fresh side to the horrible event. It's the light at the end of tunnel, or the silver lining.

Mystery Meme Revealed

Internet Cats: Behind the Memes

Whenever I see a new meme, I always wonder where they originate. I ask so many other questions: Are they real? Were they edited? Did the person purposely put up the photo knowing it looked ridiculous, or did someone else do all the media work?

My questions have been answered!

When I stumbled upon this article, I was extremely excited because these cats are all over place! (I see the grumpy cat the most often.) These cute cats are real! Their faces have not been photo-shopped or animated.

According the article one cat called Lil' Bub (picture below) is a "so-called permakitten." Her mutation causes: large eyes, shorter limbs, small lower jaw so her tongue will always stick out, and she will never have teeth.

Matthew Caron / Vice

This kitty is more than a social media sensation. She made her way to the Tribeca Film Festival big screen in a documentary Lil Bub and Friendz. I can hear the screaming children already.

Lil' Bub's friends are Keyboard Cat, Grumpy Cat (Tardar Sauce), and Nyan Cat.

Grumpy Cat I have seen all over Facebook and Instagram. He is going places! I believe I saw Keyboard Cat in a music video when I was freshmen in high school  I still cannot remember why my creative writing teacher made us watch it. Anyway!

When I started reading this article, I was a little surprised because the owner of Lil' Bub is a music producer, so I started thinking, "Oh, my god. These poor cats. Their owners are exploiting them. Did Lil' Bub's owner rescue Bub only for her looks?" My mind just went on a frenzy.

But then I realized, my favorite memes would have never been created. Yes, I know it's wrong to turn a blind eye just so I can be amused whenever I turn on my phone. But (yes, there's another but) I continued reading the writer confronted this issue. Juliette Eisner co-director of the film said, "It's not really exploiting because it is an animal. If [Bub] were able to say she didn't want to have her picture taken, that would be different."

My jaw dropped and my mind was silent for about two seconds, then it screamed, "Exploitation!"

I think the picture taking is fine, it's the film I'm a little iffy about. I guess I'd have to see it to make my mind up. The owners must love their cats with some fiber of their being. I hope the owners are pampering them because their cat is putting food on the table. 

The article praises cats at the end of the article. We worshiped them in ancient times, and now we see them on the big screen either as the lazy Garfield, or dogs evil nemesis in Cats and Dogs.

That is all kitty lovers.

The Joy of Having to Work

I found this article (even though it sounds more like an op-ed) by Claire Gutierrez from Elle Magazine moving. She explains the guilt some woman feel when they have to work and leave their child at home. The sadness they feel when they can't spend time with them.

Before Gutierrez became a writer, she took care of children; two boys in particular, Brook and Hunter. At the age of 19, she was hired when the boy's mother had recently passed away. Their father had to work. He couldn't do all of things he wanted to, but she explains the boys didn't care about what he couldn't do. They loved him regardless, as much as she feel in love with them.

After living with them, mothers would tell her she couldn't understand the love a mother has for her child. This is debatable. Gutierrez loved Brook and Hunter dearly. She explains the love she felt as "overwhelming," which I can imagine is what a mother feels.

I worked as a group worker in an after school/summer program for four years. It was hard seeing my first graders turn into fourth graders, and now their sixth graders. Some of them are as tall as me, which is quite sad.

Dealing with a group of children for a whole day during the summer is tiresome and irritating, but at the end of the day when their parents came to pick them up, they hugged me goodbye and I couldn't wait till tomorrow.

Depending on how their day was, I can only imagine the feeling the parents felt once they were reunited with their young. Seeing the anxiety rush out of my mothers face when she picks up my 3-year-old sister from her babysitter tells me how overwhelmed a mother can be.

"Why did I have a baby, if I didn't intend to raise her myself?"

She explains how the guilt will "plague" her, but she understands she must make a living for her child. To give him or her a "decent life." Gutierrez mother, I believe, had some part on this. Her mother a Hungarian immigrant was a house wife. She told Gutierrez and Gutierrez sibling to not be like her. Her mother wanted them to go out and get an education which most mothers want for all of their children. Parents always want their child to have a life better than the lives they had.

I Have a Bone to Pick With Verve!

I interviewed a freelance fashion writer from Verve Social Magazine for a short fashion article I wrote for my magazine class. I usually read her articles only, but for this post I want to explore a bit. Before I get to my rant, I want to critique their home page very badly! There are two photos of a tweet button displayed next to each other. There is also a slideshow that displays other running stories, but with the tweet photo yet again displayed another two times making it the dominant story. I get it, its a weekly story, but I don't need to see the pictures over and over again with the same titles, and the only difference are the dates.

Speaking of dates. There are no dates on this mans article! I know magazine's are supposed to be timeless, but I'd like to know when this was published. I just realized that this article is a fashion article. The picture displayed with the piece on the home page was a painting with an eye on it. I guess the web designer or who ever chose it thought it would go with the article because it is named, "Inside The Designers Eye: The Creator Nicholas Velez." People like me, who stop reading the blurb beyond the first error, missed the connection. His comma is outside of the quotation mark. That rule goes back to high school English.

Something that burst my bubble: "Right now you are probably wondering who is Nicholas Velez, well he is the late friend of Felix and Jesus, as well as cousin of Rico all young men of Dominican origin who shared the same vision." You know, I am curious who is Nicholas Velez, but now I want to know who Felix, Jesus and Rico are. I'm so confused! When a viewer stumbles upon your article, you can't automatically assume your reader knows who or what you are talking about! Tell me what's going on even if you have talked about it previously in a separate article! And what is up with this magazine being on a first name basis?

After the quote above, the writer continued, "This vision they shared two years in the making in fashion, they were all hanging out one day when they decided that there was a void in the men's fashion world that needed to be filled." It's already obvious the vision they shared was fashion, so that didn't need to be said. The writer should have ended his sentence at fashion, and began a new one at they. Don't even get me started on "men's."

At the end of the page, the writer's Facebook looking picture is displayed and next to the image is his first name, "jonathan." His first name is not capitalized, and I would love to know his last name. Stories are more credible with last names! The writer has a Wikipedia page...That's it. I'm finished writing.

Safe Haven Isn't Safe

A reviewer for Rolling Stone magazine wrote a short review for the movie, Safe Haven. He said, "I hate" and hate ten times in the review! Every other sentence began with I hate. We get it, you disliked it. See what I did there? I changed the word. Using the same word too many times is a no no in any form of writing. His being repetitive was the only thing I had a problem with. Other than that, his rant was true.

I have to admit, a lot of Sparks novels that have hit the big screen have lost a lot of substance the books provide. Directors make it all about the love and try to amp up the movie by making it more suspenseful or they simply overlook important details in the books that can help viewers understand the characters better. It's either the actors kill the movie, or the writing, or it drifts away from the real story line. Look at the couple for Safe Haven; it's freaking Julianne Hough, star dancer with a killer bod and her love interest, Josh Duhamel who is a widower and is a father to two children. Where on earth do I begin with him? He makes almost any woman drool. If I was a widow with two kids, I certainly wouldn't have rock hard abs and a perfect tan. There is too much ego within the relationship. Just look at the photo!

I know this comment I am about to make is very out of the blue, but when I heard Hough was going to act in Sparks movie, I wasn't too excited because I never took her seriously as an actress. I still picture her dancing with a cheerleader smile and in skimpy costumes from Dancing With the Stars. I didn't like her at all in Footloose, except in one scene. She has never looked serious to me, but when she cut her hair while doing this movie, for some reason my perspective changed a little. Short hair on her makes her look more serious to me, I guess. And Duhamel, he needs to stick to comedies. It's good to play the field, but he hasn't wowed me yet.

Hating on the Hathaway

Through most of the article the writer is hating on Anne Hathaway, describing her as "too actorly, and reminds us of the show-tune-belting nightmare we knew in high school, she's polished, successful, and driven, and people still find this distasteful in a woman; plump faces are the vogue and her face is too thin;...I'll add one more: she represents the archetype of the happy girl." In my opinion, the writer is jealous of her success. So she seems happy a lot? She has every right to be a bounding, happy-go-lucky woman. She just won a freaking Oscar!

The writer also points out the fact every other actress we see on the red carpet does their usual one hand on the hip and closed smile pose, while Hathaway has hands on both hips and has a huge smile on her face. The writer finds this annoying. Hathaway is a confident woman. This writer sounds bitter to me. 

Hathaway seems very comfortable with who she is, and she's proud of her success. I have never found her as a too happy and perky kind of woman. She seems like she has it all together and some people can find that very intimidating. I know perky people who I just can't stand, and Hathaway seems like a very tolerable woman.

The article is pure opinion with hardly any facts that aren't already known to the world. When I see opinion pieces I like to see some factual information, so the writer doesn't sound too biased. I believe this writer has a bone to pick with Hathaway. At the end of the article, the writer finally gives her compliment, but I think it was a little too late.

Beyonce's "Life Is But a Dream"

I read two articles from two different publications on Beyonce Knowles new documentary, "Life Is But a Dream." The publications, People Magazine and The New Yorker, have different views on the production. People's writer fails to tell me their point of view of the film and while reading the article I get the feeling the writer wants to be Beyonce, rather than watch her life through a screen. The writer only points out what he believes are the best moments in the film, and he describes it, at some moments, very emotional. The New Yorker's piece goes into a lot of more depth, not only talking about the movie, but about Beyonce's music. Thank goodness. I couldn't bear another image of a man jumping up and down like a cheer leader screaming out Beyonce's name.

The writer from the New Yorker found the documentary to be boring. He describes it, "It's not just boring - it's old hat." He also sounds as if he is belittling Beyonce's emotional tolls. Apparently baby Ivy was born out a "conflict" in Beyonce's life, which the writer makes fun: Beyonce’s account of her daughter’s conception may be news to ob-gyns, and to Jay-Z.” I don’t disagree with the writer for her criticism because this documentary sounds like another celebrity trying to prove to the world that they are just like everyone else. If you need a sucky documentary to tell the rest of the world that, your barking up the wrong tree. I found it funny Beyonce is not only the object of the documentary, but she is also the narrator, executive producer, co-director, and co-writer. There is no room for outside opinion or criticism. My favorite quote in the entire article was: “Still, there’s no question that Beyonce is a terrible judge of what is interesting about Beyonce.”