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TLC and their Little People Fetish

UPDATE:  March 1, 2010.  TLC did it again!  They added yet another “Little” show to their Fetish Agenda:  Our Little Lives.  Now this is getting out of hand!

TLC — The Learning Channel — is a strange place to watch stories about American lives.  TLC is infatuated with dysfunctional large families like “Jon and Kate Plus 8,” the Disgusting Duggars Family in “18 Kids and Counting” and their now litter of 19 children and, finally, “Table for 12.”  We can rightly dismiss TLC’s infatuation with big families because they are trying to recreate the fading revenue magic of the Jon and Kate misanthropy; but why is TLC fetishising on Little People?  How many Dwarf shows does one network need?  The answer appears to be:  Three.  The first, and most famous TLC Dwarf show, is “Little People Big World” starring the wacky Roloff family.

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Steven Seagal is Coming to Arrest You

Steven Seagal — yes, THAT Steven Seagal — has his own reality show on A&E called — Lawman — and put away your sniggering, because Steven Seagal is real in the realm of the New Orleans underworld.

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Outwitting the Wicked: Only the Vile Remain

Why is it when reality shows become closed microcosms of society only the nasty survive and only the vile remain?  I’m now in my eleventh season of watching Big Brother on CBS, and this year, I’m close to packing it in and giving up on the show forever because when vile rats like Ronnie remain — seen below sleeping with one eye open — and all the good-hearted and trusting people are picked off one-by-one by the deliciously vicious… the rest of us are left to mourn what could have been: A fair game about social interaction without producer interference.

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A Charlie Brown New Year

Last Wednesday, I took a hard but fast spill that jolted my being and got me thinking about the realities of the world. The fall itself took less than a few seconds, but I am still reflecting well on the lessons I learned from it.  I was walking to the subway on West on 96th Street in New York City with my friend Joe.  That is my standard method of getting to work in the morning. I felt in my pocket to see if I had brought my glasses and realized that I had not. Just when I was about to get irritated that I had not remembered my glasses, I slipped in a major way. If you have ever seen the Peanuts comics where Lucy pulls away the ball before Charlie Brown has the chance to kick it, you will know exactly how I
fell.

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The Danger of Trading Essence for Experience

Today we live in danger of surviving only in essences and not experiences.

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The Nature of the Actor

The actor plays a unique role in society by bringing light and meaning to the relationship between the human and the ethereal.

The actor’s role is not to define life, but to interpret it through the blood and muscle of their bodies.

The actor is the heart of us, the beating of us, the rhythm of life within us all.

Without the actor in society, we crumble into our selfish selves and whine away the opportunities for insight into what made us thrive in the past while decaying in the now.

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The American Dream: Myth or Reality?

by María L. Trigos-Gilbert

Before I explain what the American Dream is, it’s imperative to discuss the meaning of one’s dream. So let’s ask some fundamental questions at hand. What’s a dream? Where do we conceive our dreams? Where does a dream end? How does a dream get materialized? What happens after it is materialized? A dream is hope’s image. You hope what you don’t have until you get it. Then your hope is fulfilled. A dream is conceived in one’s mind. We start imagining. In your mind everything is just right, all what you want, when you want it, and with whom you want it. If those aspects of your dream come true, then you may shout BINGO. That’s when your dream ends. By then, you are supposed to be satisfied.

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Beyond Assumptions There Are Real Matters

by María L. Trigos-Gilbert

Uncorroborated Assumptions: Today I saw a stranger, passing by at one of the coffee shops of my university and she sat behind my seat. She looked like a punk, but I don’t know. I never asked her; I just labeled her. My pragmatism embraced my bitter kindness, almost an obscenity. A punk? Hmm . . . she looked like a human being: Two legs, two eyes, two arms. She seemed to have a brain; she was writing an essay. Or was it a love letter? I don’t know. I never asked. I just assumed it all.

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Star Trek Reality

by Evan Stair

It has been thirty years since the last Star Trek television program aired on the National Broadcasting Company. At the time it was considered a good idea but the show had become stale. Few remember this until they watch a late third season episode. Despite the dimished third season during its original run, Star Trek has become a monumental entity.

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