Best E-card Website Ever

So I ran across this E-card website today. Actually I shouldn't take the credit for finding this hilarious site - my boss showed it to me. If you need to send a funny/ridiculous e-card to someone this is your site. My favorite card of the moment says, "One of us needs to make the first move in requesting Facebook friendship." This one is good too, "Sorry I broke up with you via this ecard." Life just got better because I have these e-cards to send to friends and family.

Girl Crush on Regina Spector

I have a girl crush on Regina Spector. She's this amazing artist with wonderful cheekbones and a powerful voice that reminds me of a nightingale. Her song "Fidelity" is highly addictive and was suspended in my brain for an entire evening after I saw the music video. See for yourself on YouTube. You're sure to get the chorus stuck in your head, but that's a good thing.

Hillary Clinton in the Sex and the City Age

Inspired by Judith Warner's New York Times opinion piece about Hillary Clinton and the Sex and the City age, I find the urge to write about what it means to be a women in the early part of twenty first century.  I will preface my post by saying I speak only for myself and maybe others feels the same. 

The mass media loves to proclaim how far American society has progressed from its sexist beginnings because Hillary Clinton was in the running from a presidential nomination. They are right - we have come a long way, but when women would rather get dressed up to watch a movie about females floundering over men than become leaders we have to access our supposed progress. Women have defined their personal success within the context of their interpersonal relationships (being a good friend, wife, and mother), opposed to their professional relationships and capacities. Sex and the City's success illustrates this phenomenon. The show broadcast the message that as long as you have your friends you're a successful woman. It said little about developing your business or professional acumen and making that a measure of your success. And it's not like this kind of entertainment isn't valued. There are plenty of shows about men being successful with professional context, but very few about men being successful in interpersonal contexts. 

The media really doesn't show women being leaders. When women are successful in shows and movies they tend to be viewed negatively. Enter Hillary Clinton, one of the most successful and powerful women portrayed in the media. She is forever being judged negatively and called all kinds of sexist names. So, if you are a thirteen-year-old girl and see this why would you aspire to be a leader? 

America is not creating women leaders. It is creating women who are obsessed with having enough friends and totting the right handbag. It is creating women who worry about maintaining the right weight so they won't be call fat and ugly because that's the worse crime a women can commit. It is creating women who need men to elevate their self worth.  

My hope is that Hillary's bid for the nomination and the conversations it has produced will embolden women to pursue more leadership roles and judge themselves less harshly. Otherwise the pressure modern women endure with snap us. 

Vladimir Nabokov's Lost Story

I am terribly excited. The New Yorker will publish a previously untranslated story by Vladimir Nabokov, the author of the novel about love, obsession, and pedophilia - Lolita. The story, titled "Natasha," is about a young woman who cares for an ill father while morning their exile from Russia. Nabokov wrote the story in 1942, five years after his own father's exile from Russian. Nabokov's son, Dmitri, translated the story.

"Natash" will appear in the summer fiction issue of The New Yorker, which is on news stands June 9th.

Common - Hip Hop still tells a story

Common's album Finding Forever has been out for a while, however I just checked out some of the videos and the video for "Drivin' Me Wild" is excellent because it goes back to hip hop's story telling roots, opposed to just showing huge diamonds, crazy cars, and hoed out girls. I wish mainstream hip hop was more like the music Common produces. 

My Sex and the City Review

Do you like sex? Do you live in a city? If you answered yes to either question then you should read my review of the Sex and The City movie that I did for Campus Progress, a savvy online magazine that promotes youth leadership and smart discussions.

Video of the Week - Santogold

Check out my new favorite artist, Santogold and her video L.E.S. Artistes. This catchy track reminds me of M.I.A. and happens to have a horse (like many girls, I loved horses at one point and even rode) in the video. Modern dance has clearly influenced this producer/singer. The video features symbolic scarves and funky moves. If it's a little weird too weird, take a look a her live performance of "Creator" at Coachella. I love how she combines reggae, punk, and hip hop influences into something fun, yet meaningful. 

Video of The Week - Santogold

Check out my new favorite artist, Santogold. This women kills it. She reminds me of MIA but with more reggae, hip hop, and punk influences. Her music is fun yet still says something about the world we live in. To me the best music not only sounds great but has a great message or story to tell. Santogold does just that.

Dating the Homeless

I love when something you read engrosses you so much that you forget you're hungry or thirsty. This week's Modern Love column in the New York Times did just that - made me ignore my bodily needs. My reaction is slightly ironic because the column, written by Lee Conell, is about her homeless, ascetic boyfriend, who chooses to sleep under the stars instead of a ceiling. 

The boyfriend, Terry, sought personal fulfillment by rejecting material objects. Like Conell, I enjoy create comforts, which makes it hard to embrace Terry's mission to rebel against a mainstream lifestyle. Living in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury neighborhood makes it even harder to endorse ascetic behaviors. I can't walk down Haight Street without at least two people asking me for money. Mind you, Terry's more rural brand of homelessness seems to be different from the city brand that I encounter, but bumming around is bumming around. I doubt the kids I see ever find enlightenment. They just find lice and drugs. 

Conell's essay concludes with Terry giving up on his experiment with homelessness. She gloats when he fails and returns to four walls. However she knows the dreamer in her shouldn't celebrate Terry quitting. Likewise, I know I shouldn't be so hard on the kids I see on the street. When I was sixteen nothing would have pleased me more than to have run away from my small town to have adventures. I didn't have the courage to embrace that lifestyle and go against the statuesque. And just because I couldn't venture into the underbelly of American I shouldn't judge those who can. Modern Love reminded me of this.