Revisiting a sad and infuriating statistic

Hannah Upp. If you watch television, own a computer and especially if you live in NYC, there is no escaping this woman's name, face, story. She's missing! She's a school teacher! OMG, she lives in Harlem! The media who claim to be so compassionate about stories of missing people did all but print a story about her body being found somewhere. Notices went up on all the social networking sites, email vigils were forwarded to people's inboxes and then days later, Upp is spotted and then positively identified by her parents in the Apple store on fifth avenue.

Now, stories are surfacing that maybe she wanted to disappear from the face of the Earth, overlooking the small fact that her friends and family would be worried sick looking for her. I don't want to sound angry but bias is bias and when it's so blatant and no one takes accountability for it, it's hard to sympathize for one young woman going through a personal crisis, when there are families of hundreds of women of color who will never see their daughters again. I sincerely hope that Upp is okay and that she deals with whatever she is going through. Just like I sincerely wish the media would fairly cover all missing person's cases with the same fervor and round the clock coverage of a pretty white girl with a flower in her hair.

Passionate and informative video on the subject via Brave New Films after the jump:



Links via ABC news
Wikipedia

This from the guy who starred in Anaconda

(Throwing my hands up to the heavens) God Bless free speech:

" Sen. Barack Obama has grown up with the teaching of very angry, militant white and black people: the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Louis Farrakhan, William Ayers and Rev. Michael Pfleger. We cannot say we are not affected by teachers who are militant and angry. We know too well that we become like them, and Mr. Obama will run this country in their mindset . . .

If Mr. Obama had his way, he would have pulled our troops from Iraq years ago and initiated an unprecedented bloodbath, turning over that country to the barbarianism of our enemies. With what he has openly stated about his plans for our military, and his lack of understanding about the true nature of our enemies, there’s not a cell in my body that can accept the idea that Mr. Obama can keep us safe from the terrorists around the world, and from Iran, which is making great strides toward getting the atomic bomb. And while a misleading portrait of Mr. Obama is being perpetrated by a media controlled by the Democrats, the Obama camp has sent out people to attack the greatness of Sen. John McCain, whose suffering and courage in a Hanoi prison camp is an American legend."

- As told by Jon Voight. I like Midnight Cowboy just as much as anyone, but really, shut the hell up.

Thanks to Crunk & Disorderly

Picture it...me crying

Estelle Getty has passed away. She was 84 years old.
Everyone likes to play that game where they assign Sex & the City characters to themselves. Well, when I was in college, before I even knew that show existed, me and my 3 friends would sit around philosophizing about which one of us was Blanche, Dorothy, Rose or Sophia. I always happily ended up being Sophia. She was my absolute favorite. R.I.P.

All great things

Even though I grew up a serious dilettante (clarinet, Alto sax, dance, musical theater, track and field, piano, poetry, painting, photography, blah blah blah), I am pretty sure that film is it for me. In thinking about this, I recall two specific things that lead me to this conclusion. The first is this show during the eighties called "Lights, Camera, Action" narrated by Leonard Nimoy that used to air on Nickelodeon. You couldn't have told me this show didn't have a thousand episodes after watching the making of the Dark Crystal. It was like constant music in my ears after that, I didn't know what to do with myself. The second is "At the Movies" with Siskel and Ebert. First of all, to an introverted, movie obssessed 8 year old on a rainy day, the cheesy intro music and movie theater set is the greatest thing ever. And the movie clips! The arguing! And even though it took me a while to warm up to Richard Roeper, I feel a little something knowing that everything I once knew about the show is going away, no more thumbs up, thumbs down. I wish Roger Ebert the best, I owe that show a lot. The new hosts will probably be acceptable and entertaining. There's just no replacing the original. If more people had that kind of passion for movies, maybe so many crappy movies wouldn't get made. Just a thought.