Why would Donald Trump, the billionaire builder, air a show about the biggest competition between young teens and women Nationally and Internationally to prove who is more beautiful?
Well maybe so MTV’s teenage audience full of young girls will watch and learn what standards of beauty to measure themselves against. Maybe they’ll even learn what qualities rich men like Trump find in successful Beauty Pageant Champions.
The show airs Wednesdays at 10:30 p.m. on MTV.
Pageant Place introduces viewers to the show with Miss Universe, Miss USA and Miss Teen USA walking through a cartoon drawn background; the girls resemble dressed up Barbie Dolls walking down imaginary runways in a surreal life full of beauty, attention and money.
The worst part of the introduction is Trump’s voice.
The monotone, dry, boring voice which doesn’t exactly sell the Barbie Doll runway package to young adolescent to early adult viewers.
What’s more disturbing than the girls always wearing heavy make-up and new outfits is that these young pageant queens really feel they’ve won a valid, important competition for women.
The only difference with Miss Universe, Miss USA and Miss Teen USA Beauty Pageant competitions is there’s no talent portion like there is in the Miss America Beauty Pageant.
As a viewer, you start to wonder where do these girls get the idea that being beautiful and being able to look good in a bathing suit on stage make you a successful woman in this day and age.
But for Miss Teen USA, which is the most focused on beauty queen on the show, the prizes seem to attract thousands of girls to the competition.
Probably because the winner receives a two-year scholarship at The School for Film and Television in New York worth $100,000, a modeling portfolio, luxury apartment in New York City and a year long salary. On top of that her diamond and pearl crown is worth $150,000, her pearl tiara is valued at $15,000 and she gets free clothes, hair products, bathing suits and a PR manager.
The sheer prizes could probably influence any girl to think it's worth the constant strides for perfection, ridicule and maintaining standards of beauty society puts on them.
Miss Teen USA Pageant competition was hosted by Mario Lopez, former Saved By the Bell star, who gets to ask a thought provoking question after the competition has determined its top three contestants.
The Miss Teen competitor who received the most attention for her answer was Lauren Caitlin Upton, Miss South Carolina.
Who rambled out to her thought provoking question, “...some of the people out there in our Nation don’t have maps and I believe that our education such as in South Africa and the Iraq...I believe that our education over here in the US should...help the Iraq and the South Asian countries so we can build up for our future...”
To the question, “Recent polls have shown that one-fifth of Americans can’t locate the U.S. on a world map, why do you think this is?”
This big “oops!” on live television became a YouTube sensation receiving over 2 million hits.
Surprisingly, “Upton is described as a varsity athlete and student leader at Lexington High School, where she graduated in June with a 3.5 GPA,” Stephen Silverman wrote in People Magazine.
So what seems to be lacking in the Miss Teen USA competitors is a basic understanding of the world, the United States and maybe a public speaking class.
Either way the young girls aren't role models for actual girls looking for someone to be like on television.
Even the actual winner of Miss Teen USA, Hilary Cruz had to answer this thought provoking question, "Who would you prefer Paris Hilton, Nicole Richie or Lindsay Lohan?"
Whether Mr. Trump himself creates these thought provoking questions or not, it's scary to think these are the toughest questions we can ask young girls who will be looked up to by hundreds of little girls and who will earn perks and benefits any young girl would be fortunate to receive.
Trump appears a few times on the show to greet Cruz who recently won, but instead he caters to Upton by flying her in his jet to make an appearance at a party.
The real winner, Cruz had to drive in a limousine with Rachel Smith, Miss USA for five hours in horrible traffic. Granted, that is still pretty nice treatment but compared to the treatment Upton got, Cruz and Smith definitely got the shaft.
So is it right to dedicate a show to pageant queens and not even honor or give attention to the girl who actually won?
To fly in to make an appearance with a girl who made a fool of herself and the pageant itself seems quite absurd.
Apparently Trump didn't realize America doesn't want to watch a billionaire swoon teens with his money and walk all over them just to get attention.
This reality television show is pathetic because it shows how money and status can allow a sexist big like Trump parade around with beauty queens like their his prize wining collection of dogs.
Trump should stick with The Apprentice, I think Americans can agree when I say I'd rather see him pick someone who choses to compete for the position of his loyal servant.
Sunday, December 9, 2007
Sunday, December 2, 2007
Not Your Typical Pot Grower
Weeds, a television show on HBO Show-time, doesn’t star a stereotypical mafia run drug business, Mexican cartel, rich Miami drug lord, or urban tale of hustling from rags to riches.
It does feature a sophisticated pot operation ran in Agrestic, an affluent Los Angeles suburb, by Nancy Botwin, played by Mary-Louise Parker, a white, mother of two.
Nancy begins dealing and eventually growing her own self-titled MILF weed which becomes popular with rapstar Snoop Dogg.
Wait a minute, yeah I said it: a white, mother of two in the suburbs grows and sells pot.
Pretty catchy in and of itself, huh?
Even though Nancy qualified for real jobs within the system, as a secretary, she opted to grow weed after her husband collapsed while jogging and died of heart failure.
This seemed to be a good enough reason to support Silas and Shane, her sons and upper-class lifestyle.
Weeds airs every Monday night at 10 p.m., is in its third season and began in August 2005.
The show covers taboo issues like male masturbation, racism, ghosts, religion and most of all, weed.
The show's ability to open dialogue on taboo issues and talk with its audience makes Weeds an honest show with street credibility.
Although the show centers around an illegal crop, Nancy and her family never try to give off the impression their perfect nor what they do is easy.
All the characters on the show realize their faults and most seem to care less about what other people think of them.
Which is appealing to viewers who can relate to faults, mistakes and people always judging who they are.
Coupled with Nancy's unusual decision to grow and sell weed in the suburbs, of all places, allows the audience to understand and relate to dealing with unforeseen circumstances.
Most of all the show challenges stereotypes of stoners, pot growers, pushers and sellers, showing that weed can be grown, sold and smoked by white middle and upper-class America.
For once, there's a show about pot with funny characters and a meaningful plot.
Doug, the town's councilman, is one of these.
He's known to type "wizard of oz munchkin suicide" into Google while at work and his running joke is how he stole The Majestic's, an Evangelical Christian church, cross off their building and used it for a heating lamp to grow weed.
Best of all, the stereotypical "male drug lord running the underground drug business" is replaced with several strong, comedic female weed growers and dealers.
Nancy, the main pot grower and seller, is trendy, wealthy, has sex appeal, street smarts and a sense of business about her.
These attributes make Nancy's female role a positive portrayal of women as leaders of pot rings with suburban costumers.
Although she embraces being a woman wearing heels and hip short dresses, you also see her in unfitting t-shirts and sweatpants too.
Nancy is dynamic and always enters an uncomfortable situation confident.
Her ability to make tough decisions and operate a business while rarely losing her cool, challenges the male dominated leading roles of illegal drug pushers shown on television.
Nancy's been known to have sex with men to create a more successful weed business whether it be making money or preventing her and her investors from getting caught.
She'll be the first one to tell you off for criticizing her for using sex and her sex appeal as an advantage.
Nancy shows her audience that women too, can have sex without getting attached to men but can still have feelings for certain men like Conrad, her business partner and recent lover.
Her character has a realness about her: she's not a perfect mother and person but works with what she does have.
The way Nancy and her dysfunctional family work creates an interesting plot line that keeps viewers attached to the characters and the unfolding plot.
Parker's character in the Gilmore Girls, shows up in her new role as Nancy with that same unemotional, independent, down to earth personality.
In Weeds, Parker takes on a bigger role as Nancy and does well at giving viewers a raw look into what a suburban drug dealer is like.
It does feature a sophisticated pot operation ran in Agrestic, an affluent Los Angeles suburb, by Nancy Botwin, played by Mary-Louise Parker, a white, mother of two.
Nancy begins dealing and eventually growing her own self-titled MILF weed which becomes popular with rapstar Snoop Dogg.
Wait a minute, yeah I said it: a white, mother of two in the suburbs grows and sells pot.
Pretty catchy in and of itself, huh?
Even though Nancy qualified for real jobs within the system, as a secretary, she opted to grow weed after her husband collapsed while jogging and died of heart failure.
This seemed to be a good enough reason to support Silas and Shane, her sons and upper-class lifestyle.
Weeds airs every Monday night at 10 p.m., is in its third season and began in August 2005.
The show covers taboo issues like male masturbation, racism, ghosts, religion and most of all, weed.
The show's ability to open dialogue on taboo issues and talk with its audience makes Weeds an honest show with street credibility.
Although the show centers around an illegal crop, Nancy and her family never try to give off the impression their perfect nor what they do is easy.
All the characters on the show realize their faults and most seem to care less about what other people think of them.
Which is appealing to viewers who can relate to faults, mistakes and people always judging who they are.
Coupled with Nancy's unusual decision to grow and sell weed in the suburbs, of all places, allows the audience to understand and relate to dealing with unforeseen circumstances.
Most of all the show challenges stereotypes of stoners, pot growers, pushers and sellers, showing that weed can be grown, sold and smoked by white middle and upper-class America.
For once, there's a show about pot with funny characters and a meaningful plot.
Doug, the town's councilman, is one of these.
He's known to type "wizard of oz munchkin suicide" into Google while at work and his running joke is how he stole The Majestic's, an Evangelical Christian church, cross off their building and used it for a heating lamp to grow weed.
Best of all, the stereotypical "male drug lord running the underground drug business" is replaced with several strong, comedic female weed growers and dealers.
Nancy, the main pot grower and seller, is trendy, wealthy, has sex appeal, street smarts and a sense of business about her.
These attributes make Nancy's female role a positive portrayal of women as leaders of pot rings with suburban costumers.
Although she embraces being a woman wearing heels and hip short dresses, you also see her in unfitting t-shirts and sweatpants too.
Nancy is dynamic and always enters an uncomfortable situation confident.
Her ability to make tough decisions and operate a business while rarely losing her cool, challenges the male dominated leading roles of illegal drug pushers shown on television.
Nancy's been known to have sex with men to create a more successful weed business whether it be making money or preventing her and her investors from getting caught.
She'll be the first one to tell you off for criticizing her for using sex and her sex appeal as an advantage.
Nancy shows her audience that women too, can have sex without getting attached to men but can still have feelings for certain men like Conrad, her business partner and recent lover.
Her character has a realness about her: she's not a perfect mother and person but works with what she does have.
The way Nancy and her dysfunctional family work creates an interesting plot line that keeps viewers attached to the characters and the unfolding plot.
Parker's character in the Gilmore Girls, shows up in her new role as Nancy with that same unemotional, independent, down to earth personality.
In Weeds, Parker takes on a bigger role as Nancy and does well at giving viewers a raw look into what a suburban drug dealer is like.
Saturday, November 24, 2007
Lord of the Flies Reality TV Experiment
When CBS decided to create their own Lord of The Flies it came up with Kid Nation, a reality television show.
It shows what happens when forty children ages eight to 15 rebuild an abandoned town, Bonanza City, N.M., with no adults.
Kid Nation airs at 8 p.m. EST every Wednesday on CBS.
The town is made of four districts, each with an elected town council member, who compete among eachother for their position in the class ladder which determines job descriptions and pay.
All the districts: blue, yellow, red and green, must work together at the end of each challenge to win rewards, such as bibles, beds, portable toilets and fresh vegetables.
In episode eight, Bonanza City went through its second wave of elections because its citizens were unhappy with the town council’s leadership.
Town council members were challenged in every district. The elections changed the town council from having three boys and one girl represent Bonanza City to its first all male council.
Which is similar to the elected representation on the deserted island in Lord of the Flies: all adolescent boys and teens, but instead of killing a mother sow the older boys in the town kill chickens for the second time on the show.
Soon after, they participate in another barbaric activity: degrading the young girls.
Kids awake to Blaine, Greg and DK sitting in chairs in the middle of Bonanza.
The three councilmen are heard catcalling at young girls walking by with comments like “Ooohhh yeaahhh mamasita!”, “Oh yeah I love those shorts” and “Lookin’ Good!”
The town erupts into a fight over respect and the councilmen’s actions.
As a dedicated viewer of the program, it was the first time any girl was shown being sexually violated and disrespected by boys on the show.
There could be many reasons why the new make-up of the town council may have influenced the councilmen’s horrible behaviors towards the young girls, but it never becomes an issue in the “respect debate” between the kids.
That night before, Blaine and Greg hid outside the Green District's cabin where they overheard Micheal, a coucilmen, apologizing to his district for being a pushover and allowing the council to hold communication training even though he was against it.
One Green District member said how Greg and Blaine would be more useful if they just sat in the middle of the town and did nothing. So Greg and Blaine told DK about this and did just that the next morning.
Although Kid Nation is reality television it presents the affects society has on kid’s decisions.
Somewhere in the minds of three young councilmen they believed it was okay to disrespect young girls by making comments about their bodies, their clothes and their appearances.
Violence and degrading women are learned behaviors in a culture where adults teach kids that these behaviors are acceptable.
Last week’s episode showed adolescent males acting out learned behavior towards adolescent females and girls.
While the average kid on Kid Nation is 11 years-old and may seem young, most are in the 6th grade preparing for their first school dances.
This shows puberty isn’t too far away for these kids and most of them will be teens soon.
Near an age when forty percent of girls aged 14 to 17 report knowing someone their age who has been hit or beaten by a boyfriend, according to the Family Violence Prevention Fund.
When approximately one in five female high school students reports being physically and/or sexually abused by a dating partner, according to the Family Violence Prevention Fund.
If these behaviors continue to be accepted and aren’t talked about then a violent and silenced society is perpetuated about the treatment of young girls and women, putting thousands of young girls at risk.
It shows what happens when forty children ages eight to 15 rebuild an abandoned town, Bonanza City, N.M., with no adults.
Kid Nation airs at 8 p.m. EST every Wednesday on CBS.
The town is made of four districts, each with an elected town council member, who compete among eachother for their position in the class ladder which determines job descriptions and pay.
All the districts: blue, yellow, red and green, must work together at the end of each challenge to win rewards, such as bibles, beds, portable toilets and fresh vegetables.
In episode eight, Bonanza City went through its second wave of elections because its citizens were unhappy with the town council’s leadership.
Town council members were challenged in every district. The elections changed the town council from having three boys and one girl represent Bonanza City to its first all male council.
Which is similar to the elected representation on the deserted island in Lord of the Flies: all adolescent boys and teens, but instead of killing a mother sow the older boys in the town kill chickens for the second time on the show.
Soon after, they participate in another barbaric activity: degrading the young girls.
Kids awake to Blaine, Greg and DK sitting in chairs in the middle of Bonanza.
The three councilmen are heard catcalling at young girls walking by with comments like “Ooohhh yeaahhh mamasita!”, “Oh yeah I love those shorts” and “Lookin’ Good!”
The town erupts into a fight over respect and the councilmen’s actions.
As a dedicated viewer of the program, it was the first time any girl was shown being sexually violated and disrespected by boys on the show.
There could be many reasons why the new make-up of the town council may have influenced the councilmen’s horrible behaviors towards the young girls, but it never becomes an issue in the “respect debate” between the kids.
That night before, Blaine and Greg hid outside the Green District's cabin where they overheard Micheal, a coucilmen, apologizing to his district for being a pushover and allowing the council to hold communication training even though he was against it.
One Green District member said how Greg and Blaine would be more useful if they just sat in the middle of the town and did nothing. So Greg and Blaine told DK about this and did just that the next morning.
Although Kid Nation is reality television it presents the affects society has on kid’s decisions.
Somewhere in the minds of three young councilmen they believed it was okay to disrespect young girls by making comments about their bodies, their clothes and their appearances.
Violence and degrading women are learned behaviors in a culture where adults teach kids that these behaviors are acceptable.
Last week’s episode showed adolescent males acting out learned behavior towards adolescent females and girls.
While the average kid on Kid Nation is 11 years-old and may seem young, most are in the 6th grade preparing for their first school dances.
This shows puberty isn’t too far away for these kids and most of them will be teens soon.
Near an age when forty percent of girls aged 14 to 17 report knowing someone their age who has been hit or beaten by a boyfriend, according to the Family Violence Prevention Fund.
When approximately one in five female high school students reports being physically and/or sexually abused by a dating partner, according to the Family Violence Prevention Fund.
If these behaviors continue to be accepted and aren’t talked about then a violent and silenced society is perpetuated about the treatment of young girls and women, putting thousands of young girls at risk.
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Dr. Seuss's Daisies
Pushing Daisies is like opening a page to Dr. Seuss complete with storyteller, bright colors and an eccentric cast of characters.
If you like pies, science fiction, comedy and tales of life and death, this is an entertaining series to watch. Otherwise it may be a mystery show unrealistic and busy to the eye.
Pushing Daisies airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. on ABC Family and first aired in October of 2007.
It features Ned, a pie maker able to bring dead people to life again with the touch of his finger.
However there are rules: if someone Ned touches is alive for more than 60 seconds, someone nearby will die and if he touches someone again after reviving them to life, they’ll die.
Ned, Charlotte “Chuck” Charles (Ned’s childhood sweetheart and love interest), and Olive, an ambitious, spunky character with her eyes set on Ned, all work together at Ned’s restaurant, “The Pie Hole.”
Every episode of Pushing Daisies has essentially the same plot line: Emerson Cod, a know-it-all private investigator joins Ned and Charlotte to make money off Ned’s gift by bringing dead murder victims back to life to find clues to how they died.
Depending on who the murder victim is during that episode the plot unfolds tying in unique characters, who have either died or knew the victim.
However, each dead person Ned brings back to life is only heard from for less than 60 seconds before they’re killed again, except in the case of Charlotte, who Ned allowed to live.
60 seconds doesn’t allow the viewer to see the main characters connect with the dead character who leads the entire plot of each episode.
Instead characters are fleeting without any real lasting impression on the viewer or connection with the main characters.
Conflict is only generated by the main characters and their love interests.
In one episode Ned, Charlotte and Emerson try to find out why a pilot and his crop duster crashed into a building, killed the apartment's resident and why a messenger pigeon flew into a window.
Meanwhile, the real conflict is driven by Olive who tries to turn Ned’s eyes away from Charlotte.Olive works to expose the living Charlotte to her aunts, who think Charlotte's dead.
The main characters meet fleeting characters such as, a one armed bandit, a narcoleptic historian, a man, Conrad, who was killed while eating prunes in his apartment by a crop duster and Conrad’s wife, a woman who doesn’t blink nor express emotions.
Although these characters and Ned, Emerson, Olive, Chuck and her aunts are eccentric and interesting, the characters and the plotline itself isn't believable which makes the show seem like a fairytale.
The lack of connection between each episode's new characters and the main characters disengages viewers from wanting to watch an entire episode or future episodes.
To really get into a television series a viewer has to become attached to its characters and its progressing plot line.
This show, however, is too busy and over the top with creativity that doesn’t allow the viewer to connect with the show and it’s characters.
The surreal scenes, fantasy music, bright colors, bizarre cast names and random fleeting characters make Pushing Daisies busy to the eye without any real substance.
Pushing Daisies is simliar to Dr. Seuss's movie How the Grinch Stole Christmas which has colorful characters, a narrator and a simple plot line that stretches the boundaries of reality.
But unlike Dr. Seuss, Pushing Daisies creativity makes it unrealistic and although it's characters are unique, they're not as dynamic or entertaining.
It's a show a viewer could easily watch for five minutes, get bored and switch to a different show that's more engaging, funny and entertaining.
If you like pies, science fiction, comedy and tales of life and death, this is an entertaining series to watch. Otherwise it may be a mystery show unrealistic and busy to the eye.
Pushing Daisies airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. on ABC Family and first aired in October of 2007.
It features Ned, a pie maker able to bring dead people to life again with the touch of his finger.
However there are rules: if someone Ned touches is alive for more than 60 seconds, someone nearby will die and if he touches someone again after reviving them to life, they’ll die.
Ned, Charlotte “Chuck” Charles (Ned’s childhood sweetheart and love interest), and Olive, an ambitious, spunky character with her eyes set on Ned, all work together at Ned’s restaurant, “The Pie Hole.”
Every episode of Pushing Daisies has essentially the same plot line: Emerson Cod, a know-it-all private investigator joins Ned and Charlotte to make money off Ned’s gift by bringing dead murder victims back to life to find clues to how they died.
Depending on who the murder victim is during that episode the plot unfolds tying in unique characters, who have either died or knew the victim.
However, each dead person Ned brings back to life is only heard from for less than 60 seconds before they’re killed again, except in the case of Charlotte, who Ned allowed to live.
60 seconds doesn’t allow the viewer to see the main characters connect with the dead character who leads the entire plot of each episode.
Instead characters are fleeting without any real lasting impression on the viewer or connection with the main characters.
Conflict is only generated by the main characters and their love interests.
In one episode Ned, Charlotte and Emerson try to find out why a pilot and his crop duster crashed into a building, killed the apartment's resident and why a messenger pigeon flew into a window.
Meanwhile, the real conflict is driven by Olive who tries to turn Ned’s eyes away from Charlotte.Olive works to expose the living Charlotte to her aunts, who think Charlotte's dead.
The main characters meet fleeting characters such as, a one armed bandit, a narcoleptic historian, a man, Conrad, who was killed while eating prunes in his apartment by a crop duster and Conrad’s wife, a woman who doesn’t blink nor express emotions.
Although these characters and Ned, Emerson, Olive, Chuck and her aunts are eccentric and interesting, the characters and the plotline itself isn't believable which makes the show seem like a fairytale.
The lack of connection between each episode's new characters and the main characters disengages viewers from wanting to watch an entire episode or future episodes.
To really get into a television series a viewer has to become attached to its characters and its progressing plot line.
This show, however, is too busy and over the top with creativity that doesn’t allow the viewer to connect with the show and it’s characters.
The surreal scenes, fantasy music, bright colors, bizarre cast names and random fleeting characters make Pushing Daisies busy to the eye without any real substance.
Pushing Daisies is simliar to Dr. Seuss's movie How the Grinch Stole Christmas which has colorful characters, a narrator and a simple plot line that stretches the boundaries of reality.
But unlike Dr. Seuss, Pushing Daisies creativity makes it unrealistic and although it's characters are unique, they're not as dynamic or entertaining.
It's a show a viewer could easily watch for five minutes, get bored and switch to a different show that's more engaging, funny and entertaining.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Dine In With Three Sisters
Upon parking across the street from Three Sisters, a quaint mexican restaurant located on 5100 Folsom Blvd, outdoor seating can be seen under a canopy of overgrown vines.
When entering through the welcoming open door, a cantina is situated to the left and directly to the right are hand painted chairs and tables in the main dining room with booths along the walls.
On a slow Monday night plenty of booths were open, but on a busy weekend they’re probably hard to come by.
Booths are the best option for privacy, otherwise the restaurant offers seating in the center of the dining room for larger parties or open space, in the cantina for catching a drink with a friend or outside around the restaurant for fresh autumn air.
Three Sisters has a warm inviting atmosphere with traditional decor and bamboo curtains draped across the ceiling which creates a secluded environment.
Warm, crispy tortilla chips are served with a blended red salsa while browsing the menu.
Main dishes cost between $13.99 to $14.99; fish entrees were the most expensive.
Just some entree items include mixed fajitas, veggie tamales, chicken or beef burritos along with fresh salads which are so large they can be a meal in themselves.
The menu is full of drink options from traditional Mexican beers Dos Equis, Corona and Modelo, to original margaritas for $5.50, but it’s worth while to splurge an extra $6.50 for a tropical margarita with a choice of mango, strawberry or peach flavors.
As for main entrees, mixed fajitas is a great entree to order if you have a hefty appetite and you’re not afraid to get a little messy.
The mixed fajitas include shredded streak and bite size pieces of grilled chicken which are tender and juicy to the mouth along with sauteed green and red bell peppers, onions and are served with warm flour tortillas.
The flour tortillas appear to be homemade because of their thick and sticky texture.
All entrees are served with a side of beans either pinto, refried or black along with a side of white spanish rice. The rice is cooked well but lacked in flavor so asking for no rice is recommended if you’re looking for more spice.
The entrees have great food presentation, rich in color, fresh vegetables and served on decorated plates.
Unlike Chevy’s, El Torrito or other chain food Mexican restaurants, Three Sisters is family run and has friendly wait staff which provide swift service and allow one to have a relaxing dinner out.
While dining inside the restaurant it’s easy to get lost in the atmosphere with the glow from the lamps above each table creating a relaxing lit environment.
The restaurant on slow nights is quiet and allows diners to talk with one another and be heard, unlike some loud Mexican chain restaurants.
Three Sisters is fancier than a taqueria but serves great food, for a decent price, in a calm environment.
When entering through the welcoming open door, a cantina is situated to the left and directly to the right are hand painted chairs and tables in the main dining room with booths along the walls.
On a slow Monday night plenty of booths were open, but on a busy weekend they’re probably hard to come by.
Booths are the best option for privacy, otherwise the restaurant offers seating in the center of the dining room for larger parties or open space, in the cantina for catching a drink with a friend or outside around the restaurant for fresh autumn air.
Three Sisters has a warm inviting atmosphere with traditional decor and bamboo curtains draped across the ceiling which creates a secluded environment.
Warm, crispy tortilla chips are served with a blended red salsa while browsing the menu.
Main dishes cost between $13.99 to $14.99; fish entrees were the most expensive.
Just some entree items include mixed fajitas, veggie tamales, chicken or beef burritos along with fresh salads which are so large they can be a meal in themselves.
The menu is full of drink options from traditional Mexican beers Dos Equis, Corona and Modelo, to original margaritas for $5.50, but it’s worth while to splurge an extra $6.50 for a tropical margarita with a choice of mango, strawberry or peach flavors.
As for main entrees, mixed fajitas is a great entree to order if you have a hefty appetite and you’re not afraid to get a little messy.
The mixed fajitas include shredded streak and bite size pieces of grilled chicken which are tender and juicy to the mouth along with sauteed green and red bell peppers, onions and are served with warm flour tortillas.
The flour tortillas appear to be homemade because of their thick and sticky texture.
All entrees are served with a side of beans either pinto, refried or black along with a side of white spanish rice. The rice is cooked well but lacked in flavor so asking for no rice is recommended if you’re looking for more spice.
The entrees have great food presentation, rich in color, fresh vegetables and served on decorated plates.
Unlike Chevy’s, El Torrito or other chain food Mexican restaurants, Three Sisters is family run and has friendly wait staff which provide swift service and allow one to have a relaxing dinner out.
While dining inside the restaurant it’s easy to get lost in the atmosphere with the glow from the lamps above each table creating a relaxing lit environment.
The restaurant on slow nights is quiet and allows diners to talk with one another and be heard, unlike some loud Mexican chain restaurants.
Three Sisters is fancier than a taqueria but serves great food, for a decent price, in a calm environment.
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Women Have Too Much Or Not Enough
What is an acceptable body size for a woman?
Body sizes are debated in pop culture from hip hop songs such as, "Ride wit me" by Nelly who raps how he likes busty, small waisted and hipped women with 36-25-34 measurements to entertaminment magazines deciding whether Oprah Winfrey and Nicole Richie look good with more meat on their bones or with less.
Women and men alike debate about acceptable body sizes among women.
Women constantly size one another, “She’s too skinny, I bet she doesn’t eat” or “She’s too chunky, she needs to lay off the ice cream.”
As do men, “She has the curves in all the right places” or “She’s a big woman.”
A woman can wear extra small, small, medium, large, extra large etc, shirts and pants from a double zero to a size 24, which are a wide range of sizes but depending on which one you wear as a woman, determines whether you’re skinny, average, overweight or obese.
These shirt and pant sizes are the body sizes of thousands of women in the United States, yet there is only a few that we constantly see in music videos, movies, commercials and television shows that are viewed as acceptable body images.
These few body sizes found in pop culture are more often small sizes than medium or large sizes.
There’s a tug-a-war between the problem of obesity in the United States and the affects of pop culture saturated in thin images of women on the self-esteem and body acceptance of average women.
In our culture we constantly base someone’s physical appearance on assumptions about their lifestyle, which deems them either acceptably skinny or thick or unacceptably overweight or obese.
Kelly Bliss, an advocate for the International Size Acceptance Association which promotes size acceptance and helps to end weight-based discrimination, and Joy Nash a You-Tube star with the video “A Fat Rant” debated MeMe Roth, president and founder for the National Action Against Obesity which works to end the obesity epidemic, on the Morning Show with Mike and Juliet.
In this debate, Bliss raised the question, “Aren’t there skinny people who exercise less than two times a week?”
This question hits on an important aspect of body size acceptance in the United States.
We’re always quick to criticize overweight people because it’s assumed they don’t eat healthy, don’t exercise nor care about themselves, but what about the overweight people who do exercise, eat healthy and love their bodies but don’t meet the thin or acceptable body size our culture views as healthy?
These people are still viewed as the stereotyped lazy, fat and unattractive people our culture doesn’t accept. Even though they’ve accomplished the exact formula society has set-up for them.
For example, Bliss while on the Morning Show stated how society would view her as overweight, although she exercises ten hours a week teaching five aerobic classes, rarely drives allowing her to walk an extra five hours a week, and eats healthy to reduce the effects of her epilepsy, a chronic neurological disorder characterized by recurrent unprovoked seizures.
In other words, everyone’s bodies work differently. Some people have fast metabolisms and are able to eat whatever they want, not exercise and still maintain a thin body type while others have to constantly work out, watch what they eat and make a conscious effort to maintain an even “average” body type.
Yet as a society we target all overweight people by lumping them into a category of unacceptability, while not even looking at the thin or “average” body size people who may be unhealthy in their eating and exercise habits but don’t show it.
Instead of framing a discussion around whether someone is healthy or not on the basis of appearance, people need to individually consider each person’s characteristics and lifestyle and realize, “When people of all sizes eat healthy not everyone is going to get skinny,” said Bliss.
Body sizes are debated in pop culture from hip hop songs such as, "Ride wit me" by Nelly who raps how he likes busty, small waisted and hipped women with 36-25-34 measurements to entertaminment magazines deciding whether Oprah Winfrey and Nicole Richie look good with more meat on their bones or with less.
Women and men alike debate about acceptable body sizes among women.
Women constantly size one another, “She’s too skinny, I bet she doesn’t eat” or “She’s too chunky, she needs to lay off the ice cream.”
As do men, “She has the curves in all the right places” or “She’s a big woman.”
A woman can wear extra small, small, medium, large, extra large etc, shirts and pants from a double zero to a size 24, which are a wide range of sizes but depending on which one you wear as a woman, determines whether you’re skinny, average, overweight or obese.
These shirt and pant sizes are the body sizes of thousands of women in the United States, yet there is only a few that we constantly see in music videos, movies, commercials and television shows that are viewed as acceptable body images.
These few body sizes found in pop culture are more often small sizes than medium or large sizes.
There’s a tug-a-war between the problem of obesity in the United States and the affects of pop culture saturated in thin images of women on the self-esteem and body acceptance of average women.
In our culture we constantly base someone’s physical appearance on assumptions about their lifestyle, which deems them either acceptably skinny or thick or unacceptably overweight or obese.
Kelly Bliss, an advocate for the International Size Acceptance Association which promotes size acceptance and helps to end weight-based discrimination, and Joy Nash a You-Tube star with the video “A Fat Rant” debated MeMe Roth, president and founder for the National Action Against Obesity which works to end the obesity epidemic, on the Morning Show with Mike and Juliet.
In this debate, Bliss raised the question, “Aren’t there skinny people who exercise less than two times a week?”
This question hits on an important aspect of body size acceptance in the United States.
We’re always quick to criticize overweight people because it’s assumed they don’t eat healthy, don’t exercise nor care about themselves, but what about the overweight people who do exercise, eat healthy and love their bodies but don’t meet the thin or acceptable body size our culture views as healthy?
These people are still viewed as the stereotyped lazy, fat and unattractive people our culture doesn’t accept. Even though they’ve accomplished the exact formula society has set-up for them.
For example, Bliss while on the Morning Show stated how society would view her as overweight, although she exercises ten hours a week teaching five aerobic classes, rarely drives allowing her to walk an extra five hours a week, and eats healthy to reduce the effects of her epilepsy, a chronic neurological disorder characterized by recurrent unprovoked seizures.
In other words, everyone’s bodies work differently. Some people have fast metabolisms and are able to eat whatever they want, not exercise and still maintain a thin body type while others have to constantly work out, watch what they eat and make a conscious effort to maintain an even “average” body type.
Yet as a society we target all overweight people by lumping them into a category of unacceptability, while not even looking at the thin or “average” body size people who may be unhealthy in their eating and exercise habits but don’t show it.
Instead of framing a discussion around whether someone is healthy or not on the basis of appearance, people need to individually consider each person’s characteristics and lifestyle and realize, “When people of all sizes eat healthy not everyone is going to get skinny,” said Bliss.
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Raping and Pillaging Holiday
There aren’t many holidays that cause anger, but Columbus Day is definitely one that jumps out as different from the bunch.
America jumps at the chance to stroke its ego and tends to disregard the people it’s exploited to make it’s country prosperous (slavery, sweatshop labor, farm workers, prison labor), so it makes sense why it would celebrate it’s discoverer, Christopher Columbus, regardless of what he did to America's indigenous people.
Every second Monday in Oct., Columbus Day is recognized in the United States as a national holiday.
As Americans we celebrate Columbus, “a merchant clerk from the Italian city of Genoa, part-time weaver and expert sailor” who discovered the Americas on Oct. 12, 1492, in search of India’s rich spices and gold, wrote Howard Zinn in “A People’s History of the United States.”
The heroic adventure of Columbus is written in history books and believed to be a great day in history.
Of course, being way off course from India and discovering a whole new continent would definitely be an accomplishment for anyone. Especially if Spain’s royalty were giving you 10 percent of the profits, governorship over discovered land and the title: Admiral of the Ocean Sea, according to Zinn.
But is it really necessary to celebrate a day that created progress and money for a small rich class and members of royalty in Spain, when millions of indigenous people were killed, their cultures destroyed and their land taken?
To celebrate Columbus through a holiday is like celebrating the day we began slavery in the United States.
The slavery holiday would celebrate the decades the United States took Africans from their homeland and enslaved them to benefit plantation owners.
Columbus, similar to the United States, enslaved and shipped various indigenous people across the Americas starting with the Arawaks of the Bahama Islands.
The Arawaks lived in communes, ate corn, yams and cassava and didn’t use animals for work. They wore gold ornaments in their ears, which led Columbus to believe that gold was nearby, according to Zinn.
The Arawaks were peaceful people and didn’t bear arms, “they took it by the edge and cut themselves out of ignorance... Their spears are made of cane...They would make fine servants...with fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want,” wrote Columbus to Spain according to Zinn.
Columbus viewed the indigenous people as things he could exploit and have to bring back to Spain.
According to Zinn, Columbus wrote in a letter to Spain: “As soon as I arrived in the Indies, on the first Island which I found, I took some of the natives by force in order that they might learn and might give me information of whatever there is in these parts.”
On Columbus’s second expedition he took the Arawaks by force- 15,000 women, men and children to be exact-and picked 500 of the best to be shipped to Spain; 200 of them died before reaching Spain, according to Zinn.
In Haiti, Columbus believed fields of gold existed so he ordered every Arawak over the age of fourteen to collect a certain amount of gold each day. If the amount was reached a Arawak was given a copper token to wear on their neck. “Indians found without a copper token had their hands cut off and bled to death,” Zinn wrote.
The Arawaks knowing there was no large amounts of gold fled to build a resistance; which didn’t stand a chance against the Spaniard’s armor, muskets, swords and horses, Zinn wrote.
The Arawaks in desperation killed themselves including their infants with cassava poison in mass suicides.
“In two years, through murder, mutilation, or suicide, half of the 250,000 Indians on Haiti were dead... By the year 1515, there were perhaps fifty thousand Indians left. By 1550, there were five hundred,” Zinn wrote.
Columbus raped, killed, enslaved, shipped and hunted indigenous people not only in the United States but Hispaniola (present day Dominican Republic and Haiti), Cuba, Mexico, and Hawaii.
It’s appalling to think that the killing of indigenous people has no significance in the way we celebrate Columbus Day, or why we would even celebrate such a person.
Columbus doesn’t just represent the discovery of the Americas. He represents colonialism and the destruction of indigenous people in the Americas.
America jumps at the chance to stroke its ego and tends to disregard the people it’s exploited to make it’s country prosperous (slavery, sweatshop labor, farm workers, prison labor), so it makes sense why it would celebrate it’s discoverer, Christopher Columbus, regardless of what he did to America's indigenous people.
Every second Monday in Oct., Columbus Day is recognized in the United States as a national holiday. As Americans we celebrate Columbus, “a merchant clerk from the Italian city of Genoa, part-time weaver and expert sailor” who discovered the Americas on Oct. 12, 1492, in search of India’s rich spices and gold, wrote Howard Zinn in “A People’s History of the United States.”
The heroic adventure of Columbus is written in history books and believed to be a great day in history.
Of course, being way off course from India and discovering a whole new continent would definitely be an accomplishment for anyone. Especially if Spain’s royalty were giving you 10 percent of the profits, governorship over discovered land and the title: Admiral of the Ocean Sea, according to Zinn.
But is it really necessary to celebrate a day that created progress and money for a small rich class and members of royalty in Spain, when millions of indigenous people were killed, their cultures destroyed and their land taken?
To celebrate Columbus through a holiday is like celebrating the day we began slavery in the United States.
The slavery holiday would celebrate the decades the United States took Africans from their homeland and enslaved them to benefit plantation owners.
Columbus, similar to the United States, enslaved and shipped various indigenous people across the Americas starting with the Arawaks of the Bahama Islands.
The Arawaks lived in communes, ate corn, yams and cassava and didn’t use animals for work. They wore gold ornaments in their ears, which led Columbus to believe that gold was nearby, according to Zinn.
The Arawaks were peaceful people and didn’t bear arms, “they took it by the edge and cut themselves out of ignorance... Their spears are made of cane...They would make fine servants...with fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want,” wrote Columbus to Spain according to Zinn.
Columbus viewed the indigenous people as things he could exploit and have to bring back to Spain.
According to Zinn, Columbus wrote in a letter to Spain: “As soon as I arrived in the Indies, on the first Island which I found, I took some of the natives by force in order that they might learn and might give me information of whatever there is in these parts.”
On Columbus’s second expedition he took the Arawaks by force- 15,000 women, men and children to be exact-and picked 500 of the best to be shipped to Spain; 200 of them died before reaching Spain, according to Zinn.
In Haiti, Columbus believed fields of gold existed so he ordered every Arawak over the age of fourteen to collect a certain amount of gold each day. If the amount was reached a Arawak was given a copper token to wear on their neck. “Indians found without a copper token had their hands cut off and bled to death,” Zinn wrote.
The Arawaks knowing there was no large amounts of gold fled to build a resistance; which didn’t stand a chance against the Spaniard’s armor, muskets, swords and horses, Zinn wrote.
The Arawaks in desperation killed themselves including their infants with cassava poison in mass suicides.
“In two years, through murder, mutilation, or suicide, half of the 250,000 Indians on Haiti were dead... By the year 1515, there were perhaps fifty thousand Indians left. By 1550, there were five hundred,” Zinn wrote.
Columbus raped, killed, enslaved, shipped and hunted indigenous people not only in the United States but Hispaniola (present day Dominican Republic and Haiti), Cuba, Mexico, and Hawaii.
It’s appalling to think that the killing of indigenous people has no significance in the way we celebrate Columbus Day, or why we would even celebrate such a person.
Columbus doesn’t just represent the discovery of the Americas. He represents colonialism and the destruction of indigenous people in the Americas.
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