A LIVING BARBI DOLL

REAL girl's face, with the BARBI doll that launched her dreams, the dreams of umpteen million girls.
 

REAL GIRL -- she's had more than one hundred surgeries -- spent more than $100,000 (plastic surgeon guesstimate) on face, boobs, waist, thighs, legs, arms, neck and of course, her hair.

BARBI in one of her beach outfits, holding a bottle of SPF.

BARBI'S face. (on Barbie doll package)






REAL GIRL, after spending an hour on putting on her BARBI makeup.

The pictures tell the story, more than my going on and on about this obsession, my gasps, or my wondering what this is doing to womankind. 


This announcer, and psychiatrist consultant, sum it up.
 

ALIENS?

When I was little, I'd look up at the night sky, pick out the brightest star and whisper, Star bright... star light ... I wish I may... wish I might...

I thought the Milky Way was a carpet of diamonds, a pathway for me to follow into a wonderful dazzling future.

Well, here I am, now, in New York City, the place to be if you have big show-business dreams, and when I look up -- no stars! never a single star, or a moon -- just the red glow of lights from the busy city.

It's always busy -- wherever I go I'm dodging people -- I'm saying excuse me, or being jostled as I enter a store, or stand in line, waiting to pay a cashier. Each year it's getting worse -- we're running out of things like oil, water, coal, food, and space.

Remembering my carpet of diamonds, I find myself  wondering if there are other worlds running out of things. I wonder about other planets like ours, people like us, who need and want things. Do they look like me, or like alien creatures in some of those movies?

Does the presence of alien life explain away some of the strange things -- crop circles, UFO's, and visitations that people have described.

I find myself humming, hearing John Cullum  singing, "Is -- any-body - there?"  (It's a plaintive tune the John Adam's character sang in "1776." -- my husband played the role on Broadway for a while.)

Lord Martin Rees, president of the Royal Society and astronomer for the Queen of Great Britain, said, “There could be life and intelligence out there in forms we can’t conceive. Just as a chimpanzee can’t understand quantum theory, it could be there -- there are aspects of reality that are beyond the capacity of our brains.”

NBC's Brian Williams has quoted Stephen Hawking, saying that aliens may be like Columbus discovering America -- "Look what happened to the Indians who were already here."

Stephen Hawkins says yes. They are here.  Michio Kaku says no, they are not here. Have I checked other sources,  yes. These two men are the most qualified, knowledgeable, trusted authorities. 

I find it spooky, scary, and would rather think Kaku is right, but I go with what Hawking has said.

Here's part of the Discovery Channel film that Stephen Hawking made, with an actor narrating Hawking's conclusions.



 Here's Michio Kaku, Professor of Theoretical Physics in the City College of New York, author of two NY Times best sellers ("Physics of the Impossible," (2008), and "Physics of the Future," (2011); radio, television, and film commentator, host of specials for BBC, Discovery Channel, History Channel, and the Science Channel.  
=====================

(VIDEO) DO WE EVER ARGUE?

 

Do the Cullums, John Cullum and Emily Frankel argue?  Have serious clashes? Angrily disagree?

Yes. Just about every issue in their lives gets them arguing--disagreeing--. sometimes angrily, but more often with passionate conviction.   

John says Em wins the arguments but Em is certain that they both win--she absorbs his point of view and he realizes her point of view is more practical.

HOOKED ON VIOLENCE

Echoes are still echoing -- talk-talk about Boston, the school in Connecticut, and the latest horrifyingly bloody death/murders -- it's buzzing around like a gnat that's arrived with the change in the weather.

What can I add to the mountain of words by commentators, philosophers, scholars, movie makers like Michael Moorhead, who created "Bowling for Columbine," a documentary about the 1998 Columbine High School massacre. 

Listening to Michael Moore I just nod.

Reading James Poniewozik in Time (he writes about entertainment and pop culture), I'm nodding. He's seen all the shows that are being devoured by us. He knows the plots, and the latest batch of villains and heroes. Loud and clear, Poniewozik deems this year's shows more thrilling, more horrifying than ever before.

Okay, thrill and horror is what makes shows into money-maker hits. We've got Nielsen, IMDB, Hollywood Reporter and a half-dozen other Websites announcing the daily, weekly numbers that tell producers that violence wins them bigger money numbers.

I used to watch movies, classical old ones, usually, avoiding the violent, gimmicky new ones. But lately, after surfing the news shows, and mostly hearing about the weather and sports, I tune in one of the true life crime shows -- "48 Hours Mystery," "Snapped," "Dateline," or the Investigation Discovery channel -- maybe a "Deadly Women," or "Wicked Attraction," or "Fatal Encounter" episode.
 
Like airport sandwiches, they are neatly slapped-together, suspenseful tales of murders and disappeared persons that are served with not very good actors -- a slice of tragedy you can munch on, turn away from, and return to for another munch.

They're familiar, not inventive, surprising or shocking stories that seem more real than the realty shows about survivors, bachelors, housewives, or models. 

Watching one of these oft-told tales, you know right away who's the good guy, and who's bad. Motivations are variations on the typical greed, lust, jealousy stuff that doesn't leave indelible impressions, or involve you like Jodi Arias, Casey Anthony, Scott-Lacy, O.J., or assassinations.

What about the wonderfully packaged NCIS shows?  I don't watch them. They're jam-packed with excessive reality that seriously bothers me.

I don't want to be bothered.

Konstantin Shalev 

Hey, the world's over -crowded, and we're warned of death possibilities daily from environmental sins that we're  committing, 

Those true life crimes get me feeling ... what?

Maybe a little sad, a little blue.  I find myself thinking tsk-tsk, alas, what a shame.

They're like bible stories -- no matter how many times you visit them  -- they affirm your sense of right and wrong.

Hey, it's entertainment!  It keeps me from worrying about the real, truly horrible realities that I see and hear about every day, all day long --all, all, all the things in the world that are happening that seem to be rushing us to the end of the world.

No wonder violence is getting more popular everyday.

Hurray, for the crime shows and their neatly wrapped slices of tragedy.
.
.