All posts in: OWN

02 Mar 2012

In the News…

Fashion

– Supermodel Agyness Deyn came forward earlier this week to announce that she is 29-years old, which is six years older than the age stated on her CV. [Source]

– Stefano Pilati has “left the YSL building.” Pilati has been the creative director over at YSL since 2004. [Source]

– Bethany Cosentino of Best Coast is designing a line for Urban Outfitters. [Source]

Music

– Glee’s Idina Menzel will be going on tour. [Source]

– Warner Music has launched a YouTube channel. [Source]

Movies

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuzyODgWRp4&feature=player_embedded]

– Despicable Me 2 teaser trailer

– Emma Watson will star in Sofia Coppola’s new film titled, “The Bling Ring” about a group of fashion-obsessed teenagers who break into the homes of celebrities and eventually get caught. It’s inspired by a true story…and Lifetime already did it…last year. [Source]

Television

– Lindsay will make her 239479th comeback this weekend when she hosts Saturday Night Live.

– Jennifer Love Hewitt turned her Lifetime movie, The Client List into Lifetime television series, The Client List. [Source]

– Jessica Lange will be returning for American Horror Story in the fall, but will not be reprising her character from the first season. Zachary Quinto will also be back. [Source] [Source]

– Bristol Palin is getting a docuseries on Lifetime. “This show will reveal the real Bristol Palin and her journey as a daughter, a mother and a young woman making her way in the world.” Um…what?!

– Meet the newest contestants for Dancing With the Stars. [Source]

– Casting has begun for the new CW Sex and the City prequel pilot, The Carrie Diaries, and it looks like AnnaSophia Robb will play a young Carrie. [Source]

– Oprah Winfrey will interview the late Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown’s daughter Bobbi Kristina exclusively, which will air on Sunday, March 11th at 9PM on OWN. [Source]

Seattle

– Top Pot Doughnuts are headed to Bellevue Square. [Source]

– Capitol Hill’s Molly Moon’s is taking over the old Flora & Henri shop to create a Willy Wonka-esque “kitchen on display” that will highlight their specialty ice cream and signature cones being made. The space is set to open in the summer. [Source]

– Skillet will call the Seattle Center home. [Source]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCYtO1esV24&feature=player_embedded#!]

– EMP’s Sound Off! finals are tomorrow night and we’ve got a Seattle University band in the running: Feet. Check out the rest of the acts here. I like these guys a lot!

Other

– Jan Berenstain passed away this week at 88. This one was my favorite because I went through a phase as a kid where I loved seeing pictures of illustrated food/candy. I kid you not, another one of my favorite books was a children’s book on the affects of diabetes.

– Wiz Khalifa and Amber Rose are now engaged! The couple have been dating for over a year. [Source]

– Ke$ha turned 25 and Justin Bieber turned 18 this week.

– US Weekly shows the evolution of Lindsay Lohan’s face and it ain’t pretty. [Source]

– Lea Michele and Cory Monteith – romantically involved? US Weekly believes so. [Source]

– Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner have announced the birth of their newborn son, Samuel Garner Affleck. [Source]

– …and Snooki is preggers. [Source]

– Lamar Odom has been dropped by the Dallas Mavericks and has been sent down to the NBA Development League. OH NO!! POOR LAM LAM 🙁 [Source]

– Actress Kaley Cuoco has called off her engagement to Josh Resnik. [Source]

– Natalie Portman had a secret wedding and is already married to Benjamin Millipied. [Source]

04 Dec 2011

Our America

As much as I enjoy my One Tree Hill marathons on the Soap Network, or episodes of The Vampire Diaries and Jimmy Fallon, I have so much respect for shows like Our America. Lisa Ling, an Asian-American journalist and host of the television series on Oprah’s network OWN, is someone that I have always admired. Aside from being a journalist that seeks to inform and give truth and insight into different ways of living, Ling is someone that strives to provide meaning to her audience by giving all of us a deeper view into the not so average people living in America.

The current second season of the series is one that shouldn’t be overlooked. This season has covered topics such as amateur porn like the videos you see on watchmygf.sex, extreme parenting, modern polygamy and sex trafficking – an episode that I just watched and was almost brought to tears. Okay – I cried at the very end. We know that these things – these extremes – these heartbreaking and depressing stories exist, but for most of us – we can’t relate them to our own worlds. If you’re from a small town, these types of situations are relatively unknown to you. I know for myself, in Seattle, I haven’t come across these types of things that Ling has brought up in the content of her shows yet I still find them to be eye-opening. In many of the essays that I have had to write this quarter, my professors have asked me the question of, “What do you hope to gain out of this course?” and each time I say – to apply the concepts I’ve learned to my life and my future endeavors. I’m inspired by Lisa Ling and many other journalists that have done the job that she has. For most of my life, I have hoped to graduate and begin a career in fashion, music or branding, but what I would love to do is to immerse myself into these cultures so different from the one I grew up in. I hope someday that I can help others the way that she has or at least bring attention to the types of stories that people have to share. I think that’s probably why I admire my friends Megan and John so much who volunteer through Jesuit Volunteer Corps. and Teach For America respectively. They both are helping others less fortunate than them and while I sometimes feel called to do that, I know that it would be difficult for me to follow in that path having been on my own path for this amount of time.

When you look at the bigger picture and realize how small you are in the world, you often times feel like you can’t make a difference. The first step, however, is awareness, right? The one piece of advice that I will always remember from Connie Wang in her graduation video is to learn everything. Read everything – books, blogs, magazines, newspapers – because you should always continue learning.

And with that, here’s a free viewing of the first episode from the second season of Our America with Lisa Ling.