I’m going to make more of an effort to update this blog more often than I have been, especially because I sound like an idiot when I start off each blog post apologizing for not updating it in awhile (mostly because I probably have 2 actual readers). Anyways, I’ve been busy non-stop with a billion things, more or less, between classes, extracurriculars, my attempt at a job search, etc. The most exciting of all the chaos is that the show I mentioned in the last blog that my friends and I have started (inspired by The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, SNL‘s Weekend Update, cheesy morning news programs) called The Morning After (not to be mistaken with the Plan B pill) has been picked up by our student-run TV station butv10! Woohoo! This means we get to use a real studio with a teleprompter and fancy production equipment versus our basic Canon cameras in my apartment and we’ll have our episodes run on channel 10 on BU’s campus as well as on the butv10 Web site. We wrote, shot, and edited a rough pilot for a pitch in about a week, which you can view here. Excuse my shitty acting (mine was the last scene shot after a long day) and reading off the scripts because we did it all in such a short amount of time so that the head honchos at the station could get an idea of what we were going for. We’ve written a lot more sketches and segments and should be shooting the official premiere episode this week, so I’ll be posting more episodes in the future. In the meantime, like us on Facebook because all the cool kids are doing it. And by cool kids I mean our friends that we peer pressured into liking us, which isn’t entirely true but I’m too tired to convince you otherwise. Other exciting-ish things going on in my life include applying to lead an Alternative Spring Break trip as a coordinator for BU’s Community Service Center (I was a volunteer on ASB during my sophomore year spring break), interviewing for an actual paying job on-campus (office job in the business school), not losing by as many goals in our last intramural soccer game, learning some cool stuff in my Design & New Media class, and being obsessed with my Creative Development class for my ad minor. It’s funny because as a senior, I’ve realized more and more that I should have been a COM major (probably TV & Film) instead of a business major because I enjoy those classes so much more and it’s what I feel most interested in but OH WELL I guess…
So the other day, I had lunch with my grandparents, my great-aunt, and her sister-in-law in Harvard Square because they had stopped in Boston on a cruise from NY. I hadn’t been over there since sophomore year I think, but Oxford reminded me a lot of the area when I was abroad. What I was surprised by was the fact that there were sooo many more homeless people in that area than I remember. I’m used to seeing it downtown more or even closer to our campus that has more of a city feel than Cambridge, but I didn’t expect there to be as many homeless people in Harvard Square. I gave one of them the rest of my lunch and awkwardly asked if he eats meat because it was a burger. I don’t know if the guy could even see, let alone had any dietary preferences (though I wouldn’t necessarily rule out any homeless people from being vegetarians or vice versa?) Anyways, I was in a weird mood that day because I was running on very little sleep (no surprise) after an 8 a.m. class and a couple things in the news had been bugging me. So much so that I had some sort of an internal mental breakdown on the T when I was riding back to campus on the red line. It was one of those “why is the world the way it is and why does everything suck?” kinda things. One of the minor news story that annoyed me was an “armed robbery” outside the FitRec (BU’s massive fitness center) involving 2 guys approaching 2 BU kids and stealing their iPhones. It was reported that no one was hurt and no weapons were shown, but what really pissed me off was that it occured in BROAD DAYLIGHT at 4 p.m., RIGHT AROUND THE CORNER from the police station. I like going to the gym late because it’s literally right next to my apartment building and that story just made me angry that I couldn’t feel safe in daylight, outside a widely-used building on BU’s campus, literally next to the BU police station. I don’t have an iPhone, but the part where it was reported that one guy said “have you ever been shot?” to the kid he was robbing made me feel really uncomfortable walking around on campus that week, at any frigen hour.
The main story that upset me the most (and the reason for my blog title) is the recent news about Tyler Clementi, the Rutgers freshman (who was from the same town I worked in at home in NJ) who committed suicide after his idiotic roommate uploaded a video of him having a sexual encounter with another boy. The roommate mocked Tyler on his Twitter page, talking about how he was making out with a boy in the room as he watched from his laptop webcam in some Asian girl’s room (who has also been charged as an accomplice in recording the videos) and telling people to iChat him during the hours that Tyler was with the other boy in his room. It’s obvious that this dumbass roommate lacked any common sense to begin with, as an earlier tweet says something about being “sooo high.”
I’m extremely appreciative that despite being Catholic, I grew up in a family that is very accepting of gay people, which is probably partially due to the fact that my mom and older sister have worked in an industry dominated by gay individuals — fashion and beauty. I’m also glad that I go to such a diverse school in Boston (another city known for being gay-friendly), where a lot of my guy friends are gay (some of which are very involved in the Community Service Center with me). I consider a person’s sexual orientation to be similar to their race — something you are born with that makes you who you are to an extent. If it’s not socially acceptable to be racist, then shouldn’t the same go for being homophobic? I had friends in high school whom I felt might be gay and in the closet, but I always thought that going to college would help them to feel comfortable with who they are and not try to hide that aspect of their life. I didn’t know Tyler personally, but from what I could interpret, he was merely trying to finally act on what he had been feeling for however long when he realized he was gay and he had every right to do so without some sick son of a bitch invading his privacy and showcasing/mocking it for all to see. I don’t know how Tyler’s roommate and that Asian girl could possibly think that what they were doing was in any means okay, but the worst part is that there are so many more people out there that are making life more difficult for these young teens and adults to be who they are meant to be. It’s 2010, people. Gay marriage should be legalized. No one should ever feel ashamed of their sexual orientation. No one should ever make others feel ashamed of their sexual orientation. Bullying, in all shapes and forms, is one of the most cowardly acts someone could commit in whatever attempt to make themselves feel better by putting others down.
On a more hopeful note, there has been a campaign around the recent suicides of gay teens (in addition to Tyler, 13-year-old Asher Brown from TX, 13-year-old Seth Walsh from CA, 19-year-old Johnson & Wales student Raymond Chase) in an effort to help gay teens and prevent any more suicides. The campaign is called “It Gets Better” and two people who I look up to as accomplished individuals in the fashion and entertainment industries have shared their experiences growing up as a gay teen for the campaign’s video messages. Andy Cohen, a BU alumni and Bravo TV’s VP of Programming & Development was the first video I saw which was more real than any reality show (of the many I watch on Bravo) could convey. Bravo is also a very gay-friendly network and I’ve watched their shows since I first got hooked on Project Runway back in Season 1. One of my favorite people on that show is Tim Gunn, a former Parsons faculty member and current Chief Creative Officer for Liz Claiborne. I have a signed copy of his first book, Tim Gunn’s Guide to Quality, Taste, and Style and he has been one of my idols since the beginning of Project Runway. In his video message, he says how he attempted to commit suicide at 17, which shocked me because I think he is such a brilliant and inspiring person that I can’t imagine the world without him today.
R.I.P all of the young gay teens who have committed suicide as a result of taunting and bullying. Here’s hoping that this campaign could successfully prevent any incidents like it occurring again.
