The Flow Chronicles

admin — Sun, 18 Mar 2007 03:25:00 +0000

Initially, The Flow Chronicles didn't seem like it could inspire me to do anything, but now I feel like wearing baggy pants and freestyling just for the hell of it. The author is really multi-dimensional, making me feel at ease and uncomfortable at the same time. It's about growing up and standing up, with Hermitt's first move to Seattle at only eighteen. "Interview with an actual, authentic lesbian" showed a different side of this brash, unapologetic woman. She made tactless a desirable trait, and self-discovery less painful. The grammatical errors seemed intentional, the fake letters had me giggling and Hermitt's realistic representation of adventures at a liberal arts school were endearing.

With more underground perspectives and queer culture than you can shake a stick at, Hermitt never misses a beat with this coming-of-age punk ethics crash course. She's yet more proof that stoner/hippies are probably the greatest people you'll ever meet. Not that I met her, but she's able to have a presence on paper that most authors would give their right hand for. You have to admire a girl who says that Apricot beer tastes like pussy, even though she's never tasted it. This book has more energy and generates more laughs than most of your friends in real life.

Written by: Jessaruh, March 17th 2007

Arab-American Comedy Tour

admin — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 03:15:00 +0000

Directed by Ahmed Ahmed, Dean Obeidallah, Maysoon Zayid

Arab Film Distribution

Most of the time stand-up comedy is either hot or cold for me, but Arab-American Comedy Tour was lukewarm. Dean Obeidallah made being politically insightful hilarious, but the stereotyping and misconceptions began to be redundant. I do think some of the material was fresh. What I liked about Dean was that he is versatile. What I loved about him is that I always fall for guys with good mock-Bush impressions.

Ahmed Ahmed reminded me of off-brand Jerry Seinfield, but with repetitive storytelling and observations. Ahmed was kind of stale, and I felt like he was trying to send me subliminal messages when he repeated his name over and over.. and over. Maysoon Zayid, the founder of The Arab-American Comedy Tour, let me down by being a somewhat typical Arab-American woman: a Virgin (because she's not married) and sort of insecure about not being married in the first place.

When you're used to seeing angry, crazy white guys on stage, this is definitely something to look forward to. At the same time, I expected there to be a lot of talk about the misconceptions and stereotypes of Arab-Americans and, unfortunately, I was right. The positive is that I do think it's great that this DVD is a step toward a greater color palette on mainstream TV and film. The negative is that what really matters is if it's funny or not, and two out of the three comedians nearly put me to sleep.

Written by: Jessaruh, February 26th 2007