South Korean rapper Psy has gone viral and beyond with the worldwide recognition of his song and video, “Gangnam Style.”

Released July 15, “Gangam Style” has broken the Guinness World Record for most liked video on Youtube and made a lasting name for itself within the realm of American pop culture from parodies, (even by the North Korean government), to Saturday Night Live, to teaching Britney Spears how to dance the dance on The Ellen Degeneres show.

Psy, real name Park Jae-sang, is 34 and was born in the same district he makes fun of—Gangnam in Seoul.  He attended both Boston University and the Berklee School of Music. He is married with twin girls. He released “Gangnam Style” under the South Korean label YG Entertainment, home to other big-name artists such as Big Bang and Se7en.

The rapper has met a degree of fame other South Korean music artists who want to break into the American market, such as the Wonder Girls, 2NE1, and BoA have not seen.

Most sources attribute the sensation to the fact that “Gangnam Style” is hilarious to watch and even catchier to listen despite the initial language barrier.

“The world is currently in thrall to a fat Korean Psycho who is spouting anti-capitalist messages and blowing things up,” wrote Arwa Mahdawi in The Guardian, and she continued, “Essentially, it is just an over-the-top video where a fat man does a comical dance and sings repetitive lyrics that don’t make sense to most of us.”

Is the humor of “Gangnam Style” harmless or does it actually reinforce negative perceptions and stereotypes of Asian men? It is difficult to pinpoint in the case of Psy whose musical hit makes purposely playful mockery of the upscale Gangnam lifestyle.

“When people ask why Psy’s video is so popular, this is one of the major issues that goes unanswered.” Crystal S. Anderson, associate professor at Elon University and contributing writer on Korean culture said. “I think more people are laughing at Psy than laughing with him.”

A post at Racialious also brings up, “That’s right: alongside clowns from other mediums like Ken Jeong (and yellow-face disgraces like Mickey Rooney’s Mr. Yunoishi from Breakfast at Tiffany’s), PSY fits right into the mainstream-friendly role of Asian male jester, offering goofy laughs for all and, thanks to PSY’s decidedly non-pop star looks, in a very non-threatening package. Psy doesn’t even have to sing in English or be understood because it’s not the social critique offered by the lyrics that matters to the audience, but the marriage of the funny music video, goofy dance, and a rather catchy tune, of which two of the elements are comical and, again, non-threatening.”

“The end result, however, is that everyone loses. You see, not only are Asian men stereotyped into certain roles in the public consciousness and have to conform to these roles in order to improve chances for mainstream success in entertainment, but the mainstream then denies itself access to a tremendous cache of quality works and performers of art and entertainment.”

The problematic element the “Gangnam Style” boom holds is that most Americans are unaware of the cultural context in which Psy operates.

An American audience becomes a crowd of spectators looking into a foreign landscape without concrete background needed to develop meaningful interpretation. In such a case, “Gangnam Style” transforms into a gag that makes it vulnerable to the perception of it being beneath normative Hollywood entertainment—and susceptible to fitting neatly into a continually demeaning caricature.

On his guest appearance on Ellen, Psy had to stop amongst the eagerness of both Ellen and Britney to dance in order to ask permission to introduce himself—an awkward drop of the ball on the host’s part. It was a minor yet possible indicator of the rapper’s future in the mainstream media. Psy has been signed under Justin Bieber’s management, which suggests he plans to continue with momentum in the US.

Time will tell if whether Psy will remain in the spotlight and progress as a serious artist to break the Eurocentric mold of mainstream entertainment or if he will  fade to black as a passing meme plagued by regressive racial generalizations.

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Most people, when faced with the oncoming freight train that is their mid-life crisis, don’t hop out of bed and decide to race 700 miles in a week.  Many take as a given the lethargy, malaise, and expanding waistline that often comes with turning 40.  The truly driven may decide to join a gym or do a 5K.  A very small subset may push their limits with a marathon.  Only a select few decide to tackle the Ultraman World Championships, a double iron distance triathlon (6.2 mile swim, 216.4 mile bike and 52.4 mile run).  The tiniest (and some might say craziest) subset would ever choose to do the EPIC 5­—five iron distance triathlons in five days on five Hawaiian islands (703 miles total).  The number of individuals matching these conditions becomes even smaller when you include a dedicated vegan lifestyle.

Run this query and you will return exactly one hit: Rich Roll.  (Jason P. Lester, co-founder of the EPIC 5 with Rich Roll, is also a vegan, but he hasn’t quite turned 40 yet).

To say that Rich Roll isn’t most people is perhaps an understatement.  He was after all a competitive swimmer at Stanford and a successful graduate of Cornell Law School.   So you might think you know Rich Roll, or someone like him:  a driven overachiever with something to prove and an oversized attitude that comes with the territory.  Nothing could be farther from the truth as I learned in Finding Ultra: Rejecting Middle Age, Becoming One of the World’s Fittest Men, and Discovering Myself.

There is so much humility (and spirituality) in Rich’s memoir, that you are forced to completely rethink your concept of competition.  Who exactly are you competing with?  What drives you?  What gives you purpose along the way?  By the end of Finding Ultra Rich will also have you reconsidering everything you have always heard about the correlation between diet and physical performance.

Rich begins the book in media res, just as he has crashed his bike on a wet turn during his second attempt at Ultraman, the invitation-only, three-day, double-Iron distance triathlon that circumnavigates the Big Island.  Rich sets the stage for the reader very clearly:  This is serious business.  Not only are triathlons extremely hard work but you could also be injured or even killed in the process.

From Ultraman, Rich takes us back to his idyllic childhood and through his painfully shy, adolescent years when swimming became a passion for him, a way of separating himself from the crowd, and then as he progressed, a way of distinguishing himself.  He was so dedicated, waking up before dawn every morning to swim, that his coach gave him a key to the natatorium.

As a college recruit, Rich had his pick of premiere schools.  He finally settled on Stanford (swayed in large part by the beautiful palm trees and bountiful sunlight) over Harvard.  Like many college students, Rich also discovered alcohol and the relief it can bring from social anxiety.  Remarkably, as a dedicated athlete, Rich was able to party his way through school and still swim competitively.  Even as a heavy drinker he still competed and won regularly at the national level.  Despite his athletic successes, however, he remained shy, awkward, and uncomfortable on the inside.

As an adult, Rich eventually found that using alcohol as a coping mechanism was not sustainable for the long haul. After living and working several years as functioning alcoholic, after stacking up a few DUIs along the way, after a marriage that lasted six days, Rich eventually checked himself into rehab at Hazelden’s Springbrook treatment facility in northwest Oregon.  The chapters on Rich’s recovery are brief but to the point: Whether you believe you are sick with a physical addiction or a “disease of perception,” the solution is well beyond the scope of human willpower.  The solution is spiritual.  It is no small coincidence that shortly after Rich let go of all of his anger and fear and gave himself over to “a higher power,” that he met the woman he knew he was going to marry and spend the rest of his life with:  Julie Piatt.

By 2006, Rich had been sober for eight years, but he was overweight and far from healthy.  One night, in a story that has by now been repeated many times, Rich had a lifestyle conversion experience on a par with Saul of Tarsus: Walking halfway up the stairs to check on his sleeping children, he found himself nauseated and doubled-over.  He was completely winded after only eight steps.  Rich then had a vision of his grown children and in that picture he was nowhere to be found: There was no way in his current physical state he was going to live that long.

Together with the help of his wife Julie (founder of Jai Lifestyle and co-author with Rich of the Jai Seed e-Cookbook) Rich goes on a juice fast, goes vegetarian, and then vegan.  The rest, as they say, is history. (Note: Julie has written a powerful piece on her relationship with Rich that is compulsory reading.)

The final chapters in the book are focused on training for Ultraman, EPIC 5, and how Rich’s “secret weapon” (“Plant Power”) made it all happen.  To quote Rich:  “I can say with full confidence that my rapid transformation from middle-aged couch potato to Ultraman—to, in fact, everything I’ve accomplished as an endurance athlete—begins and ends with my PlantPower Diet.”

I had read Brendan Frazier’s Thrive (which Rich cites as a heavy influence) cover-to-cover before picking up Finding Ultra. In fact, the entire series of Thrive books is fantastic, loaded with recipes, exercise tips, and so on, but it was Finding Ultra that ultimately convinced me to make a commitment to a vegan lifestyle.  (After four months on a vegan diet, at 42 years old, I just completed my first half-iron distance triathlon. While I had trained for roughly a year, I wholeheartedly believe that I could not have made such exponential progress without becoming a vegan.)

Rich builds a compelling narrative from start to finish.  If you are a sports nut, the racing stories will get your pulse pounding.  The story of the first EPIC 5 and all the logistics required to pull off the event is worth the price of admission alone.  There are challenges every step along the way from finding the right bicycle part on the remote islands to finding the right food.  But, as Rich highlights, it is the personal journey, the commitment and the pain that goes into finishing an event like the EPIC5 that holds the spiritual element.  The active meditation on the long runs and swims, the long stretches of time left with nothing but your own thoughts, which after days on end with little or no sleep can swing quickly from mildly introspective to tedious to torturous, will lead you to project your will and your energy onto something other than your own selfish desires.

Yes, the spiritual trajectory of the book is undeniable, but it is not heavy-handed.  The path from shy kid to party animal to centered parent (and, oh by the way, world-class endurance athlete) is one that is built on the understanding that for a life to be truly lived, you must give your life over to something bigger than just yourself.  In Rich’s case it meant giving himself over to his family, his new life with Julie, and the universe’s plan for his future fulfillment.

As noted in my interview with Rich this past May, he has written an immensely enjoyable recovery/spiritual memoir, a sports narrative, and a vegan lifestyle handbook all rolled into one.  This is a tall order by any standard.  It is a testament to Rich’s warmth and openness, and to his commitment to a new life that he has done so this successfully.

You can learn more about Rich Roll at RichRoll.com.

White Alligator Trailer

It is an unfortunate fact of life that we all must be labeled and put into boxes. There are the boxes we have to check off on any given form such as our gender or how much money we make. Sometimes the questions are easy: How tall are you? What color are your eyes? More often than not, however, the questions are complicated and can bring up bigger philosophical queries that are much more difficult to answer. Just yesterday I was asked to state my marital status, age, and race after answering a seemingly endless survey about my political beliefs. Thinking back on them now, those questions seem so personal to me, but our constant exposure to labels has me so jaded I barely batted an eyelash as I noncommittally gave my honest answers. It doesn’t matter where you go or where you come from, as part of society we are going to be categorized. Sometimes we are complicit in the process; often it is against our will.

As Americans, whether born or bred, we are clearly obsessed with labels. You can’t get out of bed without being forced to look at labels and brands, even if it’s just the ones on your sheets. Labels that others give us affect us daily as well. What happens when we don’t know which label to pick? How are we supposed to feel when we are forced to confront a box that clearly does not define us but is still capable of stereotyping us nonetheless? All-around Jill of all trades Viviana Leo actively explores these and other questions in her work as a writer, actress, and producer.

In Viviana’s newest film, White Alligator, a docu-comedy, the main character comes to New York to participate in a reality show she hopes will help make her a star. Like most plans, however, things take a different turn. Juanita Perez thinks of herself as the girl next door but soon realizes Hispanics in the New York film industry don’t have it easy. Like the actress who plays her, Juanita Perez is forced to change her name to sound more “white” to garner more roles. White Alligator is not only important and thought provoking, it is also funny. The humor is something Viviana hopes will draw audiences in; her goal is to have theatergoers leave laughing and hungry for changes in the film industry.

Many people think of New York City as this amazing Mecca that includes all races, ages, colors, and sizes, a place where the general population typically could care less about labels and perceptions. For the most part that is absolutely the case. New Yorkers barely blink an eye at things that would be absolute calamities in Small Town, U.S.A. At the same time, New York City is one of the epicenters of the entertainment industry, a business famous for its obsessive and harmful emphasis on looks. While it may be hard for many beautiful, talented, Caucasians in New York to find work, what about those struggling actors and actresses with different backgrounds? Where do they fit in in all of this?

Viviana Leo takes a closer look at these questions and many more in White Alligator, and I was lucky enough to interview her recently and talk to her about discrimination in the media. Ms. Leo is a graduate of Columbia University where she studied English with a concentration in dramatic literature. When I asked her about Columbia and her experiences there, she only had positive words for the Ivy League university. She told me that Columbia was focused on what you could do—what you could produce as an artist and an academic—and not on outward appearance or gender, unlike the harsh reality she faced after completing her Bachelor’s degree.

After leaving Columbia, Viviana attempted to gain recognition in the acting world in New York. She soon found roadblock after roadblock and felt that she was hitting a wall when it came to getting positive, realistic roles for women. The roles that she saw for Hispanics were frequently drug addicts, maids, and prostitutes. Viviana not only experienced these barriers as a Latina, she also found that many of her actress friends of other backgrounds faced similar constraints. Viviana related a story about taking an acting class with a friend from California. The two were having a perfectly normal conversation, but as soon as her friend went in front of the class to do her dialogue she had to put on an Asian accent to have the scene make sense.  And these types of stories are not aberrations. (Ed. note: Viviana recounted in an email exchange, “Once, I was at an audition for a Spanish-language commercial and the producers provided a tub of dark foundation and asked all the girls auditioning to slather it on before going into the room.  I deftly saved us all that embarrassment by saying out loud, ‘Nobody is touching that foundation because you don’t have enough makeup pads for all of us and this is now a hygiene issue.’”)  Viviana struggles with the questions and ideas that certain races and ethnicities are continually cast in stereotypical roles. We’ve all seen them on the screen: Indian cab drivers or computer geeks, Asians honing their skills as martial artists.

Ms. Leo blames the stereotypical roles on many factors. Hollywood sets the casting trends; there is after all little difference between the roles in movies set on the West Coast versus those set back east. According to Viviana, roles are limited for any ethnicity. Many of the small boxes actors are put into are because Hollywood’s locus of power is comprised of an older generation of mainly white males. The roles for women are often restricted to the pretty wife or girlfriend of the funny and handsome male character. Actresses are forced to play the supporting characters in most stories. Viviana did say that things may be changing slightly with breakout females like Kathryn Bigelow (another Columbia alum) and Brook Busey (better known as Diablo Cody) but those types of leading women are few and far between. Women still don’t get the same chances that men do when it comes to acting, writing, or producing. The meaty roles for women still go to a small subset of established actresses who are proven box office mavens.

Viviana is one of the many artists striving to change the entertainment industry for the better. While there is no doubt our society has made significant progress, we still have many hurdles left to overcome beginning with racial barriers. Case in point: The entertainment industry is the only field where employers can ask a candidate where they are from, something that is illegal in other job sectors.

Viviana wants to change not only the way the entertainment industry views one’s ethnic origin, but she also wants to engage the public’s interest with more important and more universally relevant topics. She has also written a dark comedy about a very unfunny subject, abortion, (Blue for Boy), as well as Utopia, which according to Viviana is, “a film about our addiction to meat and the direction that’s taking us.” She is also planning on writing a script about people’s obsession with money, something we can all be guilty of at times.

Viviana wants to expose the negative aspects of the film industry in White Alligator. Ultimately she hopes to persuade producers and writers to give Americans more credit when it comes to actors and actresses playing characters that may not be the “typical” roles they are used to seeing on the big screen. (Note: Viviana recently wrote a compelling article outlining her filmmaking philosophy for Intellectualyst.)

There are many ways that we define ourselves, starting with the boxes that we are forced to check off. There are the boxes others put us into against our will. Then there are the boxes we often put others into without even noticing. Instead of mindlessly checking off all those stifling boxes, let’s all work together and remember the most important box we can check off is human being.

If we can change Hollywood, maybe we can change the world.

For more information about White Alligator and Viviana please visit: White Alligator: The Movie and Viviana Leo’s website.

It may be the most magical place on earth but for vegans and vegetarians Disney World can feel restricting and leave us starving. Mickey Mouse and friends may be cute little animals running around happy as the masses they entertain, while herbivores have slim pickings when it comes to lunch time. Thankfully, someone paid attention to us this year.  It was just announced that the theme park will introduce vegan and vegetarian options at Disney’s annual Food and Wine Festival this year. The specific booth is entitled ‘Terra Vegan Marketplace’ and according to the Disney website will have options like fake chicken, chili made with cashew cheese and Gardein beefless tips, wine and beverages from sustainable and organic vineyards, a dairy-free smoothie and a chocolate cake. The event is held all day from September 28th to November 12th and showcases cuisine and wine from all over the world like cheddar cheese soup from Canada and tapas from Spain. The festival includes over 30 marketplaces comprised of food and beverages from all over the world, food demonstrations from renowned chefs and even a concert series with today’s top artists nightly.

While browsing through the menu I’m overcome with gratitude that the vegan booth exists because it does not seem like there is much at the other booths that is vegan friendly. There are plenty of cheese and fish options for pescatarians though. If you do make it to the festival there are a few ways to pay for your yummies. A convenient payment method is a Food and Wine Festival Gift Card that can be preloaded with a monetary denomination and used at the festival. The gift card can be purchased at the Disney Epcot Ticket Booth and Guest Relations. Cash, credit cards, Key to the World cards, Disney gift cards and Disney Reward cards are also other options to pay for your treats. If you’re at Disney for some time a Disney Dining Plan can be used purchased and used for snack credits at the fest.

The Food and Wine Fest has some options but all vegans and vegetarians can quickly get sick of the same five menu options. The Sunshine State has some options to offer us as well. Orlando is one of the larger cities in the state and isn’t totally inept when it comes to our diets. VegGuide.org, a great website to find places that cater to all your vegan needs nationally and internationally lists numerous options for Orlando visitors and residents and even has a rating system that tells you just how vegan friendly the restaurant is. Restaurants like Ethos  and Jeremiah’s Italian Ice have vegan options, the latter even has vegan ice cream which will cool you down because as a Floridian I can tell you, Florida is scorching. Boma, an African buffet in Disney World’s Animal Kingdom appears to have vegan friendly options and there is even a raw cuisine and vegan restaurant a little further in Winter Park called Café 118 on East Morose Boulevard. If you live in Orlando be sure to check out We All Scream. Vegguide.org and Yelp can help you plan your trip not just to Florida but to all places around the world, great options for the traveling vegan.  So unpack all those granola bars from your suitcase and enjoy yourself in Orlando because it’s got you covered. Happy traveling animal lovers!

For more information: Food and Wine Fest 2012

Stage fright or performance anxiety is the persistent fear of speaking or performing in front of an audience or a camera. Fear of public speaking is called glossophobia.  It is one of the most common phobias, beating out fear of heights, insects, financial problems, deep water, illness and even death. The idea of getting up and speaking in front of a group of people can scare even the most confident person into a cold sweat. Stage fright can be a part of a larger social phobia or social anxiety disorder or it can be an isolated condition. Sometimes people experience stage fright just anticipating a performance. People have described symptoms such as heart pounding, hand or leg tremors, sweaty hands, diarrhea, facial nerve tics, dry mouth, and erectile dysfunction.

Elena Beloff is a Certified Clinical Hypnotist and Master NLP Practitioner and a filmmaker. She is writing a book and directing a documentary about hypnosis. She hopes to educate people about its uses and to dispel myths and stereotypes that people associate with hypnosis. She was very interested in combatting stage freight through hypnosis and has worked with performers of all levels and in many different performance disciplines such as actors, musicians and corporate speakers. “I found that this problem has the most absurd limiting beliefs lingering in one’s unconscious mind which stop performers from enjoying their craft,” she told me during a recent series of interviews.

The New York City-based hypnotist explained that performers often feel that the audience is not on their side. “If someone believes on a very deep level that he or she is not that good and that the audience is waiting for them to fail, they will feel stale, anxious and not be able to enjoy themselves or their performance.” These beliefs act on sufferers the same way as most people react to anxiety. They become self-conscious.  It blocks their enthusiasm, distracts them and can make performers forget or be afraid that they will blank out on words no matter how hard they’ve rehearsed. “Imagine yourself walking at night in the dark alley in a very dangerous neighborhood. Will you act all happy and walk slow? Will you enjoy yourself? Of course not. You will walk fast. You will be a little nervous and careful. You become quiet. You know that there is danger and your instinct is to protect yourself. The same thing happens with a performer. No matter how ridiculous it may sound, a lot of performers with stage fright believe that the audience is their enemy.”

Beloff says her first objective was to identify the fears that her clients hold but can’t say out loud. “Sometimes they are so irrational that the client is embarrassed to even pronounce them. I make sure they feel comfortable, that they do not feel judged and that they know I am on their side.” She wants them to feel comfortable sharing what they believe. After she identifies the limiting beliefs, “which I like to call thought viruses, I work on reframing them into positive beliefs. For example, if someone believes `The audience is judging me. I am not a good performer. My hand will shake.’ I would reframe these beliefs into `The audience will accept me. I am a great performer. My hands are steady.’ I design powerful and positive scripts based on their personal issues and the nature of their performance anxiety.”

Once she compiles that script, she moves to her favorite part of the therapy, the induction into the trance state. While in the suggestible state she reads the personalized script to them a few times so that the new beliefs become instilled in their unconscious mind and the positive ideas replace the limiting beliefs. “I also use a powerful visualization to help them see their successful performance so they understand and believe how easy and enjoyable it can be. They mentally rehearse this success many times in their mind. All of this enables them to believe only positive things about them as performers about the audience. It also strengthens their ego and self-esteem.”

Beloff approaches performers in different fields similarly, but uniquely. Whether it’s a standup comedian or a concert violinist, she finds that they process information or suggestions in very much the same way, but that in the end, every individual has their own needs. “I think every person is different. I don’t think the kind of profession you’re in makes you different with regards to how you process suggestions or how long it will take to hypnotize you. It really depends on the person and their unique character, their background and life experiences. Some people are easier to hypnotize, others it take a little longer. Some go deep into trance; others stay in a lighter state of hypnosis, like a heightened state of focus. There is no right or wrong, as long as have my clients’ direct attention to suggestions and that they follow my instructions word for word. That’s all I need. I can help them achieve their goal.”

People respond to different stimulus and rely on different senses more than others. People have auditory, visual, kinesthetic (touch), olfactory (smell) and gustatory (taste) responses. Beloff treated a client who was afraid her hands would shake when she played the violin. Before every performance she would focus the negative thoughts.  “She had been playing since childhood and one time she got nervous and her hand shook. So ever since then she anticipated that it would happen again and so it happened.” The violinist would focus on trying to stop the shaking while performing. Elena taught her how to shift focus from thinking about a shaking hand to the sound of music.  “I detected she was auditory more than visual  I taught her in hypnosis how to instantly shift focus to hearing the music she was playing, to experience the positive emotion of actually enjoying the sound of the music. She would create a sense of enjoyment and while listening, the shaking would go away because she couldn’t think about two things at the same time.  She couldn’t hear music and at the same time think about her shaking hand. It had to be one or the other.”

Elena Beloff is no stranger to stage performance. “I sang in the choir for five years in Russia on a big stage and performed with Tony Sokol’s band. I took many acting classes and did a short stage performance from Chekov’s Uncle Vanya. I also spent a lot of time in front of the camera as an interviewer in my first documentary film.” Elena experienced her own stage fright “when I first started taking acting classes. I used to feel uncomfortable. But I easily overcame it with practice and self-hypnosis.”

Elena Beloff is available for sessions, for more information contact her at her site www.insidehypnosis.com.

Adolescence, for most, is defined by gawky figures, awkward speech impeded by braces, and simple-minded thinking that in today’s day and age, focuses itself on television sitcoms, the next fad, and internet memes or video games. Breaking this mold, however, is singer-songwriter-piano player Jasmine van den Bogaerde, otherwise known as Birdy. She captivated the British world initially with her shimmering rendition of a popular song, “Skinny Love” by Bon Iver, which hit the top of UK’s music charts in 2011. What followed was a flowering of her success through her maturity, precociousness, and lyrical brilliance. Her eponymous album, released in November 2011, features covered songs from the XX, Fleet Foxes, Phoenix, and Mumford & Sons, with whom she played a duet entitled “Learn Me Right” for Disney Pixar’s Brave. Songs that she writes contain subject matter that ranges from her lost relationships to atypical musings about the world around her.

The echoes and reverberations from her mystic voice, delicate, extraordinarily skilled playing of her piano, in conjunction with her humble demeanor and prodigal youth, are the reasons her concerts sell out within hours of going on sale. It is no wonder, as the melodic rifts in her music seem only to belong in the realm of enchantment, and when one allows, it can simply take you into that realm, if only for the few minutes the song lasts. Some, such as her Farewell and Goodnight, originally sung with deep melancholy by the Smashing Pumpkins, verge on the sweetness of a lullaby when sung by her, while still retaining its maturity. This is the captivating gift she so deftly holds: that of making a song so uniquely her own and rendering it almost completely different whilst staying true to the song’s essence.

Jasmine grew up in love with musical beauty, as many rising singers are, and her voice propelled her further into the pursuit of a musical career. Her passion for music may be attributed to her mother, who is herself a concert pianist, and thus, with the spark ignited, Jasmine had learned to play the piano at the tender age of seven. Her family’s supportive and creative environment served to provide her with enough enchantment and inspiration to continue elevating. This atmosphere is summed up most aptly in her own website: “Birdy comes from a talented, creative family (her great-uncle was the actor and writer Sir Dirk Bogarde, although Birdy is too young to have ever met him). They live in a crumbling converted mill in the New Forest, not far from the sea. There’s a grand piano in the living room because her mum is a classically trained concert pianist. In a shed outside, there’s the tiny studio where Birdy recorded some of her first demos, and where her dad works, recording voiceovers and reading the day’s news stories for the blind. With her younger brother and sister, a whole pack of cousins living close by as well as her friends, Birdy has had a childhood straight out of an Enid Blyton book: roaming through the woods, and playing on the local beaches.”

The advocacy of fans from around the world has shot her to skyrocketing success. Her worldwide tour has stops from her native country in the UK to the mecca of all world-shattering talent: New York City, NY. She has appeared on The Guardian, Britain’s most acclaimed and widely-recognized newspaper, as well as state side’s Ellen DeGeneres show. Her eponymous album was released in November of 2011, and reached the top twenty charts.

However, do not let this typical story of instant success sway you; what is especially incredible is the amount of modesty and humility that radiates from her demeanor whenever presented with thousands of fans and heavyweights in the entertainment industry. With her youth and intelligence, it shall be curious to see how newfound success and fame will prompt her to become an even more brilliant role model to younger teens. I am personally looking forward to seeing her in concert, and not repeating the incident as I recently went to purchase a ticket to see her in the Bowery in New York City, and realizing that it was completely sold out to an audience of awe-struck fans.

If you happen to enjoy Birdy’s lyricisms and youthful vigor, I highly recommend checking out a similar band that is equally taking the musical world by storm with gypsy charms and artistic reveries, surpassing the barriers of stereotypical youth: First Aid Kit.

After seeing a production of Angels in America, Pt. 1: Millennium Approaches by Tony Kushner at the Wilma Theatre in Philadelphia back in June, I couldn’t believe I hadn’t seen the show before. I found the material, the grand combination of mysticism with wit, grit, and politics, so stimulating that there was no way I would be waiting until the fall to see the Wilma’s production of Angels in America, Pt. 2: Perestroika. I journeyed to the library to pick up a copy of the HBO film series interpretation as well as hard copies of the play, and I have been investigating why Angels in America is compelling and relevant for today’s society through its thematic elements of freedom, sexual identity, painful abandonment, compromise, justice, race, religion, politics vs. personal identity, and progress vs. stasis. Like Shakespeare’s works, it is an epic piece of art that speaks beyond its own time period of publication by revealing universal human struggles in a unique way—but perhaps unlike many of Shakespeare’s existential tragedies, Angels ultimately points to hope amidst inevitably painful progress. It is not blind hope, not sentimental hope–it is sustainable hope that acknowledges the suffering of life but also the joy in our ability to move forward.

Towards the end of Perestroika, Prior Walter, a gay man diagnosed with AIDS who has been abandoned by his lover and who has “prophetic” visions throughout the show, finds himself in a San Francisco-like Heaven arguing with the Angels. The Angels have been urging him to halt human motion and progress, to take up the “Tome of Respite” and stay with the static Angels, but Prior ultimately rejects the Angels and declares, “We can’t stop…progress, migration, motion is…modernity. It’s what living things do…Even if we go faster than we should. We can’t wait. And wait for what? God…?” He says, “I want more life…We live past hope. If I can find hope anywhere, that’s it, that’s the best I can do. It’s so much not enough, so inadequate but… Bless me anyway, I want more life.”

Although impossible to pin down all of what Angels in America is about, the painful progress expressed in Prior’s words is certainly a core theme. Politically, the show takes place during the Reagan Era, and although we are still dealing with conservative Reaganism today, progress is in motion.  It is undeniable that our President Barack Obama’s recent statement about openly supporting gay marriage is progress, significant progress especially since the terrible silence of the Reagan Era in response to the AIDS epidemic. In an interview on Democracy Now, playwright Tony Kushner says he “felt the Earth move,” in response to Obama’s affirmation of gay rights. He also notes, though, that while same-sex marriage could be an achievable goal towards justice for the GLBT community, there are many other goals that will take time and fighting to achieve, and that patience is necessary. He calls himself “more of an evolutionary than a revolutionary,” which reminds me of Obama’s words about how his perspective took time to “evolve,” largely through personal interactions, into his current stance. In the interview, Kushner also warns of the dangers of a potential Romney presidency—that it would bring back the terror of a Reagan presidency. The political tension throughout Angels is very topical as we approach a presidential election, and not only because one of the characters in the play, Joe Pitt, a conservative Mormon court clerk who abandons his wife for Prior’s former lover Louis, vaguely reminds us of Mitt Romney. Along with Roy Cohn, a powerful New York lawyer who dies from AIDS (the character is based on the real Roy Cohn), these characters face an intense battle between their established/inherited rules of living and their personal identities. For Joe, he feels a constant guilt for being a homosexual Mormon–his repression and his marriage with Harper emotionally wrecks them both. For Roy, he demands that his AIDS be called “liver cancer,” because although he has sex with men, as he tells his nurse, he is “not a homosexual… Homosexuals are men who have zero clout. Does this sound like me?” Roy’s hierarchical view of the world and his inherited political system force him to live in denial, haunted by spirits he tormented, and to die alone. Fear and denial of personal identity lead to destruction; the reality of our world today is that homophobia is still rampant, and by allowing an inherited, static view of the world that condemns various sexual identities to remain rooted in our country, devastating destruction occurs. Our inherited attitudes reach further than sexual identity into the realms of race and religion, and as the character Belize says, “The white cracker who wrote the national anthem knew what he was doing. He set the word “free” to a note so high nobody can reach it. That was deliberate. Nothing on earth sounds less like freedom to me.”

What I have been calling an inherited view of the world or an inherited system of politics is also inextricably linked with race and spirituality. Louis’ famous passage, “…this reaching out for a spiritual past in a country where no indigenous spirits exist—only the Indians, I mean Native American spirits and we killed them off so now, there are no gods here, no ghosts and spirits in America, there are no angels in America, no spiritual past, no racial past, there’s only the political, and the decoys and the ploys to maneuver around the inescapable battle of politics” seems to be contradicted throughout the rest of the play. Louis may proclaim that there are no angels in America, but Prior’s vision shows otherwise. The Angel he sees seems to be an emblem of conservative views and tradition—she wants humanity to stop migrating, inventing, progressing, because it shakes up heaven. But Prior’s visions really come from himself, from his own life and imagination—his cosmic experience is just another dimension to the truth of his life. What the angel says is a reflection of views inculcated into the American soul through various mediums, and through a natural fear of the unknown. What she says has some poignant truth—that we “destroy” and “trample” the earth, but she does not see that along with pain, healing can come through progress, too. Prior learns to listen to advice from Hannah Pitt (Joe Pitt’s Mormon mom): “An angel is just a belief, with wings and arms that can carry you. It’s naught to be afraid of. If it lets you down, reject it. Seek for something new.”

It is time to let these angels in America, who are afraid of progress and change, go; it is time to seek for something new, something like Belize’s vision of Heaven in which “Race, taste, and history [are] finally overcome.”

I believe in the progressive power of the theatre. I have focused much of this article on the text of the play itself, because it is so complex and beautiful, but it is meant to be experienced in the theatre. The power of theatre lies in the potency of tangible human energy, of breathing and living in the same room as the characters struggling moment-to-moment in their search for identity, freedom, fulfillment, and love. We discover a human connection that we can’t get from watching TV or reading a newspaper. Just as the characters in the play often seem to have shared visions, or visions that bleed into one another, the audience members collectively partake in the visions of the characters, in the vision of Angels in America as a whole. We are witnesses to the events that unfold before us and move us; we are unified by our collective experience. And this experience takes place simultaneously in the personal, political, and cosmic arenas—by witnessing these characters with cosmic and historical visions, we become aware that this is us, that we, too, dwell in these different dimensions all the time.

The magic of theatre also comes from balancing illusion with making the audience aware of how the illusion was created. When I saw Part 1 at the Wilma, the Angel who crashes intro Prior’s room at the end of the show really crashed through the ceiling, and it seemed like some of the hanging lights were dismantled. Rather than ruining the magic of the show, this moment made me hyper aware of practicality, about the skill needed to make the Angel’s flight possible, about all the underpinnings of what makes a show run. The whole play is a bit like this: majestic and occasionally transcendental, but also grounded, able to make fun of itself, and unwilling to let us escape from where we are right now. Almost in the way a Brecht play would do, it stimulates our intellect by not letting us get “lost” in the characters.

The play’s unit set added to the theatrical magic. The set was deceivingly simple, with all white walls (reminiscent of hospital rooms, the snow in Harper’s hallucinations of Antarctica, and a metaphorical “blank slate”) and a staircase and some pieces of easily moveable furniture. The actors were part of rapid furniture shifts, and the staging often included two synchronized scenes bleeding into one another. This was especially powerful during the simultaneous abandonment scenes between Prior/Louis and Harper/Joe and helped illuminate the shared patterns of suffering that humans experience. The ability to rapidly morph from scene to scene was a key aspect of the set that reflects the kaleidoscopic perspectives in the show about change.

The theatre is a necessary venue for political and controversial topics; since the time of Ancient Greek theatre, it was understood that coming to see a play did not only involve emotion or entertainment, but it also involves exploring the implications of cultural and political ideas in current society and how we can take action. The theatre is meant to be a gathering place for us to commune and explore new ways of relating to one another. I appreciated that the Wilma provided a pre-show event including delicious food, drinks and informational materials about AIDS. The Wilma also had a free Community Conversation to discuss HIVV/AIDS in Philadelphia. These are good ways to not only provide a welcoming community, but also to promote discourse amongst the theatre-goers, to show us how we are implicated in the show, and why we should be invested.

I feel lucky to have seen a brilliant production of Angels in America at a theatre near me, as it is a complex work (3 hours for each part!)  that I imagine many theatres are intimidated to take on.  If you learn about a production of the show happening near you, I strongly recommend you seize the opportunity to see it. Anyone in the vicinity of Philadelphia take note that both parts of Angels in America will be showing at The Wilma in September and October—what a tremendous event. At the very least, read the plays and watch the film version, and enjoy the ride and keep your mind wide.

The world only spins forward. 

Nobel prizewinning author Gabriel García Márquez is reportedly suffering from senile dementia. According to the prize winner’s brother, Jaime, the dementia has been provoked by the author’s battle with cancer:

“Dementia runs in our family and he’s now suffering the ravages prematurely due to the cancer that put him almost on the verge of death. Chemotherapy saved his life, but it also destroyed many neurons, many defenses and cells and accelerated the process.”

Meanwhile Jaime Abello, director of the Gabriel García Márquez New Journalism Foundation has denied the report, saying: “He is a man of 85 with the normal signs of his age.”

His brother maintains that Márquez is unable to write due to his condition, which unfortunately excludes the possibility of him finishing his autobiography Vivir para contrarla in English: “Living to Tell the Tale.”

Regardless of diagnosis, Márquez has not written after his novel Memories of My Melancholy Whores (Memoria de mis putas tristes).

Márquez is a well-known and influential author. His novel One Hundred Years of Solitude is one of the most universally recognized and influential pieces of literature today.

Director Alan Ball’s take on The Southern Vampire Mysteries, also known as the Sookie Stackhouse novels in the form of the HBO hit, True Blood does not appear to be losing steam anytime soon. And while the television series won’t be winning Academy Awards anytime soon, the supernatural combinations, playfully campy moments, indulgent gore, witty dialogue, and the steamy scenes are all elements that give the show its well-known flair. One could even go as far as to label the franchise endearing.

Because ancient vampire villain Russell Edgington ripping an anchor’s spine on national television is worlds of endearing.

In tune with Russell’s speech given within the previous clip, this is where I would like to talk a bit about the happenings of season five. Because what I have always found personally riveting about True Blood are the aspects of real world politics that worm their way into the show in between nude scenes. In the opening credits alone, the sign “God Hates Fangs” is allusion to the derogatory term “fags.” It is also a head nod towards religiously fueled hate prevalent in the sphere of LGBT arguments. But instead of the LGBT community, vampires are the targets of bigotry in the world of True Blood (though the former is not far behind in the fictional, southern town of Bon Temps, Louisiana).

In a world where vampires have recently “come out of the coffin” as in, exposed their existence to the human race, Bon Temps (ironically translated as “good times”) has been a playing field of homosexuality, race, religion—and now the Vampire Authority duking it out with the Vampire Sanguinistas. The opposing agendas of both factions may very well lead to an all-out Vampire/Human Civil War. To quote this current season’s Authority traitor proved Sanguinista, Nora: “Yes I believe Vampires were made in God’s image, I believe that mainstreaming is an abomination, and I believe that Lilith will rise from the blood and rip your blasphemes fucking heads off, and dance in your muck.” 

The Sanguinista Movement consists of individuals who are fundamentalists (think right-winged extremists, political chaos) who believe in the literal interpretation of the “Vampire Bible” (older than the Holy Bible)—that humans are nothing but food and to view them as anything higher is sacrilegious. On the other end, there is the Authority, which consists of a group of vampires deeply committed to “mainstreaming.” That is, to share equal rights and coexist with human beings (think the liberals, political order). They interpret the Vampire Bible in a different light.

What both groups have in common is their reverence/worship of the mythological first vampire made in God’s image, before there was an Adam and Eve, Lilith—who has been rumored to be making an appearance this season. However, the Sanguinista Movement has recently been inspired to rise dangerously by the numbers—all thanks to their proclaimed idol and madman that is Russell Edgington.

Sound familiar yet?

Not only are vampires and humans interlaced with troubles, but other supernatural beings such as shifters, faeries, werewolves, and demons all take center stage for what for what certainly will make an intriguing season climax, asTrue Blood has already been green-lit for a sixth season. There is a sense belonging by the more tenderhearted these various groups that are failing to be fulfilled.

At the same rate, there is a rising amount of fear, mistrust, and intolerance stemming from the human side of the playing field. The supernatural folk are armed and are all assumed to be guilty until proven innocent—or dead. As certain groups of humans feel the need to fight back before they are made dead—case in point, the rowdy group of people currently traveling around Bon Temps in Barack Obama masks shooting down every supernatural they see with wooden and silver bullets.

On television, the build up and wait for the final solution towards the myriad of conflicting dilemma is what keeps usTrue Blood fans on their edges of their seats Sunday nights. At the same token, it is the very same conflicts veiled thinly by the facets of fiction that world leaders and the common people struggle with on a daily basis. Which goes to show in the average view’s quest for escapism via entertainment may hit even closer to home than expected with a case of cognitive dissonance or moral lesson in store yet.

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The Katy Perry documentary, Part of Me, hit US theaters this July. The film chronicles Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson’s humble beginnings as a gospel songwriter into the effervescent pop sensation,”Katy Perry,” that she is known as today.

The film opens with shots of various youth from around the world  - ranging in age from 11 to 20 years old – that have been touched by Perry’s music. Each one elaborates differently on the ways that Perry’s lyrics have inspired them, yet all share similar sentiments of awe and respect for Perry, and for the ground she’s gained in their hearts. Zach, 20, said that her music has showed him that “it’s okay to express yourself.”

These days, much of the public eye generalizes stars like Perry as ‘fakes’ who acquiesce to their record labels’ own renditions of contemporary rhythms, while sincere courtesy and enthusiasm for fans is often dismissed as ‘good publicity’ attempts. With Perry, this is far from the case – not only do most of her lyrics come directly from her teenage diary, the dedicated pop star genuinely cares about her fans and their interest in her, and she knows that without them, she wouldn’t have made it this far.

Born in Santa Barbara, CA, Perry began taking voice lessons when she nine years old. When she was 15, her captivating voice hooked a group of former rock singers, who then took her under their wing and headed to Nashville, TN. There, she began recording demos and continued to develop her lyric style. Signing with the Christian music label, Red Hill, Perry went on to record her first album at 15.

Yet, Perry’s path to stardom wasn’t an overnight walk through the park. When she was 17, she headed to Los Angeles to work on an Island Records album with Glen Ballard. It wasn’t until several years later in 2004, that Perry was able to sign onto Colombia Records, a company that she found to be a setback  to her vision as a pop singer, disabling her from taking “the driver’s seat.” In 2006, she was able to switch to Virgin Records and finally, in 2008, her career began to make headway with songs like “I Kissed a Girl” and “Hot n Cold.” In a Sunday Star Times interview , she said “I’m just a little surprised, I knew it would be hard work, but it really is a lot of hard work.” Yet, “I just want to be myself 100% with everything I do and I think that comes off.”

With such dedication and perseverance, the glorious history Perry made when five of her original songs made it to No. 1 on to the Billboard Charts in September 2010, will only continue.

Perry’s Part of Me film is inspiring not only because it depicts her uncompromising nature and determination to see her dreams come to fruition at almost any cost, but also because it documents her struggle to break free from the bubble of Penecostal Christianity that she was confined to for the first 17 years of her life.

“I didn’t have a childhood,” Perry told Vanity Fair near May 2011. She wasn’t allowed to listen to secular music, and since Planned Parenthood was viewed by her parents as an abortion clinic, she was almost terrified when she went near the place.

“My career is like an artichoke . . .people think that the leaves are tasty and buttered up and delicious, and they don’t even know that there’s something magical hidden at the base of it. There’s a whole other side [of me] that people didn’t know existed.”

For the all the gaudy costumes and make-up, Perry remains human, grateful for the long and difficult journey that she had to make to attain such success. “I’ve made mistakes but i don’t regret anything – if you have a dream, you’ve got to go on a journey to fulfill that dream,” she said.<

The film, already showing in Canada, Ireland, and a host of other countries, will continue with international release throughout the summer.

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