06 May
Arts & Culture

For Glee's Lea Michele, A Nose is a Nose is a Nose is a Nose

by Amanda Walgrove Last week's episode of Glee preached the self-acceptance of mother monster Lady Gaga's single, "Born This Way." Creators Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk used the hour-and-a-half special to cram in as many subplots as possible, advocating various avenues of self-love in coming to terms with sexuality, OCD, and physical imperfections. Revisiting a recurring reference of the show, Rachel Berry (played by Lea Michele) finds herself struggling with the option of rhinoplasty, even though her idol, Barbra Streisand, refused to go under the knife. The bossy, ambitious, and charmingly vulnerable Rachel gets served her own "Marsha Marsha Marsha" moment when she receives an accidental blow to the nose during a dance practice. Considering her deviated septum, a doctor suggests that it would be a good time for a "vanity adjustment." Donning an impressive schnoz of...

Continue reading

06 May
Arts & Culture

For Glee’s Lea Michele, A Nose is a Nose is a Nose is a Nose

by Amanda Walgrove Last week's episode of Glee preached the self-acceptance of mother monster Lady Gaga's single, "Born This Way." Creators Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk used the hour-and-a-half special to cram in as many subplots as possible, advocating various avenues of self-love in coming to terms with sexuality, OCD, and physical imperfections. Revisiting a recurring reference of the show, Rachel Berry (played by Lea Michele) finds herself struggling with the option of rhinoplasty, even though her idol, Barbra Streisand, refused to go under the knife. The bossy, ambitious, and charmingly vulnerable Rachel gets served her own "Marsha Marsha Marsha" moment when she receives an accidental blow to the nose during a dance practice. Considering her deviated septum, a doctor suggests that it would be a good time for a "vanity adjustment." Donning an impressive schnoz of...

Continue reading

08 Oct
Arts & Culture, Culture, Latest, Religion

A Gleeful Take on Religion

By Lisa Krysiak This week’s episode of Glee was in stark contrast from last week’s hilariously over-the-top ode to Britney Spears. It delved into the difficult topic of religion, exploring three different categories of religious belief through its characters. The first category, exemplified by Kurt and Sue, is people who reject religion based on their dissatisfaction with an imperfect world.  When Kurt’s father has a heart attack, his Glee club mates offer to pray for him, but Kurt resents God for the difficulties he faces for being gay.  He denounces religion and asserts that he doesn’t believe in God, “when he makes me gay, and then has his followers going around telling me it's something that I chose. As if someone would choose to be mocked every single day of their life."  He rejects their offers of...

Continue reading

27 May
Uncategorized

Good Jewish Fun

By Symi Rom-Rymer With weather in the 90s and a three-day weekend to look forward to, it’s no time for a heavy post.  So instead, here’s some fun Jewish TV mind candy: I thought I’d kick things off with a sketch from the early years, “Jewess Jeans.”  A parody of the then-popular Jordache jeans commercial, Rhonda Weiss (played by Gilda Radner) skillfully plays with our notions of what it means to be both Jewish and sexy. One of my strongest memories of Hebrew School is watching the Bar Mitzvah episode of The Wonder Years.  Ever year at some point, our teachers would trot this out as a clean, satire-free look at Jews on TV.  Sometimes I wonder if they also wanted to use this episode as warning:  if you stray from the fold, you will end up like...

Continue reading