We talk about boys and sex and makeup and home-ownership and work and feminism and politics and fashion and music and movies and pro sports idiots and travel and color schemes and relationships and religion and cars and literature and animals and family and and and… it’s just wonderful. I LOVE Gimlet Night!!
This time around, Dawn brought (for Show and Tell) a Seventeen Magazine. She’d picked it up while in Mammoth, as she likes to keep tabs on the messages young women are getting from the media about how they should be. Well, she reminded us of the huge “moment” in our lives (in the ’80s) when “Sex and Your Body” (a monthly column in the magazine) premiered. This was pre-AIDS “How To Avoid Getting a VD” type stuff, but it introduced us to an era of being comfortable talking frankly about sex and our bodies.
She opened the magazine to find this section.
But couldn’t find it.
Where had it gone?
What’s this…? A new section. It’s not a subsection of some other heading. It’s not alongside more “body-oriented” pieces. It’s a few pages devoted to the section heading: FAITH. [A Detroit News article on this recent happening is here.]
The American Family Association runs an article in which the EIC of the magazine (with a year on the job, at this point) says, “I don’t know that it is very sexually-oriented,” [Atoosa] Rubenstein said of the magazine, in general. “We have, in the health section, a sex-health page. We don’t necessarily do it every month…”
WHAT? Sex-health is no longer worth addressing MONTHLY in the ever-changing, hormonally-charged, emotionally-intense days of teenaged lives… but let’s roll out a few pages for FAITH?
Believe me, I’m a big fan of FAITH (I’d love the section all the more if its interviews with young women included those of Pagan and Wiccan faith alongside all the blurbs from those of mainstream religions), but I’m also a fan of sexual health–especially among teenagers. I remember being a teenager. I doubt praying would’ve prevented me from contracting an STD. Luckily, I knew what actions WOULD prevent such a thing (oh, and they’re now calling it an STI, rather than an STD). I worry for kids who today may not get a health tip that could save their lives until three months too late, since sex-health isn’t “necessarily” done monthly anymore in Seventeen.
*shudder*
Shifting Gears
Auditions were great. Wonderful actors. Amazing prereads. Lots of improv and some really creative actors doing genuinely fantastic stuff. Some no-shows, as always, and these with some really grand excuses (oy… see next week’s Showfax.com column to see how that plays out in print), but that’s the holidays for ya!
Thrilled to have Tim and Verna say, as we wrapped today, “I would LOVE to be an actor auditioning for you. You are so GOOD to these actors. You make them feel so strong,” and, “I’ll write any testimonial you need. You are a terrific casting director and you showed us so much more talent than we anticipated seeing. We have a VERY tough job ahead of us. THANK you for making this weekend so great.”
That rocked! Love hearing that! They absolutely adored Keith and thanked him (and Shauna, Saturday) for being such a great support system to the casting process. The lead actor (already cast) sat in on auditions and expressed today that he’d never seen any other actor audition before; that this experience had changed him deeply as an actor. [Note: This is why I always recommend that actors find a way to see auditions happening. It’s SO educational!]
Callbacks will be announced soon. It is going to be tough, but as always, with casting… what a happy problem to have (so much talent from which to choose). Awesome weekend.
Oh…
Except that Keith’s bike was stolen. Actually, our whole street got hit. Neighbors’ bikes, Keith’s bike… not mine, though (weird). The worst part is… it seems I may have heard the theif at work around 1:30am Friday. I was headed to bed and heard clicking and footsteps below our bedroom window. Thinking it might be a homeless person finding a warm cubby in which to sleep for the night, I didn’t even think to look out the window. Of course, I don’t know what I would’ve done (here, alone) had I looked and seen someone walking a bike out of the locked area (oh, yes, AREA locked and the bike was locked up too… all things cut and such–you know, pros have tools). Anyway, I’m having a hard time forgiving myself for not having done something about it. Once I put together the timeline (when Keith learned yesterday about the neighborhood hit), I just sank. I feel really bad. Of course, yesterday’s Daily Word was “Forgiveness.” *sigh* I’m working on it. Just hate getting hit in our new home. But it’s a reminder that nowhere is a place where shit like this DOESN’T happen. That’s just modern life, I guess.
Oh… speaking of modern life…
Is all of the sports-related violence going on this weekend somehow post-election anger? I just have no idea how it is that this stuff keeps happening. Testosterone is an ugly beast!
Okay… that’s a lot of catching up for one post. Time to pull electronic photos of our top-picks from casting so that I can email the producers a Zip file of “reminders” to consult while they review the tapes.
Brr. It’s cold. Like… 53 degrees! Brrrrrrrrrr. Winter!
One last thing… I keep forgetting to share this image here (it’s been here awhile, but I didn’t post it b/c I haven’t bothered to edit it down smaller and the stylesheet for this blog will squeeze all weird if I don’t edit it… and blah blah blah). Anyway, click here to see a map of the Blue/Red States vs. Free/Slave States pre-Civil War. *shudder*
Okay… am I shuddering so much due to how cold it is or is the world just a little extra “shuddery” this weekend? Don’t answer that. I’m getting a blanket.