“Never Nude” from Arrested Development is an Actual Disorder
Of all the brilliant nonsense that has transpired on “Arrested Development,” it turns out that Tobias Funke’s pathological fear of being naked is actually a real thing called Gymnophobia.
You can’t always get what you want
But if you try sometimes well you might find
You get what you need
— The Rolling Stones
A cartoon by Liam Francis Walsh. For more cartoons from the issue: http://nyr.kr/13kbHDE
It is rare that you can combine all of my favorite things that don’t go together in one ridiculous short and make it work (kind of)—
Here you have:
- Zach Galifianakis ridiculing James Franco in “Behind Two Ferns;” AND
- The Lonely Island making fun of spring breakers while simultaneously promoting gay marriage with Z. Galifanakis and J. Franco and Ed Norton.
My favorite part is when they are trying to pick out wedding fonts for their gay wedding. Well done!
via Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis, James Franco, The Lonely Island and Spring Breakers
‘Beauty is truth, truth beauty,’ – that is all / Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.
— Last lines from one of my favorite poems, ”Ode on a Grecian Urn,” by John Keats
Response to New York Times article: “The Dark Side, Carefully Masked”
Yesterday, I read the New York Times article “The Dark Side, Carefully Masked” that provided insight into the mind of the Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the younger of the two marathon bombers. While well researched, thorough and thought provoking, unfortunately, it did not bring further clarity. What the article did do was increase my intrigue into Mr. Tsarnaev’s conflicting character and strengthen my confusion: How can one person can live an outwardly normal life while simultaneously living as a terrorist?
“I have had almost two weeks to think about it, and it still makes no more sense than the day I found out it was him,” Jason Rowe, Mr. Tsarnaev’s freshman roommate, said in an interview. “Nothing seemed out of the ordinary.”
As a Bostonian, I want nothing more than for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s story to go away so I can return to life before terror, before the endless stream of media, to news that I can zone out and avoid. But with each new piece of information comes further anxiety because the multi-faceted personality of Mr. Tsarnaev is challenging to wrap your head around. How can someone who plans and orchestrates an act of terror also be a good friend and play the role of a good person?
“You always see people’s personality traits over the course of a season. If somebody is short-tempered, if they lose a match, maybe they throw a chair. There’s somebody who’s moody, or like a loner. He was none of those things.”
-Peter Payack, high school wrestling coach
Because of the vast discrepancy in personality, I immediately wonder if mental illness played a role. It would be easier if we could simply categorize him as a sociopath with homicidal tendencies, write him off as crazy and damaged and be done with it. It bothers me that the explanation can’t be straightforward, cut and dry.
Repeatedly, we hear evidence that his brother was a strong influence which leads me to then think that the blame and culpability of this terrible crime could be shared. Of course, the brother is dead so I am left with speculation: Is Dzhokhar Tsarnaev a terrorist because his family left him alone with his older brother who introduced and manipulated him into this world of terror? Or is he just a vulnerable teenager that wanted to be accepted and got in over his head? I wish there were easier answers.
Early this year, Mr. Tsarnaev unexpectedly returned to his high school, wrestling shoes in hand, to grapple with the team.
“We’re all laughing; everyone’s pulling his hair and saying you ought to do cornrows,” Mr. Payack said. “Eight weeks later, he blows up the marathon. Why would he embrace us if he wants to blow us up?”
In a further baffling move for an alleged terrorist, after Mr. Tsarnaev planted the marathon bombs with his brother, he reached out to his friends to ensure their safety.
The afternoon of April 15, Mr. Tsarnaev’s other Chechen friend Mr. Mazaev received a text message from him. The marathon had been bombed, and the city was in chaos. “Yo buddy are yu ok man?” Mr. Tsarnaev asked.
“Two bombs went off,” Mr. Mazaev replied. “People losing limbs.”
“Yeah man we good mashallah,” Mr. Tsarnaev wrote back, using an Arabic phrase often spoken upon hearing good news. “I automatically thought of yu man Boston and what not.”
It’s hard for me not to empathize with someone so conflicted, even though I understand that he is a murderer, responsible for unbelievable destruction and instilling fear throughout my entire community. It doesn’t appear that Mr. Tsarnaev is by nature a cold hard killer but with out enough nurture, positive role models, supervision and family members to support him, he became one. While I strongly feel he deserves to be prosecuted by the full extent of the law, I see his situation in shades of grey.
It would be so much easier if Dzhokhar Tsarnaev were 100% evil and we could slap a label on him and file him away in our minds; but he’s not. He’s multi-dimensional which makes him human—too human for my liking.
Photos from my personal collection of the Marathon Memorial, Copley Square, Boston, MA.
New York Times article “The Dark Side, Carefully Masked“ by MICHAEL WINES and IAN LOVETT can be found at: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/05/us/dzhokhar-tsarnaevs-dark-side-carefully-masked.html?src=mv&_r=0
The trouble with the rat race is that even if you win, you’re still a rat.
— Lily Tomlin
