Things That Matter To People Who Matter

The Wire | RajniKanth | Jersey corn | Myartspace.com

The Wire

While our culture takes comfort in a black-and-white morality, HBO's The Wire shines a light on reality's many shades of gray. Set in a battered Baltimore landscape driven by Darwinism and plagued by corruption, The Wire captures in its characters the complexities and depth of real people — drug lords, cops, politicians and addicts alike. While the stress-filled urban air weighs heavily on the lungs of Baltimore's residents, their eyes somehow manage to show signs of compassion and hope. Highlighting the common human struggle, this show illustrates just how easily and often the lines between "good" and "bad" can blur. This series is not only the most entertaining show on television, but also a provocative eye-opener for the American people.

RajniKanth

Right now I am spending a year in Tamil Nadu, India, doing research on college youth. One thing I have been thinking about a lot is male fashion here. At first glance one would think that the fashion sense is highly influenced by American fashion, given the jeans, sneakers and T-shirts with English slogans in loud colors. But I've realized that while American fashion has an impact, it isn't in any way direct or simple. In fact, most styles come from Tamil movies, which have been and remain more popular than American movies. Moreover, how people make sense of style and how they use it is uniquely Tamil. If you want to understand Tamil "style," catch a RajniKanth movie. His latest movie is Sivaji, but Badsha and Padaiyappa are both definitely worth watching, too!

Jersey corn

Being a Southern transplant to Philadelphia, I have to say I am quite disappointed in the summers here. When I first moved, I thought, "I'll freeze my ass off in February, but come July I'll be nice and cool, the envy of all my friends back home." Ha. Wrong. It's just as hot and humid, and all that heat and humidity gets trapped between buildings making it feel even worse than most places down South. I was a fool. Luckily, I've discovered something that lets me transcend the heat and actually enjoy a few of the things summer has to offer: Jersey corn on the cob. Sweet, succulent and delicious Jersey corn — perfect for summertime. Rivaling the Southern corn of my youth, the corn grown by our neighbor has saved summer and I can't get enough.

Myartspace.com

Myartspace.com has catapulted me into the 21st century. I get invitations from artists all over the world to be "in their network." We discuss our art and the art world, as well as other things. One of my network artists is from Bolu, which I had to Google to find out was a beautiful area in Turkey. I love that the Internet makes communicating around the world so easy.