Friday, December 4, 2020

"Food tube" (food videos on YouTube)/ Stephen's Backpacks Society

 


Oct. 4, 2016 "Food tube": Yesterday I found this article by Natayla Anderson in the Globe and Mail.  It's where people watch other people eat food on YouTube.  Seriously.  I wouldn't watch it.  I don't even watch cooking shows because I am unable to eat the food.

I'm sure some of you guys are laughing at this part.

This article is about psychology, eating disorders, and the use of technology.

I did say I wanted to be a YouTube influencer:

http://badcb.blogspot.com/2019/12/tv-and-movie-comparisons-i-want-to-be.html

Nov. 27, 2020: I was at my friend Cham's home and she showed me a Strictly Dumpling video because he went to a Las Vegas buffet.  That is the only time I watched an eating video:


Here's the article:


Shoogi films herself eating dinner almost every night. From a studio in South Korea, the petite young woman takes large bites from several platters of food and broadcasts her meal live for hundreds of thousands of viewers. She cheerfully interacts with her audience while she eats, responding to their instant messages and graciously accepting online monetary donations throughout the livestream.

Shoogi, whose trademark is inhaling spicy rice cakes four at a time in one big gulp, is one of many broadcast jockeys – BJs, as they’re commonly known – who stream late-night mukbangs (translated as “food broadcasts”) on Korea’s AfreecaTV.

She is one of the 20 most popular BJs, according to the country’s annual Broadcast Jockey Awards, and her colleagues have praised her ability to eat so much despite her fragile frame. BJs have been known to make more than $9,000 a month from viewer donations.

While the YouTube trend originated in Korea, mukbang creators are now chomping their way around North America, and some health-care professionals are conflicted over whether it’s harmless vicarious eating or a danger to viewers with burgeoning eating disorders.

Brae Naomhan, who is based in Ontario (she does not wish to disclose which city), began her videos at the onset of recovery from anorexia in early 2015. Having just shy of 24,000 subscribers, she broadcasts her meals (such as a plate piled high with chicken legs, deli salads and a variety of dipping sauces) from the home she shares with her mother and grandfather.

“I can’t be sure … if it helped or hurt,” Naomhan said via e-mail, her preferred form of communication. “I wanted to be recovered and normal in my food habits so badly that I would probably have done it with or without the channel. I don’t know really; it’s all been so public for me [that] I can’t quite say what would have gone down if it was private.”

Naomhan’s uncertainty is what concerns health-care professionals such as Dr. Debra Katzman, head of adolescent medicine and the eating disorders unit at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto.

“Is it because they’re lonely and they want someone to be with?” Katzman asked during a telephone interview. “Is it because they’re getting some kind of vicarious pleasure out of watching somebody else eat when they won’t let themselves eat and they have an eating disorder? 

We don’t know why the people, on the one hand, are doing this and what their motivation is, and we don’t understand why the same thing is happening on the other end with the people who are choosing to watch this.”

In South Korea, the impetus for creating and viewing mukbangs reportedly stemmed from a sense of isolation and shame. Time magazine reported in 2014 that the number of one-person households in the country is expected to jump from 25.3 per cent in 2012 to 32.7 per cent in 2030, the fastest rate among rich-world countries, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.

Statistics Canada reports that the proportion of one-person households in this country increased from 25.7 per cent to 27.6 per cent between 2001 and 2011, a trend it notes has existed for decades and is projected to continue when updated data is released in 2017.

“Eating alone in Korea is not encouraged and people feel judged and looked down upon if they have to do it, regardless of your living conditions,” said Martina Sazunic, who moved with her husband, Simon Stawski, from Toronto to South Korea 10 years ago and created their hugely popular YouTube channel Eat Your Kimchi.

“The same goes for seeing a movie alone or going to a coffee shop alone. People are always coupled or in groups when eating in Korea. Some restaurants won’t even let you eat alone.”

Sazunic, who also preferred to be interviewed by e-mail, and Stawski relocated to Japan eight months ago and expanded their channel to include Eat Your Sushi, visiting different restaurants and sampling menus for more than a million subscribers. “We focus a lot on education in our videos, rather than just eating and chatting,” she said.

Regardless of geographic location, longing for a dinner companion is just one of the driving forces behind mukbangs.

For the creators, the term used by YouTube for people who make videos and vlogs, there is money to be made, but it isn’t as simple as creating a channel and waiting for the cash to roll in.

A channel must partner with YouTube and reach enough subscriptions – into the hundred thousands – that each video it hosts also receives hundreds of thousands of views. At that point, money can be made through sponsorship and advertising, and creators can receive donations from viewers once they are approved by YouTube.

However, many lesser-viewed channels continue uploading food videos weekly, which suggests that some mukbang creators have other motivations. A mutual desire to witness food’s effects – both the pleasure and comfort of eating, and the anxiety around gaining weight or losing control – is something creators and viewers share.

“In Korea, mukbang is not new at all,” Thien Le, who films mukbangs from his home in California, said by phone. “However, when we’re bringing it over to Western culture, it’s as if we’ve dropped a bomb. … It’s a fear. Westerners – there’s some sort of fear that they almost don’t want to tap into. But we’re usually interested in what we’re fearing.”

Moonlight Eats, who does not feel comfortable sharing her real name, left her job as a physician’s assistant in Milwaukee, Wis., to be a stay-at-home mom and now creates several eating broadcasts a week for her nearly 27,000 YouTube subscribers. She said she started her channel last autumn to alleviate a sense of isolation when her husband, a prominent oncologist, was working late.

Moonlight and Naomhan are part of a growing community of mukbang creators who incorporate autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) into their videos. The therapeutic technique – wherein whispering or speaking in hushed tones, and focusing on the sound of slicing, chopping, chewing and swallowing their food – is said to trigger euphoric, calming sensations for some viewers.

“Everyone has a different reason for making the videos and everyone has a different reason for watching,” Moonlight said by phone. 

“Some people watch just for the company. 

Some experience true ASMR with certain sounds. 

Some people are weirdos and this is their way of subscribing to underage porn. 

For some, it’s vicarious eating. There are people on certain diets – for weight loss, or health reasons or religious reasons – and they can’t eat certain food. 

The other day a girl told me she’d just had all her wisdom teeth out. I had just done a candy video, and she said, ‘Thank you so much. I am so satisfied.’”

There are two prominent types of BJs: attractive, slim people who take clean bites and less conventionally attractive people who sometimes label themselves “chunky” and eat freely or messily.

Mukbangs vary in presentation as well. Some BJs simply sit behind a table and carry on a topical conversation while their platters are laid out in full view of the camera. Others show their food but only show parts of their faces or bodies.

Viewers can make requests in the comments section or via direct message for particular meals. Fast food and spicy ramen receive the most views. Subscribers often ask mukbang creators to take bigger bites and chew with exaggerated sounds.

Moonlight believes that the desire to be surrounded by food and all its sounds stems from fetal memory. “Absolutely, it brings us back to when we were babies,” she said.

Victoria Pollock, a psychoanalyst with a private practice in downtown Toronto, supports this idea within a broader picture of nourishment.

“Something about the disowned appetite – I’m imagining this into the viewer,” Pollock said by phone. “I’m imagining people have disowned their longing. They're able to see this avatar as something claiming their desire. There is a fantasy involved that [Shoogi] can eat a table full of food every night and not be sick. That, I can imagine, is incredibly comforting.”

BJs are badgered about their weight. Comments tend to question how they stay thin while eating so much, or taunt them with how much they have gained since they began their channel.

In a documentary for AfreecaTV, Shoogi said her daily regimen involved two hours of actual eating, followed by several hours of swimming and running on the treadmill. She has also been known to post photos of herself receiving intravenous treatments for electrolyte irregularities on her blog.

Because of the volume of questions they receive on the topic, most BJs in North America devote a video to detailing their own workout regimes and what they eat in a day when they are off camera.

This is where the interactive part of mukbang and ASMR food videos becomes a concern for Katzman. In a chapter she wrote as a contributing editor to Neinstein’s Adolescent and Young Adult Health Care, which collected world data on the health of adolescents and young adults, she indicates that there is an estimated incidence rate of eight cases of anorexia per 100,000 population, and that up to 15 per cent of individuals report binge eating or purging behaviours. She worries that mukbangs may exacerbate eating disorders in some viewers.

“I’m not saying any of these are right, but you could make a list of reasons why [BJs] do it.

One would be money; it’s a job. One could be she has an eating disorder and this is her way of either healing or relating to people because she doesn’t want to go out. … The problem, as I see it, because I’m advocating for the vulnerable patient on the other side of the camera, is how do they understand it, and why are they resorting to it?”

A catharsis of sorts is exchanged between creator and viewer during broadcasts. In all cases, these virtual meals facilitate heartfelt confessions on the part of the creator, which in turn elicit personal responses from the audience.

Ben Deen’s channel saw a spike in subscribers when he talked about relocating from small-town Illinois to South Korea to find his birth parents and a brother he didn’t know he had (“I’m not really making that much money from it,” he said by e-mail, “but connecting with the people who watch my videos is extremely rewarding”). 

Thien Le’s ever-growing viewership was deeply touched by his childhood story of how a lunch lady had mercy on him one day when he went to school without food and offered him a free plate of spaghetti and meatballs.

 Brae Naomhan’s subscribers comment frequently on the appeal of her honest, ongoing confessions of recovery from anorexia.

“I don’t think it has affected me therapeutically the same way it has affected others,” Naomhan said. “I get messages and comments from people that blow me away sometimes, [saying] that they felt this or changed something in their lives due to something I said.”

For Moonlight, the goal is to untangle a natural desire for pleasure from an inevitable wave of guilt. “There has to be a sense of accessibility,” she said. “There is a sense of shame for a lot of people.

They’ll say, ‘Oh, I could never allow myself to have that.’ But you deserve it, dammit. You live life once. I’m not saying go out and eat crap every single day, but make yourself happy. Indulge a little bit. There’s no shame in that.”

Whatever the psychological nuances, an obsession with food combined with a need for instant gratification through technology is connecting creators and viewers alike all over the world.

“We watch Yuka Kinoshita [now that we’re] in Japan,” Simon Stawski said by e-mail, “simply because she’s so small and cute and can eat 6 kg of food in one sitting.”



XTRANGER 1 day ago
What is this world coming to? First world problems.

Reply 
+4  -0
+4

Rolloff deBunk 23 hours ago
well.. its because theres nothing but info-mercials on the other channels... thats why

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+2  -0
+2

BuckSaver 24 hours ago
"She is one of the 20 most popular BJs..." 

And the other 19 are?

Reply 
+2  -0
+2

This week's theme is about filmmaking:

"Rob Stewart: courageous environmental activist"/ "The legacy of Canadian filmmaker and conservationist Rob Stewart"


Tracy's blog: "Rob Stewart: courageous environmental activist"/ "The legacy of Canadian filmmaker and conservationist Rob Stewart" (badcb.blogspot.com)


"Filmmaker (Rob Stewart) devoted his life to sharks"/ "Out with the girls" (Lena Dunham)


My week: 


Nov. 28, 2020  "Woman smashes ‘hundreds’ of bottles of alcohol in supermarket":

A woman has been arrested after throwing hundreds of bottles of alcohol on the floor and smashing them in an Aldi branch in Hertfordshire.

The woman was filmed by another shopper in the shop in Stevenage picking up bottles one by one in silence and hurling them onto the floor, which was already covered with shattered glass and various types of alcohol.

Footage from another angle showed she had cleared a shelf in the middle and was reaching for bottles on the top shelf to smash on the ground as well. The incident occurred on Wednesday, according to Hertfordshire Police.

The incident in Lingfield took place after the woman was asked to follow the store’s one-way system, which was put in place as a coronavirus measure to stop the spread of the virus.

Woman smashes ‘hundreds’ of bottles of alcohol in supermarket (yahoo.com)

My opinion: I don't know if this woman has mental illness or she was just angry and wanted to take revenge.  Here are the following options:

A. She can yell and swear at the worker and manager.

B. She can take her business elsewhere.

C. She can push her cart into a huge display like boxes of cereals and cans (and not cause a lot of damage to the products) and make a huge mess.  Then she can run away really fast.

D. All of the above.

Song: Now I'm thinking of that song:

There are 100 bottles of beer on the wall

There are 100 bottles of beer

You take one down and pass it around

There are 99 bottles of beer on the wall 


"Justin Timberlake Donates Wheelchair-Accessible Van to Teen with Cerebral Palsy: 'You Inspire Me'": 



This family is grateful for Justin Timberlake this Thanksgiving.

On Wednesday, 17-year-old Jake Stitt — who lives with cerebral palsy — received a much-needed, generous gift from the pop star: a wheelchair-accessible van.

Jake and his dad Tim, who live in Morristown, Tennessee, were looking to raise enough funds to purchase the van. However, Timberlake took it upon himself to help the Stitts by purchasing the adaptable vehicle. (Jake and his father had already raised more than $35,000 for the van — now, they'll get to keep the funds to help with Jake's care.)

"It's my pleasure," Timberlake, 39, told the son and father over Zoom. "Like I said, I heard there was a goal to try to get this van before Thanksgiving. I heard your story and saw a little news clip about it."

"I was so moved that I want you guys to have this van," he added. "I'm going to cover all the costs. I want you guys to have a great holiday. You inspire me, Jake."

“It’s going to make his life much easier as we go into our future and it’s going to make my life a lot easier because there’s not many people that can lift him up and sit him in a van like he needs,” Tim told the outlet. “It’s going to make our lives so much easier because of the independence he’s going to have as a young man now.”

As for Jake's reaction?

"It was a blessing and God bless," he said.

Justin Timberlake Donates Wheelchair-Accessible Van to Teen with Cerebral Palsy: 'You Inspire Me' (yahoo.com)

My opinion: Aww....


Nov. 29, 2020 "Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively Donate $500,000 to Charity Supporting Homeless Youth in Canada":


Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively have opened their wallets to at-risk youths struggling with homelessness in Canada.

The couple donated $250,000 to both Covenant House Vancouver and Covenant House Toronto, an organization which Reynolds, 44, has supported for a long time, according to a press release.

The nonprofit provides homeless youth with basic needs like food and shelter as well as helps to prepare them to live independent and successful futures, according to its website. It also helps those who are victims of sex trafficking.

"Covenant House provides love, hope and stability for at-risk youth who’ve fled physical, emotional and sexual abuse. They do the work of heroes," Reynolds said in the release.

Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively Donate $500,000 to Charity Supporting Homeless Youth in Canada (yahoo.com)

Dec. 1, 2020 Stephen's Backpacks Society: I found this article in the Costco Connection:

Four Seasons of Hope

It all began with a dream from a 5 year old boy who overheard his parents talking about a homeless man in the newspaper. When he asked about it and learnt that there are homeless children, men and women it ignited a vision of change when he said to his mother “mommy we have to help them!” Since 2006, Stephen’s Backpacks Society has helped more than 70,000 children in need and has supported 32 families with a second chance at home life. Stephen has become a voice for homeless children and it all started with a dream to help those in need.

Home - Stephen's Backpacks Society for Children in Need


Dec. 2, 2020 COVID- 19 tracer: I was looking for a job and there is this position.  This is mainly contacting people who may have been exposed to COVID- 19.

Contact Tracer COVID-19 Response Job Description Template (cdc.gov)

AHS actively recruiting more contact tracers as COVID-19 cases in Alberta climb | Globalnews.ca


Advice column by Omar Mouallem: I went to Professional Writing at MacEwan with him.  He is starting an advice column for freelance writers and journalists.  He is a very successful writer and has a book and been published in magazines:

Omar Mouallem: Writer and Journalist

An advice column for freelance writers and journalists. - At Large (substack.com)


My opinion: That's cool.  I shared that on my Facebook page.  I'm in the Screenwriters Meetup group and I always read a script that someone submits.  I write a list of the pros and cons on the script and send the comments to the writer.

Dec. 3, 2020 Laundry: Today I actually did my own laundry.  Usually it's my mom that does the laundry for the most part.  I had written down notes before on how to work the washer.  I only had a little assistance from her.

I know how to wash dishes, sweep and mop the floors, vacuum, and shovel the snow.  I usually wash the lunch and dinner dishes daily.

My Service Canada: I haven't logged in since the beginning of Oct.  Today I called them because I couldn't log in.  The recorded message was that I was in for a 10 min. hold, but I didn't have to wait at all.  (I called at 9am on a weekday morning.)  That's good.

I was on the phone for 15 min. and then I was able to log in.  I thanked the worker.

I see on my Service Canada account that they haven't made a decision on my EI yet.  I know because I see my bank statements.

When I filed for EI/ CERB in mid March, I had to wait 2 months before I got a CERB payment.

Posted by at No comments:

"Filmmaker (Rob Stewart) devoted his life to sharks"/ "Out with the girls" (Lena Dunham)

 

Feb. 13, 2017 "Filmmaker devoted his life to sharks":

His award-winning film Sharkwater led to bans on shark fishing and shark-fin soup around the world

DIANE PETERS

Special to The Globe and Mail

In the 2006 documentary Sharkwater, Rob Stewart, the film's writer, director, producer, narrator and star, did things that few others ever attempt. He went scuba diving with sharks of numerous species, often stroking and even hugging them. He also took a lengthy free dive - no oxygen tank, just holding his breath - with sharks.

In another daring move, Mr. Stewart climbed a building to film illegally obtained shark fins drying on a roof. His boat was chased out of Costa Rican waters by men with guns. He contracted a flesh-eating disease after sustaining cuts on his body from diving. 

"Rob knew that in order to get people to watch his films he needed [to include] a lot of action in them," says Dustin Titus, a friend and colleague who helped market some of Mr. Stewart's films. (After the filming for Sharkwater was over, Mr. Stewart was sick for months, suffering from dengue fever, West Nile virus and tuberculosis.) 

The Toronto-born photographer, filmmaker and environmental activist was 37 when he died on Jan. 31 in the waters off the Florida Keys, halfway through shooting his new film, Sharkwater: Extinction. 

He regularly pushed limits to get gorgeous, heart-wrenching footage for his documentaries and combined the images with plainly stated facts. He aimed to dispel myths and show how sharks' plight has an impact on human life. 

"He had this incredible gift of being able to show the beauty of the world," says Sarika Cullis Suzuki, a friend who is a marine biologist, activist and daughter of David Suzuki. "We too often focus on the battles and what was lost; he showed us what we still have." 

His approach worked: Sharkwater won more than 40 awards around the world and will air on Netflix later this month. The film and his ceaseless advocacy resulted in numerous bans on shark fishing and shark-fin soup around the world. (He sent China a copy of the film and it aired on state TV. Consumption of shark fins dropped afterward - by half in Hong Kong alone.) 

He followed up with 2012's Revolution. It took him four years to film this wider look at the environment and activism. In a 2012 interview about it and his book Save the Humans, Mr. Stewart told The Canadian Press, "We're facing a world by 2050 that has no fish, no reefs, no rain forest and nine billion people on a planet that already can't sustain seven billion people. So it's going to be a really dramatic century unless we do something about it." 

Revolution won 19 awards. In 2015, he released The Fight for Bala, a film about the at-risk Bala Falls in Muskoka. 

In addition to his films, he cofounded the non-profit United Conservationists, which funds the Fin Free campaign, nature reserves and other environmental projects around the world. He was known worldwide for his public speaking and his skills as a diver, and became friends with celebrities including billionaire Richard Branson and actor Adrian Grenier. 

Young, handsome and svelte, Mr. Stewart played well to the camera. He had an engaging surfer-dude drawl - you would never know that he stuttered as a kid and trained himself out of it over many years. 

Julie Andersen, a United Conservationists co-founder who collaborated on films with Mr. 
Stewart, marvelled at how he was able to remain perfectly dressed and coiffed even while filming in a hot, damp Madagascar jungle. 

"We're going to make the environmental movement cool," he once told her. 

To him, conservation was far more than a fad, though. When Mr. Titus first went to Mr. Stewart's apartment around 2006, he was surprised to see wall-to-wall books: serious literature and complex biology textbooks that he had clearly read. "Rob looks cool all the time but he's actually super nerdy." 

When Ms. Cullis-Suzuki first met him, at an event, she asked what impact Sharkwater had made on the world. Without a pause, he began listing all the regions where shark fishing had become illegal. "He knew all the stats off the top of his head," she says. 

Robert Brian Stewart was born on Dec. 28, 1979, in Toronto, to Brian Stewart and Sandra Campbell, entrepreneurs who own and run Tribute Entertainment Media Group. Obsessed with animals from a young age, Rob got his first goldfish around four. 

Visiting the fish store was a weekly routine and staff there soon began calling him with news of new arrivals. The boy later got a monitor lizard and a boa constrictor, which he named Mali. "His bedroom was like a menagerie," his father says. 

On family vacations in the Caribbean, "we'd still be unpacking and he'd be in the water, looking for creatures and talking to the locals," his father recalls. Rob saw his first shark at the age of eight, and fell in love. When he was 13, he insisted his entire family, including elder sister Alexandra, get scuba-diving certifications. 

He got his first underwater camera at the age of 14, learned to free dive at a young age and got his scuba instructor certification at 18. 

At the family cottage, Rob busied himself catching frogs and other wildlife. He'd often swim alone to a nearby island, despite his parents' fear that boats would hit him. "I'll just dive to the bottom until they go by," he replied. 

Rob excelled at his studies and went to the private all-boys Crescent School starting in Grade 7. 

He met Mr. MacLeod that first day; they were the only two with long hair. They'd hang out at Mr. Stewart's house, among the many fish tanks and animal books. 

While Mr. MacLeod would look at the books' pictures and the captions, his buddy seemed to have all the content memorized. 

"He was like a human encyclopedia regarding anything to do with animals and the ocean," says Mr. MacLeod, who helped his friend with films and activism years later. "He was obsessed with animals, and I was, too, but he was [at the] next level." 

Rob eventually told his parents that school was "really boring with just guys." They said he could go to public high school at Lawrence Park Collegiate if he stayed on the honour roll. Several of his buddies changed schools with him. There, he played on the rugby team and excelled academically. 

He went on to study biology at Western University, taking lots of math because, he told his parents, it was a "bird course." He took advantage of special exchange programs that took him to Kenya and Jamaica. 

In Kenya, students went out to collect wildlife and share it with the class. Others found snails and crabs but they gathered around Mr. Stewart's container, teachers included, knowing he'd have something good. He opened it to reveal a black mamba, one of the world's deadliest venomous snakes. Everyone leaped back, terrified, while Rob picked up the snake, saying, "Check it out, guys!" 

After graduation, he did photography for the Canadian Wildlife Federation's magazine, which was published at the time by his parents' company, and did freelance work as well. That work took him all around the world. 

He wanted to have more of an impact, though, so he bought a video camera and devoured a book on how to make movies, which a girlfriend gave him. He began shooting Sharkwater in 2002, at first flying on points and using his own money, plus some from his parents, then eventually receiving some tax credits and distribution support. 

Thus began a whirlwind career of travel, creating films, speaking, working on projects with others and constant learning. Mr. Stewart accomplished a great deal quickly. "Rob's parents are very successful business people [and] his sister went to Harvard. But Rob took that same work ethic and intelligence and drive and applied it to the planet," Mr. MacLeod says. 

Those close to him marvel that, despite everything he knew and saw - hundreds of sharks slaughtered, dying reefs, the shark-fin mafia wielding weapons - Mr. Stewart remained an optimist. 

Ms. Andersen says: "He saw some pretty gnarly stuff. But he had incredible faith in mankind and our ability to change. He made you believe anything was possible." 

Rob Stewart leaves his parents; sister; brother-in-law, Roger Rudisuli; and two nephews. 
To submit an I Remember: obit@globeandmail.com Send us a memory of someone we have recently profiled on the Obituaries page. Please include I Remember in the subject field 

Associated Graphic 
Canadian filmmaker and environmental activist Rob Stewart is seen on a boat off the coast of Florida before he went missing on Jan. 31. 

http://v1.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20170213.
OBSPOBSTEWART/BDAStory/BDA/deaths

My opinion: I didn't know him before, but he really followed his passion.

Dec. 31, 2019: He loved animals and specifically sharks and then he became a filmmaker.

I know my little brother loved animals when he was a kid and he still loves them by watching all those animal documentaries on TV.  However, he didn't get into it as a career and went into business.

That's the thing with being interested in something as a kid, teen, or adult.  You can make a career out of it, or you like it only as a hobby.

Stewart could have gone into a marine biologist, scientist, or author.


Feb. 10, 2017 "Out with the girls": Today I found this article by Frazier Moore in the Edmonton Journal.  I never saw the show because I don't have HBO.  I'm not a fan of any of these actors.  

However, I did like this article because it's about Lena Dunham who is a TV writer and producer and star of the show.  She wrote the pilot at 23 yrs old and got it produced at 25.  She was living my goal:


Let’s go surfing! The final season of Girls begins with Hannah, the series’ ever-outto-prove-herself writer, braving sand, sunblock and neoprene for the sake of a magazine assignment.

As usual with this comedy of over-bright 20-somethings searching for themselves, the episode feels reliably true to character yet unpredictable as Hannah gains a measure of personal insight that extends beyond her lack of acumen on a surfboard. It premières Sunday on HBO. Debuting in 2012, the series instantly became a cultural touchstone as it charted the Brooklyn-based adventures of Marnie (Allison Williams), Jessa (Jemima Kirke), Shoshanna (Zosia Mamet) and Hannah (Lena Dunham). 

Dunham is also the series’ creator as well as writer, producer, director and its overall creative wellspring.

Dunham talks about this concluding season and the five seasons before:

A LITTLE TOO GNARLY?

Certain beaches on Long Island draw a surfing crowd conspicuously outfitted with sleek physiques.

It’s a different story in the nearby urban canyons.

“If you live in New York City, you almost forget you have a body,” Dunham says. “You’re just walking around trying to get everywhere, like a floating head making your way through crowds.”

HARD TIMES

Filming of Girls wrapped for good last September. Then Dunham went straight into stumping for Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

“When the show was over, I had taken all my creative energy and put it into campaigning. Then it was: ‘Hillary Clinton’s not president. Our TV show’s over. Donald Trump is in control of the free world. I guess I’ll be staying in bed today.’ ”

A FINE TIME

Filming the last season was “overwhelming and beautiful and nostalgic and at times deeply disorienting,” Dunham says.

For much of its run, Girls was “the only thing and everything I had,” she says, “which is part of why separating from it is so complicated. But I feel really lucky because, so often, a huge marker of your 20s is feeling like you don’t have a place to put your passion and your energy, and like you don’t have a way to feel seen. I never had to struggle with that.

“I did sort of struggle with going to brunch with my friends. I wasn’t necessarily the greatest at the things that are supposed to mark your 20s — moments where you let yourself drift on the tide, even when you’re in pain, and you connect with people and go to a party without knowing exactly what time you need to be home. I didn’t have that experience.

“Hannah got to be Hannah, and I got to pretend to be her,” Dunham says. “Pretending to be her at a party was better for me than actually being at a party. As a result, I got everything I needed in my 20s. I had a different, really amazing, experience.”

WRITE OF PASSAGE

Dunham is a writer who can turn out a Girls script in a night, and whose sureness of vision for show seems beyond dispute. “But I’ve had moments of crisis and doubt about the show,” she says, “and I’ve had moments of crisis and doubt that comes from being ages 23 to 30, which is a time rife with crises and doubt — which is what our entire show was about.”

She was 23 when she started writing the pilot script and turned 25 while the first season was in production. Last June, as the final season was shooting, she crossed the Great Divide into 30. She has no further pressing need for 20s generated crisis and doubt. Being 30 comes as a relief.

NO LONGER A PRODIGY

It’s not a word Dunham condones, but based on her early and multifaceted success, she has been hailed as something of a wunderkind.

Maybe for future projects she’ll be judged on different terms, as an artist for whom age is no longer an aspect.

“I’ve got a lot of ideas and a lot of things to say,” she says. “Whether they’re in the form of books or plays or performance art that’s done in the corner of my parents’ garage, I don’t know. I may not have another cultural-lightning-rod television show in me, And I wouldn’t be upset if I didn’t, because that’s not an experience you need to repeat over and over in your life.

“I don’t feel an overwhelming preoccupation with making sure that whatever comes next matches the scale of Girls.”

HANNAH’S LAST LAP

But whither Hannah in these last 10 episodes of her maturing 20-somethingness?

“We really tried to do both of the things that are glorious about any final season, which is wrap everybody up in a thoughtful way that makes you feel like you’ve completed a real journey with them — and also, do what the show has always done, which is not be tidy.

“Those two things are kind of at odds,” Dunham says. “But I don’t think anyone’s done a series finale like we did. It’s a very different version of ending a series.”

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"Rob Stewart: courageous environmental activist"/ "The legacy of Canadian filmmaker and conservationist Rob Stewart"

Feb. 13, 2017 "Rob Stewart: courageous environmental activist": Today I found this article by Paul Watson in the Globe and Mail:



At the age of 22, Robert Stewart was a young and energetic man who understood that the most powerful weapon in the world is the camera, and armed with a camera he set out in the year 2002 to change the world.

He succeeded.

With his award winning film Sharkwater he actually did change the world. He transformed fearsome monsters into beautifully awesome creatures, deserving of both respect and empathy.

Rob was a man passionate about sharks. He saw them as beautiful sentient beings whose existence contributes to a healthy oceanic eco-system. He set out to prove that his intuitive perception about the true nature of sharks was real, and he did just that.

When Rob boarded my Canadian flagged ship the Ocean Warrior we explored the once shark-abundant waters around Costa Rica’s Cocos Island and the enchanted islands of the Galapagos.

Despite the obstacles, together we found the sharks and together we found trouble with frequent confrontations with shark-finning poachers. Together we were arrested for our interventions for filming crimes in a nation where such crimes are ignored and even protected by the authorities and where a camera is considered as something subversive.

His images contrasted the beauty of sharks within their element against the ugly images of the horror of their living finless bodies tossed overboard, drifting helplessly to the bottom of the sea to die slowly, their shocked eyes open, allowing us, for a moment, to glimpse their pain as the spark of life was slowly extinguished.

Rob once told me that he understood that his work was dangerous but that the least of those dangers was being killed by a shark. He was literally a shark hugger and the image of him with his arms around a large shark, his hand affectionately stroking what most people considered a fearsome creature, was revolutionary and enlightening.

The man knew sharks. He understood their importance and his confidence with his views about sharks allowed him to approach and film some of the most amazing images ever captured about these spectacular apex predators.

In addition to being a marine biologist, Rob Stewart had the four most important virtues needed to be a world class expert on sharks and the reality of our relationship with the living diversity within oceanic eco-system.

These virtues are passion, empathy, courage and imagination. 

He had the courage to follow his passion with a remarkable empathy for his subject and the imagination to transform the focus of his work through the media of film in a way that changed the perception of sharks to tens of millions of people around the planet.

Rob died doing what he loved. He took chances. Three deep dives in one day using a rebreather was dangerous and he knew it was dangerous. These devices, even in the hands of a professional diver like Rob, are unpredictable. Some people have asked why he was using a rebreather. The answer is that it allowed him to stay down long and because it does not produce bubbles, allowing him to get closer to the sharks, which are animals that are easily spooked by bubbles. It allowed him to be like one of his subjects rather than a suspicious invader from another world.

Speaking with Rob and looking into his eyes revealed a deep sadness at what our species has done to the sharks. We slaughter tens of millions of them every year to the point that many shark species hover on the brink of extinction and that is why the film he had been working on is called Sharkwater Extinction.

Rob was an incredible educator in the spirit of Captain Jacques Cousteau. He brought the aquatic realm onto land and confronted us with the reality of the true nature of sharks. That in itself was heroic, even more so than his extraordinary feats of underwater documentation. It was heroic because he was championing a creature that has for centuries inspired fear and loathing. As a filmmaker, he was the antithesis of Steven Spielberg and Sharkwater was the Anti Jaws.

It was my privilege to stand with Rob to present Sharkwater at the Toronto Film Festival. It was my privilege to dive with him in the Galapagos and at Cocos Island.

Rob pioneered a new and intimate approach to documenting sharks and I believe he inspired other courageous film makers like Michael Muller (White Mike) and Madison Stewart (Shark Girl). He laid the groundwork for both film makers and conservationists.
Most importantly he has left a legacy.

He will be greatly missed, by his family and friends, by his fellow Canadians and by caring and dedicated people around the world who will never forget his work, his courage, his talent, his resolve, his imagination and his awesome passion for life, beauty and truth.


Feb. 24, 2017 "The legacy of Canadian filmmaker and conservationist Rob Stewart": Today I found this article by Brad Wheeler in the Globe and Mail: 

On first appearance, the funeral for the Canadian conservationist and filmmaker Rob Stewart last weekend was like most others, albeit one with Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne in attendance, and the guest book for mourners not a traditional bound copy of remembrances but Stewart’s own Save the Humans, an autobiography and manifesto.

But what was most unusual about the service – a gracefully uplifting event – was the forward momentum of its message. Never has the Mary Elizabeth Frye poem Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep been so insistent; rarely has a funeral seemed like such a starting point. According to those who knew him well, Stewart wouldn’t have it any other way.
“With Rob,” media personality George Stroumboulopoulos said afterward, “it was all about purpose.”

During the funeral, Stewart’s “Fat Wednesday” parties in his California cabin were brought up. These were high-life feasts that sometimes involved costumes and that often extended into Thursdays, but, according to Stroumboulopoulos, were breaks in the action rather than the point of anything. “The parties were fun and in the moment, but Rob was a big-picture guy,” he said. “There was work to be done. There still is.”

Stewart, a Toronto-born free spirit in love with the universe, was known for his acclaimed 2006 documentary, Sharkwater, an underwater illumination about a creature we’ve been unnecessarily groomed to fear. He died recently in a diving mishap off the Florida Keys, where he was filming Sharkwater Extinction, a sequel.

He was 37 years old.

Sharkwater, which will be screened across the country Feb. 25 at selected Cineplex cinemas in support of WWF-Canada, shows Stewart hugging a shark. It’s an allegory for his cause and a symbol of his allure – sharks and everyone from Richard Branson to Leonardo DiCaprio were drawn to the boyish, otherworldly man whose optimism was intoxicating.

“He had a magnetism that was unparalleled,” said Brock Cahill, a close friend of Stewart’s. “Sharks are able to sense electromagnetic energy. They can read your mood and your energy from miles away, and they were, like all animals, drawn to Robbie. He was so welcoming and excited to see the sharks that they would reciprocate, and it was a beautiful thing to watch.”

I first spoke to Cahill on the phone from Florida, shortly after Stewart’s body was discovered deep in the water, days after he disappeared, near where he had been filming. Cahill was one of the three divers on the boat when Stewart sunk after momentarily surfacing from a dicey third dive of the afternoon.
“Robbie was not afraid to push the envelope,” Cahill said at the time, “but he was meticulous, never reckless.”

Stewart was using diving equipment that utilized a “rebreather” apparatus. The technology involves a mixture of gases and the recapturing of oxygen expelled. The advantage is that the system produces no exhale bubbles, thus allowing an underwater filmmaker to get closer to his subjects. “Rob used to say that using standard scuba gear was like going on a Serengeti safari with a weed blower on your back,” Cahill said.


The rebreathing technology is riskier, though; a third dive using the system is not advisable. But the gear allows a diver to be more at one with the ecosystem being explored – a serene, ultra-immersive condition irresistible to Stewart. “You feel,” Cahill said, “less like an intruder.”

Cahill, a yoga-instructing Californian, first met Stewart after seeing Sharkwater more than a decade ago. Sensing they were kindred spirits, Cahill cold-called Stewart and invited him on a diving expedition in Mexico in search of whale sharks. Stewart accepted; the two quickly became comrades in ocean conservation.

The fateful trip to Florida earlier this month took more than a year of planning. The goal was to capture on film the elusive and highly endangered sawfish, a shark-ish ray so rare as to be considered divine. “Rob wanted to show the world their beauty and their majesty,” Cahill said, “and to intrigue the public about them.”

Stewart would die trying.

Over the phone, Cahill had relayed a supernatural conversation he’d had with Stewart while the search in the ocean for his body continued. “Let me bring you back to the world and to your family,” Cahill told his missing friend in a dream. According to Cahill, in his vision, Stewart was resistant to leaving the water, but agreed to, on the condition that Cahill continue the work that they had started.


An instant later, Stewart’s body was finally found, deep in the sea, after days of searching.
“I still get goosebumps thinking about it,” Cahill said after the funeral service. “I don’t think I could carry on this mission on my own. Thankfully, I won’t have to. Robbie will always be with me, and others will be as well.”

At the funeral, accompanying a video tribute, the blissful and hopeful sound and message of a recording by the Hawaiian ukulelist Israel Kamakawiwoole wafted through the sunlit church:

 High above the chimney tops is where you’ll find me / Somewhere over the rainbow way up high / And the dreams that you dare to, oh why, oh why can’t I?

From a soothing medley of Somewhere Over the Rainbow and What a Wonderful World, these are words about overcoming fears and enacting change – the theme of the service that also included inspirational lines first used by Apple for its “Here’s to the Crazy Ones” ad campaign in 1997.

“And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius,” the marketing passage goes. “Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”

My opinion: I'm going to put that in my inspirational quotes.




What was used in 1997 to sell products was now being used as encouragement, for all intents and purposes from Stewart, a crazy dreamer whose death was anything but in vain.


My opinion: I saw the CBC Doc's ep called "The Third Dive" about him.


The Third Dive: The Death of Rob Stewart - CBC Docs POV





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