It's Literally a Shark Tank

Shark Tank is a reality series on ABC which welcomes aspiring entrepreneurs to share their inventions with well established people in the business world. These filthy rich people include, Mark Cuban, Kevin O'Leary, Daymond John, and Barbara Corcoran. I give the entrepreneurs props for coming on national television and presenting their inventions to billionaires because it definitely looked intimidating. All the panel members seemed nice and willing to listen, but they were very blunt, after all it is their money that they are investing. Every episode they review the inventions of four different entrepreneurs. This week it was an owner of a chain of cookie stores in Indiana, an inventor of exercise clothes, an inventor of a generator that produced electricity and gold (like Mark Cuban said "My BS meter is going DING DING DING"), and the owner of a wine company called "Copa di Vino." For all different reasons none of the panel of investors accepted the entrepreneurs offers.

However, one contestant did stir up some drama with the investors. The fourth contestant actually had previously been on the show and had come back with another offer for the investors. Kevin O'Leary was interested in his business last time, but the contestant turned him down. Why the investors wanted to have stake in "Copa di Vino" was not because of the wine, but because of the new patented technology that came with it (which is explained in the picture above). To make the story short, Mark Cuban and three other investors offered to give him more money than he had asked for, including a 30% stake in his company.  He wouldn't give them an answer so Mark and the others pulled out before he could say no. He was clearly playing games (with some of the most powerful people in America might I add). Bottom line he's an idiot and the only reason he came on the show was to promote his company, it was a total waste of the investors time.

Like I said before I like the idea of the show, but I probably wouldn't watch it regularly. I know absolutely nothing about money or how to run a business so I was lost a lot of the time, which i'm sure others are too. I didn't understand the business jargon they used and when the panel discussed the products financially I would just be like, "okay.... now can you say that in english?"

Say No To The Show

I have never watched a bridal reality show before...now I know why. Say Yes to the Dress has obviously done well if it now has two spin off shows, but I really don't want to make myself go through that ever again. The episode I watched was called, "Maid of Honorzilla." The episode followed three different brides on their mission to find bridesmaids dresses. I thought covering two different brides was fine, but to force three brides in a 30 minute time slot was too rushed.

The first bride had a maid of honor from hell. The bride actually had two maid of honors, but the one demoted the other one to "matron of the bridesmaids." Here are the MANY things maid of honor Jessica had to say during the episode:

"I'm in charge"

"I don't get why Roxy thinks she has the right to be the maid of honor."

"Next to Megan I am the most important person at the wedding."

"I'm the boss."

Nevertheless why this girl is your maid of honor, but why is she even your friend?

Click here to see the awfulness that is Jessica.

http://tlc.discovery.com/videos/say-yes-to-the-dress-bridesmaids-season-2-drama-videos/

The next bride had been having trouble finding a dress that works for all her bridesmaids. The reason was due to her maid of honor, who was clearly bigger than everyone else. The bride made her try on dresses that obviously were not going to look good on her and then would laugh at her. It was too cruel, I actually felt bad for her.

The next bride was just as horrible. She demanded that her bridesmaids get a designer dress and shoes, which totaled to the amount of $1,200. Bridesmaids had to drop out because, as the bride would say, be "they could not comply, so they now will support me in the audience." And also during their fitting she told them they were not allowed to gain even one pound before her big day. The things that came out of these women's mouths was unbelievable and the fact that they said these things with a straight face must mean the show is real.

This show makes me never want to be a bridesmaid, or as a matter a fact,  not even a bride for a very long time or possibly ever.

Bronx Boys and Their Mamas

Guest Post by Cara Goldstein

As a student at Fordham University, I felt obligated to watch the reality television show that takes place right down the street from the Rose Hill campus– Mama’s Boys of the Bronx. As it turns out the show and characters weave in and out of the lives and paths of the place where myself, and many other Fordham students call home for nine months of the year.

Yet, it is incredibly frustrating to watch overweight, tatted up, eternally single, thirty-something-year old, men-children be so helpless. When the mothers of Anthony (35), Giovanni (38) and Frankie (38) decide to go to Florida for a week, they need to prepare their sons. They stock their fridges and show them how to use the stove and washing machine. But even that doesn’t suffice. Instead of making their own food or doing their own laundry they follow their mothers, like sick puppies, down to Florida after only two days alone. So, they can book and plan a trip to Florida, but they can’t do their own laundry?

Not only are they entirely dependent on their mothers, but they act like overgrown high school kids. They throw a full-on high school rager  -- equipped with an abundance of red solo cups, spin the bottle, and random make-outs all over the first floor of the house  -- when their mamas leave town. 

 Of the two shows I have seen, the show has highlighted some of Fordham student’s favorite places on Arthur Ave. They’ve shown to the tanning salon down the street, Umberto’s, Ivana’s pizza, Pugsley’s pizza, and even my favorite building on campus – Keating Hall. It has featured the owner of Mugz, a bar that Fordham Students flock to all nights of the week. It even featured two Fordham students who politely told Chip (36) that they thought they “were busy that night” when he asked them to be cheerleaders at his first annual cannoli eating concert. 

Despite my fear of ending up like these boys, and concern with pop culture’s fascination with “traditional” Italian life in New York and New Jersey, these Mama’s Boys seem happy with their lives. They have no plans to move out and be on their own.  Like Chip says, they just want to be “mama’s boys for the rest of their lives.”

Cookbook? More like a Burn Book

Teresa Giudice recently came out with another cookbook, called Fabulicious, about a year ago. Regardless if the recipes were delicious, they were overshadowed by the nastiness of her introduction. She used her cookbook as a platform to trash one her fellow castmate's and "friend". Any focus that was on the recipes was now directed toward the Teresa Giudice and Caroline Manzo feud.

Her first sentence in the book is, "Caroline is as Italian as the Olive Garden."  She then goes on to say, "I am however a huge fan of Caroline Manzo. (Even if she's only 1/16 Italian, or whatever she is...)." Why is that relevant to your cookbook? Right off the bat the cookbook seems to be more focused on how Italian Caroline is rather than Teresa's recipes. She then goes on to bash her cousin and sister in law. She says, "Do I sometimes wish my cousin would stop with the lame jokes? Yes. Do I wish my baby sister-in-law didn't copy everything I do down to the shoes I wear and the chairs on my front porch? Of course! But you know what they say: 'You can't pick your family.'." Teresa has said that her cookbook is centered around family and that's what the introduction is suppose to focus on. If family is so important to you why is your focus on bashing them?

This is what is wrong with reality stars. People who become "famous for being famous" will do anything to remain in the spotlight. She has no legitimate talents so she needs to remain relevant somehow and stirring up drama is her way of remaining in the headlines. She wrote this book for one reason and one reason only and that was to sell books. And in order to sell the most books she would need to create controversy, which she sure did.

Feuds sell books because audiences crave drama. Their curiosity for other peoples lives is what draws them in and that is one of the reasons why reality television is so successful. Most of the times the content is high on the drama, but low on the quality. That doesn't matter to most people, including me. Some reality programming I can't stand, but still can't look away. The more the shock value, the more the curiosity. 

This cookbook also brought to light how fake reality stars can be. If Teresa feels okay bashing her "friends" to millions of people, they were clearly never her friends (or to put it bluntly, fame trumps friends). Let's be real Bravo, your "Real Housewives" Series are not centered around an established group of friends. You put a bunch of random, rich, bored women in a room and tell them they are now BFFs and go from there. Most of these women appear all buddy buddy on screen, but in reality they cannot stand each other, which is what exactly happened with Teresa and Caroline. Caroline was very clear after the last season that they are NOT friends. She says, "We were never really friends. She is an acquaintance." That's funny because it sure did look like you were friends when you were going on vacations together, spending New Years Eve together, and going to your children's birthday parties. Woopsie looks like Caroline dropped the bombed on that one. Living proof that Real Housewives of New Jersey is staged. Shocker.