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.

It's like a bad restaurant and you don't want to go back

I love food, but I was so not hungry after watching this show. These "chefs in training" managed to make food not look appetizing. They are literally the worst cooks in America. That being said, their inability to cook and lack of knowledge of food (or anything for that matter) makes this show hilarious. All of these idiots are definitely real. No one could make this up. One contestant said, "I don't know what spinach looks like unless it comes in a bag labeled spinach."

What was even funnier was a lot of the contestants were real losers. Such as this one:

Your unemployed. How do you not know how to cook? What else do you do with your time? If  I was unemployed I would do nothing but spend my time eating.

OBJECTIVE OF THE SHOW

Anne Burrell and Bobby Flay assemble two teams of what they think are the worst cooks in America. Burrell and Flay are to serve as their mentors and judges throughout the duration of the competition. Each week they have a new activity or competition where the teams compete against each other. The worst members of the team are voted off each week. Before the challenges begin Burrell and Flay give them tips and advice on how to succeed in a particular challenge. Whoever makes the most progress as a cook, wins.

I only watched the second episode of the season, but if the contestants don't stop using vanilla extract with chicken or putting apples on everything there is a huge possibility there will be no winner.

Who knew a Guido could talk to dead people

I don't necessarily believe in this psychic nonsense, but I can't help but to believe its true when the medium knows such intimate details about your life. When you focus a reality show around a concept that typically is surrounded by skepticism, the "realness" of the show is called into question. After watching one episode I was amazed that Theresa knew such intimate details about her clients lives. She made it very clear that when she makes an appointment with a client she only takes their first name and their telephone number. My concern with the show is if she really is uncovering secret details about peoples lives by speaking to the dead OR is it being staged?

The weird thing about this show is that if Theresa feels a spirit around she will go up to anyone, anywhere and give them a reading. This includes grocery stores, coffee shops, the gym, auto repair shops, etc. I personally think its insensitive to go up to a stranger who hasn't asked for your services and start talking to them about their dead loved ones. You never know how these people could react towards you. Some people don't want to know what their dead loved ones have to say and the information isn't always comforting.

The show isn't exactly uplifting, considering the topic of conversation is usually dead people, but I would watch it again.

Do you think it's real?

The Voice

I haven't discussed talent based reality programming yet. I have mostly focused on reality content that is centered around people leading their "real lives." Reality programming that is focused around competition typically is a more real, accurate portrayal of reality, with the exception of The Bachelor.

I stopped watching American Idol after season four. Honestly, it just got boring. It was the same thing, season after season. I haven't watched a singing competition since. I so happened to catch my roommates watching The Voice a couple of weeks ago. I was expecting the show to be a generic form of American Idol, but it surprised me. I really like the concept of the show and how the judges get to pick teams and how they then get to personally coach their team of aspiring singers.

First, there are the blind auditions, where Blake Shelton, Christina Aguilera, Adam Levine, and Cee Lo listen to the contestants with their backs turned to the singers so that their choice is solely based on their voice. If more than one judge wants the singer on their team, the contestant then gets the opportunity to pick who they want their mentor to be for the remainder of the competition.

????

Then there are the battle rounds. Each judge picks two of their group members to sing a song together. Then after the song is performed, the group's mentor must then make the decision about who should stay and who should be eliminated. This is done a number of times until the live round begins, which is on April 2nd.

I really like this show because of the level of personal interaction between the contestants and the judges/mentors. The judges get to know the singers more on a personal level, rather than just who they are on stage. The singers actually get to develop personal relationships with the hosts and get valuable information from people who have made it in the business (i.e., Kelly Clarkson, Jewel, Lionel Richie, etc.) The audience also gets more time to get to know the contestants and the JUDGES as well.

I have come to learn from this show that i CANNOT stand Christina Aguilera. Her arrogance is overwhelming. I'm pretty sure you haven't had a hit song since "Dirrty"and that's because that was your "no clothes" phase. Believe me no one wants you to take your clothes off now. She needs to come down from cloud 9 ASAP.....and also stop wearing hats, especially this one:

Other than X-Tina, GREAT SHOW!

“ Honestly, I drank so much that my frickin' UTI was drunk"

Jersey Shore is what is wrong with reality television. I have seen quality shows get cancelled, but yet this trash continues to remain on the air. The people that watch these types of shows are so far removed from this type of lifestyle that they only naturally develop a curiosity for it content. The more and more ridiculous the cast of the Jersey Shore act, the more viewers they will get. The cast is famous for being
drunk, trashy, idiots.... and lets not forget, outstanding role models.

What really mystifies me is that the men on the show continue to get girls to sleep with them. These men have obviously demonstrated on the show that they are misogynists, have no respect for women, and that it's obviously about quantity, not quality. Yet girls continue to have sex with them, even though they are blatantly being used.

When I was abroad my friends and I just so happened to be at the same club as them. First of all, "The Situation" is foul, he looks like a sweaty, balding 40 year old. So he decides to try to talk to my friend. You would think that a normal conversation between two people would start with a, "Hi, my name is ______" or "Hi, how are you?" Nope. It went something like this:

Situation:  "How old are you?"
Friend:  "21"
Situation: "Nice, that's how old you have to be for me to talk to you."
                "Want to come back with me?"

It's nice to see that chivalry isn't dead yet.

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome at its finest

Trashylicious

I don’t know why, and I can’t explain it, but Jerseylicious is my guilty pleasure. This show is why people hate New Jersey, but it is also the reason why I love it. The accents, the hair, the nails, and the clothes are out of control. Their stupidity never ceases to amaze me. Cathy Giove, a newbie on the show who is going into business with a cast member, on the season premiere episode actually said in a speech at The Cricket Professional Stylist Association “ fast food and porn are endangering the health of our children.” Wait…what? I’m so confused. So is getting our hair done going to make it better for our “endangered youth”? Cathy Giove and her hair dryer, saving one child at a time.

I would definitely go into business with her.....

This shows includes everything that is trashy about New Jersey, but they must be doing something right because they just aired their fourth season. I hate how much I love this show.

Would you let her touch your hair?