Leon Panetta interview
In an interview with Charlie Rose, Panetta criticizes the President for not making earlier strides to fight Syria and act upon intelligence to thwart the ISIS threat.
Too often, in my view, the president relies on the logic of a law professor rather than the passion of a leader.
Hosts Democratic fundraiser
Paltrow hosts a fundraiser for President Obama in the backyard of her Brentwood mansion. After congratulating the president for endorsing equal pay for women, an issue she said is “very important to me as a working mother,” she compliments the President:
You’re so handsome that I can’t speak properly …
Party isolates president
Seeing the president as a liability to their campaigns, Democrats running for office this Fall choose to isolate President Obama. While the President spoke at fundraising events in Manhattan and plans to attend a backyard gala at the home of Gwyneth Paltrow, he will not receive invitations from Democratic senators like Mark Pryor in Arkansas. He’s been spurned by congressmen in Colorado, North Carolina, and Virginia where he had considerable wins during both presidential elections in 2008 and 2012. The democratic Senate nominee in Iowa does not want him to speak at party events. Senior aide to the President Dan Pfeiffer explains:
Every campaign has got to figure out — and this is true in this election, and it’s going to be true for every election going forward for Democrats for as far as the eye can see — is which Democrats are only going to be able to win if they turn out enough of the Obama coalition, whether we’re in a midterm or a presidential …. And the campaigns and the candidates are working through how best to go about doing that.
Bilateral talks
Modi meets with Obama at the White House for a bilateral discussion. The two democratic countries have been trying to rekindle a bilateral relationship that had been flagging. Obama:
We … reaffirmed that as two of the world’s largest democracies that we have so much in common it is critical for us to continue to deepen and broaden the existing framework of partnership and friendship that already exists.
The talk made no mention between differences in policy with Ukraine and Iran, nor any indications on how to stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons. Economics was the theme of the talk. Modi:
The President and I spoke about many of our common economic strategies.
However, there were no indications of reforming a tax law that has made investors reluctant to invest in India, and no mention of India’s refusal to honor a new World Trade Organization pact unless the organization addresses Delhi’s issues with food security.
Lena Dunham born in New York City
Lena Dunham is born in New York City to artist parents Carroll Dunham, painter, and Laurie Simmons, photographer and painter. She has one sister, Grace. She attends St. Ann School in Brooklyn, and divides her time between New York and her family’s home in Salisbury, Connecticut. Dunham writes about her life at age eight:
My name is Lena Dunham. I am eight almost nine. I was born May 13 1986. My grate grandmother who I never met was named Lena. My papa is namd Carroll dunham. My mama is Laurie Simmons.
Creative Nonfiction
Dunham makes a low-budget, low-fi sixty minute film about Ella, a college student (played by Dunham) who has ambivalent feelings about her dorm-mate Chris. Ella is a virgin, and the film wrestles with her anxieties about sex as she tries unsuccessfully to complete a screenplay she has to finish in order to graduate. The film premiered at the New Filmmakers festival and was included in Austin’s South by Southwest festival.
A lot of it. An embarrassingly amount of it is autobiographical . . . . On a film-making level you can do it. An incredibly low- budget, low-fi way of working. If I can make a movie, really, anyone can make a movie.
Ask Lena
Dunham publishes videos to promote her book Not That Kind of Girl on her Youtube channel “Ask Lena.” Dunham fields questions from her fans against a backdrop of a cartoonish representation of a New York City office. In the first installment, she answers a question from a fan about whether she can still be called a feminist even though she dresses provocatively when she goes out.
Compensates Performers
In a reverse decision, Dunham decides to compensate performers who were originally signed on to perform opening acts for her book tour without pay.
As an artist raised by artists, no one believes more than I do that creators should be fairly compensated for their work.
Dunham’s decision comes after controversy emerged when Gawker listed Dunham’s projected revenue for her book, and disclosed that the performers would not be compensated for their work.
Some good points were raised and I've ensured that all opening acts will be compensated for their time, their labor and their talents.
— Lena Dunham (@lenadunham) September 29, 2014
Doesn’t Pay Performers
In a controversy fueled by Gawker, Dunham does not pay the seven performers she hand-picked to “warm-up” the crowd for her 11-city book tour. To enliven her book tour, the actor-cum-writer chose from among 600 applicants who applied online to perform for her tour. Gawker claims that since she is expected to make $304,000 in ticket sale revenue alone, she should compensate her performers who willingly signed up for the act knowing it would be pro bono.
The fact that Gawker pointed this out really proves Judd Apatow's saying that "a good note can come from anywhere."
— Lena Dunham (@lenadunham) September 29, 2014
Book Tour
Dunham begins at Barnes & Noble’s Union Square location in New York. part of her 11-city tour promoting her collection of personal essays Not That Kind of Girl. Dunham chose seven performers to act as “warm-up” for her tour, which includes live music and food trucks. Tickets to the scheduled events cost $38 and include a sign copied of Dunham’s book. The tour will feature appearances by the actor Carrie Brownstein, and novelist Zadie Smith. Her publishers want to rebrand Dunham as a writer, according to Theresa Zoro, director of publicity at Random House:
We’re trying to establish her as a writer, a very serious literary writer, so we put her in conversation with authors who are very literary.
Signs Book Deal
Dunham signs a more than $3.5 million book deal. After submitting a glossy 66 page proposal to publishers for her collection of personal essays entitled Not That Kind of Girl: A Young Woman Tells You What She’s Learned, Random House signs Dunham on for the project, buying both American and Canadian book rights. According to the publisher, the book is slated to cover love, friendship, and “frank and funny advice on everything from sex to eating to traveling to work.”
(I am) thrilled to be working with and learning from the brilliant minds at Random House, and to be among their incredible roster of authors. I look forward to digging deep with Andy and co. (book editor) to produce the most thoughtful and personal book I can.
Lena Dunham
Lena Dunham is an Emmy Award-winning American writer, director, and actor. Born on May 13, 1986 in New York City, Dunham grew up in Brooklyn and attended Oberlin College, where she studied creative writing. In 2010, she wrote and directed a feature length film Tiny Furniture, which gained her the attention of Judd Appatow and Nora Ephron, and signaled her as the creative voice of the millennial generation. She is best known for her work on HBO’s television comedy drama Girls. In 2014, she wrote a memoir Not That Kind of Girl: A Young Woman Tells You What She’s “Learned.”
Not That Kind of Girl
Dunham writes a memoir Not That Kind of Girl: A Young Woman Tells You What She’s “Learned.” She dedicates the book to her family, her boyfriend, and to “Nora” — Nora Ephron, the writer and director, and Dunham’s mentor and friend. In the spirit of Helen Gurley Brown’s Having it All, Dunham doles out advice to young millennials, recounts tales of therapy sessions, boyfriend choices, terrible life choices, and her penchant for appropriating her family’s stories into her work.
There is nothing gutsier to me than a person announcing that their story is one that deserves to be told, especially if that person is a woman. As hard as we have worked and as far as we have come, there are still so many forces conspiring to tell women that our concerns are petty, our opinions aren’t needed, that we lack the gravitas necessary for our stories to matter. That personal writing by women is no more than an exercise in vanity and that we should appreciate this new world for women, sit down, and shut up.
Catherine, Called Birdy film adaptation
While speaking to a crowd at the New Yorker Festival, Dunham reveals she is working on adapting Karen Cushman’s young adult novel Catherine, Called Birdy into a film. The novel, set during the Middle Ages, is a coming of age tale of a young girl growing up circa 1290.
This is actually my first time talking about it publicly. I’m very excited about it. I’m not sure when it’ll happen, but I’m in the process of (working on it). I’m going to adapt it and hopefully direct it. I just need to find someone who wants to fund a PG-13 medieval movie.
Date Rape
In Dunham’s book Not That Kind of Girl, she writes she was raped when she was a college student at Oberlin, but did not realize it was rape until she told about her encounter to her roommate.
Audrey’s pale little face goes blank. She clutches my hand and, in a voice reserved for moms in Lifetime movies, whispers, “You were raped.” I burst out laughing.”
After having sex with a guy while high on Xanax and Cocaine and inebriated, Dunham recounts how she saw his condom hanging on a plant near the bed. She kicks him out, but in the essay it is clear that the man had taken advantage of her intoxicated state.
I don’t know how we got here, but I refuse to believe it’s an accident . . .
Dunham also tells the story to reporter Terri Gross, explaining why she included the story in her book.
Develops Pilot
Dunham and Jenni Konner plan to develop a comedy series on HBO based on the life of personal shopper Betty Halbreich. The duo have been tasked to write the pilot for the show. HBO has not officially announced the show but it has confirmed that Dunham and Konner will work to adapt Halbreich’s memoir All Dressed Up and Everywhere to Go. Halbreich made a name for herself working as a career shopper at Bergdorf Goodman, buying clothes for rich Manhattanites. Halbreich:
We’re holding on, until the (my) book comes out. And she has a book coming out right after me! I will tell you something: I adore her as a human being. We are, if nothing comes of this, we’re very attached at the hip.
Tiny Furniture
In the South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas, Dunham screens her feature length film Tiny Furniture. Dunham wrote and directed the film, which tells the story of a young woman freshly graduated from college trying to find her next step while living in her parents apartment in TriBeca. The film wins the festival’s best feature film award. On her character’s low self-esteem:
It’s trite to say, but when you’re not sure about who you are, or what you’re worth, or what your purpose is, there’s a way that you’ll let people who you think have a clearer sense of those things [into your life] and be thankful for any attention those people will give you.
Girls
Dunham’s cable television series Girls debuts on HBO. The series purports to chronicle the lives of four twenty-something single women living in New York. The show, produced by Judd Appatow, features Allison Williams, Jemima Kirke, Adam Driver, Zosia Mamet, Alex Karpovsky. Dunham conceived of the show, and is its principal creator, as well as starring in the leading role of Hannah Horvath. On personal experiences the show reflects:
I am a working woman out in the world, but I still live with my parents half the time. I’ve been taking this long, stuttering period of moving out. … I feel like I’m constantly asking them to please stay out of my work life, but also to please bring me soup. It’s this weird moment where you just don’t have a sense of what age-appropriate behavior is because there is no age-appropriate behavior.
Court hears workers’ case
In a Supreme Court hearing that could determine the terms for employee pay, Amazon workers argue they should be compensated for the 25 minutes both ways it takes to go through security checkpoints. The case is part of a class-action lawsuit filed against companies like Amazon and includes over 400,000 plaintiffs about the meaning of a 1947 law that stipulates a company need not pay for “preliminary” and “postliminary” activities performed by employees, but only for the necessary functions that pertain to their jobs during working hours. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan is doubtful over agreeing with the workers:
I mean, what makes it Amazon? It’s a system of inventory control that betters everybody else in the business. And what’s really important to Amazon is that it knows where every toothbrush in the warehouse is.
Supreme Court Justice Scalia disagrees:
Getting yourself inspected as you leave the place of business is not part of the job . . .
War Powers Dispute
Senator Tim Kaine continues to put pressure on President Obama’s authority to wage war on ISIS forces. Kaine has been battling the President on his unilateral decision to fight ISIS since June, and a “spirited discussion” between Kaine and Obama confirms the dispute is ongoing.
I could not disagree more. You don’t ask people to sacrifice their lives until the nation has debated and committed to the mission. It’s immoral.