Over the years on DT, I've covered Jordan Zucker's (C'97, Theta) entertainment journey as she's appeared on "Scrubs", cooked with Bobby Flay, interviewed NY Jets players, got featured on the morning news for her Girls Guide to Fantasy Football league, tried out for Oprah ...and now has been invited to join the team at espnW where she will be making videos throughout the fantasy football season.
After the jump watch Jordan's first video where she quizzes Giants fans about their team!
Since the beginning of DT, I've been covering all sorts of stories about Penn alumni musicians, filmmakers, actors, plus dozens more entertainment professions.
Then, over the past couple of years on DT, I've been covering stories about new young alumni trying to break into careers such as acting, more acting, and music.
Now, this summer, we're going to be following two current undergrads who are out in LA exploring the world of entertainment.
To start things off, let me introduce to you LA native, Ali Kriegsman (C'13, Off the Beat). This summer Ali is working as an assistant for a clothing boutique, as an intern for a lifestyle and fashion magazine, as a hostess in an LA restaurant ...and as a blogger for DT!
While she is in LA, Ali blogs about her quasi self-deprecating, slightly offensive take on LA, "its desperate residents and the ridiculousness that ensues". I'm bringing Ali to my DT readers because I think she has a fresh, fun young take on LA that I think many LA "new" residents have, but over time become immune to : )
After the jump, find out more about Ali, which resources she used to get her magazine internship and then read which celebrities Ali has seen, sort of met, and makes fun (!) of while she has been here in LA.
Mother's Day is Sunday, May 8 and while you should certainly get mom a card (these are my favorite), I've got a fun, inexpensive suggestion to go along with that card from Penn alum and supermom blogger Emily Rosenbaum (C'95, Grad Ed '96).
Emily is that mother; you know, the one who avoids chemicals, minimizes food waste, shops locally, fears sugar, hides from corn byproducts, and tries to convince her son that lemonade is not a fruit. Don’t even get her started on BPAs. Six years after making her first batch of muffins, she’s not just pureeing squash and baking bread. She’s forming little lumps of chicken-apple-spinach mush into nuggets, coating them in homemade breadcrumbs, and lovingly brushing them with olive oil. She is poised on the edge of craziness, unless she toppled in last Tuesday.
In her recently released fifty-page memoir, Cooking on the Edge of Insanity, Rosenbaum shares recipes and tells the tale of living sustainably while cooking for a family of five.
Don’t bother to tell her she’s nuts. She already knows.
After the jump, check out what happens when she takes her three children to the grocery store and ends up developing a new couscous recipe.
Sure you may remember your undergrad days celebrating at some UPenn Basement party or coming up with ingenious ways of transporting alcohol across Penn's campus like this man.
But now that you're a bit older and wiser on this St. Patrick's Day, you may have a bit more discerning taste in alcohol. That's why I thought I'd share with you a beer blog created by one of our Penn alums who loves himself a good beer.
After the jump, learn more about this Penn filmmaker's beer site, his top 4 posts and the craft beer he's been brewing.
Jordan Zucker (C'97, Theta) appeared on "Scrubs", cooked with Bobby Flay, interviewed NY Jets players, got featured on the morning news for her Girls Guide to Fantasy Football league, tried out for Oprah ...and now has a new web series that combines 2 of her passions: sports and cooking.
Her latest episode after the jump!
2 more days to win our contest to win THESE delicious chocolates from Penn alum entrepreneur! Enter HERE!
Freelance fashion writer Alexis Brunswick (C'04, Kelly Writers House, Student Writing Advisor) started a blog on style for young women called "Fits of Fashion".
Her work regularly appears on Style.com and has appeared on WMagazine.com and VanityFair.com. She began working in NY at Conde Nast and now does editorial work from LA.
If so, you'll relate to Meredith Fineman (C'09, SDT, Penn Democrats) who started a humorous JDating blog called Fifty First (J)Dates. On the site, Meredith writes about both her awkward first encounters with men she's met on the site (she's at #11 and counting) as well as adds funny advice and musings about the process in general.
Per Meredith,
"I spent the past year living and working for Young & Rubicam in Buenos Aires, Argentina. When I moved home to DC I wanted to meet new people so I joined JDate. Then the stories/anecdotes were so hilarious I couldn't help but write about it."
Fifty First (J)Dates is also featured on Huffington Post, Jewcy, and Jewlicious, as well as other blogs. Email Meredith with your stories at fiftyfirstjdates@gmail.com
Check out her site HERE and follow her on Twitter HERE
...This reminds me of another (Jewish) Penn alum who did something like this back in 1998, but it was in the format of a film called20 Dates: A documentary type film about the dates Myles Berkowitz (C'81, W'82) had gone on as he tried to find out how to find love in Los Angeles.
...Speaking of love, have you checked out my DT Love series HERE?
Continue Reading... Carolyn Anne Dizon (W'90, Parliamentary Debate Team) is cooking her way through the entire Top Chef The Cookbook and has shared it with all of us. She is now over half-way through the cookbook, and along the way she blogs about the process on her BravoTV Blog "The Cookbook Chronicles", shows step by step photos and overall explains things to the home cook. In addition she discusses the episode the dish was featured on, and also blogged about the past season 5's Top Chef's weekly episodes.
How did Carolyn become such a foodie? Her roots started at Penn...
Per Carolyn,
"I have always been cooking, was an avid follower of Julia Child since my teens, did tons of cooking in elementary school and high school, and at Penn, during my senior year, had a "cooking club" with my roommates where we would all rotate each night one of us taking on the role of making dinner. I also tried to perfect pumpkin pie my senior year at Penn - I think I may not have succeeded in that endeavor - I remember for one version (I made about 8 versions), I forgot the eggs, and the less-than-perfect results were launched out the window of my rowhouse apartment onto 40th Street, much to the dismay of my roommates and friends! But seriously, I believe that during my sophomore year when I lived in High Rise East, I was one of the few people who actually made use of the kitchen!
My blogging started rather spontaneously. I always had been doing my version of "blogging" by musing on "whatever" - often reality TV shows - to many friends via email and we'd keep a running dialogue going. Recently I met two women through friends of mine who both work at BravoTV.com. I told them what a fan I was of the show and "impressed" them with my knowledge of all kinds of trivia from the show. I guess they were impressed because they asked me if I wanted to audition to blog for the Top Chef cookbook. I jumped at the opportunity and after sending two sample blogs got the position." (find out more about why she's doing this blog HERE)
"I love my blog for this recipe because it is an AMAZING dish using classical French technique (which I feel is key to any properly trained chef - it provides the foundation for them to branch out from after). This recipe required a lot of steps, has great photos, was a huge success (totally a "clean plate club" meal), and the blog is a little funny because the blender basically exploded when I was blending the sauce - still I battled on, which is precisely what I would hope any home chef/cook to do as well.
+ Carolyn's BravoTV blog: "The Cookbook Chronicles" HERE
+ Carolyn's personal blog: TheSassyFoodie.com where she'll be blogging all about the current "Top Chef Las Vegas" season which starts tonight!
Great story here. Two friends (and now dating!) write blog at Penn, get approached by publisher and now have book!
Continue Reading... Alanna Kaufman (C'08, DP, City News Editor, Kite and Key Tour Guide, Big Brothers Big Sisters Mentor) and Alex Small (C'08, DP Photo Editor) published a new book called The Frugal Foodie Cookbook: 200 Gourmet Recipes for Any Budget which features high-quality recipes at low costs, and is aimed at cooks at any skill level (or no skill level!). The idea for the book stemmed from their food blog, Two Fat Als, which they began writing while at Penn. Both the blog and the book include anecdotes about their experiences cooking at Penn and in Philadelphia.
How did they get started?
Per Alanna,
"After finishing our editorships at the Daily Pennsylvanian, Alex and I had a lot of free time on our hands, and we began cooking. Though our kitchens were tiny and poorly equipped, we starting making dinner each night and recording our dishes on our blog, Two Fat Als. The blog was designed to show other college students that it was possible to create tasty and sophisticated dishes on a low budget. Alex has always been a great chef -- his Colombian mother and Jewish father put him to work in the kitchen at an early age -- so he taught me basics and we continued to develop our skills together.
Cooking for the blog moved us to explore different food markets in Philadelphia (the farmers markets, the Italian market, Redding Terminal), and we would often have friends over multiple nights per week for dinner.
After a literary agent found the blog online during our senior year and suggested that we write a book proposal, we found Adams Media and The Frugal Foodie Cookbook was born!"
Per Alana, "The day we first heard from our literary agent was the same day as our Walnut Walk during senior week. We were hosting a huge pre-walk brunch for our friends -- we made the apricot brandy baked French toast from the book, as well as cinnamon buns and an asparagus frittata. That was one of our favorite meals for friends at Penn and everyone stuffed themselves in preparation for a long day."
...And this isn't the first Penn alum who wrote a blog about saving money as a student at Penn and then got discovered. Remember THIS Penn alum whose blog got turned into a book and then was hired to write on "Scrubs"?!
Get in touch with Alex and Alanna! twofatals at gmail.com
Delicious nuggets from my "Penn Foodies" seriesHERE
And now it's time to add another humorous political site from our alumni to the mix: Al Bingham's (C'92, Mask and Wig, Philomathean Socitey, Friars)The Purple Crayon.
Per Al, this site is all about "political humor that makes no distinction between Red State or Blue. The pen may be mightier than the sword but The Purple Crayon is more colorful."
Apparently other media sources are reading Al's blog. Per Al,
"I think the NYTimes is worth reading, especially the Caucus Blog. Also firstread.msnbc.com. Assuming you're interested in politics, of course. If you're not really interested in politics then you should check out The Huffington Post's humor site 236.com (most of the news, some of the time) ... especially on the days when they're cross-posting libelous material from The Purple Crayon - my political humor blog - albingham.typepad.com. Apparently folks from Politico.com, CNN, MSNBC and a bunch of people in the House and Senate read The Purple Crayon from time to time... which is an indication of how low the media and politicians have sunk in the Stewart-Colbertian sense."
In addition to singing well and being the creator of a popular improvised musical troupe, add "blogger" to Jonah Platt's (C'08, Off the Beat Musical Director) list of achievements.
Started in January of 2007, Jonah's site Media Maven Musings offers trustworthy, humorous and Penn-educated (wink) opinions on all things tv/film/music related. The site has had nearly 100,000 unique views since its inception, and has been linked to from dozens of sites around the web, including USAToday, Showtime.com, and many more.
For the most part I enjoy some a capella groups (i.e. Off the Beat).
Not everyone is like me.
Ivygateblog.com editor Jim Newell (C'07, 34th Street Editor and Chief) DESPISES all capella groups ...so much in fact that he has started a "Worst A Cappella Group in the Ivy League" tournament based on bad submissions.
I hate to say it but he has a Penn a capella group in his first round.
The more I write about alumni and undergrads, the more I'm realizing that not only is there a lot of talent out there, but our Penn folk have some powerful opinions and voices.
One such alum is Caroline Rothstein (C'06, The Excelano Project), a spoken word poet currently living in New York City. Her poetry is honest, real, personal, and political.
...Listen to the power behind her poem below, "They Call Me Granola" (put your headphones on..not safe for work). This is great...:
This past year, Caroline also self-published a book of her poetry called "What I Learned In College." Books are $5 and can be purchased by emailing Caroline directly at caroline.rothstein@gmail.com.
In addition to spoken word, Caroline keeps a blog that she began upon moving to Atlanta. You can find her adventures throughout the United States and deep into the streets of Manhattan.
Read "Life Worth", an excerpt/poem from Caroline's chapbook* "What I Learned in College"HERE
*A chapbook is a book of poetry. It's typically a book that a poet puts out on their own, so mostly self published/printed, etc.
"Life Worth"
He’d just bought a pair of shoes
Hundred dollar sneakers, shopping bag, right hand
He walks down Central Street in Highland Park, Illinois –
a brand name sidewalk with affluent stores
He knocks on the pharmacy window to buy Gatorade and a bag of pretzels but they wave him away –
It’s 4 PM on a Sunday and they are closing up shop
A senior at his high school pulls an illegal U-Turn
An elderly man stops short to avoid collision, skids onto the curb,
and throws my brother into the side of a store building
His head cracks open, his eyes close shut,
and his sneakers fling into the air as his spleen develops cuts
They do brain surgery, put him on respirators,
Rabbi Mason prays by his ICU bedside but he never wakes up
I’m crouched over his bedside begging him,
Yelling at him “Josh, wake up! Josh, please, wake up!”
He was only shoe shopping,
Walking side by side teenage girls that purchase emaciation on a hanger,
Which is really just a metaphor for
Shirts sewn in sweat shops by starving children
And studies say that executing killers costs more than
Keeping them in prison for the rest of their lives
And funeral prices are on the rise:
Cremation packages start at 2000, the average casket is 6000
28 dollars a month to purchase an orphan on the internet
13 bucks for a Japanese picture bride to weed the fields and strip sugar cane
Not too much for a mail order bride –
Choose her nationality, her body shape, and human pedigree
And since this is an unregulated business,
I don’t have fancy statistics to insert here: ____
About how many women are bought by strangers yearly
As we get a price check in aisle five
To bargain lives that we further judge when they die
My family goes to trial so the killers can pay for our loss in insurance
There’s no way to judge but the judge sits there asking me:
How much was his life worth?
My fifteen year old brother had 20, 000 dollars in savings
From selling beanie babies at a hundred times their cost
On an ebay auction block
650 dollars to buy an African teen on a Southern auction block
How much is a life worth?
We purchase human beings from fruitless trees
We consume materials and will them to our offspring
We hang child labor on manikins
We dangle death next to cash registers
We kill children in store front windows
And judge their worth in finances even though
The only bank in heaven is the locked vault of karma
The only currency in heaven is a set of intangible beliefs
The only worth in heaven can’t even be proven
How much is a life worth?
He was fifteen years old walking happy on a sidewalk
He was fifteen years old shackled standing on an auction block
He was fifteen years old starving sewing in a sweat shop
How much is a life worth?
Josh, wake up, Josh, please wake up
How much is your life worth?
It’s worth waking up every day to face the misery of death’s reality
It’s worth becoming straight edge
to never miss a single moment of sobriety
It’s worth my living breath to overcome death
Josh, you are what my life’s worth
"Porn is awesome. Many women my age understand porn is just sexual stimulation — not competition.”
Got your attention?
This quote comes from undergrad aspiring journalist and college magazine editor Jessica Gold Haralson (C'08) in this month's Playboy college edition. Jessica was invited to speak at a college roundtable of journalists from colleges with an interest in sexuality.
Jessica is quite the emerging writer with a unique voice. She started a campus smart-sex magazine, works at Penn’s Kelly Writers House, and is currently interning at smart smut publication Nerve.com. She edits the Nerve Video Blog and is a research assistant for Nerve culture blog Scanner. In addition, she serves as an editorial/PR assistant to Philadelphia-based journalist Stephen Fried.
Last year she started Quake Magazine (her erotica publication) and per Jessica, "it is no longer a print publication, but look out for an online version this winter."
Be sure to bookmark that one!
If you’d like to know more, please shoot her a line at jgh@sas.upenn.edu. She would love to hear from you!
Earlier this week I was interviewed by Penn undergrad Alissa Eisenberg (C'10) for an article about DuelingTampons.com that came out in today's Daily Pennsylvanian.
Click the image above to see the article larger or click here to read the digital version in the DP online!
They're out there and one of them is Penn graduate alum Scott Shrake (GSAS'96)
From the Arianna Huffington site, "He [Scott] has been a marketing copyeditor for Borders and Discovery, and a writer for the Wharton School at his alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania, as well as for the University of Michigan. In those jobs and as an editor at UsedWigs.com and a writer at the Philadelphia City Paper, he has interviewed many famous people, but their fame hasn't rubbed off on him... yet."
So what does he blog about?
Per Scott, "My angle at the HuffPo Politics blog is that even though I moved to D.C. a matter of months ago and I don't work in politics and I'm kind of long in the tooth to be making a new start, I am trying to become the "ultimate Washington insider." I am carving out a niche for myself among Arianna Huffington's bloggers as the guy on the ground in D.C., the one going to parties and court cases and whatnot."
"Keep up the DAMN good work. It's not until I'm about to graduate that I really start to appreciate other Penn alums who try to keep the network going with websites like Dueling Tampons and more. Keep it up!"
-Mike Tate (C'10)
"Just wanted to send a note to say thanks for your continued work w/ Dueling Tampons. it's one of the various e-news blasts I read most days. I really liked the one about '3 generations at Penn'."
-Jody Girgenti (C'98)
"As an outsider to the entertainment industry and to LA, DuelingTampons.com gave me an excellent jumping-off point to start my job search. It enabled me to learn about Penn alums in the entertainment industry and conduct necessary preliminary research. From there I was able to reach out to our incredible alumni network, schedule introductory meetings and phone calls, eventually land an interview, and finally secure an internship at a top Hollywood studio."
-Steve Gottlieb (C'04)
"By the way, Dueling Tampons may be one of the greatest names for a penn-related website!"
Andrew Erace (C'07)
"Whenever I'm looking to waste time on the internet, Dueling Tampons is at the top of my list right up there with the Onion, the Superficial, and Leverged Sell Out."
Scott Kend (C'02)
"I love what you are doing for Penn with this website. Keep it up!"
Adam El Sehamy (C'09)
"Thanks for doing your part to unify Penn through Dueling Tampons--it's already been a great resource, and I'm only an incoming freshman. I am truly looking forward to my next four years at Penn and beyond. Thanks again."
-Haywood L. Perry III (C'12)
"Just want to thank you for all you are doing re: DT. You've reenergized my feelings toward Penn and now I have a son who will be applying to Penn"
-Joan L. (W'80)
"Great site. I've really enjoyed everything I've come across since I first came across it. Keep up the good work."
-A.J. Cabrera (C'04)
"Great site —when I first came across it, it took me by surprise. I hadn't used the phrase DT in years, you totally made me laugh. Thanks for that."
-Jason Seiden (W'95)
"I got all misty-eyed looking at the Dueling Tampons site. I mean it gave me sense memory of Penn... of the Walk when it was cold, or being in McNeill with Abiel, or being in German class, or taking 20 extra minutes to get to class because of seeing everyone I knew on Locust Walk, or people that sat in my classes that are now really famous or important... just a great site"
-Chris Hartwell (C'95)
"Love you website..! Very fun to read - I cannot believe what alums (that are WAY younger than us) are accomplishing...very cool...!"
-Dorie Clayman (C'96)
"I'm really digging your website. It's nice to have someone keeping track of all us Quaker over-achievers."
-Jeff Levin (C'07)
"Thank you for your website. I've not been in touch with Penn for YEARS, am speaking at the Bookstore and they wrote to me about Dueling Tampons. I've spent the afternoon going around inside it. so thank you!"
Michael Rosen
"Hey, I'll be entering Penn in the Fall as a '12 student. Just trying to get a feel for the campus before I come and Dueling Tampons seems like it has got a big place on campus."
-Eric Jacob Maltiel (SEAS'12)
"I love the way you are reaching out to Penn alums and this site...keep up the good work"
-Jennifer Merves Robbins (C'92)
"I just found dueling tampons, and im hooked. i had no idea so many alum do what i want to do when i grow up!" -Danielle Hannah (C'03)
"Dueling Tampons has an AWESOME reputation on campus here, and I see you and your site everywhere!"
-Matt Amalfitano (C'11)
"Your site's a great way to keep up with Penn stuff with a laugh. Thanks."
-David Toturgul (C'99)
"What you do on Dueling Tampons I think really provides many Penn students with inspiration for their future careers, as I know it has done with me."
-Ryan Townsend (C'08)
"I really like all the Penn stuff, makes me feel at home... I had a good laugh at the name of the website, it only took me a split second to get it!"
-Dan Gutin (C'97)
"Dueling Tampons is an awesome resource. Thanks for representing LA (my hometown!) and the entertainment industry!"
-Joey Volpe (C'09)
"your dueling tampons site rocks"
-Jordan Rockwell (C'00)
"Big fan of the website! I find it a must read!!"
-Troy Majnerick, Penn New Student Orientation Coordinator
"I just want to thank you. I am a cinema studies major at Penn and your site is an amazing creative and networking resource for me. I love it." -Dustin Blank (C'09)
"It's great to see you bringing together the community of Penn alums who took a possibly more interesting route and are doing some really cool things."
-Tara Todras-Whitehill (C'00, Eng'00)
"This is the kind of value-added, life-giving nectar that Matt spoons out so regularly, and for which I am forever...FOREVER...indebted to him."
-Adam Hellegers (C'96)
"The Dueling Tampons site is really impressive. I think Penn should just hand the alumni network over to you :)"
-Eric Barker (C'94)
Alumni Attending Events Because of DT:
"Logan [Levkoff] was here on Friday and was featured in the October 2 Penn Current and today's DP. I heard about her through DT.com, so thanks Matt!" -Fran De La Torre (C'04)
, Rosenbaum shares recipes and tells the tale of living sustainably while cooking for a family of five. 
: A documentary type film about the dates Myles Berkowitz (C'81, W'82) had gone on as he tried to find out how to find love in Los Angeles.
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