Last Wednesday I had the pleasure of hearing the head of Cornell dining explain the strives that the for profit business has gone through to accommodate the needs of students. Funny enough two days prior to the Rose house event I went to a round table on food where the head of Cornell dining, professors, and students gathered to have an honest dialog about what is going wrong and right with Cornell dining.  My best friend presented at the round table so I am unapologetically biased. There are so many politics and greater bureaucracy that goes into having cornell dining soar above the rest.

I was surprised to learn that the Rose house chef goes through various processes to determine what is palatable to Cornell students. I was surprised to hear that he sometimes looks through the dish disposal line to see what students did and did not enjoy. I was not surprised to learn that before Cornell the chef worked at the Ritz Carlton. The way he described the artsy of his work was so delicate, yet riveting. He explained to us that he only spoke French while in the kitchen and other anomalies that I did not expect.

Who would’ve known that there is so much that goes into running Cornell dining. It is more than just an overpriced meal plan there is so much more to it.

Last week I had the pleasure to watch a screening of Street Fight by Marshall Curry. I was so excited to watch this documentary because I have been keeping tabs on Cory Booker since middle school. I thought I know almost everything about his public life, but I failed to realize that Booker lost the first time he ran for mayor of Newark and the significance of that election. I’m telling you I thought I knew everything from his time at Stanford, Yale, and even the fact that he dated Oprah’s best friend, Gayle King. All I knew was that Booker is a polarizing political figure, and at one point he was mayor of Newark, and that he could potentially run for president in the distant future.

The documentary revealed the vices of the American political system on a local scale. It even looked in to the social dynamics of Newark and how that impacted the election. Booker’s opponent Sly James grew up in the poor side of Newark and had been in public office since the 1970’s, whereas Booker grew up in the suburbs went to an ivy league school and had no experience in office. It seemed like the first time Booker ran for office the people of Newark did not think that he cared about the city, it was as if  he was not the real deal.  Booker was so passionate about making changes for the city. In my opinion Booker did a lot to prove that he was committed to making a better Newark by  living in public housing, going door to door to meet voters,  and by connecting to voters on a genuine level.

It was such a pleasure to have Marshall Curry himself there to answer questions afterwards. I remember asking him a specific question along the lines of how did the Newark election parallel that of Bill de Blasio’s tale of two cities? For some reason toward the end of this documentary all I could think of was Bill de Blasio’s  election and his tale of two cities slogan. Curry eloquently explained the distant parallels and the obvious differences. The whole experience was refreshing. All in all I really enjoy watching documentaries in order to fulfill my weekly requirement.

Last week I had the pleasure of watching Amy a documentary about the late Amy Winehouse. That night before I had pulled an all nighter and then proceeded to go to events through out the day. Luckily I had enough time to squeeze in an hour nap before the documentary started. The documentary was so dynamic that I did not want it to end, just like Amy’s life.

The documentary took us all the way back to the beginnings of Amy’s career. It was so fascinating to see how her relationships with men shaped her behavior and eventually her actions. There was so much about Amy that I did not know until I watched the documentary.

The parts of the documentary that stuck out the most to me was when Amy was interacting with her family and friends. Just seeing her outside of the spotlight behaving as any daughter, friend, and partner would carry on. In those moments I forgot about her battle with alcoholism, bulimia,and drugs. I even forgot about the media’s fascination with her lifestyle.

The most touching parts of the documentary were when you could feel the love that Amy had for her x-husband and her father. Even though those relationships were deeply unstable it felt like a dynamic that could be seen outside of hollywood. Amy’s love of music was contagious. You could just tell how passionate she was about her craft early on all the way to the end. I enjoyed the part where Amy records a song with her idol, Tony Bennett. She was behaving like a little school girl. She really did not want to mess up or waste his time, and she even wanted to call her dad and tell him. The documentary really showed me that she was just like everybody else.