Skip to content

Starshine Roshell Posts

Top 10 Things Mel Brooks Taught Us Last Night

Published by Starshine Roshell on May 14, 2015

Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, and The Producers (both the 1968 movie and the recent Broadway version). He’s one of 12 people in the universe to have won Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony awards. All manic timing, sparkling eyes and understated delivery, Brooks chuckled at his own bits, spit water as a gag, and cracked wise on everything from the mahi mahi on the menu to his cab-driving Uncle Joe. Here were the top 10 things we learned:

Continue readingTop 10 Things Mel Brooks Taught Us Last Night

Fine, Mom: You Were Right

Published by Starshine Roshell on May 7, 2015

whack. We seemed so wildly different: Me a gangly, new-wave, camo-clad poet. You a petite ex-hippie breadwinner with a Motown jones. We wanted such different things. For example, I wanted to be with my boyfriend at every moment, and you wanted me to occasionally eat, bathe, sleep … But the enlightenment you predicted has finally arrived. Having kids now myself, I often find myself walking a mile in your strappy stilettos. And I’ll be honest: My feet hurt.

Continue readingFine, Mom: You Were Right

The Cacophony of Corporate Squawk

Published by Starshine Roshell on March 26, 2015

Lean In, her snappily titled womanifesto aimed at leveling the corporate playing field. Now it’s my turn. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you two other snappy words guaranteed to change the business world for the better: Shut up. No, really. Please. Shut it. Zip those runaway gabtraps, you prattling project technicians, twaddling strategery administrators, and Chief Blarney Officers.

Continue readingThe Cacophony of Corporate Squawk

'City Desk' premieres this Friday

Remember Boredom?

Published by Starshine Roshell on January 29, 2015

When was the last time you stared hard at nothing? I mean really and truly focused your eyes on precisely zilch, tuned out the clamor and din of your immediate vicinity, followed your unpredictable mind down an unproductive path and just … fully … spaced?

I don’t remember the last time I did that. And I miss it.

My mind has no opportunity to wander anymore; when I find myself teetering on the scraggly edge of boredom — at the gas pump, in the checkout line, in the doctor’s waiting room, even (yes) at especially long stoplights — I gather up every shred of my frazzled attention and heave it at my iPhone screen to see if I can’t lose myself in a trivial text exchange, tumbling-puppy video, or chapter 37 of the audiobook-that-will-not-end.

I realize this is unhealthy behavior. Each time I catch myself doing it, I feel a queasy sort of shame, a sense that I’ve lost or am close to losing something essential and irreplaceable.

I promised myself I’d never become one of those old people who malign new technology as the devil’s work simply because it’s different than what I grew up with. But I’m already lamenting the things we’ve sacrificed to the Digital Age, the stuff smartphones have stolen from us: The ability to remember our best friend’s phone number. Or navigate our own way around a city. Or look something up alphabetically. Or sit and marvel at a sunset without feeling obliged to capture and share it. Or wait for five minutes. For anything. At all.

Continue readingRemember Boredom?