Journal 6: Thanksgiving Laughs

                                        The Cosby Show, "Cliff's Wet Adventure"

http://www.grantland.com/blog/hollywood-prospectus/post/_/id/62296/youtube-hof-thanksgiving

     This was a great video to watch post thanksgiving.  Not only did it give me a great laugh as I get back into the stressful swing of school, it provided a realistic view inside many homes on this busy family holiday.  Cliff has to run to the store, not only once, but four times to get last minute supplies for his wife to cook the big dinner.  As it is in reality and for Cliff, many places are closed for Thanksgiving, so it creates much more of a challenge when trying to quickly pick up last minute supplies.  The funniest part I found in this Cosby Show Clip was the tension.  It seems that everybody I know always has some tension when the whole family comes together.  In many cases, the tension is created with the in-laws, but for the Cosby's, it is between Cliff and his wife.  For me specifically, I can say the tension at my family dinners often comes from the waiting around.  As many of us were ready to eat, we had to wait for the hunters to get in after dark.  Later on when we were exchanging names for Christmas as we usually do, we had to wait for my aunt who had disappeared, and then get a hold of my other cousin who was unable to make it to check with her about getting in on this exchange.  Although both of these are really now big deal, especially in comparison to other families, it is still an example of tension that always seems to happen at large family gatherings.   I really appreciated the humor in this clip.  It provided me a great laugh and another view of what it is like inside the homes of others in this family gathering holiday.  

Journal 5: Hype of Magic Mike

For this weeks pop culture blog posting, I chose to look at a review on the movie, Magic Mike called “Zen and the Art of Male Stripping: ‘Magic Mike’,” by Jennifer Lind-Westbrook. This is a movie I never got to see when it came out and honestly didn’t know anything about it besides there is a lot of naked dudes in the movie.  I found this review to be very informative in that case, because it gave me a brief understanding for the story line within the movie.  Without ever seeing this movie before, I only heard about the hype and crazy “Magic Mike Lovers” who have.  My understanding from this review is that this movie is very controversial about social and moral values.  Working as a stripper and selling drugs isn’t something I see as the social norm.  Because I have this preconceived idea, I find it interesting that this movie was so largely talked about.  Just the other day, a friend told me she saw it with her grandma, aunts, mom, cousins and sisters.  Should we talk about awkward! It would be like saying, “hey grandma, I think that dude is totally your type,” as he is dancing and de-clothing on the screen. I think not!  Maybe its just me, but I think certain things are meant for the privacy of yourself and your own home.  This may be the greatest movie every created, but I guess I would have to see it before I could make that confirmation, and I just don’t have the urge to do that.  

http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/164471-magic-mike-zen-and-the-art-of-male-stripping/

Journal 4: Jersey Shore Cast helping out the Seaside Heights Community

In Amos’ article, he tells readers that the famous Jersey shore cast is coming together for a television special called “Restore the Shore.”  This special will be shown on MTV on November 15, 2012 and will be a supporting effort for raising funds in order to rebuild the boardwalk and area of Seaside Heights.  I really appreciated the line Amos wrote stating, “some would argue that no amount of good deeds could ever be enough to undo the six seasons of emotional trauma the cast of Jersey Shore has unleashed on the national psyche.”  This gave me a good laugh.  

As a college student, I don’t have much free time.  I can honestly say that I have yet to watch the news since I have started this semester and have probable only turned my television on about ten times.  In these few times, I can promise you I didn’t spend it watching this, what I find to be a intelligence killing TV series, Jersey Shore.  In times of political campaigns, this is wonderful, but in times of natural disasters, I am poorly informed. I found this article to be relatively informative because I haven’t heard much about hurricane Sandy, let alone the Jersey Shore cast helping to the reconstruction of this town.   Helping in a situation like this will definitely shine a new light on the Jersey Shore cast members, but as Amos said, they have many more good deeds ahead of them to make up for the humiliation they have provided for this Jersey Shore community.  

http://www.grantland.com/blog/hollywood-prospectus/post/_/id/61261/with-hurricane-fundraiser-jersey-shore-cast-will-attempt-to-use-powers-for-good-and-not-evil

Barshad, Amos. “With Hurricane Fund-raiser, Jersey Shore Cast Will Attempt to Use Powers for Good and Not Evil.” Grantland.  Grantland. 5 Nov. 2012. Web. 5 Nov 2012

Journal 3: T. Swift, Country or Not?

In the article, Is Taylor Swift Still Country? Do We Care? by Dave Heaton we get a really good description about Swifts variety of genres between her songs.  Heaton explains to us that Taylor swift not only has songs topping the charts in the country music genre, but the same songs are also fairly high up on the pop genre music charts.  Heaton uses the example of the song Teardrops on my Guitar. This song topped country music charts and also was #13 on the pop music charts.  I found this article to be interesting because as I am a country music fan, Taylor Swift’s music is something that tends to be a hit or a miss for me.  I think this is because she goes from country songs to pop songs all within the same CD. I really liked how Heaton went about writing this article.  Although he seemed to use Taylor Swift as a prime example, I understood that he was working to find the true definition behind the country music genre.  With both of these being a question in mind, I agree with Heaton that it is a challenge to label Taylor Swift as a specific genre artist because genres have a tendency to overlap and not necessarily have any specification to there qualifications. 

http://www.popmatters.com/pm/column/164138-is-taylor-swift-still-country-do-we-care/

Brief Screening Report: Evaluation Essay on Footloose

For my evaluation essay, I choose to review one of my favorite films, the new Footloose movie.  For me, the purpose of my paper is going to be to take criteria from the ideas of social and moral values and explain why they make this a great film.  One scene that I find to show many great ideas behind this movie would be the dancing scene at the Snack Bar. (Chapter 8, 31:20-36:30) During this scene, Ren’s friends take him down to a place they seem to like to hang out.  In this scene, they briefly talk about Woody getting tickets for public dancing and breaking the law.  During this scene, a large group of younger, mostly high school students, join together in a form of a street dance.  As they play music, many of these teenagers take a turn to show off there sweet dancing skills.  At the end of the scene, Ariel’s father comes to bring her money and sees his daughter involved in public dancing and playing loud music.  This ends the dancing scene especially for Ariel because her father was one of the individuals who created the law with no public dancing and loud music.  Evaluating this as a moral stand point, we know that this isn’t accepted in the town of Bomont because of the laws created from the big accident a few years prior.  But on a social stand point, what these teenagers are going is completely acceptable for there age.  We are able to see the disapproving father and how he sees this scene to be unacceptable.  Scenes like this make the movie. If everybody abided by the law, who would want to watch it? 

Journal 2: Footloose, The Best Movie Ever

I am currently in love with the new Footloose movie that came out last year.  This movie appealed to me in so many ways, but I find myself attached to cultural aspects it represents.  One of my very favorite actress Julianne Hough, plays Arial, the preachers daughter in this movie.  I found this movie to be really good, and appealing to a variety of individuals ranging in ages.  Footloose takes an evaluates and inquires situations many of us are experiencing in our day to day lives.   A few examples would include: Ren MacCormack is dealing with the death of his mother, Ariel who has strict parents and a Reverend as a father, and experiencing relationships with significant others which aren’t approved of by your parents.   This movie takes situations that are common in the average Joe’s life and makes a movie from there.  A common response to this being my favorite movie is “the original is better.”  But, I beg to differ.  I think that this is because I watched the original after seeing the new movie.  After seeing the new movie, I didn’t like the old one at all.  I found that even thought the ideas were the same in both movies, the scenes, ideas, and conversations were placed better in the new movie.  Maybe the original was fitting for the time period it came out during, but the new movie is more relatable for this day in age. My personal favorite scene in this movie is the very end, were they are having the dance in the old mill. I’m not sure if this movie was more appealing to me because I am a small town, country girl, but it is definitely my favorite right now.  

Journal 1: Packer Let-Down

            In  the article, “Winning Actually Isn’t the Only Thing” written by Davis Maraniss, Maraniss describes his feelings and opinions towards the end result of Monday night football game, involving the Green Bay Packers and the Seattle Seahawks.  Although he is a strong Packer fan, the loss wasn’t what seemed to upset him the most.  Maraniss was incredibly upset by the way the Seahawks coach and quarterback reacted, having the attitude as if they won fairly.  The writer also talks about the philosophy of Vince Lombardi.  He agrees with Lombardi’s idea that winning isn’t everything, he just explains to us that he wants Seattle to not pretend as if they pulled of the greatest win, fairly.

            I was really impressed with how Maraniss wrote this article.  Although I missed the end of the game because I had to work, I saw the many replays, hours of Sports Center, and numerous Facebook post following this tragic loss. I think Mariness stated it well when he said “To say that was a touchdown and not an interception is to say black is white.”  Although I am a Packer fan, the loss wasn’t what did it for me.  I was incredible disappointed to here that the NFL has the ability to overturn it and choose not to because of Packer public display of the letdown.  When something this big happens, having a game changing call, it is always publicly displayed in this day in age.  I think that Maraniss did a great job relating to the idea of Coach Lombardi.  It isn’t the lose that is killing me, its the disappointment that I have in others, mainly the Seahawks team and fans, that gets me the most.  

Work Cited:

Maraniss, David. ‘Winning Actually isn’t the Only Thing.” washingtonpost.com. The Washington Post.26 Sept. 2012. Web. 27 Sept. 2012.