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