Prompt #4 Chanel Lambert

I am not an avid reader, but when I do read it is usually involves magazines or blogs (typical of people my age). I usually read material that is satirical or entertainment reading because it makes fun of those crazy Republicans or because I can read it without having to worry whether or not it will be on the next midterm.
I especially love the column in Glamour magazine called, “Hey! It’s Ok”. (shown left) It is basically a list and explanation of ten faddish things that people, more specifically women, do today that may seem weird, but everyone does anyway. My favorite is this past issue where it says “(It’s okay) to pretend to text message to get out of talking with that person standing next to you. It’s called communi-faking, and we all do it”. This is so true! Everyone does it, especially in the dorm elevators where you have that awkward minute of silence waiting for your floor when you “text someone” to avoid awkward elevator conversation. This type of reading is applicable to those quirky behaviors we all do, but are too embarrassed to own up to. I also find it appealing to read because the article is light and funny. No one wants to read an autobiographical essay after having finished a three hour chem lab.
The other thing I love reading is “The Onion”. It’s a satirical news website that mocks society for everything. They spoof everyone and everything; no one is safe. This “fake news” style of reading is really entertaining, although it does take a little more thought than a silly magazine article. If you don’t know what happened in the real news than you won’t find the blog funny. This sort of weeds out the idiots who feel the need to comment on topics they know nothing about. I feel that this type of writing is important especially when people are losing interest in politics and current events. This is an entertaining way to reward people for reading the actual news. Although it sometimes leads to confusion of what happened during real events, I think, like with everything, people need to be careful in what they believe and always make sure the facts are coming from a reliable source.

Chanel Lambert Blog #3

I wasn't really sure what to write about, so I will talk about my favorite book series now becoming a movie. The Hunger Games are a series of three books that are being turned into a movie coming out this March.

My roommate recommended the books and I read them over winter break. I don't want to spoil anything, but basically there is a love triangle between Gale, Peeta, and Katniss. I get so frustrated with situations like this! Don't you hate when the girl is dumb and likes the wrong guy? I found myself battling back and forth between the two male characters. Does the girl choose the strong and passionate friend or the caring and supportive crush?

I noticed that throughout this entire series that Katniss's survival is based on her dependency for the guys. Even in a story when the girl is supposed to be the heroine and self-reliant, she ends up relying on the companionship of another to bring her through. Katniss is a strong character, but her survival is based on her relationship with the guys. Gale provides and takes care of her family while Peeta takes care of her when she is weak. Both of the characters are only trying to help her, but they way she needs them makes her seem helpless. Katniss has dealt with a lot of hard stuff and personally think she deserves someone who cares for her with her best interest in mind. It is just frustrating to see that she can't do it on her own.

I can't really complain too much because I happen to love the story even though the love triangle is annoying. I hope everyone goes to see it when it comes out!

Andrew Katz Blog #3

I’d like to talk about one of my role models, a former Red Bull skier by the name of Shane McConkey. Shane started his career as a competitive ski racer, but quickly broadened his scope to extreme skiing. Shane pushed things to the limit constantly, always jumping the biggest cliffs or skiing the most difficult lines because his life mantra was essentially, if you want something, go and take it.

He revolutionized the sport of extreme skiing not only by constantly pushing things higher and further, but in other ways as well. For example, Shane incorporated the use of water skis with snow ski bindings, opening a new age of powder skiing. He also combined the sport of base-jumping with that of skiing, jumping off of cliffs unreachable by normal skiers and parachuting to the base. Eventually in 2009, Shane reached his limit in a base-jumping accident. His ski would not detach, thus altering his flight path and causing a disruption in his parachute

employment. Shane did not survive the fall, but his passion and drive live on through his many followers. His whole life attitude is the embodiment of what I strive to be. I want to live life without regrets, so I can say “Man I’m so glad I stepped out of my comfort zone and did that,” rather than saying “Shoot I really wish I had.”

Shane certainly lived his life in this manner, which is one main reason why my respect for him is undying. I know I may not be able to have the same impact Shane has had on a large group of people, however I do hope that one day I can teach my kids how much better life can be without regrets. Of course there are limits, ones that Shane constantly toed and eventually broke through, however I feel that is the most rewarding way to live life.

Prompt #3 Jonathan Vignos

When I first found out that we could do a movie that dealt with gender and sexuality I immediately thought of the 2009 movie Bruno. This is the movie starring Sacha Baron Cohen and comes from the creators of Borat. The reason why I picked this movie is not for my liking it, it’s because it’s a movie that directly throws gender and sexuality right at the viewer’s face. It was actually a movie that had a tiny bit of humor and I could honestly barely make it through the whole movie.

If you don’t know what Bruno is about then I’ll fill you in. It’s about a gay Austrian fashion journalist named Bruno that recently has been fired from his job and is currently bringing his show to the United States. This film didn’t try to hide the gender and sexuality within it. They are constantly making things sexual and I personally think they went too far. The one part which I found really funny and works perfect for gender and sexuality is the clip of the gay wrestling match. Bruno goes down south to Arkansas where homosexuality is a complete no and people will flip about it. He starts this straight Dave’s wrestling and invites these southern people to his show. It starts off him saying a lot of straight things and the crowd going crazy in excitement. The next thing that happens is a man that he knows comes from the crowd and says he’s gay and not straight. They end up wrestling and kissing and the crowd flips. They start throwing their beers and chairs, and even try to jump into the ring to fight them.

The reason why this clip goes with gender and sexuality is because he throws homosexuality right at them and sees how they react. When I saw it, though I thought it was hilarious, it’s crazy to think how they reacted. In our times, people should be used to homosexuality or at least not getting too freaked out. If all people were like that we wouldn’t have this ridiculous movies. It's something people need to adjust to because eventually marriage will become legal and there is nothing people can do about it.

Blog Post #3 Jake Wenstrup

A movie I recently watched, which also happens to be one of my favorite movies, is "That Thing You Do." That Thing You Do was directed by Tom Hanks, who also happens to play an influential character later inthe movie. The whole movie revolves around a local band called The Wonders, originally hailing from Erie, PA.

The band is set to play a local college talent show when their drummer breaks his arm. The Wonders recruit local drummer Guy Patterson to play their slow 60s ballad called "That Thing You Do." Due to the fact that Guy has only played the song several times before the show he ends up speeding up a ballad to rock tempo and the crowd goes wild over this new, catchy song. Even beginning at the talent show it is obvious that this movie catches the 60s era feeling that women are mostly physical specimens to be looked at and sought after, and not much else. The "Van

na White" style hostess who bends over backward to act like the needle in front of a speedometer style board showing how much the crowd loves the particular band in the talent show demonstrates the exact feelings regarding women at the time. After the concert, the band's song is put on the radio and they are discovered by the Playtone label and begins to tour around the country. It is easy to notice that one of the first aspects included to improve the group's show is the addition of female dancers in the background. Sexual attraction is obviously a key to the band being successful based on the addition of the female dancers as well as the record label's upgrade of the group's wardrobe to matching suits and ties. In the end, however, the group's lead singer does not agree with the direction that the label is taking The Wonders and the group disbands. That Thing you do provides an entertaining storyline in the 60s era that is well portrayed by a director like Tom Hanks. I would definitely recommend this movie to anyone.

Prompt #3: Molly Hopkins

One of my favorite things to do to relax is to either go see or watch a good movie with a few of my friends. Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams are two very famous actors right now. Michelle Williams is nominated for best actress in a leading role for My Week With Marilyn and Ryan Gosling was nominated for the Golden Globe for best actor in a leading role for Ides of March. Both Gosling and Michelle are amazing actors and these nominations are well deserved, however, a film that they both starred in that many people either have not heard of or did not see was Blue Valentine. I saw this movie last year when it came out in theaters and absolutely loved it.

My friend Kaylee insisted that we go see it, even though it did not look like the typical movie that I would like. I really only ever watch one genre and that is romantic comedies. I absolutely live for the happy endings that most romantic comedies have and the often, bad humor that they contain. But, I hesitantly decided to go see it with her.

Blue Valentine is the story of a young couple who are raising a young girl. The story begins with them in present time constantly fighting and clearly headed for divorce, but throughout the movie it flashes back to when they first met and how they fell in love. Their relationship faced many problems early on, but they always overcame them because they had each other. In the movie, when they were young, Williams plays a typical teenage girl looking for love and Gosling plays a teenager who is pretty much on his own, not going to school, yet still an extremely caring character. He takes an interest in Williams while on the bus one day, and from that point on becomes infatuated with her. There comes a point in the movie where he would be willing to do anything and make any sacrifices he had to, in order to help Williams. And he does make these sacrifices, for her.

By present day, about seven years after they first met, Williams’ character seems extremely angered and tired by Goslings character. She seems happier when she is not with him. The plot of the movie centers around Gosling trying to hold onto the love that they once had for each other and trying to make it work.

While this movie is not a romantic comedy, it might be the most real portrayal of a relationship in a movie I have ever seen. There are extremely heartwarming parts of this movie that will make you smile and some that will even make you laugh, but there are also parts that will break your heart and just make you want to cry. Coming from someone who doesn’t usually love serious dramas, I would recommend Blue Valentine to anyone looking for both a heartwarming and real movie with actors who do a phenomenal job playing two very difficult roles!

Blog #3 Rachel Dadas

For this blog I decided to write about how television shows on popular stations such as MTV and VH1 are prompting and advertising sexuality. MTV stands for Music Television, and they originally created to show music videos all day long. As time went on, they started slowly moving away from music and towards reality shows.

Reality television first started becoming popular on VH1 in 2003 when they dropped the "Music First" from their name. They launched their promotion of "Celebreality" with shows most pertaining to celebrities who claim to be looking for love. The idea of finding your true love from a group of random people within a few weeks is simply unrealistic. Even though all of these shows claim to be "real" and not staged, they all are. For awhile I was actually tricked into thinking these shows were real and thought these celebrities were actually looking to marry one of the 20 groupies that auditioned to be on the show. I also envied how pretty the girls were and how handsome the men were. This is exactly what MTV and VH1 wanted out of viewers like me. Their goal is to make us all think that we're supposed to be that skinny and pretty since they're "real life people in real life situations"

As this trend of reality grew insanely fast, they began running out of ideas. Love and dating shows were overdone after the first few years, so they began airing shows such as 16 and Pregnant, Teen Mom, and Jersey Shore. When 16 and Pregnant aired it was supposed to be a sort of public service announcement, showing teenage girls what its really like to be a teenage mother. The show showed these young girls struggling with school, relationships, and life, and how miserable they were. The whole point was to scare our generation into being safer when it comes to sex. They even had Doctor Drew interviewing the girls throughout the season and also giving sex advice. Ever since that first show all of the warning messages have disappeared and teen pregnancy has been the latest trend. Instead of showing how having children at such a young age is a bad thing, they are promoting it, almost in an empowering way. They are now showing girls that they still can get an education, a job, and live out their dreams, even if their child won't ever have a father in their life. Doctor Drew doesn't even make appearances anymore to scare young girls into abstinence. 16 and Pregnant and Teen Mom have truly started an epidemic of a new baby boom with all of the young girls trying to get pregnant even in middle school.

Another one of MTV's popular hits right now is Jersey Shore. This show has no plot and no purpose, other than to have a bunch of grown adults partying as if they were teenagers. The cast of this show all live in a house together, party, drink and have sex for a living. They promote partying and sexuality as it should be an everyday thing. Similar to Teen Mom, they are putting the idea out there that having meaningless one night stands every night is typical and socially acceptable. These cast members degrade themselves by wearing provocative clothing, doing absurd and unethical things, and make all of this seem normal. Their impact on our generation is incredible, with all of the teenagers and young adults copying the things they do, say, act, and wear. Their slogan, GTL (gym, tan, laundry) also has been a catch phrase among many. They promote pure sex by their actions and daily lifestyles without enforcing any type of safety such as condoms. Even in a recent episode "Snooki" brags about having an STI (sexually transmitted infection) for the second time. This sends a horrible message to viewers, making it seem like these types of behaviors are acceptable.

MTV and VH1 are promoting sexuality is in a very negative way that is implementing poor decisions among teenagers. We are all influenced by what we watch on television, some more than others, and shows like these are leaving permanent impacts on the live's of young people with these horrible role models. The trends continue to thrive and these shows aren't getting any less popular as they influence our generation in many negative ways.