Gossip Girl
Last night, for the first time, I watched the show Gossip Girl.聽 My roommate is a fan, and so I finally watched it with her.聽 Despite having a quite a few friends who are fans, I’ve held off watching, even as the hype has grown.聽
I remember reading about the (book) series several years ago and thinking it sounded horrible.聽 A series about debauched materialistic teenagers, without any moral characters-and it was a big hit? Yikes.聽 And so I internally groaned, when I read that it was being turned into a TV series.聽聽聽
I think that plays, TV shows, films, etc., as they include human actors, humanize certain plot lines-these events “really” happen to an actual person.聽 I think this is why filmed or visually represented violence can be so much more disturbing (and lasting in memory) compared to something you read about.聽 I thought that Gossip Girl was alright, but I don’t plan on becoming a regular viewer.
My favorite character is 鈥榚vil’ Chuck Bass, in part because of his clothes-extremely tight yellow jeans, a purple cardigan, with a teal and pink ascot; a bright red frock coat; an orange trench coat; in part because he seems so over the top, and because he’s played by a Brit!
Have any of you read the books or watched the TV show?聽 What do you think?
Perfume: Story of A Murderer
In Emily鈥檚 vein of movies that are underrated: Perfume: Story of A Murderer, by Tom Tykwer, the director of Run Lola Run. The movie is about a throwaway-child-turned-perfumer who possesses a uniquely acute sense of smell. He becomes obsessed with smell and with the art of capturing scent. When he catches a whiff of the most ‘sublime beauty’ he can imagine and discovers it is the scent of a beautiful girl, he goes on a murder spree to create the greatest perfume the world will ever know, from – dun dun dun – essence of human!
Okay, so it sounds really dumb, but it actually has some really interesting ideas. I would not call it just some murder mystery story or slasher or horror or anything like that. For one thing, Grenouille (the murderer) has no scent of his own – and this is from a man whose entire worldview is dominated by scent. Good grief, talk about existential crisis! Also, it’s just incredibly visually beautiful – fetishism is a聽largeish theme and the heightened color or focus on individual objects of the women (hair, lips, eyes) really mirrors that. It’s also very visceral – there are these just insane montages and sequences聽that function as allegories for scent (another interesting thing – scent as the main theme in cinema,聽a fundamentally scentless medium) that just make your stomach turn over, either with disgust or delight.
That said, I’ve met few people who actually liked it and although I personally love it desperately, I can see why it can be annoying and unsettling. First of all, it is uncomfortably flip-floppy in the realm of realism. It’s shot in a way we are used to recognizing as being realistic. Then, throughout the movie, it sneakily throws in unrealistic or odd little seemingly-purely-symbolic little events and occurrences – not enough to make you shift your perception of the realism but enough to make you聽say ‘Wait, what..?’ Then you forget about them and the movie behaves for a while, until – BAM – the ending, which is basically out of unrealistic-creepo-metaphor-land. And before you have time to really come to terms with this betrayal of you by the movie, it’s over, and you had no closure, to time to grieve the loss of reason, no time to figure out what the heck was going on!
But once you suspend that disbelief for a bit, there really is a lot there. I ended up buying the movie and the soundtrack, too. 聽Anyway, here鈥檚 the preview:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=yAhMRHh9ZYg&feature=related
Stardust
Recently, (over Easter) I saw the movie Stardust. I had seen advertisements and read reviews of it this past summer, and had wanted to see it then, but didn’t end up having the chance to. I saw it with my whole family, and everyone really loved it.
Diann had earlier written a post on Neil Gaiman, and he’s the author of the comic the movie is based upon. I’ve checked out the first volume of his Sandman series before, but couldn’t really get into it.
I found Stardust to be a visually stunning movie, and to have a magical and sweet story at its core. I think it’s quite similar to The Princess Bride, but its humor is a bit more subtle. (Sorry Billy Crystal!) Stardust follows young English lad Tristan Thorn, as he attempts to recover a fallen star; a journey that takes him from the 19th century village of Wall, into the supernatural kingdom of Stormhold. That the star is not just a piece of molten rock, but a young woman is the first of many new discoveries for Tristan. The movie seemed both humorous and generous, in a way that you rarely see. As you can tell, I endorse it!
It also made me wonder-what are other good movies that you think may have fallen through the cracks?
What ARE they teaching in Library School these days?
Well, as many of you may know, I am going to school to get my Masters in Library Science through Drexel University’s online program.聽 I thought maybe you would be interested in hearing about the classes I am taking (this quarter, at least).
I am taking two courses, the first of which is Introduction to Information Systems Analysis (fancy-speak for just聽Systems Analysis).聽 It’s basically an overview of what it is to be a systems analyst.聽 To be perfectly honest…this is not my favorite course.聽 There are a lot of dense terms, that when read in a 40-page chapter can make my head fuzzy.聽 But, the professor teaching the class has a really good sense of humor and likes to joke around, so that definitely lightens the mood.聽 For my final project, we are asked to analyze a system (real or made up) and write a proposal to the “powers that be” in how to implement or improve that system.聽 I decided I wanted to analyze and propose a system on implementing a library blog!
The second course I am taking is Internet Information and Resource Design (fancy-speak for Web Design).聽 In this course, we are making webpages, while learning about the different aspects of designing for the web.聽 By the end of the quarter, we will have two webpages- one by using HTML code and the other with a website design software (namely, Dreamweaver).聽 As you may have guessed, the first website we are creating is being done strictly with HTML code.聽 Which is聽really…how can I put this?…DAUNTING.聽 I have nightmares about tags, lists, and tables.聽 The website I am working on now is on my writing-more specifically, poetry.聽 I promise to post the link when it is finished, but I am聽warning you.聽 Let me just put it this way- not only will you get to see my horrible website making skills, you’ll also get to see my horrible writing skills as well! (Just kidding!…I suppose.)
I have聽been asked聽a lot of questions on how online classes actually work on a daily basis.聽 I’m sure each program at each school聽is different, but I think Drexel has it down pretty well.聽 Drexel uses Blackboard as a learning space.聽 Each week new lectures (usually Word documents) and assignments are posted by the professors.聽 We, as the students, read the lectures and any other readings that are given to us, whether from our books, websites, or journal articles.聽 Then, we complete the assignments (usually exercises or activities) submit them through either email, the聽Assignment Manager, or the Digital Dropbox in Blackboard.聽 Finally, we post to the class discussion board on the topic given for the week.聽 Everything is posted by the professor by Monday morning and is due聽on the following Sunday by midnight.聽 This is all done very independently and at “one’s own pace.”
Although I am enjoying my courses and look forward to the outcome, Library School + Full-time job = Stress City.聽 I have decided to take the summer off and then start again in the Fall with only one course a quarter.聽 I will get my degree a little slower than anticipated, but definitely with my sanity intact.