rom commmmm

what is it about a good chick flick that just makes you feel better. i am an absolute sucker for a good romance and for some reason they are the perfect pick-me-up. even really bad romantic comedies have the redeeming value of being so bad it's comical. one of my best friends and i are constantly on the look out for really bad rom coms and i'm currently the champion for finding the worst one. i think these types of movies appeal to me so much because i love the happy ending. happy endings are often hard to find in real life, but in a good romance the couple ends up together with rainbows coming out of their eyes and woodland creatures building them a house (okay, maybe the rainbow thing is an exaggeration). that's not to say that i don't like movies that don't end perfectly happily, because i do like them, but they don't really make you feel good. there is just something comforting about sitting down with your favorite movie which for me is Sabrina (the new one) and knowing that in the end there will be love in Paris instead of heartbreak in the Valley.

jog-a-thon

I am physically incapable of running without my iPod. I am not a person who enjoys exercise, but by listening to music while I run I trick myself into thinking that I'm having fun. Instead of thinking about the cramp in my calf of the burning sensation in my throat, it think about the lyrical stylings of Elliot Smith, Wolf Mother, Kravinsky & Lovefoxxx, LCD Soundsystems, and Jay-Z. I motivate myself by saying that after the next song I can take a break or throw up. In just one more song I'll be home. Measuring my runs, it would be more accurate to call them jogs or even wogs(walking and jogging), is much less discouraging than miles or minutes. So thank you Apple for helping to keep my love handles in check.

Americans

I've spent the last 6 weeks in Europe and in all of the 5 countries I went to I could not escape American media. Movies, TV, music, commercials. We have a global media culture that in some way I think homogenizes us as people. My media experience is similar to that of someone is Spain, England, or Switzerland. It also gives people a skewed idea of what Americans are really like. They think that we're all like what they see in the movies. We're desperate housewives who have three cars and a swimming pool. We're violent and swear like sailors. We all cheat on each other and all we eat is McDonald's. It's sad really, but a societies values are revealed by their entertainment and sometimes I don't blame them for thinking what they do about us.

Spotify

I am a lazy music listener. I really like to experience new music and find new things that I like, but I don't really go out and actively look for new bands and artists. I rely on friends and word of mouth to hear about what's new and different. For this reason I love Spotify. I can just look up what my friends are listening to and subscribe to their playlists and see what they are listening to. It is music discovery made easy for the lazy like myself.

adverts in Latvia

I recently spent some time in Latvia and was struck by home much of their media comes from US. Almost every movie playing in the theater is from the US, with maybe one French movie thrown in. Their TV programs are translations of American shows, they listen to American music. Since Latvia is such a small country, it is cheaper fro them to just translate American media than to produce their own. I was watching TV and a terribly annoying Latvian commercial came on and I was sitting talking with a Latvian about how the American advertisements are always so much better and more creative. I think what it really comes down to is money and experience.

murder

i heard a report yesterday of a 14 year old boy who tortured and then murdered his mother. The boy was recreating something he had seen in a movie. I have thought about this boy alot and then about what responsibility the media industry should have, if any. The boy was likely troubled to begin with, but then watching violent media inspired him to act in a way that he may not have on his own. Movies and even TV shows frequently depict gruesome violence, torture and murder as entertainment. And it's not just weirdos who watch this stuff, look at the popularity of the Saw movies. Obviously not everyone who watches these films goes on to commit murder, but I don't think you can say that witnessing acts of extreme brutality has no effect on your thoughts, and thoughts lead to actions.

mr. roboto

I am a human being. Why does Blogger keep making me reaffirm this fact? I want to stop spam just as much as the next person, but are the insanely long and sometimes indecipherable security codes absolutely necessary? It makes me want to give up and not post comments which is sort a self defeating outcome, right? Stop accusing me of being a robot, it's getting insulting.

en francais

Familiar media can be comforting. I've been traveling in Europe and have found that American media makes me feel not so far from home. I'm staying with an American family right now and everything from American music to tv is something we all cling to. They have liked having me around to use American slang and talk about Ryan Gosling as well as the latest viral videos. The media contributes to our inherent Americanness for better, or for worse.

Swiss Miss

Yesterday I arrived in Switzerland. To put it mildly, my French is rusty. However, one of the easiest things to understand is advertisements. Advertisements are designed to be simple and easy to understand in only a few seconds. While I may not understand all the words I can usually get the main idea of the ad and recognize the product or service offered.

I am woman

In honor of Women's Day this week lets talk about some things. I'm currently an intern with an NGO called the Worldwide Organization for Women. I am what some would call a feminist, but shouldn't all women be feminists? Should we not work towards empowering one another and advocating for the rights of all women? But I digress, what I really want to talk about it art. I love art in all it's forms. I have a minor in art history and have always loved visiting museums. Last night my friend and I went to the Metropolitan Museum in New York. As we wandered through an amazing exhibit of work by Picasso, Manet and Matisse I was struck by the difference of depiction of men and women. One of the rooms of the exhibit had numerous paintings of nude women. I don't generally have a problem with nudity in art, but something about these paintings bothered me. I realized that in every painting the women were shown either from behind or from an oblique side angle which obscured their faces and they did not face the viewer. The one male portrait in the room however, showed a seated man, fully clothed who confronted the viewer with his gaze, showing his face. The particular combination of artworks in that room made evident an underlying gender inequality. I had not before considered these beautiful paintings as objectifying women, but that is what they do. While the man was able to sit fully dressed and facing the viewer, the women were on display, with or without their permission, with their faces hidden. As I considered these works of art and the male gaze for which they were created I concluded that they were not so different from images still created today. The male gaze has immense power and influence in modern media, just as it had historically. Ad campaigns with sexy themes and innuendo are meant to appeal to the male viewer and his gaze. Magazines encourage women to put themselves on display for the male gaze under the guise that it will be empowering. But will it? Does putting yourself on display get a women respect and power? The answer is no. While the art I enjoyed was peaceful and not overtly sexual the women were objects, not people. Let's not try to empower ourselves by becoming objects for men to gaze on.

SNL

Remember when Saturday Night Live used to be funny? Remember when Lindsey Lohan used to be cute? I just watched this weeks episode of SNL with Lindsey Lohan and it wasn't funny at all. I don't know who is writing for the show now, but i feel like the last shreds of humor left with Tina Fey. No all the funny people are hanging out at 30 Rock and Kristin Wigg can't carry the whole show by herself. Let's bring Steve Martin and Will Ferrel and Molly Shannon back.

drive me crazy

I just watched a video online of Ryan Gosling breaking up a a street fight in New York. Remember how just 6 or 7 years ago youtube was just starting and you could only record 10 seconds of video on your phone? All I can say is that I'm glad we're putting technology to good use. and I love Ryan Gosling. I just watched Drive a couple days ago with some friends and it was life changing.


Hey girl.

Edward? Is that you?

so while i was on a long bus ride last week i was bored and decided to look for a new app for my phone. i came across Wattpad which is a free e-reader. i decided to check it out. it turns out that Wattpad is a place where people can post their own novels and have readers vote on their work etc. basically i'm reading unpublished aspiring authors. the first suggested books were teen novels. don't judge me, i was on a bus. while in the middle of my second book from this app i noticed what i would like to call the "Twilight" effect. these books contain supernatural elements and people who are impossibly physically attractive. physical perfection. thank you stephanie meyers for reminding all aspiring authors that preying on teenage insecurities about their physical appearance is the recipe for success.

No talking in the reference section

center part, check. hair in bun, check. glasses, check. ankle length trousers, check. peter pan collar buttoned to the top, check.

librarian? or hipster?

I find myself once again tuning into a walking stereotype of a librarian, but now it's cool. Librarian-chic, or "nerd-chic" as the New York Times put it last year has made a comeback and brought me with it.

Now, be quiet and hand me your library card.

apple big

Let me take this moment to tell you that sometimes life is just like movies and sometimes it is not. Riding a taxi, like the movies. Walking through Central Park, getting lost in SoHo, and riding the subway all like the movies. Eating a Gray's Papaya hot dog and meeting the Naked Cowboy, not like the movies. The hot dog was average and the cowboy was a perv. I've been in New York all week and constantly feel like I'm living in a movie. I have this idealized conception of New York and I have to say that out is living up to my expectations 125%! I pretty much never want to leave.

jetplane

So I spent some quality time on airplanes and in airports today. It made me think about the amount of advertising and media that are created for the air travel industry. There are special airline tv programs and ads and magazines. I hadn't ever really thought about the separate world of airline media. It sort of opened my eyes to specialized media and how much of it there is.

I heart www

Pinterest just helped me throw a banging Valentine's day party. How did people do things before the internet? I get decoration ideas from Pinterest, instructions for how to have a great chocolate fountain, cupcake decorating tips, and a playlist online using Spotify. It was actually pretty easy thanks to being able to mooch off of other people's creativity. So thank you internet, you've done it again.

love potion

Does anyone else find this ad really funny? This advertisement from a local grocery store came in the mail today. What is the recipe for romance this Valentine's day you ask? Steak. Lots of it. And maybe a sprinkled cupcake for good measure.

XLVI

Yes, at this moment i am watching the Super Bowl. Or maybe I should say that I'm in a room where the Super Bowl is on. Is there a more self important event in sports? I don't think so. The reverence that the game gives itself is beyond ridiculous. At this point it has become more than a championship game and turned into an American cultural event. We buy Super Bowl snacks and look forward to Super Bowl commercials and record the half time show and willingly sit in front of the TV for 5 hours. If you can't tell, I'm not a big sports fan. Yet here I sit participating just for the sake of being a part of the experience and because I'm too lazy to find something else to do.

mark zuckerberg

I resist change. I have been resisting changes on facebook and am putting off getting the new timeline as long as possible. timeline confuses me and i avoid it. if i come upon a friend's page that has been updated, i promptly give up and move on. while listening to NPR a few days ago i learned that facebook has a hacker culture or mentality within the company. this means that it will always change and evolve. there will always be new features and versions and i will always resist them.

getting hungry

Two words: Hunger Games. I'm getting more and more excited for the release of the Hunger Games movie this year. I wasn't impressed when I heard about the cast but the more time i've had to think about it I don't mind who they picked so much. Jennifer Lawrence is going to play Katnis and she a really great actress even though she's not very Katnis-y. I don't know if anyone else saw Winter's Bone. She was nominated for an Academy Award for that movie and it's super intense but really great. Hopefully she'll be great in the Hunger Games too!

shake your body down slow

Why is it that only the scandelous parts of songs get stuck in your head? I guess it's my own fault really. The only radio station I listen to in my car is the hard core rap station. I'm a half closeted hip hop aficionado. The lyrical stylings of Jay-Z speak to me. I can hardly keep my booty from shaking when a song with a good beat comes on. Unfortunately rap usually has some pretty scandalous lyrics that play over and over again in my head while I'm at work or doing homework or sitting in church. Totally inappropriate. Word up homies.

poor mr. pamuk

I have been utterly take in by Downton Abby (new series on PBS). I'm a true lover of a good period drama for several reasons.

1. I'm a hopeless romantic and love a love story, especially one that involves prolonged sexual tension.
2. Im a sucker for pretty costumes.
3. I secretly wish that I had been born a British aristocrat.
4. I prefer formal to casual in most situations.
5. A good wig fixes everything.

Seriously, do yourself a favor and watch season 1 on Netflix. Just be warned that it may cripple your ability to get anything done for 7 to 8 hours.

don't cha

I have a confession to make, my favorite thing to listen to while running on the treadmill in the gym in the Pussy Cat Dolls. But I guess for it to be a real confession I would have to feel guilty about it, and I don't. Not even a little bit. However, I'm afraid that this habit might prove dangerous to my health. Their music makes me want to break out the sexy dance moves which I'm fairly certain would prove fatal on the treadmill. I have visions of myself flying off the back of the treadmill mid-shimmie and it's enough to keep my inner Doll under wraps.

krispy kreme

i love the cooking channel. i sit and watch show after show and before i know it the sun has gone down, my legs are asleep, and i'm starving. yesterday i was sucked into the cooking channel vortex for two hours before I finally extricated myself from the couch. my 17 year old cousin was watching with me and after about an hour he said "I'm glad I can get so much enjoyment out of watching other people eat." he wasn't being sarcastic, he was completely sincere which made it even funnier. we were completely entertained while watching other people eat and travel and then cook and eat some more. i have nothing to say in my defense. i love food, i love eating, i love cooking, i love watching people cook and eat on tv. and at 9:30 last night i forced my cousin to go get donuts with me. i'm very susceptible to the power of suggestion.

are you sure?

last week I was asked to create an advertisement. it was at that moment that i realized i was in over my head. i don't have any extraordinary computer or design skills and have never made an advertisement in my life (unless you count fliers for relief society activities, which i don't). and to add to my chagrin, this ad is going into an international publication. what i ended up makeing was the computer equivalent of tape, scissors, and sloppy glueing with a little glitter thrown on at the end out of desperation. in making the ad i started to think about all the research, expertise and creativity that goes into the advertising business, and how i had none of these things.

it also reminded me of how much I love the show Mad Men and that I can't wait to see Don Draper's beautiful hair again in March.

provided for your entertainment is my sad little ad.