What is the televison doing to us ?

When I was younger I didnt have a satelite dish for a very long time... I dont think I actually got one until I was about eleven or twelve. But still, I do think that television effected my younger years to some degree. I remember that I was deffinately obsessed with Barney. I remember I would get my mom to tape the shows if they came on when i wasnt there, then I would literally just watch the tape over and over again, which is really weird now that I think about it. I don't know why I loved Barney so much, the whole concept is actually pretty creepy when you think about it: A Dinosaur that your parents don't know about, coming alive and playing with a whole bunch of little kids and like, being their leader and singing songs with them is in my opinion, kind of creepy. I've been noticing that recently alot of childrens shows are kind of creepy. Teletubbies is some sort of creepy alternate universe, where the sun talks and tells alien like creatures what to do. Dora the Explorer seems okay at a first glance, but then after watching it you realize that Dora is constantly telling the children what to do, and teaching them to have absoloutely no opinion with her constant commands, "to get the baloon to float, clap your hands! thats right! clap your hands! like this!" Those are really the only childrens shows that I know of, and they just seem extremely weird to me.
When I was slighly older I would always watch alot of disney movies. My favourite movie was deffinately the Jungle Book, and it still is my favourite disney movie. I somewhat approve of children watching disney movies, I think they're really good because they include jokes that are amusing to parents as well. I think the jokes in disney movies can help to develop young minds to get a better sense of humour. The reason I say that I only "somewhat" approve is because the subbliminal messages in the disney movies worry me. I don't know why they're there, but some people say its just there as a joke. even if this is true, it must somewhat effect children on a subliminal level! I wonder if this is the cause of songs like "stupid girls" by Pink, trying to raise awareness of the so called stupid epidemic sweeping girls across north america. maybe these girls watched alot of disney movies in their childhood, and now they're sex-crazed and confused teenagers ?

Woman of substance: Frida Kahlo

Frida Kahlo is mexican artist who innovated the art world by combining realism, surrealism, and symbolism in her artwork. Frida is best known for the disturbing images depicted in her artwork; in was very common for her to paint
bloody births and deaths, fetuses corpses, and disembodied organs. Frida was quite the suversion from women of the time, as she lived from 1907- 1954. Women of the time were supposed to be very proper, and ladylike, which is quite unlike Frida. Frida was very obsessed with painting self portraits, many in which she depicted herself much uglier and more masculine then she actually was, as seen to the right. I personally think this was a sign of her insecurity, but many art scholars have suggested that she wanted to seem stronger and less vulerable, which is why she wanted to be seen as "strong" therefore masculine. Frida suffered of many injuries in her lifetime: she had polio from the age of five, was in a bus accident in 1925 and was peirced by a pole from stomach to pelvis. In order to try and make her better she was tortured with many surgical treatments of the time- she had 32 operations in her lifetime. they also gave her many different kinds of painful corsets to try and make better, and even used a mechanical "streaching" system. I think these horredous events account for why Frida was so pessimistic, and she expressed her pain through her atwork. Frida was a very innovative woman, and she broke down most gender barries of the time through her artwork.

waking up for school . . .

This may just be my opinion because I'm extremely tired right now - - but I really think school days should start at 12 o'clock. Its just such a good idea. Its been proven that teenagers need more sleep than the average adult, but its also a well known fact that almost all teenagers stay up too late. the average teenager stays up anywhere from 10 to 3 in the morning on an normal night because most teenagers tend to get waves of energy later at night. This leaves us extremely exhausted for school the next day, and of course we cannot learn very well when we're so tired. If we could sleep in until 12 then we would be well rested and well prepared for school the next day, instead of having to wake up as early as 5 in the morning to get ready and look good in time for school. Even if you dont want to sleep in until 12 it would still be a very good deal because you would be able to shower and get ready for school in your own time, as well as you would be able to finish up any extra school work in the morning. Or, if you wanted to sleep over at a friends house on a school night it would be okay, cause you would have enough time to get back home. We would all have better brain development if we were allowed more time for sleep. Of course, if school days started at 12 that means they would probably go until around 7 o'clock. Most teenagers are opperating best later in the evening so it would work well. we would arrive home in time for dinner with our families. extra curriculer activities could be either during lunch or in the mornings -- instead of staying late after school, extra curricular students could just arrive earlier in the morning for their teams and clubs. I know some would say this is a very drastic approach to getting more sleep, and some might say "why not just get to bed earlier ?" The problem with that, is that I for one, -and Im sure many other teenagers agree- feel that after a long day of school, you really need your own time when you get home, but and after doing homework and eating dinner, it can be pretty late. after working hard all day, you just need relazation time -- and lots of it, especially when most teenagers start feeling energetic around 5 o'clock. This is why so many teenagers will stay up for hours watching television, talking on the phone, chatting online, or engaging in any other recreational activity. Teenagers would continue doing this if school went until 7 at night, but it would be perfectly fine if we had the option of sleeping in until noon the following day. for the good of all teenagers, school should start at 12 as soon as possible!

GRINDHOUSE

I saw the movie "Grindhouse" over the long weekend and am absoloutely in love with this movie! In my opinion, its some of the most innovative cinimatography that we've had in years. Its a double feature with the movies "death proof" as well as "Planet Terror." they are partially making fun of old- style drive in movies from the 1970's with joke ads throughout that could easily be seen in that era, as well as super cheesy acting. its very funny in its own way, as well as it has a really original plot. I liked that their were two movies. the first movie "Death Proof" was about zombies taking over the world and a stripper (who gets her leg bitten off by zombies then later got a machine gun as a leg as seen above) who helps to save the world and falls in love with an old flame again who is a very good shooter. alot of the movie doesnt really have an explanation, (which sort of makes it funnier) and it is fairly gross at some parts- but for the most part I thought it was very funny and the plot actually kept me pretty intreged throughout the whole thing.

The second movie was my favourite one called "death proof." its about this guy named stuntman mike (played by Kurt Russel) who stalks girls and then trys to kill them later with his death proof car, which is used in movies therefore really strong and can crush most cars. basically, after stuntman mike stalks down some pretty girls then later crushes them with his car, He finds some new girls. things do not go as planned though, and the girls who are also stuntpeople turn it around and chase him down. Its not only very funny, but also empowering to the "poor innocent girl" stereotype.

In conclusion; Grindhouse was a really funny, really good, really innovative film, and although its target audience seemed to be boys I thought it was very good none the less. Its deffinately a must see if youre out with friends.

mtv

I hate it when people complain about mtv not playing any music. although mtv doesnt play music videos, they do actually regularily show canadian indie bands (better than music videos in my opinion,) on mtv live. They promote the canadian music scene as well as talk about gobal issues in a humourous way on their show. they've also been known to show clips from the internet such as youtube clips on their show. the hosts are all very laid back, regular people, but they are also really quarky and fresh. Not only that they also have original programming such as The Hills, Laguna beach, Next, Made, MTV live, MTV live shuffle, engaged & underaged, room raiders, my super sweet sixteen, and so on. they also have original commercials that are artistic and innovative. In between shows, the hosts will actually just sit and discuss whats happening on the show, or really whatever they want to discuss. it sort of reminds me of tvo that way, the way the hosts are always there to engage you and make you think about whats happening on the show. similar to how between arthur Patty and Joe would discuss whats going on. maybe thats why I like it so much, its sort of like a tvo for teenagers. I honestly think that mtv captures this decade and teenage pop culture better than anything else in the media today, more people should watch mtv!

Tri-Cyclen commercials

I'm sure everyone is familiar with the commercial showing young girls trying new things, with the voiceover of "try being good! try being bad! try sleeping in! try being your own girl!" and so on and so on. But only recently did it occur to me that these girls--these 14 to 15 year old girls are advertising birth control. Its not that I'm against sex or anything, its just that these girls seem really really young to be advertising birth control. Some of the girls even look like they could be in grade eight or something. It really makes me wonder what the advertisers are trying to do. are they trying to get teens and pre-teens to have sex at a younger age ? the weirdest thing about this commercial is that it really doesnt stand out very much at all; most people don't even notice its advertising birth control, and if they do realize that they don't put together that the commercial is insinuating these pre-teen girls are having sex. The main slogan of the commercial is "try being your own girl." Is it trying to tell young girls that they can only be themselves by having (extremely) underaged sex ?