“Reality” vs. Escapism

I recently received one of those emails where you have to list 4 things in various categories and I noted that the perosn who sent it to me listed Burn Notice as a current show, when in fact, it's on break until January.  She responded by saying that considering it still a current show was her display of optimism and this eventually led into a rant on reality tv.  I tried not to get carried away, but hey, it's a hot button for me.  I detest reality tv on prinicple.  So here is my response to her:

 

In the time of shows being cancelled before the first season is even finished, I understand you considering a show on break (that still has commercials for new episodes) as still being current.  And don't even get me started on reality tv!!!  Ok, here we go:  First of all, who's freakin reality is it??  I don't know any real people that have lives like that.  And if it is "reality" then why are there writers credited for the show?  And how can there be cameras in the car of some guy asking out one of the main characters for the first time, if it's a surprise????  Yes, that actually happened on The Hills (my friend forced me to watch several episodes under the misguided delusion that I would choose to watch it on my own afterward). 

 

Secondly, has everyone completely forgotten that "reality tv" was created when all of the writers went on strike and no one with an ounce of creativity or common sense was left to come up with something new that had any substance to it??  It was created as a filler for a time period when no one with talent was left to create anything. . . and it's still going.  There are now people that are famous just for being greedy enough to eat cow balls or live in a hut.  There was a happy marriage that was publicly torn apart by cameras and the wife has the audacity that be thankful for the opportunity, because the opportunity that it gave her was to be stinkin rich and very famous.  And still, the American public is enthralled with this crap!  I just don't get it.

 

And people make fun of me because I watch the recreated 90210 about a bunch of spoiled, and extremely stupid, vapid teenagers or a show about a teenage girl who's friend is a witch, she's in love with the good vampire brother (as opposed to the evil vampire brother) and her own brother just had his memory erased so that he doesn't remember his druggie girlfriend turning into a vamp and being staked right in front of him.  I also watch a crime drama where the main character has no social skills and her partner sees Stewie Griffin on a sperm bank tv b/c he has a brain tumor. 

 

And why do I watch such things?  Because there is absolutely no basis in reality whatsoever.  At no point will I ever be watching one of these shows and think, "yeah, I can relate to that" or "hey, that just happened to me last week."  Because the things I watch never happen to real people, but they're not trying to claim that they are real people either!!!!  I can watch these shows, knowing that none of it is even trying to be real, and yet I'm interested enough to get invested in their lives (mainly b/c they're so outlandish and fake) and can take that time to completely forget about anything wrong in my own life. 

 

Books, movies and tv.  These are the avenues of escapism and if I have to see people talking to their children like they're the gum on the underneath of their shoe, and know that this person actually just said that to their child and not a pint size actress that knows it's fake, I think I just might puke.  So go, watch mindless happy endings and be happy, because that is what tv should be all about.  If we can't get happily ever after in own lives, at least we can watch it happen to other people!!!

2012 - The Review

Let me start off by saying that I'm giving this movie a "Theatre" rating (see the bottom of the page for the rating scale definitions), if for no other reason then the special effects.  I feel that all of the doomsday, end-of-the-world movies (i.e. The Day After Tomorrow) tend to have very intense, epic imagery that deserves to be seen on the big screen, and this one does not fail in that category.  Now, in the commercials the only person you really see is John Cusack, but it's got a really interesting cast besides him, including a conspiracy-theory lunatic played by Woody Harrelson, with some strange love of pickles.  The movie itself definitely was one of those edge-of-your-seat type movies, while you anxiously watch to see if they can get past the giant smoke cloud or off the ground before they get sucked into the molten hot magma filled canyons forming throughout Pasadena (Cali, not Maryland).  Even though in the back of your mind you're thinking, "Of course they make it, they're the leading characters!"  Logic never plays a part during these intense moments, if done well, which these were.

 

I also really liked their estimation of how the end of the world would be handled by the government, if it had enough advance warning, which it did in this case. . . sort of.  From selling off seats of safety, to screwing over the laborers that built the ships of salvation, I feel that they accurately portrayed the greedy elitist attitude of some of the people in charge of such a project, while balancing with the idealistic hope of the martyrs that such a situation would hopefully be saved by (not that I feel they need to die, just the fact that some people are idealistic and humanitarians is enough).

 

Of course the end is chock-full of mishaps and near-catastrophes, that somehow all are connected to the main (and important side) characters, as you would expect.  The only criticism I have is that it seemed like a bit much.  I mean, ok, I get that there are going to be problems that heighten the drama at the end, making the result more victorious, but at a certain point even I was noticing how it seemed like a bit much.  I remember thinking "Wow, with all of these things going wrong, I'd sure wish I was in one of the 4-5 other ships that John Cusack wasn't in!"  I won't get into all the goings on, but let's just say that it was a bit much to have it all happen to only one of the ships.  Sure, some of them were chain reactions, but still. 

 

All in all, if that's the only thing I can say seemed a bit much (and please don't come back with anything about how the images of destruction were over the top.  That's what these films are all about, so you have to be impressed with them, rather than criticize them. . . unless they're done poorly, then you can criticize the shit out of them.  But these were done really, really well so we'll just move on), then I have to say it was a pretty good movie all around and I hope you all enjoy it!!

I Want to Take My Freak Flag Down

Freaks love me.  Everyone thinks that all the crazies find them, but in my case it's true.  I even have an explanation for it.  My grandfather was the unique individual that used to actually go out looking for freaks.  He even brought them home to give them tours of the addition my parents built for my grandmother and him.  True story.  My dad came home to find my grandfather showing someone the house, walking through every room.  My dad asked who it was and my grandfather said "I don't know.  I met him at the shopping center behind the house and brought him home to see the place."  The only logical explanation to draw from this is that my grandfather had the freak-gene.  It somehow mutated when passed to my mom, and subsequently me, and now the freaks come find us. 

If you have this gene (the mutated kind), it's very dangerous to be around others with the same aspect.  My friend and I had to stop going to one bar because we couldn't go there without being, essentially, harassed.  In one evening, an albino slammed his drink down next to us and stormed out because we spurned his advances; I was delayed on my way to the bathroom by a group of guys by the foosball table telling me that they went to "Spring Break University" because (as I had learned at that very moment) that's what my t-shirt said; and was cornered by the regular old-drunk-guy for so long that the bartenders gave us money to play the jukebox, just so that they could get rid of old-drunk-guy for us.  This is not to say being with other people make you safer.  Another night (at the same bar) I was invited to play pool by the boyfriend of some girl sitting next to me, just so I didn't attack this guy that kept calling me Clifford (because I reminded him of the big red dog. . . red hair and pigtails are apparently enough to spark such memories).  You can see why I've tried to avoid going back to that bar since the bartender that protected me left.  One of the few times I did go back, my friend and I had to actually leave and go to another bar to get away from my most recent admirer.  Luckily, I've gotten enough practice putting my "Get the hell away from me" face on that I haven't had too many ridiculous experiences like that in a while. . . let's keep our fingers crossed, shall we?