Happy Mean Girls Day

Jordan Brown Leave a comment

“On October 3rd he asked me what day it was” said Cady Heron from the hit 2004 movie Mean Girls.  Ever since this movie has come out October 3rd is the official Mean Girls day. This year is more special in particular because October 3rd is a Wednesday, and even if someone hasn’t seen the movie it is a well known fact that “On Wednesdays we wear pink” – Karen a.k.a a plastic.

Mean Girls has been a phenomenon since its release in 2004.  It stars Rachel McAdams as the villain Regina George and Lindsay Lohan as the protagonist Cady Heron who just moved back to the United States from Africa with her parents.  This movie is a classic teen movie because it shows some truth to high school while also exaggerating everything in the funniest possible way. Mean Girls quickly expanded by adding a much less popular sequel in 2011.  This one starred Camp Rock star Meghan Martin. A Mean Girls musical was also created in 2017 and is now playing on Broadway.

Mean Girls quotes became common knowledge after its release.  Some of the most popular are when Regina George yelled to Cady “Get in loser, we’re going shopping”, when Regina George told the other plastics that she “wants to lose 3 lbs”, when Janis and Damon described Gretchen saying “Her hair is full of secrets”, and when Gretchen repeatedly tried to make “fetch” happen.  It seems as though every other line of the movie is now a popular quote that most millennials know.

The mastermind behind Mean Girls is Tina Fey.  She wrote the movie and the musical. Fey was a writer on the tv show SNL and then she began to act on the series as well.  She then went on to create and star in her own tv series separate from SNL called 30 Rock. Tina Fey has a famous friendship with Amy Poehler.  The two of them were actors on SNL together and have starred in each others productions since then. They have become a famous dou by hosting award shows together as well.  Poehler had a role in Mean Girls as the “cool mom” of Regina George.

A day in 5 minutes and 43 seconds

jbaz 1 Comment

I had heard of Joe Satriani throughout my childhood because my dad is a fan, deeming Joe his favorite artist of all time. I had absent-mindedly heard Joe Satriani’s music in the car on long drives or on his kitchen stereo after dinner, but not until this summer did I ask my dad about Joe’s music and actively listen to it.

Joe Satriani began a musical career because he had a “desire to make noise” which he platformed with the drums. Three and half years later, he says to Steve Vai in an interview, he figured out how to channel these noises into something beautiful on the guitar. Before succeeding in his solo career, he worked as a guitar instructor, his former students including Steve Vai, Larry LaLonde, Rick Hunolt, Kirk Hammett, and Andy Timmons. Now, he is a renowned American instrumental rock guitarist (and multi-instrumentalist) with 15 nominations for a Grammy Award and 10 million albums sold, making him the biggest-selling instrumental rock guitarist of all time.

So my interest sparked one night when he explained to me one of his favorite Joe song called “Out of the Sunrise”.  Basically, Joe Satriani coined sound for the time from when the sun rises to when it sets and then rises again. His song captures that feeling when you first wake up, the feeling when you have just barely open your eyes and the day is a blank slate. You realize this day is yours. For a few moments, you have nothing on your mind. The morning carries on, that stretch of the spine from when you got out of bed starting to lose its length. The song then elevates to the intensity in the day into the climatic hours of the evening. Joe shreds on a eclectic journey with the guitar to show the spontaneity that happens during the night hours, the mystery of it maybe. Then the world settles, and the song unwinds back to the moment the sun rises again.

Do you think this song captures the fullness of a day? All the feelings that cycle in a day? No matter where you are? Whether that’s at vacation to the tropics or an internship in Hong Kong or a typical day in classes? I would argue yes because while the stimuli may differ from day to day, the emotions harbored by each day are more or less the same, right? Sure we have bad days, not every day will be a good day, but there is good in every day.

Reflect on this as you listen.

Listen here:

P.S. I know my dad will be the first one reading this like he does all of my articles. Thanks Dad 🙂

“Threads” is Surprisingly Relevant 33 Years Later

Ana Lucena Leave a comment

Finally released on Blu-ray, the warning given in the visceral 1984 apocalyptic film “Threads” feels all the more life-threatening in the midst of our political climate after Trump negotiated the denuclearization of North Korea with the DPRK’s leader, Kim Jong Un. The film holds back no punches as it spends the first half hour depicting the normal daily life of working-class Sheffield, England. Warnings of escalating tensions between the United States and USSR over Iran are reported through the television sets and radios everyone seems to be plugged in to, but it is easy for me to ignore the over-whelming presence of danger in favor of the true drama of the film’s premise: the marriage of young couple Jimmy (Reese Dinsdale) and Ruth (Karen Meagher), who is pregnant. However, by the time the conflict has gone nuclear Sheffield has already emptied its grocery stores in an attempt to prepare for the worst, as it is a NATO center that would be a prime target for the Warsaw Pact if war ensues.

And it does, as the city is bombed. It is horrifying to see how little time passes between when we first learn of the conflict and when the absolute worst case scenario occurs. I, in spite of myself, was hoping the entire time that the escalations of the conflict between the two world superpowers would either resolve itself or spare outside nations. It was incredibly cruel and nihilistic to see how despite the citizens’ protests as the country comes closer to war, they are ultimately not listened to by the actual countries fighting. The film does an excellent job of painting the world of Sheffield by having a plot with a wide scope, focusing on Jimmy and Ruth but showing preparations of their families and emergency coordinators of the local government. It is so, so sad to see to how little regard the superpowers end up having for poor Britain despite Sheffield’s efforts to make their voice heard. It made me feel that the world would be a more peaceful place if only we would engage those we disagree with more often.

The vivid depiction of the impact a nuclear bombing would have on a city made my heart drop and my stomach hurt. It is evil, Hell on Earth, and I believe no mere human dispute could ever merit such extreme measures. It was eye-opening to see the fears of people around the world during the Cold War brought to life. As I was born after the conflict, I will never know what it was like to live wondering if my own powerhouse country would disregard any shred of humanity to use such weapons. But I worry that my generation is getting a taste of that fear with Trump’s taunts of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un last August, promising “fire and fury like the world has never seen” if North Korea does not comply with the United States. I am not saying that everyone should watch “Threads”, a piece of well-made fiction, in order to inform their real-life decisions. However, I believe that a movie like “Threads” serves as a testament of the fears of a time that can allow future generations to understand better, synthesizing parts of history that define our country’s master narrative. Trump, being an adult by the time this film came out, was surely aware of the Cold War happening. I think it is impossible that he would want to invite so much destruction of humans lives to provoke a hostile nation threatening nuclear missiles. But based on his belligerent language, I bet he doubts such a threat could one day be serious. “Threads” is a strong example of how art plays an important role in forming public memory in the hopes of learning from it.

Heaven is a Place on Television

Corrina Lee Leave a comment

The deadline was in three hours and still I deliberated. It seemed even an easy decision. My philosophy class was lengthy, laborious, and late in the afternoon. The required readings took copious amounts of attention and a truly remarkable amount of underlining to reach even a basic level of understanding. Yet, still I hesitated. With my cursor hovering over the Add/Drop button, I decided to stay undecided, for a little bit longer. There was only one show that I could turn to in my desperate need for procrastination: The Good Place.

Simultaneously, it is one of the funniest shows on television and as it turns out, the only way I can learn philosophy. In the world of network television, there usually exists only three locations: a hospital, a police precinct, or Dick Wolf’s Chicago. There, the brave cop, the troubled doctor and the morally compromised lawyer ply their trade, complete with overdramatic pauses and pulsing music. Far above those earthly, familiar concerns lies The Good Place, literally. Meet Eleanor Shellstrop (Kristen Bell). She is dead. Yet, all is not lost, for she has done enough during her life to earn herself an infinitely pleasurable afterlife. She can settle in, relax, and enjoy all the frozen yogurt she can get her hands on. Except for one nagging worry: She doesn’t belong there.

In a classic sitcom twist, Eleanor’s file has been confused with another. She wasn’t the one who went on that heroic human rights mission to the Ukraine. She was the one who defrauded the sick and the elderly, sleazily selling chalk as medicine. Eleanor’s only hope to stay in eternal bliss is to finally become a better person. This is where the true heart and more importantly, its mind emerges. Beneath her cutting insults and her unapologetic selfishness is a decent person. A person that can argue that she always belonged in the Good Place. A person that the audience can root for. Subversively, the show wins our love. Instead of presenting flawless, unbelievable characters as the protagonists, it shoves us into a world full of goody-two shoes. The true hero is the regular person, the one who, beset by unfortunate circumstances doesn’t choose the right path. We may not all be dirtbags from Arizona, but we all are Eleanor. The world seems bent on presenting us with ethical challenges. All we can do, all we ever do, is choose to do more right than wrong. Which makes the bureaucratic system in The Good Place seem even more unfair and arbitrary. What hope does Eleanor have, what hope do we have, when we can lose our chance at the afterlife simply by reading a trashy magazine?

So, we cheer for Eleanor and her group of friends as they strive to become better, because despite the outlandish situation, they are just like us. Ultimately, I decided to drop my philosophy class. Who needs an expensive college class when one can watch television?

The Good Place Season 1 & 2 are on Netflix. Season 3 airs on NBC, 8 pm.

The Miseducation of Cameron Post

vle Leave a comment

I recently watched The Miseducation of Cameron Post at the State Theatre earlier this month, and it helped me realize the importance of representation.

Based on the 2012 novel by Emily Danforth, the film chronicles the story of a teenage girl forced into conversion therapy after being caught with a her female friend on prom night. The main character, Cameron, has a hard time adjusting to the strict camp, whose directors enforce intolerant ideals, one such ideal being that homosexuality can be cured. However, Cameron finds solidarity amongst the other teenage “sinners” and they are able to have each other in times of crisis.

Although the film was only 90 minutes, and focused on only one part of the novel, I still found it to be powerful. The coming-of-age story features a bright young cast and moments of raw honesty, whether it be a funny joke or dark violence. The cast also features several actors of color, and of course centers on an issue faced by the LGBT+ community. It was enlightening to see this movie and actors representing pressing issues. For adolescents, I believe it is especially important to see stories in which people like you are represented.

I would strongly recommend people to watch The Miseducation of Cameron Post, best viewed with close friends. I hope the future of storytelling in film continues to emphasize representation in order to raise awareness of significant societal challenges and identities.

Andrew Lloyd Webber

Jordan Brown Leave a comment

With the rise of popularity of the Broadway Musical Hamilton for the past several years, the entire Broadway community has gained more popularity.  While Hamilton was one of Lin Manuel Miranda’s first musicals, there are several other composers and playwrights that have created hit after Broadway hit for decades.  The most popular of these composers is Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber.

Webber was born in London in 1948, and has been composing since 1965.  His two most famous musicals are the Phantom Of The Opera, and Cats. He has also composed Evita, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, School of Rock, Sunset Boulevard, and Starlight Express.  Most of his most popular work, like Phantom of the Opera, and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat were filmed and made into DVD’s. They were filmed as a Broadway musical using the stage and sets from when they performed on Broadway, they just did not have an audience during the filming.  Another musical of Webber’s musicals that got made into a movie was School of Rock. The School of Rock movie was different from the other two movies that were made because School of Rock was not filmed on a stage. It was filmed on a movie set, the movie was a film adaptation of the musical, whereas the other movies were just recorded versions of the Broadway shows.

All of his movies have some famous actors in them.  Johnny Osmond played Joseph in the movie of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and Jack Black was the main character in the movie adaptation of School of Rock.  Webber has a new movie adaptation that is in the works. The movie rendition of his famous musical Cats is casting right now. Cats is set to star several famous actors and singers such as Jennifer Hudson, James Corden, and Taylor Swift.  Webber has been a big face in creating and composing musicals since the 1970s and he is not going anywhere soon.