clueless

Its been a while since i saw the entire movie of clueless, and its been a while since the movie was presented, but i think that the movie is an absolutely rediculous representation of pop culture in america. The typical blond spoiled barbie cher who leads her pack of fake girls around the school and runs people into their stereotypical cliques is a horribly overdramatized image in todays society. Recently, with movies like Mean Girls and others this idea has just been totally played out. The parts of clueless that i thought were funny were the parts where cher is learning to drive, and taking her road test. she is more worried about how cute she looks in the car rather than if she almost kills someone in the process of the road test. Another part i like is when they are making over the dorky girl to be a part of their little group. My favorite part is when they are in the car though and they sing Rolling with the Homies. I cant think of much else and i dont actually own the movie so i cant watch it but i will add some things to this blog if i can get a hold of a copy from someone in the next day or two.

Grotesque

The story of The Day of the Locust is chalk full of grotesque characters and images. While i agree with Kristian that Harry is a grotesque, as is Abe, I believe that the painting The Burning of Los Angeles is in itself a grotesque "character" or image and is probably the most important part of the story. Tod dreams up his painting of a complex piece of art which depicts many different, and often dark images. While the city itself is on fire and seems to be the key part of the work of art, there are many little depictions of dark images which are scattered throughout the entire piece. One of the important minor images in my mind within the painting is Faye running through the city naked with a pack of men and women chasing after her trying to rape her. This dark image is one of many including faye and the rape fantasies of tod. Tod is not as complex a character as the statement that West makes in the first chapter about him. He is a very simple character...while he does seem to unravel through the novel into an animalistic type of person, his character still is rather underdeveloped and simple.

Simpsons Blog

I have never been a fan of the simpsons at all, and i dont think that the new episodes are going to turn me on to the simpsons now. I have never liked cartoon comedy and i dont think i ever will. I might be one of the only kids my age who doesnt like south park, the simpsons, family guy, or any of the other popular cartoon comedies these days. I see them as dull, boring interpretations of sitcoms that have already been produced. We talked in class about how they all have the stereotypical episodes, and since i dont have a favorite episode, i guess i will talk about homer's phobia since its one of the only episodes i have ever seen.

I didnt like the way that the episode played on all the dry, overused stereotypes for gay culture. The writers take the easy way out in trying to talk about homosexuals and just play up all of the popular, and sometimes absolutely wrong, stereotypes of homosexuals. I also dont see why every family in these kind of cartoon comedies has to have a fat dad, one boy, one girl, a mom.....like the perfect family. People in america understand that the life portrayed in these shows is not everyone's life, and isnt even that ideal. Another thing i didnt like about this episode was the fact that the comedic parts of it were not done very well. The part where homer sits bart in front of the billboard for the cigarettes, coming back two hours later and finding out his son wants a cigarette (but a woman's brand) was too cliche and predictable. I also think that John Waters was greatly underdone in this episode. I would much rather watch a movie by him than see him weakly represented in a cartoon comedy.