An article recently came out saying that Nicole Kidman is an age defying celebrity-and basically saying we should all strive to be as perfect as her. Its is really bothersome that airbrushed people and people who work out and go to great lengths to stay young looking are put on a platform that we should all strive to be on the same level as them. Everyone wishes they could be as fit as the stars and look as young as the stars, but these goals are next to impossible to come by. Celebrities who act and model for a living work out everyday for at least 3 hours. Their image is their job, their body is their job and their youthful appearance is their job. Everyday people dont have the luxury or time to put in the effort that these celebrities put in. LA has a big problem with fad diets and dangerous suppliments that dont always work and have life threatening concequences. Its not cool to see beautiful, fit, flawless, almost poreless people on commercials and tv claim to be “average people”. Average people have flaws. Average people have things they are ashamed of. Average people dont have millions of dollars for personal trainers and expensive bottles of youth serum. We will never look exactly like the beautiful people on billboards and television because our everyday lives will always get in the way.
Kanye West, Taylor Swift, and Beyonce in a nutshell
I straight up cant stand Kanye West anymore. He shows no respect for his fans and fellow artists, nor does he show any humility or graciousness towards the people who let him promote himself. In a recent interview he slammed Taylor Swift again by saying ”Taylor never came to my defense at any interview…[and] rode the waves and rode it and rode it”.
Now, I cant stand Taylor either, she has about as much talent as an anemic toddler with bulimia, but this whole VMA thing has gone way too far. Kanye isnt that talented either. His lyrics wouldnt even rhyme if he didnt take a word and change the emphasis on a syllable. His recent thirty five minute music video is not groundbreaking or even good to say the least.
my point? taylor and kanye suck as people and artists.
Beyonce, however, is the epitome of excellence in every aspect of the human existance.
natalee Holloway
For five years now, the news has reported on and off on any clues or breakthroughs in the Natalee Holloway case. In 2005, the Alabama teen went on a trip to Aruba with her school and ended up missing. Countless times has the case been broken open, analyzed, criticized, and put Natalees’ mother in more pain than a mother should ever have to go through. This week, a couple snorkeling in Aruba claim to have found the skeletal body of Natalee Holloway. Even though there are doubts that this is actually a skeleton and just a rock formation, that did not stop the reporters from going straight to the mothers home and trying to question her and get her thoughts on this recent discovery.
Honestly, what do they think her answer will be? Shes happy that they found her daughters skeleton? now she can go celebrate because this skeleton will forever be a reminder of how her daughter was tragically taken? Will her daughters’ skeletal remains bring closure to her for the rest of her life? I am all for the media getting in peoples faces to get a story, but this attempt to get a mothers broken heart on camera, so they can get a few money shots of her tearing up is crossing the line. It would be one thing if she was a celebrity and she was going through a bad break up, but this woman did not ask for fame, she did not ask to be slabbed across newspapers and magazines across the country, but just asked for her daughter to come home safely. Five years later, that one wish has still not come true. It has never been solidified in whether Natalee is dead or alive, but this new discovery makes the belief very grim.
No one but Natalees’ mother knows what is going through her mind, and though we would all like to know how she makes it through the day, I think it is time for the world to step back and give her the space that we have so unknowingly taken from her since 2005.
street performances
In a recent article handed to us in class from The Argonot, city council members talk about how the noise level has gotten too loud for the public and how sex offenders are dressing up as street performers who look kid friendly. I personally dont have a problem with the street performers because their efforts to compete with one another for loudness amuses me. Something needs to be done about the sex offenders though, but I dont see how this could be a problem, because the promenade is not a place for children to be wandering along without parents anyway
election day
As we all know, election day was this past tuesday. And like usual, we had that usual “if you didnt vote, then you cant complain” speech from the passionate voters who basically sit in a basement and only come out of their shell of a world to come out and vote. This election was one of the lowest when it came to numbers of voters. Theres a good reason a good amount of people dont vote anymore-we dont care, therefore we wont complain. We worry about real world issues-like when the power goes out and we have to wash our hair in the kitchen sink. That is a problem worth dealing with at the end of the day.
End of the Road for Reality Shows
Coming from a VERY small town in Maryland, where cows and horses roam the vast fields of everyones back yard, the biggest thing to ever happen was when the new gas station was built….right across the street from the OTHER gas station (which was considered a definite scandal to the down home country bumpkins that resided nearby). Our only glimpse of the rich and famous (even though Howard County, where this small town was located, was recently named the second richest county in the nation) was by watching the addicting reality shows that glamorized the glitz and the star studded big city life in California and NYC.
I have to say that I am guilty of getting stars in my eyes by watching The Hills for six years and Laguna Beach for two years (season three sucked). I am also guilty of admitting that The Hills is what first got me seriously interested in California and making my way out here. As the years went by in high school, my love for MTVs’ portrayal of Hollywood grew stronger and stronger, so by senior year I was sure that I belonged here. Even when these shows were called out for being fake by reality show experts and the public in general, I still believed it was all real for the most part. Later, when The Hills series finale came on and MTV basically gave its’ viewers the finger by showing them it was all fake all along, I was well aware that most reality shows were scripted, and even when they were edited and ready for air, you could already tell what was manipulated and cut to make a situation that was non existent come to life. All of America knew by then that there aren’t really that many awkward pauses in the middle of conversations in life, and that commercial breaks don’t save anyone in real life from an awkward moment of silence.
I have learned a lot out here the past 2 months. Almost everything is fake, and everyone loves a little camera time. When I talk to my friends back home, they always say how shows like “The Buried Life”, “Jersey Shore”, and “World of Jenks” are so real and not scripted. The truth is, the secret to having a successful and believable reality show is having a real good producing team, an amazingly gifted editing team, really good actors who will do anything in front of the camera, and a payroll that would make a lottery winner envious. If I was told that I would get payed ten thousand dollars to knock out one of my best friends, the offer would be more than tempting to me.
Living in New York for the first eleven years of my life, growing up in an inner city elementary school atmosphere, with an old school Catholic/Jewish Italian family, who all resided in staten island, Brooklyn, Phili, or Long Island, I was taught that the most important thing was to be true to who you are and to watch out for all the people who want to cut you down. Somewhere along the line, moving to the small, wealthy, southern feel town and the glamor of California and the personification of Hollywood took over my mind, and I seemed to have lost who I am in the process. Now that I am here, the starry-eyed Matt is gone, and the real me has come out. I see the camera crews everywhere with the reflectors and the boom mics all over- creating a artificial feel to the natural beauty of the SoCal beaches. What people need to realize that even though these shows are just mindless entertainment for someone to watch at the end of the day, the only thing that is true is the credits rolling at the end.
Paranormal Activity 2
One year ago, America was introduced to an $11,000 low budged horror flick filmed in the directors house called “Paranormal Activity”. The final outcome was an an 200 million dollar smash hit that had people become fascinated with demonic entities and possessions.
Today, the “sequel” of the infamous rags to riches film opened, and people already are calling it “scarier than the first”. As each timezone hits midnight, the tweets, the facebook statuses, and the comments on youtube videos come pouring in, claiming that this was the scariest movie since its’ predecessor.
Spoiler Alert (kinda): The movie is actually a Prequel to the first, taking place in 2006 but then jumps into time that takes place after the predecessors events have unfolded. Katie (the one who became possessed in the first movie) is the sister of “2″s main character. Once the setting of the new family and the new environment is revealed, so do the hauntings. This movie answers a lot of questions the first movie left behind. If you weren’t a fan of the first one, this one wont be any better. If the first one scared the hell out of you, get ready to let the sleepless nights return, and this time, those sleepless nights are not going away so quickly.
