Vixen
Vindaloo
Venture
Visitation
Va-va-voom
Valuable
Valentine
Veneration
Vigor
Vice
Vagueness
Venom
Verify
Vilification
Vindication
Vengeance
Validate
Vacate
Very well.
I'm taking AVID this semester to learn the ins and outs of digital editing and get some certification up in this hizzy. At least that's how I'll describe it on my resume. Our second and third projects involve making a trailer and film-based music video based on a randomly assigned movie. My group's movie: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.
Even though I have had the DVD for a number of years (I think it was a graduation present?) I never got around to watching it until I absolutely had to, which I guess would be now. All in all, not a bad film. I think there are a number of things that can be discussed in terms of race and feminism as well as the treatment of the institutionalized. While watching the movie I spent a great deal of time thinking about Murray Ridge and Brandon and his clients, which might explain why I didn't feel overly shocked by what was happening in the film.
Also, I found myself underwhelmed by Nurse Ratched. When I think of her name I think of how she is presented as one of the great villains in modern cinema. Actually experiencing her character, I find that description to be wildly unfair. Again, maybe it is my tangential experience with MRDD patients, but I found her vilification to be more of a sexist reaction to her authority rather than any active evil on her part.
I will be watching it again, some clips multiple (as in 100's) of times in the next couple of weeks, so maybe I'll get a better reading on the film. If anything, I now find some jokes from The Simpsons that much funnier.
You may have heard this story about CBS not showing a particular ad during the Super Bowl:
I am not a fan of the headache this ad is causing or going to cause.
This is one of those situations where no matter what side of the issue you stand, there are no winners. Gay rights advocates are crying about discrimination, which is fair if the politics behind such an ad are a factor in their decision to reject the ad. But let's flip this around: if CBS decided to run the ad what would gay rights advocates say?
I find the ad to be stupid, unrealistic and borderline offensive. Stupid because gay porn has more subtext than what is going on in this ad. Unrealistic because those two guys would never hook up in real life. Borderline offensive because of the reaction of the third person who I read as being the liaison for the audience. And that's not even including the issue of how gay people are often portrayed in the media as oversexed hedonists. Frankly, I'm glad that this ad will not be entering my headspace on Sunday.
But this is going to be politicized, like it or not. If eHarmony gets to advertise on national broadcast television, ManCrunch should be allowed to as well. But I don't think gimmicky kerfuffles are the way to go about achieving equality.
