South Park: America’s Mirror of Itself

I would have never thought I would have had to watch two South Park episodes for homework. I’ll tell you what, sure beats the hell out of a psychology paper or reading some boring chapter in some science textbook in my opinion.

Watching cartoons for homework in college? Say what?!?

What do you expect though? It’s South Park. One of the biggest animated shows pretty much exclusively for older people who have an actual understanding of the world or at least think so.

One thing I have to say about the show is that it is AWESOME. Now I may not watch every episode religiously, but if it happens to be on or one of my buddies just decides to pull an episode up on the screen, I’m watching! I remember the first time I had seen South Park as a small child in the late 1990s. I just thought it was a bunch of kids with bad mouths who always end up watching their friend, Kenny, die in every episode. It was not until I was in high school or so; that I realized that the actual show raises many issues going on depending on what big controversies are trending at the time of airing. The character in Brian Dunphy’s Satire Brew brings up many interesting points about the creators, Matt Stone and Trey Parker’s powerful use of animation and comedy to express and poke fun at the American culture. The character calls them “the most financially successful of the fifth estate” (Dunphy 137). The reason for Stone and Parker’s success is that not only do they bring together their audience through humor, but also they educate the public and potentially spark some thinking on certain topics. Another reason for the show’s success is that the creators never seem to be scared of bringing up issues that are sensitive like racism, left vs. right politics, religious tolerance etc.

The first episode that I randomly chose to watch was titled, “Cock Magic”., which aired last year during their 18^th season. In this episode, the main characters, Cartman, Kyle, Stan, and Kenny, end up getting involved in an illegal cock-fighting ring. This wasn’t any normal cock fighting that we expect here. Instead, we see two roosters fighting it out playing the trading card game, MAGIC the Gathering. What makes this hilarious is that this type of cock fighting was so serious to the authorities in the show. What made it even more hilarious was how Randy Marsh, Stan’s dad, starts his relive his college days by performing in magic shows doing tricks with his penis. To be honest, I have no clue what Matt and Trey are trying to say in this episode. Are they trying to say that kids and parents aren’t supporting their school’s athletic programs by having nobody attend the girls’ volleyball games? Well maybe. I mean considering, all of these “education budget cuts” that these states are doing, I wouldn’t be surprised if many schools around the country are neglecting extracurricular activities such as sports and arts. Another thing I was confused about was MAGIC? The card game? Really? Who even plays that game? According to the character in Satire’s Brew, “Matt and Trey are acting as the new type of teachers in today’s media world, using their satiric program to educate, inform, and entertain” (151). Here in this episode, I didn’t see much of any of those except for entertain. It’s probably because I don’t watch the news or pay attention to cock fighting busts going on around the country.

The second episode I ended up watching was “World War Zimmerman”. Now this episode was the complete opposite of the first I watched. Matt and Trey decided to pick on one of the most controversial topics of the year, the Treyvon Marin/George Zimmerman verdict in 2013. In this episode, Cartman is unable to sleep at night because of nightmares he keeps having that Token, an African American classmate wants to kill him because of the outrage of the jury’s decision on the George Zimmerman trial in World War Z style nightmares. (If you haven’t seen World War Z, then I’d highly recommend it.) In this episode, Matt and Trey did an excellent job of satire by making fun of America’s biggest problems going on at the time; George Zimmerman, racial prejudice, and dumb laws where people can kill who they want. Cartman, of course, ends up coming up with a “genius” plan to kill George Zimmerman by dressing up in black and putting black face on. What happens is that Cartman ends up being shot and the authorities find out that Zimmerman had shot a white kid. Zimmerman then ends up going to jail and was found guilty of murder leading to his execution. This was obviously a hard jab at our justice system by Matt and Trey. They play with many Americans’ belief that had a white kid been shot instead of Treyvon Martin, the case would have gone different. Going back to the South Park episode; Cartman manages to crash three planes and scaring the whole entire nation of an “outbreak” where zombies are attacking. After this, Cartman decides to shoot Token himself after learning about the “Stand your ground” laws. Cartman gets let free for this. (Obviously). I really like this episode and the overall meaning behind it. Unlike the last episode I watched, I could actually connect this to what the character from Satire’s Brew talks about.

“Matt and Trey have catalogued the American experience as they’ve emerged as the voice in the middle of a nation divided” (Dunphy 188).

Sources: Satire’s Brew: Mass Media & Coffee Beans by Brian Dunphy

http://southpark-zone.blogspot.com/2014/11/s18-cock-magic.html

http://southpark-zone.blogspot.com/2013/10/s17-world-war-zimmerman.html

Before Midnight

http://static.rogerebert.com/uploads/movie/movie_poster/before-midnight-2013/large_9mc3ylGVYEswBZpQvZLOKTAvTES.jpg

“Before Midnight”, this is the last chapter in this romantic trilogy. Where a young couple who met on a train in beautiful, romantic, sexy Europe, walk around the historic city of Vienna, fall in love and live happily ever after for 18 years and three movies. Isn’t that so sweet and adorable? Just kidding, there’s of course way more to that story and a lot of good screenplay.

The movie takes place nine years after “Before Sunset”. Remember that one? The part where Jessie and Celine meet once again in the beautiful city of Paris after another further nine years that they had that awesome time in Vienna. This time, the couple spent a summer in Greece, where everything seemed so cool and ancient to look at. I may not love the romance thing so much at this point in my life, but the setting that these stories take place in are incredible. The best part about it is that they make it seem like you’re actually there. I’m also a geography nerd and have a huge itch for traveling. That is probably only reason I would watch romantic movies for. Ok maybe not the only reason. But a huge reason though, that’s for sure. Out of all three movies, I liked this the most when it comes to visuals. The Greek Peloponnese are freaking gorgeous! I think after this assignment, I’ll see how much tickets are running for. (Yeah, before I cry after looking at my bank account.) I like this trilogy for the cool European travel ideas I got each time I was watching these movies. I kind of wish they had a “Before” series in each continent. They would be pretty cool. Long, uninterrupted takes of two people walking around a nice backdrop just talking about all kinds of stuff. Well it doesn’t necessarily have to be romantic; it can be just a movie with a super enlightening message that represents the power of human face-to-face communication. But I’ll leave that for another review or assignment I write up.

Back to “Before Midnight”:

*Oh yeah, spoiler alert*

We get to find out that after the last scene of “Before Sunset”, Jesse and Celine end up having the raunchiest sex Paris has witnessed since Moulin Rouge. They say that it was so crazy that Celine ended pregnant with two twin girls. That forced Jessie to stay and he had pay a crapload of money to child support after French child services kept getting complaints due to CAFSIS (Crazy American-French Sexual Infatuation Syndrome)…Ok I just made about 90% of this up. I’m sorry. But the whole ‘Celine getting pregnant and Jessie and Celine end up being parents of two twin girls’ part is true.

**Umm, where’s my “live studio audience” ‘awwww’ sound? **

I can see how the generation right before me are such huge fans of the “Before” trilogy. I appreciate how Richard Linklater and the crew planned the movies to be released nine years apart in order to demonstrate the theme of love and romance throughout one’s lifetime and how the meaning changes as you mature through life. It’s like how probably feel about all the Toy Story movies growing up. I never realized that films could have so much impact on how we take life sometimes. Now the big question is, how many couples who went out to see this movie actually got to see all three movies with each other? If there are, that’s pretty cool I guess. I’d say that’s way better than a couple watching the “Twilight” movies together or that “Fifty Shades of How to Be Abused” movie that came out last month. Even for a guy who isn’t much into romance like that, I will even say that the “Before” trilogy is incredible example of a great romantic story. The films can really get you thinking about what about intimate romantic relationships make such a huge emotional impact on our lives. Another thing I’d like to point out is that I googled ‘top romantic movies of all time’ and found on RottenTomatoes.com that all three “Before” movies are considered in the top 100 romance movies. (“Before Sunrise”, #23, “Before Sunset, #44, and “Before Midnight”, #14). That means that they are in the top 50! I’m not one to disagree. I think that Hawke, Delpy, and Linklater wrote an amazing story for all the romantic and non-romantic fans. Let’s see if in 2022, there will be another “Before” movie called “Before 9PM” since they’ll be pretty old to be staying out late.

Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/top/bestofrt/top_100_romance_movies/?category=18

Before Sunset

https://thespotlightreview.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/before-sunset-wallpaper-7-11395.jpg

So I finally get to have most of my weekend off for the first time in like months! Saturday night + broke college student = MOVIE TIME! Yeah…not too fast. I’m watching a sequel to a romance movie that apparently was the ‘best’ ever. Ok, it wasn’t too bad but still not my cup of tea. After an exhausting opening shift and some hanging out with buddies after work, I lay down on my couch, open my laptop, set it on the table next to it and pull up the “Before Sunset” movie.

*Now to be honest, I don’t know if it was just I being extremely tired but I ended up knocking the heck out after the first twenty minutes or so. Not that the movie was bad or anything; it was probably those long takes that feel like forever that made me fall asleep. Makes me wonder what new attention disorders they are going to come up with in the future. My generation can’t even have a normal conversation without looking at their phones and checking how many likes they got on their picture of a sandwich that looks semi-edible with the hashtag and the word ‘gourmet’ next to it. (I think I’m the only one in my generation that still associates the ‘#’ symbol as pound, not hashtag. Please tell me I’m not the only one.) *

OH YEAH, “Before Sunset”.

So we find out nine years have passed since Jessie (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy) had that awesome night together strolling in the beautiful, historic city of Vienna. We first learn that Jessie has become somewhat of a famous writer after writing a book about the day he met Celine. Is that a bit creepy or romantic? That a guy has the “best night of his life” with some chick, writes a bestseller book about it, and then manages to have a book signing in the city where this woman is supposed to live in. Hmm… I’d say hopeless romantic is a better fit for Jessie. Hey I can’t hate, I would have probably done the same even though that chance of seeing that person would be so slim. (Maybe not in this age of social media craziness but for 2004, yes) Since this is a romantic movie trilogy, OF COURSE the woman of his wet dreams shows up by surprise at his book signing. What a lucky son of a gun, right? Well we can call him lucky until we find out he’s married with a son back in the United States. Bummer right? I promise it gets more interesting as the movie goes in further.

What I enjoyed in this movie just like the one before it was the dialogue. This time Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy were the ones writing the script and you can see that they genuinely put their personality and personal life into the script. For example, Ethan Hawke moving to New York from Texas or Julie Delpy moving to New York to study at New York University. In the movie, Jessie and Celine discuss how their lives have unfolded throughout the past nine years. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention they actually never met up in Vienna those six months after meeting. Which is what I predicted in the first place. How boring and predictable would the sequel have been if it took place six months after that night they met? Anyways, just like the last movie, this movie had outstanding dialogue (even though I had fallen asleep). I liked how the director just let the actors keep talking without taking any brakes as if they were really having a real life conversation. It makes the movie seem more realistic in that sense. Also, the fact that the movie was actually running on real time was pretty impressive. Most movies like to shove months, or even years into an hour and half of screen time.

Overall, the movie as a sequel is pretty good. Like I said if you like that sort of thing. One thing I want to criticize about the filming, was when they were filming around Paris you didn’t see any minorities. I think there was only one black guy in the movie. We all know Paris is a very diverse cosmopolitan city. It would have been nice to see an actual representation of the demographics of Paris judging by how real the director wanted this movie to feel. Other than that, I didn’t dislike the movie nor do I absolutely love it. Although after watching these two movies so far, I’d like to say that I’ve grown an appreciation for this genre of film. Maybe I’ll understand it better when I’ve grown older and had my heart torn in 9 million pieces in 37 different ways by 10 different women.

Blast from the Past – Tuning in to Radio Broadcast Shows

circa 1930s

I’ve never actually sat down and had to listen to a story being narrated to me for my own entertainment before until I had to listen to “The War of the Worlds” and the first episode of the SERIAL podcast. Wait…I’m lying. This wasn’t for my entertainment, I just realized mid-thought that this was homework. So ok, it was like my 5th time has to listen to a story being narrated and then having to write a piece on what I heard. Thanks for taking me back to the standardized testing days Professor Dunphy (I’m kidding, of course.) But yeah about these two broadcasts set about almost a century apart.

Man, what a way of scaring the hell out of an entire nation right before Halloween in the year 1938. Can you imagine what is like for a naïve 8-year-old child living in in the middle of Manhattan frantically trying to see if his/her city was actually being invaded by extraterrestrials while listening to the Mercury Theatre on the Air’s “The War of the Worlds”? A bunch of real-sounding news bulletins about an alien invasion attacking Earth. Gees, I know that probably would have scared me a bit (or A LOT!!) if I were that age listening to the radio broadcast. My ultimate question is for the adults who actually believed this was happening was ‘Would you really think only one radio station would be reporting of such an event like an alien invasion?’ That’s like broadcasting a news clip from a science fiction movie on one of the local stations during primetime. All you need to do is flip to other stations or channels that give news and you can easily figure out it’s fake. But hey I’ll admit, it did kind of sound like a real news broadcast from the early 20^th century. That’s probably what made this radio broadcast such a hit during that time. What I liked about listening to this radio drama was that it led the audience to use their own imagination and create their own version of what it might have looked like in real life. Orson Welles did a great job with the whole production. And to think that he was around my age and already the one of the biggest names known in entertainment is pretty cool. I don’t think anybody in my generation that is in my age group has done that.

The other radio broadcast I listened to was the first episode of this podcast called “SERIAL” hosted by Sarah Koenig. This show was about a real life investigation in the conviction of Adnan Syed, who was convicted for murdering his ex-girlfriend, Hae Min Lee during high school. This broadcast was different than “The War of the Worlds” in the sense that this was actually a non-fiction as opposed to the dramatized news bulletins I listened to before in “The War of the Worlds”. This broadcast didn’t seem as confusing as the last one. It was not too hard to differentiate between what the other characters were saying and what the host was saying. I feel like I was listening to an episode of a show that would have been shown on a channel like Investigation Discovery; you know, the kind where you see all these dramatizations of actual events that happened mixed with actual footage of court sessions and news clips. For some reason, I found this type of show more interesting than “The War of the Worlds”. I guess it’s because it tells the story and eyewitness accounts of an actual event that took place so it leaves you wanting to know more about what happened further in the story. Also, I have always liked investigative journalism pieces. It is great to see that there are journalists out there that really want to know the truth and aren’t afraid to question the authorities and things like our justice system.

Now I can’t really judge on whether I prefer fiction or non-fiction entertainment broadcasts based on these two radio recordings but I can say this; listening to audio broadcasts and using your own imagination to create images of the details being dictated feels pretty nice every once in a while. It’s like a step up from reading a book but not quite like watching a film or a TV show. Pretty much it’s a movie or TV show without the visual aids. Makes me wonder if people’s attention spans were greater back in the day compared to this generation. Nowadays, society relies so much on visual aids and the fast transfer of information due to mediums like film, TV, and especially the Internet.

“The Daily Mail” by Radiohead

So my first thought before even listening to this song for the first time, “OH BOY! Radiohead…this is going to be fun.” Radiohead is awesome. They are one of my favorite alternative rock bands. To be around for over 30 years is very hard to do in this ever-changing music industry full of shady people. Which is also industry rule #4080. (If you don’t know where that came from, I suggest you listen to some A Tribe Called Quest.)

So where was I again? Sorry, my millennial “attention disorder” kicked in again. Oh yeah, Radiohead. So in this blog, I’m going to talk about the song “The Daily Mail”, released as part of an EP by Radiohead in 2011. As usual, it took me a couple of listens to actually immerse myself in this song. The piano intro in the beginning is really calm and has a sort of melancholy feeling to it. But then all of a sudden the piano gets a little darker and the drums start kicking in about 8 bars after. By this time, I’m loving the heck out of this song and it was only the first time listening! The song had this Beatles feeling at the beginning and then went Rolling Stones towards the end. Around the second or third time listening to this song, I tried to understand what Thom Yorke was singing about. For some reason, I had a hard time understanding what exactly Yorke was referring to. The Government? Wall Street? Big Business? Maybe society as a whole? Apparently, ‘the lunatics are taking over the asylum’. Who are these lunatics? My guess that it’s the super elite group of people that are in power in this world. The song is also called “The Daily Mail”, which is also a super conservative British tabloid newspaper. Maybe this was Yorke’s expression of his political views. But who knows? Music is supposed to be open to anyone’s interpretation, right?

Amazing song. If you haven’t heard it already, you need to right now! Stop reading this if you haven’t listened. I’m serious just listen to the song, or any other Radiohead song for the most part.

The National – High Violet

Ahhhh….The National. The band where if you ask a hipster barista at a third wave coffee shop if they have ever heard of it, they’ll laugh in your face and say “You’ve never heard of The National?!?! How can anybody NOT know about The National??”

Yes this actually happened to me at my coffee shop job. Gees, I guess I’m not cool for not having heard of The National. But then again, I’m probably the only New York native who is a barista and doesn’t have a snobby crappy indie rock music taste.

Don’t get me wrong. I like all kinds of music or at least appreciate most of it. (Maybe except that whole EDM robot vomit sound everyone is obsessed with.) But enough about my music taste for now.

So having heard High Violet about three or four times in different situations (and including during writing this review), I will say that the musical content is pretty good. The lyrical content is OK, or maybe perhaps I didn’t understand the lyrics enough. All in all, it’s a pretty good album to say the least. Not my absolute taste but great for solitary walks or on rainy Saturday afternoons.

TERRIBLE LOVE- At first, I’ll admit I didn’t really like this song at all especially as an intro to an album. After a few listens, I started to understand the depth and the emotion the band is trying to express. As a listener, I found the song to be about the anxiety of being in a relationship or perhaps the feeling of entering a new chapter in life such as starting a new family or career. The lyrics, “And I can’t fall asleep without a little help. It takes a while to settle down. My shivered bones. Until the panic sets” indicates the singer’s anxiety and how it takes control of his life. All over the Internet, it seems everyone is obsessed with the line “it takes an ocean not to break”. After a couple of listens, I still can’t figure out exactly what it means but I do know that line made an effect on many listeners. Ultimately, this is a very deep song intended for listeners to listen to the song for its lyrics and not just the melodies and rhythms in the background.

Anyone’s Ghost- If I absolutely had to pick a favorite song in this album, it would be “Anyone’s Ghost”. I liked how this song was more upbeat than the rest of the songs on this album. The lyrics were easy to interpret making it easier to relate to. For me, the song is about a distancing relationship that seems to be losing its connection. It is the type of song you listen to when you get into that big argument with your significant other and don’t speak to each other for a week. That is probably what my concept would be if I were to make a music video of this song. The lyrics aren’t as deep as the other tracks on the album but the message is pretty clear. The music sounds pretty good in this track. Kind of reminds me of Interpol in a way.

Overall, this album isn’t bad at all. Would I have this album on repeat? Probably not until the next time my heart gets torn into a million pieces. What I respect about The National is that they put everything into their music, which makes me appreciate them more. Good music, great deep lyrics. I give this album 4/5. I think any indie rock fan would love this.

Before Sunrise

Right after our first exam, Professor Dunphy has us sit in class for a mandatory screening. Since it is Intro To Mass Media, I was assuming it would be a film pertaining to mass media such as the satirical classic Network or something more recent with the times such as The Social Network. No. The film shown had nothing to do with media besides a few lines about how “media is the new form of fascism”.

The film that was shown is called Before Sunrise; directed by Richard Linklater. The movie was released in 1995. It is a romantic movie starring Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy. Now let me be quite honest, romantic films are never my cup of tea or coffee. They always either end tragically or they ‘live happily ever after’ showing viewers how love and relationship ‘ought’ to be. In the case of Before Sunrise, it’s pretty much a traveller’s romantic European fantasy of meeting the love of your love on the train on the way to a beautiful historical city such as Vienna. This time though, you only have a few hours to spend time together before coming back into the horrible cruel world called reality. Nevertheless, the whole crew behind this film did an amazing job.

The opening scene of the movie takes place on a train bound to Vienna, Austria. We are first introduced to Celine, who is played by Julie Delpy, sitting across this annoying German-speaking couple that is in the middle of an argument. Frustrated, Celine then changes her seat a few rows back to avoid the couple. (Though I can’t see how this would make a difference since the couple is screaming at each other. But hey, this is a movie after all.) Celine ends up sitting across this young American guy named Jessie who apparently has been traveling around Europe for a couple of weeks and is bound to Vienna to catch a flight back home to the States. After Jessie and Celine have a pleasant conversation about their backgrounds and sharing stories of their pasts, Jessie persuades Celine to get off the train and explore Vienna together for one night. The entire film after this is literally following the couple and their deep conversations while going around the beautiful city of Vienna. My first thought after Jessie convincing Celine to get off the train with him was “Yeah that would NEVER work in New York City.” Here in New York City, we tend to think of people, as psychos first then figuring out they are normal. But again, this is Europe.

What struck me about this movie was the amazing dialogue exchanged between the two characters. The writers of this movie did a great job with the script and really showed the audience that words are powerful weapons for our understanding of the world. One particular conversation that was interesting was when Jessie and Celine are on the public trolley car…

*Now don’t worry, this isn’t going to spoil the plot.

So on this trolley, Jessie suggests that they take turns exchanging answers to questions they bring up such as first sexual experience, things you hate, and so on. When asked on what does she hate, Celine gave some cool answers that would have made us good friends. She mentions that she hates that there is a war going on 300 kilometers away and that people aren’t doing anything about it or don’t know what to do about it. I completely agree with Celine’s thoughts since most casualties in war are innocent people having nothing to do directly with the particular conflict. The next thing Celine says that she hates is how “the media tries to control our minds” and that “media is the new form of fascism”. For the most part, I actually agree with Celine. A lot of our opinions and perspectives of the world are shaped by the media. No entity, besides the corporate media, really has the power to convince a whole nation to go to war or to live in fear all the time. If you really think about, the news that is reported tends to lean towards the negative and not the positive. So in a way, Celine is right by saying the media tries to control our minds.

Like I mentioned before, what really made this movie really great was the dialogue. As far as the story goes, it’s your typical romantic movie feel. However, I would still recommend this movie to anybody who’s an avid romantic movie fan. I would probably put this under the “must-see” category. On another note, I would recommend this movie to anybody who wants to get some travel inspiration or ideas on their next trip. You see a lot of great outtakes of Vienna in this film including the old architecture and friendly people. I don’t know if I would watch this again on my own, but I can’t say this wasn’t a good movie.