The American Music Awards

I'm going to be honest, yesterday was the first time that I have ever watched the AMA's that I can recall. I used to watch the Oscars religiously but was never very interested in watching the many music awards shows. I have to say that I was actually impressed. Where the Oscars can be boring for the audience to watch and tedious for its audience members, the AMA's is more reminiscent of a big party. This is surprising considering the Oscars honours actors whose job is to keep an audience ENTERTAINED. There were countless performances offset by some awards. I also felt a sense of community amongst the artists. For each performances most of the audience members would get up and dance while singing along to the lyrics. This is on national television, broadcasted to billions of people in North America alone. These are world famous recording artists! They continued to party for each new performance, mindless of the cameras. In Gossip-filled world like ours it was refreshing to me to see such a high level of camaraderie between artists in the music industry.

Poetry Reflection

We have finally finished the poetry unit and I have to say that I have gained a new found respect for poetry. Through the countless classes or group work I have discovered how difficult it is to write poetry WITH OTHER PEOPLE. Everyone has their own thoughts and their minds work a little differently. The direction that I would sometimes like to take things may not necessarily work for other people. The really tricky part was coming to terms with that fact that this is okay. Through collaborations what was once a good poem to you could be expanded upon and become a very meaningful poem.

I have to say the the most difficult task that I had to overcome during this unit was not my blatant dislike of poetry, but was allowing other people to read my rough poems. As a writer I am strongly opposed to people reading any of my work, in any form of creative writing, before it is complete. I guess you could say that I am OCD that way. When compiling the poems for our final anthology, there were numerous classes devoted solely to the sharing of our poems with other students in the class. Regardless of the fact that I was reading their poems, just as they were reading mine, I was still very uneasy about it. To be honest I felt very exposed. Poetry is very different from story writing, it is more personal. Poems are like a direct expression of the writer's thoughts and emotions. My unpolished copies were very raw, at least in my eyes, and it hurt me to have to present these poems for criticism. Even praise was still taken with a feeling of discomfort.

But at least it is finally finished and my feeling can once again be my own! :)

Movie Magic

Our job in class today was to review the list of our favourite movies and determine why they were so great. What makes them memorable? I was supposed to choose only 5 movies but that certainly didn't happen. So the 7 that I was able to narrow it down to were:
- The Lion King (but really most Disney movies)
- Stand by Me
- The Wizard of Oz
- Taken
- Happy Gilmore
- The Princess Bride
- Harry Potter
These movies are not necessarily in preferential order but to me they are all amazing.
One movie that I would like to talk about is actually Harry Potter. Some people may judge me for this but honestly Harry Potter is the greatest. If I have time to kill and am looking for something to watch during that  time the first movie on my list is Harry Potter. Now when I say Harry Potter I do not necessarily mean the first one. I have found that pretty much all of the films in this series are engaging. I could watch the same movie twice in a week, not that I necessarily would, but regardless of whether or not I had recently seen it the movie will still capture my interest. My intense fascination with Harry Potter may stem from the fact that I have grown up with these characters. I feel a connection to them because of the many years that they have been filming. I was generally around the same age as the title character at the time of each release date. The film, although magical hits upon issues that children can relate to. There is also action and adventure. What kid wouldn't want to be a student at Hogwarts?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSnfVlU_xFE&feature=related

Halloween

Halloween is actually a pretty ridiculous holiday if you think about. Do not misunderstand me, i really like Halloween and feel that it can be very whimsical and fantastical for both adults and children. My problem with Halloween, though is that it is very commercialized. Gone are the days of my own youth in which families came together to make their own costumes, yes i said make. In our society to today people as a whole have gotten lazy. It has become normal for parents to go to stores for costumes, willing to shell out upwards of $50 for a cheap, polyester princess costume or a corny batman ensemble that chafes. That is if they even bother putting on a costume at all. Gone are the days of magic and wonder, admiring costumes for their originality rather than its price tag. And parents are okay with!


I can remember  back to when I was about 9 or 10 and I was still excited about Halloween. It was back in my elementary school, back when I was innocent to the world's many atrocities. My parent had to go to a Halloween party for one of their friend's and some of my neighbours had decided to go as different characters from the movie the Wizard of Oz. This man that used to live across the street was Dorothy (yes i said man), the lady next door was the Scarecrow and my mother had the arduous task of finding a Tin Man costume. It may sound lame but as a family we went to Rona to purchase materials to MAKE a costume. My dad found the shiny duct tape, my sister the silver spray paint, my mom some metallic bubble wrap and I was in charge of picking out the ideal silver chain to hold our creation together. Later that night we worked to glue, tape, drill and paint a Tim Man costume that could not be copied. it was ORIGINAL!

When i think back to those crazy, costumes-making sessions I am disheartened. I recall all the corny joy that my adolescent self had making that costume and mourn for the lost childhood of today's youth. They must settle for cheap, itchy costumes that are repeated on every other boy and girl. I could not tell you how many vampires came to my door this year. And the worst part was that they were not scary, i want to suck your blood vampires, they were coiffed, pale kids with amber eyes from the twilight movies. They weren't even representing the characters of the books because who in our generation still reads?