Social Media

Social Media (and Why I #H8 It)

There was one reason why I got a Facebook. I can tell you the exact year I got one. It was in 2010. Some time in the Spring/Summer time. I had just seen The Social Network. If this were the review of what is tied for my 3rd favorite film of all time, I would say that it is a masterpiece that makes anyone who watches it 3% smarter just from the first scene alone. But, unfortunately, this is not a review of the amazing motion picture. These are my thoughts on the website the film is about and social media in general. 

I used to be a constant Facebook user. I would post regularly and I would look at it for hours upon hours on long, boring summer days. Flash forward to the present day and I loathe Facebook and social media in general. (I know it is the bandwagon idea to hate on Facebook. I know this. But the cliche, overused ideas are cliche and overused for a reason. Sometimes, it's just true.)

Facebook wasn't the most special thing back in it's heyday. You just look at your friends post about their day or their ideas or just boring, run of the mill, life stuff and it was all well and good. (Granted, I started my Facebook in middle school, and middleschoolers don't have many things going on other than "I just beat that level in Resident Evil 4!" or some mundane thing like that.) Now it's turned to nothing but people sharing posts of video recipes, generic political puff pieces, or "challenges" that get in your face in the hopes of you liking or sharing some poor sap's status. 

Many social media sites have their own flaws as well. Snapchat is nothing but filtered selfies and videos of either partying or doing absolutely nothing whatsoever. (Granted I am a college student who follows other college students so the content probably shouldn't be unexpected) Instagram is attempting to be the same thing as Snapchat (and it is sucking at it.) Twitter is my favorite of all social media sites because, if someone is going to say something incredibly stupid, it is at least 140 characters or less. 

I just don't know what happened. I don't even hate Facebook or Twitter or Snapchat or Instagram (okay, maybe Instagram), I just hate that, whenever I log on, I just scroll through nothing but unimportant or uninformed stuff for 30 minutes to an hour every day. I'm all for giving everyone a voice and allowing to be heard but did we really need to know that you were #feelinglikemyself when you got your #starbucks and that you are getting #whitegirlwasted tonight with you and your buddies all posed with a raging #nonoword ton of puppy dog, black and white sepia filters? (You don't look cute. You look like a domesticated animal....literally). Are your thoughts about the clickbaity title of an article (because you were "too busy" to read the actual article itself) really so important that you have to share it to everyone?

                         

One day, I wrote an article titled "How I Feel About Donald Trump and Today's America" on OdeysseyOnline and I shared it on my Facebook feed. The article was one of my most viewed articles I had written on the site. It wasn't even about Donald Trump (It was about my favorite TV show The Leftovers). I am aware that political news is what's "in" right now (shouldn't it always be? Why do I care about which celebrity might be secretly gay?) So I made a clickbaity title in the hopes that more people would read about my favorite tv show. And it worked! (and I got many angry messages.)

I understand the appeal to social media, but, if I didn't need it for my classes and distributing my written works, I wouldn't use a social media account. We are getting a little too nosy about other people's business and I think it should stop. I don't care about most people's lives on social media and I don't really care about the things they share (they can SOMETIMES be funny (but it usually isn't.))

Critiquing a Media Critic

Grace Randolph

I tend to dislike trying to "critique" a critic. Especially about film or television. With something like food, if you like the food, then it's whatever because you like it and it gives you energy, so it doesn't really matter. You tend to listen to video game reviews because video games are REALLY expensive and if you spend 50-60 bucks on a bad game, you just have to live with it. With movies and tv its harder. If a critic doesn't give an accurate representation of a film while giving their ideas about the film, then their audience may walk into a movie and 1) waste their money seeing the film, 2) fund something bad and basically telling Hollywood "Yes, more of THAT please!", or 3) don't get a movie that DESERVES people's butt's in seats but doesn't get the recognition it deserves. Film is subjective, however, so one can not blame a critic for not liking a movie you like. I accept this fact with most movie reviewers, so I tend to watch more than one to make up my own mind of whether or not I want to see a movie. The usual outlier is Grace Randolph.

Grace Randolph is a movie reviewer for the channel Beyond the Trailer, a channel I regret to have a link to. I don't know what it is about Grace...But I hate her. Actually, that's a lie.  I know exactly what my problems are. Firstly, she spends the first 3rd of her review on talking about a film's PR path and controversies behind the scenes before the review so that, when she rips on a movie, she can use it as an excuse for why the movie failed in certain spots. I really, REALLY did not want to watch any of her reviews in preparation for this blog post. I decided to pull up her review of Guardians of the Galaxy (currently my favorite movie of all time) and the review had me steaming. Keep in mind, I had not seen the review before. I already knew she wouldn't like it, however, because she seems to have the opposite reactions I do when it comes to film. I don't really want to talk more about what she thought about Guardians of the Galaxy because it just makes me mad. I will link a legit review here.

I also don't enjoy her bias. She is the biggest DC fanboy (fangirl?(fanperson)) I have ever run across on the internet. The DCEU (The name of the Warnar Bros./DC cinematic universe) has had a string of bad films the last year or so, and she really scratches at anything to make her review sound positive. I hate this because it is an inaccurate depiction of the films and, if people pay for it, studios don't know they did anything wrong (or pretend they don't know, at least.) She even went as far to accuse Disney/Marvel for paying off movie critics to say movies like Batman v. Superman and Suicide Squad were bad movies! The most ridiculous thing I have ever heard! She also pissed a lot of people off.

I also just don't like her view on films. She trash talks directors and actors with unfounded evidence. She doesn't know what makes a good film. She doesn't appreciate the things I, or many movie critics for that matter, appreciate in film as an art. She recently did a trailer reaction to Baby Driver, which I thought was amazing, and talked about it like it was nothing! Nothing! I don't respect this critic and I wish I had written a blog about someone I liked because now I'm going to be in a grumpy mood the rest of the afternoon.Don't see a film based on Grace's reviews. Visit Chris Stuckmann, Jeremy Jahns, John Flickster, Schomoes Know, or Pretty Much It if you want accurate depictions of film. Also, don't take any of their words for it, take what they say, draw your own conclusions, and see a film for yourself to see what you think about it.

Movie Review

Swiss Army Man

I’ve learned recently that I am into “magical realism.” A phrase which here means that everything is realistic except for a select few instances, and those few instances aren’t seen as super out of the ordinary except for when they are. If that seems like a mouthful, just think “everything but THAT thing” or if that awkward “elephant in the room” was not so much awkward but more “just there”. Anyways, whether it's The Leftovers or ,this film, Swiss Army Man, magical realism is a rich source for understanding how to explain complex feelings and emotions while also delivering an interesting story with interesting characters.

I first heard of Swiss Army Man on the nerdist podcast with Daniel Radcliffe. He talked about this small film he’d been working on that was going through the festival circuit and he really hoped someone would pick it up and distributed. The second time I heard of the film was when it went to the Sundance Film Festival and large amounts of people walked out of the film due to a corpse farting, non stop, in the film (the corpse being played by Harry Potter himself.) After hearing this news, I decided I would check out the trailer, and I was very much intrigued.

Let me start off by saying that I like seeing divisive films. Sometimes I end up on the side that doesn’t care for a certain film all that much, but I know that I tried and that makes all the difference. In the case of Swiss Army Man, however, I feel bad for the people that decided to not give the film a chance. I feel bad for them because it was their type of thinking that the film was trying to abolish in some way. (To be explained further in the blog.) Instead of breaking the film up into cast, set design, music, etc, I have elected to break it into 2 parts: Technical and Thematic. There is rich territory for both and trying to delve into everything is a much longer blog.

TECHNICAL

Technically, this film looks amazing. There have been many movies about people trapped on islands, and you can tell that the filmmakers rely on the beauty of the island to make a good looking shot. The Daniels (the two directors named Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan) didn’t just rely on the beautiful scenery. The way the colors react to each other and how light moves through spaces is pure candy to look at. It also makes the film look like a dream, but a dream that you didn’t know was a dream until you wake up (making the film look as magically realistic as the story.)

There are a number of “gags” (tricks to make something impossible look real) in the film and it truly makes you scratch your head and think, “How did they do that?” The budget of this film is only 3 million dollars, which is far from that of a blockbuster. That being said, it’s not like I can’t see how they could do it with “only” 3 million dollars, but I definitely don’t understand how they did the things they did (like snapping a giant log with Radcliffe’s arm or having Paul Dano ride Radcliffe like a jet ski in the middle of the ocean) and making it look real. You definitely can’t tell what tricks they used to make everything seem in camera.

The music is another beast entirely. The music (by Andy Hull and Robert McDowell) is amazing and often uses the voices of the main stars to make up the score. This is used to explain what the characters are thinking in the moment without having to tell the audience outright while also not having the actors have to act it out. While I can see another person calling it “lazy” I see it as a good way to introduce dramatic irony, allowing us to know what’s going on in a character’s head and what that character does to contradict what he thinks.

THEMATIC

What I like best about this film is it’s themes. It takes the concept of farting and uses it as a metaphor for emotions. I understand how that kind of sounds dumb, but it is actually quite brilliant. The film also begs the question “How would you explain life to a dead guy?” This is what is most interesting to me. In the film, Radcliffe asks just about a million questions about sex, love, feelings, and why you can’t do certain things around other people. Radcliffe’s character is even named Manny, as if to symbolize man (which sounds really pretentious.)

Hank (Paul Dano) is seen attempting to kill himself in the beginning of the film and it is only with Manny that he learns to appreciate the things he has and what he is able to do with the life that he once saw as worthless and led him to run away and get lost on an island in the first place. By explaining life to a dead person, you can truly understand all the things you get to do that is great. And in the link above you also get the side of a dead person who, since the worst has already happened to them, doesn’t see the point of going into a society without a 100% guarantee that you get to be happy living life the way you want it.

CLOSING THOUGHTS

This is definitely a movie that everyone who ever wondered “What’s the point” should see. I can watch it 1000 times and still find something new or some other appreciation for life. The director’s intent with this film is to make you laugh at the first fart and cry for the last one. For me, it worked with flying colors. I will link below to more explanations for the film, some reviews, some more music excerpts because I think they are also worth checking out.

Music: Intro, Cotton Eye Joe, Montage, Cave Ballad

Reviews and Analysis: PrettyMuchIt, Swiss Army Man Explained

Augmented Reality

Imagine this: You're sitting on the couch watching a movie. It's dim, but not dark. You're alone. Or so you think. You hear a noise! It sounds like it's coming from the kitchen. You walk over to the kitchen and see a giant scary alien monster drinking your milk! You make your hand into a gun shape, point at the alien, and make a "Pow!" noise with your mouth. The alien falls down dead, and disappears. You take off your AR headset, and go back to watching TV. You sitting on the couch and running around the house with your fingers pointed and making gun noises was real. The alien in your kitchen, however, was not. 

Augmented Reality is like Virtual Reality except, unlike VR where it lets you play around in a world created by someone else, it allows you to interact with things that don't exist, but are in your own world. For example, Photoshop. You know how, in Photoshop, you have layers of all the things you added to enhance a photograph? Well, AR just layers things on top of the world that already exists in real time. This allows you to interact with digital things in the real world.

Remember Pokemon Go? That is AR. You can catch Pokemon in your living room, down the street, etc. The game uses actual locations in the real world and just plants Pokemon in it. 

Pokemon Go really got the conversations about what AR can really do. While most people are still backing the VR horse, I personally see it as a stepping stone to the real prize. Augmented Reality can allow you to experience a new sense of wonder. If you are playing a video game, it's cool and all, but it's just you pressing buttons and staring at the TV. What if the video game world was your backyard and your controller was your hands?

Augmented Reality is meant to bring back everyone's social nature. It allows us to continue experiencing the world for what it is instead of giving us more excuses to stay inside and never leaving to do anything while being glued to someone else's dream. 

While writing this blog, I thought I was going to have to talk about all the possibilities of AR, but it turns out there is this tech guy named Meron Gribetz and he had a Ted Talk about the things AR can and will allow you to do. I was so stunned about what his team has already accomplished, it blew anything I thought you could do with it out of the water. 

Supernatural and Pop Culture

The Supernatural Fandom and You!

By: Me!

Let me start out by saying that I very much dislike Supernatural. I kind of hate it. Why? Because it's boring television! "Oh, look, it's two bad asses, one is a smart whiney b word and the other one is super cool and sexy and stoic with a heart of pure gold beams, and they fight monsters all across the country with their old American cars!" It's terrible! It's trash! The show constantly goes back and forth from one brother sacrificing himself to save the other over and over again and, in the meantime, they fight a new threat every week/season. The show is wash, rinse, repeat at its core. Which would be fine, if the fans of the show didn't treat it like the best thing ever. I wouldn't be surprised if the show went on for another 10+ years. And the fans will all say "That's a good thing! This show will never end!" To which I quote Vision from Avengers: Age of Ultron "A thing isn't beautiful because it lasts." I wish the people who loved the show would understand that a good thing ends early and leaves you wanting more, not rolling at the dice until it loses your trust (Dexter!) But this blog isn't supposed to be me bashing on Supernatural. (It's supposed to be one thirdish of that.) It's supposed to be the influence that Supernatural has on it's fan.

After a full paragraph of how much I hated Supernatural and have much disdain for it's fandom, let me now talk about how everyone in my family absolutely loves this show. I swear! I thought I taught my brother better, but when I came home from college the first time for Thanksgiving Break, I found my brother in the thick of season 10, and I knew all hope was lost. "It's not THAT bad." He would say. I would just shake my head in utter shame. My parents used to watch it pretty regularly when it came out, up until around season 4 or 5. (We didn't have cable after that.) And my grand parents do nothing but watch reruns of the show almost every day. The biggest fan, and arguably the one that got everyone else started, was my Aunt Jessica. She loves this show. It's the biggest thing to her since Buffy the Vampire Slayer (I actually LIKE that show). She would have Supernatural posters and shirtless pics of Sam and Dean as the wallpaper of any device she had (soon to be replaced with a shirtless Jon Snow after I got her into GoT.) She loved it. I can't blame her for letting her Supernatural flag fly. The show hit it's hightest peak of fandom around 2013. While I was excited for the finale of Breaking Bad, everyone else was trading seasons 1-5000 with each other at school. 

She would often tell me, "It's just so cool! I liked it in the beginning and now everyone else is seeing what I love about it!" I can't take away the joy of that feeling (me being the hardcore Marvel fan(who got made fun of lots of times in school for it(Spider-Man isn't REAL, Justice!) only for my favorite characters to be what dominates the box office every year for 8 straight years and counting.) The Supernatural Fandom is often poked at in the show. Making them feel that much closer to the thing they love. In the show, the Supernatual brand exists as a series of books that are then turned into a tv show to which the actors of the show are the very same actors of the actual show in real life. (Meta enough for you?) They even hold Supernatural conventions in show and in real life where people dress up as their favorite Supernatural characters. (Most notably, you guessed it, Sam and Dean.)

I was looking on Amazon for "Supernatural Merchandise" for a V-Day gift, and noticed the large amounts of odd merch. There was a hot wheelz toy of the classic American car used int he show. There was a pillow case of both the brothers in the show, laying in a bed with each other, with nothing but white towels covering up the naughty bits, tanned abs, and heterosexual-ism to spare. (#Wincest (I don't support #Destiel))

To me, the Supernatural Fandom is a weird, dark, and scary place. It is a place I will likely never venture in my years, and feel more fulfilled for it. If it is your cup of tea, more power to you, but, jeez, there are many better things!  #TheLeftovers

TV Review

A Review of A Series of Unfortunate Events

            It’s no secret that I am a fan of “sad” TV. When my brother is in a mood, he likes to watch short comedy movies or shows just so he can not pay attention and have the occasional laugh. I do the opposite twice. When I’m happy, I watch sad stuff. When I’m sad, I watch sad(der) stuff. I don’t know why that is, maybe I like to feel my emotions when I’m sad or maybe I like to look at sad people and think “, Thank God I’m not like them!” Whatever the case may be, I LOVE sad TV.

            Flashback to the 2003 movie A Series of Unfortunate Events starring Jim Carrey. I remember I was around 7(ish?) and we had just got a new DVD player. My Dad didn’t know how to work it and the screen would skip around whenever we watched a DVD. We always just powered through and watched it. One movie I distinctly remember is A Series of Unfortunate Events. I was going through my Jim Carrey phase, watching such classics as Liar Liar and Ace Ventura. The film, I hardly remember, but the character of Count Olaf is one that stuck with me. It was the darkest character I had seen Carrey play and it stuck with me. Count Olaf is, of course, the main villain and, to me, seems more goofy than scary, but, the point is, I never saw Jim Carrey actively try and kill people in a movie. Never mind three orphaned children. I was too young to understand the movie, but it did give me interest in the books. I never read them, however, because they would always say on the back or in the first few paragraphs that, “If you are interested in stories with happy endings, you would be better off reading some other books.” I was a kid at the time, too scared to venture into the unknown, but, now at age 20, when I heard of the Netflix Series of Unfortunate Events, I was ready to get my feet wet and discover what the stories had in store.

THE CAST

            I don’t know the names of the kids in the show and I’m probably too lazy to look it up, but they are all terrific. The boy that plays Klaus is especially good, he can play pissed and sad and smart and ready to fight back all in one look. The girl that play Violet is a tad less interesting, but I think it is because she is more of a doer than a thinker, making her a good foil for Klaus. Their sister, Sunny, is cute (I guess) but I never really payed attention to her unless she was biting something

            The two true stars of the show are Patrick Warburton and Neil Patrick Harris. Truly bringing their A game. Neil Patrick Harris is having so much fun playing Count Olaf that it literally radiates off the screen. He plays the character slightly better than Jim Carrey, I think, mainly because he seems less threatening, so when he actually does do something truly vile, it packs more of a punch. He also is just an utter failure with everything, making him just the slightest bit relatable. My favorite part of the show, though, is Patrick Warburton as Lemony Snicket. Talk about haunting, and witty, and just sad all around. I was scared at first of the idea of Joe from Family Guy playing a person as damaged and bad ass as Snicket, but Warburton knocks it out of the park, planet, gosh darn universe. His delivery and sorrow actually made me audibly “Aww” any time he talked about his long dead love, Beatrice.

THE MUSIC

            The music is whimsy without being Tim Burtony. I seem to remember the movie having a Tim Burton feel, which kind of turned me off, but the music in the show pulls back from that while also being just as fun and interesting. The theme song, which (slightly) changes every 2 episodes, pokes good fun with the original warnings that scared me from reading the books as the child, constantly bellowing “Look away! Look away!”

THE SET DESIGN/CINEMATOGRAPHY

            This show is the most interesting looking show that Netflix has ever produced, and, believe me, that is no small task by a damn sight. House of Cards, Daredevil, Luke Cage, hell, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt all have unbelievable looks to them, but this show takes the entire bakery. The sets are, again, whimsy without being Tim Burtony. I don’t hate Tim Burton, but his movie all have the same, depressed, look to them that, if done wrong, would look terrible. It’s too easy to try and paint with Tim Burton’s brush, especially with a show like this, but the sets are eye catching and fun to behold

            The cinematography is amazing. It’s like candy for your eyes. While some plot points of the show seem semi wash and repeat, the look never seems to repeat itself. Whether you’re in Count Olaf’s gross home, or the Reptile Room, or the Miserable Mill, you feel like it’s a whole new place that you have to discover along with the three orphans.

STORY, SIDE CAST, AND CONCLUSIONS

            This show is a must watch for the main cast alone, but the “side” characters are just as fun. The person who plays the banker, Mr. Poe, is delightfully ignorant of obvious things. And their Uncle Monty and Aunt Josephine are played, to perfection, by Aasif Mandvi and Alfre Woodard.

            My only, very minuscule gripe, is that some episodes seem recycled from past episodes, but only in some spots and plot points. Otherwise, it is fresher than Sunday morning orange juice. This show is a must watch, especially if you have a free weekend. 

TRAILER: https://youtu.be/Tup-5yOcJuM

Music Review

Max Richter's Score for The Leftovers

The idea of doing a music review is kind of difficult. Many people assume that, because I am in band, that I'm very musically inclined. In a way I am, I suppose. Like, I know how to read music and I do have SOME sort of an ear for some musical trends. But, other than that, I don't really know a whole lot about music. I don't even have a "taste" really for music. If I did, I'd say "alternative," but that is an extremely broad term. It's basically the "other" in the list of music genres, a place where you put things you don't know what to call. I debated writing this blog about the Violent Femmes, or Twenty One Pilots, or anyone, anything that I listen to or have on my phone. (I would have done Twenty One Pilots because I have tickets to a concert for them on March 3rd. I decided not to do it though because 1) They are very popular and 2) I'm getting a little tired of listening to them.

I've decided to play into my one trick and do a review of composer Max Richter's score for HBO's The Leftovers. I know, this seems like I'm over doing it, but I was watching an episode the other day and the score made me actually cry. Saying that the music of the show is another character is an understatement to say the least. If you took the music out of the show, you're losing a whole 3rd of the show. That is how important it is.

Shows like Breaking Bad rely on the silence in scenes. That's what I loved so much about it, but The Leftovers instead decides to have more of an operatic and tragic score overlaying the most emotional scenes. The music is beautifully sad and gives a sense of uncertainty with that sadness. I will put a link to a scene of the show and the music by itself right here:

MUSIC ONLY: https://youtu.be/lZH0MUSCsj0
SCENE: https://youtu.be/E0u6prmiABA?t=72

The music is sad and very understated. It is usually used in scenes of great, heartbreaking monologues and adds the extra emotional punch that makes it all scene. My favorite piece of Max Richter's is his song "November." It's used in a few of my favorite scenes in the show and I listen to it often when I feel happy, sad, or basically any emotion.

SCENE SEASON 1: https://youtu.be/RLyyArevZGU
SCENE SEASON 2: https://youtu.be/nqArJAc7j4Q
FULL SONG: https://youtu.be/2Bb0k9HgQxc

(That's him^^^)

I'm not usually a score type guy. I especially don't listen to them for fun. I'm turned off by most "classical" or "score" music just because we play it in band all the time. But listening to Max Richter's amazing score and watching this heartbreaking show makes me feel better in my darkest times and even more during my happy times. I implore anybody who likes a good score to listen to Max Richter's work. He is a great composer and has done a number of things outside of The Leftovers. I think he even has a new album (or whatever you call a new body of work from a composer.)

GREAT EXAMPLE OF MUSIC ACCOMPANYING A MONOLOGUE: https://youtu.be/NbXE_Z6K0oY
MAX's NEWER STUFF: https://youtu.be/8dvpT0hA0Lk