Infinite Pest

Against my better judgement I have decided to read David Foster Wallace's colossal "masterpiece" Infinite Jest. I'm on page 40-something and so far I have absolutely no idea what is going on or even the name of the main character. The last few pages were spent discussing, in detail, the protagonist's struggle with his pot addiction. Something I feel would be very beneficial for some certain people I know to read......

Unlike most of the books I've gone through in the past couple years, I am determined to finish this one. Partially out of curiosity as to what it's about (yes I saw The End of the Tour) and also to further prove my superior intelligence.

Men, Women, and Money

Last year when the whole Sony hack situation happened I remember reading about how the stars of American Hustle (awful movie, don't waste your time if you haven't seen it fyi) would be paid. From what I can understand Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper, and Jeremy Renner all received 9% in back-end compensation, in contrast to the 7% that Amy Adams and Jennifer Lawrence got. As soon as this information got out into the world of course everyone cried "sexism." And I agree, partially. There's no decent excuse as to why Amy Adams didn't make as much as her male co-stars. I'm also surprised at Jeremy Renner getting as much as he did. I know the man is an Avenger and he's been up for 2 Oscars, but still he wasn't in the movie as much as Bale, Adams, and Cooper and I doubt he was much of a box office draw. According to the emails, Jennifer was originally supposed to receive only 5%, which honestly seems fitting to me. She was only in that movie for about 30 minutes. For her to get the 7% that she did is stretching it.

The reason I bring this up now is because Jennifer Lawrence wrote some big op-ed about how Hollywood sexism plagued her and that she should have been paid the same as her male co-stars. Only thing is, she shouldn't have. I consider myself a feminist, and I definitely think that men and women should be paid the same amount for the same work. But at the same time, it's unfair to mistake a difference in the time the actors put in for a gendered pay gap. Like I mentioned before, Amy Adams is the real victim here. Why is nobody mentioning her?

Keeping Portland Weird

Me, mom, and Joe went to Portland 2 weeks ago and I'm already missing it terribly. Browsing the endless shelves of Powells, admiring the interesting sights, seeing old friends, the list goes on and on. Here are some pictures I took from our adventures. Until next time
-Matthew

 
















 

Long and Boring

Everything is just really stressful right now. My computer's been acting up for about a month and 2 weeks ago it stopped working. Apparently the hard drive is broken. I don't know how a hard drive that is 2-years-old stops working,  but mine found a way. Joe tried fixing it but he didn't know how. We brought it in last Monday and as of now it still hasn't been fixed. On top of that our desktop hard drive also broke somehow in the same freaking week.

Today was officially my last day at YVCC. I would say that it felt good, but I'm so stressed about finals I can't even think straight. I'm not worried about History, but Biology scares me. I really want a B out of the class. I'd really like to get honors for my last quarter and if I get another C, that won't happen.

Graduation is next week and while it should make me happy, I'm just kind of panicking. Here I am getting an AA still with no idea what I want to do with my life. I'm more lost than what I started college 2 years ago. I want to pursue higher education, but at the same time college is so hard and I am just so freaking clueless.

-Matthew

Truly Outrageous

Just saw the trailer for the new Jem and the Holograms movie. Now I never watched the original show and I didn't even know it existed until about a year or 2 ago (the closest I've come to seeing footage of it was the Nostalgia Chick episode). When I heard they were gonna do a movie I actually thought it was a clever idea. A fun, 80's campfest, girl power extravaganza would at least be something different than all the meaningless action movies and Seth Rogan comedies we get nowadays. But oh boy was I wrong. The trailer sucked, hard. And people might think that it shouldn't piss me off because I have absolutely no connection to the original Jem, which I do not. But somehow this thing manages to infuriate me. I think it is more of a principle thing more than anything else.

What Jem: the Movie is doing is stripping everything unique about the original.The plot seems so formulaic I swear I've seen it a million times. Person wants to be a musician, gets famous, forced to become someone they aren't. C'mon, I think that describes at least a dozen Disney Channel original movies©. It's so bad that there aren't even any holograms! You think a movie called Jem and the Holograms would at least have a hologram or two. I'm pretty sure Michael Bay's Transformers kept more of the feel for the old 80's cartoon than this does (and that's saying something).

Even when you make a remake or reboot of something, you should still keep SOMETHING that bares a resemblance to the original. Take Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy. Yes, it was different than any Batman movie audience's had seen before, but it also kept (some) of the essence of who Batman was. Alfred, Commissioner Gordon, Catwoman, the Joker they were all there. Bruce still went through similar events that he went through in the comics (the death of his parents, training in Japan), but they were done with a new twist. If you take a popular franchise or character and make a movie that makes that franchise or character unrecognizable you end up with something like the Super Mario Bros. movie or the 90's Godzilla. And we all know how they turned out.

It might seem a little judgy to say that they "destroyed Jem" just from watching the trailer, but I don't see what could possibly happen in the movie that would surprise anyone. If the movie is closer to the source material than the trailer shows, I gotta question whatever marketing department put this turd together because the main audience for this is kids who grew up watching the show, and this trailer is not going to get them in the theaters.

-Matthew

Sprang Break Playlist

 It's Spring Break! I was so excited I put together a playlist to celebrate the occasion.

1. Falling - Haim
2. Hero - Family of the Year
3. Open Your Eyes - Snow Patrol
4. Wish You Were Here - Pink Floyd
5. Home - Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeroes
6. I Lived - OneRepublic
7. Falling Slowly - Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova
8. Float On - Modest Mouse
9. Beauty Queen - Black Atlass

Incoherent Ramblings

Lots of things happening. My grandma fell down and broke her shoulder so now she has to be in a nursing home for 6 weeks. I feel bad for her, partly because she's in pain and partly because nursing homes are horrible depressing places. The same day Mimi fell, my great-aunt Jane passed away. She's been having some complications lately, but it's still sad especially since she is sort of the last link to Pops that was left (well besides mom and her siblings, and me and Joe and Helene & David but you get the point).

On the plus side, I only have one more week until school is out for spring break. I have a group presentation that may or may not be a trainwreck, 2 final papers to hand in, and a couple of tests. 5 more days that what I keep telling myself. Not sure what is going to happen over break. According to my parents we are doing "something," but honestly I am just going to be content as long as I'm not in school. Oh and I'm almost done with the Office so I don't know what I'm gonna do with myself.

-Matthew

Almost There

Welp, I signed up for spring quarter. I ain't too happy with what I'm taking (had to cram in a bi-weekly 4 hour art class and PE), but hey I'd rather just finish than prolong this. I know some people love college, but I just can't wait to finish. After I get my Associates degree in June, I'm going to take some time off from college. When I started at YVCC I figured that I would have a great spark of inspiration and wake up one day and realize, "I wanna be a _____!" However, this has yet to happen. I feel more freaked out about this than I should, and I know a lot of people are going to judge me and claim that I wasted my time and my parent's money, but honestly I'm not going to just come up with a career that I'm going to be stuck with for the rest of my life on the fly. I do plan on resuming my education, but I also just need some time off. Hey, my mom took her time. I will be looking for a job. Ideally I would get on at Inklings, but if that doesn't happen I will find something else (not Wray's).

-Matthew

Why the Female Ghostbusters Won't Ruin Your Childhood

Am I the only one that's actually excited for the all-female Ghostbusters sequel? Based on all the sexist crap I've been reading on the Internet, it sure does seem that way. Look people, let's be frank having 4 hilarious women catching ghosts will not ruin your childhood. If it was a reboot starring James Franco, Seth Rogan and co. no one would have a problem (even though I personally think that would be a bigger insult to any franchise than *gasp* women). Somehow people seem to think that by having an all-female cast that it will alienate audiences and spit on the original films. Because 4 men=great entertainment for the whole family and 4 women=shoes, bras, and preaching Gloria Stienem amiright? Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Leslie Jones, and Kate McKinnon will all do a great job, and at the end of the day your childhood will still be intact.

-Matthew

Here's a Good Title

Christmas break ends today, which means this time tomorrow I'll be back at school. Yesterday, I went to the YVCC bookstore to buy my books and they only had one of them in stock. Mom ordered me one offline and I guess I'm just going to have to wait the other one out. Over break I was looking after our neighbor's dog Jake and I already miss him. Although I'm not gonna miss walking him in 20 degree Crackima weather. I'm also watching Tracie and Mike's cat again. The first couple days he was great because he still thought they were home, but once he realized that they abandoned him he got real whiny. Despite his meowing, he's a pretty good cat. Likes to nudge my face a lot.

-Matthew