“Jane by Design”

Creator: April Blair

“Jane by Design” is about a simple mistake of identity after landing her dream job assisting a designer, Gray Chandler Murray (Andie MacDowell) at Donovan Decker, where they think she is an adult. A young high school girl, Jane Quimby (Erica Dasher) is forced to live a double life to support herself and her brother after their parents passed. She spends half her time as a high school student, the other half as an up-and-coming fashionista in the world of fashion. As Quimby struggles to keep this secret from pretty much everyone, she relies on her best friend Billy Nutter (Nick Roux) to help her out with getting her to and from, what she is calling her job a fashion internship, so she can keep her identity a secret. 

The newly ABC family television “Jane by Design” is a great show for high school teenagers aspiring to be the next biggest fashion icon. The television show embraces a number of qualities inherent to teen life, including blossoming self-identity and the desire to be accepted by your peers. As for the show's presentation of teen life, there's a lot of truth to Quimby’s trying experiences with her peers, and the content brings relevant issues like bullying and popularity to the forefront. “Jane by Design” also turns the tables on some stereotypes by casting multi-dimensional characters who often exceed viewers' preconceived notions of Quimby and Nutter. 

The show broke free from the norm we see on television shows. Jane is known as “Plain Jane” by the resident mean girl Lulu Pope (Meagan Tandy). Of course, Pope is everything Quimby is not; popular, rich and with a bad attitude. Quimby is always on the outside trying to get a glimpse into Pope’s world. Quimby found herself falling for the most popular guy in school Nick Fadden (Matthew Atkinson), but had doubts about him have the same feelings towards her, because she wasn’t a girl in the “in crowd” but they both had the same feeling towards each other. Nutter who has had a secret love affair with  Pope (Meagan Tandy) who hide their relationships from the entire school include their friends and family, because they were in this interracial relationship. “Jane by Design” brings to light issues that are often over looked and not addressed. 

“Jane by Design” teaches young up and coming college students to chase after their dreams and to be who they aspire to be. 

"Farewell to Anger” (oil painting on canvas)

Artist: Leonid Afremov

Leonid Afremov’s landscaping of “Farewell to Anger” captures the emotion of a casual stroll through an old Belarusian city, with all the vibrant color and culture alive in this artist’s perspective. Afremov is one of the most power colorful painters.  His skill with a palette knife and oil paint creates vivid scenes and cityscapes full of bright colors and watery reflections. His thick strokes are almost mosaic in nature, but the result is not without detail where the colors merge.  “Farewell to Anger” is the result of long painting process and brings different moods, colors, and emotions.
Although all of his paintings have a very similar technique to them this particular piece stuck out. Afremov’s usage of the of a one point perspective in his “Farewell to Anger” really draws the viewers eyes down the the one pathway of the painting. It makes you want to know what is down the the rest of the path. The two people walking in the painting, seem to be walking away from this a past life, that may have not been filled with anger or not so good memories. It appears now the two people seem to walking towards the light at the end of the pathway, and entering into a future filled with positivity.
Its hard not to stop and look at Afremov’s usage of color in “Farewell to Anger”. His technique of  color is brilliant. He does an amazing job incorporating some of the basic elements of art such as movement, unity, balance, variety, contrast, and pattern. Even though landscape aren’t as brightly colored as Afremov’s makes “Farewell to Anger” seem, he has this way of putting your mind into this fantasy world through his art. He pieces make it so hard to pick out a favorite, because they are all so beautifully made. So colorful, lovely and professional at the same time this breath taking piece will surely bring a lot of positivity and peace of mind.

“Almost Famous”

Director & Writer: Cameron Crowe

“Almost Famous” is the story of a 15 year old boy, William Miller (Patrick Fugit)  music journalist, on the road with an up and coming rock band, Stillwater, to write an article about them for Rolling Stone magazine in the early 1970s. An overbearing mother, who is struggling to find the right balance between smothering her children and giving them their freedom, Elaine Miller (Frances McDonald)  has this fear and distrust for rock and roll. Its heavy use of drugs and sex, had her worrying about her sons’ whereabouts at every moment of the day. William Miller seeks advice from his mentor, Creem rock critic Lester Bangs (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) who advised him “you cannot make friends with the rock stars.” However William allows to delude his self into the lifestyle of the group’s guitarist Russell Hammond (Billy Crudup), while falling in love with the Stillwater’s ultimate groupie Penny Lane (KateHudson) who Hammond is also having a fling with. 

The story is based on the life of Cameron Crowe. The film digs deeper than the music in the 70’s. It is more about the coming of age story of William Miller. In the movie William finds out who he is, who he want to become, and what he aspires to be when he gets older. He learns how to live without his over protective mother by his side. During the process he loses his virginity, uses drugs, and saves the girl he loves from an overdose. William provides us the portal into the movie. He helps Stillwater realize that they were “in this for the fans” after referring to Penny Lane as “that groupie” in a heated argument. Lane was the most charismatic character in the entire film, who was stuck in this love circle between Hammond and William. 

After submitting the article to Rolling Stone, the editors don’t want to publish it, because it was a “puff piece” and Hammond denied everything William wrote about him and his band. Bangs, his advisor throughout this movie tells William to be “honest and unmerciful”. Bangs didn’t want him to leave a single piece of detail out of his article. 

“Almost Famous” is interfered with the sense of longing that is associated with love at first sight and the struggles with the inevitable separation between a child and parents. The film captures the precise atmosphere of the early 70’s and who grew up in that era.

Michael Jackson: “Dangerous (1991)

Producer: Teddy Riley and Bill Bottrell

          Michael Jackson, the King Pop, was an American singing superstar who has been at the forefront of the music industry for virtually his entire life. Know for his famous dance moves like the moonwalk, the toe stand, and the anti-gravity lean, Jackson’s “Dangerous” album was one of the greatest albums he came out with. The album produced nine singles from its 14 tracks; “Black Or White”, “Remember The Time”, “Jam”, “In The Closet”, “Heal The World”, “Who Is It”, “Will You Be There”, and “Gone Too Soon”. The “Black Or White” single made a 32-spot jump on the Pop singles charts, breaking the Beatles record set by their song “Let It Be” in 1970. His album is classed as a New Jack Swing genre and is the biggest selling New Jack Swing album of all time.

  “Dangerous” was a change of direction from Jackson’s “Bad”,  “Thriller”,  and “Off the Wall” album. Although Jackson was known his musical talent his was one of the greatest philanthropist. He was always thinking of other people before his self, especially when it came to the children. He incorporated many of his philanthropy in his songs. Jacksons mentions about the damage in the world, the people we have become, and how to make the world a more wholesome place. "Heal the World," he talks about the issues with child starvation and making the world a safer and more sustainable place to live. "Heal the world, make it a better place, for you and for me and the entire, human race. There are people dying, if you care enough for living, make it a better place for you and for me."  
           Jackson dedicated one of his song "Gone Too Soon," to a little boy, Ryan White who lost his battle from HIV/ AIDS. “Like a perfect flower,that is just beyond your reach, gone too soon. Born to amuse, to inspire, to delight here one day, gone one night.” It’s a very emotional song, and has been dedicated to lost loved ones around the world, including Michael Jackson himself.  One of Jackson's most famous songs "Black and White" is about this love for a woman and he doesn't care what the nationality of this woman was as love as he gets the girl in the end. “If you're thinkin' of being my baby, it don't matter if you're black or white.” This song was highly favored, because of the popular Macaulay Culkin starred in the video.

          Michael Jackson was known for the songs that seduced woman around the world. He was notorious for songs about women troubles or how he missed his long lost loves. Remember The Time" was solely base on this.  "Do You remember the time, when we fell in love, do you remember the time, when we first met girl.” There was this long time love he has been missing, and wishes that things could go back to the way they use to be. 

The last track off the album "Dangerous" puts an ending to the album, and Jackson made the right choice to name the whole album "Dangerous." The song is all about him trying to pursue this woman, but she is full of mystery. "The way she came into the place, I new right then and there- there was something different about this girl.The way she moved, her hair, her face, her lines divinity in motion. As she stalked the room. I could feel the aura of her presence. Every head turned feeling passion and lust. The girl was persuasive. The girl I could not trust. The girl was bad. The girl was dangerous.” Jackson put this vivid image of what this woman may have looked like. He describes this woman in such detail about how this women made him feel. 

The Dangerous album hands down is an ultimate favorite. After listening to it for the past 20 years, it will never get old. 

Bad Teacher 

Director: Jake Kasdan

Writer: Gene Stupnitsky, Lee Eisenberg

She is foul-mouthed, ruthless, and inappropriate teacher Elizabeth Halsey played by Cameron Diaz in “Bad Teacher.” She drinks, she gets high, and she can't wait to marry her sugar daddy, and get out of her bogus teaching job. When she's dumped by her fiancé, she was forced to go back to her day job. Mrs. Halsey sets her plan in motion to win over a rich, handsome substitute Scott Delacorte played by Justin Timberlake. Halsey finds herself competing for Delacorte’s  affections with an overly energetic colleague, Amy played by Lucy Punch. Along with fighting for affection Halsey is fighting off the advances of a sarcastic, irreverent gym teacher Russel Gettis played by Jason Segel. Halsey had a huge fascination about big boobs. She found out that the teachers could earn a bonus if their students scored the highest on their state test at the end of the year. Halsey goes through all these schemes by manipulating, lying and stealing to make sure she got the bonus to earn money she needed for her new boob job.
Even though “Bad Teacher” wasn’t favored by many, it was a still a laugh out loud comedy. The highly used sarcasm through out the movie is what made the film hilarious. Most students would love to have a teacher like Mrs. Halsey. Constantly showing movies in class, no homework, cussing at the students, smokes weed, and basically getting away with anything are the kinds of teachers as children we use to dream about in Junior High.  Always praying every year that next years teacher was going to be cool, laid back, and didn’t give too much homework, but that wasn’t always the case. Majority of the time junior high was packed with non-stop homework, useless quizzes, female teachers who were bitches or male teachers who thought they were shit cause they coached  the junior high football team. Hasley had all the teacher beats in the fashion department. Everyday she came to school with her six inch heels, tight mini dress some days or tight fitting pants the next. She made all the other teachers outfits look like they were dressing up for church. 

“Bad Teacher” wasn’t an Oscar winning movie but it definitely gave the viewer and audiences a good giggle and a good laugh. 

“The Human Centipede”

Director: Tom Six (2009)

Writer: Tom Six

The Human Centipede

       Randomly selected to be part of an experiment to be turned into “The Human Centipede” may have some people confused and aware about what that means or how this particular experiment was going to work.  Not knowing what this movie was about and after hearing so many people talk about how disturbing it was, watching this particular film was on the top priority of movies to watch. 

What was so disturbing about the “Human Centipede?” After watching all seven “Saw” movies, there aren’t any movies out there that gets more disturbing than those films. As the movie is playing out and still not understanding what the director meant by the term “human centipede” the anticipation and anxiety became overwhelming. Then came the one scene where the mad scientist Dr. Heiter, played by Dieter Laser, comes and explains to his three victims that he was going to turn them into his new pet; a human centipede. He would create this human centipede by stitching their mouths to each others’ rectums. Disturbed and appalled that someone had the audacity to write a story that had to do with people physically being connected by the mouth to an anus of some random person, is enough to make someone vomit. Not to mention the lack of sanitation it is to be attached to a person in that manner. 

Trying so hard to not push the stop button and turn to something more cheerful, finishing the movie was something that needed to be done. Plus what was the ending to be like? Just as predicted, the ending was just as bad as the idea of making humans into a centipedes. Cops came looking for the three victims. Dr. Heiter and the two cops got into a physical altercation with each other and both the two cops and the scientist ended up dying. No one came to the three victims rescue, because the movie just ended with the cops and Dr. Heiter dying. The chances of recommending this movie to a person is slim to none. The plot in itself is horrific but on top of that the actress and actors in this film, made the movie that much worse. 

Comparing “The Human Centipede” as being more horrific than the Saw movies, some people may disagree. With all seven “Saw” movies, they made people think, and it kept the audience engaged. There was a true story line that gave viewers wanting more and anxious to see the sequels. “The Human Centipede,” there was no reason or explanation to why this doctor wanted to conduct this particular experiment. The film “The Human Centipede had no beginning, middle, or end. It was very choppy and had horrible transitions. It was just wasn’t a movie that should have ever been made, or have a sequel to it.

“It’s the same relationship you have with good friends. Sometimes the disagreements are more fun than the agreements” (Anne Holub 4). 

Most people would be in agreement with this quote. Often times people like to have debates and disagreements rather than agreeing on the same thing. When having group discussions about things, and when everyone doesn’t always agree with everything, it sometimes makes the topic of conversation interesting and gives it a whole new dimension. Many times it is easier for us to talk and focus more on the negative things, than to talk and focus on the positive things. Disagreements give people a chance to hear what is on the other persons mind. In the Blog Critic: “Critical Conditions”, Kris Vire said “That’s true. There are a lot if critics I read because I enjoy disagree with them”. We live in a world where people are highly opinionated and many times want to have a pessimistic way of thinking. When there is a disagreement in a conversation, people want to speak their mind, most of the time they want other people to hear what they have to say. Especially when you are passionate about a certain topic that he or she may be talking about like the quote Donna Seaman said. “Yes, trust is a crucial. As is integrity. So, no, we won’t like everything. But when you slam something, you have to have to be sharp and precise”. Meaning, if you disagree about a comment someone said or a review someone wrote, explain your reasons. Have some evidence some facts to back up your case. That also goes for why people like certain things, for example: Chicago Winters. Well, why do you like Chicago Winters, and give specifics. Also when giving facts about a certain topic and making sure sources and thoughts are correct, to make sure that the facts whether you agree or disagree with the topic is truthful. Chuck Sudo said “I concur. That should be the one thing we can all agree on here, is to have passionate interest in the particular field you’ve chosen to be a critic”. When talking about something its important to have some kind of interest in it otherwise the person may quickly become extremely bored with the conversations. It makes for great conversation and and discussion when the group is versed and education on the topic that everyone is talking about.