Willow Smith is a BAD ASS

She's 9 and probably cooler than I will ever be.
I wish I was just cool enough to be in the music video, the toddler is even cooler than me.
I can't wait to see what other music/fashion choices flow from this young lady.

FAV FILM STILLS

So I'm a huge nerd when it comes to film stills, I follow a blog where people post film stills that they've captured on their computer. I love how each still is packed with loads of meaning and emotion whether the viewer has seen the film or not. I've always been interested in the phrase "that photo looks like a film still" (because I am interested in photography also) this is usually a compliment, and it must be because the images are so loaded. I've done my own captures of two films so far (I will post later) But I thought I would post my favorite images/captures that others have done.

Enjoy!

(100 points to whoever can name all the movies)

Rhino, Unicorn, Lover, Slave?

This is reason number 3 for why it would rule to date a unicorn.

Although, I'm not sure why they chose the relationship to be one of dating because I'm not so sure if this relationship would last due to the fact the unicorn is a bit treated like a slave, or a slightly abused pet. But then again, I'm sure many of us can think of couples where the relationship has one too many similarities to this unicorn/human affinity (some more metaphoric than others) Eh, who am I to judge, I would love to date a unicorn.

Check out the rest of the 9 reasons it would rule to date a unicorn: http://mingle2.com/dating/unicorn

Tribute to Salvador Dali

This is brilliant, I wish I thought of it.

This is also fabulous:

thanks to my friend Nikki who showed my this video :)

Scopophilia, Narcissism, and Chat Roulette

(Just a heads up this blog entry was for my Contemporary Cultural Theory class, so some of the terms and such may be odd because they are specific to what we discussed in class)

Laura Mulvey discusses voyeuristic viewing pleasures in her article “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema”. Mulvey also goes into detail about scopophilia, which encompasses the pleasure in looking and the pleasure in being looked at, and of the misrecognition that occurs between the (male) spectator and the protagonist (scopophilia in its narcissistic aspect). I would like to discuss the evolution of “the long love affair/despair between image and self-image” (Mulvey 18) with the constantly changing world of technology many people now watch films and movies on their computer, so a computer now becomes a form of the cinema screen. Also in today’s society many people have video cameras built into their computers for programs such as skype, ichat and the newest “video chat” sensation: chat roulette. Which leads to spectators becoming the actual subject on the screen and a whole new level of scopophilia and voyeuristic pleasures.

For anyone who does not know what Chat Roulette is, it is a website where one can video chat with someone random, and you can constantly change the person you are chatting with by “next”ing them. Chat Roulette is also notoriously known for being a place where (mainly) men expose themselves and masturbate while video chatting with their random partner, this is the example I will be discussing in further detail. The entire video chatting experience relies on a scopophiliac element, you are watching a person in their personal environment but you are also given the narcissistic element of being able to see yourself in the same window. I believe many people who go on Chat Roulette tend to forget the person in which they are watching/chatting with is an actual physical human being. The use of the screen is too familiar to the viewing of films, so the misrecognition occurring here is the opposite than the one Mulvey discusses. The other (on the computer screen), whom a person chats with becomes an object and maybe even a victim. The males that masturbate on Chat Roulette becomes in a sense what Mulvey calls a Peeping Tom: “fixated into a perversion, producing obsessive voyeurs … whose only sexual satisfaction can come from watching in an active controlling sense, an objectified other.” (17)

This whole idea of exposing oneself on the computer screen, also relates to Linda William’s essay “Film Bodies”. Williams explains “gross” genres pornography, horror, and the women’s film and discusses their sadistic and/or masochistic appeals to the spectator. If we were to evaluate male genital exposure on Chat Roulette in the same way William’s evaluated the film genres the person who exposes himself on the screen would be a sadomasochistic spectator. This is because the viewer identifies with the image on the screen (because it is in fact himself) and this exposure is in a sense humiliating, but he receives pleasure in the humiliation, why else would he be doing it? It is also in a more abstract sense sadistic because the sight of the man’s genitals is surprising and humiliating for the other spectator on the other side. The other spectator becomes a victim who must look at the man exposing himself (at least for a couple seconds until they can click “next”), but the other spectator is also a voyeur because everyone who goes on Chat Roulette in some sense is a voyeur.

I think this Chat Roulette example also relates to the film Peeping Tom (Powell 1960). In the final scene of the movie Mark finally reveals the full weapon attached to his film camera he has been using to kill the women. It is a mirror that reflects so that the victim can see their own fear and watch their own death. In the end he kills himself the way he has killed his victims. The Chat Roulette example is similar because the computer screen is the spectator’s mirror and their film device because they not only see themselves but they also see their “victims” reactions and that is where the pleasure comes from. Williams explains “fetishes instead of genitals, looking instead of touching” (Williams 6) which clearly describes Mark’s scopophilia in Peeping Tom, but in the Chat Roulette example I would re-appropriate the quote to be “fetishes and genitals, looking and touching.”

Here is a gross/funny blog of a girl who does screen captures of her on Chat Roulette with people who expose themselves. Warning: Contains nudity. http://chatroulettepricks.tumblr.com/

Food vs. Me

For a lover of food I wonder why I'm not more interested in cooking.

Well, let me explain. I love food and when I say I love food I mean it. I could eat all day everyday and I'm really not too picky. I love fancy five star food and even the (not so) guilty pleasure fast food chains McDonalds and Taco Bell. I also love all genres of food, mexican, thai, chinese, japanese, cajun, bbq, american, italian, german, danish, southern comfort, EVERYTHING. (using the word genre has given me a new idea for a new blog entry) and I love meat (I actually wrote this about myself in a biography when I was in first grade... nothing has changed). Anyways, back to my point I would love to cook good food, but I've been let down by my cooking too many times to trust myself anymore.
The worst thing that could ever happen is slaving away for hours (or minutes) on a meal and thinking about it while you're making it and then when you are finally done cooking it turns out tasting bad or not how you expect it.

Just to give you an idea of the level I have stooped to I'm currently eating dinner which happens to be:
some frozen chipotle chicken skewers from trader joes which have been sitting in the freezer for probably 6 months, but they were surprisingly decent until I noticed some white stuff on them, I'm sure its just chicken goo but I can't eat it anymore
Irish black tea with sugar and soy milk
aaaaaand probably some yogurt or something cause I'm not full but I don't want to touch the chicken anymore

Here's another example of a dinner I have recently eaten:
a can of chicken noodle soup, 4 nights in a row!

I think I've hit the lowest low for food lovers, and I think I will strategically plan meals before I head to the grocery store next and I will make something great... AND IF I DON'T I guess I will be doomed to eat shitty food for all of eternity or become broke from going out to eat or find friends who want to cook for me.

By the way if anyone is actually reading this and would like to give me easy/yummy recipes please do so :)

I'm currently studying for my italian final which I have tomorrow while listening to Led Zeppelin. The end.