consumerism, the media and youth

i've been reading a lot about consumerism lately, especially advertising aimed at children, and i'm repulsed. i'm not raising my kids in america. kids are exposed to 38 (out of 168) hours a week to advertisements. that's sickening to me. i remember buying into it, wanting this Barbie and that toy. i'm so glad i've escaped. i can't handle watching tv anymore because all the annoying commercials distract me. i've been watching tv shows on dvd. it's got me thinking about making movies in such a world...

as you all know, and i'm sure have at one time or another poked fun at, i'm interested in youth culture and the media. i'm not really sure how this happened.

in high school i was really into literature and biology and then theory of knowledge class came about, and first i learned about logic and then formulating scientific methods and then the structure of the systems of math, and then... culture and anthropolgy and social sciences. and finally, that all these things are more similar than different.

then i went and studied film.

and i guess something clicked between the two, and i realized how powerful of a tool film and photography and writing are, and how we can learn about our culture by reading our favorite films and our favorite books and looking at the pretty pictures in the magazine.

and i realized all the lies that these stories tell us about us. and especially aboout kids and teenagers. a vicious circle it is: grown-ups leave their childhood and teen years behind, distance themselves from kids, and forget what it's really like. and then they go off and make movies, and write books about and for kids, and they get it all wrong, they shove a few steretypes of kids.

and kids see it, and they think that that's what they SHOULD be. they should be the jock or the nerd or the artsy kid, and they attempt and become the stereotypes. and then the adults write about the stereotypical kids they've created and how awful stereotypes are.

and that's why i want to make movies.
not to be godard or fellini or spielberg.

i want to show kids and teenagers who they really are. i want to get THEM to tell the world who they really are. i want them to know that they're just like everyone else, like all the grown-ups.

grown-ups lie. they seem like they know what they're doing, or what they want, but they don't. no one ever knows what they're doing, or if it will be ok, in the end.i want to put real people up on those coveted screens, in those shiny photos, so that maybe they can see themselves and think, 'hey, that looks just like me.' and instead of trying to become something, become glam or stylish or rich or artistic, they'll want to become someone, who does something. maybe they'll see the fact that the punk girl's hair and the preppy girl's hair are the same color, but just worn in different ways.

maybe instead of buying a lipstick to impress the boy they'll buy the boy their favorite book, or talk to him. and maybe the boy will talk to the girl, and not the person who's trying to seduce him or impress him or attract him. just maybe...

sidenote: i'm writing a screenplay about two girls that i plan to make after i finish film school. it's going really well so far. oh and i'm going crazy looking at googleearth images of where i'll be going to school next semester in florence. and i leave for europe july 18th.

must download song of the moment:

icky thump by the white stripes

sunrises, movie sets, internet and celebrities, and notches on the bedpost

so i lied. to preface this, i may have slightly lied about what this blog was gonna be. the first entry may have made us seem purdy and shallow, and the header may say we're vacant, but vacant or not, i guess the lot of us has quite a bit of rants and opinions buried in there, aside from partying hard.

last week i had a fondue party in my backyard. since everyone was working, we didn't really get together til about 10:30, and the party didn't really end until 10 am. at about 4 am, after much dipping and huge amounts of food later, most people went home, but matt, abby and i talked in my hammock and at about 5:45 decided to go to the beach and watch the sun rise over the lake. it was gorgeous. then we had some breakfast at clarke's and watched little kids playing on the playground before going to school, feeling like creepy pervs that sit around on the playground watching kids (but we were there first!) it was an interesting sort of nite. i've always wanted to watch the sunrise. i love doing things i've wanted to do. especially when they just happen, unplanned. sarah and i had a long, semi-tipsy conversation about this after one of our parties this year... what makes people happy (or at least us) isn't doing extraordinary or exciting or glamorous things, it's doing the things that you've always wanted to do. or doing the things you've always secretly wanted or dreamed of doing and didn't think you would get away with, or want on a permanent basis.

lately i've done a couple of things that my heart hasn't really been into a 150%, and i've realized, it's not really worth it unless you want it so bad it hurts. getting something you want may not always be the greatest thing for you, but you always feel good about it, you always learn something about yourself. doing things you semi-want makes you (ok, me) feel guilty and confused.

i've been thinking about this person back in manhattan, and the sort of strange series of events we've kinda been through, and bad timing and all this stuff, and i didn't think it was really worth my time to try before. but i realized, thinking back on it, maybe it is. i realized a lot of ecounters i've had are pretty unusual, and i've been pretty lucky after all. and when i come back to new york after florence, i think i'm gonna call this person up before i do anything else, and get together and try to start from the beginning and get to know him. if all else fails, i get some insight into another human being, right?



now on to topics other than my personal life...

lately, having little to do other than read (check out paranoid park by blake nelson) and listen to harry potter audiobooks on my iPod and buy new albums, i've been surfing the net, looking at my favorite popstars. i remember back in the day (like, 8th grade) when i used to be obsessed with certain celebrities, and i'd try to find interviews with them on the internet, it was so difficult. there was hardly any material out there. a few fansites, that was about it. now, there's heaps of scans of magazines, youtube videos from the record companies, and the artists themselves. there's myspace, where you can send them messages which they actually read, blogs where they actually write (not just their tourdates but actual day-to-day crap going on in their lives too).


celebrity seems to be becoming... less shrouded, much more accessible. the exchange of information, not facts, but images, videos, songs is so much easier and FUN. i can go on myspace and listen to a band's songs before i decide to buy their album. i can read about what the press says about them in magazines and i can read about what they say about the press on their blog, and i can make my own version of the events. hopefully, society will use this new access to celebrities to realize that they're just like them. their lives aren't always glam and mysterious. just hectic and fake, a lot of the time.

check it out yourself, if you don't believe me:

www.myspace.com/katyrose - katy rose is about 20 and has one album out and did music for the film thirteen. her second album is coming out soon. she actually answered a message i sent her. on the site you can see her pictures of her and her friends and family hanging out, listen to her songs, and watch videos she posts and read her blog.

katy's room




she takes pictures in the mirror (this is myspace after all, lol)

www.myspace.com/lilyallen- lily allen is also like 21-ish, she's british and gets tipsy and wears pretty dresses and sneakers and doesn't take herself too seriously. like her songs show, she has a great sense of humor and is just fun. on the site you can listen to practically half her album and see private pictures of her and watch some videos she puts up and read her blog, where she talks about being insecure and feeling fat, among other things, like a lot of girls our age.

just like us... she drinks (on the streets of nyc)..........................she sleeps


she cries and probably takes pictures on a macbook



http://www.charlottechurch.com/ - charlotte has been one of my favorite singers since i was like 13 or 14, maybe even younger. she used to sing a lot of classical music, but then made the transition to pop (which is uh.... interesting) and apparently she had a tv show in britain. (she's welsh and has an adorable accent and says "lush" a lot). there are youtube video clips of her show (tons of them, not just two or three) and her blog, including a video blog. you can watch her cooking food for her boyfriend and talking about her dogs and her pregnancy.




hopefully with this media revolution people will realize it's not really about image, and all the pretty photoshopped pictures in magazines. that celebrities (and human beings) are more than just a frozen moment or a quote or a pretty face. after all, more important than their fame is the things they do and they've done. the songs they sing or the movies they're in, not what they do on friday nights is what's really important.
right?



oh and ps, while you're at it, let me do some shameless self-promotion and tell you to watch a film i made about some pretty kick as rockstars/celebrities. see if you can pick them out!