While we're on the subject, could we change the subject now?

After a three week hiatus I realized I haven't been contributing anything to either of my blogs. Which is simply inexcusable. I've decided to reduce my posts to one a week, which will hopefully help the gap. As a catch up I want to share what I've been doing and what I've discovered in the past few weeks we've been apart. So snag a cup of coffee, because this one is going to be a doosey!

Crafts Extraordinaire!
Being unemployed you think of things to do with your spare time. As I've mentioned before I have trouble with my hands being idle. It just bothers me, so lo and behold I have invented some new crafts.Our DVD burner that was hooked up to our TV broke. So we had like 40 DVDs that we couldn't watch anymore. After about a week of sulking I decided to use them for art, they have such a lovely shade of purple on the back, and they're shiny so it only made sense. I separated the protective clear layer from the reflective layer of the disc and cut the disc into strips. Then using a spare piece of wood I glued the shards to it using elmer's glue. I went to the dollar store and bought some ribbon and cheap frames. I stapled the ribbons to the frame and 2x4 and VIOLA! A decorative piece of wall art. See?

Movies
Ok, so not all of my time has been spent busying my idle hands, I have had some couch potato time.

Mildred Pierce
But I am glad to say it was not wasted time, because what I watched was intelligent, and moving, and 5 hours long. Thanks to HBO GO I watched a mini series named "Mildred Pierce." I didn't realize until I did some research on it that it was actually a remake of a film noir made in the 1940s. It starred Kate Winslet as a single mother in the 1930s. She started her own business after working as a waitress. Keeping in mind this was right after the depression and the golden age, one of her main struggles was with her oldest daughter, Veeta, who as a young girl displays qualities of arrogance and pride that make you want to slap her. Without revealing too much lets just say that Mildred's indulgences of her daughter lead her to commit various types betrayal and treachery.

After I finished watching the 5 hour mini series, I had one question left. "What was the point of all that?"  I think that the best thing I got out of "Mildred Pierce" was the definition of pride. For Mildred, pride was determining what you would and would not settle for. She had to determine if wearing a uniform to work was worth putting food on the table for her two children. She wanted to be loved for herself and not for her money, which her 2nd beau did not prove to her very well. Mildred's idea of pride was a good home, doing the right thing, and working hard. To her daughter, Veeta, pride was luxury. Pride was not talking to someone because they were below her status, it was lying to get money because she 'deserved' a certain lifestyle. She was absolutely insufferable.

The story did not really touch on religion or morality, as Mildred herself lacked better judgement at times. The story touched on mother/daughter relationships, but more so it was a warning of the encouragement of pride. Translating it from pride in work done, to pride in deeds owed. The series is nominated for tons of Emmys. On the note of reviews I have to post this, I saw it on the wikipedia page for Mildred Pierce:

"Novelist Stephen King, reviewing Mildred Pierce for The Daily Beast and Newsweek, praised the acting of Winslet, Pearce and Wood and admired the show's attention to detail and structure,^[6] but complained that the five-hour adaptation was "too damn long"."

Stephen King, really?? Too long?? "Hi, I'd like to sit down for a short movie, let's watch The Stand. Because it's so short..."

Going the Distance

OK ,  I know this is a stereotypical rom-com (as I'm dubbing them), but this was a genuinely good movie. Drew Barrymore and Justin Long are a genuinely good couple. It's not a mind-blowingly great film, but it's happy. It's a better love story than I've seen in a while (more realistic at least), and they're not so obsessed with each other that watching them live on opposite sides of the country is like a short recap of P.S. I love you. (Which no one should ever see in their right mind, ever... I cried throughout the ENTIRE movie. no joke)

It also introduced me to a new music group which I will in turn introduce to you!

Music

From the movie I heard this little indie folk band from England called "The Boxer Rebellion." They seem to be part of this wave of indie awesomeness that I am only recently tapping into. Artists like Adele, Mumford and Sons, Interpol, Metric, Ray La Montagne, and now these guys.  At first listen they have a sound kind of like the Shins, but not all of their songs sound that way. Here's a video so you have to check them out now...

And that's what I've been up to for these past three weeks, I've also have birthday parties, a few interviews, and some other events and gatherings. But you are officially up to speed, so I hope to be more consistent for here on out, but it was nice catching up with you :)

The Hunger Games

I recently finished reading The Hunger Games trilogy and I have to say that it was an excellent series by Suzanne Collins. I do not wish to divulge the plot, but imagine a futuristic environment run by a sadistic tyrannical government and a teenage girl becoming the symbol of a revolution. It sounds like such a simple soup, but add to it the fact that entire communities must sacrifice two of their children in a sick sport that forces them to fight to the death, and a society that makes the rich richer, and the poor silent.


The injustice of the society is enough to make anyone keep reading. Never mind that the heroine is not only emotionally unstable, but fiercely determined, caring, and simple. In other words, realistic.


It echoes The Giver by Lois Lowry, where there is one person in the society who is responsible for knowing the horrors and truths of their reality. Or perhaps The Lottery  by Shirley Jackson, in which a community draws names for who will be stoned to death. The oppression of the government in these stories is suffocating, and while it comforts us that our government is not rationing our food, or enforcing a curfew, or assigning us jobs, it does make us fear for the loss of basic civil liberties. There must always be a willingness to stand in resolve and fight.


The interesting thing I did not see coming from The Hunger Games trilogy was the stark representation of what I would consider city and country life. I haven't flattened all the corners on the paper I'm uncovering, but here's the start to my mental thesis. Those of the Capitol were dyed, tattooed, well fed, and had names like Glimmer, Gloss, Cashmere, Marvel, . The people of the poorer districts had names that displayed their relationship to nature:
The girls named after plants - Primrose and Katniss
The baker boy named Peeta (Pita) an ancient slightly leavened bread which has recipes dating back to antiquity
Gale - A stong wind
Countless obvious others: Tigris, Boggs, Hazelle, Seeder, Mason, Clove


Some other interesting names of note are:
Lavinia - a girl turned into an Avox is a interesting reference to Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus. They were both stripped of the ability to speak and left unable to name their enemies or the atrocities committed to them.


Rue - "to feel sorrow over; repent of; regret bitterly: to rue the loss of opportunities." Foreshadowing, and also that Rue was a main catalyst for Katniss. In other words, her sorrow (Rue) was her strength. 


Snow - the main antagonist, but wait! This is more of a nature term right? The more I thought about it, the more I realized that the other nature-names relate to heat, passion, or spring. Katniss was the girl on fire, so who is her most likely adversary? Snow. Nice Collins, very nice. Simple, succinct, and obvious without being pretentious.


The story is wonderful, powerful, and made me feel like I needed to start training for a marathon, because if the world fell apart I would wish I had.  But, beneath the obvious call to action and to open our eyes, was the ingenious word play that kept catching my eye and made me read all three books in a matter of days. There was a great quote which I will paraphrase (because I can't find it at the moment):

The people of Panem traded their civil liberties for the promise of full bellies and security.

It makes sense that people will forego their own happiness in order to see the safety of their loved ones and children, but Collins poses the question of the limit of acceptance. Will you allow your children to risk a greater chance at death games to feed your family? To fight in games that are supposed to remind you what life was like without the current government?

I appreciate Collins' ability to make this more than a political thriller, it's smart. Katniss is relate-able, because you can appreciate her indecision, her depression, her sorrow, and her power. She was not born a leader, she was made one through her desire to 'do the right thing.' Her conviction is absolute and sometimes slow coming, but whether her actions result in the death of thousands, or the redemption of mankind, the display of her internal struggle is realistic, even when her situation is not.

There's so much to these books, and I greatly enjoyed reading them. If you haven't I would definitely recommend it, you won't be able to put it down.