I picked up a People magazine today to catch up on the celebrity trash I can't read at People.com. Normally I don't bother to read the "articles" (and I use the word lightly with People), because they always seem random, and, who buys People to read the articles anyways? I appreciate the pictures and two-sentence gossip blurbs- they are much more conducive to the brain-numbing activity I'm looking for when I fork over the $3.49 (?!) for the magazine.
In any case, I decided to give 'em a chance and read through the article "When There's Nowhere to Turn" by Joanne Fowler.

The article describes college students dealing with depression who attempt suicide (which, by the way, is the number 2 cause of death of college students, claiming 1,100 lives a year). The article starts out with the story of Ethan Helfand who tried to kill himself one night by overdosing on antidepressants (he had a history of depression and suicidal thoughts, reports Fowler). When he woke up the next day in the university hospital, he was told he could not return to his dorm room and had to check into a hotel.

I was going to post a follow-up blog about the Michael Richard's incident. Apparently some comedy clubs in Los Angeles have started charging performers for each N-bomb they drop (one performer racked up a bill of just under $400 dollars). Others have said "Come say the N-word here! We support freedom of speech!" But then I couldn't remember what I was going to write about, and the Kramer thing blew over, and so I decided against the post.

Then I was going to post about how adorable Brad Pitt's baby is, but decided not many people would find it exciting (I have an odd obsession with babies). If you are interested, go here and fawn.

So, after finals, and after spending like 22810384029 hours on YouTube, I decided that I was going to teach myself how to make stop motion videos over winter break. Don’t ask me why, I’ve always been impressed by them, and claymation has always held a special place in my heart. I know there are some film/photography/art people in the class, and if anyone has done any stop motion work and wants to share some words of wisdom (or cool videos) let me know. Here are a few of my favorites so far:

Amputation
Dialogue Exercise

Well, this definitely isn’t a very media studiesy post but it is cultural studies and that’s part of what we do so I thought I’d write it anyway. So I’m sure this idea isn’t actually as original as I thought it was when it came to me this morning but for some reason I’ve been thinking theoretically about divorce lately (fun stuff!)and I've come to a little conclusion I think. My current thoughts are that the increase in the divorce rate actually could have been predicted not only based on changing attitudes about “till death do us part”, a decrease in the stigma of being a divorcee, and a decrease in religious ties, but also from trends that started a long, long time ago...

In what seems to be a constant stream of celebrities making discriminatory comments, I present to you the mouth-covering-incident!

During an interview on Live with Regis and Kelly with Dancing with the Stars winners Cheryl Burke and Emmitt Smith, Clay Aiken (guest co-host) was getting impatient that Kelly was hogging the interview, not allowing him to ask questions. First he tries to hint to Kelly that he wants to ask a question, and then he reaches over and covers her mouth. Gasp! Kelly gets a look of horror on her face, followed by a dramatic pause and then says “Oh, that’s a no-no.” Clay looks embarrassed and confused, and Kelly follows with “I don’t know where that hand’s been, honey.”

As an animal lover I consider it my duty to spend at least one hour a day fawning over baby animals doing silly things. As you’ve probably been able to tell from my previous posts, I take a lot of breaks from work doing useless things like reading about Paris Hilton, exploring new magazine options, and obsessing over Eric Cartman and the rest of the South Park kiddos. In any case, if you find yourself needing a little pick-me-up, check out Cuteoverload.com. At first it may seem strange, but you’ll get sucked in, I promise. These people are hardcore about cute things, and have even developed their own language of cuteness, including words like baroo and muzzlepuff (admit, you’re curious now, aren’t you?). There’s even a glossary of terms if you get confused. The website won a Webby Award (People’s Voice Winner) for 2006, and has links to other websites dedicated to all things cute and fuzzy (although the rest pale in comparison, trust me).

TOMORROW, 6PM, WALKER LOUNGE the Pomona Women's Union is hosting a charity banquet. We'll be serving a four-course catered Indian meal for only $8! All proceeds to go Crossroads, a transitional home in Claremont for women who have recently been released from prison. It's a great charity and a good excuse not to eat at the dining hall (because the food is especially bad during the weekends...). If you're interested, you can buy tickets at the door, or to make sure you get a seat email womensunion@pomona.edu and ask to have a ticket set aside for you (pay at the door).

Because people have been talking about celebrities and American culture in general, I thought this magazine article (taken, again, from BUST) would be appropriate.

In the Pop Tart section, Wendy McClure tackles the issue of “Why do we obsess over Paris Hilton?” And, to be honest, for as much as I hate Paris Hilton, I find that I’m also obsessed with her. Maybe it’s because I love laughing at her, or thinking about how many ways I could make better use of her money, but in any case, I keep tabs on the girl. McClure writes: “Every time I’ve considered writing a column about Paris Hilton I’ve talked myself out of it. Because one day soon, I figure, she’s going to drop off the pop-culture radar. It’s inevitable, right? She’ll just disappear into a puff of pink smoke- gone, forgotten, nothing left but a bittersweet memory and a T-Mobile Sidekick.” But no matter how much we belittle Paris, tell her that she’s like “a fart in a mitten” (someone actually said that, how genius?!), she sticks around, and we have no one to blame but ourselves. McClure writes that we need to stop blaming Paris for starting a trend of celebrities who are famous for no apparent reason, and start looking at why we’ve produced a culture which values this sort of person. “Maybe we ought to stop wondering how we should feel about her and wonder instead how we got to this particularly fucked-up place in time- where being young and female and famous seems to mean becoming somebody most other people would love to pelt with dog shit.” As McClure rightly points out, perhaps the reason that Paris is sticking around for so long (and the reason that another Paris will pop up on the scene when this one is done and gone) is because of the sort of fame we’ve created.

First of all, stop reading and go here. Look through all the pictures. Then come back.

I’m on a magazine kick, so stick with me. I was flipping through the UTNE Reader which, as I said in my last post, is horribly dull so I really wasn’t in the mood to read any of the articles. I came to these pictures and was pretty amazed and confused about what they were (which, of course, forced me to read the article). Turns out, they are old copper cans, filled with CREMATED REMAINS FROM AN INSANE ASYLUM.

Maisel is a photographer whose work “has chronicled the tensions between nature and culture.” Past projects include aerial images of cities captured from low-flying planes. He has examined copper and coal mines, the almost-empty Owens Lake, the Sierra Nevada Mountains and the Great Salt Lake. This project, however, has taken a new (and, to me, a slightly disturbing) new look at the ways in which humans interact with their surroundings.

Because there are a few days left in November, and because I’m hard up for blog entries, I thought this was appropriate.

Has anyone heard of NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month? I hadn’t until I picked up a (really, ridiculously boring) magazine called UTNE Reader. During NaNoWriMo, which happens during November, about 75,000 wanna-be writers attempt to type 50,000 words in 30 days. Chris Baty, the creator of NaNoWriMo, envisions the marathon type session as a way for writers to overcome writers block and the fear of making mistakes. The writers who make it to 50,000 words will have their work published on the NaNoWriMo.org website. Apparently some of the past participants have even seen their work published.