When the trailer for Miss Representation started making the rounds on social media, I knew I wanted to see it. Fortunately, it screened as part of the Vancouver International Film Festival 2011.

This documentary film, written and directed by former actress Jennifer Siebel Newsom, seeks to expose and question the representation of females in the media—particularly modern American culture. So many people grow up without media literacy—truly understanding the political economy of mass media.

Modern mass media in the USA (and consequently Canada) is mainly dependent upon advertising revenue, whose sole objective is to sell a product. These advertisements rely on making people feel insecure and anxious as well as using sexual imagery.

Advertisers are not the only culprits of this act. American teenagers spend approximately 10 hours and 45 minutes per day on media consumption, including listening to music, browsing the internet, watching television and movies or reading magazines. There are so many choices available that movies, music and entertainment shows consistently resort to violent, sexual and demeaning imagery to break through the clutter. These messages influence predominant cultural ‘norms’ and political discourse.

Between interviews with famous and powerful women such as Jane Fonda, Katie Couric, Margaret Cho, Condoleezza Rice, Geena Davis, and Rosario Dawson, the film shows startling facts and statistics about the role of women in one of the most powerful countries in the world: Read the rest of this entry »

These past few days have been special. Like speeecial special. Yaknow? I have been totally out of it in multiple ways for no particular reason.

Physically, I am bumping into things and bashing myself by accident. It’s like I have an issue with depth perception. I tried to put on my shoes today and kicked the wall. I went to close a door and accidentally punched the wall. I’ve broken at least 4 fingernails by catching them on things. This could be a serious problem considering I’m taking sword fighting lessons. I’m also concerned since I’ve been working on sewing projects. Hopefully I can dial 9-1-1 before I pass out from lack of blood. Death by sewing machine… kinda funny.

Mentally, I have been having trouble speaking, mixing words up, and my spelling has gone out the window. My reading skills are also suffering, but that may also be the spelling issue or my non-existent dyslexia. I typed “dying” instead of “dyeing”, read “touting” as “touching” and “viral” as “virus”, and often leaving out transitional words such as “the” and “with”, thus changing a sentence completely.

So now I’m sitting here, wondering what I should do so that I’ll be safe from myself. Knitting would inevitably result in a giant yarn tangle or dropped stitches, I already explained the fear of the sewing machine, and anything that involves movement or speed such as riding my bike is out. That leaves books, movies, and the internet.

Books: I’ve finished Voyager by Diana Gabaldon and need to write up a review. Before that I read a few graphic novels that I need to post reviews for. Now I’m into the second book of the Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin, A Clash of Kings.

Movies: I watched Sense & Sensibility (1995) last night with Kate Winslett, Alan Rickman, Hugh Grant, Hugh Laurie, and Emma Thompson. Wow what a cast. I haven’t read the book, but I enjoyed the movie. I think the romance story lines were very similar to Pride & Prejudice (class, society, rumours, reputation) but that the character interactions weren’t as strong. However, the cast was amazing and I did enjoy the movie immensely. Did I mention that I did end up watching the BBC mini-series of Pride & Prejudice with Colin Firth? Awesome! I love Colin Firth so much.

Speaking of movies, I just went on IMDB.com and discovered a Footloose remake. Watch the trailer here. Umm… I’m not sure how I feel about this, and I’m concerned it’s just going to be some sort of hip-hop debacle. Footloose is the 80s and Kevin Bacon. Can you imagine someone trying to remake Ferris Bueller’s Day Off without Matthew Broderick? Or Pretty in Pink without Molly Ringwald? No! It just wouldn’t work.

Television: I’ve been watching HBO’s The Game of Thrones, which is based on the Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin. HBO is so awesome and I am loving it so far. It’s pretty much 98% perfect, and I’m guessing that’s because George R.R. Martin is one of the executive producers.

Internet: There are lots of great things I’ve found recently. If you follow me on Twitter, I usually share them there. But here are a couple gems.

• Bloggess’ “Pick your Battles” — I laughed so hard I wasn’t making a sound and tears were streaming down my cheeks.
• Dear Photograph — A really neat project, taking photos of old photos in their original location.
• A Stranger A Day — A Vancouverite is chatting up strangers about tattoos, daily
• The Slave Lake Book Auction, which I mentioned before, wrapped up last week with a total of $4,909 in donations to the library!
• The Bank of Canada is rolling out new bills made of polymer (plastic) and our money will look even more like Monopoly money.
• Book Blogger Appreciation Week 2011 has been announced for Sept. 12-16. I designed the new look and launched the website recently.

It’s always been a trend to make movies and plays based on books and novels. Adapting written works for the screen is nothing new. However, there are some movies in pre-production and filming right now that I’m excited to see.

THE HUNGER GAMES

I’m a big fan of The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins. I tore through the books—favourite is the first book—and wasn’t at all surprised to hear that it’d been optioned for a movie.

Exclusive first look at Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss in Entertainment Weekly

My one hope was that the main characters would be completely unknown actors. I realize that this then typecasts them, but think about the first Harry Potter movie; no one knew the main actors so you easily got lost into the story without thinking “that’s so-and-so”.For example, you watch Men In Black and you’re not thinking that the main character is called ‘James Darrell Edwards’ or even ‘Agent J’, it’s Will Smith.

Jennifer Lawrence has been cast as Katniss and she was recently nominated for Winter’s Bone. I still thought she would be an okay Katniss mainly because she hadn’t become an iconic hit in that movie.

But I recently found out she’s Mystique in this summer’s X-Men film. I’m very worried that her name will be come synonymous with a character, such as when you say “Harry Potter” people know you’re talking about Daniel Radcliffe.

The Hunger Games doesn’t have an official website yet, but they’ve got an official Twitter and official Facebook Fan Page. The Facebook page is pretty awesome and has photos of all the tributes so far.

The full cast list is on IMDB.com and shows Woody Harrelson as Haymitch and Stanley Tucci as Caesar the television host. Stanley Tucci will be incredible, and I just hope Woody Harrelson isn’t too Woody Harrelson. I’ve noticed he often picks roles that are very similar to his own personality and doesn’t actually act much. I have a soft spot for Haymitch, so he better do it justice!

The Hunger Games comes out in theatres March 23, 2012. I sense a birthday outing!

THE LIFE OF PI

Yann Martel’s award-winning book, The Life of Pi, was picked up by an award-winning director Ang Lee (below, left). In April, it was announced that Tobey Maguire had joined The Life of Pi cast as the narrator.

Piscine Mlitor “Pi” Patel will be played by 17-year-old Suraj Sharma (above, right) and well-known Indian actor Irrfan Khan (not pictured) will play the older version of Pi. I’m really glad M. Night Shymalan isn’t directing (he was slated to for a while). Not much more news has come up about this but I’ll keep my ears open.

The Life of Pi is slated to open in December 2012.

THE HOBBIT

I am a huge Lord of the Rings fan. I kinda suck at remembering all the little details (Tolkien was incredible!), but I love epic fantasy tales and adventures. I cannot believe that The Lord of the Rings movies came out ten years ago already. When I heard that The Hobbit movie was going ahead with Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh at the helm, I rejoiced. I’ve been following Peter Jackson on Facebook as well as the official Hobbit fan page for updates.

"Gandalf, Elrond and Galadriel brandishing an array of fearsome Elvish weapons" – Peter Jackson

The cast and crew have been in New Zealand since the beginning of the year and they began filming in mid-March. Some of the LOTR cast is back too: Ian Holm is back as an older Bilbo, Orlando Bloom is as Legolas (because elves don’t visibly age), Ian McKellen is Gandalf, Hugo Weaving is back as Elrond, Cate Blanchett as Galadriel, Andy Serkis as Gollum… I’m so excited!

The Hobbit, which takes place 60 years before The Fellowship of the Ring, is being split into two films. The first will open December 14, 2012, titled ‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey‘. The second will be released December 13, 2013, titled ‘The Hobbit: There and Back Again‘. A friend has said that the first movie will deal mainly with the storyline from The Hobbit book, while the second movie will bridge the gap between where The Hobbit left off and where The Fellowship of the Ring began. Unfortunately I can’t find anything ‘official’ to confirm this.

In other fun Hobbit news, Peter Jackson is (slowly) answer 20 questions on his Facebook page, so perhaps it will come up there. If you want an more succinct summary of news so far, this is a great fan website and there is an Official Hobbit Blog.

I picked up this book when I heard about the series HBO was producing and the guy at the till said “your friends won’t see you for weeks.” Confused, I asked why. “You’ll need to catch up on the entire series.” A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin is the first in an epic fantasy series—A Song of Ice and Fire—and the fifth book will be released this summer. A Song of Ice and Fire series will have seven books in total.

Within the first chapter of A Game of Thrones, I was completely drawn in. Each chapter is from the perspective of a different character, which allows the narration to jump locations easily. The chapters left me wanting more—in a good way—yet felt complete like a scene in a play. George R.R. Martin writes tightly crafted prose that rumbles with power, emphasis and forethought.

Long ago, in a time forgotten, a preternatural event threw the seasons out of balance. In a land where summers can last decades and winters a lifetime, trouble is brewing. The cold is returning, and in the frozen wastes to the north of Winterfell, sinister and supernatural forces are massing beyond the kingdom’s protective Wall.

At the center of the conflict lie the Starks of Winterfell, a family as harsh and unyielding as the land they were born to. Sweeping from a land of brutal cold to a distant summertime kingdom of epicurean plenty, here is a tale of lords and ladies, soldiers and sorcerers, assassins and bastards, who come together in a time of grim omens.

Here an enigmatic band of warriors bear swords of no human metal; a tribe of fierce wildlings carry men off into madness; a cruel young dragon prince barters his sister to win back his throne; and a determined woman undertakes the most treacherous of journeys.

Amid plots and counterplots, tragedy and betrayal, victory and terror, the fate of the Starks, their allies, and their enemies hangs perilously in the balance, as each endeavors to win that deadliest of conflicts: the game of thrones.

From the publisher, Bantam (an imprint of Random House)

Read the rest of this entry »

April is the crazy month at work, hence the silence on the blog. But, fear not, I have a huge update and lots of good things to share. So grab a cuppa something nice and sit back.

First, let’s get the obligatory Henry photo out of the way. Here he is sunbathing in the Spring sunshine at the end of March. Such a cutie!

Chico’s cage is in the background and I have since moved it to the other side of the room so he doesn’t get the morning and afternoon sun as directly.

Read the rest of this entry »