romcom revolution

From time to time I do secretly enjoy a good romantic comedy. I have my moments of being a hopeless romantic who loves happy endings. I've been quite disappointed with the last few that I have seen. This mishmash of trailers pretty much describes it all...

What is this world coming to when quality actresses like Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis who just came out of the Academy Award winning movie Black Swan actually think it's a good idea to take roles like these? I honestly do not understand.

I watched No Strings Attached from the comfort of my bed where I no one else could witness me watching such an embarrassing choice for my evening entertainment. I had high expectations that this wasn't going to be your average romcom since it had Natalie Portman in it. I should have realized that since it has Ashton Kutcher starring in it; of course it was going to be like all of the others.

I just saw Friends with Benefits two days ago thanks to securing two tickets to a free, early screening (courtesy of being on the mailing list from old job.) I figured why pass up an opportunity to see a movie in advance and without having to spend a penny. I brought along my friend Jackie and were both surprised that we actually wound up liking it more than we had expected to. It was actually quite funny. Part of this could have been due to the crowd effect...You tend to laugh more at things when those around you are also laughing along, but I honestly think that even if I would have watched this movie alone in my apartment that I still would have laughed at loud from time to time. What was frustrating however is that at the end of the film I felt like I had basically just watched No Strings Attached all over again. Definitely not very original, but if you fall victim to liking romcoms from time to time...This one is one of the funnier ones that I have seen.

we are living in a Fast Food Nation

I am currently taking a class on the Anthropology of Food and Cuisine. We recently watched the movie Fast Food Nation. It's a fictional film based on Eric Schlosser's best-selling nonfictional exposé on the meat and processed food industries and how its not really about the meat at all. The book and film takes us behind the scenes of what life is really like for the labor forces in the heart of our industrialized meat system. 

The film did a good job of depicting commodity fetishism, specially demonstrating Americans and their meat. It was fascinating to see all of the social relationships that were expressed through the production of hamburgers for the fictional Mickey's. The films tracks the hamburgers that are being consumed in the fast food chain all the way back to the farms where the cows are living before they are slaughtered.

There is actually a scene in which the slaughtering of the cows is even shown and how people in this line of work have to go through a dehumanization of the killing process. 

All around the film is well scripted, well acted (with the exception of Avril Lavigne having a small role) while also at the same time calling its viewers to take action and be more responsible citizens with regards to the meat industry. It's definitely worth seeing.

The instructor for my class is such a doll and brought us homemade snacks so we could nosh during the film. She brought us hummus and pita and cheese and crackers! The hummus was absolutely delicious and the recipe was recently posted to our course website, so I posted it below. Our professor used lots of fresh dill for the herb section and it really made all the difference!

photostream

samanthaleeweinstein's photostream on Flickr.

Connecting Culture

1: cultivation, tillage

2: the act of developing the intellectual and moral faculties especially by education

3: expert care and training 

4: enlightenment and excellence of taste acquired by intellectual and aesthetic training...acquaintance with and taste in fine arts, humanities, and broad aspects of science as distinguished from vocational and technical skills

5: the integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief, and behavior that depends upon the capacity for learning and transmitting knowledge to succeeding generations

-Webster's definition of "culture"