Water is like a camera, really. It reflects life — not exactly as life really is, but a close simile. Most often, the camera doesn’t capture the moment entirely, but sometimes, it manages to do a pretty good job.
Monthly Archives: February 2007
The Awful Truth (1937)
They argue, and they divorce, but there’s a 90-day grace period. And of course, there’s Mr. Smith, the dog — Jerry uses him as a pretext to visit Lucy. During that time, each does his and her best to split their rebound romances through all sorts of wacky shenanigans. It’s a pleasure to watch them dog it out, each motivated by the love they still bear for the other. There’s a wonderful conclusion to the film, driven home eloquently by the director’s use of a grandfather clock and his/her figurines, animated by Cary and Irene. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful!
Beauty redefined?
I received an email from JPG Magazine yesterday, where I’m a registered user. Apparently they’re putting photos together for a new theme, called Beauty Redefined. Quoting from their email:
“Every generation redefines what is beautiful, but ours has taken it to a whole new level. This theme invites you to throw out traditional notions of beauty and start over from scratch, redefining beauty for yourself. This theme is sponsored by SuicideGirls. SuicideGirls mixes the smarts, enthusiasm and DIY attitude of the best music and alternative culture sites with an unapologetic, grassroots approach to sexuality.”
Call me conservative, call me traditional, call me what you will, but I didn’t know immoral women posting naked photos of themselves on the internet is the new beauty standard. I thought that was called porn. But hey, what do I know, I’m only 30 years old and I’m happily married, right? I’m not “with the times”, whatever that means. This message from JPG Magazine really rubbed me the wrong way. Whether these girls realize it or not, when they post their provocative photos on the internet, they open themselves to all sorts of unwelcome treatment. Not only do they lose any sort of expectation of privacy, (since everyone’s seen just about everything they’ve got, and will automatically picture them naked when they see them,) but they attract ridicule and name-calling as well. Be honest, what would your parents or elders call a girl like that? I’ve heard words like slut and hussy before, and I doubt I’m alone in this. If you weren’t drooling over the photos and were in a healthy, committed relationship, what would you call them? I think the term misguided applies very well. Instead of baring their bodies to their lovers, in privacy, they bare them for every moron that’s out there.
Generally speaking, it’s bothersome to me that all kinds of subversive ideas like this are getting pushed around these days. Whatever happened to healthy, loving relationships? Whatever happened to common decency? How about NOT posting naked pictures of ourselves on the internet? What exactly is wrong with covering up our private parts, and only letting our spouses see our naked bodies? And what about NOT piercing various parts of our bodies, including the nether regions, or tattooing every spare inch of skin? Or what about NOT sleeping around? How about waiting for the right person?
But no, in our stupid quest for the extreme, for the fringe, for the alternative, we have to torture our bodies by piercing and tattooing them in all sorts of stupid places, we have to somehow keep an open mind to all the trash that’s out there, we should accept abusive, disrespectful or non-standard relationships as the norm — for example, “open marriage” is probably the biggest oxymoron I’ve ever heard.
Well, if the immoral, the fringe and the bizarre is the new beauty, I want none of it. I’ll stick with the tried and true classics, thank you very much.
Raoul Pop 