Maybe I should stop doing these Weeklies? I dunno. But hey, double digits! *high five*
So let’s see what I’ve been loving lately.
Chinese New Year is awesome (or as my mom’s family likes to call it, “Vietnamese New Year”). That was this week. At home, there’s always a party at my grandparents’ house and all the parents give the kids money in exchange for good wishes for the new year. Here, however, my friend’s family and friends visit and she invites a few of her friends (me included) for dinner. Dinner is always delicious, and then we get money just because it’s new year. Am I missing anything? Oh! We’re supposed to wear bright colours. The picture to the left is what I wore. You’re supposed to wear brand new clothes for the brand new year, but I wore my old jeans. But the top I only got the day before at New Look. Bright enough? I tried to tone it down for the rest of the outfit with just grey jeans and a grey jacket.
In Textual Intervention (2) this semester, we’re studying fairy tales. (Last semester, we studied the gothic. You can check out my final project for it here.) So I guess my favourite fairy tale would have to be Bluebeard. If you aren’t familiar with it, it’s about this girl who marries a mass murderer, is set up by him to discover the bodies of his past wives,and then just when she’s about to be his next victim, her brothers come along and kill Bluebeard who, wouldn’t you know it, has a blue beard. It’s what I’m doing my essay on for Monday. An odd choice for a favourite fairy tale, maybe, but I like how it doesn’t end with the usual “they got married and lived happily ever after” although in some versions, the girl finds a sane person to marry at the end anyway. That dude’s not a big part of the story, though.
As I’ve mentioned (up to ten times now, depending on how long you’ve been following this blog) I’ve gotten really into Community recently. It’s about to become the TV show of the week for the second Weeklies in a row. The show isn’t afraid to go outside of the box, each episode putting in so many twists and turns into thirty minutes it’s hard to believe they’re only thirty minutes. Instead of remaining the same while their situations changed, the characters changed over time like real people. (I’m looking at you, Big Bang Theory!) The secondary characters are just as crazy, quirky, and interesting as the main characters (if not more so). Entire episodes are dedicated to classic films or different film forms, and there are jokes and references that cross episodes like easter eggs for returning viewers. Community is a shining example of where sitcoms are headed in the modern day. Episodes do not follow formulaic and predictable plot lines, there isn’t a studio audience telling you when to laugh or limiting the set to be seen from only one side, jokes are tasteful instead of borderline offensive, stereotypes exist to be crushed, issues like racism and homophobia are acknowledged, and the show also isn’t afraid to explore dark themes like death and drug abuse while always managing to put a comedic spin on it.
As for music, Mumford and Sons’, “The Cave” is an oldie but a goodie. The banjo part will go down in history. The music video is below.
And that’s it for this week’s Weeklies. Can you believe I’ve done ten of these already?
Do you have any recommendations of things (books, movies, websites, anything really) I could look at for next Weeklies? Comment below!
Precarious Writer 