Party in the USA

This week’s post is dedicated to the project my group recently just accomplished (although it was a HUGE pain in the ass… #techproblems). Our project’s focus was on the adverse effects of the teenage partying movies in modern society. Obviously one can see a few connections and correlations between movies and real life when it comes to partying in real life, but I really didn’t think about the actual consequences these movies bring upon today’s teenagers. There are 75,000 alcohol related deaths per year. 75,000. Per Year. That’s astounding. Now I’m not saying I’m the perfect human specimen because I’m really not. We’re all in college and I think we all know what that means. But these younger generations are concerning. What is a 12 year old going to think of Project X? It’s different for a kid my age. We’ve all been there and have experienced it and can logically conclude that a party of that caliber if kind of ridiculous. Wicked cool, but ridiculous and never really happens. But a 12 year old or any other age for that matter doesn’t know that. They think that that is what a party is supposed to be.  They’re probably more likely to abuse alcohol in drugs in a much scarier way as opposed to when older generations were growing up. When I was younger, American Pie was how I viewed college parties. At least at Penn State, they’re accurate, but still unrealistic. And that’s been enough to take 75,000 lives per year in itself. What is a young kid who is just starting to become curious about the party scene going to think if these party movies keep pushing the envelope? If movies like these keep emerging with fewer and fewer restrictions, I fear that death toll will continue to rise. I’m not saying to ban party movies because I like anyone else enjoy them. But there’s got to be some other way to dissuade some of that behavior some stupid kids decide to mimick.

Happy Hunger Games

Since I never actually read Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games until yesterday, clearly I never really understood the hype over the whole series. But I was so wrong. I literally couldn't put the book down yesterday and basically tossed my social life out the window by purchasing the next two books already. The plot itself within this book is fascinating. Given who ever would come up with a plot about making teenagers fight to the death to get food for their village is a little messed up, but still. It plays up Darwinism, fate, and luck. Those things together are so interesting because you really don't know how it could all play out. The ideas of the book are so basic too, it’s hard not to be completely captivated by the story. Pitting humans against one another for food, leveling us with the behaviors of animals in the wild. I think it’s really cool and is a huge reason why the book was a huge success. I also like how Collins right off the bat acknowledges a forming relationship between Katniss and Peeta. In the back of your mind, you can’t help but keep reading to see what happens between them because at the end of the Hunger  Games event, there’s only one winner. So how could their friendship or romance play out?

What I love the most about books like The Hunger Games is that for the first time in a long time since the Harry Potter Series, it got people to read. Not enough people read “for fun;” it’s almost always school related lately. I can’t even tell you the last time I read for fun, honestly. Reading this book made me appreciate reading for fun again. I really did forget how enjoyable it can be and I plan to read more books on my own over the summer now. The power of a book is ridiculous. 

Media's Influence

I was listening to some music today and came across some pretty astounding lyrics that I never really thought about before. On Pandora, I just happened to be listening to some Kid Cudi and notices some shocking lyrics. In his Pursuit of Happiness, Cudi says, "I don't care, hand on the wheel, driving drunk I'm doing my thing." Kid Cudi's a pretty influential rapper to a lot of young kids today. Like any celebrity, kids look to see what Cudi's doing and then try to mimic that. I think the fact that he's talking about drunk driving in his song his awful. I mean I get it, people have their personal choices they make. Sadly I can't say I've never driven drunk, and I know it's wrong and it's not too fun in the moment. It's actually pretty scary. But endorsing drunk driving through your own song? Now come on, that's not okay. Do what you want and live your life, but you're sending out an awful message. It's not like anyone's like "yeah I do meth, I'm the shit" and is trying to endorse meth to the general public. Cudi's basically telling kids that drunk driving is a cool thing to do, regardless of the life-threateneing risks. He's giving kids permission to go out and do something that could potentially kill them. That doesn't make Cudi that cool to me anymore. In fact, he's kind of a douche now. Driving drunk really doesn't make you sound cool. It's pathetic that Cudi would think he'd have to rap about that to try to get some badass credibility. Just stick to  rapping about weed, because that won't actually kill you.

Daniil Kharms

In one of my classes I’m taking this semester, I’ve been learning about soviet Russia’s means of war and daily life propaganda from a wide specter of the Russian society. An author I’ve found incredibly fascinating is Danil Kharms. His style of writing is absurdist theatre, something I had absolutely no idea existed. It is based on the idea that it’s really not supposed to serve any particular purpose. In fact, there really isn’t that much substance to an absurdist text in general. People have been racking their brains for years trying to figure out what the hell Kharms was talking about, but to no avail. I love this style of writing because of its very nature: go crazy, be creative. Given, Kharms’ short stories are pretty disturbing and horrifying, but I think I’ve actually been able to give a few some meaning. I mean, they had to serve some significance to my class, right? Here’s a link to a cite encompassing the gist of his works, but I’ll also post a really short story of his that really sums up what he’s all about. As it turns out, the Soviets HATED Kharms. Their whole thing was to have a solid, conservative, factual consensus of every aspect of their lives. The fact that they couldn’t hold writers like Kharms down is fascinating to me.

            There’s not much that can be said about Kharms’ rhetoric or personal style of his writing since it’s literally brain diarrhea. But I think the kairos of this absurdist literature and theatre is so cool. It’s as if Kharms wanted to mess with the Soviets on purpose. It’s hard to say if his writings or plays were effective, but his target audience was children interestingly enough. How could a child possibly endure this type of writing?  I’d get so many nightmares. Was he trying to brainwash kids? I have no idea and I kind of don’t want to know; he creeps me out a little bit.

http://www.sevaj.dk/kharms/kharmseng.htm