I Am Number Four

From: You Tube


 I Am Number Four was released in theatres on February 18, 2011. It's about a young boy named John who is from a far away planet that got destroyed by an enemy planet. His protector brought him to planet Earth to be safe. Three of his kind have already been killed...he is number four. Later he finds out he has super powers and must find others like him to grow strong and beat the enemy that is after him. The movie was directed by D.J. Caruso and leading actor is Alex Pettyfer. I chose this film to watch in theatres because it was either this or watching Unknown and to me, Unknown looks like a remake of the Bourne trilogy, but worse. Plus the leading actor in I Am Number Four is young and attractive.


The leading actor, Alex Pettyfer, was born on April 10, 1990 in Stevenage, Hertfordshire. His career started at age seven when he did child fashion model for Gap, after meeting Ralph Lauren in a toy store in New York City. After that he did various plays in his high school  and tv commercials. In 2006, Alex did his first movie called Stormbreaker. He played the role of Alex Rider which nominated him for Young Artist Award and Empire Award for this role. In 2009, he played in a horror comedy called Tormented. I Am Number Four is his fifth movie but won't be his best until the movie Beastly is released this year. Beastly is about a modern day spin off of beauty and the beast. I predict Beastly will be his break out role and everyone will know his name.

While watching this, supposedly, science fiction movie, I couldn't help but relate it to the typical romance movie. You know the movie where boy meets girl and has to hide who he is and his secrets. Then when he is in danger he can't leave her and puts "his love" in danger where he later has to save her. In the end she finds out who he is and accepts him for who he is. This is the basic plot of the movie with a little more detail of where he came from, his super powers, and what he has to do to defeat the enemy. I would put this movie in a category of romantic science fiction. The basic plot isn't unique at all. Its very simple and doesn't take a lot of thinking to watch it. The movie came from a novel by Pittacus Lore. The novel was on New York's Best-seller List for six weeks. It is the first book of a six book series. Not every best-seller book should be turned into a movie. It doesn't make an automatic blockbuster like what happened to the movie Twilight. Personally, I think it ruins the book if the movie isn't successful and this is a perfect example. 




This movie is important to culture that books shouldn't always transfer into movies.  Some movies that have done well with the transfer is Harry Potter series, Twilight series, and Lord of the Rings series. To be successful with the transition is that the book has to be popular first. That way readers who fall in love with the book will want to see the movie. Or if you fall in love with the movie you will want to read the book. The only fall back is that when the movie is changed from the book. For example, the movie Dear John. I loved the book so I went to see the movie and it was disappointing because the writers changed the characters and plot. This trend of books becoming movies catches young audience and promotes them to read more, or at least see movies about books. It doesn't include stereotypes or offensive message since it was a children's book to begin with. 


Its a good attempt to create a blockbuster hit but fell short with the simple plot and not enough detail. I found myself being bored while watching even though there was a couple of action and funny moments. Hopefully they won't make all six movies because it will be a waste of time and money. The next movie Alex Pettyfer does will be his best work hands down. Its a good start for him to do movies but won't be his breaking out role. Its strength was the action and special effects when the character runs. The main character John has super powers so he runs very fast. The camera follows him from all different angles which is neat to watch. The characters in the movie needs more detail and personality. It will definitely be forgotten by next week when the Marvel superhero movies come out. The first one will be Thor based on a Marvel Comic book. 


I have no desire to engage more into this movie by reading the books. I'm not too interested in science fiction books. I will go see Beastly just because it has the same leading character by looking him up online. I went to see this movie with my friend. She thought the movie was entertaining but doesn't have desire to go see the second one if it comes out. I wouldn't see it again when it comes out on dvd or recommend it to anyone to see it. 


I learned that books shouldn't always be turned into blockbuster movies. It can make or break the books popularity. A popular saying is that, " A movie can never be as good as reading the book". Which is definitely true for this movie. 

Vogue, It's a magazine and an adjective

Started in 1892, Vogue has been an international standby in the realm of fashion and life. With varied articles throughout its history, vogue has a fairly wide draw, though its predominant focus is on fashion. The February print issue features Kristen Stewart on the cover, and stories ranging from snagging classic trench coats at reasonable prices to a woman’s near fatal brain injury. However, the stories take a back seat to the advertisements. I was literally on page 54 before I was able to get to the table of contents just to see the articles.

However, I was immediately given some great Louis Vuitton fold outs, and four consecutive pages of Prada, featuring cacophonously colorful shoes that look like boy scouts made them out of gimp twine for their ‘crafty fashion’ badge.

Ads like this take up every other page, interspersed with the occasional article, most of which don’t continue past a page. If by chance an article does stretch on past its allotted ¾ page, the remnants are tucked away in the back, in simple columns, with not life whatsoever. You have to be damn motivated to go back there to find out what happened with that New York artisan pasta maker.

In the online version, you’re given a pretty nifty little feature that makes you flip through the articles until you find the one you’d like to read. Baggy polka dot pants? Count me in. At this point we’re shown the sometimes preposterous, sometimes moderately decent street style of New York during fashion week. This is absent in the print edition, probably because it isn’t quite enough of a draw, and since the labels are on the inside of the clothes, the advertisers would have absolutely no reason to sponsor that madness.

In the world of fashion magazines, Vogue has been around so long it has become the standard publication by which many other are measured. This is an automatic leg up on the competition, simply because of the name recognition. However, in all reality, it’s just a fancy way to market clothes. Granted, it’s a wonderfully photographed, well organized advertising vehicle, but that’s really all it is. This is pretty similar to all the other fashion magazines on the market. Vogue is simply a higher tier than many of the rest. Editorially, the main focus is going to be clothes and the people who wear them (which could be you! If you have $790 do drop on the back cover Miu Miu pumps).

In print, we get the wonderfully glossy, tangible advertisements, and the adorably girly feeling of flipping through a magazine, presumably while sitting under a dome hair dryer gossiping. Online, I get to pretend I’m totally not reading that Lady Gaga interview… which I may or may not be able to resist.

Of course, online, I don’t have to shell out 4 bucks to do this, but I also don’t get many of the stories featured in the print edition, and looking through the website for specific stories is a pain, it’s cluttered with slideshows and vague categories like nobodies’ business. However, in print, what you see is what you get, I don’t get to read comments, go further in depth, or show everyone on Facebook just how terrifying the wide legged Kate Hepurn pants revival is.

Of course, the target audience in Vogue is going to be those interested in fashion. Predominately women, and despite the ridiculously high priced brand names, most of these women are going to be pretty average, hence Vogue’s continued popularity. The ads blend seamlessly in with the articles, because that’s how it’s intended.

Personally, I prefer the print version. I’m not a big fan of reading online, and I’m really not a fan of the somewhat forced flow through the website. Though I appreciate their attempt to make it ‘magazine like’ in feel, but they don’t account for my ability to flip through pages at nearly inhuman speeds. It is nice to be able to comment on articles, but let’s be real, that’s just for me to try and show off my own wit in the online community, nobody actually takes article comments on “Steal of the Month” seriously. I just read it and call it good.

Surprisingly, despite Vogue’s fairly superficial subject matter, there’s been quite a bit to discuss here. Obviously plenty of people put a lot of time and effort into crafting this publication, and it’s been fun uncovering all that.

Jersey Shore Season 3

From: YouTube

Describe: Jersey Shore is a reality show that follow 8 roommates that live in one house, work, and party together for one summer. This Season it follows Snookie, JWOW, Sammi, Deena, Mike (the Situation), Vinny, Ronnie, and DJ Pauly D. They live in one house at the Seaside Heights, New Jersey aka the Jersey Shore. The Jersey Shore is filled with GGuidos and Guidettes as they GTL during the day and party at night! This sounds like the perfect summer to have romance, drama, and wild times. During the commercials they had an ad where Snookie cracked a pistachios shell with a tanning bed. This was for Wonderful Pistachios commercial. This was a brilliant idea for the pistachio company because it promoted pistachios to the younger crowd by using Snookie and tanning beds which Snookie is known for using. It collaborates style of Jersey shore while viewing a pistachio.

Analyze: The style of this reality show is toward high school and college students. Thats an age ranging from 15 to 25. Its all about having fun with friends and drama unraveling. When they go out you see them getting ready and its all about the fashion and hair with the boys and how little clothing the girls wear. The main reason is the catch slogans the characters make up such as GTL, DTF, MVP, FTD, grenades, T-shirt time, guido, guidettes, fist pumping like champs, don't fall in love at the Jersey Shore, gorilla juice head, we got ourselves a situation, and my favorite; wanna smush? These weren't scripted like other reality tv shows. It was just their personalities which makes it so entertaining and obsessive. The show only shows them during the day and at night. Every episode shows a week long of reality and every Sunday night they cook and have a family dinner. This shows that they do value some family qualities which makes it unique, unlike other mtv shows like Real World.

Interpret: Character's stereotype themselves as the typical Italian Guido stereotype. This includes big attitude, tan, obsess with body image, flashy jewelry, family values, and love to eat Italian foot. All the guys every day go to the Gym, Tan, then do laundry so they will be ready to go out at night, hence GTL. The girls do the same as in getting their nails done, tan, then go shopping. The commercials attract to the younger crowd by car, designer clothes, and music commercials. I think its smart that ad companies show ads during shows that pertain to the audience. This show gives an image that young people don't know how to control the alcohol use which is very true. In season 3, Snookie got arrested for being drunk in public at 2 in the afternoon. A lot of young people start drinking at an early age and its becoming more popular because the media puts out this kind of image.

Evaluate: For entertainment value the show has a very high popularity because its so catchy to get a long with the character's personalties. They also have family value and cook together once a week. The weakness that it shows fist fighting between girls, the girls sleep with random people, the guys get drunk girls and sleep with them, also dating violence. This does reflect real life because these kinds of things like girls fighting, alcoholism, and promiscuity is an all common thing with young adults. I like how I can relate to it but I don't like the unnecessary drama between Sammi and Ronnie. They are dating and they fight constantly about annoying things. My friends and I just use their slang terms like how they use it and laugh because we both know what we are talking about. Professional critics report that how they talk, dress, and act doesn't reflect all American-Italians. A review from The New York Times says, American-Italians are offended by the world "Guido" and Guidette"to use to describe themselves. Also the obsession of gym and tanning has led to parodies on the internet and SNL did a parody of Snookie. Even President Obama referred to Snookie's dark tan and proposed a tanning-bed tax. Another argument is that MTV puts in offensive viewing just to get ratings. Like in Season 1 episode 2, Snookie got punched at the bar, the ratings went up fifty percent more, for the second episode. I think it catches attention and creates curiosity to what the show is really about. So I like the reality of it and MTV should't cut anything out that might be "offensive" to viewers and to other American-Italians.

Engage: I've never missed an episode of Jersey Shore. You can say I'm a faithful viewer. All my friends love the show but my family says its "trash tv". It's because they are old, plain and simple. I'm a fan of pauly d and snookie on facebook. A lot of people, including guys, dressed up as snookie for halloween. Even.

Conclusions: I learn that uncovering a certain type of social group can be entertaining for some but hurtful for others because it is stereotyping. It surprised me that it would show violence in a relationship by hitting the significant other without a warning sign at the end of the show like they do in Teen Mom, another MTV's reality show.

Quiznos Commercial

This is by far one of the weirdest commercial's I've seen. It’s fairly old, the video was posted to youtube 5 years ago, and I remember it being a while ago. We've got 2 bizarre piratey rat-like things poorly singing about coupons and Quizno's. The aesthetic is cheap and crappy looking, the animation looks like it consists of magazine cutouts hinged together with brads. In the background there’s the quintessential strip mall Quizno’s. The creature’s voices are so distorted that they subtitles, which, of course, are appropriately non-sequitor. Apparently you can bring in any coupon and Quizno's will honor it. Still, weird. I guess since they are offering such an odd offer they needed to make the commercial odd as well. The target audience would appear to be anyone the obnoxiousness could pull in. Probably the tween scene. Apparently, these freaky rat demons were a big hit in Britain before they made their American premier in this commercial. That seems like a terrible choice, since there’s nothing for viewers in the states to make a connection to. There aren’t really any stereotypes included in the ad, since I the main characters draw what appears to be absolutely nothing from reality. My guess would be that this commercial is using the irritation approach, because the viewer can't make sense of it, and that's irritating, along with the irritation involved in watching these bizarre creatures try and sway me into going anywhere near somewhere they once were. Television is really the only medium an ad like this would work in, since you cant quickly navigate away from the bizarreness that is this commercial. The shoddy craftsmanship involved in it seems as though its supposed to be, endearing? Maybe? It does make the ad stand out though. I'd say that, despite its strangeness, this commercial does succeed in being memorable, though, I don't have to corporate numbers to see if it was successful in selling subs, or offering free pony rides, frankly I'm still not sure. The actual message is so bogged down in the weirdness of the commercial that I think it’s easy to miss, and that might hinder the effectiveness of the actual promotion. At first glance it could almost be a fake commercial, it’s just so random. That’s where all the appeal lies, the spot is so out of left field, you can’t help but remember it. Here it is, 5 or so years later and when told to think of a commercial, this was one that came to mind. Conversely, I don’t think this made me go to Quizno’s, bring in any of my coupons, or consider them more as my choice of lunch. If all they’re going for is brand recognition, they’ve got it, this commercial remains burned in peoples minds when they think of Quizno’s. However, it doesn’t make the subs more appealing, it even makes me a little ‘icked’ out, since creepy large mouth rodents are their main spokes-creatures. So, the Quizno’s spot comes up losing out on success slightly.
This assignment makes you take a look at the commercials we see everyday in far more depth than one would think possible. I also, never, ever, want to think about this Quizno’s commercial again. I can’t for the life of me figure out what the creators of this spot were thinking, must have been the groupthink effect or something

And in case you haven't had enough weird creature action:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvHsHVyumoE&feature=channel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9MZNEXrElw&feature=channel

My personal favorite, and most wft worthy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjatRkpSa5U

America Funniest Home Videos Funny Montage Compilation 2010

I've always loved AFV! Funniest show of all time.

Just for funsies.

"He stabbed your dad through a curtain".

I appreciate Second City http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnvgq8STMGM

best cat jump ever

The more times you watch it the better it gets, I promise you.

Designer Cupcakes

Yumm! Looks good for Spring time.


 http://www.flickr.com/photos/catbeurnier/3542585120/sizes/m/in/photostream/

Hooray Tutorials

Simit is freakin' delicious. And would have made a way better breakfast than Corn Pops.

Gorgeous picture courtesy of Eugene;

http://www.flickr.com/photos/eugenesucks/3744277088/sizes/z/in/photostream/

My First Time Here

This is my first time blogging ever :)

Let the blogging begin.

So, here we go.