Ain't what she used to be...

I finished Uni for the semester a couple of weeks ago, and to celebrate went to Queensland with a few friends for about a week. We drove, and for those of you playing at home, it's approximately a seventeen hour drive to Coolum, and around 1350 km. Going up, we took two nights (staying in Taree and Byron Bay respectively), and on the way back we drove straight through (we left Coolum at 10.30 in the morning, and arrived back at 4.30am on Wednesday!). It was awesome though - although I don't think I've ever listened to as much Backstreet Boys, *Nsync and Adam Lambert as I did on that trip. Interestingly enough, I was travelling with all boys. Go figure on the soundtrack - none of that stuff came from My iPod!!

Anyway, I returned from the trip two days ago, and have done very little with my time since then. Oh, I lie... I went out for dinner with some friends last night at this brilliant dumpling cafe in near my Uni. But I digress.

Every time I hit holidays, I tend to bum around in my pyjamas a lot, spend an inordinate amount of time on social networking sites, and watch a lot of movies. This morning, I seem to have done all three. Yes, it is 2.38pm and I am still in my pyjamas. I have Facebook open on my computer, and I just watched the 1984 masterpiece Sixteen Candles. Which actually brings me to the point I want to make.



Teen movies are not at all what they used to be. Honestly. John Hughes was a friggin' genius. What have teens got now? Oh, the Twilight series. Woo. Looking at current releases, films in the cinema now and coming in the next week or so include Toy Story 3, Shrek Forever After, Grown Ups, Get Him to the Greek, The A-Team, Sex and the City 2, Animal Kingdom, Prince of Persia and Robin Hood. The only ones in there that could be likened to a 'teen' comedy would be Grown Ups and Get Him to the Greek, and maybe (maybe!) Prince of Persia. The problem being that the two former films are more aimed at twentysomethings - a slightly older demographic - and Prince of Persia I found to be aimed less at a specific age and more just anyone who likes Jake Gyllenhall, gaming and/or the desert. I went and saw it, and loved it, and so did my parents. So.



What I'm trying to say is, what happened to the brilliant, often tongue-in-cheek and hilarious teen films of the 1980s and 1990s? This is not just because I have a girl crush on young Molly Rigwald to rival the one on Florence, but because I noticed that films like Ferris Bueller, The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, Clueless, Pretty in Pink and 10 Things I Hate About You just don't seem to appear any more. I really hope this isn't because of the success of asexual Disney HSM series - I miss my teen movies that while idealised and exaggerated, riddled with cliches and stereotypes, don't gloss over the fact that teenagers swear, are rude, hate themselves and often each other, and think about - and talk about, and want to have - sex. The American Pie films went over this a fair bit, but even they're dated now. The last real teen films I can think of are 2003's How to Deal and 2004's Eurotrip, both of which I loved. But even then, they are dated. Superbad is up there too. But even 2008's Juno has mature themes and a moral message, and is more about action/consequence rather than just a comedic romp through one of the most awkward times of life.

I just think it's sad. Where have my clever teen films gone??

Anatomy of a girl crush

Urban Dictionary:

Girl Crush

Feelings of admiration and adoration a girl has for another girl, without wanting to shag said girl. A nonsexual attraction, usually based on veneration at some level.

"I have a total girl crush on a girl from a band. She can sing, she's GORGEOUS, she's doing an awesome degree and she's intelligent. I want to BE her."

This is a pretty accurate description of a girl crush, I think. In a recent issue of Cleo or Cosmo (can't remember which), they went over the details of a girl crush, which is becoming more and more popularised. The girl they used in the article was Alexa Chung, who is honestly one of the coolest women alive.

My current girl crush is Florence from Florence and the Machine. I'm a little bit in love - I don't want to date her, and I'm not a lesbian. But I adore her dress sense, general look, and her voice. I think if I met her, I would actually be speechless (a big thing for me!) and just not know where to look. She's amazing.

I think it's good now that girl crushes can be acknowledged publically without one's sexuality being questioned. Sexuality is such a grey area that pervades pretty much every aspect of modern Western culture, but I think it's awesome that I can express my little crush (okay, my massive crush) on another girl without being suddenly labelled as a lesbian, just as I'm sure that a lesbian would not necessarily be assumed to be straight just because they said they really liked David Tennant, or someone. I like it.

But seriously... if you don't have Florence and the Machine's Lungs, get into it. Awesome stuff.

The hazards of the new generation

So... I lost my mobile phone today. I'm pretty sure that I left it in my friend's car this afternoon, but the really depressing part is that I honestly feel like I've lost a limb. This is how dependent on technology I am, it's only been about five hours and I've got that little panicky feeling in my stomach (even though I know that there probably isn't any messages on there, and probably none that aren't from my mother). I feel like such a product of my generation, and that depresses me a little bit! I'm mostly concerned that when I do get it back, I will get depressed if I don't have any missed correspondence. Screw Gen Y, seriously. I want my life back.

In other news, a very good friend of mine was in a highly argumentative mood last night, because he hadn't had his daily reading/psychology fix. To tell the truth, I'm pretty happy that someone other than myself has withdrawals without their daily helping of the written word! Speaking of, if you haven't already, get into the works of Markus Zusak. The man is a visionary - I'd recommend The Messenger for sure, and I'm working my way through The Book Thief, which is truly, truly brilliant. He has some incredibly unique and thought-provoking ideas on the concepts of reality and individualism... and it's very well written, too!

Soundtracks to study

Of course, I'm writing this when I should be finishing off a rather large assignment. But it's not a very fun assignment, and I'm sure I'll have it done before it's due (tomorrow!). It's kind of my process... I can't function without a little bit of stress thrown in the mix. Probably not healthy, but whatever works, I guess. The other thing is that I can't work in silence. I suck at tests for this reason; the sound of no noise freaks me out and makes any piece of assessment seem bigger than it is. That's why, when I'm at home, I constantly have the stereo on... or if that's not possible, my ipod.

Today, I've got James Morrison's Undiscovered, The Avett Brothers' I and Love and You and Paolo Nutini's These Streets playing... I must be in a bit of a mellow mood. I was talking to a friend of mine the other day about what music we have playing while assignmenting (yes, that is a verb now). His preferred soundtrack is composed of albums including Lisa Mitchell's Wonder and Dash & Wills Up in Something and Lily Allen's It's Not Me, It's You. Needless to say, he's a sucker for the female vocal. I'm more the opposite (although, I'm going through a bit of a Florence & The Machine phase... her voice is just brilliant. Speaking of, I found this clip of her performing with Dizzee Rascal at the Brit Awards. Love, a little bit).

Other CDs that I've had on repeat over the past couple of weeks have been the greatest hits of David Bowie, Phoenix's Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, Newton Faulkner's Handbuilt by Robots and Rebuilt by Humans, Mojo Juju's Sellin' You Salvation, MGMT's Oracular Spectacular and the soundtrack to The Boat that Rocked.

What can I say... I've got good taste!

Artistically Inclined

This semester at Uni, I took an Art History unit that was to do with all things Russian. When I was at school, I did a very basic History class that covered the Russian Revolution, and when I was a kid, I think I just about wore through my video copy of Anastasia (you remember, the cartoon with the voices of Meg Ryan and John Cusak?). So I figured that I had enough of an interest to stimulate me through an entire unit.

Little did I know, that I would find someone who would become one of my favourite artists, Marc Chagall.

Never really a massive fan of symbolist works, and generally disdainful of anything that could broadly be described as Post-Impressionist, I was surprised at how much I really, really appreciate his works. Probably because they're all introspective reflections of where he was emotionally and mentally at the time, there's a gentle beauty and something universal about his paintings. They all feel like memories (and a lot of them feature Vitebsk, the town in Belarus where he grew up) or just plain feelings. I don't think I'd ever picked up on the emotive level of painting as acutely as I did when I was studying the work of Chagall. And I've only seen reproductions on Google!

I'm now pretty keen to go to Russia (and MoMA, and Paris) to see his works in the flesh, so to speak. I'm a little bit in love.

(The images I've included here are his Promenade from 1917-18, which is in the State Russian Museum in Moscow, and Red Nude Sitting Up (1908) which is in a private collection).

Cash Flow

So, I was on Facebook the other day (honestly, I don't know what I'd do were it not for social networking - probably my assignments!) when I noticed that there is a new 'like' page called "University: It's like being on the dole, but your parents are proud of you". This made me giggle, at least until I realised how true it is.

For most of last year - 2009 - I was a recipient of the Australian Government's Youth Allowance scheme. This was perfect, because it meant that I only had to work a couple of days a week, and providing that I didn't earn too much, I'd get a small amount of money deposited in my account every second Monday courtesy of KRudd to help with study costs. Over the summer holidays, however, with no studies to distract me, I worked pretty much full time - and was cut off from my study money! Honestly, that was one of the worst letters I'd ever received. So, I waited until my earnings had dropped again, and reapplied a few weeks ago. God forbid I have to live on my own money during term time.

The best part? My parents ARE proud of me. My Mum in particular encouraged me to reapply for Youth Allowance as soon as I could (and let's not beat around the bush; it's effectively the dole). I'm thinking that I should milk this for all it's worth - I get the feeling that no one would be proud of me for receiving Centrelink payments once I've graduated.

Oh - and if anyone's interested in that Facebook group, you can find it here.