brainylady

Knitting and movies and girls and smoking

I've now finished knitting two skeins' worth of the body of my Retro Prep, which brings me to the "waist" (i.e., I've done the decreases for waist shaping; with the next skein, I'll increase back up). I find the Kureyon to be so easy to knit -- because it's unsplittable, I guess. I don't have to look down at my knitting at all.

I worked on a kitty blanket the other night while watching Thirteen. What a sad movie about a sad girl. I liked it, though, and I thought the performances were good. Evan Rachel Wood reminded me a lot of Renée Humphrey in Fun. If you're into such films (the messed-up girl genre), as I am, you should also watch All Over Me.

I hate the fact that U.S. senators are pressuring Hollywood to keep cigarette smoking out of the movies:

"We want producers, directors to think before they just instinctively put a cigarette in an actor's hand, 'What effect is that going to have on children?'" [Republican John Ensign] said. "'Do I want to be responsible for addicting a kid?'"

Are Hollywood movies meant to be public service announcements? Apparently there are studies showing a link between kids watching movies that depict smoking, and kids starting to smoke. A causal link? Well, who knows? Don't ask such picky questions! But -- perhaps kids whose parents smoke are allowed to watch more movies than kids whose parents don't smoke. Perhaps there's a link between eating movie popcorn and smoking! I just hate that we tend to go the route of "protecting" kids rather than teaching media literacy and giving them tools with which they can deconstruct what they see.

Oh, I'm all worked up now. And it's time for lunch -- woot!

A few hours later: EEAAAGH! I just read an article that makes me want to stay far, far away from North America: "Fox puts foot in its mouth, kicks self." Is this a joke?

Fox issued a stunning news release yesterday for a two-hour reality special to air in June called "Seriously, Dude, I'm Gay" in which, the network said, two heterosexual men will try to convince various people that they are gay. In the news release, Fox described the notion of a straight man "turning gay overnight" as "a heterosexual male's worst nightmare."

I'm not easily shocked, but this concept shocks me. Please, please let this be a sign of the coming end of "reality TV"; if not, I fear that it's a sign of the apocalypse.