Sidebar
THEATAH!!!!
You Can’t Take It
With You performs
this Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Come see Conor Hayes play some mean
vibrophone.
FOOTBALL!!!
The Kinghts shutdown Army-Navy last Friday
with a 49-0 win. Steve Hinshaw may have caught one of those seven touchdowns, but he
was only awarded the points for his celebration dance.
Government
Shutdown
Apparantly, the government shutdown has
left one man in charge of the U.S-Canada Border. The more you know.
How
about Miley Cyrus?
Miley Cyrus was actually very funny on
Saturday Night Live this weekend. If you haven’t seen the episode yet, I
encourage you to do so.
Booooooo!
Halloween’s fast approaching so start
finalizing your costumes!
Do you
know what’s interesting?
I’m not sure, I was hoping you would know.
Lyrics
Quiz #1
Watch out, Cupid stuck me with a sickness
Pull your little arrows out and let me
live my life.
Lyrics
Quiz #2
I could lift you up.
I could show you what you want to see
And take you where you want to be
Lyrics
Quiz #3
So you met someone and now you know how it
feels.
Articles
Don Jon Review
By: Greg Feiner (DU Movie Guy)
Joseph
Gordon-Levitt is the man. In the last five years, he’s starred in (500) Days
of Summer, Inception, The Dark Knight Rises, and Lincoln, some of
the biggest hits of the young millenium. Now, he wants to be a director. His
directorial debut, Don Jon, which he also wrote, is a romantic comedy
about an eccentric Italian-American, New Jerseyan porn addict named Jon, and
his struggle to find true love. Given Gordon-Levitt’s track record, the
ambitious premise, and Scarlett Johansson, it seemed worth a review.
The
movie is actually quite funny in the beginning. Between Jon’s hysterical church
confessions (“Since last Sunday, I had sex with two girls out of wedlock and
masturbated 37 times…”), and his conversations with his buddies at the
nightclub where he works, the movie is funny in that it presents you with
something that you can’t believe you’re hearing and seeing, like Clerks.
Gordon-Levitt
thrives as an actor under his own direction, playing Jon’s strange problem as a
serious one, grounding his odd story in reality. His script is flawed, but has
some interesting commentary on technology retarding real human connection and
on modern relationships in general.
However,
there were three very large reasons why I didn’t like this movie.
Firstly, after the very funny beginning half, the story fizzles. It falls
into documenting Jon’s daily routine and stops moving forward after Julianne
Moore’s character starts becoming a major character, brilliant as she is.
Secondly,
and more importantly, there is too much sex in this movie. I understand that
there should be a fair amount of sex in a movie about porn and sex, and if it
helps tell the story then it should be in the movie. But there is just so much
graphic and gratuitous sex throughout, that I started wondering if I should
leave and give the actors some privacy. It gets to a point where the sex fails
to serve a purpose.
This is
part of my biggest problem is with the movie: this
subtle-as-a-neon-pile-of-bricks-falling-from-the-sky directorial style of
Joseph Gordon-Levitt. His story is filled with so much untapped humor that gets
lost in all of the swearing and ridiculous montages, leaving absolutely nothing
to the imagination.
Some
might say that the movie was rough but brimming with potential. Some might say
that the types of people depicted in the movie would swear just as much as they
do. Some might say that a story about sex needs a lot of sex. If that’s true,
then maybe Don Jon was good for what it was. I just didn’t like what it
was.
50/100
Passive Philanthropy
By: Nessa Garcia (DU
Philosopher)
Half asleep, I eat a cereal bar on the bus. It’s a
usual weekday morning where I’m trying to listen to music, finish my remaining
homework, and as I mentioned, nourish myself all at once and in 25 minutes or
less. I normally eat breakfast at home, but sometimes a girl’s just too lazy to
make eggs before 6 a.m. Anyway, after having my last bite of the
organic-and-therefore-superior cereal bar, I take a moment to read the plastic
wrapping.
“DO MORE: 1% of EnviroKidz© sales go to help the
planet, so you can help just by eating! Look inside for more details.”
Immediately, I am filled with the false sense that I
have done something good. More specifically, it says that I am helping save
pandas from extinction. I make a mental note to include this on my college app.
Go me!!!
However, after approximately 6.5 seconds of
contemplation, I realize that this is utter BS.
Am I
helping “just by eating?” Really? Am I really changing the way our society
treats the environment by eating this cereal bar? My only intention of eating
this bar was to feed myself and prevent annoying stomach growls in the first
class; eating this bar was completely for my own sake. Do you actually mean to
say I’m helping your profits increase? That sounds about right.
In as much disgust as I can manage that early in the
morning, I crumple the cereal bar wrapper in my hand. I am not fooled by your
marketing scheme, EnviroKidz©.
Sadly, though, EnviroKidz© is not the only
company that does this sort of thing. For instance, a lot of clothing companies
will market their apparel as supportive of fighting Breast Cancer. However,
after a little research, did you find that the profit is not being donated
anywhere? Did the company just group all of their pink-colored clothes together
in order to sell more? The unfortunate answer for many companies is yes, and
unwittingly, many of us become victims of passive philanthropy. Know if
something is actually being
done—otherwise, you’re just eating a cereal bar.
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