The Bizarre, Blunt and Bold: 2009 VMAs

So, the VMA's...hmm. It definately had its highlights (Pink's amazing and dynamic acrobatic performance , the touching and extremely personal tribute to Michael Jackson given by Madonna)...but I have to without a doubt say that this show was probably filled with more moments that made me think to myself, "What the hell?"
Like the part where Taylor Swift goes up to accept her Best Female Video Award and the irritating and arrogant Kanye West decides to go up and tremendosly humiliate the young starlet, who was accepting her very first VMA. The fact that he had the nerve to go up and steal her moment by basically saying that Beyonce deserved the award more than her was appalling and yet not entirely unexpected from the outright rude rapper.
Or how about the still confusing, disturbing and utterly weird, weird performance that Lady Gaga obviously conjured up in her absolutely twisted mind and decided to present to the whole wide world. I just sat there with my jaw dropped and found myself trying to make sense of something so unsensible, it was just such a strange little piece of time in my life. hmm...
You know what the crazy thing is? That's not where Lady Gaga's outlandishness stops, oh no, throughout the night she opts to maintain the overly crazy approach with FOUR of the most ridiculous outfits that bring awkward and somewhat creepy to a completely new level.
Ok, I digress.
Basically the awards night brought a whole slew of awesome and bewildering, fantastic and questionable, heartfelt and heartless moments. Overall, I was entertained, as I should have been, which is all I was asking for:)
-Courtney

Music In Movies

It is something that has been used since the beginning of movie making. It has helped set the tone, stir excitement and tension in the audience, create a sense of sadness or tremendous joy and give the moviegoers a piece of the movie that they will be able to take with them and hold onto forever. Music in film has had an endless number of incredible effects on how epic or just average a movie can be. Typically, it results in the former and helps us as the audience connect with the movie even more due to a wonderfully thought out and pitch perfect soundtrack that makes the movie's emotions come alive as though they are our own. For me personally, when I am experiencing a film, I feel as though the music the film is set to begins to surround me and dance around my head, engulfing my entire being into being there, in that very moment in the film, with those people. I'm sure that my passion for acting helps me to be overly sensitive to this kind of reaction to all these different, amazing forms of art overtaking me at once, but I still feel that no matter what your passions in life are, that a good set of tunes to go along with a movie will impact anyone. Something else that a great movie accompanied by great music does, is that it in some way you will always retain a connection between the two. For example, whenever I hear the song "Don't You" by Simple Minds, I automatically think of the '80s classic, The Breakfast Club, as I'm sure most people would. Other pieces of music that leave an imprint in your mind forever can even be something like the chilling and villainous two-note Jaws theme. The list goes on and on, but the fact will always remain that the music in a film has much more to do with the entire experience than, I believe, more people realize. Just think about it the next time you start humming a tune and see if it does not happen to show up in one of Hollywood's numerous hits or iconic classics.
- Courtney
(b.t.w. to check out a clip from Breakfast Club featuring the memorable music of Simple Minds ,just go to www.youtube.com and enter "The Breakfast Club- Ending Scene" in the search box. Enjoy!)