Kendrick Lamar Drops Another Great Video For "Love"
Kendrick Lamar ends 2017 properly with his new video for "LOVE". The clip is directed by Dave Myers and contains both the straight-forward and metaphorically brilliant imagery. Anyone who is married or in a serious relationship can relate to all those dinner scenes. Props to Kung-Fu Kenny on this one.
Disney Channel Original Movies: Have They Changed?
Being a kid in the 90s and watching disney channel at least 50% of the time, I also grew up loving disney channel original movies. So obviously, I started to binge watch as many dcoms as I could when I noticed they were on demand. Here’s a list of the top 6 Disney Channel Original Movies worth mentioning:
- Zenon (1999) (6.4 rating) —> A young girl takes on the task of saving her home and community in outer space with the help of her friends and family.
- The Color of Friendship (2000) (7.4 rating) —> This dcom discusses the impacts of environment, race and culture on relationships and how a child's sense of morality and friendship is not confined by where you come from or the color of your skin.
- Motocrossed (2001) (6.8 rating) —> This movie focuses on female strength and that a girl/woman can succeeding in anything they put their minds to, especially with the strength and support of friends and family.
- Tru Confessions (2002) (7.8 rating) —> This dcom highlights something much more important than a child with disabilities. Tru Confessions shows what the support of family really means and that disabilities don’t define you. To Tru and her parents, her brother Eddie is a brother, a son, and a friend first and foremost.
- Jumping Ship (2001) (6.3 rating) —> This movie shows how three individuals, despite their differences, can work together to survive and create strong friendships with one another. Although this movie contains a lower rating, this was my favorite dcom growing up as a kid.
- Double Teamed (2002) (6.2 rating)—> This movie shows the value of teamwork and sisterhood, and sportsmanship. It also highlights that everyone is an individual and everyone is different, even twins.
Imagine, for those who grew up with these movies, watching disney channel original movies for the first time as adults. Our admiration and loyalty for some of these disney films probably wouldn’t be as strong.
As a kid, these movies were pure entertainment. But the life lessons buried within these movies also helped to inform us. It provided us kids with strong examples of morality in family and friendship.
This brings into question whether disney channel original movies were better 20 years ago compared to today, which seem cheap or cheesy to me now. Somehow, dcoms today seem to pale in comparison; that they are not the same level of quality as dcoms of the late 90s/early 2000s. However, could this just be because as adults, we view these kids movies differently now; rather than our innocent, undeveloped child brain would.
According to IMDB the majority of dcoms, both new and old, contain ratings ranging between a 5.5 and a 7.5; this would be deemed on the lower side of average. But again, this system of rating by adults goes back to the same concept. Watching these movies as adults takes on a completely different perspective of Disney Channel Original Movies compared to the child adoration of these movies. Watching dcoms at a young age impacts both the kid watching these films; as well as a nostalgic adult remembering the young fondness for Disney Channel Original Movies.
"This Is Us" Premiere Review (WARNING: Spoilers)
The television series This Is Us, shows 4 individuals that are born on the same day, celebrating their 36th birthdays. The story starts out and centers around 5 individuals: Jack, Rebecca, Kate, Kevin, and Randall.
[youtube id="rfUiKg28r_M"]
A couple of these individual's lives intersect directly with each other at first glance. Although they are all at the same age, they are facing different battles at 36. Jack and Rebecca are a married couple that are expecting triplets. Kate is an assistant and is struggling with food while attending an overweight support group. Kate’s brother, Kevin, is at a crossroads in his career; he doesn’t feel his current role as an actor is filling up to his career potential. Randall has established a family of his own, with a wife, 2 daughters, and adoptive parents. Yet, he feels he needs to find where he came from and is searching for his birth father.
All of these lives that are seemingly interconnected stories comes together in the end. It is revealed to the audience that they all belong to one family; Jack and Rebecca are the parents, Kate and Kevin are their biological children that survived the pregnancy, and Randall is the third adopted child.
Towards the end of the episode, when Kate is making this revelation, she repeats a quote from her father. “Do you remember what dad would say when ever something crappy happened to us?” Kate asked Kevin. There is emphasis here on the word US, both as triplets and as a family as a whole.
During the flashback to 1979, the delivery doctor breaks the news to Jack about his and Rebecca’s third child. But the doctor also shines profound light on the situation, based on his own past experiences. “There’s no lemons so sour that you can’t make something resembling lemonade,” the doctor says. This not only sets a hopeful tone. It also allows the character facing the situation to visualize this concept through the actions that they take. An example of this is shown through Jack and Rebecca by taking home 3 children that day. This goes back to what the doctor said when he first told Jack that only 2 children survived. “If you can take the sourest lemon that life has to offer and turn it into lemonade; then you will still be taking three babies home from this hospital. Maybe not the way you planned,” the doctor says.
Jack and Rebecca accept their role of being parents of three children. Even if the situation isn't what they anticipated. This action proves that family is stronger than biology. Family is support and unconditional love for one another. Interconnecting stories of “strangers” connects into a single family dynamic, with various character arcs and paths running through them. This provides room for the story to open up. It also allows us to see these individuals in a new light. It allows the audience to see the connection the characters have with one another in the past, present, and future settings. This is life.
Photos of Romanticized Same-Sex Love Around the World by Braden Summers
Photos by Braden Summers
In the aftermath of Valentine's day, think of the majority of major advertisements you've seen about love... We see the same portrayals of romance solely of a man and woman. Whether it's in that loving gaze, at dinner, dancing in the rain, kissing gently or anything else that embraces that old fairy tale type love, it's rare to see any representation of romanticized same-sex love.
It is all too often that the LGBTQ community is misrepresented romantically in mainstream media, and more often portrayed in overly sexualized images. If not that, in foreign countries any gay, lesbian, transgender, or queer of any kind is hardly presented at all. With this in mind, New York-based photographer Braden Summers was inspired to create a series titled, All Love Is Equal, to illustrate his vision of a same-sex fairy tale love. What started with a fund through a Kickstarter campaign, Summers sought out subjects in Paris before traveling to England, India, Lebanon, South Africa, Brazil and the U.S. that shatters any misconceptions and stereotypes.
The project proved a success as the following images, through six different countries, prove that no matter where you are, love is equal. Check out more of his work here.
[Via Policy Mic]
