America's Next Top Model

This week, the girls learned about interviewing and being a good correspondent. April (from cycle 2) shows up and with actor/comedian Gary Riotto, shows them how to do it. They gave the girls examples of what not to do, like talk to much or not talk enough. I hate when people do that. My boss right now does that sometimes. She talks and talks and I can't get anything in until she's finished...but honestly, I think I'd rather have that than talk to someone who answers in one word, two if you're lucky. Anyways, the girls test it out on each other. The winner of the challenge this week wouldn't be revealed until paneling time with Tyra. The winner gets to be a correspondent on The Tyra Show. Well, the next day they meet with April again to talk about said challenge and what bounces into the room, literally? Tyra in a kangaroo outfit and a real kangaroo! That's what I love about Tyra Banks, she's very fun and not afraid to show that she has a silly personality, and she knows when to be serious too. I really think she's a fantastic role model. Well, she tells the girls they're going to Australia! I was so jealous when she hopped in the room, Australia is on my top list of places where I want to go in my life. Granted, I want to travel ALOT, but all the same, it's on my top list.

So the girls land in Australia and are greeted my supermodel and host of Australia's Next Top Model, Erika Heynatz, and are told they cannot even rest after that long flight and have to get right to work. I think the girls were kind of shocked that they couldn't have a break, but I still don't know why they are not figuring out that the fashion industry does not and never will have any sympathy. It's a cruel field and you have to be the best to get ahead. If it means working you tush off those extra hours then so be it, you want it right? Anyways, the girls are given a list of Aussie slang and are sent to interview the locals using that slang. We find out at panel, that Natasha, who continues to surprise me every week, won that challenge. She used the most slang and did the best job of interviewing. She's really stepping up and I like to see that. Jael on the other hand, while I think has the best personality, I was beginning to see that she doesn't really know what it means to be a model. She said she didn't want to be done because she wasn't done spreading joy to the world. That's a great ambition, but it's not what modeling is about. There are much better ways to get messages across, although perhaps she thought that with that title, it would be easier for her to do so, I don't know. So the girls had to do a commercial instead of a shoot. They had to memorize lines and say them with an aussie accent. Natasha did very well, Brittney's accent was good, but she didn't say them well and started giving up. She tried to blame it on her short term memory. I feel for her, but like I said, this industry doesn't care, so she has to suck it up and deal with it somehow. They had cue cards for her, so I agreed that she was being a bit dramatic about it. Renee photos old sometimes and I think that happened in the commercial as well. She also was sounding a bit like a man, which the judges pointed out. Dionne couldn't get the accent down, but she put out a good commercial nonetheless. Jael, however, had a decent accent but gave up on herself, which was really disappointing. I just don't think this is her calling, though. The judges didn't think so either, and my girl from Detroit was sent home.

(You know, I'm really getting sick of not remembering to post things when I HAVE IT DONE before, I just try to wait the four hours we're supposed to, but if you don't mind I'll just post them when I get them done, because I'm not going to have my grade affected when I had it done and was just waiting and then of course, forgetting at work...)

So I had NEVER, before reading the essay about Batman's sexuality, compared Batman and Robin's relationship to one of a homosexual partnership. It really struck me. And then I really gave the movie a good mental picturing and thought to myself, wow, I guess there were alot of homoerotic phrases, situations, etc, going on. I always thought the Riddler was a bit flaky and he was obsessed with Bruce. Especially when he copied his look and mimicked his every move at the party. He was awesome, though. You have to be either homosexual or very in touch with your feminine side to be able to pull of tights like he does, while still coming off as cool. Jim Carrey was excellent for that role. I was wondering why, if there were so many homosexual tendencies, didn't the public say anything and why wasn't it spread all over the place that Batman and Robin are the new couple? I kept reading the essay and it said that there wasn't that public outcry because there were enough heteronormatives in the movie, that the audience was satisfied. Which is kind of sad. If the director had intended to put the homosexual icongraphy in his movie, it shouldn't have to be hidden, but unfortunately, then and even still now people just aren't as accepting as they say they are.

On a more depraved note, really think about the Riddler issue, though. Could even imagine having someone the same gender as you first start to sort of flirt, then it goes to being mimicked, like they want to BE you. Eventually it gets to stalking and then they just have it in for you, because if you were like Bruce, you rejected him/her. Maybe the movie was trying to tell us to give the special ones out there (for lack of a better term) a chance, or you might just find yourself in a situation like Batman encounters. If you don't have his sweet equipment too, then you'll just be out of luck and it's bye bye you

America's Next Top Model

This week the girls learned about acting. They were taken to a grand place with a gorgeous staircase. It looked like an old fashioned theater. Anyways, actress Tia Mowry walked down those stairs to greet them. She told them that the point of acting is being able to play different roles no matter what your personality is. The girls were told to get a hat and become the person it represents. Everyone actually did a good job. I think it's fun to act, I loved it in grade school. After their lesson they went to test their skills with actor Efren Ramirez. They were given three specific characters: the over-dramatic one, the diva witch, and the perky one. It was pretty funny watching the girls prance around the stage being the perky one and it was all very dramatized, especially when the girls were being over dramatic which is fine, because it's acting. I honestly don't know why I stopped acting. I was pretty good at it and I loved being on stage and making everyone laugh. Oh the glory days...

Well, Renee won the challenge and she picked Dionne as her friend for their prizes. They got T-shirts and they were both like "okay, is this it?" I didn't think that would be it, but then it went to the next scene and I was really starting to believe that that was the only thing they were getting. Tyra did something really special, though. Both Renee and Dionne have a family and Tyra brought them to the mansion. There were lots of tears of joy and it was really beautiful. I just felt horrible for Natasha, though, because since she didn't win and wasn't picked as the friend, she didn't get to see her baby and husband. She was so crushed. I would have been too, it was seriously so sad.

The girls then got a surprise shoot. I love it everytime the show says this. Every shoot is going to be a surprise for them morons...they're not told beforehand what they're doing any week. Well, the "surprise" was the models from previous seasons. The girls were going to be acting out those model's most outrageous moments in the series. I'm beginning to like Natasha and I really hoped that the shock of not seeing her family the previous day wouldn't affect her shoot. I had the feeling it would, though. She definitely proved me wrong. She had one of the best shoots, which was pretty cool. Dionne did very well too and of course, Brittney. Jael needs to step it up for me. She's my favorite character but she's starting to lag a bit. I've been really surprised with Renee too. I couldn't even stand looking at her and hearing her voice, but she was actually trying this episode to have a better attitude and I think seeing her family helped a ton. I hope she continues and really learned her lesson.

My weekend

I had a great weekend actually. I didn't expect it to be so relaxing and fun. First on Friday, I found out I got the job I've been wanting at a urology clinic by my house. The hard part is now going to my boss and telling her I have another job, but she knows I need it. Then I went out with some friends to celebrate. Saturday I did some notes and then I had to go to my church to set up for Easter Sunday breakfast. That was alot of fun to help the youth group out and one of the mom's and I put the colorful tablecloths on the tables. We kept running out of a couple colors so some tables were multi-colored and it was hilarious. After everything was done though, I was proud of what everyone had done there, because it looked great. Then that night, I went out with my roomates and we played pool. I've been really into pool lately and I'm starting to get pretty decent. Sunday, of course, was Easter and that's always a good day for me. Not only is it a really special holiday for Christians but everyone always seems at ease to me. All the families look so cute in their little outfits and the children always look so adorable. I can't wait to have some kids so I can dress them up :) Well, I can wait, awhile actually lol. The church always looks very nice as well. There are always flowers all over the place and lillies are one of my favorite flowers and that's usually the theme flower. People can buy flowers for the service and they can take them home after, and my parents dedicated the flowers they bought to their children, which was really cool to see in the service bulletin. Anyways, lunch was at my Grandma's house and she had SO much food, it was ridiculous. It was a small party this time, only 8, but we had a good time. My brother and I got to play chess and we haven't done that in a long time.

America's Next Top Model

This week, or rather last week...on ANTM the girls were sent to a room with a name, Lesley Hornby, and then Twiggy walked in. I thought to myself, oh, that must be her name, right off the bat. Twiggy had to say it for the girls, which I found sort of amusing. I thought it was cute how she got her name, though. My mom used to like Twiggy and I had always wondered how she had come up with the name. Well, turns out, she didn't make it up, her friends called her Twiggy because she was so thin. She started modeling at 15! I think that's crazy, but if you can do it, I guess go for it. I like nicknames and I like when I hear people calling their friends their nicknames. They're very personal. My friends have never given me a nickname, well actually, my friend Nora has come up with a few, hence my blog title...Amanda Panda Pants...now anyone who knew me would know that I would NEVER call myself that. She has also named me Lilmanderz...which I also found ridiculous, but it's my email address. Why put up with it? She's one of my best friends and she thought it up for me, so why not? Anyways, I digress.

Back to the whole name situation, Twiggy brought in Melrose from last season (who I couldn't stand) because Melrose came from Melissa and Rose. So the girls were asked to make up their own names in a couple of minutes. They came up with some pretty interesting ones. They were told to make a good one, though, because they were going to a celebrity party and were meeting Tyra's former manager, Benny Medina. Dionne came up with Houlahay and Renee came up with Nayiem and when she introduced herself to Benny, he didn't understand her and thought she was saying name over and over again, it was pretty funny. But oh my, did Jael make a fool out of herself this time. (I don't care though, she's still my favorite model.) She kept her name which I figured was fine, since it's so unique already, but she would not leave 50 cent alone. He finally pushed her in the pool and Natasha, silly girl, jumped in too. They both had to meet Benny drenched and he was not pleased. Dionne wound up impressing Benny the most, even though she had the wackiest name. The girls then did a fun photoshoot where they had to pick four characteristics. It was cool. Jael, Brittney, and Natasha did the best, I think.

oops

Sorry, I meant to publish the other one right before 5...my bad.

While watching Romero's Land of the Dead, I tried to think of things that I could talk about in my research paper. Frankly, I feel kind of lost right now and I'm not really sure where I want to go. I started reading the essay that was handed out today and the author was comparing Romero's Dawn of the Dead with some of Aristotle's works. He made outstanding comparisons and really used the Greek language to describe why he was talking about how the zombies were able to still be around and "alive" in a sense and the cosumerism and immortality ideas. I really like the essay so far, but I'm struggling with where I want my paper to go.

I love scary movies and this one wasn't scary so much (although it made me jump plenty of times), but it makes you think about that situation and how would you act, where would you be, ect. Would you be living the good life up in the tower where the "better" folk are, would you be in the slums trying to make the best of a hellish life, would you be a soldier, or maybe a prostitute, or perhaps the mercenary trying to make some cash, although I hardly knew why they were so greedy about money. In a land where the dead are taking over, money hardly seems to matter, but apprently it did.

Back to the topic, I was thinking about maybe comparing Romero's works as a bunch or maybe comparing all of them to other scary movies? I'm not really sure. I did think it was interesting that the zombies always seem to win in the end. At the end of most scary movies, the good guys usually triumph. I thought it was also interesting that we don't know what's creating the zombies. How did they get like that in the first place? Why, when even someone died without being bitten, did they transform and come back as one of the undead? Maybe that's what I could try to answer, but I'm not really sure where I'd go with that.