Gavin & Stacey

Over a year ago, I spent a semester abroad in London. We were plopped right into the middle of one of the largest international hubs of theatre, art, music, and excitement! Though I spent most of my time traveling and exploring the sites like a good tourist, a lot of the culture was somewhat lost on me. I did not spend a lot of time near the television, so recently I have started watching a few of the shows that I heard a lot of hubbub about. Last night I watched the first few episodes of Gavin & Stacey, which was canceled right after I left London so everyone was talking about it. Gavin & Stacey is a romantic comedy about a long distance relationship, where the girl, Stacey, lives in Wales and the guy, Gavin, lives in London. This show is absolutely ridiculous.

The first episode is where Gavin and Stacey meet in real life after spending a long time talking on the phone and probably sexting during work for several months. I know they probably sexted for a long time because at the end of their first date they have sex in some Hotel in London. At the end of the episode Gavin actually drives all the way to Wales, while Stacey is riding the bus home to meet her there so he can say, "I love you." This is where I just thought they were perhaps a bit bonkers, but I guess these things happen. However, at the end of the second episode Gavin actually proposes to her. Now, that shit is just insane.

They just barely met each other in real life. I understand that this is a romantic comedy sitcom, but this is just too unrealistic for me. Not only that, but the music they chose is horrible. There are too many horrendous American pop songs playing during the sentimental moments. The proposal scene was pretty hysterical, and there are a few genuinely funny moments here and there but they are overpowered by the cheesefest that is their relationship. Here's a clip of the proposal - it's at the end of the video if you don't want to wade through the bullshit.



Aside from the insanity of Gavin and Stacey's relationship, there are a lot of small instances of peculiar behavior between the other characters as well. The way Gavin's parents interact bothers me a lot. His mother is not the perfect cookie cutter housewife, but his father is consistently making fat jokes about her and she comes off as being outrageously neurotic about her weight when it is clearly her husband's fault. Meanwhile, Nessa, Stacey's friend is played by a pretty hefty actress and is shown as being sexually promiscuous and consistently disgusts the other characters. I'm not sure if Nessa as a character is meant to just add some additional spice to the show, or to make Stacey seem more appealing by comparison.

The New Museum - Jan. 2010

Over winter break, my boyfriend and I visited The New Museum. It was my second time there, and unfortunately half of the gallery space was closed but what we were able to see was delightful! The museum itself is a great space for contemporary and modern art, each floor is covered with white walls and no floor has the same layout. Some of them have incredibly tall ceilings while the room is shaped like a corridor, while others have low ceilings with several walls to make alleyways of modern art. The top floor of this peculiarly shaped building is called the "Sky Box" and it has a fabulous view of the cityscape through panoramic windows, or for the more adventurous there is also a terrace with thick glass walls.

Social scientist, artist, writer and provocateur, Paglen has been exploring the secret activities of the U.S. military and intelligence agencies--the "black world"--for the last eight years. Paglen is interested in the idea of photography as truth-telling, but his pictures often stop short of traditional ideas of documentation. In the series Limit Telephotography, for example, he employs high-end optical systems to photograph top-secret governmental sites; and in The Other Night Sky, he uses the data of amateur satellite watchers to track and photograph classified spacecraft in Earth's orbit.

The stuff we saw displayed immediately put us on edge. One of his huge photographs displayed a long exposure of the night sky, which are usually used to display the path of stars and things orbiting the earth. Paglen's photograph actually showed evidence of an undeclared satellite in orbit directly above Afghanistan! Though there are no records of this satellite, there is no way to deny what he has captured. As the museum guard explained to us, what he does is not illegal - the people have a right to question and investigate the government, but he is definitely toeing the line.

There is less information available on the next artist, but Jon Rafman is taking something so familiar to us and exposing the strange nature of it. Google's Street View drives by just updating the physical environment indiscriminately, passing by fires, nude beaches, teens flipping off the camera, and puts the images on the internet to be seen by anyone, with the faces of individuals blurred out of course. Rafman scoured the street views around the world and made large prints of the more peculiar sights.

Alexandre Singh's piece was a very interesting use of objects, lighting, and audio-recordings. Each object had a personality that correlated with a distinct accent as they discussed the intricacies of the display of the objects characterized. The tape-recorders were stuffy snobs, the bottle of bleach took the role of neo-fascist, the whole piece was delightful to experience. I love the use of new media to break up the monotony of seeing a 2D representation of someone's point of view. "It was pleasingly elaborate."

When I was actually watching this film, I was incredibly tired. So, let me be real here and say that I didn't catch a lot of what it had to say, but the title alone was neat. It was most likely about freedom though because the exhibition was titled, "Free." The piece itself was a film that had new subtitles added over the real ones, spliced with other footage made specifically for the new work. Pretty neat idea, though I think the artist had some issues releasing it due to copyright infringement.

the internet

When I'm up so late at night, everything seems ridiculously out of proportion. I can get upset about the slightest things, and then dwell endlessly until the sun comes up or I pass out from frustration.

Technology just makes this so much worse. Not only can I look up things that can make me more upset, I can solidify my worst fears by finding evidence to fuel them. Sometimes it would just be so much nicer to put my brain in time out and put my computer in a corner somewhere else.

What did people do before facebook and the internet? I wonder if it would be easier to deal with things. Instead of being bombarded by faces you never want to see again even though you probably looked them up anyway, you just have the memories and physical reminders of places you have been or keepsakes.

Charles Baudelaire

Hymne à la Beauté

Viens-tu du ciel profond ou sors-tu de l'abîme,
O Beauté? ton regard, infernal et divin,
Verse confusément le bienfait et le crime,
Et l'on peut pour cela te comparer au vin.

Tu contiens dans ton oeil le couchant et l'aurore;
Tu répands des parfums comme un soir orageux;
Tes baisers sont un philtre et ta bouche une amphore
Qui font le héros lâche et l'enfant courageux.

Sors-tu du gouffre noir ou descends-tu des astres?
Le Destin charmé suit tes jupons comme un chien;
Tu sèmes au hasard la joie et les désastres,
Et tu gouvernes tout et ne réponds de rien.

Tu marches sur des morts, Beauté, dont tu te moques;
De tes bijoux l'Horreur n'est pas le moins charmant,
Et le Meurtre, parmi tes plus chères breloques,
Sur ton ventre orgueilleux danse amoureusement.

L'éphémère ébloui vole vers toi, chandelle,
Crépite, flambe et dit: Bénissons ce flambeau!
L'amoureux pantelant incliné sur sa belle
A l'air d'un moribond caressant son tombeau.

Que tu viennes du ciel ou de l'enfer, qu'importe,
Ô Beauté! monstre énorme, effrayant, ingénu!
Si ton oeil, ton souris, ton pied, m'ouvrent la porte
D'un Infini que j'aime et n'ai jamais connu?


De Satan ou de Dieu, qu'importe? Ange ou Sirène,
Qu'importe, si tu rends, — fée aux yeux de velours,
Rythme, parfum, lueur, ô mon unique reine! —
L'univers moins hideux et les instants moins lourds?
— Charles Baudelaire



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