So I decided to watch Rushmore, the 1998 comedy starring a young Jason Shwartzman. The film follows 15-year-old Max Fischer (Schwartzman), an over-confident eccentric that has founded and/or is president of every school club. However, Max’s involvement with extracurriculars has made him the worst student academically, and puts him on thin ice for maintaining his scholarship to the private school, Rushmore Academy.

While at Rushmore, Max befriends Herman Blume (Bill Murray), an industrialist who is the father of ill-behaved boys that attend the school. Herman admires Max’s confidence, and they begin spending time together working on projects.

As for Max’s love life, he begins an infatuation with first-grade teacher Rosemary Cross (Olivia Williams). Ms. Cross is widowed and remains deeply in love with her late husband, but Max’s obsession grows and there’s no convincing him to leave her be. Love has struck Max Fischer and he is mighty determined for her to feel the same way.

I thoroughly enjoyed Rushmore and highly recommend Wes Anderson fans check it out.

Three memorable Max Fischer lines:

1. “My top schools where I want to apply to are Oxford and the Sorbonne. My safety’s Harvard.”

2. “Look, I may not be rich, Mr. Blume. My father may only be a doctor, but we manage.”

3. “I saved Latin. What did you ever do?”

New content is on my new website, The Pop Can!

I’ve been a fan of the show since day one, but many avoid watching because they don’t understand whether it is “real.” The answer is that My Life as Liz is somewhat real: Liz is a real high school student, her friends and enemies are real, the situations on the show are real but… MTV has dramatized it.

For the flak MTV has garnered for The Hills, My Life as Liz is upfront about the dramatization of reality shows. But, unlike The Hills, which forces L.A. twenty-somethings to be friends, the relationships-good and bad-in My Life as Liz are actually real.

What makes My Life as Liz worth watching are Liz’s hilarious comments. She is as witty as Glee’s Sue Sylvester, only nicer, and has left me quoting her for ages.

Here are five quotes from My Life as Liz that may convince you to tune in:

1. “Friends don’t let friends wear Slankets.”

2. “Don’t judge me. Yes, I am taking refuge in a blanket with sleeves.”

3. “Glitter is like the herpes of arts and crafts.”

4. “I’m sweatin’ like a hooker in Church.”

5. “Oh God, she discovered propaganda.”

New content is on my new website, The Pop Can!

Director: Lone Scherfig.

Stars: Carey Mulligan, Peter Sarsgaard, Dominic Cooper, Rosamund Pike, Alfred Molina, Cara Seymour.

About:

Set in England in 1961, An Education revolves around schoolgirl Jenny Mellor (Mulligan) and her relationship with David Goldman (Sarsgaard), a sophisticated older man. Despite their significant age difference, David manages to woo Jenny and charm her protective parents, even whisking the young lady off to Paris.

Despite his fancy car and expensive clothes, David is no honest businessman. In order to cheaply purchase expensive apartments, David moves black families into neighbourhoods so that racist elderly women become desperate to move. David and his friend, Danny (Cooper), also steal art from homes. Although Jenny does not agree with David’s business, the life of luxury wins the schoolgirl over and she turns a blind eye to his actions.

Caught up in David’s world, Jenny sports gorgeous new dresses and begins painting on makeup to match Danny’s mature girlfriend. She lets her education fall by the wayside and even contemplates giving up her dream of attending Oxford.

An Education is a lovely film that displays the values and traditions followed by young women in the 1960s. I thoroughly enjoyed the film and it definitely has something for everyone; Fashion lovers can gush over Jenny’s outfits, academics can fight for Jenny to attend Oxford,  Sarsgaard fans can swoon over the leading man and comics are sure to get a chuckle thanks to Alfred Molina.

Rent if you like: Elegy and/or Atonement.
New content is on my new website, The Pop Can!

will Ali find love?

I love “The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette.” It is trashy reality TV enveloped in fairy tale romance, which brings me back season after season. Although the ABC show boasts high ratings, I’m always surprised at the lack of people I actually know who watch it. Even my four roomates drew blank stares when I gushed about the program. So, when Jake Pavelka took to the small screen for his run as “The Bachelor,” I was prepared to sit by my lonesome making snarky remarks at the women like a bitter middle-aged divorcee. However, slowly but surely, three of my four roomies trickled in. One came to watch as a homework break, one glanced over while cooking dinner and another came to watch while doing homework (not sure how that assignment turned out.) By the end of the episode, they were all hooked.

“The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette” has that hook; that quick grab that takes your attention and leaves you craving more come credit roll. It has romance, drama, reality trashiness, beautiful dresses and glamorous lifestyles all squeezed into one delicious show. But I think what my roomates and I enjoyed most was judging the contestants.

At first, I think I caught them quite off-guard with my brutally honest comments about the women vying for Jake’s attention. I knew who would not go very far in the race for Jake’s heart and, I’ll admit, it was mostly based on superficial reasons. But I’ve been watching this show for years and-as devotees of the show know-there’s people who possess the same qualities and, season after season, they do not make it to the final rose ceremony.

Ali’s season of “The Bachelorette” just started, so I thought I’d compile a list of people who won’t receive a final rose in “The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette.” The list is based on previous seasons and perhaps even shows that the last woman/man standing is quite a conventional TV leading lady/man. Of course, there are exceptions to the rules.

1. You wear a really ugly dress to the first cocktail party. Sorry, first impressions count and if you wearing a gargantuan monstrosity to meet your future husband, then you won’t receive a rose.

2. You wear a cheap looking suit to the first cocktail party. Even worse, it is in a light shade of grey or pastel. Shudder*

3. You’re crazy. Remember that doctor who was desperate for children in Aaron’s season of “The Bachelor”? “Horse before the cart,” girl; That’s what he said before saying good-bye.

4. Even worse than desperately wanting children is to already have a family. Jason Mesnick did all right with DeAnna, but he didn’t receive that final rose, and then became infamous with his own season of “The Bachelor.”

5. You are oddly short (this applies to both ladies and gents.)

6. You are really fake baked. If you rock an orange glow, I suggest applying for Snookie’s prospective dating show, “Snookin’ for Love.”

7. You make sex jokes. Example: “Shooter” from Ali’s season and landing strip girl from Jake’s season.

8. You are the season tattle-tale. Every season of “The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette” has the token tattle-tale who’s “just looking out for you” and “doesn’t want to see you get hurt.” Oh, and throw in a “even if it’s not me at the end, I just want you to be happy” for good measure. The tattle-tale never wins, but he/she may snag their own season, a la Jake Pavelka.

9. Now if being the tattle-tale is paired with a weird foot fetish, you stand no chance of getting the final rose or getting a spin-off. Tanner from Jillian’s season of “The Bachelorette” was so hilarious with his creepy foot obsession. I’m surprised how long he lasted, but I wasn’t surprised when Jillian finally gave him the boot. I think he loved her feet more than he loved her.

10. You are a women over 30 years old. You might as well become a lonely old maid as far as the Bachelor is concerned.

11. You are a man under 25 years old. You might as well be in high school.

12. You live with your parents. It’s just not going to happen.

13. You’re Canadian.

14. If you make it to the family date, your family may just be the cause of your demise. Remember Naomi from Jason’s season? Her family was super bizarre (I believe they even held a funeral for a dead bird.) Give your ma and pa a good talking to before introducing them to your prospective husband/wife, because they may just blow your chances.

15. You have unconventional hair. If you are a woman with short or curly hair, or a man with lengthy hair, you’re probably not going to make it very far. Exception: Jesse from DeAnna’s year (although that didn’t work out anyway.)

16. You are a woman with a husky, smoker’s voice.

17. You are a guy with a high-pitched voice.

18. You are obviously there for the wrong reasons (Honestly Jillian, why did it take you that long to send Wes packing?)

19. You’re having an affair with the show’s producer (*cough, cough Rozlyn.)

20. You are a man that clearly gets his eyebrows waxed.

21. You have red hair.

22. You are not white. Seriously, why does the final rose always go to a Caucasian?

23. The other guys hate you (*cough, cough Juan.) This does not apply to women, as demonstrated by Vienna.

24. You have an unusual name.

25. You don’t have abs. Oh wait, you won’t even make it on the show if you don’t have abs.

Shallow? Perhaps, but I like to think I’m just being honest in a Simon Cowell sort of way. I’ve been watching this show for years and you can’t disagree that people with these characteristics won’t make it to the end. Perhaps this season will prove me wrong, but so far the men with messy hair, the men who wear suits in light shades, and the men with weird voices have been sent home- so, according to my list, Ali’s right on par with former Bachelorettes.
New content is on my new website, The Pop Can!

I love the pastel shades of eyeshadow and the gobs of jewellery women wore. I adore those tiny structured purses and the solid colours they came in.

I love the soft, fluffy hair that was ultra shiny; a look which set the preps apart from the masses, who styled their hair into adventurous shapes and dyed their locks various colours.

Everytime I watch an ’80s flick, my heart pangs for a decade I missed out on. So, in an ode to ’80s fashion, I created a slideshow of stars wearing some great ’80s garbs.
New content is on my new website, The Pop Can!

It certainly got mine when Lauren discussed her memoir, Some Girls: My Life in a Harem, on “The View.” She discussed how her teenage rebellion led her from stripping to prostitution to living in a harem, and that she chronicled it all in a newly published memoir. For days I looked forward to my next trip to Chapters.

After making my purchase, I spent every spare moment devouring Lauren’s writing. Lunch breaks, after dinner and before I fell asleep were times dedicated to reading Lauren’s account of her exhilarating life. Her writing is candid and brutally honest. Lauren describes searching for her ballerina birth mother, her first experiences as a prostitute, her dream of being an actress, and what it was like living with a gaggle of girls as an entertainer for Prince Jefri, or Robin, as Lauren calls him.

While living in a land most North Americans have never heard of, residing in a palace so extravagant most North Americans can’t even imagine, Lauren was lavished in jewels, designer garbs and money. For Lauren, living in Brunei was an escape from the mundane, and she left everything behind in order to fulfill her appetite for adventure.

I felt like I had walked onto the set of some 1930s MGM movie version of Salome. Surely a flock of harem-pants-clad showgirls was about to descend the stairs and launch into a Busby Berkeley dance number.

“It’s all real,” said Serena.

“Real what?”

“Like, the gold in the carpet is real gold. That ruby is a real ruby,” she said, pointing at a ceramic tiger that stood near the fountain. The tiger held in its mouth a round, red stone the size of a tennis ball.

I spotted what looked like a Picasso directly across from the front door-also real, I assumed. (82-83)

Reading is an escape. It is a time to set aside work documents, laundry and errands, to relax on the sofa and enjoy living someone else’s life through their own words. For readers, Some Girls: My Life in a Harem is an escape from everything you have ever read before. For readers, Some Girls: My Life in a Harem is an escape from the mundane.
New content is on my new website, The Pop Can!

Fortunately, I found that needle! The blog is http://jessicakroy.com/blog-page/ and reading it is like a hot bubble bath or a delicious cup of tea; cozy, warm and comforting.

The blogger’s name is Jessica Roy and, I’ll admit, I’m the last person in the blogging world to notice her. Roy is a fantastic writer and is extremely open about her personal life, which makes for a blog that I can’t resist.

I came across Roy’s blog via VanityFair.com. As a voracious reader of the website, I decided to type “literary scandals” into the search bar because, yes, I am the type of person that types “literary scandals” into the Vanity Fair website (I highly recommend the 2006 piece on J.T. LeRoy.)  Any way, I decided to read Jim Windolf’s article, “You’ve Got (Hate) Mail: The Curious Case of Keith Gessen and Emily Gould,” which detailed the two young New York writing sensations. In the piece, Windolf mentioned Roy on the fourth page of the April 2009 web exclusive, writing, “Jessica Roy, a 20-year-old student at New York University, was there. She had begun to get attention for her own blog, Jess & Josh Talk About Stuff, which she ran with friend and fellow N.Y.U. student Josh Becker.”

A 20-year-old mentioned in a VanityFair.com piece? I was intrigued. I searched for Jess & Josh Talk About Stuff, which was long gone, and then I searched for Roy. She still exists in the blogosphere and thank goodness for that, because Roy’s blog is fantastic. She writes about her boyfriends (both past and present), N.Y.U., her future career, life in the Big Apple, depression and literature. Roy divulges her personal life with the detail of a memoirist and I read her entire blog in one spurt of I’ve found a good blog glee.

For those that enjoy reading memoirs, I highly recommend checking out Roy’s blog, as it is a wonderful read. And as a fellow blogger, I tip my hat to you, Jessica Roy.
New content is on my new website, The Pop Can!

Alas, I’m stuck in school. The cage, the prison, the fence, the barrier of my life… Like that Miley Cyrus “Can’t Be Tamed” music video, I’m a skanky exotic bird trapped in a cage and want to escape. Minus the narcissism and barely-there clothing, I’m just like Miley Cyrus.

.

.

“I wanna fly,
I wanna drive,
I wanna go.
I wanna be a part of something I don’t know.
And if you try to hold me back I might explode.”

.

.

.

.

..

Okay, maybe not. But I’ve always been drawn to characters in the media who have a restless leg syndrome for life. The ones who move around with no direction, whose home is themselves, and who aimlessly wander- having lots of adventures and making friends along the way. These gypsies have the life I dream of, and it’s no wonder- I’ve grown up on movies romanticizing the life of a wanderer.

Esmeralda

.

I got my first taste of gypsy life as a seven-year-old sipping Pepsi at my small-town movie theatre. The movie was “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” and I was entranced by Esmeralda, the gypsy dancer with bangle bracelets and a tambourine. I wanted to be just like her. I even had a purple shirt with the cartoon character on it, which was cinched at the waist (just like real gypsy clothes!) Esmeralda was the free-spirit that the hunchback fell in love with- isn’t that every little girl’s dream? Maybe I didn’t explain that right…

.

Roux

Then, at 13, there was Roux, Vianne Rocher’s lover in “Chocolat.” Roux was kind, romantic and extremely handsome. Who wouldn’t want to join a camp of river gypsies when Johnny Depp was in the pack? Plus, they lived in France! It really couldn’t get any better; Well, the town did hate them, but you can’t have everything…

If Disney Classics can make little girls everywhere-myself included-dream of finding their Prince Charming and being whisked away to a castle, can films not make us want to travel the world? If they can make girls want to be Cinderella, can they not make you want to be Penny Lane (“Almost Famous“)?

I have dreams of Paris and Monaco, L.A. and Vegas, St. John’s and Halifax, Ireland and Wales. I want to see everything. I envision myself globetrotting with a notebook in hand, chronicling my journey below the Eiffel Tower and atop the Empire State Building. I want to return home at Christmas with amazing stories to tell. And, of course, I want to blog about it all.

.

Unfortunately, I have one year left in my education. One whole year of studying journalism before I can pack my bags and see the world. I must resist the temptation of SellOffVacations.com and Swap. It doesn’t help that I have Shakira reminding me everyday of who I’m not. Perhaps one day I will live abroad and visit exiting lands, or maybe I’ll just use my two-week vacation to escape, but, for now, I’m in the cage that is school. And, unlike the rare bird that is Miley Cyrus, I can be tamed.

.

.

.

What is your dream vacation? Have you lived abroad? Drop me a line @LAMcEachran.
New content is on my new website, The Pop Can!

Director: Kyle Newman.

Stars: Jay Baruchel, Kristen Bell, Sam Huntington, Chris Marquette, Dan Fogler.

About: Linus (Chris Marquette), Hutch (Dan Fogler), Windows (Jay Baruchel) and Zoe (Kristen Bell) have been friends since high school. They spend their days in the comic book shop and still depend on their parents. They sport graphic tees over stiff suits and are okay with that. But there is one member of their high school clique that has moved on- Eric Bottler (Sam Huntington). Eric has shelved his comic sketches to work for his super fake-baked dad at a car dealership and his decision to grow up has caused Eric to grow apart from his buddies. But, at a Halloween party in 1998, Eric reunites with his old friends and they plan an epic adventure- to break into Skywalker Ranch and steal the rough cut of Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace, the latest installment of the Star Wars franchise. A road-trip to the ranch begins and hilarity ensues when these nerdy friends hop in their van to fulfill a dream, listening to Rush along the way.

Fanboys features a bad run-in with some Trekkers, awkward stripping at a biker bar, an unfortunate online girlfriend reveal, a prison cell with a lunch-meat covered toilet, wacky characters played by Seth Rogen, a William Shatner cameo and a whole lot more. It’s silly, filled with pop culture references circa 1998, and will make fanboys (and girls) giggle at the Star Wars/Star Trek feuds.

I found this part hilarious: the guys crash a Trekker tour to rain on their parade. Seth Rogen plays Admiral Seasholtz, the passionate Trekker. Read on:

Admiral Seasholtz: Okay. Hilarious, everyone. Looks like we got more Lucas hounds here to mock Roddenberry. Congratulations, gentleman, but I would like to see your Darth Vader take on one Borg drone. And we’ll see who’s laughing then. Am I right?
Windows: Darth Vader can put the entire Borg collective in a vice grip with his mind.
Admiral Seasholtz: Uh, Darth Vader has asthma, so name me one Star Trek character with a respiratory disease, ’cause I’m drawing a blank.
Linus: Name me one Star Wars character who’s gay.
Hutch: Besides you.
Admiral Seasholtz: Well, no one’s gay in Star Trek, so why would I even do that?
Linus: Captain Picard.
Admiral Seasholtz: Okay, Captain Picard is not gay- he’s British.
Windows: [in a swishy voice] Come on. “Make it so!”

Rent if you like: Star Wars, comic books, pop culture and/or road trips.

New content is on my new website, The Pop Can!