All posts tagged pop culture

The Hunger Games vs. Twilight

I went to see The Hunger Games yesterday. I won’t post another review as I’m a long way behind the rest (although I will say I loved it). Instead, in honour of the film and another favourite of mine Twilight, I thought I’d pitch the YA series’ against each other.

Warning: contains spoilers so don’t read if you don’t know how they end!

Let the battle begin:

The world

Twilight is set in present day Forks – a small town in Washington, which gets a lot of rain. Dark, gloomy and green. This world is inhabited by both humans and supernatural creatures namely vampires and werewolves (no witches or faeries as far as we know). And the supernatural’s live in secret mostly; until a girl called Bella comes along and guesses the truth. Some of the supers are good; others are evil and will drink your blood.

The Hunger Games is set in the future in a country that used to be America and is now called Panem. It’s a pretty bleak place made up of 12 districts ruled over by The Capitol. People in the outer districts are poor and hungry whereas people in The Capitol live in luxury and have really crazy hair. Every year the country watches The Hunger Games – a reality TV show where kids compete to their death.

Verdict: I’d rather live in Twilight’s world – there’s food and the reality TV shows may be depressing but they’re not brutal. Plus I’d have Edward. Just sayin’.

Twilight – 1, HG – 0.

The hero

Bella Swan is a teenage girl who falls for a vampire. She’s’ pretty average looking but pale and uncoordinated. She doesn’t really have a quest – most of her existence is there to be in love with Edward. Then she decides she wants to be immortal so she can love him forever. She finally becomes a vampire, which she is suited to very well.

Katniss Everdeen is a teenage girl who has lived her life fighting for survival. She leads her family, hunting for food and selling it so they can live. She is fiercely protective of her younger sister, volunteering to tale her place in The Hunger Games. Which’s she kicks ass in while staying someone we can root for. Plus she wins.

Verdict: Katniss is scary in the best possible way. I’d probably be the first one to die in the games so I’m pretty impressed by how she handles it.

HG – 1, Twilight – 0.

The love triangle

Bella Swan loves Edward but then he leaves her (it’s for her own good) so she starts hanging out with Jacob, who turns into a werewolf. He loves her a lot but she’s not sure. Then Edward comes back and she runs back into his arms. Jacob kisses her and she decides she loves them both but Edward is her soul mate. Then they have a baby who is Jacob’s soul mate. So everyone is happy.

Katniss Everdeen isn’t sure who she loves. There’s Gale her friend and hunting partner who’s really good looking. And there’s Peeta, her fellow competitor in the HG who says he’s had a crush on her since they were kids. They pretend to be I love for the cameras but I feels quite real. Then Gale comes up with an idea that leads to her sister being killed so she chooses Peeta.

Verdict: For me, I knew who they would both choose in the end but I was more unsure what would happen in The HG so I’ll go with that love triangle. Slightly more believable.

HG- 1, Twilight – 0.

The villains

In Twilight, The Volturi are pretty scary vampires who rule the community and you don’t want to meet them in a dark alley. Like, ever.

In HG, the villain is pinpointed as the President but you could argue the true villain is control. Snow is killed by Katniss in the end and the country takes back some of their freedom.

Verdict: Twilight has a defined group of villains that are creepy and who live on after the books. They’re invincible, which beats Snow who is destroyed.

Twilight – 1, HG – 0.

Final score:

It’s a tie in my battle between Twilight and The Hunger Games.

Who would win for you?

Victoria

xoxo

18 Comments

by Victoria-writes on April 5, 2012 • Permalink

Posted in Books, Films, Fun, Pop culture, Reviews

Tagged books, films, fun, pop culture, Reviews, The Hunger Games, Twilight

Posted by Victoria-writes on April 5, 2012

http://victoria-writes.com/2012/04/05/the-hunger-games-vs-twilight/

A life in magazines

Magazines have always been a part of my life. As a kid a magazine was a treat – something full of colours and fun things to do, something you got for being well behaved in the supermarket.

As a teenager, magazines were part of our culture. When I was a younger teen I was into music and used to read Smash Hits to get all the gossip from pop stars. As an older teen, I reached for more of the girlie ones. They were where we all went to for advice and to giggle over the problem pages. We sat on the grass at school leafing through them. We hid them from our parents in case they saw the sexual content in them. I remember one magazine More had a sexual position of the fortnight – very naughty! I used to read Bliss and Sugar mainly but also picked up Just Seventeen.

As a young adult, I moved over to celebrity magazines like Heat, Ok, Now to get my dose of gossip – who is with who and who has done something outrageous etc. I was the an expert on celebrity news and probably still am really although I use the internet more for my gossip now

Now I still read magazines. I’m more into fashion now and my magazines of choice are the weeklies Look and Grazia – I like the mix of fashion and celebrity news in them so I get gossip and tips on looking good! I’ve avoid the big fashion monthlies like Vogue, I think they’re overpriced and all the clothes in them are out of reach to most normal people. I buy these two quite religiously and miss them if I don’t manage to get them.

I’d be quite sad if we lost magazines. There’s something about flicking through the glossy pages, looking at the photos and getting an insight into celebrity life that I’m addicted to. The internet doesn’t give you that feeling and nor can an iPad. So I hope we don’t lose them. I can track my life through my taste in magazines and I hope future generations will be able to as well!

What magazines have you / do you read?

Vix
xx

36 Comments

by Victoria-writes on June 24, 2011 • Permalink

Posted in My fave things, Personal, Pop culture

Tagged magazines, my favourite things, Personal, pop culture

Posted by Victoria-writes on June 24, 2011

http://victoria-writes.com/2011/06/24/a-life-in-magazines/

Bunnies vs feminists

The Playboy club is returning to London after a 25 year absence and the media is awash with stories about the new generation of women who’ll be working there as bunnies. The feminists are up in arms that modern women want to work for the club and wear the revealing costume.

The new club will be a casino with a hefty membership price and the bunnies will serve as waitress and croupiers on the tables. They will serve using the bunny dip to avoid unflattering angles and men will pay a fortune just to be in the same room as them. So are these women destroying feminisam?

I’ve always seen the point of feminism as being about choice – giving women options. Only a couple of generations ago, there were limited options for women and now we can pretty much do anything (in our part of the world at least) – have a career or not, have a family or not, vote, drive, speak out etc, it’s our decisions. The new girls becoming bunnies are choosing to do so and they’ll probably get paid pretty well to do it as well as tips from men who can’t take their eyes off their legs.

I personally wouldn’t do it. I wouldn’t feel comfortable in the skimpy outfit and waitressing, whatever you’re wearing, is a hard job but I don’t blast other girls for doing it. Whatever you think about the foundations of Playboy, it’s a global brand with a long history and some girls get excited about being part of the team. If men are stupid enough to pay to see scantily clad women, should we refuse to take advantage of it or should we embrace our feminity and show it off?

Probably a lot of people won’t agree with this – they think that women who shows off their bodies are stupid or letting women as a whole down. A lot of the bunnies in the past were actually ambitious and intelligent women, Debbie Harry from Blondie even used to be one. So should we should look on the new generation of bunnies as women using it as a platform to do great things in the future or pity them for needing to show off their bodies and drag their high heels across the club floor?

I don’t know but it annoys me when women slag off other women. We should stand together whatever we choose to do and celebrate the fact we can choose what to do with our lives even if we don’t always agree with each other’s choices.

What do you think?

Vix

32 Comments

by Victoria-writes on June 2, 2011 • Permalink

Posted in Life, Musings, Pop culture

Tagged feminism, life, musings, Playboy bunnies, Playboy clubs, pop culture

Posted by Victoria-writes on June 2, 2011

http://victoria-writes.com/2011/06/02/bunnies-vs-feminists/

Sweet Valley High

I loved Sweet Valley High as a young teen. The series about two California twins Jessica and Elizabeth, who was gorgeous and popular. It was completely unrealistic and often laughable but strangely compelling (like a bad soap opera) and mainly focused on their love lives and twin squabbles.

Last year, the series was reprinted making changes to bring it up-to-date, for example, adding in mobile phones. Completely pointless in my opinion. What I enjoy about books is they capture a moment in time, making tweaks to appeal to the “youth today” defeats the object. Alongside SVH, I used to read older school books like Malory Towers or Famous Five and the thought of adding Facebook to a midnight feast scares me!

The reason I brought this up was there’s been two recent developments in the Sweet Valley High franchise. Sweet Valley High has had a new book added to the series. Sweet Valley Confidential covers the twins as grown up women. I won’t be reading this. Some reviews on Amazon describe what I thought it would be – a lesser addition to the series, breaking the twins up and bringing them back together. How many times can they do that? There’s no need for us to see them as adults, the whole point was to experience their growing up years with them. We want to remember them as teenagers!

The other development is a film is in the pipeline. At first, I thought ooh no. Anyone remember the TV series back in the 90′s? It was really poor. Obviously the source material wasn’t Shakespeare but they made the characters vain and shallow and unlikable and didn’t follow the book story-line.

However, they have brought in scriptwriter Diablo Cody, who penned the fantastic Juno. This means the SVH movie may actually be trendy and fun with witty dialogue and well rounded characters. Of course, it’s likely to mean it’s not similar to the books, which were very cheesy. And what plot will the film follow? After all, there were about 100 main line books in the series plus spin-offs following the twins at middle school and college.

I vote for my favourite of the SVH storylines – the Prom killer series where after Elizabeth kills Jessica’s boyfriend in a drink driving accident (after Jessica spikes her drink), the twins are estranged and new girl Margo appears on the scene – she looks exactly like them expect she has dark hair and plots to kill Elizabeth then steal her identity. Brilliantly crazy!

Were you a SVH fan? What do you think about updating series and turning them into films?

Vix

21 Comments

by Victoria-writes on April 18, 2011 • Permalink

Posted in Books, Films, Pop culture, TV

Tagged books, films, pop culture, Sweet Valley High

Posted by Victoria-writes on April 18, 2011

http://victoria-writes.com/2011/04/18/sweet-valley-high/

Is Twitter the new Marmite?

I once tried Twitter. Last year, I thought I’d give it a go curious about the hype and quite fancying becoming a celeb stalker online as well as in print (yes I’m the person in the office people go to for ask celeb questions!) but I dropped it almost immediately. I did not get it. Firstly, none of my friends were on Twitter so I was reduced to following celebs who never follow back and trying to jump into conversations amongst strangers with no clue how to get my own followers. I was also unconvinced I’d have anything worth saying in under 140 characters.

I feel like Twitter is a love or hate thing. Some people spend their lives on it and seem to build up a huge network, others can’t understand the appeal, and these people may or may not use Facebook or blog instead, like me.

What has struck me lately is that some people can’t make their minds if they love it or hate it. Celebs seem to first embrace Twitter, building up a following and using it to thanks their fans or berate the press. Then the love affair ends. They flee Twitter, suddenly embarrassed about how they tweet every part of their lives and have more connections online than offline. Then they do a 180 and go back to it like an addiction they just couldn’t break.

Two cases – Miley Cyrus and Lily Allen.

Last year, Miley a popular Twitterer abandoned the site claiming it was taking up too much of her time and was making her forget to live. A quote at the time (found from goggle):

“I was that person who was like, ‘I’m so sad. I have no real, normal life, everyone knows what I’m doing’, and I’m like, well that’s my own fault because I’m telling everyone.

“I just think it’s kind of lame. I feel like I hang out with my friends and they’re so busy taking pictures of what they’re doing and putting them on Facebook that they’re not really enjoying what they’re doing … So I think just enjoy the moment you’re in, and stop telling people about it. Just enjoy it.”

This week, Miley posted on her record label Rock Mafia’s page on the social networking site at the weekend, declaring she would use the site when she needed to speak out. Is her own page just a short step away?

Back in 209, Lily Allen also fled the site along with all of her electronic devices – her laptop and Blackberry and stopped emailing. Her last message on Twitter read:

“I am a neo-luddite, goodbye.”

This year she has returned however, posting to her fans to denounce her new documentary on TV as not representing who she is.

Why the turn around?

Both mentioned boyfriends when they quit Twitter, mentioning they wanted to spend more time with them and the boyfriend’s confusion about how much time they spent on Twitter and the like. Miley is now no longer with Liam Hemsworth and has suffered some setbacks press wise – hello lap-dancing, drug taking and her parents relationship issues. Lily has also suffered in her personal life, her tragic miscarriage and constant press intrusion and the fact her new show revealed she suffered an eating disorder.

Both seem keen to get back online to tell their own stories, for people to get the words from them and not the press or PR. What the men in their lives think about the return to Twitter, I don’t know. Maybe breaking with Twitter gave them more perspective and they’ll use it more sparingly and perhaps wisely in the future. Time will have to tell.

I remain unconvinced about me finding love for Twitter but I do understand the need to use the online world to speak out, to share your voice with the world and to tell the truth from your own lips.

So do you love or hate Twitter?

(What about Marmite? I hate it )

Vix

25 Comments

by Victoria-writes on March 25, 2011 • Permalink

Posted in Celebrity, Musings, Pop culture, Technology

Tagged celebrities, Lily Allen, Miley Cyrus, musings, pop culture, technology, Twitter

Posted by Victoria-writes on March 25, 2011

http://victoria-writes.com/2011/03/25/is-twitter-the-new-marmite/

Proud to be Gen Y

This week I went to a seminar on Generation Y. The girl speaking said that 18 – 30 yrs olds are classed as Gen Y and we have some interesting characteristics.

Part of our pop culture is Pokemen - remember them?!! My fave was Pikachu above

A big part of being Gen Y is embracing technology – we are the generation who’s grown up with computers & mobile phones and now iPhones, iPods and HD TV. We love social networking – almost all of us are on one of them – Facebook, Twitter & of course, blogging!!!

But what was most interesting hearing about Gen Y was our problem with the workplace. We have apparently grown up being told by our parents that we are amazing, we can do anything and be whoever we want to be, and we are rarely criticised. This means we can’t take tough bosses and want to be promoted every 5 mins. What made me laugh most of all was when she said that we tend to have a tendency to cry. A lot.

Saved by the Bell – remember that?!!

Have you ever cried at work? I sure have but mostly wait until I get home!! Gen Y apparently have a tendency to become emotive when our weakness are pointed out. Is this a fair criticism? I can see people at work who do cry over the little things but most of the time I only see tears when something that steps outside of constructive criticism happens.

I don’t think us Gen Y-ers should apologise for wanting to be treated fairly at work, to be treated as a grown up and not be shouted at like a child if a mistake has been made. It looks like bosses think differently though, they see us as the ‘trophy generation’ who want rewards for no work.

Harry Potter (or arguably Lord of The Rings) – is our generation’s Star Wars.

I’m actually proud to be Gen Y. I have dreams and ambitions and I think I’m good enough to achieve them. I also want a fair boss who praises me when I’ve done a good job and gives constructive guidance when I make a mistake. I want to blog and use Facebook, listen to my iPod on the way to work and watch HD movies at home (it makes Robert Pattinson is easier to drool over) and reminisce about brick sized mobile phones.