Indulgence in a Media Fest of Pertinence to Wes Anderson

I was planning on writing about Wes Anderson for my next blog post because I brought him up in "These Days" with the mention of The Royal Tenenbaums. I really enjoy his movies. They're quirky, clever, off-kilter and everything I enjoy. I also like how you could pause one of his movies at any point and the resulting frame would be art. There are so many things I want to mention though so I'm going to refrain from doing an entire post based on Wes Anderson. I've had a media fest these past two days; indulging in everything I forgot was so great. I watched a movie (Not for class!), TV, and read a magazine. It's crazy how every correlated.

I watched Rushmore, another brilliant Wes Anderson film, on Thursday. Then I watched Community, which is a new show on NBC about a community college starring Joel McHale from The Soup. It is a comedy, but one of those comedies that entail semi-serious and not so 'sitcom-y' acting. I've always enjoyed Joel McHale, but after watching this show I definitely respect him even more because he pulls off the character of Jeff Winger really well. The show is pretty decent and I'm someone who is really picky about my television shows. Plot aside, the style seems like a subtle mix between It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia and Arrested Development. I wouldn't go so far yet to say that it is better than either one of these shows, though. What really makes Community for me is Chevy Chase; I love that guy. Anyhow, I was watching a rerun of one of the Community episodes that I missed and the character of Abed tells Jeff Winger that he reminds him of Bill Murray. So that's my first tie in to Wes Anderson, :) Check Community out on http://www.nbc.com/community/

I've always been a magazine reader, but for the past year or so I've had difficulty finding one I really enjoy. I'm not really into teen magazines like Seventeen anymore, but I recently discovered Marie Claire and I have become quite a fan. I obviously can't afford any of the clothes or anything in it (and I never want to pay that much for clothing), but what I really love about the magazine is its global focus. There are so many interesting articles in it pertaining to serious issues around the world. Actually every article in the magazine, no matter what the subject, is extremely well written. I also like the "Marie Claire Radar" which is a section in the magazine of reviews on movies, television, music and books. They always have really great recommendations. There was two recommendations that I'm especially excited to look into. The first is a book called Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer. The description in Marie Claire reads, "Jonathan Safran Foer examines why we eat the way we do in a memoir about his vegetarianism." I looked it up on Amazon as soon as I read about it in Marie Claire and here's the product description about it from Amazon..

"Jonathan Safran Foer spent much of his teenage and college years oscillating between omnivore and vegetarian. But on the brink of fatherhood-facing the prospect of having to make dietary choices on a child's behalf-his casual questioning took on an urgency His quest for answers ultimately required him to visit factory farms in the middle of the night, dissect the emotional ingredients of meals from his childhood, and probe some of his most primal instincts about right and wrong. Brilliantly synthesizing philosophy, literature, science, memoir and his own detective work, Eating Animals explores the many fictions we use to justify our eating habits-from folklore to pop culture to family traditions and national myth-and how such tales can lull us into a brutal forgetting. Marked by Foer's profound moral ferocity and unvarying generosity, as well as the vibrant style and creativity that made his previous books, Everything is Illuminated and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, widely loved, Eating Animals is a celebration and a reckoning, a story about the stories we've told-and the stories we now need to tell."

The only thing I don't understand about this description is the first sentence where it says he, "spent much of his teenage and college years oscillating between omnivore and vegetarian." Aren't those pretty much the same thing? Maybe it's referring to how some people eat strictly plants because that's what they want to do and it's not something they're doing because they feel strongly against eating animals. In other words maybe the difference has to do with vegetarianism being more of a lifestyle rather than just a diet. I don't know. Anyhow I love Jonathan Safran Foer and that he's a vegetarian because so am I. I am really, really looking forward to reading this and I can guarantee that as soon as I finish it there will be a mega blog post about it. Now to tie Jonathan Safran Foer into Wes Anderson...they look a lot, a lot alike. Refer to the pictures of the two guys in glasses in this post. Granted I chose pictures where the angles they are at make them look even similar, plus they're both wearing similar glasses. Without the angles and the glasses they wouldn't look quite so similar, but I just enjoy their style and how my two favorite genius, inspirational artists look somewhat alike.

The next movie recommended in the "Marie Claire Radar" is for Wes Anderson's stop-motion animation Fantastic Mr. Fox! I love Roal Dahl and Wes Anderson and Stop-motion animation and George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Bill Murray and Owen Wilson! I'm so, so flippin` excited for this movie! It's bound to be incredible. As seemingly unorganized as this post may seem I'm very proud of how everything tied in together...not too shabby, not too shabby.