HOT 100

Well, it’s official guys, the Maxim Hot 100 has been released for 2012.  This is seriously big news, I mean, if you’re like a fifteen-year-old male.  Personally, this list is always a little lulzy for me. First of all, it’s pretty much just an excuse for the editors of Maxim to get their brand name out and in the news -it’s free publicity, so maybe it’s actually kind of smart on their part. Hmm. Anyway,  it’s an extremely vapid list that only counts “hotness” as the key factor. I think it says a lot about our society that there’s so much press coverage and so-called “hype” on an extremely subjective list based on how sexy a woman is. I mean, there was even a TV show on VH1 about it.

This year’s list was even a little more smarmy because they decided to put Amanda Knox (no. 92) on the list, as in the girl who was accused (and convicted, but it was overturned) of murdering her abroad roommate. I don’t know about everyone else, but I think that’s going a little too far. Yeah, she’s a very pretty girl, but come on, she was convicted of murder. It’s just tacky and attention-seeking.

oscar snubs, and why the oscars don’t really matter

One thing that I have grown accustom to is watching those Oscar bait movies that always end up occurring at the end of the year -so they’re able to qualify for the upcoming Oscars whilst still being fresh in Academy voters’ minds.

Now, of course, the Oscars have always been a source of debate over who should be nominated, which spills over to the who should have been nominated and who should not have been nominated categories. This year, for whatever reason, it seems like many people who deserved to be nominated didn’t get nominated.

Personally, the Oscars are, and have been, extremely political. Voters also like to give the awards to people who have “earned” it over their career -see Kate Winslet, Nicole Kidman, no doubt Leonardo DiCaprio in about five years. To me, this is bull s***. Can’t you give them a freaking lifetime achievement Oscar? Yes, the merit isn’t exactly the same, but it doesn’t make sense to give what is essentially a pity award to someone undeserving for their current work over someone who truly deserved the award. Unfortunately, the Oscar voters are crotchety old men who are probably more senile than critical.

Anyway, in my opinion, one of the most deserving actors was left off of the list this year -Shailene Woodley for her role in The Descendants. I think she carried the film more so than George Clooney, who was nominated for best actor. Maybe voters couldn’t get over the fact that she’s on The Secret Life of the American Teenager, or maybe they thought hey! She’s young, she’s still got time. Whatever the reason, I think it’s a shame and a most definite snub to Woodley. I think it is also safe to say that the Academy gave Woodley’s spot to Jessica Chastain in The Help, which, while her performance was good, was more worthy of a Golden Globe nom. It was cute, campy, and Chastain pulled it off, but it wasn’t really a hard role to handle in the first place.

Even though the Oscars are seen as the “be all, end all” of the movie world, I really think they’re becoming more and more irrelevant, which is a good thing. Not as many people watch the Oscars, and as a young adult, I can tell you that the strong majority of my friends could not care any less about what movie wins or who gets nominated.

We need to stop glorifying the Oscars for what we perceive them to be. Sure, acting can be tough, but the awards we should really care about are the Nobel Prize and the Pulitzer, among others. Personally, I think it’s a good thing that we’re moving away from the prestige of awards, even though it’s also scary to think that entertainment is becoming just variations of Keeping up with the Kardashians and Jersey Shore. I’m hopeful but I’m not stupid.

names

I like names. I like thinking about names in the context of my future children (if I decide to have children) or future pets (oh, I’ll have pets). I like names a lot actually, like, for some reason, I play “TOP 100 BABY NAMES OF THE NINETIES” on sporcle all the time. IDK! (I play that and Big 4 sports all the time… and somehow never win)

Anyway, here are some names I really like…

an ode to alex

Alex, this one is for you.

i hate twilight

I hate Twilight.

I once tried to read the first book in the series, aptly named Twilight, and I literally couldn’t finish it because it was so poorly written. Seriously, the way Stephenie Meyer (yes, she actually spells Stephanie like that; if I was her I would change it) writes is comparable to the kind of fan fiction you find online that is written by some overdramatic teen girl who likes dangly earrings because she thinks they make her look sophisticated.

I’m actually offended that my sister loves the Twilight series. I was even more offended when she compared them to HARRY POTTER. Seriously, I cannot.

Here’s the thing. In HP4 GoF (if you don’t know what I’m talking about, google it), Robert Pattinson played Cedric Diggory -hottie wizard, overachiever, Hufflepuff’s greatest and only accomplishment. I remember watching GoF and fanning myself because he was so good looking. Let’s revisit:

Oh dear goodness.

When I heard he was going to be cast as Edward Cullen, the hottest vampire ever, I was excited regardless that it was a dumb book because I thought RPattz was hot enough to overlook that detail. Ha. Oh how wrong I was.

Seriously? This is the best you can do? He is pale and weird and sparkly and just all-around not cute. Damn.

But thankfully Water for Elephants decided to come out and we were given this:

Much better. He now has a better haircut, is tan, and most of all, he’s not a sparkly, possessive vampire.