Review of Showtime's Weeds

The hook of the NBC’s show Weeds is the theme song “ Little Boxes” by Malvina Reynolds. The song is a brillant and searing critique of suburbia. She sings in a folksy soprano “ little boxes/ on hillside/ little boxes made out of tick-tacky/little boxes on the hillside/ and they all look just the same” as a montage of images of the same people go into coffee shops, pull out of the driveway and going on morning jogs. This captures the aim of Weeds exactly.
The show is centered around Nancy Botwin, a suburban housewife played by a sexy Mary Louise Parker, who, after facing the death of her husband and no way to support her two sons, turns towards the business of selling pot. The entire plot is centered on Nancy’s budding career as a stoic marijuana dealer and the complications this imposes. The cast of characters provides a comic depiction of the archetypal suburban population. There is Doug, who is played by Kevin Nealon, a hopelessly aloof dope smoking CPA who is Nancy’s best customer and city councilor, Celia a frigid, bitter housewife who is also the president of the PTA but hates her own kids. There are also her two rebellious sons, Silas the emo teenager who is in love with a deaf girl, and Shane, an ostracized middle school outcast who is dealing with his father’s death by shooting mountain lions and assaulting his nemesis with pink goo via with a super soaker. The suppliers that provide Nancy with her marijuana are a little too stereotypical and serve to illustrate juxtaposition between white middle class suburbia and black lower middle class life in a way that borders on offensive. The fast talking, money grubbing black matriarch, the pregnant young women whose only purpose is gossiping, and the handsome hypersexual black man who has an affinity for old cars and Pilates are unoriginal and unimaginative. I get that the purpose is to highlight a disjuncture between the two lifestyles, but the characters do not add complexity and therefore seems irrelevant and one-dimensional.
Weeds wouldn’t have been able to develop character complexity if the plot wasn’t strictly centered on the monotony of everyday life. There are no melodramatic moments in the first season of Weeds. The fall back drama of infidelity in television is turned on its head when Celia, who has found out her husband is cheating on her with a cute Asian tennis instructor, proceeds to get drunk with her and halfheartedly calls her a slut while tipping her glass toward the bartender for a refill. The most climatic moment of the first season is Nancy, who while picking up marijuana at her dealers house experiences a drive by shooting. The absurdity of suburbia would not have been possible if there was more action. The off kilter humor of that makes the show what it is, is illustrated perfectly in the scene, where Doug and Nancy’s slacker brother in law that tries to fill in for father figure share a bowl and muse on complexity of language. While trying to decide what the best word for “taint” is Lupita, the household maid is asked “ What is thing called between the dick and the asshole?’ and she replies “The coffee table.”

The show, at first watch is about a mother who partakes in the illicit career as a drug dealer. However, it uses this as a jumping off point to expose the figurative” weeds” that stubbornly pops up in the quest for perfection and normalcy that suburbia is supposed to represent. It is a show as much about the addiction to middle class comfort as it is about the addiction to marijuana. The characters seem absurd but not unlike the people one would meet if the suburbs of any major city, or anyone for that matter. The show makes it clear that everyone would be better off if we embraced our neuroses. Nancy and her dysfunctional crew serve to remind us that letting go of the pursuit of perfection and facing the weeds of our own ridiculous lives are in the long run, are a much better high.

Review of Fried Green Tomatoes

" The secret of Life? The secrets in the sauce." One of my favorite quotes from one of my favorite movies, Fried Green Tomatoes. The story begins with Evelyn Couch, an overweight, unhappy housewife who meets Ninny Threadgoode, a spunky old lady in a nursing home who begins to tell the story of Idgie Threadgoode and her friendship with Ruth Jamison. Her story is set in depression era Alabama and centers on the dramatic murder of Ruth's abusive husband and the racial conflict of their town.The climax of the movie is when Ruth dies of cancer and the effects it has on Idgie and Evelyn's realization that Ninnie and Idgie are the same person. As Ninnie continues to tell her story Evelyn slowly gains confidence and the two form a beautiful friendship despite their difference in age. When Evelyn offers Ninnie a room in her housefor the rest of her days, Ninnie accepts.
There are many reasons why I love this movie. It was a staple movie in my household growing up, one of the only movies that my entire family could agree on watching so it certainly has nostalgic value. More than that, it is story about the power of female friendship that I have wanted to emulate since I was a little girl. Although I have certainly never murdered my best friend's abusive husband, I might consider it after a night watching Fried Green Tomatoes.

Review of favorite album. Ani DiFranco's Living in Clip.

Choosing a favorite album is a tricky and confusing process. There is that album that reminds you of days past, the "nostalgia" album. There is the extreme rock out, dance by yourself at home, clothes optional album. Then there is my personal favorite, the deep, thought provoking album that has changed your worldview. Very few albums fit into all three categories. Ani DiFranco's Living in Clip is one of those albums for me. A live album, recorded in 1997, has been one of the only albums that has ceased to change or lessen its message and influence over time. I was introduced to this album at 16, at a time where my views of the world were just starting to emerge. The diversity and depth of this album has continued to reveal itself to me in the past eight years.I can say, hands down, that this album introduced me to feminism, which eventually lead into social justice and Columbia College. Ani's vocal range, the deep booming growl to the kittenish soprano musical caress is all highlighted in this album. Her decided "girl rock" songs are poetry and life lesson all rolled into one. Living in Clip has enticed me to dance around my apartment more than once alone, it has brought tears and gut wrenching anger to the surface, and more importantly, it continues to. There is not a track on the two disc album that I don't love, that I can't relate to whether in experience or memory. It is one of those alums that has on a fundamental level, changed me and the course of my life.

Review of Howard Brown's Art Exhibits

Howard Brown is not an art gallery. It is an organization dedicated to providing service to Gay, Lesbian,Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer folks in the Lakeview neighborhood. It is a stunning building, tall and majestic and made of glass. Walking in is in itself a little intimidating, especially considering the reasons why a friend and I were there, we were looking for sculptures. The confused look on the man at the front desk and a suggestion to check the third floor made it clear that looking for art galleries on Metromix was a grave mistake. We started at the "sculpture" installation, a series of life perservers mounted on the wall in different types of fabric. I suppose the concept was interesting enough, highlighting the diverse ways in which people are treated and saved from the various issues confronting the GLBTQ community. However, if I may be frank, it was boring. The initial "wow"factor of the symbolism was soon lost and there was left simply a row of life preservers stapled on the wall.
We then moved on to what was probably not considered a gallery, it was simply a wall full of the clients artwork. Some of it was impressive to be sure, a board with nails with a pair of wax lips in the middle that resembled Mick Jagger, a flamboyant coat made entirely of rooster feathers and red velvet, an ethereal distorted picture of an African-American woman singing into a microphone. However, its proximity to the bathroom and the lack of proper lighting and general ambiance made it decidedly not worth the time.
We were about to leave, dissapointed and panic stricken about our assignment, when the wall in a little common area caught our eye. There was an entire wall filled with huge horizontal photographs of what looked like neighborhoods. At further glance, it was clear that there were digitally enhanced and were actually painted over. The result was striking, it was a perfect cross between painting and photography.The images were familiar enough, but the colors brighter, the familiar landmarks crisper and slightly manipulated. One of the pictures was on the el, with random people photographed and put into the picture so that the result was a mix of familiarity and fantasy. It looked almost real, save the slightly cartoonish quality of the man dressed in all black carrying a bright pink gift or the child wearing winter clothes on what seemed to be a summer day. There was also a picture of the corner of Belmont and Clark, and only if you really looked was it obvious that there were random dogs running around, or that the store names were switched so that the Pink Frog became the Frog Pink, or that there was three pictures of the same person in the Starbucks. It seemed that it was a slight tweaking of reality, in which the playful and odd spirit of Chicago was highlighted through this not quite but almost upside down world.
The artist Archer Coe, has lived in Chicago for over eight years, and his inspiration grew from the diversity of Chicago's inhabitants. It is said that he used over 400 images in one composite and mixes photography, illustration, and graphic design to produce his work. The result is breathtaking, as if you are seeing the Chicago you love through someobody else's and falling in love with it all over again.