Degrassi and Super Size Me

I'm feeling nasty today. For some reason, I couldn't fall asleep and only slept for about 4 hours. So now I have a headache and I'm exhausted. My eye is swelling up again, so I guess I'm reacting to something.

However, while flipping through channels, I managed to catch the Degrassi "School's Out" movie, and hear the immortal line, "You were fucking Tessa Campanelli!" That line made a list of greatest moments in Canadian television. I never realized that there was so much Gowan playing during that little movie. Tessa and Joey first get it on to "Moonlight Desires." I was also fascinated by Yick Yu's long hair, and Spike's badly coloured eyebrows.

Last night I watched "Super Size Me". I thought it was absolutely brilliant and really enjoyed the film. I think the message was quite clear and it probably inspired a lot of people to think about the fast food industry. It was actually somewhat painful to watch, as filmmaker Morgan Spurlock does look pretty darn sick and gross at the end of the movie.

I highly recommend watching the special features on the DVD. I watched some of the interviews, and some of the scenes with commentary. Included on the DVD is a little experiment where Morgan attempts to let McFood rot by leaving various burgers and fries in jars. After two and a half months, the fries look exactly the same.

I have several questions for people in Canada-
1. Do schools in Canada have lunch programs? Are there any as subsidized as the ones in the film?
2. I don't recall ever seeing the Super Size items available in Canada. As far as I can recall, the Canadian Super Size was the American large. Or at least, that's what it looked like to me.

( some McMemories, mostly about working there in high school )

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After tooling around the Internet, I am seriously craving more Degrassi. So if anyone is ever in a video store in Vancouver and sees the seasons available for rental on DVD, please let me know. I can't find them in my area, but I haven't looked that hard yet.

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After more tooling around the Internet, I have solved my own problem. Zip.ca has Season 1 and 2 available for rental. It's probably not a bad idea to sign up for the Zip service, since I might need it during the Oscar project. So far I haven't had any trouble finding any of the titles I need, but as I near the final 17, it might get a bit more difficult.

While searching the Internet for Degrassi, I also found these fine items. . The book of essays about Degrassi and youth identity looks like something I would love.


In case you haven't noticed, yes, I'm incredibly dorky. And I can't really explain my fascination with teen culture, it just is what it is.

What I've been reading lately

1. The Nettle spinner by Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer- This is an interesting first novel which wove together a Flemish folk tale with a story about a girl in a treeplanting camp. I didn't think it was a brilliant novel, but I did enjoy it. The details were rich, and the description of treeplanting was bang on. There were so many small details that were examined here such as how treeplanting makes you horny, the repetitiveness of it, the strangeness of the lifestyle, and the weird things that can happen. I enjoyed it just because of these details.

2. The Earth, My Butt and other big round things- by Carolyn Mackler- I adored this book. When I first saw it, I was intrigued by the title. My intrigue grew again when I heard a woman at Kidsbooks describing it to someone. It's a YA novel about a girl who is ashamed of her weight and who feels that she doesn't fit in in her perfect family. However, when her brother is found guilty of daterape and gets kicked out of Columbia, she begins to wrestle with her self image, her identity and the way things really are. I loved it. Reading stuff like this really makes me realize that at some point, I will be writing YA. THe more I think about it and consider it, the more it makes sense and seems like a logical choice for me. I just wish I felt ready to write a novel. I still don't feel comfortable starting one yet.

3. Dharma Punx- by Noah Levine. An excellent book for anyone interested in Buddhism. Noah, who is actually the son of Buddhist author, Stephen Levine, started out life as a rebel punk addicted to alcohol and drugs. After spending some time in the clink and having some pretty shitty experiences, he cleans up and discovers spirituality and becomes a meditation teacher and practitioner. It's a really interesting look at how a person chooses to change their life. It's also interesting because he starts out very involved in the punk scene and remains very into the scene, even as a Buddhist. In his mind, Buddhism and punk have a lot of the same anti-establishment, not happy with capitalism mentality and goals. Very interesting. [Bad username or site: @ livejournal.com], I think you would really like this book.

4. Under the Banner of Heaven- Jon Krakauer- B* and I participate in a book exchange with a lot of our friends. Our friend Allison decided to get a group of people together to exchange books with each other, than come together to discuss them. This was the book I got last month. It's a book about Mormons in America. I was fascinated by the true crime type story of the modern day fundamentalists, but found the history of the Mormons to be rather dull. However, I now feel that I know more about the Mormon religion and am intrigued to learn more about Bountiful (the Mormon community in British Columbia.) I guess that's worth something.