Always Anna

Archive for September, 2005

Broken Dreams

Posted by Anna on September 3rd, 2005

I don’t usually post on the weekend, but I had to post an excerpt from this article about the effect of Katrina, by Matt Wells for BBC News. Click on the excerpt to read the whole thing:

The uneasy paradox which so many live with in this country – of being first-and-foremost rugged individuals, out to plunder what they can and paying as little tax as they can get away with, while at the same time believing that America is a robust, model society – has reached a crisis point this week.

Which reminds of this similar article that I read back in April, by Andrew Moravcsik for Newsweek International:

The truth is that Americans are living in a dream world. Not only do others not share America’s self-regard, they no longer aspire to emulate the country’s social and economic achievements. The loss of faith in the American Dream goes beyond this swaggering administration and its war in Iraq. A President Kerry would have had to confront a similar disaffection, for it grows from the success of something America holds dear: the spread of democracy, free markets and international institutionsâ€”globalization, in a word.

Countries today have dozens of political, economic and social models to choose from. Anti-Americanism is especially virulent in Europe and Latin America, where countries have established their own distinctive waysâ€”none made in America. Futurologist Jeremy Rifkin, in his recent book “The European Dream,” hails an emerging European Union based on generous social welfare, cultural diversity and respect for international lawâ€”a model that’s caught on quickly across the former nations of Eastern Europe and the Baltics. In Asia, the rise of autocratic capitalism in China or Singapore is as much a “model” for development as America’s scandal-ridden corporate culture. “First we emulate,” one Chinese businessman recently told the board of one U.S. multinational, “then we overtake.”

Many are tempted to write off the new anti-Americanism as a temporary perturbation, or mere resentment. Blinded by its own myth, America has grown incapable of recognizing its flaws. For there is much about the American Dream to fault. If the rest of the world has lost faith in the American modelâ€”political, economic, diplomaticâ€”it’s partly for the very good reason that it doesn’t work as well anymore.

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Top 5 High School Flicks

Posted by Anna on September 2nd, 2005

I love – LOVE – high school movies. I love the setting, the drama, and the comedy in films that take place against the backdrop of that most confusing of times, high school. And these are my top five:

5. Clueless – I know I’ll get a lot of crap for this one, especially when I’m picking it over Heckerling’s other brilliant high school film, Fast Times at Ridgemont High. I don’t care – Clueless perfectly captures the mid-90s high school scene, in an over-blown, exaggerated way that makes it hilarious. Besides, I’m from California – I’m, like, totally just LIKE Cher. Favorite line:

“Ms. Stoeger, my plastic surgeon doesn’t want me doing any activities where balls fly at my nose.”

“Well, there goes your social life.”
4. 10 Things I Hate About You – A completely brilliant high school adaptation of The Taming of the Shrew. If you’ve seen this movie and don’t like it, I can only assume you are a snob, because this movie has it all: a trashy-romance writing guidance counselor, drunken dancing, love triangles, a fabulous soundtrack, jack*sses getting their comeuppance, and a pre-balding Heath Ledger singing a love song while evading school security. Favorite lines:

“Clever, kangaroo boy. Says here you exposed yourself in the cafeteria?”

“I was joking with the lunch lady. It was a bratwurst.”

“Bratwurst? Aren’t we the optimist? Next time, keep it in your pouch, okay?”

AND

“Hello Katarina. Make anybody cry today?”

“Sadly, no. But it’s only 4:30.”

3. Heathers – The classic dark high school film… and also completely hilarious. Christian Slater and Winona Ryder were particularly amazing, although the rest of cast is fabulous too. I especially love the bizarre scenes with Winona’s parents. Best lines:

“Greetings and salutations”

AND

“I love my dead gay son!”

2. Dazed and Confused – Everyone loves this movie; it’s impossible not to. The guys are cool, the girls are hot, and we get to see Ben Affleck get paint dumped all over him. Awesome. On top of this, the movie does a great job of capturing the era (according to my mom, who has vague recollections of the 70s), and makes us all wish we were in high school back then. Best line:

“What are you looking at? Wipe that face off your head, bitch!”

1. The Breakfast Club – You can’t be surprised. In order to be fair, I had to limit the number of John Hughes/Molly Ringwald movies that could be on this list… and this one is by far the best. The movie does an amazing job of capturing the cliques and alliances that form in high school, the pressures of living up to expectations, and the “sameness” of everyone. You know the best line already, but I’m putting it here anyways:

Dear Mr. Vernon: We accept the fact that we had to sacrifice a whole Saturday in detention for whatever it is we did wrong, but we think you’re crazy for making us write an essay telling you who we think we are. You see us as you want to see us: in the simplest terms, in the most convenient definitions. But what we found out is that each one of us is a brain, and an athlete, and a basket case, a princess, and a criminal. Does that answer your question? Sincerely yours, The Breakfast Club.