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I finished watching Dance Academy during the week. It was a lot like being hit by a truck, and then the truck reverses over you and the driver gets out to punch you a few times. IT WAS GREAT. ( Spoilers. )
Anyway, one of my weirder hobbies is reading Christian pop culture reviews. This stems back to my childhood, when one of my parents' even-more-conservative-friends, concerned that we kids were being exposed to decadent secular television like, Star Trek and, um, Babar, gave Mum and Dad a book of Catholic movie reviews. They never even cracked the cover, but I read every single review. It was like looking into an alternate universe where Star Trek III: The Search For Spock was a deliberate slap in the face of Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular, and not just a mildly boring movie. I loved it.
These days most of the review sites are run by evangelical Christians in the US -- Catholic reviewers are really into paywalls for some reason -- but I make do.
Anyway, I am especially charmed by this review here (the top one) where the 11 year old reviewer is concerned about the teen angst and semi-nudity, there's also this:
Than she and Kat jump off a BALCONY in their bikini's into a bay, with no idea about what could be down there! A BAY!!!!
A BAY, YOU GUYS! (Actually they jump off a high jetty into Sydney Harbour, and frankly, last time I was in Sydney the Harbour was full of jellyfish, so no thank you. But A BAY!!!!)
My other favourite is a review on one of the other sites that describes Korra as "a spiritually dubious heroine." YES! TENZIN HAS BEEN SAYING THAT ALL ALONG!
(I must point out that, passive-aggressive gifts of Catholic pop culture guides aside, I wouldn't have been allowed to watch Avatar if it had been around when I was in the target age group, and the Asian spiritualities would have been part of the reason why. But the main reason would have been the martial arts -- imitative violence and all that. I have never seen any incarnation of TMNT or Power Rangers.)
(As you can see, my parents' belief that isolating their children from pop culture would produce a family of intellectuals has ... not quite paid off. Sure, my brother's doing a PhD, but you should see his DVD collection!)
Anyway, one of my weirder hobbies is reading Christian pop culture reviews. This stems back to my childhood, when one of my parents' even-more-conservative-friends, concerned that we kids were being exposed to decadent secular television like, Star Trek and, um, Babar, gave Mum and Dad a book of Catholic movie reviews. They never even cracked the cover, but I read every single review. It was like looking into an alternate universe where Star Trek III: The Search For Spock was a deliberate slap in the face of Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular, and not just a mildly boring movie. I loved it.
These days most of the review sites are run by evangelical Christians in the US -- Catholic reviewers are really into paywalls for some reason -- but I make do.
Anyway, I am especially charmed by this review here (the top one) where the 11 year old reviewer is concerned about the teen angst and semi-nudity, there's also this:
Than she and Kat jump off a BALCONY in their bikini's into a bay, with no idea about what could be down there! A BAY!!!!
A BAY, YOU GUYS! (Actually they jump off a high jetty into Sydney Harbour, and frankly, last time I was in Sydney the Harbour was full of jellyfish, so no thank you. But A BAY!!!!)
My other favourite is a review on one of the other sites that describes Korra as "a spiritually dubious heroine." YES! TENZIN HAS BEEN SAYING THAT ALL ALONG!
(I must point out that, passive-aggressive gifts of Catholic pop culture guides aside, I wouldn't have been allowed to watch Avatar if it had been around when I was in the target age group, and the Asian spiritualities would have been part of the reason why. But the main reason would have been the martial arts -- imitative violence and all that. I have never seen any incarnation of TMNT or Power Rangers.)
(As you can see, my parents' belief that isolating their children from pop culture would produce a family of intellectuals has ... not quite paid off. Sure, my brother's doing a PhD, but you should see his DVD collection!)
