Category: Junior Literary

Hello everyone! Since you guys seemed to like my previous blog “My Top Ten Favorite 80s Movies” I figured I should just go ahead and do 90s too! I will be excluding horror movies since they would most likely take up a lot of this list. I’m going to try to focus on my favorites to watch and the ones that impacted me the most. Anyways, spoiler alert and lets dive in!

CONTENT WARNING: Some of these films are not the happiest nor do they touch on light subject matter. Reader discretion is advised.

 

10. Clueless

If you’re a movie lover you already know all about Clueless. Our main character is Cher (Alicia Silverstone.) She is shallow, rich and socially successful, though I find her kind of dumb. Seeing herself as a matchmaker, Cher first coaxes two teachers into dating each other to help herself get better grades in their classes. Her reasoning was iffy but at least she did something?  Next, she decides to give hopelessly klutzy new student Tai (Brittany Murphy) a makeover. When Tai becomes more popular than she is, Cher realizes that her disapproving ex-stepbrother (Paul Rudd) was right about how misguided she was — and falls for him.

9. American History X

Oh what a transition from Clueless to this… If you watched this movie I am honestly surprised. Our main character here is a neo-Nazi by the name of Derek Vinyard (Edward Norton.) The opening scene shows us how he ends up going to prison after killing two black youths who tried to steal his car. This is how I found out about curb stomping. Honestly, it was very hard for me to watch. Upon his release, Derek vows to change his ways in hopes to prevent his younger brother, Danny (Edward Furlong) from following in his footsteps. I think its funny how their actors have the same first name. Anyways, as he struggles with his own deeply ingrained prejudices and things like that he watches their mother grow sicker, Derek wonders if his family can overcome a lifetime of hate. I definitely recommend this movie. It was so interesting for me to watch. It also impacted me a ton.

 

8. Boys Don’t Cry

Gah, this one is worse than American History X. Regardless of that this movie stands on its own for so many reasons. Our main character is a ftm transgender man named Brandon Teena (Hilary Swank.) He escapes his hometown under threat when his ex-girlfriend’s brother discovers that he was assigned female at birth. He did not like it at all and started trying to seriously hurt or kill Brandon. Brandon finally in the small town of Falls City, Nebraska, falls for Lana (Chloë Sevigny), an aspiring singer, and begins to plan for their future together without letting her know about his transition. This is where things get bad and I really had to close my eyes. Lana’s ex-convict friends, John (Peter Sarsgaard) and Tom (Brendan Sexton III), learn Brandon’s secret and things change from friendly to violent very quickly. I cried so many times while watching this movie. It was so moving and so incredibly sad. 10/10.

 

7. The Parent Trap

Back to the lighter movies now. The Parent Trap was one of my absolute favorite movies as a kid. I always wanted to go to the little summer camp where they met. Oh yeah, if you haven’t seen this movie its about twins named Annie and Hallie both played by Lindsey Lohan. They were separated at birth but now have found each other at this summer camp. The funny thing is that their divorced parents are living on opposite sides of the Atlantic, each with one child. After meeting at camp, the twins decide to swap lives so they could get to know their other parent. There’s a montage with a Beatles song behind it which is so fun. They give each other lessons on how to act like the other as well BUT PLOT TWIST, their father is getting engaged and they have to devise a plan to stop it and get their parents back together. 

 

6. Practical Magic

I know I said no horror, which is good because this isn’t a horror movie. I remember the first time I watched this movie. The whole atmosphere of the movie was just so interesting to me. It’s about two witches, Sally (Sandra Bullock) and Gillian Owens (Nicole Kidman), born into a magical family. The story goes on and Gillian the more promiscuous one leaves home and travels around the country going from man to man, but when one of Gillian’s boyfriends, Jimmy Angelov, dies unexpectedly (murdered by sally because he was a douche bag.) During some of the opening scenes of the movie young Sally casts a spell to create a man who doesn’t exist to fall in love with her. She does this after witnessing some dark parts of love which makes her want to never fall in love. After the murder the police start to investigate. Surprisingly we get detective Gary Hallet who looks exactly like the man Sally made a spell for when she was younger. The girls try to escape by using magic, but instead of resurrecting Jimmy, they get something much more dangerous.

 

Thank you all for reading this week and make sure to keep up with next week because I’ll be doing part two of this series! Feel free to comment your favorite 90s movies too! See ya!

Full disclosure, I have no blog for this week! For the first time literally this entire year, writer’s block and/or lack of planning has gotten me. Alas, even I was not immune. However, I do find it interesting that it was blogs that eventually broke me. I always assumed it would be playwriting, or perhaps a particularly difficult prose assignment, on the off chance, poetry I had no inspiration for. In all honesty, I had half a hopeful mind that writer’s block wouldn’t lay her ugly hands upon me until I hit essays in Comp. English. Looks as if that was a bit too ambitious for me, though. 

Luckily, I do have some sort of an idea. I want to talk about one of my two favorite authors, Rainbow Rowell. Rainbow Rowell is the genius behind one of my favorite books, Fangirl, and the Simon Snow series. Now, though her books may not be the most action packed things, I never read action books, anyway. But Rowell has this beautiful way of capturing moments, a way that makes me beyond envious as a prose writer and (hopefully) future novelist. 

In Rowell’s books, moments like that first kiss are so magical that the emotions are spilling off the page and into my chest. Moving into a college dorm is so well portrayed that the anxiety of the main character is leaking out into my own stomach. Homesickness is so potent that it’s floating up to nestle in my brain, and I don’t even have a home to miss. It’s something about the way that Rowell writes emotional moments that just strike directly on the heartstrings, and I think I’ve slightly unraveled why those moments hit my heartstrings so hard, in particular. 

It’s because I’m in love with those moments. And not just the book moments of slaying the villain or getting the guy or starting a new life; the real moments, my moments. The moments of sitting in the dark with my roommate, staring out of makeshift minecraft dorm windows and feeling infinite. The feeling of taking two of my new best friends to Jack’s for coffee and laughing so hard my sides ache. The feeling of sitting at a desk in a classroom I never thought I could love so much and watching in wonder as a story makes it’s way out of my head. The times when I watch movies from my childhood on a borrowed playstation from a school issues mattress that’s sitting on the floor. Ordering Domino’s and laughing while we have existential crisis on the red tables outside the Phoenix. Taking walks along the campus coated in fall foliage and feeling alive for the first time in far too long. 

It’s these moments, brought to me by my life at MSA, and reflected perfectly in Rowell’s amazing writing, that I live for. The moments that live for me. And I desperately hope that each and every one of you gets to experience one soon, because they’re something that is better than even Rowell can describe. 

Sincerely, someone who’s living for his Carry On moments. 

I think I’ve said this a lot of times before, but music is a big influence in my work along with some of these shows. Most, if not all, have changed my perspective of things in some way. Whether it be just a silly animated comedy, or a hearth thumping K-drama, they’ve all changed me and help me to write about experiences and situations I wouldn’t be able to fully capture without them.

 

The Uncanny Counter

There is so much I want to say about this show, but for the sake of time I’m going to try to sum up everything I like about it. So, it’s kind of hard to explain with this show about, because it follows a lot of different plots within the show, all the while focusing on a certain goal. So our main character, So Moon, survived a car crash that unfortunately kills his parents and ends up leaving him with a horrible leg injury that he eventually has to use a crutch for when he gets older. Years later, after another Counter dies the soul of someone ends up entering his body in a hurry to not be eaten by an evil spirit. This soul ends of giving So Moon his powers, fixing his condition so long as he joins a team of more Counters. Counters are humans that take down evil spirits with the help of other souls. An important thing to mention is that you have to be in a coma or close to death in order to become a Counter, which So Moon hasn’t done either. This helps him to gain advantages. There are a lot more information about this, but you really have to watch the show in order to understand. My favorite character would have to be Mo-tak, his character attachment to So Moon is so wholesome.

Itaewon Class

I don’t want to give too much away, but the entire show is basically about determination. There are a lot of factors that play into the plot and a lot of twist and turns that help keep the audience engaged which is something I really love about this show. Park Saeroyi, played by Park Seo-joon, is an ex-convict who aspires to open a restaurant dedicated to his father who was killed by his “bully” in a car accident. But things don’t go as plan when the father of his father’s killer create obstacles and set-backs in order to “teach Saeroyi a lesson of staying in one’s place”. And as much as I should hate the antagonist, I just really think he’s an adorable old man. One of the things I love the most about this Kdrama is inclusiveness. Before this show came out there were rarely, if not none, black people shown in Kdramas. I think the timing of releasing this show really helped to highlight anti-blackness in East Asian media. 

Hilda

This show absolutely got me through the pandemic. The thing I love the most about it was the animation and how aesthetically pleasing everything looked. Hilda will always and forever be my favorite comfort character. I love that she’s brave and willing to put everything on the line for friendship and adventure. 

Steven Universe Future

I love the original Steven Universe just as much as the next person. The plotline and animation were immaculate and it really stood out from other cartoon shows. Not to mention the soundtrack. There is so much to love about this show including it’s inclusiveness and insight to a spectrum to a lot of different things that’s going on in the real world. However, I especially like Steven Universe Future more because it was about healing. You always see these teenage/kids go on the big adventures, battling demons, and making tough decisions  throughout any childhood TV show, but to show the harmful affects of that is so eye-opening. I really love that Steven grew up to eventually deal with the trauma that he went through as a child. Steven taught me that self-care and mental health is just as important than anything else.

hello! as you can tell from my super clever and not at all cheesy and overdone title, i will be discussing the ups and downs (mostly downs) of my nanowrimo experience. for those of you who aren’t sure what that means (count yourself as lucky, please) nanowrimo stands for ‘national novel writing month’, which takes place throughout november.

upon hearing about nanowrimo, i knew it wouldn’t be super easy for me, but i also didn’t worry too much about it because hey, it’s the beginning of school, november is sooooo far away, right? wrong!! so, so very wrong. i genuinely think that if i had prepared myself better and started brainstorming immediately, i could have had a lot of fun with it, but november hit, and i found that my brain was utterly and absolutely empty. vacant. there were cobwebs.

i eventually got an idea that i thought i could possibly go with. i built this idea solely because i created two characters that i genuinely love and believe in. i was really stumped on what story i wanted to tell, and i scrapped several different plots before i realized that it doesn’t work that way for me because that isn’t how i myself read and consume other media. when i read/watch something, it isn’t normally the plot that interests me- it’s the characters. that’s when i decided that creating characters that i love would provide me with the opportunity to build a world around them that i could grow to love also.

the characters that i created and their dynamic is one that reflects the type of things i like to read. two childhood friends who both want to be more, but something is getting in the way. a loner who has experienced a tragic loss and his only friend in the world, learning to navigate life and love in their teen years.

has it been done before? certainly. will it continue to be done until the end of time? most likely. but since i was embarking on the already heavy task of writing a novel in a single month, i decided to write something that i never have before- a romance. when i thought about the kind of stories that i love, my mind immediately went to the couples in those stories. i’m a self-admitted hopeless romantic, but i’ve never personally explored the genre for fear of being…being… too sappy, i guess. the things that i typically write about are rather dark or solemn, and the idea of writing a conventional love story was somewhat foreign and intimidating. but i went with it, and i can’t say that i regret it.

so, emma, why have you written this blog about your own struggles with an assignment? no one wants to hear about it.

well, maybe not, but i want to talk about it anyway. although the experience wasn’t seamless for me, i’m genuinely grateful to be in an environment where my teacher believes in me enough to say, “write a novel in a month. i know you can do it.” because i certainly didn’t believe that i could. i got out of my comfort zone of unsettling short stories and wrote thousands of words about deep friendship and unrequited love, which wasn’t a breeze for me. it took a lot of brainstorming, playlist making, and favorite-tv-show-rewatching, but i did it, and i’d be lying if i said i wasn’t kinda proud. a rare experience for me indeed.

’til next week, enjoy the mini playlist i created for my novel (if you dare) 🙂

novel mini playlist

near you always- jewel

some things last a long time- daniel johnston

iris- the goo goo dolls

american pie- don mclean

wouldn’t it be nice- the beach boys

I was struggling to find a blog topic to write about this week, so I decided to go back to what I am good at – Comfort. Whether it be comfort characters, movies, or in this case- songs, I genuinely enjoy sharing what comforts me, just as much as I learning about other peoples comforts! 

IU – Love Poem

As a huge fan of the artist IU, I have to say that I am totally in love with everything she writes/sings, but this song in particular is just so melodically beautiful and soothing to the ears. I have a habit of listening to this song when I can’t sleep or when my mind seems to be going too haywire.

If you are open to listening to songs in different languages, I highly suggest this one. 1000000/10

Bruno Major – The Most Beautiful Thing

As you may have figured out by this point, I am a sucker for a good love song. I do claim my status as a hopeless romantic, and I think this song is literally the hopeless romantics anthem. It’s basically all about knowing that one day you will find a extraordinary love, but until then all you can do is dream about it. Other than the incredible lyrics– I am in love with Bruno Major’s voice in general. His voice is just so soothing.

100000000000/10

Van Morrison – Moondance

Surprise! Another happy lil love song. While this one is a tad bit jazzier than the others, It is still in the same court. What can I say? I just happen to be comforted by all love songs. Anyways, I have loved this song ever since the first time I heard it, and it never fails to bring me comfort. I love listening to this when I’m writing and pretending as if I am in a little jazz café.

100000000/10

Your Turn!

I would love to hear about yall’s comfort songs too! It is really fun to see all the different types of music that bring people joy! 

Anyways, bye lol

— Adelel

So, it appears that this little Nostalgia November series draws to a close. It just so happens that I found four movies exactly when I was perusing Disney+, which means that, coincidentally, I had just enough to execute this series. That does, unfortunately, mean that this is our last installment. “All good things must come to an end”, as they say, so, last but not least, the Wizards of Waverly Place Movie. 

First things first, a plot of this movie: After a stunt of taking the Subway car out for a joyride, Alex is forced to go on a family vacation with the Russo’s, which, thanks to her escapades, is now a magic free vacation, much to the siblings dismay. Of course, when they arrive in Columbia, tensions rise between Alex and her mother, and when Alex happens to be holding the most powerful magical items in the family, she of course breaks and utters the “I WISH YOU AND DAD HAD NEVER MET!” line, giving us our plot. Now, thanks to her accidental spell, the siblings have forty eight hours to reverse the magic, lest they fade out of reality forever. Max is dispatched to keep the parents turned strangers out of trouble, and Alex and Justin set off on a discord filled adventure with a local Magician/ex-wizard and his evil Parrot/ex-human Jazelle, to find the Stone of Dreams, a magical artifact that can reverse any spell. A quicksand pit, a few riddles and fall risks, a betrayal via rainbow fowl, two disappearing brothers, and a wizard duel later, Alex gets the stone and managed to reverse the spell, resulting in a now very happy family. Typical Disney writing. 

Now, granted, this movie is the epitome of overdone, awful Disney acting. The relationship between Alex and Justin is so overdone, Alex’s reaction to the tragedy of losing her brothers is obviously faked, and the portrayal of their parents is, to say the least, half baked. But, harsh comments aside, Alex is still iconic in her character, and the plot writing isn’t honestly that bad. Very cheesy in that Disney channel way, of course, but I mean come on. The movie has an evil parrot. That has to count for something based off of chaos factor alone. 

Next, there’s the actual costuming. Frankly, the costuming in this movie was not that great. The only redeemable thing is the dresses Alex’s mom wears, because we do NOT discuss the outfit they put poor Selena Gomez in for this film. Even for 2000’s “fashion” trends, those hideous white boots were pushing it. However, it is worth mentioning we see Justin in a white tank top, and a swimsuit, so there is something to be said, and no I will not repent in saying it. David Henrie is attractive. Plus, the mom’s dresses really were kinda pretty. Still, though, Scooby Doo movies take the award for costuming. 

Then, of course, there’s the actual magic of this movie. Now, I’ve always been a bit of a heavy critic when it comes to magic systems; they’re something I value greatly in all of my nerdiness. However, the magic system for WOWP always did have a certain charm. I like how the spells seem almost invented on the spot, it might not be the most realistically functioning magic system for the actual characters, but it encourages creativity when I inevitably insert myself into the world being created story lines in my head. (Come on, Literaries, we all do it.) Plus, the actual animations they used for the magic isn’t all that bad, especially considering the fact that the movie released in the 2000’s. 

However, this movie was quite possibly one of the biggest nostalgia hits of the series. I still vividly remember sitting on the living room carpet and waving my hand around while I uttered my own awful encantations, pretending to be Alex. And that, folks, is the reason I do not regret rewatching this and even recommend you do so, too. Until next time! 

Sincerely, someone who still thinks he could have won that wizard duel. 

Hello everyone and welcome back to my blogs! This week we’ll be going into another huge part of my personality and or childhood up-bringing. Pokémon. I can remember playing the games on my DS, collecting cards, stuffed animals, watching the movies, and watching the series too. So, in this blog, I’ll be ranking my favorite characters from the first few seasons/movies and the games. After this I will consider doing my favorite Pokémon if you guys would like that. Anyways, let’s just get started.

10.  Duplica

Duplica is first seen in episode 37 of Indigo League. She is a Ditto trainer who is also a type of magician in a way? She likes to show off her mimicking tricks since that’s what Ditto does. Her ditto can turn into any Pokémon, but for some reason it cannot figure out the eyes. It always has the same eyes. This is where Ash and his friends come in and try to help after meeting them and fighting with Team Rocket.

9. Gary Oak (Indigo League) 

A lot of people don’t like Gary, grandson of Professor Oak. Though he is very cocky and full of himself, I find it funny. It’s enjoyable to see the rivalry between him and Ash. It always gives us something to work for in the show and also adds a comedic aspect with his little posse of cheerleaders that follow him around.

8. Team Rocket 

I think that Team Rocket is actually a fan favorite. I find them so funny in a way that you would look at a newborn puppy trying to climb up stairs. They show up in almost every episode and are the main ‘antagonists’ in the series. They also have a talking Meowth that adds another aspect of comedy. They are just so enjoyable to watch.

 

7. Dawn

Dawn is the female lead in the Sinnoh region season. I absolutely love dawn. She’s very independent and witty, but also goofy when she fails at something. She is different from Ash in the way that she wants to train Pokémon. Ash wants to be a Pokémon master, and Dawn wants to be a famous pageant winner. Her Piplup (shown in the picture) is also one of my favorite Pokémon of the season because of its personality. It’s very enjoyable to watch.

6. Ash (Indigo League)

Ash is the main character in all of the seasons. I love him the most in this season because he’s a new trainer and the dynamic and character development between him and his Pikachu. His ambition and the fact that he still has a lot to learn make the show work in my opinion. He is different from other trainers in this way. He has a deep deep love for every Pokémon he owns. My favorite episode is the one where he finds the abandoned Charmander and decides to rescue him.

 

Thank you so much for reading this week! Keep an eye out for next week’s part, it will have more characters from the games too! Make sure to leave a comment and let me know who your favorite Pokémon characters are!

Steven Universe is one of my favorite T.V shows to watch. Steven Universe first aired on November 4th, 2013, that seems like such a long time ago! This showed inspired me in such an artistic way. Different types of rocks and crystals have always been something that I have enjoyed, so seeing that there was a show being made about these things made my heart ecstatic. There are many different types of gems in this show and I will be showing my top 5 favorite! 

5. Blue Diamond

4. Bismuth

3. Peridot

2.Malachite

1.Opal

How I came up with my favorite gems was based off of their appearance, personality, and background. There are so many loveable characters in this show that it can be hard to choose, but for my honorable mention I’m going to have to absolutely give it away to Garnet.

Hello, Blog world! The journey of delving into my childhood nostalgia continues, and so do my bubbly childhood memories. In all honesty, this series was perfectly timed in my life. As many of you here in blog world have showcased, I can relate in saying it’s been a little rough lately. However, this series, and the little boost of nostalgic childhood serotonin it provides for me, is the perfect perfectly timed pick me up. So, we continue with this week’s installment of Sky High. 

Now, the backstory: Will Stronghold, son of The Commander and Jetstream, the world’s most renowned superheroes, begins his freshman year of high school at the Superhero Academy of Sky High. Of course, in typical Disney movie fashion, all the tropes are there. There’s his best friend Layla, who is able to manipulate nature, and is also in love with him. There are the bullies such as Speed and Lash, superspeed and elastic stretching powers, respectively, and Penny, the duplicating cheerleader/entire squad. There’s his nemesis Warren Peace (fantastic naming choice) who can throw fire, and his friends in Zack, human glowstick, Magenta, shapeshifter/guinea pig extraordinaire, Ethan, who melts on command. However, there is also the nice presenting mean girl Gwen Greyson, a technopath. 

In addition to the traditional tropes such as Layla being in love with Will, Will ignoring her for the popular girl, Warren and Will eventually becoming friends, etc. etc., there’s also the situation of Will actually discovering his powers, which doesn’t happen until about midway through the movie. I actually think it was an interesting choice to cast him as a misfit first, it gives him an avenue for his redemption ark later. 

Now, there are definitely some problematic areas in this movie. For example, There’s Jetstream, who is literally nothing more than a supporting role to her hero husband. But most importantly, there’s the entire Hero/Sidekick dynamic. In this world, students are sorted into hero or sidekick classes, one of which being much more coveted, respected, and rewarded than the other; and I bet you can guess which one.  

This is obviously a blatant metaphor for discrimination/classism, and even racism/homophobia if you look at it in the right light. Now, at the end of the movie, the above named group of “sidekicks” save the day and start achieving equality, blah blah blah, but the fact that this was even a thing just doesn’t sit right with me. Though, I suppose it’s good that the writer’s gave it that ending, since that’s more than other films from this and earlier eras. 

However, there is also something good worth mentioning about this dynamic. It’s misfit representation. That, I know, is definitely one of the things that drew me to this film when I was younger. I was never one for the romance aspect, quite frankly it made eight year old me fake vomit. The power system, I of course, lived for, as I do for anything superpower related. But it was this idea, this picture, of people who didn’t fit in, people who were looked down upon, who were actual heroes that stuck with me. It was very reassuring for an eight year old outcast. 

All in all, some slight problematic writing aside, this movie is still a good one. It’s got that nostalgia/comfort factor, and re-watching it, I see why. It’s even got that uplifting message if you look close enough. I would still recommend it, though I’ll definitely criticize it, too. Regardless, glad I watched. Until next time, everyone! 

Sincerely, someone who still thinks Layla and Warren should have ended up together <3