Gossip Girl

INFORMATION:

Show Title: Gossip Girl

Network: The CW Television Network

Local Channel: KPLR, or Channel 11.

Time/Day of the Week: Every Wednesday at 8pm.

Cable or Broadcast Channel: Cable.

Syndication: This program is not in syndication.

Production Company: Split between CBS and Warner Bros.

Year of Beginning and End: 2007-present.

Producers: Stephanie Savage, Josh Schwartz, Bob Levy, Leslie Morgenstein

Director: Mark Piznarski

Writers: Cecily von Ziegesar, Stephanie Savage, Josh Schwartz

Stars: Blake Lively, Chace Crawford, Leighton Meester, Kristen Bell, Taylor Momsen, Penn Badgley, Ed Westwick

Q&A:

Based on the book of the same name by Cecily von Ziegesar, this drama gives viewers a peek into the crazy world of a group of upper-class teenagers who attend elite private schools in New York City. Serena (played by Blake Lively) is a popular girl who is sent away to boarding school, leaving her best friend Blair (played by Leighton Meester) behind. One year, Serena returns and quickly finds out that everything has changed. Rumors are flying about why she was sent to boarding school, but no one knows the real reason. Serena has found herself friendless, as Blair has moved on and now only seems to care about her boyfriend Nate, played by Chace Crawford. Serena soon realizes that she does not need her "cool" friends to be happy and moves onto new friends, such as Dan (played by Penn Badgley). During all of the madness, there is an anonymous character that simply goes by "Gossip Girl" who provides a classic narration during the show. The show features numerous cat fights and relationship issues, and there is never a boring moment with Blair fighting to keep her title of "Most Talked About" now that Serena has returned. I first heard about this show in a commercical promoting the season premiere. It looked very interesting, so I watched the season premiere and was immediately hooked. I absolutely love all the one-liners that Gossip Girl (played by Kristen Bell) has to offer about the hilarious situations that the priviledged clique find themselves in. The show is constantly throwing viewers through loops that are never expected and leaving viewers with cliffhanger endings that make the following Wednesday come extremely slowly. There is nothing I really dislike about this show. I would definitely recommend this show to anyone who enjoys programs like "The OC" or "One Tree Hill" because it is the same type of concept. What makes it original is how the writers are not afraid to put the characters in scandalous situations that most shows would not be brave enough to do, and this is what makes the show memorable.

Remembering Radio's Golden Age

My Grandma Terri..I love her!

INFORMATION:

I chose to interview my grandma Terri. She is 66 years old and she still one of the coolest people I know. I look up to her a lot.

CONTENT:

My grandma listened to the radio as far back as she can remember, but she is going to guess that she started when she was about 5 years old. She grew up living with her grandparents and a friend of her grandfather named Luke loved to listen to the radio, especially the news reports. All through her early childhood years, Luke and her would stay up and listen to the news reports and do crossword puzzles. From 7-10pm, my grandma would listen to the radio either with Luke or alone. Her grandparents did not listen to the radio, and her friends weren't allowed to listen to the radio. She grew up in a very small town where most parents considered the radio to be "something that would corrupt young minds." As she got a little older, she began to listen to more entertainment shows rather than news reports. Some of her favorite shows were The Shadow, Amos and Andy, The Green Lantern and Fibber McGee and Molly. Some of her favorite artists to listen to were Jack Benny, Red Skeleton, Chuck Berry, Peggy Lee and Elvis Presley. One of her favorite memories during the golden age of radio was the rebellious nature of listening to the radio that existed in her town. Every weekend, my grandma and her friend Barbara Jean would spend the night at either's house and listen to KUDL in Kansas City, which was a station that played all the music that they would have gotten in trouble for listening to. Another one of her favorite memories was the decoder rings that some entertainment shows used. She loved rushing home from school every day to see what message would be delivered to only those lucky ones who owned such a ring. She said the radio is much different today than it was back then. During the golden age, radio had mainly programs that were solely for entertainment, such as Little Orphan Annie and Stella Dallas, two of her favorites. Music was hardly ever played until the later years of the golden age, and music is the most commonly heard aspect of current radio stations. Not many recurring entertainment series, if any, can be found on today's radio stations. She said the number one thing that younger generations tend to forget is how different entertainment is today than it was when she was growing up. Radio was all they had during those years, but TV now serves as a huge competition for radio. My grandma thinks that younger people do not realize how cool it is to see a TV in every home because this was not at all the case when she was younger. To this day, my grandma is still a huge fan of the radio and misses all of the shows that added so much to her childhood. From this interview, I learned how much of an impact radio had on people who are much older than I am. Most people would not consider radio to be more entertaining than television nowadays, but it was really interesting to hear about days when TV wasn't an option. But even though TV wasn't an option, people like my grandma still feel that their childhood was definitely entertaining thanks to the golden age of radio.

Rascal Flatts

INFORMATION:

Artist: Rascal Flatts
Album Name: Feels Like Today

Popular Songs: Bless the Broken Road, Fast Cars and Freedom, Feels Like Today, Skin

Record Label: Lyric Street Records (owned by The Walt Disney Company)

Year of Release: 2004

Genre: Country

Q&A:

I became a country music fan during my freshman year of high school, and it has been my favorite kind of music ever since. But I have not played any country CD as much in three years as "Feels Like Today" by Rascal Flatts. The first song I ever heard by Rascal Flatts was "Mayberry", which is actually from the CD entitled "Melt". I had never heard of the band before and I heard this song on the radio for the first time in 2002. I liked the song a lot and immediately bought the CD. The band instantly became my favorite. "Feels Like Today" did not come out until the next year. I had been listening to my one and only Rascal Flatts CD almost every day during that time, and I couldn't wait to buy their newest CD after hearing "Feels Like Today" on the radio about a month before the CD was actually released. I now own all five of their CD's released since 2000. Country is definitely my favorite kind of music. Some of my other favorite artists are Kenny Chesney, Brad Paisley, Taylor Swift, Tim McGraw and Keith Urban. On my Myspace page, my current song is "Take Me There" from Rascal Flatts new CD entitled "Still Feels Good". I like this song because it is their newest song and the lyrics amazingly explains the feelings of a boy wanting to know anything and everything about a girl that he loves, from where she kissed her first love to the qualities of her mom and dad she admires the most. I listen to most of my music either on the radio while in the car, my Ipod at any time or Yahoo Music while I am sitting in my dorm room. About 90% of the music on my Ipod comes from iTunes and the rest of them come from either Limewire or my CD collection.

Sweet Home Alabama

INFORMATION:

Movie Title: Sweet Home Alabama
Movie Studio: Touchstone Pictures
Parent Company: Walt Disney
Other Movies: Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Pretty Woman, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Dead Poets Society, The Waterboy
Producer: David Brown and Michael Tolkin
Director: Andy Tennant
Writer: Douglas J. Eboch and C. Jay Cox
Stars: Reese Witherspoon, Josh Lucas, Patrick Dempsey, Ethan Embry, Candice Bergen, Fred Ward, Mary Kay Place, Jean Smart

Q&A:

Sweet Home Alabama stars Reese Witherspoon as Melanie Carmichael, later found out to be a fake name. Melanie is an Alabama-raised socialite who moves to New York City to achieve her goals and reaches outstanding heights as a fashion designer. She begins to feel as if she is on top of the world, with a great boyfriend named Andrew, played by Patrick Dempsey, and a flourishing career. But when Andrew proposes, Melanie feels as if she must “inform” her family down South that she rarely speaks to of her decisions. This is especially true of her high-school sweetheart turned husband Jake, played by Josh Lucas, who refuses to divorce her. Melanie believes this is because he is stubborn and wants to make things difficult for her, but she later finds out that he doesn’t sign the divorce papers in the hopes that Melanie will come back to him someday. With huge determination to get her husband to sign the divorce papers, Melanie returns home. As she reconnects with her family and her old friends, including Bobby Ray played by Ethan Embry, she begins to realize that home might really be where the heart is and that she is still in love with her husband. This proves to be a major complication when Andrew decides to pay Melanie a surprise visit, but he storms around town looking for “Melanie Carmichael”. He doesn’t find her, because her real name is “Melanie Smooter”, which she changed to Carmichael because that is the name of the richest family in town. He is upset that she lied to him but forgives her and meets her real parents, played by Fred Ward and Mary Kay Place. His mother, played by Candice Bergen, is the mayor of New York City and she believes that it was extremely wrong of Melanie to lie to Andrew by failing to mention her husband and lying to him about her roots. Andrew still wishes to marry Melanie, but she simply cannot go through with the wedding because “she gave her heart away a long time ago”. Melanie and Jake end up back together. I saw this movie when it was in theaters. I was interested in seeing this film because Reese Witherspoon is my favorite actress and I always love any movie that she is in. I was also living in Georgia at this time and I thought it would be interesting to see how the deep South was depicted in this film. I like the chemistry between the actors in this movie. There is many funny conversations and situations and you can tell that the actors probably got along very well on and off set. I also like the message the movie tries to send: sometimes the thing you are looking for the most is the thing that is right in front of you. I would definitely recommend this movie to someone else because it is the classic romantic comedy with a few original details, like the comedic undertones of how different a small town in Alabama is from New York City. And of course, Reese Witherspoon never gives a disappointing performance.

Trailer