Sunday, March 30, 2008

Exotic Teen Culture

Don't you hate it when the amazing blog you thought of at 1am Sunday morning does not come fully formed when you attempt to put it down at 1pm Sunday afternoon?

Anyhow, last night was another big Saturday night here, and the television offerings at Mummy-clock-off time were absolutely dismal.

I also hate it when you are anticipating a lovely night in at the flicks, and there is nothing worth flicking?

Luckily for us, we live in the modern era and V's mother did send him a lovely little number reminiscent of both the years of adolescence and Southern California school days - Fast Times at Ridgemont High, and so we watched it.

Did we ever think some fashions and styles were cool?

When discussing it, I noticed that V and I approached it from very different angles - and it wasn't just the male/female thing at play.

V lived through such behaviour and agonies of the interpersonal dramas (well, not all of them) in real life high school and mall settings as shown on the screen.

I read about them, watched them, studied them - but the weirdness of being a boarder at an all girls school in the middle of Queensland meant that it was all very theoretical fodder.

As a matter of fact, being a boarder at an all girls school in the middle of Queensland was not weird at all, to me and all the girls around me - it was what we knew (didn't always love) and in most of our cases, what we knew we would be when we were teenagers.

So when I get comments about how quaint and Enid Blyton it must be, I laugh a little laugh to myself because it was not all that (I definitely don't remember many lashing of ginger beer) and what is quaint and Cameron Crowe for me was ordinary for so many of you.

We never did see the end of the movie, however. A toilet stop towards the end led to flicking around the offerings and discovering the last 3/4 of American Beauty - ah yes, it was a very cultural evening here.

How was yours?

6 comments:

BB said...

Ah... small town Qld pub offering lashings of culture (I didn't ask for ginger beer)... most interesting really.

Are people Enid-Blyton-filtering your boarding school days? How bizarre... my images (inspired by EB's pages) somehow finish in a very different place than our own Red Roof Jail House experiences.

NB Stop writing about them - you are giving me nightmares!!!!!

Alison said...

I love Enid Blyton (almost as much as your blog;)! I do realise she is a fiction writer, though. I don't think I ever really took her books literally.
Our night was very refined, actually. My oh so musical children spent over an hour recording different sounds.
Different 'fart' sounds, that is.

Ms Mac said...

I watched Fast Times at Ridgemont High on Saturday night too!

jeanie said...

there are other books that get brought to mind regarding the actual experience, bush babe! I will leave out the goriest bits to help you to sleep at night.

alison - every night can be fart night here - haven't gone acoustic with the equipment, though. And do you mean that you never thought the Far Away Tree really existed?

ms mac - that is perfectly spooky!

Crazed Nitwit said...

Fast Times is a parody of high school back in the 80's. No we weren't like that! I went to hs about 60 miles south of where they shot the mall scenes. American Beauty was the dummest movie ever and things like that do not happen in any of the suburbs I have lived in(6 by my count).

Hugs for Jeanie!!!

Life. Complicated. said...

Jeanie - Fast Times at Ridgemont High? Tell me what you poison of choice is (VCR or DVD) and I will endeavor to send you some more pop culture for your Mommy time pleassure! LOL. Loved read the blog about the two.