Review:Getting The Girl

Books, I don't like them, they are boring, long, and dont take much skill to use. Books are pretty much a waste of time, but what isnt now a days. I did though read a book for the first time in a while this week. Getting The Girl is a book about a kid, named Camoran. Cam is the biggest loser ever, there is no other way to put it, he can't talk to girls. He has no freinds outside of his family, and sucks at sports. Recently though his brother Rube, who is much cooler than him, got yet another girlfreind. At the start, Cam thinks he is just like every other girl Rube brings home. But he soon realized shes different, he takes a liking to her quickly and the book is mostly about their realsionship.

You may be thinking that this is just like every other love story ever, and guess what. your right. I couldn't agree more this book is so very predictable every page is cheesy. But who knows, lots of people are into that and why bother changing the formula if its working already? this book is a prime example of power imbalance, there are examples of it throughout the book. this is one of the reasons I like this so much.

Book Cover

Cam has an imbalance with almost every other charachter, his brothers, octavia (rubes girlfreind), and even his parents. I think the most promenent and most consistent in the book is in the relashonship between Cam and Octavia. You have to realize the whole story is told from cams point of veiw, so Cam may be over doing how amazing she is. But he makes her look pretty good. The biggest power imbalance is their communication, much of the diologue in their conversations comes from Octavia. at least the spoken part. I think that Cam thinks he doesnt deserve her maiking some of the situations very awkward.

If your into books, read this, its good for all ages and tells a great story. i'd have to reccomend this to almost anyone who likes weird storys, about weird people.

Just Lather Thats All

The story just lather thats all is about a man, in specific a barber, who is faced with the decision of killing a man or not. The Barbers name is unknown throughout, and the whole story centers around shaving capitan torres, an evil man who has killed many of the barbers freinds and family. The barber seems to have alot  of inner power imbalance in the story too. He seems like a very indecisive person with his decisions. "I could kill him right here..." the barber said at one point, he jumps from killing to not killing a couple of times. I couldn't see him picking a type of cereal to get at a store, rather killing a man. It's almost as if he has DPS(dual personality syndrome) okay, that may be pushing it.

Your probobly wondering why the barber has such a grudge against Capitan Torres, dont worry I have an answer for you. They dont exactly explain it in the story but it seems to me like hes a sort of vigalantie dicator. I think he probobly invaded the barbers town, and tried to take power. When people rebelled and tried to move torres out, he most likely took action and killed quite a few people unfortunately they dont explain this in the actual story, but this does lead the brain to some imagination at the start, potentialy changing the story for some people.

The real conflicts of the story really do add alot and for a two page story, this had alot of drama. I mean I could see the author easialy adding more to this short peice of work. but it isn't nessisary. The Captain in the story (ie. the man getting shaved) is usually very powerful and could easily kill the barber. But in this story in priticular, the barber has all the power, intresting contrast. The barber wants to kill him, you can tell throughout the story that he does. But he also doesn't want to ruin his proffesion, he had never cut a man in his shop, and going from that to killing could reallly ruin his buisiness.

Overall, this story was good, i liked the contrast of power and the deepness of the conflicts that can develop in such a short story. I would reccomend this story to anyone who likes short storys, if thats even possible. defanatly pick this one up.

I Review "The Magnificent Seven"

I recently watched the movie "The Magnificent Seven." To be honest, i've seen better westerns, but it did touch on some interesting topics. If you have't heard of the movie before, its about seven cowboys who get together to save a farming village from the evil cowboy Calvera. Pretty derivative if you ask me, but thats besides the point. Noticeable actors are Eli Wallach as Calvera and Steve Mcqueen as Vin, one of the Cowboys.

Original poster from 1960

This Movie has a lot to do with power imbalances. Calvera comes into the farmers town every once in a while to restock on goods for his band of thieves and outlaws. the farmers have had enough but there is nothing that they can really do, all the Outlaws have guns and they dont. Power imbalance, makes sense, like I said before, 'good vs. evil' very predictable type of movie. The  actual "Magnificent Seven" come in soon after, when the farmers find Vin and Chris and ask them to save them from Calvera. Vin and Chris start assembling the rest of their team from all over, I got lost here, It didn't make much sense what they were doing, running around the country running into sharpshooters who all seemed to agree to put their life on the line for a quick buck.

Obviously, there are Major power imbalances between the Farmers and Calvera over guns. But there also seem to be Power Imbalances between the mag 7 and the farmers. "They are afraid of everyone and everything, rain, and no rain, summer too hot, winter too cold" said one of the Head farmers at one point, hes right, these farmers are scared of Calvera and with good reason. But between the Farmers and theMag 7? it seems that they are intimidated by the skill and might of the cowboys, but at the very least they should have been more respectful than frightful thats all. going even deeper, there seems to be power imbalance between Chico, a Mexican gunslinger on the Mag, and some of the more experienced gunners. Although this is less prominent in the movie and fades by the end, i still noticed it and was a nice touch to the plot.

Even though this movie is old, I felt like it had low production value, sure maybe my standards have changed from those of the 1960's. But as a person reviewing this in and for people in 2011, you'll see some problems, the quality is grainy and the audio is too. but hey, maybe your into that old movie feel.

In my opinion, cowboy movies are always better when you have a lone man, fighting for whatever (family, money, fame etc.) thats where this movie goes wrong, all these characters are hard to follow and makes for a near un-followable plot line. I Wouldn't really recommend this movie to anyone, just because of the obscurity of it. I guess if you are looking for a different kind of western or your an Eli Wallach fan, check it out, other than that. Go see something else.