Biography

-Birth Date and Place-

         About 50 years to this day, the exact date not mentioned in her book, Kristen Johnson was born in the suburbs of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

-Family-

       
She has a younger brother, whom she has looked up to her whole life. She also grew up with both a mother and a father. However, she does not mention any names or specific stories about her family as to protect their privacy from the readers of her book. What she does share was that her brother was an idol to her. Growing up, she wanted to be just like him, even though he was not popular or anything admirable in anyone else's eyes. She loved him dearly even though on a daily basis he was bullied and beaten for no reason at all. She never lost respect for her brother.

-School-

         Her first school was a highly religious Catholic school in her hometown, and she hated it from day one. She was the outcast, didn't have the right clothes, the right color hair, the most expensive shoes. She was also relentlessly made fun of for her height for years which made her self conscious through middle school and high school. Young in her life, and with the help of Amy, a fellow classmate, she realized that it's a lot easier to make fun of yourself than to wait for other people to do it for you. Amy was perfect, with the right clothes and the right hair and every joke she made about the :jolly green giant” was heard and laughed at by all. Eventually Kristen realized that not only could she make fun of herself, but she was funny. Years later, Kristen saw Amy at a mall. Amy, now smelly and fat, asked for an autograph. Without much deliberation, she scribbled a quick “thank you” on the napkin.

-Hobbies and Activities-

         As an adult, the most prominent point in her life, her favorite activities were pills and booze, and booze and pills. As a child, she didn't do much more than read books until she found acting as a teenager. Living in New York, she would take the train into the city for acting classes and lessons and it soon became her whole life. She doesn't elaborate on how it became such a big part of her life, but as she got older, her life was equally devoted to acting and drugs. She'd had many roles before being cast in 3^rd Rock, but that was the first time she had wanted a part so badly. All the others had been handed to her but this one was a struggle. Once she got the part though, it became less desirable and the pills and booze went down even easier. When she got the stomach ulcer, because of her little addiction, she realized just how much acting meant to her-everything. Her whole life was devoted to it, as her career, as her family as everything she had if she wasn't drunk or high. She also realized that whilst in the hospital, waiting hopelessly for her friends and family  to call, that she was alone. That she and her addiction had slowly but surely pushed everyone out of her life so far that they were all waiting patiently for something like this exact event to happen. As soon as she felt better after the incident, she started acting again against the doctors' orders which, can you guess? Landed her right back in the ER not even a month later with an internal infection.

-Anecdotes-

          Growing up, she had always been very admiring of her younger brother. He was bullied all throughout school and mainly by one particular boy a year older than he. There was nothing anyone could do about the issue, and it was never anything her brother did to deserve such punishment. One day, after watching helplessly as her brother was beaten, she caught the bully walking alone on his way home. Having had bad feet all of her life had gotten her some very thick and quite heavy “corrective shoes” which she planted firmly on his shin. She ran away, never bothering to explain to him who she was or why she did it. She never spoke to her brother about the incident either knowing that he would only be embarrassed by her action of loyalty.

         Her second stay in the hospital was on New Years Eve. She had always hated the holiday because it had a knack of making a person feel as alone as they've ever been. As she sits in her hospital bed watching the fireworks out the window, she thinks about all the people outside who are watching the same show. All the families, the sober, carefree, ulcer and infection-free people out there who have no idea who she is and nor do they care. She describes this night as being her lowest low, as it being the night that made her yearn to be the sober one in the crowd, not worrying about their next drink, not worrying about anything on new years. She's struck for the first time the thought that maybe morphine and alcohol are not the only things that can make her happy. This is the night she decides to check into her first rehabilitation center.

-Career-

         All her life she's been an actress. From the teens, when she was taking the train into the city for auditions and classes, to the final episode of 3^rd Rock she was an actress. Her career has a huge gap in it from the time she got sick to the time she got better for good. When she was in and out of the hospital, she always remained the main actress for the part, her understudies were always that- understudies. They never told her she could not come back, no matter how sick. And because of that, and because this was her life and reason, she never quit acting. I suppose now she's a writer as well having written “guts”, the story of her journey through addiction.

-Reasons for Fame_

         She was discovered for all of the small plays she did when she was in New York, and then the most prominent role she held was 3^rd Rock.  

Evolution of Entertainment

-(2011): Marked the beginning of the internet obsession and the popularity of “i” Products

-(2008):We were still following the news, magazines, tabloids, we followed the lives of people through the media for entertainment

-(1990’s): We were watching movies in our spare time, still renting from Blockbuster (Netflix? Ridiculous!)

What Are Our Interests Today?

Today we value sports, reality Tv (ESPN, Jersey Shore). Movies today are much more intense. We don’t see any new Disney movies coming out. Everything is much more graphic in every sense. We spent almost $11 billion on box office in 2011 and over $3 billion in 2012. The drastic change shows how much time we spend watching new movies.

Ten years ago, not many middle schoolers had cell phones. Today, it’s rare to see a kid without one in their hands. And not only do they have cell phones, they’re iPhones. Every person and their mother have some type of “i” device, and every retailer is taking full advantage of it. Starbucks, Best Buy, Target, Costco, etc. all have apps for our phones as well as every clothing store with a website. They ensure that we are able to keep up with them at the touch of a button, or rather, a screen.

How Does it Affect Our Generation?

Communication these days is a lot easier, with everyone having a phone and texting, not to mention FaceTime and Skype and all the other applications of the like, you would think it easier to talk to people. On the contrary, we use our phones as a distraction from other people so we don’t have to talk to them in person. The result being everyone has their own group of friends, and they don’t expand to other people. Another example would be going to lunch with friends, instead of having nice conversations, we are on our phones, constantly searching for the establishment's free wi-if password.

How Will It Affect Our Future Generations?

Those of us who grew up in San Diego, grew up playing in the street all day every day until it got dark, and woke up early to do it again. We didn't sleep in on the weekends because the Saturday morning cartoons were too good to miss. Kids today take for granted those things, they stay inside all day watching tv and they will never know what it's like to look foreword to Buggs Bunny tomorrow morning.  In '99, when we wanted a 'play date' it was wanting company on your explorations. Wanting someone to ride your bike with and climb trees with. Today, young kids have their friends over so they don't have to play video games alone. It's also a lot harder to eat a family size bag of chips all by yourself and YouTube isn't that funny when you're alone either. When I was younger, I had a whole different set of values than kids today. They value their phones, their new clothes, not the days mom met you stay out past dark. I grew up valuing my friends and my family, my home and everything money CAN'T buy.

Is This Evolution For The Good? Or The Bad?

Some might answer for the good, arguing that technology makes everything easier. You have information and photos with you at all times. It's nice to have technology at school, shoot, I'm writing this whole article on my phone! We are also evolving to use technology for eye opening medical procedures, your iPhone can read a malaria test for crying out loud.

On the other hand, many, including myself, say technology causes more harm than it does good. I, personally, love a good or a magazine every once in awhile. The screen on the computer gives you headaches and cell phones give off a radiation that is known to lead to cancer. Sure, it saves shelf space to have all of your books and music on one device, but what will happen to libraries? What will happen to that music store you love when you can pirate all of your music online? Think about what you loved before technology was in your life. Think about where you would be if you never had that iphone, that ipad, your laptop. Would your values be the same? Would your life be the same?

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Coraline

          Coraline, is a fantasy thriller in which a young girl, Coraline, played by the talented Dakota Fanning, visits the life parallel to her own. The setting of the movie is in Ashland, Oregon in the “Pink Palace” apartments where Coraline and her parents played by John Hodgman and TeriHatcher, have just moved from Pontiac, Michigan to work on their career.

           Quickly upon moving to Oregon, Coraline realizes she doesn't much like it. There are no other kids in the building and the weather is forever raining and gloomy. Her only 'friend' is Wybie who isn't even allowed on the property of the Pink Palace because rumor has it, dangerous things happen there. With her parents always neck-deep in work, Coraline is free to roam around the house and explore. Everything in the house seems uniform and boring until Coraline comes across a door that has been completely sealed up. Coraline leaves the door alone, seeing as it's locked, but that night in her dream she visits the strange world behind the door. Every night thereafter, Coraline is thrust into a world completely opposite hers the minute she goes to sleep. Contrary to a dream though, this life is very real despite her waking up each morning in her own bed again. This “other life” has everything she could ever imagine, her mother cooks (breakfast for dinner!) and her father sings, the garden is filled with flowers and everything seems brighter. Coraline is warned earlier on not to let this place get to her head, all is not a dream come true here. One night she stumbles upon the ghosts of the children who'd visited this world before her and had never made it home to their real lives. Coraline is plunged into a quest fir the eyes of the children as to let their souls free. The only catch? They're invisible to the naked eye and Coraline much find all the eyes before morning.

           The animation of this film is absolutely mesmerizing and the costumes for each character are all expertly sewed for every shot. The film is stop-motion animation, and the first of said kind might I add. The transition of the puppets from scene to scene is very graceful and makes the characters come to life in a very human-like manner. The scenery is also very lifelike aside from the obvious animations. Altogether, the set is very well put together and creates the scene for a wonderful movie.

Regarding the overall construction of the production, I thought everything was placed in the most specific, and best fit part of the story. I felt all the small details, like the fog and how every hair on her head moved when there was wind, were effects that were not needed but made the film that much better by including them. The music fit the movie precisely too. It was not a “poppy” soundtrack, but rather an ominous-sounding female voice that made the mood of the scenes more dramatic, Like the classic song in the movie Jaws.

           My overall opinion of the movie is that a lot of hard work must have gone into the filming and every effort paid off in the end. The story was wonderful and a lovely twist on the “grass is always greener on the other side” moral. It was nice for a children-targeted movie to be enjoyable for adults too. I will gladly be seeing the next Henry Selick directed film.

       

The Office Premier

           Last night I watched the premier of  "The Office". In last night's premier, everyone was coming back to work from summer vacation and talking about what they did over the break. Rain Wilson, who plays “Dwight”, has previously written a psychology book
called “Soul Pancake” and has been seen in movies like “My super ex-girlfriend” and on shows like “Law & Order” and “Monk”. The highlight of Dwight's summer was creating a new type of energy drink made of beets. Ed Helms, most famous for his role in “The Hangover” and “The Hangover part 2” as well as his voice in “The Lorax”, plays Andy Bernard who in this episode is the new boss of the office. Andy has spent his summer at an “Outward Bound” adventure he was sent on to ready and mature him for his upcoming position as the new boss. In my opinion, I don't think the trip worked all that well because he still acts like quite a little kid when he comes back. Poor Kevin, played by Brian Baumgartner from “ Licensed to Wed” and “Four Christmases”, ran over a turtle and after failing over and over again to fix his crushed shell, realizes that the turtle's been dead the whole time. Jenna Fischer from “Blades of Glory” and “Hall Pass”, plays Pam Halpert. Pam and her new husband Jim, played by John Krasinski as seen in “Away We Go” and “It's Complicated”, have spent just an average summer at home with the kids. When Pam mentions that their life probably won't be exciting for a while, Jim looks a little worried but doesn't say anything right away.

            Two “new guys” have begun working at the office and have been nicknamed “Dwight Jr.” and “The New Jim”. At first, Dwight is alright with, and strangely excited about the idea of having a “son” at the office but when Dwight Jr. asks him for a list of his clients, all hell breaks loose as Dwight is convinced his job is in jeopardy. The situation isn't much helped when Andy brings in a slack-line for everyone to walk across and Dwight is outshone by his look-a-like.

Angela's new baby is allergic to her cat and she holds countless “interviews” for prospective adopters. Meanwhile, Jim is still pondering this new 'boring life' and decides, without first talking to Pam, to accept a job offer in Philadelphia. Will this bring a little excitement into their lives? Or just plain trouble?

First Post

This is my blog for Writing for the World.