Leigh
Leigh McEachran is a movie-going, TV-watching, music-listening, all-around pop culture enthusiast. She eats, sleeps and breathes the entertainment industry, which is why she decided to pair her journalism studies at Ryerson University with her passion for entertainment news in a career in entertainment journalism.
Posts by Leigh
Catfish
Sep 26th
When I was in high school, a classmate of mine brought a boy she met on the Internet to prom.
In our World Issues class, she had told me of her plan and I told her not to, calling her cyberspace lover “Internet creep.” She laughed it off and brought him anyway. In her pink taffeta dress she introduced him to me, sharing the new nickname I had dubbed him- and, to be honest, I didn’t care that he knew what I thought of him.
They continued their relationship for the next couple weeks until one day, when she came to class, and turned to me and said, “He was an Internet creep.”
I don’t know what ever happened to my classmate. Perhaps she found love online, or maybe she met her match in the outside world? Or maybe she even learned how to be happy alone.
While there are many people who found happiness online, I think the majority were in my classmate’s situation; their soul mate was a weirdo. But what happens when you don’t meet said match right away? What if you communicate for months without making eye contact? Can you really trust them?
This is the premise of Catfish, a documentary which follows a young New Yorker and his online relationship with a dream girl. The level of trust between Yaniv Schulman and his gal, Megan, however, is different than a normal cyberspace relationship, because their relationship did begin in the outside world.
Yaniv, or “Nev,” is a photographer who snaps photos of dancers. One day Nev receives a package from Michigan, which contains a painting of one of his photographs. The painting is by 8-year-old Abby and Nev begins a correspondence with the girl and her family.
Nev accepts friend requests from Abby’s family members on Facebook, including her mother, father, brother, sister, half-sister and cousins. He chats with her mother on the phone and learns about the sweet, small-town family. And when he talks to Abby’s sister Megan on the phone, they feel a spark.
Soon, Nev is listening to Megan sing through recordings downloaded onto Facebook and opening a package sent to New York holding a painting she made of Nev’s profile picture. He text messages her and chats her up on the phone, and soon he is really falling for her.
But when Nev goes to meet Megan and her family, it isn’t what he expected.
I won’t give away what this film is about, but I will say expect the unexpected. I would suggest not watching the trailer, as I think viewers come in with a totally different mindset about the film than those who come open minded. After watching the trailer, I expected Catfish to be a scary thriller that kept me on the edge of my seat; and while it doesn’t accomplish this, the documentary accomplishes so much more. I’m not even going to tempt you by posting the trailer, because I honestly don’t want you to watch it.
I did figure out Megan when Nev first spoke to her on the phone. Most did not, some might have, maybe you will too. But it doesn’t really matter that I figured out Megan, because there is so much more to this story than that.
Catfish is a very interesting film to watch and is especially worthwhile if you are a Facebook user. It is a documentary that truly leaves you feeling for both sides and shows the disconnect between real life and cyberspace. Watch it and let me know what you think!
Comment below or drop me a line on Twitter, @LAMcEachran.
Three Helpful Strangers
Sep 15th
I grew up in a small town where people say “hello” when you pass them on the sidewalk, residents introduce themselves to new neighbours and everyone looks out for each other. I miss that the most when I’m living in Toronto, because pushy pedestrians, random crazies and stressed-out executives just isn’t that inviting. Living in Toronto, passing people day after day without so much as a friendly smile, it is easy to think that no one would ever help me if I needed it. Thankfully, that is wrong.
Reenactment: Finding out my subway is shut down
Yesterday evening, after spending the day out of my area, I found myself in a bit of transportation trouble. The subway I ride home shut down after taking me two stops due to smoke in the tunnel ahead, leaving me stranded in an area I didn’t know. With no information given to passengers from the TTC- other than “get off the platform”- I walked up the station stairs and found myself among a herd of confused commuters.
I noticed a middle-age woman ahead of me that looked like she knew the ropes. Wearing her aviatar glasses and smoking a cigarette, she told a fellow passenger she was going to find a bus. I started following her when a young woman wearing a business suit asked if I knew where to go. Since I was clueless, we decided to team up together and follow this confident lady.
At an intersection, the middle-age woman told me her plan. A man overheard and said he was headed in the same direction. “Okay,” said the man, “the four of us will go together!”
The middle-age woman told me a side-street bus would be faster than taking a main one, as there were too many displaced passengers. After the bus driver told me I was on the wrong bus for the direction I was headed, the middle-age woman said, “No you’re not, it’s fine. What we’re going to do is take this bus to a different subway station that will take you to the right place.”
Me thinking, "Hey, this person seems to know what she's doing."
“First rule of living in Toronto,” said the man, “is to never listen to bus drivers.”
We made it to the subway station and the woman told me that instead of taking a loop, I should just get off across from my stop and walk it. On the subway, the younger woman told me she was a professional and the middle-age woman told me she graduated from business school. We all chatted, and the middle-age woman and man told me they had been to my hometown.
“Toronto’s a completely different way of life from where you’re from,” said the middle-age woman. True that, I thought.
Leaving the subway station at a stop I don’t normally visit, I was a little disoriented, but after asking the TTC toll booth operator, I managed to find my way back home unscathed.
While Toronto may seem like a different world from my sweet hometown, the kindness of strangers can always be found when you need it. Throughout the whole ordeal noone shared their name or what they do for a living- we were just four strangers trying to help each other navigate public transit. While it may take a village to raise a child, it also takes three friendly Torontonians to help me get home.
Jersey Shore
Sep 9th
The only thing the late, great Marilyn Monroe and I have in common is that our blonde locks are not natural. So as I spent an afternoon at the salon dying my hair, I couldn’t help but overhear two tween girls and their middle-age hairdresser discussing Jersey Shore. The hit reality series manages to cross age groups and backgrounds, offering up no real plot or storyline for its viewers to follow. So why are tweens, teens, young adults and older adults tuning in for the tanned gang’s shenanigans?
One word: Snooki. While her partner-in-crime, Jwoww, may be strong enough to carry those ridiculous breast implants, she’s not strong enough to carry a TV show. And the Situation may bring the abs and lingo (“grenades,” “GTL,” etc.) to the Shore, but his one-night stands and hot tub flirting can’t keep a reality show afloat, and neither can his side-kicks, Pauly D. and Vinny. No need to mention Sammi, Ronnie or Angelina- I think we all know Jersey Shore would be fine without them.
So what does the pint-sized guidette bring to the table that her fellow cast members don’t? Silliness. Unlike her Jersey Shore pals, Snooki never takes herself too seriously, which is fun to watch. I compiled a list of silly Snooki quotes to prove my point that dear, little Snooki makes Jersey Shore worth watching.
“I don’t think Mike can go a day without taking his shirt off. He looks like a frickin’ dirty old man outside with his shirt off at an ice cream shop.”
“The glasses are pretty much all crystalled out, all bling-bling. But when you put them on, you can’t really see, so I don’t think you can’t drive with them, because you’ll get a ticket.”
“I can’t see… do you have any pickles?”
“Eating fried pickles was a life changing experience.”
“I tried to eat, but I couldn’t get it in my freakin’ mouth ’cause I’m disabled.”
“This one girl starts, like, charging me like a f*ckin’ hippo.”
“I’m not pissed off that they put pickles under my bed as a joke, but I’m pissed off that Mike and Pauly wasted two pickles.”