For those of you who didn't go and watch the show, the movie's basically about a stressed out office worker, Julie Powell (Amy Adams), who decided to start a blog that chronicles her experiences cooking the 524 recipes in chef Julia Child's (Meryl Streep) "Mastering the Art of French Cooking". The movie shows both Julie and Julia's respective lives and how they each started on blogging and cooking.
To be honest, I thought that the movie would be boring and even complicated. I mean, a movie depicting two women in different eras? But after watching it, I'm happy to say that the movie has earned its numerous good reviews. Both stories about Julie and Julia's road to success were expertly woven together. It is interesting to see so many parallels between the two main characters (as pointed out by Julia in the movie)...both have supportive husbands, similar passions, their own struggles for recognition, and eventual success. Of course, the food was amazing. Every time a new dish was served up in the movie, Elena and I just had to be content with our popcorn and ice lemon tea while the actors "mmmm-ed" and "oooooh-ed" over the good food. It didn't help when they gave such accurate descriptions of the textures and smells either! Oh, and some of the scenes were real funny...like the one where Julie was accused of being a “Lobster Killer”. Plus the superb performance by the legendary Meryl Streep and the sweet Amy Adams, the movie is a definite must watch!
Using blogging as one of the main themes of the movie is interesting, especially when we live in a digital age. According to Marshall McLuhan, this would be the 4th epoch: the electronic epoch. With the invention of the telegraph, people are able to communicate over vast distances and are no longer bound by geographical distance. Other technological advancements like radio, television and more recently the internet have contributed significantly in bringing people together to form a “global village”. This is especially so with the advent of web 2.0. Blogs, wiki, RSS and the like are created by the user for other users. The web has become a dynamic platform where potentially anything is possible.
Despite the prevalence of blogs, many still frown upon them. I know of people who think that blogging is just a downright narcissistic attempt to parade private lives in front of strangers (pffft, and these hypocrites are on facebook and twitter). Although I do agree that some bloggers (regrettably) do that, I think that blogs are a way for us to share what we feel, see, think through words, pictures, and even videos with people from all around the world. Blogs can serve to be an information portal, a form of entertainment, provide inspiration, become a business or just be a regular record of everyday life. Being a blogger myself, I understand the joy of having people to visit and comment on your own blog. It is wonderful to share ideas with others, and even more so to know that people are actually reading your posts (see Julie when she got her first readers).
There are billions of blogs that exist in cyberspace, and here is to share some of them that I find interesting:
ieatishootipost (a foodie blog recommended by a friend)
pleasefindthis(it might be cheesy to some, but I still find this sort of beautiful)
mr brown (loaded with satire material that pokes fun at Singapore issues)
After watching the show, I visited Julie Powell's blog just to see how it was like. Reading some random posts, I must say her blog is witty and humorous. It would be better if her posts were accompanied with pictures though, so readers would be able to see how each dish turned out. Nevertheless, it was a joy to read…no wonder it garnered so much popularity to be made into a movie!
So here’s to blogs, food and communication theories…Bon Appétit!
