VF March Review

The 2012 Hollywood Portfolio

By Bruce Handy, David Kamp, Juli Weiner and Jim Windolf

For this article in the March issue of Vanity Fair I was a little confused on what the story was actually about. The whole story is profiling persons who have had a hand in the year’s top films and their connection to this year’s honorary Oscar recipient James Earl Jones. And I’m not so sure you can call this a lead but under the title of the article was this little blip of a description, “Apocalyptic or silent, gender-bending or motion-capturing, the year’s top films get start treatment from V.F.’s ace photographers, while the authors provide the bar bets, parlor games, and Oscar cred.” This does not tell me why they are doing this story or why they focused so much on James Earl Jones.

I do, however, enjoy hearing about the different films and the background information that is not presented on-screen. The world of Hollywood is mystifying and intriguing for someone who has no connection to anyone or anything famous so that is why I always like hearing about the little things that is behind the scenes type stuff. And it is reassuring to know that they are just people too.

I know that James Earl Jones is an honorary recipient of an Oscar but I would have liked to have been more informed about that and how the degrees of separation applied more.  

VF 2012 Hollywood Portfolio

Bieber Flu

            Hundreds of thousands of screaming fans, women and girls of all ages being the majority of those, stop him wherever he goes for a hug and sharing their undying love for the Bieb. Justin Bieber, the music sensation, the upgrade of boy bands, and the end all of celebrity crushes. Yet he just turned 18 only weeks ago. How does a kid get college women to be his number one fans, with the diehard attitudes you might think he was something like never before.

              Singers come and go, especially the young male singers. Billy Gilman was a country music singer but his voice changed and now it’s “Billy who?” And that is the same life forecast that I saw for Justin Bieber. But that is not what the world seems to want.

            Having number one records for weeks at a time and in multiple countries like his new single Boyfriend, number one in 32 countries, would seem like he is at the peak of his career and that it will all be downhill from here on and I think it’s about time.

            “He has a nice falsetto,” Alex Nelson, junior music major at Tennessee Tech, said. “He’s not his music though, he’s just the face of a production company.”

Nelson joked that he was jealous of the Bieb because his girlfriend “thinks he’s hot.”

            She is not the only one. When appearing on The Ellen Degeneres Show for his birthday, middle-aged women were screaming and waving for Bieber’s attention like some 13 year old girl.

            What is it that makes women of all ages fawn at him like his Elvis Presley or something. But take a look at that comparison for a moment, what is the difference? Age.

            “He’s so immature,” Nelson said. “He’s a little boy compared to us. We should be looking at older people. Having talent and good looks is not an accomplishment.”

             Bieber, until now, has sported the ever popular frat swoop paired with ghetto skater style. No respectable adult really dresses like that. Ellen makes comment and attempt to pull his pants up on air. That should tell him something, but I’m sure he can’t hear over the screaming female fans.

            “I don’t think it’s normal that girls above the age of 12, maybe 14, like Bieber,” Annie Horn, a sophomore at Tech, said.

            Still yet, the Bieb had fans tweeting and posting on Facebook. On the official Justin Bieber facebook page he posts about releases and pictures and videos by friends. But a lot of his posts are asking his fans for help to pick album covers or to take part in a cause he believes in like the Facebook game WeTopia and the cause Make A Change along with many others.

            The topic he most posted about recently was the release of his new single, Boyfriend. He had a running count down and posted a video in which he tried to talk viewers into buying his song.

            Things such as that make it hard to take him serious as an adult.

            Bieber’s story is that if you never stop believe and go after your dream, then you will have success. How is that more impressive than any other singer? His fans celebrate him like he has done something no one else in the world has, but they have. Kelly Clarkson took a risk and went on a new television show called American Idol. And look at her now.

            Yet people still find the Bieb to be amazing.

            One fan message sent to Bieber that was posted on his Facebook wall said, “Happy 18^th Birthday Justin. Continue spreading this important message of believing in yourself to achieve what you want. Never change.”

            I can’t help thinking that of course he will never change because now he’s legally rich because of his fan base.

            Bieber fever is just something I never caught and don’t fully understand those that did. From the moment he became an item in the music industry until only weeks ago, this was a kid and women were crazy about him, one so much so that she claimed he got her pregnant. And Bieber didn’t just impress the public but also mentor Usher. He is just a kid who has really good luck, not this end all, be all of the music industry. 

            However, after watching videos of interviews and the videos he posted himself, I find myself in a slight conflict with reality and the ever growing popularity of the Bieb.

            I guess the fever is contagious.

VF January 2012 Review

One Nation, Under Arms

Todd S. Purdum

Vanity Fair Magazine, January 2012

This is a story that I felt I would not be completely interested in, but I found it to be very informative and I really like the connection to President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s farewell speech. I think what really appealed to me was the layout of the story, how there were headers for each little section that informed me that the subject was changing focus on the different aspects needed to get the point of the story across. And when Purdum was describing the old Kennan papers I felt like I was seeing them in person, I knew what they looked like and how they felt in my hands. I also feel that Purdum did a very good job at not losing his readers when he would change the time and scene.

I have learned about Eisenhower’s farewell speech from history classes and how he really did predict what some may call the downfall of the United States, so it was intriguing to read of someone from not so long ago that further proved Eisenhower’s prediction.

After reading this story, I want to march into Washington and make a change. It is hard to read and see just how much this nation I love change from those founding ideals into a debt ridden country that can’t seem to step back from power. Not that America should be powerless, just that we take it down a notch or two.

Sometimes I can get so caught up in my own life and troubles that I lose sight of the world, and this article really connected the world I live in at college to the real world that is out there.

    
BEAR ANY BURDEN Few Americans remember
an America that wasn’t a superpower—
muscle-bound and shrouded in secrecy.







Todd S. Purdum on National Security

Real Life Princess

            All seven young ladies are standing, each having a story of her own, poised with grace. Some of them having royal blood and could never be called less than a princess, while only one truly has a princess story beginning in rags and virtually being a slave in her home to then find true love with none other than prince charming.

            It may not be true life stories but they are the stories of the Disney Princesses that have inspired me in my life. I can always think back to a time that I was pretending to be rescued from the wicked sea witch or was fascinated with mysteries of other worlds only found in books. Those stories gave me my imagination and creativity I now use every day.

            However, some will argue that the princess movies developed a feminism view in some girls. Yet this was never the case for me as well as many others.

            “Every little girl wants to be like Cinderella,” Jessica Sarten, a child of the Disney princess era, said. “It gives them a fairy tale outlook on life.”

            Whether it is a Disney princess movie or an adult comedy, films were created to provide viewers an escape from life, to be able to stop worrying about things in life, if only for a few hours.

            “I grew up in a house of all girls and we were always watching them all the time,” Sarten said. “It was a way we could not worry about anything else in life. I don’t think Walt Disney meant to make people have a feminist view.”

            I know that when I think of the princesses, I think of Belle from “Beauty and the Beast”, Jasmine from “Aladdin”, Cinderella from “Cinderella”, Ariel from “The Little Mermaid”, Snow White from “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”, and Aurora from “Sleeping Beauty.”

            It is interesting that those are the films that most young ladies from my generation think of as “their” movies when “Snow White” was first released in 1937. Snow White was the first princess and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. For me, Snow White is pure innocence and always made me want a wishing well.

Next, Walt Disney released “Cinderella” in 1950. Cinderella is the most popular of the Disney Princesses and is considered to be the leader. I know I like Cinderella simply because I think I look like her. When I was in high school I was a model for the prom fashion show and they put me in this blue and sea foam green princess dress, pulled my hair back in an elegant bun. When I was walking to the back of the auditorium, a little girl stopped me to take a picture with her cause she thought I was Cinderella. That was the best part of the whole event.

“Sleeping Beauty” was then released in 1959, making Princess Aurora the third Disney Princess. As with Snow White, Aurora could only be saved by true love’s kiss. And what little girl doesn’t dream of that kiss that saves her from all her troubles?

My favorite, “The Little Mermaid” was released in 1989. Ariel is the only Princess that was not born human, but a mermaid. While her story starts out when she is sixteen, she is also the only Princess to have a child of her own. I think the reason why Ariel is my favorite is because she is so unique; she is the only one to have red hair, siblings, a child of her own, and she was a mermaid.

            When I was growing up, my family had a pool and I would always swim with my legs together like I was a mermaid and even now I have an obsession with red hair. I went so far as to dye my own very blonde hair a brilliant red on Spring Break 2011. Then to show my true support of Ariel, I was in Virginia on vacation when “The Little Mermaid” was for a limited time brought out of the vault. I made my mother take me to Target to buy a copy of the DVD, couldn’t wait another four days to buy it at home.

            In 1991, Disney released “Beauty and the Beast.” Belle, being not of royal descent, was the first Princess to save her prince by breaking the spell instead of being saved herself. I believe that Belle was the first Princess to begin the trend of being strong heroines instead of the feeble ladies of the before films.

            Sarten’s favorite is Belle. “I think I relate more to her because she had high standards. And she rebelled from what was expected of her.” Sarten is the youngest of three girls and is an agriculture major at Tennessee Tech. The career she wishes to go into is a male dominated work force and she said she turns to Belle for encouragement.

            Lastly, for my purposes, “Aladdin” was released in 1992. What is interesting about Jasmine, is that she was the first Disney Princess to marry “down” and have a less significant role. But I think I identify with Jasmine more because of the insecurities I have in life.

            Looking at how popular these characters and movies are getting years after their original release dates, just reminds me that they are and will always be classics because they deal with struggles and how those same struggles are overcome. Most of the Princesses come from a single parent home, and now more than ever, that makes them relatable to life.

            Recently, “Beauty and the Beast” was re-released to theaters in 3-D and more are scheduled for future re-releases.

            These movies helped shape me and helped me believe that I could do anything if I wanted to. Today I can see my life becoming a fairy tale coming true and I know I will find my prince charming if I don’t know him already. 

More than Just a Horse Race

             The second Saturday of May every year, with the exception of once during World War II, The Iroquis Steeplechase has been the “premiere spring race in American steeplechasing and Music City’s traditional rite of Spring.”

            “Rich in tradition, elegance and the sportsmanship of steeplechasing, the Iroquis Steeplechase celebrates seventy-one years as one of the Middle Tennessee area’s top sporting and social events,” is the opening paragraph found on the Steeplechase web site.

            “I’ve gone now five or six years to Steeplechase,” Mackenzie Gustafson said. “Luke, my husband, boyfriend at the time, introduced the event to me and we’ve been going ever since.”

            With all the excitement of the horse races, that is not all that Steeplechase has to offer. Drawing more than 2,500 people on race day, Steeplechase is the first big social event of the summer.

            First time race attendee, Cody Larriviere said it was a purely social event to him. “It wasn’t really about the race. It was all about socializing, meeting friends and making new ones, and meeting people from other colleges.”

            The Steeplechase tradition dates back to 1941. Prior to that, the grounds, Nashville’s Percy Warner Park, were constructed in 1936 as part of the parks improvement project of Works Progress Administration (WPA).

            When asked why he decided to go, Larriviere said, “I had never been to a horse race and my friend Drew Miller asked me to go and said everyone dresses up and it’s this big social event. So I decided to see what it’s about.”

            Larriviere went to the 2011 Steeplechase, which had unseasonably cold and unpredictable weather. “It was a lot of fun except when it was raining.”

            Both Larriviere and Gustafson were in the tailgating or infield area for the races. This is where most attendees are located throughout the day’s events, but there are also general admissions, box seats, hospitality tents, and hunt club tents. These are ultimately split into two groups, box holders and infield attendees.

            Although there are large screens set up around the track so no matter where you are you can see the race, most do not notice them.

            “ I maybe watched two races but I couldn’t tell you which horses ran,” Larriviere said.

            Yet others still do watch the races. “I’ve always watched the races throughout the day,” Gustafson said. “But it is more of a social aspect that really draws the crowd.”

            Another tradition about Steeplechase, is that the event benefits the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, raising more than nine million dollars since 1981 when the hospital was named the official charity.

            “I really think it’s cool that Steeplechase benefits the Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt,” Gustafson said.

            Having been to Steeplechase myself, I think Larriviere summed it up best.

            “It looks classy from the outside, but once you’re in it’s nothing more than a dressed up shit show,” Larriviere stated.

            It doesn’t seem to matter who you are, Steeplechase is the place to be in Middle Tennessee on the second Saturday of May. The crowds are made up of those who have and have not been to college, who make less than $40,000 a year and those who make more than $500,000 a year, with ages ranging from 18 to 50 or older.

            “I’d recommend everyone to go to Steeplechase once to just see what it’s like. It’s just something you need to do,” Larriviere said.

            No matter if you understand horse racing or not Steeplechase has so much more to offer. Steeplechase is the introduction to the social scene in the Middle Tennessee area just as everyone is starting their summer.

            “Steeplechase is the perfect combination of Southern gentility and sport with history and traditions,” a Steeplechase representative said.

            So this year, on May 12, go to the seventy-first annual Steeplechase and I promise you won’t be backing the wrong horse.

            For more information: mysteeplechase.com

VF February 2012 Review

The lead for this story is not just one sentence but instead the whole first paragraph. In that first paragraph, the reader gets a scene of how Lucian Freud worked relentlessly on painting after painting. John Richardson, the author, describes the deceased artist's rigorous schedule and personal demand for the art work being in and of itself. I found this article to flow from subject to subject, changing topics, and introducing new paintings so well. It was effortless to read, especially if the reader has any interest in art at all.

Not only did I find the subject matter interesting but I also find the situation intriguing. Freud is the grandson of Sigmund Freud, who developed the psycho-analysis theory for psychology. Sigmund Freud had a main belief that all issues somehow related back to the sexual nature of humans; and now his grandson, Lucian Freud, paints mostly naked humans. Lucian even painted some of his daughters naked. Lucian referred "naked" over the word "nude" because he felt that "nude" implied an object and not a person. After taking psychology, and now having read this article I can't help but connect the two in certain ways.
Lucian is also an interesting person to read about because of his stand alone success. At 88, he still stood when he painted and would work into the early hours. Richardson said Freud did this because he feared that if "he slept too much, or didn't work enough, that he would get stiff." Freud was in great despair of his mortality.

When I had finished the article, I had to get online and look up some of the portraits mentioned in the article and have attached a link to a web site that has many of his most popular ones. It seems so amazing to read about a man whose only exercise is painting look as fit as he did and to have fathered 14 children with six women.

This was quite a long story, but I just had to read more about Freud. I would have picked up this magazine and read this story on my own, the grade is a bonus.

I didn't have any unanswered questions because I feel that Richardson covered all bases and really made sure his readers were left with a feeling of awe and astonishment.

A picture I never did find online is the last portrait that Freud was working on and was talked about throughout the story, a naked man and a dog.  


VF Freud, Interrupted
Art by Lucian Freud

Not Like Everyone Else

At the age of 20, Benjamin Sawyer Toline is better off in life than most as a member of Vector Marketing Corporation, a student of Mechanical Engineering at Tennessee Tech University, and a brother of Sigma Alpha Epsilon.

Toline is a prominent member of the Cookeville community. One of his grandfathers, Eldon Leslie, had the Leslie Town Center named after him for his part in the community. And his other grandfather, Francis ‘Doc’ Toline was once a professor at Tech for both nuclear and aeronautical engineering after serving in the Navy and being a candidate for the Olympics that were cancelled because of World War II. Now his father, Robert Toline owner of Highland Home Improvement, serves on the board for Management of Information Technology.

All this leads up to the choices he makes today.

“I always felt like people were watching me, really because they were,” Toline said referring to the motivation he felt to do something at a young age.

He is the youngest of three boys, and something of a miracle child in more than one way. If a person passed him on the street he or she would undoubtedly notice is physical size.

“Everyone in my family is big. My brothers are over six feet tall and my grandpa the one that taught here at Tech had big hands like mine,” Toline laughed as he corrected himself, “well mine are bigger now.”

Toline was born with something the doctors at Vanderbilt have yet to name. “They basically said my circulatory system is different. Instead of one main artery to my upper body, I have two main arteries making the blood flow different.” He then pulled up his sleeves to show red birth marks, and where they are, his arms and hands are bigger.

Needless to say the doctors were intrigued Toline said. They told his parents that he was different but there wasn’t anything wrong; the doctors said to let him do whatever he wanted as long as it wasn’t something that could hurt him.

Something he thinks is interesting about being so much larger, is that he is so much stronger than most. “I could do about 25 pull-ups when I was in kindergarten and held the record throughout elementary school,” Toline said with a grin on his face.

Toline then said he was also a miracle baby because of a surgery performed before he was even born. “I was only the second baby to have had this done,” Toline said referring to the surgery, “if I had been born a year earlier, I wouldn’t have lived.” Fluid was found in his chest while developing in the womb that would prohibit his lungs from developing the way they should.

To save baby Toline, the doctors had to open his mother’s womb, perform the surgery to remove the fluid, place him back into the womb, and close it back up. Toline was born months later, two weeks early weighing 8 pounds. “I was in the NICU because I was born early, but I was so much bigger than the other babies, they called me a ‘whale.’” Toline said he still has a scar on his back from that surgery but it had nothing to do with his physical appearance today.

“I wasn’t going to be a shy child anyway,” Toline said, “I am completely confident,” which has helped him succeed in so many of his endeavors with Vector Marketing Corporation. “Everyone notices me and remembers me. People, no matter who they were, would ask about me. It made me not be afraid to talk to anybody,” Toline said about his large upper body. “It gives me more attention and I can always entertain. Others would let people hurt their feelings if they were asked questions, but I don’t.”

“He is probably the most honest, driven, and genuine person that I know,” Kandace Hanna, Toline’s girlfriend, said.

That drive is what has allowed him to get so far in Vector. What started out as a mailer he received two weeks after high school graduation, has turned into the assistant manager at the Nashville office.

Some refer to Vector and the Cutco product as a pyramid scheme, but Toline said that people are just negative about things. “The potential is there for growth, but it is on you to do it.”

Toline now makes 50% commission from his sales which is the highest level offere­d with less than 1% of those working with Vector achieve that level. “I’ve put in the effort and the training and tools are there. And this summer I made four times more money than anyone my age.” He spent the last two summers waking up early and making phones calls all day selling forty thousand dollars in product. This success has awarded him the title of Field Sales Manager (FSM). “It’s not that hard to do, people just aren’t motivated,” Toline said.

“My family has always been very supportive,” Toline said. His family has always been in sales and he was raised to be very personable. “But when I got my first paycheck with a comma my family got rid of any doubts,” Toline chuckled.

Vector is so impressed with his work that this summer he will be in charge of his own office in Murfreesboro that will be open from May 1 until near the end of August. “The offices are generally run by college students. And I’ll hire a receptionist and about three people who will work under me.” At the office is where he will send out mailers like the one he got. “It will look ridiculous on a resume. Just me, running my own business.”

Despite all the success with his business experience, Toline is an engineering major. “My grandfather taught here at Tech and my family has always been in engineering,” Toline said. But he has a plan that others can attest to.

“He’s got a good head on his shoulders,” Zach Miller, pledge brother and member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity, said. “He knows where he’s going. He makes decisions in life that will lead him somewhere better in life.”

Toline said that anyone can do business, but he “had the ability” to do engineering. Not many engineers have the personality of Toline so he said he plans to do sales after college. “I have more work experience and that will look better than a MBA.”

Along with a career and academics, Toline decided to join a social fraternity, Sigma Alpha Epsilon. “I didn’t want to join in the beginning, and I knew my parents wouldn’t be okay with it,” Toline said. But what changed his mind was his best friend Matt Meadows, also a Cookeville native. “I came down to the house with Matt and saw that it wasn’t what I thought it would be like. The brothers reminded me of myself and what I liked.” Another point that changed his mind was that he realized he could be successful academically as well as be in a fraternity.

Part of the appeal for Toline was “The True Gentleman,” a creed which hangs in the living room of the SAE house.

The true gentleman is the man whose conduct proceeds from good will and an acute sense of propriety, and whose self-control is equal to all emergencies; who does not make the poor man conscious of his poverty, the obscure man of his obscurity, or any man of his inferiority or deformity; who is himself humbled if necessity compels him to humble another; who does not flatter wealth, cringe before power, or boast of his own possessions or achievements; who speaks with frankness but always with sincerity and sympathy; whose deed follows his word; who thinks of the rights and feelings of others rather than his own; and who appears well in any company, a man with whom honor is sacred and virtue safe.

-Jon Walter Wayland

“That is the best thing anybody could say about Toline,” Matt Meadows, best friend and

pledge brother of Toline said while pointing at “The True Gentleman”.

“I always had people around me and I wanted that comradery again.” Now, Toline is not only a brother of SAE, but he also serves on the Interfraternity Council as the recruitment chair.

Toline believes that who people are around makes who they are. “I’m a big believer in the circle of influence. About half the people I surround myself with are better than me, people I can model myself after and learn from. Then, I have people I can help.”

It seems of all the people that a person could be friends with, Ben Toline is one that should be at the top of the list.

Taking a moment, Toline said “I would hate to be like everyone else.”