Sunday, May 31, 2009

6-1-01

A farewell To Arms by Ernest Hemingway is a novel we just finished reading in English. The novel is very interesting although many people would disagree. The reason some of you may not like it is because at the beginning its very descriptive making it boring for some. Its very descriptive overall but at the beginning he gives a description of his surroundings which include the effects of the war. This is partially why I like the book because he gives shows the effects of the war in the setting.The way he writes makes you imagine everything clearly. One thing that was stressed in our class was his use of the ice burg technique. This is when something is told with as little words as possible. Basically 20% of what he's trying to say can be taken from the book but the rest for you to think about or find between the lines. This is best shown in his short story Hills Like White Elephants but it is also used in the novel. The novel is about Henry who is an American ambulance driver for the Italians in WWI. During the war he meets Catharine who is a nurse. Both do not want to find love at first but it could not be helped. Catharine is a strange character. She is very crazy throughout the novel and says things that also sound crazy. The main reason she is strange is because she is very subservient. She only wants henry to be happy and she has the need for his approval on everything she does. For example she immediately wants to clean a drink for him after it has spilled and she insists on getting a new one. Many people believe this is just part of him being sexist I almost agree in some sense because Catharine is too good of an example. The book is partially anti war which is why Henry and most of the characters in the book hate the war. It is also shown when henry goes AWOL and moves to Switzerland with Catharine. I do not want to give away too many details because some still haven't finished the book. It isn't a happy ending but because most of the book had a dark sad tone it was expected. I did not want to give too much plot summery but overall I will say that I liked the book very much. It was interesting and it has two genres of romance and action that appeal to allot of people.

Monday, May 25, 2009

5-25-09

One big problem that came with the Internet is the growth of piracy. Today you can find anything from music to movies without even paying a cent. Programs like lime wire allow for you to download files like songs weather it be old or new. There are even web sites where you can watch "bootleg quality" of movies that are still in theaters. Some people will say its a way to save money but others will say your actually stealing money from the people who create these things. I like to do all these things its a lot easier. But I also feel it is wrong. A while ago I was debating wether to buy a new C.D or download it until my friend said "yea cause your 12 dollars will really make a difference in how much money they'll make". That made my decision because it made sense at the time. But If everyone thought this way then they really wouldn't make any money. I think this is most shown in the piracy of video games. It is because it is so easy to listen to a song online or even record one that's on the radio. For games you have to pay money to modify your system and its allot more work trying to pirate them. Developers spen allot of time and work on their games, I'm not saying its any different for a singer writing their song but either way hard work is going down the drain if they aren't making anything from it. The idea is being "rewarded" for their hard work. So if your downloading that new song on lime wire are you helping yourself or cheating someone else?

Monday, May 18, 2009

5-18-09

I finished reading most of the Def Poetry Jam poems and I think they are really good. Most of the poems are very real and you can tell a lot of them come from the heart. I like the fact that it reminds me a lot of rap which we learned today fits well with poetry. One thing that bothered me a little was some of the words used like cat, and a few others that we wouldn't normally say. At first I thought the poets were teens our age and that is what I pictured before realizing they weren't. When I first opened the book I just wanted to look at it and I started reading Poetri's poems. These were Urges, End Of Story and If I Ever Lost You. This was in the section after the brief character summary. These were more serious poems and I didn't acknowledge him until later on. After I started reading the play/poems from the start I kept note of the ones I liked. I liked the ones that were not as personal and were somewhat funny which turned out to be Poetri's poems. He wrote Poems like Money, Dating Myself and Krispy Kream. These poems were very funny but he even admits that he was serious when writing them. The next day we learned that it was better to hear the poem the way it was read. So I went on youtube.com and checked some of his videos. I even found another poem I liked called "Monsters" which also had a deeper meaning to it. I have to be honest though it was not what I expected. I expected a deeper voice and a tougher way of saying the poems. He sounded more like a stand up comedian which I liked allot because I like stand up comedy. If its his style then I like it but it could be how all the poets presented their poems on the stage. As I was reading, another poet that I was interested in was Beau. He seems like he has a huge ego but I liked his poems. I pictured him yelling them out which is why I was interested in them. One poem that I liked in the book was "Shine" by Lemon on page 41. It is about a black man who managed to swim to Harlem during the Titanic while the other white passengers drowned. This sort of reminds me of "I Too Sing America" by Langston Hughes. The very first sentence even says "while white America sings". In fact I saw allot of poems that reminded me of Hughes and even Maya Angelou. I have not liked a lot of poetry before this class but I'm glad I got to read these types of poems which are not so boring.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ht9lB-hebJw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFhFaRKVpTY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNlVNhTBu-A

Monday, May 11, 2009

Hulu

Lately we talked about ads and allot of the feelings on ads were that they are made to get peoples attention. This is very true and we have even seen some controversial adds. But what about commercials?, many commercials are made the same way. They are made to capture peoples attention and sell or advertise something. The only thing is they are seen by more people then a billboard is. A billboard that really grabs people's attention makes people stop and examine it more. Commercials are easy to tune out or even change the channel that's why its probably less noticeable. The super bowl is a time where the most interesting commercials are shown. Some commercials that I found very interesting are the hulu commercials. Hulu advertises something to get t.v shows onto your computer or something like that. The commercials have stars telling you how TV does rot your brains. They even point out how we still watch it even after they told us the "truth". I love these commercials because they are some what funny and creepy at the same time. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4MwJQvZuLg this one caught my eye recently and then I found the others. From what I understand the commercials started coming out during the super bowl which I already mentioned above. So this commercial is interesting because its some what true and even after looking at the other commercials I found that others agreed or were offended by it. There was also one comment that said "They give subtle/insignificant clues. they shove it right in your face and the sheeple continue to notice nothing . These people are openly saying the future does nt need you , and are planning to wipe out most of the worlds population". That Sounds crazy but some actually agree, for me its funny to think about. Many people feel this way and you could say hulu has grabbed many viewer's attention. One person even claimed in a comment that the government does these things which reminds me of our class discussion. So does t.v really rot our brains. I have not noticed it in a literal sense but maybe in some way it does.

the links to the other hulu commercials are here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48CZDXbczMI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CMWkesiVD4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qcc4QRRKns

I hate to say it but they are probably some of my favorite commercials, heck ill probably even look into this hulu stuff. (yea its working)

i just saw this comment that interested me
"idk bout you but that was not funny. i dont like yto sound like those complaining dumbshits who get offended by everything, but that commercial set off a red flag in my head. they were making fun of conspiracy therories. only to prove that they want you to think its a joke. and the show on the tv screen was family guy, not a big deal for a normal american, but family guy is owned by williams street, or has relations with it. that corp, is doing crazy shit and is linked with the new world order. "

so yea there are allot of people with different feelings on these commercials,weather they know the true facts or not. where do you stand on it?

Monday, May 4, 2009

5-4-09

Lately the economy has been down and everyone is upset.As young adults in our area I wonder if all this really effects us as much as everyone else . I hear everyday about the economy but never how it affects you. People would say "oh the economy, the economy" but that's basically all. I just saw another news story about how hundreds of people were fired. I have not met any of these people and that is what brings up the question. Should we care if its not affecting us?. I think we should. Even if your financially stable and your parents still have their job you should care, maybe even consider yourself lucky. It will only get worse if everyone thinks that it wont affect them. Its like during the roaring twenties where everyone thought prosperity will not end. Instead now we feel that it cant get worse so allot of us don't worry. I know at the beginning I was not worried because that was how the stock market is it goes up and down. I didn't know enough to know that it could be serious. So is there anything we can do to fix it?. Honestly I do not know what we can do to fix it but we should be able to understand what exactly is going on or how we could help. Other then that we pretty much have to rely on the government to make sure you keep your jobs.

Monday, April 27, 2009

Today was a very scary day for Manhattan workers. It was an early Monday morning, people had just gotten to work from their busy weekends. Two planes an airliner and a super sonic fighter jet flew close to many New York skylines. This scared tons of people and it only brought memories of the tragic 9/11. Buildings were evacuated and workers called loved ones to tell them this news. The good news is that it was nothing more then a photo op. No one really knew about this which is why it scared allot of people. The president and the mayor also claim they didn't know anything of this photo op. This brings up allot of questions including one that would fall along the lines of "is this a conspiracy?". Many people don't believe that no one would know about this especially after 9/11. You would think people would be informed. I'm not sure what to believe but for now I will trust what the news are saying. You cant really say I'm only following the media, its just that there are no facts to prove everything else. This event also kind of goes with the law that states you cant say or do anything that would put people in a state of panic. For example you cant yell fire in a movie theater where there is no fire. It would make panic and run away. So this is very similar to today's incident. It was not really a terror attack but it made people panic to the point where they had to be evacuated. This is partially all because no one told anyone about it. It is also bad because many people are still afraid of low flying planes let alone ones near sky scrappers. This shows how New Yorkers will never get over 9/11. Were not supposed to forget, but this was not the way everyone should be reminded.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

War has been apart of the world for a long time. I recently got interested in all this after hearing more about WWII and WWI. In class we've talked about reasons why war began and what happened. Recently after watching part of a movie in English I started getting interested in the technology and strategies used in war. I started to realize why there were some people strictly against war. Watching the movie and learning what went on from different sources like novels (although they are fictional they all try to be as real as possible) I started to think about how most people who fought in war died. It was hard to think about it, especially how soldiers managed to survive. I am not promoting or going against the idea of having a war but I just feel that its not a game. I play VIDEO games based on wars and some people online would say "it would be cool if I was in war" or "I want to join the marines" its funny and sad that people especially some younger kids feel this way without knowing that its not easy to be a soldier. In real war you probably wont be able to go in, kill six people and run away safely and for the most part THERE ARE NO RESPAWNS. Today's war is different from WWI and II its not comparable. There are newer weapons but also newer ways to stay protected. I cant say its safer but it is deadlier. Allot of people die and that's sad, in my own opinion if I HAD to fight in a war I would. I would also pray everyday to make it back in one piece (literally with newer weapons today this would be hard to do). War is bad but we sometimes benefit from it especially if were defending ourselves. When it comes to being pro/anti war I am in the middle.

Monday, April 6, 2009

4-6-09 blog

How many people do you know that are creative and come up with great ideas. I once heard that it is always better to die and leave something behind then to leave nothing.You would think that it only applies to those people who go "I want to be known and famous" but it can apply to everyone. When I heard this I was thinking "what could I leave behind?". You would probably think that you will all have had a healthy family but I feel its about something more productive. Like people who invent things or artists that paint. That is why we have things like art, music and anything else that allows you to be creative. It can be hard to leave your mark on the world and half the time your not remembered anyway. The point is that whatever you made will go on forever unless a tragedy happens and it is destroyed. Today the Internet it is almost like a permanent place to store all your work for everyone to see. An example, unless we delete our blogs they will be sitting there until the site closes forever. So its not so permanent but its still easy now to keep things saved forever. If you have a skill in art you should probably share with everyone. If your lucky you can become famous. Its very rare but look how many famous people there are on YouTube.com. I have even recognized artists like poster boy through our very own blogs. If you feel your good at singing why not put it on the Internet? Afraid you ll get bad feedback? from who? you probably wont know any viewers anyway. Its good to get some feedback from people too. I'm not trying to encourage people to use the Internet but I am encouraging people to share their talents in art, music or writing with every one else. At least then you wont have to ask what have you left behind because people would have witnessed what you wanted them to see. Then you can go on being proud sharing these things with everyone as you get older especially if you pass them on to your family.

Monday, March 30, 2009

music

At the end of the day if its one thing most people look forward to is music. Music is another form of art, another way to express yourself and show your creativity. Yea we have all these professionals but there are allot of amateurs and plenty of people who like to sing in the shower or play an instrument. One thing we learned recently is that music brings people together. It may have been obvious by now but if you think about where and why it started to bring people together you'd be surprised. In our Humanities class we watched a documentary on jazz and the great depression. I'm sure music connected people before this but this time was truly a time where music was important. We were able to watch and witness how Jazz comforted people during this time. We said that it gave people hope and since it was free it became very popular not only that but it brought the best out of people. Luis Armstrong was a musical genius that transformed jazz and singing he really made it popular. When we heard one of his pieces I felt like tapping my foot or dancing my self, and I don't even dance. This is how you know how jazz is a great type of music . We said that Jazz opened the door to the black world for white people. It brought everyone together black and white, when you were out dancing and listening to jazz it didn't matter. This all led to the many types of music we have today. Along with bringing people together music also has created tension between people. Today we have people arguing about what type of music sounds bad or good. These arguments are still a form of bringing people together because now they are able to share opinions freely. The Internet is a great way to share your idea on music or even post a song that you've created. You can go on YouTube.com and watch a video of your favorite song and be able to read pages and pages of comments of people arguing or agreeing. Everyone wants to share their opinions especially on their favorite rapper or band. The point is that even today with all the different types of music (stemming from the Jazz times) it still brings us together.

Monday, March 23, 2009

Frida

Frida the movie was a very interesting movie. It is about the life story Frida Kahlo a famous artist from the surrealist era of art. Frida can be considered today as one of the most famous surrealist woman of that time. Her art is inspired by a bus accident she was in when she was younger and her marriage to Diego Rivera. When she was 18 she was in an accident that left her paralyzed. The film really presented the accident very well showing it in slow motion so the viewers can see what is going on. The fact that we were able to see the accident clearly added more drama to that scene. We were also able to see very clearly how the accident affected Frida emotionally and physically. Physically she was paralyzed but emotionally it made her stronger. You can tell that she was eager to get moving again. Frida was a very strong woman which made her a perfect feminist. The humanistic tradition book states that it was her "determined effort to present the female image as something other then the object of male desire". This is also the reason why her appearance was different from most woman (with her uni brow). Her paintings are mostly portraits of herself and according to the film they are what got her started. Frida went to Diego Rivera (who was a very famous Mexican painter) to get opinions on her work. After seeing how good she was he took her under his wing and the two started working together. The two also ended up getting married. To me their relationship in the film was very interesting they did seem to love each other even though Diego cheated on her and they argued allot. Many might disagree but I thought Diego's character was very interesting. His dedication for what he believes in is a similar trait that Frida has which is why they were a good match. I see why the humanistic tradition book says that she refers her marriage as one of the great accidents. Allot of her paintings also show her heart ache after Diego broke her heart a number of times. After watching this film we can all say that Frida has been through allot of overwhelming problems. We were able to see how nothing was able to stop her. She was a very strong woman, definitely a new image for feminists everywhere.

Monday, March 16, 2009

A few weeks ago we talked about Freud and the human psyche. Freud had a huge impact on art because he changed the way people thought. Many poets and artists of all types based their work on his ideas. They also used free association and dream analyses for their work. Freud came up with idea that the human psyche is made up of 3 parts. The Id which is what tells you that you want something, the ego which manages the Id it "attempts to adapt needs of the id to the real world" and the super ego which is your conscious. Some times this conscious can never develop that is what makes mass murderers and other people who you could tell have no morals. This is why the conscious is important to your mind because it tells you what is right and what is wrong. It can also develop that feeling of guilt after doing something wrong. Why is that some peoples conscious never develops? and if it doesn't develop can they be accountable for what they did. Of course they can, but if it was a justified excuse more people would use it everyday. The humanities tradition workbook states that "the super ego monitors human behavior according to principles, inculcated by parents,teachers and authority figures. Basically the conscious learns form childhood experiences which is true because it usually develops around 7 or 8 years of age. Based on this information I can guess that most murderers probably do have a bad childhood. In most movies and TV shows its also the same way. Today I read an article (Austria Incest Case )about a man who locked his daughter up for 21 years and raped her. Besides being disgusting one thing in the article made me think about that idea of childhood and the conscious. "At one point, his voice breaking, Fritzl briefly recalled his childhood and said life with his mother was "very difficult." Asked if he had friends, he said simply: "No."". This section came from the article, even though there is no proof of this it does make sense and goes with the idea that childhood really does affect the conscious. I'm sure everyone agrees that to do what he did really shows that he had no morals. This doesn't mean he is really innocent because he definitely isn't but it shows that we should be very careful with children growing up. One bad experience could probably scar them for the rest of their life and turn them into something horrible.

Monday, March 9, 2009

Metamorphosis Reaction

The metamorphosis written by Kafka is the story of a young man that was turned into a bug over night. I'm not sure what type of bug he became but the charwoman called him a dung beetle (http://www.kotaku.com.au/2007/10/03/dung.jpg) which is what I generally pictured him as. I have to admit the idea of the story is crazy but that's how Kafka likes it. I enjoyed the story more towards the end because I really wanted to know what happens to Gregor. During the first 2 readings I actually found myself dozing off a bit. This is probably the first time I have done that during a homework assignment. The reason this happened was because there was allot of information that was unimportant to the story or was uninteresting. I was really surprised because overall this short story was very interesting. In tonight's reading I was very upset to see how it ended with Gregor dieing. I feel that the ending was a surprise because any other writer would probably have made Gregor turn back into a human and make him leave his family for good. But this is Kafka's work and because he writes in a nightmarish way it does make sense. This is also why the story was so interesting because it was like one big bad dream. Talking about Gregor's family I should mention how surprised I was to their reaction of Gregor's death. They basically felt that God had taken away a heavy burden that was actually their son. The person who upset me the most might have been Gregor's sister. Gregor had so much respect and love for her, he even thought she felt the same way. He believed that after his transformation his sister still felt that there was some human left in him. In reality she felt he was a "thing" like any other creature that creep people out. She was even the one that proposed the idea of getting rid of him. That's partially why it probably ended like it did. If he did become human he would end up being the small insect he used to be in the real world. Realising how his family felt about him made him very depressed which could show how he does have some emotion. Gregor's death to me is unclear even though he was hurt why would he die in what I guess we could say was in his sleep. I was under the impression maybe his sister had killed him because they said she was pale and had not slept. Then i remembered that as readers we witness his last breathe. Another good thing about this story is that even though we know that Gregor died we don't actually know what happens to his body. The charwoman said that she had taken care of it but she never explains. I thought that the butcher's boy could have done the job but that would be kind of last on the list of things that could have happened. Overall I did enjoy the story, I felt that it was good because towards the end it made me want to find out what happens next. It also raised a few questions that will probably not get answered. So its up to us to think about what could have happened. I recommend this story in the novel to anyone who has the free time to read it on their own.

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Poetry

In my last Blog I talked about Art and how it can be many things. One form of art that isnt so popular today is the art of poetry. The definition of poetry from dictionary.com is "the art of rhythmical composition, written or spoken, for exciting pleasure by beautiful, imaginative, or elevated thoughts". A poem is a composition of poetic devises like alliteration and Imagery. Many poets like to use imagery so that the reader can "see" what is happening in their poem. Allot of poetry is made up of the emotions and feelings of the poet but before this poems were very different. Poems before the Renaissance were very religious based with references to god and other holy things. During the renaissance the way people thought changed along with poetry. It became very humanistic with the idea that your interest and values are most important. The Transcendental era was also an impact on literary work. Writers like Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau wrote about things like nature and individuality. Before Thoreau no one dared to challenge the government but in his work "On Duty Of Civil Disobedience" he spoke about the government and how he resented it. These writers changed what people wrote about in General which also had an impact on poetry. Poets during the early twentieth century were called "The imagists", according to "The Humanistic Tradition" textbook these poets got their name from their use of free verse. Free verse "became notorious for its abrupt and discontinuous juxtaposition (http://dictionary.com com/browse/juxtaposition) of lean images".Some of the most famous imagists were Ezra pound and Amy Lowell. I used to feel like poetry was boring and a waste of time. Partially because I never took the time to actually read any. After learning somewhat about Modernists like Robert Frost and their poems I became a little more interested in poetry. Since Poetry is a form of art its almost necessary to pay attention to it. If everyone feels like poetry shouldn't be read then it would ruin the balance of art. Not only that but it could set a chain reaction causing people to stop being creative and expressing themselves. OK so that is impossible but it is kind of our responsibility to keep what the modernists, imagists, romantics and everyone else who contributed to making poetry what it is today alive.

Monday, February 23, 2009

Evolution of art

Art has been around for a long time maybe even since the beginning of time. It is something that will never disappear and it is always changing. Today you can find any type of art anywhere from museums to the streets. One of the reasons art will always be around is because it can be allot of things. I believe that if it is something you worked hard to create it is considered art. Street art like graffiti and other work are not considered to be art by some people because it is illegal but there are many others like myself who disagree. One interesting thing about Graffiti art is that it is evolving along with technology. You may be thinking "In today's world what isn't evolving with technology" but some artists have come up with some cool things. One artist turned a regular spray can into an amazing tool he uses to create digital graffiti. http://hearseeav.com/wordpress/ this link will show you videos of some of the things he has done using this technology. That is not the only way art and technology were brought together. Best Digital Graffiti Blogs - G4tv.com this video shows you some other really cool things that can be done. I would like to try are the Led throwers. These small lights look like fun to throw and use, it would be interesting to see what we could make using them. Even though most of us cant get our hands on these really cool things it doesn't mean art like this wont continue to grow. I'm not really sure but I would think that this type of art will turn street art into less of a crime then it is now.It could even become another one of the many different branches of art.

Monday, February 16, 2009

Technology/materialistic....

Those of you reading this are probably in some ways materialistic. The dictionary term for materialistic is a person who is markedly more concerned with material things than with spiritual, intellectual, or cultural values. This is true for allot of people especially those who live in city's where there is something being sold on every corner. If you would ask some people what they would take if their house was on fire one of the things they would likely say is their cell phone or ipod. Even if that's not true for a situation as dangerous as that it is the idea that matters. We as people have the need to want the latest on everything. Weather its a new ipod, or new cloths we still want and want. It doesn't mean were bad people but what is it that draws us to materials like laptops and other technological devices?. On another Blog someone referred to music as a drug that people are addicted to. I think this is true for everything else out there. There are some people out there who obsess over materials. People who will never stop buying the latest things they have been waiting forever to get. Although with today's economy allot of people are spending less on materials and more on important things. This still doesn't stop some of us from buying a new wii or a new Black Berry. Even if you feel as if this economy is effecting the bigger industries its still not stopping our technological advances. Big company's continue to show off their latest projects in events like the Consumer Electronics Show and try their hardest to make you the consumer interested in buying their product.Some people like Buddhists believe that Eliminating desires will stop your suffering and make you happier.That may be true but I believe that as long as brilliant ideas continue to exist we probably wont be able to eliminate our need to buy or desire.