495 catch up-- globalization (do you notice a pattern?)

This week we really started to look into globalization as well as different theorists such as Marx and Weber, and comparing it to different things. We watched more of Slumdog Millionaire, which was slightly disappointing. The way the movie ended left me with so many unanswered questions. It did not explain what happened to Salim, let alone the children that were being used and blinded to help rake in more money. The whole Happily Ever After thing is so overrated and used so much. It just goes to show how our Western ideals cannot escape anyone. To see just how globalized the world is brings a lot of my thoughts as to how much different cultures are affected by this. I especially like the scene where Jamal and Salim are looking down in the slums and thinking about how different their lives are now and how much the slums have changed in just a few short years. I guess on my next blog post I will talk about that more since it will be my actual paper.
I feel like this class and pop-culture are starting to merge together. We watched Lost in Translation in this class as well, well clips of it at least. This was just to help show how globalized and urbanized the whole world is becoming. One day soon I will actually watch this entire movie so I have more to say on it other than Bill Murray is a very funny man.

313 catch up-- globalization and such

This week for class we talked about urbanization and we continued our discussion from last week at what is modern and what is postmodern. It was interesting because we looked at the city of New York as well as the city of Los Angeles and had a discussion at which was is considered “post-modern” and which one is considered modern. Obviously with New York being more organized than LA, it is considered to be modern. Since there is the fact that Los Angeles is fragmented just means that it is considered to be a post-modern city. Seeing it from this perspective really helps to understand that there is a definite distinction between what is considered modern and what is considered post-modern.

We also watch Rebel without a Cause, which was probably the birthplace of “cool”. Perhaps this is a practice of the old world order, sacrificing life for nobility, vs. the new world disorder, risking your life as a pastime. This shows that the strict-ness of a family unit causes kids to rebel, and it also embodies the new viewpoints on divorce. How there is an increase in the divorce rate because now it is easier than ever for women to provide for themselves. We also viewed some of the movie Lost in Translation, which was very cool because I have been wanting to see that movie for a while now. I never have seen the whole thing, and I wish we had more time in class to actually watch a whole movie. But, nonetheless, it was pretty cool to watch at least part of it. It shows the globalization of Tokyo, and the fact that transnational corporations now overrun it. It has “American music” in a Westernized world, which also goes hand in hand with a paper I am writing about Slumdog Millionaire.

The last thing we got to discuss before we had to leave class for the night was Disney, and how much of a corrupt thing it has become. Disney just basically takes everyone’s money… and gives little in return. Personally, I love Disney.. and I love going to Disneyland.. I even have an annual pass. However, every time I go it gets more and more expensive and I spend way more money than the last time I went. If a theme park can spend 40,000$ a night on fireworks alone, it just goes to show how much capital they are raking in daily.

495 catch up-- Presentations and Slumdog

We did a lot this week. Not only did we complete our group presentation on email and how we would teach it, but we also examined the movie Slumdog Millionaire. So here is my blog about those two things:
The presentation went well. We had a lot of time to do it, however I personally lacked the motivation. Senioritis is really kicking my butt lately. However, we got it done, but we had to cut a lot of things out per Dr. Wexler’s request to save time. I get that we needed to get it done and over with for the sake of time, however I think our grade might have been a little effected by it. Anyways, an A is an A, and I cannot argue percents, because at that point it just seems like I’m being a big baby.
Slumdog Millionaire was a great film, although we only got to see nearly half. I went out and bought the film that very day after I got done with school and work. I watched it and I could not believe how amazing the film was. I’m not sure why I never had watched it before, but I am glad that I got a chance to watch it now. I have been thinking a lot about the paper that we have coming up, and what exactly to write about. I have some ideas in mind, and I have already started it. I honestly just cannot wait for this semester to be over. I want to be finished already!

313 catch up-- Annie Hall

Forgive me if this is fragmented and not completely ‘there’ in a sense. I am playing blog catch up for the past few weeks, and I am using muscle memory at this point. For this week, we were to read Barker’s piece on Post-Modernism. The lecture for this week was all over the place with connections. I love that we make so many different connections in class, I know some people find this frustrating, but I think the more ways we can connect things then the more people will understand in the end. So we got a hand out on postmodernism vs. modernism, and we were asked to see what Annie Hall was – Postmodern, or modern? We looked at the master/slave relationship, and different avenues you can see it in. IE man/woman, race, ect. This was a normative thing throughout society, and this can still be seen in today’s world. We also looked at World War I as being a “modern war” due to the use of different technologies, and destruction and massive death. We examined Pg. 187, the “Cultural Politics of Modernism”, examining the subjective world of angst, form lacking context, as well as realism vs. modernism.

So anyways, back to Annie Hall. This film, in my opinion, is a postmodernist film. It is very fragmented in the way the movie travels through time, as well as the film is suggestive. This movie was representative of the “radical romantic comedy” of the postmodern era. The main character, Alvy Singer (Woody Allen) was constantly facing the camera, breaking the fourth wall essentially. He turned himself into a cartoon, screen splitting, etc. There are many different avenues Allen takes when making this film, and since it is so fragmented with so many different avenues, it makes it completely postmodern. My personal favorite was the subtitles between Alvy and Annie, cutting through their conversation to show what they were really feeling inside.

 This film shows divorce now, and how it works. This was not too common before hand, but now the film shows Alvy’s failed marriages, and examines why they did not work out in the first place. Although I only saw what was shown in class, the film seemed to leave the relationship between Alvy and Annie unresolved, so maybe there was only one divorce. Either way, it really examines failed marriages and why they do not work out in the first place. Pretty cool film, I think I might check it out in my free time, because I actually enjoyed it in class.

495 catch up-- Multiliteracy Presentations

This being the week after spring break, it is so hard for me to get back into the swing of things. It must truly be senioritis after all. Anyways, this week we were supposed to do our presentation, however with a few people out of our group missing, we have opted to go next week instead. The presentations this week was pretty good. I like to see different techniques people use when presenting, and how they would approach a group that they are to teach. The GoAnimate website is a pretty good one. I like that there are more creative outlets for kids to express themselves. Not only does this help kids to be more creative, but it gives them a chance to learn something while enjoying themselves. I know that when I was younger, it would have been easier for me to learn things if I had creative outlets such as GoAnimate. Our presentation is going to be on e-mail.. Yeah, it is a little bit of a boring subject, but it is such an important aspect that I don’t think people realize. We use it for so many different things; I think it is important to teach children at a young age how to use it and different things to watch out for when pertaining to email. I can’t wait to get it over and done with, group presentations, well presentations in general, are just not really my thing.

10...... eh.

From what we saw during class, as well as some of parts I managed to find on YouTube, the movie 10 is one that I just cannot seem to connect with. The film was made well before my time, and before this class period I had never even heard of it before. Dudley Moore played the character George Webber, who was actually quite comical in the film. However, during some midlife crisis that took place, he decided that he needed to be with a certain woman, his perfect “10” if you will. What troubles me, and remember I’ve only seen what was shown in class, what is up with Samantha Taylor (played by Julie Andrews)? From the outside looking in, it looks lie they are in a relationship in which she is committed to him and she has no problems with him seeking sexual experiences with other women. She is more than the average person, she is beautiful and very smart, and so what is she doing with this guy? She is waiting for him, in bed, to have sex while he goes off to the next-door neighbors house trying to get any form of action he can. It is not until the whole “broads” conversation that she seems to get any clue about how sleazy this guy really is. She finally gives him the choice of herself, or the “broads”, leaving her with nothing else but to get her belongings and get out. She is even intruding in his sexual relation with his fantasy girl. I think she has more of a power over him then he cares or admit to himself.

Did anyone notice this, so-called, “fantasy girl”? In the movie she was Jenny Hanley, played by Bo Derek. Whose fantasy was she? She was way taller than he was (I guess if you’re into that…), and she had beads in her hair. Not just a cute accent of beading, it was almost as if a necklace exploded and wrapped into each little group of hair it could find. That would have to be the most annoying sound by your ears, and no guy could rub their fingers in your hair without getting stuck or ripping out chunks of locks. I don’t know.. if you ask me Julie Andrews would have been a better fantasy girl.. I think she is so beautiful.

I’m not sure if I would consider this a “romantic comedy”. To me this whole movie was slightly offensive to women. I think that is why I couldn’t get into it.. It was almost a movie made for men, with subtle hints that would seem like it is likeable to women. The women acted stupid. I hate when they downplay on intelligence because it kills the whole movie for me. Even the character of Sam, she was considered an educated woman, who let a man walk all over her virtually. It just did not make any sense to me.

Homework Wednesday March 14th

Recently, I had an awful experience. A friend of mine drank a lot of alcohol and decided to drive home. He hit and killed two innocent young men who were on their way home from the night shift at Wal-Mart. Days later, a coworker of mine told me that she knew someone who was hit by a drunk drive recently and died as well. I think that this is such a pressing problem in our society, more so lately than ever. This issue is killing innocent people, tearing innocent families apart, and destroying lives of people who will have to live with their decisions and the effects of it for the rest of their lives. And there is such a simple solution to this, which is very obvious, which is to not drive after consuming alcohol, PERIOD. For such a simple and breathlessly easy solution, there is more and more of this epidemic happening all around us.
It bothers me as to how I would go about solving this issue and teaching it to students. I honestly would show them videos of the devastating affect, not just wreckage of accidents, but videos of the families effected by this tragic issue. These videos will really show the long lasting and devastating aftermath of this problem, long after the event is over and done with.

Below are a couple videos I found that I think would be greatly helpful to teach students that this problem is something that is so preventable. All the lives that are destroyed are not worth it, and I think these videos will help see these things.