Commenting and Social Media

The first link I followed was one posted by Shawn:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dy3RTFFhSYs
As soon as this video started playing I was already dancing and singing along to the Fraggle theme song. Total blast from the past. I can see how this would make a great conversation piece for this class. Maybe though adding another video of shows from the 90's just for some of us younger viewers. 

Another link I followed was from Miranda, A Knight's Tale. Ive already seen this movie, many, many times and I can definitely agree that it would make a great addition to this class. That too would make a great discussion piece, especially about the music and costuming. Plus this is just a film that everyone should see, its that good. 

The next link that I followed was one posted by Zoee:
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/a-forger-of-art-tells-all-03-03-2013/
I think this link should DEFINITELY be included in the class discussion. It has to do with that most of us are doing in college (art), thievery, skill, masterpieces...it really all depends on how you view it. I think this could form some really interesting conversations. It would be cool to see what people think about it, if the man is right forging the paintings or if he should be punished etc. 

I also watched https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6DfeyBxH2k that Zoee had posted. I think this could have the same issue as the link mentioned above. It certainly would provide some entertainment. 

The last link that I didnt have time to read would be Alice Looking Through Glass by Linda Woolverton and Lewis Carroll. I have heard great things about that and im sure it would be an awesome read and conversation topic. Plus it's another classic.

Curate Yourself

For this class I think some things that should be included would be:

Animal Farm by George Orwell:
http://msxnet.org/orwell/print/animal_farm.pdf
-The size of this book is definitely manageable for this class
-It's simple enough to understand fairly easily 
-The allegories. This book is known for all its wonderful allegories. The more you get into it and the more you decipher, the better you'll like the book
-The narration is clear and forward
-It's a classic. 

Memoirs of a Geisha (The Film)
-The storyline is fantastic
-The execution of the film itself is gorgeous
-Any art student can appreciate what went into this movie, the sets, the costumes, the makeup
-It's fairly educational
-It's enjoyable

Maybe even 
Hellboy 
-Mainly to view how a comic could be turned into a phenomenal movie

Reading the Multimodal Narrative

For this assignment I read Persepolis. I had actually already read this last semester for an Islam class I took, so I thought id refresh my memory and read it again because i remembered I liked it. I am a person who likes to read, just not when it comes to comics. I prefer my comics to be mainly image based with minimal words. Persepolis actually has a nice distribution of images and text, not too much not too little. The artwork is certainly interesting. Being an illustration student im going to be judgmental, but i think for the story the style of artwork works. The style actually reminds me a lot of the stories that I used to read as a kid. Very simple and very straight forward. The comic was both entertaining and educational, it kept my attention. I wish I could tell my life story through a comic. I think it might bore people though.

McLuhan and Media Future

(This is not my image)

Social media to me is a love hate situation. I hate it with a passion because it takes away from the things that really matter in life. Who cares if someone likes a picture of you or gives it a thumbs up?! Who cares if someone likes your stupid status about a dog who dances in a circle. We've become so absorbed in our own little world that we fail to see what's really going on around us. We fail to see our friends and family. We fail to see the planet we live on. The only time something like that comes up is if someone posts a video about it. It makes us realize for a slip second what were missing, but then we dive straight back into the social media bull crap. I wont lie, i do have multiple social media things that i keep up with, which is where i contradict myself. I like getting likes on my images on instagram, or sharing silly videos with friends. I like knowing that people care about me, even if its just a split second of someone liking an instagram photo. But is it ever going to be enough? My generation and the ones coming into the world now are all dependent on people liking them, thinking positive things about them...all online though. I wish i could just throw my phone and laptop out the window sometimes and get back to my roots. Go running, go to the beach, play sports with friends....all without having to post about it or tell people what im doing. Unfortunately that is easier said than done. 

Voice and The Auteur Theory

I decided to watch 3 Wes Anderson films due to the fact that i had already seen a few. Anderson, unfortunately, is one of my least favorite directors. I really dont like his work.
Some of the key features that I noticed throughout his work are:
-He makes obsessive and comedic use of rostrum camera insert shots
-He ended all of his films with a slow motion shot
-He likes to shoot with extremely wide-angle anamorphic lenses with barrel distortion
-Frequently uses a take/double take technique
-His films often focus around a broken or unorthodox family
-At least one of his characters is usually a grown man seeking the approval of a parent or parent figure.
-All of the titles are in yellow
-Themes of white middle-class and upper-class issues
-Many straight on shots

Adaptation

I decided to choose Interview with a Vampire for my movie screenplay, and viewing it as a costume designer. I think the first place I would look would be the time period the film is set in. You wouldn't want to have a vampire movie set in the 1800s with characters that are wearing clothing from present day. That has always been a pet peeve of mine when movies are set in one time period but dressed inappropriately. It just makes the film bad to me. Either way, i would first look to the time period and then to the description of the outfits if there was one. If not, I would do as much research as possible on that time period for clothing. Maybe adding a bit of personal touches but nothing that would make it seem unrealistic. Each scene would have specific costumes which would require it's own research. Honestly, I would base it on personal preference and historical facts.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

Personally I thought this film was a little confusing to follow, until someone mentioned what they thought about it. I think that this film...play was mainly based on what happens to minor characters once their scene was done. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern were bounced around from scene to scene so much that I really didn't make all that much sense. I did like though that we got to view Hamlet through their eyes, we got to see the story through a sort of "behind the scenes" perspective. After doing a little more digging I found this statement "If life were a play, most of us would be minor characters in it. Sure, we might imagine it differently, but very few of us live our lives as Hamlets. In general, we more closely resemble the silly characters that only occasionally get caught up in the central action, characters like Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. We call ourselves "masters of our domains," but when we think about how many things in our lives we actually have control over, it's not necessarily a long list". This actually helps put the play into perspective for me. We have little to no control over what happens in our lives. Whatever happens to us is fate.

Newsworld

1. Are there prominent symbols in the story that you read? And if so, what are they and how are they used?

-There are only a few symbols that I can think of for this story, one being the candle that the one boy took out of his pocket and rolled in his palm. Another would be the flashlight that the boy wasn't allowed to turn on. Both of these might have been used to show that there was no light, or in other words, no hope. Happiness was lost.  Another that might work would be the fact that they watched the event three separate times, some still not processing that it was an actual event that happened.

2. What connections did you make with the story? Discuss the elements of the work with which you are able to connect. 

-I think i can connect with the younger brother Seth in this particular writing. He was too little to understand what was going on and once he did, he bawled. I was really young when that happened so i don't exactly remember what I did but i'm sure i cried. I cared about my family so much that I thought, what if it was my family in the situation. What if it had been my family that died in the accident. I can also connect with the main group of the story, wanting to break into the park and see what was up, kind of reminiscing in the past a bit, wanting to see what was behind the blockade, what had happened to their childhood place.

3. What changes would you make to adapt this story into another medium? What medium would you use? What changes would you make?

-Personally, how this is written, i could see it being changed into a graphic novel. I would use visuals or illustrations to eliminate some of the text. Not entirely all of it. I would use some word bubbles and have little word boxes at the bottom to explain what cant be described through imagery. I wouldnt change the story at all, I would just change it into a comic or graphic novel, as mentioned above.

Trump image....

The main affects of this image would be:

*provide comedy 

*Irritate Tump supporters

*Make someones day just a little bit better

"Hitting Budapest" by NoViolet Bulawayo

For starters, I read Hitting Budapest by NoViolet Bulawayo. To list a few, some of the primary features of this world (Budapest) would be the poverty difference. The children wandering down random streets looking for guava to eat because they have already eaten all that they can find. They spare nothing (aside from the few they throw at a house), compared to the woman who was taking their pictures and eating pizza. She threw away a perfectly good piece of pizza without thinking to offer it to the children. They woman and children clearly came from a different cultural background just form the way they treat each other. For the children, it's basically to fend and fight for yourself. To us, the woman's behavior would seem normal; taking pictures of strange children, throwing away food that we don't finish, being offended by someone who is offended by us. 

What are the world's ethos?
For the above story, i would have to say that the beliefs of the children differ from the beliefs of the older woman. The children believe that they have to steal to survive, which very well may be true. But they also think and hope that one day they wont have to. They will marry rich men and live in a nice place. The woman already has these things, supposedly. She seems to have a belief that its ok to take pictures of strange children on the street. Which to us (as mentioned before) would be a normal thing. Just going about our daily business, eating some food, taking pictures of things and people that intrigue us. 

What are the strategies used by the writer to convey the world?
The author paid attention to detail, for sure, to help convey the different worlds. They went into detail about how each character looked or was dressed, who had matted hair, who had clean feet, what the shoes of the dead woman looked like. They described the streets and the houses, the color and texture of the guavas, the pizza and all its funny looking toppings. Everything that the reader would need to feel like they were in the same world and setting as the characters. They gave insight on every single little detail about the characters and what they were doing and feeling. 

How are the characters connected to the world of the story?
For this answer, i'm going to base it entirely on the children. They are growing up practically on the street, having to fend for them selves, to steal food so they don't go hungry. They have to plan for the future of higher thefts, such as stealing valuables from peoples houses. They are having to make due with the crap hole of a world they are living in. A 10 year old getting pregnant by one of her family members...what kind of a life is that? They are growing up differently than the people around them, who have homes and food to waste. 

Girl by Jamaica Kincaid

OK, so my honest opinion Girl by Jamaica Kincaid, is a really weird short story. There are little to no punctuation marks to show the end of a sentence so it just seems to ramble on and on. I really didn't like it, my reasons having nothing to do with the writer. I can really relate to the person who is being spoken to, having orders barked at them or telling them how to do things a particular way. My mom does this to me and it really bothers me. If I do something a certain way, its automatically wrong and she has to tell me the right way to do it.....which is essentially the same way I just did it. The only difference is that she told me to do it and watched me do it. Then theres the factor of calling the girl a slut. I wont go as far as to say my mom does that to me, but she's certainly come close....though I am no where near being one. Thanks mom. The wording of Girl isn't asking the other person to do something, it's telling. Thats something that gets under my skin with my mom. If you want me to do something, ask me, don't tell me. You have a better chance of getting me to do that thing if you ask me vs telling me. Telling me is going to get you a snippy attitude, and a reluctance to do it.

Grand Budapest Hotel vs Writings of Stefan Zweig

Right off the bat I will admit that i am not a fan of Wes Anderson films. His films just seem to hold no interest to me. Sure they are definitely well made, they just aren't my forte. It's a bit jumpy for my taste and if you're not paying attention the whole time, you can get lost pretty quickly. That being said, I will enforce again that i don't think this is a bad movie. The sets and costumes are beautiful, the scenery is fantastic and the actors do a great job with their roles. Each character is studied in depth for the importance of their role. For example, the main characters are described more than the jail members. 

I think the readings are pretty similar to the writings of Stefan Zweig in the ways of storytelling, or narrating. Both the narrators in The Grand Budapest Hotel, and stories written by Zweig are quite unexpected. They each have interesting backstories to tell that don't always end in happiness. They were also both told in a flashback. I have mixed feelings about flashbacks. I often forget (which might be the whole point) that i'm viewing a flashback. I like the realization though once it comes back to "real time", that you were looking into someone's past. I found that most of the stories are about loss and love, and occasionally death. They both have that in common. Wes Anderson's film Moonrise Kingdom was all about love and loss. Not that there is anything wrong with those subjects, I just really didn't like how they were conveyed in either Zweig's writings or Anderson's films. I prefer fantasy, syfy, fiction and horror. Something that is able to hold my attention more than a film about love and death that jumps around a lot. Overall, these would be interesting stories for someone who is into those kind of lovey, dramatic....stuff. I for one, am not a fan. 

True Grit

When someone asks you to explain a western film, what are the first things that come to mind? Probably something along the lines of gun slinging cowboy bad boys, horses on desert trails, gunfights and lone rangers. To me when I think of westerns, I always have the same ideas that come to mind. In my opinion all western movies are the same. If you haven't gathered already, im not a fan of western movies. I find them boring and repetitive and they're all pretty much the same. One or two main characters who tend to be bad boy gun slingers who have to figure out a way to save someone or something while out in the middle of desert areas. To me, True Grit (2010) was no different. 

The main character, Mattie Ross, a stubborn 14 year old girl seeking to find and kill her father's murderer. So already we have the rebellious bad ass character. Next up would be Rooster Cogburn, the lone cowboy who doesn't take crap from anyone...except the stubborn little 14 year old of course. Aside from those characters, there's the other, not so important characters who may or may not help. In this case that would be LaBoeuf. Personally, i believe this movie sums up the stereotype of western movies. There were gun fights, chases on horseback, danger at every turn, potential damsels in distress, and lots of arguing that may or may not have been understandable (i'm lookin' at you Jeff Bridges). 

With all this being said, I found this movie to be a bit boring. Sure it was well made, it just didn't hold my attention. I think the only parts that actually stuck out to me were when little blacky died, and when in the end it showed that Mattie had lost her arm. That was a little surprising. The only thing that i can think of that might break the typical western movie standards is that the main character is a young girl compared to a large burly man with no fears. That was a nice change for once (seeing as i don't normally watch westerns, there might be more with female leads that i don't know of)

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

The book I chose for this assignment is Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. 

I know we were told to stay away from saying "I liked it", but I quite enjoyed this book. I listened to it on Audible to save time and have the option of multitasking. I will say though that the accent the reader used didn't really help the story. It was a little distracting honestly. If I had had time to actually read it, I think I would have enjoyed it more and it would have gone a little more smoothly. But this is an art college and time is of the essence, so c'est la vie.

Aside from the above, I found this to be a good read/listen. Part of me thinks that I most likely wouldn't have enjoyed the original because without the zombie parts, the story seemed a little dry. I think at some point i'll get around to watching the  It could also just not be my forte. Either way, the zombie parts were a nice touch to what seemed like what would just be a romance story. They made the main female characters seem a little more bad ass with the fact that they could take care of themselves against zombies popping out of the mud. I know i would have died in a heartbeat. Its actually quite ironic that i picked this book because I have a horrible fear of zombies. Yet at the same time they intrigue me.

I thought it was pretty smart how the zombies were incorporated into the story. For example, the ladies had to plan wether to take a horse and carriage or just a horse to travel the countryside. The carriage would be slower and have a greater chance of being attacked by the random zombies popping out of the earth. A more subtle example would be the post. Sometimes it would get lost due to the deliverer being attacked or eaten by the unmentionables. 

Overall this was a really good read/listen that I would recommend for any horror and zombie lover.  

The origins of Caitlyn. I grew up right here in good ol' Sarasota; the hottest, old people infested, boring place I know. I come from a long line of, as we call them, Colleran-beans. The nut job side of the family being mom's, and the more..."normal" side being dad's. No matter which side you look at, both have some interesting history behind them, making me and my lineage for lack of a better term, mutt. Both my mom and dad came from Massachusetts, but other parts of my family grew up in different areas such as Japan and Germany. How I ended up here....who knows.

As far as my influences, if I had that time the list would go on and on. I think id have to start with the obvious, my family. Growing up being told what to do and what not to do has definitely had an influence on what i've done with my life. I think that goes for most people though....Moving on to the more...potent influences. To start with, id have to say Avril Lavigne had a pretty large influence on the way that I look. I loved that she was a punk, tomboy kind of chick. I wanted to be just like that...and I was. Until i hit the age where i started listening to Marilyn Manson. Once I started listening and getting into his things, my entire person took off entirely. My look, my personality...I found who I wanted and still want to be. It'll always be a work in progress, but at least it's something.


Ideology.....i'm not entirely sure what to say with this one. I know a portion of my beliefs are based on what goes around comes around. I know for a fact that karma can be a bitch when it comes back to bite you in the butt. I know that bragging has never gotten me any where, in fact it's reversed things. As far as morals, those just come from your way of life. If you do bad things and never have consequences for them, than in my opinion, you will never have good morals. Morals come from lessons of life. Which can be linked to fate and karma, and what goes around comes around.