I feel like I would get shot for saying that I actually hate YouTube, and the time people spend watching the most pointless videos. However, over teh past couple months, I have a newfound respect for the talent put on the internet to be shared with others. Although YouTube proves to be a waste of everyone's time, there is some substance to the videos posted. The ones we watched in class were among the dumbest I have seen, but others have actually been somewhat educational.
I work with seniors in my free time, and YouTube actually put a huge smile on "my" senior's face when she was able to see the video her daughter uploaded on the web for her to see her grandson take his first steps crawling. This was the moment when I started to believe that YouTube wasn't all bad.
The "Kitsch" video last year was posted on YouTube for fans and people who might have missed the show to view after that actual night. And we all know Adam Leao's productions were hilaroius. YouTUbe actually made me laugh-- Case 2 where I decided it wasn't all that bad.
YouTube has revolutionized the way we have watched videos. Kids now have easy access to videos that don't cost money and can entertain them, which is a good thing in an "atmosphere of wise freedom."
It is an easy way to connect with people around you and to show off talent of people who may not show it off in their daily lives. I think if people use it wisely and only for semi-important things, it actually is helpful. I just hate to see people who could be out with their friends or family wasting their time watching people they don't even know do stupid/funny things. If people can control their YOUTUBING (similar to not getting attached to facebook....like Katie Russell says: biggest waste of time EVER, but couldn't live without it) then I say GO FOR IT. HAVE FUN. GO CRAZY. YOUTUBE.
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Monday, November 26, 2007
"Broadcast Yourself"
“Broadcast Yourself” is the driving concept behind YouTube’s wide appeal to people around the globe. Advancement in technology, both the internet and video-taping, has allowed YouTube to become one of the most popular websites on the World Wide Web. This site allows anyone with internet access to upload videos of themselves, T.V. shows, or self made power points to be put on display for any onlooker to watch. With over millions and millions of videos, one must rummage through all the junk to find an intellectually engaging YouTube video. That is not to discredit the humorous and almost always entertaining pointless videos because if a good laugh is all you are looking for they hold some redeeming qualities. Youtube does exactly what it promises; it allows self expression. This form of media has the potential to broadcast great things to millions of viewers. However, it is demeaned by the countless and brainless videos.
These videos do not provide stimulating material; they can only provide a short outburst of laughter for a solid thirty seconds. One video unconsciously gives its audience an intimate window into a family’s Christmas morning, with the son thoroughly excited and freaking out about the x-box he received. He goes on screaming for a good minute and then it is replayed in slow motion. While it is comic, it does nothing more than cause a chuckle. The American people are not afraid of revealing intimate family time, like Christmas morning, as evidence by the mom walking past the camera in her pajamas, as long as it serves an entertainment purpose. Youtube can do more than entertain though. It can allow for the free flow of intellectual thought and ideas.
The possibility for humans to communicate and exchange meaningful ideas through Youtube is there. “Slip of the tongue” poetry put to a well organized and visually appealing video meshes beautifully and artistically together to form the Youtube video “Ethnic Makeup.” Addressing the issues of racism, feminism, and the media, this video actually engages its audience to comprehend what they just saw, (not just because of the shock of witnessing a boy dislocate his knee, like in another video) but because it speaks deeper. It entertains and it provokes. The story line is as follows, an Asian male in his twenties approaches a female, also Asian, at a bus stop. After he fails to seduce her with his “playeristic” lines he asks her “Girl, what is your ethnic makeup?” Through the metaphor or make-up, lipstick, foundation, and eye shadow, issues of suppression, advertisement, and our consumerism are brought to light. Someone actually took the time to produce a worth while youtube video that distinguishes itself far from the rest.
If our culture was not so consumed with entertainment, comedy, and fame, Youtube might have a chance to broadcast videos with intellectual vitality. Self expression, in itself, is a wonderful quality, we Americans are taught to embrace and pursue but it is when we pervert this privilege that we demean ourselves and our culture to a pathetic level. What Youtube could be and what Youtube is are two entirely different forms of media. The ideal Youtube holds capacity to transmit engaging and meaningful messages and ideas to such a large audience; yet the Youtube of today is held back by pinheads who want their three minutes of fame.
These videos do not provide stimulating material; they can only provide a short outburst of laughter for a solid thirty seconds. One video unconsciously gives its audience an intimate window into a family’s Christmas morning, with the son thoroughly excited and freaking out about the x-box he received. He goes on screaming for a good minute and then it is replayed in slow motion. While it is comic, it does nothing more than cause a chuckle. The American people are not afraid of revealing intimate family time, like Christmas morning, as evidence by the mom walking past the camera in her pajamas, as long as it serves an entertainment purpose. Youtube can do more than entertain though. It can allow for the free flow of intellectual thought and ideas.
The possibility for humans to communicate and exchange meaningful ideas through Youtube is there. “Slip of the tongue” poetry put to a well organized and visually appealing video meshes beautifully and artistically together to form the Youtube video “Ethnic Makeup.” Addressing the issues of racism, feminism, and the media, this video actually engages its audience to comprehend what they just saw, (not just because of the shock of witnessing a boy dislocate his knee, like in another video) but because it speaks deeper. It entertains and it provokes. The story line is as follows, an Asian male in his twenties approaches a female, also Asian, at a bus stop. After he fails to seduce her with his “playeristic” lines he asks her “Girl, what is your ethnic makeup?” Through the metaphor or make-up, lipstick, foundation, and eye shadow, issues of suppression, advertisement, and our consumerism are brought to light. Someone actually took the time to produce a worth while youtube video that distinguishes itself far from the rest.
If our culture was not so consumed with entertainment, comedy, and fame, Youtube might have a chance to broadcast videos with intellectual vitality. Self expression, in itself, is a wonderful quality, we Americans are taught to embrace and pursue but it is when we pervert this privilege that we demean ourselves and our culture to a pathetic level. What Youtube could be and what Youtube is are two entirely different forms of media. The ideal Youtube holds capacity to transmit engaging and meaningful messages and ideas to such a large audience; yet the Youtube of today is held back by pinheads who want their three minutes of fame.
YouTube: Entertainment at its Finest
Seena reclaims his chair silently, as the class stares in disbelief at the paused video broadcast on the wall. Did that really just happen? No one knows for sure. Then a comment without a speaker echoes across the walls of Lowney’s MB 213, “is that what you do with your time, Seena?” He only chuckles, and we know, that he does in fact use his time to memorize every dance move and lyric to the ever-popular YouTube song, ‘What what, in the Butt.’
And so the debate rages: is YouTube a productive, useful site; or a meaningless, waste of time? The video sharing website allows for users to post their videos for any user to view online, and for viewers to interact, by leaving comments, subscribing to a user’s video posts, or rating videos. The site has met undeniable success in the world of modern technology and internet interaction. The videos YouTube showcases range from TV shows, to music videos, to home videos, to videobloggers, to newcasts, to shortlived home-filmed pornography, to young children yelling, to hilarious clips of famous SNL skits, and the content is, for the most part, depressingly, horrifically terrible. But what redeems the site is the ease for which it promotes searching, displaying, and finding desired videos, and the hilarious, helpful, and interesting nature of those one-in-a-million finds of young children filled with demonic glee as they scream “NINTENDO SIXTY FOOOOOOOURRR,” at the top of their lungs.
Its popularity is undisputed. YouTube was sold to Google in November or 2006 for $1.65 billion. Within a year of its launching, in July 2006, YouTube reported that it had over 100 million videos viewed daily on its website, and at least 2.5 billion views per a month. Though the company is no longer releasing usage or profit statistics regularly, there is no doubt their audience has grown, as they have expanded internationally, and their popularity has soared.
YouTube is a perfect outlet to display, criticize, and view other artist’s work, but also a place to relax and enjoy hilarious sketches. The ease with which the site provides video sharing capabilities is not only attractive for those wishing to share, but also makes audiences more inclined to view the millions, even billions, of videos posted on the website. Furthermore, YouTube provides a perfect cross section of American Society: from the crazies to the critics: they’re all there, and they’re all free. Clips of movies and TV shows can appeal to the numerous fans of various programs, while videobloggers and home video displayers portray a different, more personal, yet still widely varied view of American lifestyle. Comedy sketches capture American humor in all its forms: dry and subtle, loud and obnoxious, and everything in between. Serious or controversial videos provide a perfect nesting ground for heated debate over certain issues. For example, a erroneous call during the 2006 Kings Academy/SHP football game that led to a loss for the Gators was posted on YouTube, and the call was debated by the league as a result. Because YouTube provided an outlet for these events to be reproduced with any viewer with an internet connection capable of seeing the call for themselves, the call could be debated by the league officials, parents, students, and administration alike.
Aside from the quantity of the videos, and the variety they encompass, YouTube can be quite annoying and cumbersome with the many useless, and, for lack of a better word, dumb videos posted. However, these uninspired presentations can be easily avoided with a quick and easy search. The positive aspects of YouTube fully eclipse the negative, and with modern interaction so rooted in internet communication and file sharing, the site could not do what it does better. It is a perfect cross-section of American, computer-owning society, and a valuable resource for anyone from a bored teenager looking for a laugh in the ‘what what in the butt’ video, to an inspired fan looking to recap a show they missed on TV.
And so the debate rages: is YouTube a productive, useful site; or a meaningless, waste of time? The video sharing website allows for users to post their videos for any user to view online, and for viewers to interact, by leaving comments, subscribing to a user’s video posts, or rating videos. The site has met undeniable success in the world of modern technology and internet interaction. The videos YouTube showcases range from TV shows, to music videos, to home videos, to videobloggers, to newcasts, to shortlived home-filmed pornography, to young children yelling, to hilarious clips of famous SNL skits, and the content is, for the most part, depressingly, horrifically terrible. But what redeems the site is the ease for which it promotes searching, displaying, and finding desired videos, and the hilarious, helpful, and interesting nature of those one-in-a-million finds of young children filled with demonic glee as they scream “NINTENDO SIXTY FOOOOOOOURRR,” at the top of their lungs.
Its popularity is undisputed. YouTube was sold to Google in November or 2006 for $1.65 billion. Within a year of its launching, in July 2006, YouTube reported that it had over 100 million videos viewed daily on its website, and at least 2.5 billion views per a month. Though the company is no longer releasing usage or profit statistics regularly, there is no doubt their audience has grown, as they have expanded internationally, and their popularity has soared.
YouTube is a perfect outlet to display, criticize, and view other artist’s work, but also a place to relax and enjoy hilarious sketches. The ease with which the site provides video sharing capabilities is not only attractive for those wishing to share, but also makes audiences more inclined to view the millions, even billions, of videos posted on the website. Furthermore, YouTube provides a perfect cross section of American Society: from the crazies to the critics: they’re all there, and they’re all free. Clips of movies and TV shows can appeal to the numerous fans of various programs, while videobloggers and home video displayers portray a different, more personal, yet still widely varied view of American lifestyle. Comedy sketches capture American humor in all its forms: dry and subtle, loud and obnoxious, and everything in between. Serious or controversial videos provide a perfect nesting ground for heated debate over certain issues. For example, a erroneous call during the 2006 Kings Academy/SHP football game that led to a loss for the Gators was posted on YouTube, and the call was debated by the league as a result. Because YouTube provided an outlet for these events to be reproduced with any viewer with an internet connection capable of seeing the call for themselves, the call could be debated by the league officials, parents, students, and administration alike.
Aside from the quantity of the videos, and the variety they encompass, YouTube can be quite annoying and cumbersome with the many useless, and, for lack of a better word, dumb videos posted. However, these uninspired presentations can be easily avoided with a quick and easy search. The positive aspects of YouTube fully eclipse the negative, and with modern interaction so rooted in internet communication and file sharing, the site could not do what it does better. It is a perfect cross-section of American, computer-owning society, and a valuable resource for anyone from a bored teenager looking for a laugh in the ‘what what in the butt’ video, to an inspired fan looking to recap a show they missed on TV.
From me to You...Tube
From TV-Links to MyspaceTV a whole new era of information dispersion has been born. Though streaming media has been in the works for years, it achieved its first great success on the pages of YouTube. YouTube is a website which hosts and shares videos for people to upload, watch, and (with the help of some programs) download. These videos include everything from Music Videos, Movie trailers and game reviews to user videos that can teach the viewer anything between charging an iPod with Gatorade and an onion to hotwiring a car. Acquired by Google for 1.65 billion dollars worth of Google stock late last year, YouTube is one of the most diverse web sites on the internet. It boasts videos and users from all over the world, allows hosting to anyone who is willing to register, and is quick and user friendly enough to be of interest to all genres of people.
YouTube’s versatility and the depth of it’s video collection does not only provide endless entertainment but is a source of help and support to those who need it. Am I talking about emotional support? No, yet there may be videos that do offer such help. I am talking about technological support, academic help, and extracurricular activities to explore. YouTube’s user network consists of all types of people- those who will post videos explaining how to install a new program, explanations of esoteric subjects, pranks you might want to commit, or projects to do in your spare time. Yes watching seemingly useless videos for the sake of spending your day is lame. However that is the fault of the “player” and not the “game”. It is merely a means to an end, how you use it is up to you. YouTube is a whole new form of interaction; information-wise it is a phenomenon and should be given respect as so. It brings more users to computers via entertainment instead of plain text or still images. It provides an escape from a boring day or a night of homework and is completely free, safe, and reliable.
YouTube’s versatility and the depth of it’s video collection does not only provide endless entertainment but is a source of help and support to those who need it. Am I talking about emotional support? No, yet there may be videos that do offer such help. I am talking about technological support, academic help, and extracurricular activities to explore. YouTube’s user network consists of all types of people- those who will post videos explaining how to install a new program, explanations of esoteric subjects, pranks you might want to commit, or projects to do in your spare time. Yes watching seemingly useless videos for the sake of spending your day is lame. However that is the fault of the “player” and not the “game”. It is merely a means to an end, how you use it is up to you. YouTube is a whole new form of interaction; information-wise it is a phenomenon and should be given respect as so. It brings more users to computers via entertainment instead of plain text or still images. It provides an escape from a boring day or a night of homework and is completely free, safe, and reliable.
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Facebook: Getting In Touch With the Good ‘Ole Days
From teenagers to adults, Facebook is the revolutionizing how people all around the world connect. Founded by Mark Zuckerberg, it is a social networking website used by millions to communicate. Originally opened for people affiliated with Zuckerberg’s alma mater, Harvard University, Facebook was later opened to any student with a University email address. Gradually, Facebook became available to anyone above the age of thirteen similar to other popular social networking websites such as Myspace. And why not? People of all ages can appreciate Facebook for its many different uses.
Some adults use it to keep in touch with old high school and college friends they have not seen for years, while teenagers may log in to ask one another what the homework was in their Algebra 1 class. You can post pictures or videos, blog, send “gifts” (little pictures), send private messages to select contacts, and public messages that anyone around the world can see. Additionally, Facebook has a variety of strict privacy safeguards that let you prevent some people from seeing what you may not want them to see.
Facebook allows you to customize your usage to reflect your interests. When you first sign in, you enter your homepage where the network shows you highlights of what has been posted by your friends. You may find one friend is no longer in a relationship with someone, another may have put up pictures from their vacation, and someone else may be attending an event. A group of your friends may have joined a new group (which may be public or private), while others may have added a variety of different applications including games, dating information, or musical interests. Facebook is what the user makes of it as you control what you see on your homepage. For example, if you are interested in seeing what new photo albums your friends add, you can be sure not too miss a single one. If you are not a consistent “Facebooker,” you may receive emails that notify you any time you have a new friend request or let you know when someone has tried to contact you.
Facebook can mean a variety of different things to different people. Although it began as a network for college friends to keep in touch, it has evolved into something much bigger. It is now used for keeping in touch, advertising, spreading news and information, communicating with associates, and introducing people with similar interests. I use Facebook for a variety of reasons. I began using it to connect with my siblings who had moved out of the house. Over time I started using it more to keep in touch with friends who have graduated and to talk to my cousins in Iowa and Texas. Now I use it to stay up to date on all sorts of high school gossip. It has had a huge influence on my life and is something that definitely finds itself into my daily routine.
tim
Some adults use it to keep in touch with old high school and college friends they have not seen for years, while teenagers may log in to ask one another what the homework was in their Algebra 1 class. You can post pictures or videos, blog, send “gifts” (little pictures), send private messages to select contacts, and public messages that anyone around the world can see. Additionally, Facebook has a variety of strict privacy safeguards that let you prevent some people from seeing what you may not want them to see.
Facebook allows you to customize your usage to reflect your interests. When you first sign in, you enter your homepage where the network shows you highlights of what has been posted by your friends. You may find one friend is no longer in a relationship with someone, another may have put up pictures from their vacation, and someone else may be attending an event. A group of your friends may have joined a new group (which may be public or private), while others may have added a variety of different applications including games, dating information, or musical interests. Facebook is what the user makes of it as you control what you see on your homepage. For example, if you are interested in seeing what new photo albums your friends add, you can be sure not too miss a single one. If you are not a consistent “Facebooker,” you may receive emails that notify you any time you have a new friend request or let you know when someone has tried to contact you.
Facebook can mean a variety of different things to different people. Although it began as a network for college friends to keep in touch, it has evolved into something much bigger. It is now used for keeping in touch, advertising, spreading news and information, communicating with associates, and introducing people with similar interests. I use Facebook for a variety of reasons. I began using it to connect with my siblings who had moved out of the house. Over time I started using it more to keep in touch with friends who have graduated and to talk to my cousins in Iowa and Texas. Now I use it to stay up to date on all sorts of high school gossip. It has had a huge influence on my life and is something that definitely finds itself into my daily routine.
tim
YoutTube: Showing the World What is Out There
Being able to access a video from any computer, anywhere. Not needing a password or code to see them, and being able to watch tv, cartoons, music videos, etc is what YouTube presents to the modern media watcher. YouTube is an online site where anyone can post videos for people to watch. Children, musicians, and school projects, the videos range from anything to everything. There is no way to describe the different types of videos on the YouTube site, besides that most of the videos seem to deal with comedy. The basis of YouTube is to share videos with the public. When you go to the YouTube site videos are on the home page, constantly changing and showing you what people are watching. The search bar at the top of the page lets you search for every video that is uploaded to the YouTube site. Or you can click on the one of the videos that are up on the home page or you can continue further into YouTube and browse to find a video that is just for you. Diving deeper into the seemingly never-ending videos, you can click on four other sections that narrow down your video search. This especially helps if you do not know what you want to watch. Clicking on videos, categories, channels or community leads you into more videos then you could ever imagine. Also separated by category like top rated, and most played, the many videos on YouTube lead you into a video watching frenzy that seems to never end. Being one of many that have an YouTube account which lets you up load videos, add them to you page, subscribe to other users, have YouTube friends, message people and share your videos with the public of YouTube. I enjoy what I have seen on YouTube so far. And as I sit at my desk and go through ten videos I look up at the clock and realized I should have been doing work for the last twenty minutes instead of aimlessly browsing videos about Hollister Hills State Vehicle Recreation Area and videos about trucks that have meet their demise at this park. YouTube adds to the entertainment value of the modern media watcher. It lets people express them selves in the comfort of their own home, yet share it with anyone who cares to watch. Also its lets people share information and knowledge about the world around them. For example the channel broadcasts about events that are happening and what is going on related to their specific channel. There are some amazing videos of people in trucks, boats, and planes that no one would see if there were not placed on YouTube. YouTube is like books five hundred years ago with out it knowledge about the world and what is out there would not exist and no one would know what is out there or what has been accomplished.
“Facebook is a social utility that connects you with the people around you.” Facebook is a school network based website that lets students create profiles under their name to interact with friends. Recently, Facebook has broadened their associations to the public and one does not need to be connected to a school network to acquire a profile. First things first, because it is called FACEbook, you may upload a picture of yourself to go along with your name on your profile. This picture can be changed at any given time. By having a profile, you can upload photos, publish notes, get the latest news about friends, interact with friends, post videos, and join a network to connect with people who live, study and work around you. Inside a Facebook profile, you can describe your favorites: music, quotes, movies, books, etc. There is also a space on your profile where you can type exactly what you are doing at that moment. For example, mine right now should say, “Katie is..writing her contemporary lit blog." You also have a “wall” where your friends can post written notes back and forth to each other. If you do not want the notes that you write to your friends to be public, facebook also has a message program where you write “messages” to your friends where only you and your friend can see them. Privacy is a huge part of facebook. You can set your profile to only your friends being able to see your profile, or anyone from your school. The only way people from other schools can see your profile is if you have accepted them friendship or vice versa. Recently, facebook added applications to their site. These applications range from alerts, business, dating, education, events, fashion, file sharing, gaming, messaging, music, photo, politics, sports, travel and video. Facebook now has 9,212 applications and is still adding more.
So many people are joining facebook from day to day and it has become one of the most popular websites for people to connect with their friends. For me, facebook has become the ultimate way to procrastinate (I’m sure many would agree with me). But, I also really like the website and I seriously don’t know what I would do without it. That sounds weird but it’s the sad truth.
So many people are joining facebook from day to day and it has become one of the most popular websites for people to connect with their friends. For me, facebook has become the ultimate way to procrastinate (I’m sure many would agree with me). But, I also really like the website and I seriously don’t know what I would do without it. That sounds weird but it’s the sad truth.
YouTV
When in need of a way to quench some strange thirst for seeing people act like jackasses or to just find a moment of reprieve from a long night of homework, millions of people turn to Youtube.com for their daily fix. The website has already established itself as the number one source of video content across the world wide web and the $1.65B price tag proves this fact. With its enormous power to present videos, Youtube is considered a primary outlet for showcasing a strange talent or remixing your favorite (or least favorite) song, etc. If none of your family or friends wants to hear you rant about some insignificant snippet of pop culture, you can rest assured that a couple hundred thousand people on Youtube will give you your three minutes of fame. The beauty behind the system is this fact itself. Youtube allows complete amateurs to post something that may or may not be interesting, leaving it up to the Youtube gauntlet of video views and Internet popularity to determine the video’s worth. With its mass media appeal Youtube puts entertainment back into the hands of the common man, women, or obscure animal. But should this power really belong to a bunch of nobodies? There is no real way to answer this question yet we can clearly see as access to Internet entertainment grows, traditional media popularity begins to tire out.
Youtube is ultimately a catalyst. The website is forcing traditional media to either adapt or die out. As we can see in this theory of media natural selection, other traditional media corporations such as NBC and FOX are forced to release internet players where I can enjoy last week’s episode of Heroes despite having missed the original airing. This radical evolution of media brings up questions of advertising and the future of entertainment itself. My 25-year prediction: The death of TV and supreme rule of Internet entertainment ~ YouTV if you will.
Youtube is ultimately a catalyst. The website is forcing traditional media to either adapt or die out. As we can see in this theory of media natural selection, other traditional media corporations such as NBC and FOX are forced to release internet players where I can enjoy last week’s episode of Heroes despite having missed the original airing. This radical evolution of media brings up questions of advertising and the future of entertainment itself. My 25-year prediction: The death of TV and supreme rule of Internet entertainment ~ YouTV if you will.
The (Un)Fabulous World of YouTube
Youtube was brought to the World Wide Web only a short two years ago, and since then grown so popular that it contains thousands of videos of all kinds. As a public place to upload and watch videos, Youtube is open to everyone and contains every kind of video imaginable on every topic a person can possibly think of. While it could have been abused to share movies or TV shows, the creators made it so that videos could not surpass a 10 minute time limit, hoping to stop users from posting illegal movies and the like on their webpage. Although the creators went to great lengths to stop it from happening, some users have found ways to post partial episodes or many parts of an episode on Youtube until it is removed or blocked a few hours later.
While some users spend hours upon hours online watching the countless videos, I would be lying if I said I was one of them. I have seen probably 20 Youtube videos since being introduced to the site last spring, and it has often come in handy for school PowerPoint presentations and making me laugh. Although I have only seen a few videos, I have seen Youtube at its best and at its worst, between “Washington” and the unfortunate “what what” video that a student brought to class. All a person has to do is visit youtube.com to view hundreds of thousands of videos with no cost to them. An account gives a user the ability to save his or her favorite videos, but with out one, they can view the same material. They would be lost for conversation and people would have to find a new form of procrastination, otherwise being sucked further into the world of Facebook, but that is a different story.
Youtube videos are constantly a source of discussion and I cannot imagine what some people would talk about if they did not have the common link of Youtube. In the short while I have been a Youtube viewer, I have seen hilarity, disappointment, cried from laughing too hard, and been utterly disgusted. It can bring out the inner child in viewers of any age and evokes all kinds of emotions. I was quite distraught when tonight I navigated to Youtube to watch the video that had been the butt of many jokes this summer, and was disappointed when the alarming red print stated that the user had removed it. Never again will I watch the “Washington” video, but the phrase “washing-ton washing-ton, 6 ft 20 made of radi-ation” will live on in my memory for a long time. It was one of the first videos I had seen, appreciated, and laughed as I watched it multiple times in a row.
While some users spend hours upon hours online watching the countless videos, I would be lying if I said I was one of them. I have seen probably 20 Youtube videos since being introduced to the site last spring, and it has often come in handy for school PowerPoint presentations and making me laugh. Although I have only seen a few videos, I have seen Youtube at its best and at its worst, between “Washington” and the unfortunate “what what” video that a student brought to class. All a person has to do is visit youtube.com to view hundreds of thousands of videos with no cost to them. An account gives a user the ability to save his or her favorite videos, but with out one, they can view the same material. They would be lost for conversation and people would have to find a new form of procrastination, otherwise being sucked further into the world of Facebook, but that is a different story.
Youtube videos are constantly a source of discussion and I cannot imagine what some people would talk about if they did not have the common link of Youtube. In the short while I have been a Youtube viewer, I have seen hilarity, disappointment, cried from laughing too hard, and been utterly disgusted. It can bring out the inner child in viewers of any age and evokes all kinds of emotions. I was quite distraught when tonight I navigated to Youtube to watch the video that had been the butt of many jokes this summer, and was disappointed when the alarming red print stated that the user had removed it. Never again will I watch the “Washington” video, but the phrase “washing-ton washing-ton, 6 ft 20 made of radi-ation” will live on in my memory for a long time. It was one of the first videos I had seen, appreciated, and laughed as I watched it multiple times in a row.
I Love You, YouTube. Oh Yes, I Do!
What is YouTube? YouTube is the increasingly popular video sharing website where users can post just about anything. There are music videos, clips from movies and TV shows, and homemade movies. If you want to watch a guy jump off a roof and do a 360° back flip into a pool, YouTube is for you. If you want to watch the Russian cellists of the Rastrelli Cello Quartet play off against the Finnish cellists of Apocalyptica, check out YouTube. It censors nothing, except pornography and extreme acts of violence. But whi wants that? Hours upon hours of entertainment are now just a click away. But is this new phenomenon rotting away the brains of our future generation? Hardly! YouTube not only entertains, it educates. It was on YouTube that I found about the new and upcoming talent of my fellow countrymen. I would have been completely ignorant of singers like Passion and amazing beatboxers like Leejay and Yuri Lane. YouTube quenches my hunger to visually experience the women of music that I adore: Billie Holiday, Dorothy Dandridge, Ella Fitzgerald, and Lena Horne. And if that’s not enough, it helped me begin to consider where I stand politically. The 2008 Presidential candidates have been using YouTube as an outlet for advertising their candidacies. Viewers can make videos in favor (or in opposition) of candidates like Ron Paul, Hilary Clinton, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden. YouTube even teamed up with CNN on presidential debates. So, are you skeptical about YouTube? Take a second, then, and think about something you have always wanted to see. I’m sure it’s on YouTube.
Best Creation...Ever
Kids now-a-days spend way too much time on one of the best internet creations called Youtube. Youtube hosts millions of videos that people are able to watch at no cost. Putting a video online also costs nothing at all, just a little time and effort. You can find pretty much anything on Youtube, and when I say anything, I mean anything. There are music videos, clips from parts of movies, home made movies, and even political debates. Youtube only sensors pornography and gory acts of violence in movies to make sure that they do not have the bad image of an adult site. In order to see the videos that have brief nudity, you must sign up with Youtube, make an account, and give your birthday so that they know you are old enough to see the more inappropriate videos. The only thing that limits you on Youtube is a time limit on the videos that are put online. The limit is about ten minutes. This was done in order to keep people from putting movies that have not even been released in stores onto the internet and having people watch movies on Youtube rather than buying the movie. This was all done to the satisfaction of those in the movie industry and now we only have a maximum of ten minutes per video. I use Youtube all the time and it’s always brings me a lot of joy and entertainment. You cannot describe the variety of videos on Youtube because there is everything. Every time I go log on to Youtube I find what I am looking for. It is unbelievable how much comes up when you type something in. I could be searching for a song called, “Boom Boom Boom” by the Venga Boys, and I will end up with three friends singing the song in their car with their own spin on it and I will be laughing hysterically on the floor. Youtube is just a Google with videos; you search for something, that something comes up, but so do a thousand other videos that may be related in the slightest bit. I think the best part about Youtube is that it gets some of my friends more addicted than myself. They will spend all their searching for these great videos and I will finish up my homework and BOOM I get to watch a great video. It may take away from many students’s study time, but people have more fun watching Youtube videos over studying for a history exam. In reality Youtube gives students and many others a time of relaxation, serious entertainment, and break from our dull lives.
Saturday, November 24, 2007
Youtube, Will You Marry Me?
Do you Youtube? The correct answer should undoubtedly be “yes.”
Opening to the public only two years ago, Youtube.com is one of the fastest-growing websites on the World Wide Web. It allows users to upload for public purpose just about any type of video clip, ranging from music videos to T.V. commercials to made-at-home videos. Literally, any video you can image is available for view on Youtube. Now some might say that Youtube is not worthy of our time and that it only infests our brain with a bad internet version of the T.V., but I stand before you here to object to this absurdity! Youtube does in fact have an educational purpose. It puts value on the human being’s natural ability to be unique. In other words, Youtube loves talent, no matter how extreme or ridiculous it may be. On one end, you have Esmee, an 18-year-old singer who received a contract with Justin Timberlake’s record label on account of her uploading videos of herself singing and on another you have the nameless World Greatest Pizza Twirler. Both are equally as impressive. But, that’s not all Youtube has to offer. For the first time in history, Youtube is the home of the first interview ever to be conducted with a presidential candidate from a college dorm room. James Kotecki, political interviewer and college student, interviewed Congressman Ron Paul in the private setting of his bedroom to be seen at the leisure of the entire World Wide Web.
Now, back to my initial question: Do you Youtube?
If you do in fact “Youtube,” you can be proud to shout from the top of your lungs that you are one of 20 million monthly visitors that watch 100 million clips daily and upload 65,000 new videos per 24 hours. You sure do have a busy schedule and I’m sure the founders of Youtube, Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim, would be very proud of you. For those who shamefully answered “no,” I advise you to run to your closest computer and quickly type in Youtube.com. I promise you, your life will never again be the same.
Opening to the public only two years ago, Youtube.com is one of the fastest-growing websites on the World Wide Web. It allows users to upload for public purpose just about any type of video clip, ranging from music videos to T.V. commercials to made-at-home videos. Literally, any video you can image is available for view on Youtube. Now some might say that Youtube is not worthy of our time and that it only infests our brain with a bad internet version of the T.V., but I stand before you here to object to this absurdity! Youtube does in fact have an educational purpose. It puts value on the human being’s natural ability to be unique. In other words, Youtube loves talent, no matter how extreme or ridiculous it may be. On one end, you have Esmee, an 18-year-old singer who received a contract with Justin Timberlake’s record label on account of her uploading videos of herself singing and on another you have the nameless World Greatest Pizza Twirler. Both are equally as impressive. But, that’s not all Youtube has to offer. For the first time in history, Youtube is the home of the first interview ever to be conducted with a presidential candidate from a college dorm room. James Kotecki, political interviewer and college student, interviewed Congressman Ron Paul in the private setting of his bedroom to be seen at the leisure of the entire World Wide Web.
Now, back to my initial question: Do you Youtube?
If you do in fact “Youtube,” you can be proud to shout from the top of your lungs that you are one of 20 million monthly visitors that watch 100 million clips daily and upload 65,000 new videos per 24 hours. You sure do have a busy schedule and I’m sure the founders of Youtube, Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim, would be very proud of you. For those who shamefully answered “no,” I advise you to run to your closest computer and quickly type in Youtube.com. I promise you, your life will never again be the same.
It's Really Not Funny
YouTube is disgusting. An online video-sharing database that is in theory the epitome of the freedom of expression glorified by Americans has become among my peers a shameless vehicle for entertainment through humiliation. Teenagers spend hours on YouTube every week looking for reasons to laugh. We enjoy clips of people with grossly exaggerated reactions like that of a boy whose response to a toy he got for Christmas has been posted on YouTube for all to see. Imagine a little boy in his PJs, surrounded by presents with a Christmas tree in the background. He is opening a fair sized rectangular package when suddenly his innocent half-smile of curiosity and anticipation is wiped from his face and replaced by the face of monster, with bulging veins, popping eyes, and an inhuman tomato red hue accompanied by an ear-piercing scream. He remains thus transformed for a good four minutes, with only brief pauses for air, his mad rave reinvigorated every time he glances at the name of his new toy.
But even more enjoyable than witnessing such a mad exclamation of excitement is laughing at people whose fear has been caught on tape. One such video features a chubby little boy contentedly playing a game on his computer when suddenly a scary face pops onto his screen. He jumps away from the computer screaming and the camera follows him to a corner where he sits quietly sobbing while his audience, I’m sure, is sitting in front of their own computer screens caustically gafawing.
It seems, however, that our favorite YouTube content involves people experiencing extreme physical pain. I’m beginning to believe, as unfathomable as it is to me, that the extent of physical damage caused in a YouTube video varies directly with the extent to which my peers enjoy the video. “Trampoline Accident” serves as evidence for my hypothesis. This popular clip shows a group of teenage boys on a trampoline, apparently getting ready to show off their basketball skills. Suddenly one of the boys bounces out of control and on his way back down, his leg gets stuck in the basketball hoop, where he dangles for an excruciating moment, then drops. His buddies just laugh, not understanding the severity of the situation until they realize that he is not getting up.
What makes me cringe and want to vomit, everyone else finds hilarious. I find it disturbing that a video of someone getting so severely injured was uploaded to the internet at all, much less a source of comic entertainment. I am fine with violence and gore in movies but when mock pain is replaced by the real thing, a line has been crossed between entertainment and perversion. This video’s use of physical pain represents a core part of the attraction of YouTube as a medium of entertainment. The most popular YouTube videos among my peers are the ones where an audience can laugh at and belittle a person’s suffering or humiliation, whether it be that of a crazy little kid, a scared gamer or an injured idiot. Are we that insecure that we need to feel better about ourselves through other people’s suffering? This seems more like the mentality of a fifth grade bully than that of high-school seniors. If YouTube is a reflection of societal values to come, I’m not looking forward to being a part of that society.
But even more enjoyable than witnessing such a mad exclamation of excitement is laughing at people whose fear has been caught on tape. One such video features a chubby little boy contentedly playing a game on his computer when suddenly a scary face pops onto his screen. He jumps away from the computer screaming and the camera follows him to a corner where he sits quietly sobbing while his audience, I’m sure, is sitting in front of their own computer screens caustically gafawing.
It seems, however, that our favorite YouTube content involves people experiencing extreme physical pain. I’m beginning to believe, as unfathomable as it is to me, that the extent of physical damage caused in a YouTube video varies directly with the extent to which my peers enjoy the video. “Trampoline Accident” serves as evidence for my hypothesis. This popular clip shows a group of teenage boys on a trampoline, apparently getting ready to show off their basketball skills. Suddenly one of the boys bounces out of control and on his way back down, his leg gets stuck in the basketball hoop, where he dangles for an excruciating moment, then drops. His buddies just laugh, not understanding the severity of the situation until they realize that he is not getting up.
What makes me cringe and want to vomit, everyone else finds hilarious. I find it disturbing that a video of someone getting so severely injured was uploaded to the internet at all, much less a source of comic entertainment. I am fine with violence and gore in movies but when mock pain is replaced by the real thing, a line has been crossed between entertainment and perversion. This video’s use of physical pain represents a core part of the attraction of YouTube as a medium of entertainment. The most popular YouTube videos among my peers are the ones where an audience can laugh at and belittle a person’s suffering or humiliation, whether it be that of a crazy little kid, a scared gamer or an injured idiot. Are we that insecure that we need to feel better about ourselves through other people’s suffering? This seems more like the mentality of a fifth grade bully than that of high-school seniors. If YouTube is a reflection of societal values to come, I’m not looking forward to being a part of that society.
The YouTube Era:
Born only a few years ago, YouTube has invigorated an American (and worldwide, for that matter) fanaticism for online video viewing. YouTube houses a wide variety of video content from movie clips and TV shows to video-blogging and original films. Essentially, YouTube is the procrastinator’s dream. Endless video posts provide hours of entertainment for the internet savvy.
With the onset of this YouTube generation, a new cultural phenomenon is sweeping the world wide web. New celebrities are born everyday. From the woman who can jive with the lyrics on her fingers to Kanye West’s Stronger to the notoriously stupid Ms. America pageant queen, YouTube has created thousands of newly popular individuals.
With the 2008 Presidential election drawing closer, many political candidates have been using YouTube as an outlet for political campaigns. Many presidential candidates have created videos presenting their beliefs and statements on certain issues. Because of this, YouTube has allowed for an increased accessibility of candidate’s views for voters. Just this year, CNN sponsored a YouTube presidential debate where candidates fielded questions that were sent from YouTube users around the country. Thus, these candidates were answering questions directly from the voter population, and participated in a more informal (and often funny) paneling of questions.
Without a doubt, YouTube’s lure has grabbed my attention. In fact, as random as they may be, my last five searches included the following: grey’s anatomy, soulja boy, spam, RBD, and bushisms. You are bound to find something either hilarious or quirky, whatever the appeal may be. YouTube it for yourself (yes, this cultural phenomenon has officially become a verb). YouTube has successfully opened a new realm of public artistry, setting the tone for more ‘techy’ forms of free speech for the future. This quirky site has officially hit the main stream.
With the onset of this YouTube generation, a new cultural phenomenon is sweeping the world wide web. New celebrities are born everyday. From the woman who can jive with the lyrics on her fingers to Kanye West’s Stronger to the notoriously stupid Ms. America pageant queen, YouTube has created thousands of newly popular individuals.
With the 2008 Presidential election drawing closer, many political candidates have been using YouTube as an outlet for political campaigns. Many presidential candidates have created videos presenting their beliefs and statements on certain issues. Because of this, YouTube has allowed for an increased accessibility of candidate’s views for voters. Just this year, CNN sponsored a YouTube presidential debate where candidates fielded questions that were sent from YouTube users around the country. Thus, these candidates were answering questions directly from the voter population, and participated in a more informal (and often funny) paneling of questions.
Without a doubt, YouTube’s lure has grabbed my attention. In fact, as random as they may be, my last five searches included the following: grey’s anatomy, soulja boy, spam, RBD, and bushisms. You are bound to find something either hilarious or quirky, whatever the appeal may be. YouTube it for yourself (yes, this cultural phenomenon has officially become a verb). YouTube has successfully opened a new realm of public artistry, setting the tone for more ‘techy’ forms of free speech for the future. This quirky site has officially hit the main stream.
Friday, November 23, 2007
YOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUTTTTUUUUUBBBBBBEEEEEEEEE
You tube is a website created for users to upload their videos and share them with world. Videos uploaded are usually for entertainment but others are serious, people trying to get their point across a certain subject, or episodes from your favorite TV show. You tube could be used for whatever you want it to be used for. For me personally I use You tube to re-live the hilarious moments from the greatest TV shows ever made Fresh Prince of Bel Air and Boy Meets World. I use it also for my techno dancing research, trying to learn new moves and techniques to improve myself. You tube is an example of American culture today; it’s a combination of everyone’s ideas and creativity. It’s a compilation of everyone’s ideas and it shows the diversity of our culture. From videos titled “little boy gets scared” to “Venga Boys BOOM BOOM BOOM” to “Ivory Billed Woodpecker Search Continues”, you tube appeals to all audiences of different interests and ages. Youtube.com is mainly entertainment. It keeps the user busy and it tries to stop the user to reach a state of boredom. It can put you in a world of entertainment and can help you get away from the stresses of life by seeing what crazy ideas other people come up with and post. If you don’t believe the statements I have made then go to you tube yourself and check out videos such as “Britney Spears Fan Crying”, “Chongalicious”, or “Nintedo 64”. Search whatever you want on it, that is what you tube is there for.
by Aya nakano
263 words
by Aya nakano
263 words
Sunday, November 18, 2007
YouTube My Number 1 Procrastination Website
This is a website filled with personal clips from people who feed there creativity to others and this is why the site has surpassed the other two frontrunners (Myspace & Facebook) for my number one procrastination site. I consider myself extremely lucky to have this as a tool I can use whenever I need it. Just as people used to get away from life strife by going to a movie or turning on the radio, I use Youtube as a way to get away from my life and enjoying what others can do. This video sharing site contains the funniest of funny and everything else that you could possibly enjoy watching (except porn, because of the excellent people who wish to maintain that 3 % of the internet that is still a virgin to porn). Youtube is one of the only positive websites that the internet can contribute to society and if you don’t believe me then go to you tube and find out what the majority internet is really used for. This site is the remedy for boredom and contains all that is pointless, stupid, funny, sad, sarcastic, serious and brilliant. Also, this is a site in which I devote my time to during school nights trying to find the newest video that can make me laugh the hardest and appreciate the little things in life. The best videos I have come across have been “Snorlax owns”, “Leprechaun in Alabama” and “Cheerleaders Gone Wild”. Feel free to join myself in others of procrastinating by watching Youtube and maybe even making a video.
A Death Metal Masterpiece
~At the Gates – “Slaughter of the Soul” – 1995
At the Gates’ 1995 album “Slaughter of the Soul” is largely representative of and groundbreaking within its Death Metal genre. Originating from Gothenburg, Sweden, At the Gates defined the Swedish melodic death metal subgenre by taking intricate melodies and harmony parts and then combining them with the harsh, unforgiving sounds of death metal. Along with bands like Dark Tranquillity and In Flames, these pioneers of a new movement lit the initial spark for what would soon be the flaming inferno of the Gothenburg metal scene.
“Slaughter of the Soul” is considered to be one of the archetypical representations of melodic death metal in its purest form. The first song on the album “Blinded by Fear” begins with an industrial percussion loop and then explodes into a simple yet extremely effective guitar riff. The drums recall early death metal and the persistent blast beats chug away throughout the entire track. The second song, sharing a title with the album itself, leaves no doubt as to the genius behind At the Gates. A solitary guitar lays down the intro before the track unleashes an onslaught of distorted vocals and varying rhythms. “Suicide Nation” begins with the sound of a gun cocking before launching into a guitar masterpiece nostalgic of early Metallica and Slayer. The lyrics begin with “Utopia – lost in chaos” and the words “Control, control” echo upon an assault of dual-guitar riffs. My favorite song on the album is one of the lesser-known tracks on “Slaughter of the Soul.” “Need” emphasizes an extreme use of alternating time signatures and brutal guitar playing. Most central on this track is the dual electric guitars. Extensive use of palm muting and heavily distorted melodies evokes the image of a massive machine and this track is likewise equally unstoppable. At the Gates have forever etched their name into the death metal scene with this creation and I give this album 5/5 stars.
At the Gates’ 1995 album “Slaughter of the Soul” is largely representative of and groundbreaking within its Death Metal genre. Originating from Gothenburg, Sweden, At the Gates defined the Swedish melodic death metal subgenre by taking intricate melodies and harmony parts and then combining them with the harsh, unforgiving sounds of death metal. Along with bands like Dark Tranquillity and In Flames, these pioneers of a new movement lit the initial spark for what would soon be the flaming inferno of the Gothenburg metal scene.
“Slaughter of the Soul” is considered to be one of the archetypical representations of melodic death metal in its purest form. The first song on the album “Blinded by Fear” begins with an industrial percussion loop and then explodes into a simple yet extremely effective guitar riff. The drums recall early death metal and the persistent blast beats chug away throughout the entire track. The second song, sharing a title with the album itself, leaves no doubt as to the genius behind At the Gates. A solitary guitar lays down the intro before the track unleashes an onslaught of distorted vocals and varying rhythms. “Suicide Nation” begins with the sound of a gun cocking before launching into a guitar masterpiece nostalgic of early Metallica and Slayer. The lyrics begin with “Utopia – lost in chaos” and the words “Control, control” echo upon an assault of dual-guitar riffs. My favorite song on the album is one of the lesser-known tracks on “Slaughter of the Soul.” “Need” emphasizes an extreme use of alternating time signatures and brutal guitar playing. Most central on this track is the dual electric guitars. Extensive use of palm muting and heavily distorted melodies evokes the image of a massive machine and this track is likewise equally unstoppable. At the Gates have forever etched their name into the death metal scene with this creation and I give this album 5/5 stars.
Youtube
This new phenomenon created just a few years back has taken America and the rest of the world by storm. Not only is it one of the most visited sites on the Internet, but also Youtube hosts about six million videos and is growing at a rate of 20% per month. It is a place where everyone and anyone can upload videos they wish to share with the rest of the world. These videos can range from the inspiring to the video that makes you wonder what people are doing with their lives. One reason Youtube has been so successful is because it offers a place for people of all kinds and ages to share their special talents, or lack there of. While many may say that Youtube is useless and a disgrace to society, and may have some valid points, I believe the contrary. Because of the variety found on Youtube, there is something for everyone. Whether a person is searching for an inspiring peace of music or just a short clip to laugh at, there is always a video to be found. To show the extremes Youtube takes, I think it is best that I share a few real world encounters I personally have had with Youtube. The first example relates to my friend’s little sister. In her 7th grade year she got the sudden urge to make a pornographic video and post it on Youtube. Obliviously this points out some serious flaws involving Youtube and their approach on censoring videos. Although this is rare, it is an inexcusable mistake and this problem needs serious attention. Shifting gears. I also happen to know an elderly lady who claims that Youtube has changed her life. Because her son and her newly born grandson live all the way across the country, Faye rarely gets to see them. However, recently, Faye’s son has begun to upload videos of her grandson on to Youtube so she can access them. Now every week Faye can feel as if she is visiting her grandson and has a chance to watch him mature via Youtube videos. While Youtube does have its flaws, it provides an outlet to people of all kinds. This variety of ideas and individuality represents an aspect of 21st century society we live in. It may seem a little unconventional to some, but Youtube has brought joy to millions of people across the country and shows no signs of slowing down.
the "YouTube Generation"
The free video sharing website YouTube has proven itself to be a form of personal sharing unlike anything experienced by any generation before. By allowing any user to make an account and post short video clips on whatever the user wants, the website promotes voyeurism to the highest degree; anyone can post almost anything for the world to see. Yes, there are rules against posting anything with nudity and there is a size limit for the videos uploaded, but by and large, there are very few restrictions. Furthermore, anyone with an internet connection can access almost any YouTube video. Therefore, YouTube has proven itself to be a form of personal advertising unlike anything ever seen in the past.
YouTube has even created its own form of celebrity. While the world is used to seeing movie stars and recording artists in the pages of the tabloids, YouTube’s popularity has allowed the average American (or in some cases, world citizen) to become known and recognized worldwide. Especially funny, intriguing, or obscure YouTube posts are quickly spread from computer to computer through email, Facebook, Myspace, and even the “favorites” section of YouTube itself.
Those part of what is now known as the “YouTube generation” have created an entirely new genre of entertainment. This new form of entertainment is driven purely by what people want to see and is dependant upon what people want to post. YouTube tracks the evolution of contemporary American society’s interests. It is living, moving, talking proof that modern Americans are interested in seeing farts, bad singers, juvenile animation, and obscure foreign cartoons.
YouTube has even created its own form of celebrity. While the world is used to seeing movie stars and recording artists in the pages of the tabloids, YouTube’s popularity has allowed the average American (or in some cases, world citizen) to become known and recognized worldwide. Especially funny, intriguing, or obscure YouTube posts are quickly spread from computer to computer through email, Facebook, Myspace, and even the “favorites” section of YouTube itself.
Those part of what is now known as the “YouTube generation” have created an entirely new genre of entertainment. This new form of entertainment is driven purely by what people want to see and is dependant upon what people want to post. YouTube tracks the evolution of contemporary American society’s interests. It is living, moving, talking proof that modern Americans are interested in seeing farts, bad singers, juvenile animation, and obscure foreign cartoons.
Dr. Gregory House; A Brilliant Bastard
Combining the sexual tension of Grey’s Anatomy, the medical intensity of ER and the witty banter of Scrubs, Fox presents House, MD “where the villain is a medical malady and the hero is an irreverent, controversial doctor who trusts no one, least of all his patients.” Dr. Gregory House, who is played by Hugh Laurie, is completely bereft of bedside manner and would rather not even talk to his patients if he could get away with it. House deals with his own constant physical pain and a former addiction to his prescribed pain medication. While his behavior can border on antisocial, House is a maverick physician whose unconventional thinking and flawless instincts have afforded him a great deal of respect. An infectious disease specialist, he's a brilliant diagnostician who loves the challenges of the medical puzzles he must solve in order to save lives. Despite his racist, sexist, and downright rood behavior, House is revered as the most brilliant doctor of his time. Even though it does not seem this way, House will do whatever it takes to fight for his patient. However, he might not even like the patient. He probably won’t. It’s the challenge he lives for; each patient is like a crossword he needs to solve before time runs out, the patient dies. Sheltering both physical and emotional damage, Dr, House refuses to look to anyone for support, except his only friend, who is often used by House, Dr. Wilson. Because he is indispensable, House can afford to make his own hours, treat his team of doctors as he wishes, and completely disrespect his boss. He acts the way he does because it is expected of him. If were to act like he cared, to respect people, his wrongdoings would only break their trust in him; something he couldn’t possibly live with.
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Just Another Musical?
When I see “the musical” tagged onto any renowned play or work of fiction I cannot help but despair. I shake my head and wonder what the director’s weapon of choice will be to slaughter yet another literary masterpiece. Will it be a gaudy dance number or perhaps a window-shattering high C sung by a before-beloved heroine?
Imagine my disappointment when, after settling myself into the frayed green velvet seat at Lucie Stern theatre, I looked down at the program and saw the dreaded words: “Little Women: the Broadway Musical.” I had been looking forward to seeing the characters from the novel that I used to make my mom read over and over come alive on the stage in front of me in a display of high quality theatre. Instead, I realized, I would have witness the painful destruction of a literary classic.
The curtain goes up and I see an actor who cannot possibly be playing Jo, the strong-willed tomboy who my seven-year-old self wanted to grow up to be. This actor was tiny with delicate features, too much make-up and a high-pitched voice that could not possibly express the power and compassion of the Jo of my imagination. Engulfed in my thoughts I was not really paying attention to the goings-on of the stage until I heard the little actress playing Jo shamelessly imitate a deep manly voice as she enthusiastically acted out one of Jo’s outrageous stories. Now I was paying attention. The actress was running around the stage singing furiously, thrusting out her hands in mock battle and leaping free of an imaginary sword as she sang. Sitting there I realized this was Jo, and the enthusiasm and wildness the song allowed her captured the essence of Jo more than a monologue ever could of.
I was swept up in the story of Jo and her sisters, every single one of whom possessed not only amazing technical acting skills, but had amazing voices as well. I couldn’t help but fall in love with the men of the show who fall for two of the March sisters, who, my companion pointed out, all seemed to be duplicates of Sacred Heart teachers. There was the adorable and awkward Mr. Brooke and the jolly and passionate Laurie. As they sang to their respective beau’s, I was reminded of something a director once told me: in musical theatre, you sing when words are not adequate to express yourself. Experience has taught me that to the contrary, the glitter and pomp of “musicals” usually detract from communication of emotions but in Little Women, song is a medium for taking characters to new levels. A cast full of engaging actors and a director conscious of steering clear from the usually distractions of musical theatre made Little Women: the Broadway Musical a pleasure to watch. Instead of destroying this literary classic, music enhanced a story I have loved since I was seven years old.
Imagine my disappointment when, after settling myself into the frayed green velvet seat at Lucie Stern theatre, I looked down at the program and saw the dreaded words: “Little Women: the Broadway Musical.” I had been looking forward to seeing the characters from the novel that I used to make my mom read over and over come alive on the stage in front of me in a display of high quality theatre. Instead, I realized, I would have witness the painful destruction of a literary classic.
The curtain goes up and I see an actor who cannot possibly be playing Jo, the strong-willed tomboy who my seven-year-old self wanted to grow up to be. This actor was tiny with delicate features, too much make-up and a high-pitched voice that could not possibly express the power and compassion of the Jo of my imagination. Engulfed in my thoughts I was not really paying attention to the goings-on of the stage until I heard the little actress playing Jo shamelessly imitate a deep manly voice as she enthusiastically acted out one of Jo’s outrageous stories. Now I was paying attention. The actress was running around the stage singing furiously, thrusting out her hands in mock battle and leaping free of an imaginary sword as she sang. Sitting there I realized this was Jo, and the enthusiasm and wildness the song allowed her captured the essence of Jo more than a monologue ever could of.
I was swept up in the story of Jo and her sisters, every single one of whom possessed not only amazing technical acting skills, but had amazing voices as well. I couldn’t help but fall in love with the men of the show who fall for two of the March sisters, who, my companion pointed out, all seemed to be duplicates of Sacred Heart teachers. There was the adorable and awkward Mr. Brooke and the jolly and passionate Laurie. As they sang to their respective beau’s, I was reminded of something a director once told me: in musical theatre, you sing when words are not adequate to express yourself. Experience has taught me that to the contrary, the glitter and pomp of “musicals” usually detract from communication of emotions but in Little Women, song is a medium for taking characters to new levels. A cast full of engaging actors and a director conscious of steering clear from the usually distractions of musical theatre made Little Women: the Broadway Musical a pleasure to watch. Instead of destroying this literary classic, music enhanced a story I have loved since I was seven years old.
Brit Spears is Offically Done
“Gimme More”
Arousing? Sensual? Brit Spears has come at us again with another attempt at erotic, provocative music in her song, “Gimmie More.” Unfortunately for Britney, none of us want anymore.
A Pop beat with driving bass hosts Britney’s “singing” in “Gimme More.” This song strangely resembles Paris Hilton’s “the Stars are Blind” and Hilary Duff’s “Why Not?” for they all have one thing in common: an appeal to their audiences through a provocative style of singing. The problem with this is that both Hilton and Duff are sexy, and, therefore, their dirty singing hits home and sells records. Britney’s new image: an overweight, bald, white trash housewife who feeds her children soda out of a bottle, fails to fulfill the necessary image to sell this song. Britney needs to be told she is no longer sexy and, can therefore no longer create terrible music like this and expect it to meet success.
In my opinion, Brit’s marriage to K-Fed was a skydive out of a plane at 5,000 feet in the air, and the creation of “Gimmie More” was Brit’s metaphoric disposal of her parachute in mid-air. Britney: it’s time to retire.
Arousing? Sensual? Brit Spears has come at us again with another attempt at erotic, provocative music in her song, “Gimmie More.” Unfortunately for Britney, none of us want anymore.
A Pop beat with driving bass hosts Britney’s “singing” in “Gimme More.” This song strangely resembles Paris Hilton’s “the Stars are Blind” and Hilary Duff’s “Why Not?” for they all have one thing in common: an appeal to their audiences through a provocative style of singing. The problem with this is that both Hilton and Duff are sexy, and, therefore, their dirty singing hits home and sells records. Britney’s new image: an overweight, bald, white trash housewife who feeds her children soda out of a bottle, fails to fulfill the necessary image to sell this song. Britney needs to be told she is no longer sexy and, can therefore no longer create terrible music like this and expect it to meet success.
In my opinion, Brit’s marriage to K-Fed was a skydive out of a plane at 5,000 feet in the air, and the creation of “Gimmie More” was Brit’s metaphoric disposal of her parachute in mid-air. Britney: it’s time to retire.
DHT
Just recently I purchased a group of five songs on iTunes by the artist called DHT, not to be confused with D.H.T. Although both groups each create dance music, they still are different. The song titles are as follows: Uninvited, Alone 2001, I Miss You, True Love, and Magic Melody. All the songs that I purchased are somewhat similar. Each song has an up beat tempo with a girl singing at a different pace from the song. Although this technique may sound like it would not work, each form of music compliments each other. One song in particular that I really like, by the artist, is called True Love (Single Edit). This song has a really fast beat with moderately slow singing; it is a really neat mix. This is truly expressed 1 minute and 39 seconds into the song. I also like the lyrics to this song because I feel that I can relate to them. It is amazing when you go through life experiences and then re-listen to songs and then they make so much more sense, while before you only sang along with the lyrics not really paying attention to the message of the song. Another song, Magic Melody, is also a good one. This song reminds me of the Disney movie “Anastasia” when she would sing with her music box given to her by her grandmother from the electronic beats apart of the song. As I could relate to the lyrics of the last song, I cannot relate to the lyrics in this one because they are slightly out of the “norm”. Overall, I like this artist and if you are looking for some decent dance music, you should take a look at this group.
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Stand By Me- the greatest movie...ever
Stand by Me was an instant favorite as soon as I had finished the film. It takes place in the small town of Castle Rock, Oregon. Four buddies overhear their older brother talking about a dead body who is the same age as them and they decide that they want to go find him. The four friends are all very different from each other; Gordie is the brains of the group, though he isn’t nerdy and is a great story teller. His best friend, Chris, comes from a bad family and everyone thinks he will turn out bad. Teddy is a nut with a partially burned off ear because his “loony” father put it to a stove. Vern is the fat kid that they like to pick on and like Teddy, is a comic relief. They have to travel by foot along the train tracks for about a day just to find the body. They experience a lot throughout the movie that make for a funny, yet very serious movie. In one scene they go to the infamous junkyard that is home to “Chopper,” who is known to “sick balls.” It turns out that he is a harmless golden retriever who has probably never harmed anyone. The most intense part of the movie is when they travel off the tracks and go through the woods and end up going through a pond that is filled with leeches. They get out of the water nervous and once everyone had gotten the leeches off themselves Gordie realized there is one more clinging to his skinny body. Making for one the most intense scenes I have ever scene, pulls the leech off his family jewels. Now every guy would want to kill themselves if this were to happen, but Gordie pulls the bloodied leech off and faints. I believe this is the climax off the movie because the mood of the group goes way down and the comedy is no longer present like it was earlier. When they arrive at the body Chris’s brother and his friends show up wanting the fame that comes along with finding the missing body. In the end no one ends up with the body and the boys go home and the movie pretty much ends. After the leech scene, the movie’s speed and comedy goes down hill, but this does not suggest that the movie goes down hill. It ends sadly, we find out the Chris is stabbed in the throat, but it does not take away from the greatness of the movie. I give “Stand by Me” five out of five stars.
This Is My Element
Directed by Johnny Schillereff, “This Is My Element” is a full length experimental skateboarding film. With the recent updating of the team, Element has introduced a new look to skateboarding which is displayed in their newest film “This Is My Element”. The film starts with a montage of their showcase skaters, including: Bam Margera, Darrell Stanton and Chad Muska. The film then transitions into individual skaters demonstrating their talent in a two to five minute clip, accompanied with music. The film concludes with a longer display of talent by a skater which the company wishes to highlight. Element decided to use “underground” music instead of the mainstream rock or hip hop. The film consists of mainly instrumental music to express the connection between humans and nature. The editors have made it so the music is in sync with the motions of the skater. I feel it adds a whole new aspect to skateboarding videos. Upbeat tempos were match with skaters who skate fast and big, while the mellow, soothing beats were matched with skaters who have skate with style and ease. This combination allows the skater to control the music in his part, which gives the film a very organic and original feel. I applaud and speak highly of this film. I want to recommend it to anyone with any interest in skating to see it. After watching I felt motivated and anxious to go skateboarding. This film is another step that Element has taken to progress the sport of skateboarding.
The Hours
One of the best films of the decade is without a doubt Stephen Daldry’s The Hours based on the Pulitzer Prize winning novel by Michael Cunningham. The film can be justifiably labeled with any and every accolade normally associated with a brilliant film. With an unrivaled cast (Nicole Kidman, Julianne Moore, and Meryl Streep to name a few…), The Hours takes the viewer on both a literary and visual journey.
The film follows the lives of three women living in three different eras whose lives are all interconnected through time by Virginia Woolf’s novel, Mrs. Dalloway. The story begins with Virginia Woolf, played by Nicole Kidman, beginning to work on the novel which ultimately becomes Mrs. Dalloway. Strikingly poised and eccentric, Kidman adds layers of complexity to her character, rightfully representing the estranged Virginia Woolf. The second element of the film depicts Laura Brown, played by Julianne Moore, a housewife living in the suburbs shortly after World War II. Laura, struggling with her life as a mother and doting wife, she looks to Mrs. Dalloway as an escape from her daily struggles. Empathetic pathos reeks from Moore’s character, and the film follows her emotional and decision-affected journey. The last story depicts the life of Clarissa Vaughan, played by Meryl Streep, in modern day New York City. Her story revolves around her planning of an extravagant party, and in essence, Clarissa Vaughan is the film’s modern representation of Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway.
The stunningly intricate plot line keeps the viewer enraptured until the bitter end. The plot reveals a surprising complexity and emanates profundity. By the end of the film, the lives of these three women are tied through much more than just Woolf’s text. They are tied through a common humanity, a universality that infuses into the hearts of all viewers.
The Hours received nine Academy Award nominations, and won the 2003 Golden Globe for Best Dramatic Film. Obviously, this film is far from underrated and appeals to the liking of both the movie-knowledgeable and the common viewer. After the credits rolled off the screen and I was left in complete, lonely darkness, I sat and thought about the artistic message of the film. After sitting there for sometime, I got up, walked to my bookshelf and grabbed Mrs. Dalloway. As my eyes scanned the pages, I realized that the film helped me understand Virginia. I realized that the film helped me understand things that I never would have expected to understand. The Hours evokes contemplation, and is without a doubt, one of the best and must-see films of the decade.
The film follows the lives of three women living in three different eras whose lives are all interconnected through time by Virginia Woolf’s novel, Mrs. Dalloway. The story begins with Virginia Woolf, played by Nicole Kidman, beginning to work on the novel which ultimately becomes Mrs. Dalloway. Strikingly poised and eccentric, Kidman adds layers of complexity to her character, rightfully representing the estranged Virginia Woolf. The second element of the film depicts Laura Brown, played by Julianne Moore, a housewife living in the suburbs shortly after World War II. Laura, struggling with her life as a mother and doting wife, she looks to Mrs. Dalloway as an escape from her daily struggles. Empathetic pathos reeks from Moore’s character, and the film follows her emotional and decision-affected journey. The last story depicts the life of Clarissa Vaughan, played by Meryl Streep, in modern day New York City. Her story revolves around her planning of an extravagant party, and in essence, Clarissa Vaughan is the film’s modern representation of Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway.
The stunningly intricate plot line keeps the viewer enraptured until the bitter end. The plot reveals a surprising complexity and emanates profundity. By the end of the film, the lives of these three women are tied through much more than just Woolf’s text. They are tied through a common humanity, a universality that infuses into the hearts of all viewers.
The Hours received nine Academy Award nominations, and won the 2003 Golden Globe for Best Dramatic Film. Obviously, this film is far from underrated and appeals to the liking of both the movie-knowledgeable and the common viewer. After the credits rolled off the screen and I was left in complete, lonely darkness, I sat and thought about the artistic message of the film. After sitting there for sometime, I got up, walked to my bookshelf and grabbed Mrs. Dalloway. As my eyes scanned the pages, I realized that the film helped me understand Virginia. I realized that the film helped me understand things that I never would have expected to understand. The Hours evokes contemplation, and is without a doubt, one of the best and must-see films of the decade.
A Shot At Love With Tila Tequila
I have a secret obsession and it comes in the form of a reality show.
Up until now I have always said what a waste of time reality shows are and that being addicted to them is pure nonsense. I would publicly like to retract that statement and replace it with a confession: I am addicted to the reality show A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila. True, who wouldn’t be addicted when the star of the show is none other but the reigning queen of the massive social-networking website Myspace herself, Tila Tequila. As Lev Grossman of Time Magazine stated, “Tila Tequila is something entirely new, a celebrity created not by a studio or a network but fan by fan, click by click, from the ground up on MySpace.” As if she didn’t feel loved enough having 5,000 new friend requests every day, Tila Tequila decided to try to find love in the most public way possible: in a reality T.V. show. MTV’s A Shot At Love With Tila Tequila premiered on October 9, 2007 and is the first of its kind to be a dating game with both men and women competing for the same woman. Confused? Don’t be. Tila Tequila is a bisexual. This intriguing show never leaves time for boredom and publicizes bisexuality in a way that has never been done before. Props to Tila for speaking openly about her sexuality and props to MTV for being the ones to realize that a show like this attracts literally everyone: straight, gay, and bi people, meaning only one thing: lots of money.
Up until now I have always said what a waste of time reality shows are and that being addicted to them is pure nonsense. I would publicly like to retract that statement and replace it with a confession: I am addicted to the reality show A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila. True, who wouldn’t be addicted when the star of the show is none other but the reigning queen of the massive social-networking website Myspace herself, Tila Tequila. As Lev Grossman of Time Magazine stated, “Tila Tequila is something entirely new, a celebrity created not by a studio or a network but fan by fan, click by click, from the ground up on MySpace.” As if she didn’t feel loved enough having 5,000 new friend requests every day, Tila Tequila decided to try to find love in the most public way possible: in a reality T.V. show. MTV’s A Shot At Love With Tila Tequila premiered on October 9, 2007 and is the first of its kind to be a dating game with both men and women competing for the same woman. Confused? Don’t be. Tila Tequila is a bisexual. This intriguing show never leaves time for boredom and publicizes bisexuality in a way that has never been done before. Props to Tila for speaking openly about her sexuality and props to MTV for being the ones to realize that a show like this attracts literally everyone: straight, gay, and bi people, meaning only one thing: lots of money.
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Cruel Intentions: A Great American Classic
Roger Kumbel’s 1999 film, Cruel Intentions, successfully combines a group of common vices to form an intricate and scandalous story. The movie casts many hip, young stars as a group of elitist prep school students who take games of sex, drugs, and violence to extreme levels. The movie begins as Sebastian Valmont (Ryan Phillippe) makes a bet with his stepsister, played by Sarah Michelle Gellar, that he can successfully provoke the headmaster’s daughter and open virgin (Reese Witherspoon) into premarital sex. If Valmont fails he will lose his precious car; but if he succeeds, he will gain the ultimate prize: his stepsister. The story proves to be far denser as the characters are very ruthless in their pursuit of their desires. In a terrific performance, Gellar proves to be the horrific stepsister who will not hesitate to destroy the relationships of anyone around her. In addition, Selma Blair, Joshua Jackson, and Sean Jackson Thomas are cast as characters being manipulated in one huge game of betrayal. Rarely does such a talented group of celebrities come together to make a film and their collaboration on the set is what makes the movie an instant classic. The passionate relationship between Phillippe and Witherspoon is the most genuine portrayal in recent memory. The film unites a variety of teenage issues such as homosexuality, bisexuality (including a kiss between Gellar and Blair that won an MTV award for best kiss), premarital sex, interracial relationships, drug abuse, greed, and jealousy. The defining issue in the movie proves to be love, as the film does a terrific job living up to its tagline: “In the game of seduction, there is only one rule: never fall in love.”
tim
tim
WELCOME TO THE SPACE JAM.....the soundtrack
What is a hit movie without a captivating soundtrack?
Despite my undying love for the movie “Space Jam”, it would lack so much of its flavor without its diverse soundtrack that weaves through the genres combining a vivacious, soulful, and old school sound. The all star music line-up, including Seal, R. Kelly, LL Cool J, Coolio, Busta Rhymes, Bugs Bunny, and Barry White, delivers slam-dunk after slam-dunk to bring the listener back to that magical world that is the Space Jam. As soon as you slip in that thrilling disk, with the first track, you are transported to a scene in the movie where we “Fly Like an Eagle” through a tribute to Michael Jordan with the help of the artist, Seal. CHILLS. This power ballad sets the mood for the entire album. Are you ready to jam? If so, head to track 3 for the movie’s theme song, Space Jam, performed by the Quad City DJ’s. Instantly you are teleported to the B-ball court in “cartoon land” for the big game! “Here’s your chance. Do your dance, at the Space Jam”. Be sure to blast this from your ride on the way to the big game! Nothing will give you such a thrill. Next on the list is the uplifting ballad, “I Believe I Can Fly”, by R. Kelly. Have you ever been down on yourself? Wanted to give up? Put on this little ditty and you will be filled with hope and determination to pull through. Powerful lyrics fill your ears and mind, for example, “If I can see it, then I can do it. If I just believe it. There’s nothing to it.” It will give you the strength to just keep trucking, just as it did for the Toon Squad in their fateful game against the evil MonSTARS. Next is the theme song for the movie’s villains, the MonSTARS. Written for the movie and performed by an all star rap crew, including Busta Rhymes, LL Cool J, Coolio, and Method Man, “Hit Em High” speaks of “MonSTARS making money” and “snatching up bunnies” (bugs bunny that is). This angry, gangster, and clean (mind you this is a Disney film) jam is perfect for our giant villains as they attempt to take prisoner of our beloved Michael Jordan. Last, but certainly not least in the album is a song by Bugs Bunny himself called “Buggin”. Wow. Whoever assembled this album intentionally saved the best for last. Where else will you hear a rap by Bugs Bunny? Here is a teaser of some of the genius lyrics in this wonder, “Who says the bunny can’t jam, you’re buggin’. If you all don’t know who I am, you’re buggin’.” Oh, the brilliance. THE ONLY problem one might find with the Space Jam soundtrack is if you weren’t a fan of the movie, you probably will not enjoy the soundtrack because a majority of the songs were created for the movie. This is obviously not a problem for me because in my opinion, Space Jam is the greatest movie ever created.
If you, the reader, are not halfway to the CD store by now to purchase this wonder, then I have failed in convincing you of the beauty that is the Space Jam soundtrack.
hey aya
Despite my undying love for the movie “Space Jam”, it would lack so much of its flavor without its diverse soundtrack that weaves through the genres combining a vivacious, soulful, and old school sound. The all star music line-up, including Seal, R. Kelly, LL Cool J, Coolio, Busta Rhymes, Bugs Bunny, and Barry White, delivers slam-dunk after slam-dunk to bring the listener back to that magical world that is the Space Jam. As soon as you slip in that thrilling disk, with the first track, you are transported to a scene in the movie where we “Fly Like an Eagle” through a tribute to Michael Jordan with the help of the artist, Seal. CHILLS. This power ballad sets the mood for the entire album. Are you ready to jam? If so, head to track 3 for the movie’s theme song, Space Jam, performed by the Quad City DJ’s. Instantly you are teleported to the B-ball court in “cartoon land” for the big game! “Here’s your chance. Do your dance, at the Space Jam”. Be sure to blast this from your ride on the way to the big game! Nothing will give you such a thrill. Next on the list is the uplifting ballad, “I Believe I Can Fly”, by R. Kelly. Have you ever been down on yourself? Wanted to give up? Put on this little ditty and you will be filled with hope and determination to pull through. Powerful lyrics fill your ears and mind, for example, “If I can see it, then I can do it. If I just believe it. There’s nothing to it.” It will give you the strength to just keep trucking, just as it did for the Toon Squad in their fateful game against the evil MonSTARS. Next is the theme song for the movie’s villains, the MonSTARS. Written for the movie and performed by an all star rap crew, including Busta Rhymes, LL Cool J, Coolio, and Method Man, “Hit Em High” speaks of “MonSTARS making money” and “snatching up bunnies” (bugs bunny that is). This angry, gangster, and clean (mind you this is a Disney film) jam is perfect for our giant villains as they attempt to take prisoner of our beloved Michael Jordan. Last, but certainly not least in the album is a song by Bugs Bunny himself called “Buggin”. Wow. Whoever assembled this album intentionally saved the best for last. Where else will you hear a rap by Bugs Bunny? Here is a teaser of some of the genius lyrics in this wonder, “Who says the bunny can’t jam, you’re buggin’. If you all don’t know who I am, you’re buggin’.” Oh, the brilliance. THE ONLY problem one might find with the Space Jam soundtrack is if you weren’t a fan of the movie, you probably will not enjoy the soundtrack because a majority of the songs were created for the movie. This is obviously not a problem for me because in my opinion, Space Jam is the greatest movie ever created.
If you, the reader, are not halfway to the CD store by now to purchase this wonder, then I have failed in convincing you of the beauty that is the Space Jam soundtrack.
hey aya
Prison Break...No Escape In Sight
Just having finished its second season, Fox’s hit show Prison Break has left viewers somewhat disappointed. After providing a thrilling first season, producers of the show have seemed to have run out of ideas and left the viewer with more of the same. This series is about a man named Michael Scofield who cleverly executes a plan to break his innocent brother out of prison. Scofield is an absolute genius and prepares his escape plan down the very last step- even going as far as to disguising the blueprints of the prison as a tattoo on his back. Surviving multiple obstacles, Scofield, his brother (Lincoln Boroughs), and five other inmates escape the prison and become national fugitives. Slowly, four of the five inmates are killed off, leaving Michael, his brother, and one other inmate to fend for themselves. However, despite his efforts to prove Lincoln’s innocence, Michael is thrown back into another unruly prison (Sonna), as the first season comes to a close. Filled with action packed scenes and genius escape plans, the first season skyrocketed in rating leaving viewers anxious for the show to start up again. How wrong their anxiety would be.
As the second season began, viewers soon noticed a flaw. People could not help noticing that the second season is a carbon copy of the first season; the only difference being new prison with new obstacles. While producers build up every episode to be the “escape” from Sonna, something always gets in the way and Michael is forced to rework his plan. Besides meeting many new intriguing characters in the second season, it is too hard to ignore the constant similarities to the first. It is almost if the producers have run out of new ideas and have reused those of the first season in a different environment. Despite all my criticism, I still have hope for what was once my favorite show on television. Even with its repetitive episodes, Prison Break’s season two ends with a twist that could prove to be some hope for the following season. With season 3 beginning in January, Prison Break and its producers are on a short leash in my book. Only because of the brilliance of the first season, will I give the show one final chance to prove me wrong and return to the ingenious originally that it once had.
As the second season began, viewers soon noticed a flaw. People could not help noticing that the second season is a carbon copy of the first season; the only difference being new prison with new obstacles. While producers build up every episode to be the “escape” from Sonna, something always gets in the way and Michael is forced to rework his plan. Besides meeting many new intriguing characters in the second season, it is too hard to ignore the constant similarities to the first. It is almost if the producers have run out of new ideas and have reused those of the first season in a different environment. Despite all my criticism, I still have hope for what was once my favorite show on television. Even with its repetitive episodes, Prison Break’s season two ends with a twist that could prove to be some hope for the following season. With season 3 beginning in January, Prison Break and its producers are on a short leash in my book. Only because of the brilliance of the first season, will I give the show one final chance to prove me wrong and return to the ingenious originally that it once had.
Chris Brown "Exclusive"
It feels like a one on one with Chris Brown when listening to his new album “Exclusive.” His smooth blend of Hip-Hop and R&B along with his silky voice and heartfelt lyrics make this album irresistible, just like the eighteen year old himself. “Wall to Wall” and “Kiss Kiss”, the two singles off this album, are attention grabbers as they are intended to be: catchy and cocky choruses and beats that make you want to gyrate your body. However, the real gems are the slow songs. Girls, boyfriends are no longer needed because you've got Chris Brown singing directly to you, wrapping lines around your hearts like “imagine if the pillow that you cried on was my chest?" And "I wanna be the last number you call late at night and the first one you dial when you open your eyes”. He places his female audience in an intimate setting seducing them with sultry lyrics and intsrumentals just like what former boy R&B bands, All 4 One and Boyz II Men did to their swooning, love sick fans in the 90’s. The only difference is Chris Brown is multi-dimensional, being able to make a girl fall desperately in love with him because of his heartfelt lyrics but also able to make a dance club get it on and poppin’. Artists such as Kayne West and T-Pain because of their more “hardcore” rapping reputations are featured in his hip-hop songs to attract a larger male audience. While Chris’ first album “Chris Brown” only premiered one love ballad single “Say Goodbye”, this album might have three or four chart topping slow songs. Only one word can describe Chris Brown and his music…sexy.
"Ey Look! Its Charles Barkley!"- Nora Coyne
Possibly one of the greatest films Aya Nakano, or should I say the world, has ever seen, Space Jam, focuses on the struggling Tune Squad to take on the MonSTARS in an epic game of basketball. The movie begins with a flashback of Chicago Bulls star, Michael Jordan, as a child shooting basketball with his father. It then comes back to the present time, 1996, as “MJ” announces his retirement of basketball to play baseball after the death of his father. Meanwhile, 5 aliens are sent to Looney Tune Land by their boss Mr. Swackhammer, who is voiced by Danny DeVito, to capture the hilarious Looney Tune characters and take them back to the aliens home planet’s theme park, Moron Mountain. When the aliens arrive, the Looney Tunes character gather up and come up with a way to withstand the diminutive aliens. They challenge them to a game of basketball and if the Looney Tune’s should lose, they would have to surrender and join the attractions of Moron Mountain. Bugs Bunny, the team captain, is expecting a blow out judging by the size of the aliens. Until MonSTARS, being the diabolical monsters they are, suck the talent out of NBA superstars Mugsy Bogues, Charles Barkley, Shawn Bradley, Larry Johnson, and Patrick Ewing to play the game. The MonStars come back to Looney Tune Land just straight jacked, muscles everywhere, standing about at an average of 13 ft tall. Noticing the new development in the MonStars players, Bugs Bunny and the gang attempt to find any help they can find just to stand a chance against these behemoths. They enlist in the help of Michael Jordan by sucking him through a golf hole, while Jordan was celebrating his hole in one. Jordan is hesitant at first because of his pursuit to his so called baseball career, but agrees to help them after seeing the desperation of Looney Tune characters. While many of the Looney Tunes basketball players are average at best, Lola Bunny, a new character that seems to be Bugs Bunny’s love interest, joins the team. After a rigorous trip to Earth, Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck retrieve Jordan’s basketball equipment and begin to practice. Stan (played by the hilarious Wayne Knight, who is also the mailman in the show Seinfeld), is desperately searching for Michael Jordan until he eavesdropped in a conversation between Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck on their way back to Looney Tune Land. He enters Looney Tune Land with them and joins the basketball team. The basketball game starts and the score ends up 66- 18 at halftime. Stan overhears the Monstars team in the locker room of how they stole the talent of the NBA players. MJ then tries to encourage his team but fails until Bugs Bunny labels a bottle “Michael’s Secret Stuff” and gives it to the team, giving them the confidence they needed. With Jordan’s newly acquired information about the talent stealing, MJ, being the stud that he is raises the stakes with Mr. Swackhammer. The stakes are that if the Monstars are to lose they return the talent, but if the Tune Squad should lose, Swackhammer not only gets the Tune Squad but also MJ. The Tune Squad builds up an enormous comeback, cutting the lead to 2, with their newly found confidence. A timeout is called and the Looney Tunes are told they are to forfeit since they only have 4 players with all the injuries they had. Bill Murray, a friend of MJ, made his way to Looney Toon land and becomes the 5th member. The timeout is uncalled; the Tune Squad steals the ball and passes it to Jordan. He is caught at half court by all 5 Monstars but his resilience, basketball talent, and overall being a boss, MJ stretches his arm and makes the last shot as time expires. After the loss, the Monstars realize how malevolent their boss is, fire him away in a rocket and join the Looney Tunes. Bugs Bunny and Lola Bunny share an intimate moment solidifying that they are lovers. Michael Jordan gives back the talent to the NBA stars and comes back to play basketball with the Chicago Bulls. This movie is a great family movie, or just an entertaining movie to all ages. I highly recommend it to anyone. With its stunning graphics, great basketball play, and dramatic moments, Space Jam will guarantee to have you jumping out of your chair out of excitement throughout the whole film.
This is by Aya Nakano not Cbone
I forgot my email and password for the blog
my bad
This is by Aya Nakano not Cbone
I forgot my email and password for the blog
my bad
CSI: MIAMI “Permanent Vacation”
The sexy new song “Gimme More” by Brittany Spears plays as the opening scene fades in from black. In a posh hotel and a prime vacation spot, a family snaps a last picture before heading on home, back to Canada. As pictures are being taken, the father, Mr. Partney exerts his authority and demands the family “be in the car within the next five minutes or [they] are going to miss [their] flight!” The music continues and both sons go in different directions to finish off the last of things. Suddenly, the music cuts and the last scene we see is of Brian Partney in an elevator. Blackness engulfs the screen and when the picture reappears, Brian lays dead on the floor with blood already pooling around his body. His furious father is ravenous for revenge and seeks it out rather than awaiting justice.
This episode plays largely on the phrase “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.” All three relatives, the mother, father, and brother (Shane) would rather kill the man who led Brian to his death rather than let the CSI team find the murderer and take him down. This hunger for vengeance gets them all into trouble when Shane attacks the number one suspect. Thought to be a result of a gang called the Cobras, the team assumes Mendoza to be a part of the situation because where he lives is largely part of the Cobra gang. We find out later that Mendoza was not involved at all, and was dragged into the murder through the use of his valet jacket and hole puncher. While watching the episode, I had felt no sympathy for the ill-tempered father who, at every chance he got, yelled at someone or demanded revenge. He showed nothing but disgust towards his other son and pushed him for answers about what he heard while outside the hotel, during the time Brian was murdered. Either out of desire to seek justice or to seek approval from his father, Shane attacks Mendoza, the number one suspect. We finally learn that Brian was killed as a gang initiation, as if we had not gained that information already from the first time a CSI said it was a gang related murder. I was irritated that Natalia, a CSI accompanying the mother out of the police station, had not paid closer attention to her. When the mother stated that she wised to ask her son’s killer “why he shot her son,” Natalia should have realized that she too wanted revenge. The episode ends with the mother approaching the killer and shooting him in the stomach. While the final scene played out, a series of flashes of black to picture took place and we heard the steady sound of a beating heart.
This episode plays largely on the phrase “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.” All three relatives, the mother, father, and brother (Shane) would rather kill the man who led Brian to his death rather than let the CSI team find the murderer and take him down. This hunger for vengeance gets them all into trouble when Shane attacks the number one suspect. Thought to be a result of a gang called the Cobras, the team assumes Mendoza to be a part of the situation because where he lives is largely part of the Cobra gang. We find out later that Mendoza was not involved at all, and was dragged into the murder through the use of his valet jacket and hole puncher. While watching the episode, I had felt no sympathy for the ill-tempered father who, at every chance he got, yelled at someone or demanded revenge. He showed nothing but disgust towards his other son and pushed him for answers about what he heard while outside the hotel, during the time Brian was murdered. Either out of desire to seek justice or to seek approval from his father, Shane attacks Mendoza, the number one suspect. We finally learn that Brian was killed as a gang initiation, as if we had not gained that information already from the first time a CSI said it was a gang related murder. I was irritated that Natalia, a CSI accompanying the mother out of the police station, had not paid closer attention to her. When the mother stated that she wised to ask her son’s killer “why he shot her son,” Natalia should have realized that she too wanted revenge. The episode ends with the mother approaching the killer and shooting him in the stomach. While the final scene played out, a series of flashes of black to picture took place and we heard the steady sound of a beating heart.
A Diamond in the Rough
Art imitates life, and the movies of our time reflect the ills of society. Echoing the moral messages delivered by movies such as Hotel Rwanda and Syriana, Blood Diamond is another film you won’t want to miss. In this action-packed, dramatic motion picture, controversial political issues are brought into the spotlight with the story of a white and a black man bound together in the quest for a rare diamond. Director Edward Zwick is certainly not afraid of taking risks and presents a story that challenges us to take another look at the ethical choices we make in our lives.
Diamond is set during the 1999 Sierra Leone Civil War that erupted in part due to the battle for control of the country’s fruitful diamond trade. Profits from such sales were used to finance armed resistance and revolts, killing thousands of innocent civilians and driving more than a million people out of their villages and into refugee camps. Yet, the senseless brutality of this war does not seem to bother mercenary Danny Archer (Leonardo DiCaprio). Born in hectic South Africa, Archer uses shrewd street smarts to weave through the corruption that surrounds him and milks the chaotic situation in order to survive. Dismissing the savagery as “TIA”, aka “This is Africa”, he sees the perpetual violence as inexorable as AIDS – a kind of incurable disease. His latest swindle involves smuggling ‘blood’, or conflict, diamonds out of the lawless continent in the hopes of one day leaving the “god-forsaken country.” The story takes a poignant turn when Archer meets Solomon Vandy (Djimon Hounsou), a local fisherman whose family has been ripped away from him as a consequence of anarchy and war. The two join forces in the pursuit of an elusive diamond that could serve as each man’s ticket to freedom. Along their journey, they receive help from American journalist Maddy Bowen (Jennifer Connelly), whose mission is to expose the horrid truths of the diamond industry. In typical Hollywood style, the victimized Vandy finally rejoins his family, the journalist gets her story, and the ever-so jaded Archer learns a thing or two about humility, creating a story with emblematic weight that leaves you with a lump in your throat.
What makes Diamond a rare gem is its ability to combine raw violence with specks of social conscience, even as the story travels a predictable path. Zwick keeps the action moving with scenes that range from portraying the collateral damage of war to hinting at the brewing passion between Archer and Maddy. Both DiCaprio and Hounsou give Oscar-worthy performances for their respective roles: the quintessential scoundrel with an intriguing side and the tortured, innocent father with a quiet determination to reunite with his loves ones. DiCaprio’s sharp wit and colloquial South African accent elevate the caliber of his character as he bonds with Vandy and Maddy. Equally dynamic and excellent is Hounsou, radiating an unrestrained intensity and steadfast pride.
Along with the authentic acting, story and screen-play writer Charles Leavitt has fashioned a top-box office hit that actually tells a story with a degree of thematic depth. While the plot is far from earth-shattering, it examines a source of international shame and explores how miniscule glittering rocks can pressure children into fighting, fund a complete state of violent anarchy, and lead to the formation of massive refugee camps. With the popularity of Diamond increasing now that it is available on DVD, the diamond industry might see a decline in sales as a result of increased awareness.
Diamond is set during the 1999 Sierra Leone Civil War that erupted in part due to the battle for control of the country’s fruitful diamond trade. Profits from such sales were used to finance armed resistance and revolts, killing thousands of innocent civilians and driving more than a million people out of their villages and into refugee camps. Yet, the senseless brutality of this war does not seem to bother mercenary Danny Archer (Leonardo DiCaprio). Born in hectic South Africa, Archer uses shrewd street smarts to weave through the corruption that surrounds him and milks the chaotic situation in order to survive. Dismissing the savagery as “TIA”, aka “This is Africa”, he sees the perpetual violence as inexorable as AIDS – a kind of incurable disease. His latest swindle involves smuggling ‘blood’, or conflict, diamonds out of the lawless continent in the hopes of one day leaving the “god-forsaken country.” The story takes a poignant turn when Archer meets Solomon Vandy (Djimon Hounsou), a local fisherman whose family has been ripped away from him as a consequence of anarchy and war. The two join forces in the pursuit of an elusive diamond that could serve as each man’s ticket to freedom. Along their journey, they receive help from American journalist Maddy Bowen (Jennifer Connelly), whose mission is to expose the horrid truths of the diamond industry. In typical Hollywood style, the victimized Vandy finally rejoins his family, the journalist gets her story, and the ever-so jaded Archer learns a thing or two about humility, creating a story with emblematic weight that leaves you with a lump in your throat.
What makes Diamond a rare gem is its ability to combine raw violence with specks of social conscience, even as the story travels a predictable path. Zwick keeps the action moving with scenes that range from portraying the collateral damage of war to hinting at the brewing passion between Archer and Maddy. Both DiCaprio and Hounsou give Oscar-worthy performances for their respective roles: the quintessential scoundrel with an intriguing side and the tortured, innocent father with a quiet determination to reunite with his loves ones. DiCaprio’s sharp wit and colloquial South African accent elevate the caliber of his character as he bonds with Vandy and Maddy. Equally dynamic and excellent is Hounsou, radiating an unrestrained intensity and steadfast pride.
Along with the authentic acting, story and screen-play writer Charles Leavitt has fashioned a top-box office hit that actually tells a story with a degree of thematic depth. While the plot is far from earth-shattering, it examines a source of international shame and explores how miniscule glittering rocks can pressure children into fighting, fund a complete state of violent anarchy, and lead to the formation of massive refugee camps. With the popularity of Diamond increasing now that it is available on DVD, the diamond industry might see a decline in sales as a result of increased awareness.
Monday, November 12, 2007
In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
One of the most underrated and beautifully unusual albums released in the last decade is without a doubt Neutral Milk Hotel’s In the Aeroplane Over the Sea. The album is widely recognized among indie-music aficionados as among the most original albums of the 90’s, though most of the general public has never heard of it. The album, released in May 1998, is conceptually based on the life of Anne Frank, one of the most famous victims of the Holocaust in Europe, and on the unexpected beauty found in tragedies like hers. At times, the folksy melodies sound familiar; the rhapsodic sound of the acoustic guitar in the opening track, “King of Carrot Flowers Part 1,” could have come from any one of Dylan’s early albums or from one of Oberst’s tracks on his LIFTED album. Then, just as the listener begins to be lulled into comfortable inattention, lead singer Jeff Mangum’s somewhat abrasive voice cuts into the listener’s consciousness. He is later joined by what can only be described as a menagerie of musical instruments, including horns, organs, accordions, saws, banjo, and even a zanzithophone (though I haven’t the faintest clue as to what that may be).
Without listening to the lyrics, the album sounds like something of an indie music circus. Between Mangum’s nasal voice and the screeching of unidentifiable instruments accompanying him, it is easy to write the album off as a joke, and an ear-splitting one at that. However, by the time the third track rolls around, it begins to seem possible that maybe – just maybe – Neutral Milk Hotel has something bigger in mind. Maybe they’re trying to make a point.
Without a doubt, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea is a lyrically driven album. Yes, the arrangements and instrumentalization are wildly inventive and brilliantly different and Mangum and his band certainly deserve credit for making one of the most original-sounding albums of the past 20 years, but the Mangum’s lyrics are what change lives. “In the Aeroplane Over the Sea,” the third track on the album, is arguably one of the most poignant and brilliant songs ever written. The musical arrangements are still inventive (three-part saw harmonies, anyone?), but what is most magnificent is the way that the aforementioned saw harmonies work in complete harmony with Mangum’s lyrics. The song is consistently muted, never reaching the intense climax that the listener expects, but when Mangum declares how “strange it feels to be anything at all,” it takes all the listener can do to hold in the surge of emotion that accompanies Mangum’s voice.
In the Aeroplane Over the Sea is alternately lauded and bashed by critics and music buffs. However, when given time to fully absorb and process the quirky patchwork quilt that Neutral Milk Hotel has put together, the listener will surely feel himself wrapped up in Mangum’s achingly exquisite masterpiece.
Without listening to the lyrics, the album sounds like something of an indie music circus. Between Mangum’s nasal voice and the screeching of unidentifiable instruments accompanying him, it is easy to write the album off as a joke, and an ear-splitting one at that. However, by the time the third track rolls around, it begins to seem possible that maybe – just maybe – Neutral Milk Hotel has something bigger in mind. Maybe they’re trying to make a point.
Without a doubt, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea is a lyrically driven album. Yes, the arrangements and instrumentalization are wildly inventive and brilliantly different and Mangum and his band certainly deserve credit for making one of the most original-sounding albums of the past 20 years, but the Mangum’s lyrics are what change lives. “In the Aeroplane Over the Sea,” the third track on the album, is arguably one of the most poignant and brilliant songs ever written. The musical arrangements are still inventive (three-part saw harmonies, anyone?), but what is most magnificent is the way that the aforementioned saw harmonies work in complete harmony with Mangum’s lyrics. The song is consistently muted, never reaching the intense climax that the listener expects, but when Mangum declares how “strange it feels to be anything at all,” it takes all the listener can do to hold in the surge of emotion that accompanies Mangum’s voice.
In the Aeroplane Over the Sea is alternately lauded and bashed by critics and music buffs. However, when given time to fully absorb and process the quirky patchwork quilt that Neutral Milk Hotel has put together, the listener will surely feel himself wrapped up in Mangum’s achingly exquisite masterpiece.
Life. Death. and Life again.
“If you could bring someone back to life for 60 seconds, who would it be and what would you ask?”
This is the underlying question of the new ABC series, Pushing Daisies. Created by Bryan Fuller, the innovative series has wowed the public episode after episode. Bryan Fuller’s other claims to fame are the series: Wonderfalls and Dead like Me.
Pushing Daisies is a dark comedy with a love story intertwined into the storyline. The show is about a man named Ned. He is an average man, who owns his own restaurant, called The Pie Hole, and creates elaborate pies to order. Ned also has a mysterious ability to make the dead live again. But all gifts and abilities come with complications. If he touches someone that he's revived a second time, they die permanently; and if a person is revived for more than sixty seconds, someone else in the vicinity dies as well. Ned and private investigator Emerson Cod, capitalize on his gift by reviving dead murder victims, asking about their murderers, and collecting the reward. The first episode revolves around the death of Charlotte “Chuck” Charles, who in fact was Ned’s childhood sweetheart. Undoubtedly, Ned and Emerson learn that a woman has just died and go to the body to revive them and collect their reward. However, once Ned gets to the woman’s body, he realizes that it is Chuck and proceeds to revive her; to ultimately keep her revived. Because he keeps Chuck revived, someone in the vicinity has to die, so in the next room, ironically the restroom, the viewer sees a large man on the toilet and a few seconds later dies. Ned and Chuck are reunited, however he cannot touch her, for if he does she will go back to being dead. As once stated before, there are always complications with mysterious abilities. The majority of the series is set at Ned's restaurant, where Ned, the revived Chuck, Ned's childhood sweetheart, and Olive Schnook all work.
I recommend this show to anyone who loves dark comedies with Tim Burton-esque feels. Pushing Daisies is witty and full of surprises after surprises. Also with the many mysteries after mysteries, viewers will continue to be satisfied with their newfound fetish: Pushing Daisies. Pushing Daisies airs on Wednesday nights at 8pm on channel ABC.
This is the underlying question of the new ABC series, Pushing Daisies. Created by Bryan Fuller, the innovative series has wowed the public episode after episode. Bryan Fuller’s other claims to fame are the series: Wonderfalls and Dead like Me.
Pushing Daisies is a dark comedy with a love story intertwined into the storyline. The show is about a man named Ned. He is an average man, who owns his own restaurant, called The Pie Hole, and creates elaborate pies to order. Ned also has a mysterious ability to make the dead live again. But all gifts and abilities come with complications. If he touches someone that he's revived a second time, they die permanently; and if a person is revived for more than sixty seconds, someone else in the vicinity dies as well. Ned and private investigator Emerson Cod, capitalize on his gift by reviving dead murder victims, asking about their murderers, and collecting the reward. The first episode revolves around the death of Charlotte “Chuck” Charles, who in fact was Ned’s childhood sweetheart. Undoubtedly, Ned and Emerson learn that a woman has just died and go to the body to revive them and collect their reward. However, once Ned gets to the woman’s body, he realizes that it is Chuck and proceeds to revive her; to ultimately keep her revived. Because he keeps Chuck revived, someone in the vicinity has to die, so in the next room, ironically the restroom, the viewer sees a large man on the toilet and a few seconds later dies. Ned and Chuck are reunited, however he cannot touch her, for if he does she will go back to being dead. As once stated before, there are always complications with mysterious abilities. The majority of the series is set at Ned's restaurant, where Ned, the revived Chuck, Ned's childhood sweetheart, and Olive Schnook all work.
I recommend this show to anyone who loves dark comedies with Tim Burton-esque feels. Pushing Daisies is witty and full of surprises after surprises. Also with the many mysteries after mysteries, viewers will continue to be satisfied with their newfound fetish: Pushing Daisies. Pushing Daisies airs on Wednesday nights at 8pm on channel ABC.
Friday, November 9, 2007
Mad's Mini Essays
1. An exploration of the atomic bomb as a symbol in the novel
Michael Ondaatje uses the atomic bomb as a symbol for the destruction of the past in the novel The English Patient. The character int eh novel lives are obstructed by destruction and loss in the past, just as an atomic bomb destroys everything. Kip believes in saving lives, not taking them away. He spends his time saving and helping people he has never seen before. As Kip uses all this time and effort to save people, like Hana, it all seems for nothing when the atomic bomb is dropped. The atomic bomb is something so powerful that it cannot be stopped, and that it is going to kill people no matter what. So there is no point in saving lives when they are just going to die anyways. Kip does not understand why England would kill their own people, and why anyone would kill another human being for no apparent reason. Also the atomic not only kills people, it kills the people who create a nation. It creates a loss of identity since those you associate with are now gone. Even though the atomic bomb killed many, those who survived ended up closer together. In the end it brings together people of the same nationality who now see family in strangers.
2. A comparison of the novel and the film adaptation by Anthony Minghella
As in each replication of a novel into a movie, the missing parts, and differences stand out. It is hard to make a book into a movie since the imagery from the novel is hard to duplicate. We each picture the characters a certain way and when it is made into a movie our imagination is thrown out the window. It is easier to add imagery and specific detail into a novel compared to the movie given that Michael Ondaatje is writing a story out of his own imagination and does not have to deal with modern locations looking like the past. The directors’ idea about the novel is the only one that matters now, since he or she is in charge of how the movie will look. While watching the English Patient the cinematography was spectacular with the aerial shots and the landscape was tantalizing. However it did not match up with the novel. There were numerous parts in Anthony Minghella’s rendition of the novel that were either later or earlier in the novel, or written completely different then showed in the movie. Yet in the end I enjoyed both the novel and the movie of The English Patient and same, and both presented interesting ideas.
3. A close analysis of a single character; perhaps an argument about who you think is the protagonist of the novel.
After finishing The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje I say that Almay is the protagonist of the novel. Because, not only do we read about his life and experiences, we also read about how he grows and changes the people around him. We also read about the different emotions and pain he goes through throughout the novel. For example what he feels when he is with Katherine, alone in the desert, with his comrades, and then when he is with Hana. Also as we read on we discover that Almay’s goal is to obtain nothingness, to leave nations, nationality and identity behind altogether. And by the end he acquires this goal when no one knows who he is or where he is from. He can hide from him self, and from what he has done. Even though no one knows who he is, he still affects their lives and changes them in some way. This is well illustrated when he is in the care of Hana, who ends up having a happier life with him in the villa, then she would as a nurse for the war. Almay grows and learns from his past, not like Hana who ends up hiding her self away in a villa when she does not want to face the warring world anymore.
4. An essay tracing one of the novel’s key motifs—life fire and burning, or gardens, or deserts/desertion.
Each character has had a major desertion in their life that effects the way they live their lives now. Each loss follows the character throughout the novel, and keeps affecting them long after it happened. Hana, Almay and Kip all experience a significant lost, or desertion in their life in the novel. Each is different, however at the same time it effects each of their relationships and ideas with each other in a similar way. All are intertwined by the loss of a loved one. Hana loses her father and regrets not being there for him. Or not trying to help him since she is a nurse and saves people everyday, but could not save her father. Furthermore Hana feels as if each person she gets close to ends up dieing, and that she has no one left to talk to. Almay loss has to do with identity. He wants to disappear from countries, England, Germany, the Sahara desert, and from the pain of losing Katherine. Not having her love him in return was and still is his worst loss, since now he is left with only the memories of her. Kip loses the only family he has when they die while disarming bombs. The family he has created with them is gone in an instant and there was nothing he could do. These three characters lose what is important to them and in return are stuck. Their void is like a desert, barren and endless. The desertion by what brings them happiness affects everything they do in the novel.
5. An essay articulating a central theme of the novel—the cost of war; the war between the personal and the public; the manifold obstacle to human intimacy; etc.
The central theme of the novel is the inability to get close to anyone; the obstacles of human intimacy. Hana, Almay, Kip and even Carvaggio have their own problems in getting close to anyone. It appears that each time they get close to a person, that person either dies or goes away. The past pain and loss of losing loved ones has hindered their ability to get close to others. They fear loss that then entails fearing intimacy since they go hand in hand. All of these characters are experience the same feelings, but since they are closed off to each other no one else knows but them selves. The loss of human intimacy can be traced back to their jobs, and how they decide to live their lives. Take Hana for example, she is a nurse who helps people heal and become well again. When that person she has treated is well they are sent off. If she becomes attached to them it will not do her any good since they are going to leave her no matter what. The people she gets close to can be considered her family, then the people she considers her family usually leave her and create loss and pain within her life. This is true for Almay, Kip and Carvaggio who also do not get close to people because it usually ends up in a painful loss. This barrier each character has against human intimacy is something they have to over come, however never will because they refuse to risk feeling the pain they already suffered in the past.
Michael Ondaatje uses the atomic bomb as a symbol for the destruction of the past in the novel The English Patient. The character int eh novel lives are obstructed by destruction and loss in the past, just as an atomic bomb destroys everything. Kip believes in saving lives, not taking them away. He spends his time saving and helping people he has never seen before. As Kip uses all this time and effort to save people, like Hana, it all seems for nothing when the atomic bomb is dropped. The atomic bomb is something so powerful that it cannot be stopped, and that it is going to kill people no matter what. So there is no point in saving lives when they are just going to die anyways. Kip does not understand why England would kill their own people, and why anyone would kill another human being for no apparent reason. Also the atomic not only kills people, it kills the people who create a nation. It creates a loss of identity since those you associate with are now gone. Even though the atomic bomb killed many, those who survived ended up closer together. In the end it brings together people of the same nationality who now see family in strangers.
2. A comparison of the novel and the film adaptation by Anthony Minghella
As in each replication of a novel into a movie, the missing parts, and differences stand out. It is hard to make a book into a movie since the imagery from the novel is hard to duplicate. We each picture the characters a certain way and when it is made into a movie our imagination is thrown out the window. It is easier to add imagery and specific detail into a novel compared to the movie given that Michael Ondaatje is writing a story out of his own imagination and does not have to deal with modern locations looking like the past. The directors’ idea about the novel is the only one that matters now, since he or she is in charge of how the movie will look. While watching the English Patient the cinematography was spectacular with the aerial shots and the landscape was tantalizing. However it did not match up with the novel. There were numerous parts in Anthony Minghella’s rendition of the novel that were either later or earlier in the novel, or written completely different then showed in the movie. Yet in the end I enjoyed both the novel and the movie of The English Patient and same, and both presented interesting ideas.
3. A close analysis of a single character; perhaps an argument about who you think is the protagonist of the novel.
After finishing The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje I say that Almay is the protagonist of the novel. Because, not only do we read about his life and experiences, we also read about how he grows and changes the people around him. We also read about the different emotions and pain he goes through throughout the novel. For example what he feels when he is with Katherine, alone in the desert, with his comrades, and then when he is with Hana. Also as we read on we discover that Almay’s goal is to obtain nothingness, to leave nations, nationality and identity behind altogether. And by the end he acquires this goal when no one knows who he is or where he is from. He can hide from him self, and from what he has done. Even though no one knows who he is, he still affects their lives and changes them in some way. This is well illustrated when he is in the care of Hana, who ends up having a happier life with him in the villa, then she would as a nurse for the war. Almay grows and learns from his past, not like Hana who ends up hiding her self away in a villa when she does not want to face the warring world anymore.
4. An essay tracing one of the novel’s key motifs—life fire and burning, or gardens, or deserts/desertion.
Each character has had a major desertion in their life that effects the way they live their lives now. Each loss follows the character throughout the novel, and keeps affecting them long after it happened. Hana, Almay and Kip all experience a significant lost, or desertion in their life in the novel. Each is different, however at the same time it effects each of their relationships and ideas with each other in a similar way. All are intertwined by the loss of a loved one. Hana loses her father and regrets not being there for him. Or not trying to help him since she is a nurse and saves people everyday, but could not save her father. Furthermore Hana feels as if each person she gets close to ends up dieing, and that she has no one left to talk to. Almay loss has to do with identity. He wants to disappear from countries, England, Germany, the Sahara desert, and from the pain of losing Katherine. Not having her love him in return was and still is his worst loss, since now he is left with only the memories of her. Kip loses the only family he has when they die while disarming bombs. The family he has created with them is gone in an instant and there was nothing he could do. These three characters lose what is important to them and in return are stuck. Their void is like a desert, barren and endless. The desertion by what brings them happiness affects everything they do in the novel.
5. An essay articulating a central theme of the novel—the cost of war; the war between the personal and the public; the manifold obstacle to human intimacy; etc.
The central theme of the novel is the inability to get close to anyone; the obstacles of human intimacy. Hana, Almay, Kip and even Carvaggio have their own problems in getting close to anyone. It appears that each time they get close to a person, that person either dies or goes away. The past pain and loss of losing loved ones has hindered their ability to get close to others. They fear loss that then entails fearing intimacy since they go hand in hand. All of these characters are experience the same feelings, but since they are closed off to each other no one else knows but them selves. The loss of human intimacy can be traced back to their jobs, and how they decide to live their lives. Take Hana for example, she is a nurse who helps people heal and become well again. When that person she has treated is well they are sent off. If she becomes attached to them it will not do her any good since they are going to leave her no matter what. The people she gets close to can be considered her family, then the people she considers her family usually leave her and create loss and pain within her life. This is true for Almay, Kip and Carvaggio who also do not get close to people because it usually ends up in a painful loss. This barrier each character has against human intimacy is something they have to over come, however never will because they refuse to risk feeling the pain they already suffered in the past.
DMB Concert review
As I sit on the wet lawn in the dark listening to a band I have never heard before I wonder why I am here. The Dave Matthew Band concert at Shoreline Amphitheatre was one of my first concerts and I was not impressed. I was seated on the lawn, which is just a big open space that anyone can sit anywhere. Also it is hard to see the stage from the lawn, unless you walk right in front and look over the edge to the stage. The screens that were set up so the people sitting in the lawn could see were only placed at the center, making it hard for everyone besides those sitting in the center of the lawn to see the screens. The lawn was crowded, and I would suggest to pay for the more expensive seats so you can see the band and not be sitting on other people’s stuff since the lawn was also very unorganized. As I left I wanted to get a shirt, and almost left without one since there were only three people working that booth and it was taking at least twenty mintues to acquire a shirt. The problem was letting people pay with credit cards. Having to wait for the transaction to process held up the line incredibly. The parking in general was atrocious. It was easy to park, however after getting out of your car, the walk seemed to be a mile and in the dark. And if you forgot where you parked, that sucks since there were many different places to park and more rows of cars then any of us would want to count. Watching DMB (Dave Matthew Band) I could not tell if they were having a good for bad performance and I felt for away from the music. In the end it was quite and experience to have to sit through two hours of DMB sitting on the Shoreline lawn.
Monday, November 5, 2007
the goods
1. Inter-textuality:
Ondaatje’s uses books throughout the novel as a symbol to establish connections between people and the past. Ondaatje’s including of Herodotus’s Histories was extremely important in developing the character of the English Patient. Throughout his journey, it was the only thing he kept with him. We gain entry into the EP’s past through this book In it, he pasted pictures and notes that help the reader learn more about his unknown past. I didn’t bother looking up The Histories while I was reading the novel, but know that I am writing this, I learned that Herodotus wrote this as he traveled through the ancient world around 400 B.C. Ondaatje chose this specific work of ancient literature to compare Herodotus to the English Patient, both adventurous explorers. This book contains significant meaning to the English Patient because it is the only thing that survived the fire with him. Another example is of Hana’s constant reading to the EP from the collection in the library of the villa. To get closer to the English Patient, Hana reads books to him from the library to establish a connection with her mysterious patient. Ondaatje uses this symbol to bring his characters closer and allow us to enter their insights and pasts.
2. Key Motifs: Morphine
An interesting motif for me in this novel was the reoccurring symbol of morphine. Because of their injuries they suffered during the war, both Caravaggio and the EP rely on the constant consumption of morphine to ease their pain. Not only do the two use it to numb their pain, they have become dependent on it to slip away from their pasts that haunt them. Caravaggio grew dependent on the drug after enemy interrogators cut off his thumbs. Caravaggio longs to avenge those who betrayed him and his country during the war. The horrors of the war disturb him continually and he finds his escape in morphine, which numbs his perception of reality. The EP relies on the drugs to ease the pain of the burns he acquired in the plane crash. He is haunted by the thought of his love, Katherine, who he deserted in the cave to die. The guilt of Katherine’s death reigns over all of his days but the EP finds temporary refuge in the morphine that eases his mental woes. Ondaatje uses morphine to expose how the atrocities of the war have left these men and women in a deep depression and their only escape is through their addiction.
3. Favorite Line:
“Can’t wait to have me dead? You bitch!” (page 83)
Yikes. This passage gives me the willies. Poor Hana is in a position where she experiences death every day. The thought of interrupting one of the most crucial moments in a person’s life, right before the die, is horrifying.. Hana had become so accustomed to death and tragedy that it was natural for her to close the man’s eyes. We know that Hana would never intentionally violate this man in this moment as he approaches death, but she mistakenly took this man for dead. Throughout the war, she was exposed to tragic deaths, horrific injuries, and many other atrocities. All of these soldiers believed they were fighting for a cause and most went to their death with the slight comfort that they had made a difference. This soldier, on the other hand, died with rage in his heart. The guilt Hana must have felt after upsetting this man before he died must have been unbearable. This traumatic experience goes along with many other happenings of war that Hana went through. This buildup of tragedy and suffering is what most likely caused her to seek refuge away from the war in the villa.
4. Escape in the Villa San Girolamo:
This novel is centered on these four main characters, Hana, the EP, Caravaggio, and Kip, who all found a refuge from the war in this Italian villa. Hana was so distraught from all of the death that surrounded her in the war that she ran with her idea of escape in this villa alone with the English Patient. Here, she was able to immerse herself in caring for this one patient and get away from her daily encounters with death. In the villa, the English Patient is taken out of the rush of the hospital and place in this serene escape. When Caravaggio had caught word of Hana’s refuge in the villa, he quickly went to join with the hopes of escaping the atrocities he encounters and the rage that filled his heart. While he still worked to disable bombs, Kip took himself out of the front line of the war and immersed himself in new relationships that distracted him from what was going on outside of the villa. He found instant comradery with the English Patient developed a romantic relationship with Hana. The Villa San Girolamo provided an escape for these characters from the ravages of war where they could step out of reality and into a world away free of death and tragedy.
5. Excellent Drawing by Nora Coyne
Ondaatje’s uses books throughout the novel as a symbol to establish connections between people and the past. Ondaatje’s including of Herodotus’s Histories was extremely important in developing the character of the English Patient. Throughout his journey, it was the only thing he kept with him. We gain entry into the EP’s past through this book In it, he pasted pictures and notes that help the reader learn more about his unknown past. I didn’t bother looking up The Histories while I was reading the novel, but know that I am writing this, I learned that Herodotus wrote this as he traveled through the ancient world around 400 B.C. Ondaatje chose this specific work of ancient literature to compare Herodotus to the English Patient, both adventurous explorers. This book contains significant meaning to the English Patient because it is the only thing that survived the fire with him. Another example is of Hana’s constant reading to the EP from the collection in the library of the villa. To get closer to the English Patient, Hana reads books to him from the library to establish a connection with her mysterious patient. Ondaatje uses this symbol to bring his characters closer and allow us to enter their insights and pasts.
2. Key Motifs: Morphine
An interesting motif for me in this novel was the reoccurring symbol of morphine. Because of their injuries they suffered during the war, both Caravaggio and the EP rely on the constant consumption of morphine to ease their pain. Not only do the two use it to numb their pain, they have become dependent on it to slip away from their pasts that haunt them. Caravaggio grew dependent on the drug after enemy interrogators cut off his thumbs. Caravaggio longs to avenge those who betrayed him and his country during the war. The horrors of the war disturb him continually and he finds his escape in morphine, which numbs his perception of reality. The EP relies on the drugs to ease the pain of the burns he acquired in the plane crash. He is haunted by the thought of his love, Katherine, who he deserted in the cave to die. The guilt of Katherine’s death reigns over all of his days but the EP finds temporary refuge in the morphine that eases his mental woes. Ondaatje uses morphine to expose how the atrocities of the war have left these men and women in a deep depression and their only escape is through their addiction.
3. Favorite Line:
“Can’t wait to have me dead? You bitch!” (page 83)
Yikes. This passage gives me the willies. Poor Hana is in a position where she experiences death every day. The thought of interrupting one of the most crucial moments in a person’s life, right before the die, is horrifying.. Hana had become so accustomed to death and tragedy that it was natural for her to close the man’s eyes. We know that Hana would never intentionally violate this man in this moment as he approaches death, but she mistakenly took this man for dead. Throughout the war, she was exposed to tragic deaths, horrific injuries, and many other atrocities. All of these soldiers believed they were fighting for a cause and most went to their death with the slight comfort that they had made a difference. This soldier, on the other hand, died with rage in his heart. The guilt Hana must have felt after upsetting this man before he died must have been unbearable. This traumatic experience goes along with many other happenings of war that Hana went through. This buildup of tragedy and suffering is what most likely caused her to seek refuge away from the war in the villa.
4. Escape in the Villa San Girolamo:
This novel is centered on these four main characters, Hana, the EP, Caravaggio, and Kip, who all found a refuge from the war in this Italian villa. Hana was so distraught from all of the death that surrounded her in the war that she ran with her idea of escape in this villa alone with the English Patient. Here, she was able to immerse herself in caring for this one patient and get away from her daily encounters with death. In the villa, the English Patient is taken out of the rush of the hospital and place in this serene escape. When Caravaggio had caught word of Hana’s refuge in the villa, he quickly went to join with the hopes of escaping the atrocities he encounters and the rage that filled his heart. While he still worked to disable bombs, Kip took himself out of the front line of the war and immersed himself in new relationships that distracted him from what was going on outside of the villa. He found instant comradery with the English Patient developed a romantic relationship with Hana. The Villa San Girolamo provided an escape for these characters from the ravages of war where they could step out of reality and into a world away free of death and tragedy.
5. Excellent Drawing by Nora Coyne
My Last Mini-Essay
Hungarian count Lazlo Almasy:
Lazlo Almasy had one brother named Janos. Of the two, Lazlo was the least charismatic but had the most diverse life experience. Lazlo started to become known when he caught attention of Egypt’s great desert explorer, Prince Hussein Kamal al-Din. Lazlo became an engineer with a former Austro-Hungarian auto firm, but this was not why he was famous. He is better known for being an explorer, geographer, and an adventurous pilot. He and his brother were quite the hunters, as they would hunt on their own property. Lazlo then organized African safaris, which were like hunting expeditions. Later, Lazlo worked for the British-run Egyptian Desert Survey Department. In his spare time he would guide a de Havilland Gypsy Moth over Egypt’s uncharted territories. People who knew both him and his father thought that Lazlo took after his father a great deal. While he explored the desert, Lazlo came across a large piece of granite, which was about the size of Switzerland. Within this discovery he also found a habitat of prehistoric humans which had lived there long before the African Sahara had dried up. Other discoveries by Lazlo were his findings on cave drawings. Lazlo’s life is written about in several books such as :The English Patient”, “The Key to Rebecca”, and others. Lazlo then joined the pro-German Hungarian air force when WWII broke out. After the war, Lazlo was indicted by a Hungarian court of law for having collaborated with Rommel and for purposely writing a German book on propaganda. These charges were dropped though, due to Gyula Germanus. Lazlo died on March 22, 1951 in Salzburg due to illness.
Lazlo Almasy had one brother named Janos. Of the two, Lazlo was the least charismatic but had the most diverse life experience. Lazlo started to become known when he caught attention of Egypt’s great desert explorer, Prince Hussein Kamal al-Din. Lazlo became an engineer with a former Austro-Hungarian auto firm, but this was not why he was famous. He is better known for being an explorer, geographer, and an adventurous pilot. He and his brother were quite the hunters, as they would hunt on their own property. Lazlo then organized African safaris, which were like hunting expeditions. Later, Lazlo worked for the British-run Egyptian Desert Survey Department. In his spare time he would guide a de Havilland Gypsy Moth over Egypt’s uncharted territories. People who knew both him and his father thought that Lazlo took after his father a great deal. While he explored the desert, Lazlo came across a large piece of granite, which was about the size of Switzerland. Within this discovery he also found a habitat of prehistoric humans which had lived there long before the African Sahara had dried up. Other discoveries by Lazlo were his findings on cave drawings. Lazlo’s life is written about in several books such as :The English Patient”, “The Key to Rebecca”, and others. Lazlo then joined the pro-German Hungarian air force when WWII broke out. After the war, Lazlo was indicted by a Hungarian court of law for having collaborated with Rommel and for purposely writing a German book on propaganda. These charges were dropped though, due to Gyula Germanus. Lazlo died on March 22, 1951 in Salzburg due to illness.
Eric Abarca's Mini Essays
Number 1
“The desert could not be claimed or owned - it was a piece of cloth carried by winds, never held down by stones, and given a hundred shifting names before Canterbury existed, long before battles and treaties quilted Europe and the East?. All of us, even those with European homes and children in the distance, wished to remove the clothing of our countries. It was a place of faith. We disappeared into landscape.”
The passage said by Almásy in Chapter IV is describing the way he feels about the desert and what he thinks the desert is. For Almásy the desert is not only a place that is dead and desolate, but it has characteristics and attributes of an entirely different entity. Through the desert Almásy feels connected to the people who had lived and been in the desert before him. Almásy knows that the feelings he has about “his” desert someone else in history felt the exact same feeling toward the desert he loves and adores. One of the attributes the desert has that make it fascinating is that it cannot be claimed or owned by anyone. Through the years people have claimed it as theirs, but Almásy sees that as an idiotic dream of rulers and kings because it is so vast and full of mystery that a person could never claim something like the desert.
Number 2
The symbol of the atomic bomb in The English Patient represents the real world of war the characters in the novel are living in. The people of the novel seem like they are “hiding” from war in the small Italian villa with the English patient, Almásy. The characters of the novel want to “get away” from the world they are living in currently by listening to the patient’s stories of the past and that enables them to leave the present situation they are in. Once the atomic bomb is reinstated in the minds of the characters they reawaken to the reality of what is happening around the Italian villa in the hills. The atomic bomb reminds the characters that are hiding in the small villa is an absurdity because the villa is in an open area that is able to be hit by any attacks. The atomic bomb serves as a symbol in the novel The English Patient because it represents something else in the novel and in the case of the characters hiding away in the small Italian villa the atomic bomb is the real world they are hiding away from because they do not want to be reminded of the horrors of war.
Number 3
The protagonist of the novel The English Patient is the patient, Almásy. Almásy is the protagonist of the novel because the drama of the novel is always surrounding him. Throughout the novel the English patient’s identity is revealed little by little, until Chapter IX when his name is revealed and his real background. On page 244 in the novel the patient says the name Almásy, but everyone does not know that the patient is the man named Almásy. Learning the english patient’s real name and his ethnicity is ironic because he is not English, but he is Hungarian and a “international bastard” who has been living in the desert for the majority of his adult life. The English patient serves to show the difference imagination and reality in the novel because he helps the other characters in the villa imagine things, so they can be able to escape the reality of war and the bad things happening to them. The English patient’s career was to search for ancient cities and mapping empty land, so he links the present to the past. Almásy's repeating connection between the past and present is what makes him “the English patient” in our minds. The English patient is undoubtedly always in our minds as we read the novel because he is always a part of the novel, which makes him the protagonist of the novel.
Number 4
One of the novel’s motifs is reading. Reading is a motif in The English Patient because it recurs throughout the novel. Hana reads to the English patient, Katherine reads all about Cairo and the desert, and Almásy reads The Histories by Herodotus. The characters seem to read for more knowledge and to be able to put themselves in another period of time in history or in another place. Reading in the novel is a metaphor for reaching beyond oneself to connect with others because each person that reads is trying to put themselves in another place that involves the person being read about. The way the characters in the novel interact with books create various interactions between persons and objects, like the way the people in the small Italian villa react about the atomic bomb.
“The desert could not be claimed or owned - it was a piece of cloth carried by winds, never held down by stones, and given a hundred shifting names before Canterbury existed, long before battles and treaties quilted Europe and the East?. All of us, even those with European homes and children in the distance, wished to remove the clothing of our countries. It was a place of faith. We disappeared into landscape.”
The passage said by Almásy in Chapter IV is describing the way he feels about the desert and what he thinks the desert is. For Almásy the desert is not only a place that is dead and desolate, but it has characteristics and attributes of an entirely different entity. Through the desert Almásy feels connected to the people who had lived and been in the desert before him. Almásy knows that the feelings he has about “his” desert someone else in history felt the exact same feeling toward the desert he loves and adores. One of the attributes the desert has that make it fascinating is that it cannot be claimed or owned by anyone. Through the years people have claimed it as theirs, but Almásy sees that as an idiotic dream of rulers and kings because it is so vast and full of mystery that a person could never claim something like the desert.
Number 2
The symbol of the atomic bomb in The English Patient represents the real world of war the characters in the novel are living in. The people of the novel seem like they are “hiding” from war in the small Italian villa with the English patient, Almásy. The characters of the novel want to “get away” from the world they are living in currently by listening to the patient’s stories of the past and that enables them to leave the present situation they are in. Once the atomic bomb is reinstated in the minds of the characters they reawaken to the reality of what is happening around the Italian villa in the hills. The atomic bomb reminds the characters that are hiding in the small villa is an absurdity because the villa is in an open area that is able to be hit by any attacks. The atomic bomb serves as a symbol in the novel The English Patient because it represents something else in the novel and in the case of the characters hiding away in the small Italian villa the atomic bomb is the real world they are hiding away from because they do not want to be reminded of the horrors of war.
Number 3
The protagonist of the novel The English Patient is the patient, Almásy. Almásy is the protagonist of the novel because the drama of the novel is always surrounding him. Throughout the novel the English patient’s identity is revealed little by little, until Chapter IX when his name is revealed and his real background. On page 244 in the novel the patient says the name Almásy, but everyone does not know that the patient is the man named Almásy. Learning the english patient’s real name and his ethnicity is ironic because he is not English, but he is Hungarian and a “international bastard” who has been living in the desert for the majority of his adult life. The English patient serves to show the difference imagination and reality in the novel because he helps the other characters in the villa imagine things, so they can be able to escape the reality of war and the bad things happening to them. The English patient’s career was to search for ancient cities and mapping empty land, so he links the present to the past. Almásy's repeating connection between the past and present is what makes him “the English patient” in our minds. The English patient is undoubtedly always in our minds as we read the novel because he is always a part of the novel, which makes him the protagonist of the novel.
Number 4
One of the novel’s motifs is reading. Reading is a motif in The English Patient because it recurs throughout the novel. Hana reads to the English patient, Katherine reads all about Cairo and the desert, and Almásy reads The Histories by Herodotus. The characters seem to read for more knowledge and to be able to put themselves in another period of time in history or in another place. Reading in the novel is a metaphor for reaching beyond oneself to connect with others because each person that reads is trying to put themselves in another place that involves the person being read about. The way the characters in the novel interact with books create various interactions between persons and objects, like the way the people in the small Italian villa react about the atomic bomb.
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