Illuminated Page:

Generation Z seems to be the recent wave of humans who rely most in the media and technology on their everyday life.  Basically, anyone that was born after 1995 is widely affected by the invention of the internet and mobile communication devices. This has come with a set of good and bad features. The good side of it is that technologically speaking, we are more advance. Tasks are done more efficiently and communication with anyone in this planet is more accessible. Medical, architectural, educational, and entertainment advances have been made with the new rise of technology. On the other hand however, this generation suffered greatly socially. After being raised during the time of terrorist attacks like 9/11 or wars in iraq, the youth have been known for being anti-social and fearing the outside world. A general preference became popular for hiding inside your own technological world through the internet for example. We also have become a pampered generation where things have been made a bit too easy for us, causing a population of useless narcissists. It is predicted that a vast majority of the humans of generation z will grow up to be obese, depressed adults that live in their parents house.

Look Out, The Saints Are Coming Through

Look Out, The Saints Are Coming Through

1. What is your reaction to the text you just read?

-My reaction to the text I just read was full of confusion. I was frustrated because the story was very long for what it was and I didn’t feel as if it was going anywhere. I didn’t see a purpose behind it for at least halfway in.

2. What connections did you make with the story?

Discuss the elements of the work with which you were able to connect.

-I connected with the idea of leaving passion for later in life and measuring time as if it where an object. I often try to organize my plans in life in a visual form in an attempt to simplify it to make it easy to comprehend. I know that things usually go a different route, but to me I feel like I have an inner peace in my mind when I convince myself that I have everything figured out.

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

-The first changes I would make to turn this into any other medium would be  to shorten it plenty. All the philosofical rants can be summarized and compressed into smaller portions to get the idea across better. Film as a medium would be the best medium to capture the dialogue between the characters and the exchange of their views.

CURATE YOURSELF: Joe's Garage

Disc 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRN_mULAjkI
Disc 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_tKKncKO9k

     Joe's Garage is by far my favorite concept album created by my favorite musician, Frank Zappa. Frank was a self taught man who was ahead of his time and even ours, his views on life were cynical yet genius at the same time. His career took place from the mid to late 1900's and his work consisted mostly of humorous satirical criticisms on society followed by some unique "psychedelic" music and lyrics. He's considered an advocate for freedom of speech, self education, political participation, and the abolition of censorship. In simpler words, he was a funny, intelligent asshole who didn't care for the dumb things in life. He just wanted to make music for fun and criticize the hell out this stupid world while he's at it and I think that's awesome.

The story of this album is told through a character named the "Central Scrutinizer" who narrates the story of Joe, an average adolescent male who forms a garage rock band, has unsatysfiying relationships with women, gives all of his money to a government assisted and insincere religion, explores sexual activities with robots, and is imprisoned. After being released from prison into a dystopian society where music itself has become illegal, he lapses into insanity. "Joe realizes at last that imaginary guitar notes and imaginary vocals exist only in the imagination of the imagener! And ultimately, who gives a fuck anyway. So he goes back to his ugly little room and quietly dreams his last imaginary guitar solo".

Every song of this album has a different style to it and a different message behind it while continuing the story of Joe, our protagonist. To many people these songs may sound strange and nonsensical, but pay attention closely and you'll lose yourself to this unique, vivid masterpiece. Like Zappa once said, "A mind is like a parachute, it doesn't work if it is not open".

     Although not one of my favorite games, "Night in The Woods" is the most recent game I've played that can very much be considered literature. This video game is known as an adventure-puzzle-platformer where you play as a anthropomorphic female cat known as "Mae". The game starts you off returning home after Mae dropped out of college and had her Grandfather dies. In this video game, you take control of the cat and are granted the freedom to explore her hometown as well as interact with every character you see while you write notes on your own little journal.

The game has plenty of decision making moments which lets the player choose his or her path that affects what happens in the story. This element is very common in video games that are considered visual novels. One could argue this game is a visual novel in disguise due to its minigames that the player stumbles upon once in a while. The main plot of this game has to do with Mae experiencing astral projection during her dreams that foreshadow the end of the world.

However, the story isn't entirely focused on the conflict of the game and more often than not we are exposed to a variety of real life themes. Such themes include: mourning over the death of a loved one, sexuality, education, socialism, economic issues, family issues, murder, cults, religion, teenage drama, relationships, and more. I personally consider the game to be a book you can play, nonetheless I do have a couple of opinionated criticisms towards it.

I did mention that the decisions you make in this game  affects what happens in your story and though that is true, your decisions don't make that much of a difference. There were times in the game where I find myself choosing dialogue options that vary between "woah" or "no way". It seems to me like the developers at times wanted to create the illusion that you were affecting the story of the game when in reality it was a minuscule change. Another criticism is that the character you played as was very opinionated  and at times discussed subjective matters. The option to say what the player wanted was not there and instead we had to choose what the author of the game wanted to say. This ruined the immersion for me at times and made it so I couldn't quite relate to the protagonist who I was suppose to empathize with. The game also became boring at times due to the lack of difficulty and/or gameplay. There are three endings to the game and they are all anti climatic. With all that said, the game still holds up as a beautiful, comfy game that you'll enjoy playing every night right before going to bed.

Asterios Polyp is a perfect example of an art form exploiting its medium. It's visual metaphors and clever framing brings the art of storytelling through illustrations to its maximum potential. The contrast between the geometric and organic shapes representing the two main character represents the difference in personalities and how they compliment eachother. The color scheme and abstract drawings symbolize feelings and behaviors of people. This trickery is best achieved through comic strips or visual novels rather than live action. The intricate representations in the drawings went hand in hand with the dialogue which transmitted its messages with much clarity and at the same time entertaining.

     Asterios Polyp is a perfect example of an art form exploiting its medium. It's visual metaphors and clever framing brings the art of storytelling through illustrations to its maximum potential. The contrast between the geometric and organic shapes representing the two main character represents the difference in personalities and how they compliment eachother. The color scheme and abstract drawings symbolize feelings and behaviors of people. This trickery is best achieved through comic strips or visual novels rather than live action. The intricate representations in the drawings went hand in hand with the dialogue which transmitted its messages with much clarity and at the same time entertaining.

Similarities between Jim Jarmusch's three films discussed in class

-Slow ongoing shots.

-Unique characters that aren't your typical hollywood heroes.

-Coincidences that take the characters in different situations/

-Reoccurring topics such as violence/guns, sex, death, drugs, and love.

-Sexist implications.

-References to musicians.

-Harsh reality of life.

-Settings are usually in cities and towns surrounded by society.

-We find ourselves rooting for the "bad" guys which in this case are the protagonists.

-Dark tones with small chances of hope.

-Point of views are similar when they cut between the main characters.

-Themes of regret, redemption, revenge, freedom.

-Justice has its way at the end.

  

GOOSE FATHER SHORT FILM­­

VISUAL CUES PRIORITIES

1.     Introduction to Gilho being lonely in his apartment

a.      Establishing shot of apartment

b.     Camera focuses on family photos

c.      Gilho going about his lonely life.

d.     Advertises his need of an assistant.

2.     Wuesong is introduced with the goose in front of Gilho’s apartment.

a.      Cut to Wuesong making breakfast for Gilho.

b.     Scene dedicated to conversation between the two men

c.      Reveal Wuesong’s past and the reason as to why he has a goose.

3.     Gilho and Wuesong go out on a Kareoke night

a.      Show friendship between the two men.

b.     They both get tipsy with the alcohol intake.

c.      Gilho and Wuesong almost kiss, but Gilho slaps him.

d.     Wuesong runs away crying.

4.     Gilho returns to his sad apartment and skips work because of sad events

a.      Parallel editing between Gilho and Wuesong

b.     Gilho stares at the sunset outside his balcony

c.      Wuesong walks around the city with his goose with no destination in mind

d.     They both miss each other.

5.     Gilho goes out with friends at a Korean bar

a.      Show Gilho  having fun with friends, but clearly still has wuesong in his thoughts.

b.     Gilho returns to the apartment with one drunk friend (Taeyeong)

6.     Gilho and taeyeong surprisingly finds Wuesong inside the apartment cooking a meal.

a.      Taeyeong screws with the goose until the goose bites him

b.     Wuesong panics and patches him up.

c.      They decide to go to sleep.

7.     Wuesong wakes up in the middle of Daeboreum (full moon night)

a.      He finds his mother on the balcony

b.     Intimate moment between boy and mother.

c.      Gilho wakes up as well and is surprised to see the goose was really his mother all along.

d.     Gilho and Wuesong decide to kiss in this magical moment and the screen fades to black.

   
     Hypothetically speaking, as a director of photography for the screenplay "sleep donation" I would try to visually transmit a neurotic feeling. When one goes a full day without sleep, you see the world through a different perspective. Everything is exactly the same, yet at the same time everything feels slightly off. It's as if you're living a different version of your life where you don't pay too much attention to details and everything feels a bit surreal because you don't have the brain power to register everything as you usually do. In order to translate this feeling visually, I would use a large variety of dutch angles and plenty of depth of field. With a tilted camera, everything can feel "off" similar to that neurotic state of mind. The excessive use of depth of field will get rid of the needless details and focus on only what's important. Dizzy and strange movements of the camera would be done to relate to the feeling of drowsiness.

     What I find brilliant in this novel is the manner in which it is narrated to us. It certainly isn't the only work of art that tells its story through a non linear path, but it is one of the successful ones. Similar to the movie "Pulp Fiction" it tells us a story through a variety of characters and locations, but sticks with one theme. The main subject of this book is Totalitarianism, also known as a form of government where power is very unbalanced and usually unfair regimes reinforced by leaders and their workers. In this case, the leaders are known as "The Duvaliers" and the workers are the dew breakers. They're known as torturers who break into their victim's houses early in the morning. The way it was written was surely the correct way of telling the story.

     Another ironic feminist literature piece where the wife finds peace when the husband is not there to control her life. However, there was no sexism involved in this short story. We have to take into consideration that when this was written, it was the norm that the husband would be telling his wife what to do all the time. Kate Chopin made a clever trick into sneaking feminism by showing us how limited women are without us even noticing. To the naked eye, the story reads as if the wife died of how happy she was to finally approach death, but if you dig a little deeper you'll realize that the joy she receives isn't from the sweet release of death. Instead, it's the sweet release from her husband. 

     Chopin sneaks this message through her story because she doesn't even make it so that the protagonist was happy for her husband's death.  She shows the woman mourning at the begging, it was not until halfway into the story where the woman realizes all the benefits she is granted by not having a husband. It was not that she did not care for her husband, it was that she desired the freedom to do whatever she wants as a human being more than her husband's life. It's almost a passive aggressive comment towards men's control over their lovers back in 1890's, but in short story form. At the end  of the story, the woman officially dies because she realized her husband wasn't actually dead, meaning that all the freedom she just fantasized about was all a lie as well. Having such a weak heart, she died from the shock of going back to the woman she was before the false news of her husband's death.

'The Secret History of Wonder Woman,’ by Jill Lepore

     The theme here has become ironic. With such a strong start in feminism through art that inspired many people during the 1900s, one would think that we would be socially advanced at this point in our lives relating to sexism. However, the opposite is true. We seem to be going in reverse when it comes to treating the two genders as equal despite the amount of effort that has been made by so many feminist groups and leaders. 

     William Marston believed that women should and will rule the world someday. Yet, when we were given the chance to have a female elected as president, we neglected the offer. Instead, we replaced her with a man who represents the symbol that William was so against. It's almost as if there's something that's not allowing women to take control. In times when it seems there's about to be a change in gender role, we retract and make another mistake.

     With all that said however, I still believe gender equality is on it's way. Slow, but steady. After reading what Marston attempted to do by inspiring women through his art, I realized that we are going through the exact same phase again, only this time many female artist are voicing their opinions. Although it will take time until we might reach pure equality, we certainly are setting a route for the next generation to come and make it right.

EDIT:
     - If I were to create a female super hero, I would give her any kind of entertaining features that all the other super heroes have. Whether they're shy or strong, it  doesn't have anything to do with the character's gender. I would first make an interesting character and then I'd assign his or her gender.

Prologue #2

I know we're not suppose to keep going with the whole introduction to ourselves assignment, but I feel like this could be a great opportunity to summarize EVERYTHING that has happened in my life up to now. I'm not doing it for extra credit or for someone's amusement, but for my own desire to organize my memories in chronological order, as if to have an autobiography that I can look back to and laugh at...

     My memory started to develop when I was placed in the education system. Lucky for me, my education career started in a preschool, an english speaking preschool to be exact. I only remembered it as "PPP" but after a bit of research I even found the exact website of the place I went to, right here!: http://www.parentparticipationpreschool.org/  It's suppose to be a kind of daycare place where babies interact with other babies and get better at doing things you're expected to do as a baby. Looking back at it now, my parents probably wanted to make sure I was functional after all those dilemmas I came with. Anyhow, it wasn't the kind of education you normally think of. From what I can remember, we would play with some rip-off lego brand in the morning, have a snack, color some books, take a nap, play hide and seek, eat lunch, and then play some board games while we wait for our parents to pick us up. I'm kinda impressed that I can recall that so vividly.

     There were a couple of friends I made there, some tagged along to elementary school while others disappeared. It was mostly a fun experience. With that said however, there's ONE single traumatic experience that lingers in the back of my head since one of those days. It was in the middle of a "class" period where we were handed printed blank copies of a cartoon hot air balloon.  The instructions were easy, the teacher told us just once: "Okay kids, grab your favorite color and fill in the balloon! Don't forget the basket!". Within 5 minutes everyone was done, they all handed their colored balloons in. To my surprise, when I gave the paper to the teacher, she looked back with a confused expression and said "Andres, you still didn't finish coloring it" while she handed the paper back. I sat at the table while the other kids progressed to the next activity. "I... I didn't finish yet?" Is what ran through my thoughts as I analyzed the drawing while staring hard at that cheap copy paper.

      Something clicked in my brain, I realized that there where little white spots between the crayon strokes in the drawing. Once I get every single inch in that balloon covered in red, I'll be able to have fun with everyone else! It took me a while, but I finally gave it back to the teacher proudly.
"Andres... this still isn't done" is all I got from her when I showed her the balloon for the second time. I was shocked. I ran out of ideas. I sat back in the table clueless as to what I should do now. I grabbed my crayon and kept coloring over the same area while I thought of what to do next. Nothing came. I watched my friends laughing and telling stories across the room while I was isolated trying to think of what I did wrong. Why were they able to color this with such ease? Why am I the only one who can't do it? Is there something wrong with me? I truly felt for the first time what it's like to be abandoned and helpless. Tear drops started to land on the drawing and it quickly became a watercolored piece.

      Next thing I knew, I was crying out loud and the teacher's assistant took me out of the classroom. She escorted me to the water fountain to get hydrated after that waterfall of tears that flowed out of my eye sockets. A month passed by after that horrible event and my parents were handed all the projects that I made while I was at preschool. One of those projects was the air balloon. When I looked at it again with fresh eyes I could see where I went wrong...

I forgot to color the basket.

Somehow I think that part of my childhood subconsciously lead me to becoming an artist or something.

   
     A genre is a category in an art form that is characterized by similarities in form, style, or subject matter. In this case our art form is literature, the novel "True Grit". This novel can certainly fall in the western genre. It has a revenge plot in which Mattie tracks down her father's killer, Chaney.  It also has showdowns between the good and the bad, just like the movies. I felt as if I was reading a spaghetti western, minus the cheapness of one. What I mean is that it had something more meaningful behind the basic story, a strong meaning instead of pure entertainment. It's almost as if it had a secondary hidden genre behind the western disguise it makes itself out to be. The hidden genre could be a "Coming of Age" story where the protagonist grows from childhood to adulthood. I don't mean literally when we fast-forward to the future of her life, but instead when she matures. At the climax of the novel, when the girl falls into the snake pit; Mattie faces a life or death situation. The problem becomes more of her struggling to survive rather than revenge. She loses two things after that incident: her arm and her innocence.

     After reading Pride and Prejudice, I can understand why they wrote a parody where the setting was replaced in a high school environment. The plot of this book revolves around the drama caused by the love interests between wealthy women and men during the late 1700s. I felt as if I were reading a very old diary of a teenage girl who felt the need to write down all the lovey-dovey gossip that happened to her friends. It's not that I did not find it entertaining, it's just that I didn't feel like I learned anything from it. Usually stories have a message or moral behind it, but this was a collection of love stories and how they worked out at the end after each person settles with what they got.

     With all that said however, I think the character who stood out the most was Elizabeth, she seemed to have been the only smart one in all this mess that they've created themselves. She had every right to think Darcy was a schmuck for not wanting to dance and hearing bad rumors about him. She was the one who cared about her sister's health while Jane's Mr. Bingley was elsewhere. Elizabeth didn't care what anyone had to say about her relationship business because it didn't involve amyone else besides her and Darcy. Once she understood that Darcy wasn't that much of am idiot, she decides to marry him. A smart and patient woman who has her priorities straight.

     Overall, this was an amusing tale that would keep the viewer hooked simply because it had to do with love, there's just something about love that keeps us interested in these characters' actions. I guess there just wasn't anything better to do back then than read books about other people's love lives!

Prologue

"Prologue"

Twenty years ago around 7:00 pm in Puerto Rico a mother gave birth to a baby boy named Andres Guerrero. She was suppose to have twins, but the "twin vanishing syndrome" phenomenon occurred, where one of the embryos died while developing in the womb. An hour after being born, Andres was diagnosed with "Tracheosophageal fistula". This meant that his breathing pipe was connected to his eating pipe. After a week or so of complicated operations, Andres was fixed up successfully. Off to a rough start, a month went by until the doctors found out that his spine was missing half of a bone, causing his hip to be permanently tilted. Trying to avoid a risky operation in the spine that could leave him paralyzed, his parents decided to use a safer method of coping with the problem by purchasing a shoe lift which he wears in the inside of his right shoe to cancel the tilt of his hip and correcting his posture a bit, thus curing back pains. Afterwards the boy would wake up in the middle of the night barely breathing and rushed to the hospital several times. It turned out that he was also allergic to any kind of lactose (milk and cheese products). It would cause his esophagus to close up, making breathing very difficult. Andres was a very lucky kid who probably wouldn't have survived if it wasn't for his parents both being doctors. The mother and father never lost faith and tried their best to keep their first child alive no matter what. After those unfortunate set of events, the child was analyzed from head to toe. Nothing else was wrong with him, he was finally ready to start growing like a normal human being.