California Dreamin'

My paternal grandfather immigrated from Mexico to California and met my grandmother who was already in the states, had my father and raised him here. My mother, born and raised in Mexico met my father while he visited Mexico and they both came to live in San Jose. There's a discernible amount of dichotomy between the Trasks and Hamiltons, the Trasks (Adam, Charles, Cal, Aron) seem to have grown up in a rougher environment and seem more estranged from each other, as opposed to the Hamiltons who to me seem to exemplify the typical knit together family that overcome hardship together. Those who come to California seek opportunity and an environment of diversity with little to no discriminatory worry.

Gangster Genre

Throughout cinematic history, the Gangster film has always been characterized by having crime, violence and a character with a certain dilemma and develops throughout the course of the film dynamically, like Scarface and GoodFellas. The way it's changed is that in the early days, the filming of gangster life seemed more held back and less violence and grittiness, whereas today's gangster films display this violence and grit since the Hayes' Code is now defunct.

Angels With Dirty Faces

Given the principles of the Hayes Code, the film breaks it by having the criminals prevail in their actions without getting caught and by showing the police in a way that's not in full respect of them.

MLA

1) Facts that one is knowledgeable of before reading an outside source. EX: The DOI was signed in 1776.

2) The title and page number(s) are cited.

3) The page number is not cited, but the title of the source is.

Gangster Movies

They usually involve a central character who comes up in the underground world of crime, or go around extracting info from people in order to meet their ends. These films also usually have a discernible amount of violence, cursing and depictions of crime.

American Exceptionalism

I think Americans are unique, in sense of our culture that has inspired many other country to adopt a lot of our customs and ways of living. If I lined people up, I'm not sure I could pick out an American based on how a person looks ethnically, since the U.S. has many different ethnicities and American itself is only a nationality. The only way I could distinguish would be the way a person was dressed or how they spoke. I think that 'East of Eden' tells us that the American experience is one filled with hardships and successes, achieving what you've wanted and having lived a life that you are content with.

John Steinbeck

1. His hometown of Salinas was his inspiration and the foundation of his writings, enjoying the place where he spent his childhood.

2. He spoke his mind on taboo subjects like religion by having readers have new perspectives on how to view those things, which in his time was something not many would do. He was also accused of being a communist due to the anti-consumerist views in Grapes of Wrath.

3. It was very much like Thoreau's Walden, spending two years in Tahoe where he was with nature and drew much inspiration from here and developed more of his love for nature.

4. He wrote about the lower classes, the people from his hometown, the people involved in the realities of the underworld of his city (crime, prostitution, etc.)

5. They became foundations around which he'd write his stories, such as the Depression in "Of Mice and Men" and the Dust Bowl in "East of Eden".

Singin' In the Rain Questions

1. The out of sync scenes are when Kathy records the song for Lina, and when Lina mouths the words on camera. This is ironic because Lina's the star but has a bad voice and
Kathy isn't as famous but doe Lina's work for her. It's basic comedy since the one with less notoriety is the one with more talent.
2. Film history is shown in the film with the epochal transition from silents to talkies. Attitudes shown are those who don't want to make the change and upset silent actors who couldn't continue into talkies due to their unfit voices.
3. They're laughing at the mediocrity showcased in the film Lina was in, due to the over-the-top acting and failing sound in the picture. It's a kind of parody because the movie was intended tobe serious, but became comedic due to difficulties on set.
4. The story and music fit well together, they mesh perfectly as the music numbers help advance the plot, and the plot in a way helps to lead up the the songs sung.
5. Don and Kathy's romance is developed with the songs "Singin' In the Rain" and "Good Morning", while a dramatic scene adding to this is when Lina catches Don and Kathy kissing. They fit by helping to advance the plot and character development.
6. I would agree to an extent, not completely because true, musicals aren't as big now as they were then, but some popular musicals have been released following the musical genre's peak of popularity, such as Rent and Hairspray released in the 2000's.

Timshel

It talks about the sixteen verses of the fourth chapter of Genesis regarding the ruling of sin, which Lee notices has different wordings in different Bible versions. One orders the ruling over of sin, one says 'thou shalt' rule over sin, but the main one Lee speaks on is 'thou mayest', which he says gives men the choice to rule over sin or not if they choose; to sin or not to sin. It connects to Cain and Abel because in their story, Cain commits the sin of murder when he kills Abel, an example of choosing sin over non-sin, exercising the choice rather than following the mandate of not sinning. This "Thou Mayest" principle affects Adam by making him think about what the importance of the phrase really holds, which Lee explains to him and Adam sees.

Singin' In the Rain

I thought it was a really good movie, the story, music numbers, characters and dialogue were all enjoyable and funny. All the actors did a great job, the aspects of Hawks-like dialogue made me like it even more since screwball dialogue is humorous to me. Another stand out aspect of the film was the excellent choreography, the way some of those guys moved, especially Don and the "Make 'Em Laugh" guy blew me away.What made this movie most enjoyable for me was the dancing, the singing and the rain.

Musical

What I've noticed that musicals have in common are dances to jaunty tunes, interesting stories and characters, and feature famous actors.

Freedom of Thought

Going with Inherit the Wind's free thought aspect, other books we've read this year that deal with thinking freely are The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail, The Crucible and Huck Finn. The three books share characters that all believe in the utilization of free though, aside from the actual free thought motif in each respective book, such as Thoreau refusing to give up what he believed in and went to jail as a show that his mind wouldn't be changed, John Proctor seeing what Abigail was doing the whole time was a sham even though everyone else thought she was innocent, and Huck, contrary to popular belief in the South, thinking that slavery wasn't good. However, the differences among these similarities was the cause that each character had free-thinking beliefs about, considering there are discernible discrepancies in slavery, witchcraft and Evolution/Creation.

Hawks' Female Characters

-Seductive

-Play hard to get

-The men they're involved with fall for them

-They get romantic with these men (kiss, hug)

-Way with words

Stagecoach

It follows Western themes by taking place in a small town, having a heroic character with a mission to save people, cowboys, trains, characters had accents and in the end, the hero won.

Westerns

I haven't seen any Western films or t.v. series, but I've heard of a lot like The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, 3:10 to Yuma and Walker, Texas Ranger. Western characteristics are the Western U.S., cowboys, Native Americans, Mexicans, gunfights, standoffs and a hero that comes to town and saves the day.

Envelope Reflection

The prediction I made when we turned the envelopes in was correct, the narrator did change as a result of Tyler and Marla. Surprises the book had for me is probably just how the events the narrator and Tyler experienced unfolded, we're not done so we won't know the climax of what's happening until then.

Teaching Reflection

From the project, I learned that teaching a class can sometimes be not the easiest thing to do, it can be a little intimidating, but it was good for the most part. A lot of students in class were attentive and showed enthusiasm (partly brought out due to the distribution of candy) in learning poetry and participating in the activities presented by the groups. I think the way everyone presented went really well, I didn't see any problems with the presentations. For improvement, I think next time I could work on maybe adding another segment to our presentation or maybe practice what I will be saying.

Hong Kong Action Cinema

1. In recent memory, Hong Kong films have had the most influence on Hollywood films.

2. Even in the silent era, Hong Kong films displayed kung-fu.

3. The person that sparked Western interest in Honk Kong cinema was Bruce Lee, known for his expertise in kung-fu and cha-cha dancing.

4. The Shaw Brothers basically wrote the manual for the plots typically used in martial arts films.

5. Once there was a rise on fan base for martial arts cinema, many independent exploitation films came out to capitalize on the popularity kung-fu movies had in America.

Citizen Kane & Rashamon

Both films used multiple perspectives very well, all toward revealing something that serves the plot, though each used this technique differently. Citizen Kane has different people telling different accounts of Charles' life, all leading toward the revealing of the Rosebud plot device, while Rashamon has four accounts on one event, the murder of a samurai, but not aiming to reveal a profound truth, rather not being restrained by one truth, but trying to show that there are different, not necessarily correct truths.

Hollywood & World Cinema

Hollywood cinema and foreign cinema have given each other mutual inspirations for film genres, themes, and devices, such as American editing techniques and plot lines, and foreign film genres such as Expressionism that influenced noir and devices like the Rashamon effect used in Hollywood films after its debut.

The Rashoman Effect

Vantage Point, Run Lola Run and Funny Games both contain the Effect, but the first has more of the multiple perspective aspect while the latter two have the playing with time aspect.

Literary Circle

In today's meeting, we discussed questions for the book and the responses, as well as watching the Fight Club film for finding key passages and quotes due to us not having the novel today.

Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain

The movie was very interesting, it had me intrigued throughout the entire film, the story and characters were great, especially the titular character of Amelie. I think she made the film that much better with her antics, overexcited imagination and means of trying to get to know the guy in the café where she works. The film did have its confusing parts where I got lost and wondered what was going on, but I could overall understand what was happening, but it could have been the depictions of Amelie's imagination or the camera shots that threw me off. With that, the film techniques were really well done, especially during the scene when on of the guys was walking and the camera closed in on his feet and added a slow-mo effect.

Film Festival

Shorts:
1 The Cow Who Wanted to Be a Hamburger
2 Daisy Cutter
3 Tapeworm
4 A Family Portrait
5 The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore

Features:
1 America
2 Bad Behaviour
3 The Dead
4 Falling Overnight
5 The Hair of the Beast

Favorite Directors

David Fincher and Guillermo del Toro do have a unique style, Fincher utilizing gritty and dramatic cinema, while del Toro uses fantasy, darkness and drama in his films. They're personal styles and means of film make them unique. Examples of each are "Fight Club" (Fincher) and "El Laberinto del Fauno" (del Toro). Like most directors of today, they probably do draw inspiration from past directors and ones that we've familiarized ourselves with in class.

Film Magazine

The review I looked at was for this year's " The Green Hornet". It started off talking about the series' from both the 30's and 60's, giving some background as to how it was filmed and how actors portrayed their roles. This interluded into talking about the recent film starring Seth Rogen as the eponymous character. It gave insight of the actors, how the mobile was filmed, notable aspects and a comparison to the old shows. This review was different because of how they did the aforementioned things and especially the comparison to the series', which I found really intriguing. All these things truly made me like the article, especially because of the original way of reviewing, which wasn't just a plain discussion of the film.

Letter to Roger Ebert

Mr. Ebert,

I recently read your article expressing your opinions on the 1963 Italian film "8 1/2" directed by Mr. Federico Fellini. I enjoyed reading your analysis of the film, how your opinion started off by saying as a film, it was less than great, but as a film about film-making, the best ever, a perspective I found interesting. One gripe I have with your review was your less than subtle criticisms of his other films which I felt to be unnecessary. As a whole, I liked your review, I thought it was okay, outstanding was your analysis of the film, which made me realize things that I hadn't realized about it.

Levi Bell

-He is a lawyer
-Did not buy that the Duke and King were who they said they were (The Wilks')
-Wants to find the rightful Wilks fortune heirs

Cinema in Countries Keynotes

Australia

- Known for its wide variety of animals. (Koalas, Kangaroos, Wallabies, Dingos, etc.)

- Peter Jackson is from here.

- Native peoples of the continent were the Aborigines.

Japan

- Samurais were around in Japan around 12th Century.

- Akira Kurosawa is a famous film director in the country.

- Had film era in 1960's called Pink Film Era.

China

- Films made in Mandarin, Cantonese in Hong Kong.

- First famous Cantonese language film was Song of the Fisherman.

- Crows & Sparrows was the last Chinese communist film.

Italy

- Much Italian creativity came from the Renaissance.

- Mussolini commissioned the making of propaganda films during WWII.

- Italian Neo-Realism became famous after the end of the war.

Spain

- Cinema known for creativity.

- Represents culture, history, society.

- Pedro Almodóvar is a famous Spanish director.

Brasil

- Films represent culture, have violence.

- Antônio Leal is a famous Brazilian director.

- The country had a film movement called the Novo Movement

France

- Birthplace of cinema.

- There were other places where actors performed in plays before movies.

- The country's cinema was more tolerant to weaponry on-screen.

Czechoslovakia

- A famous director was Vera Chytilova.

- Borrandum Studios opened here in 1933.

- A famous movie was Erotkin.

United States of America

- A lot of cinema revolved around the cinema hub of Hollywood.

- A famous director was D.W. Griffith

- A famous movie studio is Warner Brothers.

Mexico

- First Mexican animated film wasDon Juan Torino.

- Early 1900's films were political and propagandist by today's terms.

- Cinema experienced a lot censorship at one point.

Huck & Jim's Relationship

-When Huck and Jim have an argument and Jim calls Huck "trash".
-When Huck and Jim are on the raft on the Ohio River and they get into an accident.
-When Huck stays with the Grangerfords and Jim hides in the woods.
-When Jim fixes the raft and he and Huck continue their journey, only to meet the Duke & King.

Their relationship starts off as just two friends going on an adventure to escape from their town, but after moments throughout the story of getting along and getting in altercations, their friendship prevails and ends up turning into a kind of father/son relationship; Huck and Jim show strong mutual affection for one another and genuine concern.

Ch. 24-29 Plot Sequencing

1) 1
2) 8
3) 14
4) 2
5) 10
6) 17
7) 13
8) 11
9) 3
10) 19
11) 15
12) 4
13) 3
14) 5
15) 18
16) 21
17) 6
18) 22
19) 16
20) 7
21) 9
22) 12

Iran

1. A lot of women in Iran undergo plastic surgery.

2. Because of their Islamic faith, Iranians don't consume alcohol.

3. There are deposits in public places that you insert money into, which is used for giving to impoverished individuals.

The Lowest Animal

Human nature is very interesting, over the years, humans have advanced mentally and in temperament, but also some have fallen short of improvement and reverted to a nature that is that of an animal. One thing about human nature that I'd like changed is the inability to get along. I know that prejudice is a staple of humankind and unmitigated peace among people in the world is a seemingly unattainable concept, I still think it would be ideal if people were to avert from hostility.

Next Step on Year Long Project

Since my group's topic is addiction, we came up with the idea of having someone that currently or has previously attended AA or NA meetings to be our speaker, either in person or by some other means. As for a field trip, we're not definite on an idea as of yet, considering our topic limits our possibilities and will only allow us to be able to go on certain trips.

Italian Neorealism

Italian Neorealism is the film style focusing on the lifestyles of the impoverished class in post-WWII Italy, filming on location and using nonprofessional actors. One movie that we've seen that demonstrates these aspects is The Bicycle Thieves, which had actors with no prior experience, had a story focused on the poor class and was shot on location.

Amended Huck Finn

I agree with the article, since the updated censored version takes away from the validity a bit, but mainly the ingenuity of Mark Twain's original opus in an attempt at political correctness, though failing to realize why the inclusion of the N-Word was present in the first place.

"Born to Trouble" influenced me to take into account the perspectives of both sides regarding a topic, such as the one regarding the gratuitous N-Word use in Huck Finn.

Student Writing

I think that good organization, writing mechanisms, vocabulary, characters and premises are all key components that contribute to skillful writing.

During the semester, some writing assignments we had were of course the summer assignment, writing a story in class, write story entries based on one focused sense (see, hear, taste, etc.), a poem based on The Crucible and others that I don't presently recall. My favorite was probably the time travel story we recently did, it's the longest story I've ever written and probably one of my better opuses. Considering all the writing assignments I've done in class and in others, I do believe my writing is improving. I think to improve even further, I should remain faithful to my current writing mechanisms and refrain from making trivial mistakes or additions into my writing.