Final Blog Post -#6

1. At a first glance it is difficult to pinpoint exactly what I learned in English class. I know that I have become a better writer. I like the finished product of my writing more than I used to. I think that I can write with more of a purpose now. I have learned how to communicate a point more effectively than I used to. I also know how to communicate that point without simply telling about it. I understand that telling something is much less engaging to a reader than description and imagery. I have noticed that throughout this semester I am better at incorporating emotion into my writing and making readers feel that emotion. I especially learned how to do this in my memoir. I read my memoir over and over again because I wanted to get it right. It was the first time I had ever shared that whole story with anyone and I felt responsible for communicating my emotions through my writing. I wanted the reader to truly understand how I dealt with the issue and my thoughts about it but at the same time not over-dramatize. In the memoir I learned how to better show instead of tell with my writing. I also learned to take different perspectives through my writing and see the story from different angles. I experimented with different openings and closings. I learned to use anecdotes and flashbacks to add character to my story. I learned that the intro can change the whole tone of the story. While writing and revising my memoir, I also realized that the conclusion changes the mood of the story a lot because it is the last impression that the reader is left with.
Through my ad analysis I learned to break down the entire ad to understand why it was designed that way. By breaking down and examining each piece I was able to see what the company was trying to communicate to the readers through the wording, colors, and layout of the ad. This type of analysis can transfer over into different types of learning as well. I think that I learned a valuable skill when interpreting different types of writing. I struggled a little bit with the movie review. I tend to think narrowly sometimes so I tried to use the skills I learned through the ad analysis to help me break down the movie so I could review it without bias.
I admit that I was nervous in the beginning of the year when Ms. Squillante stressed the importance of Arts in our class as well as English. I have never been someone that is drawn to art. However, after our trip to the museum I am comfortable saying that there are certain pieces and presentations of Art I can enjoy. I liked many of the paintings and sculptures in the museum. My favorite ones were the ones that made me think. I liked the paintings that made me ask myself, “How did they come up with this?” and “what were their inspirations?". I liked the abstract paintings the most because of the contrast of colors. I also just liked the unique designs and originality of each piece. I know I have progressed in my opinions towards Art. I am more open-minded towards it and have realized that I cannot group all Art together.
My favorite part of the class may have been when we listened to and discussed the NPR podcast about Penn State. The different perspectives they presented were very eye-opening. I also thought it was interesting listening to other student's opinions about what they may have left out in the hour long podcast even though overall, I thought the piece was well balanced. This helped me to learn that a reader/listener can develop an opinion about a piece very early on and when presenting to an audience very emotionally connected to the subject. it is important to come off as unbiased to earn their complete attention throughout the piece.


2. Blog Comments for Alexandra Schaefer (aschaefer)
http://ericafromamerica007.blogspot.com/2012/02/blog-journal-1.html#comment-form
http://saf5288.blogspot.com/2012/02/blog-journal-1-journey-of-blogging.html#comment-form
http://lightingtechie15.blogspot.com/2012/02/my-blog.html#comment-form


3. I completed my STREs!

Arts and Cultural Response - Post 2

First off, just to get this straight as a hobby he creates tiny little figurines and surgically implants them into Cadbury Crème eggs? That is an interesting hobby to find fun. I have been reading the small captions underneath the pictures and the story he has created that goes along with the pictures. First he shows a normal Cadbury Crème egg on a small podium. Then the egg is cut in half to reveal a crème-covered, not quite yet recognizable bird fetus figurine. Every once in a while, under a picture, he adds a caption to explain the process. He says that if the eggs are incubated correctly they develop into fetuses. This is a joke right? This page has me convinced that if I incubated these eggs little bird fetuses would appear in my Easter treat. I actually find it very interesting as to how this idea popped into the artist’s head. He doesn’t only use this as an opportunity to make art; he gives the entire piece a background. The captions briefly explain this (hopefully) made-up process behind incubating the eggs. He goes to say “Fertilized eggs were incubated very carefully. The process requires finesse: too cold, and the embryo doesn’t develop; too hot, and the chocolate melts.” I am gullible and m considering trying out this process. When I was first looking at the pictures I was intrigued and didn’t find them to be that creepy. I thought the little figurines were cool. It is the idea that he made an entire story around it that creeps me out a little bit just because I am tempted to try incubating these eggs myself to see if little birds pop up. I quite enjoy Cadbury Crème eggs but I don’t like blood and the only thing that grossed me out was when he said “there’s the occasional blood spot on the yolk,” so I may be holding out on these Cadbury eggs for a little while. I thought the detail on the tiny “fetuses” was really unique. I googled real bird fetuses and found that they looked very similar to the pink bird fetus that was put into the Cadbury egg. I wonder what the inspiration was behind this art process. If I had to guess I would say that the birds were carved from wood and obviously the eggs were straight from any corner or grocery store. After l scrolled through the Cadbury egg collection I went to the other link to see the artist’s pottery work. I also found this work though-provoking. I am not an artist so I often wonder where artists find the inspiration for their work. How do they come up with these out of the ordinary works of art? Some of the face pottery I actually found pretty scary -more disturbing to me than anything found in a Cadbury Crème egg. Is every artist that creates work like this slightly disturbed? Or are they geniuses to think so far outside the realm of what everyone else thinks. I am intrigued by art like this because I know that I would never be able to reach so far out of my imagination to create things that are like nothing I have seen before. I know that if I for some reason developed the urge to make pottery jugs, my first instinct would not be to put faces on them. However, I do not think I would go as far to purchase one of these jugs to display in my dorm room. They would haunt me. But, I do appreciate the thought and process that goes into these unique pieces.

Arts and Cultural Response - Post 1

Every once in a while during French Class our teacher passed around a flyer for a French movie that was showing in a lecture hall a night during the week. She explained that most French movies were usually depressing, heavy, and emotional but this one was not. It was a comedy. I chose to go watch the movie because I figured it could be interesting and I was curious to see the difference between French and American Movies. The only things I associate with French movies are silent films or movies dramatic with French language. I was hoping to change this stereotype. The Movie was called Heart Breaker. It was about a man, Alex Lippi who got paid to break up couples. He would be secretly hired by a friend or relative of the couple and paid some of the money upfront. He would seduce the woman in the relationship and convince them that they were too good for their boyfriends. Then if they broke up he would be paid the rest of what he as promised and never see any of them again. He did have some rules, however; he would only break up the couple if one or the other was unhappy, and he would never do anything more than kiss the girls. Before finding the women he did a lot of research on them so he would be sure to not fail. The main scenario in the movie was about one girl whose father had hired Alex Lippi because he believed that his daughter’s boyfriend was in a relationship with her because her family was rich. He also thought she had changed from her once care-free and happy self. Some of the cultural differences I noticed in the French movie compared to an American movie were the main characters in the movie. The main male and female characters in the movie were supposed to be attractive and I thought that if the movie was made in America the main characters would have looked different. I attribute that to how the different cultures in the two countries make it so French people and American people consider different types of people to be attractive. The scenery in the French movie was also very different from what the scenery would have been like in an American movie. The French cities had different architecture. They drove mopeds around the small alleys in the cities unlike most people in American cities. I noticed that the clothes worn in the French movie were similar to the clothes that would have been worn in an American movie. I was also surprised at the similarity of the jokes. Many of the jokes made in the French movie were similar to ones made in American comedies. Overall I enjoyed watching the movie and was slightly surprised to see how similar Heart Breaker was to modern American Movies despite the different language and culture. Maybe this goes to show that humor is universal.

StepBrothers- Movie analysis

Homemade Nachos- something every teenager has probably made at some point in their lives. Using the smell test to determine if that pair of underwear is still wearable- unfortunately and undeniably also something that most kids have probably done in their lives. But, peering through the glass of the microwave during the opening credits is not a teenager or even young adult, but rather a middle aged man. Why is this middle-aged man making Nachos in his pajamas and why is the other playing guitar hero in his dirty underwear? Because, these are not normal middle aged men. Brennan still lives with his mother because he recently got laid-off from his job at PetSmart and Dale lives with his father because he dropped-out of college years ago with the intention of "joining the family business", even though his father is a doctor. These two seemingly helpless adults meet each other when Brennan's widowed mother and Dale's divorced father meet and decide to get married. At first the new step-brother’s despise each other but as soon as they figure out that they have many of things in commons like a love of bunk-beds and vilosoraptors but a mutual hate for Brennan’s brother Derek, the family breaks apart and Brennan and Dale finally have to face adulthood separately.
Throughout the movie, viewers are peppered with quotable lines from Brennan played by Will Ferrell and Dale, John C. Reilly. It is impossible to catch all of the ridiculous one-liners after watching just once. I choose a new favorite scene after every time I watch the movie. As Dale and Brennan grow closer, Nancy and Robert’s marriage is strained. It’s amazing that they put up with the “boys” for so long before they have finally had enough. After wrecking Robert’s boat, Robert snaps, divorces Nancy soon after and tells Dale and Brennan they have one-month to find jobs. Before they are evicted from the family’s home they manage to bury each other alive, humiliate Derek and realize that they were never really brothers.
The movie is clever and original and should be appreciated from a surface level. I am a true fan of the movie because of its genuine humor that requires no analysis. As you watch, you must just appreciate the absurdity of two 40 year-old men’s endeavors as they awkwardly take-on adult roles in society.

NPR podcast response

I found the NPR podcast very interesting. I thought the presenters did a relatively good job at showing different sides of partying at the school without being too biased. However, like many of the surveys incoming freshman had to do online, the faculty tries to show us that some students don't drink at all. That point was not brought up in the podcast but since the point of the podcast was about the partying at Penn State, maybe leaving those students out was appropriate. I thought it was interesting how they emersed themselves in the school and found girls peeing on lawns and boys stealing stop signs. I still remember in the beginning of the piece was the one of the narrators said, "I remember being like that in college", when reffering to obnoxious drunk kids in the street, and the other agreed. Putting that in the beginning of the piece made me listen with a more open mindset rather than taking a defensive position.
I thought a very good point was raised about how after we were given the title of #1 party school it was almost like we felt it was our duty to protect it and meet everyones expectations. Being given that title is almost like a self-fufilling prophecy. I think they used pathos to prove their point most in the section about Joe Dado. It was obviously a very upsetting situation especially because of how it was an "average" night for a Penn State freshman. I thought that Penn Stae's approach to address that situation seemed effective. Instead of preaching to the students not to drink, they realized that this was just unrealistic and they enocouraged students to be safer and look out for their friends instead. They podcast also appealled to emotions when driving around with the Canyon delivery boy who told the reported that someone broke his jaw a few weeks earlier. They used ethos in the section with the police officer. The officer cited two boys relatively close in time to eachother but was lenient in his write-ups. Logos was used when they talked about partying and drinking statistics at Penn State. They said around 65% of students went out and drank on friday and saturday and about 50% of students regularly "binge drink".
Personally, I enjoy the partying atmostphere at Penn State. I think it is part of the reason Penn State is such a close community and part of the reason alumnis keep coming back. It makes for a much more enjoyable college experience. I also think that it is a very hard thing to change. I have a difficult time feeling bad for the residents of State College because they have the choice to live here. I also think that when moving to a college town you would have some idea of what you were getting yourself into. At this point strict changes like the ones in Lincoln Nebraska would create a huge backlash among students and alumni. I do think that some people take advantage of the partying atmosphere when damaging property or harming others but they are not a representation of the entire population. When 40,000 18-22 year-olds are brought together in one town, there is going to be partying and sometimes there will be unfortunate consequences. It would be almost impossible to think that among 40,000+ students some wouldn't be wreckless. Among any group of 40,000 people, there will be some that make mistakes or take things too far. Penn State is still #1 among recruiters and as long as statistics like that remain constant, party on Penn State.

What is Art?

Art is an interpretation of reality. Art is any creation that challenges what is real and changes or recreates it. Movies, paintings, dance, sculptures, writing and performances can all be considered Art. I used to think that Art was paintings and drawings. But now i have heard things described as Art that I wold have not expected. It is difficult to draw a line as to what is considered Art because the definition is different among people. However, I think that I have come up with a general enough definition to cover what anyone may consider Art without it including something that is clearly not Art.
For me, other than going along with the definition above, Art is something that makes me scowl. Not in a mad way but in the way where you pinch together your eyebrows in thought. I have always thought the work of the man who calls himself "Banksy" is very intriguing and challenges the thoughts of society. Below is a website with some examples of the Art that he creates anonymously anywhere.
http://www.banksy.co.uk/index.html

Palmer Art Museum

When I first wandered around the museum I was immediately drawn to the pottery. I was intrigued by the preciseness and perfection of each of the pieces. I walked around a corner and was captured by a smaller piece. It had an effect on me because of its imperfection. At first it looks like the bowl is just lopsided but that's what makes the piece interesting. I realized that another reason I found the piece interesting because it was not something that I would usually find visually appealing. I tend to like simple and clean cut pieces of art but this was not like that.

The bowl was made in 1979 by Dutch sculptor Johan Van Loon. In the United State during this time period the Hippie era was coming to an end and women were gaining rights the environmentalist movement was beginning to grow. The Netherlands had similar social movements where they grew away from old traditions. The nontraditional design of the bowl reflects the changing time period.

The piece intrigued me because I know I could never have thought of constructing a piece like it myself. It contrasted with my usual views of what is visually attractive. Johan was considered one of the most influential Dutch sculptures of his time period. There was another piece of his right next to the bowl and some of the aspects of the piece reflected off of each other. Throughout the years his pieces changed and grew. He still continues to work with porcelain and glaze. I believe that the piece's claim is that there is beauty behind realness and imperfections. The unique shape and color design is almost contradicted by the perfect shining glaze covering each of the pieces. The message of the piece is communicated to the observer.

This was my first time at the museum because I am not someone who usually enjoys or seeks out art museums, maybe because of my stereotypical view of them. I actually really enjoyed the Palmer Museum. It wasn't overwhelming but at the same time had a good balance of modern pieces, sculptures, and more classic paintings. I did tend to move through the paintings of people set in an older time period more quickly but I found the sculptures and modern art pieces engaging. I usually don't like looking at art that I think I could create but I really enjoyed the modern art in the museum especially in the upstairs. I found the whole experience refreshing and relaxing. I would consider going back to the museum when I'm looking for something to do or in need of a mental break. I would also love to show the museum to visitors like my parents.