Messages in Movies

Here's another 1000 + word essay I wrote for no particular reason... 

Do you enjoy the thrill of going to the movie theatre? Do you like the anything is possible atmosphere, the multicolored carpeting donning the movie reels of the past, the scent of high calorie imitation butter and popcorn, the potentially bed bug laden seats?  If you’re like me, you love going to the movies. I like the adventure of going to the movies. That’s what film is all about isn’t it – taking the audience somewhere new, like Hogwarts in the Harry Potter series or Middle Earth in The Lord of The Rings Trilogy. But movies aren’t just made to purely entertain an audience. Recently, it seems that more and more Hollywood celebrities are becoming the faces of causes and issues. Remember when Will Ferrell created that ludicrous, yet comical, YouTube video of himself in a robe, sitting in front of that fireplace, begging for us eighteen or older to vote to re-elect Obama, and even jokingly offering to buy Obama voters pizza? Wherever I look, I seem to find a celebrity endorsing a product, a person or a cause. Take a look at all the weight loss commercials for Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, Nutrisystem – all of them are using celebrity endorsements.

We know what these political puppets are doing. They are trying to entice the viewer to partake in whatever they are selling. You may recall a negative campaign video (negative campaign videos are in fact more effective than positive campaign videos, both parties just don’t want to admit to it) that President George W. Bush used against Al Gore during the election. A screen shot of the word “rats” was inserted into the sequence of images the audience viewed. This is what you might call subliminal imagery. Subliminal imagery leaves a lasting impression with viewers, without them knowing it, hence subliminal, and it’s completely legal. In fact, when you are sitting in the movie theatre watching the trailers of upcoming films, an image so quick that we don’t really see it, say an image of a large soda, may flash on the screen for mere fractions of a second, and in turn, causes you to experience thirst. And inevitably you’ll end up running to the concession stand for a twenty-dollar soda (price gouging at the theatre is another story and I won’t go off on that tangent now) before the film begins.

This ‘brain washing’ technique got me thinking just a tad bit more than I usually do about film. A new film, Promised Land, is out. Promised Land stars Matt Damon, Francis McDormand and John Krasinski. The film is about a salesman working for a natural gas company. Apparently, the company Damon’s character works for wants to frack for natural gas and there ends up being a bunch of hoopla about it. According to IMDB, Matt Damon, as Steve Butler, “experiences life-changing events”. First of all, lets analyze this - take Damon’s character name. Steve Butler. It’s a nice, simple, average-joe kind of name. But, let’s look at his last name. Butler. That’s right - it’s a not-so-secret secret message. I guess the character is like a butler, a man that is about to do some sort of dirty work for another person, and this person just happens to be a corporation (and remember a corporation is a symbol for capitalism, the free market, an entity which some people despise). Take a look at the title of the film. Promised Land. If you don’t see the overt covert message in that, well then, I don’t know what to tell you.

So you thought you were just going to see a movie for entertainment, for enjoyment, from a break from reality, right? Wrong. Like anything, those commercials about losing twenty pounds for twenty dollars, Damon and his crew are trying to sell you something. This film is political statement. And the message that they want to instill is that fracking is bad and so is capitalism. Fracking is a method for extracting natural gas and oil. Fracking is something that we could do, on American soil, to produce useable energy. Fracking, along with wind, solar and nuclear power, would help us become energy independent, meaning we wouldn’t have to purchase oil from people who completely loathe and despise us and what we stand for. Energy independence is a good thing, but some politicians, what Bill O’Reilly calls leftist loonies, and oddly enough, actors, who know next to nothing about producing energy, engineering energy, or really politics, don’t like fracking. So the people that fight for energy independence really don’t want energy independence. 

Think of all the films you can, and analyze them for yourself. For laughs, take a look at An Inconvenient Truth, which is a complete and utter fantastical lie. The center of Earth is most certainly not millions of degrees hot. And that graphical representation that Gore needs a ladder for (who made that for him in the first place??), is also a complete farce. Talk about a political puppet, it’s no wonder why his wife left him.

Another recent, yet well-crafted piece of cinematic art is the film Lincoln, with Daniel Day-Lewis, directed by Steven Spielberg. It is a prodigious film, I must admit, and it is a wonderful representation of politics at it’s worst, or best, depending on how you look at how the practice of politics interferes with policymaking. Truthfully, it looks to me like nothing in Washington D.C. has really changed in the last hundred and forty plus years. Today we still have policies being pushed through, to which “we have to pass the bill so you can find out what is in it” as Nancy Pelosi says regarding the then 2010 bill deemed Obamacare, votes being bought and politicians flip-flopping from one side to the other.

Would you define yourself as a critical thinker? Do you see yourself as an independent thinker? Are you aware of the messages sent from Capital Hill, from celebrities, from television, publications and other sources of entertainment and media? Have you even thought about this very subject? What do you think about what I have presented here before you?

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Brilliance Seeping Out

I think I wrote a brilliant piece today. So that makes two works of complete genius in 48-ish hours. Unfortunately, you'll have to wait to read them on arguethat.com where I am going to be a featured writer!!! Go me.

How much is my education worth?

The new semester and recent articles in newspaper publications have me thinking about the cost of a four year college education and the true value of it. Some people would say that I am lucky to receive the HOPE scholarship – a scholarship based on merit, not financial need. But I worked for the scholarship. I was an A/B student, mostly A’s, in high school, and I maintained my high performance in college from the beginning. I have a 3.80 GPA and “am lucky enough” to have 100% of Georgia Tech tuition paid for. In-state tuition, the amount HOPE pays for, is under five thousand dollars a semester.

A roommate from last semester is an out-of-state student. Her parents, as she said it, shell out forty grand a year for her to attend Georgia Tech. I knew the tuition for out-of-state students was high, but I hadn’t thought of myself, or my parents, paying that much for my education, especially for an undergraduate degree. I was wondering if my roommate thought that she was receiving forty thousand dollars worth of education. But then again, how can you measure the worth of an education. It can’t be based on where undergrads go to graduate school or how much money they make at their first job because these are not guarantees. Georgia Tech cannot guarantee me admittance to Columbia or NYU, nor a job.

It really infuriates me that ‘the rising cost of tuition’ can be attributed, partly, to colleges and universities ‘hiring more administrative staff’. First of all, some of the administrative staff is useless; fewer employees are needed to actually to get the job done. Secondly, if I have a question, I receive an automated response or a response by a student employee. 

I honestly cannot say whether I have or currently am receiving a forty thousand dollar a year education. I find it difficult to give my education a price tag. I don’t know what the true monetary value of the quality of my, or for anyone else’s for that matter, education is. Realtors ask, “How much is this property worth?” Well, the answer is “what someone is willing to pay for it.” If colleges had open seats, and had a pool of applicants that were ‘pre-approved’ and then would be allowed to bid on how much they would pay for that spot, then, and only then would we know how much an education would be worth.

I am in my junior year of college and so, naturally, I am preparing for the future. This means deciding on what to do for graduate school, because let’s be honest, you can’t afford to not make money and I don't want to struggle to live how I want. I’ve come to the decision that law school is what is at the top of my short, short list – that is if I can get into one of the top ten law schools in the US (and I greatly prefer Columbia University or NYU and I do not want to go to a school in California so Stanford is out of the running). If I can’t get into one of the best, I am not sure it would be in my best interest, or in the interest of my parent’s bank account, to go to a lesser school for a J.D. It’s too bad that apprenticeships in the field of law just don’t happen too much anymore (will firms want you if you do an apprenticeship?) because we all hear that it’s experience that facilitates learning. I like the idea that I would take the LSAT’s, apply to law school and then, I would go shopping around for a sponsor, a law firm, that would pay a percentage of my law school tuition (some or all of it) guaranteed if I commit to working for them when I graduate for a period of time. This way I would be guaranteed the funds to make it through law school with little to no debt, and a job (that's unheard of...just kidding)! Anyone out there want to be my sponsor? Yes? 

The Cost of Freedom...It's Sarcasm People

Government bans light bulbs and government bans plasticwater bottles in Concord, Massachusetts. Government bans extra large sodas,unpasteurized milk and foie gras. People ban books and limit the number of catsyou can have in Wellington, Kansas. We might as well ban all sugary drinksincluding, but not limited to: fruit juices, regular sodas of all flavors,coffee creamers, milks, and teas. Fast food should be eliminated because it’sfull of fat, sugar and salt and makes us fat. Chocolate is evil because it’sfull of sugar. Cheese shouldn’t be produced because it makes people obese. Infact, depending on what kinds of medication one is on, one should not beallowed to eat foods that correspond to contributing to the health issues, i.e.if you are on high blood pressure medications, you shouldn’t be allowed to eat anythingwith salt.  All processed foods should beeliminated from the diet because it causes obesity.

Just as most types of food aren’t healthy, other behaviorsaren’t healthy. Condoms and birth control should be banned because it promotespre-marital sex and when the technology doesn’t work, it causes abortion.Abortion should be banned because it’s murder and it was sinful to do you knowwhat when it should only be legal to do it for reproductive purposes. Alcoholshould be banned because it makes people stupid and it’s poison. Cows andchickens and fish shouldn’t be farmed as food, they’re friends. Cell phones andcomputers should be banned because they keep us sedentary and make us fat.

Plastic surgery should be banned if it’s being used forreasons other than reconstruction. Breast augmentations, rhinoplasties,face-lifts and botox injections are dangerous and unnecessary. Cosmetics shouldbe totally eliminated because they are made of chemicals. Leather clothing,accessories and furniture should stop being produced because that’s animalcruelty. Cars should be outlawed because they are weapons of mass destructionand cause pollution. Hand dryers in restrooms should be banned because theyactually blow the bacteria onto your hands and can cause illness. The using ofhand sanitizers should be made illegal because it’s really unhygienic andpromote resistant bacteria. The hem of women’s and men’s shorts should be noshorter than three inches away from the top of the knee cap to eliminate anindividuals bodily fluids from escaping their body and contaminating chairs,exercise equipment, benches, seats on buses, planes and trains.

Old people smell and it’s unhealthy and distressing foryounger people to see older people become decrepit; therefore the elderlyshould be banned and properly disposed of. Flowers should not be sold as indoordecorative pieces because they can carry bugs. Aluminum should be bannedbecause it is known to cause Alzheimer’s if consumed. Socks should be sold inmultiples of three because, inevitably, one always gets lost. These itemsshould be banned as well: magazines, tablets, vitamins, x-rays, dentalcleanings, swimming (deadly amoebas), airplanes, museums, movies and freespeech because it can be hurtful.

Doesn’t it seem that our freedom is becoming less free? Are we really that inept that we need an institution to make our own decisions forus? Are we so stupid that we don’t know what is best for ourselves? I think Jonathan Swift had a brilliant idea – we should farm infants for food. And Iknow just the place – Russia. They have thousands of orphaned, invalid childrenplumping up. We could harvest them, chop them up, package them in recycledmaterials and ship them over to Africa where we can hand out a freeze-driedpackage of Russian orphan to every polio vaccine recipient. We can solve worldhunger and eliminate a disabling illness all at once. 

Rants and Raves, A Little Belated

One of my favorite segments on Fox News Channel’s The Factor is Watters World. Why? Well, because it’s so much fun to see people make themselves look ridiculous (HAHAHA….HA!). I can’t tell you how many times Jesse Waters holds up a sign of a picture of a politician, let’s say a picture of Nancy Pelosi (*ew*) or Joe Biden (*gagging*), and young people, in their twenties, look at it, maybe stare at it for a bit and eventually say “I don’t know,” as a glazed look passes over their eyes. What is it with our generation being so uninformed? Why is reality television so popular, when it clearly is not reality?? We all know The Real Housewives of New York, Atlanta, and wherever The Real Housewives live, are not real housewives. Ask your mother or someone else’s mother. She’ll tell you who is a real housewife. I heard on FNC that the average person during the 2012 Presidential Election watched, read and/or listened to three hours of election coverage. That’s it? I know I watched at least three hours of election news each day - I even tweeted during every debate! And another thing that really pisses me off is the fact that immigrants complain that they don’t get to vote – they just get to live here. Well you know what? It took me eighteen years to get the opportunity to vote, and it wasn’t even that much fun (nothing like the Obama commercials with Lena Dunham), the options were just ‘eh’. 

Aura...What is it? Where does it come from?

I like to post my incredibly well written and deeply philosophical essays from my Intro. to STaC exams. Here's another:

Prompt: Write an essay in which you speculate on what it is that produces an "aura" that does not rely on tradition in contemporary culture. Be sure to use at least one specific example of some contemporary thing/person with "aura". And be sure to speculate why that happens.

     Something that has an aura has an ethereal quality. 'It' has specialness, originality, some sort of uniqueness. It's not just new things or new people that have an aura. Andy Warhol's work has an aura, his work isn't new, he's not new, he's dead, but still his artwork has that special something that gets people to go to the museum. What is fascinating about Andy Warhol and his work is that when you look at it critically, his work and life and fame is based off the exploitation of images of everyday commodities, like Coca-Cola and Campbell soup. And his artistic medium wasn't paint or sculpture; it was screen printing, which means that his work had the ability to be massed produced. 
     How could someone's work have this 'aura' when they actually never produced it (Warhol had assistants screen print his artistic visions)? Warhol is famous for pop art. Maybe that is what gives Warhol's work aura. The fact that he was the one to really popularize the style and get it out into mainstream culture. The fact that a large population knows Warhol's work when they see it and know that that is 'pop art' is what gives his work an aura. But that would mean that what creates the aura, all the fame around his work, is the fact that it's accessible to a large population. 
     This defies what the meaning of aura stands for. Something with an aura should be one of a kind, it should be rare. Warhol's work has an aura and one could describe his work as iconic, but it doesn't have super special quality. You know when you see Marilyn Monroe's face in columns and rows on a canvas in bright colors, you know it's a the work of Warhol. Perhaps, it's the fact that the work is iconic that produces the aura. A Rembrandt has an aura. It could be the way he uses the light, but he's not considered an Old Master for no reason at all. 
     It seems that lots of things in pop culture today are said to have an aura. Some say the Gangnam Style music video featuring PSY has an aura. Is it the bright, neon colors? Is it the catchy beat? There doesn't seem to be anything special about the music video, we've seen bright colors before and listened to catchy beats, yet some still say it has an aura. This could be said for Warhol's work as well, yet something about it creates the effect of the mysterious aura. 
     It seems that aura is a paradox. There is no one defining quality that precipitates an aura. It could be originality, uniqueness, rarity or specialness. It could be accessibility, in the case of mass produced art, images, literature, film and consumer goods. But it doesn't seem like accessibility would have a part in the 'aura' effect, yet practically everything with an aura is accessible (it just may take a fourteen hour flight to another country to see a piece of art and/or a large sum of money). It must be a combination of uniqueness and some innate human flaw, perfection and imperfection that creates and aura. The aura, in itself, is a magical, mysterious property of human nature.


See?? Pretty good for 40 minutes.

Most Amazing Essay as Part of an Exam Ever Written

I wanted to post my Intro to STAC essay when I got it back. Well, I got it back. The essay (below) was written as part of an exam - took me 20-25 minutes to write. To give you the idea of the prompt, it's something like this:

"A producer wants to finance a suspense/action/horror film and must choose a concept A or B. Your job is to recommend A or B. Explain why your choice would make a better film. Include a general storyline." I chose A: The world is being overrun by self-propelled, self-directed machines - robots. They are fast, strong and violent. They reproduce by scavenging materials from the world around them and building more versions of themselves."

Here is my essay that is 100% original. DO NOT STEAL IT. Even though, I can totally see why you would want to - because it's awesome...and amazing. 

Think “Aliens” meets “I am Legend” meets “I-Robot.” That’s my pitch for a suspense/action/ terrifying horror film. Robots reproducing by scavenging materials, violently attacking everyday people, going to war against our human armies and eventually taking over the world, because after all, they don’t need sleep and food to keep them alive, only humans do.

            While a non-visual source of terror usually does instill more fear within the audience, we humans still have a great aversion and fear about nonhuman beings taking control over our world. We like to fantasize that aliens would ‘come in peace’ and robots would just be servants. But since the birth of the automaton, robots have been the source of inspiration for suspenseful films, novels and play’s, like Rossum’s Universal Robot’s.

            Although a virus infecting the digital network is really non-visual to the audience, it’s also an abstract image that would need to be represented in some visual way and that just wouldn’t appear as visually frightening in any way that an ultra-strong, vicious, unintelligent ‘mechanical beast’ would appear. This is primarily due to the fact that human fears are related to the unknown and to things that look like us, act like us, but would really prefer to kill off the human race instead of living within our world harmoniously.

            To really give the audience a jolt, a great move for such a film would be to take a rather pessimistic outlook on the situation. Humans love when humans conquer other worldly invaders (think ‘Marvel’s The Avenger’s’) and hate when humans appear to be the inferior race. This is precisely why we have more superhero action films than human’s are the losers films. So, the film would end with the entire human population massacred and heartless, fearless robots living all over Earth. That will surely have the audience leaving the theatre without warm fuzzies, and an intense fear toward beings that mimic some of our more negative qualities, physically and mentally. And it may be thought only subconsciously, but even the ruthless robots that dominate the film do share similarities, mentally, with that of psychologically disturbed human beings.

            By taking a wholly negative outlook at robots multiplying by scavenging, an act humans view as barbaric, and destroying humanity, a suspenseful horror film is born. Nothing is more terrifying and worse than seeing your own kind being destroyed.

I know I haven't posted anything in quite a while - I've been busy - and I had two exams today and I have two more still to take today (that's a grand total of four in one day!). I actually have another Intro. to STAC exam later today, and I will have to write (an) essay(s). I will see how it goes before posting it on here. :)

Term Paper Idea

For one of my classes this semester I have to write a five to seven page term paper on a topic that is (1) of interest to me and (2) won't bore my professor. It has to deal with biomedical practices and culture. I think I am going to go with this topic: the psychology of grotesque. I am planning on starting off by giving an example of grotesque in art (Bacon's Pope Innocent X) and literature (maybe Thomas Mann, Poe or Faulkner) and then the definition (to label something as grotesque it must be distorted or ugly, and bizarre - so basically a physical and emotional reaction is necessary). And then I will discuss the psychology of societies (the cultural) response to grotesque subject matter (people don't like Bacon's work for a number of reasons, including the defamation of a divine, supreme figure by artistic expression) yet, grotesque literature is much more acceptable, maybe because it's not visual in the same sense.

What do you think? I can see five to seven pages of this.

School's Out For Summer...Now What?

College students are officially (or are about to be) done with Spring Semester 2012. So, what are we to do now?

 I've decided to get back on track with exercising. I was running a few days a week, did some 5k's last year and then got lazy, again. I've been reading up on how to start running and I've found that starting slow, really, really slow, like snail pace, is the best to get going again. I read that beginner runners need to start running at a walking pace. This means that if you are out of breath, something is wrong because I'm talking 2.0-2.5 mph walking pace. I'm following this plan because it seems to be working. I expect it will take the whole Summer to get to a good, consistent running pace.

Another goal of mine is to actually post on this blog (it's only been six months :/ ).

Also, I've been thinking of Summer internships but because I'm a Sophomore, and I don't know what I want to do yet (I assume I'll figure it out in Fall at GaTech) I will continue to tutor in math at a local Community College.

If anyone who reads this has any running advice or tips, feel free to comment!

Happy Summer!!!