adaliacom105

[adaliacom105]

Blog 5

Hello classmates, professor, and anyone else that has stumbled upon this blog of mine! So you have probably noticed the trend by now that all the other blogs have something to do with movies. Well, this blog is no different! This week it was superhero movies, and they were fantastic! It was an interesting experience for me since they were live-action, and I usually prefer animated hero movies instead. The Marvel movies really impressed me and confused me since there were some characters I didn’t know because I have only seen their animated counterparts. So I might be watching more Marvel movies soon because of how good they were.

So now that you know what I have been watching, let’s get on with the topic for this blog. In this one, I will be creating my own superhero, and I am both hyped and scared for it. There is so much detail when it comes to creating your own character I learned that the hard way in my Sequential Arts class. Well, let’s get down to business then.

First things first let us start with their name and superhero name.

I have chosen the name Aelita Stones. I chose this name for two reasons. The first reason being that in my family by complete coincidence all the first-born female’s names end with the letter A. So I decided to do the same here. The second reason being it’s the name of a character from one of my favorite cartoons, Code Lyoko. Code Lyoko is a show about five teens who travel to a virtual world in order to fight Xana, an evil program trying to take over the world. Any character outside the group thinks it sounds like a game, and it does. In Code Lyoko, Aelita starts off as a being that lives in the virtual world called Lyoko. Since it's kind of like my character's power, I decided to use the name. This then brings me to the hero name, and that would be Player 1.

What does Aelita look like?

Well, she has dark brown hair with some pink highlights and chocolate brown eyes to match. She has a roundish face, and her eyes can be seen sporting some eye bags from all nighters and her mom refusing her to skip classes. Aelita prefers comfort over fashion, so she can be seen wearing baggy clothes. She is never seen without a sweater, whether it be tied around her waist or properly worn. She is also short...why? Well, because I refuse to make someone taller than me!

Now let's move on to her powers and how she got them.

Aelita’s powers are that when she uses this special handheld console, she can take classes and traits like from videogames and apply them to herself and others. For example she can use the handheld console and become a mage, an assassin, or a fighter class. Whenever she chooses a class she gets a new change of clothes that match the type she is currently using. The same mechanics of videogames apply to Aelita as well, which means levels, exp, traits, stats, special abilities, health, and extra lives. At first, she only has access to three classes, which are Mage, Warrior, and Thief, which all begin at level 1. All new class levels start at level 1. In order to unlock more classes, there are conditions that need to be met, but most are through leveling up. To do this, Aelita needs exp, which she can get in three ways. The first way would be going inside the special handheld console that gave her powers. Inside it has training and levels to help her master her powers. The second way would be real-life battles like you see in the games. The third and final way would be to do real-life tasks or ‘quests’ such as going to the store because mom asked, they don’t give much, but it’s still nice. In addition to training, her console can be used to store things like how bags in games are able to store many things. It doesn’t matter the size; it can all go into the console….., even humans. Another power she possesses is to give a class to another person, and they become player 2. With this power, she doesn’t need to be close to the person she is bestowing the power upon; she just needs to see them at least once, and they become an option on her list. She then gains control of the person like a playable character, and the area becomes the stage with boundaries within a limit. The downside to this is that they start off as level one unless she has taken over you before. In good news, they start off with three lives. After you die the second time, she has it set to be stored in the console in order not to risk it. Aelita can let them control themselves and join in the battle if she doesn’t or can’t stay on the sidelines anymore. She can make Players 2 and 3, and they can’t be the same class, or it causes some strain on her body. With enough training, this can be improved upon. She can also max out her traits or push up her level temporarily, but it leaves her drained and shouldn’t be done that often.

How did she get this awesome handheld console, you ask?

Well, she actually wasn’t supposed to get it at all. Aelita is a pretty known gamer, so when she opened her mail one day and saw a video game console, she thought it was some company who wanted to use her to promote their products, so she didn’t think anything of it. So Aelita was pretty surprised when she went to test drive the new console and all of a sudden she was in new clothes and broke her door. There are plenty of people trying to take this new power from her, but she has decided she likes it and won’t give it up!

The next thing would be Aelita’s history.

She was born on September 16, 2002, in Fortniles. Why that date? It's the date from one of the first games I ever played, Animal Crossing on the Gamecube (The very first would be Sonic on the Gameboy….I feel old). I choose Fortniles because I made it up, and it sounds cool in my head.

Who are her parents? Well, they are Flint Stones and Alexandra Stones. Flint is a doctor, and his wife is a zoologist. I one hundred percent picked Flint’s name because of Flintstones. Now there is a family tradition of naming the firstborn in his family after a stone. The two have been together for 20 years now. Next is the siblings.

Aelita has an older brother by two years named Jasper and was the one who actually got her into video games. They have a typical brother-sister relationship of bugging each other and always having each other's back. Aelita also has a younger sister named Yasmin, who is six years old. Aelita is usually the one to babysit her, teach her things, and spoil her a bit.

The next bit would be her childhood and adolescence.

Aelita is an indoor child, which means she prefers to be inside rather than outside. This would lead her brother to teach her about videogames and how to play them. They would then play with each other and rely on one another for a part the other wasn’t so good at. As the years went by, she started playing more and more games and became better at them as well. This then leads us into her adolescence. She has now become an awkward teen and has trouble making friends outside of her video games. She goes to school and is pretty smart, and has been caught for playing games during class multiple times. Her favorite class is English because the teacher is not picky about the subjects of the essays, so Aelita likes the freedom. She hates the gym as she has poor physical health and bad eating habits. This then gets in the way of her hero work as she has to get in shape, which eventually lessens her hatred of gym (curse them making you use effort). 

The next question is if Aelita is a hero, anti-hero, or villain?

The answer is Aelita is a hero, but since she is a teen and not fully mature, there are incidents where she abuses her new found powers. For example, temporarily maxing out her charm attribute inorder to convince her teacher to give back everything he had confiscated from her or using it to get a new friend.

The next question is to talk about her psyche, level of intelligence, and emotional attributes.

Aelita isn’t the fittest; as said before, she hates the gym, is an indoor child, and doesn’t have the best eating habits. She is a little chubby. This leads to a rocky start for her superhero career, but as time moves forward, she does get better and lose some weight. As for intelligence, she is very smart and usually receives 90s on her test, for she knows her parents would kill her and take away her technology otherwise. All the strategy games and puzzles have helped her think outside the box and in battle. For emotional attributes, well, she can be shy and awkward at first and then becomes loud and awkward as you get to know her. She is also excitable when in front of something she believes to be awesome. What does she advocate for? Aelita’s motto is you do you as long as it's nothing terrible. Her current goal is to win a gaming tournament and to live up to the heroes in her games and in life. Is she successful at it? She is trying hard. There have been successes and failures, but she is learning.

In terms of who they are, likened from the DC Universe and Marvel Cinematic, I would say Firestorm and Blue Beetle from DC and Spiderman from the Marvel Cinematic. Firestorm was the first one that came to mind when answering this question, and that is because of his personality. He can be smart at times, but at others, he is the goofy voice in a severe situation, but when it comes down to it, you can rely on him. Blue Beetle was because the stories are kind of similar. Aelita gets a strange package that gives her powers, and Jaime Reyes gets a blue beetle from space stuck to his back one day that gives him armor; both of these events changed them both. I say Spiderman because I imagine Aelita to act in a similar manner.

The final thing to talk about would be Aelita’s future.

How and when she dies? 

I honestly don’t know that quite yet. Aelita would prefer not to die at all, but if she had to, she would like to die knowing she did everything she could rather than be sloppy. Like she imagines it from the movies where they sacrifice their lives for others to go on but understands that it’s not how it works. It could be from anything really, and it doesn't have to be super related otherwise. Until then, she continues to live until that day comes.

What legacy does she leave behind? That would be the new Player 1. She ends up passing the torch to someone new to take over her position as a hero. She actually helps mentor the new hero through her handy dandy console, where she has collected her memories and preserved her in a way so she could help the next generation as best she can.

Well, we're finally done with introducing my very own superhero, Aelita Stones or better known as Player 1, or at least to those in that fictional world where she lives in. Thank you for reading this long blog, and I hope you enjoyed my character.

[adaliacom105]

Blog 4 Of Bunnies and Aliens

Hello, once again, classmates, my professor, and readers! 

For this blog post, we will be talking about the films Fantastic Planet and Watership Down.

First, let’s give you a little background information about the two films. 

Fantastic Planet is a French animated film that came out in 1973 and is directed by Rene Laloux. The film takes place in the distant future on a planet named Ygam. On this planet, there are these beings called Draags living on it. Draags are giant blue human-like creatures with red eyes, no hair, and fin-like ears. In this film, the humans are the pets and are called Oms. The story centers on one Om, in particular, Terr. It goes through his life from pet to wild Om. Eventually, the Oms rise after enough exterminations take place. They end up reaching a peaceful agreement with the Draags and get their own moon to live on.

The second movie is Watership Down, an animated film from 1978 and directed by Martin Rosen. This film centers around a group of rabbits who escape from their burrow from impending danger. This group of rabbits then search for a new burrow to call home where they can hopefully stay safe from danger. Along the way, they encounter a burrow where a farmer has set traps for them by baiting food and another burrow with an oppressive rule. After escaping those two burrows, they find a good spot atop a hill, and then the task is to get female rabbits since they were all males. After the daunting task of taking them from the oppressive ruler, they end up living a pretty good life.

It might sound strange that a bunny movie and an alien movie have some things in common but in this case, they do have quite a bit in common with each other.

Both films have in common that both had a species looking for a safe place to call home. The bunnies were looking for a safe place to create a burrow where they wouldn’t be bothered by man and a high place where they could overlook everything and hear clearly in case of dangers. The Oms in Fantastic Planet wanted a place where they could live without fear of being exterminated by the Draggs or being domesticated by them.

Both films have an emphasis on both the act and product of procreation, basically getting kids. In Watership Down, the bunnies risk their lives on three separate occasions to get female rabbits so they could mate. Hazel and Pipkin went to a farm where they were breeding bunnies to break free the females. While trying to break the females out, they had to face a dog, a cat, and humans with guns. The third occasion had Bigwig infiltrate a burrow with an oppressive leader. It may not sound dangerous, but Woundwort, the burrow chief, looks very scary and is also known for attacking bunnies and will kill them. He is now an image that will haunt me. For Fantastic Planet, you have the Draags who do meditation, which allows them to leave their bodies and become like a transportation system. When they go into this meditative state, they go to one of their satellite planets named Wild Planet. There they take over these giant statues that look like Oms without heads or clothes. They then perform a dance for mating, and it’s how they keep their species alive. This can cause a danger to the Draags, for if something happens to their meditation forms, their real forms could end up blind or dead. The Oms would eat these unusual fruits that would allow them to glow at night. Afterward, the women would undress and runoff for the men to chase them to secluded spaces to mate. Doing this poses a threat to the Oms as it makes them visible during the night for predators and Draags to see.

The third thing the two have in common is the need for peace on both sides. In Watership Down, this can be seen when Hazel goes and tries to talk to Chief Woundwort first before he brings his comrades to fight their little burrow for the “treason” of Bigwig. Hazel does this knowing that there was a chance he was to get hurt by Woundwort and the protest of his fellow friends telling him not to go. Unfortunately, Hazel’s pleas for peace falls on deaf ears, and they go to battle. For Fantastic Planet, you have the Oms and the Draags fighting. When the Oms had made it to the Wild Planet and had messed with the Draags mediation and had caused some to go blind, they had realized that it would be better to have peace rather than destroy each other. Unfortunately, it took all that for it to happen, but they ended up reaching an agreement and gave the Oms their own satellite planet.

These aren’t the only things that both movies had in common; they both resemble a historic time in history.

These films remind me of some historical events as well.

Watership Down reminds me of Germany during World War 2. It reminds me of this because of the way Chief Woundwort runs his burrow. He monitors when the rabbits can go out, he marks them with scares and has his officer’s rabbits report to him anything strange to him, and won’t let any rabbits leave. So it reminds me of how the Jews were treated back then with armbands for markings, curfews, and the internment camps.

Fantastic Planet makes me think of animal rights and the civil rights movement. Animal rights are shown through the fact that it uses the approach “would you like it”? The story that is being told is literally if the humans were the pets instead of the animals we have today. While I would like to live the life of my “security” dog (she is overweight, half-blind, and 13 years old chihuahua; she isn’t that great security, she mostly naps), I would like not to fight other humans like they do in dog fights, cockfights, and probably any other animal fight type (I do not have her fight anything, she runs away from fights). I think of the Civil Rights movement because the movie is about one race thinking there superior to another. Some of the actions the South did against the slaves reminded me of the film as well. Like the lack of access to technology would be the same. Most slaves didn’t know how to read or write, and that would be because their owners didn’t want them to, which could be said the same for the Draags and Oms. So it would be the Draags over the Oms, so for real life, it would be the American Civil war with North vs. South. 

One other big that the two shares would be the battle between intellectuals and anti-intellectual.

In Fantastic Planet, this conflict takes place with the Oms. When Terr had brought back a teaching headset, it had allowed the Oms a way to learn. Some wanted to learn from it, and others thought of it as enemy technology and didn’t trust it at all. After having the Draags up the number of exterminations, it took many Oms’ lives, including a tribe leader. This would open their eyes to learning, and they would come together to find a safe place to live without worry.

Watership Down doesn’t have this battle so apparent in the movie. For the intellectuals, I would like to think Hazel would be in that group. He thought about getting female rabbits for their new home, thought of a plan to combat Woundwort, tried for peace before the battle, and believed in his brother's vision because of the last ones’ accuracy.

For the anti-intellectual, I would say Woundwort. I say this for a couple of reasons. The first being is that when one of the female rabbits had suggested making a new burrow and had backed her argument that there isn’t enough room for them to have babies, Woundwort had said no with no real thought about it. Woundwort seems to rule on using fear that I consider stupid since eventually there will be someone who will not want to put up with it, and it just goes downhill from there. You’d probably still have someone out there for your head if you rule without fear, but it’s considerably less. Woundwort continues to go after Bigwig despite a dog there that is way more dangerous, which isn’t so smart in my opinion.

The next part of this question would be to relate this to real life. Unfortunately, I live in my own little world and use social media to play games rather than get the news. I also read the news that mainly pertains to video games and anime. I mainly get my news from family and friends. So I can’t really think of a real-life example other than this struggle is still being illustrated today. In particular, this struggle is shown in an anime called Dr.Stone. A strange green light has turned humanity to stone, and this boy has been released from this stone prison and figured out how to turn the others back from stone. After turning the wrong person from stone, it becomes a race between two tribes, one of strength and science. It sounds weird, but I binged the season in three days, which is rare for me, so I highly recommend it.

So by this point, I am assuming I have thoroughly tired you out from all the reading. Thanks to those that have continued to the end. Happy Holidays!!!

[adaliacom105]

Blog #3 Oldboy Review

Hello classmates, professor, and I guess anyone else that has stumbled upon this blog. If you are in my class, you know what this blog is about, but I shall explain it if you aren’t. For this blog, I was required to watch three movies and choose one to review. The film I shall be reviewing is Oldboy. 

So let’s start with some background information about the movie first. The Oldboy I watched came out in 2003 and was directed and co-written by Park Chan-wook. I say the one I watched because it has actually been remade two more times after the 2003 version came out. One unofficial remake called Zinda made in 2006 using the Hindi language. The other remake is Oldboy 2013, directed by Spike Lee and produced right here in America. So let’s continue on to the 2003 version. Oldboy is actually based on a manga of the same name written by Garon Tsuchiya and illustrated by Nobuaki Minegishi and has already ended in 1998. There are some differences between the movie and manga, which usually happens when something is based on a book.

Here is a spoiler-free summary:

This film is about Oh Dae-su, played by Choi Min-sik, who was imprisoned in a sealed off hotel room for 15 years. He gets released on the 15th year and is armed with training he received from his TV. He meets Mi-do, played by Kang Hye-jung, and ends up staying with her and works with her to find out who had him imprisoned. Along the way, they fall for each other and find out who imprisoned Dae-su, along with why.

Here is a synopsis of the film full of spoilers:

Now that the background information is out of the way, let me give you a little summary of the movie. The movie begins with the main character Oh Dae-su played by Choi Min-sik, getting kidnapped on his daughter’s fourth birthday. Dae-su wakes up to find himself confined to a sealed-off hotel room with only a TV to keep him company. A few days into this imprisonment, he sees a news story on TV saying that his wife was killed and that he was the prime suspect. As the days go by and slowly turn into 15 years, Dae-su with the only company he receives from the TV he uses to teach himself skills such as fighting. In his 15th year, Dae-su gets released from his prison, but because he hasn’t interacted with people in such a long while, it causes problems for him when interacting with people. He ends up taking a cigarette out of some guy’s mouth to smoke it, and in return, the guy, along with his friend go to beat him up. Dae-su then asks himself, “Can 15 years’ worth of imaginary training be put to use?” he then proceeds to beat them up and gets his answer “Apparently, it can.” (One of my favorite quotes from the movie. Here are some others). Afterward, he goes to a sushi restaurant where he meets Mi-do, played by Kang Hye-jung, who ends letting Dae-su stay with her after he passes out. Dae-su awkwardness comes out again when he tries to force himself onto Mi-do but fails. Together, they find his daughter but realized she is already adopted and found out who imprisoned him. They go to many restaurants tasting dumplings to see if they taste like the one’s Dae-su ate during his imprisonment. This would lead to Dae-su, Park Cheol-woong, played by Oh Dae-su, who manages the private prison where he was kept. Dae-su manages to get a tape with the voice of who wanted to put Dae-su away. Dae-su gets this from Park after he used a hammer to take out his teeth. Afterward, a fight scene occurs between Dae-su and Park’s men, and it was all done in one shot. Dae-su finally meets Lee Woo-jin, played by Yoo Ji-tae, and it becomes a question as to why he imprisoned Dae-su and Woo-jin gives Dae-su five days to figure that out, and if he does, Woo-jin will kill himself. 

Within these five days, a lot occurs, like Mi-do being intimate with Dae-su and figuring out why he was imprisoned. Woo-jin uses the philosophy: Be it a rock or a grain of sand, in water, they sink as the same, which is why he imprisoned Dae-su. Dae-su had discovered Woo-jin being intimate with Lee Soo-ah (played by Yoon Jin-seo), who was Woo-jin’s sister. Dae-su tells his friend about it, and that same friend spreads it around the school, which ends getting out of control. This would lead Soo-ah to commit suicide. Dae-su didn’t know any of this since he had moved the same day he told his friend. Even though Dae-su didn’t spread the rumor, Woo-jin still blames him. So Woo-jin goes through this complicated plan by imprisoning Dae-su and then secretly raising Mi-do, which he reveals is Dae-su’s daughter. Woo-jin was able to push Mi-do and Dae-su through hypnosis. Realizing he just had sex with his daughter Dae-su gets on all fours and begs Woo-jin not to tell Mi-do. Dae-su licks he shoes and ends up even cutting off his tongue so loyalty. Woo-jin agrees and leaves but not without putting on Dae-su and Mi-do’s moans from their intimate night together on speaker. The scene sees Dae-su finding the same hypnotize that hypnotized him in Mi-do to ask her to erase his memories of knowing Mi-do was his daughter. Mi-do comes and hugs Dae-su after the hypnotize leaves, and we are left wondering if it worked since Dae-su smiles first and then is in pain.

End of spoilers

So, what did I think of the movie? It was surprisingly good. I say surprisingly because I didn’t go in blind into watching this. I had actually looked up the wiki page for Oldboy before watching it, so I expected not to like it. It’s a habit of mine to have spoilers before I watch or read something. I actually read the last page of a book first before I read it, and it gets me interested in how it gets to that point. The fights scenes were amazing!! The scene where Dae-su fights with the hammer was amazing and my opinion is shared by my brother, who had already watched the movie. Fun fact that fight scene was done in one shot, which is pretty cool. I also appreciated how even Dae-su realizes that receiving training from the TV might not work, which is shown when he says, “Can 15 years’ worth of imaginary training be put to use?” and when it works, he says, “Apparently it can.” Another thing the movie does is that it actually answers some questions or at least the questions I had. I wondered why Mi-do would bring a complete stranger to her house, and I also didn’t understand why she falls for Dae-su, considering he forced himself on her, sometimes completely ignoring her, and after he blatantly told her he didn’t trust her. So it was nice how they give the answer to that with it being hypnosis. I had also liked how it had explained why Woo-jin had wanted revenge against Dae-su instead of his friend with  “Be it a rock or a grain of sand, in water, they sink as the same.” The movie actually makes me want to read the manga and see how differences between the two.

For those who would like to read the manga after reading this please click here.

I would rate this a 4 out of 5 stars. 

[adaliacom105]

Blog #2

Women in films are under portrayed, do not have as many speaking roles, and usually act like stereotypes. This post will be about women and how films paint them. I will use the movies Frida and Black Swan as references.

Stereotypes are a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing(Lexico Dictionaries). An example of one would be Scottish people being associated with bagpipes and wearing a kilt every time one is an image. Stereotypes are widely known; it is not uncommon to see them portrayed in the media, whether real or not. Women’s stereotypes are depicted as being a damsel in distress, being feminine, acting demure, dependent, gossiping, and communal.

The film Frida is about the artist Frida Kahlo and her life. The protagonist Frida doesn’t conform to some of these stereotypes. One stereotype she doesn’t yield to would be having to be feminine. Though Frida does doll herself up in dresses and such for some occasions, she also drinks and smokes cigars, which are two activities that aren’t considered very feminine. Along with practicing those activities, she dressed up in a suit for a family portrait despite knowing that her mother would probably disapprove. The second stereotype she doesn’t conform to is the damsel in distress, which translates, “Do people assume all your problems got solved because a big strong man showed up?”(Janaraghi). Even though she had been in a bus accident that left her in an almost full-body cast along with her family doubting whether she would walk again, she was determined to walk again and be independent no matter what and she archives this goal as well. The third stereotype she defies is that of being demure, which means to be shy and modest (Demure). Throughout the film, Frida is shown to be outspoken and bold, no matter what. She kept nagging Diego Rivera until he agreed to look at her paintings, and wasn't afraid to shoot a gun to scare off some nuns, or to talk to Diego about his affairs as well.

For Black Swan, you have Nina Sayers, a ballerina in a company that starts with a couple of female stereotypes. One stereotype she uses is being feminine. Her femininity is shown through how her room is decorated with cute stuffed animals and a ton of the color pink. The second stereotype shown would be being demure. This demure is shown with how she had confronted her company’s artistic director, Thomas Leroy, about reconsidering her for the swan queen’s role, and when Thomas says no, all she does is accept it and attempt to leave.

As the film goes on, she grows out of some of these stereotypes. Nina becomes more confident and bold, shown when she won’t take no as an answer for performing at the Swan Lake performance, talks back to her mother, and initiates the kiss with Thomas this time. Nina also throws away some of the stuffed animals in her room, which makes her a little less feminine. Nina also defended Beth, the head ballerina that was retiring when everyone was talking about it being about time because of her age and this was at the beginning of the film.

The next thing I am supposed to answer is: What “positive stereotypes” do these protagonists possess and explain how these pose a threat to the status quo of heteronormative/patriarchal culture? The problem I have with this is that I do not believe that there are any positive stereotypes. I do not think that there are any because it’s prejudging someone regardless, and it can make people disappointed in themselves if they don’t reach that famous judgment. 

Frida and Nina do pose a threat to the heteronormative culture, though. Heteronoarmative means to promote or believe that heterosexuality is the norm or preferred sexuality.

Frida poses a threat to heteronormative culture because of her interest in both men and women. Throughout Diego’s and Frida’s marriage, they both take on lovers and have affairs. Diego only took on female lovers, and Frida would take both men and female lovers. There was even an instance where they both had the same woman for a lover.

For Nina, she has some interest in women as well. This is shown when she goes out for dinner with her fellow ballerina Lily. As the night goes on, she ends up drinking a glass laced with ecstasy. This would then lead her to imagine a night with Lily, where they end up having sex in Nina’s bed. Though this was a hallucination, drugs have a way of inhabiting one’s self.

Both protagonists, Frida and Nina, faced sexist behaviors from their male counterparts. For Frida she had Diego and Nina had Thomas. 

At one point in the movie, Frida’s sister moves in with her kids to live with Frida and Diego. Frida convinces Diego to make her sister his assistant. One night when Frida comes back after taking her niece and nephew out, she finds Diego and her sister sleeping together. She ends up leaving him after this and lives by herself in a crappy flat. After being apart for a while, Diego asks for a favor. That is to let Leon Trotsky and his wife stay with her for a time in her father’s house since it would serve as better protection. Frida ends up having an affair with Trotsky. Trotsky ends up leaving because of how upset his wife is at finding out that he was having an affair. Diego ends up upset by this fair saying he didn’t mind the others, but Trotsky was really important to him. Frida’s ultimate reply was, “But why? It was just a fuck, like a handshake.” This was what Diego had told Frida “It was just a fuck. I had shown more affection in a handshake” when Frida discovered when he cheated the first time.

For Black Swan, we have Nina, who had Thomas sexually harassed her. When Nina asks him to reconsider her for the role of Queen Swan, and he says no. Nina tries to leave, but Thomas ends pulling her back and starts to kiss her. In response, Nina bites him, which convinces him to give the Swan Queen role to her. When introducing her to the world as the star of Swan Lake, he later takes her to his apartment to have drinks. Thomas then starts to ask her questions like do you have a boyfriend and have had sex because he says it’s essential to get to know each other. He then asks her if she enjoys “making love” when she is reluctant to reply; he gives her the homework to touch herself when she gets home. Later on, when training for the Black Swan part of the role, he tells her to seduce him with her dancing. As the two dance, he starts to kiss her and touch her inappropriately. He then stops and tells her that it was him seducing her, not her seducing him. Nina’s response to all of this is to have a crush on him and thinks that no one knows him as she does. 

Ultimately both movies have good female lead characters and were enjoyable to watch.

[adaliacom105]

Youth Culture

Hello readers, fellow students, and professor! In today’s post I will be talking about youth culture and soundtrack for films! Youth culture is defined as the unique behaviors, norms, and values typified by adolescents (young adults) in a larger culture (youth culture). In order to better understand youth culture I had to watch “The Breakfast Club,” “Euphoria,” “Saved By The Bell,” “KIDS,” “Mean Girls,” and “Mid90s,”. There are three common themes present in these films that are pressure, boys/girls, and living in the present all relating to youth culture. The first theme of  pressure is seen with Brain from “The Breakfast Club” getting pressured by his parents to get good grades, Rue from “Euphoria” receives it from her mom to go clean, “Saved By The Bell” see Jessie cave into pressure from her tests and commitments to friends, Telly from “KIDS” uses pressure in order to have a girl have sex with him, “Mean Girls” have Janis pressure Cady to become friends with the plastics, and “Mid90s” have Stevie fill pressure to fit in with the skater kids. For girls/boys, you have Brian lying about his virginity to the others, Zach and Slater (Saved By The Bell) both fight over Kelly, “KIDS” has Telly obsessed with having sex with only virgin girls, “Mean Girls” has Regina get back together with Aaron due to jealousy of him liking Cady, “Mid90s” has Stevie feel pressured by friends to have sex, and “Eurphoria” has Nate and  Mckay talk about a girl Cassie and her sexual past. Living in the present is shown with the way Bender from “The Breakfast Club” acts, “Euphoria” has Rue doing drugs with no concern for her future, “Saved By The Bell” has Zack using his schemes assuming they will work with no concern if they won’t until a problem arises, “KIDS” has the characters have sex with no worries about who it affects and to what could happen, “Mean Girls” has the cast focus on their high school lives more than anything, and “Mid90s” has Stevie drinking and drugs with no regard for his future.

I think these are all related to youth culture because of how they still occur today. Teens receive pressure from their parents to get good grades. If not, they get pressure from their peers to do something else; for me it was good grades. Focusing on attraction is always going to be something teens focus on and living in the present is something teens do until about senior year, I know that’s what I did.

From these films the character I most identified with was Brian from “The Breakfast Club.” I identify with him the most because I feel like I have more in common with him than all the other characters, and as we see him as the smart stereotype, I think people see me in the same way. I say that I have more in common with him because I am also awkward when trying to start conversations, especially with people I have just met. This awkwardness is shown when he starts to ramble about what clubs he is in. I am also smart like Brain as well; I have been on the high honor roll through high school and on the Dean’s list for all of the semesters I have attended here. The way the film portrays Brian is that he is the smart one, a stereotype. 

In this way, I think I have in common with him. I say think because, for one, I don’t believe a person can recognize if they're a stereotype since they think of themselves as just themselves and not as a label. I never realized people actually thought of me as smart until I was put into a group for jeopardy. They had set up the classroom for the game because they had the desks split in half and facing each other from opposite sides of the room. For the game, whoever you sat across from that would be the person you would answer against. When it came to seating arrangements, the person across from me looked over and realized that he would be going against me for Jeopardy and immediately asked to switch seats with me immediately after the rules were set up. I had asked why and was met with the reply that I don’t want to lose, and his teammates are telling him good luck. I had always thought of the class as easy but, apparently, not by my classmates.

A sound track can be a list of songs with actual lyrics, a score which is instrumental, or both. I personally prefer to have both, since I love to sing and just having instruments in the background helps me with my homework. The soundtrack for a film or TV series is an important element as it impacts the narrative of a story by adding more depth to the story (Franke). It adds depth to the story by adding to a particular part of the story’s tone or mood. An example of mood would be something sad like a character’s death; adding music to it can make the event even more tragic and melancholy. It also influences the viewers’ emotions and lets them get immersed in the scene and feel sad. An example for where it helps the tone would be a casual episode, and the music throughout it is lighthearted, which helps the viewers know that okay, this isn’t serious. Here are two actual examples: https://youtu.be/Cf_aLpDMf1U and https://youtu.be/iSkJFs7myn0 . 

Out of the films I had to watch for this class, I chose Mean Girls to reimage the soundtrack into 10 songs and only do the songs and not the scores.The first song I chose would be “Fifteen” by Taylor Swift. I chose this song because it reminds me of when Cady is first walking through to the high school for her first day, and that’s what the song is about. The second song I chose was Melanie Martinez’s “Lunchbox Friends.” I choose this song because it reminds me of the friendship that Cady has with Regina. Regina and Cady’s friendship is superficial and is like the lyric in the song “We can be lunchbox friends but only ‘til the clock hits three.” “Candy Store” from “Heathers the Musical'' would be three. I chose “Candy Store” because Cady’s is in Regina’s candy store. “Class Fight” and “Pacify Her,” both sung by Melaine Martinez were the fourth and fifth songs I chose because both songs are about two girls fighting over a boy while one is a physical fight while the other one keeps trying to convince the boy to drop the girl he is currently with.  I can imagine either song playing in the Halloween party scene. The sixth would be “Oh My God” by Ida Maria because it reminds me of how everything goes out of control for Cady, encompassing the line “Oh my god, you think I’m in control.” The seventh song I chose was “You Belong With Me” by Taylor Swift. I choose “You Belong With Me” because it is again like Cady and Regina fighting over Aaron; Cady is the one saying you belong with me and Regina is the girl who has Aaron. The eighth song would be Melanie Martinez’s “Drama Club.” The ninth song is “Obsessed” by Mirrah Carrie because it reminds me of how both Regina and Cady used the “why are you so obsessed with me?” on Janis. Finally, the tenth song would be “Show and Tell” by Melanie Martinez because it reminds me of Cady and Regina’s relationship, where Cady is Regina’s doll. I hope you all enjoyed the songs that I picked out. For some awesome scores I would recommend No straight Roads the game ( I love Yinu and Sayu’s track) along with Naruto’s ost (Sadness and Sorrow are simply my all time favorite). I hope you all enjoyed reading this blog about youth culture and soundtracks. Until Next time Adalia signing off!

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Introduction

Hello there readers!  I am Adalia Olson, and I am 21 years old. I will be 22 years old on the 12th of September. I graduated from Pine Bush Highschool along with SUNY Ulster BOCES from the Digital Advertising and Art program. I am currently a sophomore in college and majoring in Visual Communications, and this semester I just started dual majoring in New Media. I’m also the oldest and only girl of 5. I love to draw, and I am particularly fond of drawing with charcoal. Charcoal is my favorite to use because of how you can create shadows with just the swipe of your fingers. The last thing I made was a painting of a giraffe using only primary colors, and I named it Glorious Giraffe. I also love to watch anime and cartoons. My favorite anime is Black Butler and is something I would recommend watching. The last tv show I had watched was an anime called Ensemble Stars, an idol anime, one of my favorite types of anime to watch besides sports anime despite being not athletic. As for my favorite cartoon, that would be Gravity Falls. I also love Disney movies and shows, though I tend to watch more of their animated shows and films than anything else. Disney’s Big Hero 6 is the last movie I have recently watched. I also love the Big Hero 6 series as well. My all-time favorite movie is Lilo and Stitch. Lilo and Stitch is the first movie I had ever seen in the movie theatres and was the only one for years. My family and I are all gamers, and we own multiple systems. I have a Nintendo Switch and 3DS, a PlayStation 3 and 4, and an Xbox One. I prefer the Switch and the PlayStation 4 over the other gaming systems right now. The last game I played was Rune Factory 4 Special, a game for the Nintendo Switch. My favorite type of games are RPGs and farming ones. I just love to see stories unfold, though the rest of my family prefer to skip the story along with reading and get to the action. They all like shooting games. I love animals; I have a pet guinea pig named Sebastian. I named him after a character from Black Butler since they both have red eyes. Sebastian loves carrots, the fuzzy part of hay, and running around. Fun fact guinea pigs don’t blink, so it took some time to get used to. I also have a dog named Clover. She is a 12-year-old chihuahua and is blind in one eye; we adopted her from the humane society when she was 10. Clover loves treats, belly rubs, naps, and dressing up. I am more of a dog person than a cat person, but I do like cats. My favorite animals are giraffes. If you were to come into my room, you would see so many giraffes stuffed animals, pictures, and giraffe themed items. My favorite food are pork ribs, and my mom’s boyfriend’s baked mac and cheese, and if I had to have a last meal, it would be that. I hoped you enjoyed reading about me!