There's No Place Like Home

There is no place like home. There is no place like home. There is no place like home.
I really want to go home, so for me to read about Rushdie who cannot ever go home makes me really sad. However, it does help me see his points.

"The makers of The Wizard of Oz clearly decided that they were going to make their colour as colourful as possible, much as Michelangelo Antonioni did...The Wizrd of Oz likewise goes for bold, expressionistic splashes."

Rushdie would expect There is no place like home. There is no place like home. There is no place like home.
I really want to go home, so for me to read about Rushdie who cannot ever go home makes me really sad. However, it does help me see his points.

"The makers of The Wizard of Oz clearly decided that they were going to make their colour as colouful as possible, much as Michelangelo Antonioni did...The Wizrd of Oz likewise goes to be apart of the Indian culture because it fits into the standard type of movie the culture produces and enjoys watching. Bollywood is what it is called. This genre of film has a lot of color and shapes to help move the story. This has also shaped what cultures enjoy watching. The Indian culture being one of them. This especially applies to the song because this song is the first song sung by the munchikins. Munchikins are small and very playful and lively and colorful and happy characters. This brings in the appeal of a Bollywood auideince.


"If asked to pick single defining image of "The Wizard of Oz" most of us would, I suspect, come up with the Scarecro, the Tin Man, the Cowardly Lion and Dorth s-skiping down the Yellow Brick Road."
Rushdie would say that this movie is one that people of all ages can appreciate. Each age watched devleops a different view on the movie. Whether that image is more knowledgeable or you see things from a different view point. Because of where this image is, it plays a role into the rst of the movie. It provides a level of entertainment, yet at the same time provides an example of the journey people go on to find home again.


"No I am watching a videotape, watching it with a notebook on my lap, a pen in one hand and a remote-control zaper in the other. I am subjecting The Wizard of Oz to the indigients of slow-motion, fast-forward, and freeze-frame...I am seeing things I never noticed before."
This further talks about how the movie eveloves from being something that a 10 year old boy or girl can enjoy and then become something that helps you understand the meaning of home. It talks about how the movie changes and its meaning changes. Rushdie would say that the children are singing the song from the movie because of globalization and how it affects cultures. He would say that the children will have a different opion if they go ever go back and re watch the movie...as does everyone, because the first time people do not notice everything the movie has to offer.

Do we like it?

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjO07Wawk9wXj-InMp-yMaFPoLsTFTGY3q7TluiIY9At2NqmuXRMUOemfLMbR9ivSy2O3YKCMfNbxXa8MJofZNYOm6euObFiCE1calG-1rm6uewclCI7478FRDwWbf30ldJ7oKgm1m1xFp/s1600/mona-lisa-on-the-simpsons1.jpg

Fredric Jameson is a man who believes that the new is taking away from the old.  This image would hurt Jameson and cause him to begin to believe that the old way is dying. 

 

"The powerful alternative position that postmodernism is itself little more than one more stage of modernism proper (if not, indeed, of the even older romanticism); it may indeed be conceded that all the features of postmodernism I am about to enumerate can be detected, full-blown, in this or that preceding modernism"

 Jameson believes that since postmodernism came after modernism there is something lacking in the way postmodernism works.  

"As for the postmodern revolt against all that, however, it must equally be stressed that its own offensive features – from obscurity and sexually explicit material to psychological squalor and overt expressions of social and political defiance"

Jameson would believe that this painting is offensive due to his overt expression of social defiance.  He would hate "Mona Lisa" is being mocked and he would believe that this image is belittling the original work.   

Jack Bauer you are a man

In the series 24 Freud would absolutely say that Jack Bauer is a masculine male.  

He would say this because in Freud's terms he make Jack Bauer a man who is in a lot of control and called on to protect his family and his public.  This what Freud talks about when he talks about the ideal man.  Bauer is strong and independent and because of this he is relied upon by his family. 

Freud would say that his daughter is dealing with the Electra complex because of the struggle she has between her mom and her dad.  She feels like she needs to gain more of her father's approval and because of this pushes her mom father away.  

Freud would also mention how Bauer feels the need to control every part of life.  Freud would say that this is because of the lack of control Bauer feels.  He would say that because of constant focus on helping and controlling it would indicate that Bauer has had something happen in his past where he a feeling of being out of control affected him.  

The Public

http://www.dailykos.com/

So my first opinion on this is that it is apart of the public sphere. I think that the public sphere consists of anything that a person can say their opinion about. This opinion has to be credible and have access to everyone. Obviously because it is an opinion it does not have to be your opinion.

Now I'm going to talk about what Habermas would say.

"A portion of the public sphere comes into being in every conversation in which private individuals assemble to form a public body."

This would support that the blog is part of the public sphere. Blogs are conversation for people to read and decide whether or not they support. They help to gather opinions and support. They work to communicate a message to a larger group of people this way more than one person can have an opinion and this opinion can be peer reviewed.

He would say blogs are apart of the the "Public Opinion." Because that's what blogs are opinions on topics. Habermas says "It is no coincidence that these concepts of public sphere and public
opinion cam about [ in the eighteenth century]." These two go hand in hand and play off of each other.

Although it is apart of the public sphere I would say that blogs can take away from the public sphere because for some people it allows them to say things without feeling like it is connected to them. They can be more free with their words and opinion because they are not having to say this to a person. The instead are saying it and if you do not like it you can always hit the the hand "x" button. So for me I will always appreciate when someone say their own opinion, to my face and gives me a chance to respond and see their initial reaction/hear their initial argument.

Made in America

http://www.zoom-in.com/media/graphics/blog/content/soprano_poster_season6B.jpg

I have never seen and episode of the Sopranos.  I actually was never allowed to watch it because my Italian father hated and still hates the way it portrays Italians.  He believes that it provides Americans with a skewed image of true Italian culture.  

So that being said my first quote that I am choosing to discuss is about the linguistics of this poster. 

 

"At the level of the literal message the text replies-in a more or less direct, more or less partial manner- to the question: what is it?  The text helps to identify purely and simply the elements of the scene and the scene itself; "

The words in this poster read "The Final Episodes- April 8, 9 PM" this is written in black letters and placed to the upper left.  Since the words are placed on the upper left it lets the reader know the information without distracting from the image.  It is important so it is seen.  However it does not take away from anything the actual image.  It answers the question of "what is it" by telling the viewer the information of it is the final episode and when it can be seen.  The next image that can been seen is "Made in America" which is written in red letters.  This is important because it helps communicate what the image us about.  First of in case anyone was confused this is taking place in America.  It is also signifying that there is some level of the American culture in the show.  It is also a comment on how not all things are made in America which lets you know that there is most likely another culture dealt with one that has a predominant affect on the culture because it is the only thing in the poster that has color.  

Onto the next part of the poster!

"Putting aside the linguistic message, we are left with the pure image"

The pure image of this poster is a man looking back at Ellis island and more specifically the Statue of Liberty.  Knowing the City and New Jersey, it looks like he is heading more in the direction of New Jersey.  However, since he is looking back at Ellis Island it indicates that he has some form of history helping to communicate that his culture may be more than just American. 

"If the image contains signs, we can be sure that in advertising these signs are full, formed with a view to the optimum reading: the advertising image is frank, or at least emphatic."

This holds true to this poster because there is not a lot going on in the poster.  There is only the man looking back at the statue of Liberty.  The most noticeable thing about this poster is either that the is a man or that it is gray.  Speaking about the gray it is a very bland color.  It is used to portray when things are a mix of emotions.  Which could be comment on the show or that it is in its final episodes.  It is an in between color.  It could also comment on the relationship of the man in his location.  He is on the Hudson facing New Jersey, but closer to New York.  It is emphatic because there is no clear emotion or image it is a mix.  

BOOO! IT'S THE BLAIR WITCH

“...for the first time – and this is the effect of the film – man has to operate with his whole living person, yet forgoing its aura. For aura is tied to his presence; there can be no replica of it. The aura which, on the stage, emanates from Macbeth, cannot be separated for the spectators from that of the actor. However, the singularity of the shot in the studio is that the camera is substituted for the public. Consequently, the aura that envelops the actor vanishes, and with it the aura of the figure he portrays.”

According to this quote they are saying that when they become actors on the film they lose what makes them real.  So for the blair witch project that actors apparently lost their "aura."  This then makes it impossible for the actor to create a character because the moment he or she acts for an audience they lose their "aura" or skill for being an actor. So by saying this it would give the idea that nothing in the blair witch project could be proven true because the actors are not portraying things that are impossible to portray.  

“Magician and surgeon compare to painter and cameraman. The painter maintains in his work a natural distance from reality, the cameraman penetrates deeply into its web. There is a tremendous difference between the pictures they obtain. That of the painter is a total one, that of the cameraman consists of multiple fragments which are assembled under a new law. Thus, for contemporary man the representation of reality by the film is incomparably more significant than that of the painter, since it offers, precisely because of the thoroughgoing permeation of reality with mechanical equipment, an aspect of reality which is free of all equipment. And that is what one is entitled to ask from a work of art.”

This quote is explaining how the Blair Witch Project will give a more accurate portrayal of what is real 

because the camera is less likely to manipulate what is going on.  Where as with a picture the artist  has full control over what is being painted.  Whether this is true or not is up to your discretion.  I believe that both can be easily manipulate with little to no effort.  This deals with the blair witch project because they shot this film on a low budget and used that to help manipulate what was going on in the film while still trying to convince their audience of the documentary gone wrong.  

The Difference

Tokyo Story  is by far the film that I have had the hardest time watching.  Although we were warned about it, I did not expect it to be as slow and as calm as it was.  My expectations were completely off my only experience with asian cinema has been Fallen Angels which was rather intense throughout the film.  

Looking back I should have not generalized the films and also considered the amount of time between making these films.  However, they juxtapose each other perfectly.  One being very zen like and one being exhausting to the eyes.  

A classic hollywood film and Tokyo Story are very hard to compare to each other.  Tokyo Story creates a sense of realism through its zen practical nature.  It takes a story about something that is not out of the ordinary- parents going to visit their children and then the mother getting very ill and dying- and comments on  how parents and their children's relationship evolve and are changed over time.  It comments on how parents should be proud of their children even if they don't do what they expect.  It takes the relationships and explains how families need to move on.  It also expresses a comment on how even though people may not share your blood ties they can still be considered apart of your family.  

Hollywood cinemas are  very different in the way they create a sense of realism. They create it by showing what the ideal world is and telling the viewer what it takes to have it.  They create "realism" almost by faking it.  A great thing to talk about is that in Tokyo Story the mother dies off screen, I feel like in any classic Hollywood cinema the mother would never die off screen because those are things that are considered to be okay in American/Hollywood cinemas.