Blog 9: New York Performing Arts Library

Although I am not a performing arts student, I found the library very interesting. Since I am planning to study interior design in the future, I enjoyed the section where they had books that teach you about color coordination and interior design throughout history. In the second level thay had books that described the making of almost every film made in history. I found the reasons behind the film making of a movie we saw in film class, 'Sunrise.' My favorite section was in the lower level where they had thousands of movies on DVD and VHS. Why go to blockbuster? Without a doubt I will be visiting the Library of performing arts again to take advantage of the great selections they have.

Blog 8.5: A Vision of Students Today

The main purpose of this video is to show the difficulties students have in colleges and universities. When we discussed our issues in class, they appeared to be the same as most of the student from this video. I am hoping to enter a four year college next semester and the problems I am going to face make me nervous but commited. I know that classes will get bigger and the work will become harder but that is what we have to do to become successful. I really hope that the work and struggle pays off.

Simone and the American dream

Virtual reality has affected our society in great ways in the past decade. Most films adapt the ideas that were presented to us by philosopher who thought we were living in an illusion. The matrix, vanilla sky, and the Truman show are just some movies that have used these theories to make us question once more if we are truely living in a virtual world. The movie 'Simone' has a diffrent plot becaus it analyzes and explains how these implied imaginatives corrupt our society. We do not necessarily praise robots or other non existing 'humans', but we do this for pop stars and other media giants who are over credited for their performances. The movie may seem over estimated but this is how we act today in a non virtual world.

Blog 7: Research

There are many great topics to discuss in the media, whether they be about controversial issues or topics that influence the society. The main topic that I have focused on is how the media exaggerates news stories for different purposes. In the media today there are a couple of headlines that seemed overwhelmed because they have not yet caused damage, or do not have any meaning whatsoever. The main reason why this publicity has gotten over handled is because the media is trying to cover something up. The important news is getting hidden because the media wants to create a false hope for society and keep this nation under control. These past months, the US has suffered an economic break down but instead of getting the full story, we see people focusing on other things that have no significance such as what kind of puppy is living in the white house. Swine flu has also taken up most of the news coverage in the world. Some people debate on how important this issue is because it hasn’t even killed more than 5 people in this country in the past month. The value of these issues should be controlled by the media and they should only give us what we need to hear not what we want to hear. Even though the media tries to hide stuff from us, we need to find the truth ourselves by watching news that are not controlled by mass conglomerates such as fox and other news stations. Information is the key that will us become a better nation.

shadows and the uncanny

Two major phycologists who explain the reasons for our sometimes unexplainable actions are Jung and Freud. Their concepts contradict each other in someways. I think we all experience both of their theories in our based on our desicion making. The Freudian concept is that everything may seem new and weird, but also strangely familiar, the uncanny. Everything around us that is ot natural is uncanny, such as new technologies that we use everyday. If we were to have a travel machine we would be freaked out but also intrigued because in aour minds we have dreamed of this before. Jung uses his theory of 'The shadow' to explain the part of us that is socially unacceptable. C.G Jung explained that the ego controlled this shadow which resulted in our negative yet passive actions. Examples of this attitude is conveyed in the fims we have watched in class. In 'Abre los ojos', Cesar's life is controlled by his thoughts, but his shadows overpower his ego and he only see's the negative side of situations.

Abre los Ojos

In class we watched the film "open your eyes" which was a great movie because it makes you think outside the box. As I was watching 'abrelos ojos' I made connections with the themes in the Matrix. The ideas of both films were very similar, in the begining of the movies we absorb the normal lives of the main characters. Both movies show how the real world was actually a virtualized world where your mind controls what is happening around you. In 'abre los ojos' we see that Cesar paid for a company to make him live in this virtual world voluntary, where as in the matrix, machines take over and trap humans inside this computerized world. In class we al=so discussed the allegory of the cave which holds similar beliefs to the theme of this movie. In general this film makes us question whether everything around us is real.

103 project

For our research project I am thinking that I should write about how we as teenagers in the united should be more involved in our society and be more up to date in our current events. I can research how different parts of the media sometimes grab our attention but for things that have no useful information and can sometimes isolate us from the 'real world'. I think that this is a very broad topic that will help to show us new uses of the media.

Comparing the Matrix, Star trek, and Farscape

Before spring break, we watched a couple of episodes that carried out
the same theme that was used in the matrix. First we watched an episode
from star trek "The Royale." I've never been a fan of Star Trek, but this episode holds a lot of interesting
ideas and the plot is very engaging. The crew aboard the Enterprise
discover a piece of debris in space and see that it once belonged to
NASA. They decide to send out three members into what seems to be a
storm, When they arrive there is nothing but a revolving door. After
much consideration the team decides to enter and they find out that
they are in a the casino Royale hotel. They begin to interact with
people but when they decide to leave, they realize that they are stuck.
With the help of a gadget they find out that the people around them are
not humans,there is only one human in the whole place but he has been
dead for a while. When the crew reads the mans diary they find out that
aliens have built this fake world based on a novel. They agree to
complete the plot in the novel and finally are able to leave the hotel.
The second episode we watched was the Farscape Episode "A Human Reaction" in this episode the same theme was applied. the main character named john, hears from the captain of their ship that they have discovered a wormhole that leads to earth. Desperate to get home john leaves through the wormhole. He land in australia and is arrested by agent that he knows. The officers arrest him because they think he might not really be a human and they find him as a threat. His friends from Farscape One come to rescue him but are arrested too. After two of his friends are mistreated John decide to escape with Aeryn. When they are walking in the streets John realizes that everything is strangly familiar to him and when he saw the newspaper, it had the date of seven months ago. When he confronts his father, they tell him the truth that everything around him has been simulated to see if he had a human reaction. The Ancients then let him go back to the Farscape.

Everthing in these two episodes are supported by the main idea that was brought up to our class by the Matrix. The idea that we realize that we are not living in an actual reality but that we are being controlled. In these episodes the main characters discover this because of the odd reaction of supposed humans. In the Matrix, Morpheus told him the truth about the Matrix and Neo decided to go against it. All these characters are just trying to either leave or destry the virtual world.

about me

Hi, my name is Mara Hernandez and i am currently a freshman at La Guardia. My major is Liberal arts because I am undecided on what career I want to study.
I was born and raised in the Bronx but my family is planning to move down to Houston! I am so excited because I prefer to live in a smaller city.
I have four brothers and no sisters which makes my life somewhat harder. I work twice as hard on chores even though people think that my parents treat me like a princess. I almost forgot, I am also the youngest.
My parents came to the united states 35 years ago due to the poverty they were living in El salvador. Although I am salvadorian, I travel to Mexico twice a year due to my religion. When I walk into a room the first thing most people notice is my long skirt. Some people resent religions but i see mine as a way of life. The church I attend is called The light of the world, and that is what we have to be.
Besides church, I like to sing, draw, design clothing, cook, ride my bicycle, horse riding, and my importantley, care for my puppy. His name is Messi and he's the cutest dog i've ever known. He's very obidient and loves to learn new tricks.
I am currently single, but do have my eye on someone. Anyways, i guess i'll just keep my mind in school. Some majors that I am considering are Fashion merchandising, nutritionist, and real estate agent.
When i move to Houston I will decide which major to pursue.

what is the matrix???

One time or another our minds have wandered to as what purpose we have on this earth. Naturally we want to know what we're doing here and where we are going. With this in mind, many religions and beliefs have been formed. In more logic terms, philosophers have studied this mentality. Socrates came up with a theory that we live in a cave and can only see the 'real world' as an illusion outside our current dwelling. The matrix has a very similar concept in which Neo(the main character) lives in an artificial world that has been programed. He has been taken into the real world and decides to destroy the matrix. I honestley disagree with these ideas because I believe that we are living in the real world. We only have one life to live but I also believe that there is another life after we die. I believe that our bodies are just vehicles and the one that is guiding that vehicle is our soul. That soul will be the one to inherit another life. My beliefs are spiritual and everyone has diffrent ideas. The conception of the matrix and socrates cave is very intresting and an affecting viewpoint.