movie quotes in my conversations

video games for boys

bondock saints

my favorite movie is boondock saints. If you have not seen it, i would highly recommend it if you can't handle the language. the interesting thing about this movie is that it was going to come to theatres the week after the Columbine shooting. It never even came to alot of theatres because of the subject matter. I must wonder if the people who control the movies think we are that open to suggesting. If not, then i wonder why they choose to pull the movie from theatres. The director had a chance to have such a hit, but he got cheated out of his glory because no one got to see his work.
Teaching idea: how does the government and society make choices for us about the media we consume?

family guy

So, I love family guy. Next to "what not to wear," it is my favorite show. The problem is, I am not allowed to watch it in my apartment because my room mates find it offensive... which it is... which is why I love it. I watch family guy almost every night over at my best friend Jason's house. We both love it and have a similar sense of humor. So, I think what this post is really about is media and how it is received in different cultures and communities. Obviously family guy is accepted in most college communities, but not so much in the BYU community because of its offensive nature. Likewise, nude art or models are not exactly favored on our campus. I suppose that is not really media, but it is a mixed media i guess... anyway, as for using this idea in my future classroom, I am going to have to be careful what I bring into the school because it may be something that I accept in my own culture, but it may be frowned upon in the school community.

missionary letters

So, I wrote a post a while back about my aunt and the e-cards she sends me and how fake I think they are. It made me think that I kinda do the same thing. I have been writing to a missionary for almost 2 years now. We dated before he left, but we are currently just "friends." In my letters I talk about church. I write little scriptures in the margins. I never talk about my dating life or anything like that, even though it is a huge part of my life. I am editing myself through my letters. I know that he only knows what I tell him, and so I only tell him things I want him to know. It's really strange. I almost feel like I'm lying to him, but I guess, like i put in my last post... I'm just making myself better through media.

Idea: how do we act differently when we are not face to face with someone?

post secret

There is a website that I check every single Sunday morning. It is Postsecret.com. PostSecret is an ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a homemade postcard. It started out as a small community art project in NY and has since grown to be a country wide phenomenon. the founder, Frank Waren, gives lectures and has galleries everywhere. he has also come out with a few books, filled with peoples secrets. I own 2 of them myself and love to read them. I really feel connected with the people who send in their secrets, even though I have never met them. The secrets range from sweet, to funny, to sad, and sexual. It covers all range of human nature and I think that is why I love it. I have sent in many a secret myself. I have never seen any of mine again posted on the website or in a book, but it is therapeutic to know that at least someone, (Frank,) knows my secret. I have every intention on starting a project like this in the school that I will end up at. I think it builds community and helps people. I guess that is my teaching idea. I am going to do this with my students.
Here are some links if you want to read more:
http://postsecret.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2204279126
http://www.postsecretcommunity.com/

online greeting cards

So, my aunt sends me online greeting cards for every single holiday that there is. The funny thing is, is that it seems like a nice gesture, bu honestly, shes crazy and mean to me whenever we are actually in the same space. She puts up this sweet front, like, "Look how thoughtful I am and how much I care because I go to americangreetings.com and send the same e-card to everyone I know!" On top of which, the cards she sends me are so annoying that I can only ever get through about 1/3rd of the song or cartoon before i close the window and never even get to see the message she attached.

here is an example:
http://www.americangreetings.com/ecards/view.pd?i=462926004&m=1693&rr=y&source=ag999

just go there and see how long you can watch that before your eyes cross and you start loosing blood from your ears. i give you about 30 seconds.

really this post is more about putting up a front through media than the actually media itself. I think we all do this. It's like online dating. we put up a media front to make us seem better than we really are.

lesson plan: In the mask club 2 weeks ago Cyrano de Bergerac, we saw 2 men who were both flawed. one was good looking and one was eloquent but ugly. They worked together to woo a woman. The eloquent one was using his words to make him appear better than he really was. this could lead to a discussion on trustworthy information on the internet. How accurate are things when no one must be accountable for the media they produce?

Blogging...

So, we are supposed to have these media blogs for our class. I think its interesting that I have not yet blogged about my blogging experience. I am supposed to have 3-5 of these a week. That means that I have to come in contact with, recognize, think about, blogg about and come up with a lesson idea revolving around 3-5 pieces of media each week. I am more than sure that I come into contact with quadruple that many pieces of media in a week. However, it is the rest of the steps that are driving me crazy. I find myself sitting down in front of the computer every day and thinking, "I should work on those media bloggs that are due, but i have no ideas, and I think its busy work, and a waist of time, because even if i can come up with teaching ideas for the media i encounter, I can guarantee i will never use it in my classroom."
so, in short, i don't think i really have a lesson idea here because I hate this assignment. However, since i am being graded on it, i can say that I intend for my students to keep a theatre journal in my class and they can use a blogg instead of just paper and pencil and I can check them that way.

what not to wear

My favorite tv show is "what not to wear" on TLC. I watch it every chance i get and whn I am at home, I record it on TVO and watch p to 8 eisodes in a row, only stoping for food and water. :) However, I think it is really interesing how much this show has effected how i see myself and how i see other people. I love this show and I really think it has given me a little bit better of a fatshion sence, but it has also made me extreemly critical of other people. I never used to notice or care how people deressed. I find myself saying thing like, "Clinton would kill him for wearing that shirt," or "What were tehy thinking when they left the house?! did then not look in the mirropr?" or "Shut up! thay outfit is awful!" Previously, I only worried about how kind they were and how they treated me. I still love this show, but I can definantly see how it has changes my oppinion and relationship with th world.
For a teaching idea, we could have a writing assignment on a piece of media that has changed our outlook on life and hwhat it actually id to change it. we could thn share ideas and stories and discuss jsut how influential the media is in our society.

my car radio

I love my car more than anything. it is so ghetto and it is falling apart at the scemes. she is a 96 ford conture in dark green. I have had her since my sophmore year of highschool. She is the car I learned to drive in and I dread the day she dies and takes the long walk to the freeway in the sky. I replaced her tape deck with a CD player and replaced all of her speakers about a year ago because I had blown them all out with the radio. In December, the radio mysteriously stoped working. It sounded liek somthing was grounding out in the passenger side door because I could throw things at the door and things would fade in and out. It was really strange becasue I usually listen to hardcore RAP when I am driving around. When my radio went out, I drove around in silence. It was really interesting because I realised that I drove slower. I was calmer and had less road rage. Recentlly, I have had better luck and the radio has started working a little bit better. The crazy thing is that I am again listening to music in the car and I can notice a difference in my driving and in the atmousphere in the car.
For a teaching Idea, we can talk about media affecting our emotions and manipulating wht we feel. For an activiy I could tell them that we are going to wright about a time when yu felt really sad or depressed and that I am going to play some background music for them. let them start writing, and then turn on music that is really happy, bouncy, and joyfull and let them go for a minute. then turn off the msuic and talk about weather it was easier or harder to wright about somthing sad when the music was happy.

Kurt Halsey

This is a digital painting from my favorite artist in the world, Kurt Halsey Fredricen. his website is: Kurthalsey.com where you can see the rest of his fantastic artwork. I love his art and I have about 500$ worth of his art hanging on my walls and in my personal collection. I feel a connection with his earlier artwork becasue I felt like it was speeking directly to me. it was my expirences and my emotions that I was expirencing when i was looking at his art. The artwoerk is cute bu itself, but I love it and continueto collect it because it is personal to me and tells my story. Likesise, I think comercials are more effective at selling to their target audience when they relate to the viewer. A mom is more likle to but a swiffer duster to rid herself of ehr dogs hair if the comercial shows a woman fed up with dog hair and solves her problems with a swiffer. I think that could be a really interesting classroom discussion. How the media effectivly sells to a specific audience.

facebook

So, i figured i could not have a media blog as a college student and not write about facebook. Facebook is a huge part of my life. its how i keep in contact with people. If I'm not friends with people on facebook, we are not really friends. Thats just the way it is. I think that facebook is really altering the way people communicate. I have only talked to my best friend on the phone twice since Christmas, which is lame, but i facebook her every single day. I advertise for my show on facebook. I look at facebook instead of doing my homework. my friends know how i am doing because of my status on facebook. It's really twisted if you think about it... so i try not to think about it.
As for using this in a classroom, I think, like the myspace project, this could be used for character analysis and exploration. what would your profile picture be? what applications would they add? who would they talk to?

ducks

Boys are Doctors; Girls are Nurses.

• Boys are football player; Girls are cheerleaders.
• Boys invent things; Girl use the things boys invent.
• Boys fix things; Girls need things fixed.
• Boys are presidents; Girls are first ladies.

--I'm Glad I'm a Boy, I am Glad I am a Girl

by Whitney Darrow, Jr. ã 1970

when we read this book in class, I cringed. I am always frustrated with moms who wont allow their boys to play with dolls, or their girls to play with cars. I have a really hard time with the restrictions of gender that our society places on us. For example, There was a little boy that came into my work with his mom and sister. he picked up a hot pink rubber duck and came over to me and asked if Pink was a boy color. I replied that colors don't belong to anyone, and pink could be everyones color. He got a big grin on his face and skipped off. Later, his mother and sister and he came up to the register to buy their things and the little girl put a light pink rubber duck on the counter and the boy put his hot pink duck on the counter. His mom looked at him and then picked up the duck. She told him to, "put it back and choose either a blue duck or a yellow one, because pink is for girls. you sister can get a pink duck, but you cant." He got the saddest look I have ever seen on his face and said, with tears welling up in his eyes, "but I don't like blue or yellow. the pink is pretty." She made him put back the duck and get a blue one. He walked over, changed ducks, and put the blue one on the counter in front of me, and said that he couldn't like pink because he was a boy. My heart broke for this little kid. What was wrong with this woman!? This boy was only about 4 years old! I had to ring them up. If I had had a dollar in my pocket, I would have bought a pink duck for that kid. The moral: boys should be allowed to play with dolls if they want to. the end

As for using this in my classroom: I need to be careful when making assumptions about gender. There are a lot of gender stereotypes in the theater that I don't want to enforce or reject entirely. I don t want to put any of my students into a mold of what girls and boys are supposed to do. I also however, must be aware that my student may have parents who do enforce gender stereotypes. In high school there was a student pulled from the musical by his dad because his dad wanted him to do soccer, not dance in a musical. I need to be sensitive when dealing with gender issues in my classroom.

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Enchanted

so I got to see the movie Enchanted over Christmas break with my family and again last week when it finally came to the dollar theater. Actually, i have seen it 3 times in the dollar theater, for 3 consecutive days because I LOVE IT! I just get so happy when she starts singing. it is so remenicient of my childhood movies with princesses and princes. The great thing now is that they have pulled my childhood into the real world and also pulled in some more adult themes. (For example, when the finance walks in and Giselle is in a towel.) It is still innocent and adorable, but it is not an entirely fluffy movie. Ok, its a mostly fluffy movie, but i love it anyway. It made me take another look however at my old animated favorites. I was watching Hercules and i started to think how silly it would seem if set in the real world... I don't know.
As far as using this in a classroom, we could always discuss and evaluate the conventions that are acceptable in animated films but not in regular movies and compare it to musical theatre and straight theatre.