Submitted by Angela on Wednesday, April 26, 2006 - 03:56

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My video collage is almost a continuation of my photo essay. In my photo essay I focused on environmental issues. One of those issues was Sustainable Development. In the video collage I took that a step further and decided to take a closer look at agriculture with in sustainable development. Thus the video gives a little introduction on the importance of agriculture, an overview of the purpose of sustainable agriculture, and a few of its goals. I viewed the collage as almost like a mini commercial that was advertising Sustainable agriculture. The most challenging portion for me in this project was to find a song that fit the topic.

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Submitted by Angela on Saturday, April 8, 2006 - 20:15

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Playlist Assignment:
My playlist was based on the book “I am Charlotte Simmons.” When I go to see a movie I always pay attention to the music used during various scenes because the music enhances the movie by correlating to the feelings of characters and events in the plot. If the music fits appropriately, just listening to particular song from that movie can conjure up memories and images from the movie even long after it has been seen. Thus for my play list I wanted to pick songs that correlated with the “I am Charlotte Simmons” novel in order to create a kind of novel soundtrack that would remind me of the events within the story. All of the songs relate to either characters or important events. For each song included I provided a summary for why a particular song was chosen and what characters and events the song correlated to. For each song available song clips were provided to further indicate the mood each song provided in the novel soundtrack. To update my play list I recently added lyrics for all of the songs to provide further information on them.
I really liked this assignment because I play with Itunes all the time but before this assignment I had never made a playlist on the program before. However, after this assignment I have been making other playlist with different themes, for instance I have a stress mix, that is full of mellow songs for after I have had a long day.
Play List

Podcast:
The podcast group I participated with decided to do a podcast called “The Dead Poet’s Society.” The podcast was based upon the life and works of Edgar Allen Poe. The podcast started off with an on air introduction of the guests and an intro to the featured poet (Edgar Allen Poe), of the show. A lot of background was given on Mr. Poe’s gloomy life, and this was related to a lot of the subject matter he decided to use in his poems and short stories. Our group didn’t get a chance to do the podcast over but if we had recorded again I would have done some things differently. For instance in the beginning we had a lot of background information on Mr. Poe which could have been annotated to create contrasting voices and to keep the listener engaged. Also we could have picked one or two more poems to contrast with “Annabel Lee” to look at common themes, imagery, mood, and other rhetorical devices. This would have given more of a chance to look at literary devices. I thought the individuals who “called in” to the show where very good, so I would definitely keep that and the ending that was done.
Dead Poet’s Society
Collage:
-For my first collage I started off by finding images that I thought described my personality, interest, and things that describe me. For instance I have images of a dancer, an atom, and a city to describe my interests in dance, science, and traveling. I also put in some personal photos, like the beach picture, my dog spike, and a Lenny Kravitz photo from a concert I went to in order to display some of the things I do for fun and cherish in life. I also added subtle images of water droplets, exclamation points, and smiley faces, and green leaves, to describe my personality, as smooth like water, sometimes surprising, positive, and overall just natural like a leaf. In this collage I used a lot of color also to make it bright and enticing to look at. I also used some words on this one to describe the pictures, and myself.
-For the second collage I decided to switch the whole thing up and use a couple of different black and white images that were similar to those that I used in color. I also blended more of the photos and to soften the edges and I focused more on a circular shape to make the collage less sharp and bold as the first.
-In the third collage using words I used a textured background circuit board background, water droplet squares, ovals, and circles to create a collage that used congruent shapes. In this collage I used some of my favorite inspirational quotes to utilize word usage. Also I made this collage darker than the others with odd metallic colors. This collage was my favorite.
Collage 1
Collage 2
Collage 3

Photo essay:
My photo essay was on the Environmental Movement and some of the major issues it covers. In the essay I explored many topics from suistainable development to divisions in the movement. I tired to chose colors found in nature such as various green shades and and blues fro some of the headings. This time I also experimented with doing background images in PhotoPlus. In photo plus I used a green background and blended an image of leaves over it and reduced the opacity to create a pretty cool background. I tried to add really bright pictures and I also used some different columns and tables to change up the format on each slide. For the introductory page I also used Photo Plus to create a mini collage of most of the images I used in the slide show.
Photo Essay

Blog Postings:
-What moves us and Rap: These are two of my first blog postings discussing the messages in music and how we relate to them. I thought this was one of the most interesting postings that we did as a class because we explored the real importance of words and the different types of messages that are sent through music.
Blog 1
Blog 2
-Reality T.V.
These are two of my responses to why individuals are drawn to reality TV and what we get out of it. My personal thought on reality T.V is that we are basically drawn to it because we more or less relate by imaging what we would do in the same situation.
Blog 3
Blog 4

-Body Image
These are two of my postings about the Body image segment that we did. I found this section very interesting because this is a very prevalent issue amongst our society today. With all of the new modes of media that we have we are being bombarded by the “correct body image more than ever. This is causing more insecurity amongst individuals and more hazardous behaviors such as eating disorders and steroid use.
Blog 5
Blog 6
-Collages and Artist
I made this posting when starting out on composing my collage. I was having a hard time because I wanted to create a message in my collage but I had to do it with images. I was reflecting on how hard it must be for artists to depict images and make them speak for themselves. I thought about how images are good at depicting verbs, like a picture of someone dancing on an obvious level depicts movement and the verb to dance. However it may also be associated with feelings such as joy, life, etc. However, that is what an artist has to think about they must go beyond the obvious of an image in order to create a work that says something. For a writer they must piece together words that convey a message but for a artist they must piece together visual elements to convey a message.
Blog 7

-Film
These two blog postings are all about the film units we have been doing. The first reflects on the whimsical movie “Raising Arizona.” This movie always struck me as humorous in a weird sort of way since the way themes and lighting in the movie create this odd yet funny mood and also because Nicolaus Cage’s plays a character that was so different from his other roles. The second posting is about the state of our nation’s intellect as seen in short films. Of course I am a fan of humor so I chose really funny clips and discussed how popular these many clips are becoming on shows like vH1’s web junk.
Blog 8
Blog 9

Video Collage

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Submitted by Angela on Tuesday, April 4, 2006 - 15:53

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The first video I researched is a spoof off Home Star Runner’s teen girl squad. It is a home made video by a bunch of girls. For anyone who has ever watched teen girls squad you know it completely makes no sense what so ever. It is just a poorly drawn cartoon that we some how find funny because of its sheer absurdity. To many adults of today they would say that youth culture is like teen girl’s squad it makes no sense and that we delight in absurdity. However, I think this interpretation is a little harsh I think that there is a shift occurring in the way youth view entertainment and media. Youth culture is defining new trends and entertainment standards that we think are funny. We are exploring with more media devices and communication techniques and it is causing social and cultural changes. For instance in the 1950’s you would not have seen girls making their own video’s and editing them to make parodies of a cartoon. However, due to the fact that we live in an age of communication it is easier for anyone to express themselves and expand their knowledge on the technologies available. This has caused most youth to shift more towards forms of entertainment that are more real life based and make fun of everyday living. Thus we make home video spoofs of cartoons to entertain ourselves and experiment with other “real life” media forms.

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Submitted by Angela on Tuesday, April 4, 2006 - 14:47

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One of the movies I have decided to do for my analysis is “Raising Arizona,” by the Cohen brothers. This movie is quite interesting in that it has always stuck out in my mind as something I remembered but I don’t know why. The first time I saw it I had just finished watching “City of Angels” with Meg Ryan and Nicholas Cage, in my search for more Nicholas Cage movies I happened upon “Raising Arizona” in which Mr. Cage’s character was a far cry from his romantic, deep thinking character in “City of Angels.” However, when I watched it I found it funny but yet it was just a very quirky, odd movie that stood out.

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Submitted by Angela on Thursday, March 9, 2006 - 23:12

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Right now I still don't have alot of my photoessay finalized. I will probably change the layout again and some of the pictures as most of them are just space holders to give me an idea of things I might do with the photo shop. But until then here is the link for my Photoessay

Submitted by Angela on Sunday, March 5, 2006 - 18:13

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For my photo essay I have decided to explore the aspects related to the environmental movement. There are many social aspects related to the environmental movement that aren't commonly considered. Also I would like to explore some of the debates within the movement and present two sides to the argument.

Submitted by Angela on Sunday, February 19, 2006 - 19:12

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When it comes to identity assignments like this it is actually very hard to find things that represent your character and traits as a whole. It is not that bad if you are coming up with a collage based on your interests or favorite actions. Pictures do a very good job of depicting verbs but as far as describing actual attributes it is much harder to convey messages with photos since appearance is only skin deep. That makes me think about how hard it must be for artist. I could never imagine being an artist because your work must speak for itself and be able to not only depict actions but it must convey emotions.

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Submitted by Angela on Friday, February 10, 2006 - 22:52

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I just wanted to say that I really enjoyed the body image article. I don't think we take enough time to think about how much we are affected by media images. We like to think that we are immune but in fact this is far from true. The average person is exposed to hundreds of images each day concerning the "correct" attire, body image, makeup, or products they should be using. Due to our consumerist tactics, the perfect body image is pushed at us to make us feel insecure and lacking. These feelings of insecurity lead to the urge to by products that we think will feel this gap. However, the gap can only be filled by truly loving ourselves.

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Submitted by Angela on Friday, February 3, 2006 - 02:24

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Ok, everyone this is our rough outline for our podcast. If you have any updates/suggestions please post them. Thanks!

Podcast Outline (Dead Poet’s Society):
1. ~Creepy Music Intro
~Introduce Hosts (Rodney, Angela); Introduce the Radio Show (ie. Welcome to 98.6 FM this is…..)
~Biography of Edgar Allen Poe (Two hosts tell biography)
~Introduce Literary Critic
2. Connections between Life and Poetry
~(Robert, Literary Critic) discusses Poe’s Life and its connection to his poems
~Hosts Thank Literary Critic and Introduce Sample Poem
3. Poetic Sample (Annabel Lee Audio Clip)
~Discuss Poem between Hosts and Literary Critic

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Submitted by Angela on Monday, January 23, 2006 - 02:36

playlist

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This is my playlist that chronicles the novel "I am Charlotte Simmons," and tells the story of many individuals who find the transition to college to be a rough one. Read the previous post to get more information on the angle for my playlist.

Destiny-Gloria Estefan: “Destiny" is a song about accomplishing goals, and having the determination and confidence to reach for the sky. After Charlotte graduates high school with honors and is accepted to DuPont she feels she can reach any goal. She is exhilarated with the self confidence that she will be able to take DuPont head on and succeed at anything

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Submitted by Angela on Monday, January 23, 2006 - 02:24

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While looking though my Itunes recently I began to look at all the music I had from soundtracks. Watching movies is indeed one of my favorite pastimes and I greatly enjoy the music that accompanies the motion picture. Music is a very big part of movies because it cues the audience on what emotion to feel whether it is joy, morose, liberation, etc. Like words in music, I think music in movies adds an extra layer of emotion to a movie. For instance in “Bridget Jones’ Diary” the song “All by Myself” is used to relay Bridget’s extreme feeling of isolation to the audience after she breaks up with Mr. Mark Darcy. Thus I realized a lot of thought goes into to creating a soundtrack that accurately portrays the correct emotion to the audience. Similarly I thought it would be neat to create a play list that accurately portrays the emotions and tells the story of a favorite narrative of mine. Thus for my play list assignment I would like to create a play list centered on the novel “I am Charlotte Simmons” by Tom Wolfe. “I am Charlotte Simmons” is all about coming of age and overcoming obstacles while undergoing the major transitions of college.

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Submitted by Angela on Thursday, January 19, 2006 - 17:14

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Fields Of joy:
Fields of Joy

Submitted by Angela on Wednesday, January 18, 2006 - 21:07

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My personal definition of music is held to be an artistic work that conveys an emotion or tells some type of story. So I don’t think that thinking of a musical work as a documentary style changes the perspective, it rather enhances it. Words in a musical work are an added layer that adds strength to the overall feeling of the work. Last semester I went to see DJ Spooky and his rendition of “Rebirth of a Nation” he used music as an added layer in his remix of the racial “Birth of a Nation” movie to convey another message. Similarly, I think words in a musical work add to the original feeling of the work and help to press the theme of the work.

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