Bamboozled: Oh My Freaking Stars!

This blog is a response to not only the movie Bamboozled but also a kind of slight response or comment to the blog An Open Letter to My Students by Elyn Blackman. I knew that I wanted to respond to the blog and I may do a better response later but after watching the movie I felt like I should say something.

Today, for the first time, I saw the movie Bamboozled. Well I saw most of it but what I saw was a shock to the system. The movie Bamboozled is written and directed by Spike Lee which should have been my first clue about the content, it did catch my attention though. THe movie is about this black writer, with and ivy-league education, who works at a major television network and all of his shows, his pilots for shows that are a lot like the Cosby Show and Dif’rent Strokes, continue to be rejected. So to kind of prove to the network that what they are asking for is really not what they want he comes up with this plan to have minstrel show  with the black cast having blacker faces instead of the white people having black face, but surprisingly the show becomes an instant hit almost. Well I don’t really know what happens next because I haven’t seen it, but what I saw was seriously surprising and had a big impact.

I wasn’t actually sure what I should think of when I saw some of the movie. When the movie started I knew that is was supposed to be satirical and it had something to do with black people because it was a Spike Lee movie but the farther the movie went the more I started to wonder whether I should be offended or not. For the most part there is almost nothing that can offend me because I’m open minded and I can’t really judge other people when I have my own faults so I was quite surprised to see a movie that could make me wonder if I should be. I’m the type of person that doesn’t really see color when it comes to race not only because of the way I was raised but also because of the way my attitude is. When I was little, all of my schools were mostly black but there was always one white person in my classes. Every year for some reason the white person in the class would become my best friend. When I got to college though I was instantly surrounded by white people and it kind of threw me off because it was something totally different. Every roommate that I have had so far has been white and the majority of the people that I know are white. I never really focus on that issue until it actually becomes an issue which hasn’t really happened so far. Sometimes I feel bad when I hang around my black friends and they talk about how this white person did this or that and in my head I’m thinking that color had nothing to do with the situation but they fuss about how it was because they were white that they did what they did or said what they said. 

But over the last couple of weeks in English it seems as if I am kind of pointed out. I know that its not on purpose and I’m pretty sure they don’t know they are doing it but I find it really funny how when the subject of race comes up in class people kind of hold there tongues about it because there is a black person in the room. It kind of reminds me of the episode of Family Guy when Stewie is telling a black joke and he searches around to see if there are any black people around and when he starts to tell the joke a black guy shows up and it gets awkward. I’m the type of person that laughs at every type of race joke, unless it is really offensive, regardless of what type of person is making the joke. It makes me notice that for the first time I am the the only black person in the class. I don’t really care but I think that they possibly take my silence as offense but I really don’t care. 

So that being said I’m really shocked to the fact that this movie really made me feel some what offended even though it was satirical. I think that main reason I was slightly offended was because it seemed like people in the class were trying not to laugh because I was in the room because a lot of it was funny. I’m still not quite sure what to think about it but I think that after I watch the rest of the movie I will know what I am really  feeling and know how to respond. 

 

FIN

What is Masculinity

vs  Sometimes when you think about certain word you realize that they can’t really be defined. One of those words that was brought to my attention recently was masculinity. To me there really isn’t a real defined definition for masculinity. I think that everyone has there own definition for it. Some people think that masculinity is found in appearance and some think it is found in certain mannerisms. A lot of people portray the extra muscly guys as masculine and the truth is that some of those guys could be the exact opposite of what they look like. They could be extra girly. I think that there are so many types of guys that have the qualities that could be viewed as masculine or manly. But the truth is there are other qualities that could be viewed as masculine because other people think that they are good qualities. Today there is definitely no definition, but back in the forties and fifties there was a basic definition that no longer holds up because there is no longer that stigma of straight up hate for more feminine  guys. Now every culture has there definition and we therefore have no set definition. The movie Brokeback mountain kind of made people view things differently in a sense. Everyone had this idea of cowboys being real manly and masculine and when they created this movie that kind of washes that image down the drain just because most people don’t think that man lovers are very masculine but at the same time when they weren’t loving each other they were the normal picture perfect version of the manly cowboy. 

What Johnson Has to say

After reading the book by Stephen Johnson, I kind of felt like I had read it before. I think that it was in the English 101 Carolina Reader. I’m not exactly sure because I don’t have the reader anymore but I’m pretty sure it was in there. The book was pretty good. I actually enjoyed the book becuase it was about the kind of things that I am interested in and the things that I would defend. I think that Johnsons arguments about games, television and the advancement of technology in general are well thought out and something new. You always hear things about how games and television are just causong people to lose brain cells, but you never hear about how these games and shows help use different parts of the brain and that it really isn’t that bad. I have personally learned a lot of things about economics and history and biology and other subjects just from playing different video games. He wrote the book very well and it was very informing and he made the aurgument and didn’t really seem biased but very informing. He noted that even though popular culture today does have its own helpful properties but he notes that the traditional things like reading and things like that are still important.

The book did kind of help me figure out a thesis for my paper because for the longest time I couldn’t reallu figure out what I was supposed to do. I couldn’t figure out what I should do but after reading the book it did help me figure out my aurgment for my paper.

Social Networking

I looked up a profile on Myspace of a random person named Allison in Anchorage, Alaska. The girls’ page was completely pink with an angel theme. From the main points of the page you would find that she was 21 years old and she had a daughter that was currently 8 months. She seemed to put a lot of information on her page as if she didn’t really care if a random person could find out about her. Just from looking at her profile I think that she would be a really fun person to be around. Her main comment was “Dork is the new cool.” That is one of the best comments ever because the truth is dork is the new cool. Her profile picture is of her on a dirt-bike which is pretty cool to me. She seems like that type of person that likes to have fun just doing simple stuff like playing video games or just riding a dirt bike around town. You can also tell that she is a deep person and she also is responsible because it seems as if her life revolves around her daughter.

Surprisingly though she gives a lot of information about herself. She gives her full name as well as the fact that she had two different names on her social security card and her birth certificate. She gives the name of her daughter and how her relationship with her babies father  is currently going.  She lets you know where she has worked and how long she worked there. You know that she drinks but doesn’t smoke. You could tell a lot of things about her just from this profile.  You can tell what music and what movies she likes as well as what television shows she likes. from this profile if you wanted you could probably find her whenever you wanted just because there is so much information about her from the profile.

From her like in movies, television shows and music you can tell that she is really diverse and eclectic. Her music included rap, R&B, metal as well as alternative and pop. From her movies you could tell that she had a love for comedy because most of the movies were comedies. There were also more dramatic and non-comedic movies in the group but there were more comedy movies than any other movie genres. The television shows have a nice range to them as well. She has medical shows(House) as well as cartoons, reality TV(Jon and Kate plus 8), and Sex and the City. She is a very diverse person and seems to like many different things.

I think that her profile for the most pat was more about making friends than anything else. There is too much personal stuff on there for it to be networking for a business or something like that. I don’t think that she is looking for a relationship because she clearly states that she is in a relationship with her babies father. Also it says under her details that she was here for friends. She lets you know point blank what she really is there for to make friends.

Just from looking at this profile page you can learn so much about a person and this isn’t good all the time. Sometimes it’s not good when you have so much information about yourself that anyone can come a look for you and find you if they wanted to.

Satire Report

I read two different articles about the release of the final Harry Potter book in the summer. One from the Onion and one from the BBC News network. There was actually a big difference between the conventional one and the satirical one. The Satirical on form the Onion seemed to be a lot more funny in the fact that it had a lot of jokes and funnier comments about the readers. While the conventional one had more statistics and wasn’t funny at all. The content was a little dull the only reason it was interesting was because it was about the Final Harry Potter book.

They used different words to describe things. Like the article from the Onion was bizarre and funny. It seemed as if it didn’t have any bondaries. The conventional one seemed exactly what it was conventional. It seemed like they were trying hard not to offend someone but instead it seemed as if it was using straight statistics and comments. The Onion also used made up words that were supposed to poke fun at the content of the Harry Potter book like, “evil Hufflestuff people”. It made the information more fun to read and there was a real sarcasim to it.

The Onion has no boundries from the  look of the article they are very sarcastic and they go for jokes. The conventional is very specific and they don’t make fun in a funny situation. The Onion does there own thing. They usewords that don;t exist in the eniglish vocabulary. It is a very different style.

My Book Review Choice

Honestly I had a hard time deciding on what book I wanted to read because surprisingly there were a couple of books that I thought would be interesting to read. In the end the book that I chose to review was Once Upon a Quinceañera: Coming of Age in the USA, by Julia Alvarez. The main reason that I chose this particular book is because I already knew a little bit about the subject in the book. The only thing is that you get a bit of a personal experience of a quinceañera without the flashiness of the ones shown on My Super Sweet Sixteen on MTV. Also I have a really big interest in the Hispanic/Latino culture.

There are a lot of things that I know about the content of the book. I know about the actual tradition of the quinceañera and how it is treated as a coming of age ceremony in the Hispanic community. It is viewed as a lot like the sweet sixteen in America. The main thing that I know about it is that it usually has a full out ceremony and not just a party. The daughters father changes her shoes from flat to heels to represent the change to womanhood. There is usually a dance and everyone is dressed up. I compare it to the debutante balls that many high class people have for there children when they get older.

One of the things that I want to really know is how the the girls that do have these ceremonies look at the ones that you see on MTV’s My Super Sweet Sixteen. Do they think that because others are having these extremely flashy parties in big places and with stars coming do they think that they should have something as close to that as they are financially able to or do they just focus more on the meaning of the quinceañera. I also want to know how they go about planning such a lavish party for a 15 year old.

Basically the thing that caught my eye when I read about this book was when they said something about how Latino girl have become used to America’s super-size culture which I took to mean the lavish and flashy big parties that every with money is having. That really sealed the deal for me because not is something that I already have interest in already there is also a question that will be answered for me. How are the Latinos that have lived here all there lives differ from those that migrated to America later on in life.

I actually think that I might actually enjoy doing this assignment because this book will be very interesting especially for myself.

Blogging versus Press… What is True?

I was asked to think about the reliability and the integrity the news that you find in blogs and compare that to the integrity and reliability of the news found by the press/ major news channels and sites. Just by looking at the information found about the Iraqi war in both blogs as well as press article you can see differences. The information between the two sources do have some things alike but I couldn’t help but notice that blogs seemed to be more informative as well as graphic. The news information that you would find in the press would be limited because they wouldn’t want to make the war in Iraq look as bad as it is. It doesn’t show anything that would be more than PG 13. The web blogging gives the view of the people that are truly involved and how they feel about the entire situation. They show videos and pictures that the press wouldn’t even think about showing. Some of the things that the blogs show happening make you wonder what else the press is withholding from the war. In the press they reporters don’t truly report on the deaths. They really just say how many people died and that is was a car bombing or something along those lines but in the blogs they tell you how many people were killed, what the ages were, how they were killed and if it was on accident or if it was on person.

The fact that some of the writers of these blogs used to work for big news sources doesn’t really affect my view about the blogs. They still write the same way the only difference now is that the content is way stronger. If they are holding back with this large amount of info then that means that there is a lot more stuff that we know nothing about because they are already extremely graphic. It makes me think that they were upset about the little coverage that they were given while they were working for the big new sources, so they decided to do it on there own and tell the truth.

Truthfully I believe that all news lacks in information whether it be from a blog or from CNN. I think that because of the public the news networks don’t allow full information to prevent any harsh views. Also I believe that if the new networks give false information they could possibly be liable for a lawsuit by those that were involved in the story. So they do have a big reason to make sure everything that they say is true. They can’t just go and shoot off at the mouth because they could be sued for slander. The blogging writers however would be hard to file suit on because you never really know who is writing them . Of course you know what their screen name is but you won’t know who the writer really is. This also poses a problem for believability because you don’t know who is writing it. For all you know it could be Osama posing as a US soldier in Iraq. You never know what his background is and why his information is creditable. I do think that some of them are true in what they say but you can’t be sure which ones are so you can’t really trust everything you read in blogs.

Below is a video showing how some of the people were treated and embarrassed by soldiers. This is something that you would never see on a major news channel.

The Culture of Me

In one word you can describe my cultural interest. That one word would be “Entertainment”. Anything that deals with entertainment represents culture to me. Comedy, television, movies, Reality television, Food Network, hibachi, music, and anything else that entertains me. To me all of these things define the type of person you are and in some cases can define who you will become. The things that you watch on television and the food you eat can all define you as a person. All of the things that I love define me and define my culture.

Let’s look at some of the thing listed. To me music is almost everything to me. I was raised in a household where you heard music all the time. You heard it in the car on the way to school. You heard it on the weekends when we had our own family time. All that surrounding music became something important to me. All my life I have had music in me. I sing and play instruments. I went to competitions for singing in high school and middle school. My first college paper was written about how music is important for the mind and how it shouldn’t be removed from grade schools. Everything that you listen to in music always has some relevance in life regardless of what genre it is. I listen to every type of music from R&B and pop to country and metal. I like all types except polka but that might change soon any way. Music conveys the emotions that I feel in certain times and it allows me to relax and wind down and think about life. Music is a part of me and when I hear comments from people about certain genres and artists and how they relay on how the people who listen to them are the same way or will turn out the same way it make me mad. A lot of the time the person speaking has no idea about what they are talking about. There are many stereotypes about every kind music but the truth is that most of them aren’t true.

Food Network represent culture to me because not only is it a thing that I like to watch but it is something that I like to do. I love to cook, and I love to watch people cook. And over the years I have enjoyed cooking the food more than I have eating it. Also when I go home to my family that is what my family watches because they feel the same. They may not get around to actually cooking things but they do enjoy watching it. Food is like music too. Some people don’t understand the things that go on when you put the right ingredients together and make something special. I know that it sounds like a line fromRatatouille but it is the truth. If the food is cooked right and made with the right ingredients its like classical music in your mouth. 

For me all types of entertainment go along with me and I love everything about it, except of course when they have reality shows that are shown over and over and in the end its not really reality because all the things that are done are for the viewers and not for real.  

Introduction

This blog is just an introduction of me!
I’m a student in college. I enjoy just being me. I like to play games and read but I only like to read certain types of books. I love being in school because there is always someone there that will challenge you whether you want the challenge or not. I am a firm believer of the fact that not all teachers teach. I belive that today the school systems don’t hire teachers, they hire instructors, but on every blue moon there is a true teacher brought into the school system.
Some of my favorite things would include:

1. Cooking for friends and other people
2. Playing and listening to music
3. Being with my family (the family on my mothers side)