Independent Post #5

I decided to include this image for no other reason than that it was pretty. It's my last post; can't hurt to go out with a bang, right?

No? Too cheesy? Okay . . .

But fireworks do symbolize endings, at least I think they do, in a lot of contexts. And this course is drawing to a close.

Tomorrow will be our very last day. Our final assignment isn't due until Thursday, but still, after tomorrow, that will be it. No exam for us to glance at each other politely in before we get down to writing; tomorrow will be it.

So for my last post, I decided to do a quick reflection on my experiences with the course.

Let's start with the easy stuff; for starters, I always felt bad that I couldn't remember the names of any of my fellow students in the course XP

That probably wasn't at all polite, but maybe owning up for my ignorance now can help somewhat? I don't know, probably not.

Either way, for an 8 AM course, this was definitely not a suck-fest.

That probably sounds bad XDD But I am not a morning person, not in the slightest, and since I come in from Welland my alarm goes off at 5:10 in order to make sure I'm awake, dressed, fed and ready to head out the door for my bus at 7 (it also takes me a while to get out of bed).

I enjoyed the material that was assigned, as well as the assignments we were given. Compared to my other classes, the assignments for this class were very stress-free, even when I acted as a Discussion Initiator. Of course, I could have done a better job at keeping up with the blog XP If I didn't have a blog in another class, I probably would've been a lot better with keeping up with this one.

But the blog aside, the assignments weren't stressful to complete. That doesn't mean they were "easy" by any means - it was quite challenging to have to figure out how to write an exhibition review. And I'm probably going to feel equally challenged when I sit down to do my film analysis. The format won't be the problem, but to be honest, I don't think I understood the film very well. I'm hoping the course readings will help me out in that regard . . .

I liked getting to go and visit Rodman Hall. I never would've known about its existence, or ventured there on my own, if not for this class. Now I have two pins that I took from the front desk, now nestled on the front of my backpack, to show that I made the pilgrimage.

(truth be told, I took 3 pins from Rodman Hall XD)

I feel that I learned a lot from this course. I didn't dread coming into class early in the morning as much as I typically would, and I enjoyed the class material.

And I guess my hope is that I take something from the course and are able to look at arts & culture differently. I hope my ability to write regarding arts & culture has improved.

And now I'm signing off :) See you tomorrow

~ topCAPcritic

Reading Response #5

I'm not sure if this reader response counts as cheating, since it technically wasn't an assigned reading.

If it is, I apologize. But I had an incredible difficult time resisting the urge to write about this piece. It's been constantly in my head since the day it was handed to us in class, and I'm pretty sure it's going to stay there as a means of inspiration long after this class is wrapped up.

Reading Response: "Give Up Being A Writer"

by Rex Weyler

As I mentioned before, this piece was handed to us early in the year. Whether it was the very first lecture or the second, I can't remember exactly, but it was definitely one of those two.

There is something about this piece that has me reading it again and again. As an aspiring writer, I find it very inspirational.

Since this is more of a creative piece compared to the works we were assigned to read in this course, it's a bit harder to extrapolate the "main point" of this text. But I think what the reader is more or less being told is that you shouldn't write for fame, or for the thrill of calling yourself a writer, and that all writing should be done in the most honest matter possible.

This piece is a way to give nearly every person that wants to be a writer some much-needed advice, conveyed in a way that writers can truly appreciate.

I'm hoping at some point to have this work posted, in some way, on my writing desk. That's how much it inspires me. I want to be able to look up, to remember these words, and to always look back at them and allow them to guide me in the right direction with regards to my writing.

Like many people in class, I too wondered about "That girl, walking up the sidewalk, clutching her coat at the crosswalk." And honestly, I don't need any sort of direct explanation from the author in order to feel a sense of resolution at the end of this piece.

That girl is a true enigma. She can mean so many things to so many writers, and in a way I think that's what Weyler intended.

With how often I have to analyse, basically rip apart, writer works as an English major, I don't want to get too in-depth with this piece. I'd like it to be appreciated at the level with which I'm able to look at it right now. No further analysis needed, at least for me.

This piece can be appreciated for what it is without too much exploration. All we need to know is right there, in front of us, on the surface. Honest writing, just as has been said.

~ topCAPcritic

Independent Post #4

First and foremost, I don't expect you to watch the entire video, so don't worry about it.

I've only posted this here because I decided that, even though I got to be the DI when we talked about blogging and social media, that I didn't get to talk about vlogging nearly as much as I wanted to.

Okay, So, a vlog is of course a video blog, and the most common host for sharing vlogs nowadays would be on YouTube.

I became a vlogger in April when I joined the IGGPPC, and we have a different topic we try to stick to every week, and it's all in all a pretty fun way to connect with people.

Advancing technology is taking over our old definitions of what was counted in the definition of 'culture' and I seriously hope that vlogging and web video will one day be more appreciated by the masses than they already are.

The format of vlogging has given us the oppertunity to do things we haven't been able to do before.

One example of this would be a web series written by Bernie Su, and it is called The Lizzie Bennet Diaries.

This web series is a modern adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, and it is told through the perspective of a 24 year-old grad student who is still living at home.

This series used social media, such as Twitter, to connect with their audience. All the characters in the series had their own Twitter accounts and they would interact directly with the fans, as well as with each other. It gave a whole new dimension to the series.

Oh, and I should probably mention . . . this series won an Emmy.

Honest, I'm not kidding. The series won an Interactive Media Emmy. Look it up if you don't believe me.

I discussed some of these ideas in a case study I recently did on the series, but the video I did for that case study was 20 minutes long, so I won't link it here.

But I will show you a link to the very first episode, in case you might be interested.

Web video has given us a whole new medium to showcase pretty much whatever we want.

And of course, behind the good videos, there is of course writing, so vlogs and web video are still very relevant to the material we've look at in this course.

Like with reviews! I've done a few book reviews as part of my vlogs. They might not be as thorough as they might be if I had to hand in a review to a professor, but that is more so because of the audience as opposed to the medium in which the message is being conveyed.

So what I'm more or less trying to say is that I hope the world of vlogging and web video expands, and hopefully this expansion will of course include videos relating more to arts & culture.

Okay, think that's all I have to say here.

~ topCAPcritic

Reading Response #4

I know that I'll be taking a bit of a step backwards with this reading, but I still felt that it was important to address.

And, in a way, I'm glad that this post is a (very) reflexive one, because this is something that has actually come up in 3 out of the 4 classes I have this semester, when before this year I hadn't become aware of something that is discussed in this reading.

And that, of course, would be "Fountain" by Marcel Duchamp.

Reading Response: "Writing About Art"

by Sylvan Barnet.

Before this class, I had never been made aware of the "Fountain"'s existence before. But it's certainly a big enough staple in the world that it was addressed in 3 of my classes this term.

The first, of course, was this class, in the lecture titled "Back to Basics: Grammar, Style & How to 'Paint With Words' that occurred on the 17th of September.

This piece of writing was given to us as an introductory reading, that would help to introduce the class into what exactly art is, hiow it's viewed in our culture, and how we can learn to look at art critically.

I know that I should be tying this reading to the lecture in which it was discussed, but instead I would like to tie it into the lecture titled "Exhibition Reviews and Art Criticism", which took place on the 1st of October.

My reason for doing this is on the 1st of October we engaged in a class activity that dealt first-hand with Duchamp's artistic work.

In class, we were split up into groups of 4 and were assigned one of four works of art and we had to give a brief criticism/analysis of the work, given the information we could quickly look up on our laptops.

I, along with fellow classmate Nikki, were of course assigned "Fountain."

That piece that we were given to read early on in this class helps to explain how "Fountain" came to be.

"In listening to people who talk about art, let's not forget the opinions of the people who consider themselves artists... In 1917, when the Society for Independent Artists gave an exhibition in New York, Marcel Duchamp submitted for display a porcelain urinal, upended, titled Fountain, and signed 'R. Mutt' (the urinal had been manufactured by Mott Works). The exhibition was supposed to be open to anyone who wished to exhibit in it, but the organizers rejected Duchamp's entry, saying in a press release that it was 'a very useful object, bit its place is not in an art exhibition.' The press release went on to say, 'It is by no definition a work of art.'"

And this is more or less the summary that professors in my other two classes decided to give when they brought up this moment in art history, only in very different contexts.

The next instance that this piece came up in my life was during my creative writing course, or to be more specific, WRIT 3P06 - Short Story Writing. In that class we of course discussed the idea of fiction being sorted into various categories and the idea not always being whether or not it's good or bad, but whether or not it is a piece of writing (if I had known I would be discussing this moment in this blog, I probably would've taken better notes during that lecture).

And the next time that Marcel Duchamp's work rose up, it was, oddly enough, in my women's studies class! The class is ENGL 3Q94 - Feminism & Cultural Theory.

It's funny, in a way, how this one moment in what you'd think would only be significant in art history, is able to be applied to so many other fields of study. The idea of "What Is Art?" doesn't just apply towards the visual arts. Rather, it can be applied near anywhere! And this story is one that applies to countless other mediums.

I know I could have discussed more components of the reading, but it was this work by Duchamp that really caught my attention in this reading, so I hope that's okay.

Alright, bye for now!

~ topCAPcritic

Independent Post #3

You gotta love random, annoying-as-hell emails that show up in your inbox.

Because one day, one of those emails will present you with a diamond of sorts, and your time and patience with looking through the assortment of emails that have appeared in your inbox overnight will have finally paid off.

Anyway, time to actually explain what I'm talking about.

One thing that I think about whilst reflecting on this course so far is that while we have definitely talked about music in this course - it is definitely been a subject that has come up - we never really got to thoroughly discuss the concepts of music in the course, and it's a bit disheartening.

Of course it's also understandable; how does one dedicate merely one course to the ideas of music, am I right?

I mean, it would have been interesting to learn how to properly write a music review.

I took a writing class in my second year where we were to write a review, and I originally intented to write a review on a CD.

The plan was, I was going to sit there and listen to the music, take notes, and then come up with some sort of review.

Here's the thing though:

I find it very difficult to try and review music.

Maybe it was just the type of music I chose to review (the CD was "Ceremonials' by Florence + The Machine), but I was unable to go through with it and instead decided to write a review on a Young Adult novel I had recently finished.

But, let's be honest, writing a music review seems entirely different than writing an exhibition review or mainstage review or film review, am I right?

I still can't fully fathom it.

I think it would be nice to learn how to attempt this kind of writing in the future. Even now, with an example of music in front of me, I can't do a full review, but I can still comment on it.

So the diamond found in my email inbox was a message from the site StumbleUpon, which I joined at some point for some reason unknown to me now.

But anyway, inside the email was a link to a delightful music arrangement. The link was titled, as the picture above shows, "99 Songs to Make Your Homework Awesome."

I've been sitting here listening to this playlist for a while now, and I have to admit, it's awfully soothing.

It's not too excitable, in that it doesn't distract me from my work. And I haven't heard any of the songs before, which is also in a way helpful for me to concentrate on the homework I have in front of me.

With this playlist playing on my computer in the background, I've been able to get a lot of writing done and I haven't yet stopped to sing along to a tune, or been otherwise distracted by the music.

Here's one thing I've wondered as I listen to this music though:

Is it only relaxing and promoting me to work harder because it's been advertised that way? Is there perhaps no merit in the music itself but only in the way that the playlist has been presented to me? Is this some sort of placebo effect brought on by the image above and my own wishful thinking.

I guess there's no real way that I myself will know for sure . . .

Guess that's it for now! The link to the playlist in question can be found here, if you so desire to check it out.

~ topCAPcritic

Reading Response #3

So here we are at another reader response! Let's get right to it.

Reader Response: "The Age of Autobiography"

by Will Manley

Okay, it's going to be hard not to come off as downright shrill in this post, but I promise to do my best.

We discussed this reading during the lecture titled "Shifting Modes and Mediascapes: The Blogosphere and Social Media."

This was the class where me and fellow classmate Nikki were the DI's, so we had to look rather closely at the readings for this week.

And, let me tell you, this post was particularly painful.

Maybe this is just because I've become a bit dedicated to blogging thanks to a geek culture blog I kept up for another class, or maybe it's just because I like the idea of anybody being able to publish their thoughts on the internet, but I got a little miffed when I was forced to read through the many opinions of Will Manley.

Mainly the opinion that "The Internet is choking to death with autobiographical dreck."

Let me tell you, it's difficult even now not to let out a string of curse words at how blind this guy clearly is.

If I had the chance to talk to this author, I'd probably look him straight in the eyes and say, "Hey! Buddy! You're missing the entire point!"

Sure, blogging doesn't fall into the same template or class or whatever as published autobiographies by people such as Elizabeth Smart and Arnold Schwarzenegger. I get that, I respect that, it's completely understandable.

I work at a bookstore, and believe me, if I had to sell books in our biography section that boring, inconspicuous people had published after writing about themselves in a blog, I'd probably have a problem with it too.

Luckily, book publishers know of the distinction and are usually pretty good at being able to weed those people out.

But the thing is, you have to look at the internet as a form of self-expression. Think of it as a blank canvas for a painter, a blank page for a writer. The same ideas apply.

Sure, not everything found on the internet is going to be worthy of anyone's attention. But is that really the point?

The internet has allowed people to connect in ways that they haven't been able to before. Whether it's through writing or just shared interests, people are able to feel like they're part of a community with like-minded people even if they've never met them in person.

Twitter is a blessing for me that way. I use Twitter as a means of connecting with like-minded people. And I've attempted to do that with my geek culture blog as well, and I enjoy being able to write in a way that I not only feel will apply towards my desired audience, but that is also a form of self-expression.

After all, look at the young fashion blogger we looked at in lecture, Tavi Gevinson.

She isn't as active as a fashion blogger as she used to be. Now she's expanding her horizons and making friends at her school and trying out new things. She documents these events in her blog. Does that make her writing any less worth.

I don't think so, and I hope others agree with me and won't side with the "egotism, self-absorption, navel gazing" that Manley has presented us with.

That's about it for now! Cheers! And happy blogging!

~ topCAPcritic

Independent Post #2

Now, what I plan on showing you next is a review I wrote.

I will admit right here that it is a review that I wrote for another class blog project.

But I wanted to include it as part of my blog project here for a good reason.

Back when I wrote reviews in high school, I stuck to a strict 7 paragraph rule which was outlined in my CAPPIES binder (which I still have).

I wrote this review of Hayao Miyazaki's film, From Up On Poppy Hill, without referring to that rule.

I decided instead to try a new style of writing, without worrying so much about the format.

Maybe you could say I was taking Kerouac's advice when I wrote this post.

Or maybe I was just in the mood to try something new.

Either way, I really wanted to share this with you, so here it is:

. . . what I also love is any movie created by genius filmmaker, Hayao Miyazaki, whom has unfortunately announced this year that he will be retiring after his next movie, set to be released in June.

If you haven't heard of him, he is the brilliance behind various animated movies created in Japan but brought to North America through companies such as Walt Disney Home Entertainment and Buena Vista International.

The movies that Hayao Miyazaki is responsible for are all fronted through Studio Ghibli, and these movies apply to a variety of audiences, from children to adults and beyond. Here are a few of the movies he is responsible for:

There are many, many more amazing animated films to his name, such as My Neighbour Totoro, Castle In The Sky, Ponyo, The Secret World of Arrietty, and Princess Mononoke.

These are movies that I myself grew up with. I specifically have a memory of my grandmother, who passed away this August, dressed up as Santa Claus during Christmas of either 1999 or 2000, and when I sat on his/her lap she handed me a wrapped present, which ended up being a VHS copy of Kiki's Delivery Service, my first exposure to the realm of works from Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli.

These movies each have large fandoms surrounding them, because they have such captivating and unique characters, stories and settings. Spirited Away won an Academy Award in 2001 and Howl's Moving Castle was nominated for an Academy Award in 2005.

All of these movies are films that myself and other people like me have grown up with, and so we can generally understand as to why fans can be so dedicated to these films, even for those that no longer are or have never been partial to animated features.

Now I would like to look specifically at the newest release, From Up On Poppy Hill.

Based off of the 1980 manga series, the movie is set in 1963 in Yokohama, Japan. It centers around two main characters: Umi Matsusaki, a high school student that lives and works in a boarding house, her father dead and her mother studying abroad in America, as well as Shun Kazama, whom she first meets leaping off an old clubhouse at her school and where she goes to his aid.

A large focus of this movie is the signal flags that Umi raises each morning, and that Shun knows how to read. Before watching this movie I did not know much about signal flags, and if you would like to learn a bit about them there is a link to a Wikipedia page here. The flags that Umi raises simply read "I pray for safe voyages". These particular flags of Umi's are also referenced early in the movie in a poem that is located in her school newspaper. The poem reads:

Fair girl,

Why do you send your thoughts to the sky?

The wind carries them aloft to mingle with the crows.

Trimmed with blue, your flags fly again today.

This movie is far from a typical love story, and not just because of the circumstances surrounding the main characters. Miyazaki's romance plots are never typical, and it is something of a staple of his works. Something that stands out about this story compared to his others is that the main characters are high school age, where more often than not the characters that are the main focus of his other movies are more often children than teenagers. This isn't always the case, such as with Howl's Moving Castle where age is a theme of the movie.

Miyazaki's decision to focus on this age group with his newest film in no way limits the range of an audience that will be drawn towards these characters and the story overall. Like in his previous works, there is a realistic nature in these characters, brought on by the English voice cast (Sarah Bolger as Umi, Anton Yelchin as Shun), the animation led by an experienced team from Studio Ghibli, as well as the direction of the film, done by Gorō Miyazaki, eldest son of Hayao Miyazaki.

Perhaps the first element of the film to stick out to me was the music, since it's one of the very first things to appear when the movie starts, but the music remains attention-grabbing - albeit not in a distracting way - as well as incredibly fitting. The music fits not only with the time period in which the story is set, but it also helps to greatly compliment each scene. The English songs that the students sing together are also rather beautiful. The first time the students sing together, the song has very pleasant lyrics, but the humorous connotation of the scene where the members of the debate begin singing in order to ward off the school's teachers easily remains.

Of course it is Miyazaki Sr. and Keiko Niwa's screenplay that is the most outstanding feature of the entire film. With humor sprinkled in at unexpected times, the tender kinship between Umi and Shun that graduates naturally over time, and other subtle or grand aspects of the story, From Up On Poppy Hill easily keeps up with the classic films preceding it, able to stand on its own without being eclipsed. Miyazaki creates a strong connection between the audience and the characters in his writing, whether its the main characters, the secondary ones such as Umi's younger sister Sora or Shun's best friend Shiro, or even random club members in the back ground discussing the archaeology club and then scurrying away.

I remember once hearing in the special features on the DVD for Spirited Away where a man from Disney stated that Miyazaki very much has the mind of a child, where he is able to capture the subtleties of humans, specifically children, and inhabit them in his work. One example I remember from that movie is the way in which Chihiro puts on her shoes.

(I wish I had an image to better explain what I mean. Unfortunately I couldn't find one)

Overall, this new story brought to us by Hayao Miyazaki is as original as his other works, and is ultimately captivating, heartbreaking, intriguing, entertaining, as well as a whole lot of other adjectives ending in -ing that I can't currently think of. Whether young or old, whether you've seen the other films or this is your first time interacting with a Studio Ghibli film, I recommend this video to anyone that enjoys a good, well-written story that will transport them to another time, another world, which will stay with you long after the movie is over.

And that's it for my review! I hope you liked it.

~ topCAPcritic