essay draft 3 marginal messages

In class by watching many movies with marginal messages we see how these are still messages that may contradict each other or the main messages. like in "fox fire" it show to fight the system but it also shows to obey the system because the system can put you down. in "pump up the volume" the kid says that it's ok to be weird but is everyone is weird then everyone is normal, also when his parents were talking his dad was a rebellious teenager but became the system and in the background was the tv saying that we as people should fight the system when we are young

essay draft 2

Humans in this world want to live a meaningful/meaningless life, everyone thinks differently about their life and wants to live it their way of what they think is right. In Andy’s class we define a meaningful life as what you define yourself or what others define it as. Everyone thinks that their life is in their control but no one sees that they are in the small influence of the culture around them. Most people’s perspective of a goof life is mainly on family ad friends. By looking at how we are influenced in our lives we can see the true meaning that is portrayed to use through biased media. Through out the class we notice what is meaningful in our lives and connected it with others. Then we looks at others view through interview and connected them together. By looking at that we can tie it all back to our culture and how each person is affected in the same way and how no one has control of their life.
To analysis our lives each person in our class made a video of what we think is meaningful in 2-5mins. Before this project I though that the only thing in my life that is meaningful is my memories but there were good and bad memories in my life but each one is meaningful in their own different way. After taking some time to think about it I dragged out the most important things in my memories. Which were family, friends, arts and nature. Spending time to think about how i portrayed them and how to show my video was a hard process. By capturing most of my life i was able to see how somethings i have done was in every one's videos and shows how we are not different from each other. Even though i was missing a lot of my hobbies in my current life still showing the general stuff shows the world my perspective.
Through out our lives we are not really thinking freely but we think we are, because of our mass controlling media like in music and films they show how in our lives we need to become this. In our class we watched music videos that show to be successful in life is good and to accomplish your dream is also a big message placed out there like in "the good life". In "best in show"it show how we should spend money on things we don't need like therapy that shows how people has the answers but it them who "suppose" to help you find it but it's just a waste of money. Also looking at "lip gloss" the music video it shows how no one sees the real you just the out side version and not what you are really thinking. looking at all these dominate messages show how our lives a messed up and we have no power of what we think is right or wrong.

Dominant Corporate Messages Analysis

Through out our study of corporate culture i have seen that many mass medias or corporations want to make the reader/watcher buy something from them, and to advertise themselves for a profit. In many places there are advertisements all around and they are telling the stuff that we need in our lives to make out lives meaningful or telling what will make our live meaningless. In the New York Times they have many car advertisements and many exotic food advertisements, so it shows that a good and meaningful life is to have many cars and eat a lot of great making food.
In the movies that we watched in class it shows that we need to spend useless money on things that will help us feel better about ourselves because we are too brain washed to find it ourselves. In Foxfire it shows a marginal message to be rebellious or teenagers are rebellious. "fight the system" is what people say but those people are the corporate media themselves.
By watching many music videos and listening to many different types of music some says to but many tings and be successful but other says that to fight the system is good. they all portray different meanings to have a good life but they are all coming from the mas media and then it is to show marginal messages or main messages but non of the excluded messages.

Trampled Wal-Mart worker

I this world i see that humans have learned to live that "the strongest stay on top" and "the best things in life is free". This shows have people live very dirty lives and has been corrupted to get whatever they want. the people at walmart cannot be blamed because of their rash behavior because its walmarts fault for hosting this big sale and going a lot with the production just to get a big "profit". By advertising weeks ahead walmart will get a lot of businese but by taping into the dumb minds of to days people they let many people get hurt and many more angry because of what happened. I still don't know why the media stays "including a 8month old pregnant woman" to put pity on walmart and blame the people? things are going bad in the world and it because of our rash actions of today so its every ones fought for this man dieing there on black Friday weekend.

Thankisgiving and Black Friday Weekend

Thanksgiving
Over Thanksgiving my family doesn't really celebrate the tradition Catholic way we just have a family gathering. There was no topic of genocide in the room because it was a blocked message and not many of my family knew about it when i asked them. They aren't really defensive about it because they don't really know what happened to change their view of America even though we all can see the corruption in the mas media.
The mas media just wanted to show the funny and happy things to celebrate Thanksgiving and noting sad and depressing. I feel that this is not a real topic to bring up about genocide because i don't believe in a God but i still don't get why people worship something that no one have ever seen besides in their dream which we can never know if it is true or not. So God "saved us" as people said but how do we really know he did then all this second part of Thanksgiving is just a myth and may not be true to worship someone who may not have lift a finger because he is not real.

Black Friday
I went to the Black Friday sale over the weekend and i saw a lot of messages that people what things handed to them and things that are almost "free". everything is cheaper and things are almost "free". That's what the media has been selling to us for years. At staples there was no one in line when my family arrive but when the other family saw my family coming they rushed to be first and it show how America is like dogs trying to race each other as a completion every day.

Reflection on 2008 election

This 2008 election was a change in history as people look toward the light and see a brighter day ahead of them with the first "black" president. Obama the new president the people think of as the new "Jesus" to save America from this crisis, reunite us to the world and end the two wars that we clearly lost. This is look through as the FIRST "BLACK" president and he is not totally black and i feel that the people are putting him in one section since his skin is dark, even though he is half white. Everybody thinks Obama is going to make our problems go away like magic but he is just one person and one person alone can't change a country. Even Obama thinks that he will need help from the people to help bring America back to his former glory. Everyone is putting a lot of pressure on him and this might be a down fall for him and America might go down the toilet.

I fell that America is not ready for a big change like a "black" president because "we" as the "people" are not mature enough to handle it and this new history will backfire on all of us. There is a change in power and it might seem that blacks are happy about this new history but they might get to power hungry and the balance between the races will change in the country and maybe around the world.

I am very happy that we have a new president that is not stupid enough to waste our money in a war and control how we view things. But we don't know how Obama will last as president and it might be to much for him to handle and he might turn out to be the bad choice.

new essay draft 1

Humans in this world want to live a meaningful/meaningless life, everyone thinks differently about their life and wants to live it their way of what they think is right. In Andy’s class we define a meaningful life as what you define yourself or what others define it as. Everyone thinks that their life is in their control but no one sees that they are in the small influence of the culture around them. Most people’s perspective of a goof life is mainly on family ad friends. By looking at how we are influenced in our lives we can see the true meaning that is portrayed to use through biased media. Through out the class we notice what is meaningful in our lives and connected it with others. Then we looks at others view through interview and connected them together. By looking at that we can tie it all back to our culture and how each person is affected in the same way and how no one has control of their life.
To analysis our lives each person in our class made a video of what we think is meaningful in 2-5mins. Before this project I though that the only thing in my life that is meaningful in my life

LDH2B Meaningless - Pop Culture Analysis Project - Pt 2 (reply to other people)

Kanye West Good Life song
Kate:
I sort of agree with you I agree that he is says that materialistic things are good and that money will get you a good life, he is also saying how getting a good successful job and following your dreams is a meaningful life also when he says he tells his mama that he will be on this TV, and the people put their hands up since either they are happy because they have a good life or how that he is successful. the images in the video shows how all the good things are in color like being inside the TV but being just a regular person your life might not be very meaningful since you are out of date.
John:
I agree with you that he is talking about how being rich and successful is having a good life and how he incorporates all these things and how u can be successful in successful cities like the ones he mentioned but I also think he is trying to say that accomplishing your dreams is a good life and being who you wanna be like he wanted to be on TV was great for him to catch women's eyes and make lots of money and be praised for.
Marco:
I partially agree with you that he is trying to say material items are what makes a life meaningful, and how money + fame + women=meaningful life but i think he is also saying that following your dream is what make your life meaningful and completing what you dream of will give you a "good life"

LDH2B Meaningless - Pop Culture Analysis Project - Pt 1 (reply)

Reply to Beatles-All you need is love
Music Video
lyrics
After listening to all these three songs i picked

All you need is love by the Beatles

i the song was saying that in this world everything we do is not new to everyone but to fulfill a meaningful life all you need to do is love others.
The Beatles made it clear to show their message to us by singing "all you need is love" over and over again to state their point.
By listening to the song i felt that whenever they sing a part like

"There's nothing you can do that can't be done."

because it made me think why they said that and what is it important to love is meaningful. By thinking about it i finally though that they are just saying that in this world whatever we do it is not special or meaningful but if we love others then our lives will be meaningful an nothing else can make it that way.

By watching the video i think that the items items around them like balloons are to make the video more meaningful and to celebrate. I don't think showing the orchestra was very meaningful to portray in this video because it ruined the point of it but it also emphasize the point of people working together like the Beatles in friendship and harmony. By showing the crowd around them is how they love the Beatles and how they love leach other. By old focusing on the song and noting else showed true meaning and not some corrupted version of a meaningful life. There is also the phrase "Love Makes the world go round" by showing the earth it shows love around the world and how every one's life can be meaningful as long as u truly love something.

This connects to pop culture because it shows love for the Beatles and them marketing the song to spreed the message. By having them perform shows Corporate culture like a little concert and is saying that corporate culture is good, but it also leans toward folk culture and how song brings people together. This connect to my view of a meaningful life because it shows how the things we love is meaningful and how how material things are nothing special unless they are made with love.

Assignment 3:Interviews of people around us

During class we ask ourselves how we think our lives are meaningful, by going out side through the street of New York City I was able to ask different people about what is their thoughts on the topic. My first question was to ask them “How much do they think their life is meaningful on a scale of 1-10 (10 as the highest)” through out the 5 people I interviewed most of the people think that their lives are really meaningful right now around a 6-10. The Guy in Green said “good question” “I like to think I have taken from the world then taking from it”, Guy in Grey say “8 because it is me!” Girl in Blue would agree because she said a “7, because it is 90% of my life and the rest is like 10% that just feel down the drain.” Lady in Purple say differ because she think her life gotten more meaningless since she has much more to accomplish because in her childhood she felt more free. So even though these people think a little differently then each other they still think their lives are mostly meaningful.


Most people think that helping the community says that it is very meaningful, Guy in grey say that he like to making lives of others better and helping them, Guy in green would agree because he gets it from volunteering and being a good husband, Girl in blue say that “because it kinda like your help people in away, because when you need them they help you too and if they need you you’ll help them” and Guy in green has a similar statement “give on to others as it gives on to you” they all say that helping others will be rewarding and make their lives more meaningful. Lady in Pink says she just “wanted to give back to the world” and helping the community was a way to do it.

The Lady in purple has a lot of different thoughts then others on how her is life meaningful because she says when she immigrated to America she saw a new world for her and to see a new place to learn from, and that meeting her husband was meaningful, but she would agree with Guy in grey and Guy in green that sitting their in front of a box doing nothing is meaningless in their lives Lady in purple says “doing nothing, staring at the TV and looking back and forth, and being a couch potato.” Even though they all have different thoughts on how their lives are meaningful they have the same though of how their lives are meaningless.

The Guy in Grey and the Girl in blue both say that they wanna fix their lives and take away the drama and make it better to make their lives more meaningful and fix the percentage that made it less meaningful. Lady in purple disagrees because she would just keep building on to her life like getting a better education.

Lady in Purple says that wisdom is “theoretically correct” but Girl in blue says that wisdom is smart, they both have different ideas and both can be right in their own views because of what they see in the world and how they see it.

In class we wonder how family is so important to us and why is it always meaningful, we tried to get a little insight of how each of us say the world differently. As a conclusion we think it because from the members and adapted to their life style, it’s because we are born into their family and they took us in and are our first memories. Girl in Blue say that “they are always with you through thick and thin.” Girl in White also says family since she spends time with people who she “likes and loves.” At the end we go the insight of how children make families more meaningful since they give experience and love to the people and form new families to carry on tradition and love. Even though some births are by accident most parents keep their child because children make lives more meaningful.

Asking the question of how people view others lives as meaningful was hard for some people. For example, Lady in purple says that “it is hard to look at others lives more meaningful because I am not them so I think my life is more meaningful.” And lady in black would say agree on the same thing since “you can’t judge people on the outside and they might see their lives differently then others and can be more or less meaningful.”

By comparing peoples statements to each other I can see that many people view their lives the same way as meaningful, but not totally since they could do more in their lives, many people would say that family and friends and helping the community is meaningful to them but others might disagree that helping themselves and getting a better education might be best for them. Well everyone has their own insights and though of what to say. See how people would have never though how differently they would view theirs lives when you would ask them how meaningful is their lives because they have to stop and think. they all give similar and different answers to how their lives are meaningful and how to view others in that manner, that each people has different insight on what they think of the world and how they think of themselves. Comparing each other to see patterns in their writing shows how I am going to compare them to my own answers and how I would see the world differently and how there are answers I would never have though about to how my life is meaningful and how it can be meaningful to give back to others.

Homework assignment

John Li
September 21, 2008 4:50 AM
I liked how you filmed a video of your family like your dad and brother waving and how you got your brother to interview to know you are closer to each other. I see a pattern when you show all the people after the video of your brother doing homework you turned it black and white like a old movie and used it to represent memories.

Jace
September 21, 2008 5:04 AM
I see u put in how you match your scene with your songs as a pattern and I see that basket ball is the only thing meaningful in your life right now; I thought it was good that you show how you are a good player and bad at the same time.

Maxiel
September 21, 2008 5:12 AM
I thought it was a good video showing the important people in it I also think how you zoom in on some people was also cool. I saw a pattern in your video of how you start from you family to outside friends to school friends.

Yu-xi
September 21, 2008 5:30 AM
Yu xi your video is very good and I like how you used your neon words to talk about your family. If also like how you have plenty pictures of you and your family together. I saw a pattern of how you show all the different people important to your life and mixed it all in pictures.

Ian
September 21, 2008 5:34 AM
Ian I liked your video all in the third person and how you show all the important things in your life in your own words. I also like how you show things like ali joe came in the beginning. I thought the video was great and it shows how you feel about what is meaningful through your face.
~vince

Meaningful project video

Here is my project video of what i think is meaningful:



DESCRIPTION:
In this video you will see the meaningful things in my life which are family, friends, nature, animals, and creative art/animations. All parts of the video was meaningful too me and the extras at the end are memories, I couldn’t fit all of the pictures because of my time limit so I just put 2 of the best ones. In this video I wish I could be able to add or images and pictures that mean something to my life.
Wells in this very happy video I have me and my friends playing Chinese poker and many pictures of them in school, I have my family at dinner and different family’s in the park spending time together. I just don’t think my family is meaningful I think all family’s are meaningful. I have nature and animals like the dogs, and flowers and bushes. There is also a rainbow in one picture but it is very hard to see, it was the first big rainbow I saw in the sky. There was my friend Kate drawing a picture because I was too lazy to draw myself. The picture at the end of the clip was the finishing product. The clip was also 15mins long and is shortening down to about 1mins. I also enjoy expressing my self through animation
I think that everything in life can be meaningful and not meaningful at the same time, like my family might not be meaningful at some times and that there is two sides to everything. In my video I also want to add in more animals and art and more videos since the video can only be 5mins longs I wish that I could speed up my clips faster like the drawing one but if I speed it up more then it would be slower and really choppy.

Analysis & Insight:
To do this project was very hard because I had to really think of what was meaningful in my life and how to put them all together and shoot them on film to make a video. This video was really helped me learn what I thought was meaningful from my prospective of only memories. I feel that all the things that are shown can mostly be meaningful in most part but think it was meaningless a little. They were all based on my memories and what I use to do. I think other families and my family are equally important because we are all connected to each other and all of us are family that means my friends too.
By making this video it is accurate that my life is full of hobbies and noting really special, but to me these things are special to me and that noting will change these meanings to my family, friends, creative art, and nature/animals. Even though I am missing some of my hobbies in the video because of the short amount of time I still was able to capture most of my normal life of what is meaningful to me. Even if it is not all the exciting to everyone I still feel that it is still interesting to see how we are all connected to what we think is meaningful in our lives even if we don’t know it.

~vince