Monday, November 30, 2015

OMG It's Music!

When I was younger I would like to listen to artists that their album were explicit. I don't know why but it always grabbed my attention but of course I wasn't old enough to buy the disc. I was introduce to Eminem by a friend of mine that was a bit younger than I and at that moment my friend had "Superman" playing and i asked who was singing it and he told me "Eminem". After I asked my friend to let me borrow his cd and kept getting attached to Eminem's songs. Knowing that my parents wouldn't allow me to listen to music that had foul language. I just listen it to myself alone and they thought I would become and rebel towards them but I wasn't. I liked the beat to his songs and the more I listened to him; the more I understood the meaning of his songs. From the interviews I've seen Eminem in he isn't a bad person at all, the only thing bad is his past. He didn't choose that life, that life chose him.

I was raised in the late 90's and early 00's, the style in those days were saggy pants and large shirts that reached to a person's knees. Gangs were at a high and people were joining them to feel secure after what happen to N.W.A in the late 80's and early 90's. Rap was developing and later was known all around the world. Alternative rock was still raising, although bands like Linkin Park, Fall Out Boy, Thirty Second To Mars, and blink-182 were pushing rock to a new level. My favorite band is Linkin Park and that was the only band I listen to. The rest of the bands in the early 00's were great but I was more into hip-hop/rap and alternative rock. The rappers that truly get my attention is Eminem, Jay-Z, T.I, and Kanye West. Hip-hop/rap has evolved to a better and cleaner genre, which is smart to do because that's where the talent of the artist comes out and make themselves shines brighter than ever before.

It would be a great idea to have a campus radio but I wouldn't happen to know if it would be feasible or not. However, I believe that the programmings that the radio should have playing is all sorts of programs. My personal favorites are sports and music. If there was a LBCC radio then it should provide local news, local/nationwide sports, and of course local student news. I believe that sports and music should be in the lists of recommendations for upbringing radio stations in college campus.

The way I believe funding the local radios would be car washes, create events that people would come watch and donate, and local business should consider advertising their company on air to bring in more consumers. Students could make charity matches for the local station. Some local radio stations have participated in school sport events and try to get people who are on the road or at home to tune into their station.

Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Week 8 Blog


When i was in high school I wasn't a big fan of book but until one day in my AP world history class the instructor handed us brand new books. The name of the book was "The Catcher in the Rye", I never heard of the book and the cover was pretty catchy itself. Every class, the instructor would play the audio book and the whole class would listen follow the reading. I could admit that "The Catcher in the Rye" was the very first book that I was interested in. The little foul language it had made it interesting and knowing he didn't give a crap about the people around him made it sound more like teenage years. Moreover,  the Captain Underpants series wasn't that bad but that's just my opinion. I read several books and I enjoyed them. When I read the Captain Underwear books I didn't think it was that bad, although there was little offensive language. The author could of raise the age group target audience by 3 or 4 years then it might of been okay but like I everyone has their own opinion and some parents will still not allow that type of language even though their child might be 13 yrs old.  I believe that everyone in the world is of course different and everyone was raised differently, so some people accept foul language in some books and other people don't accept that at all. Nudity of course is banned even if it's target audience is adults because teenagers can get there hands on the book and adults over thirty-five or so try to minimize the foul language, sexual explicit, homicide, suicide and
much more from the books that contain that type of content. For me limiting access to books is like you can't watching a rated R movie that you can't watch because you're under age but you beg your parent to take you and your parents says no. School libraries should know what kind of books they should put up on their shelfs like challenging books would work for all schools and public libraries. The only book I have in my home is a autobiography book about a football player name Zlatan Ibrahimovic. The only thing that this tells me that I am a football fanatic and I will probably buy another autobiography because I like to know people's background and seeing them go through phases and become what they are now in day.

   I believe what Jarvis said about that "Education lasts forever" is true because schools are never going fade away in millions of years. When children are young, they should pursue their dream and take the steps they need to reach that dream. "I have a dream" said Martin Luther King Jr but my dream was never fulfilled because the expectations were too high once it came to a certain age. When we are young it should be the time to experiment and demonstrate what we are capable of doing at a young age. It's upsetting that nowadays some parents ask their children what they want to be when they grow up and their children tells them they want to be president or something absurd that the parent blurs out "be realistic" and just puts the child down. Some parents want their kids to go to school instead of doing an activity they like and are passionate about. High school was one of those scene I wish i could erase because it was a waste. Like one of teachers told me "high school prepares you to become an american citizen that's all" and I do believe that because right after high school it was weird not being in class everyday from 8 am through 3 pm. College is very important and I believe college is way more useful than high school. From my point of view high school committees should take notes from college committees because if high school was like college then there wouldn't be so many dropouts and students would pay much more attention. On the other hand, college is ridiculously expensive in the US; meanwhile, in Europe it's a little ways from free. Lower college fee like Europe does would help everyone that was crumbled and thrown away like they were useless and let that person shine bright because what he/she wanted to be when he/she was a child. A few hundred dollars for a term in college would be nice. I never thought I'd have to sign up for the military so I can be allowed to go college and be able to get government financial help. I would change that because there's no need on forcing young adults to sign up for military unless if they want to. I mean I came from a poor family and I had to sign those papers so I could continue my education soon accomplish my goal. Everyone has their own opinion and just to let you know, this is mine.

Thursday, November 12, 2015

Maze Runner: Scorch Trials


   Why did I choose this movie? Because I saw the first Maze Runner and it was a great movie. I was skeptical about what would happen in the second movie and that's what made me want to watch it. I am also a fan of the main actor of this movie Dylan O'Brien because he plays in a tv series called TeenWolf and he also plays as one of the main actors in the tv series. The movie in general stood out to me (1) the movie poster seemed like it might actually be a good movie and (2) I wanted to see how Dylan O'Brien acting was in the Maze Runner films. The movie was in the fifth spot in the weekend opening of the Japanese box office consuming $1.2 million. In the U.S the movie collected $30.2 million weekend but in total it consumed $78 million.
   
   Maze Runner: Scorch Trials continues with the same storyline which is that Thomas and the others want to get out of WCKD (wicked) and go back to their normal lives like it use to be. Thomas which is the main character leads the group towards the mountain as he calls it, they end up in a nice and hidden facility and they don't know what it is. Janson (Aiden Gillen) is the bad guy in this movie and he tells Thomas that he is safe there and to not worry about a thing. Thomas is skeptical about Janson and tries to figure out what they're doing behind close doors because there are other maze runners that overcame the maze and now are being called up each day by Janson faculty to serve his people. In reality he was the right hand man of Ava Paige (Patricia Clarkson is the main bad guy of the first maze runner movie) she is one of the scientist who is trying to find a cure to a disease that converts humans into cannibals. Ava believes that younger generation have the potion to cure the disease and she has killed off many generation but still can't find no cure. Thomas and his friends escape from Janson facility and head to the mountains where he's heard that their are people living their normal lives. He then comes to another facility that is run by Jorge (Giancarlo Esposito) that has been waiting for Thomas. Jorge then scans his neck to confirmed it's him and that Thomas is being tracked. Jorge wants to know what Thomas know so he hangs all his friends from the legs and leaves them there. Thomas then tells Jorge what he wants to hear and then leaves. Further into the movie Thomas and friends escape the facility with Jorge and the rest you can see for yourself. I recommend you watch the movie from the first movie.

   Wes Ball graduated from Florida State University College of Motion Picture Arts with a BFA in 2002. I found that he was born on October 28, 1980, but I could find where he was born. Wes Ball is the director of both Maze Runner movies. He's a new director that I've never heard of but he has directed two movie before he did the Maze Runner series. From the research I've done, Ball is into short documentary films like Star Trek and Aliens in the Attic after that he stepped up his game when directing the Maze Runner movies. Currently it has been announced that Wes Ball will be returning to direct the final film of the series. The short film "Ruin" was a big hit for Ball because the background of the short film looks to me like it's similar to The Maze Runner movie series. Ball was the director, writer, and editor of the short film "Ruin", and he got a vast amount of views.

   The type of movies and shows that are getting audiences' attention is where the plot of the story starts up being in a random area in the world with a group of people trying to survive a apocalypse or trying to run away from people that are sick, and later on figure out that its a non-curable disease that is eventually going to make the human race extinct. What I am describing is really similar to "The Walking Dead" which by the way is an awesome show to watch. The Maze Runner series targets the teens, which I do believe it is targeted towards teens. Although I'm a young adult I still like to watch these types of movies because they are interesting to watch. My thought about these types of movies is that they help you create animation in your dreams,  but it might be scary dreams for someone.

Strengths Vs Weaknesses

   The strengths of the movie begins with the youngest generation, and it ends at the generation where it relies on books for imagination. Beyond that point it weakens and elder generation wouldn't mind watching a movie but for them it's whatever. They like books more than movies because from the readings, an individual can consume more aspects of what the author is explain about a particular moment with smooth crispy words. In my perspective of books, it's a great way to create good imagery. On the other hand, movies also create imagination but they also generate creativeness of visual arts. Movies like these inspire people to be creative and enjoy the movie they create by motivate others to think a step ahead when film production.

   The movie is impressive being from a director that has been creating short documentary films, and only having a few films that he's taken part of. I believe this is his best movie so far because he has a series to film which the next movie is the last movie which is based on a series of books. Maze Runner series seems like it falls in the right category for Wes Ball. I don't think it will be forgotten because it's based on a book novel and book novels are usually republished or the movies might be remade. Maze Runner novels certainly will stick around for awhile. According to the rotten tomatoes website the Maze Runner: Scorch Trials was unfortunately rated low (5.4/10). There was quite a few thumps down comments that disliked the movie and it could of been better. One critic said "...did they run out of money and/or hoped no one would notice? In the meantime, can we please get Dylan O'Brien a better movie?" basically saying he/she didn't like the movie. That's no where close to what I said because I wrote good things about the movie and the movie critic wrote negative things about the movie. Both of us have different point of views to this movie. The movie critic might of never heard of Dylan O'Brien while on the other side I have heard about him.

   The movie has 390,000 followers and it has 8,639 likes. I don't really know if the likes it has is a large amount because I'm not really familiar with twitter but the followers they have are quite a few and that I do understand that the Maze Runner has quite an audience. I watched the movie 3 weeks after it came out and there were quite a bit of audience in the theater I saw it at. My friends thought it was a good movie and they can't wait to see the third movie, which in fact is in pre-production now.

   I learned that in movies there is always going to be people that think a movie is bad, although you might consider it the best movie ever. Nothing is perfectly made and nothing will ever me perfect. There will always be an error no matter what, some of us might not catch the error, meanwhile others will.

   P.S: "Ruin" animation from Wes Ball is pretty awesome, you should consider watching it! :)

Wednesday, November 4, 2015

Extra Extra!

Two important changes I believe the newspaper need to survive is link economy because it allow the newspaper move to the internet. Once they do move then it's a whole different format and that has to change as well. Big newspaper companies like Los Angeles Times and New York Times are going to be able to survive without being in the internet but as of now every business that wants to succeed has to be linked to the internet. Small companies that are in the newspaper industry aren't going to make it unless they switch over to the social media. There are many stories being published every day through newspaper and social media which many people now rely on social media like Twitter and Facebook, etc. The format for newspaper would have to change because if they want more audience then they have be smarter on how to introduce the subject with short catchy phrases. The newspaper companies can get the audiences attention by uploading news through social media and the stories they release would instantly be viewed not by thousands but by millions of people by the next couple of hours. Newspapers are always going to take time to get printed and  distributed to the locations. That's why social media would and is a great idea for newspapers to consider. Although it might cause the companies money in the short-run but in the long-run they would get millions of viewers and generate a vast amount of revenue. As of now, young adults or college students don't keep up with media because they might be overloaded with homework or have to study for an exam and its just not their priority. One of the priority for college students is social media, that's where they generally find media. For example; there's a student waiting for class to start and they get on Facebook while class start and they go through their news feed and found out that scientists have found a cure for cancer. If it wasn't for the student waiting for class to start he/she wouldn't have known that scientists found a cure for cancer and that's why media is important for college students around the world. There is many articles that pop up on Facebook and have links to the real story, which the real story might come from New York Times and this is an example of link economy.

Topic #2

   The media isn't exceeding my expectations when it comes to immigration because when the word immigrants or immigration comes on tv, people start criticizing on Mexicans. Immigration goes far beyond our founding fathers of America, so everyone has a member in their family that immigrated to America. Nowadays mexicans are frown upon because they are gang members and they take low minimum wage jobs that nobody wants and are criminals. Not only mexicans are criminals, there are other ethnicities that are criminals but they don't get judged as bad as mexicans. Lately, Donald Trump has been a big media sensation that is running to become the next president of the U.S. He has categorized mexicans as immigrants knowing that he wife is from Slovenia and is an immigrant herself. Mexicans are not all criminals but not every race is perfect. Every race have there apples as they say but mexicans seem like a real target to media. By the looks of media it seems like everyone hates mexicans which I know that isn't true. However, a busboy that works at the Trump SoHo restaurant helped a couple of guys make a documentary of what he taught about his boss Donald Trump. In the documentary it shows the busboy name Ricardo Aca taking photos which some of us might be familiar with. The photos contained people holding sign saying "I am not a criminal" and more.