The past 9 months i have been thinking, a thought that occurs every afternoon. I have about thought how sticky jeans got when running for the bus. I have thought about how smelly I got when running in a sweater. I have even thought about how i am going to kill that annoying mosquito, which has been following me back home since I left the train station.
Luckily, I have come to my senses and dropped my mood swings. I have to remember that life is great and time is valuable. Instead of wasting my time on regret, i should embrace the present. Instead of the past, i will look forward. I will look forward to riding roller coasters. I will look forward to watching the new movies "The Terminator: Salvation," "Transformers 2," and "Public Enemies." I will look forward to all the journeys I have with my friends every Wednesday, because every Wednesday my friends and I would go to a new place to eat. I am also looking forward to breath taking sceneries that skies emit during late afternoons.
Luckily I don't need binoculars to see what's in front of me. I can almost hear the ocean, taste the view and feel the shine. There comes a time when a man revisits his childhood, and for that, God Bless you Summer.
Motto of the day:"Don't miss out on what's in front of you."
Today I will speak to you about a place I call “Real”axation. My “Real”axation place consists of a world full of sound, because I believe seeing is the first half of life while listening is the other complete half. You can only capture an experience by only seeing, but you can feel the experience if you listen. It is the sound waves that travel through your ears that will shock your soul with Goosebumps.
I honor this place as my sanctuary and a time to concentrate when the world is in an era of chaos. This place, I refer to as, is the first cart of the train. Today I will also be experimenting with the concept “soundwalk,” which is a term invented by R. Murray Shafer. Since it takes me an hour to get to work, I will spend my 60 minutes on listening and experiencing the train ride through my ears.
The first few minutes were bird noises and the occasional swift sweeps of the janitors broom as he cleans the carts. The noises his pan made when it hit the floor were loud and disruptive to the passengers, you can tell he was having a lousy morning. The next sound was the operator yelling over the speaker about the train leaving the station, from there you hear a stampede of horses rushing through the iron gates and into the steel barn. As passengers hurry to get in before the door closes, many rushed to available seating and all you hear are the gust of winds as their behinds smash hard onto the seats. As the giant steel elephant roar through the train tracks, you hear nothing but silence inside the belly of the beast. Then again it was 10 o clock on a Sunday morning, I can agree that many of the passengers were still sleepy. A few minutes later, I hear this alien screeching. This Martian was yelling at the top of her lungs to compete with the roars of the train. She was communicating with her other life forms because her satellite I-phone was lighted up next to her ear. I didn’t speak Alien so I couldn’t understand what she was saying, but if I had studied Russian in high school then maybe I could have deciphered her text. Now my ears are picking up sounds from outside the train and I hear the wooden octopuses brushing up against the steel train cart, it makes a crackling sound until it finally fades out into the background. Now the operator announces that it is stopping at “SheepsheadBay” and all of a sudden you hear a few seats creak as the animals leave the steel barn. As the old animals leave, new animals charge in and one of them was a lion because a lion is one of the animals in the animal kingdom that roars as it introduces itself. This lion was roaring about “feeding the homeless” and “wanting to give back to the community.” You can hear the paws lurking up to the passengers and the sounds of clinking metal coins in the air. This made the lion happy and in a roar of joy it greeted everyone “goodbye” until he made his way to the next cart. The sounds of old animals leaving and new animals entering are repetitious through out the whole travel, but the only sounds that are new are the background noises. I have heard construction yards from outside the train, construction on the railways around the train and even the demolition of a hamburger wrapper from inside the train from a passenger that was sitting right next to me.
Conclusion: The 60 minutes spent “sound walking,” or as I would say “Sound Traveling,” was an experience to my ears. Usually I just listen to my Ipod and not care about the noises on the train, but this experiment has opened up my ears and the broader scope of listening. I am glad I chose the train as my particular neighborhood to experiment the sound walk on because the sounds are always the same on the train but the experience will always be new.
I describe the sounds as creatures because that is the only way to describe a sound vivid enough for a person to grasp its’ essence, also because we are all animals living in a jungle, a jungle known as New York.
Motto of the day: “Why limit yourself to one area when you can expand yourself exponentially”
Today I am going to write a review about an advertisement poster on a drink that I am quite fond of. The drink is called “Orangina” and is made up of a carbonated citrus made from orange, lemon, and mandarin juice, with origins in France. Around my circle of friends, the drink is highly popular and a must have on a sunny warm day.
What inspires me to write this review is the fact that the poster is well designed on representing the product. Right off the top you can tell the drink is for a nice sunny day because of the cool sky blue colors and the orange peels shaped as beach umbrellas. The poster has great complementary colors such as blue and orange, which is easy on the viewer’s eyes. The title is written in bubble letters, which gives it a fun and soothing component about the drink. The sky on top of the poster brings out the beauty behind the drink, it symbolizes the cool refreshing taste of the product. I thought the resemblance of an orange peel from the umbrellas was a brilliant idea to depict the warm feeling of the poster. I also like how sex appeal was added by putting female legs underneath the umbrella. The shadows from the umbrellas are shading the drink, which again brings out the cool refreshing feel of the drink. I like how the poster was so simple, because in my world “Less is more.” You can tell everything was kept simple and not too complicated so that it would not take away from the product. The number of drinks kept the poster on topic and about the product itself.
The design overall was very well deliberate. Everything about the poster stayed on topic about the product and everything in the poster revolved around the product. The colors were well chosen to balance out the design and the objects were well placed to represent the product.
I am a fun, bubbly, and entertaining guy. This product represents me and this design represents the product very well to its audiences. If you haven’t tried out an Orangina yet, go to your local deli and pick one up. You won’t be disappointed.
Film: The Boondock Saints (1999) Director: Troy Duffy Length of film: 110 minutes
"The Boondock saints" is a movie about two brothers that have accidentally killed a couple of mafia gangsters. They then turn themselves in, only to find out they are actual heroes to the community. They believe it is a calling from God after they have been released from the murder charges, now they take the initiative to knock down every mafia boss that is plaguing their neighborhood.
I decide today to take a few minutes and analyze the scene where the two brothers prepare to take down the Russian mob in the condo building. From the looks of the composition of the scene, I think it is simple on how the director merged these scenes together. From the elevator shaft to the apartment, the director shot one take of the brothers in the elevator and another take of the apartment. The director then cut pieces in between to merge the scenes together to relate the scene in real time. The next scene in my opinion is the best choreographed entrance of a character in a movie I have ever seen. The frame cuts to the ceiling ripping apart, then cuts again of a medium shot of the brothers falling through the ceiling and then finally it shows the brothers tangled in ropes with their guns drawn out firing at the gangsters. At first the camera is shooting the scene from the floor level up, but when the guns start blazing, the camera was shot from an over top angle of the brothers. This shot was definitely achieved by rod systems to support the camera at such a vertical angle drop view. The best part was when the brothers were spinning in the tangled ropes from above, the director then cuts into a panning from left to right of all the gangsters getting shot. The final shot was of the two brothers standing behind the mafia boss and having two guns to the back of boss’s head. The brothers then hum a verse from the bible before shooting the mafia boss in cold blood.
I am glad I have seen this movie in my life time, because the overall feel is so amazing. The way the director shot the movie, I felt my adrenaline rush as if it were the two brothers shooting the gangsters. Especially when the director pans the camera while the brothers were shooting, I felt as if I was on the rope spinning and shooting. Also to mention the music playing for the scene, it was heart pounding because of such a rock and roll feeling. I must say, the overall feel of “justice being served” was well played through out the movie. I recommend anyone to see this great film if they have not done so already.
Today I went to The Museum of Moving Images, which is located in Queens, Astoria. Inside the Museum was a gallery of film cameras and historic pieces that contributes to the film era. I had never seen so many different film cameras in my life. From the early stages of motion picture to the modern day film, my mind couldn’t believe the major improvements in film.
Along the way of the tour, my fellow colleagues and I were able to participate in one of the fun demos. The demo was called the “Video Flip Book,” it was an entertaining experience because we all jumped around in front of the camera while it was taking our pictures. When the demo was over, the pictures were then processed and made into a flip book. We flipped the pages from left to right and we saw a motion picture of ourselves jumping up and down. The flip book is a fascinating concept because video cameras in the film world shoot 24 pictures a second. So if you were to think about it, a regular 90 minute film consists of around 129,600 photos.
The next stop in the tour involves replacing sound in a movie scene. The film industry calls it “The interactive display for Automated Dialogue Replacement,” or ADR for short. This was my favorite stop in the tour because, as a kid, I always wondered how animals talk in movies. I luckily got picked by the tour host for a chance to participate in the demo. The scene that I was going to replace the sound in turned out to be the hit classic movie “Babe.” After many years of wondering how it was possible animals can talk in movies, I get the chance to work on one of my favorite animal movies. When the tour host gave me the cue, I spoke into the microphone with what was written in front of the screen. Then my voice recording was processed to the movie scene. When played back, I witnessed a pig speaking with my voice. I was amazed and stunned on the outcome because the pig looked like it was really talking with my voice. I was then informed that the animals had peanut butter in their mouths so that their mouths would keep moving through out the movie shoot.
If anyone has any questions about cinema, go to the Museum of Moving Images. You will not be disappointed and all your questions will be answered. I had a great time and an overall experience. Stay tune for my next post.
