How do you review the arts?
Throughout this semester I have read reviews and written even more reviews. I’ve read reviews from quite an eclectic group of writers, each with a unique viewpoint on the process. Even after all of this insight, I’m still not exactly sure how to write a review, but I have a better understanding of how I review the arts.
On one hand, I tend to review things enthusiastically if I like them. The first review I wrote, for a sketch comedy group called Think Tank, left a lasting impression on me, and while I wasn’t able to get into the specifics of their show too much, I was able to convey my admiration of their performances accurately. On the other hand, when something I’m reviewing bugs me, I tend to tear it apart. This was exemplified in my review of the Columbia magazine, Echo.
"Hustler is certainly the most reviled instance of mass circulation porn, and at the same time probably one of the most explicitly class-antagonistic mass circulation periodicals of any genre. Although it's been the tendency among writers on porn to lump it together into an unholy triad with Penthouse and Playboy, the other two top circulating men's magazines, Hustler is a different beast in any number of respects, even in conventional men's magazine terms."
-Kipnis
In a way similar to Kipnis’ views on Hustler in the porn magazine genre, I ripped Echo up strictly in the genre of Collegiate publications. The magazine despised me in a way that Hustler despises many, and I found myself pulling no punches. The magaize was garbage, and I let them know that. Somehow, the publishers of the magazine even found their way over to my blog. I don’t know how this happened, but I was a bit startled, and found myself not even brave enough to respond to their response.
It can be said, then, that I have multiple voices when reviewing the arts, and in a classic they say/ I say manner, this duality applies to myself.
"A major virtue of the they say/ I say model is that it returns writing to its social, conversational base."- Gerald Graff, Cathy Birkenstein
I feel it could be said that depending on my mood, the voices I write with could actually have a conversation with one another. A more calm, rational “me” could actually have a debate with regard to many of these art-forms that have been reviewed. I guess it just depends- somedays I may entertain myself with a critic’s voice- harsh, scathing, judgemental- others, I may find sympathy to be my “humor” of the moment, as was evident when I pulled back and reviewed Columbia’s Green week event in a voice that I did not even claim was my own, but an alter-ego, “Evil” twin of myself. Despite feeling this event was totally amateurish, I held back, because I sympathized with the kids putting on the event. As much as I would have liked to bring in my politics, and debate the accuracy of things like global warming, which at heart is a ruse to tax people more on corporate pollution, I did not, and still felt good about my review as a humor piece. Like Barthes, I took something that I found to be completely mundane and useless and turned it into something that not only could I be proud of, but a review that the kids who put on the event might even find themselves being proud of. This was also an example of the politics of location- had I not been so harsh on Echo, a representation of students of my school already, I may have ripped into the Green event after all. Oh, the voices just continue to battle!
As a woman I have a countr; as a woman I cannot divest myself of that country merely by condemning its government or by saying three times 'As a woman my country is the whole world.'"
-Rich
So as a part of a larger group, my school, which I am proud to be, I guess I just couldn’t lash out against student work again. When I did find myself being harsh on the Harrison subway exhibit, I felt I should exclude that negativity from my final essay.
Overall I just feel that the voice I should write with is a positive one. I am no critic, and I feel there is a difference between a critic and a reviewer. A critic reviews everything, maybe- even things he does not like. As a reviewer, I feel I am best suited to review things that are marketed toward me. This way, even if I give something a bad review, I am not affecting someone in a negative way. Positive or negative feedback can go a long way, where a harsh critique can affect someone’s feelings in a way where they may pass those bad feelings on to someone else. Is this a copout? I’m not sure. I just feel that, instead of being a reviewer who writes a review having had a bad experience with art is not for me. I am better suited to brightening the day of the reader, and this doesn’t happen when I go to “my dark side.”
I feel that I exemplified my voice when contrasting Dyson in a they say? I say way with my review of Chappelle’s Block Party. This was a film inside a genre (hip-hop) inside another genre (documentary) inside yet another (concert film.). I like all of these genres and felt I was in my element. My writing was positive, I debated against Dyson in a way that didn’t make me feel like I’d gotten negative, and proved my points with knowledge I’d accumulated since high school. This was my favorite thing to review, unintentionally, as I had seen the film before, but when seeing it again I felt uplifted and felt the need to translate that feeling into my review. Hopefully I made others feel good about the filmn and review after they read the piece. It was an experiment in declaring my authority over the subject matter, and I felt completely successful.
How do you review the arts? Carefully. Accurately. And sometimes the old rule of “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all” applies to reviews as well. Harsh critiques are no fun to read. Wishy-washy, too nice reviews are also no fun to read. A careful balance must be struck, and therein lies the challenge. Overall, I feel like I have found ways through these reviews and readings that I did not have prior to this class, and as a whole I feel this has been a great benefit to me as not only a reviewer but a writer.
Friday, May 16, 2008
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Someday subways will/ be more pleasing to the eye/ but for now not great.
The subway is not a pretty place and I don't know that it ever has been. Of course, this is my opinion, not a fact, but let's be honest- these places are underground for a reason- so they don't have to be seen juxtaposed against the metropolis of the city.
The CTA and Columbia College have teamed up to bring you Harrison Redline Stop: 2.0. What does Harrison 2.0 entail, you ask? According to the Tribune, "blossoms and blooms- or at least graphics of them- are just what greet commuters now as they enter and exit the station. The haiku(plural) are featured prominently between the large red flowers and bright green and white tiles." That's right- Columbia has put up new tiling on the subway entrance area walls, along with various haiku poetry by students from Columbia and Jones College Prep High School.
Though the haiku poetry is nice, eloquently written, and a great representation overall of the spirit and creativity of the sprawling metropolitan art-school that is Columbia, the execution in the displays fall very, very short- embarassingly short.
These additions were made to the station just a few months ago, and already the lettering in the works is coming unpeeled from the walls. The medium used on the walls consists of white tiling and vinyl stickers used to create the poetry and multi-colored tiling, as well as what they are referring to as "bright red flowers."
As dingy as the subway can be and is, there is no way really that these attempts to spruce up the scene have greatly increased the aesthetic appeal of the Harrison subway station. In fact, knowing how run-down the display already appears, i don't necessarily look forward to seeing how bad it deteriorates over the next few months.
If I had to change the exhibit, I would hire painters to put a permanent, professional-looking touch on the run-down walls. I'd make the medium follow the aesthetic of the city- make that artwork real nitty gritty. Urban artwork would work well for this urban setting in the middle of an urban campus. The South Loop is nice, but it's not shiny, and these white tiles are too shiny, and the poetry is already crumbling.
The Harrison revamp could still be saved- by artists/students. The poetry is a nice and admirable gesture, but whoever executed the display did a poor job representing the community and the school. Overall, the subway still looks gross. It still just looks like a subway.
The CTA and Columbia College have teamed up to bring you Harrison Redline Stop: 2.0. What does Harrison 2.0 entail, you ask? According to the Tribune, "blossoms and blooms- or at least graphics of them- are just what greet commuters now as they enter and exit the station. The haiku(plural) are featured prominently between the large red flowers and bright green and white tiles." That's right- Columbia has put up new tiling on the subway entrance area walls, along with various haiku poetry by students from Columbia and Jones College Prep High School.
Though the haiku poetry is nice, eloquently written, and a great representation overall of the spirit and creativity of the sprawling metropolitan art-school that is Columbia, the execution in the displays fall very, very short- embarassingly short.
These additions were made to the station just a few months ago, and already the lettering in the works is coming unpeeled from the walls. The medium used on the walls consists of white tiling and vinyl stickers used to create the poetry and multi-colored tiling, as well as what they are referring to as "bright red flowers."
As dingy as the subway can be and is, there is no way really that these attempts to spruce up the scene have greatly increased the aesthetic appeal of the Harrison subway station. In fact, knowing how run-down the display already appears, i don't necessarily look forward to seeing how bad it deteriorates over the next few months.
If I had to change the exhibit, I would hire painters to put a permanent, professional-looking touch on the run-down walls. I'd make the medium follow the aesthetic of the city- make that artwork real nitty gritty. Urban artwork would work well for this urban setting in the middle of an urban campus. The South Loop is nice, but it's not shiny, and these white tiles are too shiny, and the poetry is already crumbling.
The Harrison revamp could still be saved- by artists/students. The poetry is a nice and admirable gesture, but whoever executed the display did a poor job representing the community and the school. Overall, the subway still looks gross. It still just looks like a subway.
Monday, April 21, 2008
Whale Hunting Day
This week's guest blogger is my evil twin, Turd Colon Shields, Self-Proclaimed Earth Man/ Man Of The Earth. He also goes to school at Columbia, and I received permission from Doug to have him write this. Wait, did I send that email? Ah, well. I'm sure there's nothing in the rules about having your evil twin write your blog for one assignment out of, like, 60.
-Steve-
Turd Colon Shields
Well first of all, I don't know you, so let me introduce myself. My name's Turd Colon Shields. That's right, my father named me Turd Colon Shields (Pronounced Turd, like a turd, and Colin, like the name- not the body part, fyi), and my brother Steve, after himself. But I'm not bitter. Most women actually sometimes dig the name Turd long enough to date me for periods of weeks at a time. However, I mostly just tell them my name is Colin. Saves me a lot of trouble until Steve comes along and tells each potential wife my real name. Like I said- I'm not bitter, periods of weeks at a time. Sometimes, but not all, more than one at a time. Catch my slang?
For Earth Day, I usually take some kind of exotic vacation to unwind and get back in touch with the planet. For instance, in 2004 I went on a tour of some Rainforests where we got to take an acre's worth of trees home with us. We also got to eat any wildlife we could shoot, including rare monkeys or native peoples. 2005 found me welding ice in the Arctic. (That's right- I mistakenly followed along on a hippy-trip to the Arctic, where I and a bunch of hippies learned that ice doesn't weld- it melts- laugh it up. The woman's name was Vicki, and I told her my name was Colin. She is the hippy I followed.) In 2007 I went bald eagle hunting in Wyoming and actually killed two bald eagles with one stone, and in 2007 I went rare and not-rare whale hunting in Japan. This year I wanted to try something more exciting- something different. This year, I decided to stay in Chicago and see what was going on at my college Earth Day bash. I figured I'd share exotic stories of Earth Day vacations with some school-mates I had never met before. Boy was I wrong.
At Earth Day at Columbia, students held some sort of job-fair type thing except instead of handing out your resume to a crowd of recruiters, a crowd of hippies hands things out to you. It was pretty nice, actually. I think it was called Green Fair or something, though there was no sign of Ralph Nader or Cynthia McKinney (I'm up on politics! Go Ronnie Pablo, lady doctor to the nation! And why are we voting between a black guy and a woman when we could have a black woman? Go Cynthia!), so I don't think it had to do with the Green Party...
But seriously. I care about the Earth, and that's what I think this whole thing was about, since it was Earth-Day. I like to recycle cans for money. I did that when I was four- that's how my brother and I made our money back then. According to the Earth-Fair or whatever at Columbia, people still recycle, but now they recycle all sorts of things- like plastic grocery bags, cell-phones, and light-bulbs.
1 week's worth of recyclable trash from 623 Wabash...
I met a dude named Alden who was in charge of the green group, and they were running sort of an underground light-bulb trading scheme that seemed like something I could really get in on. They had a deal where if you brought them a regular old light bulb, they would give you one of these new ones that twist and spiral around and supposedly only take 13 watts to produce the brightness of a 60 watt bulb. This was pretty sweet and made me wish I had brought some light bulbs along. I also wished I had brought in some of my old pay-as-you-go phones since they had complimentary bags to recycle them in. (I ended up just throwing them away when I got home from school today anyway- it was a good reminder to get rid of those 23 old things...)
Then there were free cookies, free coke, sprite, pepsi, a booth with free herb seeds (I asked if they had White Widow, but all they gave me was cilantro, a type I had never heard of. I was just thrilled that they can give seeds away these days! Cheers for decriminalization on campus. Private Property, Cops!), lots of pamphlets about global warming and stuff...Oh, but this one thing I hated was this wheel game:
stupid, useless, winnerless wheel game
This game had no point, but had these frilly things you could win if you stuck your hand in a hole. I tried that at a party once and it was not cool, and I was not about to try it here in broad daylight.
All in all, Earth-Day wasn't quite as fun this year, but after a long streak, it was only a matter of time before Turd Colon Shields had a lackluster Earth-Day. I gotta give my best to the students, though- they really seem to care.
-Steve Shields is on vacation and will return next week.-
-Steve-
Turd Colon Shields
Well first of all, I don't know you, so let me introduce myself. My name's Turd Colon Shields. That's right, my father named me Turd Colon Shields (Pronounced Turd, like a turd, and Colin, like the name- not the body part, fyi), and my brother Steve, after himself. But I'm not bitter. Most women actually sometimes dig the name Turd long enough to date me for periods of weeks at a time. However, I mostly just tell them my name is Colin. Saves me a lot of trouble until Steve comes along and tells each potential wife my real name. Like I said- I'm not bitter, periods of weeks at a time. Sometimes, but not all, more than one at a time. Catch my slang?For Earth Day, I usually take some kind of exotic vacation to unwind and get back in touch with the planet. For instance, in 2004 I went on a tour of some Rainforests where we got to take an acre's worth of trees home with us. We also got to eat any wildlife we could shoot, including rare monkeys or native peoples. 2005 found me welding ice in the Arctic. (That's right- I mistakenly followed along on a hippy-trip to the Arctic, where I and a bunch of hippies learned that ice doesn't weld- it melts- laugh it up. The woman's name was Vicki, and I told her my name was Colin. She is the hippy I followed.) In 2007 I went bald eagle hunting in Wyoming and actually killed two bald eagles with one stone, and in 2007 I went rare and not-rare whale hunting in Japan. This year I wanted to try something more exciting- something different. This year, I decided to stay in Chicago and see what was going on at my college Earth Day bash. I figured I'd share exotic stories of Earth Day vacations with some school-mates I had never met before. Boy was I wrong.
At Earth Day at Columbia, students held some sort of job-fair type thing except instead of handing out your resume to a crowd of recruiters, a crowd of hippies hands things out to you. It was pretty nice, actually. I think it was called Green Fair or something, though there was no sign of Ralph Nader or Cynthia McKinney (I'm up on politics! Go Ronnie Pablo, lady doctor to the nation! And why are we voting between a black guy and a woman when we could have a black woman? Go Cynthia!), so I don't think it had to do with the Green Party...
But seriously. I care about the Earth, and that's what I think this whole thing was about, since it was Earth-Day. I like to recycle cans for money. I did that when I was four- that's how my brother and I made our money back then. According to the Earth-Fair or whatever at Columbia, people still recycle, but now they recycle all sorts of things- like plastic grocery bags, cell-phones, and light-bulbs.
1 week's worth of recyclable trash from 623 Wabash...
I met a dude named Alden who was in charge of the green group, and they were running sort of an underground light-bulb trading scheme that seemed like something I could really get in on. They had a deal where if you brought them a regular old light bulb, they would give you one of these new ones that twist and spiral around and supposedly only take 13 watts to produce the brightness of a 60 watt bulb. This was pretty sweet and made me wish I had brought some light bulbs along. I also wished I had brought in some of my old pay-as-you-go phones since they had complimentary bags to recycle them in. (I ended up just throwing them away when I got home from school today anyway- it was a good reminder to get rid of those 23 old things...)
Then there were free cookies, free coke, sprite, pepsi, a booth with free herb seeds (I asked if they had White Widow, but all they gave me was cilantro, a type I had never heard of. I was just thrilled that they can give seeds away these days! Cheers for decriminalization on campus. Private Property, Cops!), lots of pamphlets about global warming and stuff...Oh, but this one thing I hated was this wheel game:
stupid, useless, winnerless wheel game
This game had no point, but had these frilly things you could win if you stuck your hand in a hole. I tried that at a party once and it was not cool, and I was not about to try it here in broad daylight.
All in all, Earth-Day wasn't quite as fun this year, but after a long streak, it was only a matter of time before Turd Colon Shields had a lackluster Earth-Day. I gotta give my best to the students, though- they really seem to care.
-Steve Shields is on vacation and will return next week.-
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Columbia In A Nutshell
If I were a Columbia College tour guide, there are a couple places on campus that I wouldn't be able to not show a potential attendee.
One is the financial aid office, where I'd show the kids how much it costs to go to school here and how much debt they'll have accumulated in four years in order to scare them out of going to college at all.
"I keed! I keed!"
Place numero uno is the front of 623 S. Wabash. When the weather is nice, I have never failed to find a shortage of cool-looking art-school cats. From nerds to goths, there's something about this hot-spot that just screams at kids to kick back, chop your hair asymmetrically, light up a cancer-stick, and kick back on a window sill. See, despite my judgmental assumptions about these peoples' appearances, you really cannot pigeonhole the style of nearly any Columbia kid, and for this reason alone potential incoming students should feel right at home and take comfort in their own uniqueness. It also doesn't hurt that this is also a great spot to check out pretty ladies of all shapes and sizes. Hell, I don't even smoke and the front of 623 makes me want to put on a pair of women's jeans, oversized 80s sneakers and start smoking right then and there. And this is a daily occurance!
Spot numero dos is the 4th floor 623 Wabash Interactive Arts and Media computer lab. This is where I go to act like I understand what I'm doing in Photoshop and Illustrator for my digital image design class. While I am doing this and surfing the internet, I am trying to concentrate but failing miserably because of how laid back this lab's rules are. Sure, there are signs posted asking everyone to be quiet and not eat or drink food in the lab, but never once have I seen these rules remotely enforced. This lab is a veritable social mecca for the creative digi-heads on campus.
Usually while I'm tinkering with vectors and lasso tools in the Adobe CS3, there's at least 4 people right next to me designing video games or using some sort of 3-dimensional rendering program that makes my work-load look like I'm participating in a third-grade spelling bee. This lab is packed with some smart-mo-fo's, and believe me when I say that smart is an understatement. I can't begin to fathom how these kids learn this stuff, but there they are, going nuts at all hours of the day.
Another great thing about this lab is that you can buy sodas from the lab-runners for the anti-inflation price of $.50, and there's always a great selection, usually including my fave, Dr Pepper. You just can't beat it.
One is the financial aid office, where I'd show the kids how much it costs to go to school here and how much debt they'll have accumulated in four years in order to scare them out of going to college at all.
"I keed! I keed!"
Place numero uno is the front of 623 S. Wabash. When the weather is nice, I have never failed to find a shortage of cool-looking art-school cats. From nerds to goths, there's something about this hot-spot that just screams at kids to kick back, chop your hair asymmetrically, light up a cancer-stick, and kick back on a window sill. See, despite my judgmental assumptions about these peoples' appearances, you really cannot pigeonhole the style of nearly any Columbia kid, and for this reason alone potential incoming students should feel right at home and take comfort in their own uniqueness. It also doesn't hurt that this is also a great spot to check out pretty ladies of all shapes and sizes. Hell, I don't even smoke and the front of 623 makes me want to put on a pair of women's jeans, oversized 80s sneakers and start smoking right then and there. And this is a daily occurance!
Spot numero dos is the 4th floor 623 Wabash Interactive Arts and Media computer lab. This is where I go to act like I understand what I'm doing in Photoshop and Illustrator for my digital image design class. While I am doing this and surfing the internet, I am trying to concentrate but failing miserably because of how laid back this lab's rules are. Sure, there are signs posted asking everyone to be quiet and not eat or drink food in the lab, but never once have I seen these rules remotely enforced. This lab is a veritable social mecca for the creative digi-heads on campus.
Usually while I'm tinkering with vectors and lasso tools in the Adobe CS3, there's at least 4 people right next to me designing video games or using some sort of 3-dimensional rendering program that makes my work-load look like I'm participating in a third-grade spelling bee. This lab is packed with some smart-mo-fo's, and believe me when I say that smart is an understatement. I can't begin to fathom how these kids learn this stuff, but there they are, going nuts at all hours of the day.
Another great thing about this lab is that you can buy sodas from the lab-runners for the anti-inflation price of $.50, and there's always a great selection, usually including my fave, Dr Pepper. You just can't beat it.
Run To The Hills
Ahem. Did you run? If not, you may want to consider running. Far. Away. From the United States. Specifically, get away from the West Coast immediately. Get away from Los Angeles! Run for your lives?
Living with 2 girls, it is hard not to hear discussions about a TV show called The Hills. Now, having seen the show, I have a better outlook on life and the world. I am actually grateful for every minute I spend of my life where I am NOT watching The Hills. It isn't so much that the show is bad as it it's....Okay, it is that bthe show is bad. And not in an "American Idol/ Dancing With The Stars"-type bad- this show is Satan.
Judging from the three episodes I watched, The Hills is about women in Los Angeles who are trying to break into the professional world of drinking alcohol and makeup-wearing. These girls are, like, champions of these sports. The series is a "reality" show that follows the lives of approximately six vapid women and one shell of a man named Spencer. From what I could tell, someone named Heidi, who has the most blatant nosejob I've ever seen, is pissed off at someone named Lauren, and because of this, the entire state of California is on the verge of collapsing into the Pacific ocean due to the strain and tension that these feuding socialites are placing on the San Andreas fault line. Meanwhile, Heidi's boyfriend Spencer is living in his sister's apartment- I mean condo (Sorry, Spencer- my bad)- while he and Heidi are on a "relationship vacation," which means that both Spencer and Heidi are idiots. Did I say idiots? Oh. That was what I meant to say.
See that? Apparently these girls are wall-building carpenters as well, although I didn't see that sort of career action taking place in the three episodes I watched.
For me, the highlight of the show is this guy Spencer. At times, Spencer wears a flesh-toned mustache. Others he is clean-shaven. At all times he is the most insane man I've ever seen on television. He lives on his sister's couch and at one point asks her, "Where is the maid?" She replies, "I am the maid." His retort? "Well she needs to wash the sheets on my couch." He then angers his sister by having some sort of phone-booth/time-travelling device delivered to the center of her living room. Good God.
As for the tech aspects of the show, some scenes are filmed really well. In between reality scenes, there is lots of stock footage that would make me want to dart out to LA and start a new life asap if I had one of my brain hemispheres removed. In all seriousness, I caught this one absolutely gorgeous shot of some kind of mountainy/woodsy area in LA, but this shot lasted all of one second, and was followed by a five-second stock shot of a guy skateboarding down a street which could have been anywhere in any city. Come to think of it, that one beautiful landscape shot probably wasn't really California at all- it was probably some exotic land like Thailand thrown in for good measure, as the way thse people portray the West Coast should in theory sway everyone on the planet from ever wanting to move there. Also, when the producers film scenes in clubs, they don't mic the stars- they just put subtitles on the screen so you know what they're saying. Had they done this in the Real World for all those seasons....well, they just wouldn't have, because it makes for awful television.
Unfortunately, it seemd like the more times I watched the Hills, the less I actually cared what was going on. The show features pretty faces, sure, but none I want to know personally. The cast-members obviously have far too much of their parents' money to spend, and characters with nothing to do but talk, like, fashion and stuff, are like, not that interesting to....zzzzzzzzzzzzz.................
Hickup.
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
"Go cure yourself, America."-a note from The United States Of America to its citizens.
“Though the focus occasionally strays, (Sicko) emerges as a fascinating exploration and powerful indictment of a pressing national problem. This is Moore's biggest, best and most impassioned work. And while he probes a vitally serious subject and makes a case for widespread reform, he does so with lighthearted flourishes — large doses of humor, clever use of film footage and a catchy soundtrack. These assets, along with well-chohttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifsen interview subjects, make Sicko a film that will arouse surprise, outrage, sadness and heated discussion.”- Claudia Puig, USA Today
You don’t get much more American (or generic, but that’s not bad when it comes to movie talk) than the USA Today, and Claudia Puig has nailed this film on the head with one small paragraph.
If there is one driving message that resonates throughout Michael Moore’s “Sicko,” it’s that something is wrong- very wrong- with our country’s healthcare system. After all, we are the greatest nation in the world, right? Or are we just the most atrophied, apathetic country in the world? Is our government beating us down with fear because they are afraid of us? Moore’s film asks many questions like these, and presents a well-balanced picture of the mess The United States is really in. Michael Moore pulls out all stops, using a potent mixture of heart-wrenching propaganda of the best kind combined with true-life testimonials. This is not a film that will be soon forgotten by viewers, with the exception of so-called “right-wingers” (I use quotes around right-wingers because I don’t believe the left/right dichotomy of U.S. politics. 2 wings, one bird. It’s all the same, etc etc…end rant.) who will no doubt watch the film with blinders and continue thttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifo insist that the United States does everything best.
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I first heard of Michael Moore a few years back when he put out the documentary Bowling For Columbine, which I enjoyed and appreciated at the time of its release (though I have not explored the film since). He followed that movie with Fahrenheit 9/11, a lightweight documentary about 9/11 that pales in comparison to such informative films as 9/11 Mysteries and 9/11: Press For Truth. Sicko, though, hits a topic that has the potential to affect and enrage us all, and this is clearly Moore’s intent. After being hospitalized for 4 hours earlier this year with food poisoning and having been sent a $1,000+ bill for my treatment, I too am angry with the system.
Where Moore missed the ball with 9/11, failing to impress those in the 9/11 Truth movement (a group of “conspiracy theorists” who take that adjective as a political slur and are dedicated to uncovering and spreading the truth about how the towers really fell and what happened to the third building in NYC that fell on 9/11/01, the Solomon brothers building, aka Building 7), he has no-doubt impressed the hell out of healthcare advocates who see clearly that “the sickness industry” has replaced “the healthcare industry.” And though he hasn’t chosen to address the pharmaceutical companies, or the root causes of what is making us all so sick, Moore has put aside partisanship to create a film that should move all.
Michael Moore could be viewed as a sort of cultural instigator- just as certain art-forms are designed to provoke unease in their target market, so designed are Moore’s films- laced with trigger-words, provocative imagery, and a general portrayal of America as “kept in the dark,” just as Kipnis said of Hustler magazine, Moore’s films are filled with “things we would call tasteless at best, or might even become repulsed by.” This is exemplified in the film’s opening, where the audience is treated to a viewing of a man stitching up his own wound because he cannot afford medical care.
“They say you can judge a society by how it treats its worst off.”-Michael Moore, Sicko.
The scene that sums up the current state of the medical industry in the United States involves a woman whose young daughter gets sick with a 104-degree fever. Her daughter is rushed to a hospital where she is refused care. Urged to take her daughter elsewhere, the woman pleads with staff to treat her daughter. Shortly after, the daughter suffers a seizure, followed by cardiac arrest. She passes away because these doctors refuse to treat her. This scene is just one of many gut-wrenching scenes throughout the epic documentary, one of which finds 9/11 heroes making their way to Cuba for healthcare they couldn’t receive in the states.
Michael Moore is a cunning filmmaker who, this time out, is unafraid to punch his target, the healthcare industry, right in the face. I hope he’ll go on to tackle the real issues, though- where is all of this cancer coming from? Why aren’t we able to cure disease anymore? Why are we dealing with new diseases all the time? Why are our 6th grade girls being forced ton take Gardisil, a vaccine that does not work? We all know what happened in the Tuskegee Experiments. I hope Moore goes even more esoteric with his next venture and really starts to wake people up. Those calling for a revolution need to realize that it is happening- one mind at a time. Nice work this time, Mr. Moore.
You don’t get much more American (or generic, but that’s not bad when it comes to movie talk) than the USA Today, and Claudia Puig has nailed this film on the head with one small paragraph.
If there is one driving message that resonates throughout Michael Moore’s “Sicko,” it’s that something is wrong- very wrong- with our country’s healthcare system. After all, we are the greatest nation in the world, right? Or are we just the most atrophied, apathetic country in the world? Is our government beating us down with fear because they are afraid of us? Moore’s film asks many questions like these, and presents a well-balanced picture of the mess The United States is really in. Michael Moore pulls out all stops, using a potent mixture of heart-wrenching propaganda of the best kind combined with true-life testimonials. This is not a film that will be soon forgotten by viewers, with the exception of so-called “right-wingers” (I use quotes around right-wingers because I don’t believe the left/right dichotomy of U.S. politics. 2 wings, one bird. It’s all the same, etc etc…end rant.) who will no doubt watch the film with blinders and continue thttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifo insist that the United States does everything best.
http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif
I first heard of Michael Moore a few years back when he put out the documentary Bowling For Columbine, which I enjoyed and appreciated at the time of its release (though I have not explored the film since). He followed that movie with Fahrenheit 9/11, a lightweight documentary about 9/11 that pales in comparison to such informative films as 9/11 Mysteries and 9/11: Press For Truth. Sicko, though, hits a topic that has the potential to affect and enrage us all, and this is clearly Moore’s intent. After being hospitalized for 4 hours earlier this year with food poisoning and having been sent a $1,000+ bill for my treatment, I too am angry with the system.
Where Moore missed the ball with 9/11, failing to impress those in the 9/11 Truth movement (a group of “conspiracy theorists” who take that adjective as a political slur and are dedicated to uncovering and spreading the truth about how the towers really fell and what happened to the third building in NYC that fell on 9/11/01, the Solomon brothers building, aka Building 7), he has no-doubt impressed the hell out of healthcare advocates who see clearly that “the sickness industry” has replaced “the healthcare industry.” And though he hasn’t chosen to address the pharmaceutical companies, or the root causes of what is making us all so sick, Moore has put aside partisanship to create a film that should move all.
Michael Moore could be viewed as a sort of cultural instigator- just as certain art-forms are designed to provoke unease in their target market, so designed are Moore’s films- laced with trigger-words, provocative imagery, and a general portrayal of America as “kept in the dark,” just as Kipnis said of Hustler magazine, Moore’s films are filled with “things we would call tasteless at best, or might even become repulsed by.” This is exemplified in the film’s opening, where the audience is treated to a viewing of a man stitching up his own wound because he cannot afford medical care.
“They say you can judge a society by how it treats its worst off.”-Michael Moore, Sicko.
The scene that sums up the current state of the medical industry in the United States involves a woman whose young daughter gets sick with a 104-degree fever. Her daughter is rushed to a hospital where she is refused care. Urged to take her daughter elsewhere, the woman pleads with staff to treat her daughter. Shortly after, the daughter suffers a seizure, followed by cardiac arrest. She passes away because these doctors refuse to treat her. This scene is just one of many gut-wrenching scenes throughout the epic documentary, one of which finds 9/11 heroes making their way to Cuba for healthcare they couldn’t receive in the states.
Michael Moore is a cunning filmmaker who, this time out, is unafraid to punch his target, the healthcare industry, right in the face. I hope he’ll go on to tackle the real issues, though- where is all of this cancer coming from? Why aren’t we able to cure disease anymore? Why are we dealing with new diseases all the time? Why are our 6th grade girls being forced ton take Gardisil, a vaccine that does not work? We all know what happened in the Tuskegee Experiments. I hope Moore goes even more esoteric with his next venture and really starts to wake people up. Those calling for a revolution need to realize that it is happening- one mind at a time. Nice work this time, Mr. Moore.
Monday, March 31, 2008
I should have gotten more free shit.
Nobody likes to see the curse-word version of the turd-word used profanely in the Class Blogs. However, it's post-Spring Break, and the blog needs freshening. What better way to freshen the old blah blah blog than by using the curse-word version of the turd-word?
Shit. I like that. Curse-word version of the turd-word.
My college days are soon ending. I'll be on my way out in December, pending all goes well. And with that departure I'll be taking a large bill of college loans. Regret is sinking in these days with regard to my time spent here, and I'm not a person who likes to spend money on regret. It's not that I wish I would have chosen a different major or something. I really just wish I would have taken advantage of more of all the free shit we get as students here.
A little background: I have been shooting comedy videos for about the past year, and prior to had been writing and discussing making videos for years (I'm an AEM/ Media/ TV Management student, not a film or TV major.). I was enrolled in the Television department for two consecutive semesters and failed to realize that I had the ability to check out the free video equipment offered by the department. See, I had been using junk-cheap equipment or bumming stuff from friends. For some reason I just wasn't aware of how easy it actually is to just walk in and check this free shit out.
This semester, having completely biffed my opps to rent free shit prior, I enrolled in an IAM class. Having regretted not using the TV department's junk, I was enthused to learn that the IAM department has their own Equipment Cave with a small cache of video and photo weapons that anyone in the department can check out for free, just like the TV department. I have been checking out cameras, like, every 3 days. It's insanely included right in my tuition. Some of this equipment would normally cost about $500 a day to rent! And then you'd have to put up a credit line to back the rental unless you wanted to buy an insurance policy!
Other free items I have recently taken advantage of included Free Business Card Day and The Portfolio Center. At Free Business Card Day, some nice lady led me right into a tiny room with a nerd in it. This nerd asked me a few questions about myself and in about 5 minutes came up with a totally cool (but kinda nerdy) business card for me. FOR FREE. Also, if you weren't aware, the IAM department and TV departments both have computer labs where you can print all your shit for free. The IAM department even allows access to free high quality paper and serious, serious color printing.
For anyone looking into attending Columbia, you'll want to consider taking advantage of all the free shit this place has to offer. If I would have done more research or maybe just paid attention a bit more I would have been having a blast from the start of my tansfer here. Instead I've wasted most of these free things until this fifth semester. Hindsight is 20/20, and as far as my last two years here go, I feel like I had crud in my eyes the whole time. Maybe with a little digging you people can help me find some more free shit before I exit this place and the standardized education system forever. I could really use the freeness of whatever you may be aware of that I am not.
Thanks, Columbia.
Old, shoddy equipment:
http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif
New, Free Columbia Equipment that we barely knew how to work:
Also, please vote for this video here starting April 7 (Video number 2427!)
Shit. I like that. Curse-word version of the turd-word.
My college days are soon ending. I'll be on my way out in December, pending all goes well. And with that departure I'll be taking a large bill of college loans. Regret is sinking in these days with regard to my time spent here, and I'm not a person who likes to spend money on regret. It's not that I wish I would have chosen a different major or something. I really just wish I would have taken advantage of more of all the free shit we get as students here.
A little background: I have been shooting comedy videos for about the past year, and prior to had been writing and discussing making videos for years (I'm an AEM/ Media/ TV Management student, not a film or TV major.). I was enrolled in the Television department for two consecutive semesters and failed to realize that I had the ability to check out the free video equipment offered by the department. See, I had been using junk-cheap equipment or bumming stuff from friends. For some reason I just wasn't aware of how easy it actually is to just walk in and check this free shit out.
This semester, having completely biffed my opps to rent free shit prior, I enrolled in an IAM class. Having regretted not using the TV department's junk, I was enthused to learn that the IAM department has their own Equipment Cave with a small cache of video and photo weapons that anyone in the department can check out for free, just like the TV department. I have been checking out cameras, like, every 3 days. It's insanely included right in my tuition. Some of this equipment would normally cost about $500 a day to rent! And then you'd have to put up a credit line to back the rental unless you wanted to buy an insurance policy!
Other free items I have recently taken advantage of included Free Business Card Day and The Portfolio Center. At Free Business Card Day, some nice lady led me right into a tiny room with a nerd in it. This nerd asked me a few questions about myself and in about 5 minutes came up with a totally cool (but kinda nerdy) business card for me. FOR FREE. Also, if you weren't aware, the IAM department and TV departments both have computer labs where you can print all your shit for free. The IAM department even allows access to free high quality paper and serious, serious color printing.
For anyone looking into attending Columbia, you'll want to consider taking advantage of all the free shit this place has to offer. If I would have done more research or maybe just paid attention a bit more I would have been having a blast from the start of my tansfer here. Instead I've wasted most of these free things until this fifth semester. Hindsight is 20/20, and as far as my last two years here go, I feel like I had crud in my eyes the whole time. Maybe with a little digging you people can help me find some more free shit before I exit this place and the standardized education system forever. I could really use the freeness of whatever you may be aware of that I am not.
Thanks, Columbia.
Old, shoddy equipment:
http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif
New, Free Columbia Equipment that we barely knew how to work:
Also, please vote for this video here starting April 7 (Video number 2427!)
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