"Our Lives in a Car"

Cherie and I decided that our independent film project would focus on the rides we take to get to Blair. Both of us live relatively far from Blair, so we spend a lot of time in the car, hence the title "Our Lives in a Car". My bus ride is almost an hour and I can't drive yet so hanging out with people in Silver Spring is a hassle. Cherie and I hang out a lot and I think we became friends because we live so far from everybody else.

For this project I used the online video editor wevideo. I don't have any video editing software at home, so I use an online one. It's difficult to use because the webpage gets hung up a lot and it took a long time to upload the videos. It also requires me to pay in order to export the video in HD and without the watermark. (I didn't pay so that's why there's the little wevideo mark at the top.) I'd imagine it'd be really good to pay for  real video editing software or shell out the 5 bucks for the online editor. But if I'm only going to use these less than 5 times more in my life, I don't think I really need it. (Sorry Mr. Mayo.)

Overall, I'm pretty proud of our project. I know the video quality could have been better and I would have loved to have used the song "I'm Gonna Be" by the Proclaimers. But, I really like the song I found and I think it makes the video better and more upbeat. It reminds me of one of those fun car commercials where they try to convince you that by buying this car you'll have way more fun than in a normal car. Our video is like that so it's basically trying to convince you that if you live far from Blair your life will be 10 times better! (Not actually, I'm just telling myself that.) So, overall, our video really shows what it's like to not live in Silver Spring.

If the video doesn't work within the blog, then here is the link.

The Impossible

This past weekend, I watched the movie, The Impossible, with Ewan McGregor and Naomi Watts. It is a movie about the worst ever recorded tsunami which hit South East Asia in 2004. The movie follows the story of a family who gets separated and is trying to find each other.
The cinematography was fantastic and really enhanced the suspense and drama of the film. Throughout the film, it cuts to black for a few seconds at a time with just sounds. The viewer never knows what's going to happen next. The camera shook a lot during the scenes of the tsunami which partially gave me a headache but it really made me scared of the tsunami. I felt as if I was really there, being swept through the water alongside the mother.
The plot line of the film kept the viewer guessing. You never know if the family will reunite, although you hope against all odds that they will. The actors are all fantastic and draw every ounce of emotion out of you.
The cinematography enhances the film so well by putting you into the actors shoes. You are trudging along in the swamp lands with the mother and boy. You are feeling the pain as the mother suffers from extreme blood loss. The culmination of the terrible things that happen make the happy things a hundred times happier. This is a very intense movie, but it is a must see!
Here is the trailer.

"Bowling for Columbine" Review

This is the cartoon from Bowling for Columbine that depicts the American history of fear.

For the documentary review assignment, I watched Bowling for Columbine, which I've seen sporadically throughout the years, but never the whole way through. I decided to watch it because it talks about the American gun culture, which is extremely relevant now after the Connecticut shooting. I want to give my condolences and prayers to the families of the victims and the community of Newtown before continuing on.

Bowling for Columbine opens with archival footage of various things, such as bowling and automatic guns. Michael Moore goes into a bank that also sells guns and gets an assault rifle, showing what little effort is necessary to obtain a gun. The first 30 minutes or so of the film talks about the lack of gun control in the country and the large gun culture that exists. Moore returns to his home town of Flint, Michigan to interview local militia about gun ownership. Moore continues his description of violent culture by using archival footage to show U.S. military actions in other countries, such as Vietnam and Chile.

Moore transfers to telling the story of Columbine by cutting to black and overlaying an audio track of calls to the police department during and after the shooting at the school. He then uses archival footage from the security cameras of the high school of the shooters and the chaos. Moore spends time talking about what happened and why it happened. Immediately after, he shows footage from the Gun Expo the NRA held in Denver just 10 days after the Columbine shooting. Simultaneously, he shows the protest held on the same day that included family members and friends of victims. This whole segment of the film introduces the problem that exists regarding gun culture and violence. 

Moore goes on to interview various people about the issue of gun control. He raises the question of why does America have such a high amount of gun use, even when other countries watch the same violent movies and play the same violent games as we do? Moore then describes the effects of the media in bringing attention to murders and crimes. Although the crime rates across the country have been decreasing, the media coverage of crime is doubling. Moore uses a brief cartoon (above) to show the American history of constant fear; fear of the Indians, the slaves, etc. Moore travels to Canada and finds that Canadians, although they have large gun ownership, are not as afraid of the world as Americans are. He interviews two Canadians whose homes were broken in to but they still do not lock their doors at night. Moore goes around Toronto testing home doors to see if they are locked and none of them are locked.

The recurring theme of the film is that fear is what leads America to be different than other countries whose cultures also include large amounts of violence. Moore does an exquisite job of explaining this idea while also making it entertaining. There are serious parts of the film, but then there are funny parts. This combination keeps the viewer hooked on while there is serious material being addressed.

I was not impressed with Fahrenheit 9/11, but I really enjoyed Bowling for Columbine. I would highly recommend it to anyone, but particularly those who think increasing gun control is the only solution to the large amounts of shootings. This film does an excellent job of causing the viewer to really think about American culture and reflect on what defines us as Americans.

Bowling for Columbine. 1 hr 59 minutes. Rated R for some violent images and language.

Documentary Idea

I had this idea for our documentary project when my group was talking about the cool things you can find and do in DC.

I thought we could do a documentary on the homeless people of D.C. There are so many homeless people I see on benches in parks, outside doors on the streets, and standing on the sides of the road. I'm sure many of them have extremely moving stories of how they got to be where they are. I'd also like to see their views on the future; if they have any plans or if they are just living day by day.

We could interview various people all around D.C. and maybe get some street walkers and see what they think. I would really like to have different perspectives on the issue of the homeless, I don't think the documentary would be complete with just interviewing the homeless. We could also find people who volunteer in soup kitchens or who lead community outreach programs to hear their perspectives. We could also find people who maybe thought the homeless deserved to be where they are. It would create a more dynamic documentary to have various ideas, even if they are controversial.

This topic could be easily turned into a StudentCam documentary project for the C-SPAN competition, if desired. We would just have to add footage from C-SPAN news or other programs. I would like that, but it would be a lot more work and if it our documentary didn't turn out the exact way I wanted, I wouldn't want to enter it. I'll just have to see where it goes and see what my group wants to do.

I've also played with the idea of doing a C-SPAN doc on education in this country, but I don't think I'd have enough time to do it justice.

Piano Dreams

This week, I decided to write about my long time desire to learn how to play the piano.

I think the piano is the most beautiful instrument ever. It's so amazing to watch one's fingers fly over the keys, creating such gorgeous music.

A few years ago, my family got a keyboard. For the first couple months I didn't use it. Then one day I was watching music videos on youtube and I found this guy David Sides who does piano covers on popular songs. I liked him a lot and thought it was so crazy, the way he recreated the songs.

After that day, I vowed to learn how to play the piano. I bought a learner's book for 3 bucks and taught myself the keys. I learned how to play a couple songs like Fur Elise and Boston by Augustana. I never knew how to read music in treble clef. I played the viola for 5 years and that has it's own clef. I never bothered to learn to switch over, so everything I learned, I learned by ear which probably isn't the best way to learn.

But when I got to high school, my dream to learn to play the piano was pushed aside. There was so much else to focus on with sports and school. I cut corners when I tried to learn, which probably contributed to the fading of my dream.

I wish I hadn't stopped, but I can't spend my whole life looking back and wishing I had continued to learn. I think I'm going to take some time to re-teach myself. I really want to be able to play an instrument. I think music is the key into a totally new dimension, one that I want to be able to control.

Learning an instrument can really help you understand your learning style and teach you that to be good at something, you have to work. It's really beneficial to your mental health.

So, this is why I'm going to learn to play the piano again. My first goal is to be able to play Apologize, which is the first song I watched David Sides play. But ultimately, I want to be able to play Variations on the Canon in D that George Winston plays. I have the sheet music for that, so it will be a good way to learn to read. I know that song is really hard to play, but I will push myself to succeed!

Battle Born

This week I had no idea what to write my blog post about. So, I decided I would just pick a song from the latest Killers album and write about what it means to me.

I chose the song Battle Born, which is also the name of the album. What speaks to me the most out of the song is the chorus;

Up against the wall

There's something dying on the street

When the knock you down

You're gonna get back on your feet

(No you can't stop now)

When they break your heart

When they cause your soul to mourn

Remember what I said

Boy, you was Battle Born



 

It represents a struggle, or many struggles, and the need to recover from them. No matter what happens you have to pick yourself up and keep on going. There will be hard times, times when you feel like you just can't go on. But you have to, if you give up you're letting your troubles beat you, letting them win. The term "Battle Born" really encompasses the idea that we were born to fight and to struggle through life. That's probably why the last line, despite the bad grammar, is my favorite one.

 

Another verse that really speaks to me is the bridge;

 

You never know

You never learn

You never shine

If you never burn

 

What I really like about this part is that it shows that if you never get hurt or you never make mistakes, you can never reach your full potential of life. You have to make mistakes to learn from them and you have to learn in order to live. There will always be risks, but you have to take those risks to get anything out of life.

 

So, overall I think this song pretty much represents my whole motto for life. Move on from the bad, you have to have faith that there will be good on the other side. It's like Dory from Finding Nemo, "Just Keep Swimming".

 

Here's the lyrics video made by some random person.

 

Curriculum 2.0

I've decided to write my blog post this week about education in Montgomery County. What with the recent shooting of the Pakistani girl and the heated presidential debates, education seems to have become a higher priority in the eyes of the world.

The curriculum 2.0 system recently implemented in elementary schools in Montgomery County eliminates all advanced classes, claiming that by leaving the higher level kids in classes with the lower level kids will help the not-as-smart kids become smarter. There may be some truth in that, but the system holds the smarter kids back, causing them to move at a slower pace and learn at a lower level than they need and deserve.

Kids easily get bored, especially younger kids, so won't they be excrutiatingly bored staying in classes where the teachers have to teach to the lowest level? I went to a private school for kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grade. Everybody was in the same level of math and reading classes; I spent most of the classes staring into space. I know I am not extremely smart, but I do know that I can learn things relatively quickly. I had to switch into the public school system so that I could take more advanced classes.

By taking away advanced classes, we are holding are kids back, forcing them to adjust to the standards that we demand of them. This will teach the kids to never strive for higher goals and to never push their boundaries. This will teach them that mediocracy is acceptable and even encouraged. With attitudes like these, society will be stuck in a rut forever and advancements will not be made.