Criticas

Angels in America

The epic HBO miniseries Angels in America is directed by Mike Nichols and written by the play’s author, Tony Kushner. This six-part drama is adapted from the two full-length award-winning plays (Part I: The Millennium Approaches and Part II: Perestroika) originally performed on Broadway in 1993. Set in New York City during the mid-’80s, the story follows the interconnected lives of several people affected by the AIDS crisis, intense spiritual experiences, and the Reagan Administration. Newcomer Justin Kirk plays Prior Walter, a young man dying of AIDS. Things are made worse when he’s abandoned by his lover, Jewish court clerk Louis Ironson (Ben Shenkman). Then he’s visited by an Angel (Emma Thompson), who keeps crashing through his roof and insisting that he’s a prophet.Meanwhile, conservative power monger Roy Cohn (Al Pacino) is also dying of AIDS, but he’s in serious denial about it. While in the hospital, he’s continually visited by the ghost of Ethel Rosenberg (Meryl Streep), a woman he had sent to the electric chair. Roy’s protégé is Mormon lawyer Joe Pitt (Patrick Wilson), who also tries to deny his own homosexuality. Joe’s estranged wife Harper (Mary-Louise Parker) suffers from a Valium addiction and has an acute sensitivity to the world around her. Joe leaves her to start up a relationship with Louis, who works in his building. Jeffrey Wright reprises his stage role of the trusty friend and nurse Belize. Angels in America first aired in two parts on HBO during December of 2003. 

First, what does “Angels in America” mean? This comes from one of Louis’ lines:

Like the spiritualists try to use that stuff, are you enlightened, are you centered, channeled, whatever, this reaching out for a spiritual past in a country where no indigenous spirits exist – only the Indians, I mean Native American spirits and we killed them off so now, there are no gods here, no ghosts and spirits in America, there are no angels in America, no spiritual past, no racial past, there’s only the political.(3.2.12)

It seems like what Louis is concluding is that he thinks America doesn’t have any real spiritual center. That despite the best efforts of many to find something holy in America, it just doesn’t exist. Instead, there’s only politics. 

But, wait! This series isn’t called No Angels in America is it? The title seems to imply that there actually are angels in America. When the angel crashes through Prior’s ceiling(picture above) , it would seem there’s definitely one angel at least. The angel is referred to as the Continental Principality of America, seeming to imply that she is the spiritual essence of the US; she’s the very thing Louis claims doesn’t exist. You could interpret this as meaning that Louis doesn’t know what he’s talking about, or you could say that Prior is just hallucinating the angel and Louis is right. What do you think? Are there “angels in America”?

This is a hard question to answer since I haven’t seen the whole series.However, I think I can give my own interpretation.

For me, taking into account that Prior is a gay character which suffers from AIDS, the angel can represent the salvation. According to the church gay people are not still accepted in society and even in the church itself, so, by relating a gay man with an angel I think that the series tries to defy the laws of God.Meaning that Angels( messengers of God in the Hebrew and Christian Bibles and the Qura) can save everyone despite their sexuality and race. I think in this show we assist to an oblivion of all of the stereotypes and consequently to an emergence of a pure clean unprejudiced society.

I wish I could say more about the series in this  final post because I really enjoyed watching excerpts from it. I apologize for being so superficial.Maybe after watching the series I can write about it a little deeper.

To note that in 2004, Angels in America broke the record previously held by Roots for the most Emmys awarded to a program in a single year by winning 11 awards from 21 nominations. The record was broken four years later by John Adams.

Try to watch the show because it really seems to be outstanding 🙂

Pop Art

Art, for me can be defined in such a different kind of ways. As we all know Art is not just paintings and beautifully designed portraits, Art can perfectly be cinema, music and literature.

Since the beginning of time, man has the necessity to express himself either by carving or even by painting cave walls. Therefore what I am trying to say is that, Art despite being an hard word to define since it depends on the perspective that we adopt, it it also a representation of ourselves, of our society.

If we take a look at Cubism where  objects are broken up, analyzed, and re-assembled in an abstracted form, we can observe the society in a Cubist perspective, meaning that from a Cubist Artist point of view, the society from the 20th century was also broken and fragmented.

So with this introduction we can conclude that Art is a relative term and that it depends on the society, meaning that the society  influences Art and vice-versa.

In the 20th century another artistic movement appeared, Pop Art.

Pop art is an art movement that emerged in the mid 1950s in Britain and in the late 1950s in the United States. Pop art presented a challenge to traditions of fine art by including imagery from popular culture such as advertising, news, etc. In Pop art, material is sometimes visually removed from its known context, isolated, and/or combined with unrelated material. The concept of pop art refers not as much to the art itself as to the attitudes that led to it.

Basically this type of Art tries to be understandable for a common auditorium, meaning that Pop Art is accessible to everyone.You don’t need to understand that much of Art to withdraw the essence of the painting/portray.

                    Three Machines, 1963, De Young Museum, San Francisco by Wayne Thiebaud

In this example, what do you see?

In my opinion, what we see is the same because there is not much to explore on the painting itself. We have 3 gum ball machines in a table. This is it, it’s simple, it’s easy to understand. Obviously that there must be a subjective prespective in it. For example, why did he choose 3 machines? But, that is a question that the mainstream auditorium won’t even think about. That’s why Pop Art is accessible to everyone.

Now focusing on Cinema.

Andy Warhol was a leading figure in the this art movement. His works explore the relationship between artistic expression, celebrity culture and advertisement. In the 1960s, Andy Warhol created several “mass-produced” images from photographs of celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley and Elizabeth Taylor.

Being such an iconic figure Marilyn and all the others, were immortalized in this paintings by Warhol. I mean, even if you don’t know who Marilyn was(which is kind of stupid, because everyone knows Marilyn. I think…), you know this painting. Why? Because it is ephemeral. So many people admire her now, even nowadays and I’m sure that this painting could have been the beginning of someone’s  interest in the life of Marilyn Monroe.

Curiously enough, Warhol also tried to enter in the world of cinema. Personally I think that he should have remained in his art studio but…opinions are opinions.

He is know for some movies like Sleep and Eat. Sleep, for example, monitors poet John Giorno sleeping for six hours and Eat consists of a man eating a mushroom for 45 minutes. Kind of creepy isn’t it? I think so.

Just as a curiosity Sleep premiered on January 17, 1964 and of the nine people who attended the premiere, two left during the first hour. (I wonder why…)

All of this paintings from the Pop Art Movement are as I said easy to understand. However, now I think that maybe they have something more specific to say about us. By being that simple these paintings made me thought about my priorities. The things that we put so much importance on are so ephemeral. I mean we do not own things, they own us.We die, they stay here forever, and when they are made larger than life on a acrylic painting, they force us think about our mortality and how short our life is.

For this week I think I don’t have any movie suggestions, unless you want to lay on your sofa and watch a six hour movie.Actually I think that it would be a different experience. So if you want…

Tiffany & Co

New York. What a wonderful city to LIVE (considering the real meaning of the word). The air, the colors, the people, the spirit, the smells and the noise, bring to New York a special flavor for those who visit it and for  those who have the great opportunity to live there.

With such a stressful life and routine, New Yorkers are people who tend to do a lot of  shopping as a form of escapism.

Thus on 5th Ave, there is a massive concentration of stores from a variety of worldwide known brands like Louis Vuitton, Apple Inc.,  Prada, Hugo Boss and many others. However, at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 57th Street  there it is Tiffany & Co flagship sore.

At first glance, it is a store which is kind of unnoticed in my opinion due to its colors and the fusion of the store with the building itself (however, just as I crossed the street I immediately recognized the store.Guess why?), but, when you get closer and see that clock between those two US flags above the main door engraved with Tiffany’s logo, that’s when you realize you are at one of the most important stores in the USA.

Those windows reflect just a tiny sample of all Tiffany’s Collection. Tiffany’s is most famous for selling jewelry, however, it also sells sterling silver, china, crystal, stationery, fragrances, personal accessories, as well as some leather goods.

This particular store had a great influence in literature and cinema with the novel Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote. This novel portrays exactly what I  wrote in the beginning of my post:”New Yorkers are people who tend to do a lot of  shopping as a form of escapism”

Holy Golightly constantly refers to the store as “the best place in the world, where nothing bad can take place.” This sentence  proves that Americans and everybody else in the world (I think) need somewhere or someone to lean on, to escape from reality, to run away from problems, and Tiffany’s by conveying a message of richness, power and luxury is the perfect place, as I said before,  to escape from reality by getting rid away from everything society imposes to you.However, I know that Tiffany’s is not the form of escapism for everyone because each person idealizes theirs.

In the 1953 movie Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Marilyn Monroe sings”Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend”, which mentions Tiffany’s twice. Tiffany’s is renowned for its luxury goods, especially for its diamonds, diamond jewelry, and especially its diamond engagement rings, that’s why it is included in the lyrics. Also, by being in the lyrics, Tiffany’s importance is accentuated.

During the second season finale of Glee, “New York”, Rachel and Kurt are seen having breakfast in front of Tiffany & Co.

As you can see Tiffany’s as definitely marked pop culture and becoming an icon in cinema and television. It is a must-see in my personal list of Things You Really Have to See in NYC.

Now, why Tiffany’s? Is it because of the name of its founder? Well, maybe. However I think there’s something more behind the name.

Tiffany  as a girl’s name is pronounced TIF-a-nee. It is of Greek origin, and the meaning of it is “revelation of God”. Variant of the Greek Theophania. In many Christian Countries, girls born on January 6, the Feast of the Epiphany, are given some form of this name. The feast commemorates the day when the three Magi saw the infant Jesus. To Modern Christians, the Magi were Gentiles, and thus their visit to the baby Jesus is the “revelation of God” to the non-Jewish world. Now, the name is associated with Tiffany & Co, the New York jeweler, giving it connotations of upper-class luxury. Donald Trump, which by the way gives name to one of the most important buildings in New York, Trump Tower, named his baby Marla Maples Tiffany.

As a conclusion I must say that Tiffany’s is definitely an icon. Long before Marilyn Monroe sang “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” or Audrey Hepburn stared longingly into the window from a deserted Fifth Avenue, Tiffany & Co. was influencing American culture so deeply that is now part of the American society and of the American Dream.

Marilyn Monroe

Back in 1926 one of the greatest and most well-known movie stars was born. Norma Jeane Mortensen Baker, commonly known as Marilyn Monroe turned out to be a sex symbol, an icon that defined and marked the society of 50s. Despite all of the conservatism that the 50s society had, Monroe indirectly blossomed people’s inner senses. By teasing society, and by being such an important figure, Monroe started to influence and convey that being aloof was not a good solution for a developed and open minded society.

“The nicest thing for me is sleep, then at least I can dream.”

― Marilyn Monroe

As a child, we can consider that Monroe didn’t have any parental support since,  in addition to the fact that she didn’t knew her father, her mother was placed in a mental institution. She grew up experiencing a troubled childhood/adolescence in a orphanage and with a family that took care of her during some time. In order to change her life and get out of the orphanage, Monroe decides to marry Jimmy Dougherty on June 19, 1942. She went working to a munitions factory in Burbank where she was discovered by a photographer. This was the event that has definitely twisted her life upside down(in a positive prespective) and changed her path forever. If it didn’t happen,we wouldn’t  probably ever heard anything about her.

“If you’re gonna be two-faced at least make one of them pretty.”
― Marilyn Monroe

By being discovered, Monroe starts her career as a model, fact which sent her directly to the fashion world. Thus in 1946 her marriage fizzles out since she tended to focus more on her career by signing a contract with Twentieth Century-Fox. But like every single actor or actress, her first movies didn’t have that success.With the movie contract came a new name and image, she began calling herself “Marilyn Monroe” and dyed her hair blonde.

In 1950, Monroe casts in The Asphalt Jungle, with a minor but key role, and in All about Eve which revealed to be one of her earliest important roles. This movie was greatly acclaimed by the critics, fact which justifies its nominations for 14 Academy Awards. It won six of them including Best Picture.

In 1953 Monroe joins Jane Russell, for the musical comedy Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. The film was a hit and Monroe reaches the spotlight .With her breathy voice, Monroe became a much-admired international star.

Tired of dumb blonde roles(Stereotype), Monroe decides to start studying acting at the Actors’ Studio in order to improve her acting and performance skills. She returned to the screen in Bus Stop (1956), movie for which she received much praise.

In 1962, Monroe was dismissed from Something’s Got to Give for missing so many days of filming. She claimed that her absences were due to illness. Monroe’s fame and recognition level didn’t seem to stop raising and unfortunately she starts to decline.

“She was a girl who knew how to be happy even when she was sad. And that’s important—you know ”
― Marilyn Monroe

Her last two movies, Let’s Make Love (1960) and The Misfits (1961) were box office disappointments, and she was fired from her last project. In her personal life, she was known for unsuccessful marriages and relationships. Her most well known marriage to baseball great Joe DiMaggio only lasted nine months, proving she was going through an emotional turmoil.

“I am good, but not an angel. I do sin, but I am not the devil. I am just a small girl in a big world trying to find someone to love.”
― Marilyn Monroe

To pinpoint “Happy Birthday, Mr. President” sung by Monroe for President John F. Kennedy at a celebration of his forty-fifth birthday.A song which showed her fondness and sex appeal.

Marilyn Monroe died on August 5, 1962, at her Los Angeles home with at 36 years of age. An empty bottle of sleeping pills were found by her bed. There has been some speculation over the years that she might have been murdered, but it was officially ruled as a drug overdose.

During her career, Monroe’s films grossed more than $200 million. She still remains popular today as an icon of sex appeal and beauty.

Movie Suggestion:My Week with Marilyn

Actually I haven’t seen this movie.However I’m really looking forward to doing it. According to the critics Michelle Williams does a pretty good performance portraying Marilyn.It is currently on my waiting list 🙂

Colin Clark, an employee of Sir Laurence Olivier’s, documents the tense interaction between Olivier and Marilyn Monroe during production of The Prince and the Showgirl.

-IMDB

TV Show: SMASH

I’m completely addicted to this show. Some people say it’s like Glee…However, that’s not true. Both are good TV series but totally different in what concerns set, characters and story lines. A must watch TV Show if you like musicals, in my opinion.

There is more drama behind the scenes than on stage, as the team prepares an ambitious Broadway musical on the life of Marilyn Monroe

-IMDB

The 84th Annual Academy Awards

Once again, the no longer called Kodak Theatre held cinema’s biggest night, The Oscars. 

At 11 pm, there I was on a puff chair with my computer getting ready for the Oscar Night.

The Fashion

As you all know, the channel that covers the Red Carpet is E!. I always like to watch this pre-show coverage since we can see the arrival of the nominees, the interviews and last but no least the fashion. I’m not a great fan of the Red Carpet but when it comes to the Oscars I like to know everything that involves the ceremony and the Red Carpet is obviously included.

So from 11pm to 1.30am there I was watching E!

Highlights:

• Stacy Keibler ( Clooney’s Girlfriend)

 Resembled the Oscar statuette: In her gold Marchesa gown, Keibler was one of the best-dressed celebrities of the night, and she (naturally) shined on the arm of Clooney. “By the way, she’s not wearing a dress –she’s just been sprayed gold,” Clooney told Billy Bush of Access Hollywood.

Source:http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/celebritology/post/stacy-keibler-her-first-oscar-ceremony-with-clooney/2012/02/27/gIQAMpzndR_blog.html

• Sacha Baron Cohan

           Besides Academy warning, Cohan moved forward with his decision and went to the Red Carpet promoting his upcoming movie The Dictator. At the beginning I considered that maybe he could assist the ceremony but then, soon as he was interviewed by Ryan Seacrest my initial thoughts completely vanished from my mind.

• Jessica Chastain

The Help star Jessica Chastain has had her hands full with fashion changes during this awards season. She’s been out and about so much in the past few months and has always looked amazing, thanks in part to her stylist, Elizabeth Stewart. But her Oscar gown — from the British fashion house of Alexander McQueen — has turned the actress into the Queen of Oscar Night.

Source:http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/fash-track/oscar-jessica-chastain-fashion-alexander-mcqueen-295178

• Angelina Jolie

Angie’s Leg got viral( Check this link to see what i am talking about http://4yous.info/angelina-jolie-oscars-2012-right-leg-pose-goes-viral/). One of the gowns that has definitely marked this year’s Academy Awards.

The Host

For me, it was a pleasant night, especially when compared to last year’s. James Franco and Anne Hathaway were surely not the best attempt for presenting the Oscars, but this time the Academy tried to redeem itself giving the opportunity to nine-time host Billy Crystal, who delivered the show in a old school kind of way. Actually Academy’s first intention was Eddie Murphy but for  reasons which I’m not aware of he didn’t accept the invitation.

The Ceremony

 Bringing back old Hollywood Glamour with all of its elements, this year’s stage decoration was a really good choice in my opinion.

The ticket office in the background, the red curtains and all the gold elements have taken me to Hollywood’s Golden Age. Actually the show was delivered with a sense of nostalgia. Talking about the show itself I think that there were really no surprises-pretty much every award could have been easily predicted. However, in my opinion, there were some “undeserved” awards.

Best Cinematography

This award went to Robert Richardson for his work on Hugo. This was one of the categories I completely disagreed. The Tree of Life was the real winner in this category. 

A controversial movie but a visual masterpiece, The Tree of Life is a completely stunning movie in what concerns photography. Just watch the trailer and you’ll see what I am talking about.

Best Art Direction

This one went to Hugo, and it was a good choice, the movie is visually stunning in what concerns colors and sets. In this category there was no denial that the award would be taken by Hugo

Best Costume Design

The Artist was the winner in what concerns the costume design. It was predictable since the movie recovers clothing design from Hollywood’s Golden Age. Simple and classy clothes made The Artist the choice of the Academy.

Best Make-Up 

The Iron Lady was the winner in this category. I still don’t know if it was unfair since I haven’t seen the movie. However from screenshots I’ve seen so far I think that in this category the award  should have been given to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows:Part 2. I know that in The Iron Lady, the make up artists had to transform Meryl Streep in Margaret Thatcher in two different periods of her life but, when comparing the final result with Harry Potter, where we can see all of those magical creatures like goblins and even in the final scene of the movie where the main characters had to play the part in older figures, I think Harry Potter was the fair winner.

Best Actress in a Supporting-Role

Octavia Spencer took this one with the most emotional speech of the night I think. The actress who played Minny in The Help was the true and worthy winner in this category. 

Best Foreign Language Film

I haven’t seen this one, but from what I read it was the favorite of the critique. Scoring 99% in Rotten Tomatoes and  8.6 in IMDB, A Separation was the movie chosen by the Academy to receive this award.

P.S: Funny presentation made by Sandra Bullock 🙂

Best Animated Feature Film

Another predictable one, Rango took this year’s award for Best Animated Feature Film. I must say that 2011 was a poor year for animation maybe in 2012 we’ll get to see some great movies in this particular area.

Best Sound Editing, Sound Mixing and Visual Effects

All of these were given to Hugo for it’s extraordinary achievements in what concerns sound. I didn’t included it in Visual Effects, despite it’s winning, because honestly this was a really unfair award. Hugo only has 2 scenes were we can see real visual effects and when comparing this movie to other nominees like Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows:Part 2, that is where we can see that in this particular award the Academy was not fair.

Best Achievement in Wrinting( Adapted Screenplay and Original Screenplay)

Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar was given to The Descendants and Best Original Screenplay Oscar to Midnight in Paris.

I will not comment on The Descendants winning because I didn’t watch the entire movie. For me all movies that deal with family drama, cancer and things like that are definitely out of my list. I don’t care of the performance of that actors, those movies for me “suck”.

Original Screenplay for Midnight in Paris was another predictable award. I watched the movie and I thought it was entertaining with all of those time travels back and forth. It was actually a common idea reinvented by Woody Allen in order not to fall into cliché. It is not a GREAT movie but it is intelligent and funny.

Best Achievement in Music( Original Score and Original Song)

Competing with the Award Winner John Williams, Ludovic Bource, took the Oscar for Best Original Score in The Artist. I think the 1920’s inspired soundtrack fit the film’s quirky tone well.

Best Original Song went to The Muppets for “Man or Muppet”. I haven’t seen it but since it comes from Muppets it must be good.

Best Film Editing

Best Film Editing went to The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. A good choice, in my opinion. I actually loved the way the movie flows and how the action unfolds. I also think this movie deserved a Best Picture nomination.

Best Actor in a Supporting-Role

Christopher Plummer was a favourite for the prize long before the results came in, so there were no surprises there. To pinpoint he was the oldest man to receive an Academy Award.

Best Actress in a Leading Role

The main controversy during this year’s Awards was to do with the Best Actress category, which was disputed between Meryl Streep for The Iron Lady and Viola Davis, for The Help. 

Both of them deserved the award but Streep took it with merit.From what I’ve read she had a great performance in The Iron Lady. Being the most nominated actress of all time I think it was time for her to win again.

Also to pinpoint her speech which was very funny I must say.

Best Actor in a Leading Role

Despite the competion with Clooney and Pitt, Dujardin took the Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role. It takes massive skill to act without speaking, and Dujardin manages to do this flawlessly. 

To pinpoint he was the first Frenchman to win an Oscar in this category.

Best Directing

At the rhythm that the ceremony was going on and after the performance prizes were taken, this was a category where the winner was announced with no surprises. Hazanavicius took the prize for The Artist. However all the nominations were extremely well thought-out and since most of the awards were given both to Hugo and The Artist, there could be doubts in this category, between Scorsese and the proper winner.

Best Picture

The Artist received the main prize of the night. It pleased critics for its technical brilliance and it pleased me also for the way it honored cinema . At some point I thought that maybe Hugo could take the award. However, The Artist brilliance overshadowed Hugo.

As a conclusion I must say that this year’s ceremony was way better than last year’s in what concerns many topics.The Academy Awards are back on track with a great list of films. Hopefully, this will set an example for the years to come.

IT’S SHOW TIME

Next Decade Icons Review

      Two weeks ago our teacher thougt about an idea which I found pretty interesting. He assigned the class to think about, what or who would be the Icon of the next ten years. As you may think that is a hard question to answer because our world is constantly changing, so today’s icons may not be the ones from tomorrow.We had some ideas, and he told us to post them in our blogs and create kind of a campaign appetizer, where we would spice your interest in knowing more about our opinion.

Here is a list of ideas that emerged from our brains:

• Tom Dawn
• Lady Gaga Style-“GaGashion”
• Samsung
• Ray Gun and Witricity
• Anonymous
• The Cause
• China
• Solar Power
• Alexander McQueen
• Angela Merkel
• KPOP
• Facebook
• Apple

Ideas for every single taste. But the goal of this task was to think about an Icon which would be massive and that everyone would know despite one’s interest.

Tom Dawn

1. How come can a poker star become a global icon?
2. Maybe he is an icon in the world of poker, but in my opinion he will never be a global icon.
3. The only exit that I can see for him to become a global icon, is to invest the great amount of money he wins in tournaments on valuable companies or even create his own.Then he could eventually become chairman of some kind of company and, maybe a global icon (very unlikely) 

“GaGashion”

1.  I would be dumb if I said that Lady Gaga is not a global icon. The problem is that, like every single pop singer/musician, there needs to be a great management to be always at the top.
2. Her fashion is actually a little freaky when she presents to the public and that’s what distinguishes her from any other artists: her irreverence. However, in my opinion,her fashion is tending to get common which is not a good thing because if there are no differences what will highlight her?
3. However I’m not sure if Gaga will be an icon for the next 10 years.
4. Saying that a musician will be an icon for such a time is a little risky because the world changes, people change and music, arts and cinema too. If there is no ability to manage how to reach the public, artists lose attention and the spotlight tends to get dimmer.
5. So for this choice I cannot judge whether she will be or not the icon of the next decade, everything will depend on how she will adapt to people and society.

Samsung

1. What Raul and Bruno wrote on their blogs was basically a summary of what Apple said on 19th January in NYC  which is now being developed and applied on the US. Apple recently announced the implementation of textbooks on iPads, not Samsung.
2. About the brand, Samsung is in my opinion a brand that tries to compete with others by copying them at least in what concerns to smartphones and tablets. Therefore I think that a brand which lives from others ideas cannot be supported and be considered a global icon.

Advice: Continue to invest on TV sets, refrigerators and washing machines market because that is where you are good.

Ray Gun and Witricity

1. Although, these were one of the most original proposals, I think that, yes they are a future prospect and will probably be successful when ready and fully viable, but personally I can’t see them as global icons
2. I think that Witricty for example, will be a very useful technology, but not a global icon because it is based on another. What I am trying to say is that electricity was a huge discovery for the world and that, was certainly an icon.The problem is that witricty is based on it, so I think it will not cause that great impact like its predecessor did.

Anonymous

1. One thing. Anonymous are today’s icon not tomorrow’s.

The Cause

1. In this choice I am a little confused because from their post I cannot understand what is The Cause they’re talking about.But from I was able to catch, it deals with medicine. And in what concerns medicine, I think that the only thing which can become global is the cure for a disease.However if it is not distributed to everyone, it will never become global.

China

1. It is a pertinent choice.However, I think that ten years is a small amount of time for China to become really global.For that to happen every country would need to be already implementing Mandarin teaching in their schools, fact which I think is not true. However, maybe in 25 years your opinion can be right.

Solar Power

1. Everything that involves environment and it’s protection is really “out fashioned”.I mean it is a theme which people are  getting bored to hear because they are already aware of what’s happening(however, they don’t care about it). It could have been an icon for the past 10 years. The problem is that it wasn’t in the past and it won’t be in the future.

Alexander McQueen

1. An icon for the fashion community but just another stylist for the world. I mean this was obviously an important designer in the world of fashion but in order to become global an icon needs to embrace everyone and McQueen would never be able to do that.

Angela Merkel

1. One again. Merkel is today’s icon not tomorrow’s. Besides, she would never be able to rule the world in economics in such a short period of time.
2. Also, I think that there may be elections in Germany and usually a person does’t stand in the power for that long

KPOP

1. Visually interesting, but never global.The  only possibility for these Korean pop stars to become global is when China becomes the new US. Also since language is a barrier, only when we start learning their language will we be able to understand their “lyrics”
2. Also, the type of music doesn’t help(at least for me).

Facebook

• Today’s icon not tomorrow’s.Can you understand that?
• Facebook will in my opinion start to decline because many people are not living. Also I think that people are now realizing how much their privacy is being violated. Many of them are deleting their accounts because they feel unsafe and much exposed to the world.

Think Different

Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. While some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do. – Apple Inc.

NOTE: If you want to see the PDF file follow the link (Apple Flyer)

New York, New York

Once again, our English Teacher assigned our class to make a project, but this time, it will be the last one. And since it is the last one, he thought we needed to end up in the best way. This project would consist in the development and deep exploration of one of the following decades: 60’s, 70’s, 80′ and 90’s. Each group had freedom to choose the decade and the theme within the decade it would like to explore. Therefore, after the big decision, our project would be divided in two different but very related parts. On one hand we had to do a planification and thus provide an explanation of the final project itself.For that, our teacher gave us another list where he stated the points he wanted us to reach.In this presentation, we had to explain what was the theme within the decade we have chosen and why we have chosen it, what were the goals we wanted to reach with the project in both linguist and cultural perspectives, what were the aids we needed to present the project, what were our strategies, what were the structure and finally what were the sources we would use.On the other hand we need to prepare the actual final project, and show it to our class.

Like I said in my other posts (Oral Presentations: An evaluation-Part I/Part II), as a terminus to the lesson our teacher had to criticize our work and evaluate it. After the presentations our teacher asked us to do a kind of review about them. Basically we had to pick one project presentation which in our opinion was the best.

So, on 18th an 19th January we had to present the first part of the project. In general, there was no lack of ideas and themes, the problem was how we effectively structured the work.

In this week’s post I will not tell you, the presentation of the final project which was well structured and that pinpointed every single aspect that our teacher has asked for( because I think that it is a pretty obvious topic, the presentation which revealed to do that was the one from Hugo S., Hugo C. and Nuno), I will comment on the project which, in my opinion, dealt with  the most interesting theme. This doesn’t mean that this will be the best final project, it means that this is the project which I am really looking for.If it fails I will be very disappointed because it is a project which in my opinion, can be greatly successful.

I am talking about Maria’s Project Work. For me Maria’s presentation was in a first instance passionate, and the audience understood that, the way she talked about New York revealed a great interest on the theme, which in my opinion is the first step for a good presentation. I mean, if you do a presentation about a theme you don’t like, it is very likely that the project engages a wrong path. Maria like this post title suggests, will explore Underground New York.

[vimeo vimeo.com/31159101]

Maybe you don’t know but I consider myself as a New York aholic kind of person. I am completely addicted to this city and I love everything that involves it.This can be the explanation of my choice for this project.

However, not everything went well. First of all Maria’s breath. She was so nervous that sometimes she needed to stop in order to breathe.She was like”Why did I choose New York for my project?” and then we heard a kind of air inspiration.This situation is recurrent and sometimes can annoy the audience.This is a point where she really needs to improve, since, as I said, without a clean speech the audience can sometimes lose it’s focus.Another thing I would like to comment on, is the preparation of the presentation. She needs to do a better “homework”, in order to sound cohesive and most importantly not to give some errors that I know if there was a background preparation she would not give.

So, for me this was the project which captivated me the most but I will not end this post without congratulate all the groups. However I would like to give a brief comment on Hugo S., Hugo C. and Nuno’s Project. As I said before this was the project which full filed what teacher has asked for and therefore, this was the best project in what concerns these terms. They had some brilliant ideas to interact with the audience in the final project regarding the American sitcom, The Jeffersons. Despite my preference for Maria’s Work, I think that this project will certainly be one of the best.

To conclude this week’s post I will post some pictures of my favorite and most exciting city in the whole world, New York

This slideshow requires JavaScript.