Nonconformism

Stand-Up Comedy/Improv

  I think by far this is my favorite subject of the course by far! In general all the comedians critized or make a lot of jokes about social, political, cultural problem that were happening in the world but each one had their own style. I enjoyed a lot the videos of George Carlin, Mort Sahl, Richard Pryor. I don't know why but I didn't like the comedy of Lenny Bruce, I think it was a different kind of comedy and I'm no saying that isn't good but I just didn't find it attractive even though most people catalogued him as one of the best comedian ever. I prefer the style of Richard Pryor and George Carlin, they were my favorite because they say whatever they wantm use the words they want, bad language and with the different voice tones to make a perfect joke. I think Mort Sahl was also good but the way that he tell the jokes I didn't like it, it was kind of cold. The reason why I choose this topic and why I consider this as my favorite is because I often watch stand up shows in the TV chain "Comedy Central" and since I loved them.  I didn't know that it was included in a subject! 

Two videos that I liked, George Carlin "Death Penalty" and Sebastian Maniscalco one of my current favorite stand-up comedian. 

Later Abstraction

Concrete Art

   Concrete art was some kind of De Stijl's art because the paintings were so similar. They were stripes, geometrical forms, and basic colors. I loved some works of Max Bill because it think some of them were with more technique than the others. I loved the "Untitled", "Untitled II" and "Nine Fields Divided by Means" I think those paintings are really good because they are simplewith basic colors that would fit in every space and will look great and awesome, also I don't know why I found kind of fancy the sign of infinity and looks great. The other work of him I didn't like it because i think it wasn't done without a lot of effort, I know that that's the technique but I just don't like them, I think they're ugly. What I like from the paintings that were just stripes, was the effects that they had they seemed that they were moving and the colors make them look better it was really really good.

Postwar Realism II

Straight Photography

  I loved all these pictures and I think they are really good because they show the reality of what US lived in their hard times and also the quality of the pictures are awesome for those times that the cameras weren't developed as today. The work of each photographer is awesome and show that they committed a lot with what they loved to do. In the Straigh Photography we can see the differents photographers took different aspects of US, I was shocked with the pictures of Jacob Riis because they showed how people was living it was shocking. But what really impressed me was the pictures of Lewis Wickes Hines of the creation of the Empire State Building, they make me imagine how people felt about be hundred of meters of height! Also others like Ben Shahn that worked on the FSA project had really good pictures and Jack Delano's trains were awesome! 

 

War Photographers

   I write about this mainly for the gore :D and also that is is interesting to know about the situation and some real image of war not the classic and fiction movies that we all know.  Cappa's work was really good and he was really brave because hearing all the gunshot, grandes explotions, the bombings, planes and all that stuff and he taking photos? that was crazy!. Can you imagine when he arrive to the beach of Normandy? Watching everyone die, that's wrong and bad. He's pictures were really good and we can't blame for the blur because it's really hard in those conditions. At least we have 11 photos of the D-Day and they will be stored for ever. 

   

The Swimmer

   This short story is really good and creative because it's a really good argument what Cheever wrote. I really liked it because it was crazy the idea of swimming every pool and how things, people and everything that Neddy knows went crap! This story really entertained me a lot and also kind of scares me because it's strange imagine who would it be swim and suddenly in the same day everything goes down! "Looking overhead he saw that the stars had come out, but why should he seem to see Andromeda, Cepheus, and Cassiopeia? What had become of the constellations of midsummer? He began to cry." What's that? that's really crazy and at that time Neddy was completely nuts. That is what I liked about this story the intensity makes you keep reading! and then at the end how much time did he pass swimming?   " He shouted, pounded on the door, tried to force it with his shoulder, and then, looking in at the windows, saw that the place was empty." We'll never know but I'm really satifies with this story. I think that Cheever felt identify with this story because he had a lot of problems of all kind including alcoholics problems in his life and in this short story he presents a lot of problems, but for that they write and I think the problems of the authors make  the best stories. 

Postwar Realism I

Postwar British Poetry

   The British Poetry is a good movement because the poets started to express what they thought in their poems. The British were affected a lot during war because the consequences of the war were awfull and a lot of people and also writers lived it and expressed it on their works such as Philip Larkin, you can read in his poem how he writes with so much hate and resentment. The poem of "This Be the Verse". This poem represent how bad was the situation after war and about who was talking Philip Larkin. The poems may not have the better rhymes and may not be the best in technique but they're really good because they express what they want to and people felt identify with them. 

Mass Observation

   This project was kind of insane. I think the British community was afraid of people planning something else and also I think their intention were to know the feelings and the mood of society after war.  But doing this was a crazy way to achieve it, no one likes to be spied and less if the material is going to be published. This was another mark of the war but Tom Harrison, Charles Medge, Humphrey  Jennings didn't gave a good idea but instead of that each of one work alone. Charles Medge did his poems about the society and this project and people loved it and I love this stanza "This poem will be you if you will. So let it". And Jennings unfortunately died when he was searching for a place to record but he died doing his job! 

This poem will be you if you will. So let it. 
I do not want you to stand still to get it. 
You will have it if you go high-speed (OLTP, 127)

Force

War Symphonies

  The war symphonies were a set of instrumental songs created during the WWI and the WWII. Some creators of this  symphonies were Bohuslav Martinu, Sergei Prokofiev, Dimitri Shostakovich, Ralph Vaughan Williams,  Carl Nielsen. This songs generally were sad but some of them had a lot of emotion like Bohulsav Martinu "Double Concerto for Two String Orchestras" that had a lot of emotion and you can feel the emotion of war and imagine how was being there. The rhythm of the songs were constantly changing they start calm and suddenly they change to a faster rhythm then the rhythm slows down and so on and I liked that. I think this songs were good and were a very difficult work because they have a lot of notes and a lot of instruments.

Architecture

   The architecture of was amazing! I love every aspect of it because it is different and non repetitive like others. The facism architecture was huge, it pretend to build inmense things and I loved that, big buildings are attractive and algo has a lot space but cost more money and maintenance but it worth it. And also in a city you need something big for example here in Culiacan we don't have any big building and the city do not have any highlight. The Cathedral of Light it's awesome and really beautiful. The communism  architecture was my favorite, it also was huge but this was fancy and with a lot of details, it was the Stalinist architecture. I loved it, the buildings are beautiful speacially the Wasaw Palace and the Kotelnicheskaya Embankment Apartments. The brutalist architecture it is also great! I love it because the buildings are  simple and with class. The buildings are big with not much ornaments or details and some windows that adds a lot of class to it. My favorites were the Roger Stevens Building, University of Leeds and the Western City Gate of Serbia.

   

Hard-Boiled

Detectives on film and Film Noir

   I think these types of films are very interesting. Film Noir it's like an evolution from the Crime Fiction just to take the novel to the "big screen". I like Film Noir beacuse the envorinment that it have is to messy that you don't know who is a good guy and who is a bad guy. I like the stuff that the hero can die, something the endings can not be so happy! Also I think this repesent a very important part of the cultural and artstict aspect of the American history, because this set the bases of the best movies ever and the best comics ever. Scarface was one of the best movies ever and its part of Film Noir, the first one is really good and also the second one because forme Al Pacino gives it some additional emotion. Also we can not forget the movie "The Godfather" is a clearly example of film noir but except that it isn't in noir! haha. I liked a lot this type of film because it's exiting and diferent from all others that we have seen in our course, this one involves action, sex, drugs,  girls, shooting, explotion and many other things that are atractive for me!

Crime Fiction

  Crime Fiction is also a very good genre because it is very interesting, most of the people are interested on works of this genre because they're adictive. It is intense and interesting to read something full of action instead of reading something calm. The crime fiction can make you imagine and create how you would resolve the crime of the detective while you are reading that stuff and also you were amazed of the environment of the detectives such as Sherlock Holmes because he was a cocaine adict he was a total hero. I think that it would be awesome to own the original "pulp magazines"  of the Black Mask and all that stuff.