Summer is around the corner....sorry for the slacking

Well, as the days turn into summer, my mind becomes more and more absent. Personally, I cannot wait to get out of the Mitchell basement for a couple of weeks before I return for summer school! Anyway, my comments on Hamilton are as followed:
1) Why is that girl still with her baby's daddy? Was she adopted or something because it seemed as if they shared the same mama. Woody Allen syndrome I suppose. Anyway, I blame the city of Balitmore myself. Baltimore is not one of the safest cities in the US here, no matter how much they regentrify the ports. Porterfield happens to capture the decay in silence. Urban decay happens silently and drastically. Slowly the rich move out to the burbs and the ethnic minority/low income families move right on in. The family does not look the richest nor the most motivated. After all, we have a 17 year old pregnant child, a 15 year old who smokes, and some other girl with a child herself.
2) The movie's environment is something to comment on. Since everyone in the theater has been in a decaying neighborhood (Milwaukee is full of them because we are the most segregated city in the US), it was as if we could feel the humidity of the summer day, the cerulean of the pool, the sun beating down outside the church, and the sweat beading as the young lad mows the lawn. Maybe it is Dr. Barker's senses class rubbing off on me, but the whole atmosphere of walking in the woods, but the nostaglia and childhood feelings arouse sense memory. The creek and the woods, as an example, environment reminds the viewer of the childhood innnocence these children should have, even though one has a child and the other is smoking. Lots of contradictions on how these children should be children, but they are acting like adults.

Pomegrante Orgy

Did anyone else find the Pomegrante scene from Montgomery's Notes on the Death of the Kodachrome the most sexual scene out of all the films viewed Monday? The color was so red and the texture was so appealing sensual that one could not help but feel violated by the fruit! Since Montgomery shot the pom scenes close up, the viewer never really saw the entire picture. It leaves the audience to make up what the members of the orgy are doing and how they react to the juicy, high in anti-oxident fruit. It is all goes to haptics, and this scene was the only time I was invited to look at the image and ignore the audio voice-over. Whatever she was saying at that time did not matter, my senses were kicking in and I felt as if I was there. That is what haptic cinema does: never alienates, just invites. Then, she would intercut with the menstrual art, which at first did not tap into my feminist side, but overtime, it was became appealing in some sense. But as I watched her make art with her blood, I wanted to go back to eating the pomegrante, longing for the seedy fruit that is now out of season. She invited the viewer into the movie through those close shots as if to say, "Hey, come on in. The orgy's fine!" While the menstratual art was alienating to most of the male audience, the pomegrantes kept the viewer's interest. Jennifer must have done that on purpose; contrasting both images to be vulgar and beautiful, sensual and disgusting. What ever the case may be, her approaches in the prophecy delcares a death in texture as she transitions to the post-modern/feminist world.

thislife.org

The work I selected was entitled, "24 Hours at the Golden Apple." The center of the story is based on the two waiters who happen to work the graveyard shift. For the past two decades, the two ladies discuss their adventures, from couples arguing over a late night meal (I would not be surprised they were probably a little tipsy from drinking at the bars) to cops making frequent stops to eat the fine dining menu. Based off Nancy Updike's work, the semi-documentary piece offers a slice of life. The stories are mini narratives: people drag their drama into the restuarant in order to find resolutions or just ramble. In relation the narrative and experimental film, it shows that nothing is linear. Experimental film goes out of its way to make sure it does not follow any stereotypical guidlines, making things abstract and incoherent at times. In a way, it becomes empowering to not follow the rules. The thislife.org and NPR invite people to listen to stories that are everyday life: places people usually take for granted during their waking hours. And yet, does everything have a story? Is this a story right now as I type or when the viewer reads, engaging in the question? I personally find reading this blog not a story, but in the grand scheme of things, it becomes a part of the "story of your life" (made, edited, and updated by you). Sometimes people do not resolve their resoultions. For instance, these ladies working at the diner, do they have any resolutions to their lives or do they live vicariously through the patrons? Are their lives not compelling enough to write about? Their narratives, obviously different from the patrons, seem hum-drum, boring, and not exciting. Maybe that is why they are working the night shift for the past decades.....