Blog Post #5

 Most recently my friends and I helped set up a concert for the band "Tesla", and I just wanted to talk about how that turned out... 

First off some backstory. My friend Robbie's step dad is a promoter for many different bands, and it just so happened that there was a concert he was promoting this weekend and me and a couple of other friends were free. Prior to this concert I went to one at the same venue about a month beforehand and it was such an amazing experience! It was actually my first time attending a concert in my life, so I'd say it is something I'm glad I attended. 

The main difference between the concert most recently and the first one that I did was the amount of people attending, this time around the venue was completely told out. With over 1000 people showing up to watch Tesla preform live. I was not aware of who Tesla was, and the type of music they created. However, looking into it from sources on the internet and such, I can see why so many people were so interested in seeing them play! The concert was simply ecstatic and full of energy. The lead singer has such emphatic vocals. That man would be Jeff Keith, who is sitting on the far left.

      Anyways the day was festive to say the least. It officially started Saturday morning at roughly 10 a.m., and we had to unload a truck full of stage gear and supplies. This task alone took over 3 hours to get organized and set on stage. At that point it was around 2 o'clock and we did not let people in until 4. So those few hours were spent just sitting down doing nothing. Then the show started where we sat backstage and watched all the bands play, and once they were all done preforming we were tasked to clear the stage. Which was undoubtedly easier than unloading everything.

So yeah that's how the majority of my weekend was spent, overall it was a great time.

Blog Post #4:

 This week I would like to talk about what I've learned this week during class, and the discussions we've had. There is a major project that is over a documentary we had to choose out of a selection of many. I personally chose "Chasing Coral".  This film seemed to be quite interesting, just off the topic is was over alone. I discussed more of my thoughts on the reflection questions I posted earlier, but to just give a brief summary on it, I thoroughly enjoyed the film. I would recommend the film to anybody just by the visuals alone, they were absolutely stunning to see. Moreover, the actual substance that the film covered, which were the bleaching events that caused over half of the coral reefs to disappear was interesting to watch as well. 

Writing the summary and rhetorical analysis for this film has been nothing short of a slight struggle. I've never wrote a summary over a film, and I was not really interested in watching many documentaries before this point. However, even though it has been a struggle, it has been a joyful experience trying something new like this. While I have been working on this project I have learned many things regarding the writing style that it takes to write a summary. It's something I'm not used to, personally I'm used to writing my own input over the material. But now I just basically have to explain what happens, and then go on from there in chronological order and so on. Which is a change of pace for sure. 

In the end though, the experience overall has been one that I enjoyed. And I am excited to read my fellow classmates summary and rhetorical analysis over their films. 

Guided Reflection Questions: Chasing Coral

1. There wasn’t exactly a scene that got me mad, or frustrated. However, I was more curious than anything. The idea of these corals in the variety of environments they are involved in, suddenly disappearing, intrigued me. In the beginning of the documentary we see healthy, thriving corals. With their beautiful colors displaying in its full effect. While the documentary continues though, we learn that a lot of corals are actually dying. When these corals die, they get this bleached effect and turn completely white. So with this event occurring, I was curious as to why this is happening. 

   
   

   The scientists involved brought up the idea of global warming. They did an experiment with some corals they were farming, where they raised the degrees in celsius, and the coral essentially died and all that was left was the skeleton. Earlier in the documentary, the scientists discussed how the coral grows. They grow around the skeleton, and also act as a food source for themselves. Moreover, at night, the "animal" within the coral comes out and the polyp from the coral, which are these little tentacles that start to grow once night time hits, and they grab onto anything that moves near them.

   
   

   
   
   
   

   
   

   2. There were many things that surprised me as I watched this documentary. Initially, I was surprised with how involved I was into this film. First off, the visuals were absolutely stunning. So was the whole environment, the music, the people involved, etc. There was not a single point where I found myself bored or dull.

   
   

   3. Some questions that remain after my initial viewing of this film are, "in what ways can I contribute to this problem?", "how can I raise awareness to solve this issue?". An overall interest in this topic carried within me through the entire viewing of the film, and even afterwards. This was something I've heard of in the past, but I did not know it was this extreme.

   
   

   4. We might want to avoid doing research when we write our summaries because it may persuade our thoughts in a way in which we don't want it too. Our summary is meant to be an unbiased writing on the general consensus of the film. There is no room for our opinions. It is just a writing space for us to describe the movie in the order it was shown to us. Included in that, is the message that was portrayed as well.

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   

Snowy the Turtle: My Thoughts

Snowy, which is a short/documentary released in 2020, is a film about a turtle named Snowy. Off the bat I have to say I love the name Snowy for a turtle, I don't know why but it is quite humorous. Anyways, I seriously enjoyed this documentary. With it being such a simple premise, I found myself deeply interested with what was going on. There were moments where I felt pretty emotional, tying certain points from the film with events that have happened during my life. The purpose of the film was to show the neglect that Snowy received from his family, only Larry, the father, showing any interest in taking care of him. 

However, that's not the only message that this film is trying to send out to its audience. Pets everywhere are being neglected by their owners. I've seen it firsthand. During the beginning of the film we saw the three brothers getting interviewed, and the entire time they were talking they were so nonchalant towards Snowy. Even though the father got him as a gift for one of the three sons. So that and a few other scenes were actually kind of depressing to see. Moreover, Snowy tends to be secluded from everybody else, we see signs where he actually isn't that healthy at all. Once the tortoise expert concludes her thoughts on Snowy, we figure out his beak is actually broken, he tends to hide in his shell, etc. 

Overall, this film was enjoyable to watch. It brought moments of both happiness and sadness together. The ending shot was particularly one of my favorites, with Snowy going outside in the grass. It was a very sincere moment with the choir singing in the background. I would most definitely recommend this film to my peers.