Talley's Blog

Well, the first thing that came to my mind after seeing the video was, “Wow. That was a really long commercial for hair products.” But, onward to the assignment.

The setting was  a very competitive Asian society, so I’m guessing either Japan or China. The characters were mostly flat and didn’t experience a change or express more than one theme of society. There was the oppressed girl, the mean girl, the gentle bum, and the astonished crowd. I thought it was pretty interesting, though, that the homeless man and the sad girl would talk in sign language. I never could figure out which one of them, if not both, was deaf.

For a commercial, I thought the conflict was very well developed. Internally there was a little girl that wanted to be something amazing and pursue her dreams, but she was so shy and scared that she felt she never could. She also thought she wasn’t good enough for the rest of the world, but she was able to realize she was great in time. Externally, society hated the poor shy girl. The only friend she had was the homeless man that also played the violin. The mean piano girl despised her because piano girl saw violin girl as a threat. The angry thugs hated her just because she was standing there. In reality, she had nobody to believe in her except for one man with whom I doubt she was extremely familiar.

Isn’t it nice to illustrate that if you have just one strong thread in an entire coil of rope, you can still hold onto it and even climb up? That’s what this video symbolizes to me. Even if the world hates you, if there is a single person that doesn’t, no matter how insignificant they are, they can make a HUGE difference to you. Encouragement (and organization) is the key to success. I thought that the violin girl’s success was very ironic. It’s not what was expected to happen (well, it was, because this plot is completely cliche… but bear with me here). Especially when the guys in the street broke her violin and then (gasp!) she appeared on stage with another one, which was obviously the climax of the clip because nobody expected that much talent to come out of a little girl whose only training had been that of a homeless man.

The protagonist would obviously be the little shy girl that wants to play the violin but everybody says she’s wasting her time and eventually wins the contest (in ya face mean piano girl!). I see the antagonist as society. Everyone except for the homeless man is working against the violin girl to try to keep her down until she shows her talent at the classical music contest.

The theme of this piece as I see it is very clear: It doesn’t matter what society does to bring you down or how many material things you have. If you believe in yourself and want something bad enough, dreams can come true and goals can be exceeded.

I personally think the lyre bird is crazy awesome!! It can make so many different sounds! Imagine if there was a person that had the vocal cords of a lyre bird. They would probably be the most famous singer in the world because of how vast their range would be. If the lyre bird can imitate anything it hears, from chainsaws to honey-eaters, it has to have a huge range, right? Either that, or that person would be the best impressionist on Comedy Central =). Either way, a human lyre bird would be incredible.

I feel bad for the poor thing though. It’s unique in a sense because nothing else can mimic sounds like it can, but the lyre bird can never have its own unique sound. The lyre bird always has to borrow its call. People, when they become familiar, recognize one another by the sound of each other’s voice. If there was a human with lyre bird vocals, they would never have their own voice. They would constantly sound like someone else. They wouldn’t be able to make a speech on the radio and people automatically know who they are. Children can recognize their parents’ voices in a crowd of people, but if the parent’s voice was just the impression of everyone else’s, how would that child ever know how its parent’s voice sounded? The child wouldn’t because the parent doesn’t have one!

At first, I was amazed at how well the lyre bird could mimic the sounds of civilization that it heard in the forest, but then I started realizing the impact that people are having on the forest. It’s like teaching a little kid dirty words to go tell their parents: they don’t know what they’re saying, they’re just saying it. It’s kind of sad to think that the lyre bird makes sounds that should signify danger and loss to it, but he hears those sounds so often that now it’s just another animal in the trees. If anything, I would say that this is a very clear sign that humans are overstepping their boundaries in claiming what is theirs to take. It’s very evident that people today don’t hold that trait that used to be so coveted and that Ghandi represented in its fullest: modesty. We have to have the best, the most, the biggest of everything we own. And because of that, we’re destroying what isn’t ours to destroy. By no means am I a member of PETA or anything like that, but I do believe that it’s morally wrong to encroach on the home of the wildlife. One good reason everyone can agree on is that once we push our boundaries (hey, memoir topic =)) too far, there’s no turning back. And if there is no shelter for the animals, they die. And if they die, we die, because we eat them. So no more them, no more us…. =/ Makes you think, huh

My Word Part Vid-yo

Sorry I’m taking so long to get around to doing this. Anyways, the media is a huge stink pot for general opinion on body image. And it usually targets girls. You don’t see tabloids exploiting celebrity men’s bodies because they have cellulite very often. Apparently, beauty comes in a 5′9″-6′0″ tall, 105-115 pound, big breasted, dyed, cut, and made-up package. Well, the truth is (especially in Jasper…) that that person doesn’t exist! Not even celebrities are that pretty. They use photoshop and loads of make up and plastic surgery. And, you better bet that any red carpet dress has a gurdle under it.

But not all media is bad. Tyra Banks is a very involved advocate of girls feeling comfortable with themselves just as they are. And there is a new show on t.v. called More to Love about a real guy who finds heavier women attractive. It’s like the Bachelor but without the skinny people. http://psychcentral.com/news/2006/10/27/media-can-damage-self-image/362.html shows an actual psychological study on the effects of media on self perception if you are more interested =)

The thing that made Pencil Face so creepy for me was the stereotypical freak show girl. She wears a ratty little shirt-dress and has long jet black hair that hangs in her face. I guess the awkwardness of the girl’s body shape and language is what gets me. She seems unnaturally tall for her age and has a gangly body. Her head is nearly always cocked to the side, and she stands pigeon toed. The fact that there was no dialogue  was also creepy. It was almost like the girl and the pencil were communicating with telepathy… I think the barren Arizona desert with a single building landscape also set the mood. It’s like off The Hills Have Eyes, which I think is an extremely scary movie. I also thought it was kind of ironic that the pencil just kept smiling the whole time. I’m sure that it could have said something like,  “Oh, watch out for that big black vortex in the air! Those things can have a bit of suction from time to time!” But, no. It just smiles sweetly and lets everything unfold.

I would think the theme of this story would be that even though innocent things seem innocent, like a pencil, they may not always be, and you should be wary of all things. I just read an article in a magazine yesterday about a girl  who was filmed naked by her weight training coach without her even realizing it. The man that was her coach was a very close family friend and comforted this girl when her father died. He didn’t seem creepy or mean or perverted. He seemed like an innocent coach and friend, just like the pencil seemed like an innocent play thing that ended up creating something that could eat a girl alive.

If I had a pencil that was magical, I would probably draw a beautiful piece of man! Haha only kidding (really Phi)! No, I would draw a clock that would give me more hours in a day. My schedule has been so full lately; I just want to be able to have time to do everything. I really don’t waste much time. I don’t have time to waste because I’m so busy, but I still never seem to get everything done. So, if anybody wants to call a meeting with the Man upstairs and talk about extending the length of a day, that’d be just wonderful. =)

Well, out of twenty, I guessed six correctly on the people sorter. I got two Blacks, two Whites, no Hispanics, one Asian and one American Indian. I tried to use bone structure, eye position, and skin tone to help me pick which person was what nationality. I should have known better than that, though. Hello, look at my mom. She has an extremely dark complexion, yet is definitely white. I tried really hard to sort everybody out. And, once I found out you could zoom in people’s faces, I thought it was fairly easy. I guess it wasn’t as easy as I thought it was.

It’s weird to think about how I misjudged those people. I really try not to do that, and I just did it a lot! I wonder about if Iwas to meet those people and ask them about their ethnicity and then they would be like, “Whoa, what are you talking about? I’m not Asian.” I would feel so bad if I actually did that to someone. Well, I did, just not to their face.

I think that it is very important to realize that people aren’t always what they seem meaning race and personality alike. I felt like I was being prejudiced against these people, and I firmly believe that you should try to get to know somebody before you make any decisions about them. It amazes me that the government would just look at you and tell you what ethnicity you were. What if you knew otherwise? Would they let you tell them, or would they just assume that they were always right? Ugh… stupid ”Big Brother” business…