Author Archives: Sabrina

Eh Another Love Story

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I’m usually not a huge fan of romantic movies and I watched Shakespeare in Love several times so far. I didn’t quite like it but, I decided to give the movie another shot. I really did love the concept of the movie in that it portrayed William Shakespeare as a man with a real life instead of the great literary master that he is. Although we don’t know quite a lot about him concerning his private life, I think this movie was a great way to show how he came up with his ideas, just like everyone else. The movie depicted Viola as Shakespeare’s muse in writing Romeo and Juliet. It’s lovely how the movie foreshadows the doomed romance of William and Viola and I like it when movies don’t necessarily have a happy ending. The bittersweet ending kind of made the story better even if it was purely fiction.

Viola’s character made me wonder how many women would have dressed up as men to venture into the theatrical world. In fact, there must have been a lot of women who dressed as men to do things they would not be allowed to do. For some odd reason, Deborah Sampson comes to mind each time I think of a crossdressing women and then I think of dear old Mulan. Regardless, both of the women I have mentioned were in the military and it’s striking to think of which occupations did women have to disguise themselves in.

Bread and Roses and Some Background Info?

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Recently, Rose hosted the movie Bread and Roses which was about this pair of sisters who work as janitors in horrible conditions under an awful boss. The boss, Perez, fires people on a whim and is extremely corrupt, feeding off of the vulnerable nature of these undocumented people. It’s terrible that they couldn’t speak up against his atrocities as they are helpless which is why they do not respond to Sam. It’s upsetting Rosa’s weakness, her ailing husband, is the reason she is pitted against her sister. Its just terrible that she has to maximize her benefits by harming her co-workers and her sister. I think the scene that strikes me the most was right at the beginning when Maya is “won” and almost raped by the one of the men who smuggled her in. Actually, that might not be true. I think when Rosa admits to Maya what she has been doing to help Maya and their family may be the most moving scene. You can see the defeat and tiredness in Rosa’s eyes and now that she has her own family to care for, it makes sense why she is reluctant to help her sister. The sacrifice that Rosa made for her family is absolutely demeaning and I can see why she’s just tired of all of her sacrifices. It is a noble deed that she was willing to demean herself to help her family and, to a point, I see that it is her turn to be selfish. Regardless, it was very sad that Maya was deported and the janitors were able to gain the right to unionize. It was the bittersweet sending.

Although the story was very moving and made me start thinking of unionization and the wages that janitors made at the time, I was also wondering why bread and roses. I know that Sam Shapiro explains that the term originated in 1912 by striking textile workers in Lowell. Actually, just as I typed that, I recalled that bread is for food and sustenance while roses is for beauty? I think I’m starting to forget. Maybe roses was a metaphor for the working conditions which would make sense as the janitors were working in terrible conditions.

From Book to Film and From Lecture to Life

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I read the book A Beautiful Mind at some point in high school but I was refraining from watching the movie only because I never really liked biographical dramas. I didn’t really like how they decide to exaggerate certain life events or how there are inconsistencies in the stories. If it was remotely nonfiction in nature, I’d rather watch a documentary which would try it’s best to be as objective as possible. I thought that even docudramas would warp the story.Or at least I thought that way until I got a bit older and saw The Theory of Everything which I really liked. I guess that softened me to finally watching A Beautiful Mind which featured another prominent member of society,  John Nash. Unfortunately, the movie did omit another major fact about Nash’s life.  The movie excluded Nash’s relationship with Eleanor Stier and the birth of his son, John David Stier.

However, I liked how the film kind of showed how schizophrenia can effect the different aspects of life, whether that be personal or professional. I am currently taking a course on psychopathology and I recently watched the movie once more since I thought it might help me relax.  Since it is finals season and the information is new, I’m kind of surprised how Nash’s symptoms started to become obvious at age 31.Usually, if I remember correctly, schizophrenic symptoms start to arise in males around mid-adolescent and early adulthood. I do recall that Nash was somewhat impulsive as a young man and i wonder if that was somewhat of a manifestation of what would later. Since he passed away recently, there is a Times article on him that describes his early life as well. The Times article reported him to be an odd child which is characteristic of children who are at risk of developing schizophrenia. Even at Princeton, he was described as having odd habits and being a little arrogant. Perhaps, I’m looking way too into this but, his break shouldn’t have been very surprising or at least that’s what most people say in retrospect. I liked how the movie depicted that Nash decided to stop his medication because it was making him sick as most antipsychotics can. This is fairly common with people with these kinds of breaks and it resulted in another schizophrenic break which is sad. I guess another aspect to this film is that it is kind of a morale booster in that you can be in an incredibly awful situation and it may just work out. Nash was able to teach again and he remarried his wife.  I have attached the article on him just in case anyone wanted to take a look.

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/25/science/john-nash-a-beautiful-mind-subject-and-nobel-winner-dies-at-86.html?_r=0

Women, Societies, Definitions, and Religion

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Last week, Ashley’s Flora’s Friday Films event featured the movie “They Call Me Muslim” and it led to one of the most interesting conversations I’ve had with my floor-mates. I somewhat liked the movie in that it portrayed types of women with an Islamic background and the idea that there are alway choices. Unfortunately, the movie had sparked an entire discussion on how societies have been manipulated by men. Perhaps, it was just the angry ranting of a couple of annoyed girls late on a Friday in the middle of prelim season. However, we realized that no matter what you do, a woman almost never fits the idea of the ideal. If she’s quiet, they find a flaw in her quiet nature but at the same time if she’s loud and wants to be heard,  they need a way to keep her quiet. Decency is cited as a way to keep women who do not want to cover up to cover everything up yet, other times, when other women are following that definition of decency, that manner is critiqued as well.

There is almost no way out. In our rant, we decided that the movie opened up the idea of freedom. It should be a choice. Wearing a hijab and deciding how religious you are should be left up to you. Who is to judge what type of faith will be accepted? The fact that your choice will be taken away from is extremely disappointing and it has been a feature of life for many women. I’m trying not to write up a feminist rant but, it’s unfortunate how we can’t have control over decisions that affect us directly. For example, in the movie, a professor was discussing how men would see girls hijab and started to pressurize their female relations to do the same. Why is that a trend? How would forcing your daughter to wear a hijab help you accomplish anything? Similarly, why would you force your daughter to take off her hijab if that is what she identifies with?

I have had friends in both positions and, to speak my truth, the girls who are forced have and will take off the hijab the moment they are out of sight.  Likewise, the girls who believe in the hijab and that definition of modesty will cover up in the ways they can.  If it was just the issue of a hijab, a burking, and clothing in general, I might be able to see how men would try to cover up women. I mean we all know how distracting spaghetti straps and naked shoulders are to the male population. However, the issue of decision-making does not end at clothing.  Others are always making decisions for women whether it be for marriage or healthcare.  Regardless of how progressive we think our beloved country is, we treat our women based on the same principles that other societies do but we cover it up by giving examples of countries that have very obvious wrongdoings.

http://blogs.cornell.edu/rosescholarsfall16/2017/03/04/women-societies-…ons-and-religion/

I had this blog post in the fall area by accident. oops!

Healing and Movies

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I am currently taking an anthropology classes on healing traditions in South Asia and this documentary on Tai Chi kind of reinforced the idea that certain practices or traditions can have certain healing effects not only because of the actual movement associated, but there is a psychological component too. Tai Chi is practiced for its health benefits and it was creating as a fighting art which is interesting.  It’s known to channel the chi through the slow movements and focusing on clearing the mind. Many compare Tai Chi to yoga but yoga is more focused breathing and the physical element of meditation. I may be wrong.  But the Professor was an interesting character himself. He not only introduced several forms of healing but he created bond between his students who were very different from one another. I can’t believe he gave his students prescriptions to a Chinese apothecary. However through his Tai-Chi teaching, he not only contributed to spiritual healing of an individual but also somehow healed society. He provided a feeling of fraternity in a group of diverse individuals. I was kind of amazed in how he also taught calligraphy. I never thought of calligraphy as meditative but this documentary that it can be. Then again, I’m sort of a perfectionist when it comes to writing and I can (and sometimes will) rewrite notes until something was visually pleasing. In addition, I was kind of interested of how the Professor’s teachings affected not only the students who were interviewed in the documentary but others as well. Through a little research, I found that Maggie Newman and Ed Young are still teaching Tai Chi. Ed Young is actually also known for mastering Chinese medicine which was very interesting and he’s also well known for Chinese poetry, calligraphy, and painting. I found it fascinating that Ed Young came to the U.S. to study architecture and he slowly transitioned into an artist. I don’t know. I found this documentary extremely interesting but I also like documentaries. However, one thing that came from watching the Professor and his tactics was that I finally found something that I wanted to write about for my anthropology paper.

Opinions about Dr. Strangelove

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I honestly didn’t know how I would approach writing about this movie because I didn’t enjoy it very much. The movie was funny and the jokes were enjoyable sometimes but, the political situation of the movie kind of hit home. In addition, I was not really able to follow plot and although some of the jokes were funny, it wasn’t something I would choose to watch. However, it was still a learning experience. I liked Ty’s powerpoint in the beginning and the little discussion that we had about President Eisenhower and President Kennedy. I was never a person who liked learning about war and battle tactics only because I really do not support most of the time. Regardless, it was interesting learning about the concept of mutually assured destruction (MAD) and how the Cold War was a perfect example of it. Originally, I thought that MAD was probably coined during the Cold War because of the idea that there were finally weapons that could potentially wipe out an entire region and effect the surrounding areas of contact. When I thought about war later on, I found that notion to be completely silly because the idea has been in effect for centuries, if not millennia. The idea that it is better to leave another alone because you are aware that they are just as dangerous as you are has been around since the beginning. The term may not have been coined but, the idea has been in effect. It’s interesting how the best example of mutually assured destruction was the Cold War where there were probably many, many more battles that were just as striking. As I said, I usually don’t like these kinds of movies and the idea that an insane general was able to wipe out an entire region in Soviet Russia was unsettling. It’s easy to do such actions when you don’t think of people as people and, instead, refer to them as a statistic. I understand that this is a satire yet, it still gets me slightly upset and frustrated.

Tragedy of Expectation and Failure

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The movie GATTACA was not only interesting because of the unique plot line of a society that is founded on the information that can be retrieved from a genetic code but also because of the relationships that were depicted in the film. The relationship between Jerome and Vincent was an interesting situation where the audience can see the resistance that Jerome has while relinquishing his identity. However, he wants to be the Jerome that Vincent has created. Jerome has lost his will to live because he deems himself as worthy of second place, never first. When he sees Vincent excelling in his prospects and succeeding in his personal life as well, Jerome starts to crave his identity that Vincent has fixed. We knew that his suicide was inevitable yet, I still loved his character and it almost brought me to tears to see him end. The general dissatisfaction with what he has become and the bitterness of what he was is what characterized Jerome. His change from being a difficult character to a sidekick didn’t signal that he was getting better. Instead, his cooperation with Vincent goes against his character and made his intentions questionable. He was doing things without being asked and it seems he realized that he became dependent on Vincent. Jerome or Eugene became number two to Vincent’s Jerome and Jerome realized that he is nothing without Vincent. If he cannot supply his urine and blood, Jerome is nothing to Vincent, especially when the spacecraft flight mission was finalized.  Watching Vincent succeed was like adding nails to his own coffin. He was proud of Vincent but mad at his own inadequacy.

City of God

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I don’t think I’ve ever watched violent movies on my own but, this was definitely one of the better films that I have seen. The idea of crime retaining a type of order in an area that has the full potential to be completely lawless. City of God depicts how, when in need of resources, people can start equating actions with survival, regardless of any moral restrictions that others have the time to worry about. I liked the idea that what can be perceived as morally wrong for some can provide life and order for others. The movie followed the idea that you cannot just read a label and determine whether it is evil. For example, most people think of drug cartels as evil and they are…to an extent. In the context of this movie, Li’l Ze was this horrible character but as long as he was in absolute power, there was peace.

Another aspect of this movie that I liked was that wrongdoings will always breed more wrong to come. Li’l Ze was an awful character from the introduction of his character and he does nothing to redeem himself. Thus, it was not a huge shock in how he died by the hands of his enemies/child soldiers. However, the transformation and fate of Knockout Ned was interesting. Knockout Ned was humiliated by Li’l Ze, his girlfriend was raped in front of him, and his family was killed. Regardless of his initial intentions of being a righteous character, Knockout Ned was also contaminated by the business he was involved in. Although he never became the merciless character that Li’l Ze was, Knockout Ned lost his path on the way of getting his revenge. The wrong done to him was continued by him to inflict another and that led to both his and his victims’ downfall.

 

The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek

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The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek was my first play in a very long time. It was a great experience as an introduction theatre. That being said, it was a very interesting experience. I was confused at several points during the play and that could have been because I am not very familiar theatrical works. The content of the play was very shocking and there were quite a few parts where I was both blushing and laughing at the actors. The play was very much this coming-of-age story which explored how different kinds of relationships work as well as depicting how life in the 1930’s was like. Although the play did not try to portray how awful the conditions were, the mind-frame and thought process of workers during that time was particularly well illustrated by Dalton’s father. It’s amazing how the use of light during the play echoed the depression and sadness of the father and his crumbling relationship with Gin, Dalton’s mother. The man took it as a personal offense that he was fired from his job and he is unemployed. His relationship with Dalton and Gin becomes weaker and weaker as continues on his trek downwards. Also, his cathartic hobby of breaking plates was something I did not quite understand. There was one point where Gin mentioned she had to dig through the dump for fresh plates for her husband to break and, perhaps, they should should just start eating the plates. At some point in the play, Cindy and I looked at each other and whispered,”there’s plates on the set”. There were, in fact, glass plates stacked to stabilize the set which, in retrospect, could have been symbolic for something. However, it may also be that Cindy and I were overanalyzing the situation. I really enjoyed the play even if I did not quite understand and I hope we have more opportunities to do something like this.