Entry #6 Cowboy Bebop

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    Anime has always been one of my favorite genres of animation. I have always had a deep admiration and respect for this art form. I grew up watching anime as a preteen and instantly became a fan. Maybe it is because I am part Japanese. It is possible, I felt like this was a piece of my heritage. A very small piece. Watching this type of media I have some favorite anime series. One in particular is called Cowboy Bebop.

    Cowboy Bebop is a 1998 Japanese neo-noir space Western anime television series that aired on TV Tokyo and Wowow from 1998 to 1999. wikipedia This series was only 26 episodes long and set in the year 2071. Earth is no longer inhabitable and many people have pioneered out into space and live on different planets and galaxies. The main form of transportation during this era are spaceships. The series' protagonists are bounty hunters working from the spaceship Bebop. The original crew is Spike Spiegel, an exiled former hitman of the criminal Red Dragon Syndicate, and Jet Black, a former ISSP officer. They are later joined by Faye Valentine, an amnesiac con artist; Edward, an eccentric child, skilled in hacking; and Ein, a genetically engineered Pembroke Welsh Corgi with human-like intelligence. wikipedia

  

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     This rag tag group of misfits seems to create a family dynamic and misadventures with some of the basis of the series just collecting bounties to survive. They are still a humanistic, flawed group of people who still deal with everyday hedonistic desires. Some of my favorite episodes of the series are the more romantic ones where they discuss the protagonist's love interest from years ago. All of a sudden, they reappear and reminisce about the days they were together and why they were apart. The old saying rings true during these episodes. "If you love something, set it free. If it comes back, it's yours. If not, it was never meant to be.” As a kid, I didn't quite understand the concept of a lost love finally returning. I understand the episodes now. Looking through this show through adult lenses you will begin to see why it was so popularized, and enjoyed by audiences. Most recently, Netflix bought the rights and created a live action series. I have not gotten to watch this series just yet, for now I am just enjoying the classics.

Extra Credit: Capitalism

     

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        I watched this movie back in 2010 after it premiered in theaters. Me and my then boyfriend (Josh) actually went to Glendale Public Library to rent the movie.  At that point and time, Blockbuster was going out of business, RedBox was becoming popular. However, the economy was still in bad shape so Josh and I were trying to find the cheapest form of entertainment. I have always been a fan of his movies, Sicko and Bowling for Columbine. I feel rewatching during this time in our modern life Michael Moore was ahead of his time. People are going to have their opinion on his political stances and yes, he tends to lean more to the left. However, he does his best to stay objective throughout his films. He believes right is right and wrong is wrong. When he makes a point in his film he tends to use some kind of humor to soften the blow of his rhetoric.  

           When he does deliver his stance on an issue he comes prepared with the facts and lays it on the table for his audience to decide if it is right or wrong. Capitalism has created corporate greed and has put a lot of hard working class citizens under the poverty line. We are told to work hard and we will achieve our dreams. I do believe that if you work hard you can make things happen for yourself in this country. We tend to forget that we are not the only modern country. There are several throughout this world who have a better condition than Americans. However, people around the world still believe in the “American Dream.”

    Capitalism has created the modern world we live in today, but have we lost sight of our own dreams that due to our shortsighted achievements we have managed to also destroy other people's lives in order to line our pockets. Competition is necessary for a business to thrive. We like options, but is it necessary to decimate an entire business to monopolize that one niche?  Capitalism has worked for our economy. We would not be the country that we are today, however I think the oversight and the ability to allow corporations to dictate what is allowed in our food, water, and clothing has gotten out of hand. Lobbyists are funded by corporations to argue or persuade the legislature to allow certain things into our resources. When did the line get crossed and more and more people are being sick from our resources. This film is ever more applicable than it was back in 2009 during the housing crash. We are seeing our economy flirting with the line of possible recession.

    We as a people need to pay closer attention to who we appoint as our voices in the legislative branch. I do not care what your political views are, I just believe we all need to pay a little more attention to how our government is ran. The government should be afraid of its people, not the people be afraid of the government. We have a voice we use everyday on all these social media platforms. Let's use the tools we have and educate ourselves. Rewatching this film has let me know that history does repeat itself. We are at a vulnerable stage in our society and we have more power as a people than we ever had before. 

Entry #5 Local Story Response

 

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    My parents ingrained into me that education is of the utmost importance. Educating myself is one of my goals. There is a gap in my achievement due to some unfortunate events, but even during my circumstances I still attempted to get my degree. I have worked tirelessly to get to where I am today. My journey is just the beginning. I have a long way to go and I am not about to squander my second chance. I have always encouraged others to achieve this goal, as well. Even at GCC their educational system has changed. This time around when I was registering they wanted a specific goal in my degree instead of general education. However, tuition is extremely more expensive than when I first admitted myself into college. 

The article states that former Gov. Doug Ducey wanted a more educated state, with his goal of making Arizona have at least 60% of its residents with higher education. How he did this is funding more for in this year’s budget, we added $142 million to K-12 education – above and beyond the voter-approved Proposition 123. For universities, we approved an additional $38 million.Gov. Doug Ducey His stance is wanting us as a community to help achieve this goal of education ourselves. The other article states how much of a pay gap it is when you have educated yourself compared to when you have not completed a high school diploma. The second article discussed how much someone would make if they did achieve that degree. Arizona is on the scale against the national average; it is about $2,000 less. Bachelor's degree: $61,392, Graduate or professional degree: $78,782, High school graduate or equivalency: $36,792, and less than a high school degree: $30,398. Parrish, Madeline

I am all for a higher education, but there is a caveat to this goal. Former Gov. Doug Ducey fails to state how he is going to motivate students to go to college. The total cost for four years of ASU tuition, room and board, and books and supplies for in-state students is $114,944, based on the 2022-23 school year. This is higher than the national average of $102,828. Sofi Both articles give the facts about what it looks like when you have that degree. Unfortunately, these articles are slightly misleading and did not give more information on how this is even achievable. Both articles failed to discuss the actual cost of a college tuition. 

    I believe in higher education , but the problem also is it is expensive, considerably more than when I first went to college in 2009. The tuition almost doubled for two classes rather than four. Yes, achieving higher education is a must to have the “American Dream” but how is it going to happen when student loan debt is at an all time high and people with these degrees cannot even find a job. We spend all this time and effort pushing ourselves to achieve this goal but we still have a lot more work to do then just pushing our students for higher education. 

Entry #4 Ancient Greek Theatre

 The performing arts has always been a passion of mine. I love to sing, dance, and act. It is on my bucket list to be in a musical, possibly a lead role. Nevertheless, I have always had a passion for the stage. I have often wondered what was the origins of theatre? Where did it come from? What is the earliest known play? 

If you breakdown the word theatre it orginates from the Greek word meaning "a place for viewing." Theatre Store Theatre has been used as a form of expression throughout different cultures. We can go to any museum and see the various usages of this form. The earliest play that has ever been documented is in Athens, Greece nearly 5,000 years ago. The majority of these plays were showcased in order to honor the Greek gods. There are two different types of plays was drama and comedy. 

The first play that was staged in Athens was a play called "The Persians", which was performed in 472 B.C. Theatre Store This first play only had one person on stage with a chorus in the background. As the years progressed it began to develop into more and more characters with deeper storylines. The first plays were performed in Theatre of Dionysus, that was built under the Acropolis in Athens at the beginning of the fifth century. 

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The majority of tragic plays were based around Greek mythology, which was the basis of Greek religion. With that in mind, the plots were about moral right and wrong. Violence was not permitted on stage and the death of a character was heard offstage. Ancient Greek Theatre I think this more to the effectiveness of the play, leaving more to the imagination. 

The comedic plays of Ancient Greece were usually of men wearing outlandish and over dressed costumes. These cosumes could represent anything from giant bees with huge stinger to knights riding another man in imitation of a horse or even a variety of kitchen utensils. Ancient Greek Theatre These comedic plays allowed more freedom for the playwrights to have artistic expression. The most famous comedic play was Aristophanes (460 - 380 BCE) and Menander (c. 342-291 BCE) who won in festival competitions just like the great tragedians. 

No one truly knows what ancient civilization created plays first. However, it is encoded into human DNA that we have the ability to mimic and express our circumstances through different media. Humans have always been creatively expressive with much gratitude thank you to the ancients that developed and created this medium. I absolutely love theatre and I cannot wait for my minutes of fame. 

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Entry #3 Slanted View

     My father always told me, "Believe nothing you hear, and only half of what you see." This has always played in the back of mind, on repeat. In today's world it has never rang more true. With so much information, being downloaded and uploaded we can never know the real truth. Everyone has their opinions and trying to figure out the truth is a difficult task. I am a firm believer in fact checking if it does not sound right or logical I am going to do my own research and figure it out. However, there was a time when research and information was extremely limited to me. I am talking about the time COVID hit. 

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    Even though information is in the palm of our hands there are certain circumstances when that is unavailable. No, I am not talking about when you cannot get a signal I am talking about prison. When COVID hit, I was in prison. This is when I really started to dislike the media and all its misinformation. I get it we were all still learning about the disease and no idea the effects of it. What I disliked was the media continuously playing on people's fears. News constantly tell us how many people are dying and images of refridgerated semi trucks with bodies being hauled to the city morgue. That is overwhelming, well, in prison that is the greatest fear of all, knowing you have a release date and unsure if you will ever be able to walk out of those gates again. The prison did nothing to sate those feelings they continued to lie, downplay, and blame us for spreading it to them. We heard rumors of cots being ordered for quarantine and if anyone was infected we would hauled off to some unknown location for us to just die. In highsight dramatic, but with the news being the only source of information and everyday it was saying how people are dying and there is no cure. It frightened a lot of us, including myself. We were constantly locked down because someone tested positive sometimes I felt like I was in The Lord of the Flies. During this time, I just learned to change the channel and quit listening to the radio. The news continued to play on my fear and anxiety and honestly my mental health could not take it. I learned what I could about what was happening out here. As long as my family and friends were safe I was ok. Eventually I did get COVID and it really sucked probably the worse sickness I had ever felt. Losing your sense of taste and smell was the weirdest sensation I have ever felt. I did get shipped to a different unit, but after two weeks I was graciously put back in my area. The fact of the matter is even when there is lack of information you have to learn to just turn the channel.

Video on April 30, 2020