Anne Frank

Just wanted to do a blog and remember Anne Frank and her inspiring diary that gave an insight on her life and what she went through during the tragic and  hard times of the Holocaust . Imagine you're a kid again, with not many responsibilities and your just living your life. You're able to go outside, run, play, go to school, and then all of a sudden, your freedom is cut off from you, and you're no longer able to do the things that you were used too. While stuck in her confinement, the attic, in her diary she expressed her likes, her dislikes, and the things and people that vexed her. She also talked about longing to go back to school and be with her friends just to live a normal life again instead of hiding. Anne passed away at the age of 15, and during her time she spent in the attic, she still kept a positive outlook on life, even though her and her family were going through a really rough time. One quote from her stated "I keep my ideals, because in spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart."  And one of my favorite quotes from her was "Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy." I think that If she could have that attitude in spite of her circumstances, then we should all be a little more grateful opposed to ours.

                            

Glued

Glued is an animated short film about a kid who is addicted to electronics, and a mom who almost goes insane in trying to get him to go outside and do something physically productive. Every time she takes away an electronic, she always finds seems to find her kid with another electronic in his hand and playing a video game. She then losses it and disposes all of the her kid's electronic devices and finally gets him to go outside. When he's outside, he has a joystick in his hand and looking towards the ball as if he created his on game in his mind using the sounds from his surrounding. I think this short wanted to point out how the technology usage of our generation can get pretty excessive at times and we should participate in some physical activity at the least.

     

Slimtime

Slimtime was a short that stood out to me as a body positive short. It starts out with a man and his wife patiently waiting. When it's time for the wife to be seen, as soon as she leaves, her husband goes to explore the building. While waiting on her, he starts exploring, and he sees the procedures and the different things women go through to get their body the way they wanted it to be, which is slimmer. He travels from room to room and witnesses and sees all the machines and what they do.  When it's time for the final procedure the man patiently waits as a while line of girls cone out, and they all look pretty much identical, just with different hair. When the man's wife comes out, she looks exactly the same as she did when she first went in. The husband embraces her as if she was more beautiful before and it showed that he didn't care if she slim like the other girls, he liked her just as she was. I think this short described society and how people try to live up to magazine standards and it shows how you should be more comfortable with yourself.

                                                         

Freaks and Geeks

Freaks and Geeks was a television series that was released in 1999 and was about a girl named Lindsay who was an outstanding academic student, and she finds herself hanging around a group of kids who she regularly wouldn't. She soon starts to hang out with a group that would be up to no good most of the time and even finds herself getting into trouble as result. The show also features Lindsay's little brother Sam who's on the unpopular side along with his two friends. This show was one of my favorites and in my opinion, it ended way too soon. I thought it was a relatable show for a lot teens because of the main character trying to fit in with a different crowd and rebel against "perfect child" or "perfect  student" ways. It shows the peer pressure she goes through and the decisions she has to make. Her brother Sam also goes through a lot of things growing up and going to school like bullies, girls, and just the pressures of fitting in. The show had a few notable stars in their early years like James Franco who played Daniel, Seth Rogen who played Ken, Jason Segel who played Nick, and actors such as Dave Allen, Linda Cardellini, Busy Phillips, and others who also contributed to the show.

        

Daria

Daria is a cartoon from the 90s that aired on MTV. I started watching Daria roughly about seven months ago and I find it to be pretty interesting. I think I mainly like the show because of the main character Daria because of her more than often sarcastic and cynic attitude towards a lot of people she encounters. She is usually the outsider of many things along with her best friend Jane. Throughout the show, they are dissing a lot of the mainstream things, political ideas, fashion, and even some people in general. Daria is a smart high school student that deals with the whole normal protocol of high school with who was considered popular, councilors who think something's wrong with her, and a list of many other problems. I am currently on season three and I think the show is pretty good even though it's not for everyone and some might consider the show a little dull.

                                 

Dr, Who

I normally wouldn't watch a show like Dr. Who, and when I saw the title on the TV guide, I would always pass it. One day after practice, a group of my friends were talking about it, and the way they described it, they made it sound pretty interesting. When I watched the pilot of the restarted season that was rebooted in 2005, I was instantly hooked. The show provided action from the start with the actor Christopher Eccleston who took on the role as the first doctor of the rebooted season, but the 9th doctor overall. What I like a lot about Dr. Who is that the script is written by different writers, and the show is produced by many producers. I also like how within the show, the "doctors" are time lords and eventually they reincarnate and form into a new body. When that happens, another actor comes and takes the role. The original series dated back to 1963 and the show is pretty much about the doctor who is some sort of alien time lord, that time travels with his ship called the Tardis  that looks like a British police box on the exterior, but in the inside it's huge. The doctor usually has a companion that he travels with and assists him on the many adventures they go on. Overall I think in my opinion, the show is a really great show and although it might not interest everyone, I highly recommend giving it a try.

                       

Paste of Love

Paste of love was a short animation about a relationship between toothpaste and a toothbrush. There isn't really much to this short but toothpaste singing about how he needed the toothbrush. The song explained his longing desire to be connected with the toothbrush and then the toothbrush joined in to harmonize with him. When the two finally connect, the toothbrush dismantles the toothpaste. Even if the creator didn't intend on having a lesson, what I got from it was that even though people might think you're meant to go together, doesn't mean it has to be that way. The toothpaste found out the hard way.

                                 

Playmate

Playmate was a short about a kid who had a toy robot and  in the beginning , he bonded with it. A year later he seemed to have gotten over it because it just seemed like the robot's need for attention, just got into the kids way. He invites a girl over and it seems like the robot ruins everything and gets in the way. The kid looses patients with the robot and shows the robot no attention. When the robot  makes attempts and tries to receive attention, he just  ruins a a lot of things for the kid, and makes his situation worst. He finally looses it and takes the robot and disposes of him, and throws him in the closest. The girls sees how rude and aggressive he was towards it and decided to leave. Later that night, the kid has a bad dream and when he wakes up, he regrets the things he did and the little attention he showed the robot. He then truly realizes that he needed the robot. This short explains how a kid is attached to a toy that they love and care for and he or she eventually grows out of it. The kid realizes that and  the robot has been there and is his best friend, and he wasn't completely ready to give him up.

                    

Cheat Day

Cheat day was a animated short film about a man wanting to have a dessert for a snack, and what's stopping him is the the more healthy option, a carrot. In this short, the cupcake and the carrot are giving human abilities as they can speak and walk. During the short, the cupcake and carrot both go back and forth bashing each other and trying to state their opinions in why the man should eat them instead of the other. They try their hardest to keep the other away from him until the man finally comes up with a solution and decides eat both the healthy and unhealthy snack together and have them both. When he tells the two about his idea, they both get offended  and after a vicious slap from both foods, he is left with no snack. This short describes a relationship between a man and the two foods taking the place as women, and although it pushes the boundary a little with the adult content, it's easy to go unnoticed and it still gets the message across.

                         

Runaway

Runaway is a short about  a fridge named chillie that seemed to be insecure about himself because he was falling apart and his owner looked dissatisfied. Feeling sorry for himself, he rubs away and goes on a short journey. He sees old fridges that are beat up and have withered away, and he sees new ones as he longs to be as up to date as they are. He feels abandoned and not wanted until his owner comes and shows him that what he wanted was a new handle for him, and not to get rid of him and replace him at all. This short showed the relationship between the two characters, and showed a misunderstanding between them. Even though one felt useless and unloved, it wasn't the case, and he was loved the same wether if he was broken, fixed, new, or old.

                            

Alarm

Alarm was a short about a guy going through what many people go through every morning, and it's the will to get up and struggling while doing so. The whole morning, he is drowsing through his house, barely staying up and dosing off. Throughout the short, it shows he has multiple alarms for wherever he is in the house, wether he's in his room, in the kitchen, or even in the bathroom. This short shows the difficulty of waking up on early mornings and fulfilling your priorities, even though you really don't want to get up and go.

                       

Jungle Jail

The short animated film jungle jail started out with a man being escorted to his cell in prison and he seems terrified. From the start, he gets bullied and tossed around and nothing is getting easier until he comes across the biggest and the supposedly most dominant man in prison and is about to get annihilated until a bug of some sort appears on the other prisoner's shoulder and scares the bigger prisoner unconscious. It appeared that the smaller prisoner knocked him out unconscious to all the others, so the smaller prisoner just went with it and rode the wave. He used the small bug that the bigger prisoner was scared of as blackmail and caused terror in the prison for he was the man on top. As he seemed to be going over bored and getting to power hungry, it shows that from the time the prisoner was knocked unconscious until then was all in his imagination and as a result, he was still annihilated.    

                

Bully

Bully is an animated short about a bully, and a kid who was significantly more smaller than him. The setting is in a class room of some sort and there's a kid just drawing minding his business, and in the right side of him was a kid that was up to no good. While the kid was drawing, the bully tried bothering the kid by throwing things at him, knocking over his pencils, and throwing  down his stuff, but the kid would just ignore him. The kid's breaking point was when the bully physically ruined his drawing. At that point the little kid stands up for himself surprisingly destroys the bully. Shows that you should be careful who you mess with and what you do to that person.

                       

Lifted

Lifted is a Pixar short about an alien who is being graded on his abduction skills. It starts out with a man sleeping in his home a light appears, which is the aliens, and the student alien attempts to abduct the human but fails trying. He goes through countless attempts and even looking at the alien who is supposedly grading him for help and assurance, but the other alien's face stays banal and the same. When it seems like the alien finally is successful abducting the human, he drops him from up the ship and the alien who is grading saves the human before he dropped to his death and fixed everything else that the student alien messed up and ruined. When the elder alien feels sorry for the student, because he seemed beat up about the situation, he lets him drive the spaceship, which resulted in him ruining more things. This short reminded me of someone going to the DMV or being with their parents and learning how to drive, or in the Aline's case, learning how to abduct.

                                                

Knick Knack

Knick knack was an early funny Pixar short that featured a little snowman in a snow globe trying to escape. The setting started out with very chill music a dancing palm tree, flamingo, and a girl in a bathing suit which were all in the figure of toys. It created the feel as if were a beach setting in Miami, hence all the characters in sun glasses, and the toy pool that said Sunny Miami. The snowman that was trapped seeing this wanted to escape and join in on the fun. So he tries numerous amounts of ways and a lot of his ideas failed. When one of his wacky ideas seemed to work, he escaped the globe, but only to be trapped in a fish bowl. When he sees a mermaid, he is thrilled but only for a second because he was once again trapped in his confinement.

    

                        

Day and Night

The Pixar short day and night started out with the an outer figure that seemed to be daylight. It shows daily activities that people do and a few images of nature. Everything changes when the figure come upon a same outer figure but this one took the role as night time. When the two get acquainted with each other, it starts out as curious, and then they soon begin to clash heads. The two figures begin brawling while showing images of the world from different times inside of each one. It gets to a point where the night figure is intrigued with what's inside the day figure. From that point, the two begin to explore and become fascinated with what each other has to offer and what they present to each other. At the end when they combine, it just shows two opposites can attract and make something beautiful. It also showed that the two maybe weren't that different from each other and they each had something unique of their own to display.

     

                                          

Presto

The short presto was about a magician performing a live show with the help of his assistant which is a rabbit. The whole short consist of the two going back and forth to get what they want. The rabbit initially wanted the carrot, but the magician wanted the rabbit to come out of the hat for the magic show. In the midst of all of that, every time the magician attempted to grab the rabbit through the hat, he would counter with a lot of other objects. After things escalated between the two because of all the frustration, the magician almost falls to his death and even though the rabbit didn't particularly agree with him, he still ended up saving him, and while they were going back in forth, they simultaneously managed to put on a good show. In the end, they both were able to achieve what they wanted.

                           

Red's Dream

Red's dream is a short about a unicycle that seemed to be abandoned  in the beginning. The setting is at some store at night, and it's raining. It shows a a cheap red unicycle just sitting there and he has a dream about being used in a circus and he's being ridden by a clown juggling. The unicycle seems to be enjoying itself and then he starts to juggle by himself. After his performance he is getting a standing ovation and claps from an audience and then he appears back in the shop. At the end of the animated film, the unicycle is seen by himself and in the corner and it is all alone once again.

                                       

Campbell's Soup Logo

Every one knows  and have at least once tasted the iconic Campbell's soup. The famous artist Andy Warhol was part of the reason and had a hand in the creation. Granted he didn't take any part in the food aspect, but he was involved with the historic design. The painting of the Campbell's soup can, was created in 1962  and pop art was a big art movement in the 20th century. Andy Warhol's art was very revolutionary during the pop art movement, and it was also during the post war so a lot of bright colors were necessary.

                                    

Oakland Warehouse Party Fire

In Oakland California last Friday, there was a huge fire at a party in a warehouse for artist. The article from Buzzfeed news talks about the horrific incident, and features different perspectives from witnesses who were there, about what they saw. They also shared what they were doing and their thoughts leading up to the incident. There was 33 officially confirmed dead, but there could be more fatalities because of the destruction of the building and caving in of the 2nd floor coming down, along with art pieces as well. It was reported by firefighters that the amount time to search for victims and remove all of the debris from the burning building could take up to 48 hours. It just shows how something that tragic can happen whenever. It was just a casual party or get together at first, and it ended with many deaths.