The Lost Art of Movie Dates

My girlfriend and I recently went on a date to see a movie, Tim Burton's "Big Eyes," a film about Margaret and Walter Keane. Margaret was an artist who painted pictures of kids with big, sad eyes (eyes that inspired the Powderpuff Girls) , and Walter sold her art in her name and took credit for it. The movie was good, but as we left I was more enthralled with the idea of going out to the movies than the picture itself. 

Seeing a movie seems like a passive thing to do. You just sit there in the dark and look at a screen, and your partner or family or friends do the same. However, there is something very special about going to a theater and sharing a film with a friend or girlfriend or any person. You and the other person get to share the silence, and both become enthralled in the film together. Perhaps the best part is the silence. The world, especially for teenagers, is a never-ending stream of meaningless noise. When a film is projected on-screen, the theater is like a cathedral, and the movie becomes a personal and almost spiritual thing. 

Perhaps the best part of going on a movie date is talking about the movie during the car ride home. There are such few opportunities for intelligent conversation that the post-movie "Did you like it?" feels like a sigh of relief and offers a good way to get to know the other person. 

I think that most teenagers feel the need to be literally doing something when they're with their friends or significant others, whether it be partying or shopping or playing a sport or going to Applebee's, everyone is always doing something. And doing nothing is something that I think a lot of people don't appreciate. It seems to me like the happiest couples amongst my friends are the ones that are able to thoroughly enjoy laying around and talking. The movie date is an under-appreciated way to do something and do nothing, and enjoy the presence of another human being, as you share the wonderful experience of the movie theater.   

7. Van Goghs of today- holiday depression

The holidays can be a very stressful and sad time of the year for some. Imagine yourself as Vincent Van Gogh, consistently thinking you're not good enough for anything and having to spend the holidays in an asylum. That would be make me even more depressed. There are people out in the world today that live like that. Not just the ones in asylums but the homeless, mentally ill or terminally ill. The holidays are about sharing love with the people you know but many people don't get the love passed to them (like Van Gogh). Some ways to prevent holiday depression, set aside differences to make yourself feel like you don't have anything hanging on your shoulders. There is a large number of people who aren't diagnosed with depression and seeking help can be mentally difficult. It takes a lot of self confidence to talk to a professional about how down you're feeling and/or the thoughts flouting around in your mind. In the book My Life & Love Are One, quotes excerpted from Van Gogh's autobiography Dear Theo: The Autobiography of  Vincent van Gogh, van Gogh says 

How much sadness there is in life! Nevertheless one must not become melancholy. One must seek distraction in other things, and the right thing is to work.

     which is said when he begins to see his work as a sense of purpose, he is accepting his life. Reading some of what van Gogh wrote in this book, it seems that some points in his life he was accepting what his life was about and that he was happy with just having art and nature of his side. 

Personally, Vincent van Gogh is someone I always think about. I always wonder what he would think about things and what his works would have looked like if he lived longer. I love that he was so unique. He had a lot to deal with throughout his life, sadly there were many obstacles he could and couldn't conquer. But I will always give him 2 thumbs up for his beautiful works he did.

6. Racism

Racism has been the big topic with all the news on the subject. here i pose a question some other people might be thinking: why does someone automatically judge just because of color? Everyone is human and has feelings. Hearing people talk about "blacks" in a negative way will certainly stir emotions. That is very offensive, any white person would get offended if something was said negatively about "whites". These pictures express a lot of emotion. Though these are kids, they don't know what racism is, they just see each other as people. The first saying "nobody is born racist" is very true. Racism starts with opinions. Nobody is born thinking that all blacks are dangerous, someone has to tell them what they think. In the second picture, the babies are smiling at each other! Thats fantastic; once they are old enough, their parents can tell that story and that can start a friendship. Racism is also based on appearance. The news doesn't talk about personality, the police don't sit down and talk to people before they kill.

A quote from http://catholicismandracism.weebly.com/causes-and-effects-of-racism.html

The study finds that black people may have poorer mental health as a result of two mechanisms: Firstly; chronic exposure to racial discrimination leads to more experiences of daily discrimination and secondly it results in an accumulation of daily negative events across various domains of life, from family, friends, health and finances.

There are so many pictures I could put in this post but these are just a few that i think can really inspire someone. 

blog 7

This political cartoon represents poverty in the US. The people in the hole represent 1 in 7 Americans who are suffering from poverty. They are looking for help from Uncle Sam who represents the government. Uncle Sam is saying that he can not help them, poverty is their own problem. -tristan

Stereotypes: For A Reason? (6)

We often hear excuses coming from those who embrace traditional stereotypes such as "stereotypes exist for a reason". While some stereotypes may be rooted in truth the excuse is used even for those with no real meaning behind them. For instance one of the most well known stereotypes is the association of African Americans and fried chicken. The only real reasoning for this is a) the popularity of fried chicken in the South and b) a scene from the 1915 silent film Birth of a Nation in which a white man in blackface furiously devours a piece of chicken. The stereotype that Asians are better at math than others has nothing in particular to do with race. Studies have shown that the Chinese language actually assists children in learning math based on the construction of numbers, or a more left field theory is that an Asian's diet affects their breast milk causing them to be better with numbers as they age. So the excuse is correct, there is a reason for most stereotypes, however the reasons aren't likely what you think they are. Mostly stereotypes are simply perpetuated by society and media until they become true on their own simply because that's what people expose themselves to.

So what about the big stereotype lately, why are black associated with violence to the extent that they are targeted? This is perhaps a bit more complicated. A common stereotype is that young black teens are heavy drug users, however studies have shown quite the opposite, that blacks are less susceptible to drug use than other races. This eventually evolved into an association of blacks with crime and violence, which was only taken by the media to be chewed and spit back. An underlying association already existed in America rooting in slave times when slaveholders would blame blacks for most crime in order to justify their captivity.

Does this stereotype exist for a reason? Yes, several reasons actually. Does this mean that blacks are prone to violence, however? Not necessarily. We have to take into account that while more blacks are arrested, this may also be a result of racial profiling and the numbers may be skewed. Also, poverty stricken areas tend to have higher African American populations than other areas, which may be a reason for heightened black crime.

Q2 Post 2

One important topic that is spoken about on and off is the illegal immigration from Mexico. There are many disanvantages occurring because of these immigrants. The illegal immigrants are working off the books and are not even paying taxes. They are breeding and having children here so that their offspring are legal citizens and can go to school in te states for free. Another problem is the idea that they are stealing legal citizens jobs. The big issue in this is that illegal immigrants are doing work that legal citizens do not want to do and are doing it for a lot cheaper. The illegal immigrants have earned some of my respect because of what is shown in the cartoon above and that is that they work their butts off.

Racism disection (7)

Numbers don't lie.  In light of Michael's post, there is no denying the truth in his statistics, which linked African Americans to violence and crime.  Facts are facts.  However, is that all that is to be said about the issue?  Can human actions be truly understood simply by compiling numbers and creating statistics?  Of course not; the nature of life has never been, and will never be, that simple.

I am a true believer that all men -and women- are created equally, in the sense that we should all be treated with complete respect, and that one individual is not superior to another simply because of his race or ancestry.  Racism and prejudice are inhumane and wrong, but why is it that so many of us are able to accept the ethnic bias that we are faced with: that certain races are more likely to be dangerous?  The answer is not always just that we were brought up to think that way.  We can see it with our own eyes- more blacks than whites involved in gangs, talking in "ghetto" slang, rapping about drugs, sex, and violence, etc.  This physical evidence, along with statistics and word of mouth, make it easy for an individual to link African Americans to this stereotype.  But then, are we assuming that, when an African American baby is born, he or she is already more likely than a white baby to become a violent criminal?

To simply state that a black man or woman is more likely to commit crime because that is how they are wired is a closed minded act.  After all, as Danielle has pointed out, we all share the same genetic code.  Internally, there are so few differences between the white man and the black man.  Sure, there is some variation, but there is basically just as much between germans, italians, pols, etc.  A more plausible argument, however, is that the defining split between races comes from nurture rather than nature.  

I do not believe that I am capable of making perfect sense out of the origin of the African Americans' negative stereotypes.  If it were that simple, we would not be having this discussion.  Still, the origin is most clearly understood when starting at the present and taking backwards steps.  Lets focus solely on one aspect of this stereotype.  As I previously stated, it is more common to see a black individual in a gang than a white individual.  However, in many areas of the country, and especially those closest to us, it is more common to see blacks living in impoverished "ghettos" than whites, generally speaking.  That being said, it is not more likely that a young black man, living in poverty, would seek a sense of security and a way to protect his family and join a gang?  So why are these people living in ghettos in the first place?  Are they too lazy to get a sound job? Again, not that simple. Taking another step back into the past, we must remember the undeniable oppression that African Americans faced not too long ago in America.  Without going into much detail, because this post could go on for pages, I'd like to assume that everyone is aware of the harsh social divide between the blacks and whites.  This pushed African Americans into seclusion and made it harder for them to make a stable living.

There are so many different possible viewpoints on racism, and so many prominent voices speaking out on the issue, so it is easy to get swept away into believing one side over another.  What I am trying to get at more than anything is simple: always keep and open mind and never take anything for its face value only.