blog # 12

final paper outline

movie = Serpico
new york in the movie = 1967-1971
new york during the filming = 1973
during both years of 1971 and 1973 nyc was going through very hard economical times

movie was based on actual events that happened and made you wonder as to why more cops didnt resort to taking side money from criminals in order to survive with growing expenses and tough economical crisis.

blog#15

While this is a unique yet scary concept, I would have to say that the Jeffrey from September would be a little more outgoing and social than the Jeffrey from today. Intellectually I would definitely say I’m a lot smarter or should I say more informed than when I started the semester. When it came to the English topics we covered many of the things we discussed in class was taught to me in high school. It’s just been so long since I was in school that I simply forgot a lot of the subject matter. The Jeffrey from September would have never been as social with his classmates. This is the first time I have ever dealt with a cluster in college and it was a nice experience, it actually is like when your growing up and going to elementary school where you have the same classmates for all your classes and for the duration of the year but in our case the semester. It was a welcome experience because since we got to know each other and dealt with the same subject matters it helped us to socialize and know each other in some sort of a personal capacity. I’m usually this way, when I’m new to a certain place or with people I’m generally quite but once a bond is formed I tend to be more social and outgoing because there is a trust and comfort level formed. When we first started this semester I was really skeptical about all the work that was being done on the web. This was a new experience for me in terms of school work, I had a difficult time remembering to check the blogs for English and the discussion boards for the media class. Now it’s like second nature and I’m actually hoping that more of the classes I take will be in this type of setting. Not many things have changed with me personally but I must say that with the birth of my nephew I have grown to love kids a bit. I’m not saying that I hated them before but he has quickly become one of the most important people of my life and I love him as he was my own. The best part of it all is that since he isn’t my son I can quickly give him right back to my brother when he starts to act up. Looking at things now I can clearly see that the Jeffrey from now is a much better person in more ways than one.

ENG103 Research Paper (final draft)

Jeffrey De La Cruz
Professor Vasileiou
ENG103
November 28th 2010

Doesn’t everyone have a price? Not Frank Serpico

The film Serpico certainly does show New York City in its “true colors”. This is no doubt due to the fact that it was filmed in various locations throughout the five boroughs, but it’s mainly due to the fact that it’s based on the true story of Frank Serpico. The director of the film Sidney Lumet was able to successfully reenact Serpico’s story because it was shot only two years after the films main plot has happened. Serpico was able to capture the real culture of people partying and the major issue to tarnish New York City which was police corruption.
The movie Serpico was filmed in the year 1973. It wasn’t a real big hit in terms of box office sales, as it only managed to gross $29,800,000 domestically (boxofficemojo.com). it stars Al Pacino as the main character of NYPD officer Frank Serpico. The film’s opening scene is of Frank Serpico in the back of a police car bleeding from a gunshot wound to the face. He is being taken to the Greenpoint hospital in Brooklyn. When the doctors start performing surgery on him is when the movie goes into a flashback of his life leading up to this tragic event. Frank Serpico is now seen in the graduation ceremony for the NYPD. He is now assigned to patrol for the 81st police precinct in Brooklyn. Frank Serpico is very naïve in believing that cops are all honest. His first encounter showing him otherwise is when he’s introduced to the deli owner where he and his partner patrol. Serpico is offered a free soup, but instead asks for a sandwich. This in turn gets the deli owner upset and he proceeds to give Serpico the worst sandwich he has ever seen. Serpico’s partner quickly calms him down because they only get free food due to the fact that they let the deli owner get away with being double parked when he is handling deliveries. The main focus of the movie is when Frank Serpico receives an unmarked envelope from a fellow police officer which contains $300 inside. This prompts Serpico to report the incident to higher officials. While he acted very honest, this act also made Frank Serpico an outsider among the rest of the police officers who were taking illegal money from people. Serpico being socially different didn’t help his cause either, he always wore nontraditional police attire and seemed to embrace the 1970’s. Due to constant harassment Serpico eventually had to get transferred out of the 81st precinct and go into the plain clothes division of a precinct in The Bronx. It wasn’t long before Serpico would realize that the corruption wasn’t just going on in his old precinct, but that it was a problem throughout the police force. Frank Serpico was often offered a lot of illegal money from his fellow police officers but as usual never accepted it. The vicious cycle of not being trusted and mistreated started to occur in the new precinct as well. Due to his co-operation with higher city officials trying to stop the police corruption Frank Serpico was very much disliked. Serpico was set-up one day by his fellow police officers, they went to make a drug bust and as Serpico tried to force himself into the apartment his partners didn’t help and that resulted in him being shot point blank in the face.
1971 was a very tough year on the city of New York and its citizens, according to the statistics from (New York Crime Rates 1960-2009) not only had the population in the city increased to its highest point in the six years but every major crime in the city had risen as well. From the years 1965 to 1971 multiple categories of crime increased including Murder, Robbery, Aggravated Assault & Burglary.
Year Population Index Violent Property Murder Rape Robbery Assault Burglary Theft Theft
1965 18,073,000 554,050 58,802 495,248 836 2,320 28,182 27,464 183,443 253,353 58,452
1966 18,258,000 609,465 62,561 546,904 882 2,439 30,098 29,142 196,127 286,409 64,368
1967 18,336,000 692,528 75,124 617,404 996 2,665 40,202 31,261 219,157 314,472 83,775
1968 18,113,000 829,453 98,515 730,938 1,185 2,527 59,857 34,946 250,918 375,143 104,877
1969 18,321,000 837,210 105,870 731,340 1,324 2,902 64,754 36,890 248,477 367,463 115,400
1970 18,190,740 904,314 124,613 779,701 1,444 2,875 81,149 39,145 267,474 386,553 125,674
1971 18,391,000 935,022 145,048 789,974 1,823 3,225 97,682 42,318 273,704 388,612 127,658
1972 18,366,000 804,605 138,542 666,063 2,026 4,199 86,391 45,926 239,886 321,096 105,081
1973 18,265,000 814,349 135,468 678,881 2,040 4,852 80,795 47,781 246,246 320,307 112,328
1974 18,111,000 911,703 145,427 766,276 1,919 5,240 86,814 51,454 271,824 390,357 104,095


On the flip side of things police officer’s salaries weren’t up to par in terms of being able to support a family in the city. This is the main reason why a lot of the police department would turn to corruption. The investigation into the corruption uncovered the biggest scandal the NYPD and New York City have ever gone through. I guess you could say that certain items were very affordable in 1971 but you must also take into effect that pay rates were very low also. For instance on (1970 Economy/Prices) you could get a new home for $28,300.00, the cost of a stamp was only .06 cents. A gallon of gas was .36 cents. The 1980 Census shows that (“1980 Census”) out of the total population of 17,558,072 79.5% were white and only 13.7% was black. 32.2% of the population attended college and unemployment was at 7.1%. The inflated average income for a household was $47,210. The inflated average of rent was $609.
There is a scene in Serpico when Frank is in the Bronx apartment of his assigned partner where he asks “so what do you think Frank, about the money?”. Serpico then tells him “I’m not broke and I don’t have a family so why stick my neck out?”. His partner replies by telling him “it’s already out Frank for not taking the money.” To me this shows the exact problem that was happening in the city at this time. The dilemma was finally made public by Serpico when he went to the New York Times in order to get his story heard, since he felt like all his complaints were falling on deaf ears. After he went public the city quickly established what was known as the Knapp Commission (the Commission to Investigate Alleged Police Corruption) on the Daily News website (Maeder) it says that the commission consisted of Whitman Knapp, District Attorney Frank Hogan, Board of Education President Joseph Monserrat & U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Cyrus Vance. They did end up doing what was asked of them in getting rid of the corruption for the time being but it was looked at in a funny matter because they really just used fellow cops to police themselves instead of getting hired outside help to really deal with the issues.
I spoke to my brother about how he felt this major issue has influenced the force since he is a police officer. He told me that this has led to many different practices and approaches within the department to hopefully prevent future instances like this. One of the measures placed was the Patrolman’s Benevolent Association (PBA) which is there for anything you feel like you need to express without feeling like you will be exiled or mistreated for. It could be corruption, racism or any form of discrimination.
While if you ask many people today about what they thought about New York City during this era, you would probably get a lot of negative responses. I on the other hand see that even in today’s times we have many issues to correct. Sure Serpico didn’t help the image as a whole because if the city was horrible and you couldn’t trust most cops then what was the bright spot? In many ways Frank Serpico was. Its like the old tales of a knight in shining armor who is here to save the day. Well I guess then you can say that the corrupt cops were like Robin Hood in the sense that they stole from the “rich” (pimps or hustlers) and gave it back to the “poor” themselves.

Citations:
Maeder, Jay. "BLUE FLU Cops on strike, December 1970 - January 1971 cHAPTER 384." Daily News (2001): n. pag. Web. 2 Dec 2010. .


"disastercenter.com." New York Crime Rates 1960 - 2009. N.p., 010012010. Web. 2 Dec 2010. .

"1970sflashback.com." 1970 Economy/Prices. N.p., 010012010. Web. 2 Dec 2010. .

"www.socialexplorer.com." 1980 Census. N.p., 010012001. Web. 2 Dec 2010. .

ENG103 research paper

blog 13 rough draft

The film Serpico certainly does show New York City in its “true colors”. This is no doubt due to the fact that it was filmed in various locations throughout the five boroughs, but it’s mainly due to the fact that it’s based on the true story of Frank Serpico. The director of the film Sidney Lumet was able to successfully reenact Serpico’s story because it was shot only two years after the films main plot has happened. Serpico was able to capture the real culture of people partying and the major issue to tarnish New York City which was police corruption.

The movie Serpico was filmed in the year 1973. It wasn’t a real big hit in terms of box office sales, as it only managed to gross $29,800,000 domestically (boxofficemojo.com). it stars Al Pacino as the main character of NYPD officer Frank Serpico. The film’s opening scene is of Frank Serpico in the back of a police car bleeding from a gunshot wound to the face. He is being taken to the greenpoint hospital in Brooklyn. When the doctors start performing surgery on him is when the movie goes into a flashback of his life leading up to this tragic event. Frank Serpico is now seen in the graduation ceremony for the NYPd. He is now assigned to patrol for the 81^st police precinct in brooklyn. Frank Serpico is very naïve in believing that cops are all honest. His first encounter showing him otherwise is when he’s introduced to the deli owner where he and his partner patrol. Serpico is offered a free soup, but instead asks for a sandwich. This in turn gets the deli owner upset and he proceeds to give Serpico the worst sandwich he has ever seen. Serpico’s partner quickly calms him down because they only get free food due to the fact that they let the deli owner get away with being double parked when he is handling deliveries. The main focus of the movie is when Frank Serpico receives an unmarked envelope from a fellow police officer which contains $300 inside. This prompts Serpico to report the incident to higher officials. While he acted very honest, this act also made Frank Serpico an outsider among the rest of the police officers who were taking illegal money from people. Serpico being socially different didn’t help his cause neither, he always wore nontraditional police attire and seemed to embrace the 1970’s. Due to constant harassment Serpico eventually had to get transferred out of the 81^st precinct and go into the plain clothes division of a precinct in The Bronx. It wasn’t long before Serpico would realize that the corruption wasn’t just going on in his old precinct, but that it was a problem throughout the police force. Frank Serpico was often offered a lot of illegal money from his fellow police officers but as usual never accepted it. The vicious cycle of not being trusted and mistreated started to occur in the new precinct as well. Due to his co-operation with higher city officials trying to stop the police corruption Frank Serpico was very much disliked. Serpicoo was set-up one day by his fellow police officers, they went to make a drug bust and as Srpico tried to force himself into the apartment his partners didn’t help and that resulted in him being shot point blank in the face.

blog # 13

I honestly believe that society should look into ethical solutions when it comes to security of the people. In Minority Report sure it was nice that we could have the ability to stop all predetermined murders, but as we saw later on in the movie this was a flawed system as most are in real life. One of the main flaws of the system in the movie was that even though they used three people to help determine the time and place of the murders, two of them usually got wrong images and the entire system depended on the one more powerful female for it to work. This fact here just proves that nothing is full proof. I’m a firm believer that we are destined to do certain things in life, but I must agree that until an action is committed you still have the option or right to change your mind. When tom cruise used the example of the red ball compared to a human he was wrong. Yes the human was about to commit a crime but unless if he gets to the scene too late he will never really know if it’s going to happen. The red ball on the other hand is rolling on the table and rolling to the end. It doesn’t have a choice but to fall because it simple can’t make its own decision. Even in today’s society the whole “innocent until proven guilty” is a joke at times. Sometimes you get people who have all the evidence proving that they are guilty of a crime and get away with it scotch free. Others are falsely imprisoned and left in prison to die without getting a fair shot at pleading their case. I think ethics only gets you as far as your money can provide it. In the article we read “Free Will and Determinism in the World of Minority Report” the author uses an example of how most people who have a heart attack need to get cpr or proper attention within the first three minutes of the attack or they risk the chance of dying. He says that if you knew this information and were encountered with a victim and you knew it was four minutes since the attack, some people wouldn’t even bother. I think that’s wrong, there are so few things in the earth that are 100% full proof, I would personally do the cpr just for the slimmest chance and the hope that I naturally have that I could actually help the person stay alive.

MoMI blog

The narrative of the visit was kind of like being in order of how media in history has evolved. We started off viewing still pictures as photography was one of the first major mediums of entertainment. We then moved onto using two images to help create patterns of movement. One example was the object that looked like a lamp, the inside of it had patterns of snakes and the outside had gaps to view the inside of it. When it was lit up and you spun the outer object it made the images of the snakes appear as if they were actually moving. The coolest thing I did see in the museum was the bigger version of this same type of object. It was a bigger scale model of what I just wrote about. Instead of having gaps it was given the same effect by having a strobe light. The first object was a faucet with a water drop, then underneath it was a missile, followed by a hand, and then it turned itself into a plate that ended up in a box. When it was in motion it was very a smooth effect. The other level was showing earlier forms of video games, they had an actual model of pong. The visit then started to focus on Hollywood and how film transitioned from New York to California. They had an entire section showing off how actors took head shots in order to get roles, these photographs often led them to get type cast for certain films. After was how makeup and special effects was incorporated into films. They had a few examples like Mrs. Doubtfires body suit and the torn sweater from A Nightmare on Elm Street movie. The evolution of movie cameras was pretty interesting; they have gotten a lot better and more advanced to help make films more realistic. Another cool aspect from the trip was when they had us do the voice over for the animal film Babe. In all the museum was set up very good in order to get its point across of teaching and informing us about how we began and how we got to the current state of film technology.

blog#11: media midterm

Jeffrey De La Cruz

Professor Louis A. Lucca

Mass Media/Evolution 120

October 29, 2010

Margaret Bourke-White: Are they really just worth a thousand words?

            Photographs really can have a lot of different of meanings. Some people take them just in

special occasions, others as a hobby. Margaret Bourke-White took them for these reasons and

more. Her passion was second to none, anything and everything was worth a snap of the camera.

Most of her work has been documented on but somehow her images can speak so much more

depending on who you’re asking. Her images have done wonders for future photographers in the

media field for years to come.

Margaret Bourke-White was a very well-known photojournalist who was born on June

14^th 1904 in The Bronx, New York City (Women in history, 2010). She was a mix of four

ethnicities; Polish and Jewish from her father Joseph White’s side. Margaret was Irish and English from her mother Minnie Bourke’s side. Margaret Bourke-White studied at several different universities in order to get her degree in Herpetology, which I now found out is the study of reptiles. The first university Margaret attended was Columbia University. She would then move onto four different universities, the second was the University of Michigan, which was followed by Purdue University which is located in Indiana. Margaret’s last two schools were Western Reserve University in Cleveland, and finally she received her degree in 1927 from Cornell University in New York (Women in history, 2010). When Margaret was a young woman she showed a lot of enthusiasm and passion for photography as a hobby. The few things that Margaret did know was taught to her by her father growing up because he also was a camera enthusiast. When Margaret Bourke-White really decided to get serious about photography her early inspiration was from Arthur Wesley Dow. What Margaret liked most about his photographs was that he focused on two-dimensional rhythm and harmony. Those same techniques which Arthur Wesley Dow used can be seen in a lot of Margaret Bourke-White’s early photographs. When Margaret was living in Cleveland her favorite types of photographs were that of the buildings around the city. Margaret’s interest in them was due to the buildings different forms and shapes (Margaret Bourke-White, 2005).

There were a few significant moments and photographs that gave Margaret Bourke-White her fame. One of these photographs was that of the steel mills owned by the Otis Steel Company. They did something for Margaret that at the time was pretty much unprecedented, they granted her permission to photograph from the inside of the factory. The reason this was so surprising was because since steelmaking was such a big and lucrative business most owners didn’t want to give away any advantages they might have had against the other companies. While Margaret was thankful and enjoyed taking the pictures, she did stumble upon a problem when developing them. The problem she was having was that since the plants were dark you couldn’t see the images clearly like they were intended to be seen. After a few months of different experiments Margaret finally came up with a solution to her problem. Margaret would go on to use flares as lighting along with a new photo paper so that when developed the photographs could be seen correctly (Margaret Bourke-White, 2005). These photographs allowed Margaret to be known and recognized on a bigger platform. She would get a lot of new job offers from various companies to market and photograph things for them. Margaret now shifted her attention of photographs to specific objects or parts of machines. An example of this is in the photograph known as Ford Motor: Open Hearth Mill (1929). This picture shows a silhouetted worker appearing as an insignificant element dwarfed by machinery’s massiveness. Another example is in her Republic Steel: Pouring steel (1929) which shows the intense heat of molten steel (Margaret Bourke-White, 2005). One of her most famous pictures came about when in 1929 the Chrysler Company hired her to photograph its new skyscraper which was under construction in New York City. This job allowed Margaret to shoot the picture of her sitting on top of a metal gargoyle that’s on the outside of the building. The name of the photograph is Gargoyle outside Margaret Bourke-White’s Studio (1930) (Margaret Bourke-White, 2005).

The 1930’s were very interesting for Margaret Bourke-White. This was the decade which I believe gave her the most fame of her life. Henry Luce was the head of Fortune Magazine and he asked Margaret to join his staff. Margaret would travel throughout the United States of America and also to different parts of the world, most notably Europe and the Soviet Union. Margaret’s main tasks during these trips were to document the industrial transformation of wherever she was. Margaret took the media world by storm when she was the first journalist allowed to document the USSR’s progress industrially. Her photograph “USSR: Moscow, Ballet School Dancers.” (1931) shows students doing a machine dance. The photo shows how industrialization has gotten infused into every part of soviet life. Six years later Henry Luce started a new magazine entitled Life. Margaret Bourke-White’s first assignment for Life magazine was to take pictures of the construction of the Fort Peck Dam in New Deal, Montana. Margaret’s photographs were so good that she got the cover shot for the very first issue of Life magazine which was released on November 23^rd 1936. One of my favorite photographs taken by her was done in 1937. It was taken in Louisville, Kentucky. The photograph shows just how ironic America can be. There is a line of colored people waiting to get bread after a major flood had destroyed most of their homes. Now the irony is that in the background you see a billboard of a white family living life worry free. On the billboard is the slogan “There’s no way like the American way.” Margaret Bourke-White would go on to have a total of twenty one Life magazine covers (Margaret Bourke-White, 2005).

Margaret Bourke-White became the only foreign photographer to have footage of Moscow getting bombed during World War II. Margaret’s photographs made the twenty two air raids look like the July fourth fireworks display. One of Margaret’s most exclusive photos was of Joseph Stalin. These photographs were taken on July 31^st, 1941. Margaret Bourke-White wrote about this in her autobiography and said that “His rough pitted face was cold as ice.” Anything Margaret tried to do to get him to smile or laugh wouldn’t work at all. That was until Margaret had a small accident, a few of her flashbulbs fell and started rolling away so she chased after them. After she got them she noticed that this put a bit of a smirk and smile to Stalin’s face. Margaret was quick to take two shots of him like this because he quickly went back to the seriousness. Another photograph that she’s well known for is of the one she took of Mahatma Gandhi. This photograph was taken in March of 1946 for Life magazine. Margaret had to be shown how to spin cotton in order to be allowed to see him. The spinning of cotton was Gandhi’s way of showing resistance to the British. The photograph taken by Margaret shows Mahatma Gandhi reading behind the spokes of his cotton machines spinning wheels. Another major first for Margaret Bourke-White is for being one of the first photojournalists to take pictures of the Buchenwald concentration camp. Margaret was able to get into them because she came in with the US troops who invaded the area. There are a lot of photographs documenting this event but in my own personal opinion I believe the picture of her showing the prisoners being held captive behind barbwires in the concentration camps is most the most powerful. To me it just shows how evil we can be to each other as humans and that no one is safe from discrimination (Wolfe, P. 1999).

Margaret Bourke-White has done plenty in the development of the photojournalism. Some can say it’s her passion and dedication to her craft, which I wouldn’t doubt or question. I have to believe that she has a knack or just plain and simply luck to get the amazing images she has given the world. Her photographs have given us more than words but shown us that anything and everything can and does have a meaning. These meanings can be different to us all so those thousand words are really an infinite amount. This trailblazer has left her stamp on history of all types but most importantly on the media field.

References

Women in History.  Margaret Bourke-White biography. Last Updated: 4/13/2010. Lakewood

Public Library. Retrieved  October 29, 2010, from: http://www.lkwdpl.org/wihohio/bour-mar.htm

-From this website I got Margaret Bourke-White’s basic biography information, like her date of birth and where she attended school.

Margaret Bourke-White: The Photography of Design, 1927-1936. (2005). The Frick

Art & Historical Center-Resource Library. Retrieved October 29, 2010, from: http://www.tfaoi.com/aa/5aa/5aa356.htm

-From this website I got information on when she lived in Cleveland, Ohio and started to get notoriety for her industrialization photographs.

Wolfe, P. (1999). From the Dust Bowl to bombing raids to Stalin and Gandhi, Margaret Bourke-White captured the world on film. Biography. Volume 3 (2), page 60-69. Retrieved October 29,

2010, from: http://web.ebscohost.com.rpa.laguardia.edu:2048/ehost/detail?vid=3&hid=12&sid=8441468b-d5c5-4468-a7fc-631f82d53b59%40sessionmgr13&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=a9h&AN=1479673

-From this website I got information on how Margaret Bourke-White was vital in getting some of the most powerful images from World War II. I also got information about her encounters with Joseph Stalin and Mahatma Gandhi.

blog 10: Gattica

Those words from the essay The Man on the Moon by George J. Annas is definitely true when compared to the movie Gattaca. In the world of Gattaca if you weren’t bred genetically to certain exact specifications you were considered the outsider. While yes you would be able to be without issues or complications thanks in large part to the alterations, this type of person would create a new discrimination. As it was shown in the movie the main character was very well qualified for the position he wanted and was deemed a risk just because he wasn’t altered when he was conceived. The same applied to the holocaust, if you weren’t of the right religion or race you were thought of as the enemy and dangerous. This was the only justification for the mass murdering they did on the Jews. While the newly engineered humans were thought of as perfect they too did have flaws that were showcased in the film. For one the director of the space program was the murderer and according to his DNA he was incapable of committing such a crime. Another example was the man who gave his identity up after he was no longer invincible and got into an accident. This accident we found out later was intentional because he came in second place at a swimming event even thought his DNA code was meant for him to finish in the top spot most of the time. In my personal opinion I don’t think that doing stuff this extreme is good for the human race, while it would be nice to be able to detect and try and get rid of certain diseases so that we could live a better life after birth it’s like you’re playing god and that’s never a good thing. It could work the other way because as you could see in the movie the genetically engineered people were very much envied by the regular humans and that can cause a lot of friction towards them.

blog: 9 eassy # 2

It’s funny how the word hero can mean so many things to different people. Hero was a movie we saw in class which shows this to be very true. Throughout this essay I will show three examples of the different types of heroes portrayed in the movie. The film has a few different moments to justify my viewpoints.    

My first example of hero’s having different meanings to certain people comes in the character of Joey LaPlante. Joey is the son of Bernie LaPlante who is one of the main characters of the film. Now growing up I have yet to meet a kid who hasn’t idolized or aspired to be like one of their parents. I know that for me I wanted to be like my father as a child just for the mere fact that I thought he was “cool”. This is a common feeling for children and it’s shown in the movie by Joey. Now Joey might have wanted to be like his father for all the wrong reasons. That’s because Bernie liked to lie and stretch the truth a lot so that he could appeal to his son. There is a scene right after the plane crashes and Bernie saves all the people were he’s pulling up to his ex-wife’s house to see if he can still talk to his son even though he is really late. As Bernie is walking up to the house Joey is watching and observing him. He notices that he is missing a shoe. He must find this a bit strange because all throughout the film his father is always telling him to keep his shoes clean. A few days pass and right as he’s getting ready to eat dinner a news reports comes on. In the report it shows that the “Hero” that saved all the passengers from that burning plane is missing a shoe. Once this is said Joey starts thinking of that night and has the thought that maybe his father could have been the mystery person. As quick as he thinks of this thought his mother shoots the idea down saying that it’s so unlike his father to stick his neck out and risk his life for someone else other than himself.

Gale Gayley is a character in the film who is a news reporter. She was one of the victims on the plane that crashed. Her character really did play into the fact that in real life the media loves to sensationalize certain people and keep others out of the lime light due to stereo types. Once Gale is rescued she is immediately focused on turning this tragic event into a news story. It isn’t until she is in the hospital when she realizes that no one knows who saved all the people. She starts off by doing a news report from all the victims in the hospital. Once she returns to work the news channel she works for decides to run a huge campaign to find out who the mystery man is. Now once John Bubber comes forward they rush to get an exclusive interview and give him a reward and tons of free gifts. This just goes to show that the media instead of doing their jobs correctly and taking a little bit longer to find the correct person, would rather get an exclusive and boost their ratings in order to please the public. One scene of the movie which I loved was when the police officer was briefing her on her missing purse and telling him how Bernie LaPlante was in custody for stealing it. Now if she would have just taken the time to really think how in the world he could have stolen her purse when it was in a burning plane she would have seen the truth. A second example of Gale being blind and seeing just whatever she wanted to see is when they are reenacting the rescue for a movie they are doing. Now John Bubber has now clue on what to do but Gale is too caught up in believing that he’s the true hero. Even though she is basically walking him through how he rescued her. At one point she even says to him that you seem much taller than you did on the plane.

Now John Bubber may have come across as a jerk or a fake for his act in taking credit for rescuing the passengers off the burning plane, but he did have a few heroic acts in his own right throughout the film. The first sign of him being a hero came when he was leaving the restaurant with gale and was bombarded with all the media coverage. He felt very uncomfortable with this and it was very visible in the film. John was a man who previous to this was down on his luck and living out of his car and on the borderline of being homeless basically. Since he knew the feeling he simply asked the media and everyone who gathered around to bring a blanket to a specific street where there were a lot of homeless people who are very cold at night. Now while he wasn’t the true hero everyone made him out to be, the movie kind of shows that in his own special way he really is. His other heroic act came when he was doing a visit to a children’s hospital. Being in front of the camera always made him feel shy and nervous because inside he knew the truth but there was a kid who was in really critical condition with a coma and they said it was highly unlikely he would pull out of it. John made sure to turn off the cameras so that it was a true moment of compassion with the sick child. The next day it was shown that the kid pulled out of it and he was thanking John Bubber as his hero. This particular scene shows that he was kind of destined to be this hero even though it was due to the fact that he lied in the first place. In the ending when John and Bernie are out on the ledge of the building is when Bernie points this out to him and tells him that if he was in his shoes he wouldn’t have been able to do what he did for that child.

The ending of the film also helps me prove what I have been writing about also. When John and Bernie are both on the ledge of the building is when Gale finally realizes and when Joey can see the truth. The hero was and wasn’t who they thought it was all this time. So I hope that we can see that there is a hero in each and every one of us to a certain degree.

blog # 7

http://www.digitaljournalist.org/issue0301/pcox.html

This article shows how Margaret Bourke-White’s pictures were historical and how she was a social activist as well.

http://www.gallerym.com/artist.cfm?ID=17

In this website their showing Margaret Bourke-White’s famous pictures.

http://www.masters-of-photography.com/B/bourke-white/b-w_articles3.html

This website has part of a book recounting Margaret Bourke-White's experiences as the first photo journalist allowed into the Nazi concentration camps.

http://www.photo-seminars.com/Fame/MargaretWhite.htm

This website gives explanation into some of Margaret Bourke-White's photographs.

Blog 8 Follow up

The “other” in me has happened at the place where I said earlier irritates me the most, at work. Honestly it happens to everyone. If only a few of the people are working hard and no one else, then at some point your just going to want to relax a bit and not kill yourself. I think it’s a natural thing for people to do especially when they see that the people who are less productive and not as hard working have it easier than everyone else. I was called out by an associate and my manager for just slacking off and not doing my work the day before a big presentation. I wasn’t really upset I kind of took the blame and kept doing my job. I did however find it very amusing that the associate who called me out is one of the laziest workers in the store. It’s very ironic that the day I was “lazy” he was the one actually working the hardest.

Blog 8

Well since I consider myself to be a very hard worker, I would have to consider my “other” as laziness. This is something that I can never see myself as. Ever since I was young both of my parents always told me to give 100% of my effort to anything and everything I’m involved in. With this mindset I have always strived to be the best at everything from school, and even work. One of the few reasons as to why I hate laziness or lazy people is because it always comes back to cause more work for everyone. This is why I don’t really like doing group projects in school, because there always seems to be one person who doesn’t put in their fair share of the work. Laziness at work is the worst in my opinion. Since I work retail we really depend on “team” work. So when someone isn’t doing their job correctly or just slacking off it delays everyone else and keeps us at the job later than we have to which is oh so fun. I have to deal with this on almost a daily basis at work, usually when I’m stuck working with the “other” people I try and get my job done quicker and make sure that I have extra time to help out the other employees. Personally I have no issues with these people, I hang out with them occasionally. Just the mere fact that they are lazy kind of puts us in different groups at work, so we use that to kind of joke around with them. I guess I’m only so upset with this because a lot of people can see that if we all put in our hardest effort we can get results a lot faster in the work place.

Blog 6: Hero

This is the second time that I watch the movie Hero. I really enjoyed it the first time that I viewed it and must say that now that I’m older I still enjoyed it but did get more out of it. It may be due to the fact that I’m able to grasp things that are not easily comprehended or just simply that it’s been too long since I saw it so it wasn’t as fresh in my mind. The movie was great I loved its sense of humor and subtle signs of hero’s. Like it was addressed in class the media does like to sensationalize certain people in order to boost ratings and viewing. A lot of times if someone doesn’t fit the description of a hero they will get brushed to the side because we as a culture are trained into thinking that hero’s have to look a certain way. I did like the fact that after Bernie Laplante saved all those people and made his way to go see his son with his missing shoes no one believed him. The only person that had a slight thought that it could have been him was his son. I think they play into this because as a child a lot of children look up to and think that their fathers or mothers are hero’s. One aspect that was pointed out to me was that the director was British and now I see a lot of symbols of how we use American colors and patriotic music for a lot of things instead of for truly patriotic things.

Blog 5: Plan for media paper

1. My topic/person of choice is Dorothy Day.

2. The importance of this person is that she started a independent newspaper as an outlet for alternative journalism.

3. My position is to show how different forms of journalism is needed in order for everyone to be heard.

4. I'm hoping to find books on Dorothy Day and use some help from online search engines to gather the proper information.


Reason is your justification for something, Evidence is something thats used to prove a point, and Argument is when you have a particular stand for something.

Blog 4: Reflection

In the short time that I have been in this english class I have learned a few things and have caught on to a few things that I thought I knew before. One of the subject matters that have been made clear to me was what a thesis is. I thought a thesis was just a main point to an essay your writing, when in actuality it’s much more. A thesis is where you stand on any particular subject, but can’t be just your opinion. An example we used in class was you can say “I’m against animal testing” that’s just your opinion. An example of a thesis would be “I’m against animal testing because it’s unethical and harmful”. Another subject matter that I was confused on was topic sentences. To me I thought it was basically the same thing as a thesis. As you can clearly see English is not one of my stronger subjects. The topic sentence or sentences are simply used to enforce or support your thesis statement. The prewriting exercise were a plus, I used to do that in high school. I believe my teacher called it free writing. I use it a lot in order to get my ideas flowing about the essay or writing assignment. Since I’m not very good at writing correctly I would have to say that writing a good essay in its correct format is definitely my biggest challenge. I guess it’s just going to have to be something that I practice and work hard at in order to improve.

The interaction with the other English class was cool. I was a bit nervous at first to leave a comment to a total stranger but I was respectful and gave my honest opinion on their work which I hope was useful. It’s a little bit easier responding or commenting on your classmates work because after a while you build a relationship with them and get more comfortable in giving your opinion to them. I don’t believe that critiquing someone else’s work made me more confident in my ability to write a correct summary when I wasn’t sure what a good summary consisted of until we talked about it in class that day.

finally i close out this blog with saying that I hope I pass these classes.

Blog 1: The cave and I (revised)

The story of The Allegory of the Cave by Plato is a very interesting one. It’s one that has two major points to it. One being if you would rather stay in “darkness” or ignorant to the truth and the second moral of the story is if you would like to step into the “light” and be told the truth in regards to the real world. A lot of people may have different opinions on this matter but I would have to go with being ignorant and blind for the following reasons.

 I wouldn’t like the enlightened choice due to the fact that I’m a very carefree person and don’t always know the truth and right ways that things are. I do know a lot of people who feel better about themselves or safer, if they are withheld from the truth “the light”. I’m pretty sure it’s a better feeling and it can make you happier like in my case. I sure do understand how someone can live with themselves not really knowing what’s out there in life and the world. I’m a very big believer that a lot of people can’t handle the truth or that the truth hurts, but I thinks that’s simply because a lot of things in life aren’t simple. An example that I had in our group discussion was how big apparel companies get caught up in scandals or scrutiny because they don’t pay their employees enough or use child labor which is illegal to make their products. Although this is a very bad thing that they do I, and most people don’t stop supporting or buying their products. For example Nike was once caught up in a dilemma like this but never once did I think or say I wasn’t going to buy their sneakers or sports equipment. I think that since Nike is such a big name in our culture we just let things like this go or slide it under the rug.  My favorite sneakers are Jordan brand and at the time it was still a sub-division of Nike. Sure a lot of people say he over charges or we over pay for his sneakers but I just won’t stop buying them. Now even though I know the truth I still chose to support Nike. Plato uses an example like this in his text when he is telling us that after the prisoner was released and set free into the world he pretty much went into denial at first. Then after he came to realize that his new exposure into life was the truth, he decided to go back and tell his fellow prisoners. Once he was back in the cave he told them the truth, but all they saw and heard was the same ignorance that they have known since the were down there. Even though it was a friend who was telling them the truth.

            A personal example I had written about in class was something that happened when I was younger between my brother and my cousin. Now my brother and cousin got into a fist fight for some apparent reason and I saw the whole thing. My brother clearly started the fight so when both our parents wanted to find out what happened I sided with my brother who lied to our parents about starting the fight. The only reason I did this was for my own selfish need. This fight happened the day before my brothers ninth birthday and we were both looking forward to getting a new video game. My brother and I both knew that if he was caught lying about the fight he wouldn’t get a gift for his birthday as his punishment. So I sided with him and we both pretended that it was my cousin who started it all. This worked because my cousin was known as the trouble maker between all of us. I can see my cousin sort of like the guy who got released from the prison and came back to tell everybody what things are really like in the outside world and everybody not believing him or turning a deaf ear to his words. That’s just like when my cousin was telling his and my parents that he really didn’t start the fight. No one believed him even though he was telling the truth, just like the guy who finally was enlightened “saw the light”. Now as we are much older we just laugh and joke about the incident, which at the time was only funny to me and my brother. With the other prisoners I can sort of see as to why they didn’t want to know the truth about the real “outside” world. It must have been a very scary feeling not knowing exactly what they were seeing in those shadows.

            I hope that with this essay I have helped explain my reasoning into why I think the way I do. Like I said earlier a lot of people may not have my view points , but at least I know its only one other way they can think. For the men locked in the cave I don’t see how staying ignorant or in “darkness” could have hurt them if they were to never get out and experience what that one man go to experience.

Blog 2

Plato’s story of The Allegory of the Cave is a great way in showing how people at times can ignore what’s real or may think didn’t exist. One subject matter that some people refuse to sometimes admit to is the holocaust. A lot of holocaust “denier’s” are claim that it was a deliberate scheme intended on advancing Jews interests onto other people. Another claim was that the stories of concentration camps and mass murdering were something created as propaganda to make the Germans seem more evil during World War 2. While these seem to be good arguments can you really argue documented facts in text books and live accounts of survivors?  There are a lot of pictures that validate the fact that the holocaust really wasn’t a hoax. I think that the main proof of it is that a lot of the concentration camps still do exist to this day. One person who has been heavily in the debate about the holocaust being fake is Willis Carto who started the Institute for historical review. He started it as an organization that’s main purpose is to challenge acceptable history on the holocaust. In 1996 an Islamic preacher distributed thousands of copies on a book called “The Holocaust Lie”. It was even given out to American and European schools and colleges. In this book it’s claiming that the real reason to the demise of so many Jews during the time was not because of concentration camps but due to the fact that the plague was running wild, and if you factor in the famine due to the war it would equal destruction.

blog 1: The Cave and I

In this essay I will show which position I believe is better for me in terms of living ignorant or enlightened. I would have to choose the route of being ignorant and “blind” to the truth. I wouldn’t like the enlightened choice due to the fact that I’m a very carefree person and don’t always know the truth and right ways that things are. I do know a lot of people who feel better about themselves or safer, if they are withheld from the truth “the light”. I’m pretty sure it’s a better feeling and it can make you happier like in my case. I sure do understand how someone can live with themselves not really knowing what’s out there in life and the world. I’m a very big believer that a lot of people can’t handle the truth or that the truth hurts, but I thinks that’s simply because a lot of things in life aren’t simple. An example that I had in our group discussion was how big apparel companies get caught up in scandals or scrutiny because they don’t pay their employees enough or use child labor which is illegal to make their products. Although this is a very bad thing that they do I, and most people don’t stop supporting or buying their products. For example Nike was once caught up in a dilemma like this but never once did I think or say I wasn’t going to buy their sneakers or sports equipment. I think that since Nike is such a big name in our culture we just let things like this go or slide it under the rug.  My favorite sneakers are Jordan brand and at the time it was still a sub-division of Nike. Sure a lot of people say he over charges or we over pay for his sneakers but I just won’t stop buying them. Now even though I know the truth I still chose to support Nike. A personal example I had written about in class was something that happened when I was younger between my brother and my cousin. Now my brother and cousin got into a fist fight for some apparent reason and I saw the whole thing. My brother clearly started the fight so when both our parents wanted to find out what happened I sided with my brother who lied to our parents about starting the fight. The only reason I did this was for my own selfish need. This fight happened the day before my brothers ninth birthday and we were both looking forward to getting a new video game. My brother and I both knew that if he was caught lying about the fight he wouldn’t get a gift for his birthday as his punishment. So I sided with him and we both pretended that it was my cousin who started it all. This worked because my cousin was known as the trouble maker between all of us. I can see my cousin sort of like the guy who got released from the prison and came back to tell everybody what things are really like in the outside world and everybody not believing him or turning a deaf ear to his words. That’s just like when my cousin was telling his and my parents that he really didn’t start the fight. No one believed him even though he was telling the truth, just like the guy who finally was enlightened “saw the light”. Now as we are much older we just laugh and joke about the incident, which at the time was only funny to me and my brother. With the other prisoners I can sort of see as to why they didn’t want to know the truth about the real “outside” world. It must have been a very scary feeling not knowing exactly what they were seeing in those shadows.

draft for blog 1

Hi my name is Jeffrey De La Cruz. I'm Dominican, was born and raised in Queens NY. Liberal Arts is my current major in LaGuardia, I'm in school just to get my 60 credits and join the NYPD. My hobbies are music and sports. My favorite teams are the Yankees, Giants and Bulls. I like most types of music but my favorite is Hip-Hop, really upset I missed out on that Jay-Z & Eminem concert lastnight and tonight!