An American Tragedy

On May 9, 2010 I attended The West Coast Premiere of Tobias Picker’s “An American Tragedy.” The performance was held in The Eli & Edythe Broad Stage at the SMC Performing Arts Center. The show started at 4:00 p.m. and lasted until 7:00 p.m. Once the curtains went up the opening number began. It was a beautiful, flirty number between and the hotel chambermaid, Hortence, and the money/high society hungry, Clyde. Both characters seemed so natural and the while the actors held extremely high notes.

One of my favorite singer was Gabrel Vamvulescu, the man who plays Orville Mason. His voice was amazingly strong and just his presence in general. I’m not sure if it was his accent or his unusual look, but something about him was so authentic and grand. Another one of the actors that I loved was John Atkins, the man who played Smauel Griffiths. He was a very strong actor and made the confidence and status of his character very clear in the way he moved and walked. He added a subtle err of comedy and ignorance, which I really liked.

Apart from how wonderful the cast was, I thought the way they used pictures instead of an actual set was such a great idea. It was straight forward and allowed the actors to be sort of symbolic in their blocking. Basically the play was great!!

Tumblr

Last night I became an official tumblr user. My friend, Hannah, introduced me to it and said it was really addicting. I wasn’t really sure if I could handle another type of account on top of facebook, music myspace, and twitter. When she started explaining it to me and showing me all the cool pictures and quotes you are exposed to I began to think it was pretty cool. You can have a blog and update your own pictures. You can also re-blog other people’s pictures/quotes. It’s kind of a cool concept because when you click on a picture you can tumble onto something completely random. It seems like it’s becoming a pretty big way to advertise. It’s all about the imagery and a lot about fashion. It’s definitely a media outlet for new fashion tips and upcoming looks. There’s all kinds of quotes. There are many inspiration quotes posted by people. I’m still getting the hang of it but I like it a lot so far!!

Laughing about today’s economy

Today I checked yahoo and found a funny advertisement showing that people are creating laughs about today’s economy. Some stores put signs up in their windows to make a joke. I thought it was a good way to shed light on things. I wish that I could copy and paste one of the pictures but it’s not working. However, if you google “The 13 funniest help wanted signs ever (photos)” you can view them. Some of them have the sign and a contradicting image behind it, which is really funny. One of the pictures is a sign in a store window that says, “HELP WANTED. We mean customers please. Buy something!!” I thought this one was pretty great. Another is a sign on the side of the rode that says, “Now hiring truck drivers,” and there’s a truck flipped over on it’s side behind it. That one is more aimed toward making fun of the company, I suppose, but I thought it was a good one too. Go check them out if you want. I think media should continue shedding some light on our sad economy every once in a while to peel back some of the negativity people feel. These signs are good to help us laugh about it all!!

Media: Blood Diamond

Hi, my name is Jessica Brooke Williams. I go by Brooke because my parents had a problem with my initials having Brooke first but wanted to call me Brooke. Anyway, not my choice. I’m having quite the media experience as I type because I am watching the film, Blood Diamond, for the first time. Although this is a movie it raised issues that many people did not think about, much less know about. I’ve never really thought of diamonds as having an underlying negativity to them. When I would think of diamonds in the past I would just think about sparkles and glamour and celebrities with “bling.” In an anonymous Sierra Leone blog it is written that some hip hop artists, such as: Kanye West, Jadakiss, Paul Wall, and Tony Calderon began to mildly protest bling once this film was introduced. Kanye released a rap song called “Diamonds of Sierra Leone” to raise some awareness about the “diamond conflict” and some of the other hip hop artist (mentioned above) created a documentary called, “Bling: A Planet Rock (2006). I thought this was interesting because most of this news is just now becoming clear to me and some of my friends. Anyway, this is a great movie and Leonardo Dicaprio, Djimon Hounsou, and Jennifer Connelly are amazing in it. I am very glad it was made because it sort of gets us out of our own world and shows us a different side of life. Documentaries and films like this are so far from what we are used to that it’s almost like, “Is this fictional?” Then you realize that it isn’t and it gives you a new outlook to think about. Media can be good and bad. I think with a film like Blood Diamond the media is mostly a benefit and in a vote on media between “pro” or “con,”  I would go with pro.

Lexus IS250

Today my friend and I went on a hike up Mulholland Dr. On our way there we listened to music and basked in how freakin great the weather is today. It’s sunny and warm, and the perfect day to run. We began to notice how many nice cars were out. There’s always nice cars driving around LA but today it seemed as if everyone and their Bentleys were out. We pointed out many different types, including the Lexus IS250 in a pearly, white color. “Ah!! That’s my dream car,” said my friend. We continued driving and kept seeing this Lexus in that same color. We counted three on our way to the mountain.

After our blissful run and adventure we were walking back to her car and saw that there was another Lexus IS250 parked next to us. Pearly, white. We started driving and saw one more once we got into North Hollywood. I decided I needed to check out their commercials for this particular car and found some on youtube. There’s one that’s pretty cool where the valet guy takes the woman’s key and is taken on a crazy ride in the car just by touching them, like they’re magical keys. When he comes out of it his eyes are wide as if he didn’t know what happened and he believes the car is magical. They also have a pretty cool slogan that says “the pursuit of perfection.” So I pretty much think I’m going to buy one. Just kidding. Anyway, that was my media experience for the day!!

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