18th Street Gang; A Documentary

     The 18th Street gang has over 7,000 members throughout the United States and Central America.  It's a strong Latino criminal gang that's blamed for one of the highest murder rates in the world.  Thousands of gang members are behind bars, but teenagers are always being recruited.  This documentary focuses on a district in San Salvador.
      Charlie, 16, is the leader of the district in San Salvador.  Charlie and both of his roommates, like many of the members joined the gang in their early teens, and their mothers are working in the United States as cleaners.  Charlie decides if people aren't following gang rules, and they are punished with a beating.  Despite these somewhat frequent punishments, they consider their gang to be like family. All members have 18 tattooed on themselves in some way, and most have or want more tattoos.
   
 The Salvadorian government is trying to eliminate gangs, and they can be arrested for having an 18 tattoo.  Although they're alert for the police, they know the area better than the police and don't really take them seriously.  Because of thee tattoos they can't have a real job, and make most of their money selling marijuana.  Charlie is the main seller for the gang, making around $60 a week.  Diego, one of Charlie's roommates has set up an extortion system with the local buses.  They give him a percent of their profits, because they don't want to be targeted by Eighteenth Street.
       There are several deaths a week in their district.  Usually these deaths are a result of their rival gang, MS.  Most people don't expect to make it past thirty.  Travieso is sent on a mission to kill members of MS to avenge the deaths from Eighteen.  He is then on the run from the police, but when someone else is arrested for their murder, he goes home.  
       This was one of those movies where it didn't need any dramatic voice overs or special effects, the topic spoke for itself.  The music in this film did created a mood, and there was one interview with Travieso after he came back from his mission that really stuck out.  He's in from of a red-orange wall, the camera isn't facing strait on him, it's a little off to the side, plus the hard light and the fact that he's taking about how he just killed someone creates an eery effect.
     I think this documentary gave a face to these gang members, making them more than just criminals.  The film ends with them celebrating the new year and talking about how they don't want this life forever.  Some want to start a family, others want to join their family in the United States and make something of themselves.  I even started to feel a little sad for them, because there really isn't a road that leads to them starting over in the United States, leading a productive life, or having their family be healthy and safe.  It's powerful for a filmmaker to be able to make the viewer empathize with people who've murdered before.

 18th Street Gang, 55:31 4 out of 5 stars. 

Mobile Med.

     If I where asked what my dad does for a living I really wouldn't be able to give a good description.  He used to be a doctor and still works for the VA someway or another.  But what I do know is that every Thursday he volunteers for Mobile Medicare, a free clinic.  It serves low income patients without medical insurance.  It's based off of volunteers and very few paid workers.  Many of them are immigrants and don't speak English very well (if they speak English at all).

     Right now there are 26 organizations competing for votes on Facebook, Mobile Med being one of them.  Hyatt is giving $10,000 to the charity that gets the most votes.  Right now Mobile Med is 9 Charities down on the list and the voting ends December 31.


18.Mobile Medical Care Inc. 240 
19.Caritas of Austin 362
20 Haven for Hope 376
21. SPEED Trust 524
22. Equal Community Foundation 532
23. Mama's Kitchen 600
24.Adult Literacy Tutors Association 617
25. Kidz Care Tanzania 1071
26. St. John's School 1106


Here is the link to vote once a day.   (You have to like the page first) Scroll down to Mobile Medical Care Inc. 
https://www.facebook.com/Hyatt/app_184833218324179


It's a long shot, and there are some other good charities on the list, but after hearing stories about people who have to take care of multiple sick family members, how overworked the staff and volunteers are, and how people are struggling to get by, I really think Mobile Med deserves to win the $10,000.

A blog for Carvel

     My family has been fostering dogs from the Washington Animal Rescue League (WARL) for a while now.  Anyways we just found a home for our most resent foster dog, Carvel.
     On WARLs website there weren't many pictures of that much information about her, so my mom asked me to help expand it.  I used Bloger to make a website about her.  Granted it doesn't look very professional, but that's partially because Bloger isn't a very high tech and is mainly for blogs not websites.  Anyways here it is. http://fosteringcarvel.blogspot.com It was posted on WARLs website a few weeks ago and she got adopted this Saturday.

The dog on the left is Carvel and the one on the right is our dog Magee. 

Odd Thanksgivings

     We usually spend thanksgiving with my moms side of the family just because they're closer, and they're less of them so it's easier.  Anyways we don't really have traditional Thanksgiving dinners.  I can't really remember them all in the right order so I'll just talk about some of the ones I remember.
     Once we had a vegan Thanksgiving, although no one in my family in vegan or vegetarian.  And another time we had BLTs, that was definitely one of the weirder ones.  I did have a traditional Thanksgiving a few years ago with my dad's side of the family.














I've realized there isn't much of a point to this blog post, well I guess since I'm spending Thanksgiving with my mom's side of the family I'm wonder ing what we'll be having.  Also I guess I like the untraditional thanksgivings better, well as long as they have the basics,

Stuffing

Mashed Potatoes 

Cranberry Sauce

Ok, so maybe I'm just a little hungry.

Last Regatta of the Season

Last Sunday was out last regatta of the year.

I really don't feel like explaining crew, because I feel like I've done it a thousand times.

     It was in Occoquan, Virginia.  We hade to walk a good ten minutes though the woods to get from the parking lot to the docks.  It was really pretty and that's where I took some shots for my meaning of fall project.  

     Since it's a fall regatta it was a 5K (spring regattas are usually only 1,500 M.)   We got 9th out of 19 boats.  This isn't a great placement, but seeing as we were Varsity B, we weren't  exactly taking practices seriously.  To quote one of my teammates  "We're not on Varsity B because we're like this, we're like this because we're on Varsity B."

We got to race in the Trail Blazer, our best boat.  It sounds crazy, but the feel of the boat is so much different from our other boats, like the Blazing Paddles or the Blitzkrieg.

Capture the Fall

I uploaded two video for my meaning of fall project which are exactly the same, expect for the music.  one with the song "You're gonna miss me when I'm gone", and another with a song I found on musopens.org.  I'm not going to go into what I think about having to use creative commons music (although I may later) because that's a whole different story.    

This week I learned how to do the cup thing that goes with "You're gonna miss me when I'm gone," among other songs.  I really have no idea how to explain it so I posted a video.

Once I learned how to do it I couldn't stop, its unbelievably addicting. There are also other tricks I've learned, like doing rounds, or passing the cup around.  And I've been singing this song all week.

Capture the Fall with "You're Gonna Miss Me When I'm Gone"

Anyways I think this one is much better.  Admittedly I may have been editing this one around the song, rather than just editing it and then putting in the song, but that's how it should be done.  If you watch this one first, I think the second one will be very disappointing.  The thing is I don't really mind using websites like free soundarchives.org or musopen.org, but once I watched it with this song, it just fit, I just wouldn't see using anything else.      



{Real Capture the Fall with all Creative Commons}

Change Project Bake Sale

     Last week my project had a bake sale during the cap open house.  Since another group was also having a bake sale I really didn't think we we're going to be very successful, but we were.  We started out making everything  $1, but after some people commented that the baked good were all different sizes but all cost a dollar, we made the smaller cookies 2 for a dollar.
     The pricing or kind of tricky because you don't want to be ripping off the customer, but also want to make money.  Next you don't want to change the prizes during the bake sale, because that would anger customers, and you'll seem indecisive.  Although I tried to prepare for running out of change, but we still did.  If we were only off by a dollar,  some people would say thats alright and they could just take another item.  But for others we would have to come up with the change.
     We're thinking of doing another bake sale in front of the election poles, but a lot of PTAs fundraise there too, and since it would be last minute, we may not.  We made $185, and overall it was a successful bake sale.  
       
      

Ellen Degeneres; and why she's a comic genius

     It's hard to describe why Ellen is so funny.  Maybe it's because she seems like a real person, someone you could just go up to on the street and talk too, or because she is just a really good public speaker.  She is both of those, but after watching one of her old stand ups, I realized its also because that she is able to weave social commentary into a very well planed out sketch, while making it hilarious, and almost like she's just making it up on the spot.

 Somewhere in the middle of her performance "The Beginning", she was talking about how awkward it is when someone is talking to you and you realized you've drifted off and weren't really listening, and they've finished talking and expecting you to say something-

"Do what I do if I can help you out I'm pleased to do it, because I know its an awkward situation for all of us.  I always say something about Gloria Estefan.  I'm telling you it works if you commit to it she can work into any conversation.  They could be like
'What's that got to do with copper pluming?' and you're like
'Well Gloria Estefan is the copper pluming of the music industry is all, I mean she's beautiful, durable, reliable, indestructible, look how she came back after that bus accident, are you going to debate me on this?'"        

     By itself I found that pretty funny, but it wasn't until the very end, after many other jokes and stories, when she was describing her talk with god, who she casually describes as a 47 year old beautiful black women, (only another reason why I love Ellen) that I realized she's a comic genius.

"'I have to say God I'm sorry, I am so sorry that we're killing all of the animals, I'm so sorry that we are chopping down all the trees, I am sorry that we're filled with hate and not love, I'm sorry that we call each other names and judge each other, I'm sorry that we go to war and kill each other, I'm sorry'
And she was silent for a few seconds and then she looked at me and she said
'Have you seen Gloria Estefan's hair lately?'"        

The Beginning Part 1 

Her show it split into seven sections on Youtube, and I didn't want to put all seven, and as I described  before the joke I was talking about in split between sections, so even though the show isn't in full swing until later, I decided to just put section one.

Ball Park People Watching

     The ball park is such an interesting place.  Don't get me wrong I love watching the game, but after I've finished my four dollar ice cream, watched Teddy lose for the five thousandth time I start to get a little bored.  There's no one on base, the hitter has fouled for the kajilianth time, and the pitcher is taking about 5 hours to prepare between pitches, so I start to just watching people.

      We all know theres that one guy that's always yelling and cursing at the players, but there're other types of Baseball spectators.  There's that 7 year old who has her pink softball glove desperately hoping to catch a foul ball although she's sitting higher up than any balls ever come.  There's someone using antique binoculars to watch, nope not the game, the dugout and commenting on who's looking a little tired, that Strasburg's beard is looking a little scraggly (which is probably was) or how cool it would be to be the security guard in the dugout with the players.

    I've also spend some of my time paying attention to the songs they play when a new hitter or pitcher comes in.  LaRoche for example is a fan of country music.  I've also been trying to figure out if a player gets the same song played for them every time they come up to bat.

    Then Harper catches a popup and throws it to second base making a double play, snapping me out of my day dreams just in time for the "Take me out to the ball game"

 
 

Dystopian Film Trailer Script

     For our trailer we created a dystopia where the government gives aid (food, supplies, medicine) through a "Nurse Nancy" to the poor, unemployed, sick and disabled.  In a year if they haven't shown signs of improvement, their food is poisoned.
     We will use propaganda (posters of Nurse Nancy) constant surveillance, (the government can tell if they are improving or not) Uniform expectations, utopian illusion ( it sounds like a good ideas for the government to be providing aid) and restricted information.  Our script has 13 scenes, but since this is a trailer, a scene will only be a few seconds.
     We will mostly be using voice overs, but still have a little dialogue.  We will be starting and ending with the ring of  bell.  It will also be rung when aid arrives.  It will create an eery effect.  I really like our idea, and our script is going really well.                    

5X5

1. Crossing the street
2. Sparkly shoes
3. Soccer
4. The swing
5. Down the slide

I used an olympus SP-600UZ, I have no idea what that really means, but I'd consider it an advanced amateur camera.  Since I already knew how to use iMovie and how to upload to Youtube, this was an easy project.
At first I thought this was a weird project, because it doesn't tell a story or really have a point to it at all, but actually like how it turned out, it has a nice flow to it.
For our next independent project I thought we could do something about lighting and lean how to film without just using auto settings.  Sort-of a get to know your camera thing.

Dystopian Trailer Critique

Children of Men . Alfonso Cuarón . R . 2006
In a post apocalyptic setting, all women have become infertile and Theo, (Clive Owen) as well as the rest of the world has lost hope for the future.  His ex wife, Julian, (Julianne Moore) finds him and asks for his help.  She has found a pregnant women, and needs to transport her safely to the human project.




 The trailer does a very good job of showing the different aspects of a dystopian society and developing a dystopian protagonist by using a combination of film clips and voiceovers.  The trailer shows a society with post apocalyptic control.  The streets are filled with trash, there are explosions, riots, the overall coloring of the film is grey, giving a general harsh feel to the trailer.  Using voiceovers from the main character, the trailer establishes his hopelessness in a world with no future.  His ex wife is his catalyst that inspires him to help the pregnant girl.
For my trailer I would like to create a mood, like this one did, by using lighting, music, and other film techniques that I may learn.  I also want to have a good balance between character development and development of a dystopian society.

Self Learning

I read the article "Preparing Students to Learn without us" by WIll Richardson.  It's about how self directed learning can be used by students, with the help of their teachers, in and outside of the classroom. Students can find their own ways to meet the school goals.  Students shouldn't be help back by the school curriculum  and be able to explore their own interests and learn from that they are passionate about.

I was surprised that at trinity School outside Atlanta, Georgia, the students have a choice of 23 languages to learn online.  first because 23 is an impressive number of languages to be offered at a school, but also because language ins't something that you can learn online, sure Latin maybe, but language is more that just about grammar and words.  The only way to really learn a language is to speak it.

One quote that I liked was "The ability to learn what we want, when we want it, with whomever we want as long as we have access creates a huge push against a system of education steeped in time and place learning".  At school it feels like its easier for teachers to just follow the curriculum, rather than to think of creative ways to teach and inspire.

Self directed learning sounds good in their, but unless students and highly motivated, it would never work.  Some students would slack off, and other need more of a structure to be able to learn.

 In terms of our class, we all have the resources to learn more about topics that we are interested in, but the point of learn learning is to do it on our own.  It sounds like we would have an assignment to go teach ourselves something, which is kind of the opposite of what self learning is.  Also, although I like filming and editing, I'm not interested enough in it to go learn about it on my own.  I am interested in criminology, which I realize is a very broad topic to learn about, but I would be willing to read more about it on my own.

Julie and Julie; review of a movie review

A.O. Scott's review from the New York Times of "Julie and Julia"Two for the Stove"" is a plot summary intertwined with his opinions of the adaptation to the screen, the acting, the choice of actors and how they complemented each other.

He doesn't talk very much about cinematic aspects, but since it isn't a drama or an action movie there really wouldn't have been much to say.

Mostly focussing on the acting, Scott praises Meryl Streep, not only for doing a fantastic job of portraying Julia, but he also talks about how it seems that in many of her movies her co starts are forgotten.  "Remember Anne Hathaway in 'The Devil Wears Prada?' Amanda Seyfried in 'Mamma Mia'? neither do I".

He goes on to say that the unevenness isn't only the actors fault, but stems form Julie being a blogger, who is unsure of herself, and Julia being confident, adventurous, and well, Julia Child.  "Julie and Julia" does have it's imperfections but all in all Scott recommends it, as do I.

Julie and Julia

I think for our quarterly movie review we should give a plot summary and our opinions about the literary, cinematic and dramatic aspects of the film, as well as out general perception of the movie. 

First Blog First Blog Post

Hi!  I'm Esther a sophomore in the Communication Arts Program (CAP) at Montgomery Blair High School.  Creating this blog is part of my CAP Writing News class.
 I like peach yogurt and mint chocolate chip ice cream.  I've been playing the piano for most of my life. I've recently been getting into a variety of water sports such as kayaking, rowing, paddle boarding and a little skim boarding.  I row of the Blair Crew team, which takes up most of my time.
I was in a film class in 6th and 7th grade.  Although I'm still not very tech savvy, I'm probably most interested in editing clips and putting movies together.  Outside of school a friend and I have put together or at least started many films.  My all time favorite being our Murder Mystery.  It started out being very well put together, with nice shots and a somewhat understandable plot.  It started going downhill after a while, for example we filmed part of it during spring break and another during the winter, so we said that we had traveled from Iceland to Greenland.
I'm not quite sure how we will use these blogs this year.  I guess we would use them to talk about and share what we created in class.

Inside