ThanksGIVING

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! During this holiday, it always crosses my mind that there are so many people less fortunate than myself, who don't get the privilege of sitting down to a delicious thanksgiving dinner like I do. Thats why I was so happy when I found this video. It tells the story of a charity in Ohio that serves thousands of hungry people on Thanksgiving. Here is a link so you can watch the video Click Here!
It's so nice to know that there are people in the world who are willing to spend their Thanksgiving helping others in need. I think that that is what the holiday is all about.

A Modern Day Wizard

Last night I got the opportunity to go see Tom DeLuca, the hypnotist, at New Trier. His claim to fame is being able to hypnotize people and then proceed to make them do completely outrageous things. Some of these "things" included hypnotizing a boy to believe he is Jackie Chan's younger brother, or hypnotizing another person to believe he is America's greatest spy. Needless to say, it was hilarious, and Tom DeLuca really convinced me that hypnosis is actually possible.
Now, I know this could seem like somewhat of a stretch, but in some ways, his act made me think of The Crucible, and how Tom DeLuca is like a modern day wizard. He "possesses" others, and makes them do whatever he wants, somewhat like The Crucible. Those accused of witchcraft in The Crucible are often accused of possessing their victims as well. After thinking about it more, it seemed interesting to me how witches in the Crucible were persecuted and put in jail, but now, "wizards", such as Tom DeLuca, are paid to perform and entertain people. Why do you think throughout time witches and wizards changed from being criminals, to being entertainers?

Harry Potter: A Defender of Civil Liberties

In the spirit of the opening week of Harry Potter (5 more days!), I decided to start to re-read the seventh book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Originally, I wasn't looking for anything in particular, but suddenly, around the middle of the book, I began to notice some connections to what we were discussing in American Studies! (Crazy, I know.) It all started with the break in to the Ministry of Magic. Harry and friends were all breaking into the Ministry of Magic and stumbled in on a court case involving a Mrs. Mary Cattermole, who was under suspicion of being a Mudblood (A wizard or witch born from two non-magical parents). This was one of many court cases involving thousands of Mudbloods who were accused of stealing their powers (rather than being born with them) and who were considered a threat to society. As I continued to read, I began to see some civil liberty violations going on. These people were citizens like everyone else, the only difference being they were born from two muggles. Yet, they were being put in Azkaban (prison) for something that was clearly out of their control. However, some may argue that this was a time of war and the imprisonment of Mudbloods was merely a precaution.
The situation in Harry Potter somewhat resembles the Japanese Internment Camps during World War Two. Japanese Americans were put in camps across the west coast after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in order to ensure national security, but many thought that that was a complete violation of the Japanese American's civil liberties. But once again, it was a time of war, so many considered it essential for the safety of America. However, both situations bring up an important question that we have been discussing in class. Should civil liberties be limited in times of war? In my opinion, they should not. Rights are rights, and they should not be taken away under any circumstances, but it is definitely something to think about.

Lost and Found

This week during our school's Literary Festival I had the privilege of seeing Davy Rothbart, the creator of Found magazine. This magazine is compiled of lost letters, photos, notes, advertisements, or anything that someone finds and sends in. The reason that I found this magazine so interesting is that every letter or scrap of paper that they find, they deem significant. While other's may think of these letters as trash, to them it is treasure. Oddly enough, this made me think about the books we read in school. The books we read in class are most likely chosen by the teachers because they are of some literary importance. These books are deemed significant by the school, and therefore they are chosen as our class curriculum. But after learning about Found magazine, I began to wonder, what makes these books more important than any other piece of literature? What makes them more significant? In my opinion, the letters published in Found are in some ways more significant than the books we read in class. They are true accounts of human emotion that would be hard to come across in a classroom book. Rather than being edited and scrutinized under a magnifying glass, they are handwritten, rarely edited, and come straight from somebody's deepest thoughts. And in my opinion that makes them almost more interesting and significant than most of the books we read in school. So the next time you come across a piece of paper being shuffled across the floor, pick it up, because you never know what it could say.

Based Off of True Events

The other night, I watched the scariest movie I have ever seen. It being Halloween weekend, I figured that it would be a fun idea. The movie I watched was called The House of the Devil. It was a low budget, independent horror movie about a babysitter who finds herself actually sitting for satanic worshippers. At the very beginning of the movie, during the opening credits, five words showed up on the screen. "Based Off of True Events." I immediately became uneasy, I thought, "if this was based off of true events, it could happen to me!" But as the movie went on, I realized that this idea was far fetched. While it definitely was terrifying, the plot was so unrealistic that I began to wonder what true events this movie was based off of. Perhaps it was loosely based off of the accounts of satanic worshippers in the 80's (the movie was based in the 80's), or perhaps the director was simply adding those five words in order to make the viewers of the movie more terrified. Either way, I wondered why the director wanted to make his movie, which was clearly a work of fiction, seem more like non-fiction. Perhaps it is because we are living in an era of reality television. People are suddenly more interested in watching what is real, rather than what is made up. And perhaps that is the reason why the director added those five words. Although there was some historical credibility, it was not to give his viewers a history lesson, but rather to get them more interested in his movie. But it brings up a good question that we discussed in American Studies. "Can there be truth in fiction?"

Bloggin' Ain't Easy

Please assess "Waiting for Superman"

Blogging makes me nervous. The idea of putting all my thoughts and opinions out there, for all the world to see, is enough to make my stomach turn. As much as I hate to say it, I do care what other people think of me, and as I write my blog every week, I am often worried that what I write may offend someone, and may cause someone to disagree with me. And that is why I believe that my blogs this quarter have been somewhat bland. Instead of branching out on my own, and actually writing blogs that I truly find interesting, I merely write about what we have been discussing in class.  For example, every single one of my blog posts contains a phrase along the lines of "this idea ties into what we were learning this week in AIS." Don't get me wrong, I do find a way to tie it into everyday life so that it is somewhat interesting to the reader, but none of my posts are very original. Even as the quarter went one, the outline of each blog stayed the same. I would state what was learned in class, and then discuss my views on it. The writing improved, but the style did not. I think this is because I am still getting comfortable with blogging, and writing down my opinions, but I hope that will improve during the second quarter. One positive change that I noticed in my blogs throughout the quarter was the fact that my blogs got shorter. I no longer feel the need to make every blog an essay. They can be short and sweet, and I think that makes them easier to read, and easier for me to write. Next quarter, I hope to do some extra posts about 'random' topics that I find interesting instead of only writing my average one post a week.  However, this quarter there was one post that I was particularly proud of. It connected into class and into my personal life. The title of the post was "Waiting for Superman." I thought that this specific post tied in what we learned in class, and what I experience everyday, quite well. I truly enjoyed writing it, and hope to write more posts like this next quarter.

White Wedding

Every morning when I check my email, I am usually bombarded with articles that are really of no importance. But today I came across an article that was not only interesting but also related to American Studies. It was called "Why Wedding Dresses are White." I instantly clicked on it because I thought that it would tie in really well with what we were discussing in class. We have been reading the Narrative of Frederick Douglass and have been discussing the issue of race for a few weeks. One of the ideas that we have discussed is why certain colors are given a specific meaning. For example, black is usually thought of as evil, dark, bad, scary etc...while white is more pure, and innocent of a color. And that is what I thought the article would say. I thought the reason wedding dresses were white was because they symbolized purity and virginity and innocence. But what surprised me most is that wedding dresses were not always white. Many wedding dresses used to be black, or purple or red, which I thought was strange because those colors, in my opinion, are not usually associated with innocence, or happiness, or purity. Another interesting fact was that wedding dresses first started being white after Queen Victoria's wedding. She chose a white dress because according to the article she wanted to show her people that she could run her country in an economic way, and white was the cheapest color fabric to use. And that idea stuck. So while many people think that wedding dresses are white because they are supposed to symbolize purity, they might be surprised to know that the color was chosen for political and economic purposes. This article showed me that not everything has to be related to race and color, and that was a refreshing change.