Stan Ridgway

Walking Home Alone

You can find here the gapped correction.

FILMMAKING TECHNIQUES

 -Barton Fink:
Barton Fink is a 1991 American film, written, directed, and produced by the Coen brothers. Set in 1941, it stars John Turturro in the title role as a young New York City playwright who is hired to write scripts for a movie studio in Hollywood, and John Goodman as Charlie, the insurance salesman who lives next door at the run-down Hotel Earle.


 -Joel & Ethan Coen:
 Joel David Coen (born November 29, 1954) and Ethan Jesse Coen (born September 21, 1957) known together professionally as the Coen brothers, are American filmmakers. Their films include Blood Simple, Fargo, The Big Lebowski, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, No Country for Old Men, and True Grit.
The brothers write, direct and produce their films jointly, although until recently Joel received sole credit for directing and Ethan for producing. They often alternate top billing for their screenplays while sharing film credits for editor under the alias Roderick Jaynes.


John Turturro
Highly talented, lightly built Italian American actor who always looks unsettled and jumpy has become a favourite of cult/arthouse film aficionados with his compelling performances in a broad range of cinematic vehicles. Has become a regular in the thought provoking films of Spike Leeand the off the wall comedies of Joel Coen & Ethan Coen  Ethan Coen...See full bio »

Born:

 John Michael Turturro
February 28, 1957 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA

John Stephen Goodman (born June 20, 1952) is an American film, television, and stage actor. He is best known for his role as Dan Conner on the television series Roseanne (1988–1997) for which he won a Best Actor Golden Globe Award in 1993, and for providing the voice of Sully in Monsters, Inc. As a film actor, he has frequently collaborated with the Coen Brothers, including in Raising Arizona,Barton Fink, The Big Lebowski, and O Brother, Where Art Thou?.










 

GREEN DAY

Boulevard of Broken Dreams

1) 
The lexical field of loneliness includes words such as "only one", "empty", "alone" and "lonely". The imagery  associated with it is found in the lines 1, 5, 7, 8, 10 and 11.They also connote ideas of isolation, rejection, regret and basically unhappiness. Besides, this convey a feeling of loss and lack as if the singer was lacking love, friendship and affection.


2) 
     Line 11: "My shallow heart that's beating"
     Line 14/15: "The line that divides me"
     Line 20: "Check my vital signs... I'm still alive"
     
These are three images closely related to the body and mind, with a common point between them. it sounds as if the man is lifeless, probably because his life doesn't have sense to him as he has no reason for living. He needs love/hope to fill  his heart/ mind, in order to feel alive.
     

3) 
The topographical reference included in the title is "boulevard" which refers to a wide road usually full of people, lines with trees and shops. So it connotes luxury, dreams, money, glamour, happiness, fame (the famous Sunset Boulevard) but in this song it's full of broken dreams. Then we find three other kinds/types/ sorts of topographical references:

•  A road is mentioned but it is said to have no destination; "don't know where it goes" even though a road usually leads somewhere.
• A street is also mentioned but it's empty where as streets usually convey ideas of activity, crowded side walks heavy traffic.
• The "city sleeps" whereas big cities usually never sleeps as they are always very busy lively... Therefore, it seems that all these places are lifeless, like the main character of the song

4) CONCLUSION

The "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" is a metaphor for the ups and downs anybody can go through in their lives. Everybody experiences hardships and has their dreams and hopes shattered because life isn't a "bed of roses". When this happens, we often feel depressed, lonely, sad, like the singer of this song. 

Boulevard of Broken Dreams

Boulevard of Broken Dreams 

1) Cover artwork of the album American idiot





2) Contrasting Reviews of this record Cover artwork of the album American idiot 

Negative:
Ah, middle school, the time that you would listen to anything regardless of quality. I remember this album being hyped up by the kids at my school and they claimed that it was one of the best of the year. By the time this album was released, I was starting to get into heavy metal and outgrowing the nu-metal/pop punk that I was into. I was never really into Green Day, but since the kids at my school hyped this album up, I decided to give it a chance and this is pretty much one of the most boring albums I've listened to. 9 minute songs just don't work for bands of this calibre  The songs start to get boring after a few minutes, no interesting guitar work, bland drumming, bland vocals and generic lyrics.
  Overall, just another overrated album that isn't worth the hype it received  If you like this type of music, you'll like this, but this just isn't for me.

Positive:
Surprisingly good. That’s what was for me American Idiot when it was released in 2004. Taking inspiration from the epic Quadrophenia by The Who, Billie Joe Armstrong built an ambitious rock opera about Jesus of Suburbia, a quick-tempered guy who hates his own town. Music is often easy listening and dazzling (Are We The Waiting, Give Me a Novacaine, Wake Me Up When September Ends), moving sometimes to worked up and powerful sounds (American Idiot, Boulevard of Broken Dreams, St.Jimmy) in order to suggest refusal to social and political rules, rage and will to riot. In addiction, drums and sharp variation in rhythm convey a sort of inventiveness: listen for example to the astonishing Jesus of Suburbia and to the arousing melancholy tones of Whatsername.
American Idiot isn't only Green Day’s best work ever, it’s probably one of the best modern rock album.


3) Short biography of the band: 


Green Day was part of the California punk scene. Childhood friends Billie Joe Armstrong (guitar, vocals) and Mike Dirnt (bass; born Mike Pritchard) formed their first band, Sweet Children, in Rodeo, California when they were 14 years old. By 1989, the group had added drummer Al Sobrante and changed their name to Green Day. That year, the band independently released their first EP, 1,000 Hours, which was well-received in the punk scene. Soon, the group had signed a contract with the local independent label, Lookout! Records. 39/Smooth, Green Day's first album, was released later that year. Shortly after its release, the band replaced Kiftmeyer with Tre Cool (born Frank Edwin Wright, III); Tre Cool became the band's permanent drummer.

In September of 2004 Green Day  released "American Idiot", an album which lashes out against the American government and the media. "American Idiot" was the first Green Day record ever to debut at #1 on the Billboard Charts, and other music charts around the world. The album's title track, was an instant success. The follow up single, "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" experienced a must greater success. "American Idiot" was nominated for seven Grammy awards, and took home one, "Best Rock Album". In August of 2005, Green Day took home 7 Video Music Awards from MTV.

Do you like it or not? Do you know what does it means?

In my opinion this song is really good but it's not the kind of music I listen to everyday. I heard about this  group long time ago and I listened some of their songs  but they not attract me a lot. I can say that it's a beautiful song and lyrics are very good but punk rock is not for me. Additionally the way that the members of the band dress or paint their faces are not my style. Normally the music that I listen to is House, Reggae, Pop and sometimes Rap.Firstly I didn't know what this song means but after listening to it a few times in class and then at home I think I understood a little bit. Personally I think  that this song talks about a person who feels lonely in the world and he sings all his emotional life while he's walking at the boulevard of Broken Dreams. 

Date with a teacher

                                         

Hello readers!

This video takes place in a restaurant, it's a blind date, the two principal characters are a teacher and a young man. In the video we can see that the teacher behaves as she was in a class and she treats him like a little primary student. She forces her partner to put his and up when he wants to speak, she correct everybody when they are talking (like with the waiter) and she rewards when John (her partner) does something correct.
She's always making stupid jokes or singing songs for helping him to understand things like what's an carnivore and omnivore person etc. Later on the restaurant will become a sort of classroom and people who are there become the students.
She is also making typical "teach jokes" like I like everything but, your butt!!"

This video shows us the "danger" of Internet, because we don't know with who we are hooking up and it can be a problem.

Homework

New Technologies

In this cartoon we can see a man with a frightened face. He's pointing to his head with an Ipod or an Iphone and on the screen we can see a gun and this weapon is pointed to his head too. 

I think that little by little the Internet is entering in our heads, killing our way of thinking, causing personality disorder until we may have hallucinations. The act of pointing the gun to his head is not common or normal, so this man may be showing us the absurdities that we do because of Internet.This cartoon is a caricature of new technologies, we can think that this cartoon aims to show us the "danger" of electronic devices. Technologies can influence what we think and what we feel. The obsession with being connected through these devices makes us more anxious, depressed and psychotic. People say that the Internet becomes like an electronic cocaine, it produces anxiety states and make us to have compulsive behaviour. 

Nowadays people depend on the Internet, they can't live without it and they search everything on it. We are becoming lazier and now because it's faster, we use Internet (Google, Wikipedia ...) instead of opening a dictionary and search for everything that we don't know.

In 2010 at the Maryland University they did an experiment called Unplugged, in which 200 students had to be without their electronic devises during a day.  Most of the university students said that they were unable to be without their devises and without being connected to the world. 

My conclusion is that some people are the whole day looking their smartphones, computers, Ipads... they don't communicate with their friends, family, they are like autistic people, the whole day looking their computers or smartphones' screen. 

I know Internet is necessary but we need to do a good use of it.

Clara (:

1. Description / Meaning / Purpose

      a) This cartoon takes place in a room where there are two people. It seems that they are workers because they are wearing the same clothes. The person who is on the left side is sitting on a red chair, he's in front of a computer and he's saying to his friend he's resolving his addiction to the Internet thanks to an Internet Chatroom in Yahoo. His friend with orange hair is surprise, maybe he's thinking that it's not a good idea to try to give up his addiction to the Internet WITH Internet!!
We can see that this drawing represents a modern day because there is a computer.

       b) The cartoonist means that people are very dependent to Internet in nowadays and they are always looking for something (because we have everything on the Internet), chatting or doing something like trying to resolve his Internet addiction with Internet.
His goal is to say that there are some people that can't live without the computer and that's not normal.


2. Impact / Viewpoint / Branching Out

       a) I think, I said I think there are more people in the world depending on Internet and if we'll continue to do this we are not going to be able to live without it.

      

1st Post!!

Hi readers!!

I'm Clara, a sixteen year old girl, student at the Lycée Français of Madrid.
I love listening to music and I'm fan of Deadmou5, Nicki Minaj and Bob Marley. But I like all kind of music from Reggae to Dubstep. My favorite actor is Johnny Deep, I have him on a podium.

I play flute and a little bit of piano, but my passion is dancing Hip Hop, Funky or wathever.

I like tralleving and normally in summer I go to diferent places. I've been in Mexico, China, United Kindom, France and Perú. My dream is to go to Australia I don't know why but I think it's an interesting trip. This summer I went to California to see a friend and to practise a little bit my English.


 This an Image of Bob Marley!!








See you very soon!    (: