"Music Saved My Life"

Music saved my life. And I'm not saying that in a causal or jokingly manner. Music literally saved my life. During the darkest periods of my life ... music kept me going. Music was the only enjoyable portion of my life. Music is my therapy. Music is my constant, it has always and will always be there for me. I don't and can't love anything else more than music. Music is the rhythm to my soul.

Part of My Story

I was normal once, until it all went wrong. When I was 8 years old, I stopped eating food at school because I didn't like the school lunches. The school lunches were frozen and microwave food that tasted disgusting, and my parents were poor then and couldn't afford to buy me lunch. I messed up my stomach and kept vomiting and developed acidic reflux disease from then on. During the end of sophomore year in high school, I had a nervous breakdown. I was naive at the time and drank a lot of soda without knowing that it would aggravate my acid reflux. Mentally, the nervous breakdown was induced by the stress and pressure my parents put on me. At age 15, my parents placed pressure on me to learn how to drive, learn how to swim, volunteer or get a job, look to apply into a good college (Berkeley or Stanford). Physically, I went on another bout of vomiting and my stomach got really messed up. In turn, I developed an anxiety disorder and depression. Because of my traumatic experiences with vomiting, I developed emetophobia, the fear of vomiting, especially in public situations. I was anorexic and bulimic, but not because of body image or choice. Graduating high school was extremely hard and I was barely able to get through it. Then came college, where I've heard others say college is very challenging and tough to graduate from. For me, with my disorders and illnesses, college was a grind and hundred times harder. My parents and my brother continued to place pressure on me to graduate college. I was one semester away from graduating, but I had to drop out because I was suicidal. My acid reflux got worse and I was experiencing chest pains. Effort-wise, I give it 100%, anything less and I would be dead.

A Little Bit About Me

Favorite Color: Blue

Favorite Food: Japanese Cuisine

Favorite Band: Senses Fail

Favorite Sport: Tennis

Favorite Drink: Strawberry Banana Smoothie/Milkshake

Favorite Film Genre: Zombies

Favorite Music Genre: Rock

Favorite Movie: The Fountain

Favorite TV Series: The Big Bang Theory

Favorite Anime Series: Welcome to the NHK


Enjoys ... Driving with loud music blasting from my car stereo

Enjoys ... Learning more about the Cosmos

Enjoys ... Walking the dog at the beach

Enjoys ... Working out, biking, running

Creative Project: "The Journey Through"

"The Journey Through" by Martin Yee

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FD9AY8Xc1E

    I spent one entire night reading the complete Carl Jung chapter in Man and His Symbols, and I went to sleep shortly afterwards. The morning after, I woke up from an exceptionally vivid dream that when I could remember and visualize clearly as if it was a “vision”. Having read Jung’s chapter, I just sat there on my bed, thinking and trying to figure out what this dream meant or what my unconsciousness was trying to tell me. Thanks to Jung, I became aware that my dream wasn’t “meaningless” and I did not disregard the dream as if it was “just another dream”. Instead, I utilized the new tools supplied by the Jung readings and analyzed my dream. After five minutes of replaying the dream in my head, I was finally able to decipher some of the inner workings of my dream.

    In this dream, I wake up lost on top of a snowy mountain, wanting to find and go back home. I encounter a friendly woman who agrees to help me find my home, so we embark on a journey across a valley with killer insects, a hot dry dessert, the town with the train station, and eventually we hit my expected destination, anticipating my return home, only to find nothing but empty fields across the landscape. When I woke up from this dream, I was really confused by the strange ending and I couldn’t comprehend it. Some questions that popped up in my head were, “Where’s my home?”, “What happens next?”, “What’s the significance of the woman?” and so on. Equipped with new analytical tools, I realized that my dream was telling me that my home was not a physical place. In the dream, I was obsessed with the search for my home and I failed to realize that the journey was my “home”. After I had awaken, I was then able to figure out that “the journey through life is my home” was the main message brought from my unconscious into my conscious.

    After learning about archetypes in Jung’s readings and in my English 214 class, I farther analyzed my dream to identify archetypes within the dream. Archetypes are universal symbols that generally symbolize the same concepts for everyone.  In my dream, the killer dragonflies are an archetype for the obstacles and negative emotions that one encounters throughout life, such as the catastrophes that test our ability to survive in this world. Another universal symbol is the companion that I made during my journey because she represents the people we encounter in our lives, whom we share our journeys with. The companion(s) may also represent the love interest(s) or it could represent friends, families, or acquaintances that have helped or guided us through life and also involves the help or guidance that you have provided to others. As shown in my dream, a journey involves traveling and mobility, which represents the ever changing scenery we encounter each and every day. As the Japanese poet, Matsuo Basho put it, “Every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home.” No two days are exactly the same and each new day that we experience gives us the opportunity to grow and open our eyes wider. In Plato’s terms, mobility represents the steps we take in life as we attempt to move out of our personal “caves”.

    After experiencing such a vibrant dream, I knew immediately that I had to base my English 214 Creative Project on this dream because I wanted to share my “vision”. Right away, I knew I wanted to recreate this dream and present it in a movie format. Marshall McLuhan once coined the term, “The medium is the massage,” and even wrote an entire book under that title. Under my personal interpretation, I believe “The medium is the massage,” means that a medium has the ability to transfer or “massage” messages, ideas, and forms of thought processing from the medium producer to the medium viewer. Having read McLuhan’s work, I recognized the importance of using the correct medium to deliver the vision that I wished my audience to experience. For my Creative Project, I picked the most engaging mass medium available, the motion picture, which primarily engages the visual and auditory senses. I initially wished to transfer this dream into a realistic medium such as a live action movie, but since I didn’t have the multi-million dollar budget or a Hollywood Studio, I settled for a more practical means of conveying my dream. With the strict time constraints, I realized that the best method for depicting my dream would be in animation style, such as a slideshow or live graphic novel.

    Originally, I wanted to use computer programs to draw out scenes for my movie, but I wasn’t “tech-savvy” enough and failed to draw a stick figure even on such a simple platform as Microsoft Paint. So, I finally decided to go with hand-drawn illustrations (with the use of markers and color pencils) that I ended up scanning onto my computer to build my movie. The illustration process involved an extensive trial and error process because it has been four years since I last took an art class and I was out of practice. I finally decided that I was satisfied the scenes that I had drawn, so I began working on the stick-figure cut-outs. To produce my motion comic, I had to place my stick-figure cut-outs on top of my background sceneries and scan them for each individual frame of the movie. Then I had to write dialogue for my movie and select appropriate music and audio that would do justice to my movie.

    After presenting my Creative Project to my English 214 class, I was not entirely satisfied with the product because I noticed slight details that I left out or went wrong. The movie did not turn out exactly the way I had imagined it, so I revisited my movie and made minor edits to correct the faults that I witnessed during the classroom presentation. Now I can say that I’m satisfied with the final cut of this film (supplied by the links above) and can rest peacefully. Even though this project was tedious and challenging, I was compelled and motivated to complete this art piece because it felt awesome to transfer a part of me into a piece of work that can be viewed by others. This English 214 class has taught me that not only is the outside world important, but the world inside is just as important, if not more.

Imagery on Album Cover

Image: "Let It Enfold You" - Senses Fail (album cover)
Artwork Done By: James Rheem Davis
Source: http://www.giantsumo.com/id71.html

Facts:
The image appears to be a photograph taken, but has been photo shopped.
The photograph is taken of a man in a white colored bathroom.
The entire image is distorted, there are blurs and smudges.
The man in the photograph is wearing a black suit, white collared shirt, and a black tie.
The man has his right hand placed on what appears to be the bathroom mirror.
The man is staring into the bathroom mirror.
Instead of the man’s reflection, the mirror shows an image of a man in a similar outfit in a red back ground, full of flames and tree branches without leaves.
The man in the burning image has his mouth wide open and his eyes are white.
Inferences:
The burning image is not actually a reflection, but it is the image of what he sees of himself and his environment.
The “reflection” of the man has mouth wide open and eyes rolled back because he is screaming in pain.
The burning environment is causing his “reflection” great distress.
The man’s reflection shows his true inner emotions that are not shown by the image of the man, himself. 
Judgments:
This man is weak minded and weak willed.
This man is scared of the world.
This man’s life is a “living” Hell.
This is a catchy image, because I feel like I can relate to it and makes me want to buy the album. 

Propaganda By Images vs. Art

      Imagery exists everywhere I turn and it’s nearly impossible to hide from it. Whether we like it or not, we are being exposed to images produced by the media. Imagery has the power to mold our way of thinking and allows businesses to brainwash us into becoming their consumers. I can’t think of a better example than the San Francisco Giants and their recent “World” Series Championship win. Today, a million people attended the Giants’ Championship parade and celebration ceremony in San Francisco. All these people were covered in their Giants’ merchandise, which consisted of orange & black clothing, fake beards, “SF” caps, jerseys, towels, and pom-poms. “Okay … Giants won it all. So, what? Why is it so important?” I say. When I think about it, the Giant’s championship really isn’t that important to me or any of us. After their win, it’s not like the Giants’ are going on a parade where they pass out money to everyone. Instead, the Giants’ are the ones who want to take our money! Those one million attendees of today’s Giants’ celebration have fell victim to the imagery produced by the Giants and the media. One million people skipped class or took a day off from work so that they could attend a ceremony that they believed was “important” due to image propaganda. This image propaganda was developed and broadcasted through ballgames at the ballparks, live coverage of Giants’ games on TV, billboards on buses and bus stops, catchy slogans like “Fear The Beard” or “Come See The Freak”, ad campaigns, and local news stations skipping their regular programming to cover the Giants’ hype (which only farther contributed to the Giants’ hype). These Giants fans were made to believe that they are buying a “superior” product through this aggressive propaganda through images.

      After reading “The Image Culture” by Christine Rosen, I asked myself: “Are images a completely negative influence on me?” My answer is “no” because I believe there are positive aspects of the image culture that Rosen does not go into. In Rosen’s article, she mostly attacks the image culture by saying that we lose our ability of judgment by allowing the media control our thoughts and actions through the use of images. I agree with Rosen that imagery may be used as propaganda, but Rosen misses out on the use of imagery as an art form that artists may use to express and share their images with the public. Art is another form of imagery that doesn’t act as propaganda, but allows its viewers to interrupt the image for themselves instead. There are paintings that are viewed by numerous people and each viewer will give their own interpretation of the painting when asked. After viewing Inception (film), I came out of the theater with different ideas and analysis of the movie than my brother. Artistic imagery inspires the viewers to construct their own thought processes, whereas image propaganda almost completely constructs uniform thought processes in their viewers.


Article Source: "The Image Culture" by Christine Rosen

Movies: A Medium of Expression

    Ever since I could remember, I have been exposed to this form of medium called the movie. Looking back at my childhood, I can say that I viewed a few good movies. But now, I am surrounded by so many great movies that it’s almost impossible for me to keep up with. In my early childhood, I enjoyed watching movies like Aladdin, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Power Rangers. In my mind, those movies were good because they had a fairly decent storyline with some entertaining action here and there. On the other hand, the lame movies were the crappy 80’s action movies that came out every other week. The 80’s was a period dominated by “D-rated” action movies that showed nothing but a linear plot filled with mindless action, consisting of gunshots, punches, and explosions every 5 minutes. These 80’s action movies could not be any more predictable.

    Marshall McLuhan once said, “Movies are much better than ever!” Just as McLuhan had described, the introduction and use of CGI (computer-generated imagery) in movies has made recent movies much better than the previous non-CGI era. CGI added a new medium within a medium. CGI became a medium for movies because it allowed movie makers to express ideas, images, or the movie experience in a manner that movie makers previously were unable to produce. During the pre-CGI era, movies were limited to cartoon drawings and what producers can put together with their actors, props, and sets. Movie makers are now granted more freedom to depict their visions to their audiences. CGI permitted movie makers capabilities to translate their abstract ideas into images that audiences immerse themselves in without having someone in the audience point out, “Oh, that spaceship looks so ‘fake’, it’s obviously a toy-sized model.” CGI gave birth to the modern movie era, where almost anything is possible and the imagination of movie makers can be shared with its viewers. Movies like the The Matrix, Spider-man, and Watchmen would not have been so great if they were made during the pre-CGI era. These movies would have been limited by the process of being filmed under real and existent props, actors, and sets that all have to abide by the laws of physics. If these modern superhero movies were produced in the pre-CGI era, they’d all end up being dwarfed by the lack of “super powers” because these “super powers” had to be filled in by special effects of CGI. The modern movies that viewers see in theaters today are allowed to be created because the rules of the CGI medium permit these movies to exist.

    I am currently pleased by the constant introduction of new technology in the movies. Each new technology brought into the film industry enhances the abilities of movie makers to portray their visions, ideas, and experiences to their audiences. Recently, the new improved 3-D technology is being utilized by the film industry. It takes the whole movie experience to a more intimate dimension than the 2-D movies. A few weeks ago, I saw Resident Evil: Afterlife in 3-D and I was quite impressed by my first experience of viewing 3-D zombies. Contemporary movies are no longer restrained by the old laws of the previous movie era. Movie makers will continue to produce increasingly better films as more mediums are introduced into movies, which will farther relieve the restraints held on this medium called the movie.

Image Taken from: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/3d-stereo-technology,1023-2.html