Funny thing heard at work today-
During the last debate between Obama and McCain, one of my co-workers had been on the phone with her daughter while McCain was making his statement about Gov. Palin being a "breath of fresh air." Her daughter had suddenly asked her why McCain would say something like that. Puzzled by the question, my co-worker asked her daughter what she was talking about. Her daughter replied "it sounded like he said "breast of fresh air!"
Something I learned today-
It is going to be a while before I am ready to take the Friday(aka diabolical) LA Times edition of Sudoku!
Friday, October 17, 2008
Monday, October 6, 2008
The Salt of the Earth
This evening in my Labor and Film class we watched the movie "Salt of the Earth" which is a film about a mining labor union's fight against the unsafe working conditions in the mines.
What makes this movie interesting involves the history surrounding it.
The film was produced in 1954 by blacklisted Hollywood filmmakers which included director Herbert Biberman, producer Paul Jerrico, screenwriter Michael Wilson, and actor Will Geer.
Because of the McCarthy's "anticommunist hysteria," it was next to impossible for the producers to get mainstream actors or guilds men to work on its production, and getting funding was next to impossible. Most if not all filming had to be covertly completed due to the constant harassment from McCarthy's goon squads. Many, if not most of the shots were done in one take.
Some of the shots had to be completed in Mexico because Rosauria Revueltas,the lead Mexican female actress, had been deported due to mostly bogus claims that her passport did not have the correct information.
Overall, the film is a masterpiece considering what they had to go through to complete it.
Even when it was completed the film was, for the most part, kept underground until the 1960s.
What makes this movie interesting involves the history surrounding it.
The film was produced in 1954 by blacklisted Hollywood filmmakers which included director Herbert Biberman, producer Paul Jerrico, screenwriter Michael Wilson, and actor Will Geer.
Because of the McCarthy's "anticommunist hysteria," it was next to impossible for the producers to get mainstream actors or guilds men to work on its production, and getting funding was next to impossible. Most if not all filming had to be covertly completed due to the constant harassment from McCarthy's goon squads. Many, if not most of the shots were done in one take.
Some of the shots had to be completed in Mexico because Rosauria Revueltas,the lead Mexican female actress, had been deported due to mostly bogus claims that her passport did not have the correct information.
Overall, the film is a masterpiece considering what they had to go through to complete it.
Even when it was completed the film was, for the most part, kept underground until the 1960s.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Riding the Red Cars
Today my wife, my son, my mother-in-law and I all went down to Ride the Red Cars at San Pedro. I had heard many great things about them, but have never taken the time to go down and check them out. Since I have this school project coming up, it made for a cool family outing.
We had arrived at the Red Car Depot across from the Los Angeles Maritime museum at 10:00 when the first Red Car was supposed to be picking up passengers. After looking at a few of their posted signs we discovered that the hours had been very recently changed to noon. I guess they need to update their website.
So to kill the two hours we wandered around the Ports O' Call area. It was still pretty quiet there, but we knew it would be rapidly coming to life as the time moved closer to noon. While we were walking around I had suddenly developed this urge to take pictures of Signs. Why, I still don't know. I think it was because of the huge diversity. Anyway, here is a few of them:
After a while we had decided we should eat before getting on the Red Cars. After turning down multiple high-priced brunch areas down there, we finally settled on eating at Acapulcos Mexican Restaurant. While we were there, I had decided to try my hand at a little social documentation. There was a group of animated Mariachi band members playing at different tables, whom I figured would make decent subject matter and took a few shots of them. I have converted them to black and white for a little more contrast:
After eating we still had 10-15 minutes to kill, so we hung around the outside of the Maritime Museum until the first car arrived.
When the first car arrived, we had boarded rapidly chasing my son who was extremely excited about riding the train. But it was getting close to his normal nap time and the excitement slowly morphed into his normal tired crankiness.
While we were riding, I had started to ask one of the conductors questions about the car, its history, etc. He had said he only knew a little about these cars, but if I was interested in knowing more, I could take the next car that came along(which happened to be their restored original car) who had a conductor named Bob who was very knowledgeable on the subject.
After boarding the second car I had met Bob, and he proceeded to give me a wealth of information via a lecture. Some of the information I was already familiar with, but was none-the-less interesting to hear from another perspective.
The part of his lecture that I found the most intriguing was about a study that USC had completed in reference to the 1965 Watts Riots. They had known that one of the primary catalysts for the uprising was a high unemployment rate within the community, but what they had discovered was that the unemployment rate sky-rocketed after the Red Cars were removed from service and replaced with buses.
Below are a few pictures from the ride:
We had arrived at the Red Car Depot across from the Los Angeles Maritime museum at 10:00 when the first Red Car was supposed to be picking up passengers. After looking at a few of their posted signs we discovered that the hours had been very recently changed to noon. I guess they need to update their website.
So to kill the two hours we wandered around the Ports O' Call area. It was still pretty quiet there, but we knew it would be rapidly coming to life as the time moved closer to noon. While we were walking around I had suddenly developed this urge to take pictures of Signs. Why, I still don't know. I think it was because of the huge diversity. Anyway, here is a few of them:
After a while we had decided we should eat before getting on the Red Cars. After turning down multiple high-priced brunch areas down there, we finally settled on eating at Acapulcos Mexican Restaurant. While we were there, I had decided to try my hand at a little social documentation. There was a group of animated Mariachi band members playing at different tables, whom I figured would make decent subject matter and took a few shots of them. I have converted them to black and white for a little more contrast:
After eating we still had 10-15 minutes to kill, so we hung around the outside of the Maritime Museum until the first car arrived.
When the first car arrived, we had boarded rapidly chasing my son who was extremely excited about riding the train. But it was getting close to his normal nap time and the excitement slowly morphed into his normal tired crankiness.
While we were riding, I had started to ask one of the conductors questions about the car, its history, etc. He had said he only knew a little about these cars, but if I was interested in knowing more, I could take the next car that came along(which happened to be their restored original car) who had a conductor named Bob who was very knowledgeable on the subject.
After boarding the second car I had met Bob, and he proceeded to give me a wealth of information via a lecture. Some of the information I was already familiar with, but was none-the-less interesting to hear from another perspective.
The part of his lecture that I found the most intriguing was about a study that USC had completed in reference to the 1965 Watts Riots. They had known that one of the primary catalysts for the uprising was a high unemployment rate within the community, but what they had discovered was that the unemployment rate sky-rocketed after the Red Cars were removed from service and replaced with buses.
Below are a few pictures from the ride:
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Getting to know others
After having my third 9 hour class today at Dominguez Hills, I now have a much better understanding of the amazing diversity in relation to the other students in the class.
It all began after our professor asked us to form one large group on the couches in the building's main lobby so we could discuss our ifilm documentary ideas.
Well, going by the documentary story ideas that each of the students shared, anyone that happen to be passing by may have assumed we were friends of Bill W.
Many, if not most of the stories would bring tears to the eyes of the hardest heart in town. Some had witnessed whole villages wiped out in their countries of origin, or fellow migrant countrymen treated literally like cattle, while others had families that make mine look like the Brady Bunch.
My ifilm script is one of the few that are not about family destruction or ethnic cleansing. I am doing mine on the demise of the Los Angeles Red Car and the rise of the freeway system. It does have some sad parts to it, but overall I will be trying to show what we had lost. It is supposed to be approximately 5-7 minutes long with a personal narration and 30- 40 pictures. An example of these short documentaries can be seen here.
Tomorrow I will be heading off with my wife, son and mother-in-law to go ride one of the few remaining restored Los Angeles Red Cars which is adjacent to the Ports O' Call in San Pedro. I will try and post the shots sometime in the near future.
The class also doubles as a mini photography class, which is an important aspect of social documentation.
We are actually getting some real great lessons and advice from our professor who is also a documentary film maker.
Here are some of the websites that were recommended:
Composition tips
Ten top photography tips
Digital Photo tips
Here you can view some great social documentary photography:
social documentary website
social documentary website2
It all began after our professor asked us to form one large group on the couches in the building's main lobby so we could discuss our ifilm documentary ideas.
Well, going by the documentary story ideas that each of the students shared, anyone that happen to be passing by may have assumed we were friends of Bill W.
Many, if not most of the stories would bring tears to the eyes of the hardest heart in town. Some had witnessed whole villages wiped out in their countries of origin, or fellow migrant countrymen treated literally like cattle, while others had families that make mine look like the Brady Bunch.
My ifilm script is one of the few that are not about family destruction or ethnic cleansing. I am doing mine on the demise of the Los Angeles Red Car and the rise of the freeway system. It does have some sad parts to it, but overall I will be trying to show what we had lost. It is supposed to be approximately 5-7 minutes long with a personal narration and 30- 40 pictures. An example of these short documentaries can be seen here.
Tomorrow I will be heading off with my wife, son and mother-in-law to go ride one of the few remaining restored Los Angeles Red Cars which is adjacent to the Ports O' Call in San Pedro. I will try and post the shots sometime in the near future.
The class also doubles as a mini photography class, which is an important aspect of social documentation.
We are actually getting some real great lessons and advice from our professor who is also a documentary film maker.
Here are some of the websites that were recommended:
Composition tips
Ten top photography tips
Digital Photo tips
Here you can view some great social documentary photography:
social documentary website
social documentary website2
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
School Assignment
For my Social Documentation class at Cal State University Dominguez Hills the final exam will consist of making a short documentary using Apple's ifilm.
The subject matter was supposed to be on something that we are concerned or passionate about.
Other than my family, I am not passionate about to many other things, except for the preservation of history.
After mulling over several ideas, I decided to do the final on the Red Cars that used to be a mainstay of Los Angeles public transportation before their demise secondary to the onslaught of freeways which now permeate the greater LA Area.
There are countless stories and opinions as to why this demise occurred, but in my humble opinion the bigger issue is what we lost as the red cars disappeared.
Hopefully I can project that idea with my short documentary.
The subject matter was supposed to be on something that we are concerned or passionate about.
Other than my family, I am not passionate about to many other things, except for the preservation of history.
After mulling over several ideas, I decided to do the final on the Red Cars that used to be a mainstay of Los Angeles public transportation before their demise secondary to the onslaught of freeways which now permeate the greater LA Area.
There are countless stories and opinions as to why this demise occurred, but in my humble opinion the bigger issue is what we lost as the red cars disappeared.
Hopefully I can project that idea with my short documentary.
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