Booklist

1. Mr. Mercedes and 
2. Under the Dome by Stephen King
3.Watchmen  by Alan Moore4. The "Bone" series of graphic novels5. "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" Series6. the "Dark Tower" series7. the rest of the game of thrones series (I've read 1 and 2)8. Kiterunner9. Eat Pray Love10. The Witches Daughter by Paula Brackston

Trump

I chose this image of Donald Trump because its an EXCELLENT drawing. The facial expression is so trump. He's a great candidate for caricaturing because he has a very distinct look that just begs to be exaggerated (I appreciate a good caricature-able face) and all his meme's are known for using his recognizable facial expressions like this one or some of the goofy faces he makes when he disagrees with something

The image (by Jason Seiler)  was taken from a magazine article titled "Fire the Rich: a radical fix for the economy that greed destroyed", so I'm assuming he's the rich who's being "fired"

works by Tom Tykwer

For this assignment I chose to watch some of the works by Tom Tykwer.

The reason I chose him was he directed the movie "cloud atlas" which has been on my list of "must sees" for awhile! Besides Cloud atlas, I also watched his shorts "True" and "Epilog" 
(on a less related note, I also finished watching "eXistenZ" and holy cow that ending was weird but I kinda liked it)
Cloud Atlas was PHENOMINAL. So much so that when the movie was over we all just kinda sat in silence and contemplated what 
was real life and what was just the movie. So much so that I also listened to the book the night we finished the movie.
The idea that one life can carry over and be influential to the next life was extremely interesting. 
the fact that in a few cases the love interest
was also reincarnated into the life was neat as well and made for a kind of a flowing, strange love story.

this style was carried over into "true" and "epilog" as well. Both were flowing stories about love and a couple.
In true the couple separate after a long montage of their relationship slowly deteriorating. This is the same for 
"epilog, except for the the relationship in this one deteriorates in minutes and ends in death. 
Tom Tykwer is very good for showing a lot of things happening in a very short amount of time.

for example in true, he shows this couple's entire, multiple year relationship using a bunch of cut shots and some narration but the audience really feels that a lot of time has passed. This happens as well in cloud atlas. The main characters are all technically the same person, over hundreds of thousands of years. but it's filmed in a way that we can real each life individually as the story is being told, without sacrificing any time. 

My voice as an artist

Well this is kind of a hard question. 
I think it might be almost easier if I got my concept teacher to write this for me. I guess I’m a sucker for oddball love stories. Quirky, different kinds of love stories with weird twists and I always appreciate when something I’m not expecting to happen happens. This comes through in my works. Such as my current concept project: its about the grim reaper falling in love with a high school Goth girl, my last concept project was about a skateboarding bagel trying to find love and when he fails at trying to impress a girly doughnut he accidently splits apart and falls in love with his “other half”. 
I also often write about birds (wings, flying) and dreams. Birds are something I’m passionate about, and I’ve always dreamed of flying. Dreams and visions have always fascinated me and I love monsters, aliens, and urban legends. The character I’m working on right now in 3d is basically “mothman” the urban legend. The character I’m working on in DFA is a winged camper. I’m highly influenced by the outdoors and nature and camping.  My voice is a combination of all my favorite things and my style is definitely quirky with lots of  sarcastic strong independent female characters, and outdoor settings

Professor incognito apologizes

1. One of the biggest symbols in this story is the idea of  “secret identity”. In this story, it is a real secret identity (one of a super villain trying to be a normal guy) but what it symbolizes is something everyone can relate to. It’s having two very separate personalities, the one you are when you’re alone, and the one you are when you’re with a loved one. What this story hints at is in order to have a healthy relationship you must let your significant other see both sides of you.  Another thing this story symbolizes is how tiny arguments and disagreements can add up and make relationships fail. These are exaggerated for this story “Okay, elephant-in-the-room time. I, for one, choose to welcome our new Martian

friends and overlords, and this is a personal choice I hope you'll be able to respect.”

Because the tone of the story is humorous, it takes a normal “political” controversy between a couple and blows it up to be about Martians, even though this is symbolic for a very real relationship problem.

2.  The biggest connection I made with this story was actually a connection with the hinted feelings that the fiancé was having. I’ve met people who are very personal and don’t like to talk about themselves. They are “closed books” so to speak. You have to try very hard to get to know them, and feel like no matter how many of your questions they answer or don’t answer, something is missing in your relationship or personal connection. Dating a person like this can be difficult and leads to miscommunications.

 It was also very easy to connect with all the feelings described in this story regarding relationships in general. Personally, I can’t say I’ve ever discovered that I was dating my secret arch nemesis, but the aspects of relationships are all totally there and very real. Especially when you have a busy life full of projects that you need to work on and a significant other is trying to introduce you to a friend of theirs you don’t like. It’s all very real. 

3.  If I were going to make this story, I would really think of an exact situation that the characters have been in. In the story it seems to jump around a lot and he seems to have multiple different plans for his girlfriend at the end. IS he going to make it up to her? Put her on an asteroid? Make her mine salt? Dress her in alien clothing? All of the above? It also seems like there’s no EXACT sequence of events that occur between the characters it just jumps around from different incidences, and not much of it really correlates. I’d love to see more of his relationship with his “mortal enemy” hinted at in the beginning. I really love this piece as a short story but if I were going to change it’s medium I’d probably make it an animated film or video game. I could see it working really well as a film with each story part going back into another flashback taken from the woman’s perspective of him and her memories of the stories he’s telling. I can almost see it shot by shot. It would be really really cool. Reminds me of Megamind a little bit.  I love the idea that they were both dating each others secret identities and in the end even though he’s found out who she is he still wants to make it work. How fun.

Graphic novels

For this assignment I read "Bone Volume 1"
not because the other graphic novel was boring or anything but simply because I couldn't stop looking at this one. I loved everything about it. The beautiful clear style of it, that appealing adorable characters, the simple but effective dialogue. Everything. Perfect.

I even went so far as to rent volume2 from the library. Thanks for this. How have I not reads these before??
Anyways, in graphic novels I think the authors voice is also shown through their drawing style. This one is whimsical to say the least. The world that the author has created has taken a lot of creativity and dreaming and the characters each have their own very distinct personalities

An interesting thing that the author has done in this graphic novel, unlike many others has made the main characters the simplest possible designs, while all the side characters along with the environment designs are far more complex. Its a funny thing. The author shows that he can draw complex things, yet he chooses to design his characters simple. This causes a vast contrast and makes the characters easily like-able (they're all simple and round and easy to adore) and makes showing personality just a bit more difficult as it must be all done with body language. This is something this particular author, never seems to struggle with, and is so unbelievably admirable for it.
His voice is magical, Whimsical, childlike, with a hint of mystery that keeps readers on their toes wanting to read more(I would know).

I read Karen Russell's wonderful, Swamplandia.
When I head we were reading Karens work, I immediately thought of this book because it had been recommended to me awhile ago and had been on my reading list for ages because I love florida, all it's wilderness and reptiles of course.

  For those who haven't read it it's basically about a swamp themed tourist trap with a family that wrestles alligators. The mother who is the main attraction of the park, dies so the park struggles. In the meantime, the oldest daughter has discovered that she can summon ghosts and runs off to marry one, so her little sister (also the narrator of the story) must take her secret albino alligator, and a gypsy birdman into the "underworld" to retrieve her sister before she kills herself.
So. Freaking. Interesting.
Russells voice, from the works of hers I have read, is a seamless merging of supernatural and natural. Just like vampires in the Lemon Grove, Swamplandia depicts a normal (but interesting on its own) situation, with some supernatural element thrown in and the characters respond to these supernatualities in the exact way I think real people would respond to such things.
Her voice is playful, yet with a darker undertone. Very dark things seem to happen very causally in both of the stories of hers that I have read. In "Vampires in the Lemon Grove" a girl is murdered when the vampire gives into temptation and drinks her blood. But this is hardly treated as a big part of the story, nor was anything leading up to that. In swamplandia, a young girl is raped and her sister tries to hang herself but these things do not take over the story. They just kind of happen.
Another thing I can tell Russell is very good at is metaphors.
She often times in swamplandia, compares things to alligators. she describes an old man as wrinkled and cold hearted, with an ugly gnarled face like an alligator, looking at you with glossy eyes. Not only does this type of description give us an immediate picture of the man in question, it also brings the theme and focus of the story back into place, even if the characters are no longer in the swamp.

It was really quite a good book. I would recommend it. Mostly because of Karen Russell's writing but also because alligators are so cool.

A POINT OF VIEW SHOT FADES IN FROM A STARRY BLACKNESS. THE LANDSCAPE IS DULL AND GRAY WITH LOTS OF FOG AND LARGE GRASSY HILLS STRETCHED OUT IN FRONT OF THE CHARACTERS HANDS WHICH ARE STUCK OUT AS IF HOLDING HORSE REINS BUT NONE ARE THERE. THE SOUND OF HORSE HOOVES CLACKING CAN BE HEARD, SO THE CAMERA POINTS AT UNFAMILIAR FEET THAT SEEM TO BE ATTACHED TO HIS BODY.

WADE

"Huh?"

He stops walking and the hoof sounds cease. As he starts walking again he hears them and the camera turns to an over the shoulder shot where we see the clearly iconic "Patsy" of "Monty python and the holy grail"

WADE

"Ohh!"

Wade begins to laugh

A RED "-100" APPEARS IN FRONT OF THE CAMERA BEFORE FADING AWAY.

A WIDE CAMERA VIEW SHOWS THEY ARE APPROACHING A CASTLE

ARTIMIS

You're in Monty Python and the Holy Grail! Do you know all the dialogue?

A CLOSEUP ON WADE/KING ARTHUR'S EYES SHOWS THAT HE'S LOOKING TO THE LEFT

IN A POV SHOT WE SEE THAT HE HAS PULLED A CHAT WINDOW INTO THE LEFT CORNER OF HIS DISPLAY

WADE

(typing)

No shit sherlock! Of course I know the dialogue, I've only seen this movie 100 times!

(in king arthurs voice)

HOLD!

VIDEOGAME SIMILATED CASTLE GAURD

Who goes there?!

WADE/KING ARTHUR

It is I, Arthur, son of User Pendragon from the castle of Camelot!

ARTIMIS

Giggling uncontrolably

A POV SHOT REVEALS THAT A GREEN "+100" HAS APPEARED ON WADE'S DISPLAY

MIT world building

What are the primary features of this world--spatial, cultural, biological, fantastic, cosmological? 

In this story, we are placed in a very realistic portrayal of cheesy tourist Florida. The palm fronds, trees, and dry looking, but plentiful shrubbery that we (as florida residents know) is very true and close to home. The only real fantastical part of this story is just the one in a million chance this girl has to sell her sculpture to a celebrity.

What is the world’s ethos (the guiding beliefs or ideals that characterize the world)? 

It is hot and humid and everybody seems slow and lazy, even during their heated moments. The police don’t seem urgent, and even the daughter just sits home and smokes while her father is missing.

What are the precise strategies that are used by its creator to convey the world to us and us to the world? 

Her writing is slow and drawn out and the details of the environment seem dull. She uses really average sounding adjectives to describe the places they go. This gives it the hot and slow moving feel that the story has. This is exactly what the environment is so it works perfectly in her favor.

How are our characters connected to the world? 

This world is new to the characters so they find it fascinating.

And how are we the viewer or reader or player connected to the world?

We specifically are connected to the world the most because we live here but others may feel connected from a visit there where they can remember what it was like or if they have visited a similar kind of place.

The first time I went to rainbow springs was last summer and I was carsick the whole way there. That’s a three-hour drive from Ring-a-ling so you can imagine I was pretty relieved when the car finally stopped and we all got out. This was the first time I had ever been to a Florida spring. They’re amazing. Please go if you haven’t been. 10/10 would recommend to a friend.

But don’t get car-sick on the way there.

0/10 would not recommend car-sickness.

The state park itself is so-so. Very crowded. The day we went was a hot and sticky florida-summery kind of day so hot and sticky humans flocked there. What the park was known for (besides the spring itself) was its “waterfalls”.

Let me tell you, I have seen waterfalls. These were “waterfalls”.  Totally man made, pumps were visible, and you hardly had to walk twenty feet to see all of them.

But the spring itself, uh! Let me tell you…

There’s a reason people used to think these springs had magical healing abilities. They literally look like a desktop background. The water is SO clear and blue and full of this lush green underwater grass, but the swimming area brought back memories of my childhood soccer team. The size of the blocked off area we could swim in was about the same as the tiny grass field, and there was an official looking fat-guy with a megaphone yelling at us all to stay on that tiny field.

That was the first I knew of rainbow springs state park. (The next time we met was a much better story, don’t worry.) and after that, I was hooked on springs.

We planned the trip the night before. We’ll go to Silver Springs state park because neither of us has been there and it looks AH-may-zing. We left the next morning bright and early. I forgot my camera batteries, and he forgot the bananas we were going to feed to the monkeys but it ended up being fine. My camera broke anyways and the monkeys could have given us rabies. Silver springs was probably the most beautiful place I have ever seen. A thin mist sat over the crystal clear water under a tunnel of bright green sunfiltered trees. Here’s a photo I took before my camera broke.

As you kayak through the tunnel of trees, you come across an abandon campsite from the 50’s with big log cabins and a sunken tugboat. Also, silver springs is one of the only places in Florida with wild monkeys. Crazy right? 10/10

The only thing we were sad to hear about silver springs, is that you’re not allowed to swim there. As you can see from the photo, we had brought our snorkel gear! (we ended up swimming anyways but shh don’t tell anyone).

When we were done there, I suggested we go to rainbow springs which was only 30 minutes away and I knew for a fact that we could swim there.

Once we got to rainbow springs we found a place to undock the kayak. We asked other kayakers. “Are we allowed to swim here?” and they just shrugged. “I don’t see why not!”

That was exactly the answer we were looking for. We kayaked excitedly at first. We asked people around where the best place to swim was and the answer was always the same. Upriver, upriver, upriver.  So upriver we went. As you can imagine, we had been up very early, kayaking all morning, and now we were a little pooped. We joked that we should just grab onto someone’s boat as they passed and let them tow us upriver.

We had to stop. We tied the kayak to a tree and hopped out into ankle deep water right in front of a tunnel leading deep into the forest. As we were about to enter the tunnel, a boat full of drunk people pulled up.

“HeeeeEEEEYyyyyy. Are you guys going in the tunnel?”

“Yeah we are!”

We started walking away, trying to avoid drunken idiocy. They yelled after us:

“Our friends had sex in that tunnel!”

“Awesome!” We yelled back.

In the middle of the tunnel was a fence. “No Tresspassing” the sign told us.

“Yes trespassing” the cut lock and swung open fence, told us.

Here’s a picture of the tunnel:

As we were walking out of the tunnel we ran back into our drunken friends from earlier.

            “Heyyyyy its you guys! How’d you like the tunnel!”

We said we liked it and began to climb into our kayak.

            “Are you guys going upstream?”

We stopped kayaking away. “Yeah why?”

“That’s where we’re going! You should let us tow your kayak!”

Now that was an offer our tired arms couldn’t refuse