You Can't Fight Mother Nature! Media Project Synopsis

Nancy Radecker WSC 002 011 Final Essay/Media Project May 2, 2010
You Can’t Fight Mother Nature

My media project entitled You Can’t Fight Mother Nature is based on connections I established while reading Michael Specter’s essay entitled Bigfoot and viewing the YouTube video of George Carlin’s stand-up routine entitled “Saving the Planet” as well as watching the Hollywood movie entitled “Just Add Water”. All three works involved the planet, the environment, and its issues regarding climate change and global warming, which I believe for the most part is happening naturally to our planet earth without the intrusion of mankind.
I started my presentation with a photo from the movie 2001 Space Odyssey where an ape is smashing the bones of an animal to signify the beginning of the so-called carbon footprint on our environment. I then included various photos of natural occurrences that have impacted our planet, without any human interaction in order to demonstrate that long before man, the earth was taking care of its self and impacting it’s self and its future. I depicted the Ice age with a photo of the earth incased into an ice cube and then went into a written slide explaining that all the systems on the planet are evolving and changing since as well as competing since its creation. I then inserted a slide of an hourglass with the sand and trees falling out because the glass was broken and included a quote from George Carlin’s stand-up routine where he says “The planet has been through a lot worse than us. Been through all kinds of things worst then us”. (Carlin) Mr. Carlin makes such an amazing point about the mere fact that the planet has been through the ice age and volcanoes, meteors, what harm could the humans possibly create to beat those acts of nature.
My video presentation furthers progresses into a quote from Michael Specter’s essay entitled “Bigfoot” where the author talks about the fact that the energy expelled to make potatoes at home is far more than if you drove your car to McDonald’s and purchased fries. (Specter) I believe most readers would find that not to be true since traveling to McDonalds in a car you would think would create a larger carbon footprint, but in fact does not. I included a slide where I state that all life needs to evolve and become larger in order to live, that is the whole point of life. Immediately following I again use one of Specter’s quotes that pose the question “How do we alter human behavior significantly to limit global warming? (Specter) The question will remain unanswered in this presentation but does make you think, can you get humans to change all that they have become accustomed to for years and years? A black and white photo depicting just a few of life’s tasty beverages interesting enough was just photographed with the humans feet and legs for a very dramatic effect, of what we would have to sacrifice or think about the packaging. The presentation includes other photos depicting our carbon foot printing as well as a slide containing the following quote; “People on the earth cannot exist without using the resources of the earth. When using these resources waste is always produced.” (University of Portsmouth Dept,. of Electronic & Computer Engineeering) We cannot live without producing some sort of waste, even if you just built a campfire you leave behind ashes, which is a carbon footprint. We think of the bigger things but we must also think of the small things as well.
A photo from the movie Just Add Water (Walsh, Middendorf and Hill) is shown and then a cartoon of a dam and it depicts it that it is man’s Global warming problem. Immediately following a cartoon of gentlemen with their heads buried in the sand exemplifies the town of Trona in their water diversion plight. The fact that the corporations created the problem for the town of Trona’s environment, but yet at the end of the movie it works out that nature comes through and it begins to rain once again and all is well. (Walsh, Middendorf and Hill) George Carlin feels that the environmentalists don’t care really care about the environment they just want to look after themselves and their surroundings (Carlin) in a text slide, following by a advertising photo .of a man with a fish head, with the sort of same angle of Carlin’s head the ad tells the reader to Stop Climate change before it changes you.
Various slides continue, including the famous ending photo from Planet of the Apes where the main character realizes that humankind blew themselves up, and the Apes take over the planet a sort of full circle. I added a photo with a goldfish advising us to save the water and a photo of a toilet with a roll of money as the toilet paper, thus leading up to our own greed and culminating with a photo of a “green” bulb signifying our attempt to change our habits however the bulb creates another environmental problem. The bulb is supposed to use less energy, but in fact contain Mercury and must be disposed properly something I find people don’t realize. This will eventually become an environmental nightmare with the mercury leaching into the ground water. Dams were built to help conserve and make energy but in fact create more carbon and Methane, as the algae rots at bottom.
I took a jab at Former Vice President Al Gore and his huge undertaking of the so-called global warming situation as well as some funny photos and their depiction of carbon footprints and environmental impact. I included a text slide, where George Carlin blasts the people who complain and wonder about their property becoming damaged when there are so close to the danger and yet are worried that they are impacting the earth in a harmful way because of a plastic bag. I include some photos supporting my argument that nature itself is at fault for Global warming as well as the humans carbon footprints. Towards the end of my presentation I make points that mankind is not the only one responsible for the changing planet. In the movie Just Add Water, the townspeople of Trona were victims to the corporation’s greed, but yet it is Mother Nature who controls the rain that finally falls and replenishes the lake. Nature takes care of itself.
In conclusion, the movie, essay, and comedy routine all talk about and show how our environment molds humanity and examples of what we should do and not to do to help, as well as what will happen no matter what, with regards to climate change and global warming. Carlin they way I also do and that is that the planet will continue to take care of itself it has been for billions of years. Specter believes we leave behind our carbon footprint, which seriously affects our future, but does it really? Just Add Water depicts what humans can do if they really they are really pushed into corner and how their environment impacted the community. George Carlin’s routine is right on target, and although Specter blames most of the global warming on humanity, it really is just the planet evolving, and changing all according to its own plan and agenda. Yes, we do contribute to the climate change; we should make changes that reduce greenhouse gases, and be environmental friendly, but we shouldn’t feel too bad that we are causing the earth to become sick and the polar bears to lose their icebergs, it would all be happening anyway, it is Mother Nature and all her glory and wonders.

Works Cited
Just Add Water. Dir. Hart Bocher. Perf. Dylan Walsh, et al. 2008.
Saving the Planet. By George Carlin. Perf. George Carlin. Parmount HBO Live. 27 April 1992.
Specter, Michael. "Bigfoot." Colbert, Elizabeth. The Best American Science and Nature Writing. New York,NY: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt , 2009. 273 - 292.
University of Portsmouth Dept,. of Electronic & Computer Engineeering. http://mosaic.cnfolio.com/B101CourseworkIndex2007. 25 11 2007. 3 May 2010 .

You Can't Fight Mother Nature! Writing Class Media Project

Connection between Twelfth Night and Just Add Water

The connection between Twelth Night and Just Add Water is that they are both comedy's that involve characters that seem to have a certain personality and then suddenly their other side is shown.  Everything seems to be normal sort of in the begining until you realize that things are not what the seem.  The town of Trona although was not really that normal when compared to other towns, but it was normal for the townspeople for so many years and the characters all were set in their ways.  Characters changing direction is what causes both storys to make huge impact on their endings.

The wee ones...

While reading Mark Smith's “Animacules and Other Little Subjects” the words "wee ones" popped into my mind.  I also thought about Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and the characters called the Oompa Loompas.  The animalcules as were named in 1674 are the little living things that are seen while looking under the microscope.  Animalcules may be microsopic but their size can be disceiving, most are little powerhouses and truly hold there own.  Compared to the Oompa Loompas which were also small in size but very important and vital to Mr. Wonka's chocolate factory.  The Animacules are important to the natural course of life, they serve an important role in the food chain.  I believe what attracts Smith to observe them in his spare time is the absolutely amazing way the smallest of organisms can play should important roles and simply exist and thrive.  I have looked at pond water under a microscope and it truly is a small universe living in just one drop of water, which reminds me of Orions Belt in the movie Men In Black.  A cat in the movie wore a collar and hanging on the collar was a small glass sphere that contain an entire galaxy, with all it's living organisms and creatures.

Smith uses many metaphors and very descriptive words to help the reader truly  visualize the actual organisms he sees in the microscope. Smith finds the smallest of objects to be as interesting to study as a scientist who may study any of animals on this planet.  I believe that the author's fascination with the microscope as a kid was the catalyst for his eventually fascination with the orgranisms that he could seeing while using one.  It truly is remarkable that the tiniest of living organisms can have the same systems that humans have such as a heart, and brain.  Smith sums up the one thing all the animalcules have in common is that they all eat, they eat all the time. I laughed at that, because even though they are the tiniest of organisms they can still woof it and chow down. 

Trip to Citifield...reflections of Shea Stadium...crack of the bats...

I did it, I signed up and got one of the lucky 23 tickets that Hofstra was giving away for all Undergraduate students to attend a NY Mets game at Citifield for FREE!  It was going to be a game against the Atlanta Braves the team that Chipper Jones butters his bread for. Not a fan of Chipper Jones so I wanted to see the NY Mets sweep them under the rug.  I was really excited I got one, thought it would be a mad house and I will admit I was a bit nervous as I didn't want anyone to think that I was going to be a chaperone. I hurried from my class that day to get across campus to get on line as early as possible. I wondered it I wouldn't be able to go well, honestly because I am as old as Shea Stadium was I thought they may want me to give it up to a younger student.  Alas none of the fears nor concerns came to be, I was third online and the students in front of me actually didn't give me the stare down and I actually had a great conversation with some male students about the manager Jerry Mannual and his lack of energy!  Funny, that when I mentioned that I would like to have seen Bud Harrelson as the manager of the team, the three of them looked completely puzzled and perplexed.  Oh yeah, that is because I am over twice their age and they would have no idea who Bud Harrelson was even though he was the LI Ducks manager for a few years! Oh yeah again, some of them are not from Long Island, oh this was all going to be quite interesting to say the least.  I would have to curb the old timer stuff and stick to the more current past and present players, ha, ha this will be fun!  I realized that morning on my way to Hofstra to meet the other lucky students, that it is hard to talk about the newer players without bringing back the past. The "great ones" as I call them, I was looking forward to seeing the Hall of Fame Museum for sure and for once would have to miss an inning to go and view it. I am the type of fan that gets to the game early, makes sure all the necessites are taken care before finding my seats, tips the seat checker guy/gal if you get one and then sits back enjoys the game and waits for the hot dogs, peanuts, soda, pretzels sellers to come to me. Unless you were at Shea and had the nose bleed seats up in the upper atomsphere where they never sold anything, I don't wander around, or even go to get refreshments, I don't like to miss a thing! 

The new Citifield does make it easier to not miss anything if you should decide to get up and get that tap beer you see everyone carrying and don't want to pay the extra money for the beer guy to come around, crack a cold one open pour it into that squishy plastic cup.  I am not a beer drinker but I have past a few beers in my life time down the row of fans without spilling a drop! I always found that truly neighborly, the only place you can pass someone food and then their payment and everyone has a good time doing it, so why do people get so quick to not to lend a hand to their fellow neighbor outside the stadium?  It must be something about the atomsphere or maybe it is the aroma of hotdogs and pretzels that makes people love one another even when your team is losing. I was looking forward to going back to Citifield for my 6th time, first one this year though. I got to see 4 NY Met games and the highlight of the agnauratly year was seeing Paul McCartney from the top center row for Citifields first ever concert.  That concert is another blog for sure, I had goosebumps for a record 5 hours, it was amazing!

Thinking back I remember at Shea Stadium if you were on line waiting and you heard the crowd cheering you would run off the line and to the nearest exit down the long narrow lanes that would lead you out to the seats, they were like entrances to the Roman Coliseum, very high walls on either side and slightly sloped upward so you couldn't just look down to see the field, you would be looking at the sky.  They were now flat panel plasma screens back then in the consention areas, the crowd was your sound byte.  Citifield is far more open and I would love to see the budget for the amount of screens/monitors that were purchased and installed around the entire stadium.  I can't say for sure, but they may even be one in the bathroom, but I didn't look around as I just want to get in and get out and not waste a second.  I remember watching Citifield being built behind Shea Stadium 2 years ago, thinking to myself it is so small and how will ever get everyone in there?  Well it is better than I thought but it is lower than Shea Stadium, the nose bleed section is really not bad, in fact it is really good, you don't get that feeling that you are going to fall flat on your face if you stand up and a slight wind blows behind you.  I remember the last game at Shea that I took my two year old granddaughter Isabelle to the last season until it would be ripped down and sold off, we got seats up in the nosebleed section, well let me tell you, that kid sat on my lap the whole time and I didn't let her out of my grip, I didn't even let her stand up behind the seats in front of us, it was so steep I feared she would fly across the stadium, walking up those stairs and then back down with her, was the scariest moment I ever had with her...I don't miss those seats, Citifield doesn't go as high it is so much better.

To be continued....

Shakespeare's Fools?

As suggested by my English professor I am posting my second essay from her class. Thanks Professor Lay!

Shakespeare’s Fools?


Shakespeare’s Sonnet XV could have been said by the fool Feste, who is witty and seems to have a funny insight to all of the characters in Shakespeare’s play Twelfth Night. Feste is a representative of the theme of the play and adds the comedy and humor to help understand the dynamics of Shakespeare’s characters. Shakespeare wants the reader to seem that the characters are pure and have virtue, but during the story the other side of the characters comes forward. Feste is a fool but has extraordinary cleverness and intellect and he conveys that situations are not what there are portrayed to be. One of Shakespeare’s themes throughout the play is a tangling of pure, fair, honest characters with their alter egos, tainted, vulgar and dirty. Feste himself a jester but yet talented and knowledgeable, actually does not come across a fool or jester, whereas Sir Andrew who is a noble and should act gallant turns out to be the foolish one. Shakespeare tricks the reader into thinking one way about a character, but actually sneaks up and grabs the reader into the opposite direction. Feste also splits himself between Olivia’s and Orsino houses so it is interesting to see him play both sides and use the knowledge while in the other’s house. Feste the fool himself is pure but circumstances cause him to be sarcastic playing both sides and cunning among the characters. Feste has a good heart and means well but playing the role of the fool becomes an actor with a mission and it is by this role that he makes his living.

The Sonnet XV begins “When I consider everything that grows…” (Shakespeare, Sonnet XV), because this speaker attempts to address all creation, he is much like Feste in The Twelfth Night. Feste is an overseer in the play and crosses paths with all the characters thus giving him special insight and in turn helps him to consider all that surrounds him: “That this huge stage presenteth nought but shows; whereon the stars in secret influence comment” (Sonnet XV) meaning that the huge stage that in front of you, this earth, will show the stars through their hidden power and thus show their illusions. Feste again watches all the scenes and the characters that show their true colors through their veils. The speaker of Sonnet XV reacts to this sort of disguise, commenting: “Sets you most rich in youth before my sight” (Sonnet XV) Feste sees the characters in their youth and at their peak in time: Likewise “As he takes from you, I engraft you new” (Sonnet XV) as the time takes it all away, Feste will make it new again, by song and humor. Feste, the fool, can give all the advice he wishes to and get away with it, whereas other characters would not be given the freedom and flexibility to convey it in such a way. In Twelfth Night Viola realizes how astute Feste is: “This fellow’s wise enough to play the fool” (III.i.61). Her recognition suggests he is not as pure as she thought.

In Twelfth Night Shakespeare threads the strand of purity and fairness in the characters but when push comes to shove they begin to stretch their wings and the true colors of their feathers come out. Viola from the first few lines of the play seems to be a pure innocent lady that is now lost and helpless, but immediately she comes up with a plan to conceal herself as a woman and go to Orsino as a man and ask her hero to keep it a secret “Conceal me what I am, and be my aid for such disguise as haply shall become the form of my intent.” (I.ii.56). In my visual media project I used the photo of the sink facet with clear, pure water pouring forth from it and in the next slide used a photo of a pipe coming out of the earth and flowing from it, dirty, nasty tainted water. This shows that what appeared to be pure at one end was transformed into just the opposite on the other side or end when situations and reasons are added.

Similarly, Olivia mourns the loss of her brother and vows to see no one but ends up quickly falling in love completely going opposite of what the audience was just meant to believe was her will. Olivia reveals: “Methinks I feel this youth’s perfections with an invisible and subtle stealth to creep in at mine eyes. Well, let it be.-“(I.v.302-305). Olivia is thinking that she is falling in love with Cesario and makes up a story that Orsino leaves behind a ring only to use as a pawn to bring Cesario back to her house. She has Malvolio go and bring it back to Cesario: “Run after that same peevish messenger…” (I.v.307). This act misleads Malvolio into thinking she doesn’t think much of Cesario, but the readers know that Olivia is concealing her lust for Cesario. A photo of a fair maiden most likely virtuous and then transitioned into a photo of a sexy Snow White wearing a leather garter was used during my Visual project to help depict this transformation. How quickly Olivia goes from a mourning fair lady to vixen looking for love in all the wrong places.

Aside from Olivia, Malvolio is character that Shakespeare uses as the character you love to hate. Malvolio is full of his own love and thinks himself above everyone and treats everyone with contempt. After the trick is played on him and he is led to believe that Olivia loves him secretly and is forced to be treated as if he is insane Malvolio transforms into a guiltless character and you feel sorry for him. In my visual project again using a photograph I choose a single white rose in its fair form. I chose a rose not only for its purity, and beauty but also because of its thorns. I had the photo transpose into a floral arrangement set upon a coffin to depict the fact that so quickly can a rose in its own beauty along with thorns can then be displayed with other flowers and be used for something so poignant and humbled, Olivia reveals to Malvolio “Oh, you are sick of self-love, Malvolio, and taste with a distempered appetite…Nor no railing in a known discreet man, though the do nothing but reprove.” (I.v.87-88). Shakespeare uses Malvolio as the hated character only to have him turn him inside out and in the end show his humbleness and weakness. Malvolio perceives himself to be a puritan, pure, one to be admired and looked up to above his contemporaries, he is perceived by the reader to be snobbish, obnoxious and haughty. After the deceitful trick played upon him by Maria, Sir Toby, Sir Andrew and Feste, the reader then feels sorry and gives pity to Malvolio as well as a change of heart and empathy as he falls victim to his own perception and gets a taste of his own medicine.

Shakespeare throughout the Twelfth Night quickly transforms what you think the characters are all about into the opposite by the end of the play. Shakespeare uses what the readers believe would be pure and fair to show that even the purest and fairest has a dark side and it will come out when it presents itself. Human nature tends to want to see the good in everything first and thus Shakespeare uses our natural instincts to the fullest. Feste the fool throughout the play sees the characters both sides and loves to poke fun at them and use his insight against them even when they don’t get it. Olivia’s quick infatuation from her state of mourning and Viola’s fair innocence quickly using a disguise to manipulate as well as Malvolio’s snobby attitude and then into a begging humble person are all examples of Shakespeare’s method into what human nature wants to see, but yet what we really enjoy seeing deep down inside. Using visual photos to portrait these thematic schemes and music using violins and soft and low notes is what I wanted to convey of what our perception of what we believe we see but what is really happening in the background.



Works Cited

Shakespeare, William. "Twelfth Night." Shakespeare, William. Twelfth Night. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, n.d.

Shakespeare, William. "XV Sonnet." n.d.

George Carlin speaks for the planet...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5Miv4NHsDo

George Carlins routinue to me said it all. All the essays that I have been reading, all talk about the individual issues and the authors way of solving the problems but in the end it all doesn't matter, the earth will take care of itself.  The human race is at the mercy of the planet, the human race can not beat nature it is all too powerful.  Phelan essay was more or less about how we will kill ourselves off the planet, which inevetiably we will, the method is still the lingering question however. George Carlins idea of the planet creating a virus makes good sense however, he eluded to the AIDS virus but I am thinking that it may be something that is going to be more spreadable then AIDS, more like a super bug of sorts.