What started off as a relatively simple video capturing turned into quite and ordeal. After a couple failed attempts, I was finally able to gather the necessary clips. It took awhile, but it all came together in the end. As for the message of my collage, loneliness was an extremely pervading theme in both the movie and the book. Not only does a vampire have to live forever, they live alone. Lestat, the main character in a couple of Anne Rice's books in the Vampire Chronicles, struggles with this idea. He longs only to be with someone, but as Marius said earlier in the movie, "You must be dead to the world," and since vampires keep to themselves, Lestat was left alone.

Mashup

MY PORTFOLIO
To be honest, I love the work I do for this class. I love the unique assignments that I get a chance to do. I love the incorporation of technology to complete assignments, and I feel like it helps my work even more to be able to use the computer since I’m not exactly artistic. I’m proud of myself for really putting my thoughts and feelings out there whether it be through blog postings or through assignments like the playlist and collages. One of the assignments I had to do my first few classes of English this year was to write my “writing
anxieties” and post them on the discussion board. I wrote that I didn’t feel like I could put “me” into my writing and work. I felt like my writing had to be dry, boring, and sophisticated to be acceptable. This class lets me branch out from the stereotypical assignments and writing style associated with English. I feel like I can appreciate myself and my style more when it is acceptable in the assignment.

My playlist followed the breakup and then reunion of me with my boyfriend. The reason for the rain and blue coloring behind the left of the picture is to set a calm/ depressed mood. Obviously break up aren't meant to be fun happenings. The blue fades and then it becomes red because red is a color associated with love and passion. To further the passionate atmosphere, I put a background of hearts. To show that Chris and I had separated, I blurred his face in the picture of the two of us (with the blue background) and also had a picture of just me and just him. When we had gotten back together, all of the pictures are of the two of us. I arranged the pictures in a circle to show that it is a neverending feeling between the two of us as well.

This collage is a composition that represents the song If You're Going Through Hell by Rodney Atkins. In one part of the song it says:

Ask directions from a genie
In a bottle of Jim Beam
And she lies to You

That is why I included the bottle of Jim Beam. I placed it off the road because that isn't the direction the man needs to travel to make it out of hell.

The kick me sign on the back of the man is also mentioned in the song. It is meant to relay the feeling of total despair when people kick you while you're down. I incorporated the sign into the collage because the items in the picture (the Jim Beam, the broken heart, and the kick me sign) are all meant to be problems that create a personal hell for the man.

Since the theme last week seemed to be going home, I thought I'd inquire as to what everyone was doing for Fall Break. I'm heading home for the break. I'm excited about it. I'll finally get to see my volleyball team play as well as my little brother. How sad is it that I've never seen my brother play football in high school? Ok ok. I know that sounds horrible, but I do have a good reason. I had volleyball games every Tuesday and Thursday, and he played on Thursday. I was never able to go see a game, so you can understand that I'm more than a little excited to finally see him play. I know he wants me to see a game too (although he'd never admit that he'd be upset if I didn't go to the game).

Here's a little James Bond for you

Here are the sources I used to put together this lovely little clip...

http://www.mattsmoviesounds.co.uk/sounds/bond.html
http://www.bondmovies.com/movies.shtml
http://www.universalexports.net/00Movies.shtml
http://www.pacdv.com/sounds/domestic_sounds.html

After a tough day of fighting crime, every double 0 agent goes home to check their voicemail... James Bond is no different! Check out what people leave for him...

So far I have a bunch of sources that have the sound bites I need to use. The only problem I have is that I'll need to record the sound bites as they play since I can't download them. After I record all the bites, I shouldn't have a problem putting them together. I'll be putting together a conference call type voicemail to James Bond from as many of the people he comes in contact with in his movies as I can. The number of people I can incorporate will depend upon the ability to piece together a flowing conversation that makes sense with the sound bites available.

I was watching a little tv today and saw one commercial run a couple of times. I'm sure a lot of people have seen it before. It plays off the natural sounds of a city but instead of hearing what would normally be going on, they took a jazz song and played it over everything. It was the Pepsi jazz commercial. It just made me think about what Dan was really looking to focus on in the class and reminded me a lot of the beach scene we looked at with the traffic sounds in the background.

Of course there are a million and one songs out there about love and relationships, so I’ve decided to be one of the sappy romantics that uses almost ALL these type songs. The only difference there is going to be between my playlist and those of other who use love songs is that the story my playlist tells is my own. I’ve found several songs over time that I can connect to my own relationship and settled on telling my story through all of these songs. I’ve combined all of the songs into one incredibly long “song” which takes you through the beginning of my current relationship all the way up to where we are today. I’ll warn you now, I love this guy, and you’ll definitely be able to tell with the lyrics I’ve chosen. I’ll give you the spliced lyrics and then give you a summary at the end of my relationship in case you weren’t quite following the lyrics.