when life gives you lemons....make lemonade!

Monday night was our THR 403 midterm where we were suppose to present our documentary films in the Wang center on campus. However a Staff member refused to give us approval and project our films on the walls! I don't understand it's not like they needed the space... Around the time we were there, there were very few people occupying the area. Plus we are a class and it was for educational purposes. Our tuition money is going into this space and we can't even use it?! Maybe it was an authority situation or liability problem.... Our films were on general but strong topics that would not cause a riot, if that is what they were worried about.

Anyway, to make the best of that night we took our films to another place.... We ended up displaying our films outside in front of Staller. There was an outdoor outlet and a brick wall/ stairs to project onto. Apart from the weather, it was very cold, the night was a good night; we got some reaction of curiosity and interest from people walking by.

Below are some pictures of that night...

Projection on the ground.

Projection on the Wall

Professor Baldwin & class

Projection on the stairs

Capitalism: A Love Story & Michael Moore

I saw the new Michael Moore film tonight and I feel inspired again. I know he's a highly polarizing figure, but since I was a little girl, I have been watching his TV shows and movies (yet again, a perfect example of what kind of household I grew up in) and credit him with my move to studying politics instead of the path my parents and myself saw me taking, music.

Now I've never seen myself as similar to him, and I could never do what he does, but his passion for justice and dignity within the institution of American government has always inspired me. I tell people this and get dismissed right away, and I've always found it absolutely amazing how much people vehemently hate him. I was in my late-teens when Fahrenheit 9/11 came out, and I went with one of my best friends to see it opening night (as I did with Bowling For Columbine earlier on) and there was a feeling of comfort I had surrounded by people who genuinely believed what he was doing was simply looking for the truth in all of the bullshit the media and government propagates in our daily lives. I felt like the polarizing effect he has on people is something I could relate to at the time, going through the motions at my high school every day.

I met Michael Moore when I was 16, after seeing him interviewed as part of The New York Times's brilliant TimesTalks series. It was seriously such an overwhelming, amazing moment for me to just tell him how much his work meant to me, and receive encouragement (and a hug) from someone that really meant so much to me. I've met quite a few "celebrities" over the years, but this was the first time I was so overcome with emotion that I broke down and cried walking down 5th Avenue afterwards. I'll never forget it.

So no matter what people say about him to this day, I let it go. Because I know what his work and his efforts in American culture mean to me, and he will continue to inspire me as I figure out what path of work I want to go down.

and that's how i saw 'the hangover' twice in two days.

I guess I really enjoyed this film, because I ended up seeing it one night, and going back the next day. I went the first night with several friends the first time and after we saw it, my friend came in to town and we had been talking about going to see it so the next morning we wake up (hungover, since me and the others were inspired by the film and decided to try and find any similarities between where we were (Brighton) and where the film took place, (Las Vegas). ) and go to see it.

So the second time around, I knew the jokes and knew what was about to happen, but it was still as funny to me as the first time. I've done this only once before, and that was with the film Sin City years ago.

This might explain every unanswered question about why I went twice in two days, though: