Blog #11

 

I decided to analyse the movie, “The Room” for my paper. The film was released in 2003 and many critics claim it to be one of the worst movies to ever appear on the big screen. Tommy Wiseau is the man responsible for directing, producing, and starring as the main character in the movie. To put it simply, he is strange beyond belief and you could easily figure this out by watching the movie. In a few interviews with the media he has repeatedly said that the intended audience was everybody because the movie was about life and that everyone could learn something new each and every time they watch the film. Unfortunately for Tommy, his original intention was shot down when the film received countless awful reviews for being so poorly produced. So bad in fact that it is actually superb in a select few people's eyes. Pathos, in my opinion is the most important rhetorical technique in play in the movie. Extremely bad character and plot development in my opinion creates a strong emotional sensation to a viewer of the movie. Humour, derived from the atrociousness that is the movie is the main reason why this movie appeals to so many people to this day. Therefore, this movie can only appeal to people who have a unique sense of humour to say the least. For example, one scene has the main character attempting to comfort his friend when he is embarrassed that he left his underwear in his apartment only to be discovered by an elder women. Scenes like this really are only funny because they are absurd and random, but they somehow are successful in garnering the attention of people who appreciate this type of comedy.

I commented on both Victor's and Donovan's blogs.

Blog #10

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKYKyIObXyMInfomercials, in my opinion are absolutely hilarious. Especially ones that are so ridiculously stupid that they don't end up doing anything at all. This is the case for the HD sunglasses. The company tries its hardest to try to make something as illegitimate as this, a serious product. The target audience seems to be everyone, but more specifically middle aged men and women because those are the only types of people being “interviewed” during the commercial. Because of this, I think that the commercial appeals somewhat to “ethos” for the main reason of them being mature looking people.

Although the company surely did not intend on having humour as being a component of their advertisement, I feel something as goofy as this might make people like me go out and buy these things (like I did recently) for the sole fact of it making a funny story. This commercial definitely appeals to “logos” because the glasses are used during an experiment on a sunny day while driving to reduce glare. The results are miraculous, with the glasses magically appearing to cut dangerous glare from the sun.

I don't know how they did it, but it seems that the people who came up with the idea with this did an excellent job with their commercial. It is extremely persuasive. They advertise the product as being very inexpensive as compared to some renowned brand of HD glasses. Also they throw in a free pair which makes this all the more enticing.

I commented on Bryan's and Linden's blog.

Blog #8

I decided to do my research paper on the Loch Ness Monster, but more specifically discuss how and why it's a fallacy. I basically want to give a few general but very informative reasons on why the legend is just that, a legend and not true by any means. So far with my research on different websites and articles I have found that the evidence for the monster being a complete hoax significantly outweighs the evidence for it being a legitimate cryptid. The three most important points that I state for it being fake are: off colour eye-witness accounts, fraudulent images or video recording of the “monster”, and lastly but possibly the most important reason, the application of science to the whole scenario. Science in particular meaning points like evolution, how the monster couldn't possibly survive for almost 1,450 years by itself in a lake, and how the pre-historic creature that believers state it to be (a plesiosaurus) was not even remotely native to anywhere near or around Scotland when it was believed to exist many millions of years ago. I believe the images and stories that the witnesses have made of seeing the monster are so ridiculous that they turn out in fact to be quite comical. For instance, one of the most famous images was captured back in the early 1930's when a doctor from London snapped what appeared to be a picture of the monster. For the longest time it was thought to be the most vital of evidence for the existence of the monster until one day when he was dying he admitted to the world that it was bogus. It's from stories and scientific evidence like this that can only point to the Loch Ness Monster being just a myth.

My comment for Donovan:  Your paper sounds really interesting.  Being a huge Yankee fan I constantly come across people who criticise them for spending so much money and how a salary cap would prevent them from being too successful and some how solve all of the MLB's problems.  It's great to hear that someone else thinks that a salary cap would be a terrible idea for baseball. 

Blog #7

Bartusiak, Marcia F. "Will the Real Nessie Please Stand Up?" Marciabartusiak.com. Web. 10 Feb. 2012. http://www.marciabartusiak.com/uploads/8/5/8/9/8589314/nessie.pdf.

 

I found this article by searching "Loch Ness Monster" on J-Stor.

 

Annotation:   This is the only source that I have found so far.  It was very helpful in my research because it brings up some great points on why some of the most famous eye-witness accounts of the monster could be fraudulous but also why some of them cannot be so easily disproved.  I still have to decide what stand point im going take but the points that she makes in this article are really interesting. 

Blog #6

          Have you ever felt betrayed or left out before in life?  Well, “The Room” is for you.  Tommy Wiseau’s brilliant film incorporates all of life’s major issues such as love, relationships, friendships, drugs, and betrayal into one fantastic movie.  Put together with fine acting and creative  wit, this film will have you on your seat up until the very end. 

         Tommy Wiseau plays the main character, Johnny who lives in an affluent neighbourhood in downtown San Francisco with his fiance, Lisa.   They are very well off and at first seem like your typical happy couple until all hell breaks loose and Lisa cheats on Johnny with Johnny’s best friend, Mark.  The many affairs that Lisa have with Mark cause a crazy spiraling of events, which as a result, leads to an unforgettable ending to such a great movie

Blog #4

 

I have to admit that when it comes to writing research papers, I procrastinate by waiting a long time to gather information that is necessary for writing the paper. I especially dread writing about subjects that seem boring to me. For instance, junior year I had to write a research paper analyzing authors that wrote with an anti-transcendentalism style which was just plain awful. It took a long time and I ended up doing terrible on it. On the contrary, that same year I had to write another paper on Charlemagne and I ended up enjoying the research process because he was a very interesting person.

Every day I go on espn.com to check the scores of various games across the world of sports. Especially if my three favourite teams, the Connecticut Huskies, New York Yankees, or the Nets have played on the previous night. I look to see how well my favourite players fared as well as who the next opponent is for each team. Also, whenever I'm bored on my computer it's not uncommon for me to go to foxnews.com and find out what's going on in the world. In particular I enjoy checking to see how each gop candidate is doing campaigning across the country because I find the GOP race really exciting and interesting.

I love learning about new places so this past Christmas my parents gave me this really cool book that's about two hundred of the great cities of in the world. Each page has so much information including history, culture, and food that is essential to that city. I guess you could say that I'm obsessed with it because almost every moment that I don't have much to do, I'll go through it and learn something new each time.

Blog #3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kH50-giCeDM

This commercial about Bud Light aired during the 2007 Super Bowl. It still, in my opinion is one of the funniest commercials I have ever seen. The target audience would have to be anybody obviously over the age of twenty-one. However, I believe that it specifically targets a generally younger adult sort of crowd by the way the scene is set up. It looks like there is a big party or tailgate going on in someone's backyard and by the way that some of the other people act during the commercial, you can see why it would appeal to a younger crowd. Everyone is gathered in what appears to be a backyard drinking bud light. The company uses humour to entice people to purchase their product. It's very easy to see this by the way that the two men play such a juvenile game as“rock, paper, scissors” to see who gets the last bottle of beer. The comical moment of the commercial comes when one of the men literally throws a rock at the other in order to knock him down on the ground and take his beer. I think that it was a very smart move financially by Budweiser to air this commercial because I feel that comedy would probably be the best way to reach a young audience. Younger adults are probably more likely to get the jokes as compared to say, senior citizens. You could also argue that probably a strong majority of bud light consumers are of a relatively young age.