Lady Macbeth is an interesting character and so she deserves to watch some interesting shows and movies. The first show I think she would watch is Grey's Anatomy 

Grey's Anatomy is a great show about the lives of surgeons in a hospital. The reason why this show is something Lady Macbeth would watch is because she seems to love drama. She is automatically excited when she finds out about Macbeth's prophecy and speaks her dramatic soliloquies, saying things like "Unsex me here!" that's just dramatic. This show is FULL of drama, and it is certainly an emotional roller coaster which is why Lady Macbeth could relate to it, because she too is an emotional woman.

  

The second movie that seem appropriate for Lady Macbeth to watch is Bewitched. In this movie, the man finds himself casting a woman he does not know is a witch because he thinks he can outshine her in the role he does. As the title suggests, he ends up bewitched by this woman who is a witch. Lady Macbeth's own husband, Macbeth, ends up kind of getting bewitched by all the witches. He trusts them and hangs on their every word, causing his downfall. Lady Macbeth also gets bewitched because she too hears what the witches say and goes a little crazy. This is similar to Lady Macbeth's life, and the movie is a comedy, so she would recommend it because it's relatable to her and she understands the jokes!

The movie While You Were Sleeping is about a woman who likes this guy she see everyday at the train station. He falls and she ends up saving his life and he ends up in a coma...his whole family thinks she is his fiancé and she makes up this whole lie while he is in a coma. This movie is similar to Lady Macbeth because she ends up making up a whole lie about the death of King Duncan while everyone in the house is sleeping. She maybe saw this movie and then got ideas towards her plot against Duncan. She would recommend this movie because it gave her a lot of insight. 

The show Criminal Minds is a detective show in which the characters solve crimes. Lady Macbeth and her husband are both criminals but they had to have gotten their ideas somewhere. Lady Macbeth watches this show because it a) gives her criminal ideas and b) is relatable to her because she can see how other murderers did their deeds. This shows that Lady Macbeth wants to understand how she can get better as a criminal and not get caught, like the people in this show.

Down the Primrose Path to an Everlasting Bonfire

There's something about "evil" that sparks curiosity within humans. It's human nature to want things we don't have and this can push people to do things that are considered evil. Whether people are religious or not, most know about the story of Adam and Eve. God said they could eat from any tree in the entire Garden of Eden except one. Curiosity about this tree drove Eve to go against God's wishes and eat from it. This is a classic example of how the unknown can drive humans to do evil things. Eve was not satisfied with the trees in the entire garden as long as she continued to wonder about the one forbidden tree. Similarly, once the witches in Macbeth prophesy that Macbeth will be king, his wonder sparks and he cannot let time dictate his future, he has to do the forbidden task, just like Eve.

So much of the time we see all the benefits of people's evil doing, like fame, money, power, or in Macbeth's case, he sees being king. However, so rarely we think about the consequences of evil. It is so much easier to picture the benefits than it is to see the penalties. This is why we jump into activities without thinking about the consequences. We've probably all heard our parents say "You weren't thinking were you" when we get in trouble. It's probably because we weren't thinking! And when we want to achieve money or power or sometimes even just a good test grade, we can find ourselves doing evil things, without really thinking about it. Human nature is also wishing we had things that other people have. This is also a factor that drives people to do evil things. In modern day this is shown when people steal things, but for Macbeth, Duncan had the power Macbeth wanted and so it caused Macbeth to do his first evil act.

My father has always told me "Don't lie because each lie you tell has to be covered up by another lie, and then another lie, and then another lie." In this same way, each time Macbeth did an evil act, he had to do another one to cover the previous one up, and then another, and then another. This is one of the consequences of doing evil acts, there are always more lies and evil doings to come in an effort to cover up the truth. Another consequence comes from within: our conscience. Some might argue that Macbeth's conscience is one of his major downfalls, he constantly has an internal conflict with himself and beats himself up. It even goes so far as to him having hallucinations about the people he has killed. Even if others don't know what someone has done, the individual will always know, like a constant weight on their shoulders. Finally, with more and more lies to cover up the first evil act, comes more room to mess up and be caught. That is an obvious consequence and we see it everyday, people getting arrested and going to jail when they are caught doing a crime. Going to jail or being executed are examples of more obvious consequences. For every evil act comes a negative consequence, one that is not usually thought about while committing an evil act.

The benefits of an evil act can sometimes impair one from seeing the consequences that follow. That is why it is easy to commit an evil act, and once one is done, more follow to cover it up. This is shown especially through the story of Macbeth.

Name: Miradas I

Artist: Morris

When: 2012

Where: Mexico City, Mexico

This is a modern piece because it was created fairly recently. It has a different style to the of "regular" paintings.... instead of painting on a blank canvas, this piece is a photograph that is painted over with black paint. It is very large too, about 69"x117". The photograph is a group of men together in Mexico City except all we can see of the men is their eyes, the rest is painted over. This art takes on a new form of portraiture because underneath the paint you can see the men lined up to take the photo in sort of a cheesy christmas card way, and yet the paint changes it by making it so only the eyes are seen. It looks as though an effort to create this portrait was ruined by the paint to portray a message.

The women who presented this work to us in the museum told us that it is a picture of convicts in Mexico City. She asked us: "Do you think the paint covering everything but the eyes is supposed to make these convicts look scarier or more tame?" I immediately decided that this painting over the photograph made these men look tame. I could not tell that they were convicts by looking at this picture, I only knew this when I was told. The eyes being the only body part shown make these men look more personal. It's as if the paint covering the rest of their bodies is a cover to what they did or why they're in jail and their eyes shown are showing that despite their wicked ways they are still human and like the rest of us.

I was intrigued to see throughout the museum the different pieces and messages taken from them. It's hard to define just on message in this piece of art but one seemed to stand out to me, I think that the overall message of this piece could be that from an outside view, we don't know what's going on in the inside of others. There's always something going on with people, whether it's small or big, and yet so much of the time other people have no idea. The front we put up around others can be paralleled to the black paint over the men's bodies. In the same way these men seem more tame through only showing their eyes, we make ourselves seem more normal by only revealing parts of our lives to others. These men are not portrayed as convicts and yet they are. This shows me that the paint is covering up what's really going on and that is similar to ordinary lives. The covering of these men with black paint is the main technique the artist uses to portray this message of how we cover up what's really going on, to seem more normal.

Seven Deadly Sins

This is an advertisement for Dior's perfume j'adore, in 2008. It is a picture of a woman, with blonde, styled hair, wearing a dark dress, as if she is going to a party. She looks wealthy because she is wearing a nice dress and has diamond earrings. There are glittering objects in the background looking like a chandelier or drinks, indicating she could be at a fancy party. It also indicates that this women is a women of higher status, with money.

The audience of this advertisement is women of higher status. There are a few parts to this advertisements that show it is for the higher class. First, the woman is wearing a fancy dress with diamond earrings. She must be wealthy to be able to afford these things and Dior could be trying to say in this advertisement that wealthy women wear this perfume. Another part is the use of french, j'adore, meaning "i love". To understand foreign languages, one must be educated. Throughout history, a factor that has separated the lower and middle/upper classes is education. In this same way, the use of this educational language could signify this advertisement is for the upper class.

The two deadly sins found in this picture are avarice and lust. The woman in this picture seems to be almost boasting about her  higher status. Her earrings are pointed towards the camera/the audience's eyes, catching the light. She looks like she is holding her diamond earrings because they are important to her, this shows avarice. The next deadly sin shown is lust; lust is shown in the woman in the picture and is invoked in the audience. The woman is pulling down her dress and looking at the camera longingly. One could imagine there is someone on the other side of the lens that she is attracted to, or wants to do "stuff" with. Men who see this advertisement might also feel lust towards this woman. She is pulling down her dress and it is almost showing all her breasts. The logo is right on her breast and she is looking seductively at the camera. These are all techniques used to grip viewers and to make this perfume be shown as more luxurious.

These kind of advertisements are found to be offensive to women. Through these pictures, a standard is set for women and a pressure is there for other women to be this way. It also suggests a false representation of women that men can believe. Although there are issues with this type of advertising,  media continues to release these kinds of photographs because they have to power to influence in this way. It can discourage women and men who do not look like the people in the advertisements.

FREEBIE!!!!

I took a freebie for October 12

What's in the Name?

I love the name I have: Nathania. Joy. Smith.

The name Nathania is definitely not a name you hear everyday. I LOVE having this unique name but there are drawbacks….First of all, no one ever knows how to pronounce it. When they try to pronounce it I get Nathaniel, Nathan, Natalie, Nathalia… all names that I would never want to be called. My nickname is Nat which is why people just assume my name is Natalie. I don't know if I hate when people just assume my name without asking or if I just don't really like the name Natalie for my self. Either way, it bothers me the most when people call me Natalie. When I was younger it used to frustrate me because I would get embarrassed to correct people or to tell them my name because I thought it was weird. When I told people my name, they’d either love it and think it’s the prettiest name ever or they’d look confused like “why does this girl have a boy’s name, Nathaniel?”. Now when people do this, I can just laugh and correct them but growing up, it wasn't so easy. 

This name is special to me because I am different and that is something my name has taught me, I don’t have to try fit in as much because I am not the same. When I think about my life in general, being born in England, moving to Canada, then America, I realize that even just on the surface I have a different background than most Americans. As you understand more about me, it becomes more clear that I am not the same as most people. I'm LOUD, I sing all the time, I make jokes that only I think are funny, I tell just the best stories ever....(that also, only I think are funny). Growing up it was hard for me to accept that I have a different name and a different personality. Over time I have began to embrace the reality that no one is the same, and that different (some people might say weird) is GOOD. I don't know if i'd really be that different if I didn't have the name Nathania, which is why I would never want another name.

The name Nathania is Hebrew and means “Gift of God”. My parents knew they wanted to call me this the moment they first saw it in a baby book because they loved the sound of it and loved the meaning. They found out they were pregnant with me just five months after my sister Abby was born and they were surprised, with a capital S. They didn't ever want me to think that because I came so quickly, I was an accident, they wanted me to know that I’m a gift of God. I personally think that your name impacts the person you become, or at least in my case it did. I have never mistaken the love my parents have for me because I know I was never an accident, through my name. I also know that there is a reason I'm here and a purpose to who I am. 

I am also defined by my middle name, Joy, not as unusual as Nathania, but still fairly uncommon. This name means so much to me. Not only because it is one of The Fruits of the Spirit in the Bible, but also because it is also something that I always consider myself, joyful. The reason why I say 'defined' as opposed to 'labeled' is because this name has influenced me to be positive in all situations, good or bad. If you know me well, then you can probably attest to the fact I am majority of the time a happy, optimistic person, despite what life throws at me. I always used to think that it would be almost hypocritical for my to carry this name, Joy, and be grumpy all the time, so I just decided that happy was the way to go.

My last name, Smith, on the other hand, is extremely common. Although many people have this last name, it has a special importance to my family and me. I come from a really long line of successful, christian farmers in England, where I was born. The Smith family has had this farm in the family for hundreds of years and they have all been generous, God seeking individuals, the kind of people I hope to be compared with one day. My dad used to tell me about all his relatives and ancestors and used to say how great they were. Whenever I would do something with integrity or do really well in school, my dad used to say “You’re such a Smith.” On the other hand, when I lied to my parents or did something bad, my dad used to say “Smiths don't do things like that.” Sometimes I used to think “Smiths don’t do that but I just did do that, does that mean I’m not a good Smith?” As I grew older, I started to get annoyed because I used to think “If this is how Smiths act only, I don’t want to be a Smith.”

In my specific case, I found it hard to be an individual because I was always being compared to the amazing Smiths, who, in fact, had a completely different life and upbringing than I did. So how can we be the same?, I thought. However I have learned that being compared to these individuals is actually pretty great. I have realized now that being a Smith doesn’t mean I can’t be an individual, being a Smith just means I should have integrity, and do the right thing. I can still follow my own path and become who I want to be (because I DON’T want to be a farmer), I just get to have the honor of being a Smith with me too. 

I am Nathania-with all my own qualities...joyful, silly, loud, compassionate, BUT at the same time I am Nathania Smith-apart of a greater community and history than just myself. Either way, I am me...an individual.

David and Lou- Blog Post 1

The photograph shows two men on a porch. One is a white man, who is smoking a cigarette, and one is a black man. They both look comfortable and caught off guard, as if they didn't know the photograph was being taken. That, or they just wanted a serious photo. In the description of the picture underneath, the artist wrote that they were best friends and had been for seven years. Looking deeper into this picture, the audience can infer that it may not be common for two people of different races to be hanging around together. The looks on their faces give almost a "so what" look, as if this is not typical to see and they are going against the norm. The photographer of this picture formed a picture that seems to make the audience feel like the "other". As I said before, the two men look very comfortable in their surroundings and give a standoff face that makes it seem as though the photographer or the audience is the outcast.

Atwood also creates this sense of othering in her work, The Handmaid's Tale. In contrast, Atwood does not other the audience but instead welcomes them into the world of Offred. It is the character Offred, herself, who is othered. One of the most obvious ways in which the author creates this is by giving the Handmaids there own outfits and head pieces. At one glance a character in the story could see that Offred is a handmaid. In fact, all the different roles in the Gilead society, have their own way of marking who they are, by what they wear.

In each of these pieces of work, Wing Young Huie's and Margaret Atwood's, the ways of othering are shown through the imagery and story telling, as opposed to the creator specifically telling the audience. The viewers can see these works and draw their own conclusions on what they mean. The photograph seems to touch on the issue of race, whereas The Handmaid's Tale never discusses race but does discuss the gender issue. Both of these are issues in today's society and they are evoked in these texts/pictures.