Blog 14: Sexy Tease

I chose this Calvin Klein ad because I think that it shows a lot of sex appeal. It is sexy in the way that she is in underwear, but subtle in sex appeal because she isn’t showing everything it is more of a tease. It is original because you don’t’ usually see a girl with her hand up her shirt. The typical finger in her mouth is obvious sex appeal and has been used many times in the past century as sexy. Her eyes are dark you can’t see them as you would usually because of the shadow over them, but this adds to the sexiness because again she isn’t revealing everything but it is a fierce look to captivate you. I love the Calvin Klein across the add especially the way the made it look, with paint or some material like that, as if the model wrote it. As you notice it isn’t a font we see a lot it is kind of messy in a way, naughty as well, it goes hand in hand with the look of the ad. I think that this ad is totally appropriate. It doesn’t show any private body parts like breasts or butts like other ads I saw. It is just enough to draw the audience in. It is a tease and nothing more I think it is very appropriate for the goal of the ad and gets the theme of sex appeal across decently. No I do not think that it exaggerates pathos as mentioned in Envision 2. Underwear makes people feel sexy sometimes, so the fact they use sex appeal in their add advertising underwear does not demonstrate false needs because I think it fit’s the topic appropriately. It is a great ad and I really like it and think that its subtly adds a lot to the sexiness of the image.

Blog13: Don't Judge a Book by its Cover: Analysis

There are so many elements to be analyzed in my original picture of the 3D book cover. The 3D art adds so much to the image as far as animation and realism. First, the colors. There isn’t a huge variety of different colors in this image. The contrast between the two color suits, one a dark blue color and one a light white, makes a good distinction between the two men. Perhaps, the colors represent good and evil. The man in the white suit could be the good guy fighting the evil man wearing the darker color. This is also done on the cover of “Good and Evil” shown on the left, you can see how the artist used white for good and the darker, red color for evil. The color of the skin in both men is very vivid as well, bringing more life to the men. The bright red lined pages really stick out too. In addition the little text that is shown on the page, emphasizes it is a book. Many older books around the era in which these men are dressed have a color lining on the pages, this can tell what decade this book may take place. Second, the materials. I assume it is made out of paper since most book covers are made of paper. If so, that would be very original, while keeping the same concept of a paperback book. The size of the image is very believable as well. It is the actual size of a book with a very close zoom on it from directly in front of the book, as if someone just delicately set the camera on the table and let the self timer take the picture. The isolation of the object with the void, black background makes us focus so much more on the two men, as if they really did pop out of no where. The arms are very balanced in this image. Each man’s arm tells so much about the situation. The arm ripping right through the cover with a fist at the end shows the force and anger from him and represents a fight. The other man’s arm has a deformed looking hand with its fingers beginning to coil into a fist show the amount of pain and suffering he is experiencing. Fourth, the characters. The characters in this image are the focal point, they are vital. They tell us what is going on, a fight. Their body language, as I mentioned in previous posts, lets us know how they are feeling. The material chosen I thought was genius and so creative. To bring a book cover to life the way this artist did was so fun and entertaining. The image is definitely trying to persuade us to look in to this book further and read it! It conveys the message that books can be very interesting and intense, if you use your imagination and look deeper than just the text, reading a story can be an adventure, more so than you would think.

Blog12: Don't Judge a Book by its Cover: Reflection

I think that my picture from my previous post is such a cool picture, can you imagine if our book covers where actually like this? Like this picture to the side, another fight scene between two men. That’s the typical kind of cover we see, imagine if it was designed the same way as my original picture, wouldn’t it be so much more intense? If all covers were three dimensional it would turn our heads a little more. You wouldn’t even have to turn the book around to read the summary of the book because there would be so much being told in the cover. This picture alone tells a lot. Something was done wrong to upset them. I have a feeling that the man who was punched was taken by surprised by the hit. It is like the white suite man out found out his once friend committed adultery with his wife and went to confront him, before saying a word that he knew anything he threw his punch first. There is so much emotion in this picture and it is only a book cover. I makes me want to flip through each red lined page to see why these men are in a fight. It makes me have so many questions like who are they, why are they mad, did they other man fight back? The hands in this picture tell a majority of how he is feeling. If there were only the hands for me to analyze from I could. I could tell you that the person who belongs to the hands is in dire pain. I feel that this is a great piece of art because I have never seen anything like it before and it just attracts my attention so much, it made me see more art from this artist, Thomas Allen. I really do like it a lot.

Blog 11: Don't Judge a Book by its Cover: Observation

In this unique picture from the Foley Gallery from the 2005 exhibit. The artist makes the cover of the book more alive and more animated than the typical drawn picture with some text on a sheet of paper. The three dimension in this picture that creates the pop out effect is very fun and cool to look at. There are two men, both wearing suits, one is wearing a white suit with a blue tie, and the other is wearing a navy blue suit with a red and black striped tie. The man with the white suit is very angry and has just punched the other man in the face. It must have been a very hard hit because the man that was hit his in excruciating pain. You can tell this from the anguish you can see in his face, eyes shut, cringing, and mouth open as if he is screaming from his pain. Both of his hands are stiff with his fingers bending, as if they are on their way to forming a fist to hold in his suffering. The man in the white suit still has a furious look on his face even after he successfully socked the other man. His look is one of such strength, he just used all he had in him in this punch. Also, half of his arm and fist have gone through the cover, representing how forceful his hit was. The man’s face who was punched is a lot closer to the observer and a lot clear and defined whereas the other man’s is further in the distance with a slight blur, not as distinct but enough to tell his angry emotion.

Reflective Essay: Fresh Found Diversity

My visit to Europe last summer made me aware of cultural diversity. Spain was my favorite of the three countries I visited. It was so gorgeous and laid back, I loved it! There is a main street in Barcelona, La Rambla, it runs through the main city area. On this long strip, is located their infamous covered market, La Boqueria, originally named Mercat de Sant Josep. This is Barcelona’s most famous food market, one of the most beautiful markets in the world. It was a fun and interesting experience I will never forget.

In movies and on television markets always seem dirty and not very attractive for a place to sell food. As soon as I walked in to Barcelona’s market I knew that notion was completely wrong. The first thing I saw were different booths everywhere, every sort of food imaginable was there. There were booths filled with luscious fruits and vegetables, chicken and beef, an entire section of seafood, spices, bread, and so much more. Multiple booths for the same products. Each booth had their prices easily displayed. Everything was so fresh and vibrant looking. From only this one aspect, food, it showed great differences between my American culture and the European. I didn’t the selling of food products could make such an impact.

The first I came to were the “candy stands”, a few different booths, five feet tall, just filled with sugar coated delights. It was the most brilliant colored display of food I had ever seen. Gummies in every shape and color, from gummy fried eggs to the typical gummy bears. It was nothing compared to aisle 4 at Kings Soopers, where you scoop a pound or two of hard old candy into a bag, or purchase wrapped, labeled, name brand candy bars. Already the diversity is obvious. I think this makes it so much more fun, like a candy stand should be. The fruit stands were filled with every kind of juicy product. The strawberries and blueberries weren’t boxed like here, they were just out to grab whichever you preferred. Not one thing was packaged, everything was in straight rows or in a bunch to choose from. The banana bundles hung from the top, freshest yellowiest bananas ever. In addition there were freshly made smoothies displayed also, being made from that fruit every few minutes. It was great. At my local store we can buy packaged fruit smoothie mix, “just add milk!“. Once again, a great example of how fresh everything was. These stands also sold the greenest vegetables: full celery stick bundles, fresh long carrots, candy red tomatoes and peppers, long corn on the cob with leaves still attached, and potatoes right from the ground. Although these displays were similar to those in American stores, it was still so different, the way it was displayed and the abundance of the products.

On the other hand, meat is a different story. Like I said before everything is fresh. The sea isn’t too far, but maybe a few miles down La Rambla, therefore the seafood area was crazy. The floor was soaked from men rinsing off their new incomings, there were parts on the floor near booths from cleaning out a fish or making the shrimp presentable. Though it was gross I was distracted from all chaos around me, all the slicing and dicing. Some of the seafood that was being sold had only been caught hours ago. Usually I am used to seeing fish, lobster, clams, oysters, and shrimp for sale in that section. No, not here it was that and everything else. Alive urchins were for sale, a gooey glob thing was for sale to eat. It literally ran through my friend’s hand when she held it, I don’t know how or why you would eat that. Maybe it is only an ingredient to a bigger recipe .

The beef display was shocking to me! After a while, I was hesitant to look at some cases being displayed. Just in one case there was all the insides of a cow displayed in different parts. Tongues, stomachs, intestines, livers, testicles, kidneys, and even an entire skinned head with eyeballs still in place were all available to be purchased. Also, the ham section had simply entire legs from the upper thigh to the hoof (not removed yet) of meat for sale, or sometimes even entire pigs. It was pretty gross, compared to what I usually see here: a few big pieces of meat for steak or a slab of ribs, or packaged meat for lunch meat or breakfast meat. This was one of the strongest differences between our cultures. Most Americans who pass that display I am sure stop and stare into the case with some funny disgusted look on their face, we just aren’t used to everything being put out there like that. Because they don’t like to waste, they use every part unlike here in America. We can’t handle it if it was in our grocery store, too many people I am sure would complain. Grotesque would be our immediate thought, it even went through my mind as I kept seeing new, never seen body parts for sale, and to eat for that matter!

Moving along the meat area chickens caught my eye, hanging from the top of the booth. Most still had their heads, but the feather plucking had been done for the customers. Lines of dead chickens above me. This was definitely a new site for me. It was a brief glance as we passed quickly. I can’t imagine if that was what I saw in King’s Soopers, us Americans are too lazy to finish the job of beheading and such to the dead chicken for our dinner. Later, as we were searching for the bathrooms, I saw a bucket kind of behind a booth that had chicken legs sticking out of it, just the legs. It caught me off guard. All these little things were so surreal.

Spices were next, nothing packaged or in shaking containers. Oils being displayed as well. The garlic cloves still stranded to each other in a “garlic necklace” hung above me. Dried spices everywhere, I barely recognized the products because I had never seen spices before like this. The nut stands were overwhelming as well, so many different shapes, sizes, and flavors to choose from. Another stand I saw was selling bread. Different lengths and widths of loaves hanging or in the case looked delicious. Most of these displays looked fake, plastic because it was so picture perfect and colorful.

The cultural diversity was so apparent here in several ways. When I compare Mercat de Sant Josep to the Kings Soopers I have always gone to, there is such a huge difference. Location, prices, organization, products, displays, people, and the general atmosphere are all different. Nothing was boxed, bagged, canned, or packaged, not one thing like everything is in our stores. Wow we are so lucky you may think but in reality maybe we are the ones that have it hard. Think of how much they learn with food, cooking, and taking care of their own meals. Nothing is pre-prepared. Even their meat, the merchandiser cuts it off the animal and sometimes skin it, and that’s about it. . Our meat displays would be luxury to those consumers. In our stores there is aisle by aisle stacked with packaged and canned products, it’s all about convenience and brands. In Spain people are very relaxed and carefree, people all over Europe are healthy and look great. When you go grocery shopping and you have nothing but fresh products, no preservatives, it must be delicious and good for you. There are many options over there that aren’t presented to us here in America. We could definitely learn from other cultures to benefit us. It was so much fun to see so many different aspects of a “grocery store”, I spent so much time with just food, but the market made it that intriguing. It truly was magnificent.

Blog 8: Look Who's Talking!

I know we already did a video post but that was more about the context and focal point of the video. This video is for fun. It was just recently sent me this video of Einstein the bird talking on Animal Planet and it amazes me the intelligence we are unaware of in some animals. I am sure almost all of you own a dog or have owned a dog, and the fact it can high five you when you ask or play dead is pretty shocking. We always wonder what would happen if animals could talk. In this video Einstein can make multiple sounds including animal sounds, sound effects, word phrases and others. He does sound effects I can’t even do! I don’t even know how you would begin to teach an animal how to speak and off of cue words. Though it is probably off of only cue words it sure does make Einstein sound like he knows what he is talking about. For example in the introduction he knows his own name, that is hilarious. I noticed the judge’s jaws dropped a few times. Not only does Einstein do sounds he can move. Have you ever seen a bird get his groove on and do a little dance and be crazy? Now I have. This clip is just cute and interesting and I thought you guys would like to see it, something fun. Just imagine if that was your pet dog or cat. Your friends come over and your dog introduced himself to everyone or if you throw a party you could ask your cat for a dance. What a crazy thought, but then again it could happen.

As Einstein says,“Goodbye”.

Blog 7: Look no feet!

Look no feet! Next time I am going to try no hands! I just turned 9 years old last week and received every little girl’s dream as a present from my grandparents. Not only did I get a brand new pink and purple bike (my favorite colors) with brand new, shiny training wheels and a white helmet, I also got a crazy track to ride my new bike on. My grandparents bought the land then built the track for me. As you can see they started this project long before I was even conceived, it’s a bit old looking. The first time I tried it a few days ago I was kind of scared because we don’t have lights on it yet, but it was so much fun. It is hard to carry my bike up the 85 steps up to this starting point, but it is so worth it! It is so big, every time I go it is a good 10 minutes of craziness. My brother makes fun of me for still having training wheels but I am too scared to ride with just two wheels, no way! I just feel safer. People get out of their cars and stare and yell, I don’t know why, I think they are just jealous but they can try it if they want, I love to share my toys. I am bummed though because next Friday is show and tell and I really wanted to bring this but I can’t, so I am showing everyone on here!