Stomp Live

When I first started watching this movie and saw that it was a full on performance, I thought great a musical, the type of thing I’m not too found of. Then the more I watched the movie I thought; okay no words, great I have to write a paper on instruments that consist of buckets and brooms how will I do this. As I watched further I came to see that there is a story line here and it does have music, it does not need words to get the story. I found It very interesting how in almost every scene would start out with one character playing a simple instrument, trying to find out its sound then another character would intervene then many would and they all together would take this one instrument, whether it be a broom, pipe or bucket and make beautiful music out of it. I had many favorite scenes, some were where humor was involved such as the four guys who were washing dishes and came out with full on sinks around their neck complete with dishes and water and made the most unique music together. Then when they let all the water out at the end into their buckets that was very humorous. The funny guy was my favorite, he was always getting into trouble and trying to fit in with everyone else. Who knew that tossing water jugs up and down could produce such a pretty sound. The scene where they are bouncing the basketballs reminds me of the movie, “high School Musical” but I think I performance the one in HSM because there was added music and words. In the beginning of the film I was not found of this at all but by the end I greatly enjoyed the beautiful music that was made!

            

Event #3

On September 18 I attend my friend Paz’s polka band, called Z band at Oktoberfest in Point Loma. This day was like a big concert filled with lots of people, music and good times. This was my first time every seeing a Polka Band perform and I actually really enjoyed it. My favorite thing about this particular Polka band was their lavish attire of all these different colors, topped off with this great hats! The mix of different instruments that usually wouldn’t go together in the type of music I would generally listen to was different. The Z band consisted of two trumpet players, a piano, bass guitar, drummer, trombone, saxophone, and tuba. You could tell that this band had been together for a while because their music just flowed so well. I liked how they took a break in between their sets to mingle with the crowd; you could tell people in the crowd liked it as well. This really gave their performance a more personal experience when they took the time to meet their fans. Also they sang one of their songs and a guy from the band came down into the audience and got everyone involved and dancing. It was another great way of how they involved the crowd. Along with the beer that they had their they also had some of the best food I have ever eaten, I’m glad that it was the perfect mix of good people, food and drinks. I will defiantly go back and see them next year!

EVENT 1 and 2

I greatly enjoyed the basket weaving lecture that I attended on September 21^st at noon. I loved the overall presentation of all the beautiful baskets and how they were positioned on the table, all different shapes, sizes and colors. Two women by the name of Lydia and Rose were sitting behind the table and were weaving baskets, it was so interesting to see the technique that went into making such detailed works of art. Lydia’s cousin Rose who is a storyteller told us a story by the name of, “The Gift Basket.” This story was about a girl who looked up to her grandmother, who was the best basket weaver in their community. One day the girl decided to make her grandmother a surprise basket, she snuck out early one morning into the fields to gather materials, to her surprise they were all gone. With determination overwhelming her anger she heard a voice that said, “follow me,” she looked down to see a rabbit. She followed it through the brush to a clearing where there was a lake. There was an island in the middle of the lake with all the materials she needed for the basket. She had heard of this island from her grandmothers stories. It was said that only those with a kind heart could see this island during low tide. She thanked the rabbit who introduced her to a duck, she followed the duck into the water. Although the water appeared to be very deep it never went past her knees. The duck told her to only gather enough materials for one basket and she did so. Once she finished she followed the duck back to the shore and then realized she didn’t know how to get home then appeared a raccoon that lead her home. When she walked into the village she heard a scream and everyone swarmed around her asking where she had been. Her grandmother broke up the communication and just looked at her like she knew. That girl became one of the best basket weavers in her community, just like her grandmother. Lydia then began showing us some of the baskets and told us how she teacher second graders how to make baskets. These baskets were good too! She went down the line off all the baskets and showed us one made to carry the Jungas plants, it looked like a backpack. Rose showed us some sandals made out of the plants that people wear in the desert to keep rocks and cactus’s out. Everything was made with such great detail and I greatly enjoyed this lecture. 

Songcatcher

A doctor of music, a musicologist by the name of Dr. Lily Penleric gets passed up on a job at the school she is working at so she moves into the mountains with her sister, Eleanor who is a teacher at a school. In her spare time she starts creating musical ballads of the people in the small community who either sing or play an instrument. She has a machine which looks to be an old fashion recorder and the people can sing into it and she will play it back to them so they can hear how they sound. Meanwhile she will write the music down, she put so much time and effort into her work. I overall thought this was a fantastic movie. A few moments that really stuck out for me was when everyone was at the dance and just having a great time and Earl Giddens came in drunk and causing a scene and starts dancing with Lily, Tom Bledsoe gets up and punches him. What surprised me the most was everyone just kept on playing their instruments like nothing happened. This is the moment when you realized that Tom has true feelings for Lily, not just a love/ hate, it was love. It also came out when Lily was running through the woods and runs into Tom and they finally kiss, I had a feeling that they would end up together, it was building throughout the entire movie. A few other moments were Eleanor and her assistant teacher and their lesbian relationship. First when Lily sees them then when Fate, the young boy who works from  Eleanor finds her and her assistant kissing in the woods. This  causes him and another boy to retaliate and burn her school house down, along with Lily's musical ballads, my heart sunk, she worked SO hard on these. After this accident Lily decides to head back to the city with Tom and decides to make cylinders out of music and to not publish her work. Truly an inspiring movie. 

Mi Familia

Mi Familia was a very powerful movie that I enjoyed very much. It was a story from a man's perspective on all the love and hardships his family had to endure. From his mother getting taken away from him when he was young because people in the Los Angles community thought the Mexicans caused the Great Depression. She was taken and sent back to Mexico only to make her way back a few years later with his younger brother, Chucho. Some moments that really stood out for me was when the mother and baby were trying to cross the river and the boat tipped over and the mother lost ahold of baby Chucho, I thought for sure the baby was not going to make it, just as the father said, I guess he was an "angel". Another moment was when Chucho was in his early twenties and he gets into the knife fight with the rival gangs leader. It seemed up to this point Chucho was seen as such a nice, great guy, this made me think differently of him. This leads up to the point when the cops are looking for Chucho and when they finally find him is when Chucho sees his younger brother, Jimmy only to be shot in the head right in front of him. I was in shock! As Chuchos mom stated, "He was meant to die at the river and was just living on borrowed time." Jimmy turns into a rebel after that but through a set up marriage of him trying to help his sister out he meats his soulmate and has a kid with her. His wife sadly dies during giving birth to their son and Jimmy strives to be the best father possible for his young son.

Rabbit- Proof Fence

In watching the movie Rabbit-Proof Fence I found myself having great emotion towards the three little Girls, Molly, Gracie and Daisy. A few moments for me really stood out in the movie. The first was when the Mother and Grandmother were talking to Constable Riggs and there were saying that if the Devil-man wanted a "half-caste" child that he should marry a girl and have his own. The next scene is the policemen taking away the three girl, my heart ached for the mother and grandmother trying so hard to hold onto the girls only to be taken away in the car and driven away. The other scene that touched me was when they come across a lady named Mavis who I presume is to be a slave and she wants to help the girls and she gives them a place to sleep for the night. Only to have a man walk into the room where the girls are sleeping and he sees them and Mavis comes in and begs them to stay and says the man will not tell and he does so the girls have to run away in the middle of the night. My heart was pounding thinking that they were going to get caught. Also when Gracie decides to leave for the train station because a man they met along they way told the girls thats where her mother is and Molly and Daisy go a separate way. When they go back for Gracie and see her being taken away I was just think, how much more can these girls take! The final scenes when they see their mother and grandmother is just so heart warming, I am so glad that they did not walk those thousands of miles for nothing. When it was stated at the end of the movie that the search was over due to the lack of funds it just showed how bad they wanted these girls to pour so much time and effort into this search. Also when Chief Protector stated, "It is the bush native people who have to be protected against themselves. If only they understood what we were trying to do for them." What they were trying to do is extinct their generation, making it the "Lost Generation". I feel so bad for these small children who were abruptly taken from their loving homes and forced to live in a place where their identity was stripped so that they could become more American.