PR/Bibliography

Progress: Luckily I didn't focus on the Yojimbo aspect solely because I was incorrect--Fistful of Dollars was second. It was Leone who was influenced by Kurosawa NOT the other way around. I've watched the movie a couple of times and have looked over the readings--still having problems trying to compare a spaghetti western to an american western. Need to grab that book from Rhodes, hopefully it will answer some questions and clear the air.

Current Bibliography:

"Which Way Is America?":Americanism and the Italian Western
Marcia Landy
Boundary 2, Vol. 23, No. 1 (Spring, 1996), pp. 35-59
Duke University Press

"Japanese Swordfighters and American Gunfighters"
J. L. Anderson
Cinema Journal, Vol. 12, No. 2 (Spring 1973) pp. 1-21
University of Texas Press

"Spectacles of Death: Clint Eastwood and Violence in "Unforgiven""
Carl Plantinga
Cinema Journal, Vol. 37, No. 2 (Winter, 1998) pp. 65-83
University of Texas Press

"Clint Eastwood: An Interview"
Ric Gentry and Clint Eastwood
Film Quarterly, Vol. 42, No. 3 (Spring, 1989), pp. 12-23
University of California Press

"Clint: Cultural Critic, Cowboy of Carthartic Change"
Gail Jardine
Art Journal, Vol. 53, No. 3,...An Issue to "C" (Autumn 1994) pp. 74-75
College Art Association




Now get back to work.

Assignment 3:I learned it from watching you!

In the growing war against drugs, the airways are riddled with constant PSAs preaching the horrors of drug use. Several of these commercials are aimed at teens and children (with the occasional parental guilt trip). These blips do nothing but reinforce all of the myths we are taught in school.
Any red blooded American who has attended college (or the 'crazy' high school party) knows the general gist of marijuana usage. Naturally, several of these commercials are focusing on marijuana. This is quite possibly because it is the most widely used drug in the United States (dare I say-the world), yet it is the drug surrounded by the most ridiculous misconceptions.
The marijuana smoker is most often portrayed as lazy (literally deflated), neglectful, irresponsible, and completely out of touch with the world. In this little gem of a PSA, the lethargic pothead is approached by her dog. Not only does her dog miss her, but this longing manifests the power of human speech to dear Fido.


Many will tell children and teens everyday that marijuana can cause you to hallucinate, chase Technicolor earth spirits off of the edge of a cliff, in front of a car, down the stairs...basically that the visions induced by smoking/ingesting marijuana can lead to a life threatening mistake to the influenced in motion. If a car crash is not implied ("You are threatening everyone's life when you get behind the wheel high."), then why can't you be so high that your dog can talk to you?

Of course this isn't what the commercial is trying to say, but it's fun just to think about it. It's almost as amusing as the implication that potheads are too lazy to go outside--either they are too lazy or the sun is just too much for their fried brain to handle.

If any Memphian has been near Overton Park on the fourth of April, knows full well that a marijuana user is not against going outside. Furthermore, I think they enjoy being outside even more. The anti-drug crowd however does not mention any of the overweight kids chained to the tv while their parents find some other way to avoid spending time with them (new video games and Saturday morning specials are most effective). I don't know about you, but I'm not buying that marijuana makes you so lazy that you can't stand to walk outside. Nor do I believe that it instill vampiric qualities to drug users.

Another all-time favorite is from the 1980's. Although the message is rarely touched upon in contemporary anti-drug culture, the 80's liked to not only guilt their teenagers, but also the parents.




This holds a bit more water in my book. Sure, if you see your parents huffin' a fatty in the living room, curiosity can get the better of you. You may try it. You also may pick up you parents' radio listening habits and start stealing ties from your father. Any person who's parents do drugs usually don't credit their drug usage to their parents. They can brag about smoking with their parents, but I'm sure it's about as exciting as getting drunk with your parents. Toke up with Dad with a couple of your buddies around and be prepared to have him:

a)fall asleep
b)share embarrassing stories of your childhood while simultaneously making fun of your friend's hair
c)complain that 'new' weed just isn't the same as 'old' weed

Also be prepared to find your parents pinching from your stash.

It's simply not ethical for a kid to mimic everything their parents do. By the time you are a teenager you're trying to do everything BUT what your parents are doing. It could have been a starting point, but chances are the novelty will wear off if your parents are 47-ish and can't seem to shake the urge to pop up every time you're trying to smoke with your friends.

Whether you partake of not, few people take the message of anti-drug commercials seriously--probably because they are so concerned with stopping marijuana usage instead of focusing on heroin, cocaine, crystal meth, prescription medication--you know, the things that have racked up a death toll. Scare me straight by showing me clips of infected track marks, not by showing me talking dogs and kids who were probably too lazy to leave their house in the first place.

Presentation Proposal.

Kurosawa is one of the great modern appropriators. In his film 'Yojimbo', he takes Sergio Leone's story 'A Fistful of Dollars' and adds Japanese elements such as samurai mercenaries and a village mafia. I would like to compare the original Italian spaghetti Western, a take on Western 'cowboy' culture, to a further appropriation involving Eastern culture. How does these constant cultural filters affect the overall of the American west and the American Western hero? Does this result in a dilution? Does one director succeed more in the area of proper representation where another fails? Is there such a thing as a 'successful representation' of a time that is mostly compiled of over embellishment and tall tales? I aim to access whether Kurosawa is attempting to merely borrow Leone's story and place it in an Asian context, adding extra layers through his cultural lens, or if he is simply paying homage to a favored piece.


w/c:154

Assignment 2: Gorky's 'The Plough and the Song'

Although the piece 'The Plough and the Song' can be considered minimal, the treatment of the background does not lend itself to the typical minimal nature. Instead of a flat ochre background, Gorky breaks up the negative space with a variation of midrange yellows with several different techniques of material application. Gorky pushes his anamorphic masses by surrounding them with a membrane of a light, flat, yellow tone. A color palette of reds, greens, blues to define the amoeba like forms that are strung together by thin, hairlike growths. Gorky's composition is centralized but by placing elements in three corners of the picture plane he avoids creating visual stagnation.
The piece calls to mind artists such as Miro, yet avoids overcrowding the composition. Gorky groups his forms in fours and fives, varying in size and opacity, from solid and razor edged to softened and compiled of it's own value scale.

The color palette falls into the earth tone category, yet relates to the imagery Gorky is creating. Similar to

Assignment 1: People of Paper

In an increasingly visual world, it is shocking that literature has continued to exclude visual elements. However, in Salvador Plascencia's work The People of Paper barriers are constantly broken between fiction and reality, text and image, and character and author. Plascencia doesn't go so far as to constantly insert pictures but instead represents and obstructs particular characters' thoughts with large black spaces.

The story follows a Mexican farmer, Fredrico de la Fed and his daughter, Little Merced as they leave their small river village and head into America. Fredrico is plagued with the sadness of his wife leaving their family due to his bed wetting problem and "cures" this pain with the aid of fire. When he begins to notice a crushing presence from the planet Saturn, de la Fed declares war against the tyrannical planet. When the family arrives at a Californian flower town named El Monte Flores, Fredrico recruits the local gang to aid him in his battle against the invasion of privacy. The story begins to follow other inhabitants of the town and explore their own personal losses: the ending of a relationship between Froggy and Sandra due to the murder of Sandra's father, the girl plagued by disintegration, Julieta, the town's 'witch doctor', Apollino, and a baby prophet named Baby Nostradamus.

Not only does the author chose to site the sadness of his characters but begins to intertwine his own personal loss of his girlfriend, Liz into the book. A gang member even breaks through the 'third wall' and finds himself in the bedroom of Salvador Plascencia, who turns out to be the oppressive force of Saturn. Combining mythology of the creation of paper people, wandering monks, and sainted wrestlers, The People of Paper is built upon many layers of the religious, the sacred, and the heartbroken.