Top 10 Movies

Another List! I so love doing lists because it keeps me entertained and organized, also I feel like an important businessman by doing lists (lists on my college choices, p̶o̶s̶s̶i̶b̶l̶e̶ ̶p̶r̶o̶m̶ ̶d̶a̶t̶e̶s̶, ideas for movies, etc.).  This list is about the movies that I saw during High School, same thing as the last list, Position number one is my most favorite.

10.- Scott Pilgrim vs. The world

Sometimes people are held back by ghosts of their pasts and doesn’t allow them fully enjoy life, well, Scott Pilgrim Vs, The World touches this theme. It is about a guy named Scott Pilgrim that is broken hearted because his girlfriend dumped him because of other guy, so Scott Pilgrim tries to look for consolation by dating a High Schooler, but then he meets Ramona Flowers and falls in love with her, but if Scott Pilgrim wants to date her, then he needs to defeat Ramona’s 7 evil exes (6 ex boyfriends and 1 ex girlfriend). The movie is funny, and also epic, because Scott Pilgrim uses different weapons to defeat the exes, such a battery cymbal, skateboard, his own fists, a cup of half and half coffee, bare hands, sound waves, and a katana (Samurai sword). It has action, love, and comedy, which is something very rare in movies. Also Scott Pilgrim fights Captain America and Superman in the movie, and although he defeats Captain America, he also beats super bad Superman (I would only watch a superman movie if I had a gun in my head.)

9.- Guardians of the Galaxy

A Marvel Cinematic Universe movie. It is about Peter Quill (Chris Pratt, who happens to also be Emmet in The Lego Movie, and also appears in Parks and Recreations), a human from earth that got kidnapped by alien mercenaries, and is trained to be a thief. One day, he steals something that is not supposed to be stolen and an alien dictator wants the object as a weapon, so Peter Quill allies with Gamora, Drax, Groot (a giant talking tree who only says “I am groot” and starred by Vin Diesel, because you know, Vin Diesel acts like a piece of wood), and Rocket raccoon (Who is a racoon) to keep the thingy safe. Because it is in the Cinematic Universe, it is related to The Avengers.

8.- Boyhood

Nominated for best movie in the Oscars of 2015, but won Birdman (Birdman wasn't that good, honestly). The footage took around 12 years, which is admirable because a lot of things can happen in twelve years (such a Black president, Alien Invasion, Mayan apocalypse, Nuclear war, an actor dies, money runs out, etc), therefore the same actors are used for twelve years, it takes place in Texas, and around many Texan cities such Houston, San Marcos and H̶i̶p̶s̶t̶e̶r̶l̶a̶n̶d̶ Austin. It is about the story a teenage guy and its struggle within (And the outside world), it reflected the battle that we, teenagers have during our teenage years and all of those changes.

7.- Wild Tales (Relatos Salvajes)

An Argentinian-Spanish dark comedy film nominated for best film in other language than English in the Oscar 2015. Produced by the famous Spanish director Pedro de Almodovar (who is one of the most recognized filmmakers in Spanish speaking cinema). It is a compilation of different episodes with a different story between them, but the theme in common is anger and what people can do when they lose their heads. There is a story of  someone who is angry at the world so he packed everybody who has hurted him in a plane and crashes the plane, there is other one about a cook who poisons a dude who hurted her co worker, there is an story about road rage that goes wrong, there another one about an engineer who blows buildings loses everything he has (his job, his family) because of a parking ticket, and the stupid bureaucracy of the government, so he puts a bomb in his car which blows up in the impound yard when is taken by the police for not parking correctly, etc. Despite of the fact that most of the characters die, it makes you laugh with the dark comedy.

6.- Thor: The Dark World

Usually sequels are crappier than the first movie (like in Transformers, Narnia, etc.), of course there is an exception to the rule, and Thor: The Dark World is an example. Like Thor, it inside the Marvel’s Cinematic Universe, and the events in Thor 2 are related with The Avengers, even in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. are mentioned such events. This movie is about a threat of the dark elf that threatens to destroy Asgard with a gem (it’s not only a gem, it is an infinity gem, like the Tesseract, and the weapon in Guardians of the Galaxy), So thor has to stop him with the help of Loki. In the movie, it is played a lot the concept of portals, which are used to travel thru the Nine Realms of the Yggdrasil (The Norse tree that holds Asgard, Jotunheim, Midgard (Aks. Earth), Helheim, Vanaheim, Muspelheim, etc.)Like most Norse-related stuff, it was epic.

5.- Beowulf

Filmed in 2007 (so is not that new). By the same director who brought you Back to the Future. It is about the poem Beowulf, but like most movies based on literature, some things are inaccurate. Anthony Hopkins who was the god Odin in Thor and in Thor: The Dark World, is the king of the Danes, Hrothgar. It is epic, I enjoyed it and despite it is inaccurate and I really wanted to see how Beowulf grabbed the sword forged by giants in Grendel’s den used to kill Grendel’s mother and cut off Grendel’s head (like in the poem), I liked how they related the dragon of the end of the poem and Grendel’s mom, which turned out to be Angelina Jolie.

4.- Accepted

One of the most hilarious teen comedies that I have seen. It takes place in Ohio, and it is about these high school seniors who were not accepted in any college, so they decide to found a hoax university to avoid the shaming of their parents and relatives of not being accepted to college, so they found the South Harmon Institute of Technology. It does not only makes you laugh and gives you a good time, but also touches themes about honesty, education, and about those so-called “honorable men” who bully those who consider inferior to them (Fraternity Hazing).

Like the University of Arizona, but in a fictional universe...

3.- The Perfect Score

One of the most hilarious teen comedies. It was filmed in 2004, so it’s not that new. It is starred by Captain America and Black Widow (watch the movie and look up the cast in Wikipedia) as high schoolers. It is about a bunch of High school teens that boomed their SAT’s and then realize that they are doomed to not going to their dream colleges or not going to college at all, so they all plan to break into the College Board’s headquarters to steal the next SAT’s answers. Captain America in this movie makes his debut as The Sentinel of Liberty by fighting for the American people against an evil organization seeking world domination (not HYDRA, but the College Board). The movie criticizes what I have always criticized: the College Board is a Monopoly who doesn't care about education, but cares about the private interests of companies and University Presidents (you don’t believe me?, look up why The College Board put a writing section, and why they are going to take it away).

“Don’t you find it ridiculous that from day one they tell us to be unique, they tell us to be individuals, then they give us a standardized test that makes us all one faceless herd?”- C̶a̶p̶t̶a̶i̶n̶ ̶A̶m̶e̶r̶i̶c̶a̶ Chris Evans in The Perfect Score.

2.- Les Miserables

Nominated for Best movie in the Oscars 2013, but the Academy gave the award to Argo (Argo wasn’t that good to win this award, Les miserables was better).  Based on the play Les Miserables, which is based on the book Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. It is the story about Jean Valjean, a convict who is granted parole in France 1915, Jean Valjean breaks his parole and years later is now the Mayor of a town in France, but Inspector Javert learn that the mayor is Jean Valjean and goes after him. Jean Valjean adopts Cossette, and takes her with him. Then the revolution of 1936 strikes in Paris and the rebels make barracks in the streets of Paris. It is like an opera in Movie because all the dialogues are sung.

1.- Captain America: The First Avenger

Epic of epicness. I have made several references to Cap in this scrapbook, do I need to explain why is position number 1?

Top 10 T.V. Shows

Guess what, dear reader? Lists are back because of popular demand! Apparently, Ms. Hudler loved so much The Rant List and assigned us to write Top 10 lists of whatever stuff. In this entry, I am going to write about my Top 10 favorite T.V. Shows that I watched during High School. Most of these series were aired during my senior year, however there is one from the 90’s (therefore, it has primitive special effects). Position number one is my favorite T.V. Show.

10.- Sherlock

This british T.V. Show (which actually is a mini series) aired by the BBC is about the detective Sherlock Holmes, but it has a modern twist. In contrast with the movie Sherlock Holmes (Tony Stark as Sherlock Holmes), in Sherlock, Mr. Holmes has a laptop and phone, Dr. Watson instead of writing Mr. Holmes’s  adventures on paper, he now has a blog; Scotland Yard uses more modern methods, and Irene Adler (in contrast with the book, in which she manipulates men) is a Dominatrix (I am not kidding, watch the first episode of Season 2). Sherlock is so popular, that even Dr. Who made a cameo in a Sherlock episode (or was the other way around?) I like this show because I love to hear the british accent, and it is quite interesting of what would Sherlock Holmes do to solve cases in these days.

BBC’s Sherlock in the Point of View of an Otaku.

9.- The Simpsons

The Simpsons have been on the air for more than 25 years. If this show is not in the air by when my grandchildren read this blog, this show was a cartoon starred by an American family (with yellow skin) and they made a satire criticizing the Government, Corporations, and Human s̶t̶u̶p̶i̶d̶i̶t̶y̶ nature.Homer is the dad, and is a very (extremely) dumb character, and is my favorite character because besides all the stupid things that he does, he says truth about the society, Homer represents the irresponsible and uneducated worker who only got a High School diploma and is in charge of the security of the Nuclear Plant (Oh, no!). The mom is Marge, who is the mom who works in the house does the chores. Then there is the son Bart, who is a troublemaker at school, and always does disaster, and does not have respect for Homer (who ends up choking Bart)Bart tell us about society that tyoday’s kids don’t care about their parents and do whatever they want. Lisa is the sister who is liberal, conservationist (of nature), smart, and Buddhist, she is the least stupid person in all the city of Springfield, and is a motif of Bart contrasting the naughtiness of Bart and the nerdiness of Lisa. because in Springfield time is relative, Maggie (the baby) is still a baby since season 1.
The only episode in which she grew up was in which the local scientist (Dr. Flyn or something like that) shows Bart and Lisa their future using some sort of time machine. The simpson show us how the police is incompetent, the education system is crap, the government is bought by the wealthy, and the ecological disasters in the US (represented by the Nuclear Plant).
yadda,yadda, yadda legal notice: This image is not mine, please don't sue me :)

8.- The Big Bang Theory.

Another sitcom. Is about a group of nerds and geeks that are good friends and hang out together. I like it because of the references to pop culture, such Marvel, DC, Stephen Hawking, etc. Not political satire, but social satire.

7.- Once Upon a Time

Disney, the giant corporation on entertainment, finds another way to make money, and is by using all the characters in the Fairy Tales movies and Mulan (Mulan is not a fairy tale) and put them together in a single fictional universe in a T.V. Show. The plot is that in a far far away land, the characters of fairy tales were living together happy in there, but then Snow White’s evil stepmother curses that world and sends them to another reality in which the characters don’t remember about their past in the other reality. In this new Reality that takes place in the fictional Maine town of Storybrooke, Jiminy Cricket is a psychiatrist, Snow White a schoolteacher, Little Red Riding Hood is a hot waitress, Snow White’s stepmother is the mayor, the Huntsman is the police chief, and Mulan is an Asian who like girls. Disney also added Elsa from Frozen.

6.- Buffy, The Vampire Slayer.

Aired during 1990’s, and didn’t survived to see the 2000’s. It is about a highschool girl named Buffy, and is the chosen one to be the slayer to exterminate the Vampires and the forces of Darkness. Often, the Vampires and the Forces of Darkness attack at her school and actually kill people there and throw the bodies in school, but the amazing thing about this is that the police department rarely investigates the crimes and leave the hard work to Buffy. Because it is from the nineties, it has primitive special effects such masks, costumes, make up, etc, but what can you expect from the 90’s?

5.- Blue Bloods

A cop T.V. Show, but before you ask what is so different of this show from other cop shows is that in this show the characters (in the fictional universe) are related between them and all of them are involved in the greatest Police Department of all the US (NYPD) or in the justice part of the government. The grandpa was a former police commissionerate, then the father is the current police commissionerate, then the son is a detective, the sister is the district attorney, and the brother of them is a regular police officer. They often quote Theodore Roosevelt and FDR.

4.- Parks and Recreations

Another sitcom and political satire. It is formatted in the same way as The Office. It is about Leslie Knope, the subsecretary of the department of Parks and Recreations of the fictitious city of Pawnee, Indiana, and the great ideas that they have to improve Pawnee’s parks, but they are often stopped by the item #72 of The Rant List (Bureaucracy if you are too lazy to look it up).

3.- Arrow

DC comic’s superhero Green Arrow is taken to  T.V.Show. Oliver queen is the son of the wealthy family of Starling city named Queen (the Queen Family), owner of Queen Incorporated. One day Oliver goes with his dad on vacation on a yacht, and the yact sinks in a storm, then Oliver arrives to the Chinese Island of Lian Yu (which means Purgatory), and he learns the art of throwing arrows with a bow. Then he returns to Starling city and becomes the local vigilante. It’s like Marvel’s Hawkeye, but in DC comics.

2.- Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Disney strikes again and uses the Marvel’s Characters (because Disney bought the characters of Marvel Comics) and produces The Avengers, Captain America, Thor, Ironman, Guardians of the Galaxy, etc. All of this movies are related in the same fictional universe called “Marvel’s Cinematic Universe”. But what is amazing about this universe is that the show Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is also inside this universe and plays a big part in the plot of this universe. S.H.I.E.L.D. is a fictional government intelligence agency that seeks the world security. In this show elements that appear in The Avengers,  and other Marvel movies are mentioned, for example, in an episode the agents of SHIELD need to find a weapon from Asgard that allows warriors to have super strength and fight with rage, then in another episode it is revealed the technology that HYDRA in World War II in Captain America: The first avenger. It is creative. Directed by Joss Whedon, the director of The Avengers and Buffy, The Vampire Slayer.

1.- The Office

It is about an office of the fictional corporation Dunder Mifflin, a paper maker, in the non-fictional city of Scranton, Pennsylvania. The boss, Michael Scott (starred by Steve Carell), thinks that he is the best boss in the world and treats his employees like friends, but sometimes  (which is frequently) mess things up (like John Fields!). It used to be a british T.V. show of the BBC, but then NBC took the idea.

Current Issue

Note: This entry was wrote around January,2015. So it might not be as new.

In the International Context, Islamic extremist have broken into the headquarters of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, killed around 12 people including the Chief editor, two cartoonists, and a French Police Officer. After the attack, France raised the alert level to its highest point: terror alert, and deployed troops in Ile-de-France, and Picardy. Days after the attack, the French police persecuted the suspects around Paris, who then went to a signage company, and took hostages, finally the suspects were killed by the police when they exited the building. After these events, political leader from around the world, and Eric Holder (Obama was not able to attend due to security issues), Chief of the Department of Justice of the US, met in Paris for a rally of national unity. In the social networks, people used “#JesuisCharlie” to express their solidarity to the French people.

I looked for some cartoons of Charlie Hebdo, to know what kind of humor they used in their cartoons, and many of them were so disgusting (Oh my Gosh) that I was not impressed on why terrorists attacked them. But while I don’t agree the way in which Charlie Hebdo makes its points, I advocate for the freedom of speech that every country should have, and paraphrasing a philosopher (I think Voltaire) “I might not agree with what you say, but I will fight for your right to say it”. So yeah, Je suis Charlie.

Curret Issue.

In the national context, The Jefferson County School Board, in Colorado, has proposed to edit the US History curriculum by cutting the ugly parts of the history such racism, Hiroshima bombing, etc. in an effort to "promote citizenship, patriotism ... (and) respect for authority" and not "encourage or condone civil disorder, social strife or disregard of the law."  Students and Teachers from Denver area have protested since August to stop these changes. In my opinion,  I believe that these measures are very similar to those in Nazi Germany or in Communist Countries in which the students were brainwashed to make them robots of the system. Paraphrasing “The Bible”,  “The truth shall make you free”, in order  for us to be free, we need to know the truth about things to know what options do we have, that is the difference between democracy and dictatorship. The US can’t go around the world preaching about freedom and democracy when at home these ideals are betrayed.

NEWS EVENTS

Note: I wrote this entry around September 2014, that's why the News Event is not as new.
In the international context, Scotland tried to independize from the United Kingdom after more of 300 years of annexation. Scotland wanted to independize because according to the scottish prime minister, Scotland could be one of the richest countries in the world because of its oil reserves in the North Sea, which have 30-40 years to continue to produce before the oil ran out in the reserve; It is estimated that the oil creates a revenue to the UK of 57 billion British Pounds and the economy of Scotland represents the 8% of the total GDP of the UK. Before the election day (September 19), many stockholders that had stocks in Scottish corporations sold all their stocks fearing a crash in the market. At the end, Scotland remained being part of the UK because the people felt that Scotland was not ready yet for independence (which in my opinion, it would be better for Scotland if they separate). Now political analysts predict that the same thing is going to happen in Spain with Catalonia.