Angelique's Literature & Media Blog

This week I watched a Sofia Coppola film for the first time: The Beguiled . I was impressed by the color in the film, and the contrast between structure and soft shapes, such as when Nicole Kidman's character stands out against the grid lines of window and railings on a grand estate. The music was another interesting choice, bringing a modern twist to an era that may otherwise be unapproachable or unappealing for younger audiences. I am excited to see another of Sofia Coppola's films, Lost in Translation. This film, I learned, is based on Sofia Coppola herself, and bases another character off her once-husband and famous director Spike Jonze. I really enjoyed the life in Ms. Coppola's films, the interaction between sound and visuals, and the attention to detail in each part of the frame. It felt like a woman made T he Beguiled, and I highly recommend the film.

Illuminated manuscript:

Today we read a comic called “My Favorite Thing Is Monsters” by Emil Ferris. I loved this. I have not read many comic books previously, and have little experience with the process of reading comics, so they partly intimidate me. I am much more comfortable with books, reading line to line. But this comic was different. Sketched in places, and fully rendered in others, this piece was beautiful to look at and fun to read. It reminded me of my own notebooks, where there are doodles in the margin. I felt the experience was engaging and unexpected, almost as if I followed the speaker’s thoughts as she thought them. The story was really enjoyable. I didn’t know at first why the main character was seeing herself as a monster. I was intrigued at her portrayal of the crowd as hunting monsters, and really wanted to keep reading. This book encouraged me to view comics as a more appealing and approachable medium for entertainment.   I highly recommend it. Until next time, Kat

This week we’re talking about Long Form Television.  I’ve watched a hilarious British T.V series called “The I.T Crowd,” which appeals to my family roots in I.T. Watching this piece in a series was a treat, with its internet jokes and fun pacing. Here’s a link to one of my favorite moments, when IT worker Moss is faced with a paper on fire. Just try not to laugh.  This show doesn’t have as many interconnecting story-lines such as BBC’s Downton Abbey or USA’s White Collar , two of my favorite series. In fact, it has very few connections beyond the characters and their environment each episode. There are no lasting hooks and no cliffhangers, but it’s just as fun. It makes it an easy watch, being able to drop in and out as I please, while never feeling lost. Since the series ended in 2013, it is something I wouldn’t have been able to watch easily without the flexibility and long-lasting streaming services. Other notes we discussed in class about Long-Form Televisio

Have you seen the posts from Humans of New York ? You probably have, since they’re all over Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr. But, in case you haven’t, I’ll tell you a little bit about them. They are a series of photographs and short interviews focusing on people walking the streets of New York. There are stories of immigrants, businessmen, artists, and family-makers. The interviews are in literary form, written in a short paragraph, but associated with an image, and distributed via social media platforms. I first came across these works on Facebook. I saw an interesting portrait photograph with a paragraph on the person’s life. I looked through the eyes of an immigrant, felt the love of an old married couple, and learned from a student talking about his favorite, and most impactful, teacher. They only took a few minutes to read, but got me interested in cultures around the world and inspired me in how much life surrounds us every day.   A few years later, in the u

2017 SIGGRAPH Student Volunteers Hello fellow students! I wanted to let you know of an awesome opportunity in volunteering at SIGGRAPH! If you haven’t heard of it before, SIGGRAPH is a 5 day, fun-filled conference that showcases the year's greatest advances in film, animation, real-time rendering, virtual, augmented, and mixed reality, robotics, engineering, and more. And this coming summer, from August 12th - 16th, it’s taking place in Vancouver, Canada. Companies such as Pixar, Walt Disney Animation Studios, BlueSky, LAIKA, NASA, Autodesk, BioWare, and Foundry, to name a few, attend! SIGGRAPH has a unique view into the graphics world, and as an animation student, I love to see the innovation and progress happening in our field. (Check out SIGGRAPH in the news  here! ) I find it exciting and inspiring to see how professionals continue to learn and make new discoveries across multiple levels and fields. Conference tickets are normally expensive, but there is a

In class today we're reading the short story " Suddenly, a Knock on the Door " and responding to 3 questions. #1: What is your reaction to the text you've just read?  I thought this was very interesting. Within the story, the author, or narrator, has control over the outcome. Whatever he says begins to come true. Yet, he is nervous about telling this story with all three men looking on with weapons. Also within the story, the three men are demanding something interesting. They object to the boring start of "There's a knock on the door", until finally the pizza man juts in to let him continue. "As long as it brings a story." This made me think how the humblest of beginnings within a story can lead to something greater. We don't need a super complicated setup. Life is a story. This simple encounter of four men in a room was interesting, left me asking questions, and got me thinking. Within telling this story, the author tells several