Thursday, May 1, 2008

looking at photo essays & comics

Today on Mr. Ayers blog we were instructed to look at the links he had for slate.com (a magazine.) He wants us to look at photo essays and comics combining words and pictures to tell a story. The photo essays were very interesting. I think it's interesting that pictures can tell a story just as well as words can. My favorite photo essay he had linked was the one about the middle east war. The pictures were really good and they show what war is all about. Some of the pictures were a bit much though, I didnt like seeing all the blood in some, but I guess thats what you get for looking at pictures from a war. It looks like a professional photographer took them. I also liked the photo essay on the childrens drawings and what the children say about what they drew. It was kind-of like a story, but the pictures were the main component of the story, because without them then we wouldnt know what the kids were trying to say. I am excited to make our very own graphic essays. The hard part will be coming up with a topic that easy enough for me to draw!

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

school lunch


At Kennedy High School, you can only go out for lunch if you're a junior or a senior. A lot of kids don't follow this rule though, I see a lot of sophomores sneaking out the doors to have a quick lunch at Wendys or McDonalds instead of boring ol' school lunch. I can't really tell on the younger kids though, since I used to sneak out for lunch as a sophomore and I luckily never got caught. I don't blame kids for leaving though. I have D lunch, and there hardly is ever any food left to eat. The lines are so long, and people budge, so it takes over half the lunch period to even get your food. The food is every expensive and it doesn't fill you up. One little slice of pizza is not a lunch. One slice of pizza is 2 dollars, I could buy a burger and fries with the same amount of money at McDonalds, and it's about the same health equivalence. There is not many healthy choices at school to choose from. The only thing i've seen change is the fact that there is more apples, oranges and salads, but the main menus are still fatty (i.e. pizza, burgers, or fries.) Another thing is that our school now uses styrofoam plates and plastic forks and spoons. Are lunch ladies too lazy to wash dishes? Freshmen and sophmore year they had a machine to do that for them! I thought the world was trying to cut back on waste? Our school sure isnt. The styrofoam plates are terrible, they're not sturdy and they're a total waste to our environment. I understand now why so many kids want to go out to eat instead of eat school food. Besides the high gas prices rising to get to any restaurant, I think it's okay if students if leave school for lunch, as long as they drive safe.

desperate housewives obsession


I LIVE for Sundays. You know what Sunday is, right? Desperate Housewives is on :) 8pm sharp, I'm sat glued to my couch, with the volume on full blast so I dont miss a word. My mom got me hooked on this show about 2 years ago after it first started airing on ABC. I fell in love with it because of all the drama and I got to know the characters so well. I like to compare myself with the characters and I think I am most like Lynette. My friend Abby is most like Gabrielle and Laura is most like Susan and Rachel (the perfect one) is most like Bree and Theresa is most like Eadie. It's a perfect match for all of us :) I took a quiz on desperate housewives about which character I am most like, and i got Lynette. During the writers strike, which lasted about 2 months, I was in total withdrawl from my favorite show. It was very hard to not have a new epsiode to watch, I had nothing to do on sunday nights. I'm very glad that the writers strike is over and my favorite show in the world is back on!

hannah montana star apologizes for racy photos

(Disney's) Hannah Montana star, Miley Cyrus was photographed in a spread for the new issue of Vanity Fair magazine, which has become an international news story. With coverage in the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and Newsweek, and newspapers throughout the entire world.

Celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz took the photos which include 15-year-old Hannah Montana star clutching a sheet with her bare shoulders and upper back exposed. Cyrus says, "I mean I had a big blanket on. And I thought, This looks pretty, and really natural. I think it’s really artsy. It wasn’t in a skanky way.… And you can’t say no to her [photographer Annie Leibovitz]. She’s so cute. She gets this puppy-dog look and you’re like, O.K.”

Leibovitz says, "I'm sorry that my portrait of Miley has been misinterpreted," the celebrity photographer said in a statement Monday. "Miley and I looked at fashion photographs together and we discussed the picture in that context before we shot it. The photograph is a simple, classic portrait, shot with very little makeup, and I think it is very beautiful."

But by Sunday, Cyrus apparently had changed her mind. "I took part in a photo shoot that was supposed to be 'artistic' and now, seeing the photographs and reading the story, I feel so embarrassed," she said in a statement issued by her publicist, Jill Fritzo. "I never intended for any of this to happen, and I apologize to my fans who I care so deeply about."
I'm not a huge fan of Hannah Montana, but I know who she is and I feel bad about all the bad rep she is getting from this, but Miley did know what she was getting herself into. Her parents did too, with them being there through the entire photoshoot. I think she is just regretting her decision because her young fans are offended by what she did. She should of thought more about her reputation from her fans' points of view, but I don't think all this drama from a few pictures is necessary.