Rocking With Pink Freud

Sigmund Freud is one of the most notable psychoanalysts of the modern world and psychology rock star His views on life, sex and the individual have been discussed, examined, and mocked. The average individual who has studied Freud at any point always puts him as the man obsessed with sex but that may not be all true. Although most if not all of the ideas set out by Freud have been discredited by today’s standards, Freud’s use of the id ( wishes and instincts), ego ( an individual’s focused awareness) and super ego ( the rules of culture who impose on your ego) have held true in psychoanalysis of individuals today. This use of understanding the human mind has allowed media students a gate way in which they cannot only look and understand media but also apply it when creating media. Media in today’s world is geared to entertain, inform and entrance the public who all individually have minds and in that case the structure of the ego. By mastering these 3 structures a director can create characters which speak to those specific and intended parts of the ego. This is also true for individuals who deal with TV programming. There are different kinds of programming which speak to each of the ego structures. MTV music videos and Porn for instance both speak directly to the id. With the ego we see news programs and documentaries aimed at that level. Cop shows and court dramas place restrictions on the individual just as the super ego does with the mind. By using this method of programming a station can effective hit all of their audience and keep their whole mind stuck on their channel. Freud may have been way off on a lot of his ideas during his time, but the structure of the ego is one that has struck a high chord with the psychology and media world. Looks like this song is here to stay.

Once Upon A White House

They say life imitates art. But is that fully true when it comes to literature. Are the folktales that we tell our young children completely made up or do the moral stories and characters draw on real life experiences. Or do we as a culture change these stories and draw on stories around event in which we are privy to experiencing. I think is relative to when you grow up and what life you experience. But either way there are direct correlations between life and the Narrative. Look at the story of Barack Obama. Obama is our hero. He comes from a small poor broken household with dreams of one day being important maybe president. The villain in this story racism and ignorance of issues that sadly is still prevalent in the United States today in the American people. You can also say at one point John McCain and the republicans are villians but they are later in Obama's life story. The princess in this story is us the American people. Our hero starts on his journey in the Illinois legislature where he rises above the rest to battle the predigious against him. Then after a few years he wants to try and ascend to the highest office in the land the presidency. For months he battles all of his worth opponents in his own party but finally arrives to his highest battle between him and John McCain. After months of fierce battle and wins and loses on each side, Obama through his strength over came all obstacles, wins the love of the American people and with the marriage of the people and himself he rises to the thrown of the President. The morale of our story is through perseverance you can achieve anything. If that doesn’t sound like I storybook ending I don’t know what is.

A Musical About Nothing... and Everything

What would an ordinary life be like if you added a little song and dance to it. Well this perfectly describes the genre of a musical. My favorite film, which falls underneath this genre, is that of the Stage show turned movie musical RENT. This show is literally about nothing at all.. but it encorporates everything in life. It is about the day-to-day lives of a group of people living their poor lives and trying to get by. However, sporadically thrown into the mix of illness, Debt and survival are songs about hope, love, survival and sadness. As a former Drama Greek my theatre teacher used to rant and rave about how horrible, of a show, RENT was and how it was useless. When the highly successful movie was released, he was flabbergasted at the fact that this horrible show was a successful movie. There is just something about the story of these people that I think everyone can relate to, everyone at sometime has had a loved one who is ill, been dumped or has felt as though just surviving is more than they can do. The Characters in RENT have to face all of this. However, no matter what their view of life is optimistic... looking forward and living life to its last moments. This is the part of RENT that I believe speaks to the majority of people, including myself. So to the world… La VIE BOHEME! Forget regret or life is yours to miss, and live like there is no day but today!!

Oh!!! I Wanna Sing With Somebody!!

What would it be like if it were a world filled with music and every emotion could be expressed with dance. Well you would be living in the world of the musical. This by far is my favorite genre of film. I’m pretty sure it stems from the fact that as a young child I was raised around the world of professional theatre and the love of this type of movie is engrained into my head, I am a very happy person who cannot live my life without the sounds of music in the background of my day.  I think maybe this is why I feel I like musicals so much. Maybe I secretly want to be able to break out in song and dance at any moment and not be the crazy individual on the street.  Anyway my love of musicals will continue to grow. In them I can escape. And isn’t that the whole reason for movies anyway?

What USE is best for that Little Black Dress?

The little Black dress… you will find it in the closet of most women eighteen and older in America. And why? Why does this one article of clothing such an important staple that every girl must have one? The answer is the semiotics of this dress gives it versatility. Lets start with the color black. Black as a signifier can signify a couple of things death, darkness, and mystery. But on the other hand black as a signifier can signify elegance, class, and style, the article itself signifies either fun, or formal. Taking one of the uses of the sign of the color and one of the uses from the article a little back dress can signify a funeral or a fun party. It all depends on the wearer and the signals they are giving. Versatility is needed in a wardrobe especially when it is economically hard. So ladies and gentlemen before you buy a piece analyze it semiotically. You may find it meets more needs than you expected.

What is Semiotics?

You or one of your friends ever have one of those decoder pins or ring as a child? I did and I would always love using it to decode the messages in books and puzzles. That little decoder pen took that jumbled group of letters at face value and created a whole new clear meaning. That is what semiotics is to me. It is the decoder that allows my ability to decode the actual meanings of images in TV, movies and advertisements that I my not have fully understand before. By using semiotics to asses hidden signs and what they mean we can bring a whole new light and literacy to the world of communications. Ideals, thoughts and movements which could have just been looked over and not thought about due to lack of know on the signals could be influential enough to change our society as a whole. I believe although it is tough, that everyone should learn a little about semiotics. It could take that jumbled mass of images and unlock another world, just as Lil Orphan Annie did for kids in the 1950s and now.