Peer Reviews

Miles Peer Review for AJ

1.     First off I’d like to say I really like your project. I was kind of confused, however, by how your film started and then how the rest of the film turned out. You begin by painting an image of how blaxploitation films started and then how African American directors became successful. I was assuming you were going to talk about a wide array of different directors, but you end up only talking about Spike Lee. Don’t get me wrong, I think how you talk about Lee is very good and I don’t think you should change it neccesarily, but I think you may want to make the beginning of your film a little more clear that you are going to be examining Spike Lee. It may be as simple as saying that, I chose to examine one auteur in particular, Spike Lee, for I believe he exemplifies many of the different trends in the entire style of Blaxploitation films, but I think that making it clear that you are going to be looking almost entirely at the genre through Spike Lee is important and should/could be made a little more clear. Also, for your conclusion I think you have two options: 1. you could also relate this back to the first part of your film. Instead of talking about how Spike Lee is the best model for the auteur theory regarding race relations in America, you may want to say how he (again…) perfectly utilizes the style of Blaxploitation films to get his overall message through. Does that make sense? Your other option I think would be to actually change your introduction and make it more about spike lee instead of Blaxploitation films in general. I guess it comes down to whether you’re really talking about Spike Lee or the genre in general. I think if you were to change your introduction, you wouldn’t have to change much but I think it would be important for you to maybe say that this is the foundation that Spike Lee came out of and then explain how this information colors his work. Make sense? I just think there is a divide between your introduction and the rest of the project.

2.     I think you use your medium so perfectly. Your narration is perfectly integrated into the different video and imagery you have, but more than that you are also able to talk in a way that neither gets lost behind nor overwhelms your video aspects. More than that, though, the clips you chose are so visceral and intriguing that your entire project is a good deal entertaining as well as educational. I really don’t think you need to change too much of what you already have.

3.     I think that you do integrate review and research really well, but you do end up leaning on research much more than review. Or rather, I don’t think that one necessarily dominates the other, but the different genre’s seem disconnected from each other. Or, rather, I should say that it seemed to me like the first part of your project was research, and then the middle part was a synthesis of the two (and for these parts I think you do this really well), and then your last part is more review. I think this works, but I’m not sure if our professor wants it to be more consistently intertwined. One more thing, I think when you are doing review you tend to kind of keep the same tone (not in voice but in what your saying) as when your doing the research aspect. You sort of try to distance yourself from your opinions, but I think it could help you if you did write your review sections with more….confidence, and by that I mean that when you talk about the influence and how well executed certain parts of his movies are you should just say it more affirmatively. Other than that man, good job. 

Miles Peer Review for Madeline

1.     So it seems to me that you have a clear idea of what you want to say, but I’m not sure it comes out in what you have written so far. I talked to you and you said you were going to be examining how Pan’s Labyrinth and Wings of Desire use literary techniques(?) in order to create better art (right?). However, the paragraphs you have written seem to me to be going in a different direction. In them, you talk about the origins of film and then ask a question as to how the nature of film became an art instead of a science. I think I see how you could intertwine these two, as you are writing in review and research, but I’m not sure it comes out yet. I think that it would be very useful for you to actually begin your book talking about the two movies you are going to discuss. I think that you could definitely still keep these paragraphs, but I’m not sure if opening it with them is the best option if it isn’t the main focus of your book.  I could definitely see how you look at Pan’s labyrinth and wings of desire to show how literary influence has changed film and then relate it back to the origins of film. I hope that makes sense, what I’m trying to say is that using these two movies to reflect upon how literary influences changed film could be much more beneficial than discussing the two apart from each other. I think that this could help you achieve coherence and also a ‘through-line” being the two movies. Also, on the other hand, I think that you could open up your book with these two paragraphs, I really do like how they are written (especially the first sentence, “For a little over a century now, some of the fictional stories that have most captivated audiences and left lasting impressions on those who would shape the field of the work to come have not been found in the pages of a book, but on the screen of a theater”), but I think you should immediately dive into the two movies and begin showing how these literary influences changed film. I think this actually may be the most useful method, but I do still strongly think that it is important that you intertwine these two ideas rather than separating them. Maybe there’s just not enough written at the moment for me to say for sure.

2.     So right now I don’t really see you utilizing images in your text, although that makes sense as there is yet to be any real body paragraphs. I think that you have a wide array of potential ways to use your photos, though. I think that since your examining how literary influences change film it would be extremely beneficial for you to look at the texts (or books) that influenced these two films, perhaps quote them, and then use an image to show how the film utilized these ideas. Since you are examining literature and film I think it would be very easy to back up your analysis of the texts with images from the films, but regarding the part of your essay that you have now and how it talks about how film changed from a science to an art, I’m not sure how you would use images to explain this. You could obviously use sources and stuff like that, but I’m unsure about images. Definitely something to think about. Also, regarding the images you have in your document now, I think you should grab photos that are actual shots from the movies rather than posters and stuff like that, because that’s where I think your real analysis will come from.

3.     Again its hard for me to say if this does integrate the different genres because as you have it right now it is only research. I definitely do see how you will integrate review, though, and I think that when you do write it, it will work very well because your entire idea seems engrained in both forms. I also don’t think you should have too much trouble integrating and transitioning between the two as your research seems at least partially reliant on your review of the movies (and Books?)

On His Death

            We know a lot about the man Kurt Cobain. We know about his childhood, his life, and we know about the physical problems that pained him since his adolescence. We know his music and that is certainly illuminating, but it is one aspect of the artist’s life that now, in retrospect, seems to be the clearest lens with which we can view his life, his art, and his death.

            On April 8^th, 1994, Seattle PD found Kurt Cobain dead in his greenhouse from an apparently self-inflicted shotgun would to the head. He left a note reading,                                                           

       Some speculate that this note, however, was only partially written by Kurt Cobain. The note is clearly written in two different types of handwriting which may suggest the latter section was not written by Kurt. On the other hand, though, Kurt Cobain was also severely intoxicated with heroine at the time, having an insanely high blood content especially considering his small stature. Clearly, it comes as no surprise that the last section, most likely written while Cobain was intoxicated and probably just before he killed himself, has a different handwriting style than the former section. Still, the theory that it wasn’t him is still evident in that the first and primary portion of the suicide note doesn’t actually mention dying, it could simply be his resignation from the music industry.

            The only major evidence within the note that is contrary to this is the final lines of the first section, “it’s better to burn out than to fade away,” a direct quote from Neil Young’s song, Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black). Other than that, though, the direct suicide references exist only in the messy latter part. While these comments are only directly written in the latter part of his note, though, they are scribbled all over the artist’s lyrics, diaries and even interviews.
            More interesting than the speculation of his death is the actual effect it had; how his suicide now colors his work and art. Kurt’s music has always been painted in dark colors, but after his death people began looking back at his music and lyrics with a new mindset.

          “Look on the bright side, suicide/ Lost eyesight, I’m on your side/Angel, left wing, right wing, broken wing/ Lack of iron and/or sleeping,” Cobain screams, confronting the idea of suicide head on and directly in the song, Milk It. The entire song is about the depression Kurt Cobain harbors inside of himself, but when he yells these four lines, an entirely new idea emerges. Perhaps it is only now that we can see Cobain’s intentions in the lyrics, but maybe it is rather that in the light of his suicide, the true authenticity of his lyrics comes to light. “Look on the bright side,” Cobain says, confronting suicide directly; “Lost eyesight, I’m on your/[suicides] side.” Here, Cobain seems to be saying that he’s lost sight of his ambition and needs. He feels broken, and he is literally contemplating the bright side of suicide, in his case it seems to be release. Without Cobain’s suicide, though, these lyrics seem to be Cobain simply flirting with the idea. It is all too apparent now how all encompassing the negative aspects of his life were, though.

            In another song, Scentless Apprentice, Cobain yells out as he closes his song, “You can’t fire me because I quit/ Throw me in the fire and I won’t throw a fit!” A common theme in Kurt’s work was how he has been abused by the music industry and media, but here Cobain clearly and viscerally states his deepest feelings about it. As he says in his note, “I haven't felt the excitement of listening to as well as creating music along with reading and writing for too many years now;” Kurt lost his love for his work, but here in his song he out rightly says he would rather die than keep on obeying and following the life he has been thrown into.

            Perhaps Cobain’s most explicit references to suicide come from the haunting song, Pennyroyal Tea, though.  The entire song is dripped in thoughts of death, and in his lyrics, in the same way that his note does, describes why – what is was that made him think so deeply about death. It was just a song, however, and a vague one at that, and no one seemed to take Kurt’s words to heart until after it was too late. Perhaps, though, it is only now that we can truly see the implications.

            Pennyroyal Tea, a drink used a long time ago that Kurt Cobain grabbed the song title from, was once used to cause abortions in pregnant women. It didn’t work, however, and instead only resulted in severe stomach pain. While Kurt Cobain probably never actually drank Pennyroyal tea, he did suffer from sever stomach and back pains all his life. They would even become the reason the young artist first took to drugs. In the song, however, Kurt Cobain uses Pennyroyal tea as a metaphor, saying he could drink Pennyroyal Tea all day and it still wouldn’t compare to his own stomach pains. Dark lyrics undoubtedly, but they are also what draws the song together, painting a picture of Kurt Cobain’s intensely disturbed interactions with the world.

            The song in its entirety is basically Kurt Cobain describing how he lives his life and the constant pain he feels. “I’m on my time with everyone,” Cobain sings to open the song, and with that lyric he sets the stage: he can’t stand the world or his interactions with it; he is literally on his edge with everyone he meets.  He is “anemic royalty,” he says over and over again. He is successful and rich, but he is still sick. His ‘fortunes’ haven’t brought him any satisfaction, and he is simply left anemic royalty. When he says, “I’m on warm milk and laxatives/ Cherry-flavored antacids,” however, Kurt Cobain reveals a startling thing about himself, but what is more startling is how he treats it.  When Kurt Cobain says “warm milk and laxatives,” he is using a metaphor for heroine and the other drugs he used to sooth his pain. He says, “I’m on,” to illuminate this, but buries the true medicine he was using in pleasant home remedies. In this way Cobain seems to almost make light of his problem, or perhaps the severity of the drug. Either way, though, whether it is his treatment of his drug problem or how casually he describes, this lyric far more than unsettling. The drug habit for him began as a remedy for him to escape the constant pain he was in. In his own words, though, “I just thought, if I’m going to die, if I’m going to kill myself, I should just take some drugs.”

            Kurt Cobain’s story is an extremely sad one. At the age of seven his parents divorced, and the young artist’s childhood seemed to shatter with it. He grew up in and out of his parents houses and living homeless under bridges or on the street. It was at this time that his stomach pain reached a sort of peak, and with it the artist began using heroine. Even when Kurt Cobain finally grew up and became successful the sad story didn’t end; the artist became a target of the media and a type of pawn for the music industry. “The sad little, sensitive, unappreciative, Pisces, Jesus man” was thrust into a world where he had lost his privacy, and everything that he hated about himself was thrown directly into his face. Cobain found a love and had a baby and for a time that seemed to console him, but it also seemed to tear him up.

           “Throw back your umbilical noose so I can climb right back,” Kurt Cobain sings in his song, Heart Shaped Box, talking about how terrifying the idea of having a baby was for him. Frances, his daughter, may have made him happy, but it without a doubt also terrified him deep down, as he ends his suicide note with the words, “Frances and Courtney, I’ll be at your alter. Please keep going Courtney, for Frances. For her life, which will be so much happier without me.” As I said before, Kurt Cobain’s life is a sad one, but what is almost more sad is how many of his direct statements about his depression and suicidal tendencies were ignored or unnoticed until it was too late. Still, with the artists suicide now more than twenty years old, the artist’s work is still well known and influential, and while his death may have ended his career, it also seems to have allowed him to become the cult figure and cultural icon he is today. As Neil Young sings in Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black), “the king is gone but he’s not forgotten.”

Bibliography

1.    Fricke, David. “Heart-Shaped Noise. (Cover Story).” Rolling Stone 683 (1994): 63.                          Academic Search Premier. Web. 17 Apr. 2014

2.    Gilmore, Mikal, and Tobias Perse. “The Road From Nowhere. (Cover Story).” Rolling                     Stone 683 (1994): 44. Academic Search Premier. Web. 17 Apr. 2014

3.    Gold, Todd, Alexis Chiu, and Mary Green. “Remembering Kurt.” People 61.14 (2004):                    230-232. Academic Search Premier. Web. 17 Apr. 2014

4.    Strauss, Neil, and Alex Foege. “The Downward Spiral. (Cover Story).”  Rolling Stones                  683 (1994): 35. Academic Search Premier. Web. 17 Apr. 2014