Rush: A Skateboarding Documentary

Pursuit of Happiness

            At the point of the novel: Strength in What Remains by: Tracy Kidder, where I’m at, we can clearly see what type of person Deo is. We already knew he was an incredibly smart guy, since he had been a top of the class medical student, at a collage in Belgium. Now we can also see what a nice and genuine person he is. For example the way he tries to greet everyone even when he doesn’t know them, and besides the fact that all these people give him horrible looks. Also, in a way, he is a really cute guy, I mean, his way of being and the way he tries to communicate with people. Probably it’s the way the author tells Deo’s story really using ethos that make me feel that way. I’m sure it’s not only because I’m a female, I think every kind of audience will feel the same way toward a character like Deo.

            There’s a point where Deo talks about how he feels he is starting to become a New Yorker, and what a New Yorker is. Since he starts feeling more confortable and familiar with certain places, he didn’t before. But in the point of the novel I got, Deo changes his mind, and is rather sad. Not because he has given up, but because the condition he is in that makes him feel that way. “This pace made you feel like you where simply not a human being. How could you be a human being like everyone else, if your circumstances were this different?” (Pg. 33) At this point Deo was homeless, sleeping in Central park every night, had a crappy pay for his job with almost no tips, and was awfully thin (which for him was a big deal because where he came from being chubby meant one was wealthy).

            This is why I decided to title this post “Pursuit of Happiness”. Deo reminds me of the main character, Chris Gardener of the movie Pursuit of Happiness. Mainly because of what horrible conditions they were both in. The part of the novel where Deo sleeps in a grassy portion of the park that was being taken care of policemen, and has the need to run as soon a Deo spots the police in the morning, remind me of the scene of the movie where Chris and his son have to sleep in a public bathroom at a subway, and are woken up by workers trying to get inside the bathroom. Both being horrible and touching scenes are really impacting even ones to cry for. But with such great qualities Deo has, such as Chris had in the movie, I am sure he will somehow miraculously get out of such horrible situation and rise up. And I am sure of it, not only because I read the back part of the book where it might mentions something like that, but because the type of person that Kidder has introduced Deo to be.

Vocabulary

Fringe (n): not part of the mainstream; unconventional, peripheral, or extreme.

Reluctant (adj.): unwilling and hesitant; disinclined.

Haggie: An emptied out haggis, resulting in a moist, warm hollowed out sheep stomach.

Gist (n): the substance or essence of a speech or text.

Stifle (v): restrain (a reaction) or stop oneself acting on (an emotion).

Unpretentious Adaptation

I have just started reading a novel called Strength in What Remains by Tracy Kidder. At first I wasn’t fully content with my decision to read this, since its not the kid of genre I usually enjoy. But seriously, since the fist sentences of the book I was hooked. There is nothing in particular that make the beginning special, but something did and I enjoyed it.

It’s about this man, Deo who came to New York, at about his 30’s I’m guessing. After six months on the run, from Burundi where at the time (1994) it was in horrible conditions with war and deaths. He arrives to America with almost nothing. Now, right there the story already gets even more intriguing, we all want to know how a guy, that by the way, knows no English since his native language is French, will survive in a place like America, and much worst, New York!

When Deo first came to New York, at the airport he met a guy, Muhammad, who I like to believe is his some kind of guardian angel, since Muhammad pretty much saved Deo. He gave him a place to stay while he settled, and helped him get a job. Although probably Muhammad will be a nobody in a couple of chapters, right now he is the savior.

The first time Deo went to find a job, Muhammad had kind of given him directions of how to get there. However New York is not a simple city and much less for a tourist whose never been to America. So as you can imagine Deo got lost, and wasted the whole day on the subway trying to find his way back. I can really assimilate to this since I am a person who gets lost really easily. Although the author makes an excellent job describing Deo’s experience, I can completely understand how he feels like, and it’s definitely not a good feeling. A mixture of being confused and paranoid and disoriented is simply horrible. But it was here that we see how Deo’s personality is. He never panicked, just kept trying, and he learned street names and images for potential use, when he was to take the subway again. Deo is definitely a smart and brave man.

We can also see how Deo compares the city to where he used to live, remembering his native birthplace, and seeing how similar yet extremely different they are. “…He was met by a noise as loud and constant the waterfall on the Siguvyaye River, but much less peaceful: a mingled noise of car horns and sirens and shouts and babbling voices and a blaring…” (Pg.15) What is interesting is that he doesn’t connect his assimilation with any war nor death scene he must have lived in Burundi, but to beautiful waterfalls from nature. When the reality is horrible, n this cases he chooses to forget it. Something that seems even worse is how he is sanding there in the street, and everyone else beside him, yet nobody knows his story; in fact, most of America didn’t even know the situation of Africa at that time.

Vocabulary

Tenement (n): a piece of land held by an owner.

Remnant (n): a small remaining quantity of something.

Blare (v): make or cause to make a loud, harsh sound.

Importance of The Bug

The Year the Monarchs Didn't Appear by: Jim Robbins

Nowadays people don’t actually pay much attention to the environment. Sure, everyone talks about it being important and crucial, and whatever else these people think sound appropriate to say they say. But do people really mean it? Or, even better, do people actually do something about it? Yeah, probably not.

Well I guess at least it means something that people are talking about the environment. But the again, do they really know what they are talking about? And again, probably not. What people think they know about global warming and fossil fuels and pollution, is simply just that. But there are much more crucial details we have to pay attention to, affecting the environment and the world. For example one that really called my attention, that fact that the monarch butterflies are appearing in much less quantities each year.

The fact that barely 5% of last years 60 million butterflies showed up this year, later than they usually do means something. And I believe that it is a really important subject we must pay more attention to. Companies and businesses are worried about how much money they will earn this year, instead of how will they work to be friendly to the planet. And at a point like this one, where our environment is crucial to our survival, and where our environment is as fragile and damaged as it is, there is no time to think simply about money.

What called my attention the most was when Robbins mentions the Roundup. And how this chemical that is obviously lab made, to kill all plants except the crops meant to be planted. Well this also means death of insects of the area and their source of food. Now, that may seem like no big deal. But if it’s happening all over the US and who know where else, it is a big deal. “Insects help stitch together the web of life with essential services, breaking plants down into organic matter… some 80 percent of our food crops are pollinated by insects, primarily the 4,000 or so species of the flying dust mops called bees” says Jim Robbins, and if all this insects will soon disappear, from what Robbins talks about in his article, we are kind of damned.

It does sound absurd, but Robbins has a point when he agrees with Dr. Tallamy, mankind does depend on bugs. And we have to make this notice. The good thing is, we can make a difference, and there people already doing so. ”It’s a cause everyone with a garden or yard can serve. And he says support for it needs to develop quickly to slow down the worsening crisis in biodiversity.” So yes, we can help and we must, because mankind depends on it.

Deciphering Comedies

Lately I’ve been seriously addicted to a comedy show: New Girl. It’s about this girl, Jess who is looking for an apartment and ends up living in a loft with three other guys who are best friends. There’s Schmidt, the guy with the money that insists on everything having to be perfect, who is kind of in love with Cece, the model, which is Jess’s best friend. There’s Winston the ex basketball player. And Nick the really disorganized guy who hasn’t figured out his life yet, and who has a mutual attraction to Jess.

I’ve never really paid much attention o why and how comedies are so funny and inviting to people. But after reading chapter twenty of Thank You For Arguing, everything makes much more sense. All comedies have this repetitive script, just like chick flicks, and romantic novel. I’m not saying they’re necessarily telling the same story, just that the story line is really similar. Well as romantic stories always begin with the girl hating the guy and then reaching a problem, ending with them falling in love and blah blah blah. Comedies, as I learned, also have certain trick that Shakespeare used many years ago. And these are some examples of what I got out of one episode of New Girl.

The episode I analyzed was about Jess being mad with Cece because Cece had become rather superficial after becoming a model, but Jess screws up and has to make up to Cece. In the other side, Schmidt is infuriated with Nick because he claims he love Nick, but Nick doesn’t feel the same way about Schmidt. And Winston is just in the background supporting Schmidt.

The fist figure I got out of this episode was when Winston was trying to make a point to Nick, and he did so by denying what Nick was saying, and by using a low tone-turning the volume down.

NICK: Nobody buys people cookies for no good reason.

WINSTON: You sill don’t get it, do you?

NICK: Nobody!

WINSTON: That wasn’t a cookie that was a piece of his heart, now if you don’t mind, GOOD NIGHT.

Now, before this argument started, Schmidt had given a cookie to nick, but Nick hadn’t put much importance to it. Also Winston had emphasized to Nick how rood he was for never saying good night to him. That would explain the ending of the argument. Even though this is a really silly argument, that is kind of the point, and Nick ends up feeling guilty at the end of the scene, while Winston ends up sounding more reasonable.

Another example, more to the end of the episode was when Nick finally tried to be nice, and bought a cookie for Schmidt, but Schmidt seemed insulted.

SCHMIDT: This is so terrible!

NICK: You gave me a cookie, I gave you a cookie.

NICK: You gave me a cookie,  gave you cookie.

NICK: Gave me cookie,  got you cookie.

NICK: You gave me a cookie, I got you a cookie man.

NICK: You gave me a cookie, I gave you a cookie. We’re even!

NICK: We’re even Schmidt!

NICK: What do you want from me Schmidt!

Here the opposite happened, Nick amplified the argument to prove his point. At the begging he said it real low, and with every new phrase he amplified the volume, until he was just screaming. He got to a climax and “used overlapping words in successive phrases to effect a rhetorical crescendo”.(Pg. 225)

Although this script might seem incredibly silly, it works perfectly. We can see how scripts for comedies are created taking this, many year old tools, and creating pieces that attract audiences by using these figures. Now I can be able to say every time I’m watching a comedy, every technique that is used. Although I will probably get hit in the face by whoever is watching it with me, because, nobody really cares about that stuff, only if you know what it is, and then it’s really interesting.