The Statue

Tonight on Seinfeld, there will be an episode involving Jerry who believe his maid stole a statue from his apartment. I looked ahead in the information to see what episode it was and sure enough, I have seen it numerous times. To sum up this episode, Jerry believes his maid took a certain statue. However, the maid is such a nice guy that he feels bad asking him where it went. Kramer, Jerry's friend, knows that man stole it. Kramer goes to the maids apartment and steals it back.

There is a lot more that goes into this episode to make it funny such as Kramer acting like a cop to enter to maid's apartment. This is not what I want to focus on for this blog though. The fact that Jerry feels bad asking where the statue went raises an interesting question in my mind. Do u just let something like a small, inexpensive statue go or do you confront the man based on principal? I know I would have to confront the man in a passive way and ask him where it went. If he denies and I have no hard evidence, at least I have made the point that I am aware of my surroundings so he would never do it again. If I do not say anything though, I receive his services for longer, and he is an excellent maid. The problem with this is that I have lost the dominate control of the situation. If you purchase something, you are paying for a service and are the one who can choose what kind of service is right for you. You are in the dominate position. In this episode, Jerry lost his dominate position in the relationship and thankfully, his friend had his back.

This may seem like a very boring topic. This is Seinfeld though. It is a show founded on the idea that little situations can amount into huge profits. I enjoy the show because it relates to me and has messages in the show that can effect our everyday lives.

Topic Searching

So far, we have watched around fifty minutes of the movie Land of the Dead. Most of the main characters have been introduced up to this point and there have been a number of topics that have jumped out at me. Most of the ones that I thought of though were not present on the list. I have to say that this sort of movie is not my first pick when I walk into the movie store, but I am learning more about analyzing movies and realizing that perhaps I fall into advertising traps.

After I glanced over the topics in class today, I realized that I have very limited exposure to movies of this kind. I have not seen any of the other related movies to this series. However, the topic involving fandom, which I later learned dealt with fans, jumped out at me. This topic seems like fun to research and write about because I am not in this particular "fandom." As the readings have stated, people often fall into advertising traps and do not properly analyze a movie when viewing it. To some embarrassment, I am absolutely one of these people. This movie is not boring and fake to me. My preconceived notion of this flick was completely wrong. The reason I am enjoying this movie so far is because I hardly ever watch a real zombie movie. Usually my movies involved comedy in relation to American Pie or Old School with all the same jokes just presented differently. This movie presents more opportunities to research and learn more about a certain aspect of this movie. So far, it looks as if I'll be researching fandom and The Land of the Dead.

The Close Talker

Have you ever began talking to someone and they began to physically grow closer to you as the conversation continues? Well, Seinfeld created an episode about the way people sometimes invade other people's personal comfort space when engaged in a conversation. Elaine has a boyfriend who is a close talker and of coarse, this is television so they take it to the extreme. He grows so close to character's faces that it almost appears they may touch lips.

Elaine's friends, Jerry, Kramer and George, all notice how close this man gets to them when he talks. When Kramer is first introduced to him, he actually falls down from leaning back to far. This raises the important question. How close is too close? Is there a certain measurement we should have established for talking distance and if there was, what would be consequences of violating this act? Thankfully, there was no issue with Elaine's boyfriend's breathe. I know this is something which everyone has encountered multiple times in their lives and I find it extremely hard to actually tell a nice person to step off a little bit. Later in the episode Jerry decides that he is not going to back down anymore. He is going to stand his ground and talk to him face to face from a distance that is uncomfortable to watch from my couch. The plan sort of backfires though. Jerry expects to gain respect and the man might back off, but he did not. It is just his nature to be a close talker and there's nothing they could do about it. Clearly, Elaine's shallow behavior lead to their breakup which in their opinion was inevitable.

Analyzing Movies

The readings for this week involved the audience's ability to properly analyze all the different aspects of a movie. Though we have not been able to discuss these articles in class yet, there is many things to be said about the readings. The two passages relate to one another but focus on slightly different areas. The second reading was about a man named Roger Ebert. He is an extremely famous movie reviewer.

He spoke of the fact that audience's watch movies based on their advertisement budgets. This means that people go to the movies which are broadcast on a large scale to them. People tend to neglect subtitle films and watching movies more as a witness than a collaborator as he stated in this passage. I agree that people do tend to witness a movie rather than stop the movie and discuss it with their peers. People try to grasp the overall plot of the movie more. I think Roger Ebert is trying to get the audience to focus on the director's intentions and critique things such as lighting or setting. The only problem I have with this is that stopping a film to discuss it ruins the flow and can take away from the suspense or emtions portrayed on screen. For example, if we are about to hit the climax in a movie and my friend stops to talk about the lighting, my mind is redirected off the subject and the movie's intentions of reaching a climax is lost.

In conclusion, Roger Ebert is a credible reviewer who makes excellent points when he speaks of people not watching enough movies that aren't broadcast often in advertising. We should become more active and expand our horizons. However, I think he may have gone into too much detail about what his job entails and not enough of about why expanding my horizons will be beneficial. His opinion is clear, but his justification does not appeal to me as the reader.

One Magic Luggi

Last night, Seinfeld viewed possibly their greatest episode ever. This episode featured, Jerry, Keith Hernandez, Kramer and Newman. The episode begins with Kramer and Newman expressing their hate for Keith because they thought he spit on them after a baseball game. After Keith gets the chance to explain he could not have spit on Kramer and make it do a U-turn to hit Newman, they forgive him. The part of this episode which was also in our reading was the relationship between Jerry and Keith.

The readings last week dealt with queerness and grabbed my attention immediately when Seinfeld was mentioned. I will admit to laughing at Jerry's ability to over analyze the situation. The show does indirectly make fun of the homosexual audience. Jerry tries to make it sound like when they go out its like a date but takes an adamant stand to not being gay. The situation could easily be replaced with a well known actress but instead, they use a male baseball player. I never noticed how much Seinfeld mentions little situations which they shoot down or poke fun at homosexuality. This was an obvious situation but there are punch lines now that I notice when I was the shows and they can be interpreted as insulting to a particular crowd.

I truly love the show for how it is able to analyze everyday situations. Now though, I realize how certain people could be offended with the way they portray women and gays. The problem is that Seinfeld is no longer around to make any changes in their show and these episodes will be around for a very long time.

Essay Number 2

This week we will be handing in our second essays. This essay was somewhat related to the advertising essay but focused on reality television. In both essays, there is the ability to analyze what writers, editors, and producers seem to be portraying to the public. My reality television essay was created to answer the question of if reality television is truly real.

The second essay I found to be more challenging than the first. The reason I say this is because this essay it was more difficult to not repeat what it was I was saying. I found myself continuous coming up with the same explanation to reasons why reality television is not real. However, this is a topic which once again I was passionate about. I too am sick of reality television doing so well in our society. It felt good to be able to put my thoughts about this subject on paper. I enjoy the brainstorming part where I was able to list reasons why something took place on Joe Millionaire for instance. I could say they were editing a sentence that was not there, or the producers were not showing the camera in hopes of letting the minds of the audiences wander. The show was able to fool a lot of people but as soon as I saw it, I knew something was up. There had been no contact of the kind between the two individuals other than kissing and it seemed odd that the girl would be alright with partiicipating in these actions in the middle of the woods. Overall, I enjoyed the essay once again. It is fun to put your thoughts on paper and not have to regurditate information like every other class.