Last night I was watching the 1997 film “Titanic” and thought about how accurate this film may/may not be in the depiction of the actual sinking of this ship. Of course, some scenes were for the dramatic affect, however this movie gives the newer generations some insight to the emotions and history of this tragic event that happened over 100 years ago. This scene in particular struck me because this is where the crew were loading the rich women and children into the life boats, not even filling them up all the way, nor are they including the poor women and children. I was watching and questioning this crew’s tactics and noticed that it was these actions that led to more lives being lost that could’ve been saved. I realized that if it weren’t for these actions, the end results could’ve been completely different than the history that we know it today.

-JW

If you look closely enough, you can spot the picture of Abe Lincoln sneaking in among the bulletin posts and calendar events around campus. I thought this would be a relevant hack since Blum really focused in on Lincoln in some aspects within his lecture, (i.e. Showing the different depictions of his assassination), so I printed out a picture of Lincoln and posted it on my dorm floor’s Bulletin Board so everyone could see it as they walk by.

When I was sitting in the history lectures this week a few cartoons were playing because they were being related to why the light bulb was used in cartoons to portray someone getting an “idea.”  However, indirectly related, some of the cartoons were being used as subtle advertisements to target kids and their parents. (ie. the cat in the video was buying headlights and contributing to the economy)

Seeing that example in class made me immediately think of an example in the movie “A Christmas Story.”  The company Ovaltine uses a secret code and game/ prize system for little kids to sell their product.  Once Ralphie realizes that he has been tricked to see that the “secret code” is just the company advertising, he’s a little angry.

-Katie Byrd

In our lecture on Wednesday, I participated in Professor Blum’s twitter challenge by tweeting this photo of Patricia Arquette at the Oscars. In her speech, Arquette called to action to create equal wage pay for men AND women. Women still make about 75 cents to every dollar a man makes today. Although I fully respect Arquette for using her Oscar acceptance speech to shed light on an important economic inequality, she is a highly paid, A-list actress and has no idea what it is like to be a woman working 3 jobs just to provide for her family and still making less than her male coworkers.

Also shoutout to Professor Blum for picking me as the winner of his twitter challenge and for Titanic on VHS

I’m a film major and my main focus is on camera and lighting. Lighting is essential to films on giving it a themed look. You can arrange the lighting on how you portray your story. Here, we’re using an HMI light diffused by a 6×6 to light an actor walking from the house to the shed. We also used LEDs as fill in lights to the actor’s face.

I was sitting in my car eating a yummy bagel when this debate came on the radio over a dress. At first I was really confused becuase they where aruging over what color the dress is….. thats 21st centuey for us. But then I realized its all just different perspectives on what the person sees the dress as, and that is what history essentially is. A bunch of people arguing over whether Abraham Lincoln was shot on the left or the right, with a hat or without. And regarding people seeing that either gold and white or blue and black its just the different tones the eyes pick up. You aren’t crazy for seeibg either one. Well maybe a bit ;).

I just made up a word. Like Shakespeare. Except it was much faster spread and accepted. Doth hast to address me as such now. If you left after the first quiz in large lecture, you got blumed.

For my Hack I choose to show how history has changed in little ways that we may not always seem to think of. Before I would always watch movies on a VHS today a VHS is considered old and everything is now on DVDs and CDs. I got the Idea for this hack when Professor Blum gave the winner the Titanic movie on VHS and he made a remake saying “the oldest movie on the oldest way to show it”

After my grandma passed away, my family went through her old things to see what we wanted to keep. Among the things my family chose were these two old radios. As I was looking at them today, they reminded me of what Dr. Blum said about “conspicuous consumption” and how the American economy is driven by the words “more, more, more.” These radios come from the time when these two concepts reached their peak: the 1950’s. New, mass-produced home appliances were designed to be bright and flashy in order to represent the wealth and affluence of their owners. The radios also represent the concept of “more, more, more,” as there are two of them. Not to mention they weren’t the only ones my family found in the house. This is prefectly representative of the time in which they were made as people were encouraged to buy as much as they could. The solution to every problem is to buy more. My grandparents certainly bought into this concept, as we found at least 6 radios like this in their house, among a myriad of other things.