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nievefergie · 5 years

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ELA

When first applying for college in 2015, I was unsure of what I wanted to do. I knew I wanted to be in the television industry, but in what capacity, I did not know. I applied to many art and liberal art schools, including Emerson. I even got in. Yet I had eagerly applied early admission to Bennington College in hopes of pursuing acting and English. Once I got to Bennington, I knew I had made a mistake. In the first few months, I looked at my options of transferring. I knew I wanted to study abroad because my mom had. Currently, I am studying abroad in London, gaining experience about how to use what I have learned at Emerson elsewhere in the world. At Emerson, I would get to study abroad and go to Los Angeles, the city I spent my childhood and where I was planning on spending my future. I could get everything I wanted, and it would be worth giving up the chance of Bennington improving to get it. I needed that opportunity. I got into Emerson and Sarah Lawrence. I kept coming back to Emerson, in all of my applications. It was like the college invited me with open arms, and I finally took the sign and made the leap to trust the universe and what it clearly had planned for me. I was finally ready for the structure Emerson had planned that Bennington couldn’t give me — and Bennington certainly couldn’t give me ELA. When I came to Emerson, I came in knowing what I wanted to do with my life. And I never knew the answer to that question until I realised I could achieve it at Emerson. I always knew playwriting was a respected career. Same with filmmaking. I never had confidence in my own dream of wanting to write for TV because I didn’t know it was possible. At Emerson, I could study the specific major itself. My dreams stopped being trivial and started being real. It gave me the confidence to pursue my passions through academic classes and extra curriculars. This gave me the ability to pursue my dreams professionally. I wrote for The Emerson Channel’s late night comedy show, Closing Time, and had an absolute blast. It reminded me of when I professionally taught sketch comedy at Buck’s Rock Camp during the summer as a Clown CIT. Writing for Television and writing my own spec script helped me gain more professional knowledge than simple academic work I experienced at a less structured institution like Bennington. Not only did I enjoy writing for that class and Writing the Short Subject, but I also truly felt like I got work and experience out of it. That’s what I want from ELA — I want the academic experience and professional experience. Academically, I plan on furthering my Visual and Media Arts career and credits. Mapping out the future of my academic endeavour, I plan to take a VMA seminar and Advanced Critical Studies along with my internship. Using my past history of internships where I previously held position at a Latin jazz record label, I hope to take the ability to work in a small working environment and bring that experience into a bigger corporation and industry. I hope to acquire an internship in the television industry with the help of people in the industry that I personally know, as well as people I will meet through networking. I have compiled an entire list of alumni from both Emerson, Bennington, Buck’s Rock Camp, along with my sorority, Sigma Pi Theta, of whom I am planning to reach out to. I have cover letters and a resume that have all been checked over by the career services at Emerson. From this program and this internship, I am hoping to gain more than just credits, but to to secure myself a spot in my dream future — the one where Emerson leads me to write for a children’s network television show. There is nothing more I want than to work in television. I want to inspire kids the way TV inspired me as a kid. I want to be in the room where it happens. I want to surround myself with heavily experienced professionals and gain as much knowledge as possible. I want to sit in and watch and experience everything I can to better my own craft. The best place for me to experience all that is in Los Angeles. The best place for me to network the television industry is in Los Angeles. And the best way to do all of that in Los Angeles is with Emerson. After years of preparing, I am ready to take the leap and go to Los Angeles like all the coming-of-age movies I love so much. Most importantly, I am ready to do that with Emerson, to give back to the community that helped me get to this stage in my life. Los Angeles has always been my goal. I was raised there until I was a toddler. I used to go to Disneyland and Universal for birthdays. I would draw on my sidewalk with chalk with our neighbours in our swimsuits with the hose on. My mom and I would share In-N-Out for dinner once a week while my sister was at school. I would trick or treat in Hancock Park with my sister on our block. When we moved away, I was devastated. I would scribble onto papers and put them in the mailbox hoping the would find there way there. Los Angeles has always been my Mecca. As I got older, I realised my Mecca was a Mecca to many of the people I wanted to be. It was the Mecca of movies, of television, of acting and celebrities my dad worked with. Most importantly, it was the home to Disney, my dream company. Disney has always been the goal since I was young. Every career I dreamt up led back to it. I want to write for Disney Channel and inspire kids with shows like Girl Meets World and Andi Mack that teach life lessons through their plots and characters. I want to go home and find my way to my dream the way every protagonist does, and I firmly believe that Emerson will be the ship that takes me there. I remember calling my mom up, first semester of Bennington, frantically telling her I made the biggest mistake of my life. I told her Emerson was where I was meant to be. I listed out all the reasons. When my mom asked me if I was sure, if I didn’t want to wait it out at Bennington, I told her I couldn’t. I told her I had to transfer to Emerson as soon as possible. That way, I could have a year to adjust, a semester to go to London, and a semester in Los Angeles. And I’ve never looked back. I’m studying in London right now, experiencing another side of the world with everything Emerson has already taught me. I never had a dream for college before Emerson. Plenty of kids in early high school know where they’re going and what they’re doing. I just figured it out a little late, with the help of some friends, some fate, and most importantly, the help of some really good television shows.

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nievefergie · 5 years

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Myth

Roland Barthes believed that language and power were used through myths to naturalize particular world views. Barthes believed that myth was based on the history of people in power, and in such, could be manipulated when out of context. Myth is argued to be de-politicized due to the need for myths to be naturalized and normal and innocent. This can easily be applied to advertisements on television, especially because although advertisements hold such political motivations, they promote them through the distorted innocent means of marketing to children (Barthes).

To analyze this myth, I chose a commercial for Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes from 1953. This is the signifier which denotes the selling of Kellogg’s. The commercial begins with an animation of the Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes box with Tony the Tiger asking to introduce his good friend Clark Kent, the star of Superman to the camera. Clark Kent, universally known around the world as a reporter when undercover, reports that he sees people all around the world enjoying his favorite cereal, Frosted Flakes. He then uses his x-ray vision to look into a house of a brother and sister, arguing over who can be Superman. The boy argues that his sister cannot be Superman, because she is a girl, but Superman would like it if she ate more of his favorite cereal. The girl says that Frosted Flakes are her favorite too, and he offers that maybe she could be Supergirl. The two laugh, and the scene goes back to Clark Kent, recapping that kids argue, but never about Kellogg’s cereal because they can all agree that Frosted Flakes are the best. Clark then asks the box, and Tony the Tiger, how Frosted Flakes taste. The commercial cuts to animation once more, where a cutely animated Tony the Tiger growls his famous catchphrase, “[they’re] great!” — then a jingle plays while Tony the Tiger eats and enjoys his sugary cereal.

Best described, this commercial influences the ideology of children and how easily influenced they are when the product being marketed is being marketed along with another product. Kellogg’s sponsored the show Adventures of Superman and partnered with the show to create a series of commercials of Superman as Clark Kent promoting their cereals. By using Superman, Kelloggs is appealing to the all-American public, along with children. Superman embodies America — his catchphrase is, “truth, justice, and the American way”. By showing Americans that the very soul of America eats their cereal, Kellogg’s is influencing the young market that they can be just like Superman if they eat their cereal, too. This is also specifically aimed at girls who want to be like Superman but are too feminine because Superman also represents masculinity. The girl in the advertisement settles for eating cereal to be like Superman rather than contributing to his endeavors for justice, because this is the way she is meant to contribute to ‘the American way’ according to Clark Kent. The cereal ends up being more about children contributing to a capitalist America that Superman represents. The image means to promote Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes and also promotes Adventures of Superman at the same time, but the image really shows the popularity of both entities to create more sales in children who admire Superman and the wholesome American family and their gender stereotypes.

Bibliography: Barthes, Roland. Mythologies: Roland Barthes. New York: Hill and Wang, 1972

#superman #frosted flakes

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Modern Times Adaptation

INT. OFFICE - DAY

CONOR, late 40s, sits at his office desk in a cubby. Binders surround him on the shelves behind him. He types on the computer. He clicks the keys with only his two pointer fingers. Occasionally he moves the mouse to move the cursor on his screen.

The phone moves to represent its ringing. Conor answers, listens, and hangs up. Conor repeats picking up the phone, clicking the hold button, forwarding the person to another caller a few more times.

Conor looks to the one bright colored thing on his desk - a macaroni noodle picture frame with a picture of him as a child. He picks up the photo, glances back at the emails, and puts the frame down.

Conor goes back to writing his emails when one of the emails won’t send. Conor continuously keeps pressing send until he gets violent with the computer. He finally punches the computer, fist going through the screen. He is electrocuted.

Bolts of lightning go up his arm and shock him like he’s in a Wile E Coyote cartoon.

INT. COMPUTER DESKTOP

Connor is lying face down on the PC computer background of the green mountains and blue sky that everyone knows. He slowly stands up on the grass, getting his footing. He is still a bit charred from the electric shock.

Connor turns around to face where the screen would be, (like in Wreck it Ralph when Ralph looks out of the game at the players at the arcade), and sees a fist into glass and darkness.

Connor turns back to see what his options are. He tries running into the fields off the left hand side of the screen, but only ends up appearing on the right hand side of the screen. He stops in the middle.

Conor then clicks one of the tabs below him, clicking his email. His email opens and he is on the screen. The email that didn’t send is still there. He walks over and clicks send. It still won’t send. He stops on it. It sends.

While the mail is getting smaller and zooming off, Conor gets on the mail and zooms away. It brings him to another persons email. He studies the other emails. He reads that he is about to be fired.

Angry, Conor looks up a site that he knows will give him a virus on his boss’s email. The mouse begins moving as Conor watches the boss click on it, and a virus comes up and shuts down the computer.

INT. OFFICE - DAY

Conor wakes up from being electrocuted, his fist still in the computer. He takes his fist out, collects his picture frame, and leaves the office.

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nievefergie · 5 years

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Is Disney an Auteur Through Genre Theory?

Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson says to Moana, “If you wear a dress and have an animal sidekick, you’re a princess”. Disney’s most recent iteration of the animated princess genre appeared in 2016 and featured a number of updates to what is often considered to be an outdated and/or old- fashioned storyline. Even though it departs from the formula by doing away with one of the major elements—the prince and the love story between the prince and the princess — the film nonetheless adheres to the central formula of the princess genre of wanting more than the sheltered life they live. This can be seen in every Disney princess movie where the protagonist sings about wanting something of a future they look forward to. At the same time, this film offers a convenient vantage point to ask a different question: who is the author of the film, and why does it matter? Is Disney as a brand the auteur of this film because they created the Disney genre, or are Ron Clements and John Musker the auteurs of this film inside of the Disney Princess genre? This paper will explore Moana from these two particular theoretical perspectives in order to elucidate that Ron Clements and John Musker are the auteurs of Moana due to the fact that they created the highly intertwined Disney Princess genre.

In 1951, the French film magazine Cahiers du Cinéma published an article by André Bazin called, ‘On the Politique des Auteurs’. Bazin argued that in cinema, the author of the film was the director and they are the singular creative force guiding the film through stylistic motifs and thematic preoccupations. Bazin referred to it as auteurism, and the theory took off all over the world. Auteurism remains a preferred theory of film authorship due to the value of originality in Hollywood and the entertainment industry. American film critics like Andrew Sarris argue that auteurism is made up of three parts: technique, personal style, and interior meaning. British film scholars argue that auteurism is more structural, with the director achieving high-quality work through anthropology and literary studies and their principle of methods (Chris). Most popularly known, auteurism is the simple theory that the director of a film is the mastermind behind the creative piece as its true author.

Though, in a time where cinema was being spoken about as original and how to tell apart true masters and authors during the French New Wave, nowadays the argument has little bearings. A large part of filmmaking is collaboration and all of the various jobs and hours going into it. There are writers, producers, directors, executives, actors, set designers, etc., that all contribute to the final product. It might almost seem expeditious to label one of these artists as an individual visionary. This opens up the debate for the auteur theory to enter the idea of the corporate author. Thomas Schatz developed the concept of the model from Bazin’s remark about Hollywood individuals being less interested in the system of cinema as a whole. Schatz argues that even from early Hollywood, certain studios were easily distinguishable from the other studios. You knew if you were watching an MGM film or a Warner Brothers film — they each had their own distinct brands as an effect of the overseeing producers. Each studio used synergistic mechanisms of industrialized production to create their own brand (Chris). This begs the question — in terms of big studio movies, who is the true author? The directors or the studio producing the film?

John Lasseter once noted in his forward to The Walt Disney Film Archives: The Animated Movies 1921-1968, that, ‘‘people sometimes describe something as ‘Disney’ as if it were a single look and style, when in truth the look of the studio’s work was continuously evolving. Films were influenced by new artists joining the studio or coming into their own, new technologies being developed, and new styles arising in the culture of the day” (Mason, 3). From as early as 1921, audience members could tell the difference between something like an MGM film and a Disney film. Even as directors and technology changed, the brand was still aware of its market. Walt Disney wanted to make films for everyone, for both children and adults in the same medium. It would be highly unusual to see an ‘adult’ movie under the Disney brand. Their family-friendly brand is without competition as noted by Joel Best and Kathleen S. Lowney, who claim, “‘Disney’s rivals have clear moral reputations, [...] in contrast, the name Disney has become closely linked in the public mind with decent, family-oriented entertainment” (Mason, 4). With a set brand in mind, Walt Disney created the Walt Disney Company, and in that, he became an auteur of the work he was distributing. When he passed away, the company became the auteur of Walt Disney’s work.

When Moana was announced by the Walt Disney Company in 2014 and slated to premiere late 2016, it was marketed to be the next Disney Princess movie. It was to be directed by Ron Clements and John Musker, who had just previously directed The Princess and the Frog in 2009. The two directors joined the Walt Disney Company over 40 years ago while they were in their twenties, being trained by one of the original Nine Old Men. Throughout their time at Disney, the two together have directed seven films: The Great Mouse Detective (1986), The Little Mermaid (1989), Aladdin (1992), Hercules (1997), Treasure Planet (2002), The Princess and the Frog (2009), and Moana (2016). It stands to reason that their directing of The Little Mermaid is what resurrected Disney’s feature animation business and began what fans and historians refer to as ‘The Disney Renaissance’. After The Little Mermaid’s success, Disney green-lighted Musker and Clements’s next project — a comedy called Aladdin. Aladdin was to also feature a princess, and prince, their love story, a faithful and lovable sidekick, and an evil villain (Miller). Even though Disney already had three successful princess movies before the Disney Renaissance during the Golden and Silver Ages in Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (1937), Cinderella (1950), and Sleeping Beauty (1959), Disney had not done another fairy tale since. It seemed as if Musker and Clements had created a new form of Disney Princess, and their Disney Princess was modernized for this time period’s new genres.

John Musker and Ron Clements’s Disney Princesses stood different than the princesses of before. Not only were they bringing in a substantial amount of money through things like tickets, but also through merchandise and consumerism. Little girls wanted to be these princesses. These new princesses inspired them to be strong. After the success of four Disney Princess films in the Disney Renaissance, The Disney Princess line was created in 2001 as an advertising and marketing campaign to encourage children to identify with the characters so they would buy associated products by contributing to a new ‘girlhood’ (England et al.). Disney had officially taken the work that John Musker and Ron Clements achieved through Aladdin and The Little Mermaid, and made it more than just individual markets under Disney Animation’s properties, but into a whole brand of itself, the genre, under ‘the Disney Princess’.

The term ‘genre’ is French for type or kind, but when used to describe works of literature, films, or television programs, genre theory implies that these works of art can be categorized into a class of related works. Film and television genre categories are very limited and culturally specific. Rather than using the genre ‘comedy’, the specific genre like ‘screwball comedy’ and ‘romantic comedy’ are used to measure comic forms of mass media. Due to the industrialization of mass media, the genre became a way to standardize similarity and differences in the production of a product (Feurer). Audience members know that if they go into a film labeled as a romantic comedy, they know to expect tropes such as a heterosexual romance, a quirky best friend, enemies turned to lovers, and the ultimate happy ending.

Because critics argued that these genre films lacked originality, they decided they weren’t art or original because they were not authored works. Auteur theory attempted to take back the artistic merit in films from the Hollywood assembly line of studios and celebrate individual artists as the author of the films rather than following the categories already produced. Yet Jane Feuer, a film theorist, argues against the auteur theory destroying genre by stating,

However, it was discovered that certain authors expressed themselves most fully within a particular genre—John Ford in the western or Vincente Minnelli in the musical. In some sense, then, genre provided a field in which the force of individual creativity could play itself out. Some viewed the genre as a constraint on complete originality and self- expression, but others, following a more classical or mimetic theory of art, felt that these constraints were in fact productive to the creative expression of the author (Feuer, 107).

Thus, even though auteur theory evolved from the need to distinguish itself from what they considered was a lack of originality, they only further introduced genre and genre theory into the romantic bias of auteur criticism.

Audiences know what a Disney princess is. They know she wears a dress, her family is important to her, she always has a ‘want’ and she’s going to have a song where she declares it, and she has a love interest. The first Disney Princess movie to drift away from this was the Pixar film, Brave (2012). For the first time, there is no love interest. The movie is about familial bonds rather than the love between a man and a woman. But this movie, although under Disney, is still Pixar. This means that it is a weird combo of the Disney Princess genre and the Pixar genre that Disney bought. This set the standards for the new Disney Princess genre — rules can be broken. Which is where Moana comes in. Moana is a princess of an island called Motunui who wishes to see the world, or more specifically, the sea. She desires to explore and goes on a quest to save her island and family. Along the way, she does meet a man, but he is not her love interest. The demigod Maui remains a friend and guide along the whole film, never breaking or abusing the barrier between that romantic and mentor relationship.

So then, one may question: is Moana really a Disney Princess movie? Does it fit inside the genre that the Walt Disney Company created? And in turn, does it fit inside of the genre that Ron Clements and John Musker helped solidify during the Disney Renaissance? And finally, does that mean the Walt Disney Company are the auteurs of Moana, or does that mean Ron Clements and John Musker are? John Musker and Ron Clements changed Disney Princesses forever in 1989. They made the Disney Princess genre typically a musical fairytale, with a song about wanting something. In Moana, the song is called ‘How Far I’ll Go’ and is written by Lin-Manuel Miranda. The song describes the need to be out in the sea and how she plans to do that. Similarly to other Disney Princess ‘ I want’ songs like ‘Almost There’ and ‘Part of Your World’ from Clements and Musker’s The Princess and the Frog and The Little Mermaid respectively, the main protagonist sings about what she wants. These songs are clear indications of what the princess desires. The characters from Clement and Musker’s Disney Princess movies always sing these songs, and Moana adheres to this model they’ve created. Moana also fits inside the Disney Princess genre of having an animal best friend and sidekick. Jasmine has Raja, Ariel has Flounder, and Moana has Pua and Hei-Hei. Once again, Moana adheres to the Disney Princess genre. So even though Moana is newly different without having a prince or a love story, the base of the personality of the princess is still there and she still holds the crown, so she is a princess.

With Moana being apart of the Disney Princess genre, one could argue the Walt Disney Company is the auteur of the hit 2016 movie. Yet more important to make the distinction of who the auteur is, we have to look back at who created the genre inside of the company. The modern Disney Princess genre created during the Disney Renaissance was formed from Ron Clements and John Musker, therefore, they must be the auteurs of Moana, simply because they are the auteurs of the genre. Both genre theory and auteur theory give the audience expectations about what they are about to see. Going into a Disney film, you can expect family-friendly content with good morals. When going into a Ron Clements and John Musker Disney film, you know you’re going to get a classic modern Disney film. The audience knows this because Ron Clements and John Musker were hired by the brand that Walt Disney Company created to design a new and better genre for their animated fairytale adaptations, and that made the Disney Princess genre that Moana falls into. They created the genre, so they are the auteurs. 

Bibliography

Kackman, Michael, and Mary Celeste Kearney. The Craft of Criticism: Critical Media Studies in Practice. Routledge, 2018.

Mittell, Jason. “A Cultural Approach to Television Genre Theory.” Cinema Journal, vol. 40, no. 3, 2001, pp. 3–24.

Brookey, Robert Alan, and Robert Westerfelhaus. “The Digital Auteur: Branding Identity on the Monsters, Inc. DVD.” Western Journal of Communication, vol. 69, no. 2, Apr. 2005, pp. 109–128. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1080/10570310500076734.

Íris Alda Ísleifsdóttir 1988. From Snow White to Tangled: Gender and Genre Fiction in Disney’s “Princess” Animations. 2013.

Mason, James Robert. Disney Film Genres and Adult Audiences : A Tale of Renegotiated Relationships. 2017.

England, Dawn Elizabeth, Lara Descartes, and Melissa A. Collier-Meek. "Gender role portrayal and the Disney princesses." Sex roles 64.7-8 (2011): 555-567.

Miller, Bruce. “Disney's Ron Clements Still Looks to Do More, Post-'Moana'.” Sioux City Journal, 12 Sept. 2018.

#moana #media crit final

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Time After Time

In March of 2017, the television network American Broadcasting Company (ABC) aired the pilot of Time After Time, a television show mainly based off of the 1979 movie of the same name directed by Nicholas Meyers. Though the 1979 movie was based off of the 1979 book also titled Time After Time, the 2017 adaptation uses the basis of the movie as its platform due to its structure as a film. The pilot, titled Pilot, and the second episode called “I Will Catch You” aired back to back on 5 March 2017 with a total 2.54 million US viewers tuning in for the premiere. The pilot begins the murder of a simple prostitute on a small foggy London street by a doctor as he stabs her abdomen. Afterwards, the scene changes to H.G. Wells hosting a dinner party in Victorian London in 1893, five years after the canonical five were murdered by Jack the Ripper in 1888. Wells talks to his guests about his predictions for the future and how society will have become a utopia of medicine and technology and how he means to invent a time machine so he can see it for himself. His friends believe him to be absolutely mad, seeing as he has already invented one in his basement. Only John Stevenson, a well-respected surgeon, seems interested in the machine and if it would ever work, though he argues that time will not change the world into a utopia, and that fear rules the world and that people are animals. Upstairs, Scotland Yard arrives looking for John, believing him to be Jack the Ripper. They check his doctor bag and find a bloodied butchers knife, and run to the basement to arrest John. However, John is nowhere to be found because he escaped using Wells’s time machine. H.G. Wells then follows John Stevenson to 3 March 2017, among to bring him back to 1893 to pay for his crimes as Jack the Ripper. Throughout the season, Wells befriends Jane Walker, an assistant curator that he becomes romantically interested in. He also meets his wealthy great-great-granddaughter Vanessa Anders, who wishes to help Wells capture John and bring him back to 1893. The story’s main plot revolves around using the alternate history where Victorian writer H.G. Wells not only writes his famous The Time Machine but invents it as well, and uses it to catch his friend who turns out to be Jack the Ripper. Cultural historians can use ABC’s Time After Time to interpret the memory of Jack the Ripper in 2016 through its uses of allusions of historical truth and its ability to address society’s views of murderers and how time cannot change their interests in them.

Even though the show aired in early 2017, Time After Time by show-runner Kevin Williamson and Warner Brothers Television was picked up to series on 12 May 2016 by ABC. 2016 is a mere two years away from the 130th anniversary of the Whitechapel murders. As big anniversaries come up, more attention is payed. Therefore many movies and television series regarding Jack the Ripper were produced in 2016 all around the world. Jack the Ripper: The London Slasher was released 29 November 2016 in Germany as a TV thriller special. The film revolves around 19th-century London and a German photographer named Anna who’s brother is accused of being Jack the Ripper who attempts to prove him innocent by finding the real killer. In 2016, Razors: The Return of Jack the Ripper came out as another horror film based on the Whitechapel murders. Razors, however, is a modern continuation rather than a direct adaptation. The story revolves around a group of screenwriters who gather together in an abandoned building in London to write a horror script. When the screenwriters find the knives used by Jack the Ripper, they attempt to tell his story and each of the writers begins to disappear. Both these 2016 films about Jack the Ripper got awful reviews and are not well-known Jack the Ripper stories, nor are they well known normal films. This only further proves the point that 2016 was not a good year for fictional representations of the Jack The Ripper murders, because even ABC’s Time After Time was cancelled five episodes in, not even lasting the whole month of March when it premiered. Throughout the first two episodes, many themes from the original Whitechapel murders come through. The main allusion that comes across is that of the common belief that Jack the Ripper was a doctor. The idea that the Whitechapel murders were committed by a doctor was commonly spread throughout the press. The Evening Post consulted a spiritual medium to find answers to who committed the Whitechapel murders. The medium, Mrs. Charles Spring, warned against the military medicals, “fallen ones now they cannot get bodies from the hospital soon after death. They have a particular purpose; they want to find something”. The media in 1888 loved the idea that Jack the Ripper could be a well-respected doctor walking among the public. It would explain the killer’s anatomical knowledge of the female human body as he so brutally mutilated them, stealing their internal organs.

In Time After Time, the show introduces the audience to the silhouette of Jack the Ripper with a close up shot of John Stevenson’s medical bag. He places the bag on a crate and him and the prostitute he picks up kiss. The camera then goes to another shot of just the medical bag, and the woman asks if John is a doctor. He replies yes, and she asks if he likes it. He tells her it has its moments. After he murders her, he grabs his bag and top hat and leaves for H.G. Wells’s home. When Scotland Yard arrives doing a house to house search, they inspect John’s doctor bag. Wells objects, defending John to be a well-respected surgeon, only to find out that the doctors bag is filled with blood and the murder weapon. During the second half of the episode, John holds Jane hostage at an apartment along with another girl. Jane and the other hostage make an attempt to escape, and Jane falls down the stairs. Knowing that Jane is his only leverage to get Wells’s key to the time machine, John requests to treat her wounds. Jane, obviously not trusting John, is reluctant to have him help her, but he reminds her that he is a doctor and is enamoured by the first-aid kit so readily available. He cleans her wounds and tells her he specialises in stitches. She asks John why he kills and if he likes the idea of playing God — deciding who lives and who dies. Eventually, he answers her question, claiming, “You want to know why I kill? Because the only thing more fulfilling than saving a life is taking one. The instant sensation, the release it brings that slicks my thirst”. Not only is this incarnation of Jack the Ripper a doctor, but he is also shown to be obsessed with the power that comes with being a well-decorated doctor. Cultural historians can use this television show to interpret the memory of Jack the Ripper in 2016 through its uses of allusions of historical truth and its ability to address society’s views of murderers and time. One of the most pivotal moments in the pilot is when Wells and John are reunited in a hotel bar. The bar is lined with television sets showings news from 2016. They show images of school shootings, military invasions, ISIS, immigration, protests, and Trump. H.G. Wells watches on in horror, tears down his face. When John appears, Wells informs him he is there to take him back to Victorian London and back to Scotland Yard. Wells claims they are not in their time, and that they don’t belong in the 21st century. John disagrees, pointing to the news saying, “There it is, H.G. - There’s your utopia. Nothing but violence and bloodshed. Not quite what you envisioned. ‘We don't belong here’? On the contrary, I belong here completely. In our time, I was a freak. Today, I'm an amateur… You know you can walk into a shop here and purchase a rifle or a revolver, and it's perfectly legal? These people encourage it. No, I'm not going anywhere. I've yet to begin in this age”.

So much of today’s obsession with Jack the Ripper revolves around the fact that it was so long ago. Could time have changed anything? Could H.G. Wells’s optimistic view of time helping to progress the future into a utopia be real? Does the future hold such problems solved? Or does John Stevenson’s belief hold some truth to it — that people cannot change, and they are inherently animalistic and full of fear? Because looking at the news from 2016 to 2017, one could argue that society is just the same as it was in Victorian London. We still abuse the news to spread stories exploiting violence. We still have unknown famous murder mysteries unsolved. Ted Cruz gained popularity in 2016 while running for president when he became a meme about being the infamous Zodiac Killer. Fact and fiction continues to be blurred to this day. Our lifelong obsession with true crime and our need for answers has not changed since 1888. The value of this television show only further shows that the Jack the Ripper story is timeless because it can always be related back to the present day. There will always be serial killers who’s identities remain unknown. There will always be connections and allusions to use. Each remake of this classic Karl Alexander story takes place during a scary time — the 1979 movie takes place after the Jonestown massacre and the murders of Harvey Milk and George Moscone. The joke is always that the Ripper finds every timezone to be more promising than Victorian London, because every timezone can be just as dark and just as cruel, and just as good of an opportunity. The need to know Jack the Ripper’s identity and motive will always be here, and media will keep creating new ideas until we find the truth, and finding out the truth is very unlikely.

#Jack the Ripper

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A Research Paper on ABC’s ‘General Hospital’

I have been watching soap operas since I was nine years old. Soap operas made me who I am today — they laid the foundation of my love for stories and real television beyond cartoons. Soap Operas are a foundational television genre in defining the television industry. Soap operas began on United States radio networks in the 1930 as the radio was being introduced to homes across the United States (Soukup). The early soap operas were fifteen minute daytime radio serials used to market products such as soap and other mainly feminine products, earning the name “soap opera”. The commercial sponsorship of soap operas is what formed the structure of advertiser-supported programming that we currently have on television today (Meyers). With the World War II over and television on the rise, broadcasting networks adapted their radio shows for television to meet the demands of the developing world (Soukup). The familiarity of soap operas from the radio is arguably said to have been one of the reasons audiences across the country were so easily able to change mediums from radio to television. By 1951, all three networks had their own soap operas. Into the 1960s and 1970s, more than 10 hours of network programming per day was dedicated to soaps and brought audience members over the 20 million mark. Once the 1980s arrived, soap opera ratings began to decline and more than ten soap operas have been cancelled since the 1990s, including iconic ABC soap operas like One Life to Live and All My Children in 2011. As of 2017, there are only four soap operas currently on broadcast television (Meyers). This is a shame. We don't value soap operas like we use to which is a loss to the culture of The United States because daytime soap operas focus on taboo social issues such as AIDS and abortion more than any other genre of television. Many people remember the iconic episode of Degrassi where a young girl gets an abortion. In fact, it was not aired in American during the early days of its airing in 2004. The N (a subsidiary channel of Viacom’s Nickelodeon now known as TeenNick) refused to air the controversial two-part episode until two and a half years later in August of 2006, when the actress ranked it her favorite episode and so the network had to air it (McDermott). But this wasn’t the first time abortion had been a featured storyline in United States television. The first abortion storyline on television took place on the soap opera Another World (Lane). This begs the question - If we talked about it all the way back then on daytime television, why can we still not talk about it today on primetime? Another World aired from 1964 to 1999 on NBC for 35 years. Pat Matthews’s boyfriend, Tom Baxter convinced Pat to have an illegal abortion in New York. Pat had the abortion and then developed an infection which left her able to have any children. Tom then revealed he never loved Pat, and she shot him. While on trial for murder, she fell in love with her attorney, John Randolph. In the 1970s, the writers of Another World had Pat have correctional surgery and she had twins (Newcomb). In 1973, Erica Kane (played by the iconic Susan Lucci) on All My Children had the first legal abortion on Daytime television before Roe vs. Wade was decided on. Erica had her abortion because she was a model and did not want to end her career. The storyline made headlines over its controversy of the reasoning to have an abortions — to maintain a career rather than due to health concerns. The storyline was perceived well by feminists and ratings rose from 8.2 to 9.1. These groundbreaking moments in women’s history proved daytime television dealt with complex social issues that were relevant to the mainly female audience and their sophistication (Jr., Kevin Mulcahy). In the 1990s, AIDS was still very underrepresented and stigmatized. Children were warned to stay away from people with HIV and AIDs and treated it like the common cold. Most people still didn’t even know all the facts about it or its symptoms — they just knew to be afraid. One of the first shows to ever feature a character with AIDS was Stone Cates in 1993. Stone was living with the iconic mobster, Sonny Corinthos, along with his brother, Jagger Cates. He then began dating Robin Scorpio. Their love story was called “epic” and “tragic”. Stone became sick with the flu and Robin took care of him. Robin, a volunteer at the hospital, asked Stone to get tested for HIV. Stone got tested a year prior and was HIV negative, so he did not take another test. Unfortunately, the test was only negative because he took it to close to exposure for the antibodies to come up. Robin and Stone then had unprotected sex. When Stone’s flu did not let up, he got tested and was diagnosed HIV positive. Once Stone was shot and got his blood on Robin’s hands, he confessed to her that he was HIV positive and his previous girlfriend had been a drug addict and could have possibly contracted HIV. Robin and Stone were tested again, where Robin tested negative and Stone was revealed to have AIDS. Later, Robin contracted the flu and tested HIV positive as well. When Stone died, he had gone blind, but asked Robin to stand by the window and the light. As Stone looked towards the light, he saw Robin one last time before he died. The actor, Michael Sutton, was nominated for an Daytime Emmy for his performance. Stone, although a very prominent character in General Hospital’s past, was only on the show for roughly two years from 1993-1995. Dr. Robin Scorpio-Drake, however, remains a very prominent recurring character on General Hospital to this very day since 1985. Robin’s storyline has been a wonderful example to those living with HIV that they can live healthy, fulfilling lives. Robin ends up getting married to Patrick Drake, having a healthy daughter named Emma and a son named Noah, and becoming a renowned doctor. Robin still often brings up Stone Cates, which is a rare occurrence for such a short lived character arc. Robin refers to Stone as her first love and the reason she became to pursue her career as a doctor. Robin’s story influenced thousands around America because thousands of people watched Robin grow up from a child into a teenager for almost ten years. The storyline of Robin becoming HIV positive was so important to viewers because she was a character no one wanted to see go — and uninformed people assumed HIV positive was a death sentence. Robin Scorpio-Drake’s legacy still lives on, giving hope to many others living with the disease. An after school special called Positive: A Journey Into AIDS aired December 7th, 1995 on ABC after General Hospital hosted by Kimberly McCullough and Michael Sutton, who played Robin and Stone respectively. The after school special was done as a documentary as the actors talked to real people living with HIV and AIDS to prepare them to do the part justice. The special also showed a press conference where a reporter asked Michael Sutton if he was nervous about being stereotyped as gay due to the abundance of gay and bisexual men affected by the disease. Sutton responded that he was heterosexual and comfortable with his sexual preferences, but remained challenged by the interviewer’s question. He spoke about how “pigeon-holed” AIDS and HIV are and that people want to stereotype it as a gay disease in order to downplay it (Harrington & Watkin). The after school special won two Emmys in 1996 (""ABC Afterschool Specials" Positive: A Journey Into AIDS (TV Episode 1995)"). This special was so important because it was a fictional weekly story talking about the making of the storyline and talking to people who truly had HIV and were living with it in order to better the fictional weekly material. The Nurses’ Ball was founded in 1994 as an event for the citizens of Port Charles to fundraise for HIV and AIDS awareness and research. The event stands as a catalyst for various different storylines because all the characters are put together in one place. The actors who portray citizens of Port Charles, New York perform song and dances. In 1996, once Robin was diagnosed with HIV, The Nurses Ball became personal for many characters, each donating money for the cause. Even beyond the characters in the show, the show itself has donated more than $109,000 to the nonprofit organization Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation since 1998. The Nurses Ball became a day to mark the nationwide Day of Compassion. In 1997, AIDS-infected actor Lee Mathis, who played a recurring lawyer on General Hospital, passed away weeks before the annual ball he helped stage. General Hospital then donated the royalties from Robin’s Diary, a book to go along with the storyline, and Nurse’s Ball t-shirts (Bidwell). In 2013 when the Nurses Ball was brought back on as a plot device, the soundtrack to each performance was released on iTunes. And I could not find any sources for this, but I’m sure that some of the royalties to toward the same AIDS foundations. Not only has General Hospital and other daytime serials spent their money and time from their small budget to portray complex social issues, but they also donate money to the outside real people who’s real life stories they are portraying. Celebrity Health Narratives and The Public Health notes, “Interracial romance, homosexuality, divorce, alcoholism, mental illness, unwanted pregnancy, abortion, impotence, addiction, incest, down syndrome, suicide, anorexia, HIV/AIDS, rape, adultery … you name it. Daytime has dealt with it. NO other form of entertainment as so effectively addressed social issues” (Christina S. Beck,, Stellina M.A. Chapman, Nathaniel Simmons, 135). Because soap operas air every weekday, they are able to tell their stories from a unique place of creating suspense everyday. Everyday there has to be a reason for you to turn in tomorrow. And every Friday there has to be a reason to turn in next week. They constantly have to create drama to fulfill the quota of airing almost 250 days out of the year. And to create drama, the writers of soap operas take real issues in society and bring them to the beloved characters we already know and love and grew up with. They use things like abortions and AIDS and HIV to create a lasting impact on characters who have a long history. For example, when Starr Manning from General Hospital lost her baby in a car crash, it was more painful because we as an audience had grown up watching Starr and the actress Kristen Alderson — she had become family. We watched her day in and day out 250 days out of the year. That’s more than I see my own family. So instead, soap opera families become family. That can’t happen on primetime television. Primetime shows are based around the formula of there being a problem that is solved for the most part within thirteen to twenty-one episodes. Soap operas, on the other hand, can have baby switches that last more than half the year. Soap operas air so often that storylines can be given proper timing — pregnant characters can be pregnant for nine whole months. Primetime television simply doesn’t have the time to create such a product based on interpersonal relationships rather than the actual drama itself. These issues have to be personalized and how do you personalize someone when their time on the air is so short? Soap operas, however, can get into the heart of personal-social problems. Personal- social problems “consist of extraordinary circumstances that affect individuals or individual units of society - usually, crises in relationships or health” (Thoman). These problems are about people, and only then become a societal problem after people begin to be affected. The AIDS epidemic being a prime example — people were not interested until it began to effect the people in their community that they cared about. Soap operas talk about the people and the people who are affected and are able to give their time and effort in portraying stories about people and their personal-social problems that audiences can relate to. In conclusion, it is a shame that we as an American society value primetime television more than daytime soap operas because the latter gets to talk about social injustice and real life issues such as AIDS and abortion to educate their viewers. I think that is is truly tragic that audiences are being aged out of daytime when back in their prime, the 1960s-1990s, people of all ages watched. College students were a main part of the age group — both males and females spend their time between classes glued to a television screen (Lemish). And it probably meant a lot more for young impressionable kids living with their parents stigmas about HIV to see teenagers living with the disease. When I started watching One Life to Live in fourth grade, it was because I fell in love with pregnant sixteen year old Starr Manning and her high school friends. I fell in love with the character Shane Morasco and the question of who his father was. I fell in love with the missing baby Sam storyline. It was the storylines about children and teens that attracted a young Nieve to tune in tomorrow. I truly believe that if soap operas put their time and effort into teenage characters again, they will see a resurgence of young fans, especially if the storylines have to do with the social climate of Trump’s United States. Society is begging for a progressive genre on television, and I hope that they soon learn that it has been here all along, waiting, during the day rather than at night.

#general hospital

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nievefergie · 5 years

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When I transferred from Bennington College, I was looking forward to attending a large and diverse college. I wanted to know more people and their unique stories and gain experience from other peoples cultures. I wanted to immerse myself in a school that was devoted to the storytelling of all different types and cultures. One of the best things that I have gained at Emerson was the passion of speaking out against injustices. I have spent hours in the Boston Common protesting against gun violence and the Trump Administration. Not only can talks of injustice happen in the classroom, but around the community that makes up Boston. It is only because of Emerson I am able to be in a city and community so free to expressing inclusivity and the freedom of expression. As a storyteller, I am constantly reminded of this quote from Lin-Manuel Miranda: “Someone will thank you for telling your story because it resonated with their own”. Every person has their own story, and going to a college like Emerson to seek an education is simply gaining more ways to accomplish making something of their voice. Everyone wants to be seen. Everyone wants a chance to show themselves to the world — to tell their story. Emerson College is step one in achieving that goal. The lessons I am learning at Emerson encompassed by so many different types of people can only lead me into a better professional and cultural atmosphere but a personal one, too.

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nievefergie · 5 years

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Bill Gates predicted that the internet would be the downfall of television, saying, “I’m stunned how people aren’t seeing that with TV, in five years from now, people will laugh at what we had” (Clarke 1). Many people agree with Gates, such as Television Week and Wired, stating that the media landscape of US network television is dying. The invasion of the internet also brings major changes in marketing for television, which is historically what fuels network television. With the loss of marketing viewers to advertisers, marketing has had to find new ways of advertising products in new mediums (Clarke). Digitalization is one of the most active parts of marketing in todays society. With the global market revolving online due to its easy access and cost efficiency, social media has also helped develop the relationship between brands and consumers. This allows digital media to use multi-platform strategies and social media presence to enhance their show. This is called transmedia storytelling (Bjursten). Many new cable, network, and online television shows have used social media to further enhance the realism of their characters and plots to entice viewers, and with the upcoming success of the national branding of the show, SKAM, the marketing formula of adding extra online tie-in content seems to be working. Many television shows have released texts between characters. Shows like Andi Mack (2017) on Disney Channel have texts between Andi and her friends after certain episodes, usually reflecting on what happened. A Canadian television show on Teennick called Open Heart (2015) also tried a similar approach. The Teennick show debuted with an app for the iPhone where viewers could read texts from characters and further investigate evidence found in the episode to unlock more clues about the mystery the story revolved around. It also had found footage of what would be on Dylan Blake’s phone, such as videos of her and her friend, Teddy (Open Heart: Unlocked). However, Open Heart’s app had many glitches, as does the Disney Channel app, making it hard to scroll and find anything. SKAM’s messages were posted on the same website that the show was aired on, so viewers did not have to go out of their way to find extra immersion — it was already a major component of the format (Machell). SKAM, translated as ‘Shame’, is a Norwegian television show produced by NRK (Norwegian State Broadcasting), a government-owned broadcaster known for its radio stations and television channels (McDermott 31). The show was produced by NRK P3, the youth based radio station of the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation as a web-based series (Pearce 156). NRK is the biggest media company in Norway, with a large following (McDermott 31). In 2015, NRK set up a website for SKAM episodes to be broadcast in real time throughout all hours of the day. This kept a sense of longing as well as the audience truly feeling a part of the action with watching, as it was happening in ‘real time’. Thirty-four year old Julie Andem created SKAM by traveling around Norway and interviewing teenagers about their own lives. She auditioned over a thousand people and created the characters based on the actors and their own lives. Each episode is written almost within the week that it is shot, as well as only being shot three days a week. As Andem writes, she uses feedback from actors and viewers to keep the storyline believable and enjoyable for teens (Donadio). SKAM is newly renowned as, “one of the best TV shows about high school ever made” (McDermott 31). Each season revolves around a different student in revolving friend groups attending Hartvig Nissen, an actual public school in Oslo. The first season follows Eva, who lost all her friends the summer before starting high school. The second season follows Noora, who begins a romance with a boy who played with her friend’s heart. The third season, which gained the most popularity, is about Isak, a teen boy coming to terms with sexuality and his budding romance with Even. The fourth and last season follows Sana, a muslim teen who is falling for her brother’s best friend and coming to terms with her religion and what it means to be a woman of color in a white society like Norway. When American fans discovered the show around season three in 2016, NRK, due to copyright, stopped making the episodes accessible to those outside of Norway; but this didn’t stop fans. Norwegians would download the episodes, translate them, and put them on Google Drive and share it around Tumblr and Twitter for their English speaking friends to experience. Although English speaking fans didn’t quite get to experience the show in real-time like fans in Oslo, they were still able to watch the clip the day it was released to keep their interest. NRK used social media to promote SKAM with the exception of one television interview with actors from the show once it gained popularity. Hakon Moslet, the show’s executive producer said, “The idea was for teenagers to find it themselves, not from their parents” (Donadio). Social media was used to promote the show through actual teenager’s word of mouth, rather than promoting it through the eyes of adults. By bestowing the characters with social media accounts, SKAM promoted the show and enhanced blurring the line between fictional characters and real people. This further creates more authenticity rather than selling the show (Bjursten 3). SKAM used social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook to further blur the lines between the show and reality. Each character had their own instagram page. Season four revolved heavily around Sana’s instagram, @saranors2, where she took screenshots of hate that Sara, the bus leader, had been sending her boyfriend as revenge to start a civil war on the bus. Sana tagged the girls actual accounts and then deleted it once she felt guilty ("Vi må stå sammen"). The account was then deleted off of Instagram in real time when Sana deleted it. Then, a new account called @ellevillevillde2 was created and deleted in real time with the show as well. The show even ended using real quotes from social media about the show when addressing hate and love, expressing gratitude and showing disservice that the fans spread online about the show (“Takk for alt”). Mari Magnus, the web producer for SKAM, writes the instagram accounts and text messages posted between episodes. The texts from characters are posted to the website from different characters to each other and create excitement for the next episode. Magnus’s goal, “is combining reality and fiction and the line between them isn't so clear” (Donadio). The immersive online world for the characters in SKAM add drama to the already dramatic show. By reading texts and Facebook messages, the characters feel even more real to the audience. They get a little peek at what the characters do when they’re not watching. It adds to the cult following and truthfulness to the story (Machell). SKAM provides a good example of how social media enhances storytelling. In the previous television market, viewers were listeners rather than participants. With the new digital age of media, the audience is allowed to help co-create the story and participate in the creation (Bjursten 4). SKAM was written in real time, as well as shot in real time. Viewers had a direct say on what happened in the story, as shown in the last episode where online comments were featured in a montage during Jonas’s ending monologue (“Takk for alt”, Donadio). By using the transmedia storytelling, SKAM and other television shows are able to tell better stories due to the strengthened relationships between the audience and show, or product and brand (Bjursten 4).

Bibliography

Connor, Pearce. 2017. "Reality and Fiction in Contemporary Television: The Case of Skam." no. 4: 156. ProjectMUSE, EBSCOhost (accessed March 15, 2018).

DONADIO, RACHEL. 2016. "Will a Norwegian Hit Translate?." New York Times, December 13. C4. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed March 15, 2018).

2017. "'SKAM''s universal appeal." UWIRE Text, 2017. Academic OneFile, EBSCOhost (accessed March 15, 2018).

2017. "How Real-Time Marketing Affects Social Media Engagement." BASE, EBSCOhost (accessed March 15, 2018).

McDermott, Patrick D. "The Planet's Realest Drama." FADER, 2017, 31-35.

Andem, Julie. “Vi Må Stå Sammen.” SKAM, season 4, episode 7, NRK, 2 June 2017.

Andem, Julie. “Takk for Alt.” SKAM, season 4, episode 10, NRK, 24 June 2017.

Open Heart: Unlocked. Computer Software. Apple App Store. Vers 1.2. Epitome Pictures Inc, 2015.

Clarke, M. J. Transmedia Television: New Trends in Network Serial Production. Bloomsbury, 2013. Bjursten, Amanda, and Felicia Norman Sylvendahl. “How Real-Time Marketing Affects Social Media Engagement: A Study of the TV Series SKAM.” Lund University Library, Lund University, LUP Student Papers, 2017, lup.lub.lu.se/luur/download? func=downloadFile&recordOId=8926717&fileOId=8926718.

Machell, Ben. “Why Teens Love Skam; Ben Machell on Norway's Cult TV Hit.” The Times (London), 16 May 2017.

#SKAM

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nievefergie · 9 years

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I am trash. Absolute trash. There is no way around it. I love all things cheesy and cookie cutter. Perhaps its because I long for simple and perfect because I am anything but. I have always loved cheesy top 40 music such as Jesse McCartney and Big Time Rush. Big Time Rush was where it should of ended – the last boy band on my radar. That’s when Kate died. Kate roomed 2 doors down from me. We weren’t close – we spoke 3 words to each other, at most. She died suddenly from a brain aneurism on September 2nd, 2011. I guess I struggled with more than I should have, seeing as we barely knew each other, but there is something that haunts you when you know your first dead kid. I’d had relatives die – of varying ages – but there is something completely different in our new day and age involving technology when you read each ‘In Memoriam’ posted on their Facebook wall. I think I have scrolled through and read every single post. One of those posts was from my friend Amanda, who posted a song link her wall. It was called Moments, and it was from a band I had heard of called One Direction. One Direction had released their first single, What Makes You Beautiful, a week after Kate’s death. It popped up on my recommended to watch list on Youtube, and I decided to give it a go. My initial thoughts were, why are all these boys chasing after one girl in the middle of a beach? This isn’t going to end well. It wasn’t going to end well. Because after hearing Moments on Kate’s Facebook wall, I realized what this band was going to mean to me. They were more than a cheesy band - they felt something, and they could convey it through music. In my second year of 8th grade, Big Time Rush were touring on their Better With U Tour with One Direction as their supporting act. Immediately, I asked my dad, who works in the music industry as a talent industry, if I would be able to go. My dad, being the best he is, got me 3rd row tickets, and March 9th became a day I’ll never forget. A few days laterI learned that One Direction were going to be at a J&R store doing a signing of their newest album, Up All Night. A chance to see them in real life. A chance to tell them how Moments had helped me grieve. But life doesn’t go as you plan. I left school early, anxiously awaiting the call from my dad’s friend who worked for the boys as we sat in a cafeteria near by. I had nearly started to believe the woman had lied to us – that I was not going to meet them, and if I wanted to, I would have to wait in the five-block line. Fortunately we got the call, and she led us in. I got a book full of lyrics, photos, and doodles from the band, with a CD pocket in the back of the front page. I waited in line. There were tons of girls crying as they walked back from the table that One Direction sat at. My dad turned to me and asked if I was going to cry. To be honest, I could have. I explained that it wasn’t because I was a teen girl with raging hormones, but because I am a deeply empathetic person who cries when other people cry. By the time I explained that, we were nearing the front. By this time, I could see Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson. My dad took photos, but then the security asked him to please put his phone away, and he obliged. Walking down that table was one of the best moments of my life, which doesn’t seem to say much about the life I’ve been living, does it? Louis asked me how I was doing, even better, using the term ‘love’ at the end. Liam told me he liked my Peanut Comics shirt. My dad kept talking to them, saying, “This is Nieve. She loves your work.” This made me look even younger than I was at 15, and I wanted to seem older so they would like me. Nonetheless, my embarrassed self moved down to my favorite member, Niall Horan. Granted, I believe he is my cousin, seeing as all Irish people are inbred, but I still loved him. Niall didn’t look up at me. My little 15-year-old heart shattered. I collected my now signed CD, and walked down the aisle. The woman who helped get my dad and I inside was waiting for us, and she asked who my favorite member was. I looked back at Niall, who still had not looked at me, and I turned to her, smiled, and said “Liam.” From then on, Liam Payne became my favorite member. Now, in 2015, I still love One Direction. I have seen them perform ten times – I have lived this journey with them. I have watched them grow up. And although they have not seen me grow up, they have been there all this way. I have met so many friends, become closer with so many people, because of these 5 individuals who I don’t know. It’s a concept so abstract, that it is impossible to explain to those who have not lived it with us. Sometimes I like to look at my signed CD and remember that day, and see how much all of us have grown since then. I’ve become friends with Kate’s best friends. One Direction literally brought us together. Kate, in a way, brought us together. She brought her friends to mine. She brought me to a band that continuously saves my life. She may have died, but she gave me a reason to live, and for that, I am forever grateful.

NLF

#this is an essay i wrote for school #i really liked it #one direction

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nievefergie · 9 years

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My mother is a firefighter. She puts out fires. She does not live in the firehouse she does wear a uniform for safety, and she does not use a firetruck to extinguish the flames- she uses another word starting with F and ending in UCK.

NLF

#poetry #poem

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nievefergie · 9 years

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I try not to judge a book by its cover, but if the cover has a photo of a man abusing a woman, I am going to judge it. That’s the important thing about our instincts – they’re usually right. The police can tell you suspicious activity is called suspicious for a reason. If you see something, say something. When I disagree with the choices you have made, With the sins you have committed, I do not have to support you as a person. There is a reason why families don’t defend their murderous relatives. This is me caring – not judging.

NLF

#poem #poetry #judgement #judge #judging #sin #don't judge a book by its cover

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nievefergie · 9 years

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Nirvana

The second you picked up the gun,

Those boxes of Marlboros you keep in the front pocket of your bag,

You decided for a young death.

Which I understand from attempts and thoughts of my own,

But I couldn’t go down that road because I couldn’t hurt others.

The Tumblr photos you see of fingers wrapped around cigarettes and razors are not beautiful.

The hospital bed that you have seen in movies is nowhere near as soft.

It’s cold and lonely,

And the waiting room is far worse.

Kurt Cobain was born on February 20th of 1967 to Wendy and Donald in Washington.

He has one sister named Kimberly and a half brother named Chad.

He created the grunge band Nirvana along with Krist Novoselic and various drummers.

Cobain struggled with depression and needles in his arms and chronic pain.

On April 8th, 1994, Kurt was found dead at his home in Seattle by a self-inflicted gunshot to his head.

Is this what you all find so beautiful?

There is no splendor in a young death.

No matter how many flower crowns and raspy voices quote who you find to be the greats,

No matter how many ‘inspiring, sad’ quotes you put on your instagram photos to excuse your actions,

You are glorifying death.

You are more than just hurting yourself

You are hurting all the people around you.

Frances Bean Cobain was born on August 18th, 1992 in California.

She had been torn from her mother and father at the age of two weeks and shortly reunited because of unfit parenting.

She didn’t see him regularly because he was on tour and on drugs.

On April 1st, 1994, Frances visited her dad at a rehab center where they played the normal games.

This was the last time she would ever see her father alive.

This little girl, this two year old, grew up without her father.

When Lana Del Rey expressed her ‘admiration’ for artists who died young saying, "I wish I was dead already.... I do”.

Frances tweeted, "I'll never know my father because he died young & it becomes a desirable feat because ppl like u think it's 'cool'...Well, it's fucking not. Embrace life, because u only get one life. The ppl u mentioned wasted that life. Don't be 1 of those ppl."

I’m not sure what you want,

But I know you should never hurt the people who care about you.

So put down the box of cigarettes and the forty,

Leave your manipulative boyfriend,

And remember the people who love you, for their lives will not be happier without you in it.

“It's better to burn out than to fade away”

Bullshit."

NLF

#poetry #nirvana #kurt cobain #frances bean cobain #lana del rey

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nievefergie · 9 years

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I often find myself performing social experiments. I sit in easy to reach places, On benches or staircases. I hope that someone is going to walk by And notice that I’m not okay. That they’ll notice something is wrong- that there is a sparkle in my eye that they can’t see today. Someone who looks deeper than the surface. But no one walks by the benches or walks down the stairs, And when they do they do not look for pain. They don’t know to look for it. Most of the time, I sit there for a good while in my own self-pity. It’s crazy, to sit in sadness, but that’s the thing you never expect from depression: how happy you are to have it. How you have an excuse to feel sad. How you have learned to accept the sadness and when you’re on your up days you feel like a part of you is missing and you long for the sorrow. It’s like pillows. You’re used to having a singular one, so when you buy another one to put on top of it, you’re confused as to why you’re comfortable but feel awkward all at once. I wish I knew how to put it in better words, If I did, It might be in a letter. So as I’m sitting there, waiting for someone, I’ve realized it is not me who is unstable. It is the world that is. I am simply far more aware than people without a chemical imbalance. Life is a tree. There are many branches. We are born in certain parts and we can climb the branches or fall through them. There are beehives and winds that will test us, Weaning out the weak. I have a good balance on my branch. I’m not firmly lying on top of it, but I’m fine holding on. I’m strong. Except, when I look up, I notice that my branch is breaking. My weight and guilt is pulling it down – all 135 pounds of me and 135 pounds of everyone I’ve ever met. The branch is breaking and it is my job to fix the problem or find a new angle. I want to fix a lot of things, my friends, my family, body standards, politics, social norms. I am not in control. I want control so badly that the leaves I step on will somehow fix a broken marriage So they will allow God to see that I am pleading with him to make a deal – My life for theirs. But the more I try to control things, the more they blow up in my face, Or control me. I am sick. I can sit in a chair for hours in silence feeling guilty for the summer and for hurting people. I can sit there in my self-pity, hoping someone will notice. I can sit there and tell myself my branch is breaking and there is no way to go on. I get up. If I want to be that one, I have to be resilient. I have to look for the people, who need help, And point them up. I cannot save or fix anyone. You are in charge of your own life. No one will take notice if you do not make yourself clear. Show and tell. Do not give us too much credit. I am sick. I am terminal. I am living a social experiment. And I am alive.

NLF

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