Thursday, October 27, 2016

Halloween Horror Nights...Every Night



Everyone loves Halloween for two reasons. One, free candy, that’s obvious. The other reason, dressing up. I’ve always loved dressing up in costumes. When spirit week came I would always go all out in whatever the themes were. I vividly remember walking the halls of my high school wearing a rocket ship onesie, with a blue bib and binky hanging from my neck and a stuffed bear in my arms just because it was freshman baby day. I just loved wearing a costume. This Halloween is different. This year I left the grocery store I worked at and started working at Hot Topic a teen fashion retailer that’s all about popular culture. And if you didn’t know, they’re a little obsessed with Halloween. When October started to arrive our store manager informed us that we would start having themed weekends to draw in customers and get them excited about our new costumes. The first weekend was Pokémon themed. The second was movie characters. Then on the Tuesday of the third week everything changed. Our district manager came in and informed us that we would need to dress up every day and send photos to her of our costumes with the threat of a write up for non-compliant. My costume collection has now grown to new levels, I show up to work as Indiana Jones, the Blue Power Ranger, a vampire, Freddy Kruger, Dipper from Gravity Falls and Captain America. I’ve now started trading costumes with coworkers so we don’t have to wear the same things all the time. It’s almost like a uniform now. I go to school, rush home to change into my persona for the day and rush to work. Today I’ll be Freddy, Freddy sells costumes well.   

Wednesday, September 28, 2016

Pulitzer Discussion Panel

During Tuesday's panel I was surprised by the lack of discussion concerning the prize winners' works. It was interesting to see Kevin Siers discuss his works and Mark West show the work of Doug Marlette. However I wish West had focused on Marlette's prize winning work instead of Kudzu. I also was upset that John White's appearance in the panel was so brief. 
The most interesting part of the panel was listening to West's discussion on Marlette's Kudzu. It was interesting to learn about how Marlette took a simple weekly comic strip and made it about the changes in the south with the struggle between conservative old south views and new emerging cultures and change. I didn't understand why the only character that was discussed was the Rev. Will B. Dunn, we only got to see how the old south struggled with the new south and didn't get to see Kudzu the titular character at all. 

The cartoon I chose was a drawing by Kevin Siers of Catholic Cardinals discussing selecting the new pope. Each Cardinal wants a Pope from their continent which was an issue in 2013 when the Catholic Church was trying to chose their new leader. Everyone was so caught up in pride for their heritage and wanted to share a homeland with the Pope but they weren't concerned with getting a modern Pope who could bring the church into the 21st century. I think Siers work was chosen because his work was insightful for the times, revealing the truth behind many issues during the time. He also keeps a sense of humor in his work. As he said in his work he takes many small lies to make a larger truth. 


Tuesday, September 20, 2016

Pre-Pulitzer Analysis

Williams-tall.jpg
The part I'm looking forward to the most at the Pulitzer panel discussion is the photography of John White. I think his photos are wonderful and show a different side to city life and show an important message. Of the photos I've seen most tend to be photos of run down city scenes with children happily playing. I think this is a wonderful feeling to give to viewers. The photo that I included in my post is of a run down apartment building with a young boy walking by. The building towers over the small child making him seem even smaller in comparison. The child walks alone through the streets with the only adults being two people walking away far in the distance their backs turned to the child. While this photo doesn't have the playing, smiling aspects of his other photos there is a glow from the sunlight that is enhanced by the weeds around the child. They give him a golden glow that seems calming and happy in comparison to the darkened building with its tattered blinds, broken windows and graffiti covered walls. It's also a commentary on the children in the bad neighborhoods of cities, they are alone in the big city without someone to guide them, but they still have a glow of youth and hope that they must hold on to. An even better detail is the shadow of the building just around the corner and the child looks at the shadow while walking it its direction, he will leave the glow and warmth of the sunshine and head into the dark dark shadow that is to come.  

Thursday, September 15, 2016

The Golden Throne- NY Times



Has anyone read the article by Randy Kennedy in the New York Times about the golden toilet?
The solid gold toilet created by Maurizio Cattelan, an Italian sculptor, was installed in a bathroom at a museum in New York last week. I love articles like this, the root of the story is funny at first glance, it’s a solid gold toilet that’s been installed in a regular bathroom at a museum for anyone to use. The writer takes that though and turns it into a really interesting article.
I think Kennedy is a fantastic job reporting on the article. He didn’t take it too seriously because he understood that most people would look at the story and laugh, but he also gave it enough seriousness to still show respect to the artist and the people the people at the museum. What could have been a silly story becomes more interesting as you look at the processes that took place for the toilet to get there. I think a quote from the article that best represents that is this… “he has said he hopes people do not see the toilet-sculpture as a joke. It is at the same time an absurd sendup of inequality (and a commentary on the runaway wealth inside the art world) and a kind of gift to the museumgoer, a rare chance to spend private time with something so ravishingly beautiful it’s hard to believe it’s real”. 

Here's the link 
 http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/16/arts/design/an-18-carat-throne-arrives-at-the-guggenheim-and-yes-it-works.html?module=WatchingPortal&region=c-column-middle-span-region&pgType=Homepage&action=click&mediaId=thumb_square&state=standard&contentPlacement=2&version=internal&contentCollection=www.nytimes.com&contentId=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2016%2F09%2F16%2Farts%2Fdesign%2Fan-18-carat-throne-arrives-at-the-guggenheim-and-yes-it-works.html&eventName=Watching-article-click&_r=0

Hello Visitor

Hello~! 
My name is Kyle Guice. I am a journalism student at CPCC. My main interest (from a journalistic point of view) is hearing interesting stories from people in my area and sharing them with others. The amazing thing about humans is that everyone has an interesting, unique story to share. You just have to dig and get to it. And with these stories we can connect and grow. Plus hearing other people's stories is so interesting. This blog will cover the stories of people from all walks of life and have a large range of emotions, some will be sad others happy. Some may be simple while others will be complex, because everyone has different experiences. With this blog I hope I can reach more people around the world and share the amazing stories of the people around me. Aside from journalism I also enjoy discussing movies and tv, music and cooking. I hope you enjoy my blog and will find the stories I share interesting and thought provoking.