The Group Two - Final Group Project: BIG DATA

Documentary About Imelda Marcos: Reaction Paper

Documetary About Imelda Marcos - Reaction Paper

2013-17819

I first knew of Imelda Marcos during my Sibika class back in grade school. Her name was repeatedly mention as I studied history in higher years of primary school all the way until high school. The thing is, I've only read about her. I've never really seen or heard her. The first time I actually saw her was when we watched the documentary about her in our STS class.

While watching Imelda talk and move about in the film, she reminded me a lot of my Aunt. When I relayed this information to my father, the only thing he said was "Well, that's because Imelda is my sister's idol."

They were similar because they were both:

• An Elitist. In the film, you could easily see Imelda's prestige life. She lives in a house that is luxuriously furnished, wears fancy clothes with different brooches to suit each style and talks in a way that seems like her only purpose in doing so is to impress people by not speaking the native language. It was even mentioned in the film that Imelda would continuously have parties and karaoke sessions in a yacht with people she invited.
• Enthusiastic. Imelda Marcos was highly optimistic. She was a happy-go-lucky person who always saw the brighter side of things. At the time when she was brutally stabbed by a bolo, she just made a joke about the weapon being ugly. She said that if she was going to die, the murder weapon should be neatly tied with a pink ribbon. When his husband, Ferdinand Marcos, was in his death bed, she sang him a lullaby with her beautiful voice. Imelda Marcos is a very strong woman to be able to hide all her pain and cover it up with smiles.
• An Altruist. Although Imelda was always full of herself, she never hesitated to help others who she deemed was in need. One can't deny that the first lady has played a major role in the betterment of the country during the Marcos reign. She had several projects including the building of hospitals, which further helped those in need.

A lot of people dislike my Aunt because of her attitude the same way some people hate Imelda Marcos. But, just because some people have negative values doesn't mean they can't be of help to our society. Imelda may be one of the biggest contributors to our country, but people can't see this because they stop learning more about her when they see her attitude.

Blade Runner

I wasn't able to watch the screening of Blade Runner on campus but luckily, I was able to download a copy of the Final Cut quite easily.  The only differences it had with the Director’s Cut were just revisions on some of the aesthetic, audio-syncing, and continuity problems/aspects encountered in previous versions. Also, some lines were altered. It’s surprising actually how many versions this film has.

Moving forward, I was pretty excited to watch the film since I’m a big fan of ‘80s films plus it stars Harrison Ford and is directed by Ridley Scott. Enough said.

The film is set in what is apparently the year 2019 in a Los Angeles that looks all dark and congested, like the look/feel that films like Pacific Rim and the recent remake of Total Recall went with. It portrays the sort of underbelly of society which shows that it hasn't really changed that much other than the fact that there are flying cars around them.

It starts off like most films by establishing the conceptual foundations needed to understand all the things that are about to happen in the film. But as Decker, a blade runner tasked to “retire” Replicants on sight, gives chase to the four escaped Replicants (artificial humanoids with a limited lifespan created for entertainment and off-world labor), that’s when things become dragging, and a bit confusing. The remainder of the film was just Decker tracking down these Replicants on the loose. Apparently, in the Director’s Cut and Final Cut, Decker’s explanatory voice-overs were cut out of the film which had me thinking, would the inclusion of those have helped the film to make more sense? Regardless, the film basically continued as this bizarre Replicant hunting trip. Like when Decker finally engaged with the female Replicant, Pris, their fight scene could have made much more sense if Pris hadn’t decided to do flips towards Decker from all the way across the room to continue the fight. That stunt gave Decker a pretty big opening to take her down and down she went. It was ridiculous, honestly.

Keeping in mind that this came out in between the 2^nd and 3^rd Star Wars films, it could have done much better. Still, the technologies used in this film, both actual and hypothetical, are commendable to say the least.

The Rhetoric of Cancer

by Averil Santos

2013-25246

      In BBC's podcast documentary entitled "The Rhetoric of Cancer," Andrew Graystone, using narrations and interviews, explores the language surrounding cancer. Throughout this podcast, he constantly uses military and war metaphors in order to address and approach this disease. It revolves around the choice of fighting back this antagonist-like disease. 

        Cancer is a class of disease characterized by the out-of-control cell growth. Not one, not two, but 100 types of cancer exists and each one of them is classified by the type of cell it affects. Cancer harms the body when damaged cells divide uncontrollably and form lumps of tissue called a tumor. Well, I think cancer can be considered a mutation. Mutations happen all the time and we can see it everywhere; it's natural. 

        Andrew Graystone mentioned that our society should stop treating cancer as our enemy. When somebody dies, it is inevitably described as “after a long battle with cancer”. It is as if the word processor sees “died of cancer” or “died from cancer” as a negative. Like what Mr. Graystone said in his podcast, cancer cells are already a part of him therefore he must learn how to live with it. 

Time Enough at Last

The eighth episode of the sci-fi series The Twilight Zone is basically just one big irony.

The story begins by introducing the bookish Henry Bemis and his rather dreary life brought on by his wife, who sees reading as something that’s pointless and ridiculous and will stop at nothing to prevent Henry from doing so, and the strict boss he has at his bank job who’s only interested in efficiency and not education. So naturally, Henry would try to sneak a peek at anything he could read every chance he got, like how he goes into the bank vault every lunch break to go read his book. This particular habit of his is what saved him one day when the earth gets wiped out by a nuclear event which shook him unconscious in the safety of the vault. When he came to and realized that no one around him had survived the blast, he considers committing suicide until he sees a library. Like the “suffocated” bookworm that he is, he’s ecstatic about his discovery and proceeds to organize his ambitious reading list for the months to come only to be made useless when his glasses accidentally broke.  Quite a tragic turn of events, yes, and I think that’s just part of the message/idea of the episode. That message, I’m guessing, is that whoever you are, life rarely works out the way you want it too. Take Henry Bemis for example, a relatively decent man who wanted nothing more but the freedom and time to read his beloved books and after surviving the blast and discovering the library, it was like he was finally blessed with the two things he’s been wishing for only to be taken away by a cruel “plot twist” that was thrown his way. Life really is just like that I guess.

A Scientific Symphony

A Scientific Symphony

Carl Roma 2013-13861

The arts and sciences have always grown simultaneously with the progress of human civilization. These two inseparable concepts are the backbone of man’s culture and society from the ancient times to the present. However, these parts of human life are two sides of the same coin, one taps into the infinite span of a human being’s creativity and imagination to create amazing and awe-inspiring masterpieces that withstand the tests of time and continue to enrapture those who experience it while the other is derived from the never ending quest for knowledge and man’s understanding of the secrets of nature, enabling the progress of technology and civilization itself into the world we know today.

Although most assume that arts and sciences go together like fire and ice, it’s actually the other way around. The arts have always relied on science for inspiration for new creations like music and films while science relies on the arts to gain fresh, new ideas that can be made into reality. The influence of science in the field of music for example, shows how the two interact at a closer degree. Musical compositions ranging from classical orchestra pieces like “The Planets” by Gustav Holt to more familiar ballads and pop songs such as “Fly Me to the Moon” by Frank Sinatra and probably even “E.T.” by Katy Perry have ideas that are inspired by science, and in some cases science fiction. Another art form that has been in close relationship with science is film. The sci-fi genre along with numerous adventure and fantasy movies have their roots based on scientific concepts and theories and we all know how popular these become, I mean, have you seen the line during Star Wars? Science has also been influenced by the arts, wild and strange ideas that are thought to be science fiction may actually be reality through science. Sci-fi concepts like anti-gravity and time travel that were thought to be pure fantasy are actually closer to the real than you think.

Man’s history has been written through arts and sciences; how they affected each other and most of all, how they affected society. The legacy of mankind is seen in every discovery, composition, invention, masterpiece, edifice, and film in which our culture and our very lives are imbedded within. No matter what happens in the future, we can be sure that the arts and sciences will go on, in an everlasting scientific symphony. 

IMELDA

Besides her impressive shoe collection and being famous (or rather infamous) for being Ferdinand Marcos’s wife, I’m pretty much clueless when it comes to Imelda Marcos. Watching a documentary on her gave me an interesting look into this sort of “origin story” of hers.

Apparently, she was quite the catch back in the day. Ferdinand took notice and after a week of what could only be called a whirlwind romance, the two got hitched. To be honest, I was quite skeptical with most of the film’s content, although I still did try to be open-minded while watching. So when they got married less than 2 weeks after they first met, the first thing I thought of was that it was ridiculous. Second, I bet it was just a political move by Marcos. As Marcos rose to power, apparently, so did she. She was making all of these international trips, meeting and making meetings with foreign executives like she was the President of the Philippines. I mean, yes if you’re married to the president of the country, you get certain privileges and a particular level of authority but honestly, I think she was just enjoying her status just a wee bit much.

Another thing I found sketchy was the assassination attempt on Imelda. I mean, it was either a really poor attempt by an incompetent assassin-wannabe, or it was staged. Because honestly, if the guy really wanted to take out Imelda, he would have been better off had he targeted a more sensible body part to attack. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying I wanted the guy to succeed, I’m just saying it doesn't quite make sense. I mean, I’m thankful for the fact that Imelda had numerous structures (particularly the CCP among others) built for the country (which lead to her being tagged as having an “edifice complex” which I think was pretty clever for whoever came up with it).

After watching the documentary and seeing all of the things that have happened in her life, one thing that stuck to me the most was when she was drawing these symbols near the end of the film. there were too many symbols and combinations of symbols to remember (hence the time lapse). And so, the last thing I remember thinking as the film ended was, "Wow. This woman is delusional."