Practices of Looking 401-413

In the book it talks about how piracy which is primarily in the U.S. but also worldwide affects Hollywood sales (401). The book also talks about how Hollywood films make more money outside the use as well (401). My comments would be that, yes there are many ways to search for pirated movies online and illegally stream movies barely hitting theaters, but I personally, would rather pay to watch the movie in the best quality it can be, then to watch a movie that is recorded on a camera phone that has both bad sound and video quality. I also read online how Netflix is working with some Hollywood movies so that movies can be available on Netflix. By making a movie available on Netflix would help to fight piracy because some people would rather watch a movie at home, then watch it in the theater, outside of their comfort zone. Anyway, most bootlegged movies are going to be significantly inferior to a theater version, which is why I would rather go to the theaters.

Articles: Google changes to 'fight piracy' by highlighting legal sites

Google needs to promote legal websites and demote illegal one. There's one problem with Google doing this, the first is if someone types an illegal website into the browser, they will get hits related to that website, so there is not really a way to get a legal website when the search is specific. Another problem is that when Google promotes websites that pay more to be first when they are searched, is a problem. The problem is that Google should put legal websites first instead of higher paying corporations because what if a higher paying corporation is in fact, illegal. So is Google promoting piracy? Piracy is not just going to go away when there are servers outside the U.S. that can put illegal content online, and Google can't really doing anything to them. One example is Sweden, they have different laws then the U.S. and so they can pirate content, but the U.S. cant really do anything to stop pirated content when millions of people pirate content from servers outside the U.S.

Practices of Looking 389-401

In the book it talks about when the U.S first landed on Earth in 1968 and took pictures of earth from their (391). This was a big accomplishment for the nation and is still a remarkable event. In recent news, something very similar happened when India became the first Asian nation to reach Mars and orbit it. This is quite an impressive feat considering how far Mars is from earth. India is setting a goal for others to improve on technology for not only space travel but probably even to further technological advancements on earth. This is similar to how the U.S. and Russia was in a so called space race, and to see who could land a man on the Moon first. Maybe the next goal is to see who can land a man on Mars which would be a very difficult task to achieve, but with further advancements, it might be a lot easier to achieve.

Free Culture-Lessig 213-234

Lessig mentions that Disney used the stories of Grimm to make their ever popular movie franchise (213). But what happens when other companies or people start to do this, Disney starts to bash people like Deadmau5, when Disney themselves has violated copyrighted stories like Grimm which they do not own. Disney is making money off of creativity that wasn't there to begin with and claiming it as their own. Deadmau5's similar actions using a modified variation of Disney's mickey mouse bothers them, while it didn't bother them when they stole Grimm's stories. Disney does this with countless other stories that they made in to a movie adaptation, and as if it OK for them to do it and it's not OK for others. But there may be one flaw to this, which would be where did these original stories first originate, maybe Grimm wasn't the first to make stories which Disney altered.

Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things by George Lakoff

The author has a point when he says that "Every time we see something as a kind of thing, for example, a tree, we are categorizing" (5). I think the reason for this is to create an understanding of something we are not familiar with. It's like if we saw some sort of unfamiliar species, we may try to understand what it is by comparing it to something we do know. That is why categorizing is a great thing to do sometimes. Categorizing is probably even a subconscious thing we do because we categorize something everyday according to how we categorize things. But I think categorizing can be hard sometimes when it is defining music. Some music have elements of many genres and its hard to categorize them in just one word because they may be defined by more than one genre.

Practices of Looking 265-279

In the book it talks about the different advertisements to catch peoples attention that may or may not pay attention to their tactics in selling their product (266). For example the book talks about Quaker Oats and when I go to Walmart I see this brand but I also see a brand called Great Value that also sells oats. This seems to me like advertising method to promote this brand of slightly cheaper goods which appeals to some, or to others it may be a cheap knock off of the original. If someone is under a tight budget they may be more drawn to get the food that says Great Value and this probably what the marketers want to accomplish. Marketing products properly will ensure that companies make money because companies are competing for their products to be sold. I once even thought is it possible for a company to market their items twice, first as a brand and then possibly something like a Great Value brand?

Practices of Looking 223-260

In the book the authors talk about Television and that its a medium of distraction (230). I partially agree with this statement, but what I learned in a cinema class was that many people watch movies to escape the realities of this world. For example people during the Great Depression watched movies to escape the reality of the hard times they lived in. The book also talks about the theater experience being different than it is during a home experience (230). I remember watching the movie "Marvels The Avengers" when it premiered in theaters and to me it was a very epic movie. As soon as it came out on Blu-Ray I bought it expecting a very similar experience. Unfortunately the experience wasn't the same but I still enjoyed the movie. The authors also mention Cultural Theorist Raymond Williams and his commentary about Television's pace and how they incorporate commercials (230). Nowadays with things Netflix's ad free experience and Dish's DVR where someone can record Television and bypass the commercials. Either way, people have ways of avoiding commercials which is changing our viewing experience to a more straightforward approach to viewing content.

Practices of Looking 200-220

The book talks about images and how they are used and copied by others like in the case with Art Rogers and his piece called Puppies (210). This reminds me a little about the copying of not necessarily an image but a symbol known as the Swastika. The Swastika symbol was used by many religious groups and was taken by the Nazis in Germany and for me the symbol brings bad connotations because of how it represented the Nazi group. Also in the book it talks about Cuban revolutionary icon Che and how his image was used, and by simply putting words next to an image can alter its meaning like it also did with Che (201, 203). Images have so many different meanings, and just by altering an image or making it represent something else can drastically change its meaning to the viewer depending on what how and why its used.
                                     Che Smirnoff Vodka Ad                                            Portrait of Che

Practices of Looking 183-200

In the book it talks about how cuts were used to blend a motion picture together by using short shot to shots segments and combining them (189). This technique is something I learned back at CBC, in which I took a intro to Cinema class and we learned a lot of information about film and especially cuts. I didn't notice cuts until the professor pointed them out and ever since I notice them more frequently in movies t.v shows etc. Cuts are prevalent in the film industry but I notice them more during commercials since they are trying to get there advertisement out as fast as possible usually 30 seconds or less depending on the commercial. I also seen a clip of video (which I can't remember the title of the film) where there was no cuts involved and it felt a little awkward because we are so use to seeing cuts in visual media.