So 9/11, a day which will live in infamy. To all of America it was just a normal day, but as we all know that changed pretty quickly. I don't really remember much from that day. I was in 4th grade I know that, and all that I remember is another teacher coming into the classroom and whispering something to my teacher. She paused for a moment and informed us that we would be getting out of school early because of something that was happening. As 4th graders this was the best news ever, half a day of school! I remember waiting for a while for the buses to come and get us, whenever anyone asked what was going on to teachers we only got silence. We got loaded onto the buses and we were mixed with middle school/high school kids and I remember very vividly an older kid saying "someones are blowing stuff up." Everyone was talking loud, but i didn't really comprehend what was going on. I got dropped off at home with my 7 year old sister and we raced inside. My parents cars were home which I thought was weird because they should've been at work. I ran in and said a smart ass comment to my sister and I yelled that I was home. The next thing I saw I will never forget. My mom was in the living room on the couch crying with her hands on her mouth and my dad was just starring silent at the TV. They both turned and looked at me and those looks definitely let me know something was truly wrong. My mom sat us down on the couch and we just watched the news. i wasn't really scared of what was going on until a week or so later.
One of the scariest days in my life by far was the week after 9/11. My father is a volunteer Fireman back home. he has been for most of his life. The week after 9/11 was all a blur, but on one particular rainy night. my dad's fire department had a service for all of the fallen NYC firemen. We were outside at a flag pole with all of the members dressed in their uniforms. There were people crying as the rain fell on us. After the service my dad came up to me and my sister in his uniform and he knelt down to are level and proceeded to tell us he was going to NYC to help out with the clean up. I remember my sister started crying and I got angry. I was angry at him because i was scared what happened to all those other poor people would happen to my dad. I cried and begged him not to go, but he said he needed to help. That was his job. I hated him at the time for leaving us and i feared he wasn't going to come back home. He left for a week with a few other members. He stayed on a battleship on the Hudson river and for a week straight he helped those in need in NYC. Looking back on it now I'm proud of my dad, but back then I didn't see it that way.
As I got older we learned of the dangers in the air that Spiegelman talks about in "In the Shadows of No Towers." "Asbestos, PCB's, lead, Dioxins, and body parts...." Learning his now and how many people have been affected by this, workers, firemen, construction crews, getting cancers and other diseases scares me. I'm afraid that one day my dad will come down with something because of government lies. Maybe I'm just paranoid. I just hate to see something bad happen to such a good man like what has happened to other good and noble men and women. 9/11 definitely changed how I see my father as a man and I've seen how it's changed me.
"Things will never be the same" - Tupac
Thursday, October 31, 2013
Friday, October 25, 2013
Arrow!
Style: Televsionwithoutpity
Ever since the release of Marvel Comics 2008 hit film Iron Man the world has gone bonkers for superheroes. There's no question about who is in the lead in the superhero market. Marvel has paved the way with sequel after sequel leading up to the big payoff with the billion dollar earner, The Avengers. With more sequels announced, more stand alone films, and two more Marvel "phases", Marvel has left comic rival DC in the dust. That is until the CW decided to stand up to Stan Lee and begin to pave the way for more DC characters that may lead to the big screen in the future.
The CW's "Arrow" follows the tale of billionaire playboy Oliver Queen, who after getting shipwrecked on a deserted island for 5 years gets transformed into a bow and arrow badass. Long story short Oliver gets rescued and uses his new badassery and bow skills to clean up his city from the 1% who are using their power to others disadvantage as Green Arrow! The Episode I have chosen to focus on is Season 1 Episode 3 titled "Lone Gunmen"
The episode begins like all of the others, TRAINING MONTAGE! Accompanied by deep inner monologue about who Green Arrow's next target is. Of course Oliver is shown with out a shirt on while he is in his Arrow Hideout. I mean who lifts a bar stacked with cinder blocks stacked on it fully clothed? And this being a CW show EVER character is extremely attractive, yes even the homeless people. As Oliver lifts heavy objects his mumbled and gruff monologue tells the back story of a one, James Holder, who put faulty fire alarms in his buildings causing innocent civilians to die. Arrow is not cool with this at all! So he drops the heavy blocks sending them crashing to the floor as he storms out of the Hideout.
Between the inner gruff monologues and all the shirtless training montages you kind of forget you're watching a superhero show, but trust me it gets better. To enjoy Arrow you just need to sit back and enjoy all of the campiness. I mean it is based off of a comic book. So anyway Arrow shows up to James Holder's house and demands that he pays for what he has done to the civilians! James is shaken by the scary vigilantly, but before he can react, BLAM, he gets shot dead in front of Arrow. SNIPER! Arrow fires some arrows into the dark night and in the process he gets shot in the shoulder, oh no! He escapes without any more harm and heads back to his Arrowlair.
Back at the Arrowlair, Oliver attends to his wound with his shirt off AGAIN! He delivers another cheesy inner monologue saying that a man like Holder of course has more than one enemy. And he crosses his name out in his Arrow hit list. But what's this! A side effect! The bullets been poisoned!!!!! Oliver starts to feel woozy and rushes over to his secret kit and pulls out some grass stuff and eats it and passes out. He awakens fine, it's a good thing that grass in his secret island box cured that exact poison or I don't know what would have happened. The episode cuts to one of Oliver's island flash backs and we are filled in with another piece into his secret backstory. The scraggly asian man who shot Oliver with an arrow in the last episode feeds Oliver the same grass and pulls the arrow out of his shoulder. I need to get me some of this grass because apparently it can do everything and anything.
And we're back in the present. Arrow uses his mad scientific skills to deduce that the poison that was on the bullet that shot him is only used by on specific assassin. I have no idea how Oliver learned how to do all of this science stuff because before he was stranded on the island he dropped out of four different colleges and I'm pretty sure there wasn't an equivalent of MIT on the island. At least we haven't seen yet.... As Oliver is piecing together the pieces about who this assassin is we are shown a buff man tattooing James Holder's name onto his body with an abundance of other names on his body.
The story jumps for Oliver to a Detective who is working the Holder murder. All of the other detectives are saying that Arrow killed the man, but Detective Lance is not convinced he too thinks something is fishy. Anyway Arrow finds out the assassins name by searching an Interpol database and discovers his name is Deadshot, because he never misses! Arrow takes this new info to a Russian Mob person who is covered as a Mechanic? Oliver, in Russian, explains to the man he needs to find an assassin and gives the man the information and tells him to find this Deadshot for him, the man agrees after Oliver shows him a tattoo on his chest and says he's a captain in some Russian Mob syndicate. This story is getting very complicated.
The Russian Mob boss delivers the information and Oliver heads to Deadshots hotel room. Oliver gets all dressed up in his green hood and heavy raccoon makeup, I'm still not sure why he just doesn't wear a mask? Anyway he heads to Deadshots hotel where he busts through the door arrows a blazing and Deadshots bullets a blazing. Neither of them hit each other which is also weird because Deadshot NEVER MISSES... Deadshot gets away and Oliver gets his computer.
Oliver takes the computer to his own family company, and has an IT person, look at an assassins computer that is riddled with bullet holes. Oliver proceeds to say that he spilled coffee on hi laptop and it's broken.....so much for being secretive Oliver. Anyway Oliver finds out there is a larger plot that a company wants to assassinate his Stepfather for control for more stocks and money or something that is way to complicated for the CW. Arrow realizes that he can't save everyone from being assassinated on his own so he asks Detective Lance, in a rather Batman esq. way, for help. He gives Lance the laptop and vanishes into the night.
Oliver shows up to the stock auction thing in support of his stepfather and mother and sister. The place is swarming with cops and everything seems to be safe as Detective Lance checks in with all his patrols. As Patrol Five checks in we see that is not in fact a cop, but DEADSHOT! He puts the radio down and steadies his rifle cross hairs aimed at Oliver!!!!!!!!! As Oliver walks to his stepfather Deadshot's cross hairs move from Oliver to his stepfather. Deadshot turns his laser sight on, and gives himself away. Detective Lance sees the red dot on the stepfather and pushes him out of the way just in time. And while Detective Lance saves the stepfather he gets a poor innocent waiter killed because the bullet now hits him. Deadshots killing people left and right and Oliver runs to go get his costume on. He busts into Deadshots perch and an epic CW fight ensues! Arrow fires a couple bows and Deadshot shots a bit. Arrow tells him to throw down his guns, but of course he doesn't listen. Arrow turns and shoots an Arrow right through Deadshot's eye. He defeated evil once again. Everything seems fine as Arrow approaches Deadshot's body but there is a noise behind Arrow. He grabs his bow and quickly turns revealing his, Oliver's, body guard. He has been shot! Arrow rushes him to his secret lair to save him! He feeds Diggs some of the same magic grass and he passes out. When Diggs awakens Arrow has taken his "disguise" off revealing to his new friend that he is the masked vigilante! Oliver says. "Hey" Diggs passes out again and the episode ends! CLIFFHANGER
Rating: C+
Ever since the release of Marvel Comics 2008 hit film Iron Man the world has gone bonkers for superheroes. There's no question about who is in the lead in the superhero market. Marvel has paved the way with sequel after sequel leading up to the big payoff with the billion dollar earner, The Avengers. With more sequels announced, more stand alone films, and two more Marvel "phases", Marvel has left comic rival DC in the dust. That is until the CW decided to stand up to Stan Lee and begin to pave the way for more DC characters that may lead to the big screen in the future.
The CW's "Arrow" follows the tale of billionaire playboy Oliver Queen, who after getting shipwrecked on a deserted island for 5 years gets transformed into a bow and arrow badass. Long story short Oliver gets rescued and uses his new badassery and bow skills to clean up his city from the 1% who are using their power to others disadvantage as Green Arrow! The Episode I have chosen to focus on is Season 1 Episode 3 titled "Lone Gunmen"
The episode begins like all of the others, TRAINING MONTAGE! Accompanied by deep inner monologue about who Green Arrow's next target is. Of course Oliver is shown with out a shirt on while he is in his Arrow Hideout. I mean who lifts a bar stacked with cinder blocks stacked on it fully clothed? And this being a CW show EVER character is extremely attractive, yes even the homeless people. As Oliver lifts heavy objects his mumbled and gruff monologue tells the back story of a one, James Holder, who put faulty fire alarms in his buildings causing innocent civilians to die. Arrow is not cool with this at all! So he drops the heavy blocks sending them crashing to the floor as he storms out of the Hideout.
Between the inner gruff monologues and all the shirtless training montages you kind of forget you're watching a superhero show, but trust me it gets better. To enjoy Arrow you just need to sit back and enjoy all of the campiness. I mean it is based off of a comic book. So anyway Arrow shows up to James Holder's house and demands that he pays for what he has done to the civilians! James is shaken by the scary vigilantly, but before he can react, BLAM, he gets shot dead in front of Arrow. SNIPER! Arrow fires some arrows into the dark night and in the process he gets shot in the shoulder, oh no! He escapes without any more harm and heads back to his Arrowlair.
Back at the Arrowlair, Oliver attends to his wound with his shirt off AGAIN! He delivers another cheesy inner monologue saying that a man like Holder of course has more than one enemy. And he crosses his name out in his Arrow hit list. But what's this! A side effect! The bullets been poisoned!!!!! Oliver starts to feel woozy and rushes over to his secret kit and pulls out some grass stuff and eats it and passes out. He awakens fine, it's a good thing that grass in his secret island box cured that exact poison or I don't know what would have happened. The episode cuts to one of Oliver's island flash backs and we are filled in with another piece into his secret backstory. The scraggly asian man who shot Oliver with an arrow in the last episode feeds Oliver the same grass and pulls the arrow out of his shoulder. I need to get me some of this grass because apparently it can do everything and anything.
And we're back in the present. Arrow uses his mad scientific skills to deduce that the poison that was on the bullet that shot him is only used by on specific assassin. I have no idea how Oliver learned how to do all of this science stuff because before he was stranded on the island he dropped out of four different colleges and I'm pretty sure there wasn't an equivalent of MIT on the island. At least we haven't seen yet.... As Oliver is piecing together the pieces about who this assassin is we are shown a buff man tattooing James Holder's name onto his body with an abundance of other names on his body.
The story jumps for Oliver to a Detective who is working the Holder murder. All of the other detectives are saying that Arrow killed the man, but Detective Lance is not convinced he too thinks something is fishy. Anyway Arrow finds out the assassins name by searching an Interpol database and discovers his name is Deadshot, because he never misses! Arrow takes this new info to a Russian Mob person who is covered as a Mechanic? Oliver, in Russian, explains to the man he needs to find an assassin and gives the man the information and tells him to find this Deadshot for him, the man agrees after Oliver shows him a tattoo on his chest and says he's a captain in some Russian Mob syndicate. This story is getting very complicated.
The Russian Mob boss delivers the information and Oliver heads to Deadshots hotel room. Oliver gets all dressed up in his green hood and heavy raccoon makeup, I'm still not sure why he just doesn't wear a mask? Anyway he heads to Deadshots hotel where he busts through the door arrows a blazing and Deadshots bullets a blazing. Neither of them hit each other which is also weird because Deadshot NEVER MISSES... Deadshot gets away and Oliver gets his computer.
Oliver takes the computer to his own family company, and has an IT person, look at an assassins computer that is riddled with bullet holes. Oliver proceeds to say that he spilled coffee on hi laptop and it's broken.....so much for being secretive Oliver. Anyway Oliver finds out there is a larger plot that a company wants to assassinate his Stepfather for control for more stocks and money or something that is way to complicated for the CW. Arrow realizes that he can't save everyone from being assassinated on his own so he asks Detective Lance, in a rather Batman esq. way, for help. He gives Lance the laptop and vanishes into the night.
Oliver shows up to the stock auction thing in support of his stepfather and mother and sister. The place is swarming with cops and everything seems to be safe as Detective Lance checks in with all his patrols. As Patrol Five checks in we see that is not in fact a cop, but DEADSHOT! He puts the radio down and steadies his rifle cross hairs aimed at Oliver!!!!!!!!! As Oliver walks to his stepfather Deadshot's cross hairs move from Oliver to his stepfather. Deadshot turns his laser sight on, and gives himself away. Detective Lance sees the red dot on the stepfather and pushes him out of the way just in time. And while Detective Lance saves the stepfather he gets a poor innocent waiter killed because the bullet now hits him. Deadshots killing people left and right and Oliver runs to go get his costume on. He busts into Deadshots perch and an epic CW fight ensues! Arrow fires a couple bows and Deadshot shots a bit. Arrow tells him to throw down his guns, but of course he doesn't listen. Arrow turns and shoots an Arrow right through Deadshot's eye. He defeated evil once again. Everything seems fine as Arrow approaches Deadshot's body but there is a noise behind Arrow. He grabs his bow and quickly turns revealing his, Oliver's, body guard. He has been shot! Arrow rushes him to his secret lair to save him! He feeds Diggs some of the same magic grass and he passes out. When Diggs awakens Arrow has taken his "disguise" off revealing to his new friend that he is the masked vigilante! Oliver says. "Hey" Diggs passes out again and the episode ends! CLIFFHANGER
Rating: C+
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