Huynh_A3

Apple watch (A2 essay)

            In 21^st century, there are many different technologies has been introduced to the public. One of the newest technology that majority of people in the world would like to own one is the touch watches from Apple. Watches has been developed over the last century and continue to improve in the future.

            The Apple watch was released to the world on April 24, 2015. After it was introduced to the world, the product instantly became the best-selling device on the market. This new creation is very convenient. There are a lot more features in this piece of technology than a normal watch. Beside functioning as a clock, Apple watch can allow you to listen to music, text, measure workout, etc. Everything is functioning by the touchscreen. The part that attracted people interest from this product is that the screen does not stay the same all the time. the screen on the normal always stay the same. However, the screen on the Apple watch can change from this feature to another feature. This invention is also fashionable because it comes in many different design.   

 The technology from the 20^th century that influenced this invention is a wristwatch. On July 9, 1916, The New York Times introduced a new fashion trend: a bracelet with a clock on it. The wristwatch became popular among people around the globe. The watch has two hands. One of the hand is using to point at the hour. The other hand is using to point at the minute. The function of the wristwatch is mainly to inform time for the owner. It is small and convenient. Before, people have to check the time by looking at the big clock on the wall. However, with the wristwatch, people can check the time through the bracelet on their own wrist. Another purpose of this product is fashion. Many people think they look more mature with a watch on their wrist.

The Apple watch has the ability to influence a lot of the upcoming product in the following century. By the imagination and technology, this product can be upgraded in many ways. Human imagination is endless. Many ideas can be generating throughout the next century. As we all know, all wristwatches need to have the bracelet to wear on our wrist. However, the new upgraded watch in the future can be just the screen and no bracelet. The inventor can make the screen stick the customer’s arm. This new idea can help the product to be more convenient for the people. If this invention is created, the buyers will not have to worry about wearing the bracelet. Instead, they can just put it on the wrist and it will stick to their arm. Another idea is to have a projector inside the new watch. The watch can create a visual screen upward and become a bigger screen, same as all the futuristic movies that we had seen in the theater. The user can control the device by touching the visual screen. By applying this new idea, the user can video call other people and see face to face through a small wristwatch. Furthermore, the user can be able to watch movies or videos through their own tiny device. In addition, we can add more feature that is helpful in our daily life. For example, the remote controls the function of the house can be a useful feature.

In conclusion, the technology has been developed rapidly over the past years. There is always space for more advance update in any of our creation. As long as we don’t stop improving, there will always be another better idea.    

Work Cited

N.A. Apple Watch series 3. Apple Inc, 2018. Web. February 28, 2018. https://www.apple.com/watch/

Friedman, Uri. A Brief History of the Wristwatch. The Atlantic Monthly Group. 2018. Web. February 28, 2018. https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/05/history-wristwatch-apple-watch/391424/

Blog 4

          There is a lot of broadway shows in the New York city. One of my favorite show is Wicked. During my 11 grade, I have a privilege to watch Wicked live on stage in New York. It was part of my junior field trip. The story of Wicked is mostly about two characters, Elphaba and Glinda. This story is happened before Dorothy come in to the picture. The show is very entertaining. It gives the audience a brief story between "evil" and "good" about both main character friendship. Glinda is a popular student, who trying to teach Elphaba to be popular like her. This part of the story makes the audience enjoy the comedy of the show. The music and performance are both fantastic with correct movement for each scene. Wicked receives a lot of compliment from big publishers, like The New York Times and Time Magazine.

          Another broadway show that I like is called the Lion King. This shows is created base on the original Lion King from Disney in 1994. The Lion King is a story about a young lion, Simba, who is meant is be a king after his father. The background and the atmosphere gives me a feeling that I'm in a great land of Africa. The show does a good job portraying the evilness of Simba's uncle, the pureness of Simba and the mightiness of the Simba's father. Simba's uncle, Scar, who is trying to take the King's place to rule the land for himself by kill the King. Simba has to find the way to fight back for his father's glory. The Lion King draws a wonder picture about parent's love and courageousness for the audience.

          In conclusion, these two broadway shows are my favorite among all the show. They are both well-constructed shows. We can see that they have to practice a lot in order to put in a great performance for the us. Hard work and talent helps the shows as well as broadway developed and become more popular over time.               

Opera A1

Dat Huynh

ART 211

Professor Blanka Roundtree

February 11, 2018

Anna Bolena Opera

Opera is one of most famous musical genre that many people enjoy during 19^th century. Thus, there are many different operas are created at this period. The opera that I choose is named Anna Bolena composed by Gaetano Donizetti in Italian. He is an Italian opera composer. He has lots of famous operas, for example, along with Anna Bolena are Lucia di Lammermoor (1835), La fille du régiment (1840), and La favorite (1840). Anne Bolena is originally premiered in Milan, Teatro Carcano, 1830. This piece of art receives many compliments from the audience as it shows a part of England’s history. 

The French term “mise en scene” means “placing on stage” according to the dictionary. In artistic definition, it is the arrangement of all the elements that appear in the frame. For example, in the framing, there are actors, lighting, décor, props and costume. In the creation of a movie, filming work and frame are also including in the “mise en scene”. The element is the “mise en scene”, as long as it is a physical object that is on the scene and recorded by the camera. The director, who in charge of the entire movie set, is responsible to overlook the “placing on stage”. In my opinion, this arrangement is very important to any artistic production. Because it is one of the key part, which steer the production toward the best result and the pleasant view for the audience. In this case, Anna Bolena, everything presented on stage are part of the “mise en scene”, including background of the play, the dresses that ladies are wearing, etc.  

The opera started off with a series of instruments played. There are different instruments, including, flute, violin, etc. all the instruments are controlled by a conductor. He helps put the sound together and creates a piece of music that please the audience. All conductor’s hand movements match with a note. The music starts to increase its intensity lead to the opening the opera act. The background of the scene is in King Henry VIII’s castle, England, 1536. The acting combined with the playing music gives the audiences different emotions and unexplainable feelings. After the video, I feel angry because the unfairness of the king to his queen.

            In the beginning, we can see Queen Anne, King Henry VIII’s second wife, are worried and wondering around the castle. King Henry starts to get bored of Anne after three years of marriage. The king already has interest on another woman, Jane Seymour. However, Jane is the queen’s chief lady-in-waiting. Henry comes to see Jane at night. The king deeply shows his love to her and intends to make her become Queen by marry him. Jane feels guilty for betraying the queen, but she thinks it is late to turn back. In order to marry Jane, Henry has to get divorce with Anne. Therefore, the king arranges a trap for the queen. The trap includes meeting Anne’s former lover, Richard Percy. Henry sends a person to spy on them.

            There is another person who is secretly in love with the queen named Smeaton. He wants to see queen and returns small portrait that he steals. During that time, Anne is arguing with Rochefort, her brother. Rochefort warns the queen about the king’s trap. He wants Anne to persuade Percy away from England. Percy comes into the scene and expresses that his love is remain. Anne still doesn’t except his love. Percy becomes frustrated and pulls out his sword. Smeaton runs in to the scene to protect the queen. Suddenly, Henry comes in with his men. He accused them for committing adultery conspiracy because of the little portrait from Smeaton. While imprisoned, Anne finds out Jane is the king’s lover. The council gives a final decision to execute all four of them. Anne faces her execution, while Henry announces his new queen.

            This piece is important in the chronology of Opera because it shows a valuable part of England history. Anna Bolena gives the audience a brief understanding about King Henry VIII. Furthermore, this opera paints a picture of lover and betrayal in 1830. It teaches people a life lesson about love and trust. This opera also releases during the romantic age at its peak, which is from 1800 to 1850. Anna Bolena shows the involvement of opera in the art industry in the 19^th century.

            In video that I watched, there are a few technologies are being used for the performance. Brightness of lighting is one of the technology that being utilized during the opera. While switching between scenes, brightness of light will decrease and only focus on the main characters. Therefore, the background will be dark. This will allow worker behind the scene to make change in the background for the following scene without any notice from the audiences. In order to make major change in the background, they also use remote controlled curtain to close the scene. In the final scene, when Anne is being executed, the brick door is closed and remotely controlled by “behind the scene” crew.   

            If I were a 21^st century director, I have an idea that can turn this piece into a video game. My main character in the game would be Percy, Anne’s former lover. The story of the game will start with somehow Percy escaped from the prison. The main mission is rescue the queen, Anne, before her execution time. Player will control Percy. He must go through different layer defense of king Henry’s castle, which can also call as different level. Each level will be harder as layer defense is getting thicker. If the player manages to win the last level, Percy will be able to rescue Anne and be her hero.   

            In conclusion, Anna Bolena is a well-constructed piece of music. The content of the opera is not only about the history of England. But it also teaches us a great lesson about love. Gaetano Donizetti did a wonderful job on interpreting it in his opera. Which we can all value and enjoy until today.          

Work Cited

Hussey, Dyneley. Gaetano Donizetti. Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. May 06, 2015. Web.

February 12, 2018.

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Gaetano-Donizetti

Moura, Gabe. Mise-en-scène. Elements of Cinema. July 01, 2014. Web. February 12, 2018.

http://www.elementsofcinema.com/directing/mise-en-scene-in-films/

N.A. Anna Bolena. The Metropolitan Opera. 2017. Web. February 12, 2018.

http://www.metopera.org/Discover/Synopses/Anna-Bolena/

Blog 3

          In this week assignment, I have to watch a video of Pjotr Sapegin's Madama Butterfly animation and write a comment about it. Madama Butterfly is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini. The video shows about a story of a woman that give her trust away and get betrayed by her love. The video starts with the scene where she meet a man from the U.S. Navy on the hill. She falls in love with the guy and give him everything. They end up make love in a garden. After that, the man have to leave her. Therefore he left her behind with his U.S. Navy hat and a gramophone. In addition, I believe he said to her that he will be back. In this scene, I think the man showed that he is irresponsible person.


          After the guy left, the woman still wait for him through many months. I think this scene showed that the woman is really fall in love with him. She give him a lot of trust and believe that he return to her. This scene portrays a woman who willing to give everything and never stop believing in the loyalty of her love. The following scene portrays the woman is pregnant and born the man's baby. She raises the child in a few years. Eventually, the man comes back. However, he comes back along with his new wife. I can see the sadness from the woman when she sees her love having a new family. The man betrays her trust, and also claims the child to his new family. At the end of the video, she ends her misery by committed suicide. I felt really bad for the woman and everything she had been through.

          In my opinion, betrayal is a terrible thing to do. The betrayer isn't only let the other person down, but also betrays the trust of that person. Once you lose someone trust, it is very difficult to get it back. Trust doesn't come easily. It needs to gain over a long period of time. However, one mistake can ruin everything you have built. In the result, betrayal can cause others to do things that they shouldn't even think about. An example from the video, the woman at the end of the video killed herself. I think that is not a good way to solve any problem. Death should not be a solution for anything. Suicide is an issue that we all should be aware of.

Work Cited

"Madama Butterfly" Youtube, uploaded by Milton Nezvanov, 11 October 2006,

              https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=209&v=E387c5RAhK4

  

XTRA 1

Nedare Tree

I created a tree from a Baroque folk and hair. The Baroque theme folk is the first object that I choose to include in my creation. Because folk is a silverware that people use everyday for centuries. Folk is a necessary silverware for every meal that we have. We use it to pick up the food and place the food in our mouth. The second part of my art is Baroque theme hair style. Many of us like to take care of our hair everyday. We all want our hair to look nice, therefore we cherish it. These two object that I choose are what we care and need in our life. I want to create a tree out of these two things, because tree also has the same value to us. We need the benefit from trees, like we need folk, in our everyday life. They produce oxygen and keep life sustain on our planet. Thus, our responsibility is to take care and cherish the tree, like we cherish our hair. Because we don't want both our hair and tree to die out. I called this creation a Nedare tree.