Concerned Citizen

 

When we first started to throw around ideas of who we might like to get to know better as a concerned citizen, we thought maybe someone that works at an animal shelter, or doctors that were doing innovative things with patients. But then we watched the Fit for the Kingdom video that was centered around the LDS poet, Rusty, where it was in a much more intimate setting where we really got to know what kind of person he was and what his inspirations were. This led us to choosing someone like him that was doing something relatively small in the community, but still making a difference.

In Goldbard’s article, she references a few instances where policy seemed a bit behind the times, with the Muslim women and their hijabs, and the growing prison population in the US. Knowing we wouldn’t be able to tackle an issue quite as big as either of these, we decided to tackle a smaller issue, but still one in which the citizen was doing something that didn’t quite fall in line with the larger community around him. Josh Palkki is a student at BYU, residing here in Provo, but grew up in Oregon, where he was raised to recycle. We thought it would be interesting to discuss with him why he continued collecting recyclables, even though it is more difficult to recycle here. For our video we took inspiration from something we found on vimeo about an artist in LA (https://vimeo.com/79222497).

In short, we spend a lot of time listening to what the artist has to say while he’s sitting in a chair, but there are cutaways to some of the work that he’s done and things that help you further understand what he is saying and who he is as an artist. This is why we decided to include a lot of the interview, he had some really interesting things to say and we thought it would be beneficial to include things like his dirty kitchen  to sort of contrast how he is an avid recycler but is maybe more lax in other aspects of his life.

 

An interesting issue that we ran into while we were trying to find an apartment complex nearby that had recycling set up for students (so we could film some cutaways there), was that there was no such thing. We spent nearly an hour searching for one and came up short, having to go on campus and to the dorms to find any actual recycling bins. This was comical since we had just discussed with Josh how it was much more difficult to find anywhere in Provo to actually recycle. Our hope in spotlighting Josh and recycling is that hopefully others might be impacted by what he has to say, like we were, and take more steps in helping the community around them.

Protest Poster

The poster that I made is a protest against the CDC(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) and their handling of Lyme disease. Lyme disease is contracted from Ticks and enters the blood stream. It is a terrible, debilitating disease that thousands and thousands of people suffer from because they often are undiagnosed or misdiagnosed with something completely different. This reason for this is the fact that the CDC does not even acknowledge Lyme disease as chronic. They claim it is something acute that can easily be treated with antibiotics – no matter when it is discovered. This is simply not true. If detected early and treated, then it certainly can be cured quickly as well. However, for those individuals who go years without a diagnosis, the suffering can be tremendous. Treatment is extremely difficult and the road to recovery is long and frustrating.  Because the CDC doesn’t acknowledge it as a chronic disease, most physicians are not familiar with it at all and would have no idea what to look for to diagnose it, and what’s worse is that insurance companies do not cover treatment for Lyme beyond simple antibiotics, and not even those sometimes.

So I took found a picture of Lyme disease at the microscopic level in the blood cells(the little guy shaped like a corkscrew is the actual Lyme spirochete). Next, I found a picture of the official seal of the CDC, cropped it and placed on to each of the blood cells in the photo. Next, I changed the opacity level so that the two would blend together, giving the appearance that the seal was actually inside the cell. This gives the appearance that the true infection – the real reason behind chronic Lyme disease – is the CDC and their refusal to recognize it for what it really is and help people. The only reason Lyme becomes chronic is because the CDC doesn’t help spread awareness.

Next, I placed black borders on the top and bottom of the picture because I wanted to make it look like a meme. Memes are very commonplace and viewed frequently. I think most memes are designed to be humorous so seeing a serious one might catch people’s attention. On the borders I placed the words, “Chronic Lyme Disease. Take a closer look.”  I was doing two things here: referencing the fact that my photo is at the microscopic level of someone with this disease and the second is that if they look and see that seal, they’re realize is that that is out of place and then my hope is that they will do some research on the matter and looking closer will help to reveal the truth to them.

I put my poster up on my Facebook page and it was well received, even in a short time. It seemed to be easily understood and a few people even looked up Lyme and the CDC. Seemed to work.

For this project I took inspiration from our viewing of “The danger of a single story.” I think that’s what the CDC does. They only see Lyme as one way – simple and not dangerous. In reality, it a chameleon amongst diseases, often referred to as “The great pretender” due to its ability to mimic the symptoms of other diseases. In reality it extremely complex and highly dangerous. That’s what ultimately made me choose do this – their inability to look at it in any other way.

As far as the design of my poster I was inspired by some microscopic pictures in the documentary Under Our Skin, which focuses on the fight against the CDC and the stories of several who have suffered from Lyme for years. If you want to watch it you can do so for free right at the bottom of the page.

I would highly recommend it. Educate yourself and you could help save someone or, who knows, maybe even yourself from this horrible disease.  

 

Webspinna Battle!

Opening Theme

Help me Obi Wan Kenobi

Darth Doody





The ways of the force

Religions and Ancient Weapons




Imperial March

I am Your Father

Seen His Face




Red October Standing By

All clear kid

Explosion




Final Theme

Chewbacca Roar

Perfectly Alright

When I chose to build my Webspinna around Star Wars I did so simply because I thought it would be the most fun to create. I think I was right. My objective with the audio clips I chose to use was simply to recreate the plot of Star Wars through sound. I picked very significant parts of the film and found sounds that would be easily recognized by anyone. For the most part I followed the general plot in its chronological order, with a few twists for humor or purely for fun. An example would be the clip from The Empire Strikes Back when Vader proclaims, “I am your father.” This line is not a part of the original film, but was too iconic for me to exclude. I also chose a line from Han Solo that occurs in the middle of the film but I placed it at the end simply because it’s my favorite line and I thought it would be a great way to conclude my mix. This attempt to be mostly chronological was in response to our reading. When reading DJ Spooky’s page, I honestly went a little crazy. I felt the disorder could work for him, but if I wanted to successful navigate my page, I needed a little bit of order.

The majority of my clips came directly from the film, but a few were borrowed from other sources such as Family Guy. I thought this would be a good way to mix the clips because Star Wars is so iconic that there have been countless copies of it or references to it. I decided to combine the two in order to point out the fact that it’s not just a movie that was extremely popular, but it is something that is engrained into our culture – it’s a fixture that will never be removed. It’s actually a piece of us as though we have all been to that far away galaxy a long time ago. And most of us are so familiar with the lines that when we hear one with even a single word changed, we can tell the difference. So I threw in a few to make it fun.

Star Wars vs. Harry Potter was something we really enjoyed because they’re both very iconic and actually incredibly similar to each other when compared closely. So when pairing sounds we took parts that were similar to each other to compare them, to point out the similarities. I actually received a little inspiration on that section from a joke by Aaron Woodall, a fellow Humor U comedian of mine. Watch it

here if you like.

As far as the actual performance goes, I feel that Libby and I did well. We rehearsed a few times, and it never went well, but when we stepped in front of everyone, we only had one little goof so I think that we did very well. I certainly gained a whole new respect for DJs who can go out and make things happen on the spot in front of people. It’s pretty incredible. When it came to costume selection I went with greatest character to come out of the franchise: Han Solo. It's was a pretty simple choice - just be as cool as possible.