Friday, January 24, 2020

Genre Mixing in the Film South Park: Bigger, Longer, & Uncut :: essays research papers

Movies are often categorized by genres, which simply means kind or type. But most movies don’t fit into one single genre alone. Nowadays, it is common to see movies that are considered ‘horror’ and ‘science fiction’ like Signs or ‘romantic comedy’ and ‘fantasy’ like Groundhog Day (Film Art: An Introduction 109). The same is true for the movie South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (South Park). South Park is a mixture of three different film genres. First of all, it is an animated film, filmed entirely of 2-dimensional cartoons. Second, it is a musical, incorporating song and dance into the story. And third, it is a comedy full of politically incorrect jokes and crude humor. These genres come together and mix flawlessly. Although animation is typically associated with kids’ movies, that is not the case with South Park. The 2-dimensional drawn animation in this movie is not to entertain kids, but more so to portray the opinions and thoughts of the writers (e.g.: the beady eyes and flopping heads of the Canadians). It also provides a convenient way of showing things that aren’t usually visible, like Hell, for example (Film Art: An Introduction 163). South Park, like other Hollywood musicals, celebrates typical American ideals like rewarding ambition and the romance in the film ending happily (Film Art: An Introduction 124). The musical component of the movie also increases the humor by making it even more out of control. With songs like â€Å"Blame Canada†, â€Å"Kyle’s Mom’s a Bitch† and â€Å"What Would Brian Boitano Do?†, each having its own dance number, the film removes all seriousness and makes the film a hoot. The comedy is non-stop in this movie. From politically incorrect jokes like making Satan and Saddam Hussein a gay couple to gross-out humor like a giant clitoris that talks to Stan, the movie is full of laughs from start to finish. There is no limit to where this film will go. It touched on abortion, war, racism, technology, faulty parenting and other social issues, but it did so in a crude way, leaving the audience feeling a sense of amusement.

Thursday, January 16, 2020

Fast Food in Malaysia Essay

Restaurants have been around in some form for most of human civilization. But they usually catered to travelers. As far back as ancient Greece and Rome, inns and taverns generally served food to people who had a reason to be away from home. This trend continued until relatively recently. Although taverns and coffee houses were popular places to gather and share beverages in the 17th century, the idea of eating out for fun didn’t take off in Western society until the late 18th century. Although McDonald’s was the first restaurant to use the assembly-line system, some people think of White Castle as the first fast-food chain. White Castle was founded in 1921 in Wichita, Kansas. At the time, most people considered the burgers sold at fairs, circuses, lunch counters and carts to be low-quality. Many people thought hamburger came from slaughterhouse scraps and spoiled meat. White Castle’s founders decided to change the public’s perception of hamburgers. They built their restaurants so that customers could see the food being prepared. They painted the buildings white and even chose a name that suggested cleanliness. White Castle was most popular in the American East and Midwest, but its success helped give hamburger meat a better reputation nationwide. So, like cars, White Castle played an important part in the development of fast food. Image courtesy Brands of the World The McDonald brothers opened their redesigned restaurant in 1948, and several fast-food chains that exist today opened soon after. Burger King and Taco Bell got their start in the 1950s, and Wendy’s opened in 1969. Some chains, like Carl’s Jr. , KFC and Jack in the Box, existed before the Speedee Service System, but modified their cooking techniques after its debut. McDonald’s, which started it all, is now the world’s largest fast-food chain. According to the National Restaurant Association, American sales of fast food totaled $163. 5 billion in 2005 [ref]. The industry is growing globally as well. Total sales for McDonald’s grew 5. 6 percent in 2005, and the company now has 30,000 franchised stores in more than 120 countries [ref and ref]. However, McDonald’s – and fast food in general – does not always get a welcoming reception around the world. McDonald’s restaurants have been attacked in several countries, including the United States, China, Belgium, Holland, India, Russia, Sweden and the U. K. Protestors have accused McDonald’s and other chains of selling unhealthy food, marketing aggressively to children and undermining local values and culture.

Wednesday, January 8, 2020

Appearance versus Reality in Bertrand Russells The...

Appearance versus Reality in Bertrand Russells The Problems of Philosophy Bertrand Russells method of approaching his subject in Problems of Philosophy embraces the Cartesian technique of radical doubt, in which the author revokes any former assumptions about certain reality and existence. In the first chapters, Russells enquiry into the nature of reality in comparison to appearance begins with the observation of his immediate surroundings. By examining a table, for example, he determines that the tables colour, texture, and shape are sufficient to prompt doubt as to whether or not the table exists. The sensations of these qualities are not fixed by a reality; they are apparent possibilities and each depends on the conditions of†¦show more content†¦. Sense-data, as Russell says, are the things that are immediately known to us in sensation (Russell, 11). For instance, we have a sensation of greenness when we see a patch of green. Thus, whenever we see a colour, we have a sensation of the colour, but the colour itself is sense-datum, not a sensatio n. (12) Sense-data is therefore an important concept distinguished from the physical world full of physical objects; it is the only part of the world with which we have direct acquaintance. (To Russell, like most philosophers, a physical object is comprised of matter, and exists independently of the mind.) Although sense-data causes sensations of qualities in physical objects, the object and its sense-data are not co-dependent. While we doubt the physical existence of an object, we are not doubting the sense-data, which initially inspired the idea of the objects existence. The difficulty with Russells sense-data is its inaccuracy. He describes, It has appeared that, if we take any common object of the sort that is supposed to be known by the sense, what the senses immediately tell us is not the truth about the object as it is apart from us, but only that the truth about certain sense-data which, so far as we can see, depend upon the relations between us and the object (16). As the author explains in later chapters, sense-data can only be received