In this complex yet enjoyable movie there was somethings I really thought was interesting. I like that part where Denzel Washington was explaining to Jay that they are in way similar. Color shading. Denzel, “You are only a couple shades from his face he pointed at.” I like that cross connection because even if Jay and his family came from Africa, Denzel made a good point. Jay expressing that he doesn’t know his struggle. Denzel, “I’m a black man born and raised in Mississippi, there ain’t a damn thing you can tell me about struggle.” That right there hit me hard because my dad would say the same thing because my dad was born and raised in Mississippi. I thought that everyone in the U.S had something good going for them and my dad was like nope. In Mississippi it was a struggle everyday because not only having 13 brothers and sisters like he did, but to grow up in a state where it seemed as he explained it,”A state that was so slow in economy, production and all other things.” I think also they chose that part of Mississippi because of the country parts because imagine if the movie was in a inner-city? My dad also said that when he got back from visiting Mississippi that they are still behind. My dad also said and to this day, I was shocked beyond something fierce. My dad told me when he was little and to this day that Mississippi was considered the poorest state in the whole U.S. of A. What? No way and he said yeah. I really like that Mississippi Masala was a good movie and showed a lot of cross connections of African and Indian Americans. Home is where the heart is and I like that Jay said that even though he went back to Africa to see how it was, but seemed like the same. I would like to make a trip to Uganda and see what has happened there ever since the regimes. Reading it isn’t the same as seeing it for yourself. Hope everyone had a good weekend. Peace

This crow that appears on page 349 and I wanted to acknowledge that this crow is well put in here and each letter describes the animal in a way. It feels a puzzler. Crow. On page 349, The word appears on the horizon, black against the unbearable light, and as it comes closer, it starts to turn and spiral, elongating its C to create a spine, rounding its O into a sleek belly, rotating its R to form a forehead and a wide-open beak. It stretches wide Wings, flaps them once, twice, thrice, and then, fully feathered, it starts to fly. In a way the bird seemed like a guide for Ruth just to put the crow in this form and to see how the word has value an plays a part in Ruth’s part in the book. Nature in the book was a big part of a theme environment that I noticed a lot in this book. I like that this crow was in here because I wanted to know more on why this crow was in here. I guess in this part played a guardian crow in a way, but all in all I really like the jungle crow. Thanks for nature in this Tale for the time being.

I found a reoccurring factor and this was suicide which is a form of death. I read it on page 245 where Nao was talking about the mass suicides of soldiers at a place called Attu. Called it Gyokusai which was a suicide attack, human wave attack. I wonder was there a massive scene of suicides by soldiers on this Island. I’m also thinking about was Gyokusai a traditional thing because also in the description says, “A great man should die as a shattered jewel rather than live as an intact tile.” Is this traditional or just happened during the Tojo Hideki which was the prime minister during the time of these massive suicides. What was the point of the suicides? Were they suicide bombers or just massive suicides knowing that they were going to lose the war? Suicide in war and what it can do to people is something else entirely.

Throughout the book, but in the section I found some communication about the tsunami and what happened after it. The after effects of what nature does. When April 4, where the update log Tepco received permission from Japanese government to release 11,500 tons of contaminated water into the Pacific Ocean. After that it stated that is equivalent to five Olympic swimming pools. Wow and lasting for five days. Poisonous water into the Ocean and I’m wondering with all this communication why wouldn’t they filter the water before releasing it into the Pacific because someone will more than likely get radiation dose from it later saying that and I just wanted to know. Why just dump it, I know that’s a lot of water, but could they spare some time cleaning it first before dumping polluted water into the Pacific to later create more problems down the line. What could have happened instead. World of communication, maybe ask another country for help. Radiation and the effects are dangerous, but it is already been done. Just noticing communication of after effects of nature. Like that some communication that had to do with nature problems and the outcome to them. Anyone got any thoughts on this? What would of you done? Suggestions/ ideas?

This movie right here. This was a one of the emotional movies that I’ve ever seen. In this class as always I learned more about a race that I had no knowledge of what happened to them. In the movie where before 9/11 everything was fine and dandy with all the Indian Americans in the world and 9/11 hit everyone starts hating them. Why? They have just as much right to be here as we do. Why is it when something bad happens in the U.S mainly automatically after when finding out the people responsible, America turns against them. Everything about that particular race becomes wrong and bad even if their Indian American. Where in the electronic store where the owner was getting abused verbally and physically just because he resembles a Indian, but hes also American. Why don’t Americans realize this. This bugs the hell out of me and is wrong on so many levels. Even in schools where Sam was being ignored by one of his best friends and trying to see what he did wrong and just because of the color of his skin. Then when it gets to out of hand, someone dies and that was sad and wrong. It seems like a circle of tragic events that happen to races and I believe it will keep happening because America is not going to change when it comes to hating one race when something bad happens in the U.S. and affects thousands of U.S. lives and then boom. Hatred toward that whole race and they become the bad guys. They may have not started to caused the tragedy to happen, but just because of their skin and they resemble the bad guy. Someone needs to put a stop to this. That’s what I thought mostly about the movie we watched. Anyone who wants to know what happened to Indian Americans and what they faced post 9/11, they should watch this film.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Name_Is_Khan

This death theme I chose I drew from the excerpt by Harry talking about suicide and the second part really boggled and made me think about Japanese all together on page 87.

The excerpt says,”Throughout history, we Japanese have always appreciated suicide. For us it is a beautiful thing that gives meaning and shape and honor to our lives forever. It is a method to make our feeling of alive most real. For many thousands of years this our tradition.”

This part was amazing to me and reminded me of 47 Ronin where the seppuku is such a traditional thing during the samurai times and was really wondering from fellow Japanese or anyone if this tradition of suicide is so greatly expressed in a way where suicide is the way to show honor and makes felling of alive most real. Where in 47 Ronin where the samurai got to perform seppuku to have honor and to feel proud of what they did even though it was against all that the emperor said to do. Questions and also thought that was a cool connection, but this I would like to be answered if anyone would know. Enjoyed the book so far a bit confusing at sometimes, but hope everyone has a good weekend. Peace

Reading Kato I found a section where it really reached out to me. This paragraph of words is powerful to me. It’s mid section where it is explained as a constitutional aspect of hip hop aesthetics.

“From the beginning hip hop’s development, before there was even a word to describe it, hip hop was about looking for the perfect break and juggling it back and forth on two turntables. . . . And that perfect break could come from anywhere: Funk, Bebop, Classical, or Rock–any musician able to strike a groove for just a bar or two. . . .It is a music made up of bits and pieces of preexisting sounds–looped, collaged, and layered until they take a new identity.”

Then Kato says that in Jeet Kune Do and hip hop, creativity arises from the autonomy of self-expression. This right here blew me away because I know that way back in the day the section above, music was like that and now it’s a different story. Self-expression that one experiences when they make a song, rap, symphony it doesn’t matter what it may be because self-expressing yourself was the main motive. Some may do that now, but the way people view and hear music especially rap and hip hop has changed. Some peoples music and lyrics have gone beyond the main focus of what hip hop was and what some rappers made it to be. Ever since the lost of some of the big fish of hip hop, the genre has fallen, but still gathers attention, but as much as people would hope well that’s what I think. Hope that hip hop somewhat brings what it had when great MCs made hip hop great and not now for what it has become.

Enter the dragon and Kato reading on page 140-141 where it says, “For such a device could fundamentally debase the narrative matrix of the Yi Ho Tuan movement, or what I have also referred to earlier as the kung fu dialectic.” I believe that Bruce Lee really demonstrated this matrix movements besides the slow motion, but doing the combat  so familiarly to the narrative matrix. Bruce Lee reminded me of Neo in the matrix during some of his fights because he was so fluent and precise. The thing that I really appreciated in the book that the remastered version of Enter the Dragon showed was the situation between Han and Lee. In the earlier version some parts were left out and in this one they weren’t. The other thing that was interesting in the book where it talks about the images of an enemy. “Yes. The enemy has only images and illusions, behind which he hides his true motives. Destroy the image and you will break the enemy.” That fight scene with the mirrors and how he broke them, so Han was using the environment to his advantage and then broken glass everywhere and the enemy has nowhere to hide.

On page 156, where one of the contributions in Enter the Dragon was to confront the Japanese self-”Orientalization” of the ninja with the power of realism and historicism. I thought that a ninja was a myth, but reading in the book and seeing in the movie and how it was the art of ninjutsu where people would entertain. Art of the ninja was great to see that from a true inspiring ninja because I was convinced because I couldn’t hear anything from Bruce when he was sneaking around. Lee was I think was the first real-life artist to perform ninja in the films’s history.

This chapter and movie together were awesome to hear about more popular culture involving kung fu and from a character that has shocked the world and put the art of kung fu in a sense into production because Bruce Lee was a barrier breaker, fundamental scholar and was a martial art guru. He was a master at his craft and we know that his legacy is not forgotten.