Sebastian Rothwyn
ENG 12: 1876
Professor Steven Taylor
Research Paper
December 12th, 2011

What Lies Beneath: The Economic Conundrum

During the Great Depression, the government knew that credit without regulation and severely high debt was a recipe for rampant speculation and inflated asset values. The liquidation of debt and holdings made to reduce debt burden were the very actions that inflated the value of the dollar and made the recession into a depression.[i]

In 1933, the Glass-Steagal Act established the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and a number of banking initiatives. One of these initiatives was for the FDIC to receive insolvent banks in the case of bankruptcy. In return, banks were regulated for speculation, interest rates on savings and a separation in commercial banking and investing. This long-term effort allowed the economy to crawl out of the Great Depression.[ii]

However, many Americans were led to believe that this was reasonable. After all, it helped us climb out of the era of an economic depression, which is still deeply rooted in our current financial memory. One argument was that “FDIC control speeds up the disposition of the bank’s assets which maintains the liquidity of deposits and encourages faith in the banking system” (Hynes and Walt). This means that if a bank fails because of greed or mismanagement of money, the law requires a bailout to continue to encourage its consumers, or in this case its victims, to do business with another company which could repeat the same process. If banks were parents, customers would have been taken by the system and bounced from one abusive foster home to the next, according to the logic of the law.

Another argument from the same law asserts “the FDIC’s role as the largest creditor gives it the incentive to maximize recovery” (Hynes and Walt). If one takes a step back and considers this argument, one realizes that the recovery spoken of is the recovery of the failed bank’s system, not of the financial woes of the customers who could have lost their jobs, homes and families in the process. However, the finance laws are not concerned with the customers, only the system.

Shortly after, in 1938, the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) was created. Its tactic was to finance mortgages nationwide funded by the issuance of bonds.

Considering the protection the banks received, up to and beyond bankruptcy, the question turns to what the average citizen receives out of the deal. The industry’s policy rested on the idea that its health would trickle down to customers, maintaining the economy. A chief focus would be debt, which increases revenue for financial institutions. When industry is used as the chief indicator for financial health it is no wonder that the economic situations facing Americans in 2008 would occur. Average people are not the industry, they merely work with it.

The country had come out of several wars and conflicts that affected the affinity the people had for their government and in the midst of fighting the most unpopular war of the century, President Lynden B. Johnson, in 1968, had to ask for the debt ceiling to be increased. This was an embarrassing thing for any President to do, so “to get Fannie Mae debt off its books, the government privatized it by selling shares to investors. The government may have retained an implicit promise not to allow Fannie Mae to fail, but this implicit promise appeared nowhere on the government's balance sheet” (Kling. 22). This looked really good where the government’s debt was concerned.

Key federal programs, however, could not be privatized. Loans issued by the government through the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and Veterans Administration (VA) were moved in their entirety to the new Government National Mortgage Association (GNMA) as securities. Now private investors could have at them and the problem was solved. No more mortgages on the national debt. Although this problem was now solved for the government, it created another problem that many in the financial industry foresaw and took great advantage of: a rise in securitization.[iii]

The 1970s were the worst year for the financial sector. Investors were dumping bad debt and collecting on it, in large numbers. Arguably, some did so as a matter of economic survival. Some did this as a matter of clever earnings strategy. How did this occur? One purchases a low-cost property that needs repair; one fixes it, installs a few nice countertops and wood floors, sells it to another investor, and then collects the equity gain. The next step is for the new owner-investor to default on it. Since it is owned in land trust anyway, there is no effect on the credit rating of the investor who owned it. When the bank takes it back, it gets sold at auction, for well below cost to another investor who repeats the process. If it cannot be repeated, it is simply sold to a legitimate homeowner at an inflated price. When an entire area is oversold, the market can no longer bear those costs and they values fall steadily, until the properties are abandoned or go into disrepair because the owners cannot afford to sell them at a profit. In order to make money, banks’ interest rates climbed to keep up with rising prices, but so did the government’s rates to stop inflationary behavior.

In 1980, after wars, stagflation and energy crises, the Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act made the first chip in the glass. It prevented the Federal Reserve Board of Governors from setting the cap on interest rates for savings. This meant that commercial banks needed to improve their methods to provide greater returns if they intended to compete with investment banks. As nice as competition sounded, the only way to achieve this would be to merge with other banks and earn more money through their offerings. This could now be done with the new Act. This hardball led to a stalemate between savings and loans banks and the government, with consumers stuck in the middle as pawns. The banks could not sell their mortgage loans to raise capital because the values were too low so:

Wall Street proposed a solution: a new security program at Freddie Mac [Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation], called Guarantor. Under this program, a [savings and loan] would exchange a package of its old mortgages to Freddie Mac for a security backed by those mortgages. The security could then be used as collateral by the [savings and loan] to borrow against. Freddie Mac earned a fee (as high as 2 percent) for engaging in this purely paper transaction. Wall Street firms earned fees by finding institutional investors to lend to [savings and loans], with the securities as collateral. The losers, ultimately, were the taxpayers, since most of the [savings and loans] ultimately still went bankrupt, having been bled by the fees and having made further unsound investments. (Kling. 26).

Two years later, realizing that what they did was unsustainable, the government deregulated the savings and loan banks with the Garn-St Germain Depository Institutions Act of 1982, allowing banks to charge adjustable rates on mortgages in an attempt to improve their earnings and hopefully reduce inflation. To their benefit, a rise in computer technology created economic prosperity that they did not account for.

Computerized technology grew exponentially during the years that followed. Many people, who lived from paycheck to paycheck, now had the opportunity to achieve earnings growth on a level that did not require an eight-year degree from an Ivy League university. This was a boon for the economy, especially employment, and although it was not a direct contributor, the government was praised for relaxing regulations on lending so these industries could thrive and their workers could buy houses and live comfortably.

The benefit of these jobs and the efforts of these industries did not survive the breaking of the Glass-Steagal Act when in 1999; the Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act removed the separation of investment and commercial banks. Serving as both the investor and the one receiving the benefits of the investment on the flip side of commerce was no longer a conflict of interest. Banks were still allowed to merge and immediately began the process of playing both sides.[iv]

A large middle-income group was created and was an integral part of the business of banking because of their technology. They had plenty of savings, plenty of income and plenty of assets. Immediate over-speculation in the Internet business arena caused the entire sub-sector to crash. Massive amounts of layoffs caused middle-income people to have fewer savings, fewer wages and fewer assets, as they struggled to maintain their livelihood. Recognizing the inevitable, the combined banks hedged their funds on volatile housing assets with the knowledge that displaced workers would find it hard to pay their mortgages, especially when their underemployment could no longer support their lifestyles. Once the banks moved the jobs offshore in an effort, they claimed, to save money and help the economy, they prevented domestic workers from being able to support their own lifestyles.[v]

When companies outsource jobs to low wage countries there are lower prices on goods for consumers and higher profits for companies. Typically this would be seen as a win-win situation, however, when consumers are the ones who lose their jobs, they lose purchasing power. How do they pay for even the lower priced goods, without the means? They simply do not.

NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement signed in 1993, was a boon to outsourcing. It reduced the barriers of trade across countries.[vi] Due to lower productivity, in places such as Mexico, there were additional transportation costs. However, lower wages allowed companies to maintain higher profits. Mexican workers, who typically crossed the border for higher paying work, didn’t need to do so anymore. They simply had to work domestically and they could improve their earnings. Goods, services and other non-technical work could be achieved cheaply there, however, for the laid off worker who didn’t have the skills, a job had to be found elsewhere.

Fortunately there were other jobs, requiring similar repetitive skills, which could be found. Naturally, with jobs available, few complained. The investment made by the government into new and developing industries for sensitive goods and services helped those displaced workers find other avenues for earning a living wage. Although there was still unemployment, for some, there were jobs and for others there was education, which helped them improve their earning potential and be more competitive. This is the angle that many used years later to explain why more jobs were sent overseas, however the situation was not the same.[vii]

Other countries such as China and India, which were still developing their technological infrastructure at the turn of the twenty-first century, were able to invest in newer technology and didn’t have to struggle with conversion efforts in the same way that the USA did. Increased bandwidth from fiber optic lines allowed secure and compressed connectivity to foreign countries at lower prices. There was less of a concern about transportation of this type because the work did not depend on trucking and shipping, as did goods and services. With savings from all sides, human resources through delivery, companies realized they could gain even higher profits by taking their repetitive tasks and moving them offshore. The real problem came when non-repetitive jobs were moved offshore.[viii]

Jobs that did not require customer interaction such as call centers, accounting, and billing were not the only jobs to move overseas. Americans, who spent significant investments in new media and technology, learning skills such as application development, helped companies to improve their efficiency. Once those companies had their tools, the support for these tools was minimal. Many of these developers were displaced once they trained their replacements in outsourced nations; their job was then moved from the USA to countries such as India and China.

Unfortunately with such a significant cross section of earners being laid off, from repetitive to non-repetitive tasks, these workers became under-employed or unemployed. Although companies were able to improve their profits and make their costs lower, these new lower prices were still more than the unemployed or under-employed could afford.

Many of these potential workers moved to new industries that were previously occupied by others. If their education and experience were significant enough to be hired and not significant enough to be denied employment, these workers would replace those who typically would find employment in that industry. Now Americans were competing with one another for lesser jobs for lower pay and displacing one another. Any of the jobs that returned because of loss of productivity from the outsourced nations were few, and were quickly occupied by new graduates who worked for less than the market could bear because of their lack of experience.

With fewer workers, buying fewer goods at lower prices, for the same costs of living at the same consumption rates, there is less money flowing in the economy. This pattern of decline can only be maintained for so long.

Once these jobs were gone, it was only a matter of time before the inflated assets of their former employees would burst. When they inevitably did burst, investors collected their winnings and banks rehired from a pool of recent college graduates, leaving offshore economies that depended on that employment in disarray.[ix]

The one aspect of the Glass-Steagal Act that was still left among the shards: the ability for banks to be bailed out, should an economic disaster occur. Law, as long as they didn’t violate any of the provisions of the laws, could bail out the banks. They were insured for this eventuality and, I believe, orchestrated a perfect disaster that they could walk away from. Unfortunately there was no provision for the average person to be bailed out. This is the reason we find ourselves in a down economy with no way out unless we start creating new industries with new possibilities for the average person.


Works Cited

Dombalagian, Onnig H. "Requiem for the Bulge Bracket?: Revisiting Investment Bank Regulation." Indiana Law Journal 85.3 (2010): 777-849. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 26 Oct. 2011.

Fanto, James A. "Financial Regulation Reform: Maintaining the Status Quo." Brooklyn Journal of International Law 35.3 (2010): 635-663. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 26 Oct. 2011.

Hynes, Richard M., and Steven D. Walt. "Why Banks Are Not Allowed in Bankruptcy." Washington & Lee Law Review 67.3 (2010): 985-1051. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 19 Oct. 2011. "Unemployment." Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection. Gale, Cengage Learning, 2010. Gale Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 18 Oct. 2011.

Jensen, Leif, and Tim Slack. "Marginal Employment." Encyclopedia of Sociology. 2nd ed. Vol. 3. New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 2000. Gale Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 18 Oct. 2011.

Kling, Arnold. "The Root of the Financial Crisis." Policy Review 158 (2009): 21-33. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 26 Oct. 2011.

"Outsourcing Benefits America" by Victor A. Canto. Globalization. David Haugen and Rachael Mach, Ed. Opposing Viewpoints® Series. Greenhaven Press, 2010 Victor A. Canto, "Outsourcing Is the American Way: In Spite of What Pundits Say, the U.S. Wins When Jobs Go Offshore," National Review Online, April 6, 2004.

"Outsourcing Harms America" by Ronil Hira. Globalization. David Haugen and Rachael Mach, Ed. Opposing Viewpoints® Series. Greenhaven Press, 2010 Ronil Hira, Testimony to the U.S.-China Economic Security Review Commission on Offshoring of Software and High Technology Jobs, January 13, 2005.

Pellerin, Sabrina R., John R. Walter, and Patricia E. Wescott. "The Consolidation of Financial Regulation: Pros, Cons, and Implications for the United States." Economic Quarterly (10697225) 95.2 (2009): 121-160. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 26 Oct. 2011.


[i] Dombalagian. 780.; Fanto. 639.

[ii] Dombalagian. 784.

[iii] Kling. 25.

[iv] Dombalagian.; Pellerin. 132.

[v] Fanto. 640-641.

[vi] Outsourcing Benefits.

[vii] Outsourcing Harms.

[viii] Jensen.

[ix] Kling. 30-33.; Outsourcing Harms.

Sebastian Rothwyn
CMT 31: 1604
Professor Haeyoung Kim
February 5th, 2012

Listening and Acoustics: A Summary

Although we all hear, we do not always listen. Listening requires us to move beyond the “involuntary act that happens through our primary sense organ” and receive the results of that sensory data through our attention and interpretation of it. Listening therefore requires focus and it is the question of how and the description of the process that Hill explores in Listening to Myself Listen. Wrightson, in An Introduction to Acoustic Ecology, argues for natural environments to be considered the same as musical compositions to better understand the sonic environments that every listener encounters, so that they may improve this skill.

Both suggest “ear cleaning” exercises to improve. Listening is a skill and, like all skills, it requires training to excel. Interest in the discipline and some physically predetermined talent is also required. Although Hill uses only himself as a research subject, the core principles apply to every human being who can hear, because it is this basic sense that one uses to achieve listening. In addition to the basic sense comes the basic environment. This may be comprised of many complexities such as the moment of occurrence and its ability to be heard leading to the particular receiver and every aspect of their culture, mind, age and gender, among other things.

Some environments may provide thousands of hearable sounds but, because of the complexities of our listening skill, we may only interpret a select number of them. Each group of these sounds can only be interpreted based on the specificity of the sound and the receiver’s purpose for receiving that sound. If the receiver is in noticeable danger, the only sound that they will listen to, once their mind is focused, will be the sound that helps them remove themselves from said danger. The same may hold true for the listener who may have been focused on a less emotionally taxing sound and is then interrupted by a sound that triggers a state of being too heightened to ignore. To refocus back to the former state requires a lot more effort.

Wrightson cited studies in which the experimenters used sounds from the natural and artificial environments to show the frequency of sound levels as they related to the individual. However, it is clear that that any study born out of data collection requires a significant amount of objectivity because the reasons for determining a specific result are as varied as the reasons for not getting involved in studying the soundscape as a means of determining mankind’s impact on the environment.

This study by Hill into the actual sonic environment, led to an understanding of what items may dominate the environment of the listener’s soundscape. This was determined by negotiating the disharmony of sound based on prioritization versus unification. This exercise made the understanding of natural listening focus on certain sounds such as voices, above an artificially created sound, that much clearer.

Ultimately it appears that the listener can delve into the environment created for them and either applies their own experiences to it or divorces from it and makes an effort to learn something previously unknown. Although there is some argument about what is artificial or not, Hill is fairly clear that manufactured sound requiring something that does not occur in the natural environment is determined as artificial.



Works Cited

Hill, Arden. “Listening to Myself Listen: The Performance of Listening in Actual Constructed Sonic Environments.” An Ethnography of Listening (2005). Web. 2012.

Wrightson, Kendall. “Soundscape: The Journal of Acoustic Ecology.” Journal of Electroacoustic Music. (March 1999). Volume 12. Web. 2012.

Sebastian Rothwyn
CMT 10: 1601W
Professor Jeffrey Wisotsky
December 6th, 2011

Movies Shot on Campus

As a director of a film being shot on the campus of CUNY Bronx Community College, the major challenges are adapting the environment for your purpose with regard to historical period, locale, and continuity. For the coordinator of the films shot on campus, the challenges are equally intricate. For this coordination, the campus engages the experience of Pina Martinelli who handles all logistics for all college events, including film shoots.

To adapt an outdoor environment to the historical period, the director would have to use props to augment the time. If the film happened in the past, as it did with A Beautiful Mind from 2001 where vehicles and clothing were used to set the period, then those items would be added or changed and anything that would interfere with this would have to be moved out of every shot used. Fortunately, buildings, regardless of the date they were built, will work within any timeline; provided a disaster of historical note did not destroy it. This is especially useful for a feature that occurs in a distant future or in the present day.

For the coordinator, the challenge in outdoor environments is to ensure that the regularly scheduled events of the campus do not get in the way. On the flipside, ensuring the film shoot does not get in the way of campus events is the real job. When roads are required, the regular traffic will be unable to use them, and in the case of BCC, there are only two roads in and out, that can be used. From the moment the location scout contacts Mrs. Martinelli, to the moment when the first group of pre-production teams arrives on campus, every moment must be carefully orchestrated.

To adapt an indoor environment, the director would merely use the items that serve one’s purpose in the room’s current state. In the event that it is only the shape of the building, such as the case with The Siege from 1998, or the music video by K-Ci and Jojo from 1996, and the pre-existing structures such as the pillars provide an interesting base, then all that is required is to find complementary furniture.

For the coordinator, the real challenge for indoor shoots was to ensure that they weren’t irreparably damaged. With national landmarks for campus buildings, careful consideration must be made. With sixteen years and thirty-two shoots under her belt, Mrs. Martinelli has a good handle on ensuring everyone complies with regulations. Fire marshals and other safety personnel are engaged to ensure safety for lives and property. All of this will help the crews do their job well. Actors thrive in environments which are right for them to do what everyone expects: shoot good scenes.

For the actor using the Stanislavski Method it may be important to avoid many people outside of the production, such as faculty and student at the college. Russell Crowe, a method actor of the Stanislavski Method was known for not mixing with those on location. It may be important to note that he was nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role and the film won Best Picture.

There may be some key to not mingling, however both Denzel Washington and Bruce Willis interacted with students and faculty during the filming of The Siege. Denzel Washignton even took his lunch hour to read to children in the Roscoe Brown Learning Center. Although Bruce Willis won a Razzie Award for Worst Actor, he did win for Favorite Supporting Actor –Suspense for the Blockbuster Entertainment Awards and Denzel Washington was nominated for Favorite Actor – Suspense in the same awards ceremony.

Directors seemed to favor the Gould Memorial Library for its former use as circular library location and simply for its circular look and marble pillars which lend themselves to expensive and important potential locations. Its design mirrors that of the Pantheon of Rome, and judging by the many applications that filmmakers have used it for, it may truly be a gift of the gods.

Sebastian Rothwyn
CMT 10: 1601W
Professor Jeffrey Wisotsky
November 16th, 2011

Values of a Five Minute Film

Of Beren and Luthien is a little known story from the Tolkien Lore of Middle-Earth. The story comes from a chapter of The Silmarillion.

Beren was the last survivor of a group of humans who fought against the greatest enemy of Middle Earth, Morgoth, 6500 years before the events of The Lord of the Rings trilogy. In his attempt to survive he fled into an elven realm where he met the king’s daughter Luthien. They fell in love, but her father felt him unworthy.

The king sent Beren on a quest to recover the most precious of jewels in the entire realm called a Silmaril which happened to be in Morgoth’s crown. Beren took off on this quest believing he would simply die and Luthien followed. The wolf hound, Huan, which belonged to the elf man who loved Luthien, turned from his master when he tried to kill Luthien. From that point on, the hound also followed Luthien from a distance. They happened to meet ten elves who swore allegiance to Beren’s father in the war and they all went to Morgoth’s castle but were all killed by Sauron, in werewolf form, except for Beren who narrowly escaped death after the last elf and the werewolf killed one another.

At the same time, Luthien was captured and brought to them group but during the battle Luthien, with Huan’s help, freed Beren and they escaped. Feeling that he could not return empty handed, Beren asked Luthien to help him try again. They transformed themselves, using her druidic magic, and snuck in, and then Luthien sang a song that put all present to sleep. Once they slept, she woke Beren who tried to pry the silmaril from Morgoth’s crown. In the process, the dagger snapped, waking up Morgoth and when the group tried to run the way was blocked by a werewolf named Carcharoth. This werewolf bit the hand, still holding the silmaril, off of Beren’s arm and went mad as the light from the jewel burned inside. The group escaped and went back to the realm of the elf king and after hearing the story, the king let the two marry.

Although there is more to the actual story, this is where my five minute movie would end.

There are several value based elements involved including: Authority, Conflict Negotiation, Power, Gender, Ethnicity, Time Period, Background, Character and Belief Systems.

Broken down, the authority is held by the king of the elven realm and parallel to this is Morgoth and his kingdom. In order to resolve the issue of multi-ethnic marriage, the king sends the human on a task as a measure of conflict negotiation, when truthfully he is simply exerting his power over the situation to be rid of the human. It deals with the relationship between a male and a female of divergent ethnicities in a period of time where the two races, one of men and one of elves were at peace but was the beginning of a connection with the “gods” of the realm that would sully their ethnic relationship for a long time. The background of these characters is fairly common mythical lore and assumptions can be made by viewers prior to explanations.

Sebastian Rothwyn
CMT 10: 1601W
Professor Jeffrey Wisotsky
November 16th, 2011

Motion Picture TV and Theatre Directory

First and foremost I would like to list my company, Red Rune Studios LLC, in the directory for the purpose of Production Still Photography.

Secondarily, I am interested in the National Broadcasting Company which I have heard great things about from several employees who actually work there. They also own the SyFy network which I’m very interested in having my work showcased on. A good corporate culture and room for lateral or vertical movement is important to me as a multi-talented artist and media technologist.

As a tertiary option, because of my interest in visual effects, I would also consider FLYfx, whose reel can be seen at http://demo.flyfx.net/broadcast-reel/

Sebastian Rothwyn
CMT 10: 1601W
Professor Jeffrey Wisotsky
November 10th, 2011

Reality Bites

I am not a fan of reality shows. I never have been and probably never will be. The distinction between reality shows and actual events shown on television is very clear. The reality the producers attempt to showcase an idealized view of their subjects, or rightfully described objects, and the special guest reality show star Malik LeGare has only further supported my opinion of these shows.

It is important that I begin by stating my experience with reality shows in a brief paragraph. Many years ago when I was a creative consultant for professional video gamers, I coached several of these potential reality stars on making their personalities so large that the producers would be forced to use the material that they brought to the character and prevented from augmenting it in a way that would be unfavorable. It worked for a time, until the characters became less diligent and eventually, when they fell into despot, the reality show’s producers took advantage and the entire character was then ruined for all time, in many cases. There are still a few successful instances, but those are the exceptions to the rule.

Malik LeGare showed us episode 116, Act 1, of a reality show which aired about two year prior, called Hot Chicks Date Douche Bags. His ex-girlfriend, Patricia,sent a letter to MTV and I believe the producers felt, from the lack of intellectual prowess displayed in the email, that she would be a good subject for them to manipulate in the reality show.

The premise of the show where the girls are all hot, both intellectually and physically, and the guys were supposed to be akin to feminine care after-use garbage bags, was a concept they stuck to fairly rigorously during the production of the show. The narrator of the show, who was recorded entirely in post-production, would remark on the positive values the hot chick possessed and always the negative values the douche bag possessed.

Malik, who in reality was a student, was simply alluded to as a jobless loser who lacked ambition. Patricia was alluded to as a highly educated and successful lawyer. The show used methods to characterize him as a “Player bag”, which was a play on the douche bag concept.

There was a library outing where she attempted to nourish his mind, but spent most of the time emasculating him. Regardless of the actual events, scenes were carefully chosen to illustrate the point that he had no interest in learning and only in having a fantasy of sex-in-the-library come to fruition. The millions of video gamers in the world were then insulted by the super imposition of an 8-bit animation of his character fighting with books and losing the battle of the library. The worst part about the situation was that they were both portrayed in a negative light because her character played into his sexual fantasies.

Interestingly, Malik was involved in the pre-production process; however a lot changed when the producers wanted a certain outcome. Malik worked with location scouts and found several areas such as the basketball court, for the show. Despite his involvement, the show must go on. Patricia and Malik are shown having dinner at a relatively nice restaurant. The producers manipulated the scene by preventing Malik from actually eating the entire day. They found many creative ways to keep him from actually eating so when the dinner came, he was rather comfortable eating his food in a rush and not considering what he looked like on camera. It was all too late when he realized he was manipulated.

There were other manipulated scenes, such as the sports clothing store where the producers placed a microphone of the sales associate who they expected Malik to flirt with. Although he actually had no intention of doing so, the producers manipulated it so that the sales associated was open to exchanging numbers then she would light-heartedly chastise him for doing so because he had a girlfriend. Also, when the two friends he came with thought that the camera was off, they began to joke with the sales associate. However, the cameras were rolling and those jokes were cleverly edit together to make him and his friends look completely negative and desperate.

Upon closer analysis of the entire process from pre-production to the airing of the show, Malik did remark that he would do it again because he did learn a lot and a few good things came out of it for his future. Unfortunately he did not make nearly as much money as he should have, for the work he did, and he knew that they would simply have gotten someone else who simply wanted their face on television, to do the show.

During his interview he remarked that a lot of the positive statements and behavior were edited out so the show could only portray him negatively. Since they were broken up for almost a year, it was quite difficult to do some scenes which involved intimacy because the “reality” of the situation differed greatly from the “intention” of the show. Most of the show was done in post-production, such as overlays and narration so it was quite different at the end that he expected.

A lot of the show was shot similar to sitcoms. There were three cameras, lighting crew and the typical amount of staff you would see on a sitcom. Malik was quoted as saying, “If you don’t make a fool of yourself, they will set you up.” It is very much the formula of a sitcom that reality shows employ.

Malik has completed his degree in Media Technology and Filmmaking and gone forward to make several music videos for up and coming artists such as Safe’s “Love is a Gamble”. He works with his cousin, George LeGare, a digital still photographer, and they write, produce and sometimes make cameo appearances in their productions.

Sebastian Rothwyn
CMT 10
Professor Jeffrey Wisotsky
September 26, 2011

Academy Award Speech (Best Original Screenplay)

I am sincerely pleased to accept this award for Best Original Screenplay. These are the moments that you dream about, but try not to get your hopes up for, because there are so many talented people out there; it’s like a vast ocean of great writers you really admire.

Thank you to everyone who believed in this story. To my family: Mom, Bro, Sis, Kat. My college professor for believing in the little people that could. My first director, who reminded me that story matters. The studio, my producer, director, makeup artists – I love you guys. The amazing cast and crew that made this story come alive and reason I am standing here today.

Thank you to everyone who inspired this story; this award is for and because of you.For every geek who holds a true gem in their heart and in the pages of their notebook, don’t give up on the world you’ve created. There is magic there and only you can share it. No matter where you come from, who you are now, or what you are going through, work hard, work smart, keep writing and one day, you can take people to that place where only dreams could take them before.

Thank you.

Sebastian Rothwyn
English 11
Professor Alex Alvarez
May 17, 2011                                                    

Honor Thy Family

In a puritanical society, the desires of the heart can be seen as sins against God. In such a society the bonds of family are greater than those outside of this construct. Regardless of the compulsion to do that which ones desires, the greater compulsion is to honor the wishes of the family.

In James Joyce’s Eveline, it is clearly illustrated that although Eveline longed for the freedom of her early youth, without responsibilities and expectations, but found that she could not give up these aspects of her life because she felt obligated to do so. In the past she “seemed to have been rather happy then.”

Everyone who left the hometown seemed to have also left the pain of their upbringing behind. The only other option appeared to be death. Eveline desired to be free of these trappings but her budding maturity around the age of nineteen compelled her to consider all of the angles of her decision and its effects.

Frank, the sailor, brought a sense of excitement and adventure to Eveline’s life, but her father remarked that he knew “these sailor chaps” and the tone was that of the sailor type having relationships that are not genuine: the type of relationship opposite of that which Eveline desired. Whether this was true or not, she tried to make the relationship work despite the fight Frank and her father had, the thought was planted in her mind.

Eveline’s desire to be free of her bonds, and be with her lover, drove her to push these thoughts from her mind and attempt to follow through with her plans to escape with Frank. When she considered her mother’s life and that which she lacked in it, Eveline felt compelled to leave and in a fit of insanity, she was swept up in the concept that leaving with Frank would help her claim the desires she had and free her of her bonds. However, all that she had been told and raised with which tied her to her family and her duty, made her feel compelled by those familial bonds to at least consider the possibility that her father might be correct in his attitude; and that breaking her promise to her mother might make her an unfaithful child. Eveline, at the moment of decision, knew in her heart that she could not, because she would dishonor her family, in her mind, by doing what she desired. What she desired was a sin against her family that she could not take back, if she left the country for good.Joyce, James. “Eveline”. Print.

Sebastian Rothwyn
Music 11
Professor Oliver Markson
May 14, 2011                                                        

On a Sunday Afternoon

Three of my classmates and I, attended "On a Sunday Afternoon" at the Bruno Walter Auditorium of Lincoln Center in New York. The featured performers were: Wendy Brown, mezzo-soprano; William Lewis, piano; and Christian Chapp Realmuto, flute.

Wendy Brown, current member of the Metropolitan Opera's Extra Chorus since 2002, and William Lewis co-founder of Opera Oggi since 2007, opened with Robert and Clara Schumann's Widmung. The Schumann couple's composition really set the tone for the beginning of the performance. Although it was entirely in German, translations were provided, but in the voice and piano you could feel the mood even if you didn't read the words. It was the sort of music that plucked at the heart, which was, no doubt, the writers' intention. Even without the vocals, the piano's dynamic measures resonated beautifully in the both the ear and the body.

Brown and Lewis performed three more pieces together in this set and the theme was quite clear: Love, beauty and togetherness. There three were the embodiment of the accompaniment of the piano to Brown’s recitative for these pieces. The other three pieces included Mein schoner Stern, Liebst du um Schonheit, and lastly, Er ist gekommen. In my opinion, the most beautiful of the three was Liebst du um Schonheit, because vocally and instrumentally, it contained the richest variations with a subtlety that still made it very touching.

Both voice and piano blended in similar fashion to the theme being represented. However, this simple blend gained some color when Christian Chapp Realmuto took the stage. He is a young man, only seventeen years old, and he moved as awkwardly as any seventeen year old did. He took the stage and his flute pulled the sheet music and backing off the stand. As amusing as it was to everyone seated, he did not let this deter or unnerve him. His expression didn’t change at all. He simply picked up the sheet music, aligned the stand and began his set.

The music played by Realmuto began very soft and sweet but one minute into the piece, the mood changed to a somber tone, then shortly went back to happy. The one thing that stuck out the most was his amazing breath control. Then seemingly out of nowhere, the pianist, William Lewis, began to sing with the flute, then they split and the flute stopped, he sang, then it joined him again, almost as if the flute and the vocals were accompanying one another at different moments almost like a Fugue, with the piano being the third instrument. Most of what followed was oratorio and when he finished the vocals, the flute was the only instrument that played, echoing the beginning of the piece.

Lewis remarked that he didn’t know where the piece came from. It was at this point that Lewis began to speak to the audience more about every musical piece that followed. He began to tell a story about a battle that happened in 1847 and the piece that followed was a tragic tale of the soldiers who were wounded and found their one inspiration at their weakest moment from the Maid of Monterey.

The Maid of Monterey was played in minor. Lewis sang a narrative tale which spoke of the look of the corpses on the battlefield, the Maid’s anguish being greater than others, and her efforts as caretaker trying to help the dying. The dying soldiers blessed her for her help and she “Drove death’s pang away”. The song would go back to the beginning, at the end, and they would praise the Maid of Monterey, in the same as their lives ended as they began, with their mother or caretaker.

Lewis then told another tale of a fourteen year old boy who wrote his first song back then and only made his debut at eighty seven years old. The musician, Lee Hoiby, died the Monday before this performance. Lewis shed a tear on stage. The song was about a fourteen year old boy thinking about the future echoing “Some day I’ll know”. As everyone listened to the entire arrangement, knowing the story, everyone felt the same tragedy and the expression on everyone’s face was the same.

After this sad tale and sad song, Lewis picked up the pace a bit with a humorous song from the nineteen fifties about heeding the wisdom of Aesop, the fable teller. He explained that this was an American song that was one of the almost forgotten. It was a bit like Swing music that you could bop to. It told a story of Aesop’s in the cryptic fable manner using example but at the end it told the story in plain English. After this there was a short intermission.

When they came back from intermission, they skipped one of the songs and started instead with A Piper. This piece was played as if the flute was played by a piped piper skipping along the road with the piano accompanying him. The vocalist, Brown, narrated the story about this piper entertaining people along the street. It was lively and transported the mind to a place of innocence and grace for expressions of joy.

The next song was a strange but entertaining piece as well. It was a lullaby from the isle of Mann: A mixture of traditional and another song, some Irish, Celtic and Gaelic. It was about giving without restrictions and symbolism was used to describe his feelings as they related to an apple, a house and a palace. The apple with no core, the house with no door and the palace with no key.

The traveling doctor shop was a very amusing composition about people who are self medicating which is as poignant then as it is today. It is about a woman who takes pills for everything and carried so many medications that she was considered the travelling doctor shop. The music was a mocking accompaniment of the story being told and Lewis invited everyone to sing along when he gave the hint. It was very funny.

The next two songs were almost part one and two of the same theme although they were written independently. The first was A Flow in a Field of Stone, written by an Irish American drummer. It talks about a woman called Mary who lies in a grave and someone changes her flowers regularly. Very sad. It makes the singer which about love eternal and wishes he could feel love beyond this life. It truly made me feel like I should be kinder and move loving to those I hold dear. The next song was a follow up to this and Lewis’ voice was a beautiful instrument used to navigate and sail across the notes like a finely played instrument.

After these beautiful pieces I was a bit disappointed that the next piece by Sondheim was not nearly as beautiful to me. Although it was technically good, with everything in its place, I didn’t feel it. Maybe I was already on a certain high from being moved by everything that came before but I expected more from the name Sondheim and it did not deliver. The lyrics were deeply written and possibly moving but the melody wasn’t powerful enough for me. As good as the pianist and vocalist were, they could not save this piece for me.

Barab’s piece was very intriguing to me because the music spoke beneath the vocals. The story was about being busy in everyday activities to transitioning to being free to do something. She wondered “where the boys are” and I suspected that her “eating” had nothing to do with food, especially as her “heart fluttered” as a result. Then she is “used” and has no one to take her out and even though she was satisfied early, she still “must live”. The entire composition was very mature in subject matter and I found it refreshing.

The piece, This Moment, captured moments, like the vocals did, and spoke of all kinds of feelings in fleeting moment. From heartache to joy to sorrow to emptiness and the entire composition felt as such.

Forever Young started as accapela speaking of best wishes to listeners for all of their goals beyond imagining. The piano came in poco a poco then when it became full; it went back to vocals only, with best wishes for good life and good qualities. The piano would play mezzo piano back and forth between vocals only and accompaniment. The voice would then provide the strength on top of the serenity of the piano with the words “May you be Strong for what’s to come.”

The entire presentation ended even more beautifully than it began and I feel blessed to have experienced it. I even spoke with the performers at the end and sometime in June may start doing their photography.

Sebastian Rothwyn
Art 11
Professor John Coppola
May 14, 2011

Panther Seizing a Stag

Antoine-Louis Barye was born in Paris on September 24, 1796 and died at the age of 80 years old on June 25, 1875 back in his hometown. He was a French sculptor most famous for sculpting animals, my favorite subject matter.

Barye began his career as a goldsmith, like many sculptors of the Romantic Period. Goldsmithing was his father’s trade. He was apprenticed to the military equipment engraver, Fourier at age 13. He even worked for Napoleon’s goldsmith, Martin-Guillaume Biennais, learning every facet of metalwork from casting to engraving. Afterwards he studied under sculptor Francois-Joseph Bosio, for a year, then painter Baron Antoine-Jean Gros, and was later admitted to the École des Beaux Arts in 1818. While working for Fauconnier, the goldsmith, he discovered his partiality for animals from watching them in the Jardin des Plantes, making vigorous studies of them in pencil, and then modeling them in sculpture on a large or small scale.

After numerous successful sculptures he modeled the Panther Seizing a Stag, which embodied the “instinct over reason” found in animal combat, evoked by the unrestrained violence of the natural predator-prey relationship. This bronze is found in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, NY in a hall devoted entirely to nineteenth century paintings and sculpture. There are several pieces by Barye but this piece struck me the most.

This sculpture is impressive to me from a personal fascination and from an artistic appreciation. One can feel the sheer force of the panther sinking its teeth into the neck of the stag just by looking at it. The muscles of the panther used to pull the stag to the ground, in its shoulders and torso are most pronounced. The posture of the panther is almost alive and moving. The stag also appears to be moving, falling, under the pressure exerted by the panther. One can feel its desperate attempt to resist and pull away, and in this act, the near futility of it.

Barye was made Professor of Drawings at the Museum of Natural History in 1854, and was elected to the Académie des beaux-arts in 1868. No new works were produced by Barye after 1869.

Antoine-Louis Barye lived through three republics, two empires and two revolutions and, the ultimate test of the nineteenth century for any French citizen: the 1870-1871 Franco-Prussian War. This life of violence and abandonment of reason parallels Barye’s work, which he used to reflect the instincts of the “animals” of his time.

He blended the sense of motion with the sense of impact to capture the most striking moments of violence from an illustrative point of view more so than a decorative one.

Barye spent five years at the Ecole, Barye and distinguished himself with honors in 1819, 1820 and 1823. Here he developed his passion for animal sculpture. He won an honorable mention at the Ecole for the engraved medallion of Milo of Croton Devoured by a Lion. Although most saw this as a classic subject of a Greek athlete, most of his detail could be found in the lion itself.

He was so fascinated by animals that he created little animal figurines while goldsmithing for Jacques Henri Fauconnie to help meet his expenses during the 1820s.

He studied zoology and natural history to better understand the animal kingdom. He read a lot of Comte de Lacépède, the natural scientist who headed the reptiles and fish section of the Jardin. Additionally, the works of Georges Cuvier, who helped establish paleontology and comparative anatomy as independent fields of study were also great sources of information and inspiration.

To explore form and function Barye attended anatomy classes taught by Geoffroy St.-Hilaire, the chairman of the zoology department at the Musée National d'Histoire Naturelle. These studies helped Barye understand the animals he chose for his subject matter very well.

Nature’s pattern of survival, the circle of life, and the violent instinct of the animal kingdom were the items Barye combined to produce several pieces including Panther Seizing a Stag. Critics did not take to his "animalier" work, seeing it as more decorative than illustrative, so when the Salon jury eventually rejected several of his pieces, he decided to pursue his career outside the Salon.

Barye established his own company, Barye & Cie, in partnership with Emile Martin, in 1845 to finance the casting of his work and provide a venue for sales and commissions. Out of necessity, Barye was one of the first independent artists to promote his work in the private sector. Although it was plagued with debt and he lost his casts to foreclosure, he was able to recover them ten years later.

He continued to focus on animal sculpture and eventually wealthy Americans began to develop art collections of whom Barye found greatly interested buyers.

In 1870, he moved to Cherbourg, in an attempt to escape the horrors of the Franco-Prussian War, which took its toll on a man in his seventies. The following year, at the end of the War, he moved back home and five years later, he died.