Intensity on film

As soon as I saw this photo I thought of the lady's husband in the noir that got murdered in the passenger's seat of the car. This photo is pretty impactful for me because you can see the surprised look on this man's face before he got his throat slit. This looks straight out of a Hollywood film but is actually reality which can give you goosebumps. Furthermore, you can see the detective in the darkness behind the murder victim just speechless at this gruesome scene. Overall, it is evident that Hollywood films got a lot of their inspiration from real events that were happening in the area at the time. This is a scene of a classic hit on a man in a car and conveys many intense aspects of crime in this area.

Fallacies

This image impacts me because of how it represents a typical family at the time. Many people come to America in search for better opportunity but the fact was at the time that most American families were just scraping by and sometimes did not have enough to even feed a family. This really has an effect on me because I picture if my family was in a position like that and also consider my ancestors who were around at this time. This relates to a common theme in the Locust of expectations versus reality because of what people come to Hollywood for. One can dream but for every success comes another person's loss and the light can not only be shun upon success in this area. If a full understanding of Hollywood wants to be obtained, one must consider the losses as well.

Hollywood

The song "Into the Great Wide Open" is really interesting because of the aspects of the California Dream it conveys. For example, when Eddie gets on the bus he goes to Hollywood in search of opportunity like most people do. The future is wide open for him. He gets a girl there and learns how to play music, eventually becoming recognized. This is something that less people are able to accomplish but still a component of life for some in Hollywood. He eventually surpasses Van Halen on the charts, which would be hard to do at this time. The fame gets to his head and he is consumed by the fallacies of society in Hollywood. This causes him to drop in the charts and causes a relationship failure with the woman that actually means something to him. He ends up right back at the tattoo shop at the end as the result of Hollywood chewing him and spitting him back out.

This theme is something that is present in Day of the Locust because of the same location of Hollywood.  I feel that Todd shares some aspects of the experience that Eddie Rebel had in the video due to the life of Hollywood being filled with ups, downs, and curveballs. The pursuit of something that is hard to attain in a city that is full of falsely lead aspirations is something that is present in the video and the book.

My community

Sage Hill School can very well be defined as a tide pool. Each category of the school represents a different aspect of the tide pool. For example, freshman are the hermit crabs with how timid they are for the most part, besides a few brave hermit crabs. The predators would be considered the teachers by some, but I would call it the overall Sage curriculum. This tends to be hard and the productive and efficient students make it out alive while others are eaten up. The water in this tide pool would be the actual Sage Hill campus itself. It contains us and sometimes restrains us. I think the seniors are the fish that are swimming around because they have a way out soon when the tide comes up: in this case the end of senior year. 

One social group that I am apart of at Sage is the Ocean Club. In this club, I am the leader which is a very honorable thing for me. That being said, the group of people doesn't really even need a leader because we get along so well. The social structure centers around the ocean and we are all equal here. The ocean unites us and provides a backbone for this community.

Gotta get to the sea

Long drives on the road
But where do we go from here?
Just get to the sea

This haiku was influenced by my love for the ocean. It is something that is more powerful than any aspect of life for me. I fear it, I love it, and I am connected to it. California wouldn't be California without an ocean like this.

Layer's of California

When I think of the South land I think of the beautiful beaches of Southern Califonria. Since Southern California is very close to Mexico, I also think of the vibrant hispanic culture. In "Santa Ana of Grocery Carts", Girmay writes, "when we started, there were cousins & two parents,
now everything lost has been to you" (Girmay 28-29). This line stands out to me because of the way that the hispanic culture has been a minority in society and sometimes is segregated. That being said, I have a great appreciation for the Spanish culture and its influences in California.

The Heartland represents a vast history of California and stands as a frontier in my eyes. With its long ranges of corn rows and agricultural land, the heartland stands for the true "heart" of California. That being said, people in the heartland are often limited by the emptiness of the open land. For example, in "We in the Fields", Emerson writes that the workers are, "hopelessly longing to know the red beauty" (Emerson 13). In my perspective, this idea of the red beauty represents the horizon and the city life of other parts of California. This is something that people want to experience, and this often leaves this part of California forgotten.

The Bay Area is somewhere that I have visited a few times in my life. When I think of this area I consider the vast fog banks and vibrant city life of San Francisco. San Francisco is an area that is very influenced by Chinese culture. In the streets of China Town, this culture is very prominent and in Amy Tan's, "Fish Cheeks", she displays this influence. With many Chinese immigrants coming to the United States, a struggle emerged to preserve their culture while assimilating to the customs of the Untied States. Tan writes, "and even though I didn’t agree with her then, I knew that she understood how much I had suffered during the evening’s dinner" (Tan 1). This is a story of a Chinese girl finally appreciating her culture after being self conscious due to her feelings for a white man. Ultimately, this culture contributes to the diversity in this area and many other parts of California. 

Huntington Beach

People come to Huntington Beach for different reasons.
Some visit, some stay, and some are lost.
When the sun rises, some are quick to get up
Some are not.
People from all cultures hit the streets in the morning traffic haze.
It seems like everyone is going somewhere,
has something to do, in an endless cycle of routine.
When the afternoon arrives, the smell of dead skunk hits the neighborhoods.
All the kids smell like skunk now days.
Night arrives and emotion floods the street.
A street fair is set up down town.
Culture vibrates through the city as the night is woken up.
A girl rushes to a trash can after too much alcohol for the night.
She's 15 years old.
People walk by this girl, all by herself, but no one cares.
It's easy to make a mess in a city like this,
but hard to pick it up.



This poem was inspired by my experiences and what I have witnessed growing up in Huntington Beach. This is a beautiful city, but also a city with many dark aspects to it. It seems like the the preservation of innocence continues to be lost throughout time. I wanted to highlight this idea of the sunshine and the shadows of Huntington Beach.