I started off Design Week with my post on Tim Owens, in which I went over the details of the conversation and what I took away from it. I’m glad I started with this assignment first because it pushed me to be more creative with my work this week and ignore my general excuse that I am not creative in a computer design-type way. Reading and writing a post on Vignelli’s canon also helped me think outside of this class and how the same design elements I use for my newspaper and my writing ideas are also applicable to my work for ds106. That was also a help when working on my Design Blitz and various assignments.
The design blitz was pretty cool this week. I took photos of designs that fit the various elements over the week and uploaded them to flickr, as well as making a post. I got six elements, two more than suggested, but it was just fun to look around and notice that design is incorporated into everything!
For my first assignment this week I decided to do the creative mashup where I meshed a well-known artwork, “The Scream” with a scene from the Wire, the mother’s scream in episode 9. This was really cool and is one of my favorite assignments I have done so far. I also really enjoyed making a collage of my sister, cousin and me for my “Collage with Symbolism” assignment post. As an English major I am obsessed with books and reading and did two assignments this week that focused on those elements. The first was a Wire rendition of a “READ” poster, in which I used D’Angelo reading The Great Gatsby in jail to show what someone can learn about themselves from books. The other book assignment I did this week was make a book cover for Wuthering Heights, which was a little tough to make perfect and I did it a second time, but I am still proud of it.
I happened to watch a movie with Dominic West, who plays Jimmy McNulty, in it and found it pertained to the assignment on choosing a character in the Wire and finding their future. I managed to do both McNulty’s past and future in my post. I did another assignment pertaining to the Wire and McNulty (my favotie character, can’t you tell?) with my bumper sticker assignment, where I made a bumper sticker about McNulty’s drunk driving.
My last assignment was a bit of fun, as I did the “guess my song” assignment. See if you can guess my song!
My first daily create for the week was making a video of water and glass moving. I made an empathy map of McNulty from the Wire for my second daily create. For my last daily create I traced myself and friend from a photo!
The Wire:
Episode 9-
The episode starts out with a lot of young men getting ready to do some sort of damage against the group we are used to seeing in the show. This is the first large-scale shoot down. I like Simon’s focus on how it affects the people in the community, especially the mother with the children. It seems such an everyday occurrence and the mother tells her son just to get ready for school, like this happens all the time, except this time he is shot; another body piled up. The death’s child and general uproar after the shoot out has caused Stinger to have to put a pause in “the game.” The dispensing of the gun was both cool and idiotic. The red color of the bag clearly brings attention to it, but the fact that it lands on the same boat Nick and the Russian guy happen to be on is a little coincidental, though it puts the two worlds together once again.
Stringer is still hiding things from Avon and Ziggy still has a duck, let’s see if things will actually change soon. Ziggy does seem to be trying to go out on his own and get some work. We see another new family with the Russians?/Greeks? sitting at dinner and discussing business. Within the crimes businesses are crime families, and within that are nationalities.
Stringer’s drug offensive seems to be losing ground. I find the discussion of the “towers” really interesting because towers usually give ideas of a castle and power, yet this is a drug precinct in Baltimore and the towers are just bad apartment buildings. However, they are still a symbol of the Barksdale/Stringer drug crew.
Episode 10-
I love the beginning of this episode with “Walk the Line” playing as we see the cops trying to figure out the paper trail, and others out finding cars and evidence. It really catches the monotony of the job before they find the key. The cops are going through everything and tracking cars in order to try to figure out what is going on. Finally we see some sort of link forming between all of the different crime families, and “fucking A!” he’s got it!. Of course just as soon as things are getting sorted out, it seems the feds are getting involved, but does this mean they will meddle or actually help the case?
We get a glimpse of Omar again, and see some kindness from him to a friend. It’s interesting to see where certain characters’ loyalties lie and what they do for certain people. With that in mind, it’s nice to see Kima and her girlfriend having a child together, but she seems somewhat concerned about this. This is understandable considering how busy she is at work, though I wonder if she works to stay away. I do like seeing an alternative family in this show. In another family dilemma we get Nick’s girlfriend angry about how he got the money for their new home.
Once again Bubbles is back and overseeing what happens by the towers. It’s cool to see from his perspective the crazy new lawyer who apparently works for Barksdale. His costume and speech are completely out of context in the towers, yet he seems to have a lot more power than the everyday drug dealer. I would guess this is because of his education, as exemplified by the books that replace the gun in his hands. He even talks about how the most dangerous thing is one of these guys with an education. Knowledge can completely change a person’s life and the difference in him and those surrounding him in the towers is completely palpable.
Finally Ziggy gets a good beating-again-but clearly his newly created solo job is not going well. I particularly like the camera zoom on him in the car having a little bit of a fit, but clearly planning revenge. It was surprising to watch Ziggy attack, gun in hand, and shoot everyone in the office. I never would have pegged Ziggy for the killing type, especially just because he was scolded like a petty child. The camera’s difference in the first and second time he walks to his car is an interesting comparison, with the muddled camera in the second viewing. As he gets back to the car he shakes and looks at the letters spelling his own name on his hand before breaking down fully. I really must say I never expected this. Frank and Nick have a sad tussle about this, finally showing they actually care about Ziggy. Nick’s breakdown at Ziggy’s turning murderer is surprisingly heart-wrenching, as we did not get a huge sense of how he felt for his cousin before this.
Stringer seems to be doing more work behind Avon’s back, though I wonder if Avon’s new lawyer will change this. It also looks like there is someone sharing secrets in the police department. This general is acting a bit like a child who can’t pin down Frank Sobatka and embarrasses everyone along the way. It looks like everyone is screwing up in this episode. I love how McNulty and Morland are covering up their boat spying; Morland looks great!
I also love the new text messaging system they are figuring out! It’s crazy to think how quickly the new technology we are so used to today rose up.
The parting scene of the drugs being washed down was pretty intense. The episode leaves off on the cusp of what we hope is a raid for the cops.
Episode 11-
It would seem the raid is not going well, though Kima found some traces of the drug. McNulty and some others caught Sergey, showing the cops are cracking down and figuring out some of the puzzle. I’m confused as to how they were able to arrest Sabotka, though, and it looks like Nick is being put away on account of drugs. Daniels is mad because once again he does not know who he is working for. I like the different questioning scenes and how the cops are grouped, as well as how they go about asking questions. Frank goes off on how hypocritical the cops are for him and his slowly dying group of dock men. Frank’s and Ziggy’s talk is pretty sad, showing Frank was too busy for his own son. Frank seems to be doing something different in the Union, actually working. I also love the Baltimore Sun sneaking into the frame. Clever, clever Simon. I love Frank’s comment on the loss of the American industry and thus his men’s jobs.
Omar and Stringer are having some sort of a parlay. We get “part of the game” from Stringer again. Everyone always places the blame on someone else or the game. Stringer is giving up Omar’s lover’s murderer, but what will he get out of it?
The team is following Spiros to see where he goes and does, and I think even the Greek passed by Kima and is in the photo. Clever, clever Greek. Spiros seems to want to help the Sobatkas get back together, or at least help Nick in some way. The whole Sabatka family and the union is breaking down or going to jail, but Nick is still trying to help Ziggy, even if it means he will be stuck with crime the rest of his life.
Looks like Omar is getting back some sort of vengeance, and it looks like Stringer used Omar to get rid of Avon’s new lawyer. However, Omar stops and realizes something is amiss in the information he received.
I must say I did not expect Russell coming to Frank, and I’m a little confused on what is happening/who is on what side. Frank is also looking out for Ziggy and Nick, trying to figure out how to help thee cops to get his family free. He is willing to give up the Greeks, though Nick is working with them, which I am sure will be a problem later.
I like one of the last scenes with all of the phone calls and the Greek music in the background. It looks like the Greeks have a one up on the Sabatkas and I’m not quite sure what is going to happen. Are the Greeks trying to help or hurt Frank? It seems to be that Frank will go with whichever party can get his son out of jail. Does he lose time in jail to the cops or some dignity with giving loyalties to the Greeks. Nick may be tight with the Greeks, but Frank no longer wants anything to do with him. The only really happy people now in this show seem to be the Greeks, sitting around a table eating and drinking. The ending scenes in the episode are really interesting with the music overtop and seeing the slow exchange of information. We are left with a sense that the Greeks know of Frank’s discussion with the cops, and I’m not positive he will make it out from under that bridge.
I did a class discussion on episode 10, which was really cool because we got to talk about a lot of the cinematography and design of the episode, which had a lot to work with in those instances. I talked about the scenes of Ziggy in the car before and after the shooting, and others pointed out things I did not even notice in the episode, which was pretty awesome!
Design week was definitely tough for me. I struggled with some of the assignments, but really enjoyed the Tim Owens discussion and reading on The Vignelli Canon. I had to redo three assignments this week to improve them and my own abilities. I waded into Photoshop a little bit as well. Overall, I think I learned a lot this week, especially how to push myself and be more creative in my work for this class, as well as my newspaper and writing.
