Top 10 movies

Hello friends. This is one special blog you are about to read. This is mainly because my blog today is all about my opinions. Everybody knows that my opinions mean everything. This is my MOVIE BLOG SPECIAL! This is where I show you the reader my tope ten movies of all time! Pretty exciting am I wrong? Nope I’m not. Coming in at number ten is Spider man. Classic movie about a boy getting bit by a spider. That Peter Parker has some courage. If that were me getting bit by a spider I would have died. I’m deathly afraid of spider. Yes that’s right my reader I’m arachnophobic. So it looks like I need to erase my dreams of being spider man because spiders SUCK! Number 9: Harry Potter. Which one you ask? Who cares which one is the answer! This movie is literally about people killing other people with awesome spells. That’s sick. Plus it has a ginger in it. What could make the movies any better? Nothing can make the movies better. Number 8: The Princess Bride. First off it’s a story… classic. The old dude is telling the young dude a bedtime story but we the viewers see the whole story first hand. That’s intense except that movie is long. So basically the old dude is reading for like two hours. I would have passed out by then. Number 7: Monty Python and the Holy Grail. We all know Monty Python sucks but this time they did it right. This movie will be in my heart forever. The scene with the crazy bunny was enough to get Monty Python the number 7 spot on my countdown. Number 6: Elf. Will Ferrell is my all time favorite actor. He is the best man to ever have been born. He has caused me to have endless laughter. I’m Always laughing… on the inside. Every time I watch that movie it warms my soul with holiday cheer.

Number 5: Happy Gilmore. Adam Sandler is another great actor. And no this statement is not debatable. This movie simply shows how stupid golf is and how awesome subway is. This is what gets Happy Gilmore into number 5! Also his name is Happy just like Happy from Death of a Salesman. Number 4: Step Brothers. I <3 this movie. Two great actors. You got Will Ferrell playing Brennan. Then you got John C. Riley playing Dale. They are two very stupid men who come together to make a beyond funny movie. Can someone spell classic? Obviously me because I just spelled it. But I digress. Number 3: The Little Mermaid. Yes I know what you’re thinking: “That’s my favorite movie too!” It’s just so obvious that every single persons number 3 favorite movie is the little mermaid. With such great hits as Under the Sea how could one not love this unrealistic movie? Exactly.

Number 2: The Grinch. This may just be Jim Carrey’s best movie. In this movie he plays the classic character known as the Grinch. The Grinch is a smelly green man who hates Christmas. But you know what they say the Grinch’s heart grew three sizes that day. Besides the fact that this movie is completely unrealistic it hits number 2 on my scale of awesomeness. Wait a minute. I’m typing this on Microsoft word and it says that ‘awesomeness’ is a word. I guess all I can say is AWESOMENESS. Now ladies and gentleman please put your hand together for the number 1 movie ever… MEGA PIRANHA!!! This grade A best movie I have ever seen is a movie that will make you laugh cry and throw up… all at the same time. This movie literally brought tears to my eyes. The acting is the most believable thing ever. This movie is different from most movies. The actors put a lot of emotion into their roles in this movie. Plus the special effects will cause any computer nerd to have a seizure due to the awesomeness of the special effects. Piranhas literally explode in this movie and the plot only makes it better. So there you have it folks. My top 10 movies ever. Go watch them… now!

Three thrilling and riveting themes from Death of a Salesman

Death of a Salesman, written by Arthur Miller, has many thrilling and riveting themes. However, the only themes thrilling enough to be mentioned in this blog are Individual vs. society, Individual vs. self and The American Dream. These themes are very thrilling indeed. Willy Loman, the riveting main character of Death of a Salesman, is the center of many of these themes. In the theme Individual vs. society, Willy is the Individual. Nothing seems to be going right for poor Willy Loman. Perhaps he is not that riveting after all. His failing life on the other hand is very riveting… and thrilling. Willy is always setting high standards for himself, standards of which he cannot reach. He tells his sons and wife about all the money he is raking in. In reality he is not raking in anything, not… even… leaves. He travels so far for nothing. Willy just cannot figure anything out. Individual vs. Society works so well for this play because it shows how Willy works so hard to meet societies standards. Despite all his efforts nothing is accomplished, he… can’t… even… grow… a carrot. Individual vs. Society ties in being equally thrilling and riveting as Individual vs. self.

News Flash: The theme of Individual vs. self, in Death of a Salesman, is so thrilling and riveting that it has already hospitalized 198,000,000 people worldwide. In all seriousness the theme of individual vs. self is an important aspect to Death of a Salesman. It shows how Willy is losing himself. Instead of living in the moment he lives in the past. This is a problem. Willy is putting himself into danger. For example: while Willy is driving he is having a flashback… he almost kills someone. This… is… not… safe! To top it all off he is also trying to kill himself. Don’t let this be discouraging. Willy is a strong dude. He works his butt off for his family and at the same time deals with being a failure. That is tough! The first step to recovery is admitting that there is a problem, but sadly he does not recover… This is what makes this theme so thrilling! Willy will always have an everlasting battle with himself but will never admit anything to anyone. All of his failure is due to his quest to capture the American Dream.

Excluding the “the” the American Dream is five syllables long. This in no way relates to this blog at all. So continuing on with relevancy the American Dream is yet another huge factor in Death of a Salesman. Once again this theme is relevant to Willy. What a surprise. Anyways, Willy Loman is just an average American chasing his dream. The AMERICAN DREAM! However, Willy does not even know what he is looking for. His brother Ben did not help him either. Ben is constantly filling Willy’s head with nonsense about walking into jungles and being rich. Of course that is not the main idea but the part about being rich is. Willy simply wants to become rich in a snap. For about 99% of the population this does not happen.* This is Willy’s downfall. He keeps chasing something that he cannot reach and this makes him a failure. Also Willy teaches this to his sons and then they become failures. This makes Willy a failure as a father as well. Basically Willy’s life boils down to one huge, massive failure. This is really too bad for Willy because he has a great taste in cheese, as shown in act 1. Willy will be an everlasting symbol as a failed attempt to capture the American Dream.

*Fact courtesy of Kevin Fitzgerald himself

P.S I <3 Mr. Bresnick

Death of a Salesman

Willy Loman, from Death Of A Salesman, is a very unsettled character. He’s unsettled because his life is not that great. He works up to twelve hours a day and is only making seventy dollars a week. He does not think too highly of himself and others do not think highly of him. He is getting by in life but is not happy. However, he tells his sons how well respected he is. Willy tells is sons that buyers love him and always ask for him right away. Willy talks so highly of himself to his kids that he almost believes everything he says is true. In reality it is not. Despite that he tells Biff and Happy that they need be masculine in order to make it in life. Willy buys them a punching bag to get them big. Willy basically applauds Biff for stealing the football from his school and praises him for girls falling for him. This is not what Willy should be teaching his sons. He should be telling them to chase their dreams. Instead Willy is telling them to chase his own dreams. He wants his sons to have the dreams that he never had and for this Willy is failing at being a father.

Willy has a lot of inconsistencies. He is always contradicting himself. The truth behind the matter is that Willy is going crazy. It is very sad but nothing can be done about it. Linda, Willy’s wife, acts as if nothing is even happening. She just aims to please her husband. If Willy ever says anything strange Linda just says otherwise. In a way she is fueling Willy’s craziness. She makes his talking to himself seem almost normal. Over and over again she tells Biff to not go near him and just let him be. Linda is harming the man she loves the most. Instead of helping him see reality she lets him relive his past life. This is unsafe and is damaging to his health. Willy cannot continue to live in this false reality and Linda has to sow him that. With her help things could start to get better.

D.C

This was a weekend that I will remember for a long time. I have recently arrived home from Washington D.C. Yes that’s right people our nations capital. I went with my parents and my uncle by car to D.C. We saw Stephen Colbert and John Stewart’s rally to restore sanity and or fear. The rally was held at Washington mall. Over 200,000 people from around the country came to see this rally. It was amazing and there were many celebrity appearances. Some celebrities that were there was Cat Stevens, Ozzie Osborn, The Ojays, Kid Rock and more. Stephen Colbert and John Stewart were hilarious! There were points when I couldn’t stop laughing. The rally went on for three hours. It started at 12 in the afternoon and ended at 3. The only downside was that my back was killing me from standing so long (this is ironic because I just wrote a blog about standing up for long periods of time last week). Overall everybody in the crowd seemed to be having a great time. I certainly had a great time.

However, the trip on the way down was not too fun. I left school at 12:15, went home real quick, and then left for our trip. It started out great but when we got into New York it got rough. The traffic was horrible. It got even worse when we got into New York City. Literally the traffic was bumper to bumper. I probably could have walked faster then the pace of the traffic. Traffic was bad all the way until Pennsylvania. We stopped to eat dinner at the only restaurant we could find… UNO’s. We were about 10 minutes outside of Philadelphia. After dinner it was all a blur to me because I decided to be very anti-social and put on my over the ear head phones. I quickly fell asleep to Jack Johnson. I awoke just as we were passing Baltimore. It looked like quite the city but I was more excited about the fact that we were almost in D.C. Finally around 11:30pm we reached our destination and I quickly crawled into the nice hotel pull out couch and passed out.

The next morning we got up around 8 and ate breakfast. After that we went to Washington mall and got our spots for the rally. Like I said earlier the rally was awesome but afterwards we went and explored D.C by foot. Our first stop was the Washington monument. It was crazy tall! We stopped and like any tourist took a bunch of pictures then moved on. We then found ourselves in the WWII memorial. Powerful is the only word that comes to mind. Everything was very even and proportional. They had two small structures on the left and on the right. On the left it said PACIFIC and the right said ATLANTIC. Surrounding the whole memorial were columns that had each states name on it. The third stop was the reflecting pool. Amazing as it is it’s very dirty. The pool seemed to be on the low side and was just very grimy. But all was forgotten when we got to our final stop… the Lincoln Memorial. I felt the air leave my lungs when I saw him. He looked absolutely powerful sitting there on his everlasting throne. The whole experience was very emotional. It was as if he was sitting there looking over our Countries capital making sure everything is right. The trip was a great success and I’m happy to have gone. Our nations capital is beautiful.

Chairs

Who needs chairs? All one does with them is sit down. This brings me to my next point, who needs to sit? Human beings are strong people and should be able to stand for days at a time. In fact, it is said that some indigenous tribes have had members who have stood up for three days straight… they died two days later. But that is beside the point. Standing up makes one strong and it also save trees. Two weeks ago I interviewed Laura Greengrass, the CEO of Stand Up for trees rights, and had a very informing talk with her. When asked if she supported standing up for long hours instead of using chairs she responded with, “Yes, I completely agree with standing up for long hours at a time. I haven’t been surer of anything in all my life. Standing up shows character. These trees have rights just like you and me. Some of them have been here longer then we have! So why should they have to worry about getting chopped down? Go Green, Stand Strong!” Very powerful ideas coming from Ms. Greengrass.

Despite the powerful words spoken by Ms. Greengrass, not everyone agrees with her. Last Thursday I went up to Oregon to speak with a Lumberjack Tribe. I had to be escorted when talking with the Lumberjack’s. This is because Lumberjack’s are known to be hostile when they don’t have their pancakes. I spoke to the first Lumberjack I could find and when I asked him about standing up instead of cutting down trees he said, “CHOP, CHOP, CHOP is all I know! If we don’t go and cut down trees how will we have chairs? We Lumberjack’s need chairs to sit down in and eat pancakes. Oh, and Sir do you have any pancakes?” I quickly ran from the area afterward and made sure I was far from the Lumberjack’s sights. These words definitely made an impression on me. It was not until then that I realized what chairs are for.

Chairs are not for relaxing in. They are for eating pancakes with. The Lumberjack had a good point. How would we eat pancakes without chairs? We need the Lumberjack’s to continue to cut down these trees in order to continue eating pancakes. Have you ever eaten a pancake standing up? No I don’t think so. However, I did not take the words of Ms. Greengrass lightly. She has very good points about the trees. But when one has to decide between pancakes and chairs it’s pretty straight forward what the person would choose, the pancakes. Also, after talking with Lumberjack I realized how ridiculous it is to stand all the time! Now that I can sit down I’m going to live life to the fullest. So when I asked ‘who needs chairs?’ the answer is, I need chairs.

L.A

L.A is the place. Those words are constantly echoing through my head. Why are the echoing through my head you ask? Because I’m in L.A right now. I’m here for my cousins Bat Mitzva. The story all begins at 4:30 am Thursday morning. I was awoken by my mother and then started my morning. I showered quickly and then was off to the airport. We flew to L.A on Virgin America and it was awesome. The seats are leather and there were T.Vs behind every seat. It was pretty chill. Basically my life is bro. Anyways, I was playing a video game on the T.V thing then it froze! SO instead I read 4 hours worth of Harry Potter. Then finally after 5 hours we landed in the city of Angels.
From the airport we went to our beautiful hotel in Woodland hills. It’s awesome. The only problem is that I was stuck with 3 women that were 30 years plus older than me. It sucked. They were all old and stuff very boring. Now, I’m at my cousins house and we are being bro’s. Finally I’m in California with people my AGE! It’s amazing. Their house is really nice and big. They have two dogs that are pocket sized. They are chill.
Anyways, since I’ve been here I’ve met Brad Pitt, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Aero Smith, Phoenix, Obama and Yoshi from Mario. How convenient that they were all in the same Starbucks. The funny part is I don’t even drink coffee. Kids these days. So Brad Pitt invited me to his house and I got to meet all his children. Did you know he has 2,000 children! I really don’t understand how they have so many. One of his children from Venezuela was reading the Crucible. What a great book I might say. Anyways, I have to go read the Crucible.

Second-class citizen

Through all my years growing up one thing has always been there, Velociraptors. Every body throughout the country has experienced these scaly dinosaurs. They hide in darkness throughout the day and come out at night. Velociraptors are extremely smart animals, much like humans, and all they want is equal rights. Velociraptors are innocent creatures at heart but when they get hungry they cannot control themselves. Therefore it is hard for velociraptors to live a normal life because they are shunned from society.
The problem first started with raptors in 1776. They helped Americans defeat the British and fought for freedom. While forming the constitution, raptors were given equal rights along with the humans. They lived happily together in harmony for many years and many raptors had high government positions along with the humans. Then in 1861 a human was being very harsh to a raptor and nearly killed it. Other raptors in the area came rushing over and killed the human. Word of this spread throughout the country and rumor of a civil war had been roaming around. The war would be between the North and South. Since raptors are reptiles they need a warmer climate and primarily lived in the South. Two months after the human was killed war broke out between the species and the nation became split into two separate Countries. The raptors elected a Prime Minister whose name was Raptor. The raptors did not want war though and Prime Minister Raptor tried to negotiate peace agreements with the North. They had tried so hard to prove to America that raptors are gentile creatures and what happened to the human would never happen again. However the humans did not care and started the war.
The war went on for many years and in 1865 finally ended. It made sense that the raptors lost because they do not have opposable thumbs therefore cannot hold guns. Raptors had relied on gorilla warfare but it was not enough to win. In the end President Lincoln met with Prime Minister Raptor and finally achieved peace. Velociraptors would never have the same rights again. The humans rewrote the constitution after the war and did not include raptors anymore. Since then raptors have been treated as second-class citizens. This is the sad but true story of Velociraptors. Even in today’s society Velociraptors are still shunned. Some people say that the raptors are plotting an attack against the humans. America hopes this never happens.

bumble bee

In every town there is a hero. This is the story of the bumble bee kid. It is a quite day outside. Jonny, a seven year old boy from New York City, is on a casual stroll with his mother in City Park. Jonny and his mother are settling down to have a nice lunch. While eating he notices a bumble bee flying around his sandwich. He swats it but it become angry and attempts to sting Jonny. The bumble stings him right in the arm. The boy cries in pain as he see the bee fly away. Instantly the boys mother runs to his aid. The bee sting has turned very red and does not look too good.
Jonny and his mother decide to cut lunch short and return home. That night Jonny could not stop rolling around in his bed. He is having trouble sleeping and is having crazy dreams. He dreams that his English teacher is completely putting him down and calling his shirt stupid. The teacher calls his shirt stupid and makes fun of him in front of the class. He also dreams of books and of theme. Jonny wakes up in a sweat. He gets out of bed and sees his muscles have grown. He cannot believe his eyes. He also has a giant set of wings. He goes to his window and flies to school.
As he goes through school he notices he has super human powers. He has turned into a half bee half man hybrid. He is like spider man but a bee. As he’s walking down the hall he sees the meanest bully in school. He walks up to Jonny and starts to bully him. The Bully throws a punch at Jonny. Jonny dodges and throws a punch back. The bully flies back twenty feet. Jonny had just beat the toughest bully in school. He then realizes he has to use his powers for good and not evil. He runs home and starts to design a costume. He knows he has to protect this city. He suddenly realizes that this story is a rip off of spider man.
The End

Mario

Mario is not your average Italian. No, in fact he is so intense that giant turtles attack him. Why do they attack him? Well the story begins in American Lit. Mario is just your average 37 year old junior at Framingham High School. Not many people like him due to his extremely bad body odor. He smells so bad because he wears the same clothes every single day, and never shaves his mustache. His only friends are mushroom people and his brother Luigi. Luigi also wears the same clothes ever day and smells just as bad.
Mario arrives late to American Lit class because he is pretending to throw fire balls at people. The teacher tells him to take a seat and put some deodorant on. Mario takes his seat and is instantly attacked by thousands of house flies. The teacher starts instructing the class; Mario cannot concentrate to the lesson due to the flies. They are annoying him so much that he takes his copy of The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, and starts hitting himself rapidly in the face. The whole class stares and takes a step back away from him. Mario sees that everyone has taken a step back and says, “What? It’s me Mario!” The class stares and starts shaking in their seats. The class continues on this way until the end of the class where the teacher assigns the homework. The homework is to study the vocabulary words which include tone, mood, and different forms of irony.
On his walk home he is suddenly attacked by a giant turtle with spikes coming out of its back. Mario instantly throws fire balls at him but nothing happens. The turtle laughs and says, “I’m the all powerful BOWSER! I’m here to destroy you Mario!”
“Yeah that’s great and all…but I kind of want to go home. I have a huge American lit test tomorrow on this vocabulary and I need to study,” says Mario.
Bowser says, “Why didn’t you say so? I’ll help you out! I majored in English in college!” Mario and Bowser study hard through the night. The next morning Bowser drives Mario to school and yells, “GOOD LUCK!” Mario has never been more ready for a test in his life. He walks into his American lit class and takes the test. He fails. Mario runs out of the school crying and runs to Bowser.
“Bowser I failed!” Mario cried.
“It’s ok Mario I have a surprise for you. I’m adopting you!” replied Bowser.
In sobs Mario cries, “I’ve never had a real father! I love you daddy!”
“I love you too son, come let’s go read the first act of The Crucible,” Said Bowser. What is the moral of this story? The moral is to wear deodorant, do not study with turtles that can talk, and always stay on top of your American lit homework. Mario and Bowser live happily ever after.
The End

The Puritans Are Not Simple

Puritans, like many others, immigrated to America for a better life. They immigrated to America in 1630. In England the Puritans were being persecuted by William Laud in the name of the Church of England. The Puritans left to get as far away from England and the Church as possible. Already the Puritans were on their way to achieving their American Dream. The Puritans believed that the world was a corrupt place that could be reformed. Reform is a cornerstone of what became the American Dream.

            The Puritans were a great people in respect to the morals they left behind. They always went for the things they wanted most even if it caused them grief. This is a perfect example of how the Puritans strive to achieve their American Dream. The Puritans wanted freedom. But they did not see freedom the same way average Americans do toady. Freedom, according to the Puritans, would turn a man evil. Their version of freedom was a willing surrender to God. They were now free to do exactly that. America opened up so many new opportunities to the Puritans. Such opportunities included equality for all Puritans. No Puritan was higher or lower than any other. The same could not be said when it came to outsiders who were not Puritan.

            What is it to be pure? The definitions of pure could go on forever. Yet, this is exactly how the Puritans thought of themselves. They believed that they were higher up than any other individual. As a result of this, people living in close proximity with the Puritans hated them.  They have been defined as arrogant, hypocrites and murderers. For this the Puritans deserve the reputation they get in history. The Puritans came to America to fulfill their dream, which they ultimately did, but left an everlasting impression in the soul of America.

Helping Out

The American Dream is one of the most desirable goals in American society. Yet, it is one of the hardest goals to define. Meanings of the American Dream vary from such things as owning a house, a car, a dog to having religious freedom and getting an education. But with so many different meanings of the American Dream how could one individual possibly comprehend which American Dream is for them? To figure out that question one must look inside themselves and figure out what is in their own best interest. My grandfather, Robert Berkowitz, did exactly that.

            Born into a middle class family in Brooklyn, New York, my grandfather would always strive to do the best he could. He grew up in a strict family where there was no room for games. Eventually my grandfather attended North Eastern University and worked his way through college. Soon after he graduated college he married my grandmother and they had four children. Around the same time he started his own computer company which was very successful. Money was no longer an issue for him and he could have anything he ever wanted.

            Although he had become more successful than he ever imagined something was wrong. This was not his American dream and my grandfather struggled with depression for a while. During his last years of life I very often had deep conversations with him. He taught me the secrets of success and in a way was my spiritual adviser. During our talks he would let out all his emotions out and I could see his true self. What I saw was excitement and happiness. It was not until now that I realized what my grandfathers American Dream was. It was to help others and simply have a straight forward conversation with them. He was quick to offer help to people in need and always helped them in the most enthusiastic way. Nothing gave him more joy then just being there for someone. His American Dream was to help others achieve theirs.  I believe that is a very noble American Dream and I strive to be like my grandfather.