iMedia: Ted Rives - Mockingbirds

In this video, Ted Rives explains how he is going to release Mockingbirds into the world and for them to pick up the sounds of life, and then mimic them to the various regions of the world.
I picked this video because I loved Rives ingenious way of explaining how valuable awareness and knowledge truly are. The line that I think best sums up what he is trying to do is this one - "And as I drive through a neighborhood, say where people got alotta, I'll take a mockingbird I caught in a neighborhood where folks ain't got nada, and I'll let it go." I think what Rives is trying to accomplish is to show how voice, and sound give you knowledge. He wants to release these MC's of the animal kingdom, and let them gather all of the words, and to mimic them to others. Then, once everyone has heard everyone, once the lies and the truths have been exposed, once all of the voices are captured, people will gain knowledge.
And what knowledge would we be gaining? It is the mockingbirds that spit reality back in our faces, until we realize what we are doing and the harm it is causing. We gain knowledge about reality. Rives said everyone gets hurt, and that the mockingbirds are the honest witnesses of this terrible crisis.
I agree with Rives when he says this. Unless we come face to face with something, we often disregard it. However, these mockingbirds will show us what is going on, and we will be forced to do something about it. These mockingbirds don't give us the golden key to the city that Rives talks about, but rather the answer to this unfortunate twist of devastating events known as reality. From poverty, to global warming, to killing, to war, to suffering, to starvation, the mockingbirds will capture all of it, and mock it back to us, until we accept and face it.
In conclusion, this video was extremely inspiring, and the metaphor was ingenious, and because of it, the video was ten times as effective. Rives also has a "presence", that Mr. Allen discussed at the beginning of the year, that’s hard to describe, but it makes people want to listen to him. For me, I found this video very inspiring in the way that Rives absorbed the many realms of our modern day society, and portrayed their exposure through the use of mockingbirds.

Connection: Regan and Goneril vs. Media

When King Lear was at the large table passing off his wealth and land to his three daughters, Goneril and Regan told Lear how much they 'loved' him, and told him everything that he wanted to hear. On the other hand, Cordelia, told him the truth, and what she truly felt about him.
Truth, distorted meaning, and portrayed messages: only one word came to mind - the media.
It's been told in numerous ways how the media, from magazines to t.v. to newspapers, and sometimes even books, have outrageously distorted the American perspective of what the 'truth' actually is.
So, when I noticed that Cordelia was the only one to say what she really felt, and the way the sisters were just spitting out their own distorted versions of the 'truth', it showed me how similar the media and Goneril and Regan are. I think that Cordelia represents that small percent of the media that does not distort what is actually going on, whereas her sisters portray the majority of media that completely alter what’s happening, so the news sounds more appealing and outrageous.
Mr. Allen said that the way he memorizes vocabulary words is by using them in a way that is violent or sexual. For Americans, anything having to do with sex and violence draw us in, and have the ability to completely capture us. And the media is fully aware of this, so they distort the truth to make it more appealing to us. They tell us what we want to hear.
Similarly, when Goneril and Regan were talking to Lear, they knew exactly what to say, so they would please him, and in return get his wealth and land. They told him what he wanted to hear.
By realizing this, I feel I've learned more about why Lear got so angry and frustrated with Cordelia, that night at the table. She told Lear the truth, how she really felt about him. In return, Lear got very angry, and disowned her as his daughter. Because he was King, for years he was always told what he wanted to hear. Very few challenged his authority. But, for the first time Cordelia did, and for Lear, it was very overbearing and hardly comprehendible. So, I feel that for most Americans, when we hear something that is actually true, we feel the need to just push it aside. If there is a big conflict happening, we are more likely to reject it rather than deal with it. Here, Cordelia is the conflict, and Lear is the group of collective Americans.

360 Degrees: Dreams

When I was younger, I found this book about dreams, and inside it told you different ways to interpret your dreams. If you had nightmares about being chased by something (dogs, clowns, burglars, etc.) than that supposedly portrayed a fear in your life that you were "running" away from (self-denial, guilt, etc.). Then, last year my opinions of dreams changed yet again. We read a book called "The Epic of Gilgamesh", were dreams were foreshadowed events, or gave clues toward the future.
So, is there a defintion for how we are supposed to interpret dreams? What if they are our minds continuation of work, while the rest of our body is at rest? Do they represent a subconcious part of ourselves? Do dreams portray the reality in which we live? Can you limit dreams to one interpretation?
Up until recently, I didn't think much of dreams. In my mind, they simply just 'were'. However, I have realized that there is more than one way to interpret dreams, and find out what they mean. I haven't pinpointed an exact defenition, but my attempt is as follows - Dreams represent your subconsious, that reflects the reality of your life. In my opinion, this definition, is a blend of the different perspectives of dreams.
Can dreams be pinpointed to one definition, though? No. I don't think they can because they mean something to everyone. While yes it could represent the subconcious, everyone interprets their subconscious in a different way, so we can't break dreams down any further than that.
Thus, I hope that I have explained some of the many possibilities of the interpretations of dreams, and how they are portrayed. For everyone's dreams is their own connection to reality and the possibilities of what they represent are endless.