Character Sketch

Billy Reston:

Reston is one of Will's best friend's who was crippled in an accident in India. He is called in to help with the exploration of the house and actually attempts to bring a level headedness to the picture but no matter how he tries the house just proves him wrong. This man has amzing strength and will. He shows on multiple occasions how strong he is physically and mentally throughout the reading.

The first passage I will take is on 55. His territory is in the master bedroom and he shows his dedication and strength in order to do this because this is not a handicap accessible house in more than one way... He needs to climb these stairs on his own and he also never complains or interferes with the exploration. He even gets cracked on by Tom for being handicapped and he thinks about then he laughs it off and continues up the stairs on his own.

The next passage is on 158-> there are many pages because this is where the pages have about five words a pop.
Will is about to go off and find Halloway's group by himself and even though this isn't going to be easy for Reston he decides to go along with Navidson and continues to joke about his situation. He is says he'll sue the designer of the house for not having ramps...Ha! He is showing is mental toughness by not accepting the out he was given and continuing on and once gain showing the physical strength by once again going down a staircase with his arms. This man is one tough BAMF!

The next passage will be from 208-> same as above
He shows incredible mental strength in this passage and physical prowess. He actually sets up a make shift stretcher for Jed who has been shot and as Wax is being taken out of the room by Will he engages him in a firefight in order to hold him back after Halloway goes completely off the deep end and starts killing his crew and shooting at them. Personally my favorite part of the book. He once again shows his mental strength by joking about the situation. And I love this quote because I see him saying it in a joking manner. After being asked when he started carrying a gun he responds, "Are you kidding me? This place is scary." I almost lost it on the train when I read that.

Reston just shows true mental and physical strength throughout his part in this book and i believe these passages all show this without a shadow of a doubt.

Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3C9TxqyXQ8

This is a trailer for the House of Leaves and I think it is pretty self explanatory. I also liked the fact that it ends with the all knowing quote, "this is not for you" and guess what? The f#@*ing book was right. I don't know how to explain this being a good video except for two facts:
1. It confused me
2. I truly have no idea why Jesus is under water.

House

See ths is how I perceive this house. It was all in the mind's eye. What you saw was really happening but then again these beams on this building are straight go ahead use a ruler. When the book in the introduction speaks about the five minute hallway, I see that as being an optical illusion. A trick for the mind. I don't believe in this therefore it cannot be true to me but what I do believe in is a sick individual that may or may not have used a trick to drive a few men to insanity. Which is another point I will bring up. Maybe Zampano was not blind on accident maybe it was self inflicted and he seemed to be able to go on with his life very normally never worrying about when the creature lying in wait was going to pounce. But getting back to part where Davidson was able to reach into the window and come out the door at the same time, it was an optical illusion just like this building is.

House of Leaves Story Two

This story is the most boring thing I have yet to read in the class. Not only do I not understand more than half of it, it is like sitting through a science lecture in chemistry and physics. It seems like a professor is explainig this to a class full of students that have absolutely no interest in the experiment other than actually watching it and not getting buried in the meat and meaning of the documentary. There are some good parts in this story though. The actual dialogue that they let you in on is very good and the video diaries from Karen. I can't see me enjoying any of the other parts of this story only because its not a story, its a text book. We'll see if it gets any more interesting.

House of Leaves Story One

Ok so there are like two different stories going on this book. I 've deemed the footnote story, Story One. This story is bout the man, I can't recall his name right now, and Lude finding the belongings of Zampano and this man, not Lude, is going what seems to be slowly insane and paranoid from reading this book about the Zampano's life and the Navidsion Record, I think. The actual scientific explanation of The Navidson Record is going on around the actual story so you can know what the man is reading and why this may be affecting him the way it is. This story is the interesting one because it is an actual story. It is a self narrative about how his life has been changing since he answered that phone call 3 in the morning from Lude. Through his accounts I am starting to believe that Zampano my have actually been Navidson and this was one of his many alias after his house destroyed him mentally and physically. We will see where this goes.

Bombing Brooklyn: Graffiti, Language and Gratification

Despite the fact that the graffiti maybe saving your neighborhood from high prices and a different alien class of people from moving into your neighborhood it will never be viewed as anything more than vandalism to most people. I live in Woodhaven, Queens and many, many a times we have had graffiti plastered right on the sides or the front of the house. The weirdest one that I found though, was one on the roof... I went up there to clean the gutters and sure enough there were the letters SVB. I said aloud, "What the fuck?" and thought to myself why the roof? No one can see this and this is pointless. But after reading the paper, I guess it is a little more undertandable. The language itself is the way they want to be remembered. The person is still a son of a bitch though because I had to clean the shit. I really do not think any of these people are freedom fighters either as you say Miss 17 may be. These people just have no other outlet and they have an impulse to do this. I really would love to believe that she is doing this to save her community but I still believe she just wants her name on the wall.

Now getting to Banksy, its still illegal it just looks nice. Use a canvas, a wall is someone's private property and they probably more often than not, not thrilled to see a friggin painting on their clean wall. If that showed up on my wall I'd have to clean it... And the fact that this graffiti is being used to sell communities now is ridiculous. You don't see any of Miss 17 bombings on the green buildings web site. Banksy is a high class vandal and he should face the same wrath from the law that Miss 17 will face if she is ever caught. They know who this man is, FINE HIM!!!

Graffiti

Well what can I say about Graffiti except that its everywhere and I wish I was that talented. I believe that this has truly blossomed into an unthinkable art form. Still vandalism but damn cool. I had a friend make a all seasons sticker for my snowboard that has my name on it in graffiti. As soon as I get the finished product back I will definitely post it. But it is truly amazing the amount of money that could be made from this talent. My friend is constantly contacted in order to decorate a room or an entire wall working with many other artists of course. He unfortunately is down in Jacksonville, FL now but I still stay in touch with him. I can't wait for my sticker to come back to me. It looks amazing. It really is great to see something that once was perceived as a nuisance being use for good and for a profit now... 10 bucks a letter and that's his friend discount price...

Buffalo

I took a trip to Buffalo this weekend to see my team play against the Jets and lose... But I bring this up because it relates to my last post. Everything in Buffalo is simple and simple minded. No one is dressed fancy and no one even gives a shit if they even have pants on... Little exaggerated but you know what I mean. I like this and that way of life. There is nothing to read deeper into its just you get what you see and that is a beautiful thing. There is no stress in this way and I understand this way of life which is probably why I did not like going deeper to try to find meanings and thoughts in the writing. That's great if the writer wants to place his thoughts and beliefs into the writing, that's great but I don't want to know about it because I believe it takes something away from the book you're reading. I just want to take the reading for entertainment purposes because a lot of the books we have read have been more than interesting but then the discussion makes me think about what I have just read and then it loses something...

Pillowman

I did not grasp the really meaning behind this play but maybe if I saw it acted out it would help me follow along a little better. I read through it again and i just do not see what we talked about in class. I don't know if I'm just not following the story correctly but all I saw was a bunch of stories wrapped together in a larger picture. Don't get me wrong I liked the play but I liked much much more before we started discussing this larger meaning behind the play. Why can't it just be entertainment. That shouldn't take anything away from the book or play but aren't you supposed to read for pleasure sometimes. I think that play would have been much better if that was that and leave it at that.