Does TV Affect Voter Turnout and Why? – From June 2005

Media Predictions Paper for Understanding Mass Media Course at NCC with Professor Martin LoMonaco. 

2021 NOTES:

Usually, I put my updated thoughts after the original work but I feel putting it first here is more appropriate given the topic. I am choosing to publish this essay because it represents the spark of the beginning of my career in entertainment. In order to graduate Nassau Community College within the desired two years, I realized that taking some summer classes would be required. In Summer Session I, I took the Communications Dept. course, Understanding Mass Media. 

Assignment #2 – Sunset Blvd. and American Beauty - From October 2005

Essay Comparing Sunset Blvd. (1950) and American Beauty (1999) for Film Appreciation Course at NCC with Professor Deirdre O’Connor 

This essay received a 50/50 and under the Works Cited, my professor wrote “Excellent”! 

(This essay has been updated with better grammar from the originally graded version. Significant changes are noted with strikethroughs and/or asterisks. Professor’s notes are in larger, capitalized Font. Updated and additional notes are further below.) 

It is obvious that American Beauty (Sam Mendes, 1999) was heavily influenced by Sunset Blvd. (Billy Wilder, 1950). The key elements of plot structure, narrative, theme, and characters are very similar. It seems that American Beauty could have been a modern remake with a twist in setting and character placement. Instead of focusing on the May/December relationship between a fading Old Hollywood star and broke screenplay writer, American Beauty is based on *upon an unraveling suburban family.

Friends With Money – From Spring 2006

Friends With Money – Spring 2006

Review originally published in NCC’s The Vignette 

(This review has been updated with better grammar from the originally published version. Significant changes are noted with strikethroughs and/or asterisks. Updated and additional notes are further below.)

"Friends With Money is a difficult movie to absorb. There are so many layers. It is not a feel-good movie. It is not a typical comedy. It does have heart and the largest dose of truth I have seen in a long time. Even though the target demographic seems to be ages 30-45, I can appreciate its messages. (Me being so young, hyperbolic, and confident but kinda wrong here. LOL.)

Three friends are rich (Catherine Keener, Joan Cusack, and Frances McDormand) and married. One friend (Jennifer Aniston) is single and a maid *house cleaner (there is a difference). Including the husbands and supporting characters, any one of these people *characters could exist in reality. The world of the rich is opened up into a new perspective. The general assumption is that those who have money should be happy. Those with money should have less problems. This movie shows that those who have money are still human. Their problems are only different and *that emotions are *still universal. It reminds us that money is only material.

Previously Published With Updates: A Walk Down Critical Lane

This is an introduction to my next series of blog posts. 

In the Spring of 2006 semester at Nassau Community College, I was The Vignette's movie critic. I continued writing reviews when I transferred to Stony Brook University for The Statesman from the Fall of 2006 semester through the Spring of 2008 (including a break while I finished writing my Senior Thesis about remakes). 

While attending the University of Miami for graduate school from 2009 to 2011, I didn't write for the school paper because I was too busy writing essays for courses and my Thesis, You Only Live Twice: The Representation of the Afterlife in Film - which was formally published in August 2011 (after an initially failed draft from May that had to be 75% rewritten and 100% restructured - inspired by a book in my closet while packing to return to New York). 

From 2012 to 2014, I was writing for my own two separate blogs. One was called You Only Live Twice: Afterlife Cinema as a way to keep building upon my graduate thesis. And the other was on the HubPages.com platform. 

Upon taking the paralegal job for the entertainment law firm in Winter of 2015, I took down all of my blog posts to prevent any conflict of interest with the firm's clients. It was heartbreaking but also helped me start this new career chapter with a fresh mindset. And I did not continue writing while working at SAG-AFTRA. 

That's 5 1/2 years without writing after having written continuously for 10 years.

When I was let go from my highly-beloved and hard-earned position at SAG-AFTRA on August 5, 2020 because of staff reductions, a bright light in that dark tunnel was realizing I can start writing again! And I did by creating this AJS Entertainment Appreciation Blog in October 2020. It's been even more so personally rewarding this time around. 

And now it is August 4, 2021. 

I am two days away from my ten year anniversary of publishing my Afterlife thesis (which has been downloaded over 2,600 times!). I am one day away from my one year anniversary of getting that devastating call from HR. And to honor these anniversaries, I will be republishing some of my choice posts from the Afterlife Cinema blog, from the HubPages blog, from my reviews at The Statesman and The Vignette, and for the first time ever to publish not only my undergraduate thesis, Western European Films and Their American Remakes, but also course papers and their grades! Any updates will be noted whether that's related to grammar or opinion.

There is no determined order for republishing posts at this time. But one in particular is set for the morning of August 11th. It will be a paper I wrote for NCC's Film Appreciation Course, taught by Professor Deirdre O'Connor. Because the previous night (Aug. 10th), her first feature film starring the late Danny Aiello will have premiered at the Long Island International Film Expo called, One Moment. Not only did I help judge the festival from 2012 to 2014, but I was the signatory business rep assigned to work with Professor O'Connor through the SAG-AFTRA clearance process. I am incredibly grateful for her class as being one of the main influences of my education and career in entertainment/film criticism. And to be honest, this blog's title of "Appreciation" is part ode to her and that course! 

I welcome you to join me along this walk down critical lane!