Multiple – Cornell
I’m not even going to pretend to be humble – my blox for Multiple turned out way better than I could have expected it to. When I began searching for images and inspiration I started with words like birthday (because of the importance of her daughters birthday cake). I found the birthday cake and lightened it so that it could serve as a backdrop for the image. This is mostly because I think that Tina’s daughter’s birthday was really at the back of her mind. It wasn’t as imminent and pressing a matter as Oprah. Speaking of Oprah, I didn’t want to include her in my blox because, let’s be honest, she would definitely overshadow the image of Tina Fey.
For Tina, I chose to portray her as Sarah Palin in this blox. During the chapter in which all of these events come together, Tina Fey is doing her appearances on SNL as Sarah Palin. She includes the original script in the book and reading it reminded me of how empowered I felt when I watched it during the campaign in ’08. At that age I was a young, liberal democrat and I really liked the image that Tina and Amy were creating for women. These two female comedy legends created a perfect example of how comedy can be used to highlight important social issues. By poking fun at Sarah Palin and illuminating how un-qualified she was, they showed me what serious women look like – even if they’re in comedy. Tina Fey and Amy Poehler make an awesome duo and I hope I can be half as cool as they are when I’m older.
This sketch easily could have been a dumb catfight between two female candidates. What Seth and Amy wrote, however, was two women speaking out together against sexism in the campaign. In real like these women experience different sides of the same sexism coin. People who didn’t like Hillary called her a ballbuster. People who didn’t like Sarah called her Caribou Barbie. People attempted to marginalize these women based on their gender…You all watched a sketch about feminism and you didn’t even realize it because of all the jokes.
Another interesting facet of the blox is the motif of juggling. No joke – I just googled images of “juggling” and came up with both of these perfect instances of sexism! The male juggler is obviously worried and busy juggling work, more work, scheduling, and a family portrait that doesn’t show him in it. The female juggler, is happy as a clam while she juggles making breakfast, cleaning products, makeup, and of course, her cell phone. I really don’t even feel like I need to do anything but shake my head at this obvious portrayal of traditional domesticity. The blox explains it all!
Multiple – Adaptation
My print lit segment for Multiple will DEFINITELY be my Act III Goals in my Scene-O-Gram. It is during this crazy juggling act of responsibilities that Tina Fey really excels and reaches a conclusion that is consistent with the theme of feminism. This would work out perfectly because all of the big three events: Oprah’s guest appearance, Fey’s Palin impression, and her daughter’s birthday all fall within the same 48 hour period. In this situation, all of the anxiety created from Act II will be resolved. After, Tina goes into a long rant about her plans for the future which will hopefully be included.
The most important part of the resolution is that in the end, Tina Fey gets everything she’s ever wanted. She has an audience of excited democrats who actually WANT to see her perform, her daughter gets a kick-ass Peter Pan cake topper and party for her birthday, and she strikes 30 Rock publicity gold by getting Oprah to come on the show. The most important part, is that she gets what she wants regardless of her gender. I think it is also important to mention the backlash that Fey received after playing Sarah Palin:
There was an assumption that I was personally attacking Sarah Palin by impersonating her on TV. No one ever said it was “mean” when Chevy Chase played Gerald Form falling down all the time. No one ever accused Dana Carvey or Darrell Hammond or Dan Aykroyd of “going too far” in their political impressions. You see what I’m getting at here. I am not mean and Mrs. Palin is not fragile. To imply otherwise is a disservice to us both.
I think the last two sentences are the most meaningful and points the way to the future; when females can question or challenge each other without it being misconstrued as jealousy or a cat fight.
Multiple – Experience
Looking back on my Emblem for Multiplicity I don’t really think that I did it justice by choosing the “Add Friend” icon for Facebook. My idea for that emblem was that the Timeline feature of Facebook does a good job at connecting the life stories of everyone and thus is the epitome of a single reference material that is all encompassing. However, when I see the emblem for multiplicity, I just feel the need to check my Facebook – always a dangerous rabbit hole to go down when there are deadlines in place! Now that I’m looking at the quality from my work of print lit, I’m realizing that Multiplicity is shown when a writer has the ability to (or tries to) incorporate past, present and future modes of thinking into the work.
I think that this is best expressed in Bossypants towards the end of the memoir. During this time, Tina is juggling so many things at once and she’s very hesitant that any of them will work out to her advantage (wow, this really could be a movie..):
- Her daughter’s third birthday party was coming up and she didn’t have a present or a cake. This is ironic because of all the other things she is dealing with at the time.. wait for it..
- Oprah agreed to have a cameo on Tina’s oddball show with low ratings, 30 Rock. She scrambled to get the script together and solidify Oprah’s appearance.
- Fey was making appearances on SNL as Sarah Palin, and the discussion regarding her impression was getting heated.
At this time, Tina is desperately trying to juggle all of the different aspects of her life. I think that she also framed this chapter really progressively; she is showing that the birthday of her child is just as important as the commitments she has made to her work and to her old show, SNL. She is not consumed by her daughter’s birthday. Instead, she is able to plan for it like anything else in her life.
Visible – Blox
Visible – Cornell
My blox for Cornell’s quality of Visibility has a lot of collage elements in it. Because this quality resides in Act II I thought it fitting to include a lot of small circles which could be interpreted as subplots. All of the circles contain what I would represent as the life cycle of a Tina Fey. She began as a reckless bossypants, got her footing as an outspoken improviser, then matured into a successful director, writer, and actress. I threw in that picture of an old woman just to complete the life cycle. Also, there’s a picture in Bossypants which compares Tina to an old woman and I think that, at times, Fey really does have some of the characteristics of an old woman.
In the background, I included a screenshot from a famous sketch of Fey’s called Mom Jeans. Although I wasn’t able to find a full clip of it online, I included it in my blox because it speaks volumes about how comedy is progressing into something that is more of the “gender blind meritocracy” that Fey dreams about. Also, I included an illustration of Darwin’s Evolution of Man. I think that this is significant because it ironically shows that not only has Tina evolved, but women (and men!) who want to me successful can attempt to learn from her and create their own evolution story.
Visible – Adaptation
Fey’s chapter on managerial style, ” A Childhood Dream, Realized,” explicitly expressed Calvino’s quality of Visibility. It is a series of quotes from Lorne Michaels, one of which reads “Television is a visual medium.” Although he was talking about how you should look your best if you’re on TV, for me it harkened back to screenwriting. Two quotes later, Lorne comments on how style should always dictate the writing (discussed in my Experience post). These things seem contradictory but after reading Krevolin’s How to Adapt Anything Into A Screenplay, I think I have a better understanding of what he means.
That being said, the way that this chapter is written is in a serious of anecdotes which give managerial advice. I think that if I were to adapt this section into a screenplay it would likely be included in Act II. As Krevolin explains, Act II is the longest act and it allows the viewer to explore the characters and the relationships. I think that Fey’s relationship with Lorne Michaels is really significant because he gives her the tools for her success. I also think it is important because throughout the memoir I felt there was a strong theme of a strong male mentor relationship with Tina and her father, Alec Baldwin (star of 30 Rock and everything awesome), and Lorne Michaels. I think her father taught her everything she needed to know about being a human, Baldwin taught her everything she needed to know about being a actor, and Lorne taught her everything she needed to know about directing and writing.
Visible – Experience
Something I’ve noticed when trying to draft my Experience posts is that I keep going back to my Part I posts, seeing my Emblem, and am reminded wholly of the concept for that quality. Anyways, I saw the image of the Parker pen and I remembered that Calvino’s quality of visibility has everything to do with the writing! As a child, Calvino would see images and make up a story line from his imagination. When he became an adult, he realized that the more important feature of a story is the writing. The writing should guide the story in such a way that the visual imagination has no choice but to tag along.
This quality was best expressed in Bossypants when Tina Fey is describing some of the managerial tactics that she adopted from her mentor and friend, Lorne Michaels. Lorne once remarked, “Never cut to a closed door” and Fey extrapolated meaning out of his advice. The situation happened as such that the camera cut to a closed door before an actor entered and Lorne felt that they lost the audience in the moment: “Lorne would have preferred that the camera cut follow the sound of the actor knocking on the door. Which is to say that the sketch should lead the cutting pattern, which is to say content should dictate style, which is the say that in TV the writer is king”
I feel that this quote (and managerial tactic)100% conveys the feeling of Visibility from Calvino. Maybe Lorne wasn’t making this point, but it is still a good point to follow and one that I think has resonance between Calvino, Bossypants, and Krevolin.
Exact – Blox
Exact – Cornell
I was really inspired by Tina’s relationship with her father and the impact he has had upon her because I consider my dad to be the absolutely coolest guy on the planet. At the same time, I have a deep respect for his opinions and try to emulate him in most areas of my life. This blox includes an image of my father holding my sister, with my other sister and brother in tow.
Tina makes it clear that her father is someone who is to be admired, feared, and loved. The overall green color to the blox related to a quote from Bossypants when a friend describes Tina’s dad: “Your father doesn’t fu***** play games. You would never come home with a shamrock tattoo in that house.” I also associate the color gold with justice or rules, therefore I included some finger-painting brush strokes on the canvas to convey the presence of order and rules. Additionally, I cropped in a macaroni necklace to the bottom right corner of the canvas. This is meant to show Fey’s love for her father.
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