Saturday, October 20, 2007

My Neighborhood

My neighborhood is here in Floresville it is located about 30 miles out side of the San Antonio city limits and is a part of Wilson County and the drive to Palo Alto College is about a good 28 to 35 minutes. Foresville is next to county roads and is close by to Sutherland Springs and about 15 minuets away from Pleasenton and about 5 minuets away from Poth. One of the most notable features about Floresville is that on the second week of October from the 11th to the 13th the town celebrates the Peanut Fest a tradition of the town that has been around since the founding of Floresville. The street that i live on is 3rd Street which is located outside downtown and is a part of the outskirts of town there is not much over in my neighborhood because there are not many house on this street but my house is located across and next to the city cemetery's.

Most of the houses that are here in the neighborhood are fairly maintained and mostly the people that own those houses are of working/middle class, many of the people of those houses do farm work for others or they transport equipment or supplies to other businesses. Since mainly a number of people in my neighborhood are White and Hispanic its is unknown to me about the exact number is unknown.

There are some good features about my neighborhood it is closer to the Pecan Park and close by to Highway 181 were H-E-B and other stores are and my house is close by to a local clinic in case anyone in the family is sick. Some of the development thats is taking place is that there is a Whata Burger being built here so no one will have to drive to San Antonio to get food from there again and there is also a First National Bank that just recently opened as well. I believe that my neighborhood and the rest of the town will benefit from the these new development because the Whata Burger will give the high schoolers a new place to work after school and the bank that was recently opened gave people a new place for their savings.

When I want to have or just go and study i go to either my friends house which he live on C Street where the old post office use to be, or i go to my house which i live on 3rd Street. From the total time i spend to get to my friends house and back to my house is about 5 minutes give it depends if there is no traffic or construction on the way to these location. In town there is not much do for fun which is why sometimes on the weekends we go to San Antonio for fun because Floresville is just quite small town.

However my neighborhood is somewhat of a community even though most of the house that i live by are kinda separated from one another, but i do like living there sometimes because it can be peaceful. In all Floresville is good little town where everyone know everyone and the people are friendly and kind towards one another and is a good place to for the environment.

Monday, October 1, 2007

The Alamo

From watching both the John Wayne Film and the John Lee Hancock there are some very noticeable difference in both movies. Both movies had a sense that everything was dramatized and that both movies portrayed events and characters very differently in the other movie which made me believe that the newer 2004 movie was more accurate then the John Wayne film.

First the John Wayne I thought and everyone else that saw the movie knows that most of that movie is historically inaccurate due to the way the characters have been shown and the setting of the movie. The character of Jim Bowie was depicted as a drunk that he was injured during one of the cannon raids in the Alamo when historically he was ill during the siege of the Alamo. Davy Crockett shows up at the Alamo with many men to help fight at the Alamo when he showed up at the he only brought at the most a hand full of men to fight at the battle. Another point about the way davey crockett was portrayed that he die by blowing up the room with all the gun poweder when he died in the front of the chapel. Which showed, in my own opinion, that John Wayne might have thought that the soldiers there would have at least have some what of a fighting chance but the was inevitable. One of the weak points in the fim was the actuall battle itself it only lasted about 9 minutes at the most when the real battle only lasted about 90 minutes or even more. Then time and the setting of the movie was off the time of the seige took place very early in the morining around 5 and didnt end till the sun came up. In the setting of the John Wayne film was off in the movie San Antonio was in the middle of a desert and was shown to be in the middle of no where, this was wrong San Antonio at the time had trees and the no dester and the Alamo was next to the river. The John Wayne version of the movie was depicted soely for entertainment proposes because a good majority of the movie was historically inaccurate.

In the 2004 Alamo movie with Billy Bob Thorton was more believeable and more historically accuate due to the fact they had most of the event in the correct way it happend. The way Davy Crockett was portayed in this version of the movie was that he was a legend but not the way he was in John Wayne Film. One thing that didnt change was the fact that Jim Bowie and cournal William Travis were arguing almost any chance they had but in reality was that they only argued twice. One point of the film when they were getting bombarded by Santa Anna cannon fire Davey Crockett grabs his fiddle and playes with the drums and there was no cannon fire that night. I believe the directors just added that part in there to make is seem that eveyone had a repreve from the cannon fire and just to make seem more dramatic. One part of the film was the Juan Seguin was portrayed very accurately the way he was in real life over all the new 2004 movie was the most historcally accurate movie i have seen so far

Both Alamo movies are really good but if any cares about historical accuacey i would sugjest that you go and see the Billy Bob Thorton movie but you want to see a movie that is for enterainment see the John Wayne movie. But in my opion i would sugjest that you would watch both movies to see how Hollywood diptced the historical events of the Alamo back in the 1960's in 2004.



The Alamo. DVD. Dir. John Wayne. MGM Home Entertainment, 1960, 162 min.



The Alamo. DVD. Dir. John Lee Hancock. Touchstone Home Entertainment, 2004, 137 min.