http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0084/0084_01.asp
Here's another example of graphic novels used as social action. To get an agenda across (and we may or may not agree with this agenda) these comic strips have been passed around NYC.
Kat
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Monday, December 15, 2008
NEED HELP
Hey, does anyone have any ideas on what i could use as a resource/research article for my graphic novel/memoir?
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Gangsters in Concrete -- Submit your work!!
Everyone should submit things to Gangsters in Concrete. It's a small book of poetry and prose that gets published around the middle of the year by Emerson students. It's all student run and they are always looking for submissions. You can bring your writing to their mailbox at the Campus Center in 150 Boylston Street or email to gangstersinconcrete@yahoo.com. State whether it's poetry or prose in the title of the email. Include your name, Emerson ID, phone number and the title and genre of the work. It's always worth it to try, you could become a published writer!
Office Hours on 12/14
Due to some weird obligations, I have to cancel office hours tomorrow. If anyone would like to meet, I can come to campus later in the day and chat. PLEASE do not hesitate to schedule a meeting if you are struggling with the final project.
On a side note, the responses to Memoir as Social Action are very intriguing. Everyone should check them out and respond.
-Kat
On a side note, the responses to Memoir as Social Action are very intriguing. Everyone should check them out and respond.
-Kat
Graphic Novels
It seems like some of you are becoming more interested in graphic novels (which makes me want to cry with joy). Does anyone have any suggestions for reading? I have a long break ahead of me and would love to dig into some new graphic novels. Thanks. -Kat
Saturday, December 13, 2008
At first I questioned why we were writing a memoir for a Research Writing class. But as I got more and more into the memoir writing piece, I realized how much research actually goes into it! I didn't talk to other people to write my memoir, but I looked back on pictures that basically showed a timeline of my memoir and then I looked back on letters/messages and that was when I realized how much research actually goes into writing a piece like this.
I personally enjoyed writing the memoir out of all the projects we have done this semester. I really did enjoy working in my group for the third project [but that's because we all got along really well and had fun with our project]. However, this project I feel like I put a lot into it and even, without thinking about grades, got a lot out of it. Writing such a memoir made me look at how I've grown and who in my life has made me do so.
Also, I really think that my new interest is graphic novels! Even comic books...which I never really showed much interest in. [Read the Archie Comics!!]
I personally enjoyed writing the memoir out of all the projects we have done this semester. I really did enjoy working in my group for the third project [but that's because we all got along really well and had fun with our project]. However, this project I feel like I put a lot into it and even, without thinking about grades, got a lot out of it. Writing such a memoir made me look at how I've grown and who in my life has made me do so.
Also, I really think that my new interest is graphic novels! Even comic books...which I never really showed much interest in. [Read the Archie Comics!!]
Friday, December 12, 2008
The Emerson Review
Hey everyone.
I've decided to submit something to the emerson review. It's actually not something from this class; it's a photograph that I have taken. Here's the picture..
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Memoir as Social Action
So, why do you think that I chose memoir for this class? How is it a form of social action? Be specific.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
My Summer Job Revised
Ok, here's my comic in, unless errors occur, its finished format. If there are problems, point them out to me and I'll correct them until the thing is perfect.
Enjoy!
Enjoy!
...
from the new york times:
"In the market equivalent of shoveling cash under the mattress, hordes of buyers were so eager on Tuesday to park money in the world’s safest investment, United States government debt, that they agreed to accept a zero percent rate of return."
sandbag and hide.
"In the market equivalent of shoveling cash under the mattress, hordes of buyers were so eager on Tuesday to park money in the world’s safest investment, United States government debt, that they agreed to accept a zero percent rate of return."
sandbag and hide.
Cady's Critical Reflection Essay
The most poignant thing I learned from trying to write this memoir is that writing memoirs is extremely difficult. I was wondering if it was just me, if maybe some flaw in my design made memoir-writing harder for me than it is for my fellow writers, but after reading a passage by author and writing guide William Zinsser about the art of writing the memoir, and a selection by David Sedaris from his book Me Talk Pretty One Day, I realized that I'm not alone. I discovered through this process that there is no single, foolproof way to write your own history, no one type of event that you could be told to write on, because experience is different for everyone. However, there are hints and tips and skills that can significantly help with adapting what has happened in your life into a story that others can relate to, and these two pieces helped me significantly in doing so.
The Zinsser passage explained a few truths common to all memoirists. For example, he explained that one could not possibly include everything that one wants to in a memoir, because there won't be a clear enough story for the reader to follow. This was difficult for me to grasp, because I felt like the theme of my memoir (the collection of souvenirs and what they mean looking back) is so prevalent, and can really encompass a lot of small events in my life. This was one of my main problems in writing the memoir: finding a coherent line of thought and including only the details that would further it, not hold it back.
In the piece, Zinsser suggests, "You must find a narrative trajectory for the story you want to tell and never relinquish control". For me, this meant not allowing the details and the small parts that meant so much to me when they happened start writing the story by their own accord. By including too much in the rough draft, the message I was trying to get across was getting lost in the details. In the end, I found a "narrative trajectory" that I wanted to maintain, and cut out almost 50% of what I had intended to include, because they were holding me back from connecting with my readers on the message I was trying to portray. It was hard because it was, as my professor would say, "killing my darlings", but it was necessary. My story feels better, lighter, and more coherent. I didn't get rid of all of the small things, and Zinsser says this is also important: "On the contrary, many of the chapters of my book are about small episodes that were not objectively 'important' but that were important to me." I didn't want to get rid of the details that were especially vivid to me, because if they struck a chord with me, I felt that they would strike a chord with the people reading the memoir. Seemingly silly aspects were kept in, just ones that I felt furthered the story and elaborated on the theme of the overall memoir.
In David Sedaris's piece, the title work from his best-selling book Me Talk Pretty One Day, he uses a very comic and sarcastic tone, but the reader still connects with it on a deeper level. Although I attempt to use a more reflective and somber tone, I wanted to get a connection that went beyond that, which I tried to do by really explaining the personalities of the two characters I center my work around. I wanted whoever read it to be able to understand who these people were in the world, and what that meant in relation to my story about them. Sedaris also includes little charming aspects that, while not necessarily furthering his story, really put the reader in the scene. The details of his tragic attempts at trying to establish himself in his French class and the change in his peers from excitedly speaking of their summer vacations in French to explaining how they cry themselves to sleep at night in improperly conjugated terms is, though not personally relatable to my own experiences, understandable in his own terms. At no point did I lose Sedaris's voice, and at no point did I want to stop reading. I vowed to try to make my story that compelling, hopefully by providing enough of the scene (as Sedaris does) that the audience feels that they are personally involved and thus must know what happens next.
Memoir writing is extremely difficult. My main problems were getting so connected to the story as it happened that I overshot and wanted to explain my entire life to the reader so that they knew exactly where I was coming from. As I learned from these articles, readers connect with pieces not because they know everything about the writer or the scenario being described, but because they relate to emotions evoked from situations. I realized that I had to remind my reader of their own lives, what it is to miss and love people, and the need to try to hold onto things when they slip away. No elaborate details are necessary to remind somebody of their experience, just the emotions those experiences evoked.
The Zinsser passage explained a few truths common to all memoirists. For example, he explained that one could not possibly include everything that one wants to in a memoir, because there won't be a clear enough story for the reader to follow. This was difficult for me to grasp, because I felt like the theme of my memoir (the collection of souvenirs and what they mean looking back) is so prevalent, and can really encompass a lot of small events in my life. This was one of my main problems in writing the memoir: finding a coherent line of thought and including only the details that would further it, not hold it back.
In the piece, Zinsser suggests, "You must find a narrative trajectory for the story you want to tell and never relinquish control". For me, this meant not allowing the details and the small parts that meant so much to me when they happened start writing the story by their own accord. By including too much in the rough draft, the message I was trying to get across was getting lost in the details. In the end, I found a "narrative trajectory" that I wanted to maintain, and cut out almost 50% of what I had intended to include, because they were holding me back from connecting with my readers on the message I was trying to portray. It was hard because it was, as my professor would say, "killing my darlings", but it was necessary. My story feels better, lighter, and more coherent. I didn't get rid of all of the small things, and Zinsser says this is also important: "On the contrary, many of the chapters of my book are about small episodes that were not objectively 'important' but that were important to me." I didn't want to get rid of the details that were especially vivid to me, because if they struck a chord with me, I felt that they would strike a chord with the people reading the memoir. Seemingly silly aspects were kept in, just ones that I felt furthered the story and elaborated on the theme of the overall memoir.
In David Sedaris's piece, the title work from his best-selling book Me Talk Pretty One Day, he uses a very comic and sarcastic tone, but the reader still connects with it on a deeper level. Although I attempt to use a more reflective and somber tone, I wanted to get a connection that went beyond that, which I tried to do by really explaining the personalities of the two characters I center my work around. I wanted whoever read it to be able to understand who these people were in the world, and what that meant in relation to my story about them. Sedaris also includes little charming aspects that, while not necessarily furthering his story, really put the reader in the scene. The details of his tragic attempts at trying to establish himself in his French class and the change in his peers from excitedly speaking of their summer vacations in French to explaining how they cry themselves to sleep at night in improperly conjugated terms is, though not personally relatable to my own experiences, understandable in his own terms. At no point did I lose Sedaris's voice, and at no point did I want to stop reading. I vowed to try to make my story that compelling, hopefully by providing enough of the scene (as Sedaris does) that the audience feels that they are personally involved and thus must know what happens next.
Memoir writing is extremely difficult. My main problems were getting so connected to the story as it happened that I overshot and wanted to explain my entire life to the reader so that they knew exactly where I was coming from. As I learned from these articles, readers connect with pieces not because they know everything about the writer or the scenario being described, but because they relate to emotions evoked from situations. I realized that I had to remind my reader of their own lives, what it is to miss and love people, and the need to try to hold onto things when they slip away. No elaborate details are necessary to remind somebody of their experience, just the emotions those experiences evoked.
Thin Lines Around the Genre of Memoirs
I'm curious what really defines a memoir. While many writers of fiction draw on personal experience to fuel their characters and stories, some are basically re-counts of actual events. For example, in Jack Kerouac's famed books, On the Road and The Dharma Bums, he tells factual stories and accounts of himself and his friends. The only thing that is really fictionalized are the names he re-assigns to himself and his friends. However, in his book, Lonesome Traveler, which was released later and falls into the autobiographical/memoir category, he re-tells the same exact stories, only with the real names and drier prose. Beyond the name changes and the built thoughts/assumptions around each, there is little difference. Yet one is considered a memoir, while the other two are fiction.
To give another example, take Irish literature. Frank McCourt, Irish-American author of the memoirs Angela's Ashes and Tis', writes of the awful childhood that he experienced in the poor and unstable Ireland. While it is fictionalized stories, James Joyce, in his collection of stories called, The Dubliners, presents very similar accounts to the struggles and hardships of an Irish upbringing at the time. Though the differences here are more clear, I think the lines that separate memoirs from certain fiction and other genres are very fine. I know there are plenty of other examples, such fictionalized stories of slavery and the holocaust versus memoir accounts of each. Thoughts?
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Conference Schedule
Remember to meet in the Emerson Cafe.
Wed. December 9th:
3:30 Ian
3:40 David
3:50 Michael
4:00 Marcus
4:10 Alex
4:20 Talia
4:30 Laura
4:40 Aly
4:50 Lee
5:00 Glenn
5:10 Allison
5:20 Riley
5:30 Sam
5:40 Kathleen
Thursday, December 10th
8:50 Michelle
9:00 Lucy
9:10 Rachel
9:20 Jess
9:30 Jenny
9:40 Katie B
9:50 Caitlin
10:00 LInda
10:10 Walker
10:20 Lance
10:30 Ben Brewer
10:40 Grace K.
10:50 Jenell
11:00 Katie
11:10 Grace D.
11:20 Ben Hicks
11:30 Emily
11:40 Cady
Friday
12:00 Sheri
Wed. December 9th:
3:30 Ian
3:40 David
3:50 Michael
4:00 Marcus
4:10 Alex
4:20 Talia
4:30 Laura
4:40 Aly
4:50 Lee
5:00 Glenn
5:10 Allison
5:20 Riley
5:30 Sam
5:40 Kathleen
Thursday, December 10th
8:50 Michelle
9:00 Lucy
9:10 Rachel
9:20 Jess
9:30 Jenny
9:40 Katie B
9:50 Caitlin
10:00 LInda
10:10 Walker
10:20 Lance
10:30 Ben Brewer
10:40 Grace K.
10:50 Jenell
11:00 Katie
11:10 Grace D.
11:20 Ben Hicks
11:30 Emily
11:40 Cady
Friday
12:00 Sheri
Genre as Social Action!
You've all done a lot of great work in this class. Please consider sending your writing out for publication. One pub. to check out is The Emerson Review. Work can be submitted via email at: submissions.er@gmail.com
The reading period ends on Feb. 18th, 2009.
They accept ficion, nonfiction, and visual art!
Keep us posted if you get in.
-Kat
http://pages.emerson.edu/organizations/emerson_review/
The reading period ends on Feb. 18th, 2009.
They accept ficion, nonfiction, and visual art!
Keep us posted if you get in.
-Kat
http://pages.emerson.edu/organizations/emerson_review/
Monday, December 8, 2008
Comic
My thing isn't printing the way I want so here's my first draft pages. I'll bring in the hard copy, but, this looks better, I think. If it gives you the option to zoom, you should do so.
My Summer Job
by David Tafoya
My Summer Job
by David Tafoya
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Meat Opinions
Hi everyone...
I took my research paper and turned it into an opinion piece for the Berkeley Beacon. The comments range from mean attacks on me and my values to statements that I didn't do my research. I think everyone here can understand the many hours of research we all put into our research papers. It was also a challenge to condense the information from a 6 page paper to a less than 3 pages. Anyway that said you can all read and comment on the article if you feel the urge. It is online at:
http://media.www.berkeleybeacon.com/media/storage/paper169/news/2008/12/04/Opinion/Were-Going.To.Eat.Meat.Whether.You.Like.It.Or.Not-3570215.shtml#more
The piece was my opinion. I didn't feel like it attacked any group. Unfortunately Emersonians tend to have one social view. My own attempt at Social Action wasn't always popular I guess.
Emily
I took my research paper and turned it into an opinion piece for the Berkeley Beacon. The comments range from mean attacks on me and my values to statements that I didn't do my research. I think everyone here can understand the many hours of research we all put into our research papers. It was also a challenge to condense the information from a 6 page paper to a less than 3 pages. Anyway that said you can all read and comment on the article if you feel the urge. It is online at:
http://media.www.berkeleybeacon.com/media/storage/paper169/news/2008/12/04/Opinion/Were-Going.To.Eat.Meat.Whether.You.Like.It.Or.Not-3570215.shtml#more
The piece was my opinion. I didn't feel like it attacked any group. Unfortunately Emersonians tend to have one social view. My own attempt at Social Action wasn't always popular I guess.
Emily
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Fun Blog to Follow...
http://dangerqueue.wordpress.com/
This has nothing to do with anything, except that it is hilarious. I can't remember if I posted this link to the blog before or not. If I did, my apologies...it is really good.
This has nothing to do with anything, except that it is hilarious. I can't remember if I posted this link to the blog before or not. If I did, my apologies...it is really good.
In response to Michelle's post...
Why do you think it is that people lump together comic and graphic novel? What's the difference?
Great article on writing the Graphic Novel
http://find.galegroup.com.proxy.emerson.edu/itx/retrieve.do?contentSet=IAC-Documents&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&qrySerId=Locale(en%2C%2C)%3AFQE%3D(KE%2CNone%2C23)writing+a+graphic+novel%24&sgHitCountType=None&inPS=true&sort=DateDescend&searchType=BasicSearchForm&tabID=T002&prodId=AONE&searchId=R1¤tPosition=1&userGroupName=ecl_main&docId=A178085350&docType=IAC
The cat's out of the bag...
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Flash (non) Fiction
So I was kind of blindly google-ing memoirs a bit ago, and a stumbled upon this. Its an article/compilation of super short memoirs; six words only, to be exact. I thought it was pretty awesome new(ish) take on the genre, first started by Hemmingway on a dare. And plus its kinda cool how it has an open forum for anyone to post their own six word memoir at the bottom. Reading those was actually really strange; I didn't think six words could have so much versatility.
Anyways, there's a myriad of writers, celebrities, and just regular people's examples on there. Check it out!
www.knoxnews.com/news/2008/sep/28/loaded-letters-six-little-words-can-be-revealing/
Scholarly Sources?
Is anyone else having trouble finding/choosing a scholarly source? Any suggestions on where to look or what to look for?
Thanks!
Thanks!
After reading Maus, I became very moved by the different style and techniques used in graphic novels. I picked up Fun Home from Borders. Took me a night to read about half, defintely a must read. Very different from Maus- completely different story. But it helps in writing a memoir the differences in the two graphic novels are noticable.
Kat was right- it IS disturbing.
Kat was right- it IS disturbing.
To me, it seems like we have coupled the word "comic" and the graphic novel, "Maus: My Father Bleeds History" together. But in truth, the holocaust is by no means anything that should be classified as being comical. It's a genocide of millions of innocent people.
On a different note, as much as the story itself was upsetting, I did like the style and techniques Art used throughout the piece- specifically how he incorporated a small story in the bigger story. Maus is a graphic novel that tells the story of Art's father. But at the same time, it's also HIS story. It's his story in that he takes an interest in his own history. His father's history is his history.
On a different note, as much as the story itself was upsetting, I did like the style and techniques Art used throughout the piece- specifically how he incorporated a small story in the bigger story. Maus is a graphic novel that tells the story of Art's father. But at the same time, it's also HIS story. It's his story in that he takes an interest in his own history. His father's history is his history.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Dry
Ladies and gentlemen, I am here to recommend my favorite memoir. Dry, written by Augusten Burroughs, follows the author through his time in rehab and his struggles to remain sober afterward. The content is very heavy and moving, but Burroughs' sense of humor is alive and well, which softens the blow. If you are apprehensive about reading this because you haven't read Running with Scissors, don't fret. I still haven't read it. Burroughs is an inspiration for me. Soon after reading this book I was able to tackle a subject I had been struggling to write about for years. If you are a lover of memoir and haven't read this yet, do so as soon as possible.
Check it out here.
Check it out here.
Oh Walmart
http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/local&id=6529135
this shows actual footage of the lines at the Walmart....
this shows actual footage of the lines at the Walmart....
Worker dies at Long Island Wal-Mart after being trampled in Black Friday stampede
When I heard about the Wal-Mart employee getting trampled to death I was embarrassed just being from Long Island. At the time of the incident I was actually on the island for Thanksgiving, but I wasn't crazy enough to even attempt to go shopping. I hate the malls in general, but on Black Friday 'soccer moms,' the ones who live in the suburbs and drive gas guzzling SUV's, are expecially cantankerous and ferocious. Long Islander's are crazy, I won't try to deny that, but I can't believe that people continued to shop after contributing to the death of a worker, at that very same store, just minutes prior. It's complete insanity. I can't even begin to imagine how much they had trampled over this guy to make it so he literally stopped breathing.
This is just another reason why I prefer Target.
This is just another reason why I prefer Target.
Monday, December 1, 2008
Anyone into RPG, check out this link...
http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/index.php?id=3490&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
Role Playing in the University? Thoughts?
Role Playing in the University? Thoughts?
Maus
Maus is a very unique memoir in both content and form. Please use this thread to jot down your reactions to the text. If you're new to the graphic novel, what's your perception of the form?
Sunday, November 30, 2008
I love memoirs
So I love memoirs and decided that our assignment was a good enough excuse for me to go out and buy a memoir to read. I found Her Last Death by Susanna Sonnenberg. It was such a good book, but the ending was a little disappointing. I guess you can't make up a more interesting ending to your own life...lol. Anyway if anyone is looking for something to read to maybe become more inspired let me know.
Emily
Emily
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Friday, November 21, 2008
Harvard Coop Bookstore Reading
So, believe it or not, I am actually a published memoirist. I have an essay published in Red: The Next Generation of American Writers - Teenage Girls, a collection of short memoirs written by teenage girls on themes ranging from divorce, to vacation homes, to Jimmy Fallon. We have a reading on Tuesday, December 9th at 7:00 pm at the Harvard Coop Bookstore celebrating the books paperback release, and I just wanted to give you guys a heads up if you're interested in hearing some more memoirs or in attending a reading. Come talk to me if you'd like more information.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Music Memoir
Songs have an incredible ability to automatically bring me back to a certain time or make me think of a certain person or place. I found this website, Cassette From My Ex, that chronicles the stories people have about receiving mixed tapes and they even provide you with the actual tracks the tapes included. I thought I'd share that with you guys after Kat mentioned the essay "Thanks for the Memorex" by Sarah Vowell, and after a few people in class brought in items related to music.
Now I'm considering somehow connecting my memoir to music, maybe telling a story about how I will forever associate the song "Sweet Home Alabama" with the time I was on a roadtrip to Canada and we got pulled over for going 100 mph due to our overexcitement about the song. I have a lot of other crazy stories that I can connect with certain songs, but I'm not sure if I want to take my memoir in such a nostalgic direction? I find myself worrying about the tone of my memoir more then what I even write my memoir about...
Now I'm considering somehow connecting my memoir to music, maybe telling a story about how I will forever associate the song "Sweet Home Alabama" with the time I was on a roadtrip to Canada and we got pulled over for going 100 mph due to our overexcitement about the song. I have a lot of other crazy stories that I can connect with certain songs, but I'm not sure if I want to take my memoir in such a nostalgic direction? I find myself worrying about the tone of my memoir more then what I even write my memoir about...
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
TURN THE PAGE!
Come to our new blog! As part of our literacy campaign, we (Rachel Thompson, Jessice Bonet, and David Tafoya) have created a blog that will host hard copies of all our posters as well as facts about literacy. The purpose of our campaign is to try and econrouagra the average person to read a book instead of read a gossip magazine, watch a television show or go on Facebook. We hope we can persuade people that reading is one of life's simplest and most enjoyable pursuits, worthy of every bit of attention you can spare!
Come to www.turnthepageliteracy.blogspot.com and encourage everyone you know to read!
Come to www.turnthepageliteracy.blogspot.com and encourage everyone you know to read!
Genre Differences
We've been using the terms memoir, personal essay, and creative nonfiction/literary nonfiction fairly loosely in class. However, there are some big differences between these genres, as well as many similarities. What do you think are the differences? What are the conventions of a personal essay versus the conventions of a memoir? Something to think about...
Writers on Writing
For this project, don't forget that you need to find two sources (text or visual, like an audio clip or a movie) that can help you shed light and analyze your own memoir. Here are the names of some interesting writers that have written about memoir that you might want to check out:
-Richard Hoffman
-Douglas Whynott
-Philip Lopate (The Art of the Personal Essay is a great collection of academic essays. He edited it. I think we have it at the Iwasaki)
-Philip Gerald
-Nancy J. Miller
-Vivian Gornick
-William Zissner
These are just a few. Also check out your favorite nonfiction writers to see if they have any essays about the craft and databases.
-Richard Hoffman
-Douglas Whynott
-Philip Lopate (The Art of the Personal Essay is a great collection of academic essays. He edited it. I think we have it at the Iwasaki)
-Philip Gerald
-Nancy J. Miller
-Vivian Gornick
-William Zissner
These are just a few. Also check out your favorite nonfiction writers to see if they have any essays about the craft and databases.
i'm going about this assignment as I would write a college personal essay (similiar to the one us transfer students had to write for the application). Sometimes the smallest detail is the answer to writing a memoir. I haven't really written a "memoir" but defintely a lot of personal essays. You can take one "scene" of your life, something that your mom had said, a conversation with a friend, some decision you made in life- a lot of these things go un-noticed adn we don't even think of the impact they actually, do in fact, have on our life.
i still don't know what I would like to write about- I do, but I almost don't want to write about it. But I guess sometimes the things you don't want to write about, you'll have a lot more to say and it'll all have more meaning.
i still don't know what I would like to write about- I do, but I almost don't want to write about it. But I guess sometimes the things you don't want to write about, you'll have a lot more to say and it'll all have more meaning.
Monday, November 17, 2008
Writing an interesting memoir
I'm not sure if anyone else is worried about this, it may just be me, but does anyone else feel like they don't have anything interesting to write about? My life has been quite uninteresting in my opinion, probably many other people's opinions as well. I know that I could find something moderately interesting to write about and write in such a way as to make it enjoyable to read, but then there's still translating that to the graphic format which is a whole other worry. I can describe something in a way that is funny or interesting, but coming up with something from my life that would look good in pictures? That sounds like a stretch. I realize that there's writing to accompany the graphics, but I'd rather not have to rely solely upon the writing to make an interesting graphic memoir. It would be nice if I had some memory that lent itself to images. Sadly, it seems that eighteen years hasn't been quite enough for me to have accumulated any graphic worthy experiences.
THE Kings of Leon
Did anyone go to the Kings of Leon show at the Orpheum on Thursday night?
If you did, then you know it was a great show! I went with my roommate who is a huge fan. I wasn't really that into them but knew some of their songs. The show was absolutely refreshing, in a way, to see a real true rock band. I love being at a show where sometimes the sound of the band is taken over by the crowd singing along. The played a really long set and an on-core, too. It was the best show I went to all week!
If you're intreseted in Kings of Leon here is there myspace page so you can check out some of their songs: http://www.myspace.com/kingsofleon
If you did, then you know it was a great show! I went with my roommate who is a huge fan. I wasn't really that into them but knew some of their songs. The show was absolutely refreshing, in a way, to see a real true rock band. I love being at a show where sometimes the sound of the band is taken over by the crowd singing along. The played a really long set and an on-core, too. It was the best show I went to all week!
If you're intreseted in Kings of Leon here is there myspace page so you can check out some of their songs: http://www.myspace.com/kingsofleon
Arthur Russell
I don't know if anyone is a fan of Arthur Russell, but they just released a 21 track collection of his rarest material, dating back as far as 1973.
Arthur Russell was an American musician who became famous in the late 70's for his 'odd' disco music. He began his career as a cellist, backing Allen Ginsberg at his poetry readings in 1973. Unfortunately he contracted HIV in the 80's and died in 1992.
Most of his material has been released in posthumous collections such as the album Calling out of Context and The World of Arthur Russell
The new collection was just released on Rough Trade titled Love is Overtaking Me. Unlike his other material, which is mostly early electronic music, the new album consists of classic style rock and contemporary folk ala Cat Stevens and The Band.
For me, it is THE album of 2008. Arthur Russell is often credited for his production innovations, or for being ahead of his time (see groups such as Dirty Projectors or Of Montreal), but this collection shows that Russell had immense versatility (and the good kind, not the obscure Jazz side-project kind).
Another example of a great artist lost before he gained true recognition.
buy the album here
Saturday, November 15, 2008
I like tv but...
Hey guys i need to blog so...
As you may or may not know I work at a local restaurant. And this weekend I saw something that makes me kind of jealous but mostly just shocked. This weekend alone I have seen 3 families who bring some sort of video player to the restaurant with them for their kids. Now, the kids arent that young, and on one occasion it was only the kid and his mother. When I grew up I never had tv anywhere near a meal or a tv in my room until college, and I was just wondering if this is normal now. Why cant adults talk to their kids? What do you all think?
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Quantum of Solace
Okay so who is going to the midnight show of 007 on Thursday night/Friday morning? I already printed out my tickets. It looks fantastic to me. I love the direction that they have taken Bond in. Some people say that they are abandoning tradition and ruining the series, but I feel that Bond needed an update desperately and that people were losing interest. I love the way Daniel Craig has revolutionized the character and brought so much new to the table. Bond can't be stuck in the 50's, his new portrayal is brilliant in my opinion. Thoughts?
Poll
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=fP3Bl7BeTuYuxFmKO3gPNg_3d_3d
If you have time, please cut and paste this link into your browser. It is a survey for Ben, Alex, and Cady's group project about music literacy.
Thanks!
Kat
If you have time, please cut and paste this link into your browser. It is a survey for Ben, Alex, and Cady's group project about music literacy.
Thanks!
Kat
Obama won and now no one has anything to talk about...
Is it just me or have news organization, especially cable news, run out of things to talk about since Obama was elected. I was watching CNN the other day and they spent almost an hour talking about Obama's visit to the White House. I'm just curious, aren't there other things going on in the world?
Emily
Emily
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Open Letter...
Dear Brother Obama,
You have no idea, really, of how profound this moment is for us. Us
being the black people of the Southern United States. You think you
know, because you are thoughtful, and you have studied our history.
But seeing you deliver the torch so many others before you carried,
year after year, decade after decade, century after century, only to
be struck down before igniting the flame of justice and of law, is
almost more than the heart can bear. And yet, this observation is not
intended to burden you, for you are of a different time, and, indeed,
because of all the relay runners before you, North America is a
different place. It is really only to say: Well done. We knew, through
all the generations, that you were with us, in us, the best of the
spirit of Africa and of the Americas. Knowing this, that you would
actually appear, someday, was part of our strength. Seeing you take
your rightful place, based solely on your wisdom, stamina and
character, is a balm for the weary warriors of hope, previously only
sung about.
I would advise you to remember that you did not create the disaster
that the world is experiencing, and you alone are not responsible for
bringing the world back to balance. A primary responsibility that you
do have, however, is to cultivate happiness in your own life. To make
a schedule that permits sufficient time of rest and play with your
gorgeous wife and lovely daughters. And so on. One gathers that your
family is large. We are used to seeing men in the White House soon
become juiceless and as white-haired as the building; we notice their
wives and children looking strained and stressed. They soon have
smiles so lacking in joy that they remind us of scissors. This is no
way to lead. Nor does your family deserve this fate. One way of
thinking about all this is: It is so bad now that there is no excuse
not to relax. From your happy, relaxed state, you can model real
success, which is all that so many people in the world really want.
They may buy endless cars and houses and furs and gobble up all the
attention and space they can manage, or barely manage, but this is
because it is not yet clear to them that success is truly an inside
job. That it is within the reach of almost everyone.
I would further advise you not to take on other people's enemies. Most
damage that others do to us is out of fear, humiliation and pain.
Those feelings occur in all of us, not just in those of us who profess
a certain religious or racial devotion. We must learn actually not to
have enemies, but only confused adversaries who are ourselves in
disguise. It is understood by all that you are commander in chief of
the United States and are sworn to protect our beloved country; this
we understand, completely. However, as my mother used to say, quoting
a Bible with which I often fought, "hate the sin, but love the
sinner." There must be no more crushing of whole communities, no more
torture, no more dehumanizing as a means of ruling a people's spirit.
This has already happened to people of color, poor people, women,
children. We see where this leads, where it has led.
A good model of how to "work with the enemy" internally is presented
by the Dalai Lama, in his endless caretaking of his soul as he
confronts the Chinese government that invaded Tibet. Because, finally,
it is the soul that must be preserved, if one is to remain a credible
leader. All else might be lost; but when the soul dies, the connection
to earth, to peoples, to animals, to rivers, to mountain ranges,
purple and majestic, also dies. And your smile, with which we watch
you do gracious battle with unjust characterizations, distortions and
lies, is that expression of healthy self-worth, spirit and soul, that,
kept happy and free and relaxed, can find an answering smile in all of
us, lighting our way, and brightening the world.
We are the ones we have been waiting for.
In Peace and Joy,
Alice Walker
You have no idea, really, of how profound this moment is for us. Us
being the black people of the Southern United States. You think you
know, because you are thoughtful, and you have studied our history.
But seeing you deliver the torch so many others before you carried,
year after year, decade after decade, century after century, only to
be struck down before igniting the flame of justice and of law, is
almost more than the heart can bear. And yet, this observation is not
intended to burden you, for you are of a different time, and, indeed,
because of all the relay runners before you, North America is a
different place. It is really only to say: Well done. We knew, through
all the generations, that you were with us, in us, the best of the
spirit of Africa and of the Americas. Knowing this, that you would
actually appear, someday, was part of our strength. Seeing you take
your rightful place, based solely on your wisdom, stamina and
character, is a balm for the weary warriors of hope, previously only
sung about.
I would advise you to remember that you did not create the disaster
that the world is experiencing, and you alone are not responsible for
bringing the world back to balance. A primary responsibility that you
do have, however, is to cultivate happiness in your own life. To make
a schedule that permits sufficient time of rest and play with your
gorgeous wife and lovely daughters. And so on. One gathers that your
family is large. We are used to seeing men in the White House soon
become juiceless and as white-haired as the building; we notice their
wives and children looking strained and stressed. They soon have
smiles so lacking in joy that they remind us of scissors. This is no
way to lead. Nor does your family deserve this fate. One way of
thinking about all this is: It is so bad now that there is no excuse
not to relax. From your happy, relaxed state, you can model real
success, which is all that so many people in the world really want.
They may buy endless cars and houses and furs and gobble up all the
attention and space they can manage, or barely manage, but this is
because it is not yet clear to them that success is truly an inside
job. That it is within the reach of almost everyone.
I would further advise you not to take on other people's enemies. Most
damage that others do to us is out of fear, humiliation and pain.
Those feelings occur in all of us, not just in those of us who profess
a certain religious or racial devotion. We must learn actually not to
have enemies, but only confused adversaries who are ourselves in
disguise. It is understood by all that you are commander in chief of
the United States and are sworn to protect our beloved country; this
we understand, completely. However, as my mother used to say, quoting
a Bible with which I often fought, "hate the sin, but love the
sinner." There must be no more crushing of whole communities, no more
torture, no more dehumanizing as a means of ruling a people's spirit.
This has already happened to people of color, poor people, women,
children. We see where this leads, where it has led.
A good model of how to "work with the enemy" internally is presented
by the Dalai Lama, in his endless caretaking of his soul as he
confronts the Chinese government that invaded Tibet. Because, finally,
it is the soul that must be preserved, if one is to remain a credible
leader. All else might be lost; but when the soul dies, the connection
to earth, to peoples, to animals, to rivers, to mountain ranges,
purple and majestic, also dies. And your smile, with which we watch
you do gracious battle with unjust characterizations, distortions and
lies, is that expression of healthy self-worth, spirit and soul, that,
kept happy and free and relaxed, can find an answering smile in all of
us, lighting our way, and brightening the world.
We are the ones we have been waiting for.
In Peace and Joy,
Alice Walker
Lit Rock
Lit Rock is the phenomenon by which Bands or musicians will base a good deal of their music around themes, situations, and characters found in their favorite books. Today's reigning champion is undisputedly the Decemberists, who have based entire albums on books they've read. The Crane Wife, their fourth album released in 2006 was based on a Japanese fable frontman Colin Meloy found in a children's storybook. He and his other bandmates have at times worked in bookstores and so they understand the importance of the book in music and other arts. Meloy's lyrics read like a reworked Dickens or Orwell novel or possibly some lugubrious Irish play written while famine was at every door. He sings about love lost in tragic storms, giant whales, soldiers, priories, revenge at sea, jolly boats, wanton sailors, women of ill-repute haunting cobble stone streets, and cannibals. Indeed his work is all the more exciting for his picaresque (the name of the bands third album) tales of cowardice, love, and loss and his bandmates are able to spin utterly convincing sonic renderings of these scenes for him.
During concerts to support Picaresque, the band covered Wuthering Heights, a song by Kate Bush whom Meloy routinely described as the mother of 'lit rock' as they know it. Bush certainly was the master of reinterpreting classic novels to timeless pop songs, but she has one predecessor who doesn't regularly get his due. Aside from the countless singers who referenced that classic that never goes out of print, The Bible, there is one singer who routinely name checked his favorite authors in his sublime pop songs. John Cale, one-time bass and viola player for The Velvet Underground, embarked on his solo career in 1970 and two albums in let the world know the joy of reading. Paris 1919, his sophomore record, is filled with layered literary references and splendidly written tributes to the great works that inspired him to put pen to paper. In the grooves of Paris, you'll find an homage to Dylan Thomas' great and ageless poem A Child's Christmas in Wales, a song named for that great spinner of intriguing yarns Graham Greene, and a rocker named for Shakespeare's Danish prince.
Lit Rock today is a slightly different species than it once was. It, for example, now knows no genre. Bands like White Rabbits wear their bookshelves on their sleeves and their music is fittingly sensitive and listenable, yet on the other end of the spectrum lies something equally as pleasing. Metal band Mastodon based their second record Leviathan on Moby Dick at the suggestion of drummer Brann Dailor. It's now not uncommon to find screamo bands with names like Gatsby's American Dream. There are other bands that take a subtler approach, but the literary influence is there - its nearly impossible to picture Tokyo Police Club without the writings of William Burroughs and Philip K. Dick to place it next to; ditto Cold War Kids with Robert Louis Stevenson and Allen Ginsburg. Canadian dream-pop band Stars took their love of the written word to a whole new level when they asked Daniel Handler (alias Lemony Snickett, the writer of Children's fiction) to write a short story to correspond with the lyrical themes of their album In Our Bedroom After The War so that they could include it in the liner notes. In Our Bedroom is itself a cohesive story with arc and recurring themes. And on the converse of this is the Gothic Archies, a band who composed a soundtrack to be read along with each of the books Handler wrote under his Snickett moniker.
Books are a gift that will never stop giving and continue to reach audiences well beyond the literary world. The greatest compliment I've ever received with regard to my music came when a singer I'd never met told me that my music struck him like a classic novel. In the words of my friend and fellow song-writer John Howell "always read to your children, because it makes all the difference".
During concerts to support Picaresque, the band covered Wuthering Heights, a song by Kate Bush whom Meloy routinely described as the mother of 'lit rock' as they know it. Bush certainly was the master of reinterpreting classic novels to timeless pop songs, but she has one predecessor who doesn't regularly get his due. Aside from the countless singers who referenced that classic that never goes out of print, The Bible, there is one singer who routinely name checked his favorite authors in his sublime pop songs. John Cale, one-time bass and viola player for The Velvet Underground, embarked on his solo career in 1970 and two albums in let the world know the joy of reading. Paris 1919, his sophomore record, is filled with layered literary references and splendidly written tributes to the great works that inspired him to put pen to paper. In the grooves of Paris, you'll find an homage to Dylan Thomas' great and ageless poem A Child's Christmas in Wales, a song named for that great spinner of intriguing yarns Graham Greene, and a rocker named for Shakespeare's Danish prince.
Lit Rock today is a slightly different species than it once was. It, for example, now knows no genre. Bands like White Rabbits wear their bookshelves on their sleeves and their music is fittingly sensitive and listenable, yet on the other end of the spectrum lies something equally as pleasing. Metal band Mastodon based their second record Leviathan on Moby Dick at the suggestion of drummer Brann Dailor. It's now not uncommon to find screamo bands with names like Gatsby's American Dream. There are other bands that take a subtler approach, but the literary influence is there - its nearly impossible to picture Tokyo Police Club without the writings of William Burroughs and Philip K. Dick to place it next to; ditto Cold War Kids with Robert Louis Stevenson and Allen Ginsburg. Canadian dream-pop band Stars took their love of the written word to a whole new level when they asked Daniel Handler (alias Lemony Snickett, the writer of Children's fiction) to write a short story to correspond with the lyrical themes of their album In Our Bedroom After The War so that they could include it in the liner notes. In Our Bedroom is itself a cohesive story with arc and recurring themes. And on the converse of this is the Gothic Archies, a band who composed a soundtrack to be read along with each of the books Handler wrote under his Snickett moniker.
Books are a gift that will never stop giving and continue to reach audiences well beyond the literary world. The greatest compliment I've ever received with regard to my music came when a singer I'd never met told me that my music struck him like a classic novel. In the words of my friend and fellow song-writer John Howell "always read to your children, because it makes all the difference".
Monday, November 10, 2008
i don't really have much to talk about at the moment, but i felt obligated to write in the blog, because it's been on my list to do for the past few weeks and i had yet to include some opinion or statement.
however, i want to say, those it's almost been a week since the election. i am SO happy that Obama won. he really can bring our country to change. and yes, it's been said, but for once I feel like i am proud to be an American. Especially being in Boston on Election night, I felt like I was a part of something much bigger than i thought before. I felt unity. and that's an extraordinary feeling.
however, i want to say, those it's almost been a week since the election. i am SO happy that Obama won. he really can bring our country to change. and yes, it's been said, but for once I feel like i am proud to be an American. Especially being in Boston on Election night, I felt like I was a part of something much bigger than i thought before. I felt unity. and that's an extraordinary feeling.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
we have a winner...
hey, so...
OBAMA! History was made tonight, guys. This is incredible. What did you guys think of his speech? I personally was expecting the same caliber of his others, which I loved, but this one seemed to be of a whole new level. It was...well, it was presidential, with the elegance and humility that a president's image should conjure, I believe. Delivered with a new wisdom, serenity, and sense of grounding (if that's a legit term...), it really inspired my faith in him as this country's new leader. Agree? Disagree?
Also, thought it was interesting to note the reaction of the two audiences in arizona and chicago when one candidate mentioned the other's name. Both McCain and Obama showed the utmost respect for the other in their speeches after the announcement, but McCain's audience continued to boo and hiss at Obama's name when McCain mentioned him as a worthy opponent and a good man, while Grant Park applauded McCain's mention when Barack mirrored the respect McCain had shown him moments before. Just a thought.
Oh, and look at us go! Its a video of a crap load of college kids parading the streets tonight, lots of emerson faces too!
http://www.thebostonchannel.com/video/17895673/index.html
Monday, November 3, 2008
Democracy?
As we are learning about literacy campaigns, we are being exposed simultaneously to another type of campaign: voting campaigns. However, I recently discovered that whatever fervor I had for voting would be wasted on this election, for despite being a registered voter in the state of Tennessee, I cannot vote. I mailed in my absentee ballot request form a week or two ago and just received a letter from the voting commission stating that I am unable to vote via an absentee ballot because this will be the first election in which I vote, and in the state of Tennessee, you have to appear in person, not as an absentee voter, when it's your first time to vote. Has anyone else fallen victim to this rule? I hadn't heard of this policy before, or I would have registered in the state of Massachusetts so I could vote in this presidential election. To me, this seems undemocratic, for it inhibits people's ability to vote. I hope everyone else's attempts to vote were/are more successful than mine was.
election
http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/issues/
this is a site on cnn which shows what the candidates believe on each issue. I know at Emerson almost all of you will vote for Obama, but I think its important to know what each of them believe in. Have fun haha
Put Down the Remote and Pick Up a Book
Aly, Emily, Caitlin, and Jenell wrote a really solid A-level proposal. I am posting it on here for those of you that have yet to complete your proposal. It is a good example because they clearly outline their rhetorical situation (42% of college graduates don't read a book after they graduate), pick an appropriate medium (series of ads for public transportation) and why. They take it a step further by rewriting the Dentyne gum ads.
Additionally, this group has a clear outline of how they are going to work together. Each member has a role.
It is also clear that they have done some preliminary research, which is nice to see. I love the title of the campaign as well, "Put Down the Remote and Pick Up a Book."
Proposal for Group Put Down the Remote and Pick Up a Book
Aly, Emily, Caitlin, Jenell
Our Group wants to promote traditional literacy. We see the importance in people in their 20s reading books for fun. According to research done by the Jenkins Group, 42% of college graduates don’t read a book after graduation. Our group wants to help change that by starting reading patterns in college age people. We want to promote that reading can be fun and relaxing. Our subway ads will highlight just that.
We want to do a series of advertisements that could be place in the subway or on a bus. Our inspiration came from the Dentyne Ads on the subway, that highlight making face time and getting off of your computer. Attached are four of these ads to give some idea of the direction we’re going in with the project. Our vision would be to take the cute innocence of these ads and incorporate our campaign of literacy. We would do a set of four advertisements.
The first advertisement would highlight the importance of reading the book as opposed to watching the movie. It would have someone with the book next to a particularly sad movie adaptation more interested in the book than the flashy movie ad next to her. The caption would read “The Obvious Choice.” Along the bottom a list of books that have been turned into movies would be listed, giving the person looking at the ad a choice to make the obvious choice.
The second advertisement would highlight the warmth and comfort of a book. It would have a person or a group of people cuddled up inside reading a book with a cup of hot chocolate in each person’s hand. The caption would read “Hot Chocolate’s Favorite Accessory” and along the bottom would be a list of classic books like The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Little Women; classic children’s books that are comforting and fun to read.
The third advertisement would highlight something that almost every 20 something in Boston spends time doing, sitting on the T and commuting to work. It will have someone sitting on a T reading a book. The caption will read “Avoid Awkward Eye Contact.” Along the bottom will be a list of short exciting top seller books.
The fourth and final advertisment would highlight spending time in a bookstore. In a world where we waste time surfing the net and chatting online, we want to remark on the importance of spending time in a bookstore. This ad will have the caption “Excellent Waste of Time.” It will have a person in one of the old bookstores in Boston scanning the shelves and looking for the perfect book. At the bottom would be some little known favorites that the group picks out at the bookstore.
In order to make this project happen, we will need to research the Dentyne ads very closely. We will have to research book titles that we can place under each ad. We will have to have four photo shoots and enough models to make them all look professional and designed well enough for the subway. It is then going to take time on everyone’s part to put these ads together on the computer and have them printed up for the presentation. After the presentation our group will make it our job to somehow get our advertisement out in the public sphere. That is going to take a lot of research and phone calls on the part of everyone in the group.
This project is going to demand participation from all of the members of the group. Research is being done by Caitlin and Aly. They are going to be researching our target and looking into how to rewrite an ad. Jenell is going to be doing a lot with the creative side of the project. She’ll be looking into ads and figuring out how we want to place our ads and the people in the ads. Emily will be working on organizing and gathering all of the information together. Everyone will be in one of the ads. For the ads with groups we will each be responsible for finding people who we feel will look best in the ads, remain serious, and understand our mission and purpose. During the actual producing of the ads our whole group will be responsible to be present and helpful in any way needed.
Our group is very excited about this project and hopes to create an ad campaign that we can be proud of. Because this is a class where we are expected to go a step beyond, we hope to find a way to take our ads out into the public sphere, whether it be through the library system or through local reading advocacy groups. We want our ads to really reach students, promoting reading and learning outside of the school setting.
Webcomic
Check this out:
http://www.qwantz.com/
It is a webcomic about dinosaurs and society. Each day the layout and typography are the same, but the content is different.
Kat
http://www.qwantz.com/
It is a webcomic about dinosaurs and society. Each day the layout and typography are the same, but the content is different.
Kat
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Soy is sinking your sperm count?
According to new research, soy may be sinking sperm counts and feminizing males.
http://wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=70504
http://wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=70504
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
a survey for my paper
hey guys im doing a survey for my paper on health codes in restaurants. Please take a minute to check it out.
Thanks
Lee
www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=bc_2fvGicimZp1Q1jkNl_2f_2fQ_3d_3d
Image and Text
As these will undoubtedly come out much the worse for wear if I print them, I'm just posting links to the pictures I chose. They are various bits of box art from the Criterion Collection, a NY based company dedicated to the remastering and rereleasing of important films.
Monsters & Madmen
This is a boxset filled with bad horror films from the late 50s, half of them starring Boris Karloff. The box art was a deliberate attempt to emulate the great old film posters for these sorts of films that would have been put into circulation around the time of their initial release. I love them because they juxtapose vivid colors, campy, yet ghoulsih font, and cartoonish reproductions of horrible images. It's playful and draws the eye in. To see the individual boxes, simply go here.
W.R. Mysteries of the Organism
The art here is fittingly kaleidoscopic and busy, because the film it represents is similarly so. The film, a half fiction-half documentary film on social reform through sexual liberation by Yugoslavia's greatest auteur Dusan Makavejev, is a blistering indictment of societal repression. The artwork incorporates a sterile font, representative of the calm waters that the movie was trying to shake, the film's pastel color scheme with multi-colored images of the people, real and fake, who grace the screen, entering the discourse whether they knew it or not.
Port of Shadows
Port of Shadows, is a poetic realist film about, as many of them were, wayward symbols of masculinity and femininity clashing over bleak backgrounds, their eyes always pointed at the stars and sparkling, their hair lit by the fill light. This box art appealed to me the instant I saw it, those beautiful blue colours making up a pitch-perfect noir set-up; two lovers under a giant cargo ship bound for the sea; plot be damned, I had to have it. The film was only slightly dissappointing after observing the slick craft of the cover, but, I can't complain when it comes to the French.
Withnail And I
This design is something of a rarity. The movie, Withnail & I, is a little like the Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas of Britain. With that in mind, I suppose it was only fitting that they commissioned Hunter Thompson's artist-in-crime Ralph Steadman, the man responsible for most of Thompson's book covers. Steadman, the master of the grotesque, upset many when he was out in the field in the early days, and so it was only natural that such a troubling movie would need the feverish hand of a mind like his. The cover comes complete with Steadman's indecipherable, yet rakish handwriting, as does the Criterion's release of Fear & Loathing, when they released it a year or so later.
Bonus: The Third Man
I couldn't get it down to just four, so here's an extra one. This is noir personified and the cover only scratches the surface of this brilliantly nuanced, thrillingly composed post-war masterpiece. Anyway, I'm starting to sound like a salesman. But you should watch these movies, they're awesome.
Monsters & Madmen
This is a boxset filled with bad horror films from the late 50s, half of them starring Boris Karloff. The box art was a deliberate attempt to emulate the great old film posters for these sorts of films that would have been put into circulation around the time of their initial release. I love them because they juxtapose vivid colors, campy, yet ghoulsih font, and cartoonish reproductions of horrible images. It's playful and draws the eye in. To see the individual boxes, simply go here.
W.R. Mysteries of the Organism
The art here is fittingly kaleidoscopic and busy, because the film it represents is similarly so. The film, a half fiction-half documentary film on social reform through sexual liberation by Yugoslavia's greatest auteur Dusan Makavejev, is a blistering indictment of societal repression. The artwork incorporates a sterile font, representative of the calm waters that the movie was trying to shake, the film's pastel color scheme with multi-colored images of the people, real and fake, who grace the screen, entering the discourse whether they knew it or not.
Port of Shadows
Port of Shadows, is a poetic realist film about, as many of them were, wayward symbols of masculinity and femininity clashing over bleak backgrounds, their eyes always pointed at the stars and sparkling, their hair lit by the fill light. This box art appealed to me the instant I saw it, those beautiful blue colours making up a pitch-perfect noir set-up; two lovers under a giant cargo ship bound for the sea; plot be damned, I had to have it. The film was only slightly dissappointing after observing the slick craft of the cover, but, I can't complain when it comes to the French.
Withnail And I
This design is something of a rarity. The movie, Withnail & I, is a little like the Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas of Britain. With that in mind, I suppose it was only fitting that they commissioned Hunter Thompson's artist-in-crime Ralph Steadman, the man responsible for most of Thompson's book covers. Steadman, the master of the grotesque, upset many when he was out in the field in the early days, and so it was only natural that such a troubling movie would need the feverish hand of a mind like his. The cover comes complete with Steadman's indecipherable, yet rakish handwriting, as does the Criterion's release of Fear & Loathing, when they released it a year or so later.
Bonus: The Third Man
I couldn't get it down to just four, so here's an extra one. This is noir personified and the cover only scratches the surface of this brilliantly nuanced, thrillingly composed post-war masterpiece. Anyway, I'm starting to sound like a salesman. But you should watch these movies, they're awesome.
Text and Image
I seem to have lost my assignment for Writing Log 2.3. Can anyone tell me what the assignment is?
Thanks!
Laura
Thanks!
Laura
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Writing Log 3.2
Does anyone know whether we need to print out our ads with the writing log. I know the outline says we're going to discuss them in class, but I wasn't sure whether to save the link or try to print up the ad. Thanks for anyone who can help!!!
Em
Em
Example of excellent peer review
While most students are doing a better job of writing specific and thorough peer reviews, the following is a stellar example of how to write a peer review. Notice how Talia specifically tells the author what is working in the paper and what is not working. She even refers to her own writing and also gives clear ideas as to how to work with future drafts. Notice, also, how she is analyzing on both the global and local level.
-Kat
How are you doing?
Well, let me start off by saying that you have taken on quite an issue for your research paper. I think questioning our diets and then comparing them to actual drugs is not only a daunting task, but an eye opening one. This topic, in fact, was one of the main reasons I liked your paper; no one would think to compare the two worlds of fast food and cigarettes, yet you seemed to do it here, relatively well. I think one thing that allowed you to craft an argument like this, is the amazing amount of research that you have done. I really commend your ability to write a sentence that is fully supported by rich and diverse sources. However, on the flip-side of that, I was left a little confused as to where the research physically was in the paper. For the most part I could recognize backup information that you found from another source, but for future reference, try to use parenthetical citations; this will make your paper that much more credible. Another thing that detracted from your paper was your sentence structure. For the most part, the sentences in this paper are…long. This is a problem that I struggle with as well. While at times a long, informative sentence is needed, the paper gets a little difficult to read after a while, simply because there are too many thoughts in one paragraph. By chopping some of your longer sentences, into shorter ones, I think the paper would have a nice mix of sentence structure, making it read much more easily. One additional aspect of your paper that I liked was your tone. In this paper you were able to use a quizzical, interrogational type tone with bits of sarcasm and wit, without sounding pompous. This tone is appropriate for the subject and makes the essay a great read. However, now we must move on to the bigger picture, your thesis. While I did love your topic and your analysis of it, I think your main argument needs to be cleaned up a bit. It felt like there were so many avenues to delve into this issue through, that you weren’t quite sure which one to go with. For example, on the last page of the paper, in one of the last sentences, you bring up the issue of classism and racism in the fast food industry; a great issue to raise. However, to me this seemed to come out of left field, simply because you didn’t mention in your thesis statement that you would be touching on that side of the argument. Just by sitting down and choosing a direction to go in with the paper, will leave it that much more focused and concise. Another “bigger picture” critique is the organization of the paper itself. I really appreciated the way you questioned the topic, then gave some background information, then moved into the Pelman v. McDonalds issue, and finally discussed the repercussions and after math of that case. However, I think the digression away from the fast food to the cigarettes in the third paragraph, was a little too abrupt. By either injecting some food related sentences in there, to balance the paragraph out, or adding a buffer paragraph before or after the third, this paragraph would be a lot more relevant. Overall this paper was written very well, and with some of these suggestions as well as a couple other minor tweaks, I think it has the potential to be really great!
I can’t wait to see the final product!
Sincerely,
Talia Schlair
Descriptive Outline
Paragraph 1:
What is says- This whole paragraph states (and questions) who and what is responsible for what we eat.
What it does- In this paragraph, the readers learn what the issue is which is, who is responsible for what we eat and why do we eat it. This paragraph also establishes why it is important to know about, and what you main talking points in the paper are going to be, these being: how fast food is relatable to drugs and how we have gotten to this point.
Paragraph 2:
What is says: This paragraph says that as a people we have developed a habit of blaming others for our bad eating habits. This paragraph also begins to explain the parallels we see between the fast food industry and the tobacco industry.
What it does: This paragraph serves as the link between the thesis and the body of the paragraph. It starts of by discussing the questions and attitudes behind what we eat, and it ends off by leading into fast food’s comparison to cigarettes.
Paragraph 3:
What it says: This paragraph talks about the history and controversy in earlier years of the cigarette companies, including background information in when cigarettes were found to be dangerous, and the lawsuit (the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement) that followed.
What it does: To be honest, I don’t see what this digression truly does, except from digress from the paper. This paper does provide valid information and parallels between the cigarette industry and the food industry, but while this information is valuable, I think it can easily be placed in other paragraphs and still be relevant.
Paragraph 4 and 5:
What it says: Both of these paragraphs discuss the end result of the Pelman v. McDonalds case, as well as what this case shares with the Tobacco Masters Settlement Agreement. It also talks about the Pelman V. McDonalds role in opening up the subject of obesity in America.
What it does: These two paragraphs serve as the main focus of the paper; the parallels between the cigarette and fast food industries. These paragraphs are what support the paper.
Paragraphs 6 and 7:
What it says: These two paragraphs have essentially the same idea: that the fast food industry is getting wrongfully blamed for obesity, when it is really the consumer’s responsibility and fault.
What it does: Separately these two paragraphs o nothing but reiterate opinions and facts that we have already heard. However, these two paragraphs are discussing the same topic and therefore should be put together. Once joined, this paragraph brings the essay around full circle, and explains the writers opinion on why indeed we should be responsible for what we eat, no one else.
Paragraph 8:
What it says: This paragraph says that many people believe fast food is not a choice, but a reality that many lower class family’s have to live off.
What it does: This paragraph doesn’t really add much to the paper. These three sentences could probably be tacked onto the previous paragraph, but they negate each other. I think that this paragraph goes against the opinions that were just built that fast food IS a choice.
Paragraph 9:
What it says: This paragraph essentially says that Americans don’t care/aren’t recognizing what they are consuming and creating an obesity epidemic.
What it does: Again, this paragraph simply negates the rest of the paper another time, by saying that fast food is a choice and a “stupid” choice. This paragraph doesn’t serve the thesis simply because it is raising an entirely new issue about racism and classism; subjects that were never discussed earlier in the paper.
Paragraph 10:
What it says: In the end, this paragraph states that indeed the people of America are responsible for what they eat because they are not taking the time to see what the effects of eating fast food really are. This paragraph implicates the fast food companies for deceiving the customer.
What it does: This paragraph simply sums up some of the points throughout the paper. While I still feel that some points, like “consumer fraud” hadn’t been touched on in the essay itself, this paragraph was made to wrap up all the ideas set forth in the paper.
-Kat
How are you doing?
Well, let me start off by saying that you have taken on quite an issue for your research paper. I think questioning our diets and then comparing them to actual drugs is not only a daunting task, but an eye opening one. This topic, in fact, was one of the main reasons I liked your paper; no one would think to compare the two worlds of fast food and cigarettes, yet you seemed to do it here, relatively well. I think one thing that allowed you to craft an argument like this, is the amazing amount of research that you have done. I really commend your ability to write a sentence that is fully supported by rich and diverse sources. However, on the flip-side of that, I was left a little confused as to where the research physically was in the paper. For the most part I could recognize backup information that you found from another source, but for future reference, try to use parenthetical citations; this will make your paper that much more credible. Another thing that detracted from your paper was your sentence structure. For the most part, the sentences in this paper are…long. This is a problem that I struggle with as well. While at times a long, informative sentence is needed, the paper gets a little difficult to read after a while, simply because there are too many thoughts in one paragraph. By chopping some of your longer sentences, into shorter ones, I think the paper would have a nice mix of sentence structure, making it read much more easily. One additional aspect of your paper that I liked was your tone. In this paper you were able to use a quizzical, interrogational type tone with bits of sarcasm and wit, without sounding pompous. This tone is appropriate for the subject and makes the essay a great read. However, now we must move on to the bigger picture, your thesis. While I did love your topic and your analysis of it, I think your main argument needs to be cleaned up a bit. It felt like there were so many avenues to delve into this issue through, that you weren’t quite sure which one to go with. For example, on the last page of the paper, in one of the last sentences, you bring up the issue of classism and racism in the fast food industry; a great issue to raise. However, to me this seemed to come out of left field, simply because you didn’t mention in your thesis statement that you would be touching on that side of the argument. Just by sitting down and choosing a direction to go in with the paper, will leave it that much more focused and concise. Another “bigger picture” critique is the organization of the paper itself. I really appreciated the way you questioned the topic, then gave some background information, then moved into the Pelman v. McDonalds issue, and finally discussed the repercussions and after math of that case. However, I think the digression away from the fast food to the cigarettes in the third paragraph, was a little too abrupt. By either injecting some food related sentences in there, to balance the paragraph out, or adding a buffer paragraph before or after the third, this paragraph would be a lot more relevant. Overall this paper was written very well, and with some of these suggestions as well as a couple other minor tweaks, I think it has the potential to be really great!
I can’t wait to see the final product!
Sincerely,
Talia Schlair
Descriptive Outline
Paragraph 1:
What is says- This whole paragraph states (and questions) who and what is responsible for what we eat.
What it does- In this paragraph, the readers learn what the issue is which is, who is responsible for what we eat and why do we eat it. This paragraph also establishes why it is important to know about, and what you main talking points in the paper are going to be, these being: how fast food is relatable to drugs and how we have gotten to this point.
Paragraph 2:
What is says: This paragraph says that as a people we have developed a habit of blaming others for our bad eating habits. This paragraph also begins to explain the parallels we see between the fast food industry and the tobacco industry.
What it does: This paragraph serves as the link between the thesis and the body of the paragraph. It starts of by discussing the questions and attitudes behind what we eat, and it ends off by leading into fast food’s comparison to cigarettes.
Paragraph 3:
What it says: This paragraph talks about the history and controversy in earlier years of the cigarette companies, including background information in when cigarettes were found to be dangerous, and the lawsuit (the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement) that followed.
What it does: To be honest, I don’t see what this digression truly does, except from digress from the paper. This paper does provide valid information and parallels between the cigarette industry and the food industry, but while this information is valuable, I think it can easily be placed in other paragraphs and still be relevant.
Paragraph 4 and 5:
What it says: Both of these paragraphs discuss the end result of the Pelman v. McDonalds case, as well as what this case shares with the Tobacco Masters Settlement Agreement. It also talks about the Pelman V. McDonalds role in opening up the subject of obesity in America.
What it does: These two paragraphs serve as the main focus of the paper; the parallels between the cigarette and fast food industries. These paragraphs are what support the paper.
Paragraphs 6 and 7:
What it says: These two paragraphs have essentially the same idea: that the fast food industry is getting wrongfully blamed for obesity, when it is really the consumer’s responsibility and fault.
What it does: Separately these two paragraphs o nothing but reiterate opinions and facts that we have already heard. However, these two paragraphs are discussing the same topic and therefore should be put together. Once joined, this paragraph brings the essay around full circle, and explains the writers opinion on why indeed we should be responsible for what we eat, no one else.
Paragraph 8:
What it says: This paragraph says that many people believe fast food is not a choice, but a reality that many lower class family’s have to live off.
What it does: This paragraph doesn’t really add much to the paper. These three sentences could probably be tacked onto the previous paragraph, but they negate each other. I think that this paragraph goes against the opinions that were just built that fast food IS a choice.
Paragraph 9:
What it says: This paragraph essentially says that Americans don’t care/aren’t recognizing what they are consuming and creating an obesity epidemic.
What it does: Again, this paragraph simply negates the rest of the paper another time, by saying that fast food is a choice and a “stupid” choice. This paragraph doesn’t serve the thesis simply because it is raising an entirely new issue about racism and classism; subjects that were never discussed earlier in the paper.
Paragraph 10:
What it says: In the end, this paragraph states that indeed the people of America are responsible for what they eat because they are not taking the time to see what the effects of eating fast food really are. This paragraph implicates the fast food companies for deceiving the customer.
What it does: This paragraph simply sums up some of the points throughout the paper. While I still feel that some points, like “consumer fraud” hadn’t been touched on in the essay itself, this paragraph was made to wrap up all the ideas set forth in the paper.
Monday, October 27, 2008
But I Hate Group Work!
Most students hate group work. Almost everyone dreads it, yet teachers continue to assign it. Write an informal blog in which you explore your feelings about group work. Think about why you like or dislike it. Reflect upon a collaborative writing task that you have completed int he past. Why do you think that particular rhetorical situation called for collaborative writing? How did your group work together? How did you organize and divide the work? What role or roles did you play within the larger group dynamic? What was the result and how would you have done it differently? Lastly, why do you think some projects call for collaboration and others are better completed alone?
This was formerly Writing Log 3.1. You do not have to blog about this idea; however, we should use this space as a place to air our grievances and anxieties about working in groups.
Kat
YELP
So, I brought this up in class a little while ago when we first started talking about the food project and no one seemed to have heard of it. WWW.Yelp.com is an awesome website that you guys should definitely check out, especially if you like going out to new and interesting restaurants. Yelp is a site like citisearch where users sign in and review restaurants, stores, museums, any place open to the public, but yelp is way better than citisearch. The layout is much better, and it is much easier to find new places. I ue it all the time, it has a great feature that lets you search only for restaurants that are open at the time of your search, and you can specify the category, neighborhood, price range, anything. Check it out!
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Raw milk
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=fd609585-98e6-4374-b4b9-b4827a81d4bd
Interesting article about a farmer who was selling "shares" of his cows to legally give unpasteurized milk to his customers. The government raided his property. This is happening in Canada, but it reminds me of a lot of food issues we discussed.
Interesting article about a farmer who was selling "shares" of his cows to legally give unpasteurized milk to his customers. The government raided his property. This is happening in Canada, but it reminds me of a lot of food issues we discussed.
literacy
one song can mean so much to one person.
it's not even the song itself, but its what or the reason why you can relate to it. ever wonder why some songs may make you recall/remember an ex-boyfriend/girlfriend? and why it's hard to continue to listen to that song, due to the emotional impact it has on you? that happens to me a lot. and it was so hard that i actually FORCED myself to listen to all the songs that my boyfriend and i listened to together or reminded us of one another (when we broke up). i think that everyone has some form of "music literacy." Whether it's because they practice the violin every single day and night and can hear specific notes when listening to to a song or whether its because you can pick up a beat on the drums or whether its because you love to sing and listen to music-whatever type it may be.
i think music is in everything just like art is in everything. we may not all be able to read as fluently as the person next door. but we all have some taste for music- doesn't matter how much we listen to it compared to the next person. we all listen to music. even the way the city doesn't sleep at night is a form of music. the beer cans being emptied out at marty's. the police cars buzzing by. the fire alarms that go off at 6:48 in the am. the smashing of broken glass bottles on friday nights. or the hum of televisions that can be heard walking by some apartments. or the bass that can be heard from the cars racing each other. bottom line, music can take on any form. maybe beyonce's new song is music to one person or perhaps just the simple beat that can be tapped out by shoes is musical enough.
that's all i'm saying..
it's not even the song itself, but its what or the reason why you can relate to it. ever wonder why some songs may make you recall/remember an ex-boyfriend/girlfriend? and why it's hard to continue to listen to that song, due to the emotional impact it has on you? that happens to me a lot. and it was so hard that i actually FORCED myself to listen to all the songs that my boyfriend and i listened to together or reminded us of one another (when we broke up). i think that everyone has some form of "music literacy." Whether it's because they practice the violin every single day and night and can hear specific notes when listening to to a song or whether its because you can pick up a beat on the drums or whether its because you love to sing and listen to music-whatever type it may be.
i think music is in everything just like art is in everything. we may not all be able to read as fluently as the person next door. but we all have some taste for music- doesn't matter how much we listen to it compared to the next person. we all listen to music. even the way the city doesn't sleep at night is a form of music. the beer cans being emptied out at marty's. the police cars buzzing by. the fire alarms that go off at 6:48 in the am. the smashing of broken glass bottles on friday nights. or the hum of televisions that can be heard walking by some apartments. or the bass that can be heard from the cars racing each other. bottom line, music can take on any form. maybe beyonce's new song is music to one person or perhaps just the simple beat that can be tapped out by shoes is musical enough.
that's all i'm saying..
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Conference Schedule
12th floor of Ansin
Monday, Oct. 27th:
10:20, Riley
10:30, Lucy
10:40, Alex
10:50, Marcus
11:00, Katie S.
11:10, Talia
11:20, David
11:30, Ian
12:30, Jess
12:40, Ally
12:50, Michael
1:00, Ben Hicks
1:10, Michelle
1:20, Caitlin
1:30, Kathleen
Tuesday, Oct. 28th:
9:20, Katie B.
9:30, Meghan
9:40, Emily
9:50, Walker
10:00, Grace K.
10:10, Lee
10:20, Sheri
10:30, Lance
10:40, Glenn
10:50, Ben Brewer
11:00, Linda
11:10, Laura
11:20, Allison
11:30, Jenell
11:40, Sam
11:50, Jenny
12:00, Cady
12:10, Grace D.
Monday, Oct. 27th:
10:20, Riley
10:30, Lucy
10:40, Alex
10:50, Marcus
11:00, Katie S.
11:10, Talia
11:20, David
11:30, Ian
12:30, Jess
12:40, Ally
12:50, Michael
1:00, Ben Hicks
1:10, Michelle
1:20, Caitlin
1:30, Kathleen
Tuesday, Oct. 28th:
9:20, Katie B.
9:30, Meghan
9:40, Emily
9:50, Walker
10:00, Grace K.
10:10, Lee
10:20, Sheri
10:30, Lance
10:40, Glenn
10:50, Ben Brewer
11:00, Linda
11:10, Laura
11:20, Allison
11:30, Jenell
11:40, Sam
11:50, Jenny
12:00, Cady
12:10, Grace D.
Friday, October 24, 2008
Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens Like to Read!
In honor of the premiere of High School Musical 3, here's a literacy campaign from Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSyf4Eypn0w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSyf4Eypn0w
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Literacy in Music
As literacy extends itself to understanding and analyzing information through reading, seeing, and absorbing, one of the areas that this becomes necessary is the arts. While the category of 'arts' can blanket many things, I'm interested specifically in music. Having extremely little knowledge of the mechanics of music, one can still hear it and make a response. The way our minds interpret things such as tone, loudness, an mood are fairly natural, and people can generally respond to music in some way, again without any knowledge of what is actually happening. On another level, people can interpret music basically. This correlates to hearing music and thinking it is 'good' or 'bad.' Perhaps you cannot explain in musical or lyrical (if lyrics exist) terms why your preference is as such, but you know whether or not it appeals to you or not. On another level, you the listener, is comprehensive of the music. You know about the artist, you can make educated comparisons, you can give the song genre tags. You can discuss the song as a comprehensive listener, making a salient analysis of the song. Similarly, there is the musician-listener. This person expresses an understanding and knowledge of a song from a musical standpoint, specifically what they are hearing as a process of building individual sounds and parts into a whole product.
As nearly every other field, there are various levels of literacy one has to approach a given subject and situation. With music, I feel as though most people have some sort of literacy towards it, even if it is just basic physiological reactions. Especially here at Emerson, it seems so many people are passionate about music, be it finding the 'next' band before someone else, playing music, or simply liking it a whole lot.
So, I'm curious. If this is true, and music does affect nearly everyone as I seem to think, what music affects you? Why?
Why not give a song, why it affects you, and where you stand on the song.
And sometimes you cannot explain it, I have had songs rock me to my core, and I have no idea why.
I'm curious!
As nearly every other field, there are various levels of literacy one has to approach a given subject and situation. With music, I feel as though most people have some sort of literacy towards it, even if it is just basic physiological reactions. Especially here at Emerson, it seems so many people are passionate about music, be it finding the 'next' band before someone else, playing music, or simply liking it a whole lot.
So, I'm curious. If this is true, and music does affect nearly everyone as I seem to think, what music affects you? Why?
Why not give a song, why it affects you, and where you stand on the song.
And sometimes you cannot explain it, I have had songs rock me to my core, and I have no idea why.
I'm curious!
my blog!
i started a blog a few months ago. I haven't really done much with it so give me ideas if you have any! It's basically freelance writing, philosophical and sociologically based... but still, I would absolutely LOVE input! =]
it's called: chicken scratch.
it's called: chicken scratch.
art
What I realized is literacy IS absolutely everywhere. In my Introduction to Visual Arts class I just went on a field trip where we gallery hopped on Newbury Street. Art is everywhere and literacy IS a type of art. It's a form of expression and identity. You read to understand the world in which you live in.
On a different note, to answer the Writing Log 3.1, I like group work. I really do. But at the same time, I don't. If I know the people and how they work, then it seems to be an easier, less tedious task. However, as I mentioned in class, I like to do a lot of the work because I feel like I trust myself more than others. But as I also mentioned, I've gotten a lot better with that. I take in all ideas, but I kind of like to be the leader or the secretary so to speak. I write down all ideas, divide up the work, and set deadlines. It's just my way of organization. I think a project like this would be fun because it enables creativity.
On a different note, to answer the Writing Log 3.1, I like group work. I really do. But at the same time, I don't. If I know the people and how they work, then it seems to be an easier, less tedious task. However, as I mentioned in class, I like to do a lot of the work because I feel like I trust myself more than others. But as I also mentioned, I've gotten a lot better with that. I take in all ideas, but I kind of like to be the leader or the secretary so to speak. I write down all ideas, divide up the work, and set deadlines. It's just my way of organization. I think a project like this would be fun because it enables creativity.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Peer Review
Bring in 2 copies of letter and descriptive outline, and the annotated draft.
Things to touch on:
Structure/Organization "putting the pieces together"
Things to touch on:
Structure/Organization "putting the pieces together"
- Open form
- Holes
- Is it concise?
- Does it work?
- Evidence and analysis (balanced)
- A combination of you versus your sources.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
MLA
Last, but not least....some links to MLA citation guides.
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/557/01/
http://www.dianahacker.com/resdoc/
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/557/01/
http://www.dianahacker.com/resdoc/
Descriptive Outline
Some of you asked for an example of a descriptive outline. Here's a beginning paragraph from "Literacy in the New Media Age" by Gunther Kress,
Literacy is by no means all there is to contemporary communication. Other resources, images above all, are used, sometimes more insistently than those of "literacy" or alphabetically written words in meaningful arrangements. Given that in the world of the new media there are numerous modal resources involved in the making of messages--word, spoken or written: image, still and moving; music: object as 2D models; soundtracks: action--it has in any case become essential to ask what we mean by "literacy."
Descriptive Outline
Paragraph 1:
SAYS: Literacy is a multifaceted term and it is essential that we ask ourselves what it means to be literate. There is more to literacy than just the written word.
(the says portion of the D.O. will be very specific to the paper and address the writer's topic and argument)
DOES: Asks the reader to question what it means to be literate.
Establishes credibility and authority through the use of specified terminology (IE literacy, modal)
Introduces the different types of literacy modes. The reader expects that these terms will be further established and questioned later in the paper.
(the does portion of the D.O. will address HOW THE PAPER IS PUT TOGETHER. How are the pieces working? What does this paragraph accomplish. It would be here that you would want to say how this paragraph relates to the larger paper. Does it expand upon an idea? Does it veer from the thesis? Is it the thesis? IN SHORT, WHAT IS IT DOING IN THE PAPER AND WHY?)
Hope that helps. Please do not hesitate to ask question on the blog or via email. These descriptive outlines are very important not only for your peer review partner, but to help you see how the parts of a paper can work together to create a cohesive whole.
Literacy is by no means all there is to contemporary communication. Other resources, images above all, are used, sometimes more insistently than those of "literacy" or alphabetically written words in meaningful arrangements. Given that in the world of the new media there are numerous modal resources involved in the making of messages--word, spoken or written: image, still and moving; music: object as 2D models; soundtracks: action--it has in any case become essential to ask what we mean by "literacy."
Descriptive Outline
Paragraph 1:
SAYS: Literacy is a multifaceted term and it is essential that we ask ourselves what it means to be literate. There is more to literacy than just the written word.
(the says portion of the D.O. will be very specific to the paper and address the writer's topic and argument)
DOES: Asks the reader to question what it means to be literate.
Establishes credibility and authority through the use of specified terminology (IE literacy, modal)
Introduces the different types of literacy modes. The reader expects that these terms will be further established and questioned later in the paper.
(the does portion of the D.O. will address HOW THE PAPER IS PUT TOGETHER. How are the pieces working? What does this paragraph accomplish. It would be here that you would want to say how this paragraph relates to the larger paper. Does it expand upon an idea? Does it veer from the thesis? Is it the thesis? IN SHORT, WHAT IS IT DOING IN THE PAPER AND WHY?)
Hope that helps. Please do not hesitate to ask question on the blog or via email. These descriptive outlines are very important not only for your peer review partner, but to help you see how the parts of a paper can work together to create a cohesive whole.
Also start to think about VISUAL DESIGN!
How are the picture and the text working together in this image? Why does the author compose it the way he/she does? Think about the text, picture, typography, coloring, and size.
Literacy as Social Action
We're beginning the literacy campaign on Thursday, but what is literacy? Its a very versatile and often controversial term. In fact, most languages don't even have a term for what English calls "literacy." So what is it? Thoughts....
A new relationship with Food...
I just found this CBS news clip on my topic of "Freegans". I thought it showed a really unique way of looking at what we eat/throw out and how different people have different relationships with their food.
Monday, October 20, 2008
above is an example of something someone found walking home in the rain. ( The fact that the note is riddled with errors makes it a little less threatening...but then again I'm not Joey)
I stumbled upon foundmagazine.com the other day and I figured you guys might find it interesting. It's sort of like Postsecret, except instead of sending in postcards with secrets, people send in letters and things they find on the floor or wherever. The website has something called "The Find of the Day" where they display new finds daily. The finds usually consist of really weird notes or pictures people dropped or threw out that other people find and send in. I found it interesting that since I'm not the intended audience I don't understand half of what these people are saying, but I still read the notes and laugh at them.
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Source about fish for Caitlin
http://www.washingtonian.com/articles/restaurants/3870.html
There's the url for the article about fish. I've been trying to email it, but it just not going out. Hope it helps and you still need it.
Emily
There's the url for the article about fish. I've been trying to email it, but it just not going out. Hope it helps and you still need it.
Emily
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
What American kids are eating.
Ok, so we've been talking all about food quality and what we consume as Americans, and he one thing that I keep thinking of is the cafeteria food at the elementary school i volunteer at. Cathedral Elementary in the South End is a government subsidized Catholic schools with kids from underprivileged backgrounds. Every day I'm there, I see what the kids eat in the cafeteria, and frankly, it is DISGUSTING! everything is frozen, pre-packaged, processed, chemical infused trash that I would never dream of feeding to another human being. I can't believe that anyone would think that it was okay to feed this stuff to young kids! Our society needs help, this stuff shouldn't even be produced!
The entire time I was watching King Corn I kept thinking about this commercial I had seen this summer. It was made by the Corn Refiners Association of America--
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVsgXPt554Q
What is really is so bad about corn syrup compared to sugar? Is it just that corn syrup is in too many of our food products? Maybe it really is all about moderation.
Random Thoughts after King Corn
Something dawned on me while watching the movie that I had truly never considered before -- you see, I had always assumed that farmers backed lobbyists who got subsidies through congress, and the reason they supported subsidies was because they either lacked knowledge about capitalism or assumed (much like Michael Pollan) that the traditional rules of capitalism didn't apply to them. After watching the movie though, I realized these pro-subsidy lobbyists were probably not backed by the farmers, they were backed by the major conglomerates -- because they stood to profit the most from it. If farmers are traduced into what is essentially wage slavery, the profit margins on corn revenue must be going wholesale to the companies which act as merchants for their (the farmers') products. A portion of this net profit, in turn, trickles down from the companies to pay the lobbyists who justify the corporations' exploitation of farmers via the implementation of subsidies. Since paying one or two lobbyists a substantial fee is cheaper than paying every farmer in America a decent one, the corporations are probably saving a lot of money by doing this. Additionally, because the farmers are paid to overproduce, the corporations never lack a supply of raw material. This is the most elegant, thorough and utterly evil scam I have ever really understood. How someone ever thought all this up originally is a complete mystery to me.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
King Corn
After watching King Corn today I could not stop thinking about all the corn I eat on a daily basis. Throughout the documentary they kept talking about the U.S. Farm and Food Policy and I was intersted to read more about it..I found this link off of the King Corn website. http://www.farmandfoodproject.org/
Filmmaker's Note
I was going to put this in my reaction paper, but it has nothing to do with the content of the film, merely the style. Well, I may still put it in the reaction paper. The film is shot on 16mm film, if I'm not mistaken, and one of the most important steps in filming with this stock is color correction. It used to be you had to do it manually, but now with telecine technology being what it is, you can turn your film into video for as little as 150 dollars and then edit your movie digitally. Clearly the filmmakers chose their super-saturated color scheme for a reason (the corn is so GOLDEN), but they forgot to adjust for people's faces, so consequently, every interviewee looks they're freezing cold and sickly red. This is so simple a mistake, it seems pretty thoughtless that they didn't correct it.
High Fructose Corn Syrup
After watching the King Corn video in class today, I remembered seeing these ads not too long ago. Just wondering what people think of them. To me they seem a little propaganda-ish.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YE5aSUcU3YA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YE5aSUcU3YA
Monday, October 13, 2008
He Found His Calling
I'm not sure if you have already discussed this or even heard of this gentleman, but he definitely demonstrates an example of someone who uses his writing to elicit a public response:
World Record Writer
And I'm sure he boasts a healthy, thriving social life as well...
- S
PS: This is a friend of Kat's who thought this might interest you. Good luck with the rest of your semesters!
World Record Writer
And I'm sure he boasts a healthy, thriving social life as well...
- S
PS: This is a friend of Kat's who thought this might interest you. Good luck with the rest of your semesters!
question about the paper.
Hey guys-
Hope everyone had a good holiday weekend. I would guess I am not alone in doing a lot of homework today and I had a question. I want to do my paper on health guidelines at one of the 2 places I worked. It has come down to either a movie theatre chain or legal sea foods. Legal sea foods has more, polices them a lot more, has an entire department that has surprise inspections of all the restaurants. There are also a lot of breaking of the rules, but not as much as the movie theatre. I am leaning towards legal sea foods, but let me know what you think.
Thanks.
Lee
Good Writing, Bad Writing
In the Writing Log 2.2: Sample Student Research Paper, several students wrote about "good" writing and "bad" writing. I found it interesting that writing was being defined into the binaries of good and bad. So, what makes good writing and what makes bad writing?
Thoughts.....
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Annotated Bibliography??
Is this the right way to annotate? I feel totally lost.
This video was produced as part of a video cast for SourceCode, a weekly, half-hour news-magazine program airing exclusively on Free Speech TV. Archived shows are available on their website, where I found this show which focuses on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The Food Not Bombs segment of the show This source will definitely help with my paper, since its shows quite clearly how Food Not Bombs is able to step in and make effective change even when other organizations can't. Also, it shows that FNB is dedicated to feeding any and all people who need it, not simply the homeless, which makes them a more broad reaching organization. There is of course bias in the video, since it was made by a young activist who would obviously identify with the organization and its members more than an outside would. However, the information pertained within is for the most part impartial, and therefore worthwhile for my paper.
This video was produced as part of a video cast for SourceCode, a weekly, half-hour news-magazine program airing exclusively on Free Speech TV. Archived shows are available on their website, where I found this show which focuses on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The Food Not Bombs segment of the show This source will definitely help with my paper, since its shows quite clearly how Food Not Bombs is able to step in and make effective change even when other organizations can't. Also, it shows that FNB is dedicated to feeding any and all people who need it, not simply the homeless, which makes them a more broad reaching organization. There is of course bias in the video, since it was made by a young activist who would obviously identify with the organization and its members more than an outside would. However, the information pertained within is for the most part impartial, and therefore worthwhile for my paper.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Critique of Research Paper
I found reading this paper to be very helpful in writing my own research paper because I have not written one in 6 months. It got me thinking about what I need to do better in my own papers and also how to refine my topic.
The Suffocating Effects of 9/11 has its good aspects; as well as some things that need improvement. A couple of the good parts of this paper are the emotion and evidence. A couple of areas that need improvement are flow between paragraphs and fully explaining topics.
This paper topic is full of emotion. For anyone who was old enough to remember 9/11, the thought of that day causes many emotions ranging from sadness, to anger, and fear. I myself remember very intimate details about the day like the weather and where I was and what I was doing when I first heard about the attacks. This paper focuses on the health issues caused by 9/11 and who they effected. The author brings out emotion in quotes that they use. An example of this is on page 5, an excerpt from the film Dust to Dust, in which the author describes Officer John Wolcott as crying as he wonders aloud what his family will do when he passes away. The author also brings up the lying that the EPA and other government officials did in the wake of the attack. Being told that one was lied to will cause anger and bring the reader to the authors point of view. Lastly, emotion is also used when describing Greg Quibell who has to live in a neighbors basement while he rents his house out to pay for medical bills. The government should cover his medical bills, and to see a man essentially homeless because he went above and beyond to help his country is very emotional.
The author also uses evidence to their advantage in this paper. Using evidence makes arguments believable rather than the reader just thinking they are the authors beliefs. Especially in a topic about the effects of working at 9/11 when it was not healthy to do so, there needs to be facts to back up what the author believes. The author uses EPA reports, documentaries, and news releases in the paper. An example of evidence is on page 4, when the author is talking about the EPA doctoring its press releases to sound better, "...the general public should be very reassured by the initial sampling." This was only 2 days after the attack, and according to the author, this was not enough time to gather credible information. Yet another good example of evidence can be found on page 2, where the author uses a quote from the Office of the Inspector General of the EPA about the ability to breathe the air. "When the EPA made the September 18 announcement that the air was 'safe' to breathe, it did not have sufficient data and analyses to make such a blanket statement." This quote shows that the air was not safe to breathe, a week after the attacks, when they already had rescue workers working at Ground Zero.
Now for some of the aspects that need improvement. The one that stuck out almost immediately was the flow between paragraphs needs help. It is important when writing a paper that it flows nicely to not make it hard to read and also so that it makes sense. The author does not transition well from paragraph to paragraph in the essay. On page 2 the author goes from talking about misleading facts to talking about getting ground zero cleaned up so Wall Street could function again. At first this doesn't make sense, but later in the paragraph you find out that the cleanup was not handled properly and the people in charge of the cleanup were trying for speed rather than to do it right and protect the health of the workers. If the author had used a topic sentence or explained the topic of that paragraph earlier it would have helped. Another example is on page 4. The author organized this page well talking about health related problems generally then going into the Documentary Dust to Dust talking about specific cases. However, there is no flow at the end of the previous paragraph. The author could have put in a sentence like, "there are many stories/examples of rescue workers having horrible health issues after the fact." Then it would flow better.
The next issue that I had with the paper was that some topics or statements weren't fully explained by the author. It left me asking myself questions, which makes it appear that the author rushed and was only focused on their topic. An example of this is on page 2. The author says that officials wanted to clean up ground zero quicker for many reasons, including getting the economy back on track, and getting wall street back up. I wanted to know what was the economy like and what happened to wall street. Another example of not explaining topics fully can be found on page 3. The author states a lot of workers did not use protection. What protection should they have been using and what specifically could that have helped. Lastly on page 6 the author says the government should be doing more to help the workers, which I agree with. How does the author feel they should help, free health care, clinics, operations? The paper is good, it just needs to explain a little bit more.
Sample Research Paper Critique
Parts that Work Well: - The author uses a lot of evidence, and for the most part, uses it very well. For example, on page three, they use evidence from a professor of atmospheric sciences, and the E.P.A. to back up the claims of the toxic chemicals and compounds that were in the air after 9/11. Using evidence from wel known and credible sources like the E.P.A. and information from scholars on the specific subject you are talking about can really help back up your claims.
- I really liked the part on page 4 where the author uses the example about the government always hiding any negative claims by "...adding reassuring comments to the end of each unpleasant sentence in their releases..." This part is very effective because it is very simply and well written, easily getting the point across to the reader.
Parts that did NOT work well: -Where is the thesis? There definitely is not one in the introduction paragraph, (which is way too long) and I could not find a solid thesis throughout the rest of the paper. There is no argument in this paper, there are a lot of facts, and the author proves their point that the E.P.A. screwed up with the cleanup after 9/11, but there is no argumentative thesis. The author needed to add an argumentative part to the essay, as it is, it's a good documentation of the incidents surrounding the cleanup of the NY financial district after 9/11, but the author does not go beyond that.
-The author used a lot of emotional appeals in the essay which I thought were out of place and distracted from the argument. Obviously, in an essay about 9/11, it would be hard not to let your emotions slip into it. I just do not think that the emotional style of writing used in the paper worked well mixed in with the large amount of scientific data, mixing the two genres of emotional writing and scientific research does not work well in this essay.
- I really liked the part on page 4 where the author uses the example about the government always hiding any negative claims by "...adding reassuring comments to the end of each unpleasant sentence in their releases..." This part is very effective because it is very simply and well written, easily getting the point across to the reader.
Parts that did NOT work well: -Where is the thesis? There definitely is not one in the introduction paragraph, (which is way too long) and I could not find a solid thesis throughout the rest of the paper. There is no argument in this paper, there are a lot of facts, and the author proves their point that the E.P.A. screwed up with the cleanup after 9/11, but there is no argumentative thesis. The author needed to add an argumentative part to the essay, as it is, it's a good documentation of the incidents surrounding the cleanup of the NY financial district after 9/11, but the author does not go beyond that.
-The author used a lot of emotional appeals in the essay which I thought were out of place and distracted from the argument. Obviously, in an essay about 9/11, it would be hard not to let your emotions slip into it. I just do not think that the emotional style of writing used in the paper worked well mixed in with the large amount of scientific data, mixing the two genres of emotional writing and scientific research does not work well in this essay.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
The Suffocating Effects of 9-11
Good- I think the writer of this research paper did a pretty good job of researching certain aspects of this topic. Throughout the paper she gives many statistics that show how much she is really interested in her topic. Her quotes are backed up by many real life examples of people that have been effected by toxic air, which brings in the pathos and grabs the reader. Because the writer strongly emphasis the corruptness of the government and EPA, one can tell how emotionally involved they became while writing this paper.
I also found that this writer had little punctuation and grammatical errors. The overall paper is written in a pretty easy to read way. I don't mean because of the actual content but you dont have to be a rocket scientist to follow this paper.
bad- I had a major problem finishing reading this paper. The first paragraph was overwhelmingly long and doesnt end until page two. Break that up! There are many instances like where the writer begins to talk about the EPA where you could clearly start a new paragraph about specifics about why it was not safe, even though the EPA confirmed that it was. The opening paragraph seems more like a summary of the whole paper than an intro. Just break it up a little. I also had a lot of trouble finding what the actual purpose of this research paper was. There is no specific thesis. This paper could easily have ended after the first paragrapgh because the rest of the paper is just repeating what the intro says.
Research Paper Critique
Good: I liked when the writer provided real-life testimonies on pages four and five. I thought this made the issue more real to the reader and it demonstrated research in an interesting, personal way. The imagery is very vivid, and it fits really nicely into the paper.
I also really like the variety of sources the authors used. In consulting the list of Works Cited, I discovered that the author used a documentary film, an article from the New York Times, and several internet sites. The variety of sources, especially his use of film, a visual medium, made his paper more interesting and greatly strengthened his paper though the use of concrete facts and examples.
Bad: Overall, there was way too much emotion and personal opinion in this paper. A research paper is not persuasive writing, and it is not appropriate for a writer to enter his or her own opinion into their paper. In regards to the papers we analyzed in class, I think both writers had opinions about their topics but never did they explicitly state how they felt on the issue and how they thought their readers should feel. Sentences like "They should take responsibility for their mistakes and aid these individuals with everything they can," were very bothering to me. Absolutely no research was used in formulating this author's opinion, ergo, he should have left it out of the paper.
Nowhere in the paper could I find a thesis. I thought the organization was lacking, and the paper in its entirety seemed like it was written in the author's stream of consciousness where the author just relayed his thoughts on 9/11 and pollution as they came to him.
I also really like the variety of sources the authors used. In consulting the list of Works Cited, I discovered that the author used a documentary film, an article from the New York Times, and several internet sites. The variety of sources, especially his use of film, a visual medium, made his paper more interesting and greatly strengthened his paper though the use of concrete facts and examples.
Bad: Overall, there was way too much emotion and personal opinion in this paper. A research paper is not persuasive writing, and it is not appropriate for a writer to enter his or her own opinion into their paper. In regards to the papers we analyzed in class, I think both writers had opinions about their topics but never did they explicitly state how they felt on the issue and how they thought their readers should feel. Sentences like "They should take responsibility for their mistakes and aid these individuals with everything they can," were very bothering to me. Absolutely no research was used in formulating this author's opinion, ergo, he should have left it out of the paper.
Nowhere in the paper could I find a thesis. I thought the organization was lacking, and the paper in its entirety seemed like it was written in the author's stream of consciousness where the author just relayed his thoughts on 9/11 and pollution as they came to him.
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