The Last One

As the term comes to an end, students are required to write out or answer evaluations sheets in efforts of providing feedback to the instructor. I typically stay away from the evaluations because I don’t think my opinion really matters in a sense of how a class is structured. I have accepted my role as a student and realized that it is the instructor who shapes and organizes a class. There are some classes I will love and some classes I will hate, but as a student I must still put the necessary effort in to each class in effort of achieving a good grade and actually getting something out of the class.

As for this class, I think it was structure pretty well. There are always things that are talked about in class in which I have no interest in. The topic in this class that I had a hard time talking about was politics. Personally it’s a dead subject, I feel as if every political figure is saying the same thing. These political figures always seem to have the right answer in how our country should be ran, yet there are still tons of problems within our country. Enough of about politics. The required readings for this class were kind of out dated. This was a pop culture class and the readings were from the 90’s. It was sort of difficult to tie the two together.

Now to the positives of the class. I think the activities were amazing. Starting out by eating pizza in the class was something I have never experienced. The activity that required us all to take out are cellular devices was kind of scary. I had no clue what was the purpose of us taking out are cellular phone. I thought Dr. Goodnow had something up here sleeves, you never know with the Dr.

As far as discussions, I think the biggest class discussion was about fashion. I think the discussion drew so much attention because we all come from different places and have our own unique fashion. It was nice to see pretty much the whole class involved in the discussion defending the fashion of their choice. There is not enough time and space for me to continue to talk about my loving of the blogs assignments.

The blogs assignments were a good change up for me. I was able to write letters to thank you letters to family members. I also got a chance to see where all my money was going when we had to document our expenses during the first couple of weeks.

Overall the class was pretty good. Although, I didn’t have the most enjoyable time reading the material, I think Dr. Goodnow did a very good job of explaining the readings and relating them to the discussions in class. Dr. Goodnow may have done an exceptional job running the class, but it was having class at Clods that made this class one of the best class ever.

ads

Wow, have times change in the advertising industry. I can recall a period of time when advertisements, whether it was seen on television, listened heard on the radio or featured in a magazine newspaper etc.., would actually feature the product. Now day’s theses advertisement may only feature a catchy phrase in efforts of gaining the attention of the consumer. “The argument here is that advertisements used to tell us how valuable and useful a product was.” (Strinati 214). Sometimes these advertisements make sense, other times I'm simply left wondering. Strinati, goes on to explain modern day advertisements, “they say less about the product directly, and are more concerned with sending up or parodying advertising itself by citing other adverts, by using references drawn from popular culture and by self-consciously making clear their status as advertisements.” (Strinati 214).

The contemporary advertisement print I chose to analyze for this exercise was Mercedes Benz advertisement I stumbled across during one of my weekly readings of Cosmo while on the toilet. The Mercedes advertisement actually took up two pages in the magazine, yet the actual car product was not even featured no where in the two pages. There was the Mercedes Benz logo in the sky, similar to the Batman logo, the Benz symbol was inserted into the moon as people walked the streets. I the logo symbolized Mercedes Benz was a savior for car or possibly the car amongst cars to have. The advertisement was simply unexplainable and didn’t make sense to me.

For clarification purposes I thought it would be best to surf the web of old automobile advertisements, specifically Mercedes Benz ads, in effort of seeing the difference in the advertisement history. As I looked at older ads, they all seemed to have one thing in common, the actual product was there. It was interesting that the advertisement was plain, simply having a white or black background and the car. There was nothing fancy about these advertisements at all.

I think the time period in which were in now, the car really doesn’t have to be present for individuals to be interested in the advertisement. Seeing that Mercedes Benz are known as one of the most popular luxury cars that are affordable for a middle class person, it doesn’t take much effort on the Mercedes Benz part to sell their product. “Although the intention is still to sell, it is contended that nowadays the postmodern effect is achieved by seemingly overt efforts within advertising to undermine this purpose.” (Strinati 215). I think it’s more acceptable for ads with the popularity of a Mercedes Benz, or a Coke cola. I say this because they products have been apart of our lives forever and with the popularity in which they have gained we recognize and accept them as a part of culture, which leads to advertisement company putting out these ads such as the one I mentioned in this blog. Ads have and will be around forever. I think one, were comfortable with the product and two, the advertisement writers are running out of ideas to sell their product.

The Historic Cartoon

I shall start off by saying politics is not a subject of interest for me. My lack of interest in the topic steams from a mixture of things. My knowledge of politic is one of my primary reasoning for having no interest in the subject. I’m just unaware of things in which are discussed with I politics. Its not that I don’t care about the topic, its more of a sense of not understanding what is actually going on and what politics deal with. I have tried speaking with others about the matter in efforts of being informed and trying to create an understanding of it, yet I have failed and I am still at level one in terms of politics. I have even played devil advocate in political conversations amongst friends, still no results. For this assignment I was hoping to find out a little more about politics by observing politics in pop culture.

The assignment was for us to view something that incorporated both, politics and pop culture. I decided that if anything in the world can help me understand an issue it would be no other than the beauty of cartoons. While searching for the cartoon that featured some form of politics, I stumbled across a few newspaper cartoon stories. The one that caught my dealt with the presidential candidates, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. The purpose of the cartoon was actually in the title, “The Historic Next President.” Throughout the cartoon clippings Briscoe, the author of the cartoon, pokes fun at the thought of having either an African American man as the next president or a women running our country. The clips state that the democrats are trying to set history while the republicans are keeping it the same with another old white guy running. Maybe this is an inside joke because I didn’t get it. The cartoon even goes as far as questioning whether we shall be racist and not have Obama elected as president or sexist and not have Clinton elected as president. I understand its purpose is supposed to be humorous but with my lack of understanding politics I considered the jokes to be offensive to both the candidates if anything. The thought of being racist or sexist kind of takes away from a simple election in which people vote based on their acceptance of what is said by both candidates.

The book talks about how pop-culture does not promote radical quick change but rather progressive, slow change, this cartoon is a clarification of it. After reading through the clips I have not made any radical change in terms of politics, I am still unaware of the seriousness in politic. Only thing this clipping illustrated was that history is going to be made with the Democratic Party being represented by either a black male or a female. This cartoon would defiantly be categorized under micro political. It is the work of an individual trying to make sense out a political issue by putting his own touch on it. The author is simply voicing his opinions of a political issue.

Peeping Tom

The three places in which I chose to play peeping Tom was the library, grocery store and the recreation center. Just sitting back and evaluating individuals and how they carry themselves was kind of creepy. There are times in which I look or recognize something special or unique about someone but it always came as a surprised to my eyes.

My first place of observation was the Valley Library. I thought this would be an interesting location to observe people based on what the library is typically used for. When I think about library I think studying, reading meeting up with a group for a particular project. I figured since people were going to the library for the reason stated previous it really didn’t matter what people wore. In fact I had no idea it would be a fashion show. As I sat in the reading area pretending to read, I noticed that the library was indeed a resting or meeting place amongst friends before class. In other words it was a pit stop. There was plenty of diversity in what was being worn by individuals. Manly, shorts and summer clothing because the sun was out and it was nice out. Even the summer clothing differed, some guys wore cargo shorts, some wore basketball shorts and others wore jean shorts. The females were either in shorts or mini skirts with flip flops of some sort. It seemed as if everyone was happy and in a joyful mood during this period of the day.

Things were quite different later on at night in the library. Although it was the same place, it seemed as if the focus had shifted. Individuals came into the library in clothing’s that were comfortable, not really caring how they looked. The dress was sweatpants, shorts and sweatshirt for both male and female. The interaction amongst individuals also changed. It wasn’t a joyful mood; it was more of a dreading mood. It seems as if they were now forced to be in the library.

My next location of observation was the grocery store. This was an easy evaluation given that everyone individual I saw was a college student and dressed up in some sort of beaver athletic attire. I don’t recall anyone outside the workers wearing jeans in the store. It seem as if everyone was in there own zone in terms of reacting to one another. People were there for their own personal purpose which led to little interaction if any. As I walked ale to ale I observed individuals looking at their list and getting their necessary products and avoiding others at the same time.

I have no clue why I chose Dixon but I thought it would be interesting to see how people react differently to the way others dress. My first observation started on the lower level basketball courts. This was the perfect setting for this assignment. Individuals typically chose teams based on the type of gear someone is wearing. It happens all the time and it is hilarious that people are judged based on they present themselves instead of their actual skill. There was an older gentlemen waiting on the sidelines in cut jean shorts and some old Nikes tennis shoes. The man was waiting to play for several games, yet he continued to get passed up on by the younger students because of his attire. When the older man got his chance to play he amazed everyone. Long story short, the man could flat out play ball and he couldn’t even get a look or conversation with others because of the way he was dressed.

I think how an individual is dress truly dictates how much interaction he/she receives. People react differently to different people based on the way individuals are dressed. The example of my experience in Dixon was a prime example. As far as the grocery store, it was more about actually accomplishing something rather than presenting themselves. So I couldn’t really draw any conclusions on the level of reactions an individual received. The library was a different story; it was a fashion show by day and cram session by night. People were dressed to impress earlier in the day but as the day wore on the wardrobe of individuals became restless and semi- pajamas. I think different environments require different dress.

Mom and Dad

The growth of technology has made it easy for people to communicate with others. There are several ways in which individuals can communicate using technology. Cellular phones, email, instant message, pagers and last but not least there’s the good old land phone.

For this assignment, which happens to be my favorite, I was required to write a letter of appreciation to two different individuals. One letter had to be handwritten and the other had to be sent via email. My initial thought was the letter sent via email would have a quicker response than the handwritten letter. I figured email is easily to access and respond to compared to handwritten letters.

The two lucky recipients of these letters were my lovely parents. My pops is getting old and has trouble using the internet and checking his emails. My mother is getting younger and younger and is up to game with the latest technology. I thought it would be a fun challenge to both of them if I sent the handwritten letter to my mother and emailed the other letter to my father. My strategy was to have both individuals step outside their comfort zone and see which parent responded sooner.

As I sat down and wrote the letter to my mother, I began to get a weird feeling. I love my mom and all that good stuff, but it was weird writing her a letter. When I think of hand written letters I typically think of my high school sweet heart and I exchanging these three page letters to one another expressing are love for each other not thanking my mom for being the best mom in the world. I put my weird feelings aside and put the pen to the pad. I wrote my letter out to her and expressed how much appreciated her for all the things that she have done throughout my life.

My next victim was pops. I sent the old man an email similar to the one I sent my mother. While writing this email I became a little bit nervous. Nervous because my dad is too manly at times and I didn’t want to come off as this little softy. The letter required me to think a little bit. I had to think about what words to use so that I wouldn’t appear to be too sentimental. It was a very challenging task.

The first response was in and it was my mother. Either my father doesn’t love me or he is truly computer illiterate because I have yet to receive a response from him at all. The no response from my father steams from his culture not being to dependant on technology.

I think technology has given us an easier way of communicating. I think people look for easy ways of doing things and emailing an individual oppose to writing an individual is easier. It’s less time consuming to write an email because you aren’t in titled to run the letter down to the post office and wait for it to get shipped out. This is what our culture is built around, quick pace and easy.

Muisc

My preference of music has always been rap. As a kid growing up in Los Angeles, California I was trapped into listening to rap music. Outside of the jazz music my father listened to and the gospel music my mother listened to, it was rap music that my ears grew accustomed to. I thought rap music was the only thing out there for children. Every little kid I knew listened to rap music. If you didn’t know the latest Tupac Shakur or Snoop Dogg song you weren’t cool. I was unaware of the message that was actually being delivered in the songs due to the fact that the radios played the edited version of songs. Personally, if the song had a catchy hook and a nice flowing beat, it became one of my favorites. Sadly but truly Adorno is right when he describes popular music as being dominated by standardization and pseudo individualization. Growing up we based our opinions of our favorite music on whom the artist was and how cool or catchy the hook was.

Personally I think artist use the same formula of making music and differentiate it from others by using their own experiences in it. Indeed I do think that it standardized in a sense. People tend to listen to music that they can relate to, and growing up rap music was something the local kids in my neighborhood related to the most. As far as pseudo-individualization, people individuals are attracted to catchy things and the uniqueness of the hook to a song can typically dictate how popular the song is.

For this assignment I listened to music ranging from Kenny G to Rage Against the Machine. There was a little Brittany Spears and Tim McGraw in between. These songs differed so much. Personally I feel as if the artist of these songs new the formula that was necessary in making popular songs in their respective genre. Kenny G’s music dealt with a couple of words here and there but mainly featured instruments. It was kind of a soothing to the soul type song. Rage Against the Machine was completely opposite, it was more of a let’s rock and get the party started type thing. My apologies to those who may have a problem with my choice of wording but I have no other way of explaining the mood in which I was in listening to this music. I felt kind of bad listening to Britt Britt because I’m 22 years old and the song featured Brittney, just wrong in my eyes.

Throughout these songs the message differed. Rage Against the Machine, talked about rebelling against the government and issues going on in the world. Kenny G fount a way to deliver a soothing message by offering a mixture of lyrics and live instruments into his song. Britt was a fox, her song dealt with being seductive, and at this day and age I would agree that no one is turned on by Britt anymore. Tim McGraw had me feeling pretty good in his duet with Nelly. The message that was offered in this songs provided advice for individuals in which face re-occurring acts.

Adorno talks about the challenges of creating serious music and how it typically would make individuals think about what theyre listening to. I think out of the songs I listened to, the collaboration of Nelly and Tim McGraw stood out the most given that they are from two different world and they came together and made a great piece of work.