Writing Project #3- Soundtrack of my Life

Kanye West, "Champion": has an interesting concept for a music video as the star of the video is not Kanye West but a puppet fashioned in Mr. West's likeness.  The puppet is used and interacts with real people throughout the entire video.  This particular style of puppetry is very similar to the style of puppetry used in the children's show, "The Muppets."  This show was a childhood favorite of mine and as a result, had a variety of Muppet apparel and toys.  My favorite was a stuffed puppet doll named, Kermit the Frog.  The Kermit the Frog doll was a very authentic recreation and was identical to the real one.  It featured a green velvety covering over its body and its arms where thin and light so that they could easily be controlled with wiring much like the Kanye West puppet.  The doll's eyes where large and plastic and rattled the tabletops and floor of my house.  Despite his simple design, Kermit was a great toy and an even better companion when watching his show. He was always having love problems with Ms. Piggy or realizing that it is not easy being green.  In his show, Kermit always was teaching some valuable life lesson to children like acceptance or self-respect and in "Champion" there is also some kind of self-empowerment being employed through the use of puppetry.

Serj Tankian, "Empty Walls": undoubtedly has a political message about America's involvement in recent wars and to empower this message the video features children playing war in a Chuckie Cheese style indoor playground.  The children battle with plastic balls, steamers, and toy guns.  It seems that all men growing up play this game of "war" as boys.  During my childhood the game of war was played out in epic scales using Nerf guns.  A Nerf gun was a boy's greatest tool against the onslaught of enemy troops that would storm his bedroom or backyard.  The Nerf Eagle Eye was my weapon of choice.  The Eagle Eye featured a pull-back spring loader for quick and powerful fire power.  It was equipped with a red laser scope for pinpointing enemy targets and had two side-by-side dart holders.  The darts themselves where equipped with rubber suction cups on the tips.  The dart could be shot and stuck to widows, walls, and TVs.  A simple lick to the suction cup would increase the suction power and "gross" factor. These darts were childhood bullets and to be shot with one meant imminent imagination death.  The Nerf guns where a huge part of my childhood play and they allowed a certain connection to war but also keep it separate enough so it wasn't too real.  The Eagle Eye and many Nerf guns just like it were given crazy names and designs to create that separation from real guns. "Empty Walls has obviously utilized this common childhood game to bring to light a disturbing nuance about American culture.

Blink-182, "Always":  Right at the beginning of the Blink-182 video the frame breaks into three separate frames.  The frames virtually display the same music video but with a different band member in playing the lead role.  Throughout the video the frames are often manipulated so that the three band member are mix matched so that one frame contains elements from all of the band.  This manipulation of the images and separate compartmentalization brings rise to a childhood classic of mine, the Rubik's Cube.  The Rubik's Cube is more of a puzzle than a toy but it still captivated my mind as a child and still does to this day. The Rubik's Cube is a puzzle that requires the technique of logical manipulation to complete it.  It is such an intriguing little contraption with it's simple six-sided cube design and color scheme.  The colors fascinated me as a boy, often distracting me from the goal of finishing the puzzle.  Red, White, Green, Blue, Orange, and Yellow squares had to be whizzed around the cube in perfect straight lines to match them up with other corresponding squares.  Half of the fun with a Rubik's cube was just creating different patterns and style through turing the cubes and sides.  Blink-182 must have realized the enjoyment and fascination that can be brought about through the manipulation of simple images.  They then took it to a whole new level that Rubik himself couldn't realize.  

Lil Bow Wow, "Basketball" is about Lil Bow Wow's love for the game.  The video consists of a variety of scenes that depict Lil Bow Wow playing basketball, whether that is street ball or in the NBA against some of the greatest. The video obviously has the theme of basketball so it is not surprising that there is a basketball in almost ever scene of the video.  As a child, many of my summer days were spent hitting ball to pavement as I played basketball with friends at the local court but then when I received my own basketball hoop the games were always played out in the driveway.  The basketball hoop was a simple design.  It had a large plastic bas that resembled a gas can.  The base was filled with water and plugged; the weight of the water created balance for the hoop and prevented it, most of the time, from tipping over.  The pole was thick and black and attached to the base and the backboard.  The backboard itself was clear plastic and had a regulation metal rim attached to it.  The basketball hoop was great and there was even a mechanism that allowed the height of the rim to be adjusted.  This allowed for a slam dunks and allie-oops at a very young age.  Lil Bow Wow probably had a home basketball hoop as a child too.  

Rammstein, "Amerika":  is a very political video that depicts scenes of American influences all over the world.  Throughout the video there are also scenes that reference to the conspiracy theory that the moon landing was fake and the band members are depicted as the fake astronauts/actors.  When I was younger, there was no doubt in my mind that astronauts were real.  I even wanted to become an astronaut.  My parents bought me many toys but one of my favorites were Legos, in particular my Lego spaceship set.  Legos have to be one of the best outlets for childhood creativity and imagination ever.  The Lego spaceship set consumed hours upon hours of my time.  The pieces were small and detailed.  They could be put together to create the original design for the spaceship and then rearranged to create an entirely new space ship.  When built, the Lego set included: the classic white NASA space shuttle, a satellite, and two NASA astronauts.  The space shuttle had twin booster engines and a cockpit.  The satellite could be attached to the space shuttle and then released into orbit.  The little lego men that were the astronauts had white helmets and oxygen tanks.  Rammstein certainly doesn't seem to share the same childhood nostalgia for NASA that I do. 

Dragonforce, "Through the Fire and Flames" is an epic song that features drum solos, extreme guitar picking and is all the while backed by a powerful serenade.  The video itself is a rather basic music video but there is one quite interesting aspect near the end on the video.  There is a mock battle between the two guitarists of Dragonforce that resembles a platform fighter video game.  To this day, my favorite fighter game is Mortal Kombat three or MK3 for the Sega Genesis.  The game was so fast paced and exciting when it first came out.  There were new characters like NightWolf and Stryker and some returning favorites: Sonya Blade, Smoke, and Jax.  The game was great because it allowed player to develop their own style by picking a fighter with attacks that worked well with that player.  Subzero had to be my favorite fighter; with his freeze attack and ninja speed he was unstoppable. The greatest part of the game was the ending of the fight when a voice would call out, "Finish Him."  It's funny how this 2-D platform game captivated me for so many years.  With regards to today's video games, MK3 seems ancient and primitive.  This reference to a fighter platform game in the Dragon force video is very fitting since the song itself is about completing a quest against all odds, which seems to be a common theme in video games.   

Flight of the Conchords, "Frodo, Don't Wear the Ring": is a video that parodies the Lord of the Rings Trilogy.  Throughout the video the members of the band, Bret and Jemaine, are seen in a variety of medieval costumes.  These costumes and the Lord of the Rings theme bring a fantasy theme to the whole video that anybody with the slightest bit of imagination can recognize.  This fantasy world of knights and wizards was played out in my Fisher Price Castle when I was a child.  The castle was the backdrop to many epic battles between knights and invading hordes.  The castle was surrounded by a moat and the only way to get in was by the drawbridge.  There were viewing ports were archers could fire arrows and even a large cannon that could be fired out of the front of the castle.  The castle came with little knights in armor and if their heads were pushed down it would cause their arms to swing in a downward motion.  This is how sword fights could be played out.  The battle that were played out in the castle sometimes grew to immense scales including all the toys in my room as they lay siege against the knights.  Bret and Jemaine probably had a toy castle when they were children.

Writing: Self-Evaluation

Self Evaluation: Language and Writing

This past semester has been an "interesting" and educational experience. I defiantly feel that I have grown as a writer and learned many new styles in which to undertake my future writing. Before this class, I thought that I was a pretty damn good writing. I had done well in High School composition and felt like I had a handle on this thing they call writing...then I came to Wesleyan. That sounds a little grim but I was dumbfounded when receiving so many writing assignment in the first semester. Each one had different requirements and sourcing style. From the rigorous structure of a lab report to the uncharted style of a free-write, I defiantly felt lost. As the year progressed I grew more confident in my writing and this class helped alot because it taught me, as cliche as it sounds to "think outside the box". The class taught me new writing style sand theories and opened my eyes to the massive spectrum of writing. I now feel more confident in my writing because I can adapt my own style to coincide with varied styles to create a truly unique piece of literature. Though I am not sure when I will be incorporating Content/Form style into my lab reports, I am sure I will use it again sometime and I defiantly scan for it in the books and article that I now read. That is another great thing about the class is that it has not only educated me in writing but also reading, as the two do go hand in hand, I now can look for the rhetorical argument in a sports journalist's bowl game article or the logical fallacies in a politician speech. Overall, I feel that I've grown as a writer and became a more intellectual reader.

-Jeremy "always late" Brozek

Object-Oriented Post #3

Video games have always had a love/hate relationship in my family as in I love them and my parents hate them.  When I was ten, there was a major break through in this relationship when I got a Game Boy Color.  This marvel of technology was the best thing since Pong.  It was a hand-held purple dream.  The small console fit perfectly into my hands.  With a flick of the power switch, the familiar Game Boy Nintendo logo appeared on the screen.  Then it was up to my thumbs to take the controls of the directional pad and A/B buttons.  My little purple wonder was the greatest thing to happen to me.  I could play video games where and when ever I wanted.  The Game Boy had a open cartridge slot on the back where various video game titles could be put in.  Before putting the games into the Game Boy it never hurt to blow out the slot of dust so that the magic could begin.

Object-Oriented Post #2

Outside my house, in the backyard, there is an indestructible fortress that has stood for the ages.  The battle-ready castle has seen many battles against uncountable odds.  It has prevailed against invading hordes, pirate sieges, and alien invasions.  I am of course referring to the tree- house that is in my backyard.  The tree house was built by my dad for me when I was very little.  It is more of a fort than a tree house as it isn't even located in a tree.  It is a small 6 by 6 fort placed atop 4 posts.  The fort sits about 5 feet off the ground which is perfect for scanning the horizon.  There are two entrances into the fort and both are by ladder.  The front entrance is a ladder nailed into the fort at a 75 degree angle and the back entrance is a ladder at 90 degrees and provides a treacherous escape route.  The walls are boards nailed to the frame and the roof is a tent-style tarp that is secured to the wood.  There is a yellow slide in the front that allows a fast exit to attack the advancing army.  Underneath the fort is a sandbox that houses the many beasts and creature of the fort.  The Fort was my palace growing up and the subject of many of my childhood adventures.     

Object-Oriented Post #1

My dad gave it to me when I was eight years old.  It shined and glimmered like it was right off the factory line, a Honda Minibike 50cc.  In all actuality it was just another steal my dad had found at a local garage-sale.  A quick wipe down made the grease and dirt disappear and the bike was no longer anyones but mine.  "It's yours", he said, "hop on".  There was nothing mini about this bike it was at the time a perfect fit.  There were no pedals or training wheels only a throttle and an engine.  The tires were wide and fat.  The blue leather seat was much larger than a bike seat.  Everything about the Honda was more... more room, more power, and more adventure.  The kick-start was hard and not easily moved, but when the engine did fire up it purred like a dormant lion.  The engine was the dormant lion but the throttle was the caged beast.  One pull on the throttle sent the front end of the bike into the air.  The first time I accidently "popped a wheelie" I thought the whole bike was going to fly away into the sky like the winged Honda logo painted on the sides.  The bike had a gas can that was located in front of the seat and every time I would get on the bike I would open the can and listen to the gas slosh around as if I where in a pit-stop during a big race.  The bike was just a gift from my dad it was the key to my own adventures and now the bike is in the garage waiting for spring to come so my eight year old brother Joey can ride.

Music Video Rhetorical Response

Rhetorical Response

The music video by Kanye West uses a variety of rhetorical strategies to argue its case that Kanye West is a champion.  The most prevalent one that I noticed was the use of analogy.  The video has depicted Kayne West as an Olympic champion to clearly illustrate and draw the connection to his success in the music industry. This analogy was used to simplify the image of Kanye West as a champion. From a directorial point-of-view it makes sense to employ this analogy because it is much easier to visually depict a champion sprinter than it is a successful music artist.  With the sprinter there only needs to be the depiction of the sprinter winning the race to get the point across.  This whole rhetorical strategy is applied to all of the rhetorical appeals.  The analogy applies to Pathos because of the rise and build of the story that causes an emotional response in the audience.  The analogy applies to Logos because the audience must logically make the connection between Kanye West's success in the Olympics and the music industry. The analogy applies to Ethos because Kanye West is a highly successful rapper and carries alot of respect with him in the musical industry. 

Music Video Observation/Reflection

Observation 

The music video that I chose to post is by Kanye West and the song is titled, "Champion".  The whole premise of the video is that Kanye West is a champion and the video uses some interesting methods to prove this point and create the hybrid text.  The first and undoubtedly most obvious construction of the video was its use of audio-visual interactions.  These interactions seem ordinary in the first 30 seconds of the video because the audience sees a man and hears the same man but when the Kanye West character is introduced the audience sees a puppet and hears Kanye West.  The puppet is an interesting prop used the video and I believed that is was employed to its full potential in the video.  It is personified to look like Mr. West and it is the main contributor of comedy to the video.  The puppet greatly adds to the satire of the Olympics and the idea of being a champion.  The lighting is great in the video.  When the puppet makes the tunnel walk it is dark and then he walks out into the blinding light and cheering crowds.  When there is a moment of strife or perseverance the light is low and ominous. The moments of success are illuminated brightly giving the moment a sense of accomplishment.  The dialogue in the beginning helps set up the story but when the actual song starts the lyrics no longer specifically pertain to the story of the video.  I like this pattern because  there are moment in the song where the lyrics and the video seem to match up and then there are moment that seem to give a prequel of the story.  For example there is a point in the song where Kanye West is talking about growing up in a poor family but his family isn't visually represented in the video but this fact only adds to the glorious victory at the end.

Reflection

The video "Champion" really is a great story.  It's about a man who grew up with a simple life but then made it big and now that he has the time and money he wants to go after his true dream of becoming an international champion sprinter.  That exact dream probably won't pertain to anyone but I think the concept of shooting for the stars and chasing down your dreams can apply to anyone and everyone.  I know that I have some pretty ambitious goals for myself but I'm going to try my best to achieve those goals.  I would love to live in a big house surrounded by 50+ acres of land outside of Lincoln but unfortunately I just don't have that kind of money so I'm going to have to set new goals to get to the big goal.  One of those goals is getting into medical school.  So I guess my point is that this video is really about achieving your goals and you don't need to be a world-class sprinter to do that

Jeremy B

Writing Project #2 Final Draft

It is estimated that an area of forest the size of twenty football fields is lost to deforestation every minute. (Deforestation) Since the dawn of humanity, We (humans) have used our world and its resources with complete disregard of our actions. The above piece is a illustration by Ken Sprague.  It is entitled "Weeping Leaf" and it illustrates a black mark on the history of man.  Weeping Leaf is a call for change as it points out the arrogant actions of humanity through the destruction of the very place we live... Earth.

Ken Sprague was born in 1927 and lived until 2004.  He was socialist political cartoonist and a journalist.  Sprague was also an activist in trade unions, civil rights, and peace movements. He always tried to empower the common people through his art by making a

 call for change. An ethical appeal can be found in all of his works. "In essence the leitmotif of his work is about power and the abuse of power as well as the resilience of ordinary people to that abuse.  He depicted the world as changeable and imbued his work with unfashionable optimism;  it was a world where ethics and values had relevance." (Green) Sprague commonly illustrated the abuse of power on the people but Weeping Leaf shows the abuse of power by the people.  

 

The focal point of the piece is appropriately the weeping leaf.  An objective viewer can see that there is something different between the leaf and its surroundings; this brings me to the first rhetorical strategy of the illustration.  Comparison-Contrasts is obviously employed within the illustration.  The artists is comparing the differences between the man and the leaf by drawing them in contrasting styles.  To understand these contrasting styles the man and leaf must first be fully analyzed.

 

The man is simple and plain.  He is wearing a flannel jacket and cap.  The 

man could be described as a lumberjack or woodsmen.  The man has an axe in his possession which he has used to fell a "tree".  He carries little emotion on his face but there is the sense of a slight smile of accomplishment as the man looks up at the falling tree.  Artistically, the man has been drawn with little detail and looks like any other figure found in the comedic strips of the funny pages.  The man is also very small in scale to the tree.   

The "tree" or leaf is a near artistic opposite of the man.  The leaf is rich in details and displays vivid use of shading and texture.  The leaf has been anthropomorphized with a mouth, nose, and eye.  The eye sheds a single tear. The leaf is very large in scale to the man, so much so that the man sees the leaf as a tree.  

There are a variety of argumentative points that arise from the comparison-contrast in the illustration. The main argument that the drawing is addressing is that man is arrogantly wasting the Earth and its resources which in turn will cause detrimental effects.  The use of detail is a great starting platform.  As the focal point, the leaf is drawn with great detail to show  that there is something inherently natural and beautiful about it.  This is an appeal to a viewers pathos.  There is a nostalgic calling to nature through the detail of the leaf.  The leaf also causes an emotional response by showing emotion while the man causes no em

otion.  The anthropomorphized leaf shows sadness in its tears, anguish in its mouth and shock in its eyes.  "Pathos" itself means "suffering" or "feeling" in Greek and the leaf, unlike the man, is obviously demonstrating Pathos. 

 

The comparison of scale is crucial to the artist's argument.  The man sees the leaf as a tree because it is so large or is the man very small?  This paradox reveals a few more points to the main argument.  The man is small in comparison to the leaf because man as a species has acted pretentiously by overbearing on nature with little forethought of our actions.  Man only sees the value of the timber and resources of the tree and not the value of the tree itself.  Nature has a priceless value and gives the world life. The man is drawn small because he can't grasp the repercussions of his actions.  The leaf is meant to be a leaf that is why it is drawn as a leaf and that is why the piece is titled, "Weeping Leaf".  This is important to clarify because the simple fact that it is a leaf is very important.  By drawing a leaf and not a tree the artist is making a statement about the value of nature.  If this one single leaf has to suffer that much, what would the man do to the Earth if he cut down a whole tree?  With respect to the scaling of the illustration, a whole tree to the man could include entire ecosystems or more.  This comparison of scale and size is a hybrid rhetorical appeal of pathos/logos.  The audience must first logically realize the  gravity of the illustration before they can have that deeper emotional drop that is caused by realizing that it is not only the leaf that will suffer but also ourselves.

 

Cause and effect is implemented within the artist's illustration to strengthen his argument.  The man chops at the leaf with an axe causing it to fall.  The effect of the chopping is the emotional response of the leaf which is symbolic to the downward spiral of the environment.  This is undoubtedly a logos driven rhetorical appeal that is calling the audience to use its logic and realize the tragedies of man's acts against the Earth. 

 

The absence of color within the piece is an interesting rhetorical strategy.  By leaving color out, the artist is allowing the audience a more direct view of his argument.  The audience does not dwell on the picture itself but on the picture's meaning.  This

 makes the picture more accessible to  deeper thought and all of the rhetorical appeals especially ethos.  Ethos can also be found in the modern cultural contexts of the piece as environmental issues such as climate change are on the rise.

  

"Weeping Leaf" is an eye-opening piece of work.  It is a call to arms against the abuse of the environment.  Sprague believed in a world that is changeable.  Weeping Leaf is a testament to that belief and through the various strategies and appeals Sprague has made his

 argument.

Work Cited

"Deforestation." Botany: UWC. 1 Feb, 2001. 19 Nov, 2008.

http://www.botany.uwc.ac.za/envFacts/facts/deforestation.html

Green, John. "The Guardian." Ken Sprague Fund. 2004. 20 Nov, 2008.

 http://www.kenspraguefund.org/about_guardian.html 

"Ken Sprague." Wikipedia. 21 Nov, 2008. 21 Nov, 2008.

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Sprague

Art Work Rhetorical Analysis

The Artwork piece that I chose is called "Weeping Leaf".  The creator/artsist of "Weeping Leaf" is a man named Ken Sprague(1927-2004).  He was a socialist political cartoonist, journalist, and activist.  Sprague was involved with trade unions, civil rights, and peace movements.  He was known as a cartoonist for the people and was very interested on how ordinary people effect politics and vice-versa.      

The cartoon, "Weeping Leaf" has an environmental theme.  It deals with the age old domination of man over nature.  The cartoon more directly deals with the issue of logging.  This is a tradition in its own right and there are deep roots of logging in American and European history.  The cartoon is political and environmental because the two have become intertwined as man has realized the wealth in nature and used it.  Now it seems that man has realized the necessity for nature and it is becoming clearer everyday that we(man) are dependent on nature to survive.  So this cartoon can take the environmental theme and pin-point down to the issue of logging but can also explode into a political statement about the incoherent value of nature or Global Warming or human ignorance.

Free Write

Free Write

 The following video was taken from youtube and is entitled, "Yes We Can Barack Obama Music Video".  The video is a strong collaboration of music and speech.  The base of the video is a famous speech of Presidential Candidate Barack Obama which has been since titled the "yes we can" speech.  The video features numerous celebrities from all industries supporting Obama and restating the hopeful words of his speech.  There are musician like: Will I Am, Nick Cannon, Common, and others who sing the words of change.  There are actors and sports icons like: Scarlet Johansson and Kareem Abdul Jabbar that speak and reiterate the power of hope.  All the while, the powerful voice of a hopeful leader can be heard as Barack Obama shouts to the world, "Yes We Can". The video is very powerful and calls out to all Americans.  The Video is political and these celebrities are giving their support to Barack Obama but it is not just a video for Democrats.  Barack Obama is telling the world that this notion of hope and change isn't something new.  Throughout the history of our country, Americans have always believed in themselves and it is now time to believe again.  The power of the people calling out and entrusting there hope in one man is daring and risky.  When asked if we can trust this one visionary to save our nation, I will reply, "Yes We Can".  

VP Debate Rhetorical Analysis (group 1)

The Vice Presidential debates are always a strong example of rhetoric in action.  In the following rhetorical analysis, I will comment on the democratic candidate Joe Biden's use of logos.  Joe Biden employed logos in to his answers many times throughout the debate.  First of all, when asked what promises his campaign couldn't keep he quickly answered with a logical straight-forward answer.  He says that the country must "slow down on" foreign assistance, which can be logically interpreted as taking care of your own before others. Biden then begins to start to challenge the views of the republican party by listing things in which he disagrees with that they support.  Biden says he will not support the huge tax cuts for the wealthy which is a great use of logos since most of Americans aren't extremely wealthy.  Joe Biden logically then takes his answer in a new direction when he starts to talk about all the things that he will not "slow down on". He says that education must be supported so that we can support our future generations.  He talks about the importance of a new energy proposal that would create new jobs.  Then Biden deliver the "bottom line": "The bottom line here is that we are going to, in fact, eliminate those wasteful spending that exist in the budget right now, a number of things I don't have time, because the light is blinking, that I won't be able to mention, but one of which is the $100 billion tax dodge that, in fact, allows people to take their post office box off- shore, avoid taxes.  I call that unpartiotic". Biden uses strong pathos and logos when he calls for an end to offshore postal accounts calling them "unpatriotic".  This causes an emotional and logical response in a TY audience because Americans are very proud people so when something is listed as "unpatriotic" that would really cause some heads to turn.

Presidential Debate "Healthcare"

The following video is from the third and final presidential debates of the 2008 candidacy.  The debate is between republican candidate John McCain and democratic candidate Barack Obama.  The question addressed in the video asks how each candidate feels about the current health care plan and problems that America faces today.  Each candidate answers the question by rhetorically explaining their own health care plan for the nation under their presidency.  The presidential candidates have obviously been trained in rhetoric and they both display the styles of pathos, logos, and ethos in their answers.

Senator Obama is first to answer the question. He wastes no time by quickly outlining his own personal plan for the health care crisis.  He seems to first draw his audience in by using pathos and describing a "heart-breaking" story of two 50 year old women who had recently lost their job and health insurance.  This was a great move for Senator Obama because it creates that connection between him and his audience.  He is showing the world how he has seen their suffering.  He then goes on to explain his plan to logically (logos) solve the situation.  Senator Obama dismisses some criticism of his plan by explaining right up front that it would be expensive but that it would pay for itself in the long run.  I believe Senator Obama explains his plan in this manner to show that he is prepared right now to start making the necessary changes to the current system.

Senator McCain is next up to bat.  He follows a similar rhetorical strategy as Senator Obama by first using pathos to bring the audience in emotionally. Senator McCain even uses some logos by adding factual numbers and data to his opening statements to show how bad the current health care crisis is: "It is a terribly painful situation for Americans...47 million Americans are without health insurance".  Senator McCain then goes on to explain his plan using both ethos and logos.  He covers a broad range of things that need to be addressed like childhood obesity, high premium rates, and uninsured Americans.  He then goes on to specifically explain his plan of giving everyone a 5,000 dollar insurance credit.  I believe that Senator McCain explained his plan in this manner to make it appear larger that it is by covering the issues broadly and then narrowing down to specifics.  Senator McCain frequently uses the word American which bring the audience in on all levels.

The whole debate event could be described as a huge success because it allows America the chance to see two presidential candidates describe and argue over their plans and views.  The only problem with the debate is that it is extremely controlled and scripted.  The two candidates are fully aware of the type of questions they will be asked and have teams of people creating the perfect answers.  But all in all, I have faith in the debate system because it allows all who watch it the chance to become more informed voters.

-Jeremy B

Envision Questions

Chapter 1

1 How can rhetoric be employed in more than just visual and oral communication? 

2 Which way is easier to prove a point, oral persuasion or visual persuasion?

3 Does the use of color increase or decrease a political cartoons rhetoric? 

Chapter 2

1 In today's commercials which is more prevalent Logos or Pathos?

2 Who could be looked to as having high Ethos? 

3 Are there any examples of media that displays Logos, Pathos, and Ethos? 

Cubing Exercise

1. Generalizing: consider what you have learned from the event or experience that will be the occasion for your reflections. What ideas does it suggest to you? What does it suggest about people in general or about the society in which you live?
People of all ages come to swim. I don't know what drive people to do this but I want to know. Perhaps, the people come for fitness and health reasons.  We live in a society that demands perfection and calls for a return to youth.  Maybe by swimming these people can reclaim something that time has taken away.
2. Giving examples: illustrate your ideas with specific examples. What examples would best help your readers understand your ideas?
Shirley is a 93 year old woman who came and swam laps.  There was a water aerobic class full of older women.  The pool and the water seemed to wake me up.
3. Comparing & contrasting: think of a subject that could be compared with yours & explore the similarities & the differences.
The subject of working out in a weight room could be compared to swimming in a pool.  They both are for fitness and health but I think there is something that water gives the body that lifting weights does not.
4. Extending: take your subject to its logical limits & speculate about its implications. Where does it lead?
People come to a pool to swim.  Swimming uses all the muscles in the body which in turn creates a great fitness exercise.  So people come to swim for fitness which makes their bodies healthier and the more healthy one is the greater life span they should have.
5. Analyzing: take apart your subject. What is it made of? How are the parts related to one another? Are they all of equal importance?
My subject is the pool and the swimmers that use it.  The pool exists only because it is used by the swimmers.  Without the swimmers the pool would lack a purpose.  On the other hand, the swimmers depend on the pool to be able to swim.  Each part is dependant on one another so they are equally important.
6. Applying: think about your subject in practical terms. How can you use it or act on it? What difference would it make to you & to others?

You use the pool to swim in.  Each person experiences the pool in a different way and but ultimately the results seem to be similar.

The Fountain of Youth

I am tired and slightly annoyed as I fumble through various keys on a key chain looking for the one marked, boiler room. As I open the door, I can hear the mechanical hissing of pipes, the constant heating and filtration of the pool located beyond this room never seems to stop. I climb a small set of stairs, stretching each limb on my assent and open the door to a small hallway that has only a glass door located only 10 feet away. I wearily approach the glass door knowing what lies behind it.  As I push the glass door open, I must apply my own body as leverage to break the air pressure that keeps the door sealed. The door swings open and a gust of hot humid air rushes in to the tiny cooled hallway where I am standing. I walk into the pool area and feel the inconvenient truth of a severe climate change. I can smell the chemical lingering of chlorine in the air which is humid and seems heavy enough to weigh me down as I walk into the small glass box known fondly to lifeguards as, the office. I punch in my employee code in the computer and it reports back to me,” Jeremy Brozek #204098 Logged In: 5:00 am".
I walk back out onto the pool deck and stop to take a look at the pool. It looks the same as it did last week, 25 yards long with six lanes. Ropes divide half of the lanes with small floating buoys strung across them, like necklaces with red and blue beads. The other half of the pool has no lane ropes and consequently is just an open area. The water is clear and blue reacting with itself as the slightest movement causes the whole surface to dance. The pool ranges in depth from 3 feet at one end to 10 feet at the other. There are diving blocks located at the end of each lane in the deep end where I am currently standing. A grainy deck surrounds the pool and provides stability under foot. I walk down the deck to a plastic cupboard and retrieve a small graduated beaker and three bottles of colored chemicals. I then take my supplies back to the deep end and begin to check the chemicals. As I fill the beaker, I can feel the hot flow of water rushing around my hand and into the void of the beaker. The water itself reminds is like a natural hot spring as it warms my hand sending a euphoric sensation through my arm like waking up from a long rest. I test the water-filled beaker with the colored chemicals, which seem to dance their way through the beaker resting at the bottom. All the chemical levels are right and I now can open the pool to others. I put the chemicals away, walk back into the office and grab the keychain from before and head towards two new glass doors, one labeled "Men's Locker Room" and the other "Women's Locker Room". As I unlock the doors, I find myself feeling rather chipper and alert. I don't know how this happened but I am know longer weary or tired and my grogginess seems to have been washed away. The doors are unlocked and the pool is open. Now I sit down in a high elevated white chair with a red foam tube in my lap, I am ready to start observing and watching others as a lifeguard.
The first person to come in to swim is an old woman named Shirley. Shirley is 93 years old and looks like a very fragile piece of art. Her body seems to tell the stories of her life like an ancient tapestry. She walks slowly and with a slight limp in her right leg. She concentrates on her feet as she traverses the pool deck, looking up only to smile at me as I wish her a good morning. She reaches the steps that lead into the shallow end and gripping the handrail tightly, lowers herself into the pool. She wades slowly through the water and then pushes off the wall and begins to swim. At first I am worried that she will venture to deep and be unable to stay afloat but then I am quickly astounded at her grace. This small feeble woman has changed right before my eyes from an ancient tapestry to a flowing piece of silk. She glides through the water with ease changing from freestyle to backstroke as she pleases. Her body seems to have no age at this moment only the water and her movements define her. Shirley's return to youth is short-lived and she begins to wade back towards the steps after only a few laps. Her body begins to return to an outline of age as she climbs out of the water. She slowly walks back towards the the women's locker room stopping for a moment by my chair and saying, ” Well, I guess 3 laps is good enough for today. Have a nice day, Jeremy". There are deep red lines that have been left behind by her goggles, but despite these red impressions there is still some youthfulness in her eyes as if everything has aged on her body but her eyes. Why does this 93 year old woman still come swim laps?
The rest of the morning went by very normally with lap swimmers coming and going. There was a water aerobics class at 5:45 and the women in the class all reminded me of Shirley in a way. All the women were old but none as old as 93. They came in slowly and lifeless making their way towards the steps but when they entered the water a familiar changed occurred. Suddenly these old women with hairnets and float-belts became ageless. They seemed like children as they splashed around the shallows exercising and gossiping with their neighbors. They moved effortlessly through the water and their exercise movements appeared more like a modern dance routine. The class went on for an hour and then the women climbed out of the water putting on towels as their bodies put on age and form. Why did these women change when they entered the water?
Shirley and the rest of the swimmers came to the pool to reclaim their youth. The obvious assumption that all of the swimmers came for health and fitness reasons could be made but I think they came for more. We are taught to swim at an early age or we teach ourselves after we almost drown but either way this is a skill that is strongly associated with childhood. I believe that the older swimmers come to the pool with the subconscious motive of reclaiming their childhood. When they enter the water it is like they can dive into themselves and submerse into their own depths where they find their youth. Society tells us that our “prime” is when we are young so it seems natural that everyone who is out-dated would want to relive those golden years. But I think that these swimmers come and defy societies definition of “those golden years”. The swimmers that I saw all were living in their prime or more appropriately swimming in their prime. They came to the pool and became kids again. The water doesn’t define age it defies it. The swimmers understand the way the waters flow and that is why every morning they come and return to “the fountain of youth”.

Free Write

The video I chose to post is one of my favorites from the band, Flight of the Conchords.  The video is from the band's HBO show called, The Flight of the Conchords and the song in the video is titled, HipHopopotamus vs. Rhymenocerous. I really like the band's music because it's all very funny and their music has a huge variety.  This song is a great example of that diversity.  The band sings alot of folk type music and here they are rapping.  The lyrics of this song are what make it so great.  Most rappers sing about life on the streets and Bret and Jemaine are rapping about large mammals.  It is hard to believe that Bret and Jemaine could find so many words and ways to rhyme HipHopopotamus.  They used words like: bottom-less, metropolis, phosphorus, esophagus, preposterous, and hypothesis.  The way that the band can express there music in a variety of genres is almost inspiring.  The Flights of the Conchords started out as just two friends, Bret and Jemaine, who started a small novelty band in New Zealand.  Now the band tours internationally and even has their own HBO show.  The best part about the show might have to be the plot.  The plot of the show is about the struggles and comedic hard times of a struggling New Zealand novelty band that has moved to the U.S. to try and make it big and become famous.   

Content and Form Music Video

The video I posted is a music video by the band, Flight of the Conchords, and the song is called Mermaids.  The video begins with Bret and Jemaine walking out of an elevator and into a hallway as the colors fade away leaving only black and white behind, but why? I think it is because Bret and Jemaine are singing the music and as they continue down the hallway an old style microphone appears and they are wearing older or classic white tuxedos.  Next, Jermaine opens a door and a blast of white reveals the next scene in full color.  Bret and Jemaine are standing on a dock asking various questions to a mermaid.  But why do Bret and Jemaine have to ask so many questions?  I think it is because Bret and Jemaine are finally given the chance to learn some information about these mysterious women of the sea.  Bret and Jemaine do come up with some very clever questions like, "Does it relax you to hear the sound of the land?".  After asking a few more questions to the mermaids, Bret and Jemaine return to the color deprived hallway were they continue making their musical rhythmic sounds, But why make these sounds?  I think it is because since Bret and Jermaine are the only members of their band they rely alot on their own vocal harmonies to bring a more full and rich sound to their music.  The video returns to color again and presents us with Bret and Jemaine asking more mermaids more questions.  Bret and Jemaine ask the mermaids about their parties and even ask the mermaids if they are truly real and not just, "an optical illusion caused by a woman sitting on a rock holding half of a fish?".  Bret and Jemaine finally end up where they started in the black and white hallway ending the song with their own vocal melodies.

My post mirrors the content and form of the video in a variety of ways.  The video was very repetitive.  The word mermaid was said alot, I mean alot! and the same vocalized melody was sang alot.  To mirror this aspect of the video, I made my own post very repetitive by saying the words "Bret and Jemaine" in every sentence. Like I mentioned before Bret and Jemaine (haha I'm still doing it) rely alot on their voices to create the music because two guys can only play so many instruments.  To mirror their relience on themselves, I relied on myself to answer the questions that I proposed in my own post.  I also asked questions to mirror all the questions asked in the video.

-Jeremy B

Post: Hyperactive

The video I chose is called Hyperactive. It is a very entertaining musical piece. The video is a “beatbox” song that is created only by one man, Lasse Gjertsen. This is what Lasse had to say about his video, “Drumsolo using only a camcorder, my mouth and what looks like time consuming editing, but it really wasn't, haha, it took me a day in total.” Lasse used the growingly popular film technique known as Stop-Motion. Stop-Motion works by taking a picture or extremely short video clip and then changing position and repeating. In the end, the creator can piece together the hundred sometimes thousands of pictures and clip to create a video that flows. The main focus of this video isn’t the beatbox, creating music and sounds only with the body, but the film style. The whole point of the video is to showcase Stop-Motion in a hilarious manner.
-Jeremy B

This week’s I am writing my blog late Sunday night because it is do at midnight and I am a procrastinator. I was not really sure what I should write about so I just started to think about my day and if I could derive any topics from that. I quickly realized that I spent the majority of my day in McDonald Theatre at Wesleyan. I am a cast member of one of the many shows at the theatre and I had rehearsal from 1-5 today for Children of Eden. Children of Eden is this year’s fall musical. The musical is a really great show and I have had some great past experiences with it. I came upon this picture and I was inspired to write about the musical. 
In high school, senior year, I was reluctantly conned into trying out for the spring musical which just so happened to be Children of Eden. All of my friends were in the show choir and were very into musical theatre. I, on the other hand, came from a more touchdown-oriented background since I was primarily a football player in high school. Somehow my friends dragged me too auditions and to everyone surprise including my own; I was casted with a lead role. I immediately fell in love with the theatre and Children of Eden. So, when I saw it was being casted at Wesleyan I had to try out. I have been having a blast at rehearsals and the show is going to be awesome.
Children of Eden was written by Stephen Swartz, famous for musicals like Wicked and Pippin, and it tells the oldest story even known… creation. The main plot loosely follows the creation story of the book of Genesis. Act 1 deals with the world’s creation and the creation of man and Act 2 tells the story of Noah and the Ark. The show is actually much more than that but to find out more I guess you bloggers will have to just put down the laptop and come to the show this October.
-Jeremy B.